Biblical Worship 3 (Updated)

Many times when we see the appearance of an angel in the Bible, the angel will normally start by telling the witness not to fear.

What is there to fear about an angel?

I know someone is wondering why I am such a fool.

But I am asking so intentionally.

An angel is a being endowed with power beyond the natural. He is a supernatural being.

His appearance in the natural must therefore arouse a dread, though we know them as servants of the divine towards those submitted to Him.

We also see several times that persons facing an angel have to be stopped from prostrating before (worshipping) them.

If an angel is that terrifying, what then do we expect from an encounter with the One who created that angel? What do we expect when we encounter the One whose errands the angels run?

There simply can be no comparison between encountering an angel and encountering God, which is what worship is.

Yet we think worship as a fun event.

In the Old Testament there were rules and guidelines whenever God was concerned, whether it was His worship or presence.

‘Lest you die’, is something you will read time and again because God is not anywhere close to our normal.

I find it scary when I see people talking to God as if He was at their service instead of being their Lord and King.

To imagine that Daniel’s companions fled the scene when God was showing His servant a vision!

And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. (Daniel 10:7)

And he was not alone as we see in our scripture intake.

Where is the fear of God in our worship?

Are we really worshipping God or is what we call worship our own thing?

I will add something else that must accompany fear in our relationship with God.

And it is compliance with ALL His demands.

Just like we do not deal with electricity flimsily, it is not in doubt that God, who is infinitely more powerful than electricity must demand much more compliance.

That is why it is an outright lie when someone talks about worship even as their conduct says something even slightly different from God and His demands.

Joseph and Daniel and his friends were known for something that made them stand out.

The spirit of the holy gods was in them.

You see, many people had the spirits of the gods, different gods.

Practitioners of witchcraft undoubtedly operate under the control of spirits.

But those young men had a different kind of indwelling that produced holy living. Their lives were not only so different from the ones operating in the spiritual, their lives represented a standard infinitely higher than that representing any other spiritual reality.

The fear of God simply means not only living in awe of God, but that fear dictating how one lives their life here, or simply speaking living a worshipful life.

The world does not care how full of whatever spirit you are. It is concerned by the kind of spirit running your life.

Manifesting whatever gifts as can be attributed to the Spirit means pretty little if that spirit does not make me able to live a holy life.

Our level of worship is therefore proportional to our level of transformation towards God.

No wonder Jesus said that we will be known by our fruits. Or what Paul said here

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5: 22, 23)

The fruit of the Spirit is simply speaking the overflow of the nature of the divine

Unless His grace, justice, hatred for sin and many other attributes the Bible says God has are part of our lives and nature, we cannot be worshiping Him.

That is what the fear of God represents.

We deceive ourselves when we are comfortable with sin and sinners and still talk of being worshippers of Christ. We are deluded when our resources are not totally surrendered to God’s express and unquestioned use (I am not talking about tithing and other man-directed giving) yet confess to being led by the Spirit as worshippers.

The long and short of what I am saying is that one can never worship God aright if His nature is not running in every aspect of our existence.

Worship is a surrender that gives God glory. No wonder it gives Him great opportunity to manifest as He did in the lives of the young men I have mentioned.