Worship. What is it? Why is it important in the life of the intercessor? What happens in the spiritual realm when we engage in worship? What does it do?
Our marred human nature tends to make us very self-oriented people who think in terms of what we can accomplish or how we will be benefited by everything we do. There are some wonderful results that come into our lives when we worship, but if worship did not do anything at all for us, we should still not neglect to engage in it. Worship is for God, not us. We were created to worship.
Worship is focused adoration of the living Triune God. It is both an attitude and an act. It is a response to both Who He is, and what He has done for us. Repentance is an essential part of worship.
I am privileged to belong to a church family which has made worshipping the Lord its primary goal. We attempt to be a people who live in a state of worship. When we come together corporately, we do have the preaching of the Word and ministering to people for their needs, but both of these are secondary to honoring and satisfying the Lord by lavishing our love and attention on Him.
When God’s people worship for the sake of Him alone, some things happen. James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” The Glory-Presence of the Lord fills the room – sometimes with such a strength that it is difficult or impossible to function on an ordinary level. In the days of Solomon, the priests experienced the Lord’s glory at the time of the temple dedication (1 Kings 8:10, 11) with such intensity that they could not stand in His Presence. Worship causes demons to flee, opens the heavens over us and even over a city or region, and paves the way for deliverances, healings, and answers to prayer. But these are only by-products of our worship, not the reason we engage in it.
In the coming posts, I will discuss worship as a weapon of our warfare, how it flows out from a corporate body of believers to affect a city, how it opens revelation to us, etc. But we must keep in mind at all times that we never worship to get something out of God. Buttering Him up in order to accomplish our goals insults the Most High. Worship is about adoring Him, and if nothing EVER happened because of it, He is still worthy. It is because He is giving and merciful that He has provided benefits to us through our worship.
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