Today, is a praise and worship Sunday. During such gatherings, we are supposed to experience the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but unfortunately, we don’t. This is because some of us think that we are gathered to dance disco in the church in the name of Praise Sunday. In other words, we do not keep to the fundamental requirements for such results.
What is praise? Praise is thanking God for (1) the things He has done for you, (2) what He is doing for you right now, and (3) what He will yet do for you in the future.
What is worship? Worship is appreciating God for who He is. If you don’t know the names of God, it is impossible to achieve this.
When we express our love to God we are worshipping Him. What does it mean to worship God in TRUTH? It means to worship God in harmony with full revealed truth.
What is truth? Truth is the Word of God (Jn. 17:17).
Let me ask you beloved, do the wordings of your worship songs agree with the Word of God? Here is the truth: Many times, people say so many things to God with their lips, but in reality, they don’t mean it in their heart. This is fake worship.
When Jesus said, “Love God with all your heart and soul” He meant that worship must be genuine and heartfelt.
We even sing a song like “We love You LORD.” But do you really love the LORD?
In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love Me, this is how I will know that you love Me – keep My commandments.”
For instance, do you come for evangelism? Do you pay your tithes as at when due? Do you obey Matthew 6:33? Do you practice Luke 6:38? Do you practice Hebrew 12:14?
In Mark 7:7 Jesus said that many Christians are comedians: “These people honour Me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from Me. Their worship is farce (fake, a comedy).”
So, do you really mean those songs you are singing? It is not just a matter of saying the right words; you must mean what you are saying. Heartless praise or worship is worthless, and it’s an insult to God. For you to mean what you are saying in songs you must understand the lyrics (the wordings of a song).
Please realize that when you worship, God looks past your words to see the attitude of your heart whether you really mean what you are saying with your lips or not. The Bible says, “…the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7b, NIV).
What does it mean to worship God in spirit? This means to worship God with your spirit-man and your whole soul (your emotions, your desire, your will and your mind). Worship is the bridge to the spiritual realm! You can cross over from the physical to the spiritual realm through the bridge of worship.
In worship, there is a joining of your spirit-man to the Spirit of God. A worship that pleases God is deeply emotional and deeply doctrinal (agrees with the written Word of God). Here, we use both our hearts and our heads.
And this is only possible when you are worshipping the LORD with spiritual songs.
Ephesians 5:18-20 says, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for ALL THINGS unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What are spiritual songs? These are songs that are strictly Scripture based.
Today many equate being emotionally moved by music as being moved by the Spirit of God. But these are not the same. Real worship happens when your spirit-man responds to the Spirit of God, and not to some musical tone.
When we come to minister to the Lord in praise and worship, we should expect to wait for at least an hour, perhaps longer, ministering to the Lord.
What should we be doing at this time? We are just going to tell Him how much we love Him, praise Him and thank Him for His goodness and mercy towards us.
Tehillah is a Hebrew word that speaks of worshipping God in spirit, singing in the spirit. Worship is actually an activity of the spirit-man. True worship requires you contacting God, the Spirit, with your spirit-man. Worshipping God strengthens your spirit-man. In worship, there is a joining of your spirit-man to the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 6:16-17).
New Testament worship must be in spirit and in truth. Why? Since “God is Spirit,” He must be worshipped in spirit.
A human being is a spirit (1 Thess. 5:23), the nature of which corresponds to God’s nature, which is Spirit.
Therefore, you can only have fellowship with God and worship Him in the same sphere that He exists in, by doing so with your spirit-man.
Since worship involves delighting in God, it engages your emotions. God gave you emotions so you could worship Him with deep feelings. God hates hypocrisy. But those emotions must be genuine, not faked because God hates hypocrisy.
He doesn’t want showmanship or pretense in worship at all.
Mary is a good example of one who worshiped God in spirit. Mary worshipped Jesus in spirit with genuine deep feelings (Lk. 7:36-48). Mary stood at the feet of Jesus behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
Realizing what God did for her, Mary did all she could to give God a quality gift. Mary had to work for one year to earn the money to buy that alabaster box of ointment with which she anointed Jesus.
The cost of that fragrant oil was estimated at 70,000.00 US Dollars or 105 million Nigerian naira. That was a quality seed – the right kind of seed.
Mary did not mind who was there or what they thought about her, but she worshipped the Lord with her whole spirit-man, and her whole soul – emotions, desire, will, and mind. Her tears did not wet any other part of Jesus. Her tears wet the feet of Jesus, but with her hair she wiped the tears away. What a total worship!
For her tears to wet only the feet of Jesus meant that she must have bowed down to worship Him. She bowed to the lowest level, and that is the level of His feet. That is humility!
Jesus said, “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Lk. 14:11).
Realize that she did not start from the head or hands of Jesus, but from His feet. The Bible says that the hair of the woman is her glory (1 Cor. 11:15). That is the most valuable thing in her entire body. With that which was the most expensive part of her body, she worshipped Jesus. She also anointed Jesus with the most expensive ointment.
She worshipped Jesus with her all.
I imagine that Mary, as she wept at the feet of Jesus, lifted up her voice and said to Jesus: Down at Your feet O LORD, is the most high place!
Then she began to eulogize God. She said: You are: JEHOVAH/YAWEH (Ex. 6:3; Ps 83:18), THE CREATOR (Gen 1:1; Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16; 1 Pet 4:19), THE POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH (Gen 14:19-20), THE JUDGE OF THE WHOLE EARTH (Gen 18:25), MASTER AND LORD (Gen 27:27), MASTER AND OWNER OF THE EARTH (Gen 40:7), THE PILLAR OF CLOUD BY DAY AND THE PILLAR OF FIRE BY NIGHT (Ex. 13:21), etc.
Conclusion: Do you want the yokes in your life to be destroyed? Do you want to be an all-round overcomer? Then spend quality time praising and worshipping God in spirit and in truth.
Watch out for the next edition of the Good News from the Pulpit!
· Your friend, I. I. Madubunyi (Senior Pastor, HOG) 25th Feb, 2024 @ HQs.
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