Praise Through

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When I posted "Shake it Off", I too was trying to shake off some words and dark thought patterns that were clinging. I knew praise was a powerful antidote for "vipers", but the application was still hard. An hour after posting, I picked up a book by Bill Johnson that was languishing beside my bed. This is what I read...

 

 

"Our troubling circumstance may last days, months, or years, instead of just an hour or two, but our approach should be the same: We must declare the goodness and faithfulness of God even in the midst of our trial, before we have an answer.

 

Why do we have to endure uncertainty? This is a mystery, but the Bible hints at an answer when it gives a spiritual picture of a city called the community of the redeemed, or Zion (see Is 62). Isaiah 60:18 says, "But you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise." In Revelation we see this gate called praise again and discover that is made out of one solid pearl (see Rev 21:21). Think for a moment. How is a pearl formed?

Through irritation and conflict.  A granule of sand gets inside an oyster shell, and a pearl forms around the granule to keep it from doing harm.  The Bible's pairing of praise with irritation is not coincidental. When we are stuck in conflict and uncertainty, and yet we praise Him without manipulation, it is a sacrifice. It means we are reacting in a way that produces something beautiful. In that moment a gate is formed, a place of entrance where the King of glory can invade our situation.

 Many people have no gate because they won't praise Him in the middle of apparent paradox. They get stuck wondering, "How can God promise to heal all of my diseases but I've got this problem in my body?" "How can God promise to provide, and yet I've been without a job for three months?" And yet Psalm 87:2 says, "The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." That gate - that place of praise in the midst of conflict - it where His presence rests, where the King Himself dwells. The gate is formed when we move above human explanation into a place of trust." [quoted from "The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind" by Bill Johnson, p122-123]

 

The two images he used - the gate and the pearl resonated. Coating the irritation, the issue in a layer of praise made sense. Praise is a declaration of trust in God regardless. It is also an act of faith. Praise opens the way for God's presence to come and invade the situation.  Either the circumstance will change, or more importantly, you will change in the circumstance. 

 

I began to praise!  I put the truth into practice. Not just once, not twice but for an extended period of time. Sometimes to shake off the vipers or to see the breakthrough we have been seeking, one has to PRAISE THROUGH!  Praise and declare God's goodness until, that gate is formed, and God's presence invades.

 

May I encourage you to ‘Praise Through’ and open a gate between heaven and earth in your life.




PS: I am also thinking that I just may have a great string of pearls in heaven!!! 😄



 


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