Give God a Praise Advance

Everything the Word says is ours works by mixing our faith with it. I am so grateful to God for revealing the message of faith to me so that I know how to make all the blessings in the Word work for me, regardless of circumstances.

There are huge blessings waiting on you if you will advance in your knowledge of God beyond just knowing what He does and move into knowing how He works. Knowing how He works enables you to cooperate with Him over and over again—on purpose!

For example, faith is the way God moves in our lives; it’s how He does what He does for man. One very important lesson I have learned about how to make my faith work for me is found in Psalm 27:13.

Psalm 27:13

I had fainted, unless I had BELIEVED TO SEE the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

The AMPC version of this verse starts out by saying, “[What, what would have become of me]?”

The psalmist is saying, “Where would I be today if I hadn’t learned to believe BEFORE I see all the good blessings God says in His Word are mine right down here in my life on this earth?” The term “land of the living” means our life down here on this earth.

How God Changes Your Story

God wants to change your history. He wants what you see in the Word to become part of the story of your life. He writes the fulfillment of His Word into your story by your faith--by your saying, and as you praise Him in advance for what He said is yours!

For example, we read in the Bible that God changed Abraham’s story by the means of his faith. But, Abraham had to learn to say what God said about him and begin praising God for it, even when it didn’t look like it was so. Him doing so enabled God to write a different storyline for his life--one so powerful that it has become known all over the world today.

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

People of faith all over the world today can say with the psalmist David, “What would have become of me? What would my life’s story have been if it weren’t for learning this one simple lesson of faith--that believing comes before seeing.

The phrase “believed TO see” means to believe IN ORDER TO SEE. The psalmist is saying, “I had to learn that faith comes before seeing. And, I had to learn that it’s my believing that causes or produces the seeing.”

As we study faith in the Bible, we see that believing God includes saying what you believe as well as praising God in advance of seeing. Speaking words of faith and praising God in advance of seeing is faith in action; it's faith expressing itself.

The psalmist is telling us he had learned this simple key to walking in the goodness of God down here in this life. You and I must learn this simple lesson as well.

People want the effect (seeing all the goodness and blessings of the Lord in this life), but they don’t practice what the Bible reveals as the cause of those effects. They sorta put the cart before the horse, so to speak. They wait to see good things from God before they believe and praise God for His Word that says these things are already theirs. That’s not the way God’s blessings work. And, it’s not the way faith works.

You’ve heard the term, “Putting the cart before the horse.” Waiting to see the blessings of God in this life before you speak those blessings or praise God that they are yours right now is sorta like waiting to see a cart loaded with the blessings of God coming down the road to your house without a horse.

The Abraham Kind of Faith

As I said, both the psalmist David and Abraham had to learn that the blessings of God work by believing to see them--not by waiting to see them before believing and saying they are ours.

Romans 4:20

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was STRONG IN FAITH, GIVING GLORY TO GOD.

God had spoken to Abraham about some mighty big blessings He had for him down here in this life. But, Abraham had to learn the same lesson of faith the psalmist had to learn. He had to learn to release his faith to God by praising Him in advance of seeing any of those blessings God said were his; that’s the Abraham kind of faith. There is another kind of faith--the Thomas kind of faith--that waits to see before it believes and praises God (John 20:29). Jesus said the blessing of Abraham never shows up where the Thomas kind of faith is operating.

Which Comes First?

II Corinthians 4:13

We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I BELIEVED, AND THEREFORE HAVE I SPOKEN; we also believe, and THEREFORE speak.

This verse is talking about you and I. It doesn’t say that those who have the spirit of faith wait to see before they speak the blessings of God. No, the spirit of faith speaks because it believes, not because it sees. And, those who have the spirit of faith have learned that they have to say it and praise God for it in advance IN ORDER TO SEE IT! In other words, they’ve learned that it’s the saying that brings the seeing, causes the seeing, produces the seeing.

When you praise God in advance for what you see in the Word, that’s faith expressing itself. And, faith is how God works.

Psalm 107:2

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

Again, we see that what God made yours in redemption works by learning to say what the Word says even before you see that it is so! If the Word would work for you without saying it’s so in advance, why would He instruct us to say that it is so right now?

Learn to live in the flow of what is yours even before you begin experiencing it! How? By saying that it is so right now. Sing that it is so—right now! Praise God that it is so—right now! Dance and rejoice because it is so—right now! Don't wait until you see that it is so--right now!

Praising God after your miracle manifests is gratitude. There is a place for that in our lives. But THANKING HIM IN ADVANCE IS FAITH! You’ll never have a miracle to be grateful for if you’ve not yet learned to praise Him in advance by faith!

These verses are teaching us to GIVE GOD AN ADVANCE! Advance some praise to Him ahead of your miracle! It gives Him something to get your miracle started with!

Give God a Praise Advance!

Let me give you an illustration that will help you understand what I’m teaching you. When someone has a particularly interesting story to tell, publishing companies will often seek to contract with them for the exclusive rights to publish their story. Maybe they were behind the scenes of a famous person's life such as a sitting president or someone who was a part of a major historical event. Everyone wants to hear what went on behind the scenes, what they saw, etc.

When the contract is made, it’s common for that publisher to give the author an advance of money to put their story in print. An advance is a pre-payment for work not yet done or only partly completed. It’s something given to the author to get them started writing their story. And, it guarantees that it’s them that gets to be the one who writes the story.

That's what your faith and praise to God is while He’s writing your story. It’s an advance to get Him started! It guarantees God is the one writing how your story ends, not the devil.

What story is He writing? It's all about how your faith in Him tapped into His power that He is so famous for and brought the blessings of God into your life that changed your story! It’s about that power that did grand and glorious things as a result of having faith enough to advance some praise to Him. It’s about how He worked miracle after miracle to get you out of impossible situations so you could fulfill His will.

If you'll give Him a praise advance, He'll come through with the rest of your miracle. And oh, what a story it's going to be!

The record will show that you were there participating in the story by your faith and praise and how that faith gave you a front row seat to God’s miraculous power. It's going to be a best seller! Everyone wants to hear a good faith story!

So, put up some praise to God ahead of time. Since you know the Word, you know how your story is going to turn out. Send your praise on ahead of your miracle because it's what God needs to get started on your story!

This is No Fiction or Mystery!

What kind of story is it? It’s no horror story, that’s for sure! It’s not a fiction or a mystery. This is the real life story of faith in God and how that faith keeps giving you the victory over and over again! A story of how the power of God keeps manifesting in your life through praising God in faith! It’s the story of adventures in faith where you launched out into new, unexplored territories of the Word to see what others have never seen.

We see these stories all through the Bible. Men walked on dry ground through the bottom of the Red Sea to get away from an angry Egyptian army. No one had ever seen the bottom of the Red Sea before! What an exciting adventure!

Others walked around in a burning fiery furnace without being burned; slept all night in a den of hungry lions without them hurting them. We read of an angel showing up in Peter’s jail cell and delivered him from certain death the next day!

There’s no life more exciting than the one God has ordained for all of His children—the life of faith! Go ahead and live the adventurous life.

Praise Him in advance and watch His miracles begin to show up to get you into the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!