DARING PRAISE AND FEARLESS WORSHIP
(This one is long...)

Wildfire in the Kingdom of God is sort of scary. The idea of it has been most frequently associated with perceived excesses in praise and worship. Maybe we've all seen excesses and fringe behavior that we vowed not to duplicate or permit. But we cannot survive as spiritual beings and impose sweeping limits on celebration and worship of God. Michal, David's wife, got offended at David's liberty. You should hear my friend, Steve Samford, talk about her.

The consequences of her reaction to David's dance cost her dearly. Her distaste did not stop at the worship and celebration. She despised David himself. Herein is the danger of reacting to those who turn over new ground in worship and praise. If it offends you the danger is in that you may come to despise even those who are closest to you. Your reward will be barrenness and loneliness and very awkward aloneness.

David said something prophetic in his words to Michal. He said it will get more vile than this ... but it will turn to honor before those for whom you pretend to be embarrassed, Michal.

Isn't it clear that God confirmed David? HE heard David's words to Michal. HE didn't correct David. David had lots of children, BUT his wife, Michal, had none of them. David had children with those hand maidens and with Bathsheba. Michal wilted all alone.

I don't have a picture of how David's words to Michal were fulfilled, but I know what He said has come to pass in the generations of and since David. David told Michal that it would get more vile than whatever she accused him of. Whatever else that means, it says that the senses of those who cooperate with and serve the anti-Christ spirit have only just begun to be affronted. Religion has not even yet begun to hear and see what will happen as God continues to break new ground in celebration.

Praise has become and will yet become more daring. I know that some of you translate daring into defiant, but, remember, God confirmed David and punished Michal. He confirmed worship and crushed man-made religion. David's words to Michal even betray that he knew what he was doing. He said, "I will abase myself even more and even before my own eyes."

Perhaps a synonym for daring is boldness or vice-versa. But God is limbering up a bunch of us old folks and freeing up a bunch of you young folks to break new ground in celebration praise. New instruments and new implements even some of the old ones are vibrating with the life of the Holy Spirit and breaking out. It's like fire on dry kindling, WILD but not exactly the kind of wildfire that so many of the spiritual police of man-made religion are scared of.

It is the heat of desire for God that is making us fuel for a heavenly pyre - it won't be quenched - it will just keep breaking out because this is the season of Revelations 4 when the worship that takes place in eternity will touch ground flame.

At the core of this celebration is fearless worship. Again, the terminology might be scary to some. I am sure Michal trembled at David's retort if she knew her husband even a little. He was good to his word and so is Father God. HE is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit and Truth and He intends to tabernacle with these brazen, bold, daring types - NOW - not in some far-off dreamscape of the city foursquare.

Those who will dare to embark on fearless worship will shun human inhibitions in order to draw nearer and nearer and nearer to the Father God and Lover of their souls.

There is always some ignorance that must be overcome to draw near. We have been coached for eons that no one may draw near to God or see God and live. After all, He lives in unapproachable light. Right?

That terrible incantation has for too long dampened the desire of those who would dare to think that God really did want ALL of Israel to go up the mountain with Moses. And why didn't all of them go? They said it themselves. You go, Moses, we are scared.

Well, the new breed that is rising to the quickening of the Holy Spirit are finding a strengthening to overcome the fear AND the ignorance. They are making for the Holiest of Holies, the lap of Father God and we are in the fullness of time to reach the secret place of the stairs. A very important prophetic understanding of scripture is breaking on the landscape and it is hidden, like so many other of the Lord's "mysteries," right in plain sight.

Proverbs 25:2 says "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. It is the glory of Kings to search it out." That's IT. That's the prophetic understanding. Do you get it or am I imagining this? There is a promise in Hebrews 11:6. "Without faith it is impossible to please God, but those who would see God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

If He rewards those who seek Him, what is the reward? Wouldn't it be to FIND Him and even to FIND HIM OUT and His mysteries and His glories? Woldn't it be to actually come to the knowledge of the Lord? Wouldn't that outstrip simple knowledge of the Bible?

While everyone who has ever believed is included in the NT verse that says we are Kings and Priests unto our God, there is yet a new breed who are reaching to apprehend that reality, to take custody of it because that is why they, and we, have been taken into the custody of the Holy Spirit. We were not apprehended for no cause nor for any unworthy claim upon our lives.

We have given ourselves into love-slavery because the Kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ and He is worthy. He has made a way and we will draw near in devoted, pronounced, daring and fearless exultation.

The tactics of man-made religion charge us to count the cost as though the cost is the righteous center of focus. This is not so. And the new breed isn’t buying it. For us, counting the cost means comparing the price the prize. We have been freely given the currency with which to make the transaction. It comes in three denominations: faith, hope and love.

When one gets even a dim view of the prize, fellowship on earth that is with The Father and with The Son, the price doesn't count. Even a simple man finding a pearl of great price in a field will go and sell all that he has in order to purchase the field so he may claim the prize. How much more we who catch even a glimpse of the glory of God much less the promise of beholding Him now, full of grace and truth.

If I must die to behold him, slay me in all my flesh and the deeds of the flesh now. HE is worthy. Out of the offering of a grateful heart I will bring to Him daring praise and fearless worship. I will seek His pleasure to break new ground in daring praise and fearless worship within me. HE is worthy. And I know He will do it in us. He has exhorted us to reach for it. He has promised to fit us and outfit us for it. Paul wrote in 1 Thess. "The Lord sanctify you completely in body soul and sprit and He will do it."

How many of us, hearing God testify of David that he is a man after God's own heart ... Did our hearts not burn within us to be worthy of that testimony of God over us. Well, that desire in us did not originate with us. It originated with God. He put it in us so He could fulfill it.

Take up the chase. Run the race. Feed your appetite for the person of Jesus, Don't starve it or ignore it, especially on the word of some jealous religious institution whose claim on us can only make us twice more sons of hell than we ever were. It is no longer a matter of walking the walk or talking the talk or any combination of the two. TODAY, WE RUN THE RACE. We run so as to win, laying aside every weight and sin that does so easily beset us. We run the race to finish. We have another Comforter. Whom should we fear?

Catherine Russell, my friend and a practicing Pastor of the Kingdom, a worshipper with eternity in her mouth, taught me this riddle,

"If you chase HIM, HE will catch you."

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.

It is the glory of Kings to search it out.

You know what to do .. Oh God, please catch us and catch us up until we are whole heartedly lost in the knowledge of Your glory and caught in the folds of Your will. Do it Father...

Bill Word, Facilitator
The Fellowship of Brothers
www.fellowshipofbrothers.org
wmwordjr@yahoo.com
(361) 241.9939