Personal Worship Expression

One of the greatest barriers to worshiping in Spirit and Truth is the commonly held idea that worship is "personal". Worship has never been a personal expression of our love for God, but a Divinely ordained act of submissive agreement to the Great and Mighty God of All Beauty, Love, Light and Glory. All heaven declares "You are Worthy!", and that truth is the sole foundation of all true worship. Everything else is vanity.

The moment we believe that worship is a personal expression, governed by our own likes, dislikes and personality, is the moment we enter into idolatry - forming God, and the worship due His name, after our own desires and likings. There is no place in heaven for such a prideful act. It causes us to participate in the same rebellion which Lucifer incited against the Lord.

Beloved, God has the right to demand any kind of worship posture, expression and utterance out of His creation that He desires; and that creation includes us! We don't worship because we want to, we worship because He is worthy. And for us to deny or withhold ANY form of worship on the basis of our "personality" or "preference" is to deny His Worthiness all together.

He is Worthy of all worship, and all praise (not just all of the worship that I am willing to give Him). He is worth it all, and demands it all. One day every knew will bow and every tongue will confess the Jesus Christ is Lord. Why? Because we all finally came to an agreement on how to worship Him? NO! Because that is what He deserves, and in the government of heaven it will be required worship (even for those who have rejected His gospel).

How much will that sting? How much will that pain the human heart to know that you are worshiping Jesus now, at the end of the age, when you spent your entire life refusing to give Him the glory due His name? The revelation of who He is will demand it. You're whole being will cry out "WORTHY!! JESUS YOU ARE WORTHY!!!", and your heart will condemn you for your rebellion while in the flesh.

So why am I so enpassioned about this today? Because the Spirit awakened it in my heart yesterday and He will not let it go! He is determined to prepare the Bride for the coming of her Bridgegroom King, and that means that we need to be a people who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. It is our destiny. It is for our glory. And the Spirit is going to bring us to maturity in this area whether we like it or not. (But we will like it, once we realize that it is pleasing to the One that we love!).

Today the Church needs to grow in trust. That quiet confidence in the Goodness of God and His perfect leadership in all things. We need to finally begin to trust that the Holy Spirit will not destroy us if we obey Him. We need to finally trust in God's love.

We need to trust that the best thing for our meetings, our churches and ourselves is to do everything that the Holy Spirit asks us to do; even if it appears to be foolish, reckless and catastrophic! Why? Because He can not do anything foolish, reckless or catastrophic! It is impossible for God to do anything foolish. It is impossible for God to do anything bad! He is always good and in always.

We are afraid of God because we don't actually believe that God is good. We fear the Holy Spirit because we think that He is out of control and crazy! If we didn't, we wouldn't have a problem opening ourselves up to His moving in power upon our bodies. We wouldn't fear the gift of tongues, and we wouldn't be afraid of His manifestations upon our flesh.

The truth is that we are trying to protect ourselves from being deceived in the very presence of the Almighty God. The God who declares His eternal affection for us through the cross and word. "I will not give you a serpent nor a stone!". "Do not fear!!".

Let's be honest. We are afraid of the Holy Spirit. In fact, I would say that most Christians have more confidence is Satan's ability to deceive them then in the Holy Spirits power to keep them! But let us remember, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling".

God's Spirit is burning today with passion over this issue. He is looking for children who will trust Him as a good Father and throw themselves down upon His Mercy. Children who will actually demonstrate confidence in His Goodness by living abandoned in love and obedience to the moving of Holy Spirit.

Why should the world have faith in the message of salvation, of a God who will redeem them from the fires of hell, when those who claim to have trusted in Him continue to demonstrate a gross mistrust of His goodness?

I invite you today to meditate on this exhortation. Are we truly trusting God's leadership? Do we honestly agree with Jesus assessment of the Holy Spirit; that it would be better for us if the Holy Spirit were here instead of Him?

The Holy Spirit is described by Jesus as the Comforter. How many of us feel comfortable when He begins to move in ways that we don't understand? Is that a reflection upon Him or us?

Beloved, Holy Spirit is our greatest Friend and Teacher. I want to invite you to say "Yes" to His leadership today, no matter what it appears to cost. The rewards for saying "Yes" are great, but the cost of saying "No" is immeasurable.


Blessings,

Jon