August 31, 2006

• Grab a cup of coffee or tea, sit down and enjoy last night’s Bible study by Pastor Don, hot off the press. I am typing it in one entry so I can get it to Pastor Don tomorrow. Know that it is a bit long, but trust me in this, the teaching was such a blessing. Please try to read all of it even though it is a bit long.

  
  

  PRAISE AND WORSHIP

  
  

  Sometimes in church do you ever wonder why other people seem to be getting their prayers answered, and yours don’t always seem to be responded to? The prophets in the Bible have much to teach us about praise and worship – which is the key to communicating on a deeper level with God.

  
  

  There are five modes of praise and worship. First of all praise and worship isn’t just about singing worship songs in church. It is a heartfelt humbling of ourselves because of God’s greatness. It can happen any place, any time. For example, Pastor Don talked about how the positioning of his house allows him to see sunsets. And one of his regular things to do is watch the sunset, and he exclaims, “Boy, that Jesus can paint.” If it is said out of a mouth that is full of praise, it is a worship. It can become a lifestyle to praise and worship God. Our Bibles contain a collection of victories caused by the praise and worship of the prophets. Jesus often went by Himself to pray – and part of His prayer was praise and worship of God. It is recognizing that God is greater than us and He CAN DO SOMETHING. It is having a humble and contrite heart and coming before a Great Lord. Music can bring us to that point, but so can dance, so can prayer, so can anything that reminds us of God.

  
  

  Here are the five modes of praise and worship:

  
  

  1. Spontaneous Praise and Worship: There is no particular reason that it occurs, you are just lead to praise God, to thank Him. In the shower you might burst into a song. Our Spirit man brings up praise and worship. It could be brought on by a sunset like above. A Biblical example is
  Luke 2:27-32 Simeon sees God’s salvation So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word. For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”

  
  

  Simeon did not have to praise God at that point. He could have seen the child and moved on, but praise bubbled up in him. Notice he came by the Spirit.

  
  

  2. Scheduled Praise and Worship: The Sabbath, the seven feast days, the holy days, Passover are days and times that God has scheduled for us to praise and worship Him. Sunday services, Palm Sunday, Bible study are also examples of scheduled Praise and Worship.  Mark 14:12-26 Jesus celebrating Passover with His disciples. Mark 14:26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

  
  

  3. Purposeful Praise and Worship: This is done for a set, specific purpose, to get something from God. Examples can be a harp and bowl service, a special prayer meeting to get direction from God for the church, a fast either personal to get the flesh under control, or for corporate reasons to set people free or be a better example. It can be praise and worship to ask God to use us better in ministry or when the church wants to move in a set direction, and the church needs God’s guidance. God can give information if we ask Him.

  
  

  4. Ordered Praise and Worship: God or one of His representatives order us to worship God. Examples Revelation 19 and 22 where John wanted to bow down before an angel and the angel instructs John to worship God. 
  Mark 5:19 After Jesus healed the demon possessed man, and the man wanted to follow Jesus and worship God, Jesus instructed him 5:19 However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the LORD has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you. This man lived in Decapolis and he went back and praised God for his healing. This set the stage when Paul came through later and could establish a church there.

  
  

  Romans 8:25-26 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. When we do not know what to pray, the Holy Spirit helps us. Sometimes we get an impression to pray and may not even know the person we are to pray for or the situation. The Holy Spirit then helps us to pray. And the groanings and intercession prompted by the Holy Spirit is worship. Later we may or may not get confirmation of who or what we prayed for. But if God prompts us, for example – wakes us up at 3 a.m. to pray, we need to obey the prompting and worship as ordered.

  
  

  5. Responsive Praise and Worship: It is praise and worship that responds to what has happened. A wonderful situation occurs (say an unexpected raise or a day off and raise), and you just gotta praise God. It wells up in you and you start giving God the glory. One example of this is the woman with the Alabaster Jar who came and worshipped at Jesus’ feet.  Another example is the one leper that came back to worship God, out of the ten who were healed.

  
  

  Luke 7:14-17 Jesus raises the son of the widow of Nun Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother. Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us:” and “God has visited His people.” And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.

  
  

  Fear (awe) came upon ALL. and the word went out throughout all Judea and the surrounding region.

  
  

  Mark 14:3 And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head.

  
  

  Acts 4:21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. Because of what Peter and John did and said, ALL the people observed the Goodness of God, and glorified him.

  
  

  You can’t get to worship in Spirit and Truth without recognizing your suffering and pain. We usually don’t have a handle on the situation until we humble ourselves and recognize that we need some help from God.

  
  

  Churches today expect people to come in and immediately start worshipping in Spirit and Truth, but you cannot expect newcomers, newly saved, who haven’t had a revelation of God to be able to do this Many people are saved, but haven’t had the revelation of their real need of God, they are just glad to not go to Hell. Of course, not going to Hell is a good thing, but there is so much more. We need to get to the point where we realize we need a savior in all aspects of our life, and then we can give up some of our stuff (baggage from our past). We need to realize that we have been living a lie, that our life is in need of a savior. Mrs. Moore (Pastor Don’s wife) once told him that people are like swans on a lake. They look like they are effortlessly gliding around, but underneath the surface they are paddling like crazy.

  
  

  85% of people believe in God, but the churches are empty.

  
  

  Praise and worship begins in repentance, and then we can lift Holy Hands.

  
  

  The Spirit of God can only do what we give Him permission to do. We need someone to intercede for a situation. God cannot override a person’s will. He will not force salvation on anyone, they have to make the choice, and they have to make the choice to give control over to God and repent.

  
  

  If you have a church with enough people in accord, you can have an        
  Acts 2 experience where the Power of God manifests. If you have enough people worshipping in Spirit and Truth, a few doubters and unbelievers will get a sense of what is going on. If too many are in doubt and unbelief, it makes it hard to reach an Acts 2 experience. With larger groups it may take longer to get to this point, and you need a worship leader to set, direct and order the worship.
  
  Pastor Don talked about the Prophet Samachen from India who is coming tomorrow to our church, Pastor Don told us why he gave a testimony to the church about his meeting the prophet when he was overseas on a missionary trip. He did this to let people know about the prophet. Besides giving information, it also allows people to come to the service expecting to receive from God. Pastor Don also pointed out that often, months in advance of a guest speaker, he has spoken the same words. But because it is a prophet, or a guest speaker, people will listen harder. Pastor Don says it doesn’t matter, as long as the people finally get the message that the Spirit is trying to teach.

  
  

  Then Pastor Don spoke about how the different kinds of worship lead to different experiences.

  
  

  Spontaneous praise and worship will lead to prophesy. When the Spirit moves us to worship spontaneously, and worship wells up out of our Spirit, we need to give the worship a direction. God is speaking inside, and if we release it we can gain a word of wisdom, a word of Knowledge, or direct it to helping us serve God better, etc.

  
  

  Scheduled praise and worship gives order in our lives. Things of God are linked to this time schedule set by God. The feasts, the Sabbath, and it gets us to the place of worship to celebrate the feasts. When we act in obedience, persistence, responsibility, and give God praise and worship, we get the benefit of refreshing. God will show up at His appointed times, and we get a Spiritual Refreshing. Like in the Temple at the Day of Atonement, God’s Shekinah Glory will show up.

  
  

  Ordered praise and worship will cause God’s glory to show up. For example in Acts 2 where the disciples were instructed to wait for the Holy Spirit. They didn’t just sit and twiddle their thumbs, they sought His presence, prayed, and came in one accord. Active waiting, in Spirit and Truth, will build faith. Doubt and unbelief are displeasing to God. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

  
  

  Purposeful praise and worship stimulates the gifts of God. By seeking God’s guidance in a situation, God will release the gifts that will provide the solution to the problem, and we can see the Hand of God in the situation.

  
  

  Responsive praise and worship causes us to have a humble and contrite heart, to be repentant when we respond to what we see of the Goodness of God. It causes two responses. 1) it releases more Grace and 2) our faith increases. We gain a confidence in God, our faith grows, and that allows God to release His power into our situation. God has to confirm His word.

  
  

  Pastor Don then spoke about how our church is moving up to a new level. And months before, after God showed Pastor Don this vision, he began to prepare. He started his discipleship classes to equip the members to do the work that God will be giving us. Our church has many people that Pastor Don trusts to go out and minister to people, even when Pastor Don isn’t around. We can reach out to people and tell anecdotes, stories, parables, testimonies of faith, preach the Word, and help others. This is necessary as a preparation for what will happen next. Pastor Don says that he is waiting to see who will be the Gideon army of the Living Word Chapel. Pastor Don is trying to get us to the point were two or more people can talk, and if they disagree that is ok. They take the disagreement to the Bible and find a confirming Word so that the truth comes out. We need to work together as One Body in Christ.

  
  

  In order for corporate worship to be effective, the majority of the people have to be focused on the same thing. For example if there is a Healing Anointing present, that is where the church should focus – not on deliverance. The Holy Spirit needs to engineer the worship experience. Many times in our church the dancers, praise team, Bible study, Bible verse in the program, and the sermon all revolve around the same theme – even though many of the things were done separately.

  
  

  He also told us that to be effective a Praise team (dancers and singers) should have a wide variety of songs so that the team can move with the Holy Spirit.

  
  

  How did the Prophets worship?

  
  

  Amos 3:3-7 Can two walk together unless they are agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing? Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it? Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all? If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it. Surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?

  
  

  Pastor Don asked who the prophets were in this day and age – us, the believers.

  
  

  Pastor Don gives the year 1988 – 1990 as the time when the prophetic anointing began to increase, and he said that with that, there is also an increase in our adversary’s power plays. He knows his time is short, and is trying to disrupt the church. But that means that we need to increase our praise and worship and get the prophetic word out.

  
  

  Ephesians 3:5 …which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the spirit to His holy apostles and prophets. Today, the prophets are us.

  
  

  Malachi 4:5-6 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.

  
  

  The forerunner of Jesus Christ was John the Baptist, and he preached a gospel of repentance. Matthew 17:11-13 Jesus answered and said, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things, but I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.

  
  

  John the Baptist did three things. 1) announced, 2) pointed the way to, and 3) prepared the way.

  
  

  Praise and Worship to God does these three things too.

  
  

  Jeremiah 1:9-10 Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.

  
  

  God started this Jeremiah 1:4 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

  
  

  Pastor Don pointed out that Jeremiah only went to Egypt and Canaan, yet God made him a prophet to the nations. The to all nations is through the Word of God (Bible) given to all men. That is why it is important to realize that were we have been and where we are now says nothing about where we are going when we follow God.
  
  Sunday school teachers impact the children’s lives, and they go out into the world and the Word of God put into them by the Sunday School teachers touch many lives. We don’t know how far reaching what God is doing is.

  
  

  Pastor Don gave God’s plan, the six things which the Spirit of God can do with a man, which we see above in Jeremiah 1:9-10

  
  

  1. Root out
  2. Pull down
  3. Destroy
  4. Throw down
  5. Build
  6. Plant

  
  

  Then 7. God perfects (we were told to put this in our margins next to the six points listed above.

  
  

  Only God can perfect a man.

  
  

  Then our Bible study went into a period of praise and worship of God before we went home – there is still more to come at another Bible study.

  
  

  God is so awesome, I am in awe of His wondrous works.

  
  

  Have a blessed day,
  Heather

  • 7:23 am
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