THE POWER OF WORSHIP, EPHESIANS 2:1-13, ENJOY GOD 13

The Power of Worship

Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 2:1-13

Why has God poured out His Spirit in us? To praise Him wherever we go during the course of the day, to lift up our voices with thanksgiving, to sing, to pray, to live in His presence, with the weight, the “kabod” there. So that it will never be said of us, “Ichabod,” the glory has departed, but “kabod,” the glory has come to dwell with us.

Worship is the fountainhead of all power

The Church was commissioned in a worship service, Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen(Matthew 28:16-20). After the disciples worshiped the resurrected Lord in that Galilean encounter, Jesus told them, All power is given unto Me and I am commissioning you to go in My name with that power.

  • Commission preceded infusion: They would receive the infusion of that power shortly, but the commission to go with that power was being given now.
  • Doubt doesn’t disqualify: Even among the Lord’s closest, “some doubted.” Doubt, while a hindrance, is not necessarily a disqualification for being God’s chosen servant.

The Church was born in a worship service. (Acts 2:1-13) At Pentecost, it was the worship of the Lord (not the proclamation of the gospel) at a miraculous dimension that both ushered in the power of God’s Kingdom and offended the taste of people.

  • Even today, there are those who will move in the profusion of the power of God released through worship, but there will be people in the midst of that who either doubt or mock.

The worship of the Lord releases the power, the pathway and the purpose of what He wants to do in His Church. Throughout Scripture, whenever the Church is at prayer or in worship, there is great release of divine power. The most notable episode is in the outflow that took place at a worship meeting at Antioch (Acts 13) that determined the flow of history and the course of Western civilization.

What is the power of worship?

Worship fabricates a place for the reign of God to be reinstated. Man not only lost fellowship with God at the fall of Adam, but he lost the partnership and dominion God intended for him over the earth, and ceded rule to the Prince of Darkness.

There comes substance and bearing to a life that has learned to live in the glory of God. What welcomes that glory is a worshipping heart, worshipping lips—a worshipping person who comes before the Lord and lives and walks in the spirit of worship. It is a person who rejoices with the people of God, as David taught Israel; who walks in obedience, as we learned from Moses; and who walks in faith with the living God who created all the universe, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did, because the Person of Jesus, Who is the image and the glory of God, has come to dwell with us.

Father God has restored Adam’s potential to rule through Jesus Christ, breaking the powers of hell. Where we worship, divine power flows, penetrating the darkness and counter-attacking the operations of hell. Through the worshiping Body of Christ, the Lord is able to re-establish His rule through His redeemed.

God doesn’t need my commendation, but I need what happens in me when I recognize Him for Who He is. The Lord wants the light of His glory to increase in us, and it does so when we live in a posture of worship and openness toward Him. As we do, we are constantly being strengthened with might by the riches of His glory in the inner man, and with that comes the weight of His person in us. We become people of substance in the face of circumstance as He begins to wipe out the superficiality and fraud, and transform us into people filled with joy, living in the glory of God.

Worship is the means by which He re-establishes rulership. Where God’s presence is, there will be power. Where worship is released, God’s presence will abide. Our hearts are the ground on which the battle is decided. If we will worship, God’s power and rule will be established in and through us to flow to others.

The glory comes to dwell among the Lord’s people and rests upon the church, but then Scripture says that the glory abiding in the church is to return to God in worship. It only takes viewing the magnificent spectacle of ocean waves crashing against rugged cliffs to become conscious that all creation praises God except man, the rebel—and even man, the redeemed, is slow to grow in the understanding of what worship is about. Scripture calls for us to ascribe worth to Him, to offer an appropriate response to the living God of the universe, to respond with the full weight of recognition of Who it is we approach.

Worship generates the power for God’s reign to be extended — for evangelism, for sacrificial giving, for intercession, and to break up the strongholds of hell.

Human worship is man beginning… Holiness of worship is man becoming. Man—as sons and daughters unto God—begins worship with a commitment. Through worship, man becomes transformed into kings and priests unto God, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 1:6). Worship brings about the kingly privileges and an extension of the Kingdom rule of Jesus Christ.

Worship restricts carnal pride

Fear and pride are close traveling companions. We are born with inherent fear; we enter life with our fists clenched and we spend the rest of our life learning how to let go.

  • The “faces” we wear to hide our fears are facades of pride.
  • Worship confronts pride because it requires openness, forthrightness, acknowledgement of need, and presentation of self.

Worship is to be physical, vocal, expressive, according to Biblical guidelines. The physical expression of worship is intended to gently lead those fears that make us hesitant to participate into confrontation with pride. In order for power to be released, the carnality of fear and pride inherent in us all must be confronted.

God’s love for us is not in proportion to our worship. Saving grace is released at Calvary, not according to worship. However, Jesus releases His power and His glory to us in proportion to our worship. At Calvary, our relationship as sons and daughters is restored; through worship, Kingdom dimension and rulership are added to our lives.

Understand, you can get to heaven without worship. But with worship, you (and the Church) become(s) a center for the power of God to be released and shake up the kingdom of darkness. Wholeness, dimension and substance are increased in people who worship.

Herein lies the whole commandment

Worship and fellowship are the substance of everything—communication with God and communication with people, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? (Matthew 22:36).

  • People only become truly restored in themselves when they worship God; and
  • When, brought into communication with other people, they confront pride;
  • Then there comes the release of divine power and purpose in their lives.

What will power our eternity?

“The chief end of man is to worship God and to enjoy Him forever.” (Westminster Catechism). There is high purpose and destiny of things we will do in partnership with the Lord forever, but the dynamic of it will be generated because we live in an eternal, ongoing true worship relationship with Him. We are only the distance of worship away from the throne of God.

 

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