Hi, my name is Bethany Hicks and I’m with Prophetic Company, and welcome to God Today. Today, I want to share with you about what is one of the most important garments that you can wear. And we find this in actually, Isaiah 61, where it says that God will give you a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
Now, as a worship leader and a family of worshipers over the years, I’ve really cultivated this lifestyle of worship. It’s something I absolutely love to do. Really creating those pathways to His presence by worshiping Him no matter what. And this was really tested years ago when my youngest and only brother died suddenly from a rock climbing accident. And in that time, my family decided that we felt like, you know what? We have a God who is the God of the resurrection. And we felt like we were going to just pray and ask God to resurrect him from the dead. And so my sister and I, and my parents went into this room where my brother was and you know, he’s six foot five. And, and, you know, he’s laying there in that casket. And I remember in that moment that my dad asked my sister and I, and he said, “Girls, let’s just worship the Lord for a little bit.” So my sister and I would take turns playing our guitars and just worshiping the Lord and my family would come together and worship. And I, I so remember just looking at my father with his hands open and his eyes up, and he’s just worshiping the Lord over his dead son. It was probably one of the most impacting moments of my life to see the sacrifice of praise that a father would give on behalf of his son to the Lord in that moment. But as we are worshiping as a family, I heard probably about 45 minutes in, I felt like the Lord told me he, that my brother wants to stay in heaven. And of course who wouldn’t, right? But as my family was doing this, my father eventually said, you know what? He had peace. And he also felt the same sense that my brother wanted to remain in heaven.
But what happened is this, and this is what I want you guys to catch today. And I hope this encourages you, is that as my family was worshiping the Lord in the darkest night of our soul, we were doing what we knew to do. We had created these pathways to His presence. And in that moment, that was the only thing that really seemed right, was to worship the Lord. And as we worshiped Him, something was being lifted off of our shoulders. There was an exchange of a garment that was happening, that we didn’t realize was happening until we left that place. See, because when we walked into that room, we were all very heavy with that yoke of grief, with that yoke of sorrow. And as we walked out of that place, even though we obviously still missed my brother, our spirits were light and there was a sense of hope and lightness. What happened in that moment was that as we were worshiping the Lord, God exchanged the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise, and our ability to worship the Lord in that moment broke the enemy’s ability to put a spirit of grief on my family.
I have seen grief debilitate people for years and years, even their whole life. And I’m telling you, this is a key to breaking that spirit of heaviness, is to wrap yourself with that garment of praise, is to position yourself to that place of being unmovable and saying, though my flesh be destroyed, my eyes will see God. Though I do not understand what is happening around me. Even though everything around me seems to be falling apart, I will absolutely worship and praise my God because He is good and He is worthy. And so again, I want to just encourage you today. If you’re experiencing a sense of grief or sorrow or depression, wrap yourself with that garment of praise, lift up your eyes to the goodness of who God is and let Him pull you out of those pits of despair because He can, and He will do it. You are made for those higher places, and praise is an accelerator into the presence of God.
And so Lord, I just thank You right now for every person watching right now. Father, I pray that their hearts would be encouraged, whether they’re dealing with the depths of despair or they’re in a great place, Father that they would learn to wrap themselves in the garment of praise and that they would step into those positions and places of authority that You have given them to release Your hope, Your light and Your goodness. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.