Learning to Live a Life of Praise, Developing our Praise, and Being Persons of Praise

After God delivered them from Egypt and saved them from Pharaoh through their crossing of the Red Sea, the children of Israel sang the song of Moses, a song of praise to God for His victory and His salvation. In their song there is much praise to God for saving them the slavery in Egypt and God’s victory over His enemies, and there’s even praise for God’s dwelling place.

Moses as a man of God had a clear view that the goal of God’s salvation of His people was that they would build up and become a dwelling place for God, His sanctuary. When God’s dwelling place is built up, Jehovah shall reign forever and ever (Exo. 15:18).

When the tabernacle and later the temple was built, the kingdom of God came in. When the church is being built up, the kingdom of God is brought to the earth.

As we are in the process of the building up of the church today we need to follow Moses’ pattern to praise God for His habitation, the building up of His dwelling place. As we praise God, He is enthroned on our praises. As we praise the Lord, we fight the spiritual warfare by standing in Christ’s victory.

We fight the spiritual warfare not for victory but from victory. Satan hates our praises, and he does everything he can to frustrate us from praising God. We need to be enlightened and realize that we need to have a life of praise, a life of praising God continually. We can praise God by singing to Him songs of praise.

We can praise Him for the experiences of Christ we have. We can praise God by letting Christ praise God in us. We can praise God with Christ-filled praises. We can enjoy Christ and be filled with Him so that we may have a better Christ for a better praise.

We can practice to praise, from whatever stage we’re in, until we have a sacrifice of praise. May the Lord recover our praise and may be be those who live a life of praising the Lord!

The Goal of God’s Salvation is the Building up of His Dwelling Place for the Establishing of His Kingdom

In the song of Moses – which the children of Israel sung after they crossed the Red Sea and saw Pharaoh and his armies swallowed up by the sea – there is much praise to God for His salvation and His victory, and the sanctuary of God is also mentioned.

Moses had the clear view that the goal of God’s salvation and deliverance of His people is to build up His habitation so that His kingdom may be established on earth. In Exo. 15:18 in particular we see that Jehovah will reign forever and ever – this shows us that God’s habitation, His house, brings in God’s kingdom, His reign.

When the tabernacle was erected on the first day of the first month of their second year in the wilderness, the kingdom of God came in. God desires to have a dwelling place, a habitation, a sanctuary, and for this He rescues and saves a group of people out of the usurpation of Satan and the world and brings them through baptism into the wilderness, a realm of resurrection where they can build up His dwelling place.

The goal of God’s salvation is not merely to deliver us from the world but to make us His dwelling place, His sanctuary. Today we as the church are not merely a group of saved people, those delivered from the world and separated unto God, but we are here for the building up of the church as the dwelling place of God.

Today the church is first God’s house and then His kingdom; when the church is built up, the kingdom of God is established (1 Tim. 3:15; Rom. 14:17). The enemy hates when the church is built up because he knows that the kingdom of God will also come in and he will be kicked out; therefore, as the Lord is building up His church for the bringing in of the kingdom of God, the gates of Hades are fighting back.

From God’s point of view, the building has already been accomplished; we should look at the accomplished fact and praise God for the church, the Body of Christ. All the attack, opposition, and persecution are actually positive signs, showing us that the building of God’s house is assured.

Hallelujah, we have been brought through baptism to the place of God’s inheritance, and here God is building up His house! For this we should praise the Lord, just like Moses and the children of Israel did!

Learning to Live a Life of Praise, Developing our Praise, and Being Persons of Praise

In our Christian experience, victory in spiritual warfare is intrinsically related to praise and depends on praise. Victory is not obtained by fighting but by our praising; we don’t fight for victory but we fight by praising by standing in the Lord’s victory. Because praise is our means of victory, our praise is in particular attacked by the enemy.

Satan hates and fears our praise; he may even be OK with us praying sometimes, since sometimes we “pray ourselves into the problem”; but he knows that, when we praise, we transcend any problems, we touch God’s throne, and the Lord is enthroned upon our praises! The enemy’s goal is to stop the praises of God’s people.

We need to be enlightened concerning this because, to a very large degree, Satan is temporarily succeeding in stopping our praise. Consider this: how much did you praise the Lord this month in your personal life? How often do you praise the Lord during the day? Did we ever just take 5-6 minutes to praise the Lord?

Generally speaking there’s a wipeout of praise. Sometimes we pray long prayers, rich prayers, and even elevated prayers, but with no praise. We need to be enlightened to see where we are in this matter and go on with the Lord. May we be humbled before the Lord as learners and agree that, at least to a certain degree, Satan got to us concerning praising God.

How much do we praise God? What is the content of our praise? How uplifted is the praise? Can we engage the enemy in war by our praise? We need to have a TURN and advance from wherever we are; we should let the past be the past, and turn the tables on the enemy: we are willing to learn to praise the Lord!

First of all, when it comes to praising the Lord we need to begin from wherever we are: no one is too new or too young in the Lord to start praising Him. Just begin from wherever you are and be exercised before the Lord a little bit; exercise 1-2 minutes here and there to turn from yourself and your situation and praise the Lord that you know. Praise the God who is your God. Thank Him, praise Him, and use the word of God and the Hymns to praise Him.

Then, the more vision of Christ you have, the more praise you have. We need to see that the God-man Jesus is now on the throne of the universe, and this is a status He has no matter of our failure or our mood! No matter what happens to us, no matter the heartache, the loss, the failures, the uncertainty, or the attacks, the Lord Jesus reigns – there’s a Man in the glory, and He overcame Satan! The God-man rules the universe, and He has destroyed Satan on the cross. Praise the Lord!

As we progress personally, with companions in the Lord, in vital groups, in home meetings, in group meetings, in district meetings, and in church meetings, the Lord will bring us to another level of praise. Through Christ we will offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually (Heb. 13:15). It is easy to praise the Lord when something unexpectedly good happens or when we’re feeling up; but a sacrifice of praise involves loss, trial, and suffering.

We should not wait until the sky changes and the environment improves, but right now, in the midst of pain and suffering, even with tears, we praise the Lord for what He is! Lord Jesus, You are the Lord Jesus Christ: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to You! Lord, we praise You as our Lord! – as we offer up a sacrifice of praise, this becomes the sweetest praise to God the Father.

Eventually, we will be able to praise the Lord in dealing with the enemy’s attack. We will just stand against the stratagems of the devil and praise the Lord. Satan attacks, and it is harder at the end to testify of the Lord’s word since Satan fights with all his might our witness to defy. At this time, when there’s a real conflict and the battle is fierce, when we can even hardly breathe or pray, that is the time to praise.

Right in the face of the enemy’s attack, we should not look at ourselves or at others but look to Jesus, the God-man on the throne, the One who is Lord over all! Christ is Lord over all: His victory is unalterable, He conquered us and He defeated the enemy, and He is the Victorious One: we proclaim His victory! We don’t fight in our own strength or by our prayers, we just gain the victory by praising!

In Rev. 15 we see one last level of praise experienced by the late overcomers. Today we are in the last days of the church age, and the Lord is establishing His kingdom in Europe, the land where Antichrist will be manifested. The late overcomers overcome the persecution of Antichrist and they are victorious even though they are martyred; they stand on the glassy sea mixed with fire and sing the song of Moses!

They praise God not only for His acts but also for His ways; they were martyred, the Lord did not intervene to rescue them or lessen their suffering, but they still praise the Lord for His ways, which are His governing principles by which He works!

The Lord made His ways known to Moses and His acts to the children of Israel (Psa. 103:7). If God acts, many praise Him; but if He doesn’t act, if the heavens are silent and God seems uninvolved, seemingly He doesn’t care, and everything collapses, the overcomers know the ways of the Lord.

They don’t need to see God’s actions but they know what kind of God He is: He is righteous in His ways and true in His promises, and He will judge the enemy and reward the overcomers! Therefore, the overcomers praise Him according to what He is and His ways, even though outwardly the Lord would not do much for them. The Lord needs some who are like this, some who tell Him,

Lord, You are my God: if You answer my prayer or if You don’t answer my prayer, You are my God! If you intervene or not, I will praise You! Lord, I will vindicate You before Your enemy even though You remain silent or hidden: You are my God, I will praise You for I know Your ways!

We need to look to the Lord that, little by little, starting from where we are, the Lord would develop our praise, cause us to have a life of praise, and make us persons of praise.

The time is coming when the war will be intense beyond everything we know, and in that hour there’s the need of some people on earth who are governed by the vision in Exodus 15, some who know the glorious triumph of Jehovah as a man of war, and they are clear: though there may be no provision or help but constant attack or slander, Christ is Victor, and Jesus is Lord – Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, remind us to praise You. Train us to praise You. Develop in us a life of praise. Make us praising persons. Lord, You are our God, and we will praise You no matter what happens! Whether You answer our prayers or not, whether You deliver us or not, and whether You do something for us or not, we will still praise You! Jesus Christ is Lord! Christ is Victor: He is the God-man on the throne, and all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. Praise the Lord!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Building Work of God, ch. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 8 / msg 8, The Glorious Triumph of Jehovah as a Man of War and the Continual War with Amalek (you can buy this morning revival book here via LSM and here via Amazon).
• Further reading on this topic: see the Ministry Magazine on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (part 1, msg. 7, brother Ron’s speaking), and Watchman Nee’s message on, Praising.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Praise the Lord, God sent His Son, / Hallelujah! / And salvation’s work was done, / Glory to God! / God Himself became a man, / So that we might live in Him. (Song on Praising the Lord)
  # Hallelujah, Christ the Victor / Triumphed on Mt. Calvary! / Hallelujah, resurrected, / He displays His victory! / Hallelujah, now ascended, / He shall reign eternally! (Hymns #124)
  # ’Tis harder at the end / The word to testify, / For Satan fights with all his pow’r / Our witness to defy. / Much greater strength we need / The foe to overcome; / How happy when the Lord we see / And all our sighing’s done! (Hymns #893)