Experiencing God through Appropriate Response!

One of the my favorite songs we sing on Sunday mornings goes “He is worthy of it all! He is worthy of it all!” It’s a beautiful song that expresses reasons behind our praise and worship!

Have you wondered? Why do we worship God? Why do we come together to sing, to share in communion, to pray, and to listen to God’s word?

We do it because of 1 John 4:19 | “We love because He first loved us.”

God is love! God is loving not sometimes, but all the time. 

The prophet Zephaniah says, "The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will REJOICE over you with singing." 3:17 [emphasis added]

Yes, He rejoices over you! Some translations say, "He will dance with shouts of joy for you" [Jerusalem Bible]

What an amazing picture of our God! He creates opportunities for us to experience His love through the Holy Spirit. Right now, as you read this, He wants you to know that He is near, and is telling you that all your needs are found in Him.

In light of such an all consuming love for you and me, we start to understand that worship is simply the most appropriate response to His nearness to us! God is not interested in religious performances, sitting in a service listening to talks and singing songs out of duty all the while cold and distant from the heart of Jesus. He wants us to respond to His glory, His majesty, His beauty, His sovereignty -- His all consuming love for you and me!

The only appropriate response to such a God is worship! We recognize his love, care, kindness and goodness! We gather and tell Him that with our songs, words, and actions! We exalt God by getting past our own emotions and doing what the Bible says is good and right - giving thanks to the Lord!

Pray right now: “I want to honor You, Jesus. You never change though my feelings often do. Help me to rise above my emotions to praise you! Thank you! I exalt you! In Your name. Amen!”

Friends, when we praise God because of who He is and what He has done, our emotions and thoughts line up with what is true. And as we line up with Him, we begin to sense and become aware of God’s presence and His nearness! We realize that He is indeed enthroned in our worship!

So today, tell your negative emotions to take a backseat while you give God glory! Do what the psalmist did when he was down and his emotions were scattered. He started to talk to his soul and began to command it to “hope in God!” So right now, declare praises to God. Command your soul to come near Him! In doing so, you will actually break the stronghold that a dark mood can have on you, setting you free to see your life as God does! Blessings.

Entering His Presence...

Psalmist sings... “Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth!”

Prophet Isaiah writes, “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them.”

Another time, the Psalmist sings, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”

God is calling us to enter the moment! It’s as if God is saying, worship songs can lead us to Him. 

Last week we touched upon the fact that we can approach God with expectation and anticipation to meet with Him. Now that our hearts have said ‘yes’ to Jesus’ nearness to us, we now can take hold of opportunities to nurture and cultivate the attitudes that draw us closer to God’s heart. And eager heart that anticipates His presence, a grateful heart that longs for His touch, we all know, can open us up to experiencing God’s renewing touch! How can we express our thankfulness more fully?

Songs are powerful! Songs can help us to give thanks, offer praise and pray!

Have you ever listen to a song, and been ‘transported’ to a whole new world, an internal atmosphere, a unique vision inside your mind? Songs are powerful! They can create an emotional and spiritual place just by wrapping us up in their beauty and meaning.

Worship songs are designed to be ‘entered’. We sing to God! We are not just singing about God! We commune with God through songs! Next time you are in corporate worship setting, try setting aside the idea that you will just sing and actually choose to make each song your meeting place with God! Ask God to meet you within each song, as you get beyond the music and enter that special place! Songs are a place you can go to me with God often. I want to meet you God, pray that!

“Lord, I thank you for the gifts of music and other tools of worship that can draw me near so close to you. Lord, guide me to the songs that most capture my heart of love for you. Help me yield to your disarming grace! In Jesus Name, amen!

Here are some ‘entering’ questions to help you move forward toward God. Ask, “Am I learning to be yielded to God to let down my guard and to enter a place where I might be healed and restored?”

Find a worship song that deeply moves you and get some get some time alone. Sing with the song loud and long, in your car or home or where ever, until you sense the presence of God. Some times it just takes time to get past ourselves to enter God’s presence. Blessings!

Anticipating His Presence

Expect to meet God. Anticipate Him drawing near to you.

1 Peter 1:8 | Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory...

One of the best places to have a very personal and intimate encounter with Jesus is in the midst of corporate worship. People talk about releasing inner inhibitions, inner self-protection and resistance by yielding to the Holy Spirit, who always ‘shows up’ to worship gathering. Holy Spirit touches their soul in a very intimate way as worshippers stir each other up in worship and surrender to His ever so render voice and unctions.

In some cases, people may feel a sense of inner joy, experience a revelatory thought, vision or weep as God kindly begins to touch an area of pain in their life. When God is near, and we welcome His gracious presence, anything can begin to happen if we’re willing. Are you willing and expectant?

In 1 Peter 1:8, Peter shares that while God is unseen physically, He connects with us intimately with our needy hearts. Sometimes, we are flooded with with an unexpected and unexplainable sense of His love and affection for us, causing us to weep. This is God's presence.

It never fails. God seems to draw near to the heart that longs and thirsts to be near Him. It's as if God is drawn to the soul that has faith and expects to engage with Him. We can choose to 'draw near', and begin to pray, 'Lord, I welcome a greater intimate connection with you no matter how I respond emotionally. I expect You to reveal Yourself to me, and I'll listen to my heart, mind and soul for thoughts and feelings that line up with Your personality as revealed in Your word."

There is an old song I am reminded of as I write this article. Chorus goes...
I want to know you

I want to hear your voice

I want to know you more

I want to touch you

I want to see your face

I want to know you more

Is this your expectation when you come to worship? If what this song communicates is your hearts desire, I believe he will come near you as you worship!

Experiencing God is like tuning your heart’s frequency to pick up on the frequency of God. He is always speaking, but it takes being attentive to hear him.

If what you’re hearing in your heart [impression, thought, images, scriptures, vision] lines up with the love of God, expressed in Jesus in the Gospels, you’re probably hearing God. Worship can open us to God’s presence and responding with love.

We have a part to play in experiencing God - raising our expectation. If we don’t anticipate God’s meeting with us, we can miss Him completely even though He is present. If we raise our expectation, we will find Him [Jeremiah 29:13] -- that’s His promise.

Pray: Holy Spirit, I want to respond to your touch. I want to respond to your initiation when it comes to touching your heart with my own. Teach me how to respond to your approach. In Jesus Name! Amen!

Preparing for God Encounter

There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus. 

~ Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal verbalized what everyone already knew in their soul; that every heart has a longing. This longing finds its expression as our inner being thirst to meet the Divine, hear His voice and encounter His presence. And it is in worship we can say ‘yes’, to his deepest of desires, and find that God has been anticipating the moments as much as we have.

Psalmist says - “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Psalm 42:2

Following Jesus is not a religious duty with rules you must keep to gain his love, but rather it’s about developing a relationship with him. Therefore, experiencing the presence of God, in many ways, is like experiencing the presence of a person. According to the Scriptures, there is no ‘force’, no mathematical equation, no nebulous non-personal something sitting at the center of the universe. At the center of everything is a Person - a Person that can be known and a Person who desires to know you!

How do we get to know a person? First, we need to do things that connect us to that person’s heart, motivations, and desires. We study and learn who that person is, and arrange to meet him face to face. When we meet with a person, everything we studied begins to make sense as they share their life in us.

I believe experiencing God happens in a similar way. We get to learn and know Him through His Word, the Holy Bible. Then, we begin to get beyond the reading, looking for God’s personality, perspectives, motives, and attitudes to shine through each page and verse. We are getting to know who God is. With that fresh awareness in our head and heart, we then look for an opportunity to encounter God. We turn our attention to noticing God’s invisible, loving presence!

Psalm 42:2 suggests that our heart is thirsty for this -- has always been thirsty for this. The Holy Spirit makes this possible.

One place we can encounter God is in our corporate worship. As we gather together as Disciple Church we expect and look forward to God encounter as a body of Christ. As you enter into your next time of worship, ask God to meet you there, and listen with your heart for Him to personally reveal who He is to your inner thoughts and feelings. God’s presence, his ever present presence, will satisfy your longing.

Here are some questions to ponder and I pray they will launch a longing desire to meet God. Ask, “Am I ready for the next moment God has designed for us to meet? When I enter a time of personal and corporate worship, am I going through the ‘christian motions’, or am I really longing and prepared for an encounter with God?”

Prepare your heart, soul and mind as a worship gathering starts, by quieting yourself and specifically focusing in on God’s approach toward you. Expect an encounter!

Let’s move away from head knowledge Christianity, which often is more legalistic then a relationship. So many people know Christian theological grid and doctrinal standing yet their hearts are stone cold towards Jesus. Let us move away from cold aloof relationship Jesus to an intimate, love relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus! DC, let us move towards intimacy with Jesus - the greatest Love in the universe.

Pray: Jesus, to think that You would desire to meet, face to face with me, is beyond my wildest imagination. I surrender myself to you. I yield myself to the encounters with you that you have planned for this day. Holy Spirit come upon me to experience the tangible presence of God. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen!