But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:23-24.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
True worship is a focus that won’t let go till it is past the distractions and the hindrances and reaches the flow of Heaven, that is, to the level of receiving My thoughts and answers. It is the rising place, the place of ascent, shaking off the dust until you can see as I do. It is the place of revelation, the place of answers, but it is more than that, it is the place of knowing as you are known. My Son spoke of that place in His prayer to Me that He opened up to you on the night He was betrayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3. Know. Knowing is not guessing, knowing is not manmade myths, knowing is not superstition, knowing is the reality of love and oneness with Me, your God, in spirit and truth, where we each know, understand, and honor the other as precious. Worship is where you come home to the place you belong—a vast and open place of royal splendor where every good thing and perfect gift is available and the impossible becomes possible.
Worship is the highest level of prayer. It is communication with Me at an ever increasing level of oneness. But this leads not to casual familiarity but to greater and greater honor and respect, a whole new level of gratitude for the treasures that flow from worship and the revelation and impartation from My presence and thoughts—at the privilege of My presence in our walk together.
And I as well am honored and delighted with you who desire to worship Me. It is not just you seeking Me, for it is the hour when true worshipers are worshipping Me in spirit and truth; for such people I am seeking to be My worshipers. Why? Because I can flow My glory into them and through them to create beauty from brokenness and fill My people to overflowing with My goodness. My Will prospers in their hands as it did with Jesus. Isaiah 53:10. And My Will for you is good, perfect, and pleasing. Romans 12:1-2.
And today as I continue to lead you into that beautiful place of worship it is Life Lesson No. 2: What is Worship? True worship makes you radiant and changes everything in your life.
I bring you to My holy mountain, the heavenly Zion, and make you joyful in My house of prayer, the place of answers, the place of Worship, the place where dreams come true as I do more than you can ask or imagine through the flow of worship, which is the flow of Heaven. All the amazing works going on in My heavenly city flow ever upward on waves of worship. Worship is never stale. It is always fresh and new; it is always first love. If you find worship boring you are not worshipping but doing merely a mental exercise. You are walking in the flesh by sight and not in the Spirit by faith. You have not yet learned the laws of spontaneous combustion in your spirit.
Spontaneous combustion is the outbreak of fire without application of heat from an external source. Spontaneous combustion occurs when combustible matter is stored in bulk and oxidation gradually raises the temperature inside the mass to the point at which a fire starts.
Remember that Paul told Timothy to fan the gift stored in him into flame, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:6-7. Combustion requires fuel, heat and oxygen (or some other oxidizer) and is represented by the “fire triangle,” where each of the triangle’s sides represents one of these three elements. Timothy had the Word of faith, which is the fuel, the grace gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the heat, the coal from My altar in Heaven, and he was to fan it into flame, and that is the oxidizer. Combustion is defined as “an exothermic, self-sustaining reaction involving a solid, liquid, and/or gas-phase fuel.”
And how do you fan My Word which you have been storing in your heart and the gifts of the Holy Spirit stored up in you when through Jesus I poured by promise into your heart? In you is power beyond all you can ask or imagine but with the vast majority of Christians it is lying dormant and cold, like the disciples on the way to Emmaus the day I raised Jesus from the dead. YOU HAVE TO FAN IT INTO FLAME. And how do you do that? By worship! Praise and shouting and singing will fan you into flame until your whole world is set ablaze with the fire of love and you begin to set everyone on fire around you. “Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its ardor is as inflexible as Sheol; its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it; if a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.” Song of Songs 8:6-7. For I AM a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28-29 (“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service of worship with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”).
My fire consumes everything that is impure and harmful in you, every encumbrance that would hinder My plan from flowing into your life from My throne of grace. And yet My fire never consumes you, like the burning bush before Moses. It refines you and removes the sins but not the virtues. Remember man is like a tree planted beside streams of living water. I liken the Holy Spirit to wind, breath, fire, and living water. And you need all those to have a life full of the Spirit. And you need all those for spontaneous combustion that is also controlled—the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet’s control. “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets’ control; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” 1 Corinthians 14:31-33.
And worship is spoken and sung, in your heart and with your mouth. Do you remember what the Holy Spirit told you about your tongue? He likens your tongue to the rudder on a ship or a bit and bridle in a horse’s mouth, directing the course of your life. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. But then He also likens your tongue to a spark of fire that can set your life on fire for good or for evil. “See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire . . .,” James 3:4-6, and that fire is either set on its course by hell or by the Holy Spirit. So it is by your tongue that you can fan the gift of the Holy Spirit into flame, by speaking, hearing, singing, and meditating on My Word. That is how Jesus set the cold anxious hearts of the disciples on the way to Emmaus on fire. Worship is in Spirit (faith) and TRUTH (My Word). Worship must be built on the truth of My Word and not on deceitful words of the world or just wrong teaching about Me. Never say sickness, lack, or death are from Me, they are NOT, they are the curse and Jesus came to undo the work of the devil and redeem you from the curse to bring you the Blessing so you could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.
Worship is a place of ascent from the ash heap of your sins and ills, the darkness of the world and the destructiveness of fear and anxiety, to sun (Son—arise sleeper and Christ will give you light) lit heights of Heaven where you are seated with the Prince of Peace. And I show you the way of ascent. Have you ever heard of the Psalms of Ascent? The Psalms of Ascent are also known as the Song of Degrees, the Pilgrim Songs, as well as the Gradual Psalms. They are named this because of the phrase appearing before each psalm in Psalms 120-134. Each is called “a song of ascent” at the beginning of the psalm. The Hebrew term is maʿalot which means “going up.” These were said by the pilgrims going up to Jerusalem to My house to celebrate the great pilgrim feasts of Passover and unleavened bread (Pesah), Pentecost (Shavuot), and Tabernacles (Sukkot). They were also used by the priests and Levites going up the fifteen steps to the temple built by Solomon and they were and still are being said by the exiles as they return to Jerusalem. “I rejoiced when I heard them say, let us go to the house of the LORD!” Psalm 122:1. And you know how that Psalm starts? “A Song of Ascents. Of David.”
You really cannot worship without singing psalms, hymns, and songs of the Spirit, continually making melody to Me in your heart. “I waited, waited, for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD.” Psalm 40:1-3. David knew how to get out of a low place where it seemed he was stuck in the mire. And I want you to know too. It is that easy. And that is why worship is so exciting. It turns your life around.
One of the most important times to worship is when you would rather complain and give up hope. When everything looks dark, but remember, it is always darkest right before dawn. In the darkness of his exile as Saul sought his life, David, as he hid in the dark cave, woke the dawn with his song. He sang, “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds. Be exalted above the heavens, O God; let Your glory be above all the earth.” Psalm 57:8-11. And soon, David was no longer in a cave hiding from Saul, but enthroned in Jerusalem, living in a palace, and stationing singers with musical instruments before My Ark to sing My songs night and day without ceasing. And this conquered all the enemies of My people while David was king.
And My prophet Habakkuk learned the secret of worship in hard times to bring miraculous results. “Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord (Adonai) LORD (Yahweh) is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.” And he wrote this as a song, for the choir director, on Habakkuk’s own stringed instruments. Habakkuk 3:17-19.
What is worship? It is the abiding life. It is staying in My presence to walk wisely at all times. But it is more than that, it is the relationship of intimate union where each knows the goodness of the other in spirit and in truth and rejoices in that goodness. And it is in worship that you experience that goodness flowing in your life every day and every night. You cannot worry and worship at the same time. Worry is worship in a way, but it is worship of yourself and the devil. Why? Because that is what has taken your attention off of Me and My Word which would give you righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. A true worshipper will not sin for his mind stays clear of the godless chatter and clutter of the world. In worship the encumbrances of sin fall off, chains are broken, and gates are opened.
David described worship this way: “He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my stay. He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me. Psalm 18:16-19. And in that broad place I taught him how to fight the good fight of faith, “For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God? The God who girds me with strength and makes my way blameless? He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me upon my high places. He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me; and You have stooped to make me great. You enlarge my steps under me, and my feet have not slipped. Psalm 18:31-36. And the conclusion? “Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O LORD, and I will sing praises to Your Name.” Psalm 18:49.
I love you. In worshipping there is great reward, it keeps you centered at My throne of grace. And that is where all power resides and from whence every good thing given and every perfect gift is found. And worship brings it down to earth.