Worship!

So... Worship has been on my heart lately. Here are some thoughts. ... Enjoy...?

Rom 12:1-2 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service [of worship]. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Worship is not singing, worship is not painting, worship is not praying out psalms or words, even if they have a deep meaning... worship is not DOING anything. Worship is the attitude of the heart, while "doing" is simply a tool to express our heart attitude in practical ways.
Presenting our bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice, that is acceptable to God, is our reasonable service of worship! We do this by not being conformed to the world, or of the world... but simply by being ambassadors, pure and holy, in the world with our lives fully surrendered to Christ.
We CANNOT, according to this, truly worship God unless we are in an attitude of surrender... ie, we cannot come before God and call it true worship if we are not allowing God to convict us and change our ways to become like Christ; to ultimately be a useable, surrendered vessel for God to use on the earth.
If we are not Living a life that has died to ourselves and has new life in Christ alone, can we really truly worship? Sure we can sing, sure we can dance, cry, shout and paint. But if it isn't flowing from our hearts, if it isn't originating from a cry so pure and unadulturated, from a longing so deep that words cannot even do it justice... unless we have come to a place with God where we are at the complete end of ourselves and have realized that no miniscule portion of our new lives are about us; where all we can do is barely mouth the words "Abba, father!", and unless we are truly passionate about removing all barriers that lie between us and God... no matter how much it might hurt at the time... is it really worship?
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

But the hour cometh, and now is... Worshippers are rising up all over that are sick of tradition, that are sick of mindless repetition of songs and words over and over. They are sick to their stomach when they see people choosing to not engage, rather to either sing for the sake of singing, DO for the sake of doing; or also to sit back wholly uninterested, which, by the way, I find better than even engaging artificially.

When true worshippers shall worship the Father in SPIRIT and TRUTH... True worship, worship that is not adulturated by piety, pride, apathy, or... well... ourselves, comes from the Spirit of God in us. We cannot come to the end of ourselves, we cannot be truly poor in spirit, meek, humble or hunger and thirst for righteousness, be pure in heart and take joy in persecution, until the Spirit of God has done a work in us. And it is only from this position that I find true worship really begins to flow from the depth of my being, my spirit, soul and body. As the spirit begins to work these things in us and bring them about (matt 5) through conviction, repentance, and renewing of life, dying to ourselves and gaining new life in Christ... We begin to reap the harvests; inheriting the kingdom of heaven and the earth, being truly filled with God and from God, seeing God... from here true rejoicing can take place.

We must worship in truth... God is truth. WE must allow God to remake us, to tear down what stands between us and Him that we may have a true, unblocked path where we can come to God and experience Him, safe from the lies of the enemy and ourselves. If there is blockage we CANNOT Experience God until we deal with it!
'God! I want to experience you, I want to see you, I want all that you have for me today! But there is something blocking me, a stronghold I am holding on to that is keeping me from seeing you. Holy Spirit, reveal it to me! Search my soul and my heart and reveal to me what is there that I might repent and be connected with you! In Jesus' Name!'

And we need to mean this. We need to be serious. God isnt' looking for pretenders, God isn't looking for people willing to give half of themselves to the cause. God is looking for people willing to devote 100% to the cause, All of themselves, to reach His Good goal! And giving 100% means doing what it takes to Worship God in a way that will be pleasing to Him. Not worshipping because we are tired or don't feel like it is not giving 100% to God. I see God weeping when we choose to keep our rights instead of laying them down to Him. I'm guilty of this way too many times. But I've learned that pushing in, even when you feel least like it, will often lead to the biggest breakthroughs in relationship and intimate times of worship.

For such doth the Father seek to be His WORSHIPPERS!... These are the worshippers God is seeking; of this, a rare breed, does the Father seek. Those who take Him seriously, above all, but before the drop of a hat will lay down any and all rights that they claim in their lives. We tend to take everything and everyone seriously save for God... Jesus, however, took nothing and no one seriously save for God.

When We obey Jesus and Love the Lord God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength, allowing the spirit of God to remake us where we fall short... to tear us apart and rebuild from the ground up... we can truly begin to worship God.

Until we choose to give up our lives, every single part of them, unconditionally, and allow God's Spirit to begin its work in us, I dare say we will never enter in to true worship in spirit and in truth. And though we may be saved by grace, if we stop there and choose not to embrace God completely, We will never become the worshippers that the Father seeks to be His... and will never be able to truly cry out, from a pit of despair at the very end of ourselves, "Abba... Father...", weeping in pure joy, face down on the ground, paying heed not to anything around you; weeping for a lack of any other human expression worthy of praising God for the experience of meeting Him face to face.

Worship. Intimacy. Christianity.

"God! I want You! I'm sick of 'Doing' without being; being in You. I'm sick of calling what we do 'worship', when it is really just empty rituals. "Religion". But you call us to something deeper, something real. Something so much more than empty ritual, no matter how 'spiritual' we claim it to be. You call us to worship from a place of intimacy and truth, being in your spirit. It's the cry of my heart. And the longing of Yours. Jesus, I want to become like You. Pure. Holy. Righteous. Right-less. Transformed, by Your Spirit. But more than that I want to experience You. I want intimacy and relationship with You. And I want to share that with others, in all I do.
Holy Spirit, teach me to worship, and from that let all else flow. From the end of myself flows life, from You, the very source of life itself.

I Love you. So much. Take me, Abba Father... and have Your way. In Jesus' Name."

Disclaimer (welcome here :) )

Well. I have a lot of stuff always boiling around in my head. Stuff about life, God, myself, you know, all that fun stuff.

Anyway, instead of just filing it away in a journal where it will just sit and rot, I figure I may as well post it up here, so that if you are feeling the same as me, you may gain inspiration, revelation or, well, see what not to do :). As God wills.

I suppose I should post a disclaimer... I in no way claim to be a theologian, scholar or really anything other than a child of the most High God trying to make my way through life in a way pleasing to God. I am simply on a journey, and will be all my life, to discover what life is really all about, what God truly desires and what we should truly desire from Him.

If you find any theoligical errors, docrinal errors or really anything else you don't like then I apologize. If it will make you feel better you can write me hate mail, though I would hope that you would take a more mature approach, bring it to God, and if you still feel troubled then write me a nice letter pointing out where you feel I've gone wrong, and I in turn will promise to bring that before God and gain any revelation or insight from it that I can.

I am young, and like all of us I am learning. But I make no excuse for anything said here, as it is from real and heart felt wrestling through life, with God and with myself. Take it as you will, and please, whether you find yourself agreeing or not, bring it to God and discover His truth in it.

And if you have questions, feel free to contact me as well.

God Bless in your journey.