The power of praise

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THE POWER OF PRAISE

(First part)

Memory verse: (Psalms 103:1-5) “ Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s ”.

Praise is the expression of our love, appreciation, honor and reverence to God. We praise God because we love Him. We praise God because of who He is. We praise God because of His love for us. We praise the Lord because of His greatness and the great things He has done. When our spiritual eyes see the wonder of God’s creation, we begin to praise because of His sovereignty. We praise Him because of all the good things he always does for us, he saved us by the sacrifice of His Son, He provides for our needs, He heals us, He protects us, He guides us, He prospers us etc…

The psalmist records some reasons to praise the Lord in the above scripture, that He forgives our iniquities, He heals our diseases etc. Gratitude will determine your altitude in life. Praise will raise you. As your praises rise to God, God will raise above your situations. Praise touches God’s heart. David was a man after God’s heart because he was a man of praise. Some people choose to complain in life, but complaining only compounds your problems but praise erases your mountains. When king Jehoshaphat and Judah decided to praise God in the midst of their troubles, God intervened and erased their enemies. God instructed Joshua and Israel to take up instrument of praise and raise a shout of praise and the walls of Jericho fell flat. Complainer and murmurers have never won God’s favor but God’s anger. Praise makes God’s heart happy. In fact the scripture says God is worthy and enthroned in the praises of His people, Israel (Ps22: 3). Whenever we praise God, our praise becomes a throne for our God, and God can descend in our midst because he has gotten a seat. When people come to visit us in our homes, offices and churches, the first thing we offer them is a seat. God needs his seat in our lives, homes, churches, etc and his seat is our praise. It’s time we begin to offer God true praise. Let’s give the praise a place in our lives, in our homes, churches, offices etc and God will dwell in our midst. God’s presence is attracted by praise.

Tomorrow’s subject “Praise produces multiplication”


 (Second part)

Memory verse: (John 6:5--12a) “ Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?…And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled ”.

When you praise God for what you have, God multiplies it. There was a need, i.e. there were multitudes that needed to be fed. In the midst of the multitudes there was a lad with five-loaves of bread and just two fish. But Andrew said it as useless compared to the people that needed to be fed. But the scripture says, Jesus new what to do with the little to meet the need of the multitudes. He took those few loaves and fish and HE GAVE THANKS TO GOD AND GOD RECEIVED THE PRAISES FROM JESUS AND RESPONDED BY MIRACULOUSLY MULTIPLYING THE BREAD AND FISH TO THE EXTENT THAT IT WASN’T JUST ENOUGH TO FEED THE MULTITUDES BUT IT WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH.

Praises will cause overflows in your life. David was a man who experienced overflows in his life because he knew how to shower God with extravagant praises. He remarked one day, you have anointed my head and my cup overflows (Ps23: 5b). The size of what you have is not important, because what you have can increase or decrease depending on what you do with it.

If you get what you have and praise the Lord, He will multiply it, increase its value and worth. Jesus gave a parable of a man who gave talents to people and he went away for a long time and when he returned, he called them to see what they did with what he gave them. One complained that this man was a bad man, who reaps were he did not sow etc… After giving his report, the owner of the talent told the people to take the talent from him and give it to the one who did the right thing with the talents he gave him. A praise full and thankful attitude will shower our lives with abundance of blessings.

Tomorrow’s subject “ Praise produces miracles ”


 (Third part) 

Memory verse: (John11: 41b,43,44a) “ And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”  And he who had died came out …”

Thankfulness will fill your life with unstoppable miracles. When you stop to be thankful you stop miracles from flowing. The problem is not mountain standing before you, the problem is where you do you focus your eyes. Death was before the eyes of the master but the master turned his eyes away from death. He lifted his eyes and focused on God and began to praise and thank Him. He did not focus on people’s doubtful looks and questionings. David said  “ I lift my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven ” (Ps123:1). Don’t tell God how big your problem is, but tell your problem how big your God is through your praises to God. It’s time we believers stop focusing on our needs, problems, failures, lack etc and begin to focus on the great, loving God. Let’s enter the gates of his presence with praise and his holy of holies with thanksgiving (Ps100:1) When we lift our eyes off our troubles and focus on God’s love, goodness, majesty, power, dominion in God and worship him, miracles and explosions will be our inheritance. Jehoshaphat and Judah were just lost in the joy of praising the Lord. In fact they didn’t see what God did to their enemies, they only saw later that all their enemies were completely destroyed by God. Stop struggling with your battles, just praise the Lord of Hosts, He will fight your wars. And you will enjoy sweet sweat less victories.

Praise will give you sweat less and stress less miracles. It’s time you change the menu of the things you’ve been giving to the Lord. Begin to give him praise, start to give him thanks, begin to worship him in spirit and truth…you’ve given him enough questions, complaints, tears etc. Please change the menu, our Lord likes praise, he enjoys worship, he delights in thanksgiving, so the next time you come to church or into your prayer place don’t forget to bring to God some real heartfelt praise. Some churches, homes, lives are so cold, some believers come cold in the church not knowing even what they come to church to do, they sit and watch what others are doing, yes they have come to a place where to meet God but they don’t know how to approach God. Come to church ready to reach out and touch him with your praise.

Tomorrow’s subject “Praise is a key of deliverance”


 (Fourth part) 

Memory verse: (Acts 16:25-26) “ But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.  Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed ”.

Praise has capacity to release immense power of God that can rock the very foundations of the gates of hell. Paul and Silas were bound with chains and thrown behind prison gates. Good news, they entered the prison with divine key that could open any door in the natural and in the spiritual realm i.e. the key of prayer and praise. They praised and prayed in the middle of the night until the prisoners were awakened and heard them. There was no church gathering, they were only two; It was such a great duet. They had every reason to be complaining, it was cold, they were in pain because they had been beaten, but they knew that could not solve their problem. They focused on they answer to their predicament. Hands and legs in chains, they praised anyway. No congregation to boost them up but they praised, they did not have instruments but they praised, things were not going right but they praised, their praise reached out and reached heaven and touched God’s heart. When your praise touches heaven, heaven’s power shakes the very foundations of the kingdom of darkness. Power fell in the prison, foundations of the prison were shaken, doors of the prison flung open, chains upon Paul and Silas got broken and they were free…When praise flow out of your mouth to God, God’s power will be released and you’ll be set free.

Praise releases yoke destroying anointing. Praise release power that no gates of hell can resist. Shouts of praise will cause Jericho walls to fall. Learn to use this weapon in your family. Your home need not be haunted by demons and powers of darkness. Devils, evil powers don’t need to stress you, depress you, just raise praise from your heart. Praise has nothing to do with instruments, or a place. It does not need to be a church, anywhere you praise God. Praise originates from your heart. It can flow out to God without instruments. All these musical instruments are good to accompaniments as we worship but they don’t produce praise. As you begin to open your heart to release forth praise, extraordinary miracles, breakthroughs, open doors are going to be your portion. You’ll never be in bondages again!!!

Tomorrow’s subject “ Praise releases the prophetic anointing”


(Fifth part) 

Memory verse: (2Kings3:15-17) “But now bring me a musician.
Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him…For thus says the LORD: You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink ”

Praise release a prophetic anointing. Poor praise and worship produce a boring, cold and lifeless service. When anointed people praise and worship the Lord, greater anointing is released. When the anointing flows in greater measure, gifts of the Holy Spirit begin to be released, people begin to speak in tongues, others begin to prophesy, and others begin to see visions. In the text, Elisha had an assignment: The king needed a prophetic word from God to know His will. He came to the man of God, the prophet. But for the prophetic anointing to be activated, he needed a musician, when the musician played the music, the anointing began to flow and the man began to prophesy.

Praise is the lifestyle of the anointed. Good praise makes your prayer prophetic. Praiseful preachers are usually prophetic in their preaching. Praisefulness will make you prophetic. Now, am not saying you become a prophet, building it gives you strong spiritual insight to a level where you begin to talk God’s way, think God’s way, and see God’s way. And this is God’s will that we come to place in our walk with him where we think like him, talk like him, sense things like him. You need this prophetic sense in your family, in your business, in your ministry and in your personal life daily.

We need this river of anointing to flow in our homes, places of work, in the church. So it’s time we begin to be serious with praise in our personal lives, family life and church life. Today praise and worship in churches have been reduced to fleshly entertainment. Praise and worship is not intended to excite our emotions, but it’s an offering for God, it should come from the springs within the depth our hearts. When it touches God, then God releases His glorious presence. It’s this glorious anointing that touches our lives and changes people, heals the broken hearted, fill people with God’s power, releases the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s time to praise, praise and praise.

Tomorrow’s subject, “ Praise brings joy”


(Sixth part) 

Memory verse: (Palms16: 11) “ You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy;  At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore ”

Praise release God’s presence, and God’s presence release the joy of the Lord. One of the anointing of God is the anointing of joy.(Heb1:9). Show me a praiseful church, people, family, person and I’ll show a joyful bunch of people. Praiseful people are joyful people. One of the most vital ingredients in life is joy. Joy is life, the scripture says: “ righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit is the kingdom of God ” (Rom 14:17). A place devoid of joy is a dead place. When a person looses joy, he/she is loosing life. David prayed, restore unto me the joy of your salvation  (Ps51: 12). Joy is the sign that the life of God is still in you.

Cold, dead or dying churches are joyless and their praise is stale and lifeless. Joy is strength (Neh8; 10). A joyful church is very strong, dynamic, hopeful, energetic and passionate. A joyful people can do anything. When a man is sorrowful or discouraged, he can do nothing, in fact even when you give him something to do, he’ll destroy it instead of building it. Discouraged means a man emptied of courage. What can a man without courage do except to break, destroy, and ruin? Great achievers in life are joyful people. Great healthy people are joyful people. All of us love to be in joyful homes, joyful churches, with joyful people etc. We can create the atmosphere of joy in our lives, in work places, in our homes and in our churches by becoming people of praise. Until you make God happy by your praise you may never know the joy of the Lord in your life. If you want to be joyful, make God joyful by your praise. Today’s problem of a selfish generation that has robbed us of great riches of God’s joy. We think of making ourselves happy. We don’t have the capacity to make our selves happy; Only God can. Our praise and worship are not self-centered but God centered. God centered praise is about pleasing God. Self-centered praise is about how to make us happy. This produces an emotionalism which many confuse for God’s presence but it’s only flesh and it’s fleshly and emotionally deep. It’s not spiritual and it’s a short time experience. People feel as they are happy but they are empty as soon as they leave the church. Let’s focus on pleasing God and God will give us his joy.

Nice weekend and see you next Monday.

               
         
               

Ikiganiro Ishimwe

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