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Many years ago, as a young worship leader, I came to the realization that God does not “need” our worship. This allowed me to see my own personal and our corporate worship in a new light. Aside from the fact that He is worthy of any and all worship, there is nothing that we can do, or bring, that adds increase to Him. God has no “need”. He is perfect and complete in every way in Himself. In understanding this I began to understand worship as a 24/7 affair of yielding our heart, mind and soul. I came to understand that is for us, for our benefit, in every way.

 

The great blessing of being filled with gratitude and called to worship Him enables us to be intimately connected to the Source of all we’ve been created to need, want and desire. Again, in spite of Him being worthy of all worship, He desires our worship for the blessing of life it brings to us. Worshiping God is both our greatest privilege and His greatest gift to us. It is the gift of Himself, His presence and His intimacy that we know within worship. We could go on and on.

 

Trying to describe worship in spirit and truth is more the substance of books, not a website. Instead, our focus here is found in addressing the reasonable response of greater yieldedness and obedience. A deeper exchanged life can and should grow out of our worship. Yes, all of this and much more. But you may wonder what are the “specifics” of His purpose within His presence as we experience all that is mentioned above?

 

 

 

The Lord’s question regarding the need to seek true purpose in His presence created a need that began to redefine my prayer life and study in the Word. Initially, I was actually foolish enough to try to quickly answer His question by answering, “yes Lord, Your purpose is found within the transformational aspect of Your Presence”. Although not wrong, it didn’t take long to understand how pitifully shallow that answer was. It exposed the truth that my prayer life was shallow and needed to deepen. How beautiful it is to be able to stand in simple transparent honesty before the Lord as we fall short and sense nothing but His perfect unconditional love.

 

 

 

His question reinforced the truth that learning to listen is the first step to comprehending His purpose in His presence. The next step that follows learning to listen is learning to hear. It is very easy to have too much to say and ask in self-centered prayer. Only in listening do we cultivate a greater depth of intimacy in our personal prayer life.

Becoming still before Him, and meditating on His Word, becomes the open door to hearing and finding His purpose. Laying hold to His purpose, especially in the most intimate moments of His presence, becomes the key to the next door of greater growth in the exchanged life that we are offered and called to. These are the 7 keys mentioned in the last paragraph: learning to listen, learning to hear, cultivating intimacy, being still, meditating upon His Word, seeking and asking for His purpose, and learning to lay hold to His purpose. These are the keys that open realms of deep worship where the “me in Him” becomes “Him through me”.

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