I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people talk about the insignificance of worship in church. Unfortunately, many people view worship as something that simply happens before and after the message, as if singing praise is just a form of musical embellishment. What I want to talk about this month is the power worship has through the Holy Spirit.
In the Understanding Worship EQUIP class that recently wrapped up, we listened to a message titled “Ambushing Satan with Song”. In this message John Piper talks about the immense power that singing has against the weapons of the devil. He talks about Jehoshaphat and the battle he faced against his enemies. There is no doubt that Jehoshaphat was fearful of this war, but instead of letting that fear overtake him, He looked to the Lord for His help. 2 Chronicles 20:18-19 shows us the tool that Jehoshaphat uses against the schemes of the devil. “Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.” What a beautiful message! These warriors had a posture of worship and the Holy Spirit fought for them.
So why is it that singing praises is such a strong tool against the spiritual and physical warfare we face in life? The devil is looking to draw us away from our Savior by whatever means necessary. He places roadblocks and distractions everywhere we look in our lives. We know that with Christ in us, the devil has no power over us, but sometimes we let ourselves get so caught up in the things of this world that we let Satan win some battles. The reason singing praises ambushes the devil is that worship has absolutely nothing to do with him or his agenda. When we are singing truths to our Savior with our hearts in the right place, we leave no room for the devil and his schemes. He is utterly removed from the situation as we sing our praises to Jesus alone!
Here are a couple of challenges for you as well as myself. When we are singing in church, let’s remember that the praises we are singing are to the Creator of the universe. Singing is not just embellishing the Word; it is our battle cry as we face the hardships of this life. Our flesh is weak, but we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us! Secondly, I challenge all of us to have the lyrics of our favorite songs and Psalms close to our hearts. Piper suggests having a bookmark with lyrics from various songs. This way we have our weapons ready for when the devil tries to pull our focus away from Jesus. Through the Holy Spirit we can fight the warfare in our life with a song!
