Unusual Encounter 2023 Day 6 Evening Session

TRINITY HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH

 

UNUSUAL ENCOUNTER 2023

 

DAY 6 (EVENING SESSION)

 

SERMON

TOPIC:                      Blessings that Praises bring

TEXT:                        Psalms 67:5 – 6

PREACHER:             Pastor Yinka Omolohunnu

 

MESSAGE

I am really excited because I know that this evening, the Lord will pour down blessings upon us again. I don’t know if you feel the same way but I know that blessings will come down mightily. This evening, I want to bring the word of God to us briefly from Psalms 67:5 – 6:

5: let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

6: Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.

I want you to say this prophetically to yourself, ‘God will bless me. My own God will bless me!’ So shall it be in the name of Jesus. If you read that passage further, it makes understand that when the Lord blesses us, there are certain things that happen, one of such things is that the nations will fear before Him.

When we say ‘blessings,’ we are not just talking about material things. We are not talking about just money but even things that are immaterial and intangible; we may not see them but we see their impacts. Blessings is God’s intervention in mankind’s activity. It is a divine intervention that gives us access into things that we naturally cannot get, into benefits we naturally cannot have and so, when the Bible says if the whole earth should praise God, blessings would come, it means that things are going to be triggered in our lives that will make the nations fear before God. This evening, I pray for you that as you continue in this praise service, the blessings of the Lord that maketh rich and adds no sorrow shall be your portion in the name of Jesus. Amen.

I will share with us five of those blessings among many others. Five of the blessings that praises bring:

1. The Blessing of Deliverance: When we praise God and we praise Him acceptably, there is deliverance. There is deliverance from all forms of bondage; prison doors would be open and all manner of deliverances would take place. Acts 16:25 – 27 says, ‘And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.’

‘And suddenly there was a great earthquake….’ Somebody, I say to you, suddenly your deliverance will come. ‘…and immediately all the doors were opened,’ I don’t know what good door the enemy has shut against your life, as you praise the Lord this evening, immediately they shall be opened. It says again that ‘everyone’s bands (chains) were loosed.’ Everyone! Not only Paul and Silas’ but everyone there. Because you are here this evening, everyone connected to you, as you praise God, their chains would be loosed and broken in the name of Jesus. So, deliverance comes when we praise God. There was a great earthquake and the doors were opened. The prison doors opened and the chains loosed.

2. There is confusion in the camp of the adversary. 2 Chronicles 20:22 – 23, ‘And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another.’

If you believe in the authenticity of the scriptures, you will know that this is not just a story, this is something that actually happened. Three nations who had plotted and came together against Judah and said, this is what we are going to do to Judah but when the people of God began to praise, when they lifted up their voices in praise, suddenly, the enemies did not recognize each other; suddenly, the enemies saw each other as enemies. Suddenly, there was confusion in their camp and they began to attack each other. I see this as something that is so amazing. And if it happened for them then, it can happen to us also. As you praise the Lord this evening, there would be confusion in the camp of the enemy. I don’t know how many hands have joined together to ensure you are not going forward, I don’t know what they may have done or their number but as you praise the Lord this evening, the Lord will put confusion in their camp in the name of Jesus.

Now, in Acts 16:27, the Bible tells us that the man who kept the prison, when he saw that the doors were opened wanted to kill himself, this can only be confusion. The only thing that came to his heart was to take his own life. I declare this evening that your enemies would turn against each other. You know, something came to my heart when I was reading this scripture again. The Bible says, ‘There was a great earthquake’ but that was not enough to wake this gatekeeper until the doors open. I pray, the Lord will give all your adversaries supernatural sleep, the sleep that will not allow them to see your progress. By the time they wake up, you are already at the top in the name of Jesus. So, when you praise the Lord, and you praise Him acceptably, there is confusion in the camp of the adversary.

3. We receive the blessings of provision when we praise the Lord. God will supernaturally provide for us. You know, after this incident that took place with Jehoshaphat; after Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir had killed each other, the Bible says there was a great spoil; there was great goods. That means their properties were left. Money, clothing, etc. were left and it took three days in gathering those spoils. They had so much that they could not take everything in one day and after they were gathering and keep gathering, I could imagine them saying, ‘O God, this blessing is too much.’ For someone listening to me this evening, after this praise service, the Blessings that will descend upon you will be the blessings that will cause you to be amazed.

There is blessing of provision when we praise God, and if you look at the other account in Acts 16, the Bible tells us that after Paul and Silas praised the Lord, the man who was keeping the prison and watching over their imprisonment, when he saw that the doors were opened and the chains were loosed, wanted to kill himself but Paul restrained him. The next thing this man did then was to take them out. He took them to his own house, washed their wounds and set a table before them. This is what the Lord said about setting a table before us in the presence of our enemies. This is what is called feasting in the presence of the enemy. You know, sometimes, we focus so much on the enemy without caring for what is on the table. We are so conscious of the enemy that we are not aware of what the Lord has set before us.

Let me share something with you that happened several years ago which is a practical example of a table set before one in the presence of one’s enemy with one still focusing on the enemy. When I was in JSS 2 in boarding school, when one of the favourite meals is prepared and shortly before the actual time of the dining, the prefects go around and discover that the people in the hall are quite much and thus, there would be shortage of food that day, about two or three minutes before the actual time, they would come out and stop people who are coming in, telling them to kneel and wait there. Then, they would communicate with each other and check if the food would still go round. If they discover that they could still manage to give some more people, they would send some people inside. This day, I and my friends were going and saw that people were already kneeling down, we just gave up and told ourselves to go to our guardian’s house and take provisions instead. While we were going, fortunately and unfortunately, the teacher on duty was the senior boarding house master who also happened to be our guardian. So, as we were getting there, we met him and he asked what we were doing there. We told him we wanted to take our provision. He asked if we were not supposed to be at dining and we said we got there late. Back then in the school, we had seniors who were like terrorists, so it paid to offend teachers than terrorists. He told us to follow him; we followed but were shivering. As soon as we got there, they had started eating. He took us straight to the prefects’ table and told us to sit down. He took the prefects’ food and told one of the prefects to serve us. The food was much but it was tasting like gravel in my mouth. We were three and one of us was already in tears. It was only one of us that said, ‘Look, even if they would kill us, let us eat this food.’ The prefects, in fact the headboy would come and ask if we were enjoying our food. Anytime he came and said that, I would shake again. I couldn’t eat that food because I was looking at the enemy while the table was there. I pray for you this evening, anything that would cause you to take your eyes off the table and keep looking at the enemy, the Lord will take it away in the name of Jesus. The funny thing was they didn’t do anything to us at the end of the day. So, a table was set for Paul and Silas and the gatekeeper was even ensuring that they were well fed; that would be your story in the name of Jesus.

4. When we praise God, our faith is strengthened. In Romans 4:20, the Bible says, ‘He (Abraham) staggered not at the promise through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;’ One of the secrets of Abraham that we have not really talked about is the secret of praise. Can you imagine somebody waiting for 25 years for a promise, what could have kept him? One of the secret was praise. The Bible says in Psalms 50:23, ‘Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.’ The AMP version of Romans 4:20, says about Abraham that ‘No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God.’ So, praise strengthens our faith and praise gives us capacity to take delivery of what God has promised us. Another thing praise does is that it gives us boldness to confront situations. Paul and Silas were jailed. When it was time for them to be released and the keeper of the jail told them to go, they said they were not going to move and told him to escort them out, that’s boldness. This evening, the Lord will give you boldness in the name of Jesus.
5. Finally, what blessing does praise give us? It empowers us. Psalms 149:6 – 9 says, ‘Let the high praises of God be in their throats and a two-edged sword in their hands, To wreak vengeance upon the nations and chastisement upon the peoples, To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, To execute upon them the judgement written. He [the Lord] is the honour of all His saints. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)’

‘Let the high praises of God be in their throats and a two-edged sword in their hands,’ this means that praise empowers. When praise comes through their mouth, a double-edged sword appears in their hands. When praise goes up to God, there is empowerment and do you know one of the reasons people are afflicted? It’s because there is no power and comforter.

Ecclesiastes 4:1, says, ‘…and I beheld the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they [too] had no comforter.’ In other words, there was power in the side of the adversary but for them, they did not have adequate power to confront their oppressors. So, as you praise the Lord this evening, expect the Lord to empower you, expect the Lord to deposit something in your life. And what does this empowerment do? (1.) To execute vengeance and judgement; (2.) To punish the wicked; (3.) To bind with chains and fetters. This evening, as you give yourself to praise, every adversary of your soul, advancement and destiny, will be bound in the name of Jesus.

Prayer

I want you to ask the Lord: Help me to praise you with understanding this evening. The Bible asks us to praise with understanding. Tell the Lord, ‘Help me to praise you with understanding, so that I can take delivery and possession of all these blessings and many more.’