What is worship and who is a worshipper?

Sunday evening I decided to listen to a switchfoot album (Hello Hurricane to be specific), though not deliberately, it was just along the way on my playlist. It was just for the purposes of passing time as I wrote a certain proposal. In fact, I was convinced that listening to that music would just interfere with my connection with the divine but I went on anyway.

Then the words of the songs started sinking in slowly, of course the very nice melodies captured me first. Then as I went  on I realised how much the words talk to the very being of a man, the very struggles of a man and the like etc. as usual with CCM music, no words like Jesus, God and Christ were used. Then in my heart I was like, these guys are so carnal, can’t they be more spiritual? Why are they being so escapist?

Then as I went on, I realised that their lyrics made so much sense if you choose to open your heart to listen to more than the words. They may not be sing-alongs like praise and worship music but they are effective in their own capacity. Then the question was why? Why does it convict a man like me, who is supposedly very spiritual?

Then God started speaking about the heart and ministry. At the end of the day, ministry is about the transaction that you have had with God, not so much about the transaction that you have had with men. We tend to grade the success of our ministry with the effectiveness it has on capturing people’s attention rather than the transformation it should have on our lives. We see people get delivered of devils, guys breaking before God, people being healed but we come out the same, maybe happier because of the demonstration of God in that event and probably being passed by God in the midst of all that immense glory and power present at the moment. 

   1.  vessels

One notion we have is that when God checks in during our service and ministry, that we as His vessels have a right standing with God. This however is not a correct biblical position as demonstrated in Isaiah 45. This particular chapter talks about King Cyrus being God’s servant even though Cyrus did not know God.

(Isa 45:5) I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

It is for God to determine how He will use a person to his own glory and honour of his name. As a human being, we tend to have our own plans, whether they are in the direction that God has ordained or not. However, at the end of the day, that does very little to change the intents of God at the end of the day. It is really practical, how many times do we at the end of a day sit down and say the day went exactly as we had planned? We do not determine fully how we will be fully used to the glory of God but it is for the Lord to determine what kind of tool we will be used as. Even if a spade wants to be a spoon, cried, and threw a tantrum about it, you would still definitely at the end of the day, not use it as a spade, but instead go to the garden and make proper use of it.

The same goes with how God will use us. We can never use the demonstration of how God uses our service to determined where our relationship with God lies. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus describes how the goats and sheep will be separated, not on the basis of service but on the basis of where their hearts lay in God. 

The bible says in (1Co 10:12)  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

If you are a servant of God, that is not an assurance of whether you will qualify to step into heaven on the day of judgement. God does not desire our service as much as he desires our hearts. Where do our hearts lie? Where are our treasures kept? Is it in Christ himself or is it in doing works that are considered to be Christ-like? Aren’t we all just mere vessels before God?

Where does the difference come in?

Follow this for part two and the rest