Spiritual Act of Worship

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1,2, NASB UPDATED)

The key to spiritual victory and powerful living is not getting all you can get, but giving all you have. There are people flocking into churches to get more of God when the issue is not what they need to get but what they need to give.

After Paul concluded eleven chapters of profound and thrilling doctrine that defines what God has done for every believer, he does not say, "Now here's what you need to get." But he rather say, "Now here's what you need to give."

WHAT DO WE NEED TO GIVE

Jesus said in John 4:23 that the Father seeks true worshipers - those who will worship the Father in spirit and truth. He redeemed us in order that we might give Him glory, that we might give Him ourselves. This is the reason why Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, defines a Christian as one who worships God in the Spirit, who rejoices in Christ Jesus and has no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3).

1 Peter 2:5 says, "you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (NASB UPDATED). This means that we are a kingdom of priests whose goal is to offer up spiritual sacrifices.

And what are these spiritual sacrifices? The Scripture talks about the fact that we can offer the fruit of our lips, which is praise and thanks unto God (see Hebrews 13:15). The Scripture also says that we can offer God our petition and prayer. We can also give to God the substance of what we possess. Serving others is also an act of worship. But above all these things - prayer, praise, giving, and serving - there is one act that is the supreme and all encompassing and all effecting act that a believer must do in his life as a true worshiper and that is to offer himself as a living sacrifice.

Most Christians never really come to that place fully. They flirt with the world and with the flesh. They flirt with their own personal indulgences and desires. They become victims of the philosophy and psychology of the world around them. They buy into the world's bag. They entertain themselves with the world's mode of entertainment. They think along the lines the world thinks. And so they never really come to the place of total commitment that is discussed in these two verses and therefore they forfeit the fullness of the blessing that God would have for them.

In my next blog, I will be sharing to you what does the phrase "aliving sacrifice" mean.

Worship of God

Updated November 9, 2014

In my previous blogs, I shared to you that the apostle Paul used the extended metaphor of Jesus as the Head of His body, that is the church (Ephesians 1:22ff; 4:15; 5:23; Colossians 1:18-19; 2:19). And expanding further our thinking on the said metaphor and making a sort of taking that body apart a little bit by dissecting it into parts that I called in this series of blogs as the "Spiritual Physiology of the Church" that is made up of (a) the skeleton; (b) the internal systems; (c) the muscles; and (d) the flesh or the skin.

Then I shared to you about the skeleton, or the "Framework of the Church," which is made up of five things that the people in the church must experience. This things includes (a) worship of God; (b) exalting Christ; (c) presence of purity; (d) the Divine Truth; and (e) spiritual authority.

Any look at heaven is going to show you the centrality of God. Whether you get Ezekiel’s glimpse in Ezekiel 1 or whether you get John’s glimpse in Revelation 4 and 5. All of heaven is doing one thing around the throne of God and that is worship.

Revelation 4:2 states that God is sitting on the throne and then it describes the throne. Down to verse 8 of the same chapter, the four living creatures who are apparently angelic beings set the tone for heaven. “And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, ‘HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.” It is a never-ending praise and worship, day and night.

The rest of those in heaven: the living creatures (v. 9) and the 24 elders (v. 10), they all gather and say “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” The succeeding chapters of the book of Revelation continue to give us a glimpse into heaven and what is going on is unceasing praise (see 5:13; 11:16; 15:3; chapters 19 and 22).

Worship is the primary occupation of heaven. Forever and ever we will praise and worship God. Now if we are to do on earth what is done in heaven, then we must make the church the place where God is worshiped.

True Worshipers

Philippians 3:3 gives us the definition what a Christian is: “... who worship in the Spirit of God...” The Gospel of John will help us understand this definition. In chapter 4 of the Gospel of John we can see that Jesus was having a dialogue with a Samaritan woman where He confronted her about her sin. She was so convicted that she wanted to do what was right and she wanted to get forgiveness and she wanted to go before God and ask for mercy. And she doesn’t know where to go because she’s a Samaritan and they worship up on Mount Gerizim whereas Jesus is a Jew and they worship at Jerusalem (v. 20).

It implies that she understood that coming to God is an act of worship, praise, falling on your face before God, honoring Him, exalting Him, recognizing Him for who He is and asking for His grace. That’s exactly what happens when a person is saved – they come seeking to worship the true and living God.

In the story we find that Jesus asked the woman to call her husband (v. 16). Jesus knows that the woman is committing adultery and what He wants at that time is for the woman to confess and repent for her sin (vv. 17-18). This implies that the Father requires that they confess and repent of their sin and respond in faith to His Son as the sacrifice for their sins and He, on that basis, accepts them as true worshipers (v. 23).

True worshipers are those who truly and sincerely worship the God. They do it with their heart and not merely in form. The word “spirit” refers to the mind, the soul, the heart and that is not locally or physically based. Spiritual worship is that where the heart is offered to God, and where we do not depend on external forms for acceptance.

On other hand, the word “truth” was used in the Greek world to speak of a mental concept while the Hebrew background was that of faithfulness or trustworthiness. To worship in truth means that we properly understand who He is.

Therefore, the church is a group of people redeemed by God’s grace to be worshipers. It is a group of worshipers who come together just like they do in heaven to exalt God. God must be continually lifted up until our hearts are so satisfied with Him that nothing else has any competing appeal.

To learn more about worship, please read my series of blogs about "Spiritual Act of Worship."

Being Ready for Heaven

A.W. Tozer said, "I can safely say on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for Heaven." People who are turned off with worship are people who do not know God.

We gather together to exalt God and to lift up Jesus Christ. We should not be ashamed about that for we find no other priority but to worship God. You should not be turned off by worship for that’s what you’re going to do forever.

In my next blogs, I will be sharing to you the other things that composed the "Framework of the Church."