Recently, I was in a worship service where the praise was just incredible. I mean, it was not just above average but was a 16 on a scale of 1 - 10. This worship service put the duper in super duper.
The words and the melodies absolutely pushed me into the heavenlies. I felt full of his Spirit, his love and his peace. I was not afraid of any of life's challenges. Fear had been crowded out in every sense imaginable. An image of a loving, accepting and forgiving father was front and center in my spirit.
I felt a rush of persistent joy which is only brought about by this category of worship, which I might label as 'in the Spirit' worship. Joy permeated everything about me, filling all the inner nooks and crannies that often do not get this kind of light suffused onto it. If I were a loaf of bread, then joy would be the yeast, affecting virtually every atom in the loaf. Yeast also makes bread rise which is a perfect analogy for what joy does to us in worship.
In this worship service, I felt myself joined to heaven and the particular vision I had was of me being sucked up into heaven by a heavenly vacuum cleaner. Weird vision, huh? Yet the illustration holds in that when things go into a vacuum cleaner, they are transported from one place (usually the floor) to another (usually the bag). The analogy holds true also in that the transport is facilitated by an external power.
In other words, I was picked up and whooshed to heavenly places.
But isn't this just a side-benefit of worship and praise? We are lifted, elevated and moved upwards to be joined with the realm of God and his angels.
The yeast and the vacuum were working overtime in God's kingdom.
I also feel that God shows me things in worship. I have had several very strong realizations and understandings while I was smack-dab in the middle of worship with hands raised, singing in the spirit and so on. Certain truths became clear to me that were not clear in any other context.
For example, I was worshipping in an early morning church service once and had the most vivid vision of God as my merciful Father and this truth permeated to my absolute core. Merciful was driven home again and again to me ... merciful ... not critical, judgmental or placing yoke after yoke on me. Rather a father who placed only life inside me.
To say this was moving is an understatement. It inwardly flipped me out, in a most wonderful way.
The worship service ended and I left the gathering encouraged, peaceful, happy and unafraid. My day was changed materially. I felt the Spirit of Christ coursing through me. All of this is part of our being transformed into the image of Christ. What a wonderful thing!
Psalm 150:1 says "Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. ... Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven!"
| Hebrews 13:15 says "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise --the fruit of lips that openly profess his name." Even though the above worship experience occurred in a church service, all of the above magic happens to me when I am alone in my car, at home, really wherever I am. A nice touch when your God happens to be omnipresent, right? This is what happens to me during praise. Joy, revelation and peace. Do you want this for your life also? I do! |
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