3 Results of Your Worship: God Still Clothes the Lilies, Lesson 9 (Part Two)- Shades of Grace | Natalie Nichols
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Apr 29th 14 Posted by Natalie Nichols in Overcoming Adversity

3 Results of Your Worship: God Still Clothes the Lilies, Lesson 9 (Part Two)

3 Results of Your Worship

Are you dealing with an overwhelming problem? Or facing an uncertain future? You may not feel like worshiping God, but it will make a big difference if you do!

Part One of this lesson emphasized the necessity of offering God a sacrifice of praise. I don’t know about you, but I needed this encouragement. My attitude of gratitude and posture of praise too often become captives of my circumstances. And it should not be this way!

Worship Your Way Through

This is a tweet from friend and guest-blogger Angela Morgan. Her counsel is correct!

Whatever you’re facing—no matter how painful, how sorrowful, how difficult—worship your way through it!

In his suffering, what did Job do? He bowed in worship!

He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying … The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Praise the name of Yahweh. (Job 1:20-21, HCSB)

Why should you worship in your trial? For the following three reasons:

Worship Changes Your Focus

Worshiping your way through sets your gaze on God. It helps you focus on Him rather than your problems. (In the last post we saw that when we focus on our problems, we minimize God’s power and greatness. Focusing on our problems is essentially confessing that our problems our bigger than we are and even bigger than God.)

When we finally get our eyes off of our Goliaths and onto our God we realize our Goliath is a puny, powerless speck compared to Jehovah. Once we finally see things as they really are, with eternal vision, we wonder how we could have ever given our Goliath so much credit.

You and I can either be like the fearful soldiers who were looking at Goliath, virtually convinced of impending doom … or we can be like David who was looking at his God, confident in His keeping power and greatness. Which one of these invited God into the situation to bring victory? The fighting men focused on the problem—or the shepherd boy gazing at his God? Which are you right now?

Worship Breaks Spiritual Oppression

When we offer a sacrifice of praise to God in the midst of our problems, things happen in the spiritual realm. God inhabits the praises of his people. As we praise Him, powers of darkness are defeated. Oppression and bondage break off of us.

In the Bible, we are never told to flee from the devil. He is the one we’re told will flee. We’re instructed to submit to God and resist the devil:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

One way we can do this is through worship!

Worshiping God is a form of surrender. As we worship Him, we begin to see the true estimate of ourselves in the light of His glory. It’s impossible to worship God and not acknowledge that we’re utterly dependent on Him. When we worship Him with a right heart, we place everything we are and have on the altar—withholding nothing. True worship requires an attitude of submission to God. And in submitting to Him, we resist the devil.

In the Old Testament, King Saul was tormented by an evil spirit. So David (a worshipper) was brought in to play the harp before him. As David played the harp, he worshiped God and the evil spirit left Saul.

As we put on the garment of praise, we’re delivered from the spirit of heaviness.

Worship Demonstrates Your Faith

As we shift our focus to God and extol His greatness, fear and unbelief are replaced with faith and confidence in our miracle-working, promise-keeping God. And as we know, God moves in response to our faith. In the Bible He never moved on someone’s behalf and then asked them to believe. God expects belief and a response of faith first—before any evidence exists in the natural realm.

Andrew Murray writes,

When Jesus spoke the words, “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matt. 9:29), He announced the law of the kingdom…. If we want to know where and how our faith is to grow, the Master points us to the throne of God. It is in prayer, exercising one’s faith in fellowship with the living God, that faith can increase. Faith can only live by feeding on what is divine, on God Himself. ~ Andrew Murray, [i]

One way we feed on God and fellowship with Him is through worship.

Sometimes we don’t feel any motivation to praise God. That’s why it’s a sacrifice—a volitional act, not an emotional one.

Sometimes praising God is simply a choice of our will. But once we make the choice to praise, it doesn’t take long before things change. Once we get our eyes on God and our hearts set on things above, faith wells up within us—and God’s power is released.

We may not have seen anything change in the natural realm, but we know something is different. We felt the ground shake in the spiritual realm—which means prison doors are about to fling open wide as they did for Paul and Silas. A breakthrough is about to happen! What we felt in the spiritual realm is about to be made reality in the natural realm.

This is how it happened for Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah.

Example: Jehoshaphat & Judah

When the armies of Ammon and Moab were invading Judah, Jehoshaphat called a corporate fast. There was no way Judah could have successfully defended herself. They were sunk if God did not come through! Jehoshaphat told the Lord, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (2 Chronicles 20:12).

God raised up a prophet who spoke the word of the Lord: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s…You will not have to fight this battle…stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you (2 Chronicles 20:15-17).

Jehoshaphat took God at His word. He sent singers out in front of the army, praising God as if their victory had already been won. Scripture says:

“As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated” (v. 22, emphasis added).

Did you catch that? The victory didn’t occur when they drew swords and confronted the enemy in battle. No! God gave them the victory as they began to sing and praise Him! They didn’t even have to fight. Verse 24 says:

When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped. (v. 24)

They not only won the battle without fighting or suffering injury or loss, they gained plunder—so much plunder it took them three days to carry it all off!

So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value—more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it. (v. 25, emphasis added)

That’s how God responds when we demonstrate our faith in Him through worship!

So Worship Him Today!

“Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy….
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.”
Psalm 100:2, 4 (NLT) {Tweet}

“Then I will praise God’s name with singing,
and I will honor him with thanksgiving.”
Psalm 69:30 (NLT) {Tweet}

“Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.”
Psalm 30:4 (ESV) {Tweet}

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.”
Psalm 29:2 (ESV) {Tweet}

“Bring your offering and come into his presence.
Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor.”
1 Chronicles 16: 29 (NLT) {Tweet}

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TweetablesMore Tweetables

  • Whatever you’re facing—no matter how painful, how sorrowful, how difficult—worship your way through it! Click to tweet Tweet
  • Are you facing an overwhelming problem? Worshiping God will make a difference in these 3 ways:  http://bit.ly/1lvVWCy Click to tweet Tweet
  • As we put on the garment of praise, we’re delivered from the spirit of heaviness. Click to tweet Tweet
  • “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” — James 4:7 Click to tweet Tweet
  • God moves in response to our faith. In the Bible, He never moved on someone’s behalf and then asked them to believe. Click to tweet Tweet
  • “When Jesus spoke the words, ‘According to your faith be it unto you,’ He announced the law of the kingdom….It is in prayer, exercising one’s faith in fellowship with the living God, that faith can increase.” — Andrew Murray Click to tweet Tweet
  • “It is in prayer, exercising one’s faith in fellowship with the living God, that faith can increase. Faith can only live by feeding on what is divine, on God Himself.” — Andrew Murray Click to tweet Tweet
  • Aren’t motivated to praise God? Praise Him as a sacrifice—a volitional act, not an emotional one. Click to tweet Tweet
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Questions:

  • How are you worshiping your way through your problems today?
  • In what specific ways have you experienced these three results of worship?

OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES

 

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Andrew Murray, Andrew Murray on Prayer (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1998), 372


 

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, Shades of Grace will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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