The New Way of Worship: Worship the One True God Creator and Preserver of All Things

By Winston A. Richter

One book cannot be enough to contain the knowledge about who God is. It will take volumes of books. All the sixty-six books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, speak of God's greatness; who He is and what He has done and could do. He alone is worthy of our praise and worship. There is none like Him.

His attributes include all kinds of goodness and power unimaginable. He is the Redeemer, the Almighty, and the King of kings. He knows our future from the present. May genuine and true hunger and thirst for this Holy God draw us closer and closer and closer to Him in reverence and holiness through His grace. Amen!

The quality worship that God requires from us is based on the heart that is willing to offer unto God what we love so dear and cherish most, and this describes our reverence to Him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638441922

Book preview

Chapter One

What Is Worship?

According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance , the Hebrew word for worship is " shachah " (pronounced shaw-khaw ), meaning to prostrate in homage to royalty or God: to do or make obeisance (a gesture expressing deferential respect by bowing), crouch, lie down flat, or kowtowing (to kneel and touch the ground with the forehead). When broadly defined in the biblical sense, worship encompasses everything we do as children of God that honors His name.

Worship is an act of spiritual exercises whereby the transformed man or the believer comes to his Creator in reverence and honor, proclaiming the greatness of God who is holy, sacred, and transcendent in power. Worship involves our whole being. It involves our body, our intellect (mind, brain, brain cells…), and even our posture. It is a sacred moment at God’s holy presence and nothing should distract us from keeping focus on God. By keeping focus on God, I do not mean hallucination (the experience of seeing something that is not really there—mirage), but rather allowing His presence to consume you. Allowing His glory to overshadow you. Allowing the Holy Spirit to captivate your thoughts. Meditating on His love, His goodness, His power, the wonders of His creation, and expressing them in words of adoration.

Our devotion to God includes singing inspirational songs, hymns, dancing, praying, silent meditation and thanksgiving, expressing our inner joy, and appreciation to God in praises for His unconditional love, enduring mercies, constant provisions, and His sustaining grace. The words expressed in the songs and hymns of worship should carry a meaning of praises, exaltation, and even the wonder of His power and greatness.

The lyrics of the hymn How Great Thou Art… by Stuart K. Hine is an example of an inspirational song for worship. It speaks of God’s greatness, the wonders, the beauty, and the power of creation:

O Lord my God, when I’m in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power thru-out the universe displayed!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee: How great thou art, how great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee: How great thou art, how great Thou art!

When thru the woods and forest glades I wonder and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul…

Worship must first begin from the heart before any posture of the body (from within out). From within her soul, Mary, the mother of Jesus, sang praises unto God, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior…. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name (Luke 1:46–49). The condition of our hearts matters a lot when it comes to worship. The heart determines the direction or the flow of our worship. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it (Proverbs 4:23 NIV). But what does it mean to guard your heart"?

Our thought life is what controls us and manifests in our attitudes, so we need to think well and think right. Feed our minds or meditate on things that glorify God. We are what we think as stated in Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…" Our attitudes lead to our actions.

Few of the several scriptures that may help us guard our heart is Romans 12:2, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind… Whatever we allow into our mind and accept it is capable of renewing our mind and transforming our whole being. We therefore have to feed our minds with positive good stuffs and that is how we can present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God."

Another way we can guard our hearts is by feeding our minds with scriptures like Philippians 4:8 (NKJV), "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there’s any virtue and if there’s anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." The words we meditate on and feed our minds with has the divine capability of transforming our minds.

We should have this strong and real thirst for God as described in Psalm 63:1(NKJV), "O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Have you really been thirsty and in search for water to quench your thirst or to wet your dry throat in an environment where the temperature can soar to well over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit but don’t know where and how to get some? How did you feel getting a glass of water after all the weariness under the heat of the scorching or burning sun? This is what the psalmist is describing the soul that has an unquenchable thirst for his God. It is not a place to fall down, exhausted, said Tom Cahill in his article, Border Patrol: Along the Devil’s Highway," National Geography Adventure. People on the ground are literally roasted alive (DesertUSA).

What you treasure or love most is what draws your heart toward. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 that For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What we treasure in our hearts will become that which we worship. If my treasure is in heaven, for sure heaven will have my heart. A spiritual thirst should always draw our hearts toward God.

The Bible speaks of two brothers, Cain and Abel, in Genesis 4 who made an offering unto God and one was accepted and the other, God shows no regard. If we treasure God most, we will offer unto Him the best out of our hearts. God knows our heart and if our worship is coming from a pure heart, God will accept it.

As expressed in his song, Take My Life and Let It Be, Frances Havergal understands that our body is a temple and a living sanctuary for God, and therefore our whole life must be dedicated to Him:

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.

Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.

Take my voice and let them sing always, only, for my king.

Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee.

The meaning of the hymn expresses the idea of surrendering our whole life unto God to set us apart, sanctify us to become a vessel for His praise. An Old Testament example is the priestly family. Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the priesthood (Exodus 29:19–21).

In consecration or sanctification, God sets apart His own people and produces holiness in their lives. In the New Testament, Christ prayed to the Father to sanctify his disciples (John 17:7). Believers also have a part to play in sanctification. We are urged in Romans 12:1 to consecrate ourselves as well. We can do that by the Word of God—being obedient to the holy requirements of the Word of God and by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:3–4).

Sanctification results in holiness or purification from the guilt and power of sin. When our hearts are right in the sight of God, then our singing, clapping, dancing, and offerings will be accepted by God as an act of worship. According to 1 Peter 2:9 (NKJ), "We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own special people, that we may proclaim the praise of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light."

Chapter Two

Why Do We Worship God? (Benefits of Worship)

There are various ways one could answer this question, Why do we worship God? but before we tackle the reason why we worship God, let us look at some of the benefits or the blessings of worship.

God’s glory is manifested. Worship invites the presence of God. In 2 Chronicles 5:13 (NKJV) we read:

Indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and the singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: For He is good, for His mercy endures forever, that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

God’s glory is a revelation of His nature and attributes. Sometimes God reveals His glory not necessarily during a worship time but to transform an elect from chasing worldly things and to turn around for God’s own divine agenda to serve His divine purpose (Saul the persecutor of the brethren transformed to Paul the evangelist). The revelation of God’s glory on different occasions equipped Moses for his leadership assignment.

True worship brings down God’s power to deliver. Paul and Silas were flogged and thrown into jail for casting out a demon spirit from a certain slave girl. Instead of calling down fire from heaven to consume the jailers, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns unto God. God responded with a great earthquake and the prison doors were opened and their chains were loosed. "But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and…suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundation of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed" (Acts 16:25–26 NKJV).

True worship produces joy and soul satisfaction. As the flesh thirst for water on a desert land, so our soul thirsts for its maker. It is only the Holy Spirit who can quench our spiritual thirst and bring us joy. "O God, you are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirst for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water…thus, I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips" (Psalm 63:1–5 NKJV).

Our sole source of "overflow joy or fullness of joy is God. He is our exceeding joy, so we have to spend quality time at His presence. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God (Psalm 43:4 NKJV). The Bible also tells us that in the presence of God, there is fullness of joy. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11 NKJV).

The following are some of the several reasons why we worship God or why one must worship God. We worship God because:

He is the Creator

God commanded it

He is the only living and the only one True God

Creation tells us there is God

The patriarchs in the Old Testament worshiped God

Jesus enforced it

The apostles and the early believers worshiped God

We worship God in response to His blessings

The soul of man yearns for God to worship

He is the Creator. We worship God because He is the creator and the sustainer of all things. The beginning statement of the first book in the Bible speaks of God as the creator. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1 NKJV). The first thing He created was light and He created it by His word, Let there be light and there was light (Gen. 1:3). The writer of Hebrews declared in Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV), By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. God existed before time. He is the only being capable of making something from nothing. He existed before creation and called the physical world into existence, not from anything that were already in existence (John