During the ministry of Jesus on earth as the Son of Man, He had an
encounter with a Samaritan woman who was from the City of Sychar. During
His conversation with her He made this statement, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
(John 4.24) First let's look at what the word worship carries with it,
to adore; to pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and
veneration; to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission; to
perform acts of adoration. In other words, worship is not just playing
music and singing songs with nice lyrics, but is a deep heartfelt
adoration for the Lord. To worship in spirit is to permit the Holy
Spirit to move upon the believer’s redeemed spirit causing, honor,
reverence, adoration and devotion to ascend to God. In other words,
Jesus is saying that true worship only connects with God in the Spirit
because He is Spirit. We also see Jesus telling the woman that true
worship to God is also through truth. In John 14:6, Jesus proclaimed
Himself the ultimate reality of absolute truth. Therefore, the believer
worships the Father by depending on and responding to the Holy Spirit
then through Jesus Christ (the Truth) worship becomes genuine and
acceptable to God.
When looking at praise and worship in the early church it is easy to
imagine how intense and powerful it was. However, we must remember that
the church started with the Jews at Jerusalem, a people who once had a
king named David who was also a priest, prophet, warrior and most
importantly, a man after God’s heart. The Bible records that as David
brought the Ark of the Covenant to the City of David that he and all the
house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of
instruments. (2 Samuel 6:5) This is important for us to see because it
is quite sad that the church today differs on what instruments are
considered appropriate and which ones are considered inappropriate when
in fact we see that Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of
instruments.
Another thing that we should note, is David the king danced before the
LORD with all of his might. (2 Samuel 6:15) Unfortunately, David’s wife
Michal despised him for leaping and whirling before the Lord. (2 Samuel
6:16) She equated him to one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovering
himself. (2 Samuel 6:20) However, when we take a closer look at the word
praise, it carries with it some interesting ideas: to make a show; to
boast; celebrate; virtue; excellence; manliness. So, let's put some of
these words together, and see why David danced with all of his might
before the Lord. He was celebrating, acting virtuous’, excellent and
manly. I always find it interesting how the people in the Old Testament
were bound by the Law, yet free to express themselves in praise and worship
while believers today are free from the Law but seem bound to express
their heartfelt adoration and jubilation for the Lord through praise and
worship. The early church did not have this problem, because the King
of Kings was the focus, not themselves nor anything else.
Let us look at an extreme situation and what happened when the people praised God, “It
happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon,
and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against
Jehoshaphat.” (2 Chronicles 20:1) Judah was facing annihilation, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel and he spoke to the people,
“…thus says the Lord to you: 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of
this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.” (2 Chronicles 20:15) “You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord…” (2 Chronicles 20:17) We read further, “And
Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the
Lord. Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the
children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with
voices loud and high.” (Chronicles 20:18-19) Notice in the midst of this peril, they stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high.
Next, “And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those
who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of
holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: "Praise the
Lord, for His mercy endures forever." (2 Chronicles 20:21) Just as the prophet spoke, we see that the battle was the Lords, “So
when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked
toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the
earth. No one had escaped.” (2 Chronicles 20:24) With their focus on
the Lord and lifting up loud and high voices, the Lord defeated the
enemy. Do we see just how important praise and worship
is? It is not about us, the instruments we use or don't use, it's about
placing our focus upon the Lord, magnifying and exalting Him.
In this particular situation, we see God defend His people and defeat
the enemy that was set against them. The same thing holds true today.
When the church worships God as He has prescribed, in Spirit and Truth,
then we are permitting Him to have access to our difficulties. We give
Him permission to bring healing, deliverance, that is salvation in our
midst. This is defeating the enemy who has brought these things upon
God's people. Psalm 22:3 tells us, "But You are Holy, Who inhabit the praises of Your people." To inhabit means, to live or reside in; to be present in; fill. God does not just hear our praise
and worship, but He enjoys being in our very midst. As we minister to
Him as priests, He reciprocates and ministers to us His children. What a
most wonderful thing to experience. So, let us worship God in Spirit and Truth so that He can
inhabit our praises?
Monday, October 18, 2021
Defeating The Enemy Through Worship
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.