It's 3:12 AM and I should be at home in bed, but I keep putting another worship service on while I'm working and the pull to bask in an atmosphere of worship is stronger than the pull of home and bed.
We had one of those truly anointed services here last night. Pastor was ministering on taking the "weirdness" out of praying in tongues and on the importance of regularly praying in the Spirit as we enter this new year, and after the teaching we went into a time of prayer and worship. Those are two words that I have been pairing together a lot lately. I know we usually think of "praise and worship", but over the last several weeks it's been more of what I consider "prayer and worship".
That has prompted me to write this post on the power of combing prayer and worship together. Many of you reading this have read James 5:16b that says, "The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]." AMP And those who run in the Pentacostal/Charismatic circles are familiar with Jude 1:20-21 which says, "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. "
I'm sure most of my readers have some kind of prayer life (hopefully somewhat more than the "Now I lay me down to sleep," or the, "Good food, good meat, good God let's eat," kinds of prayer!), but when we accompany prayer with real worship it adds another dimension of intimacy to your relationship with Father God, and the by-product of that is that your faith in Father God is strengthened as well.
Let's look at the word worship. In the Hebrew and the Greek the word in it's simplest form means, "to bow down or prostrate oneself." Psalm 95:6 tells us, "O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker [in reverent praise and supplication]." But that doesn't really explain worship. 1 Chronicles 16:29 tells us, "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come before Him; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and in holy array." So from this verse and many others in Psalms we know that giving God the glory he is due is considered worship.
And for some people, the word "worship" draws images of the "slow music" part of the Praise & Worship service at church. But that doesn't fully explain worship either. So I want to look at Abraham to find a little deeper meaning to worship. Let's look at Genesis 22:
It's a familiar piece of history, and because it's one that most of us are familiar with, it's easy to overlook some of the lessons that are buried in this account. In verse 5 Abraham tells the servant that he and Isaac are going up to worship. So many times when I've read this passage I look at the altar and the offering to be placed on it as the act of worship, but what I'm looking at now is verse 12: "...for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son."
Worship wasn't the altar and the blood sacrifice. Abraham's worship was his willingness to give up the thing he held most dear...the son of Promise. In doing so he was saying, "I trust you not only with the life of my son, but with the promise you spoke to both me and my seed." Abraham's willingness to worship God without restraint opened the door for God's provision to be manifested in an even greater way in his life...and brought him to an even deeper level of faith.
As you approach the Holy of Holies in your prayer times, are there things that you're holding back from Father God's control? Are there things that you're afraid to relinquish? It would have been easy for Abraham to say, "But, Lord, I can't sacrifice Isaac. If I do that, all hope is lost for your promise to be fulfilled." Are you holding back any Isaacs in your life? Remember, Isaacs aren't bad things in our lives, they're just things that we might be tempted to give a greater place in our lives than we should. For Abraham it was Isaac. For you it might be that promotion at work, that business you started, or even your children.
Father God didn't want to take Isaac from Abraham. God's not in the business of asking us to sacrifice our sons for Him...He did that for us instead. He just wanted to know that He had more importance in Abraham's life than anyone or anything else. There is so much freedom in submitting our wills and our lives to God! I challenge you to worshipfully lay down on the altar of prayer everything that you hold dear in this life and let Father God know that He is the most important one. It's not about us, and it's all about Him...His plan and His purpose for our lives...
We had one of those truly anointed services here last night. Pastor was ministering on taking the "weirdness" out of praying in tongues and on the importance of regularly praying in the Spirit as we enter this new year, and after the teaching we went into a time of prayer and worship. Those are two words that I have been pairing together a lot lately. I know we usually think of "praise and worship", but over the last several weeks it's been more of what I consider "prayer and worship".
That has prompted me to write this post on the power of combing prayer and worship together. Many of you reading this have read James 5:16b that says, "The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]." AMP And those who run in the Pentacostal/Charismatic circles are familiar with Jude 1:20-21 which says, "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. "
I'm sure most of my readers have some kind of prayer life (hopefully somewhat more than the "Now I lay me down to sleep," or the, "Good food, good meat, good God let's eat," kinds of prayer!), but when we accompany prayer with real worship it adds another dimension of intimacy to your relationship with Father God, and the by-product of that is that your faith in Father God is strengthened as well.
Let's look at the word worship. In the Hebrew and the Greek the word in it's simplest form means, "to bow down or prostrate oneself." Psalm 95:6 tells us, "O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker [in reverent praise and supplication]." But that doesn't really explain worship. 1 Chronicles 16:29 tells us, "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come before Him; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and in holy array." So from this verse and many others in Psalms we know that giving God the glory he is due is considered worship.
And for some people, the word "worship" draws images of the "slow music" part of the Praise & Worship service at church. But that doesn't fully explain worship either. So I want to look at Abraham to find a little deeper meaning to worship. Let's look at Genesis 22:
1 AFTER THESE events, God tested and proved Abraham and said to him, Abraham! And he said, Here I am. 2 [God] said,Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I will tell you. 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then began the trip to the place of which God had told him.
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 And Abraham said to his servants, Settle down and stay here with the donkey, and I and the young man will go yonder and worship and come again to you. 6 Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on [the shoulders of ] Isaac his son, and he took the fire (the firepot) in his own hand, and a knife; and the two of them went on together.
7 And Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. [Isaac] said, See, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice? 8 Abraham said, My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two went on together. 9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there; then he laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took hold of the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He answered, Here I am. 12 And He said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son.
13 Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering and an ascending sacrifice instead of his son! 14 So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide. And it is said to this day, On the mount of the Lord it will be provided.
It's a familiar piece of history, and because it's one that most of us are familiar with, it's easy to overlook some of the lessons that are buried in this account. In verse 5 Abraham tells the servant that he and Isaac are going up to worship. So many times when I've read this passage I look at the altar and the offering to be placed on it as the act of worship, but what I'm looking at now is verse 12: "...for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son."
Worship wasn't the altar and the blood sacrifice. Abraham's worship was his willingness to give up the thing he held most dear...the son of Promise. In doing so he was saying, "I trust you not only with the life of my son, but with the promise you spoke to both me and my seed." Abraham's willingness to worship God without restraint opened the door for God's provision to be manifested in an even greater way in his life...and brought him to an even deeper level of faith.
As you approach the Holy of Holies in your prayer times, are there things that you're holding back from Father God's control? Are there things that you're afraid to relinquish? It would have been easy for Abraham to say, "But, Lord, I can't sacrifice Isaac. If I do that, all hope is lost for your promise to be fulfilled." Are you holding back any Isaacs in your life? Remember, Isaacs aren't bad things in our lives, they're just things that we might be tempted to give a greater place in our lives than we should. For Abraham it was Isaac. For you it might be that promotion at work, that business you started, or even your children.
Father God didn't want to take Isaac from Abraham. God's not in the business of asking us to sacrifice our sons for Him...He did that for us instead. He just wanted to know that He had more importance in Abraham's life than anyone or anything else. There is so much freedom in submitting our wills and our lives to God! I challenge you to worshipfully lay down on the altar of prayer everything that you hold dear in this life and let Father God know that He is the most important one. It's not about us, and it's all about Him...His plan and His purpose for our lives...
