And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and
God,
to
receive glory and honor and power,
for
you created all things,
and
by your will they existed and were created.”(Revelation 4:9-11 ESV)
OK, so now finally I’m on to this week’s lecture topic, which was
worship, an absolutely foundational and fascinating subject. Our speaker this
week was Teresa Archer, who has an incredible story that involves quite a lot
of the world, but who currently leads worship at the Tauranga House of Prayer
(THOP) with her husband, Paul. She is a wonderful storyteller and an engaging
speaker who knows so much about worship, both from study and experience. As she
speaks, she has a tendency to go down rabbit trails, but these tangents tend to
be as valuable as the core teaching itself.
Coming into this week, I think we had quite a few students who thought
they had heard most of what there was to hear on worship but soon realized
there were huge aspects of and perspectives on worship that they had never
considered. Even the staff, who had all been through at least one DTS week on
worship, learned heaps from Teresa. As usual, I’ll just pick out a thing or two
that stood out to me.
To start, Teresa defined worship as consisting of three parts: response
(intentional), reaction (immediate), and metamorphosis (change – from the
inside out). This doesn’t necessarily have to be worship of God, either,
because everyone worships something,
and we all bend our lives around what we worship. But those who worship God in
Christ realize that we are made to worship Him, and that our greatest needs are
met as we fulfill that purpose. In the context of worshipping God, we also
learned that what we need to worship is faith,
encounter, and relationship. The encounters with God are what create the immediate
“reaction” part of worship, the “response” part is done intentionally through
faith, and the “metamorphosis” happens through all three of parts, but
especially in the relationship, which is a lifestyle, a daily walk.
Teresa went on to walk us through one of the most amazing illustrations
of worship in the Bible, a passage where worship is anything but mundane. In
fact, it’s incredibly creative, colorful, brilliant, flashy, dramatic, musical,
and awesome! It’s a picture of what is actually
happening eternally in heaven, even right now as you read this. It’s in
Revelation 4 (part is at the beginning of the post):
At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,who was and is and is to come!”(Revelation 4:2-8 ESV)
Did you really read it? Did you take in how ridiculously crazy this is?
Or did you gloss over some of the strangeness and wonder of it because you’re
too used to reading incredible things in the Bible? I also have a tendency to
downplay this kind of thing as I read through, so if you’re not a little bit
amazed by this vision, read it again.
Teresa had us take a closer look at all the unbelievable things John
sees here in his vision – the throne, the colors, the lamps, the rainbow, the
elders, the creatures, the sea of crystal. John is smashing up against the
limits of language here, trying to describe things that cannot be precisely
described because they are unlike anything within human experience. It’s
fascinating – God is fascinating, far more fascinating than the millions of
things we have to fascinate us today. If nothing else, God is worth worshipping
just because of who He is, regardless of what He’s done for us. God is anything
but boring, and our worship should really reflect that, at least in the way our
hearts come before Him.
Just reading this passage gave Teresa an idea of a few things we can
expect in heaven:
- God is exalted.
- “People” are responding voluntarily.
- It is dramatic.
- It is creative.
- It is beautiful.
- It is musical.
- It is a story.
One more topic stood out to me as Teresa continued her lectures. On
Thursday, she decided not to teach on what she originally planned, and instead felt
led by the Spirit to speak about worship as spiritual warfare. As usual, the
Spirit was perfectly on point. She talked about how worship and prayer, though
different, go hand in hand, and often worship can lead into intercession as
simply a natural outflow. She talked about how worship is really the foundation of living out our faith
because it means we are acknowledging God as king and placing him on the throne
– His rightful place. Not only that, but worship is the uniter of all
Christianity – we are all worshipping the king, all looking to our one God
(Eph. 4:3-6).
Worship also can be an act of spiritual warfare, which includes not
only standing firm against the enemy (2 Chronicles 20) but fighting back
against him and advancing the kingdom of God. Worship can cut through the enemy’s
deceptions, clear the air, and bring light in dark situations. God can use it
to bring healing, revelation, and transformation. In fact, if you don’t know
what to do, worship should be your
default response. And if you take a look at Acts 16:16-34, you’ll see that worship challenges the foundations of the
world and replaces them with the foundations of heaven! God loves to do all
the work as his people worship him – check out Judges 7:20.
This all really came into play later this week on Thursday and Friday
mornings. On Thursday morning we had an excellent time of worship full of joy
and dancing and “ruckus” (as Cheyne would say) which really illustrated worship
as being more than just singing – it is sometimes a full-on celebration of God’s
goodness and love! Then on Friday morning we had a time of intercession focused
on the country and people of North Korea. We took to heart what we had learned
about worship as warfare, and began and ended our time of prayer with just
worshipping God. It really made a huge difference, and I think passionate and
heartfelt prayer really flowed naturally as a result of worshipping the king
and welcoming the Holy Spirit. Not only does worship shake the foundations of
the enemy, it can also open us up for God to reveal His heart to us.
Anyway, there’s a little taste of what we learned about worship this
week and what happened because of it. Hopefully it got you thinking a little
bit!
Dan
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| This doesn't have two much to do with anything, but I took it this week, so here you go (click to enlarge). |
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