The Reservoir of Worship
"Happy are they who dwell in thy house; continually do they praise Thee. Selah. Happy is the man who has strength in thee, in their heart the pilgrim-ways. Who going through the vale of misery use it for a well; and the pools are filled with water." Psalm 84:4-6 (ABSP, PBV)
The other day as I was fumbling through my basement, I found a series of tapes that were in an unpacked box. Sifting through the collected dust, I knew they were old and when closely examined, revealed the year 1997. I've been leading worship in some type of full time capacity for the last 17 years. My personal ministry has centered around helping others gain greater access or regain access to the presence of God in their life through personal, private or public worship. These "old" tapes were from a worship seminar I co-lead with a friend.
You see we all live in three places.
We have public lives - the life we live at work, church in public meeting places; private lives - the life we live at home and around close friends and family; personal lives - the life we live in our thoughts and the deep cavities of our hearts.
God wants to invade our space. Not just on Sunday's, but Monday through Saturday, at work, in the mall and in the car. He wants to invade our thoughts and hearts with His presence and glory. You see, He changes our atmosphere with His presence.
Worship is the avenue whereby God invades our space with His grace and changes whatever is unholy into holy.
My atmosphere needed to be changed.
I was in a spiritual wilderness. A dry, barren place in my spirit. Was I in sin? No! Trouble, maybe; but more important, I was right where God wanted me......(cont.)
This was the place where I would be forced to find fresh spiritual water. Yes, fresh water can sometimes be found in used sources. Remember, our bodies are subject to the power of time and age, but the Spirit is timeless - this is where God lives and this is where He calls us to live. Since the river of worship flowing from heaven's throne never stops, it was obvious that my ability to draw had become hindered. Like a water pipe, we can become clogged with spiritual and emotional debris or build-up that affects the flow of worship in our lives. Just because we lead people in worship doesn't mean that we always enter into worship ourselves.
As I plugged in these tapes, it caused me to remember the power of God and the flow of the Holy Spirit in worship during these meetings in my life. They were "old" but suddenly they were "fresh" again. I listened more and more, I found myself recognizing the "place" where I was on the tape. The "place" where I found myself was different. I had become "misplaced".
Not the physical "place" but the spiritual place. Like Moses, I recognized the place as the "Rock" where God's glory was passing by, covering and transforming me.
Can you remember the place where God transformed you? The place where He hid you and when you left that place people knew you had been with God? The place where Moses was hid on the "Rock" beside God that day is a shadow and type of Jesus. He has provided a place beside the Father for us and through Him and by Him we stand in God's presence.
Like a deep well, I was drawing again from the wells of worship that I had drawn from 5 years ago and the water was still fresh and my spirit renewed!
When wells are dug, they tap into water stored in rocks deep beneath the surface called groundwater.
This groundwater is a part of the water table, which is rain water that seeps into bedrock and other porous stone located in the earth's crust. When the water is discharged from a well and is not recharged by rain, the water table is lowered and the well can run dry. For many, worship is surface water that runs off after Sunday rains, but the Psalmist speaks of the continual praise being like a well from which we daily draw; deep from the water table of our private and personal relationship with Jehovah.
A place located in the depths of our soul that is recharged by the rain of heaven. We run dry when we draw and do not recharge these spiritual wells within.
Several years ago, God spoke these words to me,
"I've called you to be a friend rather than a servant, a bride rather than a warrior, a son rather than a minister."
Have you become spiritually "misplaced"? Are you spiritually dry? Often we try to draw from the surface waters of new songs, arrangements or musical styles. Fresh water is only found deep in the rock. Many people define worship as a category of music but to really experience God we must go deeper.
Tap into the spiritual bedrock of God's presence and find the springs that never run dry.
Used by churches all over the world to help teach worship, the Experiencing Worship study can help your worship team too.
Your team will learn why we worship and gain a better understanding of how to worship.
One user said..."Your 5 week study course has made a tremendous impact on my life in the study of worship... I would like to express my thanks for a well written study course that leads into a higher realm of praise and worship."
This is the debut album by EXW friend Paul Langford. Paul is a Chicago based singer, arranger, keyboardist, producer and conductor. Paul has a career that spans 14 years. Paul's work includes arranging for groups like GLAD, Voices of Liberty, VoiceTrek, The Chicago based "Caroling Party" and Day of Discovery Singers. His arranging has appeared on recordings side by side with greats like Gene Puerling and David Maddux, and he has sung with Don Shelton, Bonnie Herman and Bob Bowker, among others.