Free to Worship (part 4)

Love on the Lord today! Cry to Him!

Freedom belongs to you! Receive it!

Glory Hallelujah!

Reach out for your freedom!

Watch this praise song called “Freedom Reigns In This Place,” as they wavy banners:

Be free today – from destruction!

Be free today – from your sickness!

Be free today – from your hurt!

Be free today – from disappointment!

BE FREE!
We are continuing from where we left of at our last blog post called “Free to Worship by Dereck Prince (part 3) (part 2) (part 1).” Enjoy the conclusion of this article.

“There are multitudes in the contemporary church who are in this condition—spirits imprisoned in bodies through which they cannot freely express themselves.

Their physical activity in church is limited to a few routine movements. They walk in, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up and walk out again. As a result, they scarcely participate at all in the highest activity of which their spirits are capable—the uninhibited worship of the Creator.

There is, however, an opposite error: the soul and the body may “go through the motions” of worship without the spirit initiating it or being involved. The result is mere religious activity and not true worship. The scriptural pattern of worship requires the harmonious interaction of all three parts—spirit, soul and body—with the spirit to bring the initiative. It is this harmony of all our faculties that constitutes true liberty.

A Spirit of Stiffness

Recently I had an experience which I believe serves as a kind of “parable” to illustrate this situation. I was with a group of Christians waiting upon God in prayer. Suddenly, without any act of my will, my hands went up in the air and my body went through a series of convulsive jerks for a moment. I felt embarrassed, wondering what the other people would think. Then I asked myself: Which is more important, what people think, or what God wants to do for me? I decided to yield without reservation to what God was doing. Actually, most of the other people were too preoccupied with God to notice what was happening to me.

The convulsive jerks lasted for a few minutes, then I relaxed and my body went limp. God showed me that I had been delivered from a spirit of “stiffness” (something I had never heard of before). He showed me, too, when and how that spirit had gained access to me. I was born in India—in 1915—at a time when the medical facilities were relatively primitive. The local doctor soon detected that my legs were unequal. He recommended that I lie on my back with one leg in a splint—which continued for several months. From that time onward there were certain normal physical movements that I was never able to make. Since my deliverance, however, I have begun to experience a new freedom of movement.

I find it a sobering thought that a spirit of stiffness had kept me from full freedom in my body for 79 years—in spite of many physical and spiritual blessings that I have enjoyed in subsequent years. Over the centuries, I believe, something analogous has happened to the Christian church.

A large section of it has been infiltrated by a spirit of “stiffness” which has kept Christians from experiencing the liberty and exhilaration which God desires His people to enjoy in their worship of Him. As a result, our forms of worship are often far removed from the patterns so abundantly presented in Scriptures.

What is the remedy? First, we must return to the pattern of Scripture and apprehend the full scope of activities with which it is appropriate to worship God. Then we must discipline our souls to respond to the prompting of our spirits and to release our bodies into all the appropriate actions. In many cases this may require some kind of spiritual deliverance. If these words apply to you, don’t make the mistake I nearly made. Don’t let embarrassment or self-consciousness keep you from pressing through into all that God has for you!

Watch this praise song recorded live at Victory Church in Oklahoma City called “Finally Free” from the Four Twelve Worship Project: