Psalm 22:3 says, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” Praise enthrones or rightfully seats the Lord on His throne in our heart ~ which is our belief center. How do you practice praise in your life? 

God’s power of strategic warfare through rejoicing and praise is stated in Psalm 68:1-2. It says, “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let those also who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.”

Verses 3-4 says, “But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God; yes, let them rejoice exceedingly. Sing to God, sing praises to His name; extol Him who rides on the clouds, by His name YAH, and rejoice before Him.”

The enemy of our soul hates praise. He will work diligently to stop us. Rehearse before the Lord what He means to you. Sovereign. Think about all the amazing, countless ways that He is Sovereign through every aspect of your life ~ He is always Present.

I was reminded again about the Altar of Incense when I read the book of Exodus. Exodus 30:1-10 was their instruction. Verse 7-8 says, “Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.”

What a great picture of persevering prayer. Note that it was sweet incense. Verse 37 says, “But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the Lord.”

Psalm 141:2 says, “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.” Hebrews 13:15 says, “Therefore by Him let us continually office the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Note the prayer is not for ourselves. It is full of thanksgiving for Who He is at all times.

I love the account of when Joshua set the 30,000 men behind the city of Ai to lie in ambush.  He set another 5,000 in ambush between Bethel and Ai. These men were to wait for a signal from Joshua. Until then they were to remain hidden and alert. 

The ambush was silently enacted. Joshua 8:20 says, “And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven. So they had no power to flee this way or that way…”

I liken this strategic warfare as secret prayer. Revelation 8:4 says, “And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.” There is more. Note the power.

Verse 5 says, “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.” That is future. However, think of it as collective prayer from the body of Christ now. It is a call to ministry on our heart-knees.

I love Malachi 3:16. It says, “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.”

Let us live in the acute awareness that the Lord listens to every conversation we are engaged in. In Luke 24:14-15 there were two men walking on the road to Emmaus. It says, “And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.”

God’s word gives us speech thermometers to observe to do. Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”

Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Psalm 15:2 says, “He who…speaks the truth in his heart.” Life-giving words nourish.

Our words come from our thoughts in our hearts. Matthew 15 was a parable. In verse 15 Peter asked that Jesus explain it to them. Verse 18-19 says, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts…”

Matthew 12:34 says, “…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Verse 36 says, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.” 

Paul gave his son in the faith a commandment. Remember the letters he wrote to Timothy were the last as he waited to be executed. 1 Timothy 1:5-6 says, “Now the purpose of this commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk.”

The Greek word for idle means: futile, worthless, empty, meaningless babble, and idle prattle.  It’s people who love to hear themselves talk but have nothing of substance to say.

Hebrews 4:13 in the Amplified says, “And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.”

Does your mind ever wander? Do you mentally dialogue with things you have no control over? 1 Chronicles 28:9 Amplified says, “…For the Lord searches all hearts and minds and understands all the wanderings of the thoughts…”

Joshua 1:8 instructs us to read His word, and meditate on it, “…that you may observe to do it…” 1 John 2:5-6 says, “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk as He walked.”

1 John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Psalm 15:2 says, “He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.” 

Cardiologists use heart monitors to detect any heart abnormalities. The Holy Spirit uses God’s word to reveal hidden nuances of sinful patterns in our lives. Behaviors that are so normal to us, we can’t detect them on our own.

John 14:30 says, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” Jesus had no past because He is eternal. He had no sin because He is the spotless Lamb of God.

Fiery darts are lobbed at us continually. If we do not detect and quench them through our shield of faith, they will penetrate and drop seed-lies into our hearts. They become part of our thought processes unknowingly. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he…”

Those lies are fallow ground. Hosea 10:12 -13 says, “…Break up your fallow ground…you have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way…” God’s word is eternal truth ~ a perfect lie detector. Ask the Holy Spirit what lies you have believed.

Sin has consequences. Galatians 6:8 says, “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption…” God the Righteous One, redeems all things. Nothing is in vain. In His forgiveness, He chooses to not bring our sins before us again after confession. 

The Lord is Merciful. Psalm 103:10 says, “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.” Sin is willful disobedience to what God has said to do in His word. Like Achan, he willfully disobeyed and reaped the consequences personally but also his family and everything he owned.

In Hosea 2, the prophet described how God’s people were unfaithful. Verses 14-15 can be applied to us. It says, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.

I will give her vineyards from there and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope…” Do you have a Valley of Achor in your life? There is hope. The Lord will use it in His process of molding you into His image as a testimony.

I am picking up an account that happened after the walls of Jericho came down. The Lord told them that the city was doomed by Him for destruction. Joshua 6:18 says, “And you, by all means abstain from the accused things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.”

His instructions were really clear. Yet Achan took some of the accused things and hid them under his tent. Note that all of Israel was affected. Joshua 7:12 says, “Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they had become doomed to destruction…”

I encourage you to read chapters 6 & 7. Good reminder of how just one sin in the camp affected the whole. So it is in each of our local churches. The one who harbors hidden sin, weakens the whole church.

Jesus paid the penalty for all sin of all mankind. When a believer sins, we are told to confess it to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Romans 12:2 in the J. B. Phillips says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

We can measure our spiritual maturity by how much we represent Jesus in every aspect of our lives. Colossians 1:21 says that we were once alienated and enemies in our minds. Then He reconciled us.

Verse 22 says, “In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” Colossians 2:5 says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.”

1 Peter 1:14 says, “As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts…” Ephesians 4:23 says to continually renew our minds.

Walking in the Spirit allows Him to war against any fleshly reactions, so that our manner of speech, our body language, our behavior is conformed to His holy nature.