Spiritual Warfare in the face of the enemy is one of the most powerful tools that you and I have in the face of oppression, anxiety and fear.  When we learn to worship despite our circumstances, God is able to bring about a great deliverance.

I can hear you now. You are saying: “But you don’t understand what I am going through.  The depression, the anxiety and fear that I am dealing with is so great that I am not able to praise Him.”  Well that may seem to be true but in Christ there is an answer.

I found this nugget in Isaiah 57:19 recently.  It says: “God will create the fruit of the lips.”

You say you are barren, then, bless God, He is able to make all grace abound to you. So just ask him to create the praise of your lips.

Just ask Holy Spirit to manifest in your heart in such a way that praise bubbles up like a stream from within you so that you glorify and praise God in your spirit even while your mind is in turmoil.

There are many times that my mind is preoccupied with a matter and heaviness tries to grip me. In these moments it would be easy to give into the heaviness.  But I have discovered that in these moments there is often a song in my heart planted by Holy Spirit.

Even this morning as my mind wandered from one thought to the next. I was aware of a song deep down in my heart.  One phrase kept playing like a recording over and over inside of me.  The words essentially forming a prayer stating, “Father, open the heavens, send your fire and send your rain.”

As I thought about it I realized that my spirit has been praying this way for at least two days without ceasing.  Every time I come in tune with my spirit that song is still playing.  I am feeling a warmth in my spirit even now as I describe this to you.

This is the work of Holy Spirit. Ezekiel 36:26-27 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

It is the work of Holy Spirit in me that helps me to praise God.  It is not something that the old man with his disposition toward sin can easily do.  But when all things are made new the song of praise is on my lips because the Holy Spirit created it.  I am trying to say that even praising Him is a work of Grace.

So just thank the Lord today and ask him to “Create the fruit of your lips.”  Ask Him to fill your spirit in such a way that praise and worship fall off of you as easily as apples from a tree in the late summer.