Starting your day with god!

Today’s scripture    

August 3, 2023

            

Psalm 8:2 – “Out of the mouths of babes and infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, multitudes of people went out to meet Him, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9) They acknowledged Him as the Messiah, giving Him praise and honor.

He then went into the temple of God and drove out those who sold sacrifices and the moneychangers, declaring that, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”  The blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them there.

As usual, when the power of God is displayed, the religious leaders get all upset; especially when there is spontaneous praise. Jesus quoted Psalm 8:2, but with a little different wording. “Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise.” (Matthew 21:16) 

 Perfected praise is God’s ordained strength 

There is a powerful dynamic that happens when believers lift their praises to God. When we praise the Lord, we bless and magnify Him and actually release His awesome power to defeat the enemy. When the little army of Judah began to sing and to praise, God wiped out that great army that came against them.

“So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” 

And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the LORD!  For His mercy endures forever.”

Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.”   (2 Chronicles 20:20-22)

 The Lord has millions of mighty angels who outnumber the devil’s fallen angels two to one, but until we start praising the Lord, they can’t engage in the battle to defeat the enemy. They are basically unemployed until we lift up our voices in praise and thanksgiving to God.

 

“Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.” (Psalms 103:20)

 

When we declare God’s Word, proclaiming what He has spoken to us, the angels of God move into action because we, on the earth, are the voice of His word. If we declare the same thing that God has said, supernatural activity takes place in the heavenlies.

When Jehoshaphat’s little praise band starting singing praises to God, all heaven broke loose and hell was defeated. Unseen by the natural eye, God’s mighty angelic strike force demolished satan’s fallen angels, and the army of Ammon, Moab, and Mt Seir self-destructed. 

The army of Judah simply believed the prophetic word and acted in obedience to that word. When and only when, they began to sing and to praise, did the mighty angels of God enforce what the Lord had declared.

“With the high praises of God in our mouth and a two-edged sword in our hand, we can execute judgment upon the nations…and bind their kings with chains…and execute on them the written judgment.” (Psalms 149:6-9) 

What is that written judgment? Satan and all the powers of darkness have been defeated when Jesus was crucified and rose again.

Jesus has given us authority to enforce His victory, to destroy the works of the devil and set the captives free. The Word of God is our sword and the high praises of God in our mouths, release the awesome power of God.

When He sent out the seventy disciples to go before Him into the surrounding cities, they returned full of praises: “Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”

 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”  

 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All[ things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” 

Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see;  for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.”  Luke 10:19-24)

 God has chosen us and formed us for Himself; that we would declare His praise. (Isaiah 43:21) “We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that we would proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

The next time the devil tries to browbeat you, start praising God and shut his mouth, wide open…and then put your foot in it!

MARRIAGE INFO

A little boy was attending his first wedding. After the service, his cousin asked him, “How many women can a man marry?”

“Sixteen,” the boy responded.

His cousin was amazed that he knew the answer so quickly. “How did you know that?”

“Easy,” the little boy said. “All you have to do is add it up, like the preacher said: ‘Four better, four worse, four richer, four poorer’.”

(more coming soon!)

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