“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name”. Psalm 100:4
In the last few years in the Church, there has been a mighty innovation and direction toward worship and praise in the Church. Many Churches employ the services of professionals in their worship programs, more of musical instruments are being brought into the Church for praise and worship, as commendable as these efforts have been so also there are condemn-able practices to it.
Many gospel singers and worship leaders have low understanding of what praise and worship is all about even some pastors, Bishops, Reverends and church leaders has been singing wrong song to the God of praise, because they did not understand what praise and worship is all about, they are fun of singing a prayer song, hope song, encouragement song and so on and so forth for praise and worship, we need to look at lyrics of the songs you are singing to God if it is in line with praise or worship, when it’s comes to praise and worship you have to carefully mind the lyrics of the song you sing, you are to adore Him, magnify Him, exalt Him, glorify Him, kiss Him, appreciate Him, worship Him, not to encourage yourself, pray to Him, fighting battle in His presence.
What praise and worship is all about
((praz) Tehillah- “psalm,” “praise,” Todhah- “confession” “thanksgiving,” shabhach,-“to praise” “glorify,” zamar, yadhah-“to stretch out the hand,” “confess”;
It’s Meaning: The word comes from the Latin pretium, “price,” or “value,” and may be defined generally as an ascription of value or worth. Praise may be bestowed upon unworthy objects or from improper motives, but true praise consists in a sincere acknowledgment of a real conviction of worth. Its type may be seen in the representation given in the Apocalypse of the adoration of God and of the Lamb, which is inspired by a sense of their worthiness to be adored (Rev 4:11; 5:12).
Praise takes us to the presence of God and worship become our duty in is His presence, in praise, God is hearing but you cannot hear Him, in worship you hear expressly and declare Him, when we worship, we ascend the throne room of grace, when we ascend we gain revelation from God, Revelation causes us to know the will of God and break out Satan’s conformity. The Lord is asking us to move from the outer courts of praise and into the secret place where He abides and as we soak in His presence, He will begin to give us specific strategies and plans for our lives and ministry, don’t become so engrossed in yourself and your needs that you fail to prioritize what must be in place before coming to Him.
Praise is simply acknowledging, honoring and celebrating the person and work of Christ, in everyday terms praise is just bragging on Jesus Christ, praise is the outward expression of inward revelation, Praise is the language of faith- (Ps 52:9) that is praise exalting God for what you believe that He has done even though you haven’t seen the physical manifestation.
The authority of the Lord is experiential realized in the context of praise, praise makes room for the kingdom of Christ Jesus to be established in a particular situation at a particular time, praise is a progressive life wire of Christians that will finish their race well 1Thess. 5:18.
Having revelation knowledge of God you praise and you worship.
We lack knowledge of whom we are praising, the one whom we worshiped, the people of Israel sing with meaning, their singing was very intensive and meaningful because they had a revelation of who God is, we are to sing with understanding i.e. to know Him Ps 47:6-7, have deep knowledge of Him, praise is the outcome of God’s mighty acts, if you have seen God in action nobody will encourage you to stand to your feet and praise the Lord. (Ps 145:4-7), if you know God to be a wonder working God, your singing will be intensified and become more directed to Him and living your total life in praise not just a performance, is all that God wants and ask from you.
Pastor Faith Ajiboye said in his book LET PRAISE BEGIN, “The Spirit of God said to me about praise, praise notices the past, welcomes the present and looks into the future in adoration to God”.
Worship
Worship begins in the heart, anything outside is simply an extension of what’s on the inside, worship is personal, you can never worship beyond the knowledge you know about God, worship is an act of fearing God and obey Him, praise and worship is not only the art of worship but also the heart of worship and heart for worship, your heart must be involve in the worship to God, worship is commitment and is a total commitment of our soul, spirit, and body to love Him, to do His will to obey Him, when you are committed to God you are going to look like God not just singing, worship is to be carried out only when we come before the Lord of hosts the moment you sense His nearness, worship must be your response. Worship shows the holiness of God, worship is man attempt to give God His due, worship is man prostrating before God in total reference and honor for His personality.
Deep worship has nothing to do with music, if you can be connected through melody in your heart then the melody in your mouth will change, we have two types of melody, the first one is Silence melody– you have to worship God with this silence melody in your heart because this melody takes place within you, i.e. in your heart. And the second one is loud melody or music melody -this melody is what we see physically, so your worship must be in the silence melody first not physical melody or music melody, though sometimes it has to do with it and sometimes it has to do without it but it has to start from silence melody.
Worship humbles you, the proud man can’t worship God any more than the proud devil can worship God, there must be humility in the heart before there can be worship, worship has to be in the spirit and by the spirit, the notion that just anybody can worship is all wrong, the notion that we can worship without the spirit is all wrong, only the Holy Spirit knows how to worship God acceptably.
That is why we need the help of the Holy Spirit in our lives for our praise and worship to be accepted, because it is totally impossible to worship God acceptably apart from the Holy Spirit. Without an infusion of the Holy Spirit there can be no true worship, the operation of the Spirit of God within us enables us to worship acceptably through the person of Jesus Christ, who is Himself God, worship originates with God and comes back to us and is reflected from us as a mirror. Worship is active, it is practical, is not all about saying but to practice, it is something we do; I want you to know that worship is difference from entertainment, in worship we are not to be passive, but to participate.
God’s presence generates unending joy, unexplained joy, you can’t fathom the joy, in His presence there is fullness of joy. This joy is not condition by situation and circumstance, joy does not depend on what you have but joy depends on who you know and that is Jesus Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit you can experience this, somebody said that “as the feeling of delight and well-being that is dependent in your connection to Jesus Christ”.
The object of our praise and worship is God.
In the Bible it is God who is especially brought before us as the object of praise. His whole creation praises Him, from the angels of heaven (Ps 103:20; Rev 5:11) to those lower existences that are unconscious or even inanimate (Ps 19:1-4; 148:1-10; Rev 5:13). But it is with the praises offered to God by man, and with the human duty of praising God, that the Scriptures are principally concerned.
The object of worship is God, the Nicene Creed says that we worship “one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible”. If we could set forth all God’s attributes and tell that God is we would fall on our knees, undoubtedly, in adoring worship, the bible says He “dwells in light unapproachable whom no man can see or has seen or can see and live” (1 Timothy 6:16). God is holy, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and sovereign and that He has a thousand sovereign attributes and all these should humble us and bring us down to our knees and worship Him.
Rev Clayton Brasington said “we are to sing to the Lord, rather than just about Him, Almighty God is the object of our worship, and He is our audience (not the congregation or those around us)”. Worship is not about us, but is our ministry to the Lord; praise exalts the power of God while worship deals with the person of God.
Praise is encouraged by the acts and deeds of God while worship is excited about the ways and life of God, praise is our response to God’s deeds while worship is our response to His perceived presence, praise exalts God for what He has done, worship exalts God for who He is. Worship became far more intimate and personal, and all actions in worship would have to be governed by the attitudes of the worshiper toward the one being worshiped, Jesus gave us three separate measurements by which to test the validity of any person’s worship
1. All worship must be directed to the father.
2. True worship will be in man’s spirit.
3. Pure worship will be offered in truth.
Leading Praise and Worship
Leading praise and worship is the most sensitive part in our services because we determine how the service will be through our praise and worship to God and the choir ministration, it is not the time of experiment, it is for the serious minded person with God and man, because a time of praise and worship creates a power-charged atmosphere that can change unbelievers, when our spirits breaks free in praise and worship something happens in us that the world doesn’t understand or recognize, but unbelievers know that what they‘re sensing is to souls or intellectual and something inside them cries out for it, our worship determines the overall spiritual temperature and climate of a service. Many of the people coming to church are not happy, they are full of burdens and challenges and we need to make them happy by the help of the Holy Spirit, the atmosphere need to be charged by the help of the Holy Spirit for the word of God to have great impart in the life of the people and for God to have His way in the life of His people “But thou art holy, O thou inhabits the praises of Israel”. Ps 22:3 KJB, Act 16:25-34.
Danny Daniels said “But I was to learn that leading worship isn’t just about music. It’s about worshiping God with all your heart, mind and strength while at the same time drawing people into an experience in the spirit. It’s about helping people to be themselves before God, so they can discover how much he loves them”.
Walex Gospel Music blog247 