Commentary4

There is a stirring that takes place in the heart of every believer in Christ Jesus who desires to worship God. We are to worship the Father in spirit and truth but how do we do this, seeing that we are flesh and blood and we are being required to worship Him in spirit. Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: 21-24:

²¹Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

²²Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

²³But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

²⁴God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

By this I understand that to worship God involves using my rational mind to know the truth of His Word and because God is spirit, I must worship Him not by my senses or emotions but I must be filled with the Spirit of God to worship Him in spirit, by believing in faith that His presence is always with me and in me.

Ray Stedman gives us a brief look at what worship should be in his article, 'True Worship'. He said:

"Worship is a heartfelt encounter of men and angels with the true God. It is an act of attention to the living God who rules, speaks and reveals, creates and redeems, orders and blesses. The essence of worship is genuineness. It is to be with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. Worship may find expression in thought, in prayer, in praise, in song, in body position, and in activity such as dancing or uplifting of arms-but without genuineness all becomes false worship."

Jesus said, "AND THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH ALL THY HEART, AND WITH ALL THY SOUL, AND WITH ALL THY MIND, AND WITH ALL THY STRENGTH: this is the first commandment." "And the second is like, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF." "There is none other commandment greater than these." [Mark 12:30-31] Paul states, "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." [Romans 12:1]

There are many books, teachings and articles that give biblical evidence of how God desires that we worship Him. This is not one of them. I wish to communicate how our understanding of the worship experience or service is being manipulated towards mysticism (Gnosticism) and sensuality (feeling of the soul or flesh, not sexual in nature) by a concept that has been introduced into the churches very subtly over many years and in fact has become a catch phrase in our church language. We have been led to believe that we must "create an atmosphere" that is conducive to God the Father coming down to meet us, to enable us to experience His manifested presence, otherwise He will not abide with us and the anointing will not be there for healing and deliverance. This is seen more in the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches but is even effected the services in Evangelical churches. Benny Hinn attempts to do this through worship at every healing service, to create an atmosphere of faith or God cannot heal.

"I cannot make it happen. God's people make it happen; bring this atmosphere of faith, but like I said, there have been times when I did go and God did heal them. But these have been very few." (Interview with Benny Hinn by Marla Weech, WFTV Anchor as reported in Inside Central Florida, with comment by Sandy Simpson,1999 ) In our desire to enter into that mystical holy place, we try to manipulate God by building a dwelling place through our singing, for Him to come down and dwell amongst us again and we repeat this ritual over and over.

As a song/worship leader for over 30 years I have struggled not only to comprehend the meaning of worship but I have always believed that singing is only a small part of how we worship God. I also must confess that during those 30 years I have participated willingly, until my eyes were opened to the truth of God's word, in fleshly soulish performance, leading others to the same, ultimately into that false mystical experience of what was interpreted as God's manifest presence. I still believe in the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit working in and through a believer's life to bring glory to the Father in Jesus Christ, to walk in His presence daily by faith and not by feelings. Do we really have to provide just the right ambiance for God to be present amongst His people? If it is an experience that we desire, are we opening ourselves up to another spirit or seducing spirits that feed our sensuality? Jesus said simply, "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." [Matt. 18:20] He is there, whether we feel anything at all and we do not have to have a spiritually charged atmosphere to know that He is present.

Now there are some that would say that the whole purpose of creating an atmosphere is to bring the congregation into a certain attitude of holiness, preparing their hearts for the actual worshiping of God. If this is all that is happening, and we are not looking forward to some major manifestation but desire to turn our hearts and minds toward Him, then I am in full agreement.

With the renewed emphasis reviving Tabernacle type worship, ( see Orrel Steinkamp's article, The Restoration of Davidic Warfare/Worship) it is easy to be caught up in the false spirituality, believing that we go on to higher levels in God. The power of this pattern of worship is almost too hard to resist in this day of famine for the Word. In many cases what is interpreted as the presence of God is nothing more than soulishness or even to the more extreme sense, other spirits in guise of the Holy Spirit.

Why are we trying so hard to move God on our terms, to manipulate Him to do our bidding? We have been taught that God is in some other spiritual realm, that we have to coax Him to come. Wasn't the veil torn from the top to the bottom to show us that God has made himself accessible by the blood of the Lamb? Carolyn Chapman explains in her article, False and Profane Fire,

"Christian Churches are following the ways of the New Age, the mystics and Indian Spirituality, thinking that the presence of the Lord is beyond them in another state of mind. So modern worshippers today dance. They give all they have physically to the act of worship, and express with their emotions and bodies with such over-wrought desire hoping to enter into the presence of the Lord."

We must not be like the prophets of Baal who tried to call down the presence of their gods, beating, whipping and cutting themselves hoping that this would bring about their desired effects. And we must move in faith with the belief that God is who He said He is, He is faithful to His word, that no matter where you try to flee from Him, He is always there. [Psalm 139:7]

We trust our God who has made the way through what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross, through His death the veil was torn and we have access to the Father in one Spirit through Him. [Matthew 27:51] [Ephesians 2:18] According to the scriptures in Psalm 95: 1-7, we are bid to come according to His terms, to give glory to our God, to worship Him, to kneel before our Maker, for He is our God and we are the sheep of His pasture. His terms are the only ones acceptable!

We recently left the church we had been attending because of a shift towards restoring Davidic warfare worship. There were subtle pressures to shape the song service to help bring about the desired effect of preparing "an atmosphere of worship" for the people to experience (feel) God's presence. This was the direction that the Pastor desired for the worship to take and I could not continue as the worship leader without compromising my walk with the Lord, I would be disobeying what I knew to be true according to His Word.

With this turn of events in our lives it becomes difficult to find a church that has not been effected or infiltrated by false teachings. There is no perfect church and we have never looked to a fellowship with that attitude, so again we look to Him who will guide our steps, and if another door opens we will walk through it desiring only to serve Him on His terms.