Prophecy from John Lifflander on July 10, 2013:
I was awakening from a night of sleep, when I got a vision. I was looking down on the earth from heaven, and I felt that God said He was revealing something to me about praise.
The earth was filled with darkness, layers of it. There were a few pinpoints of light, but not many. The lights represented praise going up to God, and it was sparse, because very few people were praising, or at least praising with their whole heart. However, I then saw some strong light, and it was praise from large groups of people praising together. That light seemed to break through the darkness. There appeared to be strength in numbers, and together even the weak praise became strong. I started to understand that this was one of the reasons we are told in Hebrews 10:25 not to forsake assembling together.
I then saw praise in heaven – everything was praising God. Even the trees and flowers were praising Him, and they did so with joy. It seemed the joy came from Him as they praised and the praise was, for lack of a better description – bright and clear and completely unobstructed. It was their delight, not their chore. The people were praising in the way we breathe on earth. It was natural to them.
I then looked down on the earth again, and was a little surprised by how dark it was. The sin was much greater, even around Christians, than one might think. Some Christians thought praise was listening to music, but I was impressed that the music is not praise at all. It often helps facilitate it but praise has to come from the heart. Some music was so raucous that there was no praise in it at all. People were getting some sort of gratification from this type of music, but God was not in it – they were deceived in thinking He was.
Some Christians were making a half-hearted attempt at praise, but the cares of this world and their problems foreshadowed the praise and blocked most of it. They could not get the joy of the Lord because they were burdened down by their cares and they could not take their rightful place and praise God as they should. This was mainly because of the rebellion that still was in their hearts, even though they were born-again. But this was just not some Christians, all of them on earth had the rebellion in their hearts to some extent and it blocked the praise to varying degrees, and consequently the joy that they would have gotten if it was not there.
The enemy was intent on stopping the praise, and he did so by reminding them of their troubles, and the things that bothered them about themselves and life in general. Some were angry because of the circumstances of their lives, and for them the rebellion was stronger and the praise was very weak. Dwelling on their problems had become a controlling habit in their lives, and it permeated their thought life. Many were unaware of what God could do for them if they would resist the rebellion and the thoughts of this life that were bothering them and praise from the heart. The essence of the whole vision was that Christians are often weak and defeated because they do not press in to praise God. The other thing I noticed was that those who praised God with all their heart put effort into it. It took decisive action on their part to do so.
I think message was mainly for me, because I have found myself weakened in praise because of the cares of this world. But after I shared this with my wife, both she and I thought it was important to share it with others.