But You are holy, You Who inhabit the praises of Israel. Psalm 22:3
The Lord woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me something. I asked Him, "What is it Lord?" He said, "Praise is the answer!" I went back to sleep. A few hours later, He woke me up again. I asked The Lord, "What is it?" He said, "Praise is the answer." I went back to sleep. The Lord woke me up a third time. I asked The Lord, "What is it?" He said, "Praise is the answer."
I was finally awake enough to ask Him, "What is the question?" He said, "It doesn't matter what the question is. Praise is always the answer." He left me on my own to answer my next question, "Why is praise always the answer?"
My search for the answer took me to Acts 16. There we find Paul and Silas imprisoned in the bowels of a city jail. Their "offense" was delivering the city diviner from her demon. Since the diviner's divinations were a major source of the city's income, Paul and Silas had cut off the city's deviants from their main source of income. The deviants had Paul and Silas locked up under false pretenses.
How did they respond as innocents confined to a dank prison cell, chained to prison guards, and surrounded by the most decrepit elements of society?
In Acts 16:25-26 we find Paul and Silas at midnight praying and singing hymns to God with their fellow prisoners listening. There was suddenly a great earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Just as suddenly, all the prison doors were opened. Everyone’s chains were loosed.
That is simply amazing to me. Paul and Silas were acting on God's behalf, setting a demonized victim free, and delivering a city from spiritual and economic darkness. They had done nothing wrong. Just the opposite. They deserved the key to the city, not its dungeon and chains.
There are too many Kingdom lessons in this situation to unpack all of them, but there are a few I feel led to highlight.
1. Midnight. What should we do in our darkest hour?
It can't be an accident that Paul and Silas cut loose in praise and worship at midnight, the darkest hour. The mid-day atmosphere of that prison was dark, dank, and dangerous. The midnight atmosphere was even darker, danker, and deadly dangerous. That's the bad news.
The good news is that with God's help, we can change an atmosphere. We can create an atmosphere for miracles in the midst of our midnights. And that's exactly what Paul and Silas did. They changed the atmosphere by "praying and singing hymns to God." As my pastor friend Terry Law says, "Praise releases faith". I like to think of praise as the key that opens the door to Heaven. Our breakthroughs come for us through that open Door. John 10:9 tells us that, Jesus is that Door.
2. Prisoners were listening. I have never been in prison, but I don't imagine that if two new prisoners showed up, and started singing hymns at midnight, they would be listened to. They would most likely be shouted down, mocked, scorned, and/or beaten.
But something was different that night. The faith atmosphere was so thick that even the prisoners were listening.
I believe The Lord is teaching us that when we are authentic in our prayer and praise, and have changed an atmosphere accordingly, people listen. There is an atmosphere for hearing and understanding.
That has been my experience. People in bondage from their own sin choices, or the sin choices of others, are desperate for changed atmosphere. They have been living in the same dark and dank atmosphere for months, or years. The light of praise bursts through to illuminate, warm, and soften the dark, cold, and hard places of the soul.
3. A sudden, violent, great earthquake. When Heaven breaks through to set us free, it is often sudden, violent, and great. God, in His jealousy for us and our ,freedom to worship Him sometimes shakes the very foundations of the prisons we are in; so much so that it will set others free around us from their prisons too.
Many shaky foundations need to be destroyed. The root causes of our addictions, bondages, sins, etc. need to be destroyed - at their root, quickly. Sometimes we need sudden, violent, forceful, and earth shattering disruptions in our lives.
God is not afraid to radically shake things up at our core to rescue us from ourselves. In fact, Matthew 11:12 tells us that, "from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been advancing FORCEFULLY." In Matthew 5:29, The Lord says that, "if your right eye causes you to sin, TEAR IT OUT and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your body parts than to have your whole body thrown into hell."
Sudden, violent force is disruptive and uncomfortable; yet it's the means by which the Kingdom of God advances, and the means by which sin in our lives is rooted out of us. Our spiritual inertia and our fleshly desire to remain comfortable spiritually, emotionally, and relationally; works at odds with and/or is the reason why God often does His best work in our lives suddenly, violently, and forcefully.
One translation calls the earthquake a GREAT earthquake. The earthquake was great in intensity, and most importantly what it accomplished. It accomplished something great in and for the Kingdom of God! All the prison doors were open. Everyone's chains were loosed.
The Lord was confirming to me that praise is the answer. Buy why? I kept asking The Lord, "Why is praise the answer?" The answer could have been so many things. Why praise?
The Lord eventually took me to Psalm 22:3, "But You are holy, You Who inhabit the praises of Israel." There, right in front of me, was my answer. The reason praise is the answer, is because He is the answer. He lives in His praise. Praise takes us into His Presence. In His Presence is fullness of joy, pleasure, and freedom (Psalm 16:11). In His Presence there is no sin, sickness, or satanic influence. Praise is the answer because He is the answer. Therefore, as Hebrews 13:15 exhorts, "Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God."
PRAYER
Abba Father. Please set my heart, soul, mind, and lips to praise You; continually and especially in the tough times and situations in my life. Amen in The Name of Jesus.
VERSES FOR MEDITATION
The Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness
"To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” - Isaiah 61:3
RESOURCES
Praise Releases Faith: Transforming Power for Your Life. Terry Law. (book)
King of Kings. Hillsong Worship (song)
Praise is Our Weapon, Bill Johnson (sermon video)
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