By inspireempowerconnect4235 on September 20, 2021 ( Leave a comment )

Inspired, Empowered, Connected: What is True Worship?

As I was sitting listening to what God wanted to impart to me yesterday morning. I distinctly heard the lord say that worship does not need a platform. Worship is a posture of humility before the Lord. It is a position of the heart. It is your lifes’ entire response to who God is. He went on to say worship is not about attraction, entertainment, skill, instruments, or even voices. Worship is the essence of who a person is in their heart, when they intentionally seek Him with all their heart, to reverence to praise him for who God is. He said it is not about how much talent you have, how much skill you have, or even how much ability you have. It is about honoring what the Lord has given you. Not for self-preservation but for the edification of his body by honoring God in humility, while making good use of the talent, skills, and abilities the Lord has gifted and entrusted each person with. To serve others humbly just as His son Jesus did while He was here with us.

Jesus made a way for others to enter the presence of a holy God. Does your worship lead others towards God or away from God? Are you preparing the way for others to enter in? Or are you preparing your way for self-preservation or personal gain?

The word of God states that the time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24, ESV).

God makes a distinction in these verses between true and untrue worshippers. Moreover, God goes on to say that those He seeks, are those who will worship him in spirit and in truth because He is spirit. When a person accepts Jesus into their life He gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides the individual into all truth (John 16:13). This means that everyone who believes is spirit, therefore, qualified to be a true worshiper regardless of talent, abilities, or gifts. So, then what disqualifies a person or makes them untrue? When a person turns away from the guidance of the Holy Spirit then they put themselves in a position of being untrue. They are choosing to separate themselves from a Holy God.

Often individuals prefer to worship as a song or music, but that is only one aspect of worship. In the book of Psalm 100:2, it states to serve the Lord with gladness and to come into His presence with singing. Most times when individuals hear a song or music it makes their hearts glad. A worship song or music prepares the heart of an individual to become glad which clears a path to the throne room where people can enter into the presence of God. However, it is just one aspect of worship. In Greek worship refers to an attitude or a gesture of kissing the hand or kneeling before the Lord in a position of humility. This is the inner part of our hearts expressed outwardly in an action of reverence towards God. In the Book of Psalm 95:6, it states, “Oh come let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker!”.

But what is true worship? True worship is not just a song, music, or even a simple gesture as kissing a hand or kneeling. True worship encompasses an individual’s entire life response of thankfulness towards God in everything. In the book of Psalm 52:9, it states that individuals should praise God forever for what he has done. To trust in God’s good name in the presence of His faithful people. A true worshipper trusts God’s goodness in every circumstance, in every situation when in the presence of God’s faithful people. It is easy to demonstrate this type of response towards others when everything is going well but God requires it even when it is not going well. What happens when people are difficult? Did you know that a true worshipper trusts God even when faced with difficult people? This passage says exactly that. Worship requires us to trust God’s good name in the presence of not just some of His faithful people but all of His faithful people. So, when you smile and love that person that kind of rubs you the wrong way but you trust God in that relationship that is also a true act of worship onto the Lord. You probably did not know that right? Our spirit is the core of who we are. Our emotions are at the center of our core our heart. We also know that God is Spirit. So to worship God requires a person to go beyond what we can do in our humanity. It is not just a simple prayer or getting on our knees but it is a lifestyle based on God’s truth not misdirected enthusiasm or zeal for God (Romans 10:2). Worship onto God requires an individual to move past the emotions of their heart. A true worshipper worships even in the truth of their circumstances; When they are joyful, glad, happy, mad, sad, sorrowful, grieved, angry, and even when they are hurt. A true worshipper worships in truth when they can declare the truth of their condition, situation, and even their circumstances to God the Father.

To worship God in Spirit and Truth is to declare that God is worthy of our reverence in the truth of our existence, in the core of our spirit, despite our emotions, our condition, our situation, our circumstances to acknowledge him as worthy to be reverenced with our entire life’s response in all that we do. So to conclude we can see that worship does not need a platform. Worship is a decision where an individual chooses to humble themselves before the Lord to surrender their humanity to go above the physical to respond in ways that go beyond their human nature in all things because they understand that their entire life is a response towards the God that they serve. The fruitful evidence of a true worshipper is an individual whose attitudes, actions, and words demonstrate and declare that God is worthy of our praise. I ask every person today do your attitudes, actions, and words demonstrate and declare that God is worthy of praise?