Repost from 3/11/08
Often times the enemy sends the spirit of heaviness to torment me. This past weekend that is exactly what happened. Out of no where everything bothered me. I was easily agitated and aggravated with my family. I was feeling sad and emotional for the littlest things. I had a horrible "woe is me" attitude.
I wanted to get some air so I went to walk my dogs when I remembered that just two days prior out the blue I heard the Spirit of the Lord say "The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness". I didn't get it at the time because I wasn't feeling any heaviness. Then I realized that he was warning me of the attack to come, this attack.
Praise is a weapon. God has given us the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Did you know that heaviness is a spirit? (Isaiah 61:3) When you praise God those bad feelings and that heaviness has to leave. You see God inhabits the praise of his people. When we are praising Him and lifting His name up how can any demonic spirit or oppression remain in our prescence? They can't!(Psalm 22:3)
There is a story in the bible where God uses the praises of his people in battle. The king of Judah had a vast army coming up against them. The king and his people fasted and interceded before the Lord regarding the battle. He told them not to be afraid because the battle was not theirs it was his. Read what happens:
2 Chronicles 20:21-22 After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: "Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever." As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.
Praise always wins the battle. Listening to praise music can change your whole attitude when you’re going through it. I have had battles with heaviness so severe that I have had to walk around with my iPod on all day just to protect my mind. When I put on my Mary Mary cd or praise playlist I listen to the lyrics and begin to sing along. I find that I almost immediately start feeling peaceful and comforted. I am reminded that the battle that I am going through is the Lord's. I begin thanking, worshipping, and loving on God because of all that He has done for me and all that he is going to do.
Don't let heaviness have its way with you. Put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
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