Thanksgiving & Praise- strategies to His presence
This is definitely a topic that the the Lord has tapped on my heart about recently. I believe the topic of giving thanks and praising His name is so often overlooked. We are always asking for the Lord to do things, and even good things. Things that He wants us to ask Him. Spiritual renewal, revival, fire, more grace and so on… These are all great things, but lets take a look in the Word as to how we should approach His throne.
Psalm 100:4- “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name.
I have probably heard this verse 1000 times, but just this past week the Lord poured some new wine over it for me. I love when that happens! He gives the same old verse a completely different flavor. He really opened my eyes to the power of praise. The gate leads to the courts and the courts lead into the place we all long to be… The Holy Place, The Throne Room, His Presence!!! You first go through the gates with thanksgiving, then through the courts with praise, and then into His mighty presence.
Wow! I hate to use the word formula, but what a formula! Once we offer thanks and praise for what a wonderful God He is, we immediately have all access. What a gift! We really need to embrace this truth in our prayers and in our times of worship. The Lord has so clearly shown me that this is a must needed strategy in order to entertain His presence. It is time to start being intentional about approaching the Lord with a thankful heart. Heb.12:28 says this,”Therefore(Bill Johnson says that anytime a verse starts with therefore, there is a reason it is there for.) since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” First comes the thankful heart of worship, then comes the FIRE!
Hebrews 13:15 tells us to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. The fruit of lips that confess His name. This is a sacrifice that we can offer God. Did you ever view praise as a sacrifice? I didn’t. In Psalms, David said, ” Let my lifted hands be as the evening sacrifice….”. Sacrificing was not just for Moses and the gang. It is for us as well. What a privilege to be able to offer God a sacrifice still today. Again, you know what happens next when you put a sacrifice on the alter, FIRE! When is praise really a sacrifice? Just think when you are going through a hard time, or maybe a wilderness period. That is when I physically feel like my praise and thanks are a sacrifice, but do you know the power that has! This spring Julia and I went through a really hard time with Olive being really sick for weeks. I kid you not that I did not experience breakthrough until I came to the Lord with praise. That was truly a sacrifice of praise.
Just think about the 10 lepers that Jesus healed in Luke chapter 17. Jesus had compassion on all of them and healed them, but only one came back to thank Him. For that simple act of thankfulness He was saved. Sure the others received their earthly life back, only one was given eternal life. Only one was given immediate and eternal access to Jesus. The one who chose to give thanks. To him was granted a kingdom that cannot be shaken! The seed that never parishes, spoils or fades. If only the other nine would have just expressed the fruit of the lips that confess His name. That is what Hebrews 13 describes as praise. Let us not be counted among “the other nine”.
Lets look at Matt.6:9-13, The Lords Prayer. The opening line of Jesus’ model of prayer declares, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name….” Jesus starts His model of prayer-which we would be wise to heed- with words of adoration and an attitude of reverence and awe. This ties directly in with what it says in Heb.12:28 about being thankful and worshiping God with reverence and awe. I hope this is all clicking for you as it recently has for me. Praise, thanksgiving, and reverence are keys to unlocking His goodness, His protection, His provision, His power, His faithfulness, and most importantly, His Presence. I encourage everyone, if you are already not doing so, to start your prayer and worship times with praise from a grateful heart.
Don’t just take my word and research for it. Take a look at the words of David in the Psalms. Psalms is a complete book of praise. I can’t even begin to list all the verses that include praise. The word praise, or some form of it, is used over 275 times in the book of Psalms. Almost all of these words coming from the man titled, “a man after God’s own heart.” What a compliment! Not a bad header on the ol’ gravestone. A man after God’s own heart! I’d take that. So this must in fact mean that praise is the way to reach God’s heart. Sounds like a strategy I’d like to try, to reach a place I’d like to be. His heart.
If nothing else, just read Psalm chapter 150. It is only six verses. All of which start with the word “Praise.” It describes where to praise, what to praise for, and how and what to use to praise Him. The final verse says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Every creature on this earth was made to praise Jesus! The Word even tells us that if we don’t, the rocks will cry out in our place. Sounds like a direct order from the King. I sure don’t want to leave my God given duty up to a rock with no mouth. Praise is yet another weapon we have in our arsenal to wage war on the enemy.
In wrapping this all up, I will just tell you a practical way I have gone about to implementing this strategy for more of the presence of God. Just last week I sat down with one our leaders and told what the Lord had been laying on my heart. This revelation of praise and thanksgiving came just two days after we had sat down to talk about ways of increasing the Holy Spirit’s working in our ministry. I explained how I believe the Lord is wanting us to start every prayer meeting and corporate gathering with praise and adoration. Coming to him first, before any other agenda, expressing our gratitude. We put this into practice last friday night, and what happened you ask…….. We reached a level of worship that touched the heart of God! A new level of intimacy with our King. It was very evident among the group.
One report spoken to the group after worship came from an encounter that Julia had during that time. She got up and explained,(which she never does ;- ) ” When we were in worship, all at once it was like I was in heaven. I could feel the hugeness of it and I could hear but my eyes were closed. It was like a billion voices - all in sync - every octave, every tone, all in accord. It was unfathomable and overwhelmingly beautiful. It was full and pure. All of our voices here were in perfect sync. Heaven was turned to us and was worshiping with us!”
Hope you were blessed!
Jarod
