Well, another Sunday service come and gone. It was a weird one for me for the 1st 2 and a half songs. Here is the setlist:
I Walk By Faith
Better is One Day
Here I Am to Worship
Lord I Lift Your Name on High
Wonder of Your Cross
and Heart of Worship for the altar call.
Why was it weird? Who knows? Maybe it was just me. But while I was in the middle of the third song, I started praying HARD!! Holy Spirit, give me a kick in the butt. I have learned in the past, that I am responsible for only one person worshipping and that is me. We play the songs to create an atmospehere where people can feel free to worship God. It is a one on one experience. I can't make you worship God. It is your choice. So, I realized, I need to start worshipping God myself and not worry if the people in the seats were worshipping. At that point, worship for me became a very encouraging and uplifting experience.
So, lets take a minute and talk about worshipping in Spirit. Some of you may have heard the term from the Bible, Worship in Spirit and in Truth and that is what will please God. Lets take just the worship in Spirit part today. To worship in Spirit means to worship under God's control. To let the Spirit of God take control of your worship. The old Let Go and Let God. Are we doing that? I spoke the other day about boxing in God. Are we choosing how we are to worship God, well, guess what, the ways we want to worship God might be completely unacceptable to Him. God told us in the Bible how we are to worship Him, singing , dancing, clapping, raising our Holy hands, kneeling, bowing, playing musical instruments, making a joyful noise. Then the Holy Spirit helps us to do these things during our corporate worship time. You need to be asking teh Holy Spirit during times of worship to help you and to guide you. And He will. God is looking for obedience. He wants us to obey Him. That please God. He told us what he expects from worship and we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to do those things. They can be uncomfortable and embarassing. Just raising your hands in the middle of singing a song doesn't make any sense. But when we read the Bible and it states its a sign of obedience and it is an outpouring from your heart. If your heart is right with God , you will want to do what he says to do. Lets take an example and look into it.
so, raising hands.. we have all seen this on infomercials for Christian cds, on the INSP channel on TV, hopefully we have seen people do it at our churches... so, why do we do it and what does it mean.. It actually should mean something. Doing something that doesn't mean anything is foolish. so, i found this cool article on why raise your hands.. here is some of what it says about raising your hands during worship and what it means...
1. RECEIVE. (Two-handed; hands raised, palms facing inward). This is the posture your Charismatic friends probably preferred—a posture of receiving—“God, respond to me, touch me, give me, speak to me, fill me.” It is a posture for receiving from God a touch, a work of grace, or a gift.
2. STAND-IN-AWE. (Two-handed hands raised, palms facing outward). The same as the receive posture only with palms reversed—facing outward. It is an ancient custom still practiced in other religions and cultures. The worshipper falls to his or her knees, raises hands with palms facing outward, then bows down forward before the god or king.
3. SURRENDER. (Same as above—two handed hands raised, palms facing outward). Though this posture is the exact posture of the stand-in-awe gesture, holiness camp meeting folk used it for a different reason. The almost-universal expression of surrender is either a white flag or this one: hands raised with palms facing outward. “I give up.”
4. TESTIMONY. (One hand raised, palm facing outward). The culture uses this posture when we “swear in” a witness (i.e. “I swear to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth…”). The church has used it as a testimony-witness posture. To raise one hand during singing a song says, “I agree” or, “I testify this is true in my life.” In a sense this quiet hand raising is a non-verbal “amen.”
5. COMMITMENT/VOLUNTEER. (Same as above—one hand raised, palm facing outward). The second use of the single hand posture in our culture is “I volunteer” or, “I will.” It is a posture of commitment or volunteering. It emphasizes willingness to do whatever God requires.
so, next Sunday.. give it a try. pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you as you start singing and really focus on God and who He is.. Lord of lords, King of kings.. and see if the Holy Spirit prompts you to raise up those hands to receive from the Lord, to surrender to Him, standing in awe to His greatness, agreeing with the lyrics, with a non verbal amen or committing/recommitting your life to the name of Jesus.
ramblin ramblin ramblin...
Be well and God Bless
Tony
2 comments:
I think the devil was super attacking yesterday. I spent a lot of worship time myself pretty much asking the same thing. I was mad at myself for the way my morning was going and it was really showing. I knew the whole time it was the devil but I was having such a hard time ridding myself of his lies for some reason. My suggestion for everyone is that God really means it when he says we need to rest. Without rest, it is really hard to defend yourself against the devils attacks. I was up really late the night before and was feeling really weak and vulnerable.
the devil attacks when we are at the lowest point, tired, hungry, busy.. think about when the devil tempted Jesus in the desert.. Jesus was on a 40 day fast in the hot desert.. He was tired and hungry, thirsty and the devil attacked. We know that if we get run down, the devil will show up.. so get some sleep and rest up. we need you!
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