Make rejoicing a lifestyle; then the earth shall yield her increase

Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him. (Psalm 67:5-7)

Introduction: God wants you to rejoice always no matter what you are passing through. It is not enough to praise God in church on Sundays; you have to cultivate a lifestyle of rejoicing, thanking and praising God if you want a life of continuous manifestation of the blessings of God. This lifestyle means that you refuse sadness in your heart for any reason because anything done in sadness is not acceptable to God. When you are sad, you are co-operating with the devil to fulfill his agenda. One major plan of his is to steal your joy in order to make you lose God’s presence and the beautiful things associated with it.

Prayer is not enough, add rejoicing

In Psalm 67:1-2, the people of God were praying to him to be merciful unto them and to bless them. The Psalmist quickly responded in v3-5 that if people want God to bless them, then they should praise him. The people should  be glad and sing for joy. If there is joy in your heart and you appreciate God in a situation, IT IS PRAISE. IF THERE IS NO JOY AND YOU JUST SING, it is not praise. Praise is the rain that waters the seed you are sowing.  You work hard, give tithes and offerings, expecting increase but the act of rejoicing and praising God is the rain that waters your seeds and make God give you bountiful harvests.  Stop complaining about the little salary or condition at work, stop comparing yourself with other people, rejoice sincerely and praise God in your situation.

It is also important to combine thanksgiving and dancing with your rejoicing (Psalm 149:1-3). Any time you have the opportunity to dance in church, do it with all your heart bearing in mind that dancing is a special offering to God. It may even be regarded as higher than giving money. Don’t think it is only in church you are expected to dance to God. You should also dance to him in your bedroom. It is an offering he is expecting from you.

Sing loudly and sing new songs to God

God loves praises so much that he would even prefer you shout it. The Psalmist said in Psalm 149:5&6,that the saints should be joyful and sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hand. Don’t allow anybody to dissuade you from praising God violently. It is the Pharisees that get nervous with exuberant praise. Jesus loves praises so much that if his disciples wouldn’t do it, the stones will do it. (Luke 19: 37-39)

God also loves new songs. In fact, if you read Psalm 30:3 very well, it sounds like singing a new song to the lord is a commandment, therefore, start making an attempt to sing a new song to the Lord. Don’t worry yourself about how you will get the new song , it is God himself that puts it in your mouth; just co-operate with him, when you find yourself singing (Psalm 40:3). Sometimes, the new song may be a few words and may not be melodious or sound perfect to a musician, God doesn’t mind.  He is like a father listening to the few words that a one year old child utters, the words excite him though it may not make sense to other people around. Moreover, the song is like a love song being rendered to a lover. Whichever way it sounds, it is sweet to the lover. God is our lover and wants to hear our voices singing new songs.

Sometimes the new song may even come when you are speaking in tongues and therefore comes in that same language, please allow the words to flow and sing it. Don’t bother about not knowing the meaning; just believe that God enjoys it. If you spend enough time speaking in tongues, praising and worshipping God with known songs, you will just discover yourself singing new songs and even singing in tongues. Praise and worship him in your closet until you find yourself singing a new song. This is one of the things I enjoy doing in God’s presence.

The earth will yield her increase

When you praise God, then the earth will yield her increase to you. If you are a farmer, you will have bountiful yields from the soil (Psalm 67:v6-7) and if otherwise, whatever is your business or job will prosper; but it goes beyond that. It means you are blessed and you will have increase in every area of your life. It’s not magic or Talisman, it’s a lifestyle in a relationship with God. Rejoicing proves that you trust him to increase you, therefore you will not be sad no matter what happens.

God is interested in blessing you but the secret of bringing him to the scene and answering your prayers is praising him joyfully. Praising God attracts him (Psalm 22:3) and when he comes into your situation, he brings with him healing, spouses, children, employment, financial breakthrough and every other thing you desire and make them manifest in your life.

Psalm 92:1-10 says that when you praise God, your horn is lifted like the horn of the unicorn and God anoints you with fresh oil. If you want the anointing of God to be fresh in your life all the time and enjoy divine lifting, rejoice and praise him always.

Your increase will be so much that people will fear God

Rejoicing and praising God grant you access to miracles. Exodus 15:11 says that God is fearful in praises meaning that as you praise him, he does wonderful and fearful things for you. The kind of blessings that God will give you when you praise him rejoicing will be so great and recognized all over the world that all the ends of the earth shall fear him when they discover that he is your secret (Psalm 67: 7). This means that if a person or a local church or any group of believers learns to praise God, God will bless the person or such a group beyond what the ordinary mind can conceive. Moreover, the blessing of God in his/their lives will be means of evangelism. If people fear or respect God because of the blessings of God in your life you have achieved something worthwhile.

Other advantages of rejoicing and praising God

There are several advantages in praising God. Apart from making God to bless and increase you, it makes his presence more real to you, Psalm 22 v3 says that God dwells in the praises of his children. That means God’s presence manifests in your life and he beautifies you (Psalm 149: 1-4). God is everywhere but he does not necessarily manifest himself in the life of everyone.

Praising and rejoicing grants you access to revelations from his word (Is 12:1-6), gives you strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Sorrow and complaints weaken people and make it easy for the devil to execute his plans in such lives. Anytime someone hurts your feelings or any unpleasant thing comes your way, shake it off having known that it is a strategy of the devil to rob you of your anointing and strength.

Rejoicing and praising God make him deal with your enemies. Psalm 149: 6-9 says that when you offer violent praises to God, it becomes a weapon of warfare, a two edged word that helps you deal with your enemies successfully. Rejoicing and praising God gives you the opportunity and honour of executing vengeance upon your enemies. Remember that vengeance really belongs to God and not you (Psalm 94:1)!!!!  This means that when you praise him, without praying against your enemies, you have the honour of God fighting on your behalf. He comes on the scene of the challenge you are facing and deals with all the enemies, executes judgment upon them to give them the reward of their sins. Imagine that God actually punishes your enemies and puts them in chains and bands of iron.

Conclusion: If rejoicing and praising God will cause the earth to yield her increase and move God to bless us, then it is better to spend adequate time rejoicing and offering quality praises unto God than to be complaining about unpleasant situations or people.