THE DISCIPLINE OF WORSHIP

To The Degree That 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 Depends On You And Me."

The 2nd Flood by Apostle John W. Stevenson

When God shows us something about our lives, He looks for us to obey Him, and such obedience takes discipline. If it has been sometimes since you received a revelation or a vision and God doesn't seem to have done anything about it yet; it is not because He is slothful concerning His word, but because there are things we need to understand more before He starts accomplishing His word. Discipline concerns many areas of our lives. And one very important area for all who are in the worship ministry is the Discipline of Worship, which is touching God where He is.

TRUE WORSHIP DEMANDS THAT WE KEEP OURSELVES SANCTIFIED!
John 4:24 emphasizes that we must worship the Father in spirit and in truth. There is no "try". Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God has been continually wanting to draw us to Himself (James 4:8). Today one of the ways to His holy presence is through praise and worship (Psalm 100:4); but there is no place for sin in His presence! Be it deception or disobedience as it is written in 1 John 4:20, we cannot worship God with anger, bitterness or resentment in our hearts.

TRUE WORSHIP ALSO TOUCHES ALL!
The only recipient of worship must be God. Ezekiel 44:6-14 tells the story of a group of Levites who have gone astray from God by having idols in the lives. Because they did not KEEP THE CHARGE to minister to God, He forbade them from entering into His presence. They could only serve from the outer courts, to their shame. Are there "hidden idols" in our lives? It takes discipline to keep our charge to minister to God.

WORSHIP IS A LIFESTYLE WE MAINTAIN!
Worship as a way of life goes beyond formulas and techniques. It is not a programme or something we do. To maintain a Lifestyle of Worship requires our discipline.

WORSHIP IS IN THE HEART AND NOT IN THE ART!
A.W.Tozer in his book "Whatever Happened To Our Worship" said that "if you cannot worship God in the midst of your responsibilities on Monday, then it is very unlikely you were worshipping on Sunday!"

If you are a worship leader, you cannot lead where you have never been. You cannot be doing on Sunday what you have not been doing all week long - Kent Henry

LIFESTYLE WORSHIPERS
- Begins With A Daily Disciplined Attitute Of A Thankful Heart (The Outer Court) - "In Everything Give Thanks For This Is The Will Of God." (1 Thessalonian 5:18).
- Exercise And Practise Personal Private Praise (The Inner Court) - We Must Learn How To "Put On The Garment Of Praise" (Isaiah 61:3) And To Continually Offer Sacrifice Of Praise (Hebrews 13:15).
- Only Then Can We Experience Continual Communion And Anointing Worshipping The Father (In The Holy Of Holies) In Spirit And In Truth (John 4:24) - TPWC

There is a call - no, a cry - coming from the heart of God and with each passing day it's intensity increases: "Why are you satisfied without My presence; why do you remain distant when you could have intimacy with Me?" - John Bevere

Today the Father is still seeking (yearning, longing) for "true worshipers - who are willing to discipline their lives - to worship Him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH". (John 4: 23 -24). If you are willing to subject your life to the Discipline of Worship, it will revolutionize the course of your life!

A blessed and victorious week!
TPWC

PRIVATE PRAISE

"I will bless the LORD at all times;

His praise shall continually be in my mouth"

Psalm 34:1

Thank God for corporate praise when we gather together. It helps us to get among a body of believers as we celebrate and magnify the name of the Lord. There is also a personal private praise which lifestyle worshipers must not neglect. The reason for this is that until we come to the place where we can really enter into that private, personal praise, just between you and the Lord, there are always going to be some hindrances and some holding back when we enter into the corporate praise.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17) and God wants us to get so free that when His Spirit starts moving on us at home, in our kitchen, out in your work place, when commuting or driving down the road in your car, we can just let the spirit of praise flow like rivers of living waters in our surrounding.

The Bible says that God inhabits in our praise (Psalms 22:3). The question is, "If He inhabits in our praise, how far does He inhabits it?" The answer is as far as the sound of your voice goes ... "Glory! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Blessed Be the name of Jesus!" As far as our voice sounds, God is living in those words. For example, when we are in our car praising and worshipping Him, our audible praise fills that car. When the devil gets any where near you; do you know what he gets? "Glory!" If he comes through the window of your car, "Hallelujah!" hits him. When he tries to enter by the door, "Jesus!" knocks him off.

PRAISE HAS TO BE VOCALISED. The Bible says, "My lips shall praise Thee "(Psalms 63:3). If you go around with your mouth shut and not praising God, then God is not in your praise and the devil beats on you. Our praise may be as weak as babes, but it is powerful enough to silence the enemy (Psalms 8:2). There is power in the name of Jesus, that means that that power is released when we speak or sing it. When we begin to speak forth or sing our praises in His name, the spirit inside us begins to rise up and the power of darkness outside of us begins to retreat. Let the Devil hit our praise ten or twenty feet out infront of us. Let them stick their fingers in their ears each time they are near us.

Psalms 34:1 says, " ... His praise shall CONTINUALLY BE IN MY MOUTH." Most people have to stop what they are doing to try to get into praising God, but we need to have this reverse. We need to praise God so much that we have to stop praising in order to do something else.

Psalms 113:3 says, " From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised." King David was a man after God's own heart. He praised God in the morning, he praised Him at noontime and he praised him in the night-time.

Psalms 119:164 David said, Seven times a day I praise Thee." The number seven is perfect and complete. God is looking for worshipers who will choose to PRAISE HIM CONTINUALLY AND ALL DAY.

PRIVATE PRAISE is a powerful experience to live in. It is the key to a victorious and abundant life with Jesus. Let us the first fruits of our day to the Lord in private praise.

TPWC (An extract from Private Praise by Elbert Willis)

Until the practice of praise in private is continuous and free, the practice of corporate praise will be inhibited by fear, self-consciousness and discomfort. The practice in the corporate sense is absolutely indispensable to the maximum worship experience."
Jack R. Taylor - The Hallelujah Factor

WORSHIP BELONGS TO GOD

What are God's demands in His Word regarding Worship?

Do you know that there is a spiritual war going on? It is a war between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of hell. It is a war as to which kingdom gets WORSHIP ... God or Satan? We can see it from Genesis to Revelation ... every event throughout The Ages of the Patriachs, The Bondage in Egypt, The Conquest of Canaan, The Period of the Judges, The History of Israel, The Gospel, The Acts of the Church and The Revelation ... leads to one question: "WHO GETS WORSHIP?"

Exodus 20:3-6
v3 - You shall have no other gods before me
v4 - You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water below.
v5 - You shall not bow down to them; for I, the Lord your God am a jealous God
Exodus 34:14- Do not worship any other god. for the Lord, Whose name is jealous, is a jealous God.

It is from these verses in the scriptures that we learn that WORSHIP BELONGS TO GOD AND GOD DEMANDS IT!

What is worship? In Hebrew, the word SHACHAH means to kneel and worship. In Greek, the word PROSKUNEO means to go forward to kiss His Hand. In other words, to give EVERYTHING to Him. It is confessing Him as God.

What is the work of the devil? From the account in Genesis of the Garden of Eden, we really cannot discern the devil's purpose. But in Isaiah 14:12-14 we see tthat the devil wants to be like God. Isn't that's what the devil said to Adam and Eve, that they too could be "as gods" when they partook of the forbidden fruit?

As we look into the New Testament, we read in the Gospel of Matthew:-
Matthew 4:8-10
v8 - Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
v9 - "All this I will give you," he said, "If you will bow down and worship me."
v10 - Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'

It is in the third temptation of Jesus that the ultimate goal of the devil was exposed when the enemy finally came out with the confrontation,

"WORSHIP ME!"

When we come to the book of Revelation, we see that God's purpose is worship and Satan's purpose is also worship. From chapter 4 to 19, we learn that the twenty-four elders and four living creatures worship in heaven. But in chapter 13, we see worship of the image of the beast on earth - worship of the beast is the worship of Satan. In chapter 14:7, we see that the eternal Gospel is preached. "Fear God, and give glory to Him, because the hour of his judgement has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water."

WORSHIP GOD - this is the eternal Gospel! In chapter 21 and 22 we have the new heaven and the new earth. Again we are commanded to worship God (Revelation 22:9)

(An excerpt from the book "Worship God" by Watchman Nee)

Today as we stand in anticipation of His soon return, that same question is being asked: "Who will you worship?" What is our duty as Christians? It is not enough just knowing salvation or serving Him. What is it that will satisfy God? Who will satisfy Him?
We must put worship into everything we do. Do you have difficulites? First worship God, Are you weak and weary? Worship God. we learn in Psalm 8:2 that the praise of a weak child has the power to silence the enemy. Satan fears the worship of God. Worship by the few today is giving God what He will one day have from all. What the world will one day give God, we first give Him. We do not need to wait till the new heaven and new earth to worship.

NOW IS THE TIME TO WORSHIP!

Today the Father is still seeking (searching, yearning) for true worshippers. What is our duty as Christians? Worship God!

Have a victorious week!
TPWC

PRAISE & WORSHIP - A HIGHER PERSPECTIVE

Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!

Revelation 19:6-7

Are you beaten down by circumstances? The best antidote to our depression and anxiety is surprising to many. But those who have put into practice the prescription of Scripture have found an amazing truth: Praising God lifts us above our trials and reminds us how He overcomes them.

Why does that works? It's a matter of perspective. When we focus on the turmoil of life and the weakness of our flesh, we get discouraged. When we focus on the problems of the day and the people who seems to oppress us, we get intimidated. Our praise reminds us of who God is. As we worship Him, the threats and burdens that weigh us down grow smaller and He grows bigger - at least in our own eyes. The thought of an exalted God who is entirely on our side is an awesome inspiration

We don't find that perspective very often. We have subtly but persistently trained our minds to think negatively. We don't feel like praising God when the bills are overdue or our loved one is lying sick in the hospital. we don't even feel like praising Him when our lives have gotten mundane and we've become restless. Pehaps we mistakenly think our praise is based on how much power and love we've seen today. It isn't - or shouldn't be, at least. IT IS BASED ON WHO HE IS. AND HE IS WHO HE IS ALL THE TIME. For that we can praise Him. ALL THE TIME!

The more we worship, the more we see WHO HE IS and the more sincere our worship becomes. And our perspective jumps from one lowly, impossible place to the side of the God who reigns, both now and forever. Our praise opens our eyes to the truth of the situation: GOD RULES!

An extract from : Worship The King by Chris Tiegreen
Have a blessed & victorious week!
TPWC

WORSHIP AND THE SCHOOL OF FAITH

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen."

- Hebrews 11:1 -

Faith has it's anchor in the unseen realm. It lives from the invisible towards the visible. Faith actualizes what it realizes. The Scriptures contrast the life of faith with the limitations of natural sight. Faith provides eyes for the heart.

Faith sees. It brings His Kingdom into focus. All of the Father's resources, all of His benefits, are accessible through faith.

God is very committed to teaching us how to see. To make this possible He gave us the Holy Spirit as a tutor. The curriculum that He uses is quite varied. But the one class we all qualify for is the greatest of all Christian privileges - WORSHIP. Learning how to see is not the purpose for our worship, but it is a wonderful by-product.

Those who worship in spirit and in truth, as mentioned in John 4:23-24, learn to follow the Holy Spirit's lead. His realm is called the Kingdom of God. The throne of God, which becomes established upon the praises of His people, is the center of that Kingdom. It's in the environment of worship that we learn things that go way beyond what our intellect can grasp - and the greatest of these lessons is the value of His presence. David was so affected by this that all his other exploits pale in comparison to his abandoned heart for God. We know that he learned to see into God's realm because of statements like, "I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved." The presence of God affected his seeing. He would constanly practice recognizing the presence of God. He saw God daily, not with the natural, but with the eyes of faith That priceless revelation was given to a worshiper.

The privlege of worship is a good beginning place for those unaccustomed to addressing some of these kinds of themes found in Scripture. It's in that wonderful ministry that we can learn to pay attention to this God-given gift: the ability to see with the heart. As we learn to worship with purity of heart, our eyes will continue to open. And we can expect to see what He wants us to see.

An extract from : When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson
Blessings - TPWC