Onlookers

For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  John 4:24....."The Methodists conquered the world with their joyous religion because they were first and foremost, worshippers......This generation needs to rediscover how to worship." A.W. Tozer

In the 1990's, the Praise and Worship movement swept into the church, sweeping many, including me, with it. It was fresh, it was lively, and it became the main form of "worship." But was it really enhancing worship. Even more, was worship really at the center of our motivations? It can't be denied that many fellowships changed over to a much more contemporary style, using guitars, drums, keyboards, and multiple singers, in order to attract younger people. More and more we went deeper into the idea of producing a "show" than we did encountering our God. Worship leaders worked hard at getting the congregation into all of it, or at least a part of it. My observation, more often than not, was that they failed. The worship team may have been filled with energy, but the congregation wasn't. The majority were spectators, onlookers, and not worshippers and partakers of a Holy God. What many have called "The Asbury Revival," is changing that and transforming worship across the face of the church. In our America and beyond. 

The flesh cannot create revival no matter how hard it may try. It comes only by a move of the Holy Spirit, and what began at a chapel in Wilmore, KY has left the confines of that sanctuary and set holy fires of renewal and worship at an ever growing number of college campuses, church fellowships, and wherever "2 or more are gathered." No platform filled with skilled singers and musicians is needed. A spontaneous desire to praise Him, adore Him, and worship Him is springing up and people are worshipping from the heart, and they go on worshipping Him. There is no sense of time. People want to remain in His presence. What takes place is a complete melting of hearts and lives before Him. Confession of sin, repentance, and complete surrender to His Lordship. Lives are coming to Christ and souls are being saved. People are being transformed. Many who have left the Lord and His church are coming back to Him, and revival, which is never about any location but the heart, is being taken back to wherever these have come from. I, we, can only pray that it would not cease. That His Holy Spirit would continue to move, to blow, to sweep up.

Here, where I live and serve Him, I believe we are seeing in our fellowship and beyond, the deep stirrings of His Spirit. I, and countless others have long prayed for a Tsunami of His Spirit to come upon His church, and that we would, as Tozer, learn how to truly worship Him. May what Tozer said of the Methodist movement of John Wesley and his leaders be true of us as well. May our worship of our God be so sincere, so real, so joyous, and so alive that a fire of desire is lit in the hearts of believer and unbeliever alike. May we really be those who do worship Him in spirit and in truth. May we understand that anything else and anything less isn't worship at all. It's just a lot of people watching a performance. We need no more performances. No longer onlookers but full partakers. Let us have a visitation of His Spirit. A visitation that becomes a habitation.

Blessings,

Pastor O