Yours for a Song (#63 of 365+)

“Victory over the Enemy can be yours for a song!” said Joni. She quotes Amy Carmichael, missionary to India: “I truly believe Satan cannot endure the power of song and so slips out of the
room… when there is a hymn of praise. Prayer rises more easily, more spontaneously, after one has let those wings, words and music, carry one out of oneself into that upper air.”

It took me all day to finally blog about this morning’s devotional! For some reason, this one required a lot more thought than usual...

What exactly is it that can make praise so powerful? I think I know what it is. The word tells us God wants us to praise him like we mean it, "in spirit and truth" (John 4:23) and that we should make every effort to fully engage our hearts and minds in worship. “I should sing with my spirit, and sing with my mind” (1 Corinthians 14:15 MSG). We should do this not only because he deserves our best, but also because when we do so God will inhabit our praise (Psalm 22:3 KJV). In other words, praise becomes powerful when it creates the kind of welcoming environment where God doesn’t just visit; he makes himself at home. And when he makes himself at home he’ll do two things:

1) God will move in more of his belongings.

We received the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation but somehow we can be filled with even more and more of him! For example, the early Church had already received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost but they were repeatedly filled with (more?) of the Spirit. “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31). “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52).

It’s difficult to describe God accurately in mere human terms, so maybe “more” isn’t the correct word to use. What I’m trying to say is that God wants to keep filling us to maximum capacity, with more and more of the Spirit’s joy and power. Perhaps Paul said it best when he prayed in this way: “I pray that you… may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

2) God will rearrange furniture, and even clean house.

"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose" (Acts 16:25-26)

“Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: ‘Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.’ As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated” (2 Chronicles 20:21-22)

Chris Tomlin’s song Let God Arise is a great anthem to sing as God "moves in" and starts to “rearrange furniture” and “clean house” in our lives: “Hear the holy roar of God resound/Watch the waters part before us now/Come and see what He has done for us/Tell the world of His great love/His enemies will run for sure/The church will stand, she will endure/He holds the keys of life, our Lord/Death has no sting, no final word/Our God is a God who saves/Our God is a God who saves/Let God arise/Let God arise/Our God reigns now and forever/He reigns now and forever”

“May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; may his foes flee before him. As smoke is blown away by the wind, may you blow them away” (Psalm 68:1-2)

Lord, may your glory, power, and majesty take up residence within your Church as we worship you in spirit and in truth. I welcome you with my heart open wide. Dispel the threatening darkness. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.