The Power of Praise

 

Rev Ronald Ooi 

Let's welcome Joshua and company to TOP. They are with the House of Prayer. 

I was one of those young people in the seventies where I was gripped by the love of God. It was early in the morning when I encountered God and was praying in the Holy Spirit for four hours. I pray the young today will have an encounter with God not because their parents are Christian but they personally have an encounter with God. I was in KL at the House of Prayer and I saw how these young people were praying for you and I. 

In 2 Chronicles 20 we see an impending war. The world today is in a very vulnerable position and that the Third World War may happen anytime with all the nuclear warheads that are there. We call it the end times. But the prophesy is that in the last days there will be an outpouring of God's Spirit. We are seeing that happening and we also see the increase of violence and natural calamities. All have been prophesied in the Bible. 

But we have a God who is with his people even through the difficult times we are in. 

The Power of Praise. I want to talk about that. King Jehoshaphat called for a time of prayer and fasting. 

2 Chronicles 20:3-4

3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

The people were positioning themselves to seek God and to hear from God. Jehoshaphat did a very wise thing and we can follow him. 

We have not gone through a World War except the World War 2 and it was a traumatic experience for those who went through it. We may not have gone through this battle but we go through different battles ourselves. Some financial where we have to feed our family in spite of challenges. There are relationship issues. Lost of loved ones. Career and sickness, battles that we go through and some people don't even know what we go through. 

Men, women and children came to seek the Lord. And this was his prayer. 

2 Chronicles 20:12

O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

Have you been I'm a situation where you just don't know what to do? He said but our eyes are on you. When you face a problem, fix your eyes on God. God is bigger than your problems. You get scared and disappointed when you don't fix your eyes on him. 

He is always there even if it seems he is not. God is present. Jehoshaphat said we have no power but our eyes are upon you. He had a serious dependence upon God. 

We are going to come to the Good Friday and Easter event. We are entering the 21 day of prayer and fasting. I had my reservation when Allan said he is coming. He speaks to thousands in India. He is called the Jesus of India but he is a simple man. He is an evangelist, one of the five fold ministry. Once, he raised a person from the dead. He is bared from certain countries because they cannot handle the crowd. 

We are dependent on God because there are obstacles to the work of God. The time has come not just the Intercessors praying but all of us going for a time of prayer and fasting. It can be a vegetarian diet. See the instructions in the booklet. TOP will see a change. When you pray for victory there will be a battle. It can be a scary time. The challenges will come but when I look back in all my years as a preacher, I asked why is there so much trouble in my life and I realised it is a training ground where we get down on our knees to develop our muscles to become like God. And God will use you as an instrument to do exploits for God. 

We have become a very inpatient society. We want everything fast. We want fast food, fast cars. Fast money, fast entertainment. We want everything fast except to fast. 

Penang traffic is getting too fast. It used to be slow. We are losing this spiritual discipline to wait patiently in the Lord. Slowly wait before God. Pray for one hour, two hours, three hours, four hours. Don't be afraid. It's training. It's such a joy to wait on the Lord. It's such a joy when God's people come together to seek God. 

We pray that God will slow us down because we live too fast. With all of eternity before us, let us learn to wait on God. The Psalmist reminds us to wait on God if we want strength to go on. 

George Mueller started an orphanage at Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. He prayed for everything he needs in. And that is what I have learnt. Before I open my mouth to ask anyone for anything, I learnt to ask God first. 

“I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk, when I lie down, and when I rise. 
And the answers are always coming. Tens of thousands of times have my prayers been answered. 
When once I am persuaded that a thing is right, I go on praying for it. - George Muller

It is the same with my life all these years. There was one time when my children was so sick in Penang. We had to send him to the hospital one week after my daughter and I asked God what did I do wrong? As I look back now, it was a training ground and when they came out of hospital, all the bills were paid for. 

If you fast and don't pray, it's starvation. If you fast and sleep, it's hibernation. If you fast and pray, it's intercession. 

2 Chronicles 20:15

And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

When you spend enough time with God you have to wait and wait and wait to get a prophetic word. Why only David get to bring down Goliath? You may say he's the lucky one. No. He's the ready one. You have to be ready. When you are ready, God give his word like he gave to the army. My battles become God's battles. My bill become God's bill. Your children becomes his children. God will fight your battles. And you will receive because his word will be released. When it comes, it is heavens word and not man's word. The battle is not ours. It belongs to God.

We need to be the ready ones. Not the lucky ones. And we will see the breakthrough we are waiting for. 

They then moved forward and praise God. They worshipped. 

2 Chronicles 20:18-19

18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. 19 Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.

There is Worship. There was Praise. And there was Thanksgiving. They did all of that. 

Worship in Hebrew is "shachah". Worship is to bow, to kneel to crouch before the Lord. The emphasis is to come before God. 

It's like your puppy. When you come home, it's not the wife that greets you. It's your puppy and it comes to lick you. That's the image. 

Praise is boasting. Boasting of who God is and we give him the credit of what he has done. It's like polishing silver. Then you lift it up for everybody to see. To show your trophy. You lift him up and not shy about showing who God is and what he's done for you. You praise him not just in good times but also in bad times. In the valley you can still praise God. In whatever circumstances of life you praise him. 

Thanksgiving is to communicate surrender. Coming to him with empty hands and surrender to him. You couldn't have done it yourself. 

And blessings is to kneel down and saluting God for who he is in his authority. And you speak well of him. Like an eulogy given when someone died. Eulogia in the New Testament is to speak well of him while he is alive. 

And look at what happened when they praised God, something happened in the heavenlies. Something happened where God's power was released and the enemies killed each other. And they came in and plundered the enemies. There is a spiritual dynamics there that our minds cannot comprehend. God gives victory to his people when they praise him. 

You may not have an answer today but praise God and see the results that will come ahead. 

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank you today for accepting me as your child.
I surrender to you all the challenges that I am facing in life.
I understand from your word today, that you will fight the battles for your people.

The Battle is the Lord’s!

I believe victory is mine as I praise your holy name. 

No weapon formed against me shall prosper.

I praise you today from the depths of my heart.

In Jesus Mighty Name!

Bro David Ng being interviewed by Ps Ronald about his experiences as an ex-Thomas Cup badminton player representing Malaysia.

Ps Joshua from House of Prayer leading us in a time of praise and worship at the close of the service.

Ps Ronald praying for all the ushers, and encouraging them on the importance of their ministry.