Holy Spirit Conviction

Man I have been so busy the past month! No blog posts all that time. I'm so sorry. But's lots of good things from God have happened. Worship has been on my mind all that time. Maybe these seem like silly questions to you but I have examined worship from all angles to come to a great conclusion and illustration.

For instance, God kept prompting me during prayer, "Worship me." And I would ask, "How?" What is the attitude, the words, the physical posture? Is it like I see in church or is it something else entirely? Well you know me. I only want the truth from God's Word. So here it is.

So often today we hear the terms "worship" and "praise" used together. More so, they are linked with music. True, "praise" is often linked with music in the Bible. But never worship. Likewise, the Hebrew and Greek words for these terms are completely dissimilar. Therefore I concluded that their context and use are separate and their meanings and purposes must also be different.

"Worship" is used infrequently in the New Testament until the book of Revelation. We learn the most about it in John 4. Jesus said in verse 24, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

I struggled with this verse the longest because it did not answer my question, "How do I worship?" In other words, what am I supposed to do?

First, there is a precursor to worship. To worship in the spirit, my spirit must first be one with God's Spirit. There must be no sin between us. So the entrance to worship must involve a humble but bold confession, forsaking, and issue of mercy. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." - Proverbs 28:13

That is worshiping in spirit according to the one/One relationship Jesus prayed for us in John 17:21-22.

But how does one worship in truth? What truth? One answer I know is the truth of posture. How does God want us to come to Him to worship?

Psalm 95:6 - "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker."

Philippians 2:9-11, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

How seldom is this seen or done and yet this is God's command. There are no others like it with options.

Well I have to be honest here that while I was delighted to find these answers, I was also scared. After all, this is a bit different. What will people think? Yes, I felt ashamed to have these thoughts and questions. But I knew the truth and I wanted to be set free with it.

Two nights ago at the supper table Aaron (my youngest) brought a Webkins to the table. My boys know bringing toys to the table is a no-no. I did not know that it was a special night for this Webkins. It was a birthday.

Anyway, I asked Aaron to remove the toy and then give thanks to the Lord for supper. He did. And then he said, "And now I'll have "Webkins" (whatever its name was) pray to the Webkins god."

"No, no Aaron," I said. "That breaks God's commandment not to have any other gods before Him." Aaron seemed to think that was good enough so he put the Webkins down and picked up his pizza. We all started to eat.

Then I looked up at Aaron. His head was bowed and he had his pizza over the edge of the table. It looked like he was pretending to feed his Webkins. I asked him to stop so the pizza oil would not drip on his Webkins and make it dirty. He started to cry.

My wife thought he was upset about the Webkins birthday thing and asked me to relax the no toy rule at the table. But there was no consolation. Aaron just cried harder and harder. Then he got up and motioned for me to join him away from the table. We went to his room and sat down on the bed.

He told me he was crying because of the "Webkins god thing". Right away I knew God had hold of his heart and he was under Holy Spirit conviction. Wow! So I brought Aaron to the Scriptures to lead him to repentence and freedom. We read I John 1:9 together. Then I asked Aaron if he wanted to worship God as fruit of his repentance. He agreed. I showed him the Scriptures above and then asked him what we should do. God put right into my heart and soul and body the moment of truth. We got on our knees, bowed down, and worshipped. Then Aaron prayed. And that was it.

Except it took a few days to come down from that cloud. :-)