After growing up in Oxfordshire, officially Southeast England, moving to North Yorkshire in 2006 was a culture shock. One of our more unusual discoveries was the Scarecrow Festival! For those not familiar with the Wizard of Oz or Wurzel Gummidge, a scarecrow was made in the shape of a human figure by farmers to scare birds from eating their crops. But did you know in the Medieval period it was a paid job, farmers actually paid children to be Bird Scarers? Later the children were replaced by scarecrows, a look-a-like made by packing old clothes with straw and standing them in fields attached to posts. Now the scarecrow has been replaced but to celebrate the farmers’ creativity many villages hold Scarecrow Festivals. A competition encouraging village residents to build and display all kinds of scarecrows in their front gardens. Visitors then come from far and wide to enjoy a stroll around the village admiring their creativity. Interesting I hear you say, but ‘what’s this got to do with shouting?’ Read on…
I’m a creative, I love innovation and can even thrive through change, but there are some things that God has given His people that can’t and shouldn’t change or be replaced. God calls His people to shout because when we do, something happens. A shout is a simple, yet profound gift God has given His people. Often a response to His presence and goodness but also a mysterious catalyst to change. Time and time again the Psalmist declares ‘shout for joy’. Yet we don’t wait to feel joy, often the shout proceeds any feeling of joy. Isaiah exhorts the barren woman amid her pain, to shout for joy (Isaiah 54:1). Jeremiah challenges Israel while in captivity to shout for joy (Jeremiah 31:7) and proverbs teach that when the righteous shout for joy, gladness follows (Proverbs 29:6). At times a shout is a hard choice. A step of obedience that can lead to God’s transformation in us and victory around us. Remember how the walls of Jericho fell when the Israelite army raised a shout in obedience to the Lord’s instructions (Joshua 6:20)?
So where is the shout of God’s people? Alone or when we gather, let’s not forget to lift a shout all over the earth declaring the goodness of God and expecting God to move. We are God’s chosen, royal, holy, and special possession for a purpose, that ‘you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’ (1 Peter 2:9). Sometimes the result is immediate and physical. For example, the ground shook when the Israelites responded with a shout to the return of the ark of the Lord’s covenant into camp (1 Samuel 4:5). When Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns in prison, ‘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’ (Acts 16:26). When King Jehoshaphat sent the singers to praise God ahead of the army, ‘the Lord set ambushes’ and the invading armies were defeated (2 Chronicles 20:22-23). Lifting a shout of praise to declare the goodness of God over our circumstances can be the catalyst for the miracle we need.
A shout of praise often proceeds our breakthrough because it is a weapon of warfare. God’s intention was that through the Church ‘the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms’ (Ephesians 3:10). A shout rings throughout the heavenly realm, silencing the enemy and clearing the path for God’s Kingdom to be established on earth. In Ecclesiastes we get an insight into a scheme of the enemy: ‘Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird in the sky may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.’ (Ecclesiastes 10:20). Our private thoughts or things spoken alone in our bedroom can be carried by ‘birds’ and used against us. Yet the psalmist tells us ‘through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger’ (Psalm 8:2).
One new method the farmers use to scare the birds from destroying the farmers harvest is the simulated sound of a gunshot. It was quite disconcerting, to say the least the first time I heard it, but very effective. A shout of praise released by God’s people is like a gunshot that reverberates in the heavenly realm. Darkness is shattered, demon ‘birds’ flee, the foe and the avenger are silenced, and the seeds of the harvest are protected. The impact of God’s people simply releasing a shout of praise is beyond what we can understand or may ever see. The Moabite King asked Balaam to curse God’s people and Balaam tried three times but couldn’t. The Israelites were unaware that they were under attack. But every time Balaam tried to curse them, he blessed them instead. In Numbers 23:21 explains why: ‘No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them’. Don’t forget to shout! Imagine the impact if every gathering of Jesus followers across the earth lifted a gunshot of praise to declare the goodness of God. Imagine the schemes of the enemy that would be defeated, the darkness that would be shattered and the release of God’s Kingdom on earth that could follow. God is with us so let His people arise and be sure the ‘shout of the King’ is found among us.
Featured photo by Jeffrey Betts on Unsplash
"Live to Serve" 