Worship and Fire

A sudden move to the mid-west had us searching for a new place of worship. The area had many churches, but it took several months before we could find one that was ‘alive’ in the sense that the Holy Spirit was evidently working in the lives of the people.

One church stood out, but before we found it, we attended several that disappointed us. One was so ‘dead’ that even though the doctrine was solid, the messages were wooden, the people were cold, and the singing was off-key. I recalled this church with sadness this morning when reading Tozer’s statement: “Our only real danger is that we may grieve the blessed Spirit into silence and so be left to the mercy of our intellects.… We’ll have the bush, pruned and trimmed and properly cultivated, but in the bush there will be no fire.”

(This refers to Moses meeting God at a bush that burned — but was not consumed.)

While worship is defined many ways, and often associated with the music in a service, this is a far broader activity than the music chosen for Sunday morning. The New Testament word can mean to reverence or fear, but also to prostrate oneself in the presence of the divine or supernatural as a sign of deference and worship. It is about the attitude of the heart based on knowing the truth about the One being worshiped.

Jesus talked with a woman at a well. She brought up the subject and made a distinction between the way her people worshiped and the way the Jews worshiped.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21–24)

God is not a wooden idol, an old man on a throne, or any other image people might come up with or imagine. He is spirit, meaning “the transcendental, immaterial, rational existence that constitutes the essence of supernatural entities such as God, angels, and human souls.” In simpler terms, God is a supernatural, non-material being. We cannot see Him, and He is beyond our ability to comprehend. Unless He reveals Himself in some way, worship is almost impossible.

Not only must our worship be directed toward Him, it is also ‘in spirit’ meaning we worship from the non-material part of ourselves. It may come out our mouth in words or songs, and show up in the movement of our bodies and the way we live, but it cannot be merely that. It is an issue and activity of the heart.

Furthermore, worship is about truth, about reality. God says He is Almighty, Creator, Holy, and a myriad of other things, and our worship is about all of what He is. I cannot worship a god of my own making, or a god of the aspects of God that appeal to me. My God is loving, but He must also hate sin. My God is powerful, but He must also humble Himself and die on a cross.

This is the God of the burning bush that Tozer alludes to, the God who is all that He says, revealed in Christ, described in His Word. He is far greater than my puny mind can fathom, yet even in that limitation, I cannot bring Him to my level nor can I remove anything that would make Him less than God. To do so would grieve the Holy Spirit and as Tozer says, leave me to the mercy of my own puny mind — and without the fire of the Holy Spirit.

^^^^^^^

Jesus, the very thought of this makes me shudder. I know that I’ve sometimes put You in a box, or limited You to what I want You to be. Forgive my sin of failing to worship You in spirit and in truth. May today be different, rich and full of fire as my heart gazes at the wonder of You.