Worship and Prayer

Entering God's manifest presence in worship will inform us of His purposes in prayer.  In Revelation 5:8-9 we find a connection between worship and prayer.  Each of the four living creatures and the 24 Elders holds a harp and a bowl of incense.  The harps signify worship; the bowls of incense, prayer.  Worshippers will become intercessors and intercessors will become worshippers.  

We know from Scripture that God wants to form a royal priesthood to reign with Him.  As we know, a priest is one who draws near to God offering up sacrifices, and who intercedes on the behalf of others before Him. Those are the two functions of priests.  God is busy gathering worshippers and intercessors.  Psalm 100:4 states, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise."  And in Isaiah 56:7 we find that we are to be - "a house of prayer for all nations."  True worshippers know and experience God's presence; true intercessors know God's purposes.  When you put them together, you have Biblical priests.

We again see this relationship between worship and prayer in the book of Psalms.  It is both a book of worship songs and prayers.  And the prayers were sung.  The church is meant to be a singing house of prayer!  We are to be worshipping intercessors.  It is out of this conviction that we have asked "worshipping prayer warriors" to join our worship leaders in worship and prayer!  mjm  

Up, Up, Up and Out!

Up-reach to the Lord in worship results in outreach to the World!  Our passion for the presence of God in our worship should be so contagious that it not only impacts the people in worship around us, but should reach the whole world through prayer, going, and giving.  Psalm 40 . . . "Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord."
Worship is the goal of evangelism and missions and evangelism/missions is the fruit of worship.  When Jesus evangelized the woman at the well, He talked to her about what it meant to be a worshipper.  In Romans 15, Paul preached the gospel . . . "so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God." He evangelized in order to produce worshippers.  Worship is the goal of evangelism.
When we are truly worshipping, evangelism will happen.  Throughout God's Word we find that when there is an environment of worship God commissions us to go and take His message to the world.  In Isaiah 6 - "Holy, Holy Holy, . . . Go and tell the people."  Even the Great Commission came out of a time of worship: "When they saw Him, they worshipped Him . . .Then, Jesus came to them and said, "Go and make disciples of all nations."  In the Philippian jail, what started as worship ended in evangelism.  The greatest example of how evangelism can spring out of worship was also the greatest example of evangelism --the Day of Pentecost.
Our passion to glorify God compels us to become messengers of His glory!!

Life-Changing Worship and the Mission of God

In past blogs we discussed two passages of scripture that I would refer back to today.  One is Isaiah 6 and the other is Mark 12: 30-31.  In the Isaiah passage we see that when we engage and have a vision of God our ultimate response is: "Here am I Lord, send Me."  And in the Great Commandment found in Mark 12, we see that Jesus says, "We are to love the Lord with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourself."  He indicates they have to go together; it is not an either or, but both and.

Worship is a part of the Christian life that cannot be separated from other spiritual disciplines.  Worship  helps us connect or engage Christ and equips us for ministry.  Virtually nothing will be accomplished in our lives in the name of a God we have not experienced.  Authentic worship allows us to experience God at a deeper level and when that happens, personal and corporate mission will always be one of the results.  Real worship will change the worshipper and changed worshippers will change the world.

If we truly worship as a church, we will join the mission of God to change the whole world.  We will become the "sent ones".  Sent to our families, neighbors, people in our state, nation, and all the way around the world.  It will be natural to pray, go, and give sacrificially that others may know the same Christ we engage in worship.  The needs are great, but our sacrificial giving will not depend on our being convinced of the needs as much as worshipping Him and seeking Him, therefore knowing His heart for missions.  Are we there yet?  If not us, who?  If not now, when?

The Real Warfare of Worship

These days when we hear about the warfare of worship, we think about the warfare over worship styles, music styles, methods of worship, etc.  However, those are mere results of the true warfare.  The church has been under attack for the last few years.  Satan would seek to disturb and corrupt the worship of the church so we are distracted from seeking God with all our hearts in worship, keeping us from knowing His heart for mission to our world.
2 Cor. 10:3-5 tells us that the war is a spiritual war and we must use spiritual weapons.  "For we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ . . . "
We need to understand the impact that true worship can have in the spiritual realm.  Some people have trouble believing that music and worship actually do battle in the spiritual realm as indicated in Scripture.  Because we can't see what is going on in the spiritual realm, we have to trust God's Word.  The last thing satan wants is for God's people to be awakened to the fact that God is on a mission to grow His Church into fully devoted worshippers and followers of Christ, joining Him in His mission to the world.  Pray that we as a church will pray and worship in such a way that we gain victory over satan, resulting in the greatest giving of ourselves and our offerings to His Mission! mjm

Comments/Questions: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

The Supreme Weapon

Our church, led by our Senior Pastor, is in our most intense time of emphasis on missions.  We have stated previously that you can't have God's mission apart from worship of God, nor can you have true worship of God without involvement in God's mission.  The Biblical principle is everywhere.  We are seeking to intensify our involvement as a church in His mission by being challenged to pray, go, and give sacrificially to send others who are ready and willing to go.
Our worship is centered for these weeks in emphasis on God's mission.  I often said as a missionary, the question is not will you see to it that God's mission is done.  God will find those who will obey and engage. The question is: do you want to be a part of what our God is doing today to redeem the world?
Dr. T.W. Hunt was both a music ministry and music mission's professor in my seminary days.  He said the following:  " . . . the Biblical purpose of church music still remains hidden from the vision and imagination of far too many Christians.  Its purpose is the glory of its Creator, and that can best be demonstrated in spiritual worship and disciple making . . . Above all, there is need for the supreme weapon:  Prayer." May we use the supreme weapon in both worship and mission! mjm

Prayer, the Fire of Anticipation

As we are faithful to pray individually and as we gather together, there comes a sense of anticipation about what God is going to do.  When we are faithful to pray, that anticipation permeates the church to where people gather for corporate worship believing and excited that God is going to move and change lives.  There is also an anticipation of connecting among the body and an expectation that people are going to be reached and discipled and that we will see lives changed as we join with God on His mission.
Henry Blackaby says, "Worship anticipates not only an encounter with God, but also a clear next word from God.  Worship is totally God-centered! God-focused!  Out of worship comes a clearer and more focused relationship of faith and obedience with God.  Worship is God's way of developing character and directing life into His will."
When we meet with God in worship, we come away inspired, encouraged, challenged and chastised -  seeing ourselves as a part of the body formed by God Himself.  So, it is a holy encounter where we pray with expectation therefore, seeing our lives transformed in and through Him!  May I say it again?  Prayer is that which ignites a passion and expectation for the presence and power of God among us!  mjm

Questions/Comments: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

House of Prayer

There is one main thing which if we are without it, we will never be a worshipping church, neither personally nor corporately.  That one main thing is prayer.  It was always interesting to me that the way we said, "Let's worship," or "Let us go to worship," in the Shona language in Zimbabwe was: "Ngatinamatei," which literally means "Let us go to prayer".  I thought this was rather telling because without prayer there will be no worship.  Where there is no prayer in the Church, the Church will have no life, no power, no manifest presence of God among us.
In the very first blog we talked about how I had challenged the choir to pray for "igniting a passion for the presence of God".  I asked them to pray for the personal worship life of First Family Members and for the gathering of the Body for worship every week.  Since then we have asked First Family Members to join us in that praying.  Some 70 folks, besides choir members, are praying for the worship life of our church.  I am just simple enough to believe that God is going to do great and mighty things in the worship life of our church because God's people are faithfully praying.
Without a strong and continual commitment to prayer we will never see an "igniting of a passion for the presence of God".  Together, may we be faithful to pray . . . and see God work!!  mjm

Questions/Comments: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org