The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
We had a Holy Ghost throw down yesterday! Seriously. I'm still on a cloud. In rehearsal I shared with the choir about praise having the power to move you very quickly, to a new place. What I shared with them is what I'm about to share with you in a moment but first let me just say I had only intended on talking about this with the band, worship team and choir but then it ended up spilling over into church and WOW, what unfolded was awesome -- God was moving in power through His people. We raised the roof, and something happened!!! People were being touched by the power of God - changed - healed - filled with HOPE - brought to a NEW LEVEL.
Here's the thought -- praise propels you to a new place. Sometimes that place is literally a new location, sometimes a new level, a new relationship, a new anointing, whatever the case -- PRAISE is a powerful force. Praise is a weapon of war, no doubt. To illustrate, I spoke from this passage of scripture:
Jonah 2:1-10 (New International Version)
1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: "In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. 3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. 4 I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.' 5 The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. 6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. 7 "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. 8 "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. 9 But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD." 10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land."
Notice something, in verses 2-8, Jonah was praying to God, and really wanted a breakthrough in his situation but he was basically (pardon the pun) bellyaching the whole time. He was wanting something to happen, but what was coming out of his mouth was all wrong. He just kept rehearsing and recounting the mess he was in. I often say, "quit telling God how big your problems are and start telling your problems how big your God is!"
Jonah finally quit telling God how insurmountable his situation was. In verse 9 there was a course correction. If Dr. Phil was there he would have looked at all that was going on in verses 2-8 and said, "Jonah, how's that workin' for you?" Well, he figured out it wasn't and decided to stop the insanity and do something different. You know the definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
In verse 9, prayer turns into praise. After three days of complaining, one song of praise caused a fish to spit a man out of a whale. I'm telling you, praise MOVES stuff out of the way. In the Bible, Judah means praise. In Hosea 10 it says, "Judah shall plow." Praise will PLOW stuff out of the way or spit it out, whatever you need it to do, it'll do. So quit talking about it and just praise!
By the way, Larry did preach yesterday -- on the subject, "God is big enough for your doubts." The above was just a little appetizer. Listen my friends, you may think you've got nothing to praise God for. Maybe you lost your job. Maybe you're sick. Maybe your marriage is on the rocks, or your kids are wayward. In the middle of what you're going through, if you've lost your praise and don't have it right now then just "praise on credit!" You don't have to feel it, just do it. We get God's attention with praise. He'll show up and do something that will send you catapulting into your next level and bring the answer to what you are facing.
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