Made to Worship! PART ONE

We were all made to worship!  We were all made to worship God! Do we all choose to worship God? No. But we all know how to worship.

I love what Bill Johnson wrote in a book he co-authored with Randy Clark called, The Essential Guide to Healing: Equipping all Christians to Pray for the Sick.  In Chapter 5 he stated:

       

Since Satan wanted to be worshiped like God, God chose to overthrow Satan's dark kingdom through those He made in His image,

who worshiped God by choice.

God chose to defeat the devil and his cohorts through worshipers.

Worship is the primary call of mankind. (pg. 112)

The fact that we were made to worship, doesn't surprise me in the least.  I love to worship! I'm on the worship and praise team at church and just recently I became more open in my worship to God on stage.  Many times in the past I wouldn't close my eyes, raise my hands, or just get utterly lost in worship, because I wanted to make sure I didn't sing the wrong words or miss what the worship leader was telling us to do, such as go back to the chorus, repeat verse 1, or stop.  I was so worried about messing up, that I completely forgot to just worship God! And if I was not worshiping God, then all I was doing was singing words, not praises!

While in Cuba I experienced a worship that is missing in many churches in America: Complete and utter abandonment to the Father in worship! Not to mention the joy they had while worshiping!  In Cuba, there were no projectors with words on the screen, no hymnals. It was simply God's children coming together and worshiping their Father, with music, singing, and dancing.  The congregation was the worship team! Yes, they had worship leaders singing and playing the piano or drums, but they weren't the only ones worshiping. 

Many times in my own church we have been singing songs that have so much passion and zeal for the Lord, but the congregation was stagnant, standing still.  But in Cuba, the whole congregation, at every church we went to were passionately involved in worshiping God!  They sang, even louder than those with microphones, they clapped their hands, danced in the Spirit, raised their hands in praise to God and they did this with such joy! Young and old worshiped together with passion, feeling, excitement and joy, because they worshiped a living God!

This picture below is just one of the churches we went to.

Notice everyone standing, clapping, singing?  But I want you to look at the little girl in the blue shirt, playing the tambourine.  Do you see her face?

Here is a close-up.

Can you see it?  Can you see the joy on her face?  Those beautiful girls dancing just touched  my heart, but this one girl in particular gripped my heart. She was dancing, singing, and playing that tambourine as if her life depended on it.  But isn't that true?  Our lives do depend on God, or at least they should!

Worship is effective, but it is even more so when everyone is involved!  In Cuba, as you've seen in this one picture of just one church out of the 7 or 8 we visited, everyone was involved!  No matter how small the church building, they worshiped.  No matter how cramped together they were, they worshiped.  It didn't matter if one got elbowed in the side, they were too enthralled in worship to even notice.

Atmosphere plays a huge role in worship.  When you are surrounded by it you can't help but join in.  When everyone is singing and dancing and worshiping God, then you shouldn't worry about whether or not you'll look stupid, because everybody is doing the same thing!  I remember going to Christian concerts or places like Xtreme or New Breed, and I remember how easy it was to let go and just worship, because everyone was doing it.  And that is why it was harder to return home, because not everyone was doing it.

When we aren't obedient to the Spirit, it can snuff out what God is wanting to do.  He wants us to experience his presence.  And I am so thankful when He pours out His Spirit. This past Sunday, our church experienced His presence through obedience in worship.  That is not to give credit to any one person or the worship team, everyone played a role in what happened Sunday.  The congregation became sensitive to what God was doing and we were experiencing His awesome Spirit.  His Spirit was flowing through our church like a gentle wave, giving us a taste of things to come.  I'm excited! I can't wait to see what happens next, but it requires obedience on our part.

We were made to worship! We know how to worship, but we must decide who we are going to worship!