Healing in worship
Have you ever been in a time of worship, personal or congregational, and found yourself crying and thinking ‘what in the world is going on?’ Have you ever entered a time of worship with physical pain or some sort of illness and walked away from that time realizing that it’s gone?
Or have you ever felt oppressed and felt it kind of ‘lift’ off you as you worshiped God? I am not talking about feeling emotional or uplifted just because of the music – it’s something more. You know God is doing something in you – His Spirit is moving as the musicians play and as He is worshiped.
To me, if I think logically, the fact that God would pour out His Spirit on us during a time that is for Him alone is ridiculous! Worship is to God, for God and about God – so why is it that He chooses to move powerfully among us as we worship Him? In part, it’s a mystery, but we do find some answers in scripture. Firstly, we know that the Father’s love for us is so incredible, so incomparable that He would send His son Jesus to die on the cross in order that we may be reconciled to the Him. But it doesn’t stop there – in Luke 4 we read that Jesus came to ‘preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.’
God’s love for us is so amazing that He not only made a way for us to be made whole and have eternal life free from pain and suffering when we leave this earth, but He longs to bring emotional, physical and spiritual healing and freedom to us today for His glory. His Spirit is in us and He is there with us when two or more gather together, so we shouldn’t be surprised to see these things happen when we seek God and worship Him both personally and corporately.
When I was nineteen years old I moved to England from Australia, and with me I brought baggage and wounds from my past. The church I had come from was great in so many ways, but never taught us about the Holy Spirit, so when I came to England and took part in corporate worship that was Spirit led, I began to find myself weeping – sometimes kinda loudly too, which in a way was a bit embarrassing! However I was desperate to be free from these wounds so I chose to just let God do what He wanted to do in me. It is through the healing that God has brought me that I am so passionate about seeing others healed and set free. It’s why the theme of healing is something that spills into my songwriting, and it’s why I enter times of congregational worship knowing that God longs to bring healing and expecting to see Him heal and restore those who are broken and hopeless.
It is just so amazing that God moves amongst us as we worship Him! When we choose to be open to Him, He can bring healing and freedom to us, and He can speak through any of us using the creativity He has given us to sing songs of hope and healing to others. So as we lead others in worship with our voices and instruments, let’s remember to be open to whatever God wants to do among us. It’s so incredible to see lives transformed by His power and presence and to see Him glorified in and through us.
wholestone
From unknown
I find that when I'm at home listening to a CD or one of the Christian Radio stations, UCB or Premier, I feel led to worship. Especially after I have been reading God's Word. Last night I had read the Word and was listening to the Worship on UCB and found myself weeping and raising my arms in Worship. I was led to write an encouraging text to my friends, which,though not unusual for me, was different last night, because I knew in my heart that God was telling me what to write. Worship, whether congregational or individual, is someting to bless and encourage. If what you recieve a healing or a comforting from the Lord, then continue in your worship, for that is what the Lord is teaching today. We do not Worship God enough in the west. Look at our Jewish cousins, or even Islam they 'worship' four or five times a day, I even saw a young Jewish girl readng the Torah and worshiping God on the bus the other day.
Worship is a God given gift for us to use 24/7 and 365 days a year. Use it and allow our God, our Saviour to bless us, heal us, comfort us. Jesus died for our sins, we sin if we do not worship Him. Worship is a heart thing, and a head thing. Sing in your head, if you feel embrrased about singing loud in the street. And worship with your heart focussed on the Lord. Worship = Worthy of my Praise. And add that to Faith = For All I Trust Him. And your day, your week will go smooth, and you will bless those around you without even realising it. God bless you, and receive your Blessing as you Worship.
I don't want to put a dampener on things, but I think we have to be very careful (ie wise and discerning - totally biblical concepts) on this whole subject.
It's well-known that singing a few songs can have a physiological effect - basically the body produces endorphins, powerful hormones that serve as natural painkillers. So you can quite easily believe that you've been healed because the pain has gone away, but a few hours later the effect wears off and it's back to normal. This can actually have become addictive for some people - they have to go back to a worship celebration to get an emotional high and to feel that they are healed when they are in the presence of God (a flawed concept anyway as we're in the presence of God 24/7). Needless to say this brief symptomatic relief is no more a divine healing than taking a couple of paracetamol is.
A good example was the Lakeland "revival" of 2008. I know that this is a bit controversial, but the evidence is overwhelming that the tens of thousands of healings that they claimed never actually happened. Prolonged worship produced endorphin highs in the congregation, and a manipulative speaker tricked many into believing that they were healed. But this was only temporary and when it was examined in the cold light of day, outside the highly charged emotional atmosphere of the meetings, there was no-one who could testify to healing.
In the end, I'd hope we all want the real things of God, not the counterfeits. There's a huge responsibility on leaders in the church (including worship leaders) to make sure that they're aware of the ways that the enemy can deceive people, and to actively guard against this.
Great post!! This is why I live! The reality of God's love! It constantly amazes me!
RE: SIDEFALL >> I wouldn't harden my heart to what God can do because of Lakeland!
There is WAY too much of the goodness of God for us to experience, to make it over complicated!
God in His goodness just wants to bless people!
I have been in the most un-hyped low key services with no 'big time speakers,' where there was no mention of healing, and witnessed people getting healed simply by being in the beautiful presence of God during worship.
It is such a pleasure to be born again.
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