BE LIBERATED! 21 DAYS OF WORSHIP!

The Power of Praise! Seven Day Focus! Begin by Praising!

Praise is a response that we should have to God when He reveals Himself to us. Therefore, praise can occur at the point of revelation rather than at the actual time of the manifestation of the promise.  As we praise God in advance when He speaks to us or gives us faith to believe Him for a manifestation of something we desire, He enthrones Himself or makes Himself King over that situation in our life.  Praise comes from a Latin word meaning “value” or “price.” Thus, to give praise to God is to proclaim His merit or worth.  Many terms are used to express this in the Bible, including “glory,” “blessing,” “thanksgiving,” and “hallelujah.”  The Hebrew title of the book of Psalms (“Praises”) comes from the same root as “hallelujah,” and Psalms 113-118 have been specially designated the “Hallel” (“praise”) Psalms.

The modes of praise are many, including the offering of sacrifices (Lev. 7:13), physical movement (2 Sam. 6:14), silence and meditation (Ps. 77:11-12), testimony (Ps. 66:16), prayer (Phil. 4:6), and a holy life (1 Pet. 1:3-9).  Praise is many times linked to music, both instrumental (Ps. 150:3-5) and vocal.  Praise is to originate in the heart and not become mere outward show (Matt. 15:8).  The Bible displays outbursts of praise! God takes pleasure and delight in His works and expects us to express our joy in what He does.  The coming of the kingdom of God into the midst of this world is marked by the restoration of joy and praise to the people of God (Is. 9:2; Ps. 96:11-13; Rev. 5:9-14; Lk. 2:13-14).  Praise arises from sheer joy in the redeeming presence of God (Dt. 27:7; Nu. 10:10; Lv. 23:40).  The praise of God is rendered on earth for the works of creation and redemption (Ps. 24; 136).  Praise is an echo on earth of the praise of heaven (Rev. 4:11; 5:9-10).  Praise distinguishes the people of God from the heathen who refuse to render it (1 Pet. 2:9; Eph. 1:3-14; Phil. 1:11, Rom. 1:21).  The act of praising implies the closest fellowship with the One who is being praised.

Let’s Begin Now with Seven Days of Praise!

DAY 1:  Read Psalm 130 and Rev. 2:10. Praise God for removing your past and extending abundant grace and forgiveness to you.  Stand in His Presence and receive an outpouring of His grace.  Let Hope arise new and fresh.  Let assurance of redemption rest upon you and command all fear to leave you.

DAY 2:  Read Psalms 131 – 134.  Praise God and let perfect peace manifest in you.  Stop striving and leaning on your own understanding concerning your circumstances and allow trust to arise.  Embrace the faithful love of God.  As a weaned child rests against his mother’s breast, declare your soul is a weaned child within you.  A weaned child has come to a new place of maturity.  There is no peace until all our enemies are under our feet.  Ascend above your enemies and reach the goal of the throne room.  Sing, praise, and worship in the presence of the LORD.  Receive a new anointing, like the oil poured on Aaron’s head and flowing down the hem of his robe.

DAY 3:  Read Joshua 5 and Joshua 6.  Praise God!  Ask the Lord for the strategy of worship that will dethrone that which is invincible in your life and stopping you from moving forward in your promise.

DAY 4:  Read Psalm 34.  Praise God for the angels that are encamping around you.  Also, read Psalm 85.  Praise God for restoring favor to your land.

DAY 5:  Read Philippians 4.  Thank God for establishing your mind on Him and making you think His thoughts.  Realign your thoughts.  Declare that you will capture each thought you have contrary to God’s judgment.

DAY 6:  Read Acts 16:16-34.  Praise God and watch your prison doors let go.  Watch salvation come to those around you who are imprisoned.

DAY 7:  Read Isaiah 12 and Numbers 21:10-18.  Praise breaks open your wells of salvation. Praise is the cure for dryness.  Praise and receive a renewed spirit!

Release Your Full Deliverance and Destiny Through 14 Days of Worship!

The Biblical precedent that we can call on in seasons like these is to “Send Judah First.”  Worship and warfare are intimately related one to another. Remember the passage in 2 Chronicles where the Lord Himself sent ambushes against the enemy when Judah was sent to precede the army.  As we accelerate in this new era, we are seeing another momentous shift in worship, which may be related to God’s redemptive word in our time and pivotal in the spiritual battle both on earth and in the heavenlies.  We are advancing to an intimate, strategic, warring worship.

This whole Era is an Era of War!   While the words “worship” and “war” are familiar, they nonetheless produce extreme and opposing emotions—seldom do we see the two work in tandem. As servants of God, we know we are to worship Him. We also know that we fight in a spiritual battle. We usually render worship in adoration toward God and associate it with good, uplifting, even ecstatic feelings. Worship is often focused upward and can embody the qualities of holiness, reverence, and awe. We see ourselves as givers and God as the recipient. Warring, on the other hand, involves taking a stand, overcoming a threat, invading territory, or conquering an enemy. In war, we often view ourselves as defenders against a dangerous force or sustainers of righteousness and truth. This is true in spiritual as well as physical conflicts.  In the typical scenario, worship has not been part of the battle plan; it has come only in the form of thanksgiving after a victory, but God is calling us to bridge worship and warfare.

When we read the Bible, we find that God instructs us to ascend into the Throne Room in heaven, be clothed in His authority, and descend into war. There is a sound of heaven that enables us to recognize, embrace, and advance through this process. It moves us toward victory in accomplishing God’s will on earth. God is calling us to be worship warriors!  As we individually seek God and ascend into the Throne Room, we can hear the sound in heaven in our spirit man on earth.  God does not play favorites. Everyone can embrace this call to ascend and become a worship warrior. If we believe in Jesus, we are automatically enlisted in His army. Worship warriors arise! Worship Warriors of every generation, young and old, connect and stand. This is the time to worship, enter boldly into the Throne Room, be clothed with favor, and go to war. The sound is being released. Listen to it. Enter the battle. Release the Harvest!

Let Judah Arise and Go First!

There is a great inheritance that He has for each one of us individually. He also has a corporate inheritance that He is calling the Body of Christ into that will affect each territory throughout the nations of the earth. The time is NOW to war for our inheritance. There are personal promises God wants to manifest. This is a time of the preparation and shifting of the mantle of authority for the next generation. How do we proceed?  Look at what Judges 1:1-2 relates: “Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, ‘Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?’ And the Lord said, ‘Judah shall go up. Indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand.’”  Judah was selected as the tribe of divine preeminence in Jacob’s patriarchal blessing.  Genesis 49:8-10 gives us more insight: “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”

PASSOVER APPROACHES!

Day 8: Read Ephesians 1:3-6 and memorize verse 3.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Meditate on and memorize Eph. 1:3.

Day 9: Read Heb 1:14. Declare that these ministering spirits will transcend to the natural realm from the spiritual realm.  As we ascend in worship, we know that a portal opens for angelic visitation. During our times of prayer and crying out to God, during those times when we worship with abandonment as David did, we enter the realm of the spirit. Read Romans 9:29 and Psalm 46.  One of the names and characteristics of God is Lord Sabaoth, Lord of Hosts. The Hebrew word tsebha’oth means hosts or armies. Lord Sabaoth is the: God of the armies of earth; God of the armies of the stars; God of the unseen armies of angels. When we worship, He begins to order and align His armies for victory. “Hosts” signifies an organized group under authority. God has a multitude of ready and able servants. This suggests that the Lord is the commander and chief of the armies in heaven.  Sing the timeless hymn that acknowledges this character of God: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

Day 10: Read Psalm 29. When sound comes into the air, the air changes. When God releases His voice, creation must respond. When we serve as God’s voice on earth, earth responds to the sound we release. When we express ourselves in worship to the Lord, the air vibrates with our worship. This causes our environment to change. Declare that the sound of true worship will transform your city, state, and nation. Worship and declare that your atmosphere will change.

Day 11: Read 2 Chron. 20:20-22.  God gives us strategies that are not from the wisdom of this world. The example He has presented to us is to send Judah first, not necessarily the wisest or the strongest. Let praise lead the way. Praise breaks through. Jehoshaphat was able to win the day by sending his praise team first. Read Hosea 10:11. Unshakable praise plows through the hardest ground.  When the ground is hard, when the circumstances are adverse, God’s favor is on the one who will lead off with praise. Fallow ground will break up. Declare the plow of praise will cut through ungiving earth and make a way for the good seed of the Word to be planted.

Day 12: Read Psalm 30:5. “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning” (NASB). Unshakable praise must keep going. Judah goes first through wilderness experiences. Judah goes first in the war for our inheritance. Judah goes first to plow a way into new territory. Judah goes first when the cost is great.

Day 13: Read James 5.  The Word of God tells us to submit ourselves to God, draw near to Him, and then resist the devil. I believe that as we worship and submit ourselves to a holy God, we can come into intimate contact with Him. Even though we walk here on the earth, through our worshipful submission, we ascend into heaven. As we individually seek God and ascend into the Throne Room, we can hear the sound in heaven in our spirit man on earth.

Day 14: Read Numbers 10.  Read Rev. 1.  God always led His people forth with sound. We find in Numbers 10 that trumpets would sound. We also find this all the way through the book of Revelation.  The book of Revelation is just an incredible, elaborate pageant that is interpreted for us by heavenly, celestial singers along with creatures and elders. John saw a door standing open in heaven, and the voice he heard was like a trumpet speaking and saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things that must take place after this” (see Rev. 1:10). The Lord’s voice many times sounds like a trumpet calling us forth. The trumpet, or shofar, in the Word of God, had a distinct sound to assemble and call God’s people to war.

Day 15: Read 2 Samuel 5.  Another sound we find before God led His troops forward was “the wind in the mulberry trees.” In 2 Samuel 5, David had experienced a major breakthrough in his own life. What had been prophesied over him 29 years prior had actually come into fulfillment. He then had to lead the armies forth into battle. David had one driving purpose: to get the Ark of the Covenant of God back into its rightful position in the midst of God’s covenant people. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed as king, they rose up against him. David defeated and drove them back out of his jurisdictional authority. However, they regrouped and started coming back at him again. He then asked the Lord if he was to pursue them. In 2 Samuel 5:24, the Lord answers, “And . . . when you hear the sound of the marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly.” The sound of marching is not just the wind blowing the tops of the trees, but it is the hosts of heaven and the armies of God rustling the leaves and signifying they were present to help David in victory. In the book of Revelation, we find the real issue is the relationship between the sounds of heaven and the demonstration of God on earth.  Sound leads us forth.  Read Deut. 20 and Deut. 32:30.   One can put 1,000 to flight, but two can put 10,000 to flight. This is a valuable principle of multiplication.  Ask the Lord for an increase in strength.

Day 16: Read Matt 18:19. Jesus told us, “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:19, NASB). This is the power of agreement that increases the effectiveness of our prayers. The word “agree” means to come into harmony with. It actually means we make the same sound on earth that is coming from heaven.  Declare that our sounds on earth will be in harmony with the sounds of heaven. Read Matt. 18:20. We have a special promise from Jesus that He, Himself, will show up when we gather together in His name. “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst” (Matt. 18:20, NASB). When we come together, He is there with us.  Declare that we will be a people who abide in the Lord’s presence. Also, read and sing Psalm 91.

Day 17: Ask God for a new Song of the Spirit. The new song is mentioned seven times in the Old Testament (six references in Psalms, one in Isaiah 42:10). It is referred to once in the New Testament (Rev. 5:9). This should inform us that both Psalms and Revelation publish theology that is sung. Before scriptural trust is systematized, it is sung. The Church must always sing ahead of its theology because our hearts must be impacted before our minds are informed. Otherwise, we are left with head knowledge only. Of course, an informed mind can enhance our worship once our hearts are impacted! The New Covenant called for a New Song—a new worship response to the finished work of Christ in His death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation!

Day 18: Enter into the Throne Room with a Song of Enthronement. These are songs that declare the coronation of our King on high! Psalm 110:1-2 is such a song where the Lord God calls for His Son to be seated at His right hand until all His enemies are made His footstool. This passage is referred to by Peter at Pentecost in Acts 2:29-36. Pentecost was the installation of King Jesus and the inauguration of His everlasting government. In fact, Pentecost fulfills the covenant promises to David that one of his seed would sit on the throne forever. Let’s go up to Zion! Let us, through the Spirit, ascend into the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3; 2:6; Revelation 4:1).

Day 19: Acts 15:16 records James’ quote of Amos 9:12, which refers to “the remnant of Edom” and a remnant of the nations being called by the Lord. Ask the Lord for a Song of Harvest. Notice when James quotes this, he expands the remnant to “the rest of mankind.” Historically, David ruled over Edom, and they paid him tribute. Jesus, the Son of David, will rule all the nations, and the Church will reap a massive harvest from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and people! (Rev. 7:9). Psalm 126 sings of the harvest coming in after a time of tearful sowing. Church, we need to worshipfully sing the harvest in and evangelistically bring them in as sheaves carried by a harvester!

Day 20: Read Rev. 5:8-9. Let Songs of Prophetic Declaration and Intercession arise within your heart. This is where we see harps and bowls in heaven. Harps speak of worship and bowls of intercession. Our intercession is like incense ascending into heaven, which the angel collects in bowls. When the bowls are full, they are tipped and released by the angel into the earth realm in the form of voices, thunderings, lightnings, and earthquakes (Rev. 8:3-5). This sounds like the shaking at Mount Sinai. The point is that when we are faithful to corporately release incense through our intercession, the Lord is faithful to intervene in the situations and lives for which we have been praying! Don’t miss this: we find the mingling and merging of worship (harps) and intercession (bowls) in both the Psalms and Revelation. This is the pattern for our corporate worship in the Body of Christ! This merger releases the dynamics of the prophetic ministry! Then we are emboldened to prophesy over churches, cities, nations, and civil governments. Amen!

Day 21:   Read Exodus 15.  Sing a Song of Victory and Deliverance. These songs are the result of the victory of God and His people over their enemies. The Exodus clearly presents this truth when the redeemed and delivered people of God sing of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage by the supernatural power of Jehovah. Their song has historical and prophetic dimensions. In fact, 40 years later, when the spies met Rahab in Jericho, she told them that the men of Jericho began to fear the people of God when they heard of the Exodus. The prophetic song put fear into the hearts of their enemies! In the book of Revelation, worship, and intercession overcome apostate religious systems and beast-like political structures.

Now ASCEND through the Psalms.  Through the Psalms of Ascent, there is a cycle of crying for help, being delivered, and then ascending higher.  Read Psalm 120, 121.  Psalm 120 begins the ascent with the people in trouble and crying out to God. They are surrounded by lying and deceit and are being shot at with flaming arrows. The solution is to ascend to the Lord in Zion.  Psalm 121 is the actual beginning of the ascent at the foot of Mount Zion. Ask the Lord to help you in the ascent and to secure your footing.  Decree Liberation! DANCE A DANCE OF FREEDOM!

Blessings,

Chuck D. Pierce