1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens! 2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness! 3Praise Him with trumpet sound; praise Him with lute and harp! 4Praise Him with tambourine and dance; praise Him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise Him with sounding cymbals; praise Him with loud clashing cymbals! 6Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! ~ Psalms 150:1-6
In his 1977 book, Prayer Is Invading the Impossible, Pastor Jack Hayford referred to praise as, and I quote: “an instrument of violence.” Yes, he actually called praise an instrument of violence. But then he goes on to explain his train of thought. He wrote:
Praise upsets the climate, which furthers the growth of so much of life’s suffering, confusion, turmoil, and strife. Praise destroys the atmosphere in which sickness, defeat, discouragement, and futility flourish. Praise beats out hell’s brush fires. Praise breathes heaven’s life into the vacuum death produces on Earth. The consequent tornado of holy power will cast down the obstacles that sin, self, sickness, and Satan have erected.
Pastor Jack Hayford
When we think of it that way, praise is indeed an instrument of violence. No wonder the Psalmist ended this praise psalm with “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!”
When you are feeling defeated, praise.
When you are feeling discouraged, praise.
When you are feeling sick, praise.
When all hell breaks loose and comes against you, praise.
Praise is a weapon, or as Pastor Hayford put it, praise is an instrument of violence. We, as Christians, need to get violent in the spiritual and begin to tear down strongholds. We must stop being so passive, so dignified, and so quiet. Remember, only the violent take it by force. You want it, come and get it, but you must come prepared to be violent, so bring your instrument of violence, bring your praise. There is a Jamaican praise and worship song that goes something like this:
I com’ ya to take it by force, by force
I com’ ya to take it by force
We need to come prepared to it by force. That is what the Church needs: spiritual warriors who come prepared to do battle in the spiritual, who come prepared to make war on demonic forces, to cast out the spirit of infirmity, drive out the spirit of depression, and chase out the spirit of suicide. We need more of these warriors and even more so as we see the day approaching.
Dear Heavenly Father, we take the authority that Your Son Jesus gave His Church to trample on demons and to tread on serpents and scorpions. We take up the authority given to us over all the power of the enemy. And in that authority, I command the spirit of depression to leave in the Name of Jesus. Spirit of Suicide, I command you, in the name of Jesus, to leave now! I speak shalom peace over each person who reads this prayer and accepts this prayer right now. I speak health and life over the sick and command sickness to leave your body now, in the name of Jesus, for by His stripes, you are healed. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen, and amen.
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