The Time is Now
Is God looking for you? Interesting question isn’t it?
Here’s a little context: the conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well... she talked about where the ancestors worshiped and what the Jews claimed. In His response to her, Jesus said “...a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth”. (see John 4 for the full story)
God is looking for those who will sincerely adore Him and give their hearts to Him. It isn’t an ego trip for God... it’s His heart longing to connect with us. That touches me deeply.
I didn’t grow up in a church that taught on worship. We sang songs...hymns...and I still love some of those old hymns. But I remember our typical format on a Sunday morning. There was an opening hymn, and then announcements. Then we had another hymn and a prayer, followed by two more hymns and the offering. Sometimes we only did verses 1, 2 and 4 of certain songs because we didn’t want to run late. After the offering, we usually had a choir special or someone sang a special song before the pastor got up to preach. The order didn’t vary much from Sunday to Sunday. I enjoyed singing and sang in the choir at an early age. I just didn’t understand much about actual worship.
After moving to Colorado, I had the privilege of being under the anointed leadership of Pastor Tom Ewing at Resurrection Fellowship church, and really began to understand how we are called to be people of worship. It became clearer to me that worship was not simply something we do, it was supposed to be a lifestyle.
So, what is worship? If you look up definitions, you’ll find that it’s the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity. It means to glorify, to praise, to exalt a deity, to magnify, to esteem highly and to honor. But we can’t limit our understanding of worship to Webster. After all, we’re talking about the God of all creation here...our Savior... our King...Jesus. So, let’s keep looking.
Scripture gives us so many aspects of what worship looks like, such as:
Psalm 95:6 TPT “Come and kneel before this Creator-God; come and bow before the Mighty God, our majestic maker!”
Psalm 100:2 NIV “Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.”
Isaiah 25:1 NIV “Lord you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.”
1 Chronicles 16:29 NIV “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.”
Worship is much more than singing a song. Sometimes it involves kneeling or bowing before the Lord... it may look like dancing or shouting... or maybe weeping or even being silent and still before Him. All of these are pretty common in the charismatic Christian culture. But worship may also look like giving. It may look like serving others. Worship can happen when you read the Word. It’s about focusing on the Lord and setting our hearts on Him, above all else. It’s honoring Him in every circumstance, remembering He is worthy of our adoration no matter what the situation is like.
In the recent word that Pastor Doug shared with us, there is a call to new places in worship, a call to go higher.
“The Lord is calling us to ascents, ascension worship,
birthed of the Spirit, not effort and mere words.”
Fusion is already a worshiping church, but God always has more for us, individually and corporately. If you were with us this past Sunday, you experienced a little of the ‘more’. It was one of those times where some “unscripted” moments burst forth. Sometimes in those moments, our words just don’t seem to be enough. But we allow the Holy Spirit access to our hearts...and to our schedule...and to our plan...and we worship in spirit and in truth.
One thing worship is NOT... it’s not a spectator sport. It is full participation! Remember the warning or rebuke that Isaiah gave...”the Lord says: these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me...their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught...” (Isa. 29:13). Jesus said the Father is seeking for true worshipers. And that includes the worship team on the stage, and the rest of the worship team in the congregation. Yes, we are all part of the worship team!
I think one of the things we can do to partner with this word is to come with an expectation. We should expect to encounter the Lord’s presence in our corporate worship settings. We should expect for His power and love to be demonstrated among us. Maybe this is a time to raise our level of expectation. If He is calling us higher, let us be quick to answer the call.
As we finish out this week, let’s be praying into this fresh word for Fusion. Let’s ask for greater revelation of what God wants to do in our midst. And for sure, let’s turn our attention to the Beautiful One, and have daily moments of worship and adoration. He is worthy.
Worship Moments:
