Worship, Praise, and Singing The AR 15 of Spiritual Weapons Purity 1391

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of a morning view of the foothills of the Alps from Pilatus to Rigi comes to us from Michael Grace, who shared this scene on social media Sunday from his room with a view at the Seeblick Hohen— hotel in Emmetten, Switzerland, as he and his son are currently off on a European tour vacation. Well, it's Wednesday, and when I saw Mike's photo on Sunday, I had to save it to my phone because I knew that a view of the Alps could serve us well as a visual reminder that we have arrived at another hump day. And as I awaken to what will be day 3 of a spiritual revival The hills are alive with the sound of music, as the Holy Spirit has reminded me that worship is a weapon that is directly related to being filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18-20 tells us, and do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have to remember that this is coming from Paul, who had, who had direct knowledge of what can happen when we go against the grain of what this world would tell us of how we are supposed to react to life circumstances and decide instead to raise our voices in song to praise and thank the Lord. Acts 16:25-26 tells us, but at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earth— a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. I know, praying and singing, and singing, and then an earthquake comes. Coincidence, right? I don't think so. Paul testifies, testifies, uh, he tells us, uh, to be filled with the Holy Spirit through singing because he remembers a time when he seemed— when all seemed lost, and in spite of the gloomy circumstances, decided to praise the Lord and God literally set him free from his chains. Are you serious? Yeah. The word also tells us in James 4:7-10 to submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hearts— cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Here James is telling us what, uh, tell, telling us that if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. Of course, he is, he is talking about repentance here, so you shouldn't be surprised to lament and mourn over the recognition of our double-mindedness and going astray. But he assures us that if we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, he will lift us up. And that, my friends, my brothers and sisters, is a reason to praise the Lord, O my soul. After compromising and being double-minded with the discipline over my flesh in June, I've repented in July because I believe— I believe the lie that, to quote my, uh, a wobbly double-minded recovery friend of mine, I could have it all. His having it all was having a nice Christian family and having a lifestyle of regular drunkenness. My having it all was being able to have good physical health and having regular bouts of binge eating. But of course, both of us are wrong. Our ideas of what could peacefully coexist together are contradictory. We are trying to mix truth and error. We are trying to mix darkness and light. This is the definition of double-mindedness. We can't have it both ways. We can have it all. Uh, we— well, we can't have it all. We can have— we can have one or the other, uh, but we can have what is good, uh, but we— but we must choose it. And in order to actually accomplish it, we need to draw close to God, submit to him, resist the world, the flesh, and the devil, and seek to to live within the Holy Spirit's power. And that is where worship, praise, or singing hymns to God comes in. A few years ago, I walked through some very dark days as I tried to forge a new life in Christ and had to overcome an addiction to alcohol, suffer through a nasty divorce, and then pursue sexual purity within the space of a couple of years. The times they were a-changing for sure. And now I can recall that a big part of my walk through the valley of the shadow of death, was spent in calling out and singing to the Lord. I spent nearly every morning commute singing and praising— praying and praising the Lord, and I continually experienced the Holy Spirit's presence and power in my life, receiving strength, hope, peace, and not for nothing, a prophetic word or two that had me ready to accept the position of prophet. But my discernment needed some work, and I couldn't really see around the next corner like I thought I could, so we have backed away from any claims to the office of Elijah and company. And those dark yet glorious days, the Lord was faithful and true, and his grace set me free and blessed me in more way than— more ways than one. But due to my disappointment over not being able to predict the future, coupled with my successful transition to a new life and my desire to not go too far off the deep end, What was my regular practice of heightened praise and worship dissipated from every day to once a week or once in a blue moon. That is, praise at my new church is tempered by a lot of quote-unquote non-participants, if you know what I mean. Let's face it, some Christians have no idea about the power of worship and singing praises to the Lord. And rather than staying on fire For the Lord, I, like the proverbial frog in a pot, got cooled off by the relatively lukewarm enthusiasm that my seeker-friendly church brings to the table. But I am not here to criticize my church's polished, studio-quality worship. It is good. I can praise there. I just close my eyes as I sing and raise my hands to ignore the hands-at-sides masses around me. But what I am criticizing is me. For forgetting the weapon of worship that I have in my arsenal that I have left on the shelf. The Holy Spirit reminded me of this yesterday as I was moved to worship on the way to work and was brought to heights of joy in the presence of the Lord. There is no power in being sensible and not wanting to cause a stir. Don't tell me to calm down. Revelation 3:16 tells us how the Lord feels about our lukewarm faith. It makes him want to vomit—his words, not mine. So in this new season of repentance and revival, I'm going to kick the tires and light the fires of worship and praise in my life. Yesterday after work, I mowed my lawn while listening to my Worshipfy playlist, and the Spirit was upon me as I sang at the top of my lungs with all my heart, singing of the Lord's goodness. I guess you— I guess, uh, I, I guess you could say I have got my groove back, and brother, I don't ever want to cool off again. Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? The world, my success, and perhaps the lukewarm faith of those around, around me gradually caused me to be content with less than what the Lord has for me. Even though I have accomplished much, I got to a point where I thought the Lord's command to rest was a command to more or less stop, and my indulgences in the flesh only increased. I see now that I needed to rest, and perhaps to fall down, to get back— so I could get back up and to be restored to life again. I'm awake now, and my success, my weakness, or others around me are not going to cause me to deny what the Lord can do. So what about you? Feeling listless in the summer heat? Or the lukewarmness of a faith that has cooled off? Well, let me encourage you to break out the AR-15 of spiritual weapons at your disposal and sing to the Lord our God and to praise with enthusiasm, to be strengthened and to be filled with the Spirit. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on Example, Good or Bad. And today's verse is Matthew 18:6, which says, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Today's verse is the second of three passages of scripture that falls under the fifth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on Example, Good or Bad. And that fifth point is Jesus warns us never to set a bad example and cause others to sin. Today's verse is Jesus' warning to not lead others into temptation. A false belief that God winks at sin could be proof of a degenerate, rebellious, and wicked heart. You can say, you can say the name of Jesus and say you are forgiven, but if you are dead to the idea of repentance and assure people to continue in activities that the Word of God calls sin, you should really wonder if you are in the Kingdom at all. Believe me, I know about cheap grace or sloppy agape. That's what I believed when I came into the Kingdom. But as I walked with the Lord, I understood His command to sin no more was to be taken seriously. So I know we aren't perfect and we will all struggle with sin, to do what is right and not to do it is sin after all. But we should also understand that we are called to be sanctified, and part of our walk should reflect our desire to be free of darkness. So rather than encourage your friends in low places, invite them to rise up to God's call on their lives to be holy as he is holy. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.com, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture from the New Testament, and today's chapter is 2 Corinthians 1. And from that chapter, he shares verse 11, which says, "You also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many." And Stephen Alford writes, this verse shows a little of what real intercessory prayer can do. Paul speaks of their prayer on his behalf. Here were believers who realized their responsibility in prayer. Moreover, such a responsibility and the meeting of it brought remarkable results. Notice: "The gift granted to us through many." As a result of intercessory prayer, the Apostle with his colleagues experienced the endowment of a real gift. The gift was such that in holiness, sincerity, and grace God used them mightily in the church at Corinth. And Stephen Ulpher ends his devotion by praying, oh, to never neglect to intercede for others in my daily prayers. Amen. Amen. Yeah, spiritual disciplines—worship, praise, and prayer, giving thanks. Um, this is what we need to do. Why? Because they change things. Sometimes, sometimes they happen immediately. You sing a song and an earthquake comes. Other times you pray for someone and many people suddenly are moved to help them out, as Paul confesses to in 2 Corinthians here. We don't know what happens, you know, we don't— it's not a one-to-one ratio in terms of the spiritual, you know, the spiritual movings of the Lord. Um, you know, sometimes it seems like two steps forward, one step back, but other times when you're walking in the Spirit, you know, it seems like you're jumping from place to place, um, and that great blessings are coming down from heaven to bless your path as you go. That everything falls into place. Things just happen, you know, start to happen. People, you know, people come alongside you. Circumstances change. Blessings, unexpected blessings come, you know. How it happens, I don't know, but we're called to pray, pray every day. We're afraid to know the Word of God, live according to it, and, you know, we're called to, you know, be filled with the Spirit. And Paul, immediately after 'be filled with the Spirit,' says, 'Sing, sing praises to the Lord.' You know, I've shared in the past that my baptism in the Holy Spirit came on the heels of praise and repentance. That spiritual experience of the presence of God in a very real way can happen to you too. You have to seek the Lord and pray, ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and sing and worship. You know, granted, now someone could just dismiss what I've had happen in my life as ecstatic feelings or whatever, but I know better. And You know, I've heard some teaching recently that like in the baptism, you know, everyone's filled with the Holy Spirit the moment you put your faith in Jesus. Um, he's with us to reveal the truth, to bring us into the kingdom of God. When we put our faith in Jesus, we get the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He comes inside us. That's why after you become a Christian, it it becomes very difficult to continue in your sin unless you quench the Spirit because He convicts you of your sin and causes you to, you know, to repent. Only a hardened heart, you know, locked in chains of sin and bondage continues in their sin unabated, or someone who has a false conversion. You pick. The Lord will tell you at the Day of Judgment And then the Holy Spirit comes upon us, you know, to empower us for ministry. So if you're not, you know, seeking to further the Great Commission by making other people disciples, if you have no heart to share the message of Jesus Christ or to do good works for the Kingdom, don't be surprised if you don't know what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. Because I believe that the call on, uh, the reason for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the reason for a manifest presence of the Lord, is to assure you of your faith and to draw you, uh, into ministry and to give you the power, um, to accomplish those things, to, to be bold and courageous in your faith. Because after you have an experience, there's no more arguing about whether or not God is real. You know that he's real and you know he's holy and he causes— it'll cause you to repent. And sometimes, you know, I've had— I've seen teaching that receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you know, comes after you repent. So if you have a besetting sin and, you know, seek to, you know, be closer to the Lord, you have to give up the sin. And, you know, suddenly the Lord could show up in a very real way. Into your life. And that's what happened to me, um, in 2015. I had heard stuff about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, had had someone lay their hands upon me, and, you know, did my best to pray in tongues. And, um, and, you know, you receive it by faith. So it was like, yeah, I guess I received it, sure. And then I repented and went into recovery, and in the midst of prayer and singing and, you know, calling, you know, calling for the Holy Spirit to come. He came and it changed my life. And he continues to come and he continues to fill, fill my life. He did yesterday while I was praising the Lord. How do you know when he shows up? Well, usually you're moved to tears. Or heights of joy, because, you know, that's like the Lord's presence is mighty and it's going to have an effect on your life. And it's good, it encourages you, and, you know, he brings things into remembrance. And generally, when you have an experience of the Holy Spirit's presence in your life, you remember the things he's done for you. You remember parts of the Word of God that speak to your heart, your mind, um, recall parts of your testimony and give you a word for the future sometimes too. Um, you know, so press into your faith. Turn on the radio with the worship music and sing along, or even better yet, hand-select worship music that speak to you and that you love to praise and sing along with, and then let her rip, you know, surrender yourself to the joy of the Lord and singing his praises and thanking him and recalling the mind as you sing how good God is and what he's done in your life. This is the way we find the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is how we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and it's a very important part of our faith. And I don't teach on it often because I don't want to drive people into craziness. But not for nothing, um, you know, my, my spiritual walk has been somewhat extreme at times, you know, seeking the Lord in very earnest ways, praying all night at times, um, praising the Lord continually day after day after day while going through the valley of the shadow of death. That's pretty extreme, extreme views. Uh-oh. Yeah, well, we extreme— we know the truth and, um, we've got to live in that truth, and that's pretty extreme compared to the world that is lost. So, um, I don't want you to get, get connected to a demonic spirit or a false Jesus, which is certainly, uh, you know, is a danger. Um, and that's why we have to know the word of God. You know, we're not running around chasing experiences and just, you know, saying, "Hey, I'm forgiven, let's drink," or, you know, sin in sexual ways or whatever. You know, your forgiveness is not a license for sin. It's a license to serve. So that's the license we should use. Anyway, I have to get to work. This is just my hobby and my ministry, um, to encourage myself if no one else. Anyway, I hope it encourages someone, and we'll pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you for what will be day 3 of a victorious July of 2024, as we surrender completely to you now, um, and we crucify the flesh and press in with the Spirit, Lord. We want to be filled with your Holy Spirit on a daily basis, every day, to not walk away from the joy that I have when I, when I, when I follow you faithfully. Let me not surrender or, you know, get drawn astray by the world's, you know, world's total disbelief. Or lukewarm faith. Instead, let me stay on fire for you to, to speak the truth and to live in the truth, that you're with me and that you're— you have a lot, you have a lot to, a lot to do through us. Um, Lord, thank you. Lord, we also pray for anyone listening today that they'd be encouraged in their faith and they would press in on their faith and seek you with all their hearts, minds, and strength to find out just how good you are. And, uh, Lord, we just pray for you to move us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and guide us in the way we should go. Because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, Lord, and do the works you have for us to do. Lord, we need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.