Unfortunately many of God's people today do not know what you mean when you mention a spirit of worship or God's known presence in the church today. And, many also do not know what you mean when you say the church needs revival. Too many times the truth of God's Word has been modified and watered down to the point where we practice little of it.
Do we remember the words in Revelation? "If you do this, I will withdraw from you the spirit of worship. I will remove your candlestick." Is today's church in danger of such?
We need knowledge, wonder, and love in our worship. We can not worship without knowledge of the One who seeks our worship and the One we seek to worship. We need to have that same deep hunger to "know God" as Paul described. Only in truly knowing Him can we worship in spirit and truth. Also, the platform of true worship is wonder and awe. There should be a "transcendent wonder" in our worship as is found throughout the Bible. Abraham fell on his face in holy wonder and God spoke to him. Moses hid his face before the presence of God in the burning bush. Paul could hardly tell whether he was in or out of the body, when he was allowed to see the unspeakable glories of the third heaven. Does that happen every time we worship? Of course not. But, should we be expecting God's manifest presence in all of our worship? Should there be an anticipation of that? Most assuredly. Of course the very essence of spiritual worship is to love supremely, to trust completely, to pray without ceasing and to seek to be Christlike and holy. If the fire has not gone out on the altar of our heart then we will respond in submission, obedience, and trust. Those things grow out of our worship.
God is never satisfied with anything less than all: "...all thy heart . . . all thy soul . . . all thy might." I am afraid in many meetings we are more concerned with cordiality, humor, affability, and yes, even zeal; but many times do not find the church's gatherings marked by the overshadowing presence of our holy God. We manage to get correct doctrine, fast tunes, pleasing personalities and religious amusement in, but miss the glory of His presence. Lord, help us. mjm
