see-through faith

I am not a singer and I don’t play a musical instument but over the years God has made me a worshipper.  And I’m so glad. It’s probably the most powerful weapon in my ’spiritual box of tricks’ – and I know that in the past when I’ve been at rock bottom, when I haven’t had the strength to pray or pick up my Bible, or even to call a Chrisitan friend for help, God has somehow given me the ability to sing out His praises and to worship Him – even if all I’ve actually done is put on a CD and crumple at his feet weeping.

Today the worship at our local church was beautiful and took me before the throne of grace in a special way. One of the songs we sang was from Hillsongs  (which I’ve written about before).

Part of it goes …

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

I want that to be more than a song in my life – I want that ALL to become a reality- not only to sing it out but live it out – to be part of a generation that is rising up in spirit and in truth – and becoming (to quote from a different song) a people of God going out inthe power of God and serious about building the Kingdom of God -where we are here and now not always waiting for a better day or a more open heaven!

As I began writing this I was thinking about worship and the armour of God – Ephesians 6 states ‘Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil’. There the armour of God is listed as the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, our feet fitted to walk out the Good News, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit (the Word) … but there’s no direct mention of worship. It’s not there at all until you look closely at the ‘praying in the spirit on all occasions’, which when you think about it just has to include worshipping doesn’t it?

I love how the message puts it all

Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

A few years ago I was on holiday in Florida.

I went into a Christian bookstore and a worship CD was playing. I immediately felt the presence of God and it was marvellous: so real, so precious, so tangible – tears just started to pour down my cheeks yeah right there in the middle of the store! One of the things I really like about bookstores in the USA is that there are comfy chairs and sofas to sit in while you flick through books, and so I found one of those and flopped down and allowed the presence of God minister to me through the music as I too worshipped him.

I had no idea who was singing on the worship CD -so when it ended I had to go and ask the lady serving on the desk – turns out it was Terry McMacalmon who is probably the most anointed worship leader I’ve ever heard. One of the songs he was singing was this.

Today, when I came home from church, I read something that broke my heart.

Terry MacAlmon Steps Down From Ministry

Worship leader Terry MacAlmon announced in May that he was stepping down from ministry after having had an extramarital affair. “I don’t have a timeline as to if or when I will return to ministry, but I know I cannot go forward with my soul in this condition,” MacAlmon wrote in a letter to ministry supporters.

On his ministy website it merely says ‘Thank you for your prayers for Terry and the MacAlmon family during this difficult season’ … which brings me back to my thoughts on today’s worship and the passage in Ephesians 6.

Do you know what … I am tired of letting the enemy win -  I am tired of him breaking up marriages between Christian men and women, I’m fed up of Christian leaders taking their eyes off of Jesus and giving in to the lies that we are contstantly bombarded with on tv and through music on the radio and all kinds of advertisting …we are lost without his anointing and it’s time we – the people of God – stepped up in the power of God -and began praying for one another as if our lives depended on it – because hear me when I say this – our lives do depend on it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 2:01 pm and is filed under prayer, real life, scripture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.