In a real sense worship begins and ends with His abiding presence. Jesus' promise to all His disciples was that He would be with us till the very end of time. We have the potential and privilege of experiencing His abiding presence every moment of every day. That promise was given in the midst of the great commission, given on His authority that we were to go, tell, and teach everyone that they could also live in His abiding presence.
A life in complete fellowship with Him is the preparation needed for us to be willing to go, for us to pray fervently for a lost and dying world, and for us to give sacrificially so that others will experience Him. When He left those disciples and promised them the Holy Spirit, their primary vocation was to live in unbroken fellowship with Him. The strength of their testimony and the power of their preaching was totally dependent on His abiding presence. They had to be "totally His".
It is no different for us as His disciples today. Anything we try to do apart from Him is totally human effort that means nothing in the kingdom. We must be "totally His" and completely dependent on unbroken fellowship with Him and His abiding presence if we are to effectively be a part of His kingdom-building, shedding light to a dark world. Again, we have a choice to make. His mission through us depends on our worship! If our worship is right, our participation in His mission will be just right! mjm
