Hi all. I recently had the priviledge to be part of the worship team leading at an event where speaker Jason Westerfield was ministering. The worship was electric and passionate with a heavy presence of God in the room. Jason shared some principles on the final night of the meetings concerning worship and how to effectively prepare ourselves for worshipping God. This information was shared with the whole congregation, around 400 people. We then entered into worship and it was an amazing time in the Lord, beyond the intensity of the previous two nights, which was already pretty high. I've shared these keys with my team here in my church and now make them available to the world :)
As with most things in the Christian life, we tend to overcomplicate things. The points outlined below are refreshingly simple. Maybe Jesus was onto something when he said we need to be child-like in our engagement with the Kingdom of God.
So, read on for some great tips in enriching your personal and corporate worship experience.
1. Envision yourself seated in heavenly places, at the right hand of God. That’s the location from where scripture teaches us we worship from. It is a place of divine favor, heavenly authority and power toward the earth. Our focus is to see heaven, where we actually are, come into the earth realm. Messes with your head? Yep, but that’s what the Word says. Set your mind on things above. Eagles don't hang out with chickens. Chickens are timid, skitish and scratch around the dirt for food. Eagles soar, are graceful, and have a broad perspective and focus on what's going on around them. They have focussed vision and pinpoint accuracy on where to expend their energy. When we function from a top-down rather than bottom-up orientation, we will be much more effective in our ability to engage with God in the spirit and see change take place in our personal lives, churches and regions.
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. Are there any issues that need to be resolved? If so, confess them, ask for forgiveness, receive forgiveness and get into right alignment with God. Worship is all about relationship - an individual relationship between you and God, as well as a corporate expression of relationship between a group of believers and God. Keep short accounts with people and with God. Jesus promised to be with us when we engage with people in this way. Confession removes any blockages and barriers that may exist between you, eachother and God and lightens the atmosphere by removing tensions that may exist around us.
3. Thank God. Two of the most powerful words in Christianese. Worship is an attitude of gratitude. We are to speak out of the overflow of our hearts. How full of thanks is your heart toward God? We are told to remember the Lord and forget not his benefits. Remembering his benefits and declaring them in thankfulness provides fuel for worship and praise. In praise we thank God not only for who he is, but what he has done, is doing, and is about to do. Think of ten things to thank God for right now.
4. Got any anxiety? Got any pressures or concerns that are weighing you down right now? Cast those cares upon Him. Hand them over to Jesus and ask for His burden. His yoke is easy and His burden light. He actually invites us to hand our stuff over to him. Jesus is more than willing and able to bear our burdens on our behalf. He bore the weight of the world's sin and rejection of God on his shoulders. Your bank account, your job situation, your family struggles are not big enough for him not to be able to deal with them. Hand those things over and release them into his care and oversight. A practical example I was once given is to blow those things into a balloon, tie it up and let it go. Release yourself from the weight of these issues and allow God to be your comfort, supply and provision. Seek first the Kingdom of God (see pt 1) and the cares of this world will turn strangely dim in the light of his glory, mercy and grace.
5. See pt 3.
6. Enter into some High Praise WOO HOO !!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A Little Pain for Long Term Gain
Recently at a family outing I was sitting with my youngest son Joel when I noticed he had a splinter in his foot. I asked him if it was hurting or sore. He said it didn't hurt and he hadn't been complaining about it. However on closer inspection I could tell it had been in there for some time owing to the redness surrounding the penetration point and it must have been bothering him at some stage. I took a closer look and tentatively started trying to remove the splinter. Focussed on the job at hand, I kept asking him, 'Does it hurt?' to which he kept saying, 'No.'
With a little effort the splinter was slowly coming out. I kept on going and asking him if he was OK. He kept saying he was. After a little more prodding and poking, I finally removed the broken tip of a thick Bouganvillea thorn - some 3-4mm long - out of his foot! I looked up at him to show him what was in his foot and saw for the first time the tears in his eyes caused by the pain of what I was doing to him. The poor kid must have been hurting but he never told me or let on. I said I was so sorry for causing him that pain and embraced him.
I was thinking about it later and saw the correlation between that incident and what God does for me. At times in my life, it is very painful. It seems like He is allowing or even inflicting pain on me at certain times. Jealousy and envy rise up and I feel overlooked and undervalued. I cry, feel hurt, get angry or lash out in frustration. Yet all the while God is pulling out the broken thorns in my heart that I cannot feel anymore, let alone remember, how or when that thing even got in there.
He goes to the source and not the symptons of my pain. With some precise poking and prodding God comes as a master surgeon with the sole intent of saving my life from these deadly thorns. I’m relieved when they are removed from my heart – oh the benefit of hindsight - but that extraction process sure hurts.
Jesus tells the story of God being like a gardener who prunes bushes in order that they produce the life He intended for them. He cuts off dead branches that bear no fruit, as well as pruning healthy branches so that they can produce even more fruit. It is in the midst of this pruning that He then calls us to abide, to remain in His presence.
This invitation to abide and bear the pruning is so that He can do what is required in us in order that we bear much fruit. The fruit is real life, the God-life. God's desire for us is to be so full of His life so we can release it to those we come into contact with. The fragrant aroma of this fruit then has the opportunity to touch and impact people's hearts with true reality. Mysteriously though, the call to abide is issued with His foreknowledge. It is inevitable that the pruning shears will cause pain as they are allowed to do their work in our lives.
What thorns need to be removed from your life? Are there any branches that need pruning? What about those old war wounds forgotten and hidden deep in your heart that a little prying or poking generate a little or maybe a lot of short term pain?
My Heavenly Father is such a good Dad. He is so loving and kind. He knows the beginning from the end and knows what is best for me. He does not want me to suffer from any wound, no matter how big or small, that left unattended has the potential to take me out. His desire for me is to experience and release real life.
Do I have the courage and the honesty required to let him do some digging in the garden of my heart so I may possess the abundant life Jesus offers and supplies? Will you surrender to the hands of the Master Physician? Will you trust the shears of the Skilled Gardener?
I pray for the grace to allow Him to remove the thorns so I can truly experience this God-life He so desires for me to live. A little pain for that long term gain is a small price to pay.
With a little effort the splinter was slowly coming out. I kept on going and asking him if he was OK. He kept saying he was. After a little more prodding and poking, I finally removed the broken tip of a thick Bouganvillea thorn - some 3-4mm long - out of his foot! I looked up at him to show him what was in his foot and saw for the first time the tears in his eyes caused by the pain of what I was doing to him. The poor kid must have been hurting but he never told me or let on. I said I was so sorry for causing him that pain and embraced him.
I was thinking about it later and saw the correlation between that incident and what God does for me. At times in my life, it is very painful. It seems like He is allowing or even inflicting pain on me at certain times. Jealousy and envy rise up and I feel overlooked and undervalued. I cry, feel hurt, get angry or lash out in frustration. Yet all the while God is pulling out the broken thorns in my heart that I cannot feel anymore, let alone remember, how or when that thing even got in there.
He goes to the source and not the symptons of my pain. With some precise poking and prodding God comes as a master surgeon with the sole intent of saving my life from these deadly thorns. I’m relieved when they are removed from my heart – oh the benefit of hindsight - but that extraction process sure hurts.
Jesus tells the story of God being like a gardener who prunes bushes in order that they produce the life He intended for them. He cuts off dead branches that bear no fruit, as well as pruning healthy branches so that they can produce even more fruit. It is in the midst of this pruning that He then calls us to abide, to remain in His presence.
This invitation to abide and bear the pruning is so that He can do what is required in us in order that we bear much fruit. The fruit is real life, the God-life. God's desire for us is to be so full of His life so we can release it to those we come into contact with. The fragrant aroma of this fruit then has the opportunity to touch and impact people's hearts with true reality. Mysteriously though, the call to abide is issued with His foreknowledge. It is inevitable that the pruning shears will cause pain as they are allowed to do their work in our lives.
What thorns need to be removed from your life? Are there any branches that need pruning? What about those old war wounds forgotten and hidden deep in your heart that a little prying or poking generate a little or maybe a lot of short term pain?
My Heavenly Father is such a good Dad. He is so loving and kind. He knows the beginning from the end and knows what is best for me. He does not want me to suffer from any wound, no matter how big or small, that left unattended has the potential to take me out. His desire for me is to experience and release real life.
Do I have the courage and the honesty required to let him do some digging in the garden of my heart so I may possess the abundant life Jesus offers and supplies? Will you surrender to the hands of the Master Physician? Will you trust the shears of the Skilled Gardener?
I pray for the grace to allow Him to remove the thorns so I can truly experience this God-life He so desires for me to live. A little pain for that long term gain is a small price to pay.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
