Praise Is A Weapon For Spiritual Warfare
Praise serves as a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare by uplifting your spirit and reinforcing your faith. When you engage in worship and thanksgiving, you create an atmosphere of divine presence that can dispel negativity, oppression, and darkness.
Praise shifts your focus away from challenges and toward God’s greatness, empowering you to stand firm against spiritual attacks. Praise acts as a declaration of faith, reminding you of God’s promises and sovereignty. Thereby instilling confidence and resilience in the face of adversity.
Praise is an effective weapon. Praise confuses the enemy. In the Bible there are various examples of how praise was used in battles to help secure victories. Worship and praise breaks the oppression of the enemy. Praise is a weapon that we should use to help us to win spiritual battles and to further God’s kingdom.
Praise comes from the Latin word “pretium”, meaning price. Prize is a variation of this word. Originally it meant “to set a great price on”. So when we praise God, we are placing a great value on Him and His acts. Praise is a great weapon for spiritual warfare.
Praise Is A Weapon For Spiritual Warfare
God sees us as His “treasured possession”
“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” – Deuteronomy 7:6
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” – Exodus 19:5
Now God wants to be our Treasure and our First Love.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21
“Jesus replied: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” – Matthew 22:37
“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place- unless you repent.” – Revelation 2:4-5
Praise Is A Weapon For Spiritual Warfare
Praising God Is Communicating Who God Is, What He Has Done, And What He Can Do
1. PRAISE HONORS GOD
In Luke 11 Jesus taught us to begin prayer with praise in order to honor and glorify God. Psalm 29:1-2 tells us to give God the glory that is due Him. Praise helps us to focus on God, and who He is, and His greatness.
“And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.” – Luke 11:2
“Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in holy array.” – Psalm 29:1-2
2. PRAISE HELPS US FOCUS ON GOD
Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people. As we praise Him we raise up a throne or structure for Him to fill (2 Chronicles 5:13). Praise sensitizes us to God’s presence, and helps us take our focus off of ourselves and onto Him.
“But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” – Psalm 22:3
“in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the LORD saying, “He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud.” – 2 Chronicles 5:13
Praise Is A Weapon For Spiritual Warfare
3. PRAISE HELPS US TO KNOW GOD
It helps us to focus on His character and His attributes. As we praise Him we rehearse our knowledge of Him, and we come to know Him as what we praise Him to be.
4. PRAISE BREAKS THE ENEMY’S OPPRESSION
In Acts 16:25-26 Paul and Silas praised God and the doors in the prison they were in were opened and they escaped. Praise lifts us out of oppression, and praising God also helps us out of our self-centered ways.
“But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. – Acts 16:25-26
Praise Is A Weapon For Spiritual Warfare
5. PRAISE CONFUSES THE ENEMY & FORCES OF EVIL
Praise is a spiritual weapon. The power of praise in battles is shown in 2 Chronicles 20, Psalm 8:2, and Psalm 149:5-9. Praise helps us to focus on God and realize our need for Him, and thus turn the battle over to Him. When we do this, God will then bring Victory. This makes Praise and Prayer and Dependence on God great weapons in spiritual warfare.
“Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi).” Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to seek help from the LORD; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.” – 2 Chronicles 20:1-4
“O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” – 2 Chronicles 20:12
Do Not Be Afraid – The Battle Is The Lord’s
“Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.” – 2 Chronicles 20:15
“When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the LORD and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, “Give thanks to the LORD, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” 22When they began singing and praising, the LORD set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed.” – 2 Chronicles 20:21-22
Praise Is A Weapon For Spiritual Warfare
Praise is a weapon that is very effective in pushing back the forces of evil. It is also very effective in helping us to better focus on God in our quiet time with Him and in our daily lives. Praise helps us to focus on God and thus have better intimate communication with Him and to hear God’s voice. Hearing God’s voice is the most important part of our fellowship time with God. Praise also helps us to know God in real and personal ways, rather than just know about God.
“And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me; and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord” – Psalm 27:6
Spiritual Warfare – Winning The Battles
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2 COMMENTS
I keep hearing that praise is a weapon that we can weild. As a worship leader, I struggle with this description of praise. As if we can invoke God to win our battles through praise. I believe that anything we ask in the name of Jesus that is within the will of God, He will do for us. But i don’t connect that to praise in any other way but that we should praise Him for what He has done and who He is, and what we trust Him to accomplish. Please help me see what i am missing. Thanks
Jared, thank you for visiting our site and for your comment.
“As if we can invoke God to win our battles through praise.”
First off, nowhere in this Bible Study is it said or implied that we can invoke God to win our battles through praise. That is your take on what is actually said.
We do not need to try to “invoke God to win our battles with praise, or anything else for that matter. God has already promised in His word many times that He will fight the battles for His people. See “Bible Verses About The Battle Is The Lord’s” for many examples of God’s promises to do this.
Second, my wife and I have been following and serving Jesus for 39 years. We served as teachers and in other various ways in several churches for 20 years before God called me to sell my business and join Him in His kingdom mission work. I thought I knew about spiritual warfare, being that I was a Bible teacher and a leader of the prayer ministry in one of our churches. After we sold my business and everything else to become self funded independent missionaries, as per God’s plan, I discovered I knew nothing about spiritual warfare.
The real and intense spiritual warfare is out there outside of the comfort and cozy confines of the church. It is only when we started on the “front lines” in the war for souls did we begin to see and experience and then understand spiritual warfare. The spiritual warfare, opposition, and oppression is very difficult and even overwhelming at times. Praise is a very vital tool and weapon to persevere during and through the spiritual battles you encounter. Along with prayer, regular fellowship with Jesus, and time in His word.
As is described in Isaiah 61:3 praise is a “garment” that protects from a spirit of despair. It helps keep you from giving in to the enemy’s attacks and efforts to get you to walk away from the battles and give up. It lifts up your spirit and helps you to focus on God during the difficulties and battles. And it encourages you to continue on until God brings the victories and produces the fruit. Praise does all of the things listed in the Bible study, and is indeed an important and vital tool and weapon in the battles for souls.
I would like to encourage and challenge you to make a commitment of your time and resources and life to join God’s mission work on the “front lines” in the battle for souls. The harvest truly is great, but the workers truly are few. It is there that you will see what you are missing. You will never fully understand spiritual warfare and how to persevere through it until you are on the front lines. Then you will truly see and experience spiritual warfare, like the early church in Acts did, and like Paul did.
Blessings,
Kevin Bart