I have written and preached many times about the truth of worshiping God in spirit and in truth. This is a subject that I have felt for years that I have a pretty good handle on. I feel like I understand it. I sit here now as I am writing this blog though with a new plain of understanding on the subject as God showed me a glimpse of this in a different way this week. It may even be something that I follow up with you later on as I am still having trouble putting all of this into words.
I was in my office this week and just having a time of worship and prayer during my lunch hour. I went through the usual singing, praying, lifting my hands to the Lord etc. I did the "worship with the flesh" thing. Then I got my emotional self involved and really started to press in mentally and worshiping God in the soulish realm of my being. Then in my worship, I experienced something that I am sure that I may have many times before, but may be never recognized it so readily and obvious. It was the moment I stepped over that line from a fleshly/mental worship and began to experience "spirit worship". It was incredible. It was a time that my mind became as the bible puts it, unfruitful.
The best analogy that I can come up with to explain it is this. You have probably experienced a time when you are at home with no radio or TV on in the day time and all of a sudden the power goes out. There is no distinct obvious engagement that you were in such as watching the TV or listening to the radio, or the lights on in the room, but there was a marked difference. It is like a suddenly different atmosphere altogether. That is what I experienced. It was not connected to any physical or emotional feeling, but something was just completely different that 2 seconds ago. At first it kind of took me back. When it did, I found myself step right back out of it. Then I thought, "wow, that was neat. I need to go there again." So I began to press in some more. My mind immediately engaged as I began to try to get myself there again. My mind was distracting me. Then when I realized it, I calmed my thoughts and BAM! I stepped in again. Almost immediately, my mind kicked in again. I stepped out again just as quickly as I stepped in. Wow! This happened several times in the course of just about a minute or two. I was readily recognizing the difference in the two "places" of worship like I never had before. It was one of the most eye opening times of worhip that I have had in a long time.
Like I said before, I will probably follow up on this post, but for now just let me encourage you in this. The next time you have the opportunity whether it be in a church service or at home by yourself, make an effort to calm the raging battle ground of your mind and tap into the song that is like a fire shut up in your bones. It is that river of living water that flows from your spirit. Tap into that place of worship in spirit and truth. Do not allow yourself to stop at the mental realm of worship and mistake that for communion with God. Go further with Him.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Why We Do This
The way you approach and view your position on a worship team is an issue of the utmost importance. In ministry, I always tell folks to know that they are called to a ministry before they plug into it. There is a huge difference in being "called" by God to serve on a team and playing or singing for any other reason. There are many other reasons that one can be on a worship team. It could be because you enjoy music. It could be because you enjoy worship. It could be because there is a need and you can play an instrument. There could be a host of other reasons as well, but I will not continue to list them. You get the picture. The reason I believe there is a huge difference in our motivation is because of simple human nature.
Human nature says that after you do something for a season, the "new" wears off of it. You settle into a routine with it. After being on a worship team for some time, methodical practicing at home will be routine and old hat. Being on time to group practices will become less of a priority. Even from a performance aspect, the adrenal hype will start to dissipate when you get used to playing and singing in front of a group of people. This is where it becomes important to know that your being a part is God mandated. If you are on a team to fill a need, the tendency is to begin to say within yourself, "I can't wait til someone rises up to relieve me from this." It becomes a burden and a weight. If your reason is that you love music, the practices, chord charts, meetings, corrections and everything that goes with the administration side of being on a team will get old and you will find that you enjoyed music much more when you did not have to deal with everything else that comes with it.
There is a core difference though when God has called you to do something. When He puts His stamp of purpose on it, it should drive you to overcome the complacency of human nature, because now it is no longer about a temporal like or dislike or need today and not need tomorrow. Now it is about what you were put on the earth for at this very moment. It is a part of your living breathing relationship with God and how you obey what He has commanded of you. Wow! That puts a completely new rung on the ladder.
Now, that motivates you to increase your gift during the week and not wait until group practice time at the church to "work on it". The Word of God says that your gift makes room for you right? Well, it stands to logic that the more gift equates to the more room it makes right? Well, increase your gift. It makes the difference between a person who can play for a service while having to jump in and out with your focus, (see last post "Caught In The Show"), and the person who can effortlessly play and have your instrument be a literal extension of your heart that is poured out like the oil in Mary's box of alabaster. I guarantee you that she did not have to divert her focus and attention on finding "where in the heck is that box". She did not divert her attention on worrying did it get on the floor or "I hope I do not pour too much on the left foot and not have enough on the right". Her gift was simply an extension of herself to the point that she even used her hair to dry them. That is truly putting yourself into the task at hand. That focus and ability to use that gift as an extension makes the difference that equates to you being able to quiet demonic forces by simply playing in worship on your instrument like David did.
To get to that point takes getting beyond the old hat human nature that overcomes a person who does something that they have not been called by God to do, but does it for temporal reasons that in a few months will no longer matter. It becomes an issue that is no longer about like, dislike, or even comfort. It becomes an issue of simply faithfulness and obedience to your creator.
Human nature says that after you do something for a season, the "new" wears off of it. You settle into a routine with it. After being on a worship team for some time, methodical practicing at home will be routine and old hat. Being on time to group practices will become less of a priority. Even from a performance aspect, the adrenal hype will start to dissipate when you get used to playing and singing in front of a group of people. This is where it becomes important to know that your being a part is God mandated. If you are on a team to fill a need, the tendency is to begin to say within yourself, "I can't wait til someone rises up to relieve me from this." It becomes a burden and a weight. If your reason is that you love music, the practices, chord charts, meetings, corrections and everything that goes with the administration side of being on a team will get old and you will find that you enjoyed music much more when you did not have to deal with everything else that comes with it.
There is a core difference though when God has called you to do something. When He puts His stamp of purpose on it, it should drive you to overcome the complacency of human nature, because now it is no longer about a temporal like or dislike or need today and not need tomorrow. Now it is about what you were put on the earth for at this very moment. It is a part of your living breathing relationship with God and how you obey what He has commanded of you. Wow! That puts a completely new rung on the ladder.
Now, that motivates you to increase your gift during the week and not wait until group practice time at the church to "work on it". The Word of God says that your gift makes room for you right? Well, it stands to logic that the more gift equates to the more room it makes right? Well, increase your gift. It makes the difference between a person who can play for a service while having to jump in and out with your focus, (see last post "Caught In The Show"), and the person who can effortlessly play and have your instrument be a literal extension of your heart that is poured out like the oil in Mary's box of alabaster. I guarantee you that she did not have to divert her focus and attention on finding "where in the heck is that box". She did not divert her attention on worrying did it get on the floor or "I hope I do not pour too much on the left foot and not have enough on the right". Her gift was simply an extension of herself to the point that she even used her hair to dry them. That is truly putting yourself into the task at hand. That focus and ability to use that gift as an extension makes the difference that equates to you being able to quiet demonic forces by simply playing in worship on your instrument like David did.
To get to that point takes getting beyond the old hat human nature that overcomes a person who does something that they have not been called by God to do, but does it for temporal reasons that in a few months will no longer matter. It becomes an issue that is no longer about like, dislike, or even comfort. It becomes an issue of simply faithfulness and obedience to your creator.
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