Possessing the Land through Praise

A Mandate to Praise:

The Lord has given us a specific mandate. II Chronicles 20. Your valley will be called the Valley of Beracah, the place where victory is won through praise. As seen in II Chronicles 20, when the people praised the Lord the enemy was annihilated. The people of God were then able to plunder the enemies' camp and receive all the blessings of the Lord. It is our hearts desire to praise the Lord in the many different ways He talks about in the bible. All of our praise must come from lives that are holy and acceptable to the Lord. As we praise the Lord, our God will arise, and His enemies will be scattered. He will give us our inheritance, which presently is in the enemies’ camp. So we encourage you to learn what it means to worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth. Then stand back and watch as He comes to receive your praise, destroy the enemy, and give you your inheritance in Him.

The Warfare of Worship:

Exodus 17:11-14 Israel was at war with Amalek. As long as Moses lifted up his hands, Israel would win in the battle. However, if Moses dropped his hand, then Amalek would begin to win the war. Clearly, in the natural, Moses’ hands being lifted or let down had nothing to do with winning a military victory. Yet, in the supernatural or invisible realm where the real battle is being fought, it became the deciding factor.

What God is trying to teach us is that the real battle is in an unseen dimension (Ephesians 6:12). Our weapons must be effective in this unseen or invisible realm (2 Corinthians 10:4). It was not by accident that Israel won the battle when Moses lifted up his hands. This principle is given New Testament application in 1 Tim. 2:8 when Paul talked about lifting up holy hands. If our primary battle is in the invisible realm, then our warfare must be waged in this dimension. When Moses lifted up his hands, he modeled a warfare whose reliance is on God's weapons and not man's. In a very real sense, Moses lifting up his hands represents the warfare of worship and praise when God’s people begin to magnify the Lord. God is saying to us that we will win the warfare and see our enemies defeated when we lift up holy hands in the warfare of worship and praise. The enemy cannot stand the praises of God's people. He is driven back when we learn to move boldly in a position of praise before our God.

For more information, see:
(http://www.shilohgateway.com/worship.html)