A Deeper Look At Worship
By: Jorge Velez, Worship Director at Living Faith
Sitting alone in my living room in the early AM hours one January night, I began to talk with God as I often do in those wee hours. I was crying out to the Lord for His merciful healing in the midst of battling a particularly nasty viral infection that had, for the last several months, put the entire planet into a lockdown state.
Although my wife didn’t think it necessary, I had relegated myself to the downstairs of our house so as not to spread it to her. She did insist that I would at least come upstairs to sleep in the living room at night so she could monitor my breathing. “Yes dear.”
It was the first full week of the new year, and in all honesty, it appeared to be starting in the same manner the previous year had ended. My wife and I had traveled back from northern Maine where we had attended the funeral service for her father who had passed away just prior to Christmas. It was understandably a hard time for all of the family; made manageable only by the knowledge that ‘Pop’ lived on in a much better place after his time here on earth ended.
You see, my father-in-law Melvin had lived life as a man of God. He was a worshiper of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
My intent for future entries of this blog is to take a deep-dive into what it actually means from a biblical standpoint, to be “a worshiper of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” and hope you take that journey with me.
Worship. What does that encompass?
For the time being, I’ll just state the Oxford Dictionary definition of the word as it is widely accepted in the secular world as the most complete record of the English language ever assembled:
Worship: (noun)
The practice of showing respect for God or a god, by saying prayers, singing with others, etc.;
A strong feeling of love and respect for someone or something
In my opinion, there are some interesting things found in that definition. Going forward we will unpack those things and learn how that definition stacks up against what the Word of God tells us worship is.
From Mosaic worship to Davidic worship. From Jesus’ own words spoken to the woman at the well to modern day church services. What does it mean, and why is it so important for us to understand as Christians?
Rest assured, I’m no expert. But the Holy Spirit is. With the Holy Spirit leading us, we come into a greater knowledge and understanding of what the Bible- the moral, objective Word and Truth of God– tells us about worship.
My prayer is that going forward, God will make known exactly what he wants known in this space using me as His vessel. And we can have some fun learning along the way!
That’s for future articles however, so for now, please allow me to finish this story as ‘an introduction to this space’ so to speak.
It was almost 3 ‘o’clock in the morning. I sat there freezing. My whole body ached. Somehow even my eyelashes felt like they hurt. I had been having difficulty breathing, sleeping, eating, walking or doing much of anything while battling this virus.
But I’m worshiping. I can still pray. I can still worship. Prayer is just one facet of worship.
I said at the very beginning that I was crying out to the Lord for His merciful healing. Yet I wasn’t praying for myself. I was praying for others who were going through this very same thing; many much worse than I.
Close relatives, brothers and sisters in Christ; countless others; I was praying for the world that this virus was affecting.
After those prayers, I began to pray about worship at church. I had been in quarantine for around 3 days at this point, away from our church for over a week, and graciously, a brother in Christ had filled the gap while I was recovering. Honestly, I was feeling pretty bummed out. I was missing my church family.
Now being a worship leader at our church, I am always praying about, and asking God to reveal what He wants to convey to the congregation during our corporate worship.
(Spoiler Alert: God never fails to reveal this! But are we listening?)
On this night as I prayed, I had worship music playing on YouTube TV in the background. It was very low so as to not wake Nadine, my wife.
As I prayed, asking God to reveal the message for the next time I was able to lead worship, something strange started to happen:
I noticed an audible difference in the volume level of the music coming from the TV.
I quickly grabbed the remote so I could turn the volume back down. What happened next is what I like to call GOD THINGS:
When God chooses to do things in the supernatural that we can’t possibly do or understand in the natural, and reveals them to us.
I could not turn the volume down. In fact, it seemed to be getting louder each time I tried to lower it. I tried stopping the video; the remote just wasn’t working at all. The song kept playing and it was getting louder still!
At this point I was panicking. The music was loud. Nadine was going to wake up and come out of our bedroom and well…let’s just say she wasn’t going to be in a great mood.
Then the Holy Spirit spoke. A clear reference to Psalm 46:10.
‘ “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” ’
God was trying to turn my attention to the song that was playing, while there I was trying to turn it down for fear of waking my wife!
“Yes God,” was all I could reply as I sat back in the chair, staring at the TV.
A beautiful worship song was what God was leading me to. As I listened, I began to sing along. The words were simple, yet so powerful:
Lord I worship You, I worship You
Lord I worship You, I worship You
For Your name is Holy, Holy Lord
For Your name is Holy, Holy Lord
The presence of the Lord had filled the living room. I found myself kneeling on the floor, arms stretched out to God as I sang those words to Him. Declaring His holiness. I was lost in His presence, and there is nothing compared to the presence of God!
What breathing issue? What chills? What body aches? What virus? Nothing can stand against the power of our God!
The song ended and a new one began. I simply stayed there in His presence. I worshiped Him. I had no other desire but to stay there. I had to stay there.
A couple of hours must have passed. Only when I heard the buzzing of Nadine’s alarm clock did I realize it.
I retrieved a pen and paper and quickly jotted down the words of the songs I had heard so I could look them up later. These were the songs I was to lead the congregation in when I returned to church, along with an overall message going forward.
God’s message was clear: He is Holy. He is to be glorified in all things. He desires our worship. And no matter what it looks like or feels like to us in the natural, He is God, and He is in control of all things. Amen.
Later that morning, before I shared with my wife how my night had gone, I asked her if she had heard anything as she was sleeping.
“Not a thing. Slept like a rock,” she said with a smile.
GOD THINGS.
Since then, we have sung those songs in our church a few times while worshiping. Every time we have, God has revealed Himself in powerful ways in our congregation. He continues to move mightily as only He can, and I am so humbled that He would use me in such a way. Glory to God!
-Jorge Velez, Worship Director at Living Faith