Friday, January 23, 2009

God In Spirit


Worshipping God "in spirit" means with reverence, attentiveness, and having the right purpose of honoring God, while understanding what we are doing.
Hebrews 12:28-29 says, "Let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire." Our worship must glorify God.
1 Corinthians 6:20 says, "For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."

In order to worship God in the right spirit, we must take time before worship to make ready our hearts and emotions so we will be in the proper frame of mind. I read in Psalms 89:7, "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those around Him." Our worship must show great reverence toward God. He is our creator and He holds our eternal destiny in His hands. We must strive to please Him. We should not have to rush or hurry to worship, arriving late but should always plan to be there early enough so we can be in a worshipful attitude and spirit. Our mind must be ready, attentive, and alert, my husband has always told me and I have learned go EX-SPECTING. Amen!


Concerning the Lord’s Supper, we are told in 1 Corinthians 11:27, "Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." Our worship to God must be done in a worthy manner. It must be done in a manner that brings glory and honor to God and Christ. As I Continued to read in verse 29, "For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body." We must control our thoughts during periods of worship and not let them wander to other things. We should never be wishing the worship service would hurry up and be over so we can get to the restaurant early and not have to stand in line. In fact we should be of the frame of mind that we are disappointed to see the worship service end!!!!

In showing reverence and respect to God, we will not be indifferent, inattentive, and taking lightly that which should be considered serious. Worship to God is holy. Our character in worship must also be holy.
In 1 Peter 1:15-16 I read, "But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in your conduct, because it is written, Be holy for I am holy." Slouching over, sleeping, playing with babies, squirming, unnecessary talking, and passing notes all show disrespect in worshipping God. Worship which is insincere, that is not from the heart, is vain, useless, and unacceptable to God. Jesus says, "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" (Mark 7:6). Active participation will tend to get rid of our lack of interest and inattentiveness.

Reverence is not having a long face, folded hands, or a put on look of piety. Worship is a time of joy for us. It is a time of offering thanks, adoration, love, praying, singing praises to God, feeding on His word, and proclaiming Christ to the world in partaking of the Lord’s Supper.


Ask yourself
(Hebrews 12:28-29) How are we to worship God?

Does it matter how we worship God?

(1 Corinthians 11:27-29) All of our worship to God is to be done in what type of manner?

Can we worship God in what ever way we please?

(1 Corinthians 6:20) Since we were bought with the blood of Christ do we glorify God in all we do?

(Psalms 89:7) Our worship to God should be in Reverence?

(1 Peter 1:16-17) Because God is holy we should also be holy in all things, including our worship.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
John 4:23-24



Lord Thank You for Your promises which clearly tell us that those who are faithful to Your call will be given all the wisdom, knowledge and strength they need to accomplish what they are called to do. Turn our hearts away from our own selfish desires and re-focus Your Body with a pure and holy motivation that helps us to see clearly. Protect our Body from the slings and arrows of Satan as he surely recognizes the emerging Body of Christ that We will no longer be a sleeping, unworshipping individual, but will NOW become a "Force of God" that will not be defeated. AMEN,AMEN!!!!!!

6 comments:

From the Heart said...

Awesome.
AliceE.

debrah said...

This good sharon. thank you

Beth in NC said...

Good word! You know, I always take communion with a serious heart because of the weight of that scripture.

Bless you dear!
Beth

Sharon Brumfield said...

This is good girl.
Years ago when I was reading in the O.T I read a verse about how the priest would prepare themselves to go to the temple even if they were not to serve that day.
They would make sure they were clean inside and out and prepared to offer an acceptable sacrifice to God.
The amazing thing was that when they did this the Glory of God would fall...and of course all fell to their faces before the Lord.
This left such an impression on my heart. As a priest I need to prepare myself before I go to worship and serve.
Maybe this is why some of our churches are a tad on the dry side....worship changes the atmosphere. If the atmosphere is not prepared for His glory to descend...I think we probably leave as empty as we came.

And although worship is for Him....when my relationship with Him is right....my heart leaves full.
Thanks for bringing this all back to mind.
He longs for the sweet smell of our worship. He and I have missed out on so much.

LisaShaw said...

Awesome! Keep speaking truths! God is glorified in your words and heart to share with all of us.

I love visiting with you. I always leave encouraged.

Dennie said...

I needed this message. Thanks Sharon for sharing your inspiring thoughts. You are a blessing!