"Praise the Lord" and 5 Point Someone
By Abraham Israel
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"Praise the Lord! Sing to the LORD a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints." (Psalm 149:1, NKJV). |
These days "Praise the Lord" has become a cliche in the pentecostal circles and even other Christians outside the charismatic-pentecostal persuasion try to identify a pentecostal or a charismatic person when they hear them say "Praise the Lord". Some times I have heard other people say with a regard for a charismatic or a pentecostal person, when they see the joy with which they see them saying "Pprrraise the Lord!". Other I have heard say that these pentecostal guys always say, "Praise the Lord" and then do all kinds of nonsense stuff in their life. Actually people say "Praise the Lord" is no way to identify a pentecostal person, but it is indeed one of the evidence to identify a Spirit-filled person (Eph 5:18-21).
The praise that comes out of the mind has become a cliche in Christian circles because it has no Spirit empowerment behind it. Satan and his demonic cohorts usually laugh at such praises. God Himself expects us to praise Him with our understanding because the Bible says, "For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding." (Psa 47:7). We praise with our understanding, unless it is of a higher order of tongues that comes out of our spirit man. But the words of praise and thanksgiving like "Praise the Lord, Thank you JESUS, Hallelujah, Glory to God..." that comes from the heart of the spiritual man is of great value. True praise comes from the heart without us even trying to say it. As like a river flows, praise usually flows out of a Spirit filled person.
There are times when I say "Praise the Lord!!!", people just stare at me like I have said something bad in a lot of evengelical circles. I can understand why they feel like that, because I too have come from the same Staunch Evengelical background. I have come to understand that only those who have experienced the fullness of God's Spirit by having been "Baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5; 2:4; John 3:34; 1:16), can only understand the importance of living a lifestyle of praise in HIS PRESENCE!
Smith Wigglesworth, often referred to as 'the Apostle of Faith,' was one of the pioneers of the Pentecostal revival that occurred a century ago described praise beautifully by saying, "The new man created in Christ is God's masterpiece, His poem (Ephesians 2:10) set to music - a song. Singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord. Praise is God's sunlight in the heart. It destroys sin germs. It ripens the fruits of the Spirit. It is the oil of gladness that lubricates life's activities. There can be no holy life without it. It keeps the heart pure and the eye clear. Praise is essential to the knowledge of God and His will. The strength of a life is the strength of its song. When the pressure is heavy that is the time to sing. Pressure is permitted to strengthen the attitude and spirit of praise. It takes a man to sing in the dark when the storm and battle are raging, and it is such singing that makes the man!"
So it is those who are more conscious of God in their inner spirit-man, will be those spontaneous praisers of the beauty of God's glory, goodness and holiness in their lives.
I would like to 5 point someone if they ask me why I praise so often,
1) Praise confirms God's glorious life sustaining presence in us (Acts 17:28). If I praise God for nothing, one reason is more than enough to praise Him. And that reason is, I am still breathing fine because God is sustaining the breath in my nostrils. This is the reason the Psalmist ended the glorious final 150th chapter of the book of Psalm with a praise breather commanding, "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!". When the Spirit of God takes away our breath we return to the dust and are no more to be persent on earth with the same physical body anymore (Psalm 104:29). Another Psalmist confirms this in Psalm 115:17-18 saying, "17 The dead do not praise the LORD, nor any who go down into silence. 18 But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!" So if we cannot praise the Lord freely we should understand that death has creeped in to some parts of our heart, which was originally created to live forth proclaiming the rapturous praise of our Most High God.
2) Praise glorifies God. It makes a way for God to come in to our lives, to help us order our conduct aright. When we praise God for who He is and what He is doing through us, that is when God will shows us HIS SALVATION through the revelation of His Holy Word (Ps 50:23). Salvation is an all inclusive word which means wholeness in every area of our life. In other words, as you live a lifestyle of wholeness before all the people on earth, it begins to GLORIFY the GOD whom you praise saying, "He has done it for me.' So if you really want to GLORIFY GOD in your life, start to live a lifestyle of praise by being a praise producing instrument of our glorious God on earth. Father God is seeking such praise producing instruments on earth who will produce it truthfully from their new spirit-man, which was put inside them by the Holy Spirit when they were born again (John 4:23-24; 6:63).
3) Praise destroys Satan's yoke over our life. King David who experienced great victories over demonic strongholds in his life says, "Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold and a fortress of your heavenly hosts against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger who boasts about his yoke over God's people." (Psa 8:2, Abi's Paraphrased Version). In other words, God himself when he wants to destroy his demonic enemies, he first puts a spirit of praise to come upon his people and then gets enthroned over the praises of his people (Psa 22:3). From that vantage point of legal elevation on behalf of His people on earth, he completely destroys the enemy who puts yoke of bondage upon his children and boasts about it before God. Then he builds up a huge wall of fortress to protect his people from the enemies further invation to destroy us (Zech 2:5). Perpetual praise keeps the Lord's fortress of His heavenly hosts intact and impenetrable.
4) Praise keeps us filled with His sweet Spirit's Presence. In the New Testament, one of the greatest apostle who lived a life full of joy instructed all his apostolic followers to, "17 ....not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 [by] speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 [and] giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Eph 5:17-20). Praise keeps us in a spiritual high of extacy in God exactly like a person drunk with wine in the natural. But the difference between a natural wine and being drunk in the Spirit is this, natural wine dissipates so fast and is only temporal. But the spiritual high of being filled with the Holy Spirit is permanent and will never dissipate as we keep singing, shouting, praising, thanking and glorifying God for His free gift of grace, mercy and love toward us in our Lord Jesus Christ. In short, if you want to experience heaven on earth continiously, you have got to train yourslef to praise God and thank Him for all things in all circumstances.
5) Praise is beautiful because it keeps our soulish mind to become tangibly conscious of God's Presence. When we hear God saying in many places of His Word again and again, "Do not fear, Do not be troubled, Fear not for I am with you, Be courageous, etc...." and still we keep fearing the unknown when we come face to face with difficulties, it is not because we do not remember all those admonition of the Lord at those times. But we do not oil these words with our praises in order that these promises may run swiftly in to every corner of our entire being to strengthen it with God's power and the consciousness of God's presence. Say you are driving a vehicle without oiling it, you may be able to drive it for some distance without any problems. But then the gear box and all other parts soon begins to feel the strain of the force and friction that comes as a result of driving the vehicle. Soon the whole vehicle comes to a stand still. This is what happens to many of us who keep driving ourselves spiritually without ever spending time tp praise God for who He is and what he has done, is doing now and is going to do in our lives. Many of us many times come to a spiritual state of dryness and stand still because of lack of praise in our lives. Once we ask God to quicken us with His praises, He will faithfully stir us up with a 'spirit of praise' in the midst of our adverse circumstances (Ps 51:15; 80:18). This will directly bring the consciousness of God presence in to our lives in the midst of all our ordeals. After the Psalmist experienced the beautiful consciousness of God's presence and power in the midst of toublesome days in his life, he exhorted others to "Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful." (Ps 147:1). Only when we have experienced the beauty of something, then we can wholeheartedly recommend it to some one who can benefit from experiencing the same.
If you have not yet experienced the flow of God's praises from your spirit-man, ask Him wholeheartedly to quicken you so that when you are flowing in it, you can five point someone and joyously given him/her a HIGH-FIVE wish for them to experience the same.
A Prayer For You : Dear Heavenly Father, Praise you for giving me the Holy Spirit when I was born again. He is the one who is helping me praise you always. Lord help me to praise you more and more for all things in all circumstances continuously. Help me get filled with the Holy Spirit all the time, so that I can be able to live a life of liberty by practicing the lifestyle of praise. I praise you for the breath of life that you have given me and thank you for sustaining my life on earth with it. May my praise bring you all the GLORY YOU DESERVE! May Satan's yoke upon my life be completely broken by the "spirit of praise" that increases progressively upon my life. May your High Praises be always upon my lips (Psa 149:6), in JESUS name I pray. Amen and Amen! Praise the Lord!
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