The Power of Praise

Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash

Glory to God!

In these past weeks the Lord has been speaking to us about the power of praise. In his message, entitled, "The power of praise," Alexander showed us the difference between praise and worship and how praise brings us into the presence of God, gets our eyes off ourselves and onto God, is a response to what God has done in our lives, is a weapon against the enemy, produces activity in the spiritual realm, allows God to cut off things in our lives, produces a divine shield around us, positions us for the harvest God has prepared, creates freedom and opens doors that only God can open.

Yesterday, Alexander showed us seven Hebrew definitions of praise in his message entitled, "Seven ways to praise God." Looking at the different words used in Hebrew that are translated, praise in English, we saw how varied our praise to God can be. The Hebrew words yadah (to extend the hand), halal (to shine, to rave), tehillah (to sing with thanksgiving), barak (to kneel down in adoration), zamar (to touch the strings), shabach (to shout loudly) and towdah (to offer a sacrifice of praise) are all translated praise in the English language but carry a rich variety of meanings that help us to understand how we can praise God.

These past two weekends we had two exciting events. Two weeks ago, Karin led a creative session for people to express their worship to God through painting as they were led by the Holy Spirit and on Saturday, Alexander led a seminar on Redeeming conflict and managing frustration that helped people understand the nature of conflict, the reasons for conflict, biblical examples of conflict and how believers are called to be peacemakers as sons of God.

Our senior leaders, Richard and Frances attended Kingdom Faith's leaders' conference in Horsham, England, last week and were able to connect with Kingdom Faith leaders and other leaders from different nations. It was a powerful conference that has inspired and refreshed our pastors and we look forward to seeing how God wants us to continue our relationship with Kingdom Faith.

Upcoming Events

27.03: KLF Prayer at L60
13.04: Proverbs & Jazz at the Awake Café
05.05: KLF Anniversary
25.05: Proverbs & Jazz at the Awake Café
09.06: KLF Talent Night
14.06 - 16.06: Conference with Edgar Mayer
23.06: Eastsite Celebration - joint meeting with CZF at 10:30 

God is love!

Glory to God!

Yesterday our Kingdom Life leadership team gave a report about the leadership conference hosted by Kingdom Faith in Horsham, England which our team attended last week. Being in partnership with Kingdom Faith, we are part of God's work not only locally but nation-wide. The connection we have with KF is important as we have apostolic covering, are accountable to the greater Body, benefit from the anointing upon KF, and share in God's purpose for the Church to bring transformation to society and renewal to the Church. As partners we carry the same spiritual DNA that seeks to build communities of faith and love and pursues what is on God's heart for His people, Israel and the nations. You can listen to the interview we had with the KLF leadership team here: http://kingdomlife-frankfurt.com/index3.php?id=1239c.

Elizabeth Nehring, who is part of our leadership team, then shared the experience she had when she stayed with the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Darmstadt (http://www.kanaan.org/). As part of what God is showing us concerning essence and form, we are learning to distinguish between the two so that we live from essence rather than from form. God calls us to be uncompromising in essence and flexible in form as we live the Kingdom Life wherever we are. You can listen to Elizabeth's powerful testimony here: http://kingdomlife-frankfurt.com/index3.php?id=1239b.

The Lord then spoke to us about how He wants us to be governed by His love as we return to our First Love. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are led by the God who is love. To remain in God is to remain in love (1 John 4:16). Looking at the account of the rich ruler who came to Jesus (Mark 10:17-23), we saw how Jesus addressed the core issue or the essence - the man's heart. Although the rich ruler appeared to be righteous, his heart was divided - he loved what he owned more than he loved God. The Law and the Prophets are summed up in our responsibility to love (Matthew 22:34-40; Rom.13:8-10). Our lives reveal what is our greatest love. When believers are filled with God, they are filled with love which is evidenced by their lives (see Acts 2:42-47).

We are looking forward to our first ever church retreat this weekend at Rot am See from Friday to Sunday. It will be an awesome time to encounter God and one another and to put love into action. There will therefore be no church service on Sunday afternoon at CZF.

Quote of the week

"God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16

________________________________