"PRAISING YOUR WAY IN"

Good Evening to All!

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise! Be thankful unto Him and bless His name !

There are many ways to make ourselves available to hear God's voice. One of them is to give Him heartfelt worship and praise.

According to God's Word, we are to praise Him by shouting to the Lord, singing, playing cymbals, and stringed instruments, playing trumpets clapping our hands, and lifting up holy hands ( holy means set apart for the purpose of God at a specific time. Therefore if you lift your hands in praise to God, they become holy for that point and time.

This being said, there are actually other ways to praise Him as well. We also can praise Him by showing Him how much we love Him by keeping His commandments, by witnessing and being good examples of children of God to others.

His Word also tells us that He inhabits our praises according to Psalm 22:3. Therefore, the more we praise Him the more we will feel His presence. God enjoys manifesting His presence and power to those who are truly praising and worshipping Him. When His presence and power do infill the sanctuary, we hear His voice , we see miracles happen. People are healed, lives are changed, and transformation takes place form the inside out.

This is something we should all want as part of our relationship with God. When we talk to Him and listen for His voice in our spirit, it is because we have needs. I would venture to say that the majority of the time, it is because we are needing some kind of change in our lives. Whether it is a financial need or a new job, to healing sickness or injury, to wanting a loved one to come to know the Lord, these are all changes. Needs which He can meet. There is nothing to big or small that He can't take care of.

If you are asking God to reveal Himself more to you and to help you grow in spiritual maturity, that's change. If you are praying for the teenager who lives down the street to stop using drugs, that changed. If you are asking God to help you to control your temper, that's change. What ever we pray for one of the best ways to start is with praise and worship. They will keep our hearts right before God and make a way for us to hear His voice and for change to take place.

Just a thought. When someone comes to you and wants you to do something, doesn't it place you in a better frame of mind and more incline to do it for them if they let you know how much they appreciate the work you do, and and what a good job you do?

I know I have had instances where I have been so focused in my praise and worship to God that it felt as though I could open my eyes and He would be standing right in front of me. It is such a warm, loving feeling.

I started to go into more detail, but realized that I had gone into this before, so I will leave it at this. There is no such thing as too much praise and worship to God. Remember, praise cures "dry times", when you go for a time feeling like you haven't heard or felt the presence of God, that is a dry time. Praise Invokes the presence of God. Praise and the Presence of God bring victory and praise brings God's help.

It has been my experience that Praise ushers in Worship. It is a conscious effort to praise. To sing, clap, lift our hand and so forth. By doing this we get in a mindset of worship because our praise helps us to completely put our focus upon God. Which in turn helps worship to swell up in our hearts.

I mean, lets face it. If we were face to face, I could ask for a show of hands on this one and I would imagine that a good many if not the majority of us walk into church thinking about everything from what's going on at home to what we are going to have for lunch, to how much money we have in the bank, to what bills we need to pay that next week. EVERYTHING BUT GOD. Praise gets our mind off of these thoughts and where they are suppose to be which is on God. Then we can worship Him with our whole heart.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!