Student Study Guide
Lesson 17
The Power of High Praise
Section 1 - Defining Praise, Worship, and High Praise
Section One
There is a dimension of praise that goes beyond singing - a level the Bible specifically identifies as high praise, which carries supernatural power that most of the church has never accessed and many have never been taught exists.
Clearing Up a Common Confusion: The popular teaching that praise = fast songs about God and worship = slow songs to God is not only imprecise - it is essentially wrong. The word "worship" in the Old Testament literally means to be laid prostrate before God. It is an attitude of the heart. Praise is worship physically expressed.
Fill in the Blanks
1. The word "worship" in the Old Testament literally means to be laid before God. It is an attitude of the heart; a condition of and surrender.
2. Praise is worship expressed. It is the body, the voice, the whole person giving outward expression to the inward posture of worship.
3. High praise is a state in which every fiber of a person's being becomes so engaged in the and magnification of God that the natural realm begins to . Time loses its grip. Location becomes irrelevant.
4. High praise is not something that arrives for those who drag into a service half-heartedly. It is the fruit of deliberate, sustained, intense of God through praise - pressing in, past distraction, past self-consciousness, past what is comfortable.
Your Reflection
Section 2 - High Praise as Spiritual Warfare
Section Two
5. The two-edged sword held in the hand of the praiser is the of God - "living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword" (Heb. 4:12). The combined effect of high praise and the Word is .
6. The "kings and nobles of the nations" in Psalm 149 are not primarily figures. They are the demonic and powers that hold authority over geographic regions and people groups.
7. What Psalm 149 declares: when the high praises of God come forth from a pressing-in people, those principalities are . The chains and fetters of iron represent the genuine of demonic power over people, cities, and nations.
The enemy is not disturbed by Christian entertainment. He is not threatened by a well-produced worship service that stays safely within the range of the pleasant and comfortable. But when a people press through into genuine high praise, something shifts in the spirit realm that he cannot withstand. The power of the high praises of God is to him what chains and fetters of iron are to a prisoner.
Your Reflection
Section 3 - God Enthroned: Inhabiting Our Praise
Section Three
8. The word translated "enthroned" or "inhabits" in Psalm 22:3 does not mean God makes a friendly appearance. It means God is as king - as Almighty God, as Lord, as the ruler whose authority is absolute and .
9. When God arises in the midst of high praise, His enemies . As wax melts before fire, as smoke disperses before wind, so the powers of darkness at the arising of God.
10. This is precisely why the enemy works so hard to keep corporate worship tepid, -focused, entertainment-oriented, and brief. He is terrified of a people who press past performance into genuine high praise, because when that happens, the strongholds he has maintained begin to .
Your Reflection
Section 4 - What Happens When God Is Enthroned: The Names of God
Section Four
When a people press into high praise and God becomes enthroned in their midst, Jesus Himself shows up on the scene. And what does He do? He begins to declare the names of God to the congregation of worshipers. The names of God are not simply titles - they are descriptions of His nature in specific dimensions of redemptive relationship.
Jehovah Rapha
The Lord Your Healer
Demonic oppression of sickness leaves; divine health enters
Jehovah Shalom
The Lord Your Peace
A peace that passes understanding descends; stress and fear dissolve
Jehovah Tsidkenu
The Lord Your Righteousness
Strongholds of sin begin to crumble
Jehovah Jireh
The Lord Your Provider
Supernatural provision is released
11. When Jesus speaks the names of God in the midst of high praise, He speaks with the same perfect He has always possessed - so that what He declares comes to pass. The name is not merely announced; it is .
12. Many believers have experienced fragments of this without knowing what was happening: they came into a service carrying stress or fear, chose to press through and anyway, and at some point something . A peace settled. A burden lifted. A clarity came. What happened is precisely what Hebrews 2:12 describes.
Your Reflection
Section 5 - Biblical Testimony: Praise as Battle Strategy
Section Five
Jericho (Joshua 6)
God did not instruct Israel to deploy siege weapons or attack at a moment of strategic advantage. He told them to march around the city in silence for six days, and on the seventh day to march seven times and then shout a great shout of praise - a voice of triumph. The walls fell. They were not brought down by military strategy. They came down before a shout of high praise.
13. At Jericho, when the people arose in vocal, physical, wholehearted exaltation of God, God arose as the one in their midst and the stronghold could not .
Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20)
14. Jehoshaphat sent the out in front of the army. As they sang and magnified the beauty of God's holiness, God arose and brought into the enemy camp - the armies turned on each other and destroyed themselves.
15. The battle was won before a single conventional was drawn. High praise was the decisive military . When Judah arrived at the battlefield, there was nothing left to fight - only the spoil remained, so abundant it took days to gather.
Your Reflection
Section 6 - Jesus Joins the Praise - and the Father Responds
Section Six
Hebrews 2:12 concludes with a declaration of Jesus' own intention: "In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You." At some point in genuine high praise, as Jesus declares the names of God and strongholds fall, He joins the praise Himself. The worship is so full of the glory of the Father that Jesus cannot hold back from adding His own voice to it.
16. The word for "rejoice" in Zephaniah 3:17 carries the meaning of and spinning under violent emotion. When God's people press into high praise, when God arises, when Jesus declares and joins the worship, the Father Himself is so moved that He rises from the and rejoices over His people with singing and dancing.
17. Those who have been in services where something unmistakably broke through know what this moment feels like: a point at which it is no longer the congregation singing . Something joins in that is not from the room. A dimension opens. The atmosphere . The worship takes on a weight that no human effort can account for.
⚡ The Marianna Camp Account - 1999
Preaching a youth camp in Marianna, FL - the most powerful outpouring yet seen. Many still call it simply "THE CAMP." The last night, while preaching on this principle, a supernatural exuberant worship hit the building. All 250+ of us started to dance before the Lord.
For over an hour, without getting tired, we shouted, danced, jumped, and sang the high praises of God. At one point, eyes were opened to the spirit realm. Angels were seen down the right and left sides of the building - half of them using their wings to fan the flame of worship, the other half dancing with the worshipers.
When this was shared with the crowd, over 100 of the youth said they had been seeing the same angels, described exactly as witnessed.
Then, turning toward the stage and looking up - it was as if seeing into the throne of God. Jesus was seen praising the Father with the congregation. Then the Father rose and began to dance over the worshipers.
The lives permanently changed, the ministries birthed, the experience shared that night - we will never forget.
Your Reflection
Section 7 - The Full Progression & The Call to Press In
Section Seven
► The High Praise Progression
18. The progression laid out in Scripture is the most sequence available to the church on earth. That is what God calls a service.
19. Press past what you feel. Press past self-consciousness. Press past tiredness and distraction. Forget about who is watching. Get lost in the exaltation and magnification of the God who made you, saved you, and is waiting to in your midst.
20. "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand." (Psalm 149:6). That is the . That is the . That is the honor that belongs to all His saints.
Final Reflection
Lesson 17 - Practice Test
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Part A: Multiple Choice (5 questions · 2 pts each)
1. According to the lesson, what is the accurate definition of the relationship between praise and worship?
2. According to Psalm 149:6-9, what do the "kings and nobles" bound by high praise primarily represent?
3. According to Hebrews 2:12, what does Jesus do when God is enthroned in the praises of a worshiping people?
4. What was Jehoshaphat's military strategy in 2 Chronicles 20, and what was its result?
5. What does Zephaniah 3:17 reveal about the Father's response when His people press into genuine high praise?
Part B: True or False (6 statements · 1 pt each)
1. High praise is simply singing louder or with more visible enthusiasm than normal worship.
2. The word "enthroned" in Psalm 22:3 means God merely makes a friendly appearance when people praise Him.
3. At Jericho, the walls were brought down by a shout of high praise when the people arose in wholehearted vocal exaltation of God.
4. The enemy is most threatened by well-produced, comfortable worship services that create a pleasant atmosphere.
5. When Jesus declares the names of God in the midst of high praise, the declaration is merely an announcement - it does not release the reality the name describes.
6. The high praise honor described in Psalm 149:9 belongs to all His saints - not only to a special category of spiritual warrior or worship leader.
Part C: Fill in the Blank (5 items · 1 pt each)
1. Praise is worship expressed.
2. "But You are holy, in the praises of Israel" (Psalm 22:3).
3. When Jehoshaphat sent the praisers out in front, God set against the enemy armies, who turned on each other and were defeated.
4. God will over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).
5. "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged in their hand" (Psalm 149:6).
Part D: Short Answer (completion credit)
1. Explain the full six-step progression of high praise as laid out in Scripture (Psalm 149, Psalm 22:3, Psalm 68, Hebrews 2:12, Zephaniah 3:17).
2. What does the Jehoshaphat account (2 Chronicles 20) demonstrate about praise as a battle strategy? What specific actions did the praisers take and what was the result?
3. Explain what Jesus does when God is enthroned in high praise (Hebrews 2:12). How does the declaration of God's names produce specific changes in the worshipers?
Part E - Press In
Name the three specific barriers that most prevent you from pressing into genuine high praise (self-consciousness, tiredness, distraction, cultural discomfort, theology, etc.).
What situation in your life right now needs the strategy of high praise? Write it out and commit to worshiping over it this week.
Write a declaration based on Psalm 149:6 for your situation - high praises in your mouth, the sword of the Word in your hand: