Worship and A Weary Soul

I was in prayer.  I was hearing from the Lord about a number of things about ministry, about people I was having concern over, and taking note of it all. I began to feel tired. I then asked the Lord to give me rest from this tiredness. I listened for awhile, but all I got was silence. I was feeling disappointed with His silence when the image of angels recorded in Revelations came into focus. I was seeing the angels in a state of worship of the Lord whenever there was lull in their doings and working and serving. I was getting the sense that at every opportunity they would fall down in worship of the Lord. 

In response to my request to the Lord for relief from my tiredness, I heard the word, “Worship”.  I turned on music as I sensed that music would turn on a part of my heart toward worship, and it did. Right then and there, I worshipped the Lord. The weariness that had enveloped me faded fast - amazingly. A peace and a feeling of refreshing took its place like the feeling that comes when a fresh breeze blows away the stuffiness of a humid tropical night.

I asked the Lord about worship. A pang of hunger had swelled up in me making me want to hear more from Him about worship. This is some of what I heard:

• Worship has to do with how my heart relates to Him. It has to do with His value, His importance and how I see Him with respect to myself. It’s the bowing of my heart to Him, my heart lying prostrate before Him.
• Worship of the Lord is about how I perceive Him as to who He is. It’s about “remembering” who He is and being totally dialed in on that.
• Worship is also about “remembering” what He has done for me - His righteous acts, the goodness He has poured into my life, His love bestowed on me.

Worship the Lord, O my soul, in the beauty and majesty of His holiness.

Worship and My Spirit

I was in prayer… I wanted to hear from the Lord about “worship”. I began to ask Him: What does worshipping You look like? What is worship that is real to You? Vine defines “worship" as awe, devotion, honor. I sense the Lord’s prompting to worship Him in the Spirit. "Enter into worship with the Spirit", I hear Him say.

I began to talk to my spirit. (Through Scripture, the Lord has opened up that category for me, and I am willing to walk through it if the Lord gives it.)  I begin saying to my spirit, “Bring me to awe." I'm missing "awe". I want it. I'm pressing for it. 

I had just read about Francis Su’s story when he was in grad school working on his PhD in Mathematics. He was struggling at one point, floundering in his program. A cold and insensitive comment from his advisor came crashing down on him: "You don’t have what it takes to be a successful mathematician." The comment assaults him at the very core of his sense of worth. He is wounded and demoralized by it. 

And his mother had just died. So in the throes of his circumstances, he needed an extension on some work in the class taught by another professor. He approached this professor with his predicament, and the response that he got came as a great surprise: "I’m really sorry about your mother," this professor says to him. "Let me take you to coffee.”  Just a simple gesture, but so life-changing in its impact on him. It was an experience of grace that would forever alter his perception of what’s of value and worth - about himself, his life, and all other things. 

In the midst of this reflection, the Lord suddenly but calmly tells me: “I have coffee with you every morning.” Hot damn! That did it for me. Finally, for that moment, my soul got to “awe”. The worship that I entered into that moment was heavily laced with “awe”.

The things of the heart are so intriguing. Who can maneuver through it and know what it takes to tend to it? No one, but One who knows it well.

Not Without You

 I was in prayer and sensing the Lord speaking to me about my value and the value of all whose existence is the result of His heart’s desire and creation. He led me to the “that’s” of John 17 and the Pauline epistles. Here is what He lit up to me. Notice the longings of His heart.

“Glorify Your Son… that to all You have given Him, He may give eternal life.”

“This is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God…”

“that they may be one even as We are…”

“so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”

“I sanctify Myself that they themselves may be sanctified in truth.”

“that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You…”

“so that the world may believe that You sent Me…”

“The glory that You have given Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one…”

“perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me…”

“I desire also that they also… be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me…”

“so that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

“And what if He is willing to make known the wealth of His glory on the objects of mercy that He has prepared beforehand for glory – even us…?”

As I looked to the Lord to piece together, what He was saying to me, this was the word that came: 

“I have made you and all that you mean so that we need each other. Without each other, you and I will both be incomplete. Without each other, our joy will be incomplete. Without each other, we both fall short of our very purpose and meaning for existing. Without each other, the world is held in darkness. I will be dissatisfied with My glory as seen only by Myself. Without each other, there will be a missing piece, and that is you. Without each other, My love for You falls short. The ache of My heart remains. I cannot remain there. I am not satisfied with that."