THE SHEKINAH GLORY OF GOD - The Highest Goal of Worship

In my last post I shared about experiencing the Glory of God in worship? If you love the Presence of God, you will never be satisfied until you see the Glory of God. What is the Glory of God? It is a holy hunger for the manifestation of His tangible Presence (the Bible speaks about The Shekinah Glory of His Presence)

Bob Sorge in his book "GLORY - When Heaven Invades Earth" (a must read) defines the word GLORY as a noun :
(1) Glory - Honour, reputation, dignity, praise
(2) Glory - Endowment of blessing, power and life
(3) Glory - The heavenly dimension where the magnitude of God's personhood irradiates throughout the heavenlies
(4) Glory - The invasion of God's reality into the human sphere

The highest goal of worship deals with point (4) and Bob Sorge defines "GLORY" as used in the Bible to describe the action of God whereby He takes of His Glory which is eternally existent in heaven, pushes through the veil that separates natural and spiritual realities, and reveals within the parameteters of our time and space the spendor of His magnificient beauty and splendor.

There is coming a time when the Glory of the heavenlies is going to invade our natural plane, and mankind is going to be abruptly awakened to the might and power of God's Presence. It is to this revelation of Glory which the following verses point:

- For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,as the waters cover the sea ( Habakkuk 2:14)
- "And I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory," says the Lord of hosts (Haggai 2:7)
- The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 40:5)

In my personal life I had the encounter of His Shekinah Glory - once in the worship service with brother John Stevenson (as described in my last post on Extravagant Worship) and another earlier time as a young Christian in a prayer meeting when His Glory fell ..... at that time I did not know the meaning of these two experiences but they were such awesome time and encounters when/where you just do not want to leave the place. Time just stood still in His glorious presence!

A few years ago, my church when through a refreshing period of what we called "Revival" and very often we experienced such a glorious presence of God in our worship services. Sometime the worship service would last more than 3 hours and everybody were immersed in His Presence. Often we experienced both heavenly and physical manifestations. Some people have actually smelled heavenly aroma during worship services. Others have seen a cloud or angels. Others have heard angles singing or God speaking. When you have a spiritual experience that is actually perceived at the sensory/physical level, then you are touching the Glory realm.

If you are a worshipper how do you touch this Glory? Or if you are a worship leader how do you lead people into the Glory realm? ..... next post

Blessing - TPWC

EXTRAVAGANT WORSHIP

As I step into the New Year 2007, I was asking the Lord what would be a good resolution that would help me to maintain my desire to be a lifestyle worshipper?

"Extravagant Worship!" - that's what the Lord has challenged me to do. Some of you could immediately identify the book "Extravagant Worship" written by Darlene Zschech ... as you read this book, there is one common ingredient found in most extravagant worshippers and that is - most of them are PASSIONATE about worship.

It is easier said than done because it would takes quite a bit of DISCIPLINE to be a PASSIONATE WORSHIPPER. So the Lord reminded me to get back to what I had posted in my first article in TPWC's blog :

THE DISCIPLINE OF WORSHIP - "To The degree You Are Willing To Discipline Your Life, God Will Be Able To Accomplish His Desired Plan For You. To Bring To Pass Those Desires That He Has Placed In Your Heart And To Bring About Those Things For Which You Are Believing Him. It Doesn't Happen Merely Because God Said It Was Going To Happen. A Lot Depend Upon You And Me." (The 2nd Flood - The Discipline of worship by John W. Stevenson)

To this day I can never forget meeting brother John Stevenson (1991 in Kent Henry's Worship Seminar in Missouri USA). There in the midst of one of the worship workshop, John was playing the keyboard and leadng worship singing "I Worship You Almighy God" and the glory of the Lord fell in the room of about 80 believers. We stood for the whole session for about one and half hour just immersed in His holy awesome presence! Later I met John in person; he is such a humble person and you could just sense that sweet spirit of a passionate lifestyle worshipper in him.

Some of the ways we can maintain the Discipline of Worship:

- DAILY replace the spirit of grumblings with the spirit of thanksgiving
- In EVERYTHING give thanks (1 Thess 5:18)
- Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS! (Phil 4:4)
- CONTINUALLY offer to God a sacrifice of praise (Heb 13:15)
- At ALL TIMES - Bless The Lord and CONTINUALLY - Let His Praise Be In Our Mouth (Psalm 34:1)
- Offer your bodies as a living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God which is your reasonable WORSHIP (Romans 12:1)
- Whenever OPPORTUNITY ARISES, lavish upon the Lord worship because it belongs to God.
- In His dealings, CHOOSE to bow down and worship the ways of God.

"Come Let Us Bow Down In Worship, Let Us Kneel Before The Lord Our maker; For He Is Our God And We are The People Of His Pasture." (Psalm 95:6-7)

BLESSED NEW YEAR!

TPWC