Last week we saw that our praise can bring God’s power on the scene to fight for us. That’s an exciting thought. This week, we’re going to do a short study on the Garment of Praise, and how you’re actually putting a spiritual garment on your spiritual body when you praise the Lord.
“What?”
Yeah, I know. There are so many hidden treasures in the Bible!
Before we get into some deep things in the Bible, let’s briefly discuss literal meaning in the Bible. Growing up, my pastor taught us, “We need to use our best judgement whether or not to take the Bible literally or figuratively.” I am going throw a huge No out there. We aren’t told in the Bible that stories are figurative, and we get to decide which is which. That’s a 50/50 guessing game. The Bible is a take-it-by-faith Word.” Opening the door in one part, allows open doors in all areas. Some people think the parting of the red sea was the sea being dried up to 6-inhces of water. Others think Noah’s ark was a small boat, and a localized flood that had Noah in a panic. I’m sure we all heard people argue Jonah wasn’t really swallowed by a sea creature. There are people who don’t believe Elijah supernaturally outran the chariots but think there was an issue with the chariots on bumpy terrain which Elijah was able to gain advantage. They even use fancy words like “allegory” to say, “I decided this didn’t really happen.” But we are believers, we believe!
That being said, let’s jump into the literal…
Isaiah 61:3 NKJV
To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…
Isaiah reveals to us, that there is a Garment of Praise that we can put on our spirit body. No one has ever taught consolement for mourning is just simply poetic speech. We don’t question beauty for ashes being real, especial because in ancient Israel they literally sat in ashes. No one that has had the oil of joy poured out, finished laughing and celebrating, then said that verse is figurative! There is no reason why the fourth part is figurative when the first three are not. I believe the Lord leaves us clues like this in scripture to make sure we take it literally. Taking the Bible literally, let’s look what David had to say on the subject of praise.
Psalm 34:1
I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Continually in Hebrew, tamid, can also mean regularly. So, why praise? If praise didn’t do anything in the spiritual realm, except it “just pleases God,” can’t we just please God by giving money to the poor and serving Him while giving him the glory? Let’s see what David continues on by saying in the next verse,
4“My soul shall make its boast in the Lord…
David learned the importance of praise. David, the author of Psalms, writes the word praise 164 times, out of the 254 times praise is used in the Old Testament. Worship, which is also translated as praise, is used 17 times by David out of the 117 times in the Old Testament. David’s Book of Psalms contains the most mentions of praise and worship. Both David and Isaiah knew something that we’re still trying to learn. David not only regularly praised God but added boasting in the Lord with his praise.
The real question is, what does this Garment of Praise do? To begin to answer that question, first we should take a look at what we look like in the spiritual realm. We have that exact answer in the Old Testament at Mount Sinai and again in the New Testament at the Mount of Transfiguration.
Exodus 34:29-35 NKJV (parts of these scriptures)
29When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. …. 35the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining.
Matthew 17:1-8 NKJV
1Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. … 5While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
We have Moses’ face shining from speaking with the Lord. His physical skin wasn’t the source of the shining, but it was the Glory of the Lord that was with him and shining through from the spiritual realm into this natural realm from his skin.
We looked at Moses first, so that when we look at Jesus, we won’t say, “Ah, but that’s just Jesus.” Jesus wasn’t the only one shining that day, there was a cloud of light present. The Glory of the Lord was there, the essence of God shining through Jesus as well. Don’t forget He emptied Himself of privileges (Philippians 2:7) and became like a man, which means He had to get shiny the same way Moses did.
This all has a very important point, but let’s get back to the Garment of Praise.
Isaiah 61:3 NKJV
…the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…
The Garment of Praise keeps the spirit of heaviness off of you. What’s the spirit of heaviness? The spirit of the world, this world, the work of the enemy. Let’s see what Jesus had to say about heaviness.
Matthew 11:28-30
28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
I like the original Hebrew Translation better:
28Let all those who are troubled and oppressed come unto me, and I myself will help you. 29And carry my yoke upon you and learn from me, that I am humble and restful of heart, and you will find rest in your nephashot, (breaths of life) 30for my yoke is restful and my burden is easy.”
Nephashot means soul and breath of life, your very being. Whatever is heavy to you, troubling and oppressive, it’s from the enemy. Whatever is easy, light, and restful is from the Lord. I want you to take notice here in these scriptures that Jesus’ remedy is to, “come to Him,” NOT to pray. He’s telling us to get into His presence and He, Himself, will help. Again, He never said to pray. How do we get into His presence? Let’s go back to a previous study, because that’s how we get shiny.
Powerful Prayer Life – Pray as the Temple
This was an in-depth study on the Glory. But in short, we’re just going to read this scripture,
Hebrews 13:5
…let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
In the previous study, we looked at how the Glory of the Lord would fill the tabernacle and temple, but now we’re the temple and the place where the Glory manifests. You can manifest the Glory, the very essence of God, by giving thanks to His name, or as we know it, praise.
When life gets heavy, stressful, burdensome, the Garment of Praise is what will throw off that heavy burden. The Bible doesn’t say you’ll never get yoked, or life won’t try to bog you down. He said that He would help you. That means we have a choice when stress comes on us. We can think about it, fancy words to say worry, or we can take our Garment of Praise and push it off. If you regularly keep His praise in your mouth (Psalm 34:1), you are keeping the Garment of Praise on your spiritual body. Keeping the Garment of Praise on your spiritual body will prevent the heavy loads, burdens, and yokes from ever attaching to you. We know stress can cause your physical body to be sick and age prematurely. Living the lifestyle of praise will change your life.
As we read scripture above, when you’re praising God and communing with Him, light emanates from our spiritual bodies. We know from 1 John 1:5 that God is light. What does this garment look like? Light!
In the previous study, we read about Jehoshaphat putting the praise team in front of the army. Why? Because the evil spirits present to fight the war couldn’t see past the glory emanating from the children of Israel while they were praising Yahweh. That’s exact reason burdens can’t attach to you when you’re a regular praise and worshipper. Glory to God, this is exciting! John tells us what happens to darkness.
John 1:5 Amplified Bible because we don’t speak New King James
The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it].
We are the ones who are supposed to bring the light of God on the scene! It’s our responsibility to bring the light that overpowers the darkness! Isn’t this so exciting? The more praising and spending time in His presence we do, the brighter your light shines, or better said, the greater amount of His Glory (the shiny presence) you are able to hold. Shining with a great light, His great light, with cause darkness to flee and even tremble. Why tremble? James 2:19 tells us demons tremble at the Lord, and you manifesting His presence scares them. When they see light they can’t comprehend, as the NKJV says, or understand what they’re looking at. This doesn’t mean they’re uneducated about the light, they did originally reside in Heaven, it means they can’t discern what they’re looking at. What if you stepped into a boxing ring expecting an equal opponent, and all of a sudden, a bright light is all you see getting in the ring to fight you? Are they smaller than you, bigger, three times your size? Don’t tell me you wouldn’t be scared! That’s what praise is all about! It’s taking your place, it’s fighting for you, it’s stripping away all the stress thrown at you, it’s setting you free, and giving you rest while God fights for you. Amen! I’m excited. Your praise brings The Lion of The Tribe of Praise, Himself, to help you.
Always remember, God’s power far exceeds that of the enemy! The enemy isn’t even a close second to God’s power. The demons are using a remnant of God’s power here on Earth. The Holy Spirit spoke this to me, and I know in the future He’ll give us an amazing study on this topic. They’re using remnants of His Creation power. Don’t believe I heard? Read in Revelations how they will do signs and wonders to deceive people, remnant power. They also steal human creativity which is given by God to seem more powerful than they actually are. But… that’s for another study!
One last point of this study to remember, if we can put this garment on our spiritual body, then that means we are also able to take this garment off our spiritual body. Keep his praise continually in your mouth!
Thank you for going through this praise study with me. I don’t know if this will conclude the series yet or not. I will keep praying and seeking the Lord for direction.
Thank You Holy Spirit for teaching us about praise and the importance of praising Yahweh, Jesus, and giving thanks for You. I ask that You please remind us in moments of stress, feeling trapped, and like things are impossible to work out, that our weapon of praise is there ready to fight for us! Please give us our special spiritual songs to sing for our current season. Thank You for being so close to us, loving us, and helping us.
Yes, I speak to the Holy Spirit. He’s not a thing He’s a real person, a part of God, that hangs out with you and loves you. Throw your arms around yourself and give Him a big hug. I know He just smiled at us, or least I hope. Hehe
Christi
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