When life hurls its toughest battles our way, the last thing that might cross our minds is to praise God.
In this deeply personal message from the Greater Purpose Conference 2024, host, Helen Todd, talks about unlocking the unexpected power of praise amidst strife. It's an intimate journey into how intentional gratitude can become our most formidable weapon against spiritual darkness, bringing a joy that completes our delight in God
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
When life hurls its toughest battles our way, the last thing that might cross our minds is to praise God.
In this deeply personal message from the Greater Purpose Conference 2024, host, Helen Todd, talks about unlocking the unexpected power of praise amidst strife. It's an intimate journey into how intentional gratitude can become our most formidable weapon against spiritual darkness, bringing a joy that completes our delight in God
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
Welcome to Limitless Spirit, a weekly podcast with host Helen Todd, where she interviews guests about pursuing spiritual growth, discovering life's purpose through serving others and developing a deeper faith in Christ.
Speaker 2:Welcome to this episode of the Limitless Spirit. I'm your host, helen Todd, for the next two episodes. I am stepping away from the traditional interview format because I want to share with you the message the Lord gave me for the Greater Purpose Conference 2024. Have you noticed that when you feel like you're on the verge of this big breakthrough in your life, suddenly you get thrown into the toughest battle you have ever fought? We tend to attribute the root of our struggles to the enemy fighting believers, and many times it is true. But there are also battles appointed to us by God for a greater purpose, and for this kind of a battle there is a unique weapon that secures the victory. I have broken this message into two parts, so tune in to part one of the message titled A Hint of Honey.
Speaker 2:Tonight I want to talk about praise, and praise is an interesting concept. In our concept, in our relationship with God. Praise is not necessarily a very intuitive thing for a human being, but as we receive the Lord, as we enjoy our walk with him, we start to experience his goodness, his mercy, his love, his miracles. And in these moments mercy, his love, his miracles and in these moments praise just naturally wells up in our soul and it rolls off of our tongue, and Pastor John Piper wrote it put it very beautifully in the words he said when we praise God for what he does in our lives, when we verbalize it and we give him glory with our mouths, it completes our joy, our delight in God, and so that type of praise is natural to the followers of Christ, for those who know God.
Speaker 2:But there are times when we're in the intense battle, perhaps the toughest battle of our lives, when we're overcome with anxiety or we're pressed down with depression, or we're experiencing pain, or our loved one is on the deathbed or our child is running from God so hard that they're about to wreck their lives. These are the moments when praise is not natural to us, and and it is perhaps the last thing that we think, the last thing that we have on our mind this is the time when we want to drop on our knees and pray and petition and beg and hope, but praise is not the first thing that comes to mind. And yet it is the nuclear warheads of spiritual warfare. It is the weapon that we are equipped to employ that brings down the strongholds and demolishes the powers and principalities of darkness, and that is the kind of praise that I want to talk about, an intentional praise, a deliberate praise, praise that brings down the walls and tears down the principalities of darkness. I want us to pray Because I do believe that God is going to lead us In a warfare tonight and I believe that there will be Strongholds brought down. And, father, we just thank you For your presence tonight, father, we thank you for what we have already received, father, we thank you for worship that ushered us into your presence, lord, and I just ask that you don't allow me to get in the way of what you're going to do tonight, father, and I just yield my voice to you, lord, jesus, and I ask you to speak and I ask you to bring your word, lord, and do your work, father, and let your spirit flow freely. Here, father, we make ourselves available to you and we ask that you cleanse us of everything that does not belong here tonight, of any thoughts that are taking our minds and our eyes off of you, and allow us to receive what you want us to receive tonight. Praise the Lord.
Speaker 2:I think they when this message really clicked for me personally, because you know, in preparation for this conference and the theme that I feel is extremely important for the body of Christ, because the days that are living in are the days when sin is going to increase but grace is going to increase even more. But how the grace is going to increase, it is through us, through the body of Christ, and I do believe that it is the time for us, for the body of Christ, to rise. It is enough for us to run away from the problems, try to live apart from the world, separated from the world, because we are called to change this world, we're called to possess this world, we're going to plant the kingdom of God all across the world, in the nations, and it is time for the church to rise. But how is it? It's easy to say, it's not easy to do when you're fighting the battle of your life and you're there hanging in on your last thread, just hoping to survive.
Speaker 2:And so when this message really clicked for me was about a month ago, and it was the last time that I got to see my father-in-law. It was the day before he passed away and we came to the hospital to see him. At the time we didn't know. We knew that he's probably in his last days, but we didn't know how much he has left. And so, for those of you who didn't know his story, he was an extremely healthy person. Up until he was 84 years old, I think, he hardly ever went to the doctor, but at 84, yeah, he wasn't even using reading glasses, and up until that time.
Speaker 2:But at 84, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, and if you know lymphoma, it has a tendency to come and go. And so, since he was diagnosed with lymphoma, he was healed of lymphoma six times right. Four times. Four times his doctor, his oncologist, declared him completely healed and told him there was no cancer left in his body. And each time we knew this is it. God did it. God healed him, and so we praised God, and then it would come back, and then God would heal him again. And so this, this cycle, happened four times, and of course, we knew that he's at this age. He's not going to be with us forever, that there will be. It is appointed for every man to die. We knew that it will be some time that God is going to take him home, but with all of our hearts, we believe that he's not going to go to eternity with the Lord, with cancer. We fully believe that God is going to heal him of cancer and he will go to heaven cancer free.
Speaker 2:And yet, this last time the cancer returned with the vengeance. It was so advanced that the oncologist said I have reached my limits of what I can do for you. There is nothing more that I can do. The cancer has spread all over your body and it's just going to get worse each day. And you know, if you served God at this point for 75 years faithfully, would you not just feel a hint of resentment at that point, that why is it? Lord? There's one wish that I have I have surrendered all my life to you, I have surrendered everything to you. Why is it that one thing you can't do for me? So that I could testify of your goodness, so that I could testify that this is what God does for his anointed ones, so that my life can be a witness of your great power.
Speaker 2:And yet, in that day when we came to see him, he was in tremendous pain because, you know, the cancer spread in all of his organs and his voice was weak. He was weak, his kidneys shut down, his eyes were half closed, but, you know, the last image that I remember of him is laying in this bed, and his hands were up in the air and his voice, though it was weak, it was loud and he was saying I praise you Lord, I praise you Jesus, and you know, it just blew my mind that this kind of praise is the weapon of spiritual warfare, and I do believe that this witness of him praising God on his deathbed in terrible pain was a greater witness if he was healed of this cancer and was going to see the Lord cancer free. There was something about this praise that stirred my heart and really brought this message to life, and so I wanted to give you this backstory, because this is not just going to be a message or a teaching that I want you to sit back, relax and take it in. It's an interactive message, because I'm giving you heads up. We're going to go to war tonight and we're going to bring down the powers and principalities and these battles that you're fighting tonight, these battles that you came with tonight. We're going to win them tonight, amen. So I want us to look at the passage of scripture. So the Lord has been giving me these scriptures, you know, a few months in advance, and I didn't know what it is. It's just that's how I prepare for the message, so I kept writing them down and then you know, I look for the common thread and so we will go through the common thread of these scriptures and it is about this kind of praise that will equip you to win any battle that you are facing. So we're going to look at real quickly, because I want us to move fast through this. We're going to look at Joshua 5, verses 10 through 12.
Speaker 2:Now the children of Israel camped at Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho, and they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. It's a very interesting moment in the life of the nation of Israel. They kind of finished their desert tour. You know, they came to River Jordan and God parted the waters of River Jordan. Just, he did the Red Sea for them, he parted waters for them, leaving slavery, and he parted waters for them coming into the promised land. So they kind of crossed already into the promised land, but they haven't possessed it yet. They just sort of camped out there on the border, on the very edge of it, and at that moment the manna ceased.
Speaker 2:The provision that kept them going through the 40 years of the desert stopped. There is nothing that they can lean on. They may not have been super crazy and stoked about manna they complained about it kind of in the desert but it sustained them for 40 years. It was predictable, it was there, it was available for them. They didn't starve. Maybe they didn't enjoy eating manna every day, but it was there for them. But all of a sudden it stopped and all of a sudden they lost Moses, who led them through the desert for 40 years. They may have complained and grumbled against Moses and rebelled against him a couple of times, but he was predictable leader who put up with them, who prayed them out of trouble and they could rely on him. But he is gone too and they can't rely on him. They have a new leader, joshua, but they haven't really tested him out. He's the best candidate there but they haven't tested him out. But there is nothing there that they can rely on that is predictable for them. In addition to that, right before they head into Canaan, there is a problem before them, a big problem, and we'll get to this in a minute.
Speaker 2:But you know, we're celebrating 25 years of World Missions Alliance, and well one. It means that Chuck and I are getting older. We can be, I can be delusional about my age, but it's there. And there are not many things that I like about getting older, but there's one thing I do enjoy that you know getting older gives you history to look back at and that history shows you the patterns of how God works. And and these patterns are predictable. And there is comfort in those patterns because you know that it is going to happen again and you're going. Maybe you failed the first time in that pattern, but you're going to try to do it better the next time and maybe at some point when the pattern repeats itself in your life, maybe you're going to nail it one of these days by hope and faith.
Speaker 2:And so what I have noticed looking back at how God has worked in the history of World Missions Alliance, from a small dream that Chuck and I had of winning Russia and former Soviet Union for Christ to growing into a ministry that reaches into 32 nations, that each time that God moved us to the next level, each time that God opened another nation for us, there was a problem that we had to overcome. And this was not a problem necessarily caused by the enemy, because we're so quick to attribute every battle and every storm that we're facing that is the attack of the enemy, that it is not always so. I believe that there are times and it's especially the times before God is moving us to the next level, before God is bringing us into our promise, that he's placing a problem before us for more than one reason. One, so that we can learn things about ourselves. Two, that we can learn things about God that we didn't know before and we can discover the identity that we have in him.
Speaker 2:And one of the examples was when, after we established our work in Russia and even in China, our next level was the country of Iraq, and that was the year 2003 when God called us there. And if you remember what was happening in Iraq in 2003, there was a war going on there and we had absolutely no experience at that point of ministering in war zones. We had no experience of ministering in the Middle East. We didn't know anybody in the Middle East, we just knew that God called us there and he gave us a date. So he called us there. It was spring, maybe March or April of 2003. And he told us that we were to go there in November of 2003. And at that point, even though we didn't announce this to anyone, we thought it was just going to be us, the two of us, many people who were involved with World Missions Alliance at the time. They started calling our office saying are you going to Iraq? We want to go with you. We never told anyone. God told them, and so we already have this team that is building up.
Speaker 2:As Chuck mentioned, world Missions Alliance family are crazy people. The more dangerous it is, the more they want to go to that nation. And so so we have a team and we have an assignment from God. We have a date from God. Oh, we don't know where to start. We don't know anybody in Iraq. We can't just show up there in the middle of the war and with a team of Americans. You know, it's just a crazy, crazy thing.
Speaker 2:And so we tried many different ways. You know, we tried contacting some pastors on the internet. Well, that didn't work. We invited missionaries that spent 10 years in Jordan. We thought maybe we can pick their brain. You know, jordan is right across the border from Iraq. Maybe we can learn something from them. We invited them to stay at our house. They said, oh, things are bad there right now. We don't recommend it, you won't be able to do anything. And so we respected their opinion. But we thought, well, did God make a mistake? Did we miss God's call? Why did all these people want to go with us to Iraq if this is not the good time to go?
Speaker 2:And then God posed a question for us what is it that I called you to do? If you were to go there today, what would you do in Iraq? To go there today, what would you do in Iraq? See, he posed this problem before us because he wanted us to establish in this young and developing ministry, so that we can establish our identity of what is it exactly that you are called to do in these nations. Why is it exactly? Do you feel called to go to a dangerous war zone? What is it that you can do there?
Speaker 2:And we recognize from our past experience, our work in Russia and in China that one of the ways of evangelism for us was to give out the word of God, to give out Bibles and gospel tracts. And this is what we did in Russia and this is what we did in China to the people who had no opportunity to obtain a Bible in these countries. And so this is the answer that we had. Well, of course, if nothing else, that we do, that we go there, we want to give out Bibles to the people, we want to leave behind the printed word of God. Well, where do you get the Bibles? The closest source for that was the Bible Society in Jordan, in Amman, jordan, and we contacted the Bible Society and from that moment on, every door has opened to us. From that moment on, we were able to make many trips every single year to Iraq, during wars, during well, you heard from Jessica one of her experiences. We were able to establish a church there that is thriving and open to this day.
Speaker 2:It was overcoming this problem of what is it exactly do you plan to do? Who is it that you are in ministry, that I called you to be, and so these problems are there. It's the battle before the breakthrough. It's a problem before the promise. It's a Jericho before Jerusalem. It's something that you have to overcome. You have to learn the means and the weapons to overcome this battle so that you could handle living in the promise, because sometimes our successes can be more dangerous for us than our problems and our obstacles. And these obstacles and the problems are preparing us to the successes. So the problem for Israel was Jericho.
Speaker 2:There were no pictures of Jericho available on the internet, so this is not the original, actual picture of Jericho, but I thought it symbolizes Jericho well because, if you've heard or read on the history of Jericho, this was the oldest fortified city in the world. So the walls of Jericho were very imposing. They were ancient, they were well built, they were tall, they were strong. The city knew how to defend itself, and the reason for that was because Jericho, or the other name for that city, is the city of palms, because there were many, many palm trees. Just imagine, behind these walls there are many palm trees swaying in the breeze. And for a nation that's traveled through the desert for 40 years, this was the dream, the dream to be in a fortified city with the swaying palm trees. And it was a dream not just for the nation of Israel, but for anyone who lived in that area, this city was desirable, this city was prosperous, and so they knew how to defend themselves. So these walls of Jericho were thick and strong and imposing.
Speaker 2:And so the Israelites, who had just crossed into this land of milk and honey that God promised them, that God brought them to, they now have to take over the city. And it's not fun, because what you expect when God is leading you to your promise? You expect the favors, you expect the blessings, you expect the easy life. You don't think about the problem before the promise. But it's there and you have to overcome it. And so if we move to the next chapter of Joshua, chapter six, god gives a plan to Joshua and to the nation of Israel. That is absolutely insane.
Speaker 2:So there are many military commanders that studied the Bible for tactics, for the military tactics. Napoleon was one of them. There are many others. I can't think of them right now, but I really seriously doubt that any of them took seriously the account of Joshua, chapter 6, as a viable tactic in actual warfare. So we're going to take a look at it Now.
Speaker 2:Jericho was securely shut up. We saw the picture of Jericho Because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in, and they were preparing for war. I'm sure they didn't just sit there with the walls, the doors boarded up, you know, they were preparing for war. I'm sure they didn't just sit there with the walls, the doors boarded up, you know, they were preparing for war. They had troops employed to defend this city. And the Lord said to Joshua see, I have given Jericho into your hand. It's king and the mighty men of valor. See, I don't see that when we see the walls of Jericho, this sea I'm giving you, this city, is not an intuitive thing. And so the Lord starts with wanting them to change their mindset and see something that is beyond visible, see something that is beyond these walls, that is not necessarily available, the information that is not necessarily available to them. And so then he says you shall march around the city, and all your men of war, you shall go around the city once, and this you will do six days. So he's telling them, for six days, men of war.
Speaker 2:Now, mind you, after 40 years in the desert, fearful Israel has learned how to fight. So at first they were afraid of everything. They were afraid of Egyptians, they were afraid of Edom. They were wanting to go back at every obstacle that they had. But by this time they have learned how to fight. They have already won the wars with Amorites and Amalekites. They defeated King of Og, king Og of Bashan and King Shihon. They have won a few battles, but they won these battles with their swords. They won these battles with their weapons. They've learned some military tactics, and so they know that God promised them Canaan, and so they probably feel fairly confident in their ability to take over Jericho with their weapons, whatever weapons they had at the time.
Speaker 2:But God is giving them a completely different plan. So for six days, he tells them, men of war, do nothing, just walk around the city and do nothing, and seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams of horns before the ark. Oh, that's awesome. And and these rams, the horns, they they're, uh, sound of war and and the presence of god following israel. But no, they're not allowed to blow these horns. For six days they're also told to do nothing. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times and priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass when they make a long blast with ram's horn and when you hear the sound of trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout. Then the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people shall go up, every man straight before him. That's a pretty big claim, especially for the men of war who have won the battles, shed the blood, but here they are supposed to do nothing for six days. Then march seven, seven times, make a great shout and these wars are going to come down flat. And God is giving them this great visual that they will be so flat that you're just going to march straight forward. You won't be climbing over anything, you will just march straight forward into the city. This is a absolutely amazing imagery of how God is promising them to bring down this big problem before their eyes. Do nothing for six days, then make a great shout and it's gone.
Speaker 2:So I want us to look at the word great shout, because it makes a difference. It matters what it actually means, and so the Hebrew word for this particular expression, great shout, is teruah. Teruah means a war cry that soldiers, military men would go as they're going to the battle. Or it also means the shout of praise. It means giving loud noise of expressing praise. Religious is literally the description of the word, is the religious expression of praise through making loud noise. And so the plan of warfare that God is giving them in this battle, the weapon of warfare, the only weapon that God is placing in their hands is the shout of praise. And this shout of praise brought down the walls of Jericho. The writer of Hebrews says by faith, the walls of Jericho came down. Yes, they did, because Israel believed what God instructed them to do. Israel had enough faith to say okay, we're going to do exactly what you do. And it happened. But what brought the walls of Jericho down was teruah, the shout of praise, which was the weapon that God entrusted them with. And so this kind of praise is actually mentioned in Psalms 8.2.
Speaker 2:It says through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. You see the contrast the praise that comes out of the most helpless human beings, the children and the infant, is the stronghold against the enemy. The praise that comes out of infants and children silences the enemy. Do you understand the power behind the praise? This is the same praise, this quote from Psalm 82, jesus quoting in Matthew 21, when the Pharisees are offended by the little children saying Hosanna to the son of David. They are offended by the little children saying Hosanna to the son of David. They are offended by praise. And Jesus repeats this scripture in Psalms 8 too, and he says again yes, have you never read from the mouths of infants and nursing babies? You have prepared praise for yourself, praise which is strength, praise for yourself, praise which is strength.
Speaker 2:So we're going to talk about the ways, because this kind of praise is not natural, this kind of praise that brings down the strongholds, the kind of praise that is our battle cry. It's not natural. It's something that we have to develop. It's not just the feeling and the emotion that wells up in us. It's something that we have to fight for, it's something that we have to build up for, and we're going to build up for it tonight. And as we go through the three ways that we empower our praise, I want you to follow with me, thinking about your situation, thinking about the battle that you are going through, that you are facing, and we're going to build it up to the warfare that we're going to do tonight, in just a few minutes. So, first of all, what empowers this praise is when we recognize the provision that God gives us, because God's provision doesn't always look like what we want. In fact, god doesn't really give us what we want. He rather gives us what we need. But sometimes it is hard for us to recognize when it is given to us.
Speaker 2:You know, in Exodus 16 is the manna chapter. You know that's when God gave Israel the bread of heaven. He gave them manna that didn't look like much. It looked like white coriander seed. Have you ever seen a coriander seed? It's very small, it's very pale, it's not impressive. I wouldn't look at it and think, hmm, can't wait to try that. But as they prepared it into the bread, they ground it into flour and made the bread of it. The scripture tells us it tasted like wafers made with honey.
Speaker 2:Now where did God call Israel? To Canaan, to the land of milk and honey. But they were not in Canaan yet. They were just journeying there and they needed food. They cried out for food. They were stressed about the food they were craving, the food that they left in Egypt. So God gave them food, and it wasn't honey yet, but it didn't look like what they asked for. They asked for quail, they asked for bread that they had in Egypt. They got something that looked not very impressive, but it contained the hint of honey. It contained the promise of the promise, but they didn't quite recognize it that way because they called it manna, and manna means means what is this? Instead of saying god, thank you for the bread of heaven, they said what is this? And they called it what is this for 40 years. I believe honestly that this is why they had so many problems. This is why their journey of seven days extended for 40 years, because they didn't recognize the hint of honey in manna and, instead of praising God, they continued to say what is this?
Speaker 2:Now it is easy for us to look back at Israel and say, oh my goodness, how did they not see that? How did they not make that connection? But are we all not guilty of that? When God gives us provision in our lives and we don't see it as such, we see it as a disappointment. We see it as did. I miss you, lord. What is going on? Did you forget about me, lord? Here I here, I am praying, asking.
Speaker 2:I remember we were in Ethiopia ministering. We were prepared to minister to these ladies in um, they were living, um, it was a ministry that was helping ladies who had AIDS to earn income and make jewelry and do things, and so we prepared this ministry for them. In a shed in the middle of nowhere, everything lined up who's going to share a testimony and what are we going to do next, and then we're going to have prayer and all that. But the shed had a tin roof, and so as soon as we started our program that we prepared, the downpour came, a storm came and on a tin roof, rain sounds terrible. You can't hear anything. You know it was not possible for us to carry the program. Well, we're all women of God there, you know.
Speaker 2:We raised our hands to heaven and we said Lord, stop this rain, stop this rain. But in the name of Jesus, we declared this rain gone, and the rain only got louder and louder and louder and it was pretty clear that things are not happening, the rain is not stopping and we need to stop praying. And since there was nothing else that we could do, we decided we're just going to pray for these ladies, one-on-one. You know, it doesn't need to have sound. We would just walk up to them and lay our hands, and this is exactly what God needed us to do. The rain was the provision for us to do the ministry the way God wanted us to do, not the way that we planned it to do. But we didn't see it as such and we were rebuking the enemy and asking for the rain to stop. See, the provision doesn't always look good to us, but if we recognize the provision, it starts to build our praise.
Speaker 2:Not all battles in life are attacks from Satan. God allows you to go through struggles and challenges to train you to step into the next chapter, reach a higher level. It is through friction that he perfects you for your greater purpose in life. I hope what you have heard so far blessed you, but there is more to come. I hope what you have heard so far blessed you, but there is more to come. Tune in next week into part two of this message to learn three practical ways to turn your praise into the weapon of spiritual warfare that wins you any battle. If you're ready to take the next step in pursuit of your greater purpose, I encourage you to check out our website, rfwmaorg and find out many ways you can serve in the Great Commission and take the gospel across this world. Until next time, I'm Helen Todd.
Speaker 1:Limitless Spirit Podcast is produced by World Missions Alliance. We believe that changed lives change lives. If your life was transformed by Christ, you are equipped to help others experience this transformation. Christ called his followers to make disciples across the world. World Missions Alliance gives you an opportunity to do this through short-term missions in over 32 countries across the globe. If you want to help those who are hurting and hopeless and discover your greater purpose in serving, check out our website, rfwmaorg, and find out how to get involved.