Freedom House Church and Healing Centre

True Worship

In my last blog, ‘A Call to Worship’ we were encouraged to repent for the ways we have not worshiped God because of who He is.  For the ways we have not worshiped God according to the scriptures.  I think of Romans 12:2 (NLT) “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”  This is repentance.  Turning from the world and allowing God to transform us into a new person by changing the way we think.  So now that we have repented I would like to take us deeper into true worship so that we can worship God because of who He is according to the scriptures and not worship God according to our own understanding.   As you will see this starts with Holy Spirit revelation of who God is through His Son Jesus and a true fear of God.

In this blog I will continue to share from the book called Whatever Happened to Worship by A.W. Tozer (Christian Publications, Camp Hill, PA, 1985).  I have included a lot of quotes from the book because Tozer has really captured the heart of true worship in his writing.

“God’s highest desire is that every one of His believing children should so love and adore Him that we are continuously in His presence-in Spirit and in truth.  That is to worship indeed.” (Tozer p24)

Jesus, speaking to the Samaritan woman says in John 4:23-24, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  Jesus instructs us to worship in “spirit”-that is alive through new birth and enabled by Holy Spirit.

“True worship of God must be a constant and consistent attitude or state of mind within the believer.  A sustained and blessed acknowledgement of love and adoration.” (Tozer p24)

“God desires to take us deeper into Himself.  He wants to lead us on in our love for Him who first loved us.  He wants to cultivate within us the adoration and admiration of which He is worthy.” (Tozer p26)

We love Him because He first loved us. (1 Jn 4:19 NKJV)

“He wants us to be astonished at the inconceivable elevation and magnitude and splendor of Almighty God!  There can be no human substitute for this kind of worship and for the kind of Spirit-given response to the God who is our Creator and Redeemer and Lord!” (Tozer p26)

Ask yourself, do I truly know and worship God who has been willing to reveal Himself to my “seeking soul” (Jer 29:13; James 4:8) or do I worship God of my own understanding?  If you think God is stern, harsh and unforgiving, then your concept of worship will likely be that of daily religion-bondage, grim and hard with no love in it.  “True worship of God is not something that we “do” in the hope of appearing religious!” (Tozer p24)

From the moment I was born again by the Spirit of God He put a desire in my heart to know Him more. To seek Him.  To worship Him.  I desire to spend the rest of my life getting to know God more until I see Him face to face and I will fully know Him.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. (1 Co 13:12 NKJV)

This is some of how Tozer describes God in his book:

• He is winsome (p28) I encourage you to look up the word winsome yourself. I could write an entire blog on this one word and how it relates to the character and heart of God. J
• He is all love and those who trust Him need never know anything but that love (p28)
• He is just and will not condone sin. He has tried to make it overwhelmingly plain to us that through the blood of the everlasting covenant He is able to act toward us exactly as if we had never sinned (p28)
• God communes with His redeemed ones in an easy, uninhibited fellowship that is restful and healing to the soul (p28)
• God, who has redeemed us in love, through the merits of the Eternal Son, is not unreasonable. He is not selfish.  He is not temperamental (p28)
• God who desires our fellowship and communion is not hard to please, although He may be hard to satisfy. He expects of us only what He has Himself supplied.  He is quick to mark every simple effort to please Him and just as quick to overlook our imperfections when He knows we meant to do His will (p29)
• The God we love may sometimes chasten us, it is true. But even this He does with a smile-the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is (p29)

Do you believe this about God, our Father in heaven?  I do! He reveals Himself in His Word.  Here are just a few that come to mind 1 Co 13:4-8, Ro 3:21-26; Heb 13:8, Eph 4:32, Heb 12:6; 11 and Ro 8:29-30.  He is a Father who rejoices over His children with gladness and singing!

The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zeph 3:17 NKJV)

“When we come into this sweet relationship, we are beginning to learn astonished reverence, breathless adoration, awesome fascination, lofty admiration of the attributes of God and something of the breathless silence that we know when God is near.  You may not have realized it before, but all of those elements in our perception and consciousness of the divine Presence add up to what the bible calls “the fear of God”.  The reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most purifying emotion the human soul can know.” (Tozer p30-31)

“True fear of God is a beautiful thing, for it is worship, it is love, it is veneration.” (Tozer p33) Veneration is respect and reverence.

“True worship is to be so personally and hopelessly in love with God that the idea of a transfer of affection never even remotely exists.  That is the meaning of the fear of God.” (Tozer p33-34)

You can read more about the fear of the Lord in my blog from January 17, 2021 called “Fear the Lord! Trust Him!”

“This powerful sense of Godly fear should hover over the church like the cloud over Israel.  It should lie upon us like a sweet, invisible mantle.  It should be a force in the conditioning of our inner lives.  It should provide extra meaning for every text of Scripture.  It should be making every day of the week a holy day and every spot of ground we tread holy ground.” (Tozer p31-32))

Wow!  This is true worship.  This is a lot to meditate on.  What are we to do with all of this?  What comes to mind for me is Psalm 27:4. 

I’m asking God for one thing, only one thing: To live with Him in His house my whole life long. I’ll contemplate His beauty; I’ll study at His feet. (Ps 27:4 MSG)

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Rev 2:7 NKJV)