Worship is our expression of gratitude to a Father that has given us everything. It's our response in this passionate love affair that we have with the God of the universe. The All Mighty God that bankrupted heaven, His Son taking ALL sin upon Himself, so He could dwell inside us. The romance of worship brings a little more awareness of how we are created in His image. It's also a landing pad, an atmosphere, for God to manifest more powerfully and do what He pleases.
King David was such a passionate worshiper he says in Psalm108:1 My heart is confident in you, O God; no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart! 2 Wake up, lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. 3 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. (NLT) He woke up his instruments so together they could wake up the sun worshiping. I believe it was a cry for the Son, whom David wrote about in Psalm 2:12 saying 'Kiss the Son'. King David had 24/7 worship for 33yrs in his tabernacle, Jesus lived 33 yrs and one of the names for Jesus is the Son of David.
So worshiping is not a empty and broken child of God saying, "God please come and help me and do something." Its a child that is full of the Spirit of the living God saying, "Thank you that "It is finished", and that You have given me everything I need to complete the task You have laid out for me. Thank You that You love me so much!"
In Acts 16 Paul and Silas get thrown in jail for doing the will of God. They were preaching the Kingdom, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, and cleansing lepers, which is the will of God. Most often attacks on us are simply confirmation that we are disrupting hell's hold on people or things. Paul casts a demon out of a young fortune telling female in verse 18. Verse 19 says, But when her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. (NKJV)
Verse 23 says they had ‘many stripes laid on them’, severely beaten. Verse 24 says …. he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. The word stocks in the Greek is 'xulon' and part of the definition is that it was used to support the cross-bar of a cross in crucifixion. So Paul and Silas are in jail for doing the will of God and they are prophetically anchored to the cross, there is so much beauty in that.
Verse 25 says, But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. - I don’t believe Paul and Silas were worshiping begging God to do something, I believe they were worshiping Him out of a place of gratitude that they could partake in His sufferings, and simply because God is good and He wasn't the one doing this to them. Verse 26 - Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. - When you create a landing pad for His presence to settle down, captivity cannot exist. In any way at all, ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom’.
27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. - It is not biblical for us to fear in the presence of darkness, it is biblical that darkness fears in our presence. Verse 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” 29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” – The guards calling for light was much more than a calling for light in the natural, he was desperate for the light of Christ in his life. The guards desired the freedom that was in the atmosphere, the freedom in Christ. Often people's response to us carrying the light and presence of God is fearful, because people tend to fear what they don't understand. Love and truth is what brings the understanding to them.
31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. – Worship not only brings us more freedom, it brings the people around us more freedom. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. (NKJV)
Just yesterday I had the pleasurable experience of spending the day in the broken city of Tijuana. I went with an amazing team of outrageously gifted people and God showed up powerfully! We went to a church family their that is full of the love of God. The morning service had a great message and after the message many, maybe 15-20, were physically healed on the spot. We then hit the streets for some treasure hunting and many were saved, healed, and prophetically touched by the Lord. Including Jesus healing a man of head pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, and a complete restoration of the nerves in his foot. The man left without pain or his cane, and received Jesus into his heart.
The night service at the church was extremely powerful. The worship leader was powerfully touched by the Lord. Then she prophesied over her church, then she began worshiping again in the background and I released a word from the Lord about depression being gone from that church and God pouring out His oil of joy, Hebrews 1:9. As we continued to worship depression got crushed in that church. Many members of the church were crying the depression out of themselves. A woman that had never been to that church came in for the first time and she had just lost a child a month earlier. She said its as if God was speaking directly to her.
As we continued to worship the guitar player was so blasted by the Lord that he cried/laughed for over an hour, he literally could not stop. People got physically healed and emotionally in a powerful way, as the atmosphere of worship destroyed the works of devil. Good Job Jesus!!
Notice one more thing in the Acts 16. Acts 16: 35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace. 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.” - First off, Paul and Silas went back to prison. Yes, they returned after being set free. Why?
Paul was lite up on a revelation of the Gospel that surpasses any I've ever heard of or seen, besides Christ Himself. He went back to display to the Romans that he was indeed a slave to Christ and not to them. Christ backed His word with power and freed them, but Paul could have told them he was Roman before the flogging and the imprisonment and they wouldn't have laid a finger on him and Silas. It sent such a powerful message to the Roman officials that it pumped them full of the fear of God.
Acts 16: 38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. (NKJV)
Living for God with complete abandonment and worship creates endless opportunities for God our Father to show up and back His Word in outrageous power and love. Paul truly saw this, and explored the adventure in it. Worship and surrounding to the will of God breaks chains in ways so powerful that it is impossible for on lookers to deny it.
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