A video follow up to our last blog entry regarding Gideon… Enjoy!
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It was a hot morning at the base of the mountains in the central region of the nation of Israel. Of course, it was always hot here. The sandy beaches of Gaza were too far away to enjoy and the mountains to the east blocked any breezes that might be coming from the Dead Sea. The sun beat down hard on the mountain tops and chaffed the arid landscape. It seemed that even the sand was crying out for a vacation from the heat. It was there, nestled in a valley between two dusty peaks that the tiny village of Ophrah sat quietly. A small rural community made up of simple farmers, shepherds and tradesmen, Ophrah was a town that not many people seemed to notice, much less care about. A boring little outcropping on the rim of a mountain range. Even the Amalekites didn’t seem to pay the town much attention. But today, it was being discovered. Today, heaven itself was taking notice of this scrappy little mountain town.
A pair of ageless eyes surveyed the landscape as the massive being swooped over the mountain sides. He was looking for a place to land and wait for His encounter with this mighty Israeli man. Seeing Ophrah in the distance, he knew that he was almost there. He surged forward at a blinding speed, powered by some unearthly force and sped off like a bullet. Then like a bird his huge wings lifted him high above the town and he circled for a moment before making a final decision on a suitable landing spot. Finally he dropped out of the sky and alighted onto a large boulder beside a pasture. Over his left shoulder stood the small winepress which he knew would be there and in the distance he could see the entry to a cave. Immediately to his right he saw a large terebinth tree with knobby features and curly roots. This would make the perfect spot. With the grace of ten thousand years spent flying around heaven’s throne, he leapt from the rock and landed just under the cover of the branches of the tree. Once again he surveyed the land around him, his eyes seeming to pierce through the rocks and see beyond the mountains. With a look of satisfaction and heavenly confidence, the Angel of the Lord rested his head against the side of the tree and waited, for his encounter with a young Israelite man.
Gideon walked at a brisk pace carrying as much wheat as he possibly could over his shoulder. He knew that it was still early morning, and most of the soldiers would still be sleeping, but these days you could never be too careful. Gideon was a typical Israelite man who worked in the fields to make a living in these harsh surroundings. He lived with his father and did the best he could to help keep food on the table. Although he was not his father’s strongest son, Gideon stood at just above average height with broad shoulders and a tough exterior. He was usually a cheerful person and a man who didn’t fear conflict, but the last several years of pagan oppression were beginning to wear on him. His smile was gone and his sense of power and nobility had departed. In fact, on this particular day he looked weak, and he felt even weaker. “What had happened to the God of Israel?” he thought. “Where was this champion of heaven that had promised to redeem us?” Of course, Gideon knew that most of the nation had long since abandoned God so it seemed only natural that God would abandon them. “We’ve sacrificed our livestock to foreign gods, and now God will sacrifice us to a foreign nation.” His head drooped in shame as he walked.
The sound of rock and sand sliding down a hillside jolted Gideon from his pity party. He quickly checked over his shoulder to see where the sound had come from. It could have been a wild goat or an Amalekite soldier on patrol. Either way, Gideon didn’t have time to stick around and find out. His pace quickened and he slipped around the side of a rock face as he trotted back home. The nice thing about growing up in these mountains was the fact that Gideon could hide from just about anything. He knew every crag and boulder like the back of his hand. In fact, hiding was one of the things that Gideon did best. As he moved quietly from one shadow to the next, he knew that he was out of sight from whatever might be looking for him and soon he would be home. The wheat shifted on his shoulder as he rounded the last bend and saw his father’s cave straight ahead. His eyes became fixed on the winepress which stood before him like a ragged outhouse. That was his goal and he was stiff with determination to get inside. Once he crossed the threshold of the winepress he knew he would be safe. He scrambled towards the door, almost dropping the wheat.
For some reason as he entered the door to the winepress his eye caught a glimpse of light coming from under that old craggy tree over there. What was that? He turned to look. Nothing. Must have been his imagination.
The door closed behind him with a gentle thud. Gideon breathed a deep sigh of relief. He knew that he was home and safe. At least for the time being. For some reason he had never been discovered inside of this humble winepress. It seemed as though the Amalekites never thought to look in here. Why, he would never know. It was the perfect place to hide wheat and Gideon had been doing it for a while now. Perhaps it was the fact that this little building was supposed to be used for making wine, not threshing and harvesting wheat. Whatever it was that had kept the Amalekite soldiers from stopping by, Gideon was thankful for it.
He looked around the musty room. It smelled like rotten fruit and there were fig and grape leaves all over the floor. It was all Gideon could do not to pass out. And the heat wasn’t helping things, that was for sure. The only light that could be seen was pouring in through cracks in the walls and ceiling. This was certainly not the most secure location for a Hebrew man to be in, but for now it worked. Gideon dropped his shoulder full of wheat onto the floor and immediately began to separate the grains of wheat from the crusty chaff that held them. His mind began to recount the last seven years.
Seven years? Had it really been that long since the Amalekites had swept through the promised land of Israel and taken his people captive? It seemed like a long time, yet it seemed like only yesterday. He could still hear the wailing of the Hebrew women as their husbands were dragged away. His heart began to ache at the thought of captivity and his eyes misted with tears.
Outside, The Angel of the Lord under the tree began to stir.
When would God redeem them from this mess? Was there a plan of escape in the Heavenly Creator’s mind? Did this God even care? Then Gideon spoke. “He must have cared. He’s helped us before.” Gideon now began remember the stories that he had heard as a child. Stories about his forefathers. About Abraham and Issac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. He remembered the stories about Old Man Joshua and how he and God had pushed the Philistene’s out of the land of Cannan, the Land flowed with milk and honey. Oh what he would give for just a taste of honey again! It had been so long. As Gideon stood and thought about the great hero’s of Israel’s past, he felt his heart lift and his countenance began to relax. But his happiness was only for an instant. The door behind him burst open with fury.
Gideon hit the ground, waiting to feel the sting and burn from the whip of the Amalekite soldier. But no such sting came. There was no whip that cracked, no blood or spit. Instead, Gideon turned around slowly to see the most radiant and blinding light he had ever witnessed. To Gideon’s natural eyes it seemed as though the fullness of the sun’s light had erupted into his hiding place in all of its fury. Yet Gideon felt no pain. This light could not be coming from the sun, because it made him cool. He felt that the sweat of his brow had vanished. His muscles, which moments before were tense, now sat relaxed and tender. There was something strange about this encounter. Gideon couldn’t be too sure what made him feel so calm but whatever it was, he liked it.
Without warning, a voice came pouring out of the blinding light, with a force so strong, it knocked Gideon onto his back. “GIDEON, THE LORD IS WITH YOU, OH MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR!” Gideon laid there stunned for a moment. As he was taking in the scene around him with his eyes, his mind caught up with him. The feeling of tension began to return. But as he looked up at the winged being that had burst into the door, their eyes connected and Gideon immediately began to sense new strength in his physical body. The longer he stared at The Angel’s face, the stronger he felt.
Again, The Angel’s voice burst forth from the light. “GIDEON, THE LORD IS WITH YOU, OH MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR!” His words rang out with immense power. Somehow to Gideon, The Angel’s voice was as mighty as a battle cry and yet still as personal as a whisper. Gideon regained his composure and said “If the Lord is truly with us, than why are we overrun by these foreigners? Why has God forsaken us?” The Angel answered and said to him “Gideon, do not be afraid. For you shall go in this might of yours and destroy the armies of those who surround you, single handedly.”
“How can this be? I’m just one man. How can I destroy an army?” Gideon asked. The Angel replied, “Do not be afraid, I will send you and I will strengthen you. You shall defeat these armies for I shall be with you.”
The voice of The Angel stopped speaking and the light became easier for Gideon’s eyes to withstand. His heart softened and he felt every shred of doubt begin to leave as he basked in the beautiful glory that surrounded him. Gideon bowed low, for he knew that the God of Heaven was alive and His Presence was in this room. And as he rose to his feet to prepare a sacrifice for God’s Messenger Gideon could feel himself being strengthened with a power that was not his own…
TO BE CONTINUED…
Good morning readers!!! We have made it to the last entry of our series on The Secret Place. I don’t know about you, but this study has been truly life changing for me and I know that I will never be the same. God has been releasing revelation to His children about living the life that He has called us to live, and it has been exciting. I hope that this series of entries has served to stir you up internally and help to propel you into the destiny of God on your life.
Before we get into today’s lesson, let me share something with you. In studying the will and purpose of God in His church, one thing has remained very clear to me. And that is, that whenever God calls people, He ALWAYS equips and provides for the task ahead. That means that God will never call you to do a task that He has not given you the spiritual equipment to carry out. A while back I was taking a look at the word “provision” and something jumped out at me. Part of the word “provision” is the word “vision.” It struck me that whenever the Bible speaks about the provision of God, there is always a “vision” attached to that. And so I decided to look up the prefix “pro” in the dictionary, and what I found was astounding to me. The prefix “pro” means “to propel, or to force into.” So the word provision takes on a new meaning! God’s provisions are those things that He releases to the church in order to propel them into His vision! Provisions are vision equipment. They’re resources given to you to propel you towards the vision that God has prepared for you to walk in.
The reason that I am mentioning this is because the principles that we have covered in the last several weeks are things that are given to us by God as provisions. Renewing the mind, Worship, Studying the Scriptures, Prayer and today’s topic, Faith based action, are not just disciplines in the believer’s life, but they are also weapons in the arsenal of every believer to execute the will of God in the earth. They are provisions given to us that serve the purposes of God in our lives. And we should treat them as such. So, that having been said, let’s jump into today’s topic. I will do my best to keep it short, sweet and to the point.
Faith Based Action
In the last several weeks we have discussed the various “access points” into The Secret Place that Holy Spirit highlighted to us. I would classify these topics to have been very “spiritual” issues. Meaning, they are most times very private, intimate experiences with God which are geared at strengthening our spiritual walk with the Father. Today’s topic however, takes things from the prayer closet to the public arena. It would be outrageous for us to assume that our spiritual lives would start and end in private. And one of the most destructive things that religion has done in America is to take the things of God and bottle them up into a quiet church service. Religion has created a mindset that compartmentalizes our lives. In other words, we treat church like a club on the weekends where we have our little time with God and everything else in life fits neatly into its own little individual box. We keep things very organized and one area of life never crosses over into another. We must realize that our relationship with God was never designed to work that way. Rather it was designed to fill every box of life. My relationship with Jesus should be the dominating motivation in my marriage, parenthood, job, social experiences, etc. And if we ever compartmentalize God out of one area of life, than we have closed off an area of our hearts to Him and we’ve entered into idolatry. (Yikes!)
We should never be afraid to express our love for God at any time and in any place. Religion has cornered us and made us defensive rather than offensive! God has called us to be on the offense, meaning He has called us to spearhead His mission and run into the world, boldly proclaiming the truth of His word. True Christianity is not passive. God is always moving forward and therefore His church must be willing to move with Him.
This is where faith based action comes into play. God once spoke to me profoundly and said “I want to use you in the market place, but I first have to meet you in The Secret Place.” You see, every great move of God starts in His Presence, but it never ends in the same place it started. Part of the reason that we meet God when nobody is looking is so that we can put Him on display when everybody is looking. Every outward action that Jesus did in His ministry began on the mountaintop in prayer with the Father. And while it started with prayer, it never ended there. Jesus simply took the things that He received from God and turned them into action in His life. Many times the church refuses to walk in the power of God because we are more comfortable being at home in prayer, worship or study. And it’s true, those things are access points into The Secret Place, but we were meant to take those things and turn them into corresponding action. James says that “Faith, without works is dead.”
Many times, we think that we are walking in a certain dimension of God that we really are not. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that I am reading and studying on the Love of God. I spend weeks in prayer and in the Word studying on Love. And when I am through I close the Bible and continue to live my life as though nothing had changed. I now THINK that I learned something about Love, however, since I have not done anything with what I have learned, the knowledge I’ve received becomes useless to me and to God. Sure, it feels good to know something about scripture, but if we’re not careful to put what we know into practice, than we’ll actually enter into spiritual pride and we’ll think we know more than we do. Revelation is not revelation until it causes you to DO something.
Action is required to release faith into our lives. You cannot be in faith and have a passive attitude at the same time. Faith is constantly taking ground. A Christian’s attitude should be that of a conqueror. To quote a famous minister “When God puts His Spirit on the inside of you, He expects you to take what you’ve been given and go out and conquer something.” There’s a reason that we’re called to be world changers. It’s because we have Him inside of us and we actually have the potential to change the world!!!
Now, there’s a reason that I have titled faith based action as an “access point” into The Secret Place. It would seem as though we go into The Secret Place through prayer or worship. We then receive things from God and then leave The Secret Place and take what we got to the world. This however is not entirely accurate. You see we were never meant to leave The Secret Place. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons why people’s ministries are ineffective many times is because of this compartmentalization. We think that we should go before God and get something and then leave God behind while we go off to minister. This however will never work. The reality is that when we go off to minister, we are to take The Secret Place with us!
This is how Jesus operated all the time. He was constantly aware of the Father’s Presence. So His actions had very powerful results. You see, He put God’s Kingdom on display at all times because He never left The Secret Place. So His actions were based on Faith and empowered by the Presence of God that He was dwelling in. He never left the Father’s Presence to minister, but rather He invited others into God’s Presence and it was when they entered that they were changed. How else could it be that He healed the woman with the issue of blood? The power that was on Him was so strong that she was healed and Jesus wasn’t even paying attention! (See Mark 5:25-34) Remember Psalm 91:1 – “He that dwells in The Secret Place of The Most High shall abide under the Shadow of The Almighty…” Jesus dwelt under that Shadow and when He ministered to others, He simply exposed them to the Shadow that He lived under and they were set free from whatever bound them. Even Jesus had to rely upon a constant connection to the Father to minister effectively.
Sometimes we think that Jesus did everything that He did because He was God. But in actuality, He ministered as a man. Everything that He did in His earthly ministry, he did as an ordinary man. The Bible tells us that He laid aside His deity, and became like one of us. So He had to rely solely on His connection to the Father to minister. And so must we. He understood that the power that He walked in came, not from Him, but from the Father. We must have this same mindset. We have to stay in The Secret Place and stay connected to God when we go out and act on our faith. Otherwise we will not have results. We must begin in private before God and finish in public without any interruption. The beauty of this is that when we are in private we can be in The Secret Place and when we are in public we can still be in The Secret Place too! We never have to leave! We can remain aware of God’s Presence and Shadow dwelling over us all the time. And when we do, we’re going to have the same kind of results that Jesus had. It starts and ends in The Secret Place…
I hope that you have enjoyed this little mini series regarding The Secret Place. As I said before, it has truly ministered to me, beyond my expectations. I have learned as I have shared and it’s been a wonderful experience.
I’ve got some new stuff on my heart for the coming weeks. So stay tuned. And if you don’t have a home church, please come fellowship with us at High Country Christian Church on Sundays. In the coming weeks we’ll be beginning a new sermon series at church regarding our Authority in Christ titled: “Honey, I shrunk the devil…” It’s sure to be a good one, so stay tuned and stay connected to Jesus!!! Talk to you soon.
Good morning my friends!! It’s time for another installment in our study on The Secret Place. Now, so far we have tackled some BIG subjects: Renewing the Mind, Worship and Studying the Scriptures. Each of which are huge in their own right and we could create an entire set of blogs, each one dedicated to a different subject. Well, this morning we’re going to tackle another titan: Prayer. Not only is this one of the ways in which we access The Secret Place, but it is a profound principle that is thoroughly addressed in both Old and New Testaments. So let’s take a swipe at it this morning, shall we?
It’s easy to understand why prayer would play such a large roll in us spending time in The Secret Place. It is after all, a conversation with our Father. This is the easiest way to define prayer. A conversation between friends. My petitions, wants, desires, needs, praises and requests are all conveyed through this simple method of conversing with God. And although we often categorize prayer due to it’s multiple forms, at the end of the day it’s still a conversation.
That brings for us a revelation and an understanding of some things. Since my prayer to God is a conversation, that must mean that it is two sided. I must speak and yet I must allow for God to speak as well. Part of our praying should involve us being willing to wait on God and listen with the ears of our hearts to hear His responses. The scripture says in Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” Notice that it does NOT say, “Know that I am God and be still…” The emphasis is on our stillness and our listening. Paul tells the Thessalonian church in 1 Thess 5:17 to “Pray always.” Now if prayer was a one sided event (as most people think it is) this scripture would be one of the most intimidating scriptures of all. How on earth am I expected to live my life while constantly praying? Do I ever get to take a breath? What happens when I need to drink a glass of water or if someone else is talking to me? I shouldn’t be rude and be praying loudly when I’m at the movies! How can I pray continually? You see, understanding that prayer involves listening just as much as it does speaking will take the pressure off of your prayer life. When you know that God is listening to you and He desires that you in turn listen to Him, you can find yourself right at home in your prayer life wherever you are, and whomever you’re with. God has access to interrupt you whenever He needs to because you have spoken to Him and now your ears are open to hear whatever He wants to say to you…
For the purpose of this blog entry today, I am going to describe prayer in five different forms. Now, if you study through the scripture carefully you will find that there are further categories and breakdowns of prayer. But in an effort to keep things simple, I am going to write about prayer in five different forms: Petitions, Supplication, Intercession, Praise & Thanksgiving and Praying in the Spirit (Tongues). Let’s dive in.
#1. – Petitions
This word “petitions” is not a word that we use very often, but it is used in scripture. A way to make it a bit simpler to understand perhaps would be to use the word “requests.” A petition is a request. It is something that you are asking God for. Whether you are asking Him to do something for you or perhaps give something to you, the reason you’re before Him is that you are doing some “asking.” Unfortunately, sometimes this form of prayer is looked down upon because people feel that it might be a little too selfish. Why should we be asking God for things for ourselves when there is a hurting world out there? I think we’ve all heard that kind of question before. And while there are some people who never do consider anyone else but themselves in their prayer lives, we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. After all, it was Jesus who told us to ask God for things. “Give us this day our daily bread…” We should never be afraid to ask God for things in our lives. This is one of the first and most simple concepts in prayer. There are all kinds of different things that we need throughout our lives and heaven is just waiting for us to ask! The book of James says “You have not, because you ask not…” And it again mentions this concept in chapter one, when it says “If any of you lacks wisdom let Him ask of God who gives liberally…” We must realize that there are promises available to us, if we’ll only humble ourselves and ask. You see, it’s very prideful for us to assume that we don’t need anything. Of course we cloak it in false humility and say things like “I just have a hard time praying for myself when there are so many other needs out there.” What we’re really saying is that we have everything figured out and we’re doing fine without God’s intervention. If the needs of others were really on our hearts than we would say “Lord, I see so many needs in the lives of others! Please give me everything that I need to be a blessing and to meet the needs of others!!!” Real humility is never afraid to ask God for something. No matter what it is.
#2 – Supplication
This is again a word that is found in scripture although we don’t typically use it today. Yet it is a fairly simple word. Supplication simply means: to pray for someone else. This ties in perfectly with what we just talked about because it takes things to the next level. You see, we first have to get over the hump of asking God for things in our own lives. Once we do that, and our faith is primed, we can begin to supplicate for someone else. A great example of this would be to pray for someone else’s healing. Let’s say that you have a friend who is battling with a disease. As a Christian your heart is to see that person restored to perfect health. And since you’ve had experiences in your own life where you trusted God and He healed you, you’re ready to pray and believe for that other person. This is what supplication is all about. It’s taking someone else’s needs, presenting that need to God and then believing and trusting God for the answer as if that need were your own. It is another powerful principle of persistent prayer (say that five times fast. ha!) and one that God will use you in, if you make yourself available to Him.
#3 – Intercession
This mode of prayer is a lot like Supplication with some subtle differences, therefore it needs to be classified on it’s own. The definition of the word Intercession is “to make up the difference for…” An intercessor is a person who acts as a go between and builds a bridge between a problem and a solution. The Bible calls Jesus our great intercessor. Let’s say that you and I were standing in a kitchen and you wanted to reach up and get a cookie from the cookie jar. But alas! You’re too short, so I come along and I hop up on your shoulders and grab the cookies for you. I have become your intercessor. I have apprehended things for you, and made up the difference in height for you.
The major difference between this form of prayer and Supplication is that you are doing something for someone that cannot do it for themselves. Another great prayer example, if we were to use the subject of healing again is this: You are praying for a person who is in a coma and is unconscious. They are not in a position where they are able to pray for themselves, so you are able to take up their cause and pray in their place and on their behalf. This is intercession in its most basic form. Again, there are tremendous depths of understanding that we could get into regarding this subject but this is a broad over view of the concept of intercession. We should desire to be led by God in these areas and make ourselves available to His leading at all times.
#4 – Praise & Thanksgiving
This is simply one of the most powerful prayer weapons that we have at our disposal. Praise is without a doubt one of the greatest expressions of our faith. Thanksgiving (not the turkey day) is a wonderful outpouring from our hearts to the Lord. It is an opportunity for us to give God credit for things that He has yet to do in our lives. Praise blows the doors open into The Secret Place. And it stuns the powers of darkness. Praise literally paralyzes the enemy. Think about it. The devil has just launched his most vicious attack against you and your family. And instead of collapsing on the floor in agony, you turn and begin to thank God for the truth of His Word. You have just entered The Secret Place my friend—Enjoy your stay.
Thanksgiving is an attitude and heart condition that gives God something to work with in our lives. It’s a utility that gives Jesus free access to me and my situation. And many times, the miracles that we need in our lives are just simply waiting on a thankful prayer to roll off our tongues. This principle is so powerful that I have literally seen and heard stories of it being the catalyst for a person’s healing. People who are willing to thank God and exalt Him above their circumstance will always come out victorious.
#5 – Praying in the Spirit / Praying in Tongues
This is the controversial one. If your still reading this, congratulations! You’ve made it to the pay-off. Unfortunately we lost a bunch of people at the entrance to Holy Spiritville. But the tour doesn’t stop here!!!
Please forgive me for a little tongue-in-cheek there. But I have to joke a little bit. Sadly, much of the church has not found their way into this last and powerful mode of prayer. I believe it’s because so many people have been taught their whole lives that praying in tongues is somehow bad or doesn’t exist. So they’ve missed out on much of what God wants to do in their prayer lives!
I don’t have room here to try and validate speaking in tongues so my goal is to highlight it and its benefits. You see, I believe that praying in tongues is perhaps the most perfect form of prayer. The Bible states in 1 Corinthians 14 that “He who prays in an unknown tongue, speaks not unto men but unto God, for in the spirit he is speaking mysteries…” When we pray in tongues we are putting ourselves in a position to tap into The Secret Place, where God dwells. We are praying things and declaring things in the spirit realm. And although our minds don’t comprehend all that we say, our words uttered in this heavenly language travel directly to God’s ears. Because remember, when we pray in tongues we don’t speak to men, but like we said before we’re having a flawless spiritual conversation with God. It’s stunning and beautiful. It’s powerful. And it’s one of the foremost consistent elements seen in the lives of the great men and women of God throughout the ages.
Simply put: If you want to gain access to the power/calling/grace/peace/joy/Presence of God in it’s fullest, than you do it by speaking in tongues. It’s not weird. It’s not demonic. But on the contrary it’s a gift that has been given to every believer, from God as a tool to serve Him with. We should desire to speak in tongues all the time and we should follow through with that desire at all costs.
Conclusion
Remember to make prayer a constant discipline in your life and you will find yourself deep in the heart of God. Access to The Secret Place is not closed to you. So find your way into His Presence by pressing in though prayer. You and those around you will be glad that you did.
This morning I have the esteemed privilege of writing to you from my home. It is a rainy, wet, cloudy day here in the high country. A perfect day to stay indoors and read/write/sleep/eat/pray/drink tea. Normally at this time on Wednesdays, I’m sitting in a coffee shop typing up my weekly entry. But on this day, my beautiful wife Brianne is home from school on her Easter break and our baby girl is taking her morning nap. All is quiet.
So, let’s pick up where we left off, the week before last. We have been talking about accessing The Secret Place of the Most High and I would like to continue in that vein. I listed 5 different “points of access” to The Secret Place and they are as follows: 1.) Renewing the Mind 2.) Worship 3.) Studying the Scriptures 4.) Prayer 5.) Faith based action. Now we have already talked about Renewing the Mind and if you didn’t catch that entry, I would strongly encourage you to go back and take a look. Not only is it one of the ways that we enter into The Secret Place, but it’s one of the most vital keys to living the Christian lifestyle. We MUST allow the Word of God shape our thought life. It’s the only way to live…
The second area or “access point” that I am going to deal with today is Worship. Worship is one of the primary practices of the Christian person and is something that we seldom truly understand. A lifestyle of perpetual worship to God is absolutely normal in the life of a Christian. Total and complete surrender to God at all times is the way that we were created to live. Sadly, most Christians fail to recognize that. Most folks identify worship as the “slow songs” at church on Sunday. We think that worship is the latest album by whatever Christian artist is hot right now. And while those things fall under the umbrella of worship activities, they do not define what worship is. We must understand what real worship is in order for us to practice it and get the most out of it.
I would like to define the word worship as it is found in the New Testament and discuss that for a moment and then we’ll look at some scripture on the subject. The word for worship that is most commonly used in the New Testament is the word: Proskuneos (pros-koo-nay-ohs). It’s a fairly simple word with a powerful implication. Firstly, the prefix “Pros” is translated in English as “towards.” Secondly the word “kuneo” is translated as the verb “to kiss.” So when you combine the two, what you are left with is a word that literally means “To come towards or lean in for a kiss.” Now this is a far cry from what most people experience in their lives when it comes to worship. Again, let me state emphatically that worship can not be defined as a slow song or the portion of service before the preaching, etc. To define it as such would strip it of it’s true power and intention, which is intimacy and exchange.
Firstly, worship is designed to be intimate. It’s the connection of your heart with God’s. It’s not ritualistic. It’s never routine. True worship is that cry from your heart that draws you up and connects you to Him. It’s real and it’s raw. Your worship can never be duplicated, packaged, processed or sold. Because it functions like a fountain of water. It erupts from your heart and flows straight to God. It can not be stopped by the devil, because it exists in an area that he has no access to, your spirit to spirit relationship with God your Father.
Secondly, worship is designed to be an exchange. You can really understand this when you think of worship in terms of the Greek definition of leaning in for a kiss. Think about it. When I kiss my wife, not only am I connecting to her intimately, by showing her that I love her. But there is also a simultaneous exchange of intangible things. Stuff like germs, perfume, lip gloss (ha!) skin cells, etc. You get the point. Whenever there is intimacy there is always an exchange. There is inevitably a residue left behind from the experience. If my wife has a cold and I kiss her, I am making myself vulnerable to the thing that she has. Likewise, if you “lean in for a kiss” with Father God you are making yourself vulnerable to catch whatever He’s got! Imagine if you lived your life in a perpetual state of worship. A place where you are continually contracting God’s germs. A place where you are always face to face with His glory and majesty. Would it ever be difficult to minister to someone? Would there ever be a problem too big? I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be infected with Heaven as a result of my intimacy with God. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to be irreverent. We have to fully realize just how powerful our worship to God is. God is not looking for an opportunity for you to enlarge His ego by worshiping Him. That’s not the character of the God we serve. Rather He’s seeking an opportunity to rub off on you. He’s looking for a chance to leave an impression. He wants you to be exposed to His goodness and then go release it onto someone else. Simply put, worship connects you to the heart of God and releases His desires into your life. And then it leaves you with His residue. His characteristics rub off on you and leave a mark. His power and glory are left on you to remain. If you have a problem with sin in your life, learn to worship continually. Because you can’t be in worship and be in sin at the same time. Let God infect you with himself and watch the change take place….
Now let’s look at some scriptures that further explain worship to us. This passage is found in John 4:23-24, where Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well:
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24) “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus is speaking here and he makes some very strong statements. The first thing He speaks of are “true worshipers.” This phrase has always been very challenging to me because it reveals to us that if there are true worshipers out there, than there must also be false worshipers too. Meaning there must be people who have the appearance of worshiping God, without the intimacy. An outward form without an inward exchange. Their “worship” is mere actions revealing themselves to man, rather than revealing themselves to God. Have you ever gone to pick up a box that you thought was going to be really heavy and instead it turned out to be empty? That’s the best analogy that I can think of to describe false worship. It’s advertising, without substance. You expected to really feel the weight of the box. Your muscles were tense, your knees were bent. You were ready for that box. And then when you picked it up, you almost fell backwards because the box was empty. The thing that you expected to be heavy was full of nothing. That is what false worship really is. Nothing. It’s just a bunch of noise. Lacking any real power. It leaves your heart as empty as it was to begin with.
Now, I’m not saying this so that you can go to your next church service and start looking at everyone around you to try and judge who’s for real and who’s not. That’s not the point. The only person that this should have an effect on is you. We’re not trying to pinpoint our neighbor here, so don’t do that please. Rather, be honest with God and ask Him to show you any areas that may need to change. If you’re being real and honest before God in your worship than you have nothing to fear…
The next thing that Jesus says is that we must worship the Father in both spirit and in truth. Now these words get tossed around a lot in our churches, so we need to make sure that we truly understand them. First of all, to worship God in spirit means simply that my worship is coming from my spirit. It’s coming from the purest place in my heart. It’s an extension of my love for Him. Next, to worship God in truth means that I am being true in my worship. I am not holding anything back. I’m not trying to hide anything from God during my worship. You see, worship should be the most honest experience that we have. When I come to God in truth, than there is total exposure to my life. The book of Hebrews says that we are “all naked in the sight of God…” Nothing is hidden from Him and therefore my worship should reflect that reality. Remember, intimacy implies exposure to God, so we can not have true worship without willingly revealing everything to God.
Notice that Jesus uses the phrases “true worshipers” and “spirit and truth” in the same sentence. The purpose for worshiping Him in spirit and in truth is to keep our worship true. It’s to keep us from being that empty box that we talked about earlier. If my worship is coming from my spirit and it’s based on truth and honesty before God than I will always be a true worshiper. And therefore I will always have the intimacy with God that I desire. This is why worship can never be simply a form or a routine. Because a routine is something that often lacks meaning. It’s something that you do, just to do it. The minute that my worship becomes a routine, is the minute that it ceases to be worship. The box becomes empty again.
That’s why we can never boil worship down to a singular experience like a slow song, an album by our favorite singer or even a quite time. Because worship, like its counterpart love, is not an experience. It’s a way of life. Worship is something that should pour out of my heart for God at all times. Worship can be expressed in so many different ways. For me it’s often singing because that’s something that I love to do. I love to sing. But what’s more is that I love to sing for Him. My song takes on a new dimension when it becomes a gushing river and an expression of my love for Father God. It’s no mistake that the whole time Jesus is teaching about worship in John 4, He is standing next to a well. Our worship is a fountain of living water that springs up on the inside of us and becomes a perpetual flow of love and adoration for Him.
Finally Jesus says that the Father is seeking those who would worship Him this way. We often talk about the importance of seeking God in our every day lives, but I think that it’s also important for us to understand that He is seeking us too! It’s His desire to be intimate with us all the time. In fact, He desires it more than we do. He craves fellowship with us.
I never fully understood this until I became a dad myself. Not too long ago I was reflecting on how intense my love is for my daughter. When I’m not around her, I miss her. I realized that especially this last trip that I took to Florida. Being apart from your child is no fun!! It’s the same for God. When we are not around, He longs for us. When we are busy with life, He craves our love. I have such joy when I scoop my daughter up off the floor and hold her. In fact, she will usually see me coming and put her arms up above her head, signaling me to pick her up. As a dad, there is almost no greater joy in life than holding your child. We have to understand that God feels the same way. He wants to have this intimacy with us. It’s His greatest passion. So it needs to become ours as well….
I think that it’s obvious to us that worship is one of the great “access points” into The Secret Place. Not only is it an entry into His Presence but it’s also a practice that keeps us there. I find my way into the heart of the Father by worshiping and I stay perpetually connected to His heart by doing the same.
Juiced! 