I want to share a simple yet profound revelation the Lord showed me about praise, one that completely shifted the way I approach spiritual battles.
I am someone who lives and breathes warfare prayer. Pulling down strongholds, dismantling demonic structures, and confronting what the enemy has erected—this has been my rhythm. And for a season, the Lord allowed it. After all, He is the One who trained my hands for war and my fingers for battle.
But right before the new year, He interrupted my pattern. In a dream, He showed me something different. Something deeper. I believe it will speak to the one who has prayed every prayer they know, declared every scripture they can think of, and still feels like breakthrough is nowhere in sight.
The Dream
In the dream, I moved through crowds, casting out demons and declaring the Word of God with authority. Each bound person was instantly freed when I prayed. Then I came to the last one—the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her hair was pure white, her eyes a piercing blue, and she carried a glow that felt almost supernatural. I wasn’t deceived by her appearance; I continued to pray with the same the same scriptures and the same authority I had used on everyone else.
For the first time, nothing happened. She stayed completely still, unmoved. My prayers could not reach her. My words struck an invisible wall and fell lifeless at my feet. Then she smiled—not in mockery, but with quiet, unsettling confidence, as if she already knew my prayers would fail to accomplish their purpose.
Weary, I sank down beside her and cried out, “What else can I do? I have exhausted every prayer point.” And then a voice answered: “If you have prayed all you can pray and it has not worked, try praise.”
In that moment, I shifted. I took my eyes off the woman and the battle. I lifted them to God. I exalted His faithfulness, His goodness, and His majesty. I worshiped Him for who He is. And suddenly, without warning, the demon that had refused to move fled. The woman was free.
Praise was the move the enemy didn’t see coming.
Marvin Sapp has a song, Praise Him in Advance, where he says, “Praise will confuse the enemy.” In that dream, I watched that truth unfold. Psalm 22:3 reminds us that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people—He makes His home there. When we turn our hearts toward Him in wholehearted adoration, we step into that same atmosphere. In that place, doubt loses its grip and faith begins to rise. Praise brings to mind the countless ways God has shown His goodness before, anchoring us in the truth that the God who was faithful then is faithful now.
When you praise God, you are not wasting your time—you are stepping into a divine mystery that even the angels and the twenty‑four elders participate in, as Revelation 4:10–11 shows them casting their crowns before His throne and Isaiah 6:3 reveals them crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”
Praise does not elevate God—He is already enthroned above the heavens—it elevates your awareness of Him. It is the highest expression of reverence, trust, and love. It doesn’t pretend our challenges aren’t real. It doesn’t erase the mountain in front of us. But it does something far more powerful: it lifts our eyes above the obstacle and magnifies the One who reigns over it. Praise invites His Spirit into the very center of our situation. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Look at Acts 16: 25 -26.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.
Paul and Silas prayed—and heaven answered. Then they praised—and the earth itself began to tremble. Psalm 67:5–7 declares, “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.”
There is a season to petition God, and there is a season to exalt Him. Spiritual maturity is learning to discern the moment and knowing which weapon to wield.
This reminds me of the story in 2 Chronicles 20:1–22. A vast army was marching against Judah. Jehoshaphat was alarmed, but he sought the Lord. The people fasted, humbled themselves, and turned to God for deliverance. In prayer, they confessed to God, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”
Then the Spirit of the Lord spoke: “Do not be afraid. The battle is not yours, but God’s. You will not have to fight this battle. Take your positions. Stand firm. See the deliverance of the Lord.” The next morning, Jehoshaphat did something radical—he put singers in front of the army. Not soldiers. Not archers. Not warriors. Worshipers.
And as they began to sing: “Give thanks to the Lord, for His love endures forever,” the Lord Himself set ambushes against their enemies. The armies turned on each other. Not one survived.
Others may have wondered why they weren’t reacting the way people “should” in a time of war—why they weren’t panicking, scrambling, or grasping for human solutions. But in true spiritual warfare, you don’t move by impulse; you move by revelation. You don’t respond to the pressure of the moment; you respond to the voice of God. This is the upside‑down wisdom of the Kingdom.
As 1 Corinthians 1:27 declares, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”
What looks passive to the world may be obedience in the Spirit. What looks foolish to the natural mind may be the very strategy God uses to overthrow the enemy. When others expect fear, God may call you to stillness. When others expect striving, He may call you to worship. When others expect frantic action, He may call you to wait. Spiritual maturity is the ability to recognize that God’s ways rarely mirror human logic—and to trust His revelation over your own reaction.
God has more than one strategy for deliverance. And sometimes the breakthrough doesn’t come from praying harder but from praising louder. This is why the book of Psalms resonates so deeply. David had a psalm for every season—warfare, lament, and repentance. But some of the most powerful are the ones where he simply magnified God for who He is. That is what God desires from us. When the battle feels insurmountable, when the enemy seems immovable, when prayer feels exhausted—God is ready to turn your praise into a weapon.
As children of God, we can trust that every battle we face belongs to Him, not us. With the Lord fighting by our side, victory is certain. So, as Marvin Sapp asks, why not praise Him in advance?
