|
It doesn’t matter what you do or who you are or where you are, when the pressure is on, you can praise God. That praise will stop the pressure. You’ll have rest and peace. You’ll feel the Spirit of God stirred up and moving in your life. Praise makes things start happening!
Listen, the God of heaven is not going to hear His child singing His praises and do nothing. He’s going to respond. Act. Do something! He is stirred up in His Spirit to respond to your praise. That pressure cannot take away your peace or your blessing. That’s because you’re praising the One who gives you peace and blessing.
Now think of that. Pressure will try to take away from you what is yours that’s good. However when you praise the One who gives you what’s good, He will release it. He will fight against the force that’s on you. Those demands or difficulties or stress or strain are no match for God from whom all blessings flow!
Here’s what a man did when he was facing unbelievable pressure from his enemies. His name is Jehoshaphat. He is King of Judah at the time. One day he woke up and was given a message from his people that three kings had come against him. They had encamped their armies just outside the city and were gearing up to war against Judah and take over. The pressure is on.
As the King, the demand is on him to come up with a way to save his people. So what would he do? When the pressure is on, praise. That’s what Jehoshaphat did. He got together his people and then appointed singers to sing to God and “praise Him as they went out before the army.” (Ref. II Chronicles 20:21.)
So the first thing he’s done is get together his army, which is a practical thing to do. Have an army to go out against the enemy. But he did not leave God out of it. He didn’t rely on his own resources. He sent the singers out BEFORE the army and they were praising God.
He understood what the most important part of this battle was going to be. Praise. Not the ability of his army or the resources or the weapons but praising God. When we do that, when we don’t rely on our own abilities or resources but we know praising God is the most important thing we can do, He’s going to be stirred up to respond to our praise.
That’s what He did for Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah. As they began to sing those praises and it went out over the spiritual airwaves, the enemy could not withstand the pressure.
You see, when the pressure is coming against you, you can send the pressure against those conditions and problems by praise. Don’t allow it to push against you and strain you and stress you. Start sending pressure at what’s coming at you.
That’s what these people did as they began to sing the praises of God. Those beautiful words of praise were going out over spiritual airwaves and with it was going God’s power. As soon as He heard praise to Him, He set ambushes against the armies of the kings who had come against Judah.
Then the Bible describes this amazing scene of how the enemy armies began to suspect they were being betrayed by their fellow soldier and so they fought against each other and outright destroyed one another. Wow, what an ending to the story. The very enemy that was going to wipe them out, destroyed each other when the pressure was put on them.
Oh I tell you, when God puts the pressure on the enemies, they get confused. They start doing things against themselves. That’s what’s going to happen as you send out praise to God. Divine pressure will go against the enemy because of your praise. He will destroy his own efforts.
Not just that but the people of Judah rushed out into the field after the armies had destroyed one another and found all kinds of livestock and goods and garments and precious things. It took them several days to gather up all the spoil and take it home.
Get ready to get the spoil after the enemy is destroyed. You’re going to enter into the blessings and reward because you praise God when the pressure is on. So when you’re facing some pressure, apply divine pressure against it through praise!
Spiritual Powerline to say out loud:
“I PRAISE GOD FOR MY VICTORY!”
Here is a powerful prayer to say out loud:
Father, right now I praise You! As my praises go forth, I’m applying the pressure against this challenge from the enemy. Nothing is able to withstand Your power. Power is being released now as I praise. So I will come out victorious. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
|