Sample Chapters

Face to face; a call to personal worship

‘You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek”’ (Psalm 27:8).

Chapter 1

Face to face

The Lord longs for intimacy with us. We are not just a face in the crowd, He seeks us out, and wants us to seek Him too. King David understood this when he heard the Lord say ‘seek My face’ (Psalm 27:8). If we are looking into someone’s face, and they into ours, it is very personal. Eyes meet, communication happens, even if no words are spoken. That is what our Lord, who is the King of the Universe wants; face to face fellowship with us!

Worship is to do with truly ‘seeing’ the Lord, through the revelation of Scripture and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As we see Him, we cannot help but love Him. We give Him, not only honour and glory, but also our hearts.

We are all used to worshipping corporately, when we are often led by gifted musicians and singers. However, there is a deeper intimacy that the Lord is drawing us to, a plea for us to be alone with Him. He is calling to our hearts, ‘seek My face’.

He loves to hear and answer our prayers, but He also longs for our declarations of love and faith. It is not because He needs them. The Great I AM has no need of us to bolster His self esteem! He wants us to worship Him because He knows that we need to be continually refocussed on Who He is in the midst of all the challenges of this world.

Moses

Moses spoke to the Lord face to face, as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11). When he came down from the mountain, his face was shining with the glory of the Lord. He reflected the One he had spent time with. As time went by, the glory faded until he again spent time in the presence of the Lord.

Moses put a veil over his face so that the people would not look on what was fading. However the Apostle Paul writes of the greater glory of the New Covenant;

‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit’ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

When we gaze on His glory we are transformed into the same image! We become more like the Lord! His glory in us need not fade as long as we keep our eyes on Him. This is His beautiful plan of redemption. In the Garden of Eden we were created in His image. Sin marred us, but sin is now dealt with! We can again be what we were always meant to be, like Jesus, glorious!

Ordinary people

Ordinary people like us were drawn to Jesus though He was pure and sinless, because there was nothing self-righteous in Him. He carried the glory of God in His flesh.

‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14).

This living Word is now made flesh in us. We, individually as well as corporately are His body on earth. We are made to carry His glory so that others will be drawn to Him.

The more we ‘see’ Him in our personal worship, the more we will be like Him. It is a process. It is a struggle to train ourselves to keep looking to the Lord when the demands and logic of this world press in. Moses’ glory faded because it was not possible for him to stay in the presence of the Lord all the time. However Jesus tore the veil when He died on the Cross. He opened heaven for us and planted the Kingdom of Heaven within us by the power of His Holy Spirit. The challenge for us is, will we abide in Him?

Worship is not the songs before the meaty stuff of the meeting, it is the very essence of life. It is to be in His presence, whether corporately or individually. Worship is beholding Jesus in all His glory, and allowing Him to make us more like Him; to make us carriers of His glory.

In the Old Testament the Lord says that He will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 48:11). Yet in the New Testament Jesus prays;

‘The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one’ (John 17:22).

He gives us His glory because we are not ‘an-other’. Our salvation means that we become part of Him, we are His body on earth! We are His Bride in waiting. There will be a consummation of absolute oneness when He comes back to earth in all His power and glory. Yet, even now, He invites us to live on earth as it is in heaven. To do everything in our power to keep the unity of the Spirit with other believers (Ephesians 4:3). To trust Him when we are in the darkness, and to keep seeking His face even when He seems so far away.

We can have wonderful times of corporate worship where we feel a great unity of heart and mind with the Lord and with others. However, unless we maintain that truth in our own intimacy with Jesus, those times will be like a fleeting dream.

The veil is torn

Our salvation allows us access into the heavenly realms. The veil was torn as Jesus died on the Cross. Our sin, our shame and our weaknesses do not hinder us if we put them all into the death of Christ. We accept that we are now sons and daughters of God. That means that we can enter as a child into the very Throne Room of God and be welcomed. We don’t need music, or a holy atmosphere, we just need faith, and faith is a free gift (Ephesians 2:8)!

The beautiful thing is that the Lord longs to see your face! He longs to hear your voice. Listen to what He sings over you in the love song in the centre of our Bibles;

‘O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the crannies of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely’ (Song of Songs 2:14).

Can you really believe that the God of heaven and earth longs for your company? It seems almost delusional to think it, and yet it is true. He created you and loves you. He is patiently waiting for you to turn your face towards Him and tell Him how much you love Him.

I had been in full time Christian service for over ten years before I really discovered that the Lord doesn’t just love me for the work that I do, but He loves me for who I am. Of course I knew that truth in my head. I would even teach it to others, but deep down I was driven to work hard for Him. That was the way I could show Him my love. He brought me to a situation where all my efforts came to nothing. Everything I did failed.

I wept before Him in a misery of frustration. I was sitting on a bed and just staring at nothing. Suddenly my focus came on my feet. There is a tiny scar, hardly noticeable on the top of my right foot. I just felt the Lord say;

‘I remember when you did that’.

I had fallen over on roller skates when I was about seven years old. The fact that the King of the Universe, my God, remembered that, absolutely broke me. I sobbed out all my frustration and let go of my goals. I just revelled in my Father’s love. Again I heard Him speak in my heart;

‘I’ve been so lonely for you’.

How could it be? I was talking to Him everyday. Bombarding Him with requests for those who were lost. Yet, my heart began to understand. He didn’t want a daughter that just ran in and out of His presence with various requests. He wanted her to be with Him.

I fell in love with the Lord again in that moment. I felt like I’d been born again again! So much happened in seconds. My understanding was renewed. I knew He longed for me, not my work. He would love me if I never did a thing for Him. He loved me because He loved me, and nothing would change that. This is God, this is Love.

I believe that my ‘work’ has become more effective since that experience, because I no longer work for Him, but I work with Him. Certainly my colleagues were very grateful for the difference in me!

It’s easy when we come before the Lord to wear a ‘veil’. Mine was my service for Him. For others it may be a sense of shame, or fear or even self-righteousness. It could be many things. The veil protects us from facing our true selves. It ‘protects’ us from really experiencing a fuller measure of His love.

He gently urges us to remove our veils. He will use whatever our situation demands. For me it was a time of failure. For the bride in the Song of Songs

‘The watchmen found me
as they went about in the city;
they beat me, they bruised me,
they took away my veil,
those watchmen of the walls’ (Song of Songs 5:7).

If you read the whole song you will see that through this horrible experience the bride found breakthrough. Nothing mattered to her any more except her relationship with her Lover. The whole song pivots on this transformation. She was suddenly no longer seeking her Beloved as someone who was far away, but she realised that He had been there all along, loving her, calling for her to kiss Him.

‘His mouth is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem’ (Song of Songs 5:16).

The Lord allows the brokenness of this world to set us free. Our part is to keep on trusting Him, knowing that all that happens to us will work for our good (Romans 8:28).

It is significant that after this experience the ‘others’ in the Song of Songs recognise the beauty of the Bride. They call her,

‘O most beautiful among women’ (S of S 5:9 &6:1).

Before that time the Lord, the Lover was speaking this truth over her, because He can always see our potential, but the others could not see beyond the veil. Now, they too see the Bride reflecting the glory of her King and call her beautiful.

Isn’t this what we all want? To shine with the glory of our King so that others will be drawn to Him. Our veils must be torn so that this can happen.

The light of His Presence exposes us. It can be uncomfortable, sometimes painful, but if we will stay, we will know that we are forgiven and cleansed, accepted and loved for who we are. He cannot love us more and will never love us less. When we experience that love, we cannot but respond;

‘We love because he first loved us’ (1 John 4:19).

This love will always find a way of expressing itself so that others will see the beauty of Jesus in us.

Jacob

For years Jacob had tried to deal with the Lord on his own terms. So God allowed his sin and rebellion to bring him to the point of desperation. Jacob came to a place where he truly felt his life and the lives of all his family were in danger from a vengeful Esau. He did not know that God had gone before him and softened Esau’s heart.

In that night of fear, Jacob sought the Lord. Until that point I don’t think Jacob was a worshipper. He feared the Lord, and obeyed Him when he felt he had to, but he didn’t really know Him. His possessions were his ‘veil’. That night he separated himself from all his family and possessions and sought God.

Jacob wanted God’s blessing, the deliverance of his family. God passionately loved Jacob and wanted to bless him, but He also wanted Jacob’s heart. Jacob would not let go of the Lord, but neither would the Lord let go of Jacob. It resulted in a wrestling through the night, where by grace the Lord allowed a weak man to hold on to Him and prevail. The Lord touched Jacob’s hip socket, the strongest area in his body, and dislocated it. He broke Jacob’s own strength, the thing that he had always relied on. It must have been agony for Jacob, but through it all, he held on to the Lord.

Jacob came face to face with who the Lord really is, and it changed him completely. He became a worshipper. Jacob named the place Peniel, which means ‘Face of God’ saying;

‘I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered’ (Genesis 32:30).

In the great passage of faith, Hebrews 11, Jacob is mentioned this way;

‘By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff’ (Hebrews 11:21).

He had become a man of worship, thankful for all the blessings that the Lord had given him, and particularly grateful for the restoration of Joseph, and the ability to see his children. His veil had been all that he had gained by his own strength. Now his dislocated hip caused him to have to lean on his staff, reminding him that he was weak, but also that his strength came from the One whom he had seen face to face.

Sometimes, as with Jacob, we have to struggle to that place of worship. It is not an easy journey. It means letting go of everything else that we have felt important, to hold onto God. Seeking the Lord takes focus and energy. We have to make choices. Yet in all our struggle, it is important to know that the Lord will not let us go. He longs for us to see His face, because in that face we will read just how much He loves us.

No idols

When we worship Jesus we are changed to look like Him. We become like whatever we worship;

‘Thus says the Lord:

“What wrong did your fathers find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”’ (Jeremiah 2:5).

We must be careful what we worship. What do we consider ‘worthy’ of our attention? If our mind is filled with worry about finance, for example, we are in danger of giving it power to direct our lives and become the ‘lord’ of our decision making. The same would apply to a consuming relationship or the pursuit of a particular career. In the end all these things are worthless compared, as the Apostle Paul put it, with

‘the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Philippians 3:8).

If we will make a habit of giving time each day to worshipping the Lord, everything else will find its rightful place.

The Father is seeking worshippers

The Lord is seeking individual as well as corporate lovers. Jesus said to the woman at the well

‘the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth’ (John 4:23-24).

The word ‘worship’ in this passage is the Greek word proskyneo. It is used throughout the New Testament of both corporate and individual worship. It literally means to kiss, to prostrate oneself in homage, to adore. We can do this together, but how precious that we can kiss the Lord and touch His heart in our own worship time.

All of heaven worships because they see the Father and Jesus as they really are. We on earth see only a pale reflection at the moment. However Jesus has left us His Spirit to reveal the Father and the Son,

‘But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me’ (John 15:26).

The Holy Spirit will show us that our worship as an individual matters to the Lord, that He is hungry to hear of our love for Him. Satan will tell us that the Lord has millions of worshippers, and that our little offering is of no consequence. Yet my love and your love is precious to the Lord.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was He answered;

‘The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these’ (Mark 12:29-31).

Notice that the first commandment is to love God; to worship. Only as we do that will we find the power to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Some say, ‘I will show my love for Him through my service’. That is good, it is loving Him with our strength. Others say, I study His word and try to live by it to demonstrate my love for Him. Again good, we love Him with our mind. Yet, how do with love Him with our hearts, our soul? Is there not somewhere deeper the Lord wants to take us? And are not all of these expressions of our love a form of worship?

So how do we worship Him with our hearts and our souls?

David, one of the great worshippers says;

‘To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul’ (Psalm 25:1).

He was not afraid to lift up His innermost being to the Lord. He knew that even with all the mixture that was in him, the Lord would still accept him. Lifting our soul to Him is a part of our personal worship. In doing that we are saying, ‘I trust you Lord with all that I am’. When we lift our soul we know that He sees and He cares. If you doubt as to whether Jesus values your soul, listen to what His words;

‘For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul’ (Mark 8:36-37)?

In Jesus’ eyes, one soul is worth more than the whole created world. We are more precious to the Lord than we often realise. It is in the place of worship, when we allow ourselves to meditate on how precious He is to us, that we begin to realise just how precious we are to Him.

God is love, and He delights and longs to show us His love. As we receive it, so we can give it. Worship is a flow of love to and from heaven.

How do I start?

We don’t all find lots of hours in a day that we can spend in quiet contemplation of how wonderful the Lord is, but we can start by just telling Him that we love Him. Allow your heart to still for a few minutes and find its belonging place. Your life is hidden with Christ, in God (Colossians 3:3). Just settle that is the truth, and allow Christ to take you by His Spirit into the presence of the Father. Maybe no words come, but your heart speaks its own language of love. This is worship.

To ‘see’ Him as Scripture reveals Him to be, is to love Him. When you read the Bible, notice what it says about the character of God, and think about that aspect. Just allow your thoughts to dwell on that trait. For example, if you are reading in the book of Colossians, the second verse of the book says;

‘Grace to you and peace from God our Father’ (Colossians 1:2).

My worship would be to start rejoicing in the grace and peace that are flowing from the Father. My heart becomes so thankful, and depending on where I am, I could even just start singing to Him. It may be a song that I know, or one that just begins to flow from my heart. I am exalting Him, lifting Him high in my heart because of who He is.

The amazing thing is, the more I see of how full of grace the Father is, the more it becomes a reality in my daily experience. I start to recognise that this provision, or that situation is an overflow of His grace to me. That in turn provokes more worship. It’s not that problems disappear or difficult situations change, but now I face them knowing that He is working out His grace-filled plan for me and through me, no matter what. As I receive His grace, so I can give that grace to others.

We can worship the Lord like this whatever we are doing; on the bus, struggling with a difficult customer, swinging a pickaxe, or soothing a baby. We lift our soul to the Lord and we exalt in who He is.

Don’t worry if you get distracted, we all do. As soon as you realise it, even if it is not until the end of the day, centre your thoughts back on the Lord. Over time, that centring will become more natural. Don’t allow condemnation to slip in, remember His grace as you tell Him that you are sorry, and lift your soul to Him again.

Practical worship action

Take a few minutes to quieten yourself before the Lord. Think about these truths from God’s Word;

‘We love because he first loved us’ (1 John 4:19).

‘God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8).

Allow the life in them to fill your heart. If words of response rise, just speak them out. Know, that the Lord is receiving your worship, however faltering or unsure you may feel. Don’t worry if you can’t find words, He can read your heart.

Chapter 5 The Lion of Judah

One of the names of Jesus is the Lion of Judah. Judah is the tribe that Jesus belonged to through his human origin. Judah was the fourth son of Jacob, and the fourth son that his unloved wife, Leah, bore to him.

Every time Leah gave Jacob a son she thought she would win his affection, but it never happened. The Bible actually tells us that her husband hated her. He had been tricked into marrying her when he loved her sister Rachel. Leah struggled against that hatred and it must have been so painful to see her sister receiving all her husband’s affection. Yet, when she bore her fourth son she had a different attitude;

‘And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah’ (Genesis 29:35).

It is the first time that the word ‘praise’ is ever used in Scripture, and I have noticed that first uses often have important lessons to teach us. Leah finally got her focus off herself and her circumstances and onto the Lord. She named her son Judah, which literally means praise. Jesus is the Lion of Praise! It took Leah years to overcome her heartache, but eventually she discovered the beautiful gift available to all of us, that she could praise the Lord and climb out of her loneliness and into His presence.

It was Leah, not the beloved Rachel, who bore the head of the tribe that would bring the Messiah. When Jacob, under the anointing of the Lord, blessed his sons before he died he said of Judah;

‘Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples’ (Genesis 49:8-10).

What a prophetic insight into the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ! There are other words for praise used in Scripture, but the one that Judah comes from, yada, is linked with the word hand. It has the sense of stretching out our hands in praise. Our Lion of Praise stretched out His hands in absolute obedience to the Father when He went to the Cross. This was His ultimate act of Praise. How qualified He is to lead us from places of desperation and despair into the place of praise.

Personal praise

Of course we often associate praise with a corporate offering to the Lord, but I hope you see from Leah’s experience how powerful and transformational personal praise can be.

If you are born again by the power of the Holy Spirit then Jesus, the Lion of Judah dwells in you. He has a roar of praise that He wants to express through you. There is such suffering and injustice in the world, yet Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The Kingdom of heaven is there for those who will stretch out their hands in praise and touch it.

The more we see of the Lord and His Kingdom, the more we are able to bring Him into our everyday situations. People rail against God, asking why He allows so much suffering. They don’t see that He created everything good. It is us who have messed up what He has given. When we choose to praise Him in the midst of the mess, it is a step of faith towards the Kingdom of God coming on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Chemo

A few years ago, during lock-down, I, as many others have done, had to go through chemotherapy. I was so weak some days that I hardly moved from my chair. The NHS was amazing, and I was well looked after, but the effects of the drugs going into my system were horrible. My bones were weakened and an area of my lower spine crumbled leaving me in a lot of pain. Days blurred together.

However, I could feel the prayer of friends and family even though they could not come to me. I sensed the Lord very close to me, and I felt that He wanted to hear my praises. My voice was croaky and weak, so I played worship songs and just lifted my heart to the Lord. One song in particular became my theme song.

I raise a hallelujah

In the presence of my enemies

I raise a hallelujah

Louder than the unbelief

I raise a hallelujah

My weapon is a melody

I raise a hallelujah

Heaven comes to fight for me

It’s from a song written by Jonathan David Helser and his wife Melissa. It gave me the words I wanted to declare. In the midst of the pain and things I didn’t understand, it was my roar of praise. It did not make any difference to my outward circumstances, but I was filled with joy. My neighbours commented on it when they saw me. They couldn’t understand how I was still smiling. I was not doing it through gritted teeth, I had real joy, God’s joy, as I knew He received my sacrifice of praise.

Curse to blessing

When Balaam the prophet was trying to curse God’s people, he found he could not do it. In fact every curse was turned into a blessing from his mouth. His employers were furious with him, but he saw;

The Lord their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them (Numbers 23:21).

No curse could rest on the people of God because the King was roaring His blessings over them. That ‘shout’ in Hebrew is teruah. It is a shout of battle and a shout of joy, because when the Lord shouts over us, the battle is already won. It is the roar of the Lion of Judah. Jesus shouted a teruah from the Cross when he cried out ‘It is finished!’

In this world, where the tares are growing up alongside the wheat, the Lord is looking for people through whom He can roar. Those who will not be discouraged by what is around, but know that the Kingdom of God can come to redeem and restore. People who will praise Him whatever their circumstances. Those who will not conform to the pressures of this world, but hold to His word. Those who will give a teruah cry of battle and of the joy of victory!

Joshua

God trains us in the secret place. If we will go to him in our daily circumstances, and praise Him instead of grumbling or despairing, He builds our faith muscle. Joshua spent years seeking the Lord. The Bible tells us that he was always found in the Tent of Meeting (Exodus 33:11). He was hungry for God’s Presence. You could say that Joshua had good reason to despair. He and Caleb had been faithful when they brought the report from the Promised Land. They knew that despite the size of the enemy, the Lord was with them, and would give them victory. However the people were swayed by the ten spies who saw only the impenetrable walls of the people of Canaan.

Joshua had to wait and stay faithful to the Lord through those forty long years in the wilderness. He did not lose his faith, or let bitterness grow in his heart. He worshipped. He sought the Presence of God. So when the time finally came for them to enter the Land, Joshua was ready.

He went to look at Jericho, but as he looked at those walls that seemed to touch the sky, he also saw a man with a drawn sword in His hand. It was the commander of the army of the Lord, and we now know His name, Jesus! Joshua had worshipped in the secrecy of the Tent of Meeting, the Lord now met him at his point of need on the battlefield for the Land. Joshua fell flat on his face and worshipped.

The Lord then gave Joshua a strange strategy to take the city. The people were to walk around the walls in silence for six days. The only thing to break the silence would be the blast of seven trumpets made of rams’ horns. The people had to walk in great vulnerability around Jericho, knowing that their enemies could shoot at them with arrows, or pour boiling oil over them, or even throw rocks. Nothing like that happened.

As I mentioned in the previous chapter, horns in Scripture always stand for strength. Seven horns means perfect strength. The Lord protected His silent people. As they walked around the walls day by day, seeing nothing, either good or bad happening, but hearing the ram’s horns, they were expressing faith. Their weakness was covered by the Lord’s great strength.

On the seventh day, the Lord’s day, they were told to shout. It was the teruah, the cry of battle and of joy. It was the roar of the Lion of Judah through His people, and it brought the walls down! Joshua had learnt to praise God in the secret place. So when the Commander of the armies of the Lord told him that the battle would not be won by sword or spear but with the proclamation of praise, he was able to believe.

Waiting is so hard. Imagine waiting for forty years. Yet, if we will wait on the Lord, He will give us victory. He will release His roar through us, and we will lead others into their inheritance.

David

King David was of the Tribe of Judah in his natural lineage, but also in his heart. Praise and worship marked his whole life, and the songs he wrote still bless and comfort us today.

He sang songs inspired by the stars when he was a shepherd. He soaked himself in meditating on how great the Lord is. This gave him faith to kill the lion and the bear to protect the inheritance God had given his family. It was because of this preparation when he was alone, that he was ready when the time came for a public encounter. When he saw a Philistine mocking and threatening the people of God and their inheritance, his faith rose;

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied (1 Samuel 17:45).

This is a roar from a lion of Judah!

Attacks will always come against our inheritance. We need to allow the Lion of Judah to rise within us, to praise, to cry out, to roar in faith. Praise will give perspective, and give us courage to act to save our inheritance; our families, our calling, our destiny. Lions roar to protect their territory. What territory has the Lord given you?

Praise lifestyle

David lived a lifestyle of praise. He taught his soul to bless the Lord even when he may not have felt like doing so. We see from the Psalms that he continually reminded himself of who the Lord is, and what He has done.

He wrote;

I will bless the Lord at all times;

his praise shall be continually in my mouth (Psalm 34:1).

This is all the more amazing when we look at the context of this psalm. He wrote it when he was in a dire situation. He was brought before Abimelech, an enemy king, and had to pretend to be insane to save his life. He allowed spittle to run down his beard. How shameful for someone who had been anointed king! Yet, that was not David’s attitude. He went on to say;

Those who look to him are radiant,

and their faces shall never be ashamed (Psalm 34:5).

He did not care what a foreign king thought of him, only what the Lord Himself thought. He knew that there was no shame in the Kingdom of God, so he wouldn’t live in shame himself.

Another time when David was fleeing for his life, and living in a cave he wrote;

I cry out to God Most High,

to God who fulfils his purpose for me’ (Psalm 57:2).

It was a cry of faith that defied circumstances. This is the roar of the Lion of Judah!

David suffered some terrible things. One time, when he and his men were based at Ziklag, the city was burned and all their families were taken captive. His men were ready to stone him, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God (1 Samuel 30:6).

That word strengthened means to seize, to fasten upon. He fastened himself upon the Lord in his grief and dire need. His men had raised their voices in weeping and grieving, but David went on to raise his voice in praise. He started to think about who the Lord is. He took hold of the Him. He then sought the Lord’s answer to his need. The Lord led him to victory.

Are we lions in times of danger and of grief? The Lion of Judah is in us, waiting for us to turn our hearts to praise Him. His roar breaks through oppression, through failure and through shame if we will allow it to rise within us. David wrote;

‘You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah’ (Psalm 32:7).

Prophetic praise

David was a man after God’s own heart. His praise would not be silenced. Even in heartbreak he learnt to sing. Sometimes our own praises can become prophetic. They become the word of the Lord to others. We know Psalm 22 as a prophetic song that speaks of Jesus suffering. However, when David wrote it, he must have been going through his own time of desolation.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? (Psalm 22:1).

It starts in despair and agony…but cannot stay there. David, as His Greater Ancestor after him, hallowed the Name of the Lord and began to proclaim the truth…

Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel (v3)

What an amazing comfort this psalm must have been for Jesus. David did not shy away from how he felt. He considered himself at that time like a worm, because people despised him so much. However he did not dwell on those feelings. As we read the psalm we sense the battle David had trying to overcome awful circumstances. The verses veer between his reality and the real reality of God’s Kingdom. He talks of his enemies surrounding him like strong bulls. He feels he is being poured out like water, his bones out of joint and his heart like wax. In his own agony, he enters prophetically into the Lord’s Jesus agony on the Cross.

‘For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots’ (Psalm 22:16-18).

Yet he declares in faith;

I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! (Psalm 22:22-23).

What an incredible journey of praise. David went from despair to adoration of the Lord because he would not concentrate on his circumstances, but determined, whatever was going on, he would praise the Lord. Not only would he praise, but he would declare God’s praises to his brothers. When we, in the midst of horrible circumstances, not only praise the Lord anyway, but declare His goodness to others, God is glorified in our lives, and others are drawn to Him. David declared prophetically;

‘All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you’ (Psalm 22:27).

I’m sure that the Lord Jesus would have read and re-read this Psalm, more than likely committing it to memory. What a comfort it would have been to Him as He lived through the agonies that David described, and saw this wonderful declaration of faith at the end of the psalm. The ends of the earth will remember and turn to Him. All families will worship before Him because of this unthinkable display of His love; His body torn for us.

We are told that Jesus was able to endure the Cross because of the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). As He fixed His eyes on us, His Bride-to-be, He was able to stand all the hell that Satan could unleash on Him. He even bore separation from His Father, the most painful and excruciating thing of all, as He became sin for us.

The last line of David’s psalm is a victory cry;

‘he has done it’ (Psalm 22:31).

David’s praise in the midst of his agony led to a teruah of joy and victory, a roar of a lion of Judah. He wouldn’t have understood the full significance of those words until he met Jesus in the heavenly realms. David had declared, ‘he has done it’ and Jesus roared from the Cross; ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).

Turn suffering to praise

When we give our suffering to the Lord as an offering, and praise Him in the midst of it, He will always use it for His glory. The unfounded accusations, the loss of finance, the meaningless violence, the heartless rape, He never ordained them, they are a result of sin. However, given to Him they can be redeemed. Our wounds can be made beautiful as we find the grace to forgive and the faith to praise the Lord anyway. He pours in His healing and gives us testimonies that will cause faith to spring up in others who have been wounded. Sometimes the roar of the Lion is a cry of agony that just clings in faith to the very nature of God.

What inspiration we have as we see Jesus fix His eyes on us as He went through the agony of the Cross! He invites us to fix our eyes on Him. He is the joy set before us. As we cry out to Him in the midst of our struggles and sufferings, He will inspire our words, and they can become prophetic.

Praise is not simply a determination to be positive, it is a determination to proclaim the truth! It is an outworking of our faith. Again we can learn from King David;

I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord’ (Psalm 40:1-3).

As we allow the Lord to set our feet on the rock of His promises, on His nature, then He will give us new songs, and others will see and fear and put their trust in Him. What power there is in praise!

Lazarus

When Jesus was faced with the death of his friend Lazarus and his two grieving sisters, we are told twice that He was deeply moved (John 11:33&38). The English translation does not easily capture the depth of that emotion. In the Greek it speaks of incredible anger, literally to snort with anger. What was He so angry at? It certainly wasn’t the sisters.

He had declared Himself as the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). He knew that He had authority over death, and that Satan had overstepped himself by bringing death to one of His friends. His anger was against the spirit of death. He also knew that the Father wanted to glorify Himself and His Son by this demonstration of life. So, in the midst of the grieving people He started to thank and praise the Father;

‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me’ (John 11:41:42).

Then Jesus, the Lion of Judah, roared the command of life;

‘Lazarus, come out’ (John 11:43).

Jesus, the Lamb of God who went silently to His own crucifixion roared as a Lion to save His friend. As He raised Lazarus he sealed his own death;

‘If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish’ (John 11:48-50).

Jesus’ priority was always to do the will of the Father. He would not use the strength of the Lion on the journey to the Cross, but walked in the weakness of the Lamb. We too need to know when to be lions and when to be lambs. Sometimes the Lord puts a roar of praise in us that will call the dead things to life. At other times He will say ‘Let go, walk away, and follow me’. In those times our praise will be shown in the obedience of being His little lambs.

Our worship leader

Jesus is the greatest worship leader. He calls us family and leads us in the praise of His Father;

“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” (Hebrews 2:12).

Let Him tell you of the Name of Our Father, of His glory and His attributes. Let His song rise in your heart when you have no song to sing.

He will come again with a great shout and trumpet blasts as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Until then He is still in heaven and in our hearts telling of the Name and singing praise!

Practical Worship Action

Think of the most challenging situation you are facing in your life at the moment. Determine to praise the Lord over it. Spend time declaring God’s sovereignty and ask Jesus for His words to roar over that situation. He will often lead you to a passage or even just a few words from the Bible. Here is one I often use;

“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied (1 Samuel 17:45).

I put what I am facing in the place of the sword and spear and javelin of the enemy and declare the name of the Lord over all my circumstances.

Know that when you speak out His name and His word, the Lion of Judah Himself is roaring through you.

Chapter 10

Living sacrifice

‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship’ (Romans 12:1).

What a definition of worship! What a challenge for each one of us. To offer our bodies, containing our souls and our spirits, as a living sacrifice to God. This is something that must happen on an individual level first and foremost. However, when people gather together to hear and obey God with this mindset, wonderful things happen.

The word used for worship in this passage literally means service. We worship God by daily offering our bodies to Him for His use. Frances R Havergal captures this worship in her beautiful Hymn ‘Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to Thee’. Her second verse is a picture of a body offered to the Lord.

Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee.

The first literal living sacrifice was Isaac. He was laid on the altar, but spared to live for God’s purposes. He is a model of a devoted worshipper. The Lord had told Abraham to give his son as a burnt offering, (Genesis 22:2). The burnt offering is the most radical of all offerings. The sacrifice is burnt to ashes. It is something given over irrevocably.

Isaac was not a young boy when he was offered to the Lord. He was strong enough to carry all the wood needed for the sacrifice. The word ‘boy’ in Hebrew would often be used until someone was married. As he walked up Mount Moriah carrying the wood, he foreshadowed the Son of God, Jesus, who would carry His Cross (possibly even up the same slopes) and become the perfect Living Sacrifice.

The first time the word ‘worship’ is ever used in the Scriptures was by Abraham in this crisis of his life. He showed faith and relentless obedience as he told his servants;

‘I and the boy will go over there and worship and come back again to you’ (Genesis 22:5).

The Hebrew word used for worship here is saha and it literally means to bow low or to prostrate oneself. Abraham was going to bow before the Lord no matter what. Yet, he knew in his heart that God would intervene and that he would come back with Isaac, even if it meant that Isaac would be raised from the ashes.

This is worship! This painful, personal trusting in the very nature of the Lord, even when it seems impossible that things can work out. If you find yourself, like Abraham, facing great challenge or great loss, keep walking up the mountain. Determine that even in your desperation you will bow before the Lord.

Think of Isaac too. He was a strong young man, maybe even in his twenties or thirties. I like to think that he was thirty three, the same age as Jesus when He went to the Cross. At first he didn’t understand what was happening. He knew that the two of them were going to make an offering, but they had no lamb. His father told him that God would provide the lamb, but then proceeded to bind Isaac and lay him on the altar.

Isaac could have resisted Abraham, and possibly overcome him. I’m sure Abraham’s hands would have been trembling as he laid his son down as a sacrifice. Isaac saw the knife raised over his body and was willing to die as a sacrifice to the Lord. This was his worship. He offered his body as a sacrifice.

However, we know what happened. The Lord did provide the sacrifice, the ram, caught in the thicket by his horns. This ram was crowned, just as Jesus was in His time, by thorns. Isaac, instead of dying for the Lord as a sacrifice, would become a living sacrifice. He would live for the Lord. His name means laughter, and he would live to laugh in the face of impossibilities.

Laughter

Isaac reaped a hundredfold what he sowed in a time of famine (Genesis 26:12). He put in the hard work and re-dug all the wells that his father had dug and the Philistines had blocked up. Every time he succeeded, his enemies came and claimed the well. He did not argue with them, or get discouraged, but just dug more wells. Everywhere he dug he found water! God was with him. His enemies could not stand against him.

Note that to live a life of worship does not exempt us from hard work. It takes a lot of effort to dig a well. However, Isaac’s trust in the Lord meant that he persevered in the land that God had given his father, and he made it fruitful. In doing that others were blessed, even his enemies!

Isaac was like the man the psalmist talks of who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it, filling his heart with God’s word. All that man does prospers. (Psalm 1).

We know that Isaac got some things wrong, however he was a worshipper. When he reopened the final well which his father had dug, the well of Beersheba, he worshipped. The Lord then appeared to him and blessed him. So he built an altar and called upon (Hebrew qara) the name of the Lord. That Hebrew word means to cry out or proclaim. What a victory cry Isaac must have given! He had persevered, He had laughed at impossibilities and trusted the Lord his God. He had overcome.

As we learn to worship the Lord on our personal journey, God gives Himself to us. He is the One who is able to persevere when others give up. He is the One who knows where the water is that we so desperately need. He is the joy in our heart who will laugh at impossibilities.

Child of promise

The Apostle Paul reprimands the Galatians for falling back into the law rather than living by faith, and holds up Isaac as an example of faith. Ishmael was born in the natural way to a slave woman. Isaac was born as a result of promise to a free woman. The descendants of Hagar, the slave, are likened to those from Mount Sinai, under the law. He said they corresponded to Jerusalem as it was then, under the control of religious leaders who led people into more and more bondage.

On the other hand, the descendants of Sarah, the free woman, are spoken of as from the Jerusalem that is above. They are free. Free to rejoice, free to worship. Sarah, the barren woman, like every believer who is longing to be fruitful, is told to sing, to rejoice. Before the answer comes, before fruitfulness comes; worship. Our Isaacs must be born from promise realised through faith. Our worship in the waiting is a part of being that living sacrifice.

‘Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labour!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband. (Galatians 4:27)’

Worship is so precious to the Lord when it is a defiant expression of faith. When we are in heaven we will be free from all the pain and brokenness of this world. This life is our only chance to show Him that we love Him anyway, even when we are barren and suffering, even in grief, even when despair threatens to overpower us.

Paul as a living sacrifice

The apostle did what he exhorted others to do, he offered his life as a living sacrifice to the Lord. He lived from place of worship. From the very beginning of his walk with Jesus he knew he would suffer for his faith. At the end of his life he was still worshipping the Lord,

‘being poured out as a drink offering’ (2 Timothy 4:6).

Paul had been the one persecuting others who believed. After his dramatic conversion he had to face the fact that these very people were the true Israel. The foundations of his life were shaken. It is hard to imagine a more radical challenge to a mindset. His mindset had been formed not only through his lifetime, but through ages of Jewish traditions and teaching. No wonder he went on to teach that as we offer our bodies to the Lord we must expect a challenge to our minds;

‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will’ (Romans 12:2).

Paul started to preach Jesus straight after he got his sight back in Damascus. He nearly got himself killed in the process. He needed time to get to know his Messiah and to have his mind transformed. The Lord led him to the desert of Arabia (Galatians 1:17). When we give ourselves totally to the Lord there is often a ‘wilderness’ period, where it seems that nothing is really happening. We can still look back to all we left behind, but it is hard to see where this new commitment is leading. We can be more aware of loss than gain. It is a period of forging faith.

Paul experienced it, as did the children of Israel. Jesus himself went into the desert for forty days at the very beginning of his ministry, and Satan came to tempt Him there. This was straight after His baptism which signalled His complete identification with the sinfulness of humankind.

If Jesus needed that time of proving, how much more do we.

Praising in the wilderness

Throughout Scripture so many people were forged in the wilderness including Moses, David and Elijah. It enabled them to face what was to come. If we can praise God in our wilderness, then we can praise Him when we face the battles in our promised land.

Usually the people of Israel grumbled in the wilderness when things were tough. However, there was one time when they needed water, and instead of moaning, they sang!

Then Israel sang this song:

“Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—“(Numbers 21:17).

Imagine if that had happened from the beginning! The wilderness could have become like Eden!

Paul learnt to trust, and I believe really learnt to praise, when he was on his own in the desert of Arabia. Later in life he talks of visions that the Lord gave him, and that he was caught up into Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:3). Our desert times really can become places of deep revelation where we can drink from the hidden wells that are only revealed to those who will praise in adversity.

Rejoicing in all circumstances

Paul lived his life in freedom, even though he spent many years of it in prison. He had learnt to be content in all circumstances, because he knew that the things of this world were not worth comparing to the glory that was awaiting him.

So when he and Silas found themselves in a Philippian jail simply because they had set a girl free from a demonic stronghold, they started to sing (Acts 16:25)! They had been beaten with rods, and then put in the stocks. They must have been in agony. Their legs would have been cramping, and there would have been little that they could do to relieve the painful spasms. They did not concentrate on their circumstances, but fixed their eyes on Jesus. They prayed and sang, and heaven came into that prison. Doors opened, chains fell off, and the jailer’s whole family got saved. This faith that overflows in worship cannot just be turned on when prison doors slam, it is a lifestyle. The lifestyle of people who offer themselves as living sacrifices.

Paul continued in that lifestyle even when the prison doors did not open. He wrote many of his letters from prison, including the one to the Philippians, which overflows with joy. His focus was on the Lord, and on the people he was writing to, rather than himself. He encouraged the Philippians;

‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice’ (Philippians 4:4).

He trained his mind to be filled with what was pure, honourable, praiseworthy, excellent, rather than on the problems around him, or the malice of those who hated him. He knew that, whatever his circumstances, he would not be a victim, but a victor, because of Christ who lived in him. This is a heavenly mindset that comes from a heart that truly sees the Lord and worships Him.

Renewed mind

Paul challenged his followers to worship as he did, by offering their bodies as living sacrifices and then went on, as I have mentioned, to speak of the need for the mind to be renewed;

‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect’ (Romans 12:2).

We cannot continue to worship the Lord unless we allow Him to start to change the way we think. We are either conformed to the world, or transformed by the renewal of our minds. Paul’s mind when he was Saul, the zealous Jew who was persecuting the church, was completely out of step with the Lord. We may not see the distinction so clearly for our own minds, but it is there nonetheless. The world pulls us to its rationalism. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil still beckons us to eat of its fruit. We all have mindsets, whether religious, intellectual, cultural, political or commercial that need to be continually challenged and renewed by the Word of God.

Circumcision is such an integral part of Judaism. It speaks of the covenant relationship the Jewish nation has with God. I am sure that as a young man Paul could never have imagined a scenario when he would say:

‘neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love’ (Galatians 5:6).

And yet he did. What made all the difference was what he began that sentence with, ‘In Christ Jesus…’ Paul allowed the Messiah Jesus to renew his mind. This renewal did not happen through an emotional response, but from careful study of the Scriptures under the tuition of the Holy Spirit. As Paul read again about Abraham, he realised;

‘Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised’ (Romans 4:9-10).

He never lost his passion for his own people. He spoke of his great sorrow and unceasing anguish because they could not see their Messiah. (Romans 9:2). He wished even that he would lose his salvation that they could gain theirs. What intercession! However he allowed the Lord to give him a passion for the Gentiles to know Christ. He developed deep relationships with people that he would not even have associated with as a young man.

He continually gained fresh understanding of the Gospel being for all nations as he sought the Lord day by day and allowed his mind to be renewed. So he could say to his beloved Philippians;

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:4-11).

True worship allows the Lord to renew our minds. Sometimes He will challenge our dearest beliefs. What is my equivalent of circumcision? What prejudices may lay hidden? What unbelief do I harbour that may trip me up and stop me from really doing what the Lord is asking of me?Paul found that as he offered his body as a living sacrifice, the transformation of his mind was part of the deal. He was then able to discern the will of God (Romans 12:2). Isn’t that what we all want?

Ruth

Ruth was a young woman who knew tragedy. Her husband, her father-in-law and her brother-in-law all died. She had married into a family that seemed to be cursed. Yet, they worshipped the Lord God of Israel.

She had a choice, stay with her people, and marry again in Moab, or go with her mother-in-law into the unknown, with nothing more than a drawing to a God who did not seem to bless. She must have seen something in her mother-in-law, Naomi, because when Orpah, her sister-in-law kissed Naomi goodbye, it says that Ruth clung to her.

‘But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you”’ (Ruth 1:16-17).

It is evident from the way she spoke that she believed in the Lord God. Despite the lack of physical blessing, she saw the reality of Naomi’s God, and so clung to Naomi. Ruth’s only expression of her faith at that time was through her mother-in-law, but I am sure the Lord accepted her declaration as an act of worship. She was offering herself to the Lord until death.

In doing so she gave up all natural hope of being married again and being able to bear children. The Jewish law would demand that any brother left in the family would take Ruth in and marry her, but Naomi had no other sons.

She did what the poorest of the poor did. She went into the fields to glean what was left after they were harvested. She was vulnerable as a woman and a foreigner, but she trusted her safety to the Lord. The Lord provided Boaz, a distant relative of Naomi’s, and she found favour and protection in his fields.

However desperate our situation seems, to give ourselves to the Lord, and cling to Him as Ruth did to Naomi is always the way forward. So often we are tempted to cling to things that we think we want. Lost dreams, security of finance, even our own grief. Ruth found the way through her own pain by clinging to the One who was carrying life.

Isn’t it incredible that even though Naomi saw herself as empty, and thought of herself as ‘Mara’ meaning bitterness (Ruth 1:20-21), Ruth could see the Lord in her? Naomi knew that she had to come back to the Promised Land. She must have realised the sin her family had committed by leaving it when there was a famine. She knew that her sons had broken God’s law by marrying foreign women. She came back in repentance and humility, not expecting anything much from the Lord. Yet Ruth saw that return as hope. Our acts of repentance are a powerful testimony to others. No matter how weak or empty we feel, the Lord can use us to bring more worshippers to Himself.

We know now that Boaz is a picture of the Lord Jesus. He was a kinsman-redeemer for Ruth. She went to Boaz at the threshing floor. He was winnowing the barley there. The threshing floor is always in a place where the wind, one of the images of the Holy Spirit, can blow. Threshing involves beating the grain to separate the chaff from the corn. The winnower then throws it all in the air, so that the chaff blows away and the good grain falls at his feet.

Ruth had been through the Lord’s threshing process. So often when trials come to us, the Lord will use them to separate us from the things that should not hold us. Her life had been upturned; you could say thrown into the air, and she came to rest, like the good grain at Boaz’s feet.

The Temple itself was later built on a threshing floor. That is no accident. To meet the Lord and truly worship Him, we must all go through this threshing and winnowing process. It may seem that our lives are turned upside down when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, however, the Holy Spirit is blowing away the chaff and allowing us to come to rest at the feet of our Redeemer.

One of the pillars in the Temple was named Boaz after this man who covered Ruth with his garment (literally in Hebrew, his wings), and took her into his family. It cost him to marry her, and meant that he was sharing his own family’s inheritance with a foreigner. What a beautiful image of what the Lord Jesus did when He covered our sins by His death on the Cross, and took us into His family, sharing His inheritance with those who would have otherwise been foreigners.

Ruth and Boaz became the great grand-parents of King David, the great worshipper who said;

‘Keep me as the apple of your eye;

hide me in the shadow of your wings’ (Psalm 17:8).

Ruth found who she was. She found where she belonged as she chose to offer her life to the Lord as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, the Living sacrifice

The greatest Living sacrifice is Jesus Himself. When He came to earth, He left all the glory of Heaven, and allowed Himself to become a little embryo in the womb of His mother. As a baby, the King of the Universe was totally dependant on those He had created.

As a man, he did not chose His own way, although He was in very nature God, but said;

‘I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me’ (John 6:38).

He became a servant, totally dependant on the Father, even for the very words that He spoke;

‘The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works’ (John 14:10).

Scripture tells us that He made Himself nothing (Phil 2:7). There could not have been a greater transformation. The One through whom all things are created became a creature. The One who is the Word did not speak unless He heard His Father speaking.

He lived a sacrificial life for thirty-three years on earth, and then gave His body as a sacrifice for the life of the World;

‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh’ (John 6:51).

Even now, after His resurrection and ascension into heaven, He is still pouring out His life for us;

‘he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).

He is living in heaven interceding for us. What a Saviour! How can we begin to understand the extent of such sacrifice flowing from a heart of pure love? He truly is the great worship leader, and the One who shows us how to offer our lives as living sacrifices.

As we allow Him to, He pours His heart of love into us and fills us with love for those who are yet to come to know Him. He shows us how, day by day, our lives can be like His, living sacrifices, pleasing to the Father and powerful in this broken world.

Practical Worship Action

A prayer:

‘Jesus, thank you that You showed me by Your example how to offer my body as a living sacrifice. I know that true worship is costly. I say with King David;

‘No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing’ (1 Chronicles 21:24 NIV).

Although I feel weak, I want to worship you by giving my life today as a sacrifice to You. Please renew my mind so that I will know your will. I want to be transformed for your glory. Give me courage day by day to reaffirm this prayer, Amen.’