As fellow soldiers in the battle of the ages, I want to invite you to a perspective on joyous warfare. Intercessory prayer can become a soul-wearying drag if the warrior doesn't learn the biblical method of continually regaining and replenishing his strength. That renewed energy comes as we stay on the path to perpetual refreshing. And the name of that path is PRAISE! Praise is more than just appropriate gratitude for God's goodness. Surely nothing could be more appropriate, but praise is much more than that. Praise is a welcome to almightiness to invade tough situations. It is a fresh invitation to the Almighty One Himself to intersect our difficult circumstances, relationships, and situations with His power—His loving dynamic. God urgently desires to invade our lives and circumstances with His power to change them for the better. But we must do our part.

When God's Word commands us to praise, "In everything—give thanks," He is not commanding mindless noises of thanksgiving as though everything around us deserved praise. For certainly no thinking person can be very happy with what we observe all everywhere in today's society. Everywhere we look we can see things so far outside of God's design and purpose, even a fool knows God didn't will them and God didn't make them happen.

Still, He commands us to give thanks. He calls us to walk into the middle of those impossible situations in our lives, and with intercessory praise, exalt the Name of the One who is greater than the impossibilities those circumstances dictate.

When intercessors do this, they make a canopy of praise—a holy umbrella that stops the intrusion of the rain of unholy terror, and introduces a space where the "reign" of God's will can begin to work restoration and recovery. In contrary terms, the one who finds himself in difficult circumstances and can only muster criticism about them and complain against God, will find he's actually restricting the flow of the Lord's blessing into those situations. It is God's revealed will to bless his children--especially in the midst of the trials that inevitably come into our lives. But we must be responsible intercessors and make a conscious effort to praise Him in (not because of) those trials. That praise—in spite of our circumstances—is the vehicle by which God's power to change them is released.

In the midst of these uncertain days and the trials that beset us as we go through them, let us—the people of God, called by His Name—be careful to PRAISE! And PRAISE AGAIN!