What is worship?

According to the bible dictionary, worship is Chiefly and eminently, the act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being (God); or the reverence and homage paid to him in religious exercises, consisting in adoration, confession, prayer, thanksgiving and the like.  To adore; to pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration.  To honor with extravagant love and extreme submission.

WOW!

CS Lewis once said “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”

Did you know that we were created as worshipers?  Yes, our purpose is to worship God!  Many people think its the deeds and purpose and gifts but those things come afterwards.  Our primary service to God is to worship Him. 

We miss that sometimes. 

Even those that have been walking with Christ for many years.  We tend to get comfortable; we pray, we perform our duties to the church and community…But where is our worship?

Sometimes we get caught up in the acts or the lifestyle…we forget what brought us in.  

We came from a broken place, God called us in and cleaned us up, transformed us into a new person, giving us a new mindset…all things new and we worshiped!  We praised Him because of His abounding love that saw us in our nakedness, our shame and despite our wickedness; wrapped His arms around us and forgave us unconditionally. 

We threw ourselves at His feet because of our lowliness we stood in awe of His amazing grace!  Yes, we worshiped Him in Spirit and in truth! Out of our mouths we declared our adoration, we professed our love to Him, with joy and thankfulness…. we worshiped!

Today I want to take you back to that place.  Today we need to enter into the secret place, the Hollies of Hollies.  Today we go back to the Throne Room!

Sometimes we need to go back family!  We get complacent, we get stuck in the consistencies of life.  Were okay, every things okay so we muddle along when God is saying I want MORE!  Where are you??? Come back into my presence!  I miss our intimate times together!  I miss the love songs you use to sing to me!  I desire your worship!!!

I found myself there.  And it was during a season that I was fasting and praying because I felt distance between the Father and myself.  I wanted that back…I needed it back!  I said God how do I get back to that place?  He said Worship Me! 

The Holy Spirit brought back to my memory old spiritual hymns I heard as a small child in my Grandmothers African Methodist Episcopalian church.  And I sang!  The Spirit of the Lord was stirred up within me, I then began to worship Him! 

John 7:38 says, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”(NASB) Yes, worship flowed out of me like a dam breaking!  Then the Holy Spirit began to flow and worshiped God!  It was an experience I hadn’t felt in a very long time. 

God said to me, now that’s what I’m talking about!  That type of worship makes me want to pour out blessings upon you that you just can’t imagine!  

Are you looking for a breakthrough??  Are you looking for manifested miracles??  Are you in a dry season and are in need of the refreshing of the Lord??  Worship God!!!!

I had a close friend that was one fire for God.  She described to me that she was in the presence of a Israel Houghton concert and they broke out into worship and something touched her deep down to her core.  And she began to cry, not tears of sorrow but tears of joy.  She felt Gods compassion, she felt His love.  She shared with me every time she would hear that worship song that it would take her back and her heart would just melt.  It gave me joy to see the her come into the fold of the Lord. 

But then…life continued.  Over the years she continued to experience the things we all walk in (those things we call life) but the worship ceased.  When we lose worship family, we begin to slowly distance our self from God.  We begin to slack in certain areas, our church attendance goes down, we no longer fellowship with the likeminded…we end up befriending those same old friends …you then look at their lives and think they are doing better in the world than you are as a Believer. 

The deception of the enemy continues.  Now you have allowed the devil to pull you away.  You find yourself back in your old lifestyle, amongst the same people, doing the same things.  And your miserable!! 

You wonder how you got to this place.  You feel empty…you know your missing something.  Here’s the fork in the road.  Do you decide to continue on the path to destruction (remain backslidden)?  or do you go down the path of restoration?  

Now that ole slew foot devil (as my Apostle Lynette would say) will make the path to destruction seem so inviting.  Hey, if it looked like destruction, we wouldn’t even consider it.  But he dresses it up, makes it look prosperous, tantalizing in every aspect. 

It’s like standing outside of one of your favorite restaurants.  God tells you; I want you to walk away and try something different.  I have a place where the buffet never ends, the food is tasty, and good for you.  But you’re standing in front of the doors to your old favorite place, the doors are open, you smell the wonderful flavors of the meat on the grill, you look through the windows the people appear to be enjoying the food they make it look so good! 

They are smiling and laughing and your outside, stomach growling, mouthwatering.  But what we don’t see is that favorite restaurant has been serving contaminated meat, its poison, every person in that restaurant will die within a month!

God is omnipresent meaning He is everywhere at the same time.  He knows what the future of that restaurant is and the future of the people in the restaurant, but He can’t reveal that to you because this life is all about trust and free will.  He wants you just to trust and obey, knowing that He has our best interest at heart!

Meditation verse – Psalm 95:1-6  “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!  2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!  3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.  5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.  6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

Blessings!!

Keishana