Praise Power

It's amazing how simple this is, and yet also so neglected.

(And one of the reasons we don't value the gift of tongues more is because we don't know its ability to ignite praise.)

Here is a dynamic "prophetic word" that my friend received during worship, on the topic of praise.  For more on receiving word like these yourself, see the The Voice of God

Praise—A Portal Of Power

Today beloved, I have come to bring strength and help to you of such magnitude, that no foe on this earth will be able to stand against it.  Darkness with all its demons cannot stand before it and all the armies of the earth put together are not strong enough to defeat you in this place.  Of all the weapons that you will possess, this one is the very best and the very strongest.  Should the world, the flesh, and the devil all join forces, they could not overcome you with this weapon present.

What is this amazing power you ask?  What is so strong that it can break the bonds of time and space?  What can transcend this world and reach into the next?  Praise beloved, and a spirit of thankfulness.  The strenght of this is unfathomable. It is true that in your weakness I am made strong but in this act you are made strong.  Praise rebuilds walls and houses that have been crushed and destroyed by enemy fire.  Worship is like the touch of life itself and causes even the desert to bloom. Dreams that have died and been long buried can rise up in newness of life again.  Wounds open and gaping can be closed and healed in a day with the life giving touch of thankfulness.  Even sickness and disease must bow in its presence.  Although depression and despair have weighed the soul down to the grave, a garment of praise will throw off a spirit of heaviness, letting joy lift the spirit to the heavens like a hot air balloon.

Here is an oddity that is worthy of some thought.  A man can know these truths, yet keep his heart silent, refusing to reach for them when attacked.  He can sit in his house, ransacked and ravaged, and never once reach for the gun at his side.  He can see his loved ones wounded and bleeding from this attack but never raise a finger to help them or defend them.  He can watch the travesty that fear, doubt, and unbelief can cause, not only in him, but also in others, and never make a move in offense or defense.

Why is that beloved?  Because places where I am not allowed to control, give doors to dark, powerful rebels that will never bow the knee in praise or thankfulness to Me.  They would rather abide in its misery and pain than to spend a moment in My presence.  They would prefer to spit accusations and condemnations at Me rather than join Me.  The simple truth is that they cannot.  Light and darkness cannot mix and never will.  When light arrives, darkness must flee.  That is why praise and worship are so very powerful because in their true form, darkness cannot abide.

Here is a great truth, and a great mystery.  True worship often takes self-denial.  Real thankfulness may have to crucify certain agendas.  Genuine worship has left the world of self and has stepped into Mine and here, there are no foes of love.  The light of My love has cleansed all darkness away from the soul and has left it whole and complete, lacking nothing.  Know this most awesome fact, when man is able to come to Me in the purity of worship, he is as close to heaven as he will ever be in his lifetime.  He can transcend the barriers of the world and break through the very curtains of space and dimension.  He can for the time that he is here taste of eternity itself.  He can for those moments become one with Us and Us with him.  Praise and worship braids the spirit into that three-stranded cord that is not easily broken.  What if a man could live in that state beloved, what victory would he know?

Does man think that I require praise and worship because I am so full of Myself?  Does he think that I somehow need it to survive or to be happy?  Should he offer it to appease My anger or My cruelty?  Shall he pour it on the altar to cool My molten fury?  Do I require it so man will know his place or so that angels can see the worth of My plan?  Of truth, I do not.  Praise and worship are solely for the good of mankind.  They are acts that humans can partake in that will help and strengthen their spirits in the heat of battles and calm their many self-made storms.  It was created with your good in mind and for your help in times of trouble.  Sometimes your foes capture you and imprison you.  Praise and thankfulness are the shovels that can dig you a tunnel of escape so that you can free yourself.  They are the explosives needed to blow up the oppression and depression that have jailed your hopes and shackled your faith.  Contained within them is a special ops unit that is working feverishly to remove you from behind enemy lines.  Once over the border, they will feed you and nurse you back to health and train you how to avoid capture again. They are in essence beloved, weapons of mass destruction when a nation of darkness targets your soul.

Know that when you are caught in the nightmare of the matrix that praise is the exit that you are searching for.  It is a portal from your world to Ours.  Praise ushers you into the very courts of heaven and joins you with angelic forces that live to serve us both.  They have strength and I have strength and when your weakness joins with Us in these acts then you are empowered by Us.  No weapon formed against you can prosper when you stand here with Us in that state.  In order to stay here, you must have faith.  Faith must be healthy and active if it is to deliver you here and keep you here.

When you give praise and give thanks, you must have a basis for those words and thoughts. Your heart must ponder My acts and My character. It must bring to remembrance all My faithfulness and all My acts of grace and mercy. It must recount all the times that I came through and all the times you were rescued from the very jaws of darkness itself. It must acknowledge protection and provision as well as undeniable excess and plenty. But if you are to stand and not fall, you must also bring with you the testimony against your own flesh and how it has failed you. You must meditate on its betrayals and its treachery and how love has delivered you from each one of them. This will be the foundation that praise can build on; keeping this weapon of truth close to your side.

Know that praise and worship are true acts of intimacy.  True praise and real worship will cause you to shed the outer garment of self-made protection and come into My presence bare and vulnerable.  In praise, you can merge your spirit with Mine and know what it truly means to become one with Me.  Know also this most important of truths.  In that state, the spirit becomes pliable and moldable and I take you in My hands and mold you into His image.  I can strip darkness away from your soul and replace it with Our love, leaving you clean and refreshed, renewed and restored.  Praise is like a powerful shower that removes all the dirt and grime you acquire by walking in the world.  It pressure washes the ungodly thoughts and influences away from your mind and replaces them with love and truth.  It washes away the illusion from your eyes and the din of the noisome pestilence from your ears.  It is the one safe diversion that will comfort your heart and your soul no matter what state they are in.

If My people truly understood its purpose and its power, they would turn there after a hard day's work and not to the diversions of the illusion. Can’t you see beloved, that My people have no business worshipping the comforts of the world? This puts more of your soul in the matrix.

I have true and lasting comfort for you, and not the temporary and fleeting comforts that the illusion offers.  There is no end to My joys but without love, there are only dead ends on the comfort roads of damnnation.  With me, we can free more of yourself from snares and lurid temptations.  Of course, there is a semblance of pleasure there or no one would ever go down that path, closer to cliffs of darkness.  Darkness can only offer counterfeits and imitations of My blessings.  There is no need to settle for anything less than the real and the genuine.

All you are seeking can be found first just behind the veil.  You can cross over to that place by simple focused desire.  Give voice to trust and vocalize love with your heart and with your mouth.  Sing songs of freedom and you will see yourself delivered there on the wings of that song.  Sing songs of adoration and you will be taken where your eyes will behold the object of those adulations.  Lift your voice in thankfulness and the Spirit will enhance your understanding and take you to even greater levels of gratitude.  Let love have a voice, and as you do you will see the awesome transforming power that love contains.  You will find the strength that you need to face all manner of trouble and you will find the hope that the world has drained from you.  You will, in the act of worship, experience the reality of Our world while in yours.

Here is another great truth beloved:  people become what they worship.  They take on the characteristics of what they admire.  They tend to emulate the words of those they respect and they mimic the actions of those they esteem.  In worship, the spirit is imprinting My likeness on itself thus being of utmost benefit.  A loving child is always trying to walk in the shoes of a father he adores.  He always sees himself in the light of his father’s eyes and tries always to impress him by exhibiting like actions before him.  His father does no wrong to him and there is absolute allegiance to the cause of making himself just like him.  This is worship in its truest form.

Man can learn praise from the mouth of babes if he is listening with an open ear.  Children do not make alternate plans in case their parents do not feed or clothe them.  No, rather, they put themselves in complete trust of their parent’s love and never question how that love is to be dispersed unto them.  It is only fallen man that has taken on the suspicious and untrusting ways of Lucifer himself that worried about his daily bread.  Lucifer did not trust My character but had more reason to than any other being in creation.  More was given to him than anyone and yet iniquity was found in his heart.

Here is a great truth beloved, that when embraced frees you from ever sharing in his torment.  Goodness received can produce thankfulness and contentment or it can generate greed and the selfish desire for more.  Lucifer was afraid when he heard the plan of man that somehow he was going to be shorted, that somehow what he wanted was not going to be forthcoming.  He did not trust Me to give him what was best for him.  He wanted to reserve that right for himself and in doing so, lost all.  Now in his incredible loss, he wants to punish Me and repeats this act through the hearts of man, over and over before Me.

So, beloved, you overcome him—every time you surrender your wants to the trust of My love.  Trust that I take all in to account and what I return to you is in fact what is best for you.  If you surrender your wants completely, then where can fear take you that you were not already willing to go?  If you are willing to let Me take the wheel and drive you to the destination that is best for you, then where can fear exist?  If all is surrendered and given to Me, then where is the sting of loss?  If conformity to the image of My Son is your only aspiration, then what will be denied you on the road to that destiny?  If your only focus is to receive as much of Me as you can, then won’t we have our greatest victory?  This is the victory that I long for, for all My creation.

Only a precious few will experience the fullness that awaited whosoever will.  I know you want more of the fullness! I am giving it to you. You one of My children bringing Me joy unspeakable and fullness of glory.  Thankfulness is both the garment you live in, and the garment you sleep in.  

Mistrust is so very exhausting beloved, just step out of it for a day and see if you do not feel lighter and have more energy.  The weight of the load of your wants is so very heavy and burdensome to carry.  Put them down, even if only for awhile and walk more in freedom.  I can truly be trusted with your whole heart.