the praise of our lips...

Life is amazing. Well actually He is amazing, which makes life amazing. I've had to really bring myself back to that this week, due to some events that really tried to shake my focus and reliability on Him. I tend to overanalyse things and every second I spend doing it is a second not focusing and trusting on the Lord. But praise the Lord He is faithful and He reminded me that He knows what He's doing and doesn't need my advice! But this week has been good. Monday night Bible studies were rockin as usual. The Lord has been so faithful with those. Then we had Harvest Hoedown on Tuesday night which was a lot of fun.
(this is long but worth it)
I try not to post until the Lord places something in my spirit to get out, because I tend to just throw out a lot of idle words. He has been stirring something in me this morning and I'm going to attempt to get it out. I pray it comes out with the magnitude that is felt in my spirit.
Why are we supposed to praise the Lord at all times? To rejoice in the Lord always? I love worship music, playing worship music, leading worship, etc... anything to do with worship, but the Lord has been dealing with me about some aspects of worship lately. I think we need to reassess our worship. I know I've needed to. I don't think I sang but half of a song at encounter last week because it wasn't coming from my spirit ("they shall worship Me in Spirit and in Truth"). Instead I spent the time just in meditation and praying in the spirit. I have said before that I feel in my spirit a move of God about to take place. I believe it is going to be ushered in by a new level of worship.
"In Spirit and in Truth"- Prepositions are very interesting in the Bible. This "IN the Spirit" is a nugget in itself. The "in" is denoting a place, just like i am IN my house right now and later I will be IN class. There is a place from which we pray, a place from which we worship and that is IN the Spirit. The simplest definition that I've heard about being "in the Spirit" is "being more conscious of spiritual things than natural things." Oh and what a place it is. What a place of sweet saturation. There are answers there. There is direction there. It's as though your spirit is plugged directly into the Spirit of God and you are being charged. This is where prayer needs to come from (Ephesians 6:18). This is where worship needs to come from. I can't count how many times I have sung or have even led worship without doing anything more than reciting words from memory. But praise the Lord for Grace! Thank God He puts up with our weaknesses! But there is a point, if we want to move on to maturity as Paul talks about, that we have to grow in these things. We have to press on in our worship...
And why do we praise anyways? Well for one we praise because that's what we were made to do. We were made to bring glory to God. We praise to magnify God and to make much of Him. But there is also a bi-product of praise that we need. We praise God so that He becomes more exalted and more magnified in our minds than the problems and circumstances we face. So when we praise, especially in trials and tribulation (Romans 5:3), we are saying God You are bigger! So as we praise, He is magnified and we are encouraged as well because making much of Him is saying "God You are so big that there is nothing You can't do in my life!"
Praise is also an activation of our faith. According to Mark 11:23-24, "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." Now assuming that we pray according to God's Word (which the "whatever things you ask" is contained in... and you have to be led by the Spirit in what you pray for), when we pray and believe we receive we will have. No if and or buts about it! So what is left to do after that? PRAISE! Praise God that you have the answer! You have what you've prayed for! "But I don't see it..."- We don't praise because we see it with our natural eyes; we praise because we see it with our spiritual eyes!!! It already exists even if we can't see it yet!!
Well thanks for reading this far. I didn't intend for it to be this long, but praise the Lord! It's all good!
Oh and p.s. I'm looking for a Georgia ticket if anybody has one! (334)398-1345... thanks!