There was a visiting speaker from Australia who spoke on worship. He spoke enthusiastically but at the end of the sermon I had to ask myself what the message was all about.
In a nutshell the message came down to worship being the singing of praise choruses or hymns in a more meaningful way. I began to realise that we had a very limited revelation of what worshipping God really means. It was the beginning of a journey which is far from over.
My dictionary, the Collins concise, describes worship as: to show profound religious devotion and respect to; to adore or venerate; to be devoted to and full of admiration; to have and express feelings of profound adoration. Like many Christians who attended church services on most Sundays, we came to think of the musical period and singing of selected songs as praise and worship!
While singing to the Lord is certainly not wrong, I believe it has become a routine and controlled part of a fellowship service and is far from the whole of what worship to God means.
John 4:23 says, “But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” Wow! My heart skips a beat at those words. There is so much in them that much of the church has passed over for so long.
Worshipping our Heavenly Father is a deep and life consuming thing. How deeply are we able to worship the Father when our revelation knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is so limited? How much fullness of Christ Jesus is there in the heart of the church? Is there a living reality of Him in our church fellowships and is He utterly central and supreme in every part of the church?
Does the life of Christ flow from our church leaders, from our hearts and through each meeting and fellowship? Is every prayer meeting totally Christ centred? Without this kind of revelation knowledge of our Saviour, how can we even hope to begin to worship God in spirit and in truth? Jesus Himself said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”
How much of Christ have we seen? How well do we know Him? When we cry out for the Holy Spirit of the living God to unveil all the fullness of Christ to our barren hearts we will then begin to understand what it means to worship the Father.
Post published in: Faith