When one saint begins to praise the Lord he can chase a thousand. But when the number of saints doubles, and TWO are joined together in their praises unto God, the results are multiplied ten-fold. For "two shall put 10,000 to flight!" 

When a body of anointed saints of God begin to sound forth the high praises of God, the devil trembles, the heavens are shaken, and the thrones begin to topple. We are in a warfare and God has put a mighty weapon into our hands. We are not in a war against flesh and blood, and humans living in the natural realm cannot understand our life of praise. But devils understand the language, and they hate it. For praise is the heavenly language of victory through Jesus.

WHAT  REALM  ARE  YOU  IN?

There are various realms that humans live in, ranging from the lowest sinful life of depraved corruption, to the more sophisticated, cultured realm of natural man, on to the life of the Christian to a Spirit-filled realm of anointing and power, and finally to the highest realm in the heavenlies. Now many Christians are living in too low a realm of the Spirit, far beneath their privileges.  Very few know of that place in God where we can "be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."  (Eph. 5:18).  This life of praise and worship, the Spirit-filled life, is available to us all, and is a glorious life of overcoming.  But far too many live in a depressed, discouraged realm of defeat.  This is because they do not avail themselves of the weapons God has placed at our disposal. 

For instance, in the area of reading material there are many realms.  You may fill your mind with novels, newspapers and magazines, if you wish.  Or you may sink lower into filth and trash too obscene to even sell on the newstand.  But on the other hand, you can devote your reading and thinking along the lines of educational and classical literature which will edify you in a natural way.  But these things are of not much use in edifying spiritually.  There is a higher realm to which God's people should give more of their thinking and time.  Many good books have been written about spiritual things and about the Bible and the Lord Jesus.  But more edifying yet are those writings which God hath anointed by the Spirit until you can feel the very presence of God as you read them.  These are truly edifying and add strength to the Christian warrior.  When you spend much of your time reading trashy things on a lower level your strength is drained away, and you are made an easy target for satan.  But the highest level of all reading material is the Bible, the written Word of God.  It is not only anointed, it is breathed into men of God as they wrote.  The more you fill your heart and mind with His Word, the more satan will fear you and the stronger you will be to tear down his strong-holds in your own life as well as the lives of others.

WHAT  ARE  YOU  SPEAKING?

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21), and "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by they words thou shalt be condemned" (Matt. 12:37).  Some poor people live in a low sinful realm of cursing, lying, and depraved obscenity, and then they wonder why they have no happiness, no peace.  By the words of their mouth they open their lives to all kinds of filthy spirits, and satan has free entrance into their lives.  Even Christians live defeated, frustrated, unhappy lives because of what comes out of their mouths.  It was never intended that God's children should speak lies, gossip, accusations, doubts and fears against the brethren.  Nor when we come into the house of God should we spend the time talking to one another about family troubles, sicknesses, the weather, crops, the in-laws, etc.  We are to walk in the Spirit, sit in heavenly places with Christ, and the words of our mouth are to be acceptable in His sight, words of praise and victory.  The only way we will ever inherit the heavenly promises is to stop walking in the natural realm, and start acting like Sons of God!  Let your words be anointed of the Spirit, so they may minister grace and edification to the hearers.  And yet there is a higher realm that anointed words of ours.....and that is the heavenly realm of prophetic speaking, when we speak only the words of the Lord.  This truly brings Life and light and comfort to all who will hear.

A  HIGHER  FORM OF WORSHIP

Jesus said (John 4: 23-24), "True worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.  God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."  Too many people worship God on a natural plane, following the devices of man.  Liturgies, ceremonies, forms, rites, traditions and programs have taken the place of true worship.  The natural man is satisfied with these things, for he does not enjoy coming into the awesome and mighty presence of Almighty God.  But the Spirit is seeking out those whose hearts are hungry for a deeper depth in God, who are satisfied only by a moving of God's Spirit upon their lives.

As in other things, there are many realms of worship.  Some worship demons and devils, others worship various animals, the sun and moon and other parts of the creation.  Millions today worship idol gods or men such as Mohammed, Confucius, etc.  Many of today's modern generation worship money, power, pleasure, and sex.  And then there are thousands of those who call themselves by the name of Christ who worship according to the forms and rituals of their church or denomination, knowing nothing of a Living God.  But of these mentioned we have little to say.  Their day of deliverance is coming when they shall be brought out of darkness into His marvelous light!  The ones God has placed on my heart  are those who desire God's best, those who desire to worship Him in spirit and in truth.  Unto these I want to say that there is a higher form of worship than what we are moving in today.  Most people are satisfied if they can find a place where they  feel the members are sincere and the preacher is preaching the truth.  They have never come into the higher realm of Holy Ghost anointing upon the worship and the preaching.  There are others who have felt that glorious anointing and have been forever spoiled for anything on a lower realm.  Their hearts continually hunger for that which the Spirit has unveiled to them.  But in these last days the Lord has once again drawn back the curtains of heaven and let us hear the Song of the Lord, which is far above even the most anointed worship of the past.  So now we find ourselves unwilling to stop short of that which is God's highest order.

THE  SONG OF THE LORD

When Hezekiah came to the throne, Israel had been in a backslidden condition for a long time.  They had not had true worship, and the temple of the Lord had been cluttered up with all kinds of trash.  But King Hezekiah commanded the priests to clean out the house of the Lord.  In the first year of his reign (II Chron. 29:3) he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.  This is praise, and is of primary importance in getting the house of God (His people, His habitation) ready for the Song of the Lord.  And II Chron. 29: 27, 36 says that "Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt-offering upon the altar.  And when the burnt-offering began, the song of the Lord began also .. And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people:  for the thing was done suddenly."

You see, beloved, when Israel served the Lord with all their hearts, and obeyed the word of the Lord concerning their burnt-offerings, etc., they had a song and a worship so beautiful and so heavenly that they were the envy of the nations round about them.  And God honored them with His mighty Presence.  At the dedication of the temple in II Chron. 5: 13-14 we find that "It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as ONE, to make ONE SOUND to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord....that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God".  What a glorious day when God's true Temple becomes ONE in truth, to make ONE SOUND in praising the Lord, and God fills that Temple with His glorious Presence and the cloud of glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea!  Even now we feel the Lord's song beginning to come up from within us, and we know the day is very near at hand.

NO SONG  IN CAPTIVITY

A very sad story is told in Psalms 137.  "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying "Sing us one of the songs of Zion".  How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"  The church in captivity, bound by traditions and false doctrines, ruled over by carnal man, has not had the Song of the Lord.  That which we have been hearing has been on a far lower plane, sometimes very natural and dead and sometimes anointed of the Spirit as God blessed hungry hearts, but always far beneath that glorious place in God which is our inheritance.  But thank God this is not the end of the story.  Psalms 126 tells of the return of Israel from captivity: "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing:" Praise God!  He has set His people free, and once again they can sing the songs of Zion!  Once again the Song of the Lord can be heard in the land.  And this is what God is doing today, beloved, as God is calling His people out of Babylon, that system of religious confusion.  He is setting them free of man's rule and man's tradition, and bringing them back to the land that flows with milk and honey, the land God promised to the seed of Abraham by faith.  And as we leave Babylon and head for the perfection of the Church, the maturing of the Body of Christ, we find the Song of the Lord beginning to sound forth in the midst of the saints.  It is far from perfect yet, and not often enough.  But when you are caught up by the Spirit into the realms of praise and adoration and worship until you can hear the angels joining in with your song, then you are spoiled forever for anything less.  Press on, saints of God, for this is your eternal inheritance.  This is our land of promise where there is a complete salvation, a full deliverance from every enemy, and a life of praise and worship never before known by any except Jesus Himself!

PRAISE IN THE MIDST OF THE CHURCH

It is said of Jesus in Heb. 1:9 that God anointed Him with the oil of Joy above His fellows.  Though He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief because of the sin and rebellion of His beloved children, yet He also knew great joy through a life of praise and true worship of the Father.  And His desire now is that as He lives in His Church through the Spirit, that He will be able to have such communion with us that His voice will be heard in the Church singing praise unto God.  Psalms 22: 22 and Heb. 2: 12 both tell us how He will sing praise unto the Father in the midst of the Church.  What a glorious sound, to hear the voice of the Son of God, by the Spirit, in a worship service!  This is a high order of worship indeed.

VICTORY  IN THE HIGH PRAISES OF GOD

Every enemy of the human race shall be put under the feet of the Body of Christ.  This is the promise of God.  Psalms 149: 5-6 tells us the means:  "Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.  Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance .."  This is the vengeance of God's Temple that Jeremiah speaks of in 50: 28 and 51: 11, when Babylon falls and God's enemies are bound.  Psalms 149 says that kings and nobles (not early kings, but rulers of darkness) shall be bound with chains and fetters of iron, and that this honour have all His saints!  So our mighty God will take weak insignificant man and defeat the awful forces of evil.  Think of it!  What a glorious honour God has reserved for us.  Much better than running from the battle, or flying away during the crisis.  Every devil to be bound, every sickness, every sin, every affliction and curse upon mankind, even death itself and the corruption suffered by all creation.  Is this too much to hope for?  Is it more than you can believe?  Nevertheless, it shall be so, and no amount of unbelief will hinder it from coming to pass.  God will have a people who will praise Him and believe for the impossible!

THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE

There are a number of weapons in God's Arsenal, and Praise is a very important one.  And notice that praising God in a high order of the Spirit is the secret to victory.  It is the "High Praises" of God that are to be in the mouth of His Overcomer.  This is more than just sincerely praising God, or even praising with an anointing.  This is the Song of the Lord that carries us into a realm of worship and praise that few have ever reached.  Devils cannot stand before this weapon, thrones topple and principalities are brought low.  "Praising the Lord puts the devil to flight."  And with the His Praises of God in our mouths we execute the judgment written upon the forces of hell and bind them with chains.  This is our privilege and our responsibility.

PRESS  YOUR  WAY  IN

Yes, saints of God, press into God's best and highest.  When we come together into worship and praise, let us not settle for just another service, just another time of fellowship.  Let us press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  Let us not be satisfied with just another three songs and a special.  Let us travail before God and believe God for a moving of His Spirit until from the time the worship service begins we will begin rising into the heavenly places with such a sound of victory and glory that devils will tremble, angels will shout and sing with us, and the voice of the Son of God, Hallelujah!

Once you have tasted of God's highest order of worship for His people, you are spoiled for the old order of traditional churchianity.  Once the glory-cloud of His Presence has overshadowed a congregation, and they have tasted of the heavenly reality of singing in the Spirit, they can never be satisfied again with three dead songs and a special.  Once a church has heard the Song of the Lord in the midst of His people, they are never very happy again with the fading beauty of man's natural talents.

Someone may say that it is possible to enter such a place of glory only occasionally, and that we cannot expect this to be the regular and consistent order of worship.  As your faith is, so shall it be unto you....But I declare to you, beloved, that this is our inheritance, and we can claim it for our very own.  Be not satisfied with the old order systems of man's ways of worship, and the ceremonies that become such a habit with us.  There is no life in that thing for us today.  Let us move ever onward and upward into God's highest and best for us in these last days.

We must start somewhere.  When we come into the house of God, let us stop carrying on vain or frivolous conversation.  Let us stop sitting impatiently in the pew waiting for the "master of ceremonies" to go to the pulpit to start something.  Our real master, Jesus, is there.  Let us shut all else out and open our hearts to Him, and you will begin to see the glory of God filling His Temple night after night and lifting us into heavenly places with Christ.  He is ready, and eager to come unto us!  The Holy Spirit will move in quickly with High Praises for our Risen Lord!  Let the natural man get out of the way!  Behold, the Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth, all that is earthly, all that is natural, keep silence before Him!  Glory to God!  Hallelujah!