|
Corporate
Worship
(Scripture
Readings from the Amplified Version)
Psalm 150 verses
1 and 6
Praise the Lord! Praise Him in His sanctuary;
praise Him in the heavens of His power! Let everything
that has breath and every breath of life praise the
Lord! (Hallelujah!) Psalm 100 verses 1 and 2
Make a
joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord
with gladness! Come before His presence with singing!
We are all commanded of God to praise Him. He
says we are to praise Him in His sanctuary, or in our
churches. Hebrews 13 verse 5 tells us that we are to
continually offer praise to God, giving thanks to His
name. Psalm 100 verse 4 and Psalm 112 verse 1 tells us
to come to church with a thankful heart, come with a
glad heart, come with a joyful, rejoicing heart. Enter
His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts and enter His
courts with praise. We are not to come to church
grumbling and complaining, gossiping and backbiting. We
need to come to church with a heart that is prepared and
ready for worship. We shouldn’t be complaining about how
sister so and so is wearing a skirt that is too short,
or how brother so and so is wearing a tie that doesn’t
match his suit. We don’t need to be complaining about
the music being too loud or the sanctuary being too
cold. We need to get our eyes off of our surroundings
and focus our hearts on The Lord Jesus, The Savior, the
Healer, the Deliverer, Majesty on High, Lord of Lords
and King of Kings. Begin to thank Him for all that He
has done in your life. When we turn our focus on Him
everything around us will seem trivial and eventually
will fade away from our consciousness because we are
exalting Him above everything else.
Lord, God we want to be known as people of
praise. We want you to be glorified in our lives. We
want to worship you in spirit and in truth. We want to
enter into our times of worship with thanksgiving in our
hearts. We want to come to church with praises on our
lips. Lord, we repent of our sin of not giving you the
glory and the honor you deserve. We love you with all of
our heart. In Jesus Name. Amen.
<Encouraging Words |
Praise Brings
Victory
(Scripture readings from the Amplified
Version)
Acts 2 verse 1
And when the day of
Pentecost had fully come, they were all assembled
together in one place, when suddenly there came a sound
from heaven like the rushing of a violent tempest blast,
and it filled the whole house in which they were
sitting.
Acts 16 verses 25 and 26
But about
midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns of praise to God, and the other prisoners were
listening to them, suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the very foundations of the prison
were shaken; and at once all the doors were opened and
everyone’s shackles were unfastened.
Glorious things will happen when we begin to
worship God in one accord. (One accord means with one
mind or with one passion) In Acts 2, on the day of
Pentecost they were all in one accord, they were all of
one mind or one passion and SUDDENLY there came a sound
from heaven. In Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were in
prison they sang praises to God. They were in one accord
and SUDDENLY there was a great earthquake and all the
doors were opened and everyone’s bands were loosed. We
can be worshipping in one accord, in one mind, in one
passion and SUDDENLY God’s glory can fall among us like
never before. We can shake off those things that had us
bound. We can be healed and delivered. We can be set
free from the attacks of the enemy. If we begin to
worship in one accord then we enable the glory of God to
be manifested in our mist like we’ve never seen or known
before.
Lord, God we want to worship you in one accord.
Help us to become passionate worshippers. In Jesus Name.
Amen.
<Encouraging Words |
Fear
Not!
(Scripture reading from the
King James Version)
2Timothy 7 verse 1
For God
has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and
of love, and of a sound mind.
If God has not given us the spirit
of fear, then where does fear come from? We need to go
back to the book of Genesis to find out how fear entered
mankind. In Genesis the 3rd chapter, God told Adam and
Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Satan came into the garden as a serpent and talked
Eve into eating of the very fruit God commanded her not
to eat. She then in turn convinced Adam to eat of the
fruit. When God came through the garden later that day
he called out to Adam asking where are you? Adam
answered God saying, “I was afraid”. Fear came into
being at the fall of man. Before Satan convinced Eve to
eat of the fruit, Adam and Eve feared nothing. Satan has
been using fear to try and prevent man from fulfilling
his purpose in God since the Garden of Eden and God has
been telling His people to fear not ever since the fall
of man. He told Abraham and Moses to fear not. He told
Joshua and Ruth to fear not. He told Peter and Paul to
fear not. And God is still telling His people to fear
not!
There are two kinds of fear the
Bible talks about, the fear of the Lord and the fear
that comes from the enemy. The fear of the Lord is a
healthy fear. To fear the Lord means to be in awe of or
reverence. This is the only fear that we are to have. We
are to resist the fear of the enemy. The fear of the
enemy will prevent us from trusting God. In Deuteronomy
1 God told the children of Israel that He had set the
promise land before them, to go up and possess it and to
FEAR NOT! They were afraid of the unknown. They didn’t
trust God. They had not seen the land for themselves so
they decided to send spies into the land to report back
to them what they found. The spies came back and said
they would not be able to take the land. The people were
greater than them and the cities were great and walled
up to heaven. Instead of just trusting the Lord and
obeying His commandment to take the land, they began to
listen to the negative report, or the FEAR report. The
children of Israel had to stay in the wilderness for
forty years, waiting for a whole unbelieving generation
to die off, because fear prevented them from trusting
God and entering the promise land.
Thought: I wonder how many of us
have had to spend more time in the wilderness, or in the
dry places than necessary because we were afraid to do
what God commanded us to do in our
lives?
<Encouraging Words |
He Prepares
a Table Before Me
In The Presence of My
Enemies
(Scripture reading from the
King James Version)
Psalm 23 verses 4 and 5
Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and
thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my
head with oil; my cup runneth over.
An enemy is described as an
adversary, affliction, distresses, oppression, trouble,
vexation, and to bind up. The devil is our adversary and
he tries to afflict us, distress us, oppress us, trouble
us, vex us and he tries to bind us up. Jesus prepares a
table of salvation for us in the presence of our
enemies. Salvation is so much more than escaping hell.
Praise God that our names are written in the Lamb’s Book
of Life, but Salvation is more than the new birth.
Salvation is safety, protection, deliverance, health and
wholeness. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 2 says NOW is the day
of Salvation! In other words NOW is the day of safety
and protection. NOW is the day of deliverance. NOW is
the day of healing and wholeness. Salvation is for us
NOW. It’s not for when we get to heaven. We won’t have
an enemy to contend with when we get to heaven. We’re
living in the last of the last days and we need to know
how to live in the fullness of God’s Salvation that He
has provided for us through Jesus Christ. Look at
(Isaiah 54:4-5)
Jesus has already prepared the table
of Salvation for us. He prepared the table when He went
to the cross. Prepare means to empty – He emptied
Himself of His heavenly glory and came to earth as a
man. Prepare means to pore out and to spread self – He
spread Himself out on the cross for us. Prepare means to
raise – He was raised up on the cross and He was raised
up from the dead. Prepare means to demolish and leave
destitute – Jesus demolished the works of the devil.
(Luke 10:19) He has given us power over ALL the
enemy.
Jesus has prepared the table. All
we have to do is pull up and receive His Salvation,
receive His protection, His safety, His healing and His
wholeness. He has provided wholeness for our spirit
through the new birth. He has provided wholeness for our
soul through His peace. He has provided wholeness for
our body through His healing. He has provided wholeness
for us spirit, soul and body. (Colossians 2:10) We are
complete in Him!
Thank you Lord, Jesus for dieing on
the cross for us, to make us whole spirit, soul and
body. We love you Jesus!
<Encouraging Words |
|
