Saturday, August 13, 2011

What Does Praise And Worship Really Mean?





More On Praise And Worship...



Q: I've been given an assignment on praise and worship...What does it really mean...I know basically what it means, but I need more...Can you please help me...Thank you. God Bless!

A : Thanksgiving is our attitude of gratitude that we express towards our God and Lord, for all the good things that He has done for us. Thanksgiving is like a offering we do when God blesses us either with an answer to our prayer or has given a promise to answer us in the future
(Psa 50:14; Phil 4:6).

Praise is a attitude of heart that makes a positive statement of admiration, laudation, commendation and extolling done in both public and private about God, His dependable Character and his faithfulness in fulfilling His promises. Praise glorifies God for who He is rather than for what He has done for us or what He will do for us
(Psa 50:23). Praise is a sacrifice done because of our love towards God (Heb 13:15). We expect nothing in return for our praise.


There were three different compartments in the temple of the Lord in the Old Testament times. The people who wanted to see God should come with an thanks offering and offer it in the outer court and expect God to bless them (Mic 6:6). The offering in itself is not as important as the attitude of heart with which they bring the offering. The attitude of heart that God expects the worshipers of Him is to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God (Mic 6:8). Only the priests could enter the first part of the tabernacle to serve the Lord continually with changing the showbread and pouring oil in the lampstand to keep it burning each day. We have been made the priests of God to offer spiritual sacrifices and thus give praise to God by meditating on His rhema-word and by praying to God each day for a fresh filling to keep ourselves in the attitude of thanksgiving and praise (Rev 5:10; 1 Peter 2:5). Once every year only the High Priest would enter in to the Holy of Holies where the very presence of God resided (Heb 9:7). Now in the New Testament we act as the High Priest of God along with Jesus and when ever we choose to fill ourselves with the high praises of God (Eph 1:20; 2:6; Heb 2:11), we are then taken in to the Holy of Holies with the blood of Jesus by our faith and praise for the Sacrifice of Jesus which He has done for us on our behalf (Heb 4:14; 1 Peter 2:9; Psa 149:6).

Once in to the Holy of Holies, our praise becomes a prayer of praise and adoration for God's presence. This prayer of praise is completely voiceless and intimate talk to God from our Spirit. The Spirit of God will start to control us and will make us to go beyond our intellect in to the mystical experience of God's Presence. Here we do not do anything for God, but God will start to create a beautiful embodiment of praise and worship towards Him through us. That which the Lord does through us is the true worship that He accepts. The movement of joy, dance, music, clap and every words that come out of us in that state of worship will please the Lord. True worship is something that we cannot produce by our own ability, but only by our availability to God. God produces the true worship in us through His Spirit and enjoys it when it comes towards Him.

True worship is done in this place of empowerment where truth of who we are will be know to God and who He is will be revealed to us in our spirit-man inside us. Such true worship and worshipers are those who are constantly desired by God
(John 4:23-24). Once in to the Holy of Holies which is the second part of the temple, there will be no light like in the first part where the lamp will give light. There we move by the revelation of the light of God which we see from our spirit-man and cannot walk by our human natural feelings or ability at all.

The Lord who resided in the temple in the Old Testament times, has made our body to be His temple now. As our body can me divided in to three compartments which is spirit, soul and body
(1 The 5:23), it has replaced the all the Old Testament physical rituals with a spiritual one because of what Christ has done for us (Col 2:16-17). Our spirit which is considered as the Holy of Holies in the New Testament is the place where God now resides (1 Cor 6:17, 19).

Our body is presented as an outer court thanksgiving living sacrifice and a reasonable service of our priesthood before the Lord
(Rom 12:1). Then the Holy Place according to the New Testament is our soul where we constantly renew our mind by the word of God which is the spiritual show bread and conscious prayer done without ceasing through the infilling of the Spirit which is the oil poured constantly by the priest who worked in it (Rom 12:2; 1 The 5:16-18). We can consciously know the difference between our soul voice and spirit voice in us only as we consistently use the word of God regularly and become skilled enough to discern it clearly (Heb 4:12-13; 5:14). The Holy of Holies is our hidden spirit-man inside us in which God the Holy Spirit resides and we go in to it whenever we are in to worshiping God through the blood of Jesus (1 Peter 3:4; 2 Cor 6:16; 1 Cor 6:17, 19; Heb 10:19-23; 4:16). When we confess to the Lord about who He is and What wrong we have done before Him, immediately our sins are forgiven and a cleansing of our evil conscience happens (1 John 1:7, 9; Heb 9:14, 24). This is place where true worship will always start and continue.

Worship means giving God our "worth" ship. Telling God that truly He is worthy of all our thanksgiving, praise and adoration. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says, "Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something". Christian worship unlike other religions is not just an act of devotion, but it goes beyond the intellect in to the spiritual realm of God who makes the worshiper to worship Him through his spirit over which he has no control over until God quickens it. David the man after God's own heart realized this truth so much that he asked God to quicken him and open his mouth with praise, so that he could be able to draw near to Him in worship through his spirit-man
(Psa 51:15, 16-17).

The Bible clearly says,
"Give to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!" (1 Chr 16:29). All the physical offering in the Old Testament has become a spiritual one through Christ in the New Testament (Heb 8:13; Col 2:16-17). This is the reason, spiritually when we give thanks to God it takes us from outside the temple to the outer court. Both Holy Place and Holy of Holies are called as innercourts within the temple. From the outer court praise will symbolically take us in to the Holy Place where the priests would only be permitted to go in to during the Old Testament times. Then as we continue to praise God in the Holy Place, it creates a spiritual heavenly atmosphere which would usher us in to the very Presence of God, where the throne of God is in place in the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest of God were permitted to go once a year with blood during the Old Testament Times (Heb 9:7; Psa 100:4). Once in to the Holy of Holies our praise become silent worship. Only when we worship God in our spirit, we can really worship God in the beauty of His Holiness. His holiness is the beautiful character of God that will be revealed to us and in us as we continue to bow in humility before Him and worship Him (Exo 34:6-8). A person who worships something will become like them over a period of time (Psa 115:4-8). We too as we continue to worship our Holy God in our spirit-man, we become holy in our lifestyle and character (1 Peter 1:15-16).

So thank the Lord for all the blessings always and supplicate with a positive expectation of thanksgiving to receive all your needs and wants. Then learn to habitually praise Him through various ways like songs, dance, musical instruments, words, prayer and meditating the word of God consciously with your understanding
(Psa 47:7; 77:12). Then draw near to God by saying sorry for your sins and confessing His promises by faith through your heart of worship in your spirit-man and surely God will draw near to you. He will commune with you intimately and will fill your life with His peace, joy and righteousness (James 4:8; Rom 14:17).

Much Blessings.....







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