While recently flying home after two weeks of ministry in the UK, during the 8½-hour flight (and many times since) we have pondered the different churches and ministry opportunities in Liverpool and Warwick, England and then in Dumfries, Scotland. It was such a special time, and makes us sit back and breathe a big, “Thank You Jesus!”
Having the privilege of leading people in worship, preaching, encouraging and praying for people is one that we will never take for granted. To be singing songs to the Lord and then sense His awesome power and presence touching all of our hearts with joy and peace is just simply beyond words. It reminds me of what Peter described: Joy unspeakable and full of Glory.
As we led worship day after day, we became more aware of how much God loves us and wants to reveal His presence in our lives. The Lord doesn’t want to be just a bystander that we acknowledge once a day or pray a ritual prayer to, but He really wants us to know Him intimately and sense His presence in our lives. We should not only know His Word but we should know HIM and experience His presence and His love. Often!
We found that to be so prevalent on this trip. As we sang together and worshipped, the Holy Spirit seemed to manifest Himself in such a beautiful way leaving us refreshed and blessed. It’s one thing to believe in God’s blessings, and it’s another thing to experience the sweet blessing of His presence.
Experiencing His Sweet Presence
I know that at times the church has gotten too caught up in the feelings and chasing experiences instead of chasing God, but at the same time you cannot help but experience something awesome when you have a real encounter with the Living God.
The church was birthed in an experience on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit filled each believer. The power of God was so strong on the disciples that the onlookers thought they were drunk in the middle of the day! When you truly have an encounter with God, you will sense something special. We don’t live by these feelings or experiences, however they are a very real and valuable part of our Christian life.
Although there are many ways to experience God’s presence, a really great way is through worship and singing.
The Lord Loves Your Song!
Ephesians 5:18b says, …be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. WOW! Paul is saying that one of the secrets to staying filled with God’s Spirit is through singing! I love that. And then there’s the parallel scripture in Colossians 3:16 to Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
It seems like the Lord really loves singing! Notice the emphasis on making melody in your heart and singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. You know, the Lord just loves it when you sing to Him from your heart. It doesn’t even have to be a song that you know. In fact I think He especially loves it when you simply sing to Him what’s on your heart at any given moment.
That’s what David did in the Psalms, He just sang what was on his heart, and God really loved it and blessed him. There’s something about releasing what’s on your heart to the Lord in song. The Bible says that God inhabited or was enthroned on the praises of Israel. Over and over again we see the Lord doing incredible things when His people sang and praised Him.
Why don’t you try it right now? Just sing your heart out to the Lord. You say, But you don’t understand, Charlie & Jill. I can’t sing! Well we say, Then make a joyful noise! In fact Psalm 40 says, He has put a new song in our hearts, a song of praise to our God. We all have a song in our hearts and God wants to hear your song! He loves to hear you sing and express your heart of worship to Him. In fact He will even sing over you! (Zephaniah 3:17)
If you want, you can start with one of our songs and then begin making up your own words out of your own heart. Or even better, sing in the spirit and then sing with your understanding. I promise you, it will be a treasure to the Lord as you open your heart to Him in song and convey how much you love and thank Him for all He has done.
In Closing…
One of our songs called Favorite Place ends with the line, I will live my life to praise You with my song. May your whole life be a song of worship to the One Who is so wonderful and worthy of our praise!
Praising Him with you
