God’s Agenda for Us – Worship

The most intense romantic feelings we have ever had could only be a dim shadow of what is possible in knowing God, the author of all beauty and goodness. Sadly, for most of us, myself included, our spiritual sight is clouded and in our best moments while on earth we only "see through a glass darkly". We only see God dimly, as it were in a bronze mirror.

Even so, God is very interested in how we handle our time on earth. God's greatest commandment for us also reflects one of His greatest desires – that we should love Him with everything we've got. This is what it really means to WORSHIP God.

God the Father is looking for worshipers. This is what Jesus taught the Samaritan woman in John 4:23,24.

23 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. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

God is scouring the earth for those who will worship Him. He wants those who will worship, not merely with a dead formality, as a ritual and a formula, but from a true heart, from their innermost spirit. We could also say that God is looking for those who will worship in the ways He has ordained. But these ways are not to be found necessarily in any liturgical form, but rather in the form of a life layed down in love and devotion for our Creator.

May it be that we become worshipers like this, that really please God. I suspect that this kind of worship actually leads to our own highest fulfilment and satisfaction. But God does not explicitly state this in His Word to my knowledge. If He did, I suppose too many would attempt to worship God merely for selfish reasons, and this would not be pleasing to God. God is looking for genuine love from His people. He has set things up in the world in such a way as to make it possible for us all to be TESTED on this point. In particular I refer to the following facts:

1. Although God promises everything, many times we have to WAIT longer than we want to, with patience, in order to actually inherit the promises. This tests our love for God.

2. God has given Satan and his demons limited but real access to our minds and sometimes our bodies. These spirits do all they can to cause real problems for us. Their activities are not merely limited to tempting us to separate ourselves from God through sin. They also harrass, torment and deceive. They love to do something bad and then make out that GOD did it – accusing God to us. They also like to tempt us with a view to having something to use to accuse us to God.

God could have made a world in which demons had no access to us whatsoever. But for His own purposes, which include finding who His REAL friends are, He allows us to be tempted and sifted. This tests our love for God.

3. God does not reveal His power or His glory so overwhelmingly to all men in such a way as to virtually compel them to love Him or fear Him. He hides Himself just enough so that He may be found by those who seek for Him, but He may also be invisible, inaudible and unfelt by those who have no desire to know Him or His truth.

All these things mean that it takes FAITH to worship God. Yes, we may have a measure of spiritual sight, and we consciousness of God's power and anointing, but it is only a measure. We can truly thank God for what we have, but the full wonder of who the Bible declares God to be is not completely taken in by us at any time during our lives on earth. The element of faith, the element of trust, the element of sincerity and faithfulness, is therefore much needed in our lives.

So God the Father is still saying, "You will seek Me, and you will find Me, when you seek for Me with all your heart." He is still looking for those who will rise above their own personal challenges in order to search for Him and then take delight in Him. He is still searching for true-hearted worshipers.

May God help us to be those worshipers and to help others to be those worshipers as well. I would say this is one of the true goals of evangelism – to bring others into the true worship and enjoyment of God (the other I would say is fellowship, but that's a subject for a different message).

If we are zealous for God's work, and ministry, let us never lose sight of what God is really looking for – true worshipers. Let us seek God, whom to know is life eternal, and enjoy even in this life a preview of what heaven and the age to come must be for those who prove their faithfulness to God in the present age.

God bless you.

Michael Fackerell

April, 2012