After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying:
“Give thanks to the Lord
for his love endures forever.”
2 Chronicles 20:21I love this story in Chronicles, where the Israelites are so confident that God will fight for them that they decide to send the choir out to the front line. This is some serious faith. On their own, the Israelites know that they cannot defeat the armies amassed to drive them out of their land, the land of Israel. However God is indeed faithful and rescues the Israelites by defeating the armies, just as He told His people that He would.
Recently I've heard a couple people bring up how they've been thinking about the worshippers of the Old Testament being on the front lines of battle. As a team that assists and leads in praise & worship, we play a role in engaging the darkness that is so prevalent in the world—for praise rallies heaven. It breaks people free of chains, symbolically and physically. Praise is spiritual intersession for governments. It lifts oppressed and hurting people. Most of us may not face any physical armies in our lives, but the apostle, Paul, articulates well what we are facing:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesian’s 6:12
Spiritual warfare, and we are taking it head on.
I have personally experienced God’s interceding power in the context of praise & worship: from being freed of bitterness, to experiencing indescribable peace in trying circumstances.
Consider this passage from the book of Acts—a passage in which God uses a mighty act of power to bring salvation to many:
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.
Acts 16:25-26
This stirs inside my soul. People are listening, and they witness God’s power through our expression. Let’s not hold back, but let His praise be glorious.
I woke up this morning thinking "I wonder what's on the creative teams blogspot?" Kind of random, but I came across this post and it spoke so much to me! Some of us are facing some pretty big struggles, some of us are struggling a little, but either way the enemy tries to take away our worship, we get caught up in the middle of spiritual warfare, and begin to feel ineffective and unequipped to shine Jesus's light. I recently haven't felt like worshipping and told Jesus that, "I'm sorry, but I'm so tired from fill in the blanks" He gets it. He still wants me to worship. He will get me through the valley of the shadow of death all the while singing songs! :) Here is a quote by Kari Jobe which I loved and takes this subject home: "in the middle of incredible pain and big questions, I think the number one thing the enemy wants to do is steal our worship, because worship releases our soul."
ReplyDelete