Seven Words of Worship

The Key to a Lifetime of Experiencing God

Mike Harland, Stan Moser

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780805464092
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Rituals & Practice

Seven Words of Worship combines biblical truth, practical application, and inspiring real life stories to clarify the reader's understanding and living out of w orship, focusing the spiritual practice on seven key words: Creation; Grace; Love; Response; Expression; Presence; Experience. Indeed, worship is a leading topic throughout the church today and the central purpose for gathering the body of Christ each week. But worship style and technique are often divisive elements among believers as well. More than a subjective art form or tradition, Seven Words of Worship authors Mike Harland and Stan Moser explain that worship is foremost intended to be a pure and powerful declaration of love to God. When offered with passionate sincerity, worship brings God into our presence and makes all things possible!

Experiencing God—
A Personal Encounter

Worship is the key to experiencing God in our lives.

There is a real hunger in the church today to know and experience God in a personal way. Truth is, we were created to know God in this way, to have a relationship with Him. God made us this way because He desired an intimate relationship with us before the beginning of time.

God Desires a Relationship with Us

All lasting relationships are based on mutual interest, trust, and understanding. By choosing to create us in His image—with a mind (the ability to reason), a will, and emotions—and by providing everything we need for life, God created and equipped us for a lasting relationship with Him.

My brother, Bill, is my “big brother” in every sense of the word. Not only is he three years older than me, but he was always much bigger than me. He was what they called “an early bloomer,” always the biggest boy in his class. He was a good athlete and often the captain of whatever game was going on. Two things were true when it came to Bill and me: he picked on me all the time and he made sure that absolutely no one else did. One day in the 5th grade I learned the advantages of having a brother like Bill. I was walking toward the cafeteria when two 7th graders stopped me and demanded my milk money. I felt like I had no choice but to dig down in my pocket and give it to them. I had just handed it over when a friend of the two walked by and said, “What are you doing? Don't you know who that is? That's Bill Harland's little brother.” Immediately they gave me my money back! I was never happier to be Bill Harland's little brother.

When it comes to worship, it's all about relationship—relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. I did nothing to get my milk money back that day except be Bill's little brother. In the same way, we've done nothing to deserve a worship encounter with the Living God, except receiving the redemption found only in Jesus.

From beginning to end, the Bible makes it clear that God desires a relationship with us. He wants us to know who He is, who we are in relationship to Him, how we should respond, and what we can expect in return. As we examine these aspects of God's desire and plan for relationship with us, consider what the following verses tell us:

Where can I go to escape Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
If I go up to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. (Ps. 139:7–8)

“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.” (John 15:5)

“In a little while the world will see Me no longer, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live too. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you.” (John 14:19–20)

This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given to us from His Spirit. And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. (1 John 4:13–15)

These four passages of Scripture leave no room for doubt: God loves us and desires a personal relationship with each of us. All we have to do is respond! God wants to reveal Himself and His will in every situation of our lives. As we respond, we can experience God every day.

Worship Is the Key to Experiencing God

A number of years ago, Henry Blackaby and Claude King provided us with wonderful insights and principles on how to experience God and discover His will in our everyday lives. Their best-selling book Experiencing God gave us clear instruction to help us fulfill our purpose on the earth: see what God is doing around us and join Him as He works through us. It all begins with God's offer of a personal and intimate relationship. As we respond, we really can experience God!

Experiencing God delivered a tried and proven message for the church, and I've seen the results in an up-close-and-personal way. You see, I've spent my entire adult life serving in churches, from some of the smallest to the largest churches in America, and I've seen many of God's people embrace His mission for their lives—the plans God prepared for them before they were even born. I've also seen many others miss their opportunity to experience God.

For years I wondered what it would take for more of God's church—ordinary folks like you and me—to fully embrace His love for us, step beyond our distractions and doubts, and truly join God as He works right where we live. I believe with all my heart that the key to breakthrough—the key to experiencing God in our own lives and having a personal relationship with Him—is found in developing a lifestyle of worship.

Worship Is Our Response to God's Revelation

Throughout this book, we will use this working definition of worship:

Worship is our response to God's revelation of who He is and what He has done.

But we have to be careful that what we are responding to is, in fact, God's revelation. We are so prone to trust our own perception and emotion that we can substitute them for reality in a heartbeat. One day God gave me a real-life illustration of my tendency to do that very thing.

I was flying from Nashville to Dallas and was already in my seat when a smartly dressed professional lady boarded the plane and took the seat across the aisle from me. I attempted to speak to her but received no response. She's a little rude, I thought to myself. Throughout the flight I noticed her preoccupation with her laptop. She wouldn't even respond to the flight attendant when asked if she wanted a drink. I kept right on sizing her up. Boy, she thinks she's really important. I wonder what her problem is.

When we landed at DFW, she immediately took out her cell phone and fired it up. This was before the airlines would let you do that and my “judgment meter” was really in full gear now. This is when the Lord reeled my flesh right on in for the kill. Well, look at that. She thinks she's so important that the rules don't apply to her. It's not like she's a surgeon and she's flying in to do emergency surgery in a life-or-death matter. I had no more finished that thought when the person she was calling answered the phone and she said, “I've just landed. Is the patient prepped for surgery? I've been reviewing the procedure on the flight. Is the police escort going to meet me at the gate or in front of the airport? I should be there in twenty minutes. Every moment will count.” When we got to the gate, she was escorted off the plane by an agent and whisked away to try and save someone's life. I started to cry as I asked the Lord to forgive me and then prayed for her and the person she would be operating on in just minutes.

Since we are so prone to be presumptuous all the time, we better be sure where we look for information about our God when we gather to worship Him. And God has faithfully given us ways to know who He is so that we can be confident when we worship Him.

Simply stated, we are called to respond to all that God has revealed about Himself and to His never-ending desire to enter a deeper relationship with each of us. Through the ages God has been in the constant process of revealing His character and essence. Yes, God is mysterious in many ways, but He is never a mystery. He has gone to great lengths to reveal Himself throughout history—including sending His Son, Jesus, into the world—and He continues to reveal Himself today in at least three ways:

1. God reveals Himself in creation.
2. God reveals Himself through His Word.
3. God reveals Himself through the Holy Spirit.

God created us for relationship with Him and deeply desires to reveal Himself—who He is and what He has done—to us. He has promised to meet us as we worship. In fact, as we understand and embrace all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus, our only reasonable and adequate response is worship. Our response to God always requires faith and corresponding action, yet God never forces us to respond—it is always our choice.

Worship Invites God's Presence

God deeply desires a personal relationship with each one of us, and He is at work around us at all times. Just as God walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, so He desires to fel...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• halftitle
• Fulltitle
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Worship
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Creation
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Grace
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Love
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Response
• Chapter 21
• Chapter 22
• Chapter 23
• Chapter 24
• Chapter 25
• Expression
• Chapter 26
• Chapter 27
• Chapter 28
• Chapter 29
• Chapter 30
• Presence
• Chapter 31
• Chapter 32
• Chapter 33
• Chapter 34
• Chapter 35
• Experience
• Chapter 36
• Chapter 37
• Chapter 38
• Chapter 39
• Chapter 40
• Epilogue
• About The Authors
• Life Way