UNITY IN WORSHIP

UNITY IN WORSHIP

 

We recently discovered an article by this name by John Hamrick, in an old Morning Star Journal published in 1995. He had been in ministry for 40 years, and seemed to have a mature, well balanced understanding of the place of music in worship. He clearly states the difference between praise and worship, and the fact that musical instruments can be used effectively in praise, but when the flow of the Spirit moves from praise to worship, they lose their effectiveness, and often proves to be a hindrance to true worship. He explains that the "flow" of the Spirit is difficult to explain, but can be clearly detected in any meeting, either by its presence or its absence. We have probably all been in a meeting where the flow was moving from praise to worship, when some well meaning saint will start up a song or chorus that surely belongs in the praise category, and the flow is suddenly broken!

 

Praise is a function of our soul, and is used in thanksgiving to God for His many benefits to our lives. But we must realize that true worship is something entirely different. See (John 4:23-24) for a proper understanding of what Jesus considers "true worship". The basic problem is that many people don't know the difference between our soul and our spirit. Our soul is that part of us whose function is that of connecting with other people, but not with God. Our soul's main function is to make sure that we "feel good", but God designed us to only be able to connect with Him through our spirit. Remember that Adam and Eve had an intimate relationship with God in the Garden, until sin entered in when they disobeyed, and the scripture is clear that at that point they "died". But they lived for several hundreds of years after that, so what died? Their spirits died, or lost contact with God, and their soul took control of their life.

 

We know that as believers in Jesus, our spirits are "born again", but our soul still wants to control our lives. Instead of being "spiritual" believers, we are often "soulish", or controlled by our soul which cannot connect with God. You can easily see how this can affect a service where our intention is to connect with God in true worship. Our soul doesn't want to flow from praise to worship, because it knows instinctively that it can't go there. It can function quite well in praise, where our intellect, will, and emotions can be involved, but to move to true worship, would cause it to lose control. Remember back in the eleventh chapter of Genesis when the people attempted to reach up to heaven by building a high tower? God came down and scattered them. I see this as a soulish attempt on their part to reach heaven by their own way, and not God's. Today people do the same thing by practicing various "religions", trying to please their god, or gods, instead of coming to Almighty God through the way He has provided, through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross! In a similar way I see believers in Jesus trying to come to God in various forms of "worship", which are soulish and not really spiritual. Derek Prince states that "when our worship becomes play, it ceases to be spiritual, but becomes soulish". He goes on to say that much of what he has seen in Charismatic circles has become just that. Derek was a very sincere well balanced teacher, and I think we have much to learn from his teaching on worship.

Sincerel submitted.

Dave Jamer