Worship the Lord

Psalms 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. (Holiness: apartness, sacredness, separateness: **Strong’s 6944).

John 4:23-24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Most of us are not able to worship the Father in spirit and in truth because we still dwell in Babylon. The deception of Babylon is so pervasive that we do not even recognize the shallowness of our worship experience.

In Satan’s Kingdom, Babylon, our lives reflect a mixture of good and evil. We approach God by desiring him to come to us in our needy condition and circumstances. We are often the center of our world of thought. We want God to meet us where we are. We expect to fully understand the purpose of our lives and to play an active role in bringing that purpose into fruition. In other words, we expect to co-master our lives along with God. Our “worship” is more about what he can and will do for us rather than about exalting and glorifying the Most High. “I”, “me”, and “us”, are well-worn words. In Babylon, “worship in spirit and in truth” does not happen. Where there is a mixture of identity and spirit there is not perfect truth.

Re 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her (*Babylon), my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Matthew 6:31-34 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, Jerusalem, we have lost attachment to the state of our circumstances, our reputations, and our self will, and have presented our lives as living sacrifices to God. He is the center of our focus and desire. We hunger not after the things of this earth, but to become wholly sanctified unto our God in righteousness. We are consumed with the desire to know him, serve him, please him and love him. We willingly suffer loss for him. We do not look to withhold any part of our lives or our possessions from him. We give him total mastery and we trust him more than we trust ourselves. We allow God to take the “me” out of the equation of our lives. When there is no longer any “me”, then we have come out of Babylon and have become separated unto God.

In order for this process to be fulfilled we must walk through an abundance of testing. Because we have been born on earth, into Babylon, Satan feels that he possesses certain legal rights to us. What ties us to Babylon is our identity, or the importance of “me”. The identity dies hard. It has been programmed to believe that it is the master of our pursuit of God. Testing will always challenge our willingness to thoroughly trust God, rather than to lean on our own understanding. We will be required to trust him to direct and master the words that we speak and the actions that we take. When Satan then comes to accuse us of our words and actions, we do not take ownership of them. We trust that the outcome of all that we do and say is mastered by God alone.

There will be many times that we will feel grief over words that we have spoken or things that we have done. The temptation to take responsibility for them will be promoted by Satan’s confirming flood of condemnation and guilt. When we have given the reigns of our volition to Christ and made him Lord and Master of our lives, we do not have the right to question what we have said or done. The appropriate response would have been the word of our testimony: “I do not own myself. Christ is the Master of my life.” These are tests designed to make our “me” take back ownership and responsibility for our lives.

When we reach the place where our automatic response in the face of any circumstance is “not my will but thine be done”, Satan will lose his right to challenge Christ’s authority over our lives. Then, like Christ, we will be able to say that the prince of this world “hath nothing in me”. John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and HATH NOTHING IN ME.

Then are we truly “found in him”. This begins our life in the Kingdom of Heaven. We have been separated out of Babylon and Christ has become our covering.

Philippians 3:7-9 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be FOUND IN HIM, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the FAITH OF CHRIST, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Romans 8:34-39 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace SANCTIFY (**Strong’s 6942: to consecrate, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be separate) you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Christ’s kingdom there is absolute truth. Our spirits live in the waters of his holy presence. “To worship the Father in spirit and in truth” is our natural response. The flow is always there. Psalms 46:4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Psalms 40:2-5 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

*Added by author for clarity

**Strong's Comprehensive Concordance of the Bible
World Bible Publishers, Inc.
Iowa Falls, Iowa

Copyright by Kristine Buss, February 8, 2009