The Lord our God made this remarkable declaration to a religious bigot, sold on the traditions of her fathers, yet was in the darkness of sinful living.

“Believe me, dear woman, the time has come when you will worship the Father neither on a mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in your heart. Your people don’t really know the One they worship, but we Jews worship out of our experience, for it’s from the Jews that salvation is available. From now on, worshiping the Father will not be a matter of the right place but with a right heart. For God is a Spirit, and he longs to have sincere worshipers who adore him in the realm of the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24 (TPT)

The question beckons, is worship entertainment or yet for our benefit? Certainly not. I found this write up worthy of careful and deep consideration by every true believer who wants to worship as the Lord declared in our theme text.
 
**Culled from The Lost Art of Practicing His Presence by James W Goll, it reads:

**“Thomas Merton, a 20th century writer and priest, wrote a book called Contemplative Prayer. Even though it was directed primarily to his disciples and students and deals particularly with the monastic lifestyle, Merton’s book contains many beautiful gems of wisdom and insight that we can benefit from.

Without the spirit of contemplation in all our worship—that is to say without the adoration and love of God above all, for his own sake, because he is God—the liturgy will not nourish a really Christian apostolate based on Christ’s love and carried out in the power of the Pneuma [Spirit] ** (Something inherent in the services described by David in 1 Chronicles 25).

Let me explain further, contemplation for me is meditation. Meditation is a biblical reality. “Mediate on the law of the Lord day and night” (Psalm 1). Contemplation is just another way of talking about spiritually seeing the beauty of Christ in and through the word of God.

In 2 Corinthians 4 you have, “The god of this age has blinded the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Well, what’s that? That’s not with these physical eyes. That’s with the eyes referred to in Ephesians 1:17-18 where Paul says, “May the eyes of your heart be enlightened to know what is your calling.”
 
So, there is a spiritual seeing, or what we would call contemplation. This is where, when you read your Bible, you pause and you see in and through the words to the reality with your heart, and you apprehend spiritual reality. And this gives rise to a kind of praying that is spiritual and authentic and personal and warm and strong.
 
Contemplative or meditative prayer allows us to come to know and experience God’s unconditional love and be transformed by it, and then, in turn grow in and express our love of God. And if we grow in our love of God, we grow in our love for all that God loves.

In prayer we are not to look inwardly but outwardly and upwardly toward God (John 17:1).

In teaching the disciples to pray, it is of great significance that Jesus began first and foremost with adoration (Luke 11:2b).

In adoration the focus is on praising God for His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). In doing so it helps us stand in awe of our God who is full of glory and majesty. This is the true spiritual depth, when in prayer we praise God for His greatness (Psalm 145:1).
 
So, first in our individual private worship time examples of scriptures to praise God with are listed here. As you read, pause after a few verses and pray, praising God for His specific attributes that you just read about.

• Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple—1 Kings 8:12-56
• David’s prayer at the raising of offerings for the temple—1 Chronicles 29:10-19
• Israel’s repentance and confession in Nehemiah 9:5-38
• Psalm 145
• Isaiah 40
• Jeremiah 10:1-16
• Daniel 9:1-10
• Revelation 1
• Revelation 4:8-11
• Revelation 5:1-14
• Romans 11:33

In corporate worship the pattern set in King David’s words kick in with the choir practically uttering those words of scriptures in prophetic inspiration by the Holy Spirit while the congregations’ focus and response is effusion of hearts in adoration of God.

**The most important need in the Christian world today is the internalisation of the truth about God nourished by this Spirit of contemplation i.e.

1. The praise and love of God
2. The longing for the coming of Christ, and
3. The thirst for the manifestation of God’s glory, His truth, His justice, and the manifestation of His kingdom in the world.

These are all characteristically “contemplative” and eschatological aspirations of the Christian heart, and they are the very essence of prayers made by those under the new covenant. Without them our worship doctrine is more for our own glory rather than the glory of God…

Without meditation and inner focus on the divine, speaking the words in our heart that tally with God’s own declarations the Church cannot fulfil her mission to transform and save mankind. It demands practice! (What goes on in your heart in times of praise, or better still, where is your heart in those times?)

Without such meditation and inner focus, she will be reduced to being the servant of cynical and worldly powers, no matter how hard her faithful may protest that they are fighting for the Kingdom of God.(emphasis mine)

Without true, deep contemplative aspirations, without a total love for God and an uncompromising thirst for his truth, religion tends in the end to become an opiate.” **

These true expositions must fill the hearts of both choir and apostolate. If we are looking to make the impact, drawing down power from His presence, this is the time to change, intentionally practising individual contemplation and internal prayer in our worship sessions. Let not your clapping and dancing be for stress relief or for the bodily pleasure of dancing but adoring, magnifying and delighting Him who sacrificed His life for us. Our true worship is the crushing of the former: it is the outflow of hearts to God of those who see their joy and satisfaction in the sacrifice of the Son expressed through the Holy Spirit. Shalom.

Pastor Afolabi Oladele