WHAT DOES IT MEAN "TO WORSHIP"?(1)

Since the days of the Charismatic Renewal we have been singing that great chorus taken from Psalm 100:4  Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Here King David highlights two important aspects of truth.
THANKSGIVING, Oh how we must develop an attitude of thankfulness, and spell out our thanks often one by one, all the things the Lord pours into our life.
PRAISE, to shout and celebrate, to dance and rejoice for all the Lord is and has done for us.
The Priests could go no further than the court (Holy Place) as there was a veil (curtain) that stopped further movement, except the High priest who entered behind the veil once a year on the Day of Atonement  to atone for the sins of the people.
I am so glad that when Jesus was crucified the veil was TORN from top to bottom, indicating that every Believer (every New Testament Priest) can now go into the Holy of Holies and worship in Spirit and Truth. We now have ACCESS into the Throne room of heaven
King David introduced a whole new form of praise and worship that included the Ministry of Singers & Musicians, the Song of the Lord, spiritual singing, and many other aspects and expressions of praise and worship to the Lord. This was so different to what had taken place in Moses’ Tabernacle, and much of this he was referring too when he wrote Psalm 100.
Many of my readers will know I was saved in the Salvation Army and quickly fell in love with all the aspects of S.A. music and singing. Then I was exposed to the Pentecostal Movement and much of their music and singing could be quite different but I again quickly fell in love with their music and song.
Let me give you a little Church History, the Pentecostal Movement began soon after the turn of the twentieth century, and ten of thousands of Christians from all around the world and from many different church backgrounds  were baptized  with the Holy Spirit, the same way Jesus had declared in Acts 1:8 NKJV But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”, this happened on the day of Pentecost we read this in Acts 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. So these new Pentecostal Believers at the turm of the 20th century  brought  with them often there own form of worship into the newly formed Pentecostal churches. So much of the singing was choruses and hymns that had been sung in their previous churches, but we know from the time of the Reformation God has been restoring truth and experience to the Church, and in 1948, there was a remarkable move of the Holy Spirit initially in Canada that spread throughout the world, it became known as the Latter Rain Movement and the Restoration Movement, and as well as truth God restored a whole new expression of praise and worship. James the half brother of Jesus stood up in the Jerusalem Council and prophesied that this day would come. In Acts 15:16 NKJV we read After this I will return and will rebuild the Tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and will rebuild the ruins, and I will set it up. For example some of the brethren were drawn to Psalm 22:3 NKJV But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.  So the Believers said, we should praise the Lord more, and He will come down and set up His throne amongst us, and guess what that is exactly what happened, the presence and power of God increased dramatically, and this amongst many other things caused a fresh move of the Holy Spirit. God began to RESTORE THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID, not a physical structure but restore all the King David had been led to introduce into his Tabernacle.
When ever fresh truth is restored to the church three things can happen, there are those who embrace it, those who reject it, and those who take it to extremes. This happened with this truth as well. As a young Pastor I embraced it and encouraged it and guess what the Holy Spirit began to move in a very powerful way, and we saw the church grow from 40 to 200 in a short period of time, when we moved on to take another church, we saw the church there grow from 40 to 400 in 18 months, it was such a precious time of blessing and growth, that I will never forget.
On my very first visit to the U.S.A. in 1976 I was fellowshipping with a Charismatic Leader who made a statement that was like a knife in my gut, he said, Worship is just a passing phase in the Renewal. I was shocked and disappointed, I do not believe it is meant to be just a passing phase, it is meant to be a foretaste of heaven, sadly he was correct and there is very little evidence of spiritual worship around today, or sadly, there is in some places, but with an over emphasis on Worship and an under emphasis of the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. There are very few balanced “Latter Rain churches” anywhere in the world because there was not balance, we must learn as God told both Moses and King David, to build God’s House “TO BUILD ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN”
It has been said that when you have tasted this expression of praise and worship you will never be satisfied with anything less., and so for over 20 years this was my constant experience, sadly the emphasis diminished in Australia, but my dear Indonesian brethren love to worship and we will stand and worship for an hour and be overwhelmed with the presence of God, I so hope I can stand and worship with them one more time before we stand in eternity.
Just over 9 years ago, we have no doubt the Lord led us to sell up and move into a Retirement Village, back in our home state. and  because of living in a rural area we have ended up in a non Charismatic church, where the expressions of worship that I love are non existent, for some time I felt devastated, but I have come to a wonderful realisation

MUCH OF WHAT WE CALL WORSHIP IS ACTUALLY A METHOD AND A PREFERENCE

TRUE WORSHIP IS THE LOVE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART AND OFTEN BYPASSES OUR LIPS

In a sense this blog is an introduction as I want to talk about WHAT IS WORSHIP? in part two of this series, as so many Believers find it hard to differentiate between “Method (or form) & Preference” and what the Bible says about worship.