Some practical thoughts on group worship.
What does it mean to worship within a church or group?
What is the best way to use songs in churches?
Can we bring in the Presence of God?
Are some songs anointed?
We desperately need worship that is real!
Table of Contents:
1. Can we bring God’s Presence into a time of worship?
How do we bring in God’s Presence – is that even possible?
Some may say that God is everywhere so how can we do such a thing?
But in the Bible, there are examples of where God manifested a greater Presence, for example to Moses:
And the Lord said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.’”
Exodus 33:19 NIV
We cannot manufacture this, but we can energise people’s faith so that they are more aware of His Presence.
How can we ignite people’s faith?
There is no better way than by Scripture – the Bible:
…how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:15-16 NIV
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”
The words ‘the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for** salvation’ are interesting in that they can be translated:
‘the holy Scriptures, which are able to enlighten, moving you toward a saving and proper relationship with God.’
The word translated as ‘for**’ in Greek involves ‘movement, toward or into an area.’
So in other words, the Bible MOVES US!
Surely this is the answer to igniting faith and enabling people to be aware of God’s Presence?
And all this ‘through faith in Christ Jesus’.
The Bible is God-breathed – it is the Word of God and it lifts and feeds people like nothing else!
Bible verses can be used very powerfully within church worship to lift the congregation.
2. Can certain worship songs be anointed?
Some people in the Bible were anointed by God and even Jesus was, but can songs be anointed?
There is biblical evidence that shows that songs can be anointed by God.
The prophet Samuel said to the newly appointed King Saul:
And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying.
1 Samuel 10:5-6 ESV
Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.”
These songs must have been anointed because as they were being played they were all prophecing including King Saul!
So, God’s power can be within some songs resulting in people being touched and changed.
3. Can anointed songs drive out Satan?
Young David, who had the Spirit of God upon his life, could play songs that drove away evil spirits:
And whenever the harmful spirit from God*** was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand.
1 Samuel 16:23 ESV
So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.”
The word translated as ‘God***’ from the Hebrew ‘אֱלֹהִים’ (e.lo.him) means ‘God’, but it is also used for ‘rulers, judges, divine ones, angels and gods’.
So yes, anointed songs can have the power and authority of heaven to drive evil spirits away.
4. Worship songs can touch our hearts.
Some songs are able to speak to us in a very powerful way, they seem to be ‘anointed’ by God, but they are just for a season.
So instead of trying to find more and more new songs, why not use them every week and get all that goodness out of them that God wants to feed us with?
Repeating good things is not bad – that was the apostle Peter’s way. He kept reminding them of the gospel truths:
Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught.”
2 Peter 1:12 (NLT)
The Lord can come near to us as King in a powerful way when we lift Him in praise and worship:
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”
Psalms 22:3 ESV
The prophet Elisha was visited by King Jehoram – king of Israel, King Jehoshaphat – king of Judah and the king of Edom.
But Elisha was agitated because he was in the presence of the evil King Jehoram, so he asked for divine music to be played to refresh his spirit: 1
And Elisha said, ‘As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you. But now bring me a musician.’
2 Kings 3:14-16 ESV
And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him.
And he said, “Thus says the Lord…”
An anointed worship song can lift us and enable us to hear from the Lord.
5. Aiming for reality – we want joyful worship!
I expect we have all been in a church situation where everyone is expected to bounce around on a Pogo stick – regardless of where people are at and then some will feel guilty for being sad or contemplative.
This is not what the Lord wants, remember what Paul wrote:
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”
Romans 12:15 NIV
That doesn’t mean chucking out all the happy, bouncy songs!
But whatever we do, it must be real.
Look at Naomi, she had lost her husband and then her only two sons.
Did she pretend everything was great, no she was honest and real:
‘Don’t call me Naomi,’ she told them.
Ruth 1:20 NIV
‘Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.’”
Did that mean that she had lost her faith? No!
Was God angry with her for thinking like that, was she now written out of God’s plans? Of course not!
Ruth was not an Israelite but she could see the light of God within Naomi – even at Naomi’s lowest point and Ruth was willing to give up her own country and friends to be with her.
Naomi was in a hard place and she had to work through it, but she didn’t step into unreality.
The outcome of these hard times is that Ruth is mentioned at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, “and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king…” 2
In our church worship, we need to draw people into God’s Presence and then whatever their reaction, it is likely to be genuine.
We need to hold onto God’s promise:
The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.”
Psalms 145:14 NIV
6. Aiming for reality – we want orderly worship!
In very formal services you could be bursting with a passion for Jesus, but there is no outlet.
Surely all emotion is not spiritual?
We need to learn from King David who was so excited that the ark of God was being brought into the city of David.
The ark represented the very Presence of God, so as it was being carried the priests performed sacrifices.
So, did David solemnly follow the ark? No!
David danced before the Lord with all his might.
2 Samuel 6:12-17 ESV
And David was wearing a linen ephod.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.
As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.
And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it.
And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.”
David was not afraid of showing emotion and his love for the Lord.
But his wife, Michal, was not happy at what she saw as a shameful display of emotion – only in keeping with the rough, uncouth people.
She saw it as being frivolous and not in keeping with the event:
And David returned to bless his household.
2 Samuel 6:20-23 ESV
But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said,
‘How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!’
And David said to Michal,
‘It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will celebrate before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.’
And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.”
Ouch, that was tough, but we need to learn the lesson that King David was being real and he was unafraid to worship God like a child before their father.
I repeat – he was being real. He was not dancing because he thought others wanted him to do that.
It was a natural display of humble joy.
In the last Psalm in the Bible, you don’t get a feeling of cold formality, there is dancing and even clashing cymbals!
…praise him with tambourine and dancing,
Psalms 150:4-6 NIV
praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”
7. Non-stop worship songs in church.
In many of the less formal church services, there can be solid blocks of songs.
It can be good, but it can feel quite claustrophobic – our senses are bombarded.
Sometimes it would be good to stop and think about what has just been sung.
Could God be saying to us:
Be still, and know that I am God…”
Psalms 46:10 NIV
In our culture, our time is filled with visual stimuli and noise.
It can be beneficial to provide space and silence.
Noise can shut out God’s voice. It is good to wait and look for Him:
The eyes of all wait for You [looking, watching, and expecting] and You give them their food in due season.”
Psalms 145:15 (The Amplified Bible)
It is also profitable to listen to verses from the Bible to focus people’s minds on biblical Truth, which brings us round to point one again, ‘Can we bring God’s Presence into a time of worship?’
More detailed articles
A Return to Early Church Worship and its message.
What is church doctrine? Go Shake Your World With It!
What should the Gospel message be?
References and credits – open in new tabs:
‘The Power of Anointed Worship Music’ By Dr. David K. Blomgren. The Secret Place. ↩
Matthew 1:5-6 ESV ↩