Worship, Praise, and Singing -The AR-15 of Spiritual Weapons – Purity 1391
Purity 1391 07/03/2024 Purity 1391 Podcast
Purity 1391 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a morning view of “the foothills of the Alps from Pilatus to Rigi” comes to us from Michael Grace who shared this scene on social media Sunday from his “room with a view” at the Seeblick HohenHotel in Emmetten, Switzerland as he and his son are currently off on a European tour vacation.
Well, It’s Wednesday and when I saw Mike’s photo on Sunday I had to save it to my phone because I knew that a view of the Alps could serve us well as a visual reminder that we have arrived at another “hump day” and as I awaken to what will be Day 3 of a spiritual revival the “hills are alive with the sound of music” as the Holy Spirit has reminded me that “worship is a weapon” that is directly related to being “filled with the Spirit”.
Ephesians 5:18-20 (NKJV) tells us
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
We have to remember that this is coming from Paul who had direct knowledge of what can happen when we go against the grain of what this world would tell us of how we are supposed to react to life’s circumstances and decide instead to raise our voices in song to praise and thank the Lord.
Acts 16:25-26 (NKJV) tells us
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.
I know praying and singing and then an earthquake comes, coincidence right? I don’t think so! Paul testifies tells us to be filled with the Spirit through singing because He remembers a time when all seemed lost and in spite of the gloomy circumstances, decided to praise the Lord and God literally set him free from his chains. Are you serious? Yeah.
The world also tells us in
James 4:7-10 (NKJV) to
7 … submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Here James is telling us that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. Of course, He is talking about repentance here so we shouldn’t be surprised to lament or mourn over the recognition of our double-mindedness and our going astray. But He assures us that if we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, He will lift us up and that my friends, my brothers and sisters is a reason to PRAISE THE LORD – Oh my Soul!
After compromising and being double-minded with the discipline over my flesh in June, I have repented in July because I believed the lie that I, to quote a wobbly double-minded recovery friend of mine, “could have it all”. His “having it all” was having a nice Christian family AND having a lifestyle of regular drunkenness. My “having it all” was being able to have good physical health AND having regular bouts of binge eating! Both of us are wrong! Our ideas of what could peacefully coexist together are contradictory. We are trying to mix truth and error. We are trying to mix darkness and light! This is the definition of doublemindedness! We can’t have it both ways. We can’t have it all!
But we can have what is good – but we must choose it and in order to actually accomplish it we need to draw close to God, submit to Him, resist the world, the flesh, and the devil, and seek to live within the Holy Spirit’s power and that is where worship, praise, or singing hymns to God comes in.
A few years ago I walked through some very dark days as I tried to forge a new life in Christ and had to overcome an addiction to alcohol, suffer through a nasty divorce, and then pursue sexual purity within the space of a couple of years. The times-they-were a-changing for sure and I now can recall that a big part of my walk through the valley of the shadow of death was spent in calling out and singing to the Lord. I spent nearly every morning commute singing, praying, and praising the Lord and I continually experienced the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in my life – receiving strength, hope, peace, and not for nothing a prophetic word or two that had me ready to accept the position of “prophet”. But my discernment needed some work, and I couldn’t really see around the next corner like I thought I could so, we have backed away from any claims to the office of Elijah and company.
In those dark yet glorious days, the Lord was faithful and true, and His grace set me free and blessed me in more than one way. But due to my disappointment over not being able to predict the future, coupled with my successful transition to a new life and my desire not to go “too far off the deep end”, what was my regular practice of heightened praise and worship dissipated from every day to once a week or once in a blue moon as praise at my new church is tempered by a lot of “nonparticipants”, if you know what I mean. Let’s face it some Christians have no idea about the power of worship and singing praises to the Lord.
And rather than staying on fire for the Lord, I like the proverbial frog in a pot, got cooled off by the relatively lukewarm enthusiasm that my seeker-friendly church brings to the table. But I’m not here to criticize my church’s polished studio-quality worship, it is good, and I can praise there – I just close my eyes as I sing and raise my hands to ignore the hands at sides masses around me. But what I am criticizing is me for forgetting the weapon of worship that I have in my arsenal that I have left on the shelf.
The Holy Spirit reminded me of this yesterday as I was moved to worship on the way to work and was brought to heights of joy in the presence of the Lord. There is no power in being sensible and not wanting to cause a stir. Don’t tell me to calm down. Revelation 3:16 tells us how the Lord feels about our lukewarm faith. It makes Him want to vomit – His words not mine. So in this new season of repentance and revival I am going to kick the tires and light the fires of worship and praise in my life.
Yesterday, after work I mowed my lawn while listening to my “Worship 5” playlist and the Spirit was upon me as I sang at the top of my lungs, with all of my heart, singing of the Lord’s goodness. I guess you could I have got my groove back and brother I don’t ever want to cool off again. “Who am I to deny what the Lord can do?” The world, my success, and perhaps the lukewarm faith of those around me gradually caused me to be content with less than what the Lord has for me. Even though I have accomplished much, I got to a point where I thought the Lord’s command to “rest” was a command to more or less stop and my indulgences in the flesh only increased.
I see now that I needed to rest, and perhaps to fall down, so get back up and to be restored to life again. I’m awake now and my success, my weakness, or others around me are not going to cause me to deny what the Lord can do.
So, what about you? Feeling listless in this summer heat or the lukewarmness of a faith that has cooled off. Well, let me encourage you to break out the “AR-15” of spiritual weapons at your disposal and sing to the Lord Our God and to praise with enthusiasm to be strengthen and to be filled with the Spirit!
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Example (Good or Bad).
Matthew 18:6 (NASB)
6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Today’s verse is the second of three passages of scripture that fall under the fifth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Example (Good or Bad).
5. Jesus warns us never to set a bad example and cause others to sin.
Today’s verse is Jesus’ warning to not lead others into temptation. A false belief that God winks at sin could be proof of a degenerate, rebellious, and wicked heart. You can say the name of Jesus and say you are forgiven but if you are dead to the idea of repentance and assure people to continue in activities that the word of God calls sin, you should really wonder if you are in the kingdom at all. Believe me I know about cheap grace or “sloppy agape” – that’s what I believed when I came into the kingdom but as I walked with the Lord, I understood His command to “sin no more” was to be taken seriously. So I know we aren’t perfect and will all struggle with sin (to do what is right and to not do it is sin after all) but we should also understand that we are called to be sanctified and part of our walk should reflect our desire to be free of darkness. So rather than encourage your friends in low places, invite them to rise us to God’s call on their lives to be holy as He is holy.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own private study and to support his work. This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.
EVENING READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 1
“You also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks
may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift
granted to us through many.” – 2 Corinthians 1:11
This verse shows a little of what real intercessory prayer can do. Paul speaks of their prayer on his behalf. Here were believers who realized their responsibility in prayer. Moreover, such a responsibility and the meeting of it brought remarkable results. Notice, “the gift granted to us through many.” As a result of intercessory prayer, the apostle, with his colleagues, experienced the endowment of a real gift. The gift was such that in holiness, sincerity, and grace, God used them mightily in the church at Corinth.
O, to never neglect to intercede for
others in my daily prayers![1]
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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