Annie led group in worship (group entered into a lengthy time of worship)…
♪ Honor and power to our God… the Lord our God is mighty… the Lord our God is omnipotent… He is wonderful… hallelujah… ♪
Pastor Ray shared…
This time of worship is a demonstration of Psalm 8:2, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.” It’s a demonstration of how praise and worship… let’s not put it in a box. It’s not just how we think of praise. It’s lifting Him up… the way it says it in the Amplified is “Out of the mouths of babes and unweaned infants You have established strength because of Your foes, that You might silence the enemy and the avenger.” It’s not just little babies. We’re His children. Children of the King. I looked up a couple other translations of that verse. The Passion says, “You have built a stronghold by the songs of babies. Strength rises up with the chorus of singing children. This kind of praise has the power to shut Satan’s mouth.
Childlike worship will silence the madness of those who oppose you.” Whoa!
I like what Mark Hankins said when he was here a couple weeks ago. “When we are lifting Him up in whatever way we are, He’s working at your house.” I love that! What I like is the more we lift Him up and magnify Him like this, I can’t even think of any problems. We just get into Him and all of our personal circumstances go away. We take our seat up in the heavenly places in Him. Go ahead, Annie, let’s do that a little bit more.
Annie continued to lead group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
When we worship like this, the NIV version says we silence the foe and the avenger. We establish a stronghold against our enemies. The Message says songs that drown out enemy talk and silence atheist babble. So interesting. I looked up the word “strength,” just what does that mean in the concordance. Force. Security. Majesty. Praise. Boldness. Loud. We don’t always have to be quiet. Ha, ha. And we don’t always have to be loud, of course. Might. Power. Strength and strong.
I believe you all would agree that the power of God is released on our behalf because of our praise. It stills the enemy. It shuts him down. Still or silence means to cause or make to cease or leave. That’s my favorite. “You’re out of here.” Praise causes the enemy to desist in his maneuvers against us. It releases His strength and power to be brought on our behalf. So when we praise Him, like we’ve been doing, worship Him, honor Him, magnify Him, it gets our minds off our own problems and we focus on Him instead. But our minds are stayed. When they are stayed and fixed on Him, the battle becomes the Lord’s. He’s the one that wins the battle. He already won the battle through Jesus. That was finished at Calvary and it’s up to us to stand in that victory, declaring that it’s true. The enemy tries to work it the other way. Still our voices and get us to sit down, get us to whine. Thank You, Lord.
What are some of the biggest things that we could lift up and pray about? It could be our nation. The whole earth. It could be the 10/40 window. We did that a few weeks ago with Pastor Lynne. Lifting up those that have never heard. It could be our own family situations, our churches, finances, wholeness, health. Whatever it is, when we stay fixed upon Him, looking to heaven and taking our seat with Him, doing what we’ve been called to do… this morning we’re lifting Him up… when we do like I just said, He is working. He’s working in our houses. He’s working in our businesses. He’s working in our churches. He’s working in our nation. He’s working in the White House. He’s working in our states. Minnesota. God is working in you, just in case you needed to know it. The power of the Holy Spirit is working in the state of Minnesota! We don’t know all the different ramifications and we don’t know how to pray as we ought. So thank You, Father, that You baptized us with Your Holy Spirit and gave us words to speak in prayer. The Lord uses our voices, our words. When we speak, I believe we open the door to receive more of what He’s already done.
Annie, let’s sing in tongues…
Pastor Ray interjected…
Remember when the worshipers in the Old Testament got out in front of the army of Israel?
Group resumed worshiping…
Pastor Ray…
I like what David said in Psalm 9, “I will praise you. I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth, recount and tell all Your marvelous works and wonderful deeds. I will rejoice in you and be in high spirits. I will sing praise to Your name O Most High. When my enemies turn back, the stumbled and perished before You. For You maintained my cause. You sat on the throne judging righteously. You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their names forever and ever. The enemy has been cut off. They vanished in everlasting ruin. But the Lord shall remain and continue forever. He has prepared and established His throne for judgment. I will praise You, Lord, with my whole heart. With all my being. My thoughts. My steps. I will show forth. We recount and tell all Your marvelous works and wonderful deeds. We rejoice in You and be in high spirits.
Is anybody down?
We will praise You, Lord, and lift You up and magnify Your name! And lift ourselves up and be in high spirits and rejoice. Oooo! Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord.
Annie, let’s sing that first song again.
Annie led group in worship…
Pastor Ray…
Psalm 16:5 says, “The Lord is my chosen and assigned portion, my cup; You hold and maintain my lot. 6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good heritage. 7 I will bless the Lord, Who has given me counsel; yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons. 8 I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
We’re moved by Him but we’re not moved by the enemy or his ways or his words.
“Therefore my heart is glad…”
I don’t think we can say hallelujah enough.
“Therefore my heart is glad and my glory [my inner self] rejoices; my body too shall rest and confidently dwell in safety,
10 For You will not abandon me to Sheol (the place of the dead), neither will You suffer Your holy one [Holy One] to see corruption. 11 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”
I want to do something before we go. Please stand up. Annie, would you sing “God Bless America”? I want to magnify His name all over America.
Annie led group in singing “God Bless America”…
