campfire stars

The trick of the devil, the arch-enemy of the cross, is to mar and thwart the good things that God has established, and praise night is not excluded. While it is always good to attend and be a partaker of God’s blessing, the devil has cunningly frustrated it by attempting to give another meaning to it. It was Miles Munroe who said, “Be the concert and don’t just attend one”. In other words, we all need to be in tune and flow with the melody of the musical concert that we are privileged to attend. Let your joy inside connect other joyful saints in a concert and get blessed abundantly. A praise time is not to be shared with other things.

The Praise Night is not meant for the Choir alone

Drawing from our golden text which is Act 16, and where we have culled this practice from, Paul and Silas were not choir members by calling. They were missionaries to the core. They were not planning for any praise medley the day they were arrested for preaching the gospel but I sense the opportunity came to put this practiced on for the coming generations. They switched over to praise and God came directly to the scene by an earthquake and the unexpected began to happen.

Praise night, no doubt is a good gathering and event that is far better than any party in town because joining God’s people at different praise nights in Churches on Fridays brings a promotion and renewal of purpose. Destinies are restructured to His glory and many lives are straightened instead of being destroyed.

So, it’s not until a man becomes a member of a choir that he can enjoy the benefits of praise nights. The benefits are for ‘whosoever’ believes in and praises God. The common feature I have observed from my experience (having been to so many praise nights in different churches) is that of seeing only choir members at the programmes.

In a particular church in Lagos where I was invited as the guest speaker for the night. I had to ask the Host Pastor about the whereabouts of the church members. It was only the invited choirs and the host choir that filled up the auditorium. I later learnt that the church members believed that a praise night is usually a choir affair and therefore not their night of blessings. What ignorance! Like I said before, God might have arranged their (church members) breakthrough and blessings for that night but they thought it was for the choir alone. I pray these few lines will change our orientation as we humble ourselves and hearken to what the spirit is saying to the church about the place of paise in this end-time revival. Obedience is always a pathway to joy.

The praise night is not meant for the youth alone

People always believe that because the youths are agile and strong, so the night of praise is exclusively meant for them. I also believe that every saint is being expected at the praise altar of God to enjoy the presence of the Most High. I do not think only the youths need blessings via praise. Everybody needs it – including the aged. It is surpassing in some quarters that people ranging from 35 years to 50 years also exempt themselves from praise nights. It is my humble submission that if all the adults attend praise nights, many atrocities and pollutions being perpetrated by some unruly youths during this night would be averted.

There is a particular church I know in Lagos. Anytime there is a praise night, the elderly ones are usually the first to take their seats. They always come around as early as 8 p.m. for the programme that will take off at 10 p.m. They enjoy God at night even in their old age. No wonder they are all still looking fresh.

There is also an elderly man who is above 70 years of age yet never misses general praise time which allows him to express his joy and dance steps. If the Ushers are rushing people to dance and move fast, they dare not tell this father because they know that he loves to enjoy himself with his God at such times.

There used to be another man who was in his 80s in my home church then. Wherever and whenever he had the opportunity to praise, he always did it with excitement. I think this is a good way for the elderly ones to enjoy their God while they still have their breath and also a great way to enjoy the refreshing that only the presence of God brings.

The Praise Night is not meant for Competitions

Because praise nights involve many singing groups, choirs, artists and musicians, some have the erroneous belief that they are going there to compare themselves and compete with one another. This is off track in the praise course.

Praise nights are where we converge to lift the banner of the only wise God – in whom. every blessing flows to the saints. It is biblical to always come· together with one purpose to sharpen one another but not to compete with each other. Proverbs 27:17. No one is perfect yet. There is no perfect praise -music here until we get to heaven -the city of unadulterated praise music. We are just learning one or two things from one another until the perfect day, at the feet of Jesus – our perfect example.

Anywhere you see the word, competition, it is a spirit of Lucifer. In the Kingdom of God, there is nothing like that. It is secular and it is a worldly idea. A wise man once said, “Competition can be healthy in the words of business and athletics but not in the church.

Competition can destroy companionship. Beware!”11or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” (NKJV)

Praise night offers the opportunity to enjoy different styles of praise night that I attended in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria, I saw a young talented boy who ministered with a mouth instrument of a small comb and nylon-blowing and exalting God with it. It was amazing that day. That was an invention that I had never seen.

Where competing spirit is found, pride is not far away and such are barriers to the presence of God. This is because pride can never promote nor increase one’s life or status. “Where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there” James 3:16 (NKJV).

The Praise Night is not to show off Skills

For anyone to get the best gift and blessings from Godin praise night, that person must be acquainted with the subject of humility. This is because it takes humility to offer quality praise and worship to God thereby qualifying for a divine lifting. This form of praise and worship surpasses arrogance, ego, self-glory etc: It takes humility to praise and pass.

We need to always thank God for the gift and skills being bestowed by God (II Corinthians 9:15). It is a privilege to be gifted and skilful in music. For the organizers to locate and find you is yet another privilege. Many people are probably more skilful than many of us but they are not being found and located. Their gifts and skills are always in silence. Nobody hears them. Therefore, in praise nights, God must be the focus. You must always eulogize and extol God and not man or yourself. Praise does not require eloquence nor phonetics but earnestness. God is not moved by how sonorous or beautiful our voice is but by how sincere we are in giving Him His praise.

No young one would love to be sleeping at home seeing his peers going to one party or the other, especially on Fridays. Therefore, it is good for the church to always encourage praise nights to protect, redeem and keep these remnants instead of losing them to the outside world.

Anytime I am called to the rostrum for ministration and the audience, M.C. or the host minister begins to rain encomium on me, I always have one attitude within; that ‘it is the gift that God gave to me that they are praising’. This is because I have never worked for the gift I am privileged to pass across to the saints in every land and nation. No one has worked for the gift given. No one has attended any school for the certificate of talent-it is exclusively given by God to whom He wishes. You only improve on the skills/gifts that have been given. If there is no gift of music, many, including myself could have been irrelevant in this world. So beware of showing off skills! Know what to say always. Never be pushed to misbehave on the praise altar. Always behave!

The Praise Night is not a Jamboree nor for Entertainment

Because it is a spiritual matter, entertainment would be off-course. There is a sheer difference between the platform and the altar. You perform on the platform but you minister on the altar. Praise nights should not be viewed as a secular show-biz or music splash…where people pay gate fees to attend and thereby do whatever they choose in a bid to give themselves pleasure even when it means having to commit all forms of atrocities. This type of enjoyment has an earthly value and does not last long.

Every opportunity to attend praise nights should be taken as a time to meet God and for the settling of ‘cases’ that may have been pending. It should also be seen as a time to refresh spiritually and therefore improve our spiritual status with God. The night should also be seen as an opportunity to copy good ideas from others for future alignments in music.

In the world of ‘anything goes’ in His presence, a lot of young ones do misbehave at the praise night because they have taken it as “fun’ not for spiritual breeding.

I attended a praise night where some guys began to carry plastic chairs and even big sticks running helter and skelter within the church premises just because they believed ‘anything goes in His presence’. To our amazement that night, somebody brought a bag of pure water and began to distribute the sachets to other guys one by one. Suddenly these guys began to spray the audience with ‘holy water’ as the praise was on until they were checked. What a misbehaviour in His presence!

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *