Theological Positions on Worship

By Michael Amoah Ph D

This book sets out the biblical, doctrinal, and theological positions on Worship and Praise. The book can teach and equip, so you can consider it as a teaching manual. It can also help any reader to prune off misconceptions about worship and keep the refined positions based on the word of God. The book is both theological and sociological, and therefore user-friendly to any living soul interested in worshiping God.

The book covers a wide range of topics and issues including:

• the ministry of the minstrel;
• the biblical doctrine on both individual and congregational worship;
• the biblical and established order of worship in the church;
• the role of worship in warfare;
• the role of music in worship;
• prophetic worship;
• dancing in church;
• dressing and culture;
• the role of worship in deliverance;
• giving as an act of worship;
• God’s plan of restoration to worship

This book can serve as a textbook for Bible schools, theology seminaries and religious studies departments of academic institutions, and the praise and worship department of any Christian church.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973641193

Michael Amoah Ph D

Dr Michael Amoah is an established author and academic with an apostolic ministry. In 2004 he published a paper which explains why and how church dancing has assumed a cultural and continental divide across the globe, and the role of the clergy in promoting, discouraging or setting the tone for bodily moves or dancing in church. Augustine has a lot to do with it. The paper is entitled “Christian Musical Worship and ‘Hostility to the Body’: The Medieval Influence Versus the Pentecostal Revolution,” Implicit Religion 7 (2004): 59-75. Michael is a minstrel and a public speaker who specializes in Worship, Culture and Deliverance. For Ministry, Training and Programs on Worship and Deliverance, email: [e-mail] or message [phone].

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 Michael Amoah PhD.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4120-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4121-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4119-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018911565

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/04/2018

Dedic

ated

to

The Minstrel Mary Ghansah

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1     Definitions of Worship

Chapter 2     The Biblical Pattern of Praise and Worship

Chapter 3     True Worshipers and Liberation from the Venue

Chapter 4     Understanding Worship as the Highest Form of Warfare

Chapter 5     The Ministry of Singing (Music)

Chapter 6     Prophetic Praise

Chapter 7     Dancing in Church

Chapter 8     The Ministry of the Minstrel

Chapter 9     Worship and Deliverance

Chapter 10   Worshipers before God regularly

Chapter 11   Dressing as an act of Worship

Chapter 12   Culture: the shadow of things to come

Chapter 13   Giving as an act of Worship

Chapter 14   God’s plan of restoration to Worship

Songs Composed by Michael Amoah

Preface

In the summer of 2010, while under a Palgrave Macmillan contract to author a book on a totally different subject (International Politics), the Holy Spirit interrupted that work for two weeks, because He wanted me to write this book on worship. Each time I attempted to continue with what I was working on, the Holy Spirit came upon me so strongly, and I was not at liberty to continue with that exercise. Instead I received liberty to write on worship. This continued throughout those two weeks, and the anointing did not lift until I had finished writing this manuscript on worship, now entitled Theological Positions on Worship. The book which the Holy Spirit interrupted is now a popular academic book entitled Nationalism, Globalization, and Africa, published by Palgrave Macmillan in November 2011.

Second, when it dawned on me what the Lord was doing – constraining me to write a book on worship, I attempted to familiarize myself with any existing material on the subject of worship, to see what has already been written, in order to decide what more I should like to say. The Lord instructed me not to copy from any existing material, but to write from what He had taught me directly on the subject of worship over the years. In other words, He wanted me to be very original to Him. I therefore began by referring to my own preaching tape that was recorded in London Kensington Temple on Saturday night 20 May 1995. I recall that I had briefly taught on some of the material on that tape at the Tema Community Two Salvation Army Corps in 1988. It also occurred to me, that over the course of 15 years since that 1995 tape recording, I had personally not heard similar teaching elsewhere since I had been in England. I immediately realized the importance of why God wanted me to be original, why He wanted me to write on worship, and precisely what He wanted me to convey. I appreciated His instructions and obeyed.

This book sets out the biblical, doctrinal, and theological positions on worship and praise. It has some technical content, for example it will tell you in the Introduction, and further explain in Chapters 1 and 3, that if you are not born-again, you cannot worship God the Creator of the Universe in spirit. Among other things, this book can teach and equip, so you can consider it as a teaching manual. It can also help any reader to prune off misconceptions about worship and keep the refined positions based on the word of God. The Bible says: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). We know that the sociological and cultural background of a people can influence their ways and style of worship, but the Word of Whom we worship is the standard, and will cut through