Praise and Worship Through The Firey Trials

Words of Life!
by Pastor Jennifer Mears
2/3/2010


So many are struggling today. Spiritually, financially, in health, in strength. I feel in my spirit that God is calling us to a higher level of praise, worship, and He is developing faith within each believer - He desires a closer walk with us. It is through praise and worship that we will see our breakthroughs. In The Word of God, praise and worship are not just acts before someone preaches a message or something that we just do during a church service...praise and worship are connected to our everyday lives.

When we hear the words praise and worship, many have music come to mind. But, truly, praise is the acknowledgement of God and His actions within our lives. Worship acknowledges who God is. Many examples of this are within the pages of The Bible. If we take many of those phrases of scripture and plant them in our heart and spirits, they will keep us, nourish us, preserve us, complete and comfort us. It is absolutely not possible to be depressed or worried and medidate on praise and worship at the same time!

Praise is faith - with a voice! It is applause of God's works and miracles - past, present and future! The sound from our mouth during praise and worship should be a mighty, two-edged sword of The Word and The Holy Spirit of God. Mightier than any moutain we are facing! A supernatural weapon in spiritual warfare against the works of the enemy - allowing God's works to shake the foundation and destroy the handiwork of the enemy. Truly, trials reveal character and produces character. It is how we respond to the trials, through the reason of the trials, that brings result to that trial. Trials prove our faith, revealing our true character. Trials will come. There is no avoiding them. But, Jesus said He would go with us, even to the end of the world and that he would stick closer to us than a brother. It is through the fire, we are made strong. As we trial, He triumphs. We just need to get a hold of that and let God be God - in all circumstances, even the little things. This will build us up into the mighty warriors that will be able to stand, and many times that is all we need to do...just stand.

God is in the process of making us everything we should be. In maturity, and truth, and faith.
For this to be accomplished, trials are necessary. They build in us an endurance, a steadfastness under pressure which will develop us as mature men in Christ.

It is impossible to be in continual praise and live in defeat. Through our praise, we are paralyzing the enemy. You see, the devil throws stuff at us to discourage us and then, through discouragement, he obtains more power in defeating us and stealing our joy and praise - but, if we praise God through it all, God's presence brings POWER - strength to the weakened and victory over all the mess that the enemy tries to create!

Stand firm against those firey darts of the enemy - holding that shield of faith and sword of The Holy Spirit - claim and proclaim Words of The Holy Scriptures. The most powerful prayers have the Word spoken within them - and mean what you say! You gotta know that you know that you know what you are saying is Truth - and those words will set you free. Our miracles are in our mouths - speak them out into the atmosphere! There is Power in speaking and covering ourselves and our circumstances in The Blood of Jesus...Power in God's Word and Promises. Rely on them. Lean on them. Stand firm on them. Believe! Know! And Expect! God will move upon your faith! Keep talking to him. Surrender everything to God and just stand still, know He is God, and watch His Marvelous Works unfold all around you.

Loving you and praying for you, always.

In His Service,
Pastor Jennifer Mears


The Book of James
1:2-27 (Amplified Version)
2Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.

3Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.

4But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.

5If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of [b]the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.

6Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.

7For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord,

8[For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides].

9Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his elevation [as a Christian, called to the true riches and to be an heir of God],

10And the rich [person ought to glory] in being humbled [by being shown his human frailty], because like the flower of the grass he will pass away.

11For the sun comes up with a scorching heat and parches the grass; its flower falls off and its beauty fades away. Even so will the rich man wither and die in the midst of his pursuits.(A)

12Blessed (happy, [c]to be envied) is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive [the victor's] crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.

13Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted from God; for God is incapable of being tempted by [what is] evil and He Himself tempts no one.

14But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions).

15Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death.

16Do not be misled, my beloved brethren.

17Every good gift and every perfect ([d]free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse].

18And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures [a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself].

19Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry.

20For man's anger does not promote the righteousness God [wishes and requires].

21So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.

22But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].

23For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror;

24For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.

25But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).

26If anyone thinks himself to be religious (piously observant of the external duties of his faith) and does not bridle his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person's religious service is worthless (futile, barren).

27External [e]religious worship [[f]religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world.