Spiritual Launching Rockets:
We've learned that the weapons of our warfare are mighty through
God to pull down strongholds (2 Cor 10:4)
Putting warheads on our rockets. How do we get them to the point of
attack? Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)
The four primary spiritual launching rockets are:
Prayer .....
Preaching ..... Testimony ...... and - praise and worship
The ICBM of prayer:
Prayer carries the very force and power of God.
Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to me, and I
will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know
not."
The laws of prayer
There are several Scriptural laws, which govern prayer.
| 1. |
The law of boldness stated in Hebrews 10:19, "Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus." |
| 2. |
The law of the Blood. Prayer that is offered
on the foundation of faith in the Blood has power. The cleansing
of the Blood is basic to our approach to God. |
| 3 |
The law of faith: "But
with-out faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6)" |
| 4 |
The law of right relations, as stated in Mark
11:24 "Therefore I say to you,
What things so ever you desire, when you pray, believe that you
receive them and you shall have them. And when you stand praying,
forgive, if you have anything against any, that your Father also
who is in heaven may forgive your trespasses." |
| 5 |
The law of God's will: 1 John 5:14-15 "And
this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any
thing according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that he
hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we desired of Him." |
| 6 |
The law of the Holy Spirit in prayer as stated in
Romans 8:26, "Likewise the Spirit
also helps our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered." |
| 7 |
The law of praise. "I
will bless the Lord at all times," David said, "His
praise shall continually be in my mouth." (Psalm
34:1) |
| 8 |
The law of right motives in praying. James
says, "Ye ask, and receive not,
because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your
lusts." James 4:3 |
The ICBM of preaching
Paul counselled Timothy in (2 Tim 4:2) "Preach
the word" Acts 9:20-21 states "And
straightaway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of
God. But all that heard him were amazed, and said; 'Is this he that
destroyed them which called on His name in Jerusalem?'"
Notice again the Name of Jesus. Paul's preaching from the beginning
focussed around the Name of Jesus.
It is obvious that the Name of Jesus had a great power in Paul's
preaching. In declaration of salvation, Paul said, "for
whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved."
The ICBM of testimony
Revelation 12:11 "And they [the
believers] overcame him [the Devil] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony."
To testify literally means to give witness. The testimony or witness
is a basic element of our justice system.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus said, "ye shall
receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall
be my witnesses"
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is given to make us a witness. Acts
1:8, "and ye shall be witnesses unto me
in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth." Our testimony, our witness, is to reach
around the world.
If someone says God doesn't heal today, and you testify to the fact
that He healed you of this disease or that disease, that settles the
argument.
Our testimony will draw men to Christ.
The ICBM of praise and worship
Psalm 22:3 "God inhabits the praises
of His people."
The power of the mouth. With our mouths, we launch weapons of God -
the Word, the Name, and the Blood. But we can also launch the weapons of
the enemy as well.
When we gossip, backbite, criticize, and judge the lives of others,
we launch the Devil's weapons.
We become responsible for launching the weapons of God.
Our mouth is the center of spiritual warfare, then what the Holy
Spirit wants to capture in our lives is the power of the mouth.
Paul said in 2 Cor 10:4, "Our
weapons are moghty through God to the pulling down of
strong-holds."
And in jail in Phillippi (Acts 16:19-40). v25 declares "At
midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises". In
the midst of darkness,...... in the midst of hurt ......... in the midst
of pain........... they praised God.
This is what praise and worship can do for us today.
Thanksgiving, Praise, And Worship
Thanksgiving is distinct from praise, which is distinct from worship.
Thanksgiving relates to God’s deeds, what He has done.
Praise relates to God’s character, who He is.
Worship relates directly to God’s holiness.
1. The meaning and purpose of thanksgiving
Thanksgiving may be silent and private, but praise is vocal and public. Thanksgiving occurs when we breathe a prayer of thanks to God.
Praise occurs when we thank God publicly,…………….. telling others
of what He s done for us.
The word often translated as “thanks” in the Old Testament is related
to the word for “hand.”
The Hebrew concept of giving thanks is stretching out or lifting up of
the hand to God.
In New Testament Greek, the word for “thanks” is the word charis. This is the root word from which “charismatic” comes from, and is
related to the word for “grace.”
In other words, thanksgiving is an appropriate response to God’s grace
in our lives.
We must give thanks
The Word states in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19:
16 Rejoice evermore.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
19 Quench not the Spirit.
This is God’s will for us. If we don’t give thanks, we are out of God’s will.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 we read, “ every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you.”
Notice the word “In.”
This is different than the word “for.”
We are not commanded to give thanks for everything that happens,
we are to give thanks in the midst of whatever is happening.
We give thanks in the midst of disease by saying, “by his stripes we
are healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
Give thanks according to Exodus 15:26 that, “He is the God that
healeth thee.” In other words, we give thanks for God’s answer to Satan’s attack.
The simple principle is that we can give thanks FOR the Word of
God.
We don’t give thanks for the things that have us bound; we give thanks
that we don’t have to remain bound.
Thanksgiving is a fruit of the Spirit
Thanksgiving essentially is an expression of the fullness of the Holy
Spirit.
Ephesians 5:19-20 states:
Don’t get drunk but …………Be filled with the Holy Spirit
NJKV Ephesians 5v19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20giving thanks
always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, 21submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Amp
Eph 5v19 Speak out to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, offering
praise with voices and instruments and making melody with all your heart to the Lord
In verse 19, Paul tells us how to fulfill the will of God by speaking to
one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
One of the manifestations of being filled with the Spirit is giving
thanks to God.
Don’t claim to be filled with the Spirit if you are not a person who is
constantly giving thanks unto the Lord.
Matthew 12:34b says, “for out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaks.” If the heart is filled with thanksgiving, it will come out of our mouths.
As that thanksgiving comes out of our mouth, we prepare our inner man for
what God will do in the Spirit.
Psalm 100:4-5 states that we are called “to enter His gates with
thanks giving and to come into His courts with praise, to give thanks to
Him.”
Thanksgiving gets us through the gate.
In Psalm 100:5 we are told why we should thank the Lord: “for He is good. His love and kindness is everlasting. His faithfulness
is to all generations” We praise God not because of the way we feel, but because of who He is.
Thanksgiving Leads to an Increase in FAITH
It is impossible to go through a list of God’s blessings without
sensing a surge of faith in the inner man.
Thanksgiving strengthens faith:
The Devil hates thanksgiving.
The power of thanksgiving through our personal testimony is more than we
can imagine.
Paul related his testimony of what God had done in his life several times
in the New Testament.
Thanksgiving helps us to focus not on the problem, but on the answer.
It reminds us that we are really victors when we are exalting God.
The Devil will try to hold our minds by having us focus on the reality of
the present.
He will encourage us to think thoughts full of fear, but thanksgiving
turns that whole process around and gets us moving in God’s direction.
Philippians 4:6, Paul says, “in every thing by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving.” This was not just a teaching of Paul, it was something that he did
regularly.
All of Paul’s prayers on behalf of believers began with thanks.
In Romans 1:8 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you
all”
Ephesians 1:15 “I cease not to give thanks for you”;
Philippians 1:3, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you”;
Colossians 1:3, “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, praying always for you”;
1 Thessalonians 1:2, “We give thanks to God always for you all”;
2 Timothy 1:3, “thank God.”
Paul always thanked God first before he interceded for the people who were receiving
his letter.
Thanksgiving was important in the life of Jesus Christ. In John 6 after
giving thanks. He gave the food to the disciples to give to the
people. He did not pray. He just gave thanks to the Father.
His thanksgiving led to an immediate miracle that provided food enough to
feed at least five thousand people. Thanksgiving therefore is the
trigger that prepares us for the miracle-working power of God.
2.The meaning and purpose of praise
The Psalms of David can be divided into two groups:
Psalms of descriptive praise.
Psalms of declarative praise.
In the Psalms of descriptive praise…….. the psalmist exults in the
person of God, His attributes,…….. in essence, who He is.
In the Psalms of declarative praise, the emphasis is on what God has done
for His people. …………These Psalms declare the glory of God.
A relationship with God cannot exist without praise.
There is no impersonal way of expressing praise to the Almighty.
Of all the books in the Old Testament, the book of Psalms is the most
read. Somehow we find expression to our inmost thoughts, to our moments
of great joy, and to those times of terror when we seem to be cut off
from Him.
The Psalms have everything.
Music,…… beauty,……. wisdom,……….. theology and experience.
Words of praise
The best way to understand what praise means is to examine the words used
for praise in the Old Testament, but particularly in the Psalms.
The first word for praise in the Hebrew is halal.
We have this word in the English language in the transliteration
“hallelujah.”
It means simply, praise the Lord, or “Praise Yah”. Yah is the
shortened form of the Old Testament Yahweh, translated in the KJV
as Jehovah.
The word halal means, to be boastful, to be excited, and to enjoy.
This word suggests a tremendous explosion of enthusiasm in the act of
praising.
Very few of us ever praise the Lord in this fashion.
We are to boast of God’s exploits and extol His greatness with such
enthusiasm and excitement that others would think it foolish.
The man who praises in this fashion is overwhelmed with the love that he
feels for the Lord. He is not acting foolishly before the Lord.
It is just those around him that think he is.
The next word is yadah, and means to acknowledge in public, as in
Psalm 138:1, “I will give Thee thanks with all my heart; I will
sing praises to Thee before the gods” (NASB).
A better translation of the verb to thank or praise, is to give public
acknowledgement to.
This word expresses the core meaning of praise. It is telling others what
God has done.
This verb has a root meaning of “the extended hand,” or, “to throw
out the hand.” It implies worshipping with raised hands.
This is the word used in 2 Chronicles 20:19-21, (LIU) where the Levites
go out before the army praising the Lord. The word for praise in the Hebrew is yadah. As they went they
lifted their hands with all their might.
They expressed their praise unto God with their uplifted hands, and of
course, we know what happened;……… the enemy self-destructed. (coming
to it later)
Our hands express so much of our personality.
We can make a fist and strike someone.
We can reach out and touch someone with our hands to bless them.
Or, we can raise our hands in praise to God. Psalm 63:4 says “Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.”
Another word in the Hebrew is barak.
The word barak means simply to bless.
It is one of the most interesting words for praise in the Old Testament.
We have all been blessed by God. He has given us the gift of eternal
life. He has healed our bodies. He has blessed us with families.
We are blessed, but the question comes. How can we bless God?
Psalm 103:1-2 says, “Bless the Lord, 0 my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy
name. Bless the Lord, 0 my
soul, and forget not all his benefits.” We bless the Lord by not forgetting Him, and not forgetting His blessing.
Psalm 103 then goes on to tell us these blessings: loving kindness,
satisfaction, redemption, honour, renewal.
We bless the Lord by remembering all of these things.
There is a sense of kneeling and blessing God as an act of adoration in
the word barak. There
is a reflex reaction in all of us that wants to bow in the presence of
the Lord, especially in prayer.
The next word for praise is Zamar. This is one of the musical verbs for praise in the book of Psalms.
It carries the idea of making music in praise to God.
It means to touch the strings, and refers to praise that involves
instrumental worship as in Psalm 150.
It is impossible to understand praise without understanding its
relationship to music. Music was the foremost expression of praise by God’s children in the
Old Testament. It is
impossible to have vocal, extended praise without music being involved.
The next word for praise is shabach. This word is found in Psalm
117:1, “O Praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye
people.” The word praise in this context means to extol, to speak well of in a
high and befitting way. Shabach also means to address in a loud
tone, to command triumph, glory, to shout. In Psalm 63:3-4 David says, “Because thy loving kindness is better
than life, my lips shall praise thee [shabach]. Thus will I bless thee while I live.”
There is a time when it is appropriate to give a loud shout unto the
Lord. This is the shabach.This is the kind of praise that makes the Devil shut up.
The next Hebrew word for praise is towdah. is directly related to the concept of sacrifice as it relates to praise. Towdah………….. rejoicing in something that is
promised in the Word but which has not yet taken place.There is great spiritual power in the use of the Word this way.As people raise their hearts and hands in praise to the Lord, it involves
a sacrifice, especially if they are very sick in their bodies or low in
their hearts.The carnal mind fights at this point and even ridicules us, this
particular action. But there is great faith in towdah as praise. It is the sacrifice
that God honors by His performing of miracles.
Tehillah is another Hebrew word meaning to sing, to
extol.Tehillah is singing our halals. (halal
means, 2 be boastful, 2 be excited, 2 enjoy.) It is used in Psalm 22:3 where we read that God inhabits (sits
enthroned on) the praises of His people. God manifests Himself in the
midst of exuberant singing. In 2 Chronicles 20:22(again), when “Israel began to sing and to praise.
God set ambushes” This refers to a special kind of
singing. It is singing unprepared, unrehearsed songs; probably what we would know
today as “singing in the spirit.” This expression of praise brings tremendous unity to the body of Christ.
But the issue of what is right in our thinking brings discord………
Other references to tehillah are found in Psalms 34:1,”I will
extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on me lips.Psalms 40:3 and Psalms 66:2.
3.The
meaning and purpose of worship
God is seeking for people to worship Him. In the phrase “in spirit and in truth.”
“In truth” means absolute openness and honesty before God, hiding
nothing. The only way to worship is through the
spirit. It is not the soul or the body that worships, but the spirit.Those who truly worship are those who flow toward God in their spirit,
but do so according to the truth of God’s Word.
CONNECTION:
The hour to worship God is now.
Not tomorrow or yesterday, but now.
We don’t need to wait until Sunday.
We don’t need to wait until we sit in our pew in church.
God is available to us at all times.
Worship is a response to a relationship with God,
but that relationship is very intimate
It is the outpouring of inner thoughts to God, often accompanied by
emotional and expressive actions of the body.
But we always must remember that it is almost impossible to describe in
words the inner sense and feeling that permeates us.
As Jim would say, “It is better felt than telt.”
Moving into God’s presence
Thanksgiving, praise and worship, should be compared to the three areas
of the tabernacle of Moses.
The outer court represents thanksgiving; the holy place represents
praise; and the Holy of Holies represents worship.
We enter His gates with thanksgiving.Thanksgiving relates to what God has
done.Preparing ourselves to come into the Holy of Holies, we begin with a
recounting of what the Lord has done It involves much action of the body. It involves the raising of the
hands.
Perhaps the clapping of the hands…………. a loud voice,…………
excitement,…………… and the exuberance that marks the beginning
of our approach to the Lord.We move then to the holy place where we offer up praise Praise is a function of the
will. It
flows out of an enlightened mind. A
mind set on fire by the Holy Spirit, enlightened by the power of the
prayer language. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions Praise
like that………. becomes as a sweet smelling fragrance or incense
from off the golden altar of incense, which represents our emotion. We will……… to praise
God,……….. then we
sanctify our minds through the power of the Spirit then our emotions
take over and bring us through the veil into the Presence of God in
worship.
When we come to that final
act of worship it is the divine invitation of the Lord Himself that
draws us within the veil.
No man can program himself for worship.It is an act of the will to thank God, it is an
act of the will to praise God.
An act of the will to take another step towards, BUT
It is an act of God’s will to invite us into His presence in the act of worship.
[Notes compiled from book The Power of Praise and
Worship by Terry Law, bible verses from NIV, Amplified, NASB, KJV
and AV]
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