Day 3
Worship with your SPIRIT
“Worship is your spirit responding to God’s spirit.” Rick Warren
Deeper than what you physically look like, what you think about yourself, or what you feel, your spirit is the power beneath it all by which you think, feel, and act. Your spirit is the simple essence of who you are. When God created man He breathed the breath of life into us we became alive – so every human being has a spirit with an impartation of our creator who is Spirit.
Furthermore, when we receive the redeeming work of Jesus Christ and are baptized into the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit comes to live in us. So we become not only a reflection of Him but a home for Him to dwell in. When we gaze upon God and feed ourselves with his truth our hearts are healed, our minds are renewed, and our spirit is set free to worship God. It’s a constant dance of our spirit with his as we receive more and more healing, renewal, and freedom our spirits grow and grow with His.
“If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:10-11
The Greek word for Spirit here is pneuma – it’s used in the bible as the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit which is one with God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit is God personified in us. It is through his Holy Spirit that we receive truth, courage, wisdom, gifts, strategy, power, energy, strength, and so much more! Sometimes we get scared by the beautiful mystery of God, but the Spirit of God is never referred to as a depersonalized force. The Spirit of God is God, it is how he chooses to communicate and reveal Himself to us today. His Spirit in ours is just a deposit for eternity to come. When we worship with our spirit directly to God’s Spirit we taste eternity. So even if our minds can’t understand it, we must learn to worship with our spirit.
“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
John 4:23-24 MSG
This is what God longs for in our worship! That the truth of who God is would penetrate so deep in our mind, our heart, and our body that our spirit would be free to worship him! This is not something you can learn in one day and check it off the check list – it’s a constant pursuit. Keep coming back and seeking God. Keep entering into His presence and showing up to dance with your creator.
ACTION
The way I learned how to worship with my spirit was first through silencing everything else. I heard Mama Maggie Gobran speak at the Willow Creek leadership summit in 2011 and it rocked my world. With the most sincere and gentle spirit she said,
"Silence your body to listen to words.
"Silence your tongue to listen to thoughts.
"Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart beating.
"Silence your heart to listen to your spirit.
"Silence your spirit to listen to His Spirit."
So that’s what we’re going to practice in our worship today! It took me a LOT of attempts to learn to quiet my mind and then to learn difference between my heart and my spirit and then to learn to listen to His Spirit. Some days we get stuck in the heart space or the head space and that’s okay – we need to be there and work through what God is stirring up in those places. But today let’s press through and go deeper. You can practice this on your own or try along with the guided meditation I’ve posted on YouTube.
- Find your sanctuary today and set the atmosphere
- Pray ask the Holy Spirit to teach you to worship with your spirit today
- Sit up tall and close your eyes. Take 10 deep breaths in and out through your nose and work through this breathing exercise
- Inhale: scan your body Exhale: release your breath to tight spaces
- Stay here until your body is quiet
- Inhale: bring your awareness to your thoughts Exhale: submit your speculations to the Lord and replace them with His Truth
- Stay here until your mind is quiet
- Inhale: bring awareness to your heart beating Exhale: release emotions your holding - acknowledge them and let them go. Today you’re choosing to go deeper.
- Stay here until your heart is quiet
- Inhale: bring awareness to your spirit – the simple essence of who you are underneath what’s going on in your life, what you look like, what you think about yourself, or how you feel – just you. Exhale: give your spirit permission to be free.
- Stay here until your spirit is calm and quiet ***Helpful thought – often when we start to listen to our spirit it’s helpful to imagine yourself as a little child. When I started doing exercises like this I saw myself as a little girl maybe 5 years old twirling in a field. A friend of mine once told me she saw herself as a lion --- it will be different for everyone because no one else has the same spirit that God breathed into YOU!
- Inhale: bring awareness to God’s Spirit Exhale: receive the presence of His spirit with yours.
- Stay here for as long as you can while God’s spirit ministers to yours and the worship of your spirit ministers to His. This is the dance my friend ☺
- Journal – write down what you experienced today. Did you get stuck halfway through the exercise? What part held you up? What did God reveal to you in that area? How can you engage your spirit with God’s Spirit throughout your day?