THE POWER OF WORSHIP

Recently, we have been taking some extra time to fast and pray, and to seek God about His vision for Rocky Mountain Christian Ministries in 2010. One of the things that I have personally enjoyed the most, is having the opportunity to spend a little extra quality time worshipping the Lord. Some of the most satisfying times that I have in my Christian walk come when I make the space in my life for times of personal worship.

Take this morning for instance. I had ended up with several hours to kill while our Subaru was having some warranty work done. I had several options for how I spent that time. Since I had to bring the car to the front range for this work, there is always a long list of things that I need to do or buy while I am in “The Big City.” Anyone who lives in Gunnison, or another small town, will know what I mean. Trips to the city can be hectic to say the least. But since we are in this time of prayer and fasting, I had decided to use these hours to worship, pray, and generally soak in God’s presence and His Word.

As soon as I dropped the car off and got back to my room, I started thinking about all the people I needed to contact, the things I needed to do, and the places I really should go. My mind was instantly crammed with the same kind of busyness that yours is every time you decide to give the Lord some extra time. But this time I stood my ground. I first made a little list of the “urgent” things that I needed to do later today. I find that making such a list allows my busy brain to let it go. Then, I just put on a little worship music and started in. It is always amazing to me how fast you can become aware of the presence of God once you decide to set other things aside and just focus on Him.

I find that there are very few things as cleansing and satisfying as spending time worshipping God. If you are looking for a way to increase your ability to hear God’s voice, to quiet your troubled mind, receive a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, receive healing for your body or soul, or to simply regain your sense of direction, look no further than spending time worshipping the Lord.

I believe that worship is one of the most powerful experiences that is available to us as believers. Just the fact that God has made Himself so available to us, that you and I can have a tangible, genuine, personal, interaction with Almighty God at any time of the day or night, is amazing! The fact that the blood of Jesus has already opened the way for us to come into our Father’s presence is a wonderful truth. And, the fact that God Himself is seeking people that will simply worship Him in Spirit and in truth tells us that He really wants to share this experience with us.

I think it is important to remember that worship is not complicated. In fact, worship is not so much an action as it is a heart attitude that can be expressed through a number of different activities. The most common act of worship is simply setting your heart and mind on the Lord, and then letting your adoration of Him flow out of your mouth. This is often done through song, but certainly doesn’t have to be done that way.

Most of the time we begin the process by thanking God for who He is and what He has done. It seems that a natural progression then takes place leading us from thanksgiving into praise. Praise usually takes the form of bragging about God’s greatness out loud. Through thanksgiving and praise, we adjust, or sharpen, our focus until God fills our field of view. That is the point where we usually become acutely aware of His presence. We suddenly realize that God is right there with us and has been the whole time. At this point, we are often overwhelmed by a sense of His greatness and goodness.

I think that one of the most common misunderstandings about worship is that it somehow attracts God to us like a shark to blood in the water, or a preacher to doughnuts. This really isn’t true. In all things it is important to remember that our actions do not move God; God has already moved toward humanity in Christ - He is always on, and always available. When thanksgiving and praise move our hearts to the place where we become aware of His presence, the natural response of the human heart is a sense of awe accompanied by a bowing of the heart and the knee - this is worship.

So, I encourage you to make the space in your life for times of worship. You can begin by taking advantage of the times that we gather for worship as a church. At RMCM, we incorporate worship into almost every one of our meetings. In addition to our weekend services, and our Wednesday night service, we have special evenings of worship that are available to you. Beyond church gatherings, I would suggest that you make time for individual worship, or gather with your family and friends. We are believers. We are worshippers. In 2010, let’s build an even stronger culture of worship into our personal lives, our homes, and our church.

WHY FASTING AND PRAYER?

Frequently in Scripture, we find fasting and prayer together. For example, we know that prior to starting His earthly ministry, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting, and presumably seeking His Father’s face. In Daniel chapter 9, when Daniel wanted to better understand the meaning of Jeremiah’s prophecy, he sought God through prayer and fasting. In Acts 13, the whole church at Antioch was “worshipping the Lord and fasting.’ It was during this time of fasting and seeking the Lord that the Holy Spirit commanded the church to separate Paul and Barnabas to the work to which He had called them.

It is very clear that throughout biblical history, times of prayer and fasting have been extremely important to finding and fulfilling the will of God, both on an individual basis and corporately. But this is where we sometimes get confused about WHY fasting is so important. If we see these biblical examples, and begin to think that God answered prayer, or revealed truth, because of the great sacrifice that these saints made, we miss the point entirely. If we think that our pain and suffering is what gets God’s attention, we immediately shift the focus from God to us, and move into a legalistic approach to fasting.

While it is true that fasting is a good means of humbling ourselves before the Lord, and in that way opening our hearts to hear His voice, that is a very different idea from thinking that our pain catches His attention and moves Him toward us. We believers must be careful to approach every spiritual practice from a solidly New Testament perspective. That means that we never forget that the blood of Christ, and His blood alone, has already opened the way for us to have clear and open relationship with our Father God. Now then, we approach God on the basis of what Christ did at the cross, but we realize that our flesh, our desires, and our busyness, can often hinder our perception of what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to us. For that reason, we set aside some special times to tell the flesh that it doesn’t get to run our every waking moment. We tell our bodies, that although they are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and therefore important and sacred, they are not top dog in our lives. Our bodies are not evil, they are redeemed by the work of Christ, but they have not yet experienced the fullness of that work as they will in the resurrection.

So let your fasting experience bring a sense of humility to your heart. Let your hunger be an opportunity to resist the impulses of the flesh, and seek God with all your might. Use this time to soak in the Word, and the presence of God. You will come out healthier, stronger, and more spiritually sensitive.

Fasting

At RMCM, we are taking this first full week of the year as a time of fasting and prayer. We are doing this as a means of consecrating this first portion of the year to the Lord, and also as a way to seek Him for His vision for us in 2010. Here are a couple of thoughts on fasting that I hope will help you have a great week of seeking God.

Fasting is not something that Christians do as a sacrifice to get God’s attention, His favor, or His blessing. Favor and blessing are provided for the believer by the blood of Jesus, and appropriated by the believer through faith.

Fasting does not move God; God has already moved toward us in Christ. Fasting moves us–it humbles us, and puts us in a position to more clearly hear what God is saying to us.

Fasting demonstrates the fact that we live by the Spirit and by faith, not by the flesh. When we fast, we set food, and other distractions aside, not just for the sake of setting them aside, but in order to clear the way for some quality time with God.

Over the course of the week, we will be sharing a few ideas about fasting, as well as some keys to effective fasting. I hope all of you are off to a good start in setting this first full week of the year aside to God.

Karen and I would be very interested in your thoughts and experiences during this week. Drop us an email, and let us know how it is going.

Pastor John