Jim O’Brien continues the series ‘Committed’ and what it means to worship God.
The Bible is full of instructions and guide as to how we worship God.
In Revelation in talks about being in ‘awe’, throwing their crowns before Him.
We believe when He says “Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess.”
“”‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.‘””
Matthew 15:8-9 ESV
Jesus here is quoting Isaiah, to illuminate how we can be vain and not doing worship out of choice or the heart but out of religious doctrine and form.
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.“”
John 4:22-24 ESV
Worship is mostly an internal experience not an external event. Worship is a spiritual response when initiated through the Holy spirit. Worship has to be based on the truth of who God is.
To summarise worship;
Worship is a response from our spirit to His and we gain an understanding when under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
Knowledge is one thing, revelation another. It ceases to be just a known fact and becomes a spiritual revelation through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The church was built upon revelation Matthew 16:17-18
Worship is an inward spiritual experience, not an external event.
John 4:21-24 reminds us that our worship of God is not dependent on a physical place but springs out of the spirit of revelation.
Worship is not so much what you do but what you don’t do. Worship is our spiritual response to the Holy Spirit, evidencing itself in our praise and changed attitudes, thinking and response.
It is Holy living. Allowing our God to change us by the revelation He gives and for our hearts to be made right.
Worship is how we choose to trust God in those difficult moments. Believing that God is working for us in the strange and difficult turns of life.It is a life poured out as we are squeezed. The evidence of hope acted upon. A response to a truth of God that breaks into the valley of the shadow of death. The knowledge that even though we are made to feel like aliens in a strange land, we have a confidence of a home waiting for us whose builder and maker is God.
Worship is worked out in everyday life. It is not an interlude, a pause that we fit into our sometimes mad, busy and painful lives.
We pray that you will allow yourself to worship God by allowing Him to bring you fresh revelation about who He is. And having received revelation, allow it to change the way you respond to God in spirit. Let your life be lived wholly and acceptable to God.