The "Confession" of Praise
Tiffany Ann Lewis 

Part 3 of the Bridal Worship Series

“Hear, O you mountains, the Lord's complaint, And you strong foundations of the earth; For the Lord has a complaint against His people….”  (Micah 6:2)  Uh oh, God has a complaint against us and I believe it’s that we complain too much.    

     ·         Numbers 11:1a, “Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused.” (The fire of the Lord burned among them.) 
·         Numbers 21:5, “And the people spoke against God and against Moses….” (God sent fiery serpents among them.) 
·        Deuteronomy 1:34 (NLT), “When the Lord heard your complaining, He became very angry.  So He solemnly swore, ‘Not one of you from this wicked generation will live to see the good land I swore to give your ancestors’….”  (A whole generation was lost.)

I could go on and on quoting scriptures, but I think you get the point.  We have heard all this before, yet our tongue runs on untamed.    It is shocking to see throughout scripture how complaining brought God’s wrath quickly and fiercely.  More shocking to me was to discover how often I do it.  For instance, I just found myself complaining about having to rake the leaves when only a week ago, I was praising God for the spectacular fall foliage.     

Beloved, this word is critical for the hour we are living in today, especially if we are indeed nearing the hour where hidden manna will be provided to those who overcome.  Notice how complaints, on a personal level, spread bringing a corporate chastisement.  How do we expect the nations to change when the bride/church can’t bridle her tongue in her own life?   No one wants God’s chastisement, yet one way or another every knee will bow.  There is always a purpose for the punishment after all; the Lord loves those He chastens.  The chastisement is always to bring us to Him and cause us to recognize that He alone is all we need.  He is enough.  Once we realize that, there is no more room for complaints.  That is why it is imperative that we learn from their example and apply it to our own lives today.

I want to be very clear on the fact that complaining is not the same as mourning or grieving a loss.  Losses come in all shapes and sizes; the loss of a job (financial loss), the loss of a relationship (emotional loss), the loss of a limb (physical loss), and so on.  Loss is loss, and the bible gives ample space for mourning and grieving loss.  Nor is complaining the same as communicating our feelings or earnestly questioning things we don’t understand.  What I believe the Lord is addressing, in this hour, is the type of complaining that borders on the negative - “the glass is half empty” spirit.   

It’s hard to understand why our silly little words would affect God so much.  Psalm 118:1 sheds a little light saying, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!  For His mercy endures forever.”  This is our heavenly Father we are talking about here.  This is the same God whose loyal devotion, faithful love, mercy, and steadfast passion, raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  From this perspective it begins to make more sense. 

Beloved, faith believes, hope expects, but even greater is love.  Love will remain when all else fails.  Though we can’t always understand His hand, we can always trust His heart.  This love endures forever making it possible to praise Him, even in the storm.  Miracles exist because of His loyal love and worship is simply the spirit-man’s natural response to His loyal love. 

Worship is a weapon that has the power to change our atmosphere from hopeless to hopeful as we remember what He has done and why He did it.  I am convinced the Lord is raising up a bridal army whose weapon of worship will release Kingdom authority as she dances with the Flame of Yah, keeping her eyes on Him and not the problem.  This weapon is formed though the hardships of life yet God is using these hardships to refine us in preparation for the days ahead.  We are destined to be a part of that company of over-comers seen in the book of Revelation.

Life and death are in the power of the tongue, therefore, our confession speaks volumes.  The Lord is calling us to bridle our tongue and overcome difficulties by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.  In Greek, the word for worship is proskuneo (Strong’s # 4352).  Pros means “toward,” and kueno means “to kiss”.  It speaks of prostrating oneself and bowing down before the only One who is sitting on the throne Who is able to take care of His own, God ALL-mighty.  Proskuneo is not a musical expression, it is the heart’s response, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth confesses.

What does that look like?  It looks like someone on their knees before the One who is able to smite the universe with His breath and raise someone from the dead, crying from the depths of despair, “God I don’t know what to do…but my eyes are on You!!” 

This weapon of worship will help us be over-comers and not be overcome by the situations that we face.  Worry dulls our weapon of worship and disappointments dull our faith.  Coupled together, worry and disappointment will cause us to accept a non-victorious life if we do not renew our mind with the Word’s God has spoken.  This is a trap the enemy has set before mankind since the beginning of time causing us to become discouraged and disillusioned along the way. 

Discouragement and disillusion are breeding grounds for doubt.  The psalmist said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.” (Psalm 22: 1-2)  David was in a very dangerous place that we can all identify with.  In these moments of utter aloneness, when we feel God is far away, we are prey to the devil.  I want you to notice what David did, he changed his focus with the word BUT saying, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.”(Verse 3) 

David knew the power of the habitation of the Lord, and that He inhabits our praises not our complaints.  If you continue to read through Psalm 22, you will notice that David turned his distress around by remembering his forefathers’ journey through the wilderness.  He remembered that because they trusted in God, He delivered them.   As stated earlier, this is God we are talking about.  The one thing we can count on is His faithful love. 

I want to share with you an imperative element of all this.  There is a word for praise that you may not be familiar with, Yadah. (Strong’s # 3034)   It doesn’t get as much attention as it’s synonym Halal, which the word Hallelujah comes from, but to those who have ears…let us hear.

The primary meaning of yadah is:  to acknowledge or confess sin.  That means that confessing sin is PRAISE to God!  That is hard to fathom, but when you understand that sin separates us from His presence (but never His love) and believe that because of that love He wants to dwell with us 24/7, it begins to make sense.  He wants us to be naked (honest) while at the same time trust His faithful love so that we are unashamed (feeling no shame) and don’t feel the need to hide behind fig leaves of excuses.  We can come just as we are, admit our sin, and praise Him for His unfailing love.

Digging deeper we discover that Yadah is similar to Halal by praising God’s character, meaning that we thank God for who He is and what He has done.  But yadah doesn’t stop there.  Exercising control over the tongue, yadah will emphasize recognition and declaration of a fact whether it is good or bad.  Not all things are good, but God is good always.  Yadah will, as the band Casting Crowns says, “Praise Him in the storm.”  We lift our hands no matter where we are or what situation we find ourselves in, because we know Who He is, and trust only in His faithful love.    Though there is chaos, yadah will lock our eyes with His and praise instead of panic, worship instead of worry.   

Taking a little prophetic liberty I want to make a connection to another Hebrew word that I teach on often, Yada.  The word yada means “know” but it goes past knowledge and speaks of knowing something or somebody by experience and is a Jewish idiom referring to sexual relations between a man and a woman.  It describes a relationship that knows each other personally and thoroughly.  The Lord wants us to know Him, but He also wants to know us.  There is a bond that is formed as we expose our vulnerability to Him and discover He loves us still.  Beloved, this intimate knowledge is a weapon!   

Looking at the letters of both of these words and the pictograms that represents each letter, we discover another mystery.  Only one letter differentiates the two words.  Yadah (praise) ends with the Hebrew letter hay.  The final letter of yadah is a pictogram of a man with his arms raised up, shouting and pointing at a great site as if to say, “Behold, look at that.”  The difference is that the word Yada (know) ends with the Hebrew letter ayin, which is a pictogram of an eye.  Looking at Him is considerably different than being face-to-face and eye-to-eye, locking your gaze with His.  In the Song of Solomon, the bride gazed at Him through the lattice, (symbolic of being at a distance) but as we keep our eyes locked with His, we will walk, nay dance on the water and experience a peace that surpasses any natural understanding.   

“This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”  (Psalm 118:24)  We will never be able to tame the tornado so the Lord is preparing His bride to worship with the wind.  Human difficulties are unavoidable but we can overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of our mouth - the confession of our praise.

How long?  I don’t know, but I know that the great and terrible day of the Lord must come to fulfill the prophecies, but this day is also a day that He has made.  Fear not beloved because He has given us this weapon and His promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.” (Matthew 28:20)  The Great I Am – Immanuel – God, is with us even to and through the end of the age. 

I can’t think of a better way to close this teaching than with a wedding vow. 
I, (your name), take you, Jesus, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward.  For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, I promise to worship You forever and ever.  And hereto I pledge my faithfulness and my confession of praise to You alone.  Amen and Amen.