Worship

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Dear Worship Team:
I’m not sure why I feel impressed to send this to all of you, but I do. I’m letting you in on my personal thoughts after spending time alone worshiping the Lord.

All this morning I worshiped and prayed while Misty Edward’s song, You won’t relent, played in the background. After worshiping to that song I’m convinced that all the good, bad and indifferent we’ve ever experienced is simply God using those events as tools to plunge us into His presence and capture more of our heart for Himself.

I looked up the word relent and it means “to not give in, give up, change your mind, surrender, or take an easier way.” God has not given up or changed His mind about His love for us. He has not surrendered His desire to seize our heart for Himself, and He will not take the easy way out and defer from overtaking us completely. God is after us. He’s after YOU and ME, more than ever. It makes no difference how we have responded to Him—He is chasing after us. He won’t relent!

The Lord will not surrender to our indifference when we’re just not “feeling it”. He will not quit seeking us even when we quit seeking Him or when we just don’t feel like “being spiritual”. Simply put, God is coming after us no matter what our posture has been toward Him or how we feel about Him at the moment.

HE simply will not relent!

I’m living proof of this, you know. After all I’ve done, after my indifference to Him, He continued chasing me with tenacity like I never knew was possible. No wonder, throughout the centuries the old saints called Him the “Hound of heaven.” He sniffs you out, not to expose you, but to woo you with a ridiculous love until you give in to His unyielding pursuit. Once you surrender to the hunt, you’re surprised that He doesn’t disclose your waywardness. But now, you don’t mind revealing it yourself for the sake of having more of Him. The more of yourself you let go of, the more of Him you have. I love this about our God!

God’s love is fervently persistent and inexorably determined!

Revival (a word that means a lot of different things to people) is on His schedule for us. The Lord wants to light a revival fire in the heart of His beloved that will set us ablaze with a fervent love for Him. I simply cannot live without seeing Him fulfill all He has promised me. I’ve seen too much and must have more.

For me (and I know for you, too) that desire is wrapped up in WORSHIP. You’ve heard me say, worship is the only thing we’ll still be doing when we get to heaven, so we must make it our number one priority here. It MUST be more—much, much, more—than a good tune. The worship God loves comes up out of the deep, mysterious reservoirs of our being and becomes the outrageous cry of our heart, which may or may not sound so “good”. But this, my friends, is the melody our God listens, longs, yearns for, and that’s why worship, in this fashion, is so anointed and breathtaking. It’s also rare, and this makes it exceedingly precious in heaven and on earth.

I feel the Holy Spirit drawing me to Himself and I’m sure the same is happening to you.

From now until Sunday, find time alone with the Lord and press in close to Him as did the lady who had the issue of blood. Find a place of personal prayer and tap into the Presence of God like you never have before. I’m going after Him and I want you to come along with me.

We must draw on God’s presence for the people who show up for worship on Sunday. As I’ve told you before, they’re not here for us—we’re here for them. They need to be lifted into the presence of God. It is our responsibility, and even more, it’s our privilege. We must meet the presence of God before they do because we can’t lead them to experience what we ourselves have not experienced. They must be served something beyond excellent preaching, more than exposition. Whether they realize it or not, their hunger is for God Himself. Good sermons can be purchased for the price of a CD. The Presence, however, comes at the price of a life.

There’s more, so much more the Lord has for us. Let’s enter heavenly places, places we’ve never gone before! Please come along with me in this quest for “more”.

I love all of you so much. It’s such a pleasure to do life and be part of a worshiping team like you, called to bear the presence of God for the sake of others.

Thanks for reading my heart ramblings.

I love you all,
Your Pastor



(Worship song lyrics)
You Won’t Relent
by Misty Edwards

You won't relent until you have it all,
My heart is yours

I'll set you as a seal, upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm,
For there is a love, that is as strong as death, jealousy demanding
As the grave, and many waters, cannot quench this love

My heart is yours

Come be the fire inside of me, come be the flame upon my heart,
Come be the fire inside of me, until you and I are one

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