Principle of Praise
October 6, 2010The Lord seems to be emphasizing praise lately! Jesus received the praise of the people as they shouted and danced before His triumphal entry in Luke 19, but they still didn’t realize that His entry would involve the humility of His death. A couple of weeks ago after the 7:00 service on Sat night the Lord explained some things to me in regard to the primacy of prayer and praise. He used the story in Ezra chapter 3 where the first group of Israelites returned from captivity to rebuild the temple. The first thing they did was to build the altar, were they started sacrificing daily. Oddly, the texts imply that this was out of order and that they were doing this because they were afraid of the people of the land. Can you see them taking those bloody sacrifices off of the altar saying to God…”do you see our sacrifice, we are here, we love you, we really want to see you, and please be with us, please look at all the work we are putting in to this.” God seemed to say, “You are out of order, you can’t build the altar and ask people to sacrifice on the cut stone of man while it’s disjointed from the foundation of the temple.” They should have started with the foundation (who is none other than Jesus – The stone the builders rejected…but that is revealed later on in the New Testament). Once the people of God have their orientation in the temple of God and are firmly grounded on the foundations of God then they are ready to sacrifice, but not until then. The altar belongs in the Temple not separated from it.
So, in regard to worship and preaching, the Lord seemed to say to me, priority is the key! First and most profound, your job is to entreat the Lord and worship Him…we are to minister to God first and most…even when we are on stage! Secondly, we are to minister to the body, those who name the name of Christ and who are in need of His word and touch. Third, we turn our eyes toward those who don’t know Him yet, knowing that we have the power to truly seek them out of the overflow of being in the presence of God.The Lord said…”I don’t care how many songs you sing or what you preach but Heaven hasn’t registered a body singing or praying or preaching until it’s FIRST TO ME…it has to be unto me as priority First.” THEN when I touch you and anoint you and heal you and fill you, you will in turn be able to shift into ministering to the body, and then out of that overflow you will love those who are far away. Give Him everything you have today!!!!Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, for He has done great things for us, who is like our God! Pastor Greg
What a Word !
Thank you …needed to be reminded of that .He is an orderly God …and we have tendency of rushing and skipping over what the important things in life truly are . Worshipping , Praising , and loving on He who is so Worthy !
What exactly does, “minister to God” first, mean? I understand that the “body” is the people. Thank you always for your encouragement. I hope to one day, be strong enough to truly step out and help others.
Pastor Greg this note came in the best time for me I know Pray amd worship to God is what is really important, thanks I like to read all what you post. God bless you
Pastor Greg, Your sermon this past Sunday was amazingly convincting. God was definitely talking to me through you. He was telling me that I have d not been giving him my best. Thank you for preaching with such passion and conviction.
By your words, I’m reminded of “first fruits”. First of everything, our praise of what God has blessed us with, entrusted us with, or various resources that God surrounds us with. It doesn’t matter if the blessing is currency, time, a talent, yet it’s Gods protocol, that we understand &know that “all things come from God”! We should constantly “thank him”, praise him & truly know & believe that we are the “CLAY”.