The importance of praise and worship in spiritual warfare cannot be overemphasized. It is what gives us access into the throne of mercy and grace as we stand before the Lord (Psalms 100:4; Hebrews 4:15&16).
We cannot worship God if we do not know Him or love Him. Neither can we worship Him without our faith being in Him.
Our feelings has nothing to do with our worship of God. God understands our feelings; but just because He acknowledges our feelings, is not enough to move Him in answering our prayers. He is only moved by our faith in His promises to us, concerning every situation that we present before Him in prayer.
Pouring it all in Worship
The woman with the alabaster oil was a true worshipper (Luke 7:36-50). She released her faith in worshipping at the feet of Jesus. All she needed from Jesus was mercy and grace. So by faith she poured out all that she had on Jesus, in adoration and worship of Him. Her sins were all forgiven because of her act of faith in worshipping Jesus.
She surely poured the oil on Jesus with tears from her eyes. But she was not shedding the tears, so as to get the attention of Jesus; or cause Him to do something for her. She was shedding the tears because she recognized her sinful state of mind and knew that only Jesus could help her.
But it was her heart of worship and adoration of Jesus, in the most uncommon manner that actually caught Jesus’ attention. Her unusual act of worship opened up the windows of heaven into her life for the forgiveness of her sins. She never said a word before the Lord, but her uncommon action was more powerful than what words could ever describe. Without uttering a word she backed up her faith with action in Jesus. Worshipping Jesus was a big deal for her.
Jesus concluded concerning her action of faith:
“Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.””
Luke 7:47 NIV
Unusual Worship
God is seeking those who will worship Him in new ways, rather than those who are only interested in coming to Him in their formal forms of worship.
Do you ever have a new song coming from your heart in worshipping Him? That very new song needs expression in His presence.
Unusual ways of worship will always get unusual responses from the Lord. We do not need to tie down our faith with inaction while in His presence. Neither do we have to come before Him, by worshipping Him with a stereotype kind of worship. God loves it when we act before Him in genuine new ways of worshipping Him.
That is yet another reason that the Holy Spirit has been given to us. He is the One who fills our hearts with new songs to worship Him. He guides us in God’s presence and helps us in touching His heart with our worship (Colossians 3:16). He shows us the way to the heart of the Father.
Example of David
David was once despised by his wife for worshipping God in a genuinely unusual manner. The scripture says:
“As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.”
2 Samuel 6:16 NIV
She must have been thinking that she was doing what was religiously correct in rebuking David. But she ended up being on the wrong side against God. Be very careful not to criticize people who dance for joy or shout for joy in a new way that’s not appealing to you. Just because you do not like something does not make it ungodly. The Holy Spirit may be leading them into doing something uncommon.
David responded to Michal:
“I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.”
2 Samuel 6:22-23 NIV
Michal became barren for the rest of her life for attempting to prevent a fellow believer from being blessed, while rejoicing before God.
Be Authentic in Worship, and not a Stereotype
Are you a true worshipper? Then learn to worship Him in new ways. Open up your heart to adore Him with new words, by studying more about Him in the scriptures. God loves it when we come before Him, with a new revelation of who He really is, based on our own conscious efforts. By being real in worshipping Him opens us up before Him.
There are those who will rather complain and waste so much time in explaining to God, about what He already knows about their lives as they pray. We need not be the complainant before God but the worshipper. Let us leave the complaining for the devil to do. That’s what he knows best to do.
When we deliberately choose to worship Him in spite of what we are going through, even without praying about the situation; He will remold and reshape our lives in order to meet those needs.
Paul and Silas were Authentic in Worship
That was exactly what Paul and Silas did while sitting in jail, and waiting for the salvation of the Lord (Acts 16:16-40). They began to worship God and the other prisoners and the jailer heard them. And since faith comes by hearing, they all became believers in those songs of worship and testimony about Jesus.
Every worship song testifies about God. We are not just singing; but we are testifying to all listeners about our God, when we sing.
The result for Paul and Silas was a sudden response from heaven:
“Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyoneʼs chains came loose.”
Acts 16:26 NIV
A new door for testimony was opened immediately. The jailer and his household were saved.
So while we are going through the shakings of our lives, God is reshaping us as we worship Him more. So therefore, more than any of our petitions, supplications, intercessions or prayer requests; God is more interested in our worship of Him.
Worry Less by Worshipping more
When we learn to cast all of our burdens upon Jesus, the yoke will be much more easier for us. By casting all our burdens on Jesus, we are letting loose of all that hinders our worship of Him.
Jesus declared:
““Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.””
Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
We worry less about many things that we pray about, when we actually begin to worship Him more.
It is important to note that the angels have only one thing that they do in the presence of God – they worship Him. Angels do know and they do recognize that God can do anything while being worshipped.
Worshipping at the Altar of Prayer
The Lord once said concerning the altar of prayer in the Old Testament:
“The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.”
Leviticus 6:13 NIV
In other words, our fire of prayer and intercession must never go out before God. Jesus told us in Luke 18:1 to always pray and never to quit praying. A believer that does not pray, is loosing the fire of God in him.
Worship of God helps us in keeping that fire of prayer and intercession in us burning. When we quit worshipping God, we will quit praying also. And when we quit praying we will become lukewarm towards the things of God. Luke warmness towards the things of the kingdom of God keeps us backsliding away from His presence.
The scriptures again declares about the Levites while Solomon built the Temple:
“They ministered with music before the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, until Solomon built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. They performed their duties according to the regulations laid down for them.”
1 Chronicles 6:32 NIV
The Levites waited before the Lord in worship, even as the house of God was being built. Today, they are also waiting before the Lord with praise and worship, while the building up or edifying of the body of Christ through the teaching of the word, prayer and intercession brings us into God’s presence.
Our hearts becomes opened up in His presence as we worship Him corporately.
That is why it is very important for those who lead praise and worship in the body of Christ today, to constantly seek new ways through the guidance of the Holy Spirit in worshipping God. New innovations in songs and ways of worshipping God, reinvigorates the body of Christ with a fresh fire from the presence of the Lord.
We must always be innovative to strengthen the weak and feeble into the presence of God. They will receive much grace when we do this.
If a worship team gets bogged down with doing the same old stuff in praise and worship, the congregation will continue to get the same old results. But God is in the business of doing new things in blessing us.
Worship and Spiritual Warfare
It is our worship of God that actually opens us up and leads us into spiritual warfare. Worship prepares us for spiritual warfare. It places value on our appreciation of Him as we advance in the realm of the spirit into warfare.
The writer of the book of Hebrews says:
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”
Hebrews 13:15 NIV
Worshipping the Lord with the words of our mouth in the midst of all we may be going through, becomes our sacrifice before Him. The lips that chooses to worship and confess Him as Lord in trouble is fruitful. We praise Him continually because we love Him and appreciate Him.
It takes an act of faith in God to be able to do this. And our faith in God is never meant to be based on our feelings also. It is based on what His word says to us. If every believer in Christ has to live by how they feel; we’d all must have gone back into our sinful past lifestyles.
But thank God we do not live according to how we feel. We live according to what God says in His word.
That’s why it is important to praise Him irrespective of what or how we feel. Praise makes the confession of our faith before Him stronger.
A sister was once healed of breast cancer. After awhile she stopped praising and worshipping God in giving thanks to God for her healing. She suddenly had a relapse of the cancer tumor, as she stopped worshipping God. She thought she must had committed a terrible sin. The enemy lied to her that she was going to die. But the moment she went back into praising and worshipping God with a heart full of gratitude for her past healing, she got healed and was made whole again.
When we forget about thanking God for the past miracles of our lives, we become weak in faith and a door of attack against us is opened up for the enemy.
That’s why Paul reminded the Ephesians not to go back into their past. He admonished them:
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 5:18-20 NIV
Giving thanks as we sing songs of praise and worship to the Lord in the Spirit emboldens our faith before Him into action.
The Bible says of the early Church as they broke bread and fellowshipped with one another daily, that they went about:
“praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:47 NIV
Praising God positioned the early Church for favor before God and the local communities.
It takes our exercise of faith to be able to worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
When we deliberately choose to worship God in the midst of our instabilities we are acting in faith. God is never moved by our weaknesses. He is moved towards us in response to our faith (Hebrews 11:6).
In worshipping Him in preparation for spiritual warfare, we must therefore be specific about the types of songs and words that we use.
We sing songs of spiritual warfare, because we are going into spiritual warfare. We sing songs of healing, because we believe that He had already healed us. Whatever we recognize God to be for us is expressed in our worship of Him.
Worship for the Harvest
Our worship of God is what ripens the end time harvest for us. It makes it ready before the Lord of harvest. It moves the heart of God in signaling to the angels to bring in the harvest for His glory.
As we prepare for the 2017 harvest of God, let us go back again to the words of Agur in the book of Proverbs.
He said:
“Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer;”
Proverbs 30:25 NIV
Any believer that is continually praising and worshipping God as he stands before Him in weakness of strength is like the ants. Not only will the praise and worship of God make us stable, as we walk before God in the integrity of our heart. Those praises and worships that comes continuously from our hearts before Him, are stored up as credit before God, in all that we do as we get ready for the great harvest of God. The ants stores up food at summer time for the winter. A believer with integrity of heart does the same in preparation for the visitation of God.
We do not wait until trouble knocks on our door before we remember to start rejoicing and worshipping God. Store up your praise and worship of Him always, into your credit account before God as you wait for the harvest in 2017.
