We must move on. The sixth point in my outline is we must apply the power of jubilant praise and bold proclamation. There's one Scripture which has become a favorite with me in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 7. Jeremiah 31 verse 7. This is concerning the restoration of Israel in these last days. For thus says the Lord, sing with gladness for Jacob and shout among the chief of the nations, proclaim, give praise and say, O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel. There are three weapons or three activities spoken of there which I believe are crucial for us to understand.
They are praise, proclaim and pray. Praying is this, saying, O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel. Now the Lord has declared He's going to save the remnant of Israel.
You could say, well, He could do it without our praying. But God says in another place, I will not do it until I'm inquired for to do it. Understand, praying is our contribution to the outworking of God's purposes in the earth.
And God, somebody said, has chosen to need us. He could have done without us, but He's not going to. But praying is not just thinking of anything we want and asking for it. Praying is discovering God's revealed purpose in Scripture and then praying for the outworking of that purpose. Summed up really beautifully in the words of the Virgin Mary, when the angel brought the promise, she said, Be it unto me according to thine.
That's the most powerful prayer you can ever pray. Paul said God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think. How?
By fulfilling His Word. Because what God has promised in His Word is far above anything that we in our natural mind could ask or think. So prayer. But as I say, it's not going to God with a shopping list. It's intelligently discovering God's purpose and then aligning ourselves with it.
And it takes persistence. There are some things that Ruth and I have been praying for for ten years. They haven't come yet.
When that happens, you know, you discover whether you're praying in faith or unbelief. Because if you're praying in unbelief you say, I've been praying for ten years and nothing has happened. But if you're praying in faith you say, the answer is ten years nearer than when I started praying.
Jesus said, men ought to persist in prayer and not to faint. I think Ruth and I have discovered that this is one of the great tests and shaping instruments of Christian character is persistence in prayer. Discovering the will of God and asking God to do what He said He will do. Then there is praise. In Psalm 102, Well, we might as well turn there.
Keep your finger on Jeremiah 31 because we're coming back, hopefully. Time permits. Psalm 102. This is again a prophecy of the restoration of Zion at the close of this day. And it says in verse 18, Psalm 102, after the prophecy of the restoration of Zion, it says, this will be written for the generation to come. that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.
I believe that refers to this time of the restoration of Zion. God is creating a people with one supreme commitment to do what? To praise Him.
That's right. It's as though God says, well, my people have been so slack through so many centuries to give me the kind of praise that I desire. that I'm going to create a people especially to praise me. And I think the Charismatic Movement is the beginning of that. I think there's many weaknesses and failings in the Charismatic Movement.
But there has come forth a new level of praise, at least a vision of what praise could be, and how important it is to praise God. In Psalm 8, David said, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength that thou mightest, because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still or silence the enemy and the avenger. And when Jesus quoted that in Matthew 21 verse 9, He changed the words thou hast ordained strength to thou hast perfected praise.
So what is the ordained strength of God's people? Perfected praise. What does that do?
It silences who? The enemy and the avenger. Why do we need to silence Satan? What is he doing all this time?
Accusing us. You say, why doesn't God stop Satan from accusing us? Because God says, I've given you the means to stop Satan.
If you learn to praise me the way I want to be praised, it'll silence Satan. I was preaching in Lausanne with a French interpreter some years back. And I quoted this and I...
It was quoted in French, and I understand French. And I was gripped by the phrase, it says, praise imposes silence on the enemy and the living. What a wonderful revelation that we can impose silence on Satan.
We can say to him, shut up, isn't that marvelous? What do we do there? How do we do that?
By praise. See, if God's people would take the time and learn to praise Him and spend... hours in praising Him with pure hearts and honest motives.
Not trying to twist God's arm, but praising Him because He's worthy of prayer. The whole atmosphere around would change. People's hearts would be opened.
The dark powers that abound men and women will be shaken and driven out. I tell you, we've only just done the fringe of a mighty ocean. which is the power of praise. And then, going back to Jeremiah 37, proclamation.
This is something that God has begun to quicken for Ruth and me in the last few years in a new measure. You see, proclaiming is actually the activity of a herald. And in the New Testament, the word that's used for a preacher is the word for a herald. Paul said that God had made him a teacher, an apostle and a herald, a proclaimer.
Since I started my radio program I've got an ever-increasing vision of what can be achieved just by proclaiming the truth of the Word of God. See, one of the great strengths of Islam, as we've been speaking about Islam, is that for more than thirteen centuries, five times every day, Out of that mosque has gone the proclamation about Allah and Muhammad. And that has created a darkness over those nations which you haven't experienced it, you have no idea of its intensity.
What's that? That's the power of false proclamation. We need to overcome that power with the power of true proclamation.
We need to proclaim the truth. As you saw, Ruth and I have got an armory of Scriptures that we use to proclaim. And we proclaim many of them several times a week.
Let's do Deuteronomy 33.25, just to give you a little demonstration. Now when we proclaim them we turn you in the Bible into us, you see. Now, this is Deuteronomy 33.25 and following.
The bolts of our gates will be iron and bronze, and our strength will equal our days. There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help us, and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
He will drive out our enemy before us, saying, destroy him. Wait a minute, we'll do one more. This is just one verse, this is 2 Corinthians 9, 8. It's the basis of our faith for the financial supply of our ministry. And again, we change you into us. God is able to make...
all grace abound toward us, that we always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. When you say that every day, how can you possibly fear any lack? And notice it's grace. I just want to tell you that. You don't have to word it.
You have to believe it. All right. We come to the last point in...
Requirements for the church to be victorious. Revelation 12, 11. Many of you know this Scripture. They, the believers on earth, overcame him. Who's him?
Satan. Do you realize that we're in a direct conflict with Satan? Very clear. They overcame him. Nothing in between.
It's person to person conflict. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives to the death. That's really another example of proclamation. I teach this means that we overcome Satan when we testify personally to what the Word of God says, the blood of Jesus does for us.
We proclaim it. I have a sevenfold proclamation but we don't have time for it. But when you do that, you overcome Satan. But you've got to be a certain kind of person.
It says of these people they did not love their lives to the death. What does that mean? It means this, that it was more important for them to do the will of God than to stay alive.
What's that? That's commitment. Satan is not afraid of uncommitted Christians.
In the last resort he can wear them down. But those who are prepared to lay down their lives rather than deny the Lord or withdraw their testimony, they are the overcomers. Amen.