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Worshipping Your Way Into Covenant Relationship
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Posted by: KingdomWarrior
Worshipping Your Way Into Covenant Relationship
The Lord has been quickening me over the past couple of days through the reading and studying and meditating of Genesis 22. This is the chapter that gives us the account of Abraham going up to Mount Moriah to slay Isaac at the Lord's command. No Christian who desires the Lord to have full throne rights to his/her life can read this chapter without feeling the pressure of the Spirit coming to bear to bring all into complete obedience and conformity to His rule and reign within. Had we been there in Abraham's stead, would we have been willing to lift the knife over the heart of a beloved child with the intent to plunge it into his chest in obedience to God?
God knew what was in Abraham, but Abraham had to be re-assured regarding what was in Abraham. Had he not had that "Mount Moriah" experience, he would have been ever second guessing himself, and always wondering if he was truly putting the Lord first in his life. Only God knows the mind-strivings that occurred within the soul of Abraham over his devotion to his God prior to this dealing of the Lord which released into the heart of Abraham the promises and blessings of God. Those covenant promises activated into being the birth and history of a race of people that God would affectionately refer to as the "apple of His eye".
The journey into the Mount was a three day journey. Plenty of time for Abraham to rationalize away the voice he had heard commanding him to sacrifice his only son. Whatever process he went through in order to have the determination to follow through in his obedience must have been grueling, and I wonder if he even, like Jesus, may have sweat "great drops of blood".
When the third day came and the companion travellers up to the Mount approached the locale and hour of the fulfillment of Abraham's God-given mandate, he departed from all those with him with these words: "I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." Genesis 22: 5.
Beloved, this is the very first place in the Bible where the word "worship" appears. When Abel gave to God the firstlings of his flock, he was worshipping the Lord. If you study your sacrifices and offerings, you'll understand that the reason his offering was accepted was not solely based on the fact it was a blood sacrifice, but because he brought the "firstling" of the flock. He brought to God the first and the best. You have to do your Bible Study in order to understand this is speaking of a worship offering because this is one of those hidden treasures revealed only to the person willing to probe a little deeper into the Word.
However, the fact that Abraham worshipped is plain for all to see because it's right there in the plain text.
It doesn't take a Bible Scholar to figure out that Abraham and his son worshipped because the Bible tells us he did.
We don't know if it meant he sang heartfelt moving tunes, or if he raised his hands and closed his eyes, or if he waved flags with some glorious Biblical illustration or verse of scripture on it. We don't know if he felt inspired to sing one of the latest worship tunes of his day, or if he got a sudden inspiration and sang to the Lord a little inspired melody as it flowed from his heart. Perhaps he did all of the above, or none of the above.
What we do know is that Abraham bowed his will in total surrender to God. The clearest message regarding worship in all of scripture is the first message about worship. We have not understood worship until we have understood worship as Abraham understood it. Until that point in time, we are only engaging in an appearance and not the true substance of worship. The word "worship" means to bow the will. If you'll run your references in a good Bible concordance and dictionary , you'll find that the very same word used for worship is also used for the word "bow". It means to surrender the will to another. Whenever the word "bow" appears in the word, it is alluding to the fact of obeisance, surrender, submission.
Worship happened when Abraham went up into the Mount on the third day to sacrifice his only son. Worship happened after two days of travelling through whatever the territory yielded in way of obstacles which would oppose the journey without (those things totally apart from us or our own decisions that we must deal with in the course of our lives simply because we are in relationship to an environment) and worship happened after two days of travelling through the inner recesses of the soul and mind where every hideous beast of carnality and leprous patch of the soul's infestation of rebellion could rise up to delay or derail the mandate of God to bring all within to captivity to the Lord's pure and perfect plan of full surrender to Him.
I am not one who claims to be in the "third day" move currently on the scene at this time, and I feel a bit out of my league to even venture into this territory. For some reason, the Lord rarely lets me feel like I'm much a part of anything except for the many-membered Body of Christ, (and I will whine to you that at times I feel very, very lonely. But it's my own fault. I'm just not a very good "joiner". ) But I do hear God speaking to me that all we have accomplished in the way of worship has only been a two-day precursor to the real experience of worship which is going to come forth out of a people who have made it up to the top of their Mount Moriah experience.
They've battled their way up the mountains of fear, doubt, and unbelief. They've fought with the beasts at Ephesus (the "war on carnality".) They've resisted unto blood striving against sin. They've laid aside every weight that would easily beset them. They've stopped at the clear and flowing mountain streams of the water of the word to be washed, sanctified, cleansed from all filthiness in flesh or spirit as they journey upward to the top of the Mount.
It's been a long hard, two-day haul, but God is speaking that the "third day worshippers" are making their entrance way into the Mount of the Lord where "it shall be seen." "Jehovah Jireh" comes when there is TRUE worship. Abraham style of worship. True and pure worship out of surrendered lives is going to yield a provision of the Lord that is going to open a door into a new level of vision and prosperity in a corporate kingdom reality which has not yet appeared on the canvas to the Lord's people in the dimension and power God intends for it to be realized.
My beloved friend, do you realize the most important covenant relationships established in all of history occurred because someone worshipped the Lord? I won't go into details about how God set his bow in the sky to make covenant with Noah that never again would He seek to destroy the earth with a flood, and how that as long as the earth remained there would be "cold and heat and winter and summer and seed time and harvest". (End of Genesis 8) It happened when Noah worshipped the Lord with sacrifices, and God smelled a "sweet savour".
Planet earth as we know it with all of it's seasonal changes, exists because Noah worshipped the Lord!!
We are in a time of transition. Transition is the place where we are in the midst of change. I heard Jack Hayford preach a sermon one time called "Navigating a transition". Once transition is complete we are in a new dimension in God, or in a new level of His glory. Abraham was in the midst of transition. Whatever happened on the Mount would forever change Abraham's life. Had no angel appeared to him to restrain him from slaying his son, his life would have been forever altered, but he would not have entered into a new dimension in God, or a new realm of glory. When you are in a transition, it takes the intervention of God totally apart from all your own striving to bring you to His glory. This is the beauty of true worship which releases the provisions and blessings of God. It may be conceived in the deepest and darkest anguish of your soul, but it's birthed in His glory, and releases the true song of the Lord and the very harmony of heaven. It brings you into covenant relationship with Him.
This is what separates "TRUE worship" from what the book of Colossians refers to as "WILL worship".
The world is full of pagan religions successful in the art of "will worship". But the TRUE worshippers know that as they are submitting and yielding their lives to Him along the journey, there is coming a time of God's intervention when He comes forth with that word of the Lord which catapults them OUT of the place of transition, and INTO a new dimension and faith and provision and blessing and covenant with God!!
Beloved, this may be a very personal word for you. You may be missing out on all the theatrics of the current scenes of "praise and worship" taking place Sunday after Sunday in churches all across our land. But if you are meeting the Lord in some little corner of your home where you are in the travail of your soul agonizing before God to bring to captivity some displeasing thought pattern, or if you in the secret place where you are having the Lord put His finger on some precious issue in your life that no one has been allowed to touch and you are now laying your soul bare before God, and crying out that He have ALL of you, and you are saying to Him with every discovery of what lies within your being....."Lord, bring me to FULL and COMPLETE surrender to you", then God calls you a TRUE WORSHIPPER.
You may be tone deaf, but you are a TRUE WORSHIPPER. And there are blessings reserved and waiting to come for you, my dear friend!! Jesus has treasures for you and things you have not even begun to imagine. He is going to hold NO GOOD THING from the one who walks uprightly. He is "Jehovah Jireh" to the TRUE WORSHIPPER. He is not going to make you "kneel on rice" once you get to the top of your Mount. He is preparing an angel to call your name and to speak to you, and give you a life-altering word from God which will release you into vision and blessing!! No other God, but our God, the Lord Jesus Christ does such a thing!!!
To wrap up, back to a "third day" thought. The Lord is dealing all across the land in the lives of men and women who are hearing His voice regarding what it means to be a TRUE worshipper. They are not only singing praises and lifting their voices in the drama of the reality of the works of God wrought within, but they are being formed into ONE NEW MAN in the hidden man of the heart so that the sound that comes forth from this corporate man (many sons, manchild company, overcomers, Bride of Christ) engages the very God of heaven to interact with the earth realm as never before. There is a remnant (the son) who is going up into the mount with the Father. And what is coming forth will be to this earth the multiplication and advancement of the kingdom of God to the exponential measure that God promised to Abraham his seed would be as the "sands of the seashore" and the "stars of the heaven". God has a meeting on Mount Moriah with a remnant, and to that remnant a word is coming forth which is ushering the church by way of HIS intervention OUT of the place of
transition, and INTO a new glory, a full reality of the kingdom of God.
(What is the kingdom of God? It's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. It's all the levels of healing and deliverance in it's progression from the simplest healing and cleansing to walking in complete soundness of mind and body where divine health rules. It's continual sustenance and nourishment at the Tree of Life (JESUS) !! It's longevity to your body, soul,spirit, and your relationships, and your prosperity!! It's the place where the mercy and grace of God is measured out "pressed down, shaken together, and running over". It's music and dancing and singing and the killing of the fatted calf in the courts of the Father rejoicing over the return of His son!! It's the place where the King of all kings, and the Lord of all lords rules with joy and gladness in the midst of those He allows to share with Him in His throne because He fully trusts these TRUE worshippers!!)
Beloved, if you are feeling the pressures of God bearing down on your soul to bring you into complete comformity to His will then you are part of that remnant. You are a true worshipper, and it's the Father's GOOD pleasure to give unto you the kingdom!! You may feel all alone and like you are not "fitting" anywhere at all, but if this great work of God is being hammered out of the iron will of your soul, and stitched in the fabric of your inner being, God is making you a part of the greatest move this world has ever seen. God's greatest move is coming to God's greatest worshippers: Those who hear His voice, and obey Him.
Always in the Love of Jesus,
Clo DiPilato
Posted by: StarChilde
Wow!
Awesome!!!
thank You God for this word!!!!
Posted by: ANOINTED WARRIOR
Yes I needed this right now thank you Jesus for direction I am going through transistion, so if I seem moody forgive me I am going through the fire and being purged whoo hoo and its because Jesus loves me enough to not let me stay in my comfort zones of self..but to push me forward into being like him..
Posted by: KingdomWarrior
When I read this word yesterday, it was exactly what I needed.
I have been crying to God asking Him to show me the keys to worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.