TRUE WORSHIP IS CAST IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

 

By Bishop Tony Osuobeni 

WORSHIP IS THE OUTWARD DEMONSTRATION BY MAN OF AN INNER REVELATION OF GOD. 

NO revelation, NO demonstration. NO demonstration NO worship, IN THAT ORDER!

The truth about worship is the revelation of who God is. Thank God for the spirit of tautology. WE SERVE A GOD OF ENCORES. GOD SAYS WHAT HE MEANS AND MEANS WHAT HE SAYS, OVER & OVER & OVER & OVER AGAIN, UNTIL WE GET IT! 

THERE'S NO WORSHIP WITHOUT A REVELATION OF GOD. Many books in worship are defective for spending pages upon pages talking about how to worship God without talking about God. At the core of worship is the very God we worship. 

The people that do know their God shall be strong and DO EXPLOITS in the altars of worship (Daniel 11:32).

You cannot worship a God you do not know. Wow, know God? Sounds almost impracticable. How can finite mortal man know or describe a God who is infinite, eternal, immortal,  omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent? God is “beautiful beyond description, too marvellous for words, too wonderful for comprehension like nothing ever seen or heard.l However, because He came down to our level to take us up to His level, we can, indeed know Him. Yes, mortal man can know and describe God via the instrumentality of His inspired Word! The Bible has the knowledge and the revelation of God scattered all lover it. It’s a travesty of gargantuan proportions to go into the Word of God to look for something else but God! 

We were created to know God and born again to know God. Salvation’s greatest purpose is the knowledge of God. The ancient Latin maxim is key; 

“Habere Deum Est Colerie Deum” which means, “TO KNOW GOD IS TO WORSHIP GOD." And we become like the God we worship, Hallelujah! 

It's time we put the Person and knowledge of God back into our worship. As a worship leader or worshipper period, you must know God. You cannot take people where you have not been. It's impossible to introduce people to someone you don't know or you've never met. The Knowledge of God is the greatest qualification for anyone who qualifies and thrives as a worshiper or a choir member, or a worship leader.

It shows when worship leaders attempt to lead their people into worship whether they know Him or not. You can just tell that that person up there leading us is drawing and bringing us into an experience he or she is very well acquainted.

TRUE WORSHIP IS CAST IN THE IMAGE OF THE ONE WE WORSHIP, NOT IN THE IMAGE OF THOSE WHO WORSHIP NOR IN THE GROOVE OF YOUR MUSIC. Worship is contaminated when the worshippers become the center of attraction and not the One being worshipped. Nothing is as other-centered as worship. It is something you do not for yourself but for the One you are worshipping. The spirit of pride is the greatest enemy of worship. Once pride is present in your worship, you are no longer worshipping. You have detoured into a mean cul-de-sac of idolatry. 

I repeat TRUE WORSHIP IS CAST IN THE IMAGE  OF THE ONE WE WORSHIP, IT IS CAST IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. Hence God said LET US MAKE MAN IN OUT OWN IMAGE (Genesis 1:26). It was for worship sake that God desired this creature that would worship Him in spirit according to the truth (John 4:24). 

True worship calls for the highest levels of consecration and devotion to God and the things of God, especially in the context of the local church. It calls for those involved in leading the church's worship to know God and he found to be present in all the churches weekly activities especially prayer and Bible Study. 

WORSHIP IS OF GOD, FOR GOD, FROM GOD & TO GOD!

BEHOLD THE GOD WE WORSHIP

 

WHO IS GOD? 

This is the most important question in worship! 

This is the quintessential core of worship. Who God is and how we may know Him. Our worship is shaped by this knowledge! My focus in this post is to attempt a definition of God. Can we know God? Yes we can? God wrote His word with that possibility in mind. God's word reveals all we may know about Him and nothing more. 

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law."

(Deuteronomy 29:29) 

God reveals the things we need to know about Him for our consumption insofar as the shaping of His worth is concerned. The rest belong exclusively to Him and may be further revealed to those who go deeper in their relationship with God.

"The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant." (Psalm 25:14)

The Bible is full of descriptions of God’s spiritual form and “bodily parts”: Some of them are as follows:

1. He has a personal spirit body – Daniel 7:9-14; 10:5-19
2. Shape – John 5:37
3. Form – Phil. 2:5-7
4. Image and likeness of a man – Gen. 1:26; 9:6; Ezekiel 1:26-28; James 3:9 5. Back parts – Exodus 33:23
6. Heart – Genesis 6:6; 8:21
7. Hands and fingers – Psalm 8:3-6; Hebrews 1:10; Revelation 5:1-7
8. Mouth – Numbers 12:8
9. Lips and tongue – Isaiah 30:27
10. Feet – Ezekiel 1:27; Exodus 24:10
11. Ears – Psalm 18:6
12. Hair, face, head and arms – Dan. 7:9-14; 10:5-19; Rev. 5:1-7; 22:4-6
13. Loins – Ezekiel 1:26-28; 8:1-4.
14. God has a voice – Psalm 29’ Rev. 10:3-4
15. God has a breath (He is Breath Himself) – Genesis 2:7
16. God has a countenance – Psalm 11:7
17. God eats – Genesis 18:1-8; Exodus 24:11
18. God sits on a throne – Isaiah 6; Dan7:9-11; Rev, 4:1-5; 22:3-4
19. God walks – Genesis 3:8; 18:1-8; 22, 33.
20. God rests – Genesis 2:1-4; Hebrews 4:4

Perhaps, the best exercise a worship team would ever have is to take a season and study these descriptions of God. I cannot overemphasize the need for focus on His Person and Personality as our greatest pursuit. It is possible that we are 'worshipping' without having a vision of whom we are worshipping. It is essential that we have God on our minds and in our hearts as we worship Him. That's what makes worship a very powerful event! It is demonstrably rewarding when we know that the One we are worshipping is cast in the image of our own bodily likeness! (Genesis 1:26-28). We were made by God for God! 

If we focus on this "God Season" in our worship, then we can hope to successfully take others into His presence.  The best chapter in any book on worship ought to be the GOD CHAPTER! Have you read any book on worship lately that talks about God? How come we talk so much about worship but we never talk about the One THIS THING is meant for? The answers are not farfetched - worship is far removed from the Who and What we worship to the How we worship. We worship for many other reasons but God. And so our worship is godless, listless and powerless. This is sad! Our eyes are closed to the One we are supposed to be worshipping because our eyes are open to flesh and all that satisfies self. We are worshippers of worship but not of God! 

So who is God? 

He is the ETERNAL SPIRIT, THE FATHER OF LIGHTS, THE ONE WHO DWELLS IN A LIGHT NO MAN CAN APPROACH. God is the Supreme Being and principal object of our faith. He is the incorporeal God who controls time, space and matter! He is the God without gender yet He is known to us as an all-sufficient Mother in El-Shaddai and an everlasting Father in Elohim, the Father of the fatherless! 

God is not a man but He is shaped as a man! God is not flesh and blood yet He made flesh and blood to worship Him! He uses who He made us, who we are for His glory! Indeed, in Him we live and move and have or being. (Acts 17:28). We exist for His glory. This makes worship our DNA. It is our "Divine Nature Attitude.

God is unseen yet He is the most real Spirit and Person in our universe. This makes worship REAL! God HE is THE UNCREATED CREATOR - THE SELF EXISTING ONE WHO INHABITS ETERNITY. He is the One who has no beginning and no ending. HE IS! GOD IS! Think about it, GOD IS! So true worship IS. Worship is present in our present and eternal in our absence from time. Worship IS because God IS! 

The lesson to learn about the God we worship is that He created us to be like Him; He gave us our body parts, eyes ears, nose, mouth, face, lungs, heart, to mention a few, for the shaping of His worth! Never look at your body the same again: you are godlike! No other creature looks like you in this universe and you look like God. 

YOU ARE A GOD TYPE FOR WORSHIP SAKE!!! 

Now that's how real worship begins. You think God. You set your heart, spirit and soul on God; then watch out...your body will receive the message--- what we call WORSHIP breaks out! It's just a seamless powerful flow of life from LIFE Himself! That's where demonstration matches revelation. This is the kind of God-filled worship we need in our lives and churches today. Not the music or songs-driven worship. But the type driven by Hod Himself! 

No worship can happen without God being conceived of in our Spirit-mind. WE HAVE TO SEE IN ORDER THAT WE MAY WORSHIP HIM!

We are living in a day and time when our worship will be so filled with God that it will be so anointed: the dead shall be raised, blind eyes shall open, deaf shall pop, lame legs shall receive life just from this kind of God-filled worship. There shall be no preaching, no laying on of hands. And it will not be organized. It will be spontaneous! A God-filled spirit-led worship will get the job done. In that day, God Himself shall get all the glory! 

We need a revival of this kind of worship in our day and time.