Saturday, January 13, 2018

THE PRAISE SERIES (PART 9) - THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE (B)


"Your hand will find all Your enemies;
 Your right hand will find those who hate You.
 Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! 
We will sing and praise Your power".
Psalm 21:8, 13

The Old Testament makes a distinction between taking revenge ourselves and leaving our enemies to God. Strength and power lie in Him, not in us, as Psalm 21 confesses. 

Apart from many good reasons for glorifying and worshiping God, the role of praise in dealing with our enemies is also strange to many people. The Psalmist also praise God in the midst of facing adversity at the hand of an enemy. Do you wonder how such conflict and praise meet?

We continue with the story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. Remember, Jehoshaphat and the kingdom of Judah are teetering on the brink of destruction- they are about to be attacked by horde far outnumbering them. You might compare their plight to a situation of your own in which everything seems to go wrong, or when the force of Satan's opposition threaten to overpower you. King Jehoshaphat's experience offers a way to do battle in such situations. He begins by simply confessing, "We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us" (2 Chronicles 20:12). 

This confession of weakness doesn't mean that Judah is passive and does nothing - nor should we. A prophet of Judah delivers a word from the Lord. God tells them that the battle is His, not theirs. For their response, the people "(stand) up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high:" (2 Chronicles 20:19). Then instead of hurling spears or boulders, the army marches out boldly hurling phrases of praises, singing, "Praise the LORD, for His mercy endures forever" (2 Chronicles 20:21). The result? The Lord Himself sets ambushes for the enemy, causing confusion and fighting to break out among their ranks.

So what attack should believers mount against Satan and his hordes? We are to take up the weapons we wield best - the weapons of praise. As the apostle Paul teaches us, "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4).

Faced with the forces of evil, God's people are not to fear. Our greatest resource for resistance doesn't arise from any arsenal known to human wisdom or device. It comes from knowing that the battle is the Lord's. We are never to react from a position of weakness, but from one of strength. That strength is found in faithfully remaining at our post of praise. Our best defense is to do what we should know how to do best: offer praise and glory to the Living God, whose enemies, ultimately, will always flee before His might and power

Quite sure most of you would know this powerful song - Desert Song by Brooke Fraser from Hillsong (see below Youtube). With the knowledge of our weapon of warfare we can now sing and praise Him in the desert, in the fire & in the battle ... PRAISE THE LORD!
#ThePowerOfPraise #WeaponsOfOurWarfare #PraiseTheLord #BattleIsTheLords