I.

INTRODUCTION

 Start the session with just a simple prayer after practicing some songs.

 Choose a slow worshipful song for this activity. Make sure it’s a song that
people know well enough or is easy enough for people to sing without looking at the
words. (Note: Slow songs make it easier for people to feel the presence of God more and
as such are more effective for this activity).

 Explain the words of the song / Help people understand what it means and
encourage them to pray the song as they sing it. In order to help participants focus
even more, ask them to close their eyes. Worship, in a sense, transports people into
God’s presence – into His “courts” if we may refer it in that way – encourage people
to take note of how they perceive that in the vision that they will see in their minds.

 Sing the song (For the speaker, make sure that you yourself are praying the song)

 Get feedback. Find out what images they saw in their minds. Was the Lord present
in the picture of their mind’s eye? Where were they? Were they standing, seated,
kneeling, hands outstretched or clasped?

 Sing the song one more time, this time challenging the participants to allow their
physical bodies to express what they see themselves doing in their minds. Help
them realize that their whole bodies want to pray also, and that if they intend to give
their lives to the Lord, at the very least, it begins with surrendering their bodies as
expressed by a raised hand, outstretched arms or bended knees.

 Feel free to sing in the spirit or in tongues or sing a second song, as the Spirit
leads.

 Get feedback on what they experienced. Find out if some may have received
prophecies or visions.

I. UNDERSTANDING WORSHIP

A. Worship is the central point of our gatherings

1. It’s supposed to be inspiring and should build up the body. Worship should be
nourishing and spirit-filled.

2. Recently, however, much of our worship has been dry and sometimes
perceived as a waste of time. This is so because many times, our worship
leaders are unable to lead people to worship. Many times our worship is not
worship at all.
B. Worship is being able to honestly say “You are God and I am not, and THAT IS
GREAT!!!”

NJB Psalms 150:1-6

1. Alleluia! Praise God in His holy place, praise Him in the heavenly vault of his power,
2. Praise him for His mighty deeds, praise Him for all His greatness. 3. Praise Him with
fanfare of trumpet, praise Him with harp and lyre, 4. Praise Him with tambourines and
dancing, praise Him with strings and pipes, 5. Praise Him with the clamour of cymbals,
praise Him with triumphant cymbals, 6. Let everything that breathes praise Yahweh.
Alleluia!

1. Just as we experienced at the start of this talk, worship is being able to

come into that loving, healing and mighty presence of God and being able to
acknowledge that HE ALONE IS GOD – loving, healing and mighty!

At the same time, we are blessed by the healing grace of His presence and by
the mere fact that this same GOD holds us as special and in spite of our sins and
imperfections sees us as the gem of His creation.

2. Worship is paying “homage” to our true King and Captain. In the same way
that subjects in ancient times have to regularly visit their ruler and pay “tribute” or
“homage” or “tax” (in more modern terms). We come to pay homage admitting
that everything we have is His. At the same time, we are grateful that HE gives
all of these – our bodies, our minds, our money, our property – for us to freely
use, and that He never punishes us as we deserve whenever we misuse these
things which are rightfully HIS.

3. Worship is one of the very few times when we are able to have a taste of
how it was and a foretaste of how it will. It’s the time when we in our “fallen –
sinful - human natures” are able to connect to God in spirit the way it was meant
to be before our sin made it impossible for us to continually be in God’s presence
(as Adam and Eve were). It allows us a foretaste of the kind of relationship we
will have with God when we are made perfect in heaven.

4. There are three levels that we usually go through when we really worship:
a. The first is when we start speaking words of PRAISE – or what we might be
liken to as “introductions” in any audience. This is where we honor God and
acknowledge His greatness.

b. The second is WORSHIP – this is when we start saying how we feel and
when we begin to truly realize God’s greatness. In this level, people start to
“offer” themselves to God saying “I belong to you…my life is yours”.

c. The third is GLORY – this is when we actually come into the holy presence of
God. It is at this level that God speaks, we listen then we respond. This is
where we receive prophecies, visions, where we cry at the realization of
God’s love and mercy, where emotional and “physical’ healing takes place.
 Sadly, most worship leaders are not aware of this nor do they strive to
reach these levels of worship. We sing a lot of songs, we say a lot of words
that include the word “Lord” and “Amen” but few of these are able to make actual
worship take place. Maybe, this is why there are less and less of the spiritual
gifts (tongues, prophecies, visions etc….) during our worships and activities.

Every worship, whether it is alone in your own prayer time, a household

meeting, a teaching, assembly or “Praisefest” should reach this third level.
Any worship leader who does not have this as their goal for worship misses the
whole point, and may have not actually lead people to worship.

Before we start to think that leading worship is next to impossible, we need

to realize that the effort is almost totally out of our hands and in the very capable
hands of God Himself. God wants us to connect to Him much more than we
want for ourselves and for our members. This takes a huge pressure off of our
shoulders because worship then does not depend on our eloquence or on the
dynamics or tone of our voices but rather depends on and simply begins with an
honest desire to be in God’s presence.

II. SOME IMPORTANT ATTITUDES REGARDING WORSHIP

A. Every worship should start with an exhortation.

Exhortation is giving people reason to worship. It should be able to inspire them

to come before the Lord in jubilant praise. It can either be a personal sharing, a story
or a bible verse. An exhortation need not be long but should be encouraging and
acknowledges God’s greatness in our lives.

B. You need to worship in order to lead worship

Avoid just singing songs. Enter into God’s Holy presence, raise your hands and
mean it. Pray in tongues. Listen to God.

Don’t be too conscious of the words you will use, just speak exactly what is in your
heart. Talk to the Lord as if He were in front of you, because He is. Avoid making
your prayer a “well-rehearsed speech” with words “Lord” at the beginning and “Amen
“at the end.

C. Worship is an expression of your life

Worship is very important, but is only an expression of the even more important
reality you are living. Be careful in saying words like “Lord Jesus We Enthrone You”
or “Refiners fire, my heart’s one desire is to be holy” if it’s not true in your life, if you
do only what you want in your life – in other words – you are calling the shots.

Worship - especially leading worship is difficult if there is serious

unrighteousness in your life (e.g. premarital sex, cheating, gambling, stealing etc….)

This doesn’t mean that you should choose not to worship or decline from
leading worship – since after all, none of us are worthy because all of us are sinful.
 Rather, it’s in always having a genuine repentant attitude. Come before God’s
presence and humbly ask for His mercy.

Be Real and Honest. Come before God in total humility. Surrender and allow God’s
spirit to flow through you. Never fake it.

Be knowledgeable. Know the songs by heart. Know their meaning, the right tune
and know how to lead people into singing in the spirit.

D. Avoid anything that distracts

Avoid anything that distracts you or the people you are leading from focusing
on God – who after all is the object of our worship.

Don’t use action songs during the “worship proper.”

Try to make everything clear – announce song titles and numbers. Announce
where the song is headed (next line or verse).

III. CONCLUSION

NJB Exodus 34:29-33

29. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands,
as he was coming down the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face was radiant
because he had been talking to Him… 33. Once Moses had finished speaking to them, he put a
veil over his face.

NJB 2 Corinthians 3:18

18. And all of us, with our unveiled faces like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the image that we reflect in brighter and brighter glory; this is the working of the
Lord who is the Spirit.

Like Moses, when people are brought into God’s presence, they are changed – from
“one degree of glory to the next”. This is the privilege we have - to help people
experience the pure joy and ecstasy of God’s presence in worship. It should be our
intention to always bring people into this level of communion and reconciliation with
Jesus in spirit and our own joy to see them somehow changed.

Note: End the session by leading the whole group into worship. Encourage them to express
themselves freely as they worship in “spirit and truth.” Encourage them to raise their
hands, to kneel down, to clap, to pray in tongues and any other means they feel they will be
able to truly worship and enter in the presence of God.