Worship From An Alabaster Flask Part 1

 Alabaster Flask Worship is worship from deep within the recess of the Spirit, it’s not for show off but the glorification of God. It is an overflow from within a heart that is pouring itself before God.

There two accounts of women breaking alabaster flask of costly ointment onto Jesus. The first one is the account of Luke which happened at the start of Jesus’ ministry and the other account was 2 days before Jesus was crucified in a village called Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper.

Today we start our story in Luke 7: 36-50 where Jesus is just starting ministry and this account of Mark puts Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee.

A woman who is considered to be a prostitute this is seen in the way they labeled her to Jesus and this woman burst into the room full of Pharisees and Jesus disciples who are reclining at the table eating and she had with her an alabaster box of ointment.

She came to Jesus and worshipped him without words

1. She broke the bottle: the only way to open the flask in those days was to break it open. As she broke the flask she showed the brokenness in her life and her desire to be broken for the Lord.

2. Stood at his feet behind him weeping, When they sat to eat they would put their heads and top body towards the table and the legs away from the table. Weeping is an outward manifestation of the condition of the heart. There are so many reasons why she was crying before the Lord

3. Wash his feet with tears, washing of feet was important in the Jewish culture, if one was a guest and was invited into the house, the house master would either wash your feet or set water for you. It showed hospitality, another question is which parts of the body did Jesus wash his disciples (the feet). Why the feet, why the washing of the feet, Jesus said that if I do not wash your feet you do not have a part in me. This woman washed the feet of Jesus she gathered a part of Christ at the table.

4. Wipe them with the hairs of her head, a woman’s hair was her beauty and to use that which you called my beauty and use it to minister to God. Minister out of the beauty in your life, when you do such you are ministering to God’s heart. Worship with everything, she was abandoning all she had, costly ointment and the most important thing in her life her beauty for Jesus.

5. Kissed his feet -- this showed homage, humility, giving honour; it’s a sign to show that you honour the person. The kiss was used in ancient times as the emblem of love, religious reverence, subjection, and supplication. It has the meaning of supplication, in the way of adoration, accompanied with subjection…. Judas betrayed Jesus with a what? She was abandoning her whole life before the Lord.

6. Anointed them with the ointment- an alabaster box of very precious ointment or alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious (a years wages). Worship has a cost to it, following Jesus has a price and this woman choose to spend her year’s wages to minister to Jesus. What does your worship cost

They say the things we do on the outside are a true reflection of what is within our hearts. This means that this woman had washed Jesus feet, anointed them, wet his feet with her tears many times before in her heart within her house before she was able to do upon His feet. Your worship is a true reflection of the condition of your heart.

I truly believe that this woman had thought about doing this act in her life, she thought about the shame that it could bring her, she thought through it before and (when she knew that Jesus sat at) she seized the opportunity and she ran. She wasn’t worried about people’s reaction all she desired was to glorify Jesus. She wasn’t qualified to worship but God qualified her

She did a significant thing in the bible as she anointed Jesus ministry placing and validating it with honour, brokenness, beauty and affection in it. She did an extraordinary thing and if a sinner can bring such worship before God what kind of worship are we to bring, us the saved ones who are called of the Lord.

I pray that God opens our eyes to know how to worship Him as he is meant to be worshipped to bring brokenness, humility, honour and beauty into his presence and at his feet all the days of our lives.

"Worship Him In The Beauty Of His Holiness"

Worship Isn’t A Carnal Weapon

Worship is vehicle that allows us access into God’s throne room and access to his presence. Worship allows us to express our gratitude and heartfelt desires to God, it is a blessing to mankind because it has opened a platform for us to commune with God.

Worship glorifies and blesses God and it’s in the process that you find that the satanic kingdom is destroyed. Over time we have learnt that worship is a very powerful weapon for mankind in fighting evil.  Studying the scriptures I found out that for worship to be a mighty weapon, the focus and object of that worship should totally be God and no one else.

In the scriptures listed below you will see that it was when Israel sought God and made the focus of their worship on lifting up God and putting their eyes and confidence in God not their enemies. God would ask them to worship and their deliverance would come through their worship. Why does God send trained warriors to the battle field to worship and not to lift up a sword but send them to worship him only? 

• “And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled”. Judges 7:21 

Their breakthrough came by blowing their trumpets, shouting for God and their enemies started to kill themselves

• “And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten”. 2Chronciles 20:21-22 

Their singing and worship opened a door for the Lord to set an ambush for Israel’s enemies. All kinds of worshipper were placed in front of the warriors that they would worship God in the Beauty of his holiness,

• “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed”. Act 16: 25-26 

They weren’t focused on the jail, dim inner cell or the chains, their worship was directed towards God. They did not expect God to cause an earthquake their intention were simple, just to lift the name of the Lord. When you worship what is your intention?

One thing that stands out is that when God is the object and centre of your worship, evil flees. “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel”. Psalms 22:3 God dwells and lives in the praises of his people. The revelation is when we make God the focal point of our worship he inturn responds by seating or dwelling in our worship.

God moves with all of heaven and when we lift him up he inturn bring all of heaven to a place where he is honoured and in the process, God’s arrival displaces darkness. God centered worship paves and clears the place for God to dwell. Jehoshaphat said to his people just worship Him in the beauty of his holiness and it is when they worshipped God as such that they prepared the place where God would dwell and God doesn’t share with the devil.

Sometimes we think it’s how well we sing or pray that causes God to destroy our enemies. I’m here to tell you that it is God who does that work not us, our focus should be to lift up God and not to destroy the devil with our singing or our worship. You can’t worship the devil away, you worship to bless God and a byproduct of such an act is the displacement of the devil.

 “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds”, 2 Corinthians 10:4 Worship is indeed a weapon that we have in our hands today and a lot of people and worship leaders do not understand the power of worship to bring us before God.

This is the one thing the devil is against in the church because he knows the power of worship in the hands of mankind and the havoc it causes to his kingdom when men decide to make God the centre of their worship.

Worship Him In The Beauty Of His Holiness

Worship That Opens Up The Heavens

Today we talk about worship that opens up the heavens starting from the book of Judge Chapter 6, it is how God called Gideon made life his life peculiar. I always say that Worship is a response and that Worship is obedience, how many of us respond to God or his promptings. I pray that after reading through this article God will open your eyes and give you a life that responds and obey in Jesus Name.

Background to the story is that Israel was under the oppression and terror of Midianites for over 7 years and Gideon was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat (doing the right thing in the wrong place just shows you the fear that was in Gideon life).His father was a gateway to the worship of Baal in Israel and idolatry was rife at this time.

 Gideon had fear, self esteem and was under strain of his life and the life in Israel was still unsettled place regardless of all this, he had an incredible revelation that opened up the heavens over his life and that of Israel.  Someone will say Gideon was already chosen by God, so God was bound to do it and that’s why his story is peculiar.

 I truly believe that God has given free will to man and God will only work with a man to the level of his personal willingness and Gideon’s willingness was high. Gideon gave all his free will to God and look at the outcome of his life, Total Abandonment.

Worship is a freewill offering of total abandonment, Worship is your response to God and Worship is obedience

• Judges 6:20-21 Gideon’s response to meeting an angel of the Lord under an oak tree was to offer his sacrifice before the angel, several  things that blew my mind

Gideon met an ordinary men, he did not even know that he was an angel, what makes an ordinary men, hiding in a winepress, living in a place where idolatry is rife come to a place where he was provoked by just words of a man whom he did not know or even knew that he was an angel and decide to look for an offering, such a revelation.

How long does it take to make cake, to kill a goat and to make broth (soup), I guess it must be an hour or two or several  but still the angel of the Lord waited until he brought soup, cakes and flesh of a goat to him. The angel never complained about time it’s because it understood that the language of heaven is total abandonment. 

When he came with the offering why didn’t he protest, “you are asking me to put things I spent hours preparing on top of a rock and just waste them on a rock? Gideon never objected it was his obedience to the man and the word he spoke that opened the heavens over his life. “His obedience granted him audience with God”

There is something that Gideon knew that we need to grab ahold of today. It was his obedience and abandonment that caused heaven to step in and God responded and spoke to Gideon.

• God responded to Gideon by reassuring him with words of comfort because Gideon thought he was going to die because he realized that he had an encounter with an angel of God. When God spoke these words of comfort Gideon responded by “building an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah Shalom” Jehovah Shalom signifies The Lord is my peace or the peace of Jehovah.

The exact place where God spoke to him was the same place where built the altar, Gideon didn’t need to offer that offering, God didn’t require of that offering.  He was not obligated to offer it but out of his worship he responded to the open heaven by building an altar. It was his total abandonment and his response to God that opened the heavens over his life.

• “And it came to pass the same night” Judges 6:25 it wasn’t an afar off thing God responded also that same night to Gideon’s offering by asking him to destroy the altar of Baal and Asherah and build an new altar on a rock and sacrifice upon it bulls, this was such a significant sacrifice because it destroyed the satanic hold over the people.

 As soon as he these life changing encounters with God the Bible says in  Judges 6:34 “But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon” and then afterwards he went to war to defend Israelites against Midian the same people he was running from.

His response to the request of the Lord was prompt, he destroyed the altars of Baal and Asherah the same night God spoke to him. Do not take for granted the things that are required of you by God.

God speaks + Sacrifice or worship   = Open Heavens

The equation in Gideon’s life

People are crying today they want to hear God speak to them, God responds to worship, God responds to total abandonment, God responds to obedience, God responds to offerings and God responds according to your responses. You want heaven to open up, start living such a life and talking with God becomes daily food.

What made the life of Gideon was his response, his obedience and his total abandonment in his offering that caused a fearful man, a man with low self esteem and a man whose father was a gateway to the worship of other gods to become one of the greatest judges of Israel. Gideon never lacked an open heaven, God’s voice and miracles in his life even after this encounter and for the rest of his days as a judge.

Let Your Worship Open Heavens for you.

I pray that whatever made Gideon’s worship open up the heavens for his life, may that revelation and lifestyle becomes a foundation in your worship In Jesus Name.

 "Worship Him In The Beauty Of His Holiness"

Why Worship Is All About Reverence

 Reverence comes from a primitive root which means to fear; causatively to frighten: affright, be (make) afraid, dreadful fear, tremble. The dictionary will tell us that fear is deep respect, if that’s the case then what does reverence mean. I believe that fear doesn’t bring us escape from God but bring us closer.

If you would read the Amplified Bible you will realize that they replaced the word fear with reverence. There is power when we come before God with our hearts and minds carrying an attitude of reverence, not being afraid of Him or dreadful but giving him that deep respect and honour that he deserves.

As a worshipper, when the revelation of reverence hits you don’t lead people in worship when you know that you are living in sin or you are dry.  The sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu died as they offered strange fires before the altar of God; if they had reverence they wouldn’t have offered such fires. Reading the bible you will realize that fear and knowledge work together

In the wilderness the Israelites feared, dreaded God because they had seen many dying before them, ground opening, plagues, snakes and mighty things that God did. When they would approach God they were in dread hoping that they aren’t the ones next to die. When we worship what is it that you fear the most; to be struck down at the altar like Nadab and Abihu or you are just in the presence of the most loving being on earth, who forgives and loves us inspite of our sins?

Ps 135:20 “Bless the Lord, O house of Levi [the dedicated tribe]; you who reverently {and} worshipfully fear the Lord, bless the Lord [affectionately and gratefully praise [Him]”.

Ps 95:6 “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker [in reverent praise and supplication]”.

Isa 38:19 “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth. Blessed who reverently {and} worshipfully fears the Lord”.

Worldly respect and reverence bows, goes on its knees, prostrate, kiss the shoes, kisses the earth they step upon before your statesmen, great uncles, god’s of the area, superior’s and elders. When we come before God we can also bow, go on our knees and lie prostrate but that same respect and reverence we have for the world we do not have for God.

The fear that a worshipper carries is of deep respect, fear and that awe that He is God, the fact the he is the great God. It’s not the dread it’s the love to give him his position and place that he is God in everything. This same fear brings us before Him with the knowledge that He is a terrible and loving God at the same time.

Let our worship stem from awe, deep covenantal respect and honour for the one that we worship and deeply rooted in the knowledge of who He is. When God visits your heart what will he find?

Worship In The Beauty Of His Majesty

Distractions To Worship

Worship is all about glorifying God, its starts from the heart and it’s expressed through a lot of ways our lives, singing, praying, dancing, a lifestyle and many other ways of expressing it to God. The idea of worship is that one prostrates himself before a superior being with a sense of respect, fear and awe.

A lot of times we come before God and we have a certain way we want him to show up and do certain things in our lives and he usually does the opposite, which always leaves us standing in awe of who he is, “this can only be done by God”.

There are so many distractions to our worship and here are just a few of them;

1. We aren’t meant to enjoy worship we are meant to enjoy the presence of God. We now Worship, Worship itself we get so lost in the fellowship with other saints, the music, the ambiance and everything else and we loose sight that we are meant to worship God and not the things around us.

2. We come before the Lord, we sing, lift our hands and bow before the Lord but in the midst of it we are so focused on what other people are thinking of our worship. Am I raising my hands too high, I’m I saw dressed appropriately, do they think I am a cry baby. We are so focused on ourselves and our minds instead of worshipping are           thinking what is that person thinking of me?

3. If I don’t feel moved by the song then I can’t worship, one person wrote this “there are some Christians who only consider it to be worship when they are emotionally moved by a song that they get a gooey feeling”, chicken skin or a chill down their spine.

4. Whether you are in the choir, band or you are the worship leader, you would also get distracted a lot by thinking am I sounding nice, is my pitch and sound coming out nice, we become so concerned with the way we show up and show forth than the God we are meant to worship.

 

5. Today men are more busier than ever, with jobs, life, business, ministry and schedules. People are working more and more time, energy and resources and giving it all their lives to jobs and their busy schedules that they give the Lord the leftovers of their lives. Some feel like Sunday is their day of rest than it being a day of worship. We are too tired because of everything to give God his rightful place in our lives and present Him with the “Glory due His Name”.

Which one is your distraction? It may not be listed in this article but take time to think about and work on those distractions in your life. That’s causing you to be distracted, single that thing or things so that you may cut it off.

Worship in the Beauty Of His Holiness

The Role Of The Holy Spirit Part 2

When I discovered my calling in worship I was so hungry and thirsty to know what worship is all about by as I spoke with other worshippers I got frustrated by the answers that they gave to me, because the answers that they have me were merely words and people’s experiences, few where teaching me about the importance of the Holy Spirit in worship

It wasn’t to last a few years later that I learnt the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s good to know people’s experiences in worship but do not make them the basis of your understanding of worship. Use the word as your basis to understand worship and its importance.

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you”, John 16:13-14 

1.    He will guide you into all truth

“But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him”, 1 John 2:27

“But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things”, 1 John 2:20

The Holy Spirit is the Teacher he will teach us all things not just of the physical world but also of the spirit world. If he will teach us all things can’t we not ask to be taught to worship in the manner that God desires to be worshipped.

2.    For he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak

The Holy Spirit is teacher and all that he teaches he teaches out of God. Jesus said all that I do I see my Father doing and in this scripture we learn that all that the Holy Spirit will teach us shall come from God. Let the cry of our hearts be that we learn and become accustomed to the worship of God

How many of us have ever asked the Holy Spirit to teach us the sound and worship of heaven? Have we ever availed ourselves to know from God the manner by which he desires to be glorified?

 

3.    He will show you things to come

He is endowed with the ability to know the things of heaven, He has insight of the move and the things of God. God is the same yesterday today and tomorrow but have you noticed that God evolves daily.

The Holy Spirit knows the things to come and we need to learn to follow the Holy Spirit so that we may know how to bring things in that are in the future and bring them into the present through worship. The season is now that we as worshippers pray that we may see as the Holy Spirit see and hear as he hears to that we may worship in the prophetic and institute things by the spirit of god and this can only be done through the spirit of God

4.    He shall glorify me

“Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost”, 1 Corinthians 12:3

Glorify means to bless, to honour, to magnify and the Holy Spirit shall do all it work to bless God, so even in our worship the Holy Spirit will work to glorify God, so as he guides us he only intention is to glorify God. So when we worship with the Holy Spirit you are guaranteed encountering God because the Holy Spirit’s objective is to glorify God, so when we stand beside him we will end up blessing God in all directions with the direction and leading of the Spirit.

5.      For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you

Whatever God extends to the Holy Spirit that which he will also reveal to us. The word show there means reveal, speak, tell announce. How much of God has his Spirit shown you? One man wrote that it’s quite difficult to worship a God you don’t know or have knowledge of.

What of God has the Holy Spirit shown unto you in your life, revealed to you. Don’t worship God based on your neighbour’s, friend’s or parents revelation seek your own knowledge of God, seek your own revelation of God. Sit down and allow the Holy Spirit teach you the person of the Holy Spirit.

What have you received from the Holy Spirit that makes you to stand and worship in your own unique way? What have you received from God that makes you stand and worship him all night without complaining? Whatever the Spirit shows us it’s a blessing of the Lord given to us.

The Spirit  of God is working day and night in the earth, my question is have you ever allowed the Holy Spirit to transform your life, to transform your worship, transform your revelation transform you to be a servant of the Lord Jesus. Have you ever allowed the Holy Spirit access for him to recalibrate and remodel your worship?

 Have you ever sat down and asked the Lord to fill you with the Holy Spirit,

 

 Pray with me right now

“Father I thank you that you are a good God and that you love me, thank you for choosing me and chasing after me and now I choose you also. I want to also chase you and today I ask that your Holy Spirit would fill my life and remodel everything in my life from my knowledge, revelation of you, my worship, enhance and open my eyes and ears so that I may know you more. May your Holy Spirit teach me to worship you daily and from today I choose to be led by the Holy Spirit in all I do. I thank you for this gift of the Holy Spirit, I thank you for transforming my life so that I may magnify honour and glorify your name for eternity. Thank you Lord. Amen