WORSHIP,
THE RESPONSE
TO GOD’S GLORY
VOLUME
II
Having
looked at the first book in the series of the study of glory and worship
we looked into the meaning and reality of glory.
We are now aware that glory
and worship are absolutely inseparable.
God is solitary in His Excellency. There is no one like Him.
Exodus 15:11. Have you been awakened to the awe-inspiring and
worship-provoking grandeur of God’s character (glory), creation and
works? An absolute truth must
be stated at this point. Glory is the inspiration of worship and the very reason for worship.
We were created with the inward drive to worship but glory seen,
believed and understood inspires us to do so.
Glory inspires worship but it also produces wonder.
Psalm 4:4 says,
“Stand
in awe and sin not.” This phrase “stand in
awe” in the Hebrew can be translated deeply moved, tremble, awe or
wonder. It matters not how much you know of God, He is too great for
wonder in us to ever cease. Yet
where is wonder in the house of God?
Who stands in awe and does not enter into sin?
Who stands in awe and worships?
“Let
all the earth fear the LORD: Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in
awe of Him.”
Psalm 33:8.
What is wonder? One of the first things we
consider when we look at this word is cause and effect.
Wonder is definitely caused by God’s majesty and it affects us.
It is not a passing emotion nor is it shallow excitement; it has
depth. Wonder reaches down deep into our inner man and shakes us up,
stirs and moves us beyond words to describe.
It is a spontaneous and dynamic spiritual experience.
Job said,
“I
uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful (full of wonder) for
me, which I knew not.”
Job. 42:3 So what is wonder in
worship? The very aspects of
wonder are amazement, astonishment, awe and the fixed gaze of admiration.
Here we are a deeply moved people. It
is not that we are surprised that God is exceedingly great.
It is not the wonder of a dull and insensitive heart as seen in the
disciples in Mark 6:44-52.
It is the awe of being face to face with this greatness in faith. His
glory is impressive beyond degree and who can endure the fullness of
it but the pure in heart? In
moments like these, we stand speechless in the presence of this glory and
our smallness is magnified by His greatness.
So
we come to understand wonder is not generated where there is no vision of
glory. In spiritual
blindness, it cannot be seen. And
where pride is seated in the heart, there is no room for wonder.
Only in humility are we moved to worshipful amazement in the beauty
of His holiness. God is a God
of wonder and He only can do wondrous things.
See Psalm 72:18; 77:14.
With
our understanding enlightened with respect to God’s glory, we can
perceive life’s most CENTRAL and
most important thing is WORSHIP. It is a profound
command that says, “Respond
to My glory”. What is
this command? “Worship Me,
saith the Lord.” To
worship the Most High, the Most Holy One, the Almighty God, is the Alpha
and Omega of the ministry of our hearts. In truth, nothing is before it and there isn’t anything
that supersedes it; emphatically, there is nothing else. It is the sum of what is required. Therefore, it is the center of everything that we believe is true;
it is the center of everything that we practice
which is right and which we seek
to accomplish that is good.
Worship is the greatest delight of the believer and the highest joy of
each day that God gives. The
challenge: will we live our lives in total abandonment to His worship?
Then we must appropriate His grace to do nothing else. We must be aware that we shall never be elevated to a
position that will dismiss worship in our life.
Even the angels worship God. We
must not forget that worship is an
eternal issue. It is a
reality in this life and for the next.
Are you excited about what shall unfold in the eternal awesomeness
of worship?
Do
you also realize we must seek the Spirit of worship for the progressive
acquiring of the Wisdom
of Worship.
Only the Holy Spirit gives revelation of worship and grace to
worship. How can we worship
apart from wisdom, that is the wisdom that pertains to the whole scope of
the worship of God?
Oh
indeed, it is time to learn of it, and to receive the grace (divine
ability) to do it. Surely
worship is the most comprehensive thing
we can ever do. The scripture
reveals to us that it shall be uppermost in all the earth and shall be the
supreme act of the earth. Isn’t it wonderful that His worship shall be
universal?
And
the LORD shall be king over all the earth:
in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all
the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go p from year to
year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep
the
feast of tabernacles.
Zechariah
14:9, 16.
The
trumpet voice of God is sounding in the earth. It is a summons to worship
in the midst of opposition and changing times in this present evil
age. The end-time church, which I believe we are, will be a people
who will experience worshipping God in the midst of persecution.
You may not like this word, but worship will be the only way to
make it through persecution. In this present hour there is persecution happening in many
countries of the world. Are
we ready to pay the price to be faithful to His glory? Our freedom to
worship is slowly eroding in this country. The word of exhortation in this
hour is to truly worship daily in order that we may be able to worship in
the days of affliction.
The
move of the Holy Spirit to bring forth true worship according to divine word,
pattern and order is not a new one.
It is the restoration of something ancient and heavenly. Though it is no new move to God, it may be new to us to
experience worship God’s way. This
is so because much of our worship has been the offspring of carnal
religion, which is according to human pattern.
What this has produced is a habit of endeavoring to give God what
He neither commanded nor desired.
God in His patience has given us a season of trying to reach Him
our way, proving that it doesn’t work.
Carnal religion has no vision of or intimacy with His glory.
The
church of the end time will have in themselves the knowledge of His glory
and will know the wisdom of worship.
She shall have a passion for
His presence and shall abide in it. When everyone else is naked in
spirit and in despair, upon this church born in Zion shall be the garment
of praise.
WORSHIP IN GOD’S PURPOSE OF
REDEMPTION
We
need to always consider salvation
from a divine point of view, then
we will see that it is God-centered. We have looked so long at this doctrine of salvation from a
self-centered position. It
has been a matter of “come and get”.
We must understand not only what redemption means for us, but also
what it secures for God.
Salvation
is God’s work of recovering what He lost by our sin and rebellion. Therefore it is God-centered, not man-centered.
Sin, in its very beginning in man was failure to worship, (in this
case a failure to obey). All sin is the exclusion of worship; in sin worship cannot
exist. One of the goals and purposes of the cross of Christ was to make worship
central and pure in the hearts of men. Will worship, which we shall discuss later, has never been
the way. He wants worship
that is inspired by the Spirit of worship.
Therefore Jesus was and is the Father’s wisdom and power to
restore true worship as a way of life.
Sin puts Him in no place, but rather excludes Him. It
is true that in redemption we receive life, peace and many other
blessings. But the truth of the matter is that we come to receive
in order that we may give to God what belongs to Him.
In redemption God recovers our worship. Many do not realize that
their initial salvation experience was the beginning of a return to God,
which involves a return to worship in its full scope.
We
must realize that in redemption we were saved to something (God,
not only saved from something (sin). When we render to God those
things that we were saved for (which is all covered in the meaning of the
word worship), God shall realize the desires of His heart fulfilled in us.
SAVED TO WORSHIP
As
we listen to the wisdom that is given to us concerning worship, it unfolds
understanding to us. It
declares that we cannot enter into God’s courts with worship apart from
the right of approach and a right heart.
How can we worship Him unless we can approach Him to do so? Wisdom
tells us that worship cannot be from afar, but before Him or in His
presence. Do we comprehend that? This
is why access to Him is all-important.
“Blessed is
the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee, That he may
dwell in Thy courts: we shall
be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, Even of Thy holy temple.”
Psalms
65:4.
The
right of approach to God is given to us in redemption through the blood of
Jesus. Therefore, redemption through the blood is also the basis of worship.
Scripture declares that we are chosen in Christ and accepted in
Him. Ephesians 1:6. Herein is
the greatness of the grace of God. He desired us in His presence and made a way to get us there.
Let us worship in the right of approach and let us not neglect it.
So we see that worship flows out of redemption. Worship is impossible from the posture of a slave.
Being set free from the yoke of sin, we enter into the realm of
worship and as we shall discuss later, our wills are transformed to flow
in the worship that God desires. So when we enter into the kingdom through the blood of Jesus
the Holy Spirit leads us into a worship training school.
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