BY KENNETH HAGIN JR.
PRAISE YE THE LORD. PRAISE GOD in his sanctuary: PRAISE HIM in the firmament of his power.
PRAISE HIM for his mighty acts: PRAISE HIM according to his excellent greatness.
PRAISE HIM with the sound of the trumpet: PRAISE HIM with the psaltery and harp.
PRAISE HIM with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
PRAISE HIM upon the loud cymbals: PRAISE HIM upon the high sounding cymbals.
LET EVERY THING THAT HATH BREATH PRAISE THE LORD. PRAISE YE THE LORD.
– Psalm 150:1-6
We often hear ministers talk about living the faith life or living a consecrated life. But we as believers also need to live a praise life. A praise life is the kind of life that keeps us full of peace, joy, and
faith and in close fellowship with God.
Praise is an expression of our faith in God. Our praise to God signifies our complete trust and devotion to Him. When we praise God, we are glorifying Him for what He has done or will do in our lives.
PSALM 50:23
23 Whoso offereth praise GLORIFIETH me….
God is very pleased with our praise. In fact, we can never praise God enough! The first thing we should do when we open our eyes every morning is say, “Praise the Lord!” But that’s not what usually happens. For example, when the clock alarm goes off in the morning, most people reach over and turn off the alarm, saying, “Is it morning already?” Instead, they should say, “Praise the Lord. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!”
If you start praising God first thing every morning, you will find your attitude changing for the better. You’ll be bubbly and full of joy, and people will wonder what in the world has happened to you! You’ll be whistling a tune or praising God with a smile on your face while others are depending on their first cup of coffee to help them start their day.
We should praise and worship God continually as a way of life (Heb. 13:15). Praise and worship should not be relegated to just a certain portion of a church service.
Now what is praise and worship? Praise is extolling God for what He has done, and worship is extolling Him for who He is. Praise can be mellow, or it can be very exciting. Most of the time praise is very upbeat and exciting. It puts us in an expectant, enthusiastic attitude, while worship brings us into the soothing, sweet Presence of God where He encourages us and speaks words of life to us.
Whether you realize it or not, praise has a lot to do with your emotional condition. In other words, you can influence your emotions with the praise that comes from the spirit man on the inside of you.
The more a person talks about how bad he feels and how down he is, the worse he is going to feel. In the same way, the more he talks about God’s goodness and faithfulness, and praises God for what He has done and will do for him, the better he will feel.
A defeated Christian is one who does not understand the purpose of praising the Lord. I have never seen a Christian who was praising the Lord live a life of defeat. And I have never seen a victorious Christian who was not praising the Lord.
You cannot be victorious without getting excited about your victory and praising God for it! And when you get enthusiastic and excited about something, you’re going to be vocal about it.
Everyone needs to praise God in his or her own way. In other words, some people are more slow and easygoing than others when they are praising God. Other people are more boisterous and rambunctious.
But the important thing is to praise God with everything that you have. The Bible says, “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. . . (Ps. 150:6).
When you praise the Lord, you express your joy and thankfulness for what God has done for you. Some of you would have died if it weren’t for the healing power of God. Well, you can’t come from death’s door and praise God quietly! I think we need to learn to get boisterous sometimes with our praise.
If you’re a little quieter in spirit, get off by yourself somewhere and shut all the doors. Or get in your car and go for a drive. Then raise your voice and shout, “Praise the Lord!” Before you know it, you’ll find yourself lifted up and excited. I Praise and defeat cannot live in the same house. Words of praise will lift you from defeat to victory, from sickness to health, from despair to joy, and from bondage to liberty! Praise is the language of faith. Praise is the language of victory. Praise is the language of Heaven. The Bible says that the angels are ever before the throne praising the Lord, singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” (Rev. 4:8).
An effective and powerful praise life requires spiritual boldness and an act of your will because the natural man doesn’t want to praise God. You’ve got to make him praise God. But the more you praise God, the stronger you’ll be in your Christian walk.
You can find out how close you’re living to God by some of the remarks you make. The Bible says, “…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12:34). So if you unconsciously say, “Praise the Lord” in a conversation – and especially in the midst of adversity – you’ll know your spirit man is in control and that you’re keeping your body under.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:27
27 But I KEEP UNDER MY BODY, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
You see, Paul says, “I keep myself under.” In other words, “I” in that verse is referring to the real Paul – Paul’s spirit man. Paul said his spirit man keeps his body – the flesh – in subjection.
The real you is a spirit man that dwells inside your natural body. That spirit man on the inside is what should control the outside man.
And when the devil tries to attack your mind, instead of agreeing with your natural mind, let your spirit man gain ascendancy and begin to speak God’s Word. The devil might jump on your shoulder and tell you, for example, that you have committed the unpardonable sin. He’ll say anything he can think of to discourage and distract you.
The devil can contact your natural mind because the Word of God says that the devil is the god of this natural world (2 Cor. 4:4). But you should override him with faith-filled words spoken from the heart: “Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world!” (1 John 4:4). Let the Spirit of God within your spirit begin to flow. Stand on the Word of God and say, “I rebuke you, devil. I resist you in the Name of Jesus. You’ve got to flee from me!” (James 4:7).
Then shout the victory and praise God! You might say, “Yeah, but I don’t feel like shouting.” That’s all right. Begin to shout anyway – from your spiritual man on the inside – and you’ll feel like it after a while.
For instance, many of you don’t feel like going to work every day, but you go anyway. You make yourself get up and go. So make yourself rejoice and praise the Lord! Make yourself come against the enemy, and don’t let him rob you of God’s blessings and have dominion in your life. Rule over him through praise. Live a praise life!
You know, the further you live from God, the more you’ll listen to nonsense from the devil. But the more you praise God, the less and less you’ll have to deal with the enemy. Of course, the enemy won’t ever completely leave you alone. He’ll continually try to tell you the same thing over and over again, especially if he has trapped you before. He’ll keep coming back, harping on the same thing over and over. He won’t ever change. But the devil doesn’t like to hear praise to God, so praise God all the time!
Sometimes when we’re out at a restaurant or the mall, and the people around us are cursing and carrying on, we need to do what one preacher did. When sinners around him were cursing, this preacher just started saying over and over, “Well, praise the Lord! Glory to God… ”
One man asked him, “What in the world are you doing?”
This preacher said, “I demand equal time. Every word that came out of your mouth was cursing God, so I’m just going to praise Him for a while!”
This man who was cursing God was a sinner. But there are also carnal Christians who don’t enjoy a life of praise. In fact, they get embarrassed when other people around them begin to praise God,
especially when they’re in public.
I’m not saying that folks who get embarrassed like that aren’t Christians. I’m just saying they’re carnal Christians. In First Corinthians, you’ll find that the Corinthians had every gift of the
Spirit operating in their midst, and yet Paul called them a carnal bunch of Christians!
I want you to know that just because people have gifts of the Spirit operating in their lives and prophesy in their church doesn’t mean they are spiritual or that the church is a super-spiritual church. There are some churches where there may not be as much tongues and interpretation or prophecies going forth, but as far as spirituality is concerned, those churches are way ahead of others.
You see, spirituality is more than just operating in a gift of the Spirit. Paul said that the Corinthians had every gift working among them, yet they were carnal. Carnal Christians do not live a life of
praise to God.
Also, if you are bound with fear, timidity, and reluctance, you are not living a praise life. You’re not timid if you’re living a praise life. You’re not fearful of somebody saying, “Praise the Lord,” because you realize that praising God strengthens you. You need to understand the importance of living a life of praise. Praising God keeps your mind on “things above” – on spiritual things and helps you to be led by the Holy Spirit.
I want you to realize that the lack of praise and thanksgiving is a spirit of the last days (2 Tim. 3:1,2). You can throttle the power and the moving of the Holy Spirit if you shut down praise and thanksgiving in your life.
God’s people should praise Him as a lifestyle. If you will study Israel’s song and prayer book, which is the Psalms, you will find that about ninety percent of the Psalms has to do with praising God and offering thanksgiving to Him.
Since about ninety percent of the Psalms deals with thanksgiving and praise, then shouldn’t we also be involved in praise and thanksgiving? Praise will manifest the power of God on our behalf.
There is power in praise, and I don’t know whether or not we’ve arrived yet at the place God wants us to be in our praise life. I believe we’re headed in that direction.
Living a praise life means that instead of worrying about a need or crisis that you’re going through, you will praise God! You will worship Him for who He is and thank and praise Him for what He has done and will do for you. Living a praise life will keep your faith high and your peace intact.
If you’re believing God for answers while adverse circumstances loom high in your life, don’t fret. Instead, thank God for the answer to your prayer – for finances, healing, encouragement, or wisdom – whatever it is you need. Thank God and praise Him that it’s done, that it’s taken care of according to His Word.
While you’re praising God, He may drop the answer in your spirit or encourage you to keep pressing on. But one thing is certain: A life of praise is a life of victory. So remain steadfast and rejoice always, because praise is a way of life for the victorious believer!
HEALING IS FOR TODAY
We would like to thank Kenneth Hagin Ministries for their message of healing through faith in God’s Word. In September 1989, our daughter, Lauren, was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes. She was five-and-a-half years old. She needed a miracle.
Our pastor gave us several books written by Kenneth E. Hagin on healing to increase our faith. We studied these books and applied them to Lauren’s healing. One week after her first treatment, the doctor came and said that the cancer was all gone. Praise the Lord! Today Lauren is a happy, healthy nine-year-old.
The book that is still our faithbuilder is Bodily Healing and the Atonement. If anyone has a doubt about healing, this book will sever all unbelief and will convince you that healing is for today! Thanks again for your miracle message.
Mr. & Mrs. T. B.
Oklahoma
(Editor’s Note: Bodily Healing and the Atonement by Dr. T.J. McCrossan, which was previously out-of-print, has been reedited by Dr. Roy H. Hicks and Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin and is available through Kenneth Hagin Ministries’ Faith Library.)
FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
Your book, Casting Your Cares Upon the Lord, surely made a wonderful impact on me for my family and my ministry. My wife was in labor with our first baby and was admitted into the maternity ward at the hospital. The doctors had said she would have to have an operation.
I got on my knees and reminded God of His wonderfully and beautifully made woman – even His creation which He ordered to go and multiply and replenish the earth through births, not operations. And surely, I cast all my cares upon the Lord.
Two days later, we went to church with my brother, and I reported to the other brethren about the matter. One brother, a lab technologist, saw me narrating the whole story in a very jovial mood and said, “Brother, that’s not something to laugh about. You ought to be in the maternity ward right now!”
I told him, “The Lord said that we’re to cast upon Him – not carry – all our burdens and cares, for He cares for us. Therefore, I don’t have a care – only that I am concerned for my wife. For if the Lord carries all my cares, then I should cast them all upon Him.”
The man shouted, “Never have I known a man to behave like you do. What kind of faith is that!”
The next day, my wife gave birth well in the normal way to a baby boy which we named after Smith Wigglesworth.
I owe a lot to your ministry, Brother Hagin, for no other ministry has been able to boost my faith like your ministry has. I have acquired a great pool of knowledge which I believe I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else – except maybe at RHEMA, where my feet may possibly never step. May the Lord prosper you and your ministry. We have grown from strength to strength by your literature.
M.M.G.
Kenya
I BELIEVED GOD’S WORD!
The Lord healed me of ovarian cancer and of a paralyzed leg. I was a backslidden Christian, and a friend gave me your book, God’s Medicine. When I read the Word, I believed it. Praise God for your ministry.
S.M.
Massachusetts
THE PROOF IS IN THE EATING!
In 1991 the Lord led me to read some of your literature for the first time. I received with joy the biblical truths God has given you for His Body, the Church of the Lord Jesus. I took in the faith teaching like a child eating ice cream. Then it was time to apply my new discovery to a chronic situation in my life.
You see, years ago while in the jungles of Panama where I was stationed with the U.S. Army, I contracted an incurable virus that caused me to break out. Many doctors – military and civilian – were unable to cure me. The problem was getting worse, but this year I rebuked the virus in the Name of Jesus Christ and claimed my healing. I did this every day for six months, and gradually, the bumps and skin abnormality went away.
I have been pastoring a church in Maryland since 1990, and now I teach my people the principles of faith that I have learned from the Holy Spirit through you. My church has joined The Word Partner Club, and as God prospers us, we will continue to bless your ministry. God bless you.
D.W. Sr.
Maryland
I DIDN’T LEAVE THE SAME WAY I CAME
Rev. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Hagin, two years ago this August, I received my healing because you were obedient to the Spirit of God to come to New York to hold a crusade. Not only that, but you also greeted all of your Word Partners, and I came up and shook your hand. After hearing you preach the Word all week, the power of God changed my situation. I came on crutches and left walking and praising God! I love you both!
L.J.
New York
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THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED BY THE WORD OF FAITH, SEPTEMBER, 1994, PAGES 15-18. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY &
RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
