Kindle Notes & Highlights
(Spirit and truth),
Jesus seemed to indicate the stuff that makes up worship i...
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In our humanity, we have a carnal proclivity to add human means to the implementation of the Great Commission (see Matt. 28:18–20).
He discovered his ministry was most impactful when he had literally no human resources to enable his ministry and was utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit to move supernaturally through his preaching.
As he recounted his evangelistic triumphs through the power of the Spirit, he marveled over and over how God captured hardened hearts “without means”—that is, without any human strengths or resources to account for the impact. God used plain and not elaborate means.
We have so many aids and implements that it almost seems possible to pull off worship services without the Holy Spirit’s help.
the problem is our human tendency to lean on natural means to achieve a spiritual end.
We must return, over and over, to the simplicity of worship—to worship in Spirit and truth. We must return conti...
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the ark must be covered and carried by poles on the shoulders of Levites. Furthermore,
Since God had commanded the Levites to move the ark on their shoulders, this leaves us wondering, Why, then, did David move the ark with a cart
and two oxen? The answer seems to be, Because the Philistines moved the ark with a cart.
Years later, when David decided to move the ark to Zion, instead of consulting Scripture for the proper order, he placed the ark on a cart. The
David would learn a tough lesson from this botched attempt:
Consult God first.
When he moved the ark the second time, he consulted the divine order and appointed Levites to carry the ark on their shoulders. Thus, his second attempt to bring the ark to Z...
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What does the Philistine cart represent? Human mechanisms to move God’s Presence in corporate worship.
it seems that contemporary worship has some real cool carts.
In what ways do we take cues from the Philistines to move the Presence? In what ways do we tend toward the mechanical in worship?
We’re always inclined to favor the fast and easy. The first step in overcoming is to realize we must be on constant alert for the mechanical in worship.
When the energy of corporate worship derives more from the mechanics on the platform than the Spirit’s activity in the midst of the congregation, we may want to ask ourselves if we’ve gotten into a mechanical cart mode.
God’s not downsizing worship, nor does He view it as a tool for church growth. It’s not a vehicle to accomplish a certain end, but is an end in itself. Love is its own end.
To walk with Jesus means we must slow to His pace.
Walk It Out
When it comes to walking and moving with the Holy Spirit, stay low and go slow.
When worship leaders are carrying the ark of His Presence, they’re doing three things. With their eyes they’re watching, with their feet they’re feeling, and with their hands they’re balancing.
To keep going straight ahead into the heart of God sometimes means doing something outside our preparation. Keeping your balance over terrain you weren’t prepared for is weighty, sobering, and rigorous.
He likes to be moved, not by mechanical things, but by living creatures.
seems consistent, then, that God would want the Presence transported by Levites and not by a cart.
Every worship service is like a Psalm 84 pilgrimage. There’s a sense of launch, of journey, and ultimately of destination.
We want to arrive somewhere in the Spirit where there’s a sense of completion and finish.
Our hearts will never be fully satisfied until “each one appears before God in Zion” (Ps. 84:7). We want God!
My friend Caleb Culver told me the next wave of worship will focus more on Presence and less on perfection.
Production is not Presence.
It’s great when technology can be a helpful, creative tool, but it can never slake our thirst for having Jesus’ Presence with us.
this is the best time in worship history to be a worship leader for all the wrong reasons.
she said that worship leaders are sometimes turned into celebrities.
As we search for the next wave of worship, we’re going to give our worship ministries the freedom to explore, collapse, twirl, prostrate, make mistakes, and look bad.
One way God helps us recognize our mechanical tendencies in worship is by snarling our electronics.
Again, moments of production failure sometimes serve to help us keep our eyes on that which is truly important—the face of Jesus.
Worship isn’t chiseled, it’s earthy.
There’s only one musical instrument used in worship—harps.
What should we conclude from this observation?
but the book of Revelation gives me the impression that the worship of heaven is primarily vocally driven, not instrument driven.
Harps seem to be used, not as a means to drive corporate worship, but as a means to give expression to the musician’s who...
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Its simplicity and organic vitality.
The worship of heaven is organic, not mechanical.
The simplicity of “worship in Spirit and truth” seems to capture its essence. This i...
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THE SONG OF THE PEOPLE
SONGS ARE MUSICAL prayers, and we use our songs to help people pray and connect with God.
Singing is a marvelous gift in the Spirit to help us encounter God.
