182 - God Responds to Our Praises

God responds to our praises because we are responding to His Love -- to what He has done for us  -- His forgiveness and salvation. We respond to His goodness, to His faithfulness and to His promises. We respond to Him as He responds to our praises and in so doing, He comes into our presence, into our souls and recreates our old nature into His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). The Psalmist David sang: "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel" (Psalm 22:3, KJV). God is a holy God and He inhabits the praises of His people. At Pentecost, the church was praising God and 3,000 people were added to their number. The word "inhabit" is translated in many ways. We could say that God "occupies" the praises of His people. He "dwells" in our praises. He "abides" in the praises of His children. He "lives, permeates, pervades, and manifests" Himself in the praises of His church.

When we are born of the Spirit, God enters us, inhabiting us and changing us into His Spiritual image. Then the Holy Spirit begins to flow out of us. This is a flow of praise. As we allow Him to flow and indwell our lives, our minds are renewed so we can be used by God through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. If the devil can, he will try to stop the flow by grieving and quenching the Spirit through his devices, causing doubts and depression. But we have received power.

Luke recorded, "And they [the disciples] worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (Luke 24:52-53, KJV). This is a record of the early Christians, continually praising God, even though they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. In Acts, chapter 1 and 2, they received "power" (Acts 1:8). That is the manifestation of their praise. The Holy Spirit, like Jesus, came to destroy the works of the devil. Let's look deeper into these truths so that our praises can bring about the change that empowers us to defeat the works of the devil. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8b, KJV). Selah!

Let me hear from you - Charles

https://www.aboundinglove.org/

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