VIRTUES OF THE CROSS 2A – (UNDERSTANDING WORSHIP I)

We need to be very careful of the confessions and statements we make particularly in the time of pressure. Saying the wrong thing can be very dangerous. The greatest problem of many believers today is partial contact; some people connect so loosely and yet expect one hundred percent blessing. It does not work that way. The average Churchgoer is so far away from God and has become a Pharisee (far away from God). We need to return. The more people stray from the cross the more they go farther into perdition. To stray from the cross is to derail; it is always dangerous when a train derails.

We had already established that giving should proceed out of a heart of worship. We defined true worship as being so fanatically in love with God that the very idea of substituting that love for anything else does not even remotely exist. Every word in this definition is very important.

John 4:23-24, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”. 

It is very possible to worship God unacceptably. It is also very possible to worship God in ‘high places’. 1 Kg. 3:1-3, “And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days. And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places”. 

You will notice that Solomon worshiped God but in high places. God is not to be worshipped anyhow, anywhere. A major component of the worship of God is your willingness to agree in your heart to submit your will to his will. If you find it difficult to submit your will to the will of the almighty, the heavenly Father, you cannot be a worshipper. 

The greatest problem of man today is self-will, imposition of man’s will on the will of the object of our worship. It has nothing to do with titles; you can be a bishop and yet fail to submit your will to the will of God. The will of God is the word of God as contained in the Bible. Anyone who is selective of the word of God cannot be a true worshipper because it only reveals that such a person is trying to impose his will over and above the will of God. That is the greatest problem of man today. It started in Eden; it is the adamic nature which man struggles to drop that leads to this. 

Pray –

• Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege of knowing you. I ask that you grant me the grace to be prompt and complete in obedience to your word and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

TO BE CONTINUED……….