The Coming of Our Lord

“And behold, I come quickly; and my reward IS with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Blessed ARE they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”

The Revelation 22: 12-14 (KJV)

esus came to save us, the sinners from all sins and bondage. By His death on the cross He finished the work and set us free. By the power of His resurrection He gave us the right to be God’s. “Behold what manner of LOVE the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…” 1 John 3:1

God still loves us; His children. His love for us will never cease, but is NEW every morning.

Our Lord, Jesus said, “ I will come quickly.” He shall come back again soon.

He expects us to be awake and wait on Him. The Spirit of God; God the Holy Spirit was sent to prepare us for His coming. As God’s children we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. This is the first commandment:

“Hear,O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this IS the first commandment. (Mark12:29-30)

The key to keep His commandments is, “ PRAISE & WORSHIP.”

The greatest Commandment, God has given us is to Love the Lord our God. We must understand that Jesus our Lord has given us a commandment and has not asked us to do Him a favour!

‘Praiseand Worship’ will help us to grow more and more in love with our God and Maker.

It is through ‘Praise and Worship’ that He will reveal Himself to us and the more we know Him and enjoy His fellowship the more we will fall in love with Him.

When we love our God, we will be able to obey all His commandments with the help of God the Holy Spirit.

“Beingconfident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform IT until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

That is why God the Holy Spirit came and has given us the privilege to dwell in us.

We need to ask for the fullness of the Holy Spirit every day. And ask Him to teach and help us to walk and live in the Spirit.

Through“ Praise and Worship we will be able to come closer to our God and become people after God’s own heart and maintain a very close relationship with Him.

The Word of God teaches us,. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and Truth”(John 4:24)

It is God the Holy Spirit who is One with God and is God and will lead us in time of Praise and Worship. He is the one who will give us the “garmentof Praise for the spirit of heaviness”(Isaiah 61:3)

Steps to an Effective Praise and Worship

1.   We must invite God the Holy Spirit to come and lead us in our personal/ group time of Praise and Worship.

2.   We must ask Him to search our hearts and cleanse us from every sin.

As we silently wait for God the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, we must confess the sin(s) that He reveals to us. Then the guilt will be lifted up from us and we will be able to proceed further in the freedom of the Spirit.

As David said in Psalm 19: 12-13 “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

“ Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be innocent from the great transgression.”

3.   We must bind the powers of darkness:

Satan, our enemy who was defeated by Jesus Christ on the cross, will try to distract our minds or cause us feel tired, sleepy…

Hence it is important to bind him first with a short and simple prayer like, “Satan I bind you and every spirit of sleepiness, fatigue

and distraction of mind.”

4.   Enter into His gates with THANKSGIVING:

We must always maintain a thankful heart toward our God, because He initiated to love us first. “We love Him, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

He saved us from the slavery to the powers of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of LIGHT, hence we are no longer lost but are found, no longer blind but can see and no longer deaf and dead but can hear and live for eternity.

We must thank our LOVING God for all His goodness, love, faithfulness, mercies…we have experienced.

Also we must remember the great works He has done in our lives.

We must thank God with joyful songs and a grateful heart and also with the words of our mouth. Most people will sing to the Lord to show their gratitude but when they are asked to thank Him with their own words they can’t or they will get into prayer. We must train ourselves to be able to thank God in our words to ensure a true and close relationship. It’s very easy to do. Just start by one sentence, “ God I thank you for your compassion on me.” or “God I thank you for the life you’ve given me.” and so on.

We must believe in what we sing and say.

5-Enter into His courts with PRAISE:

As we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us further, He will give us revelations of God’s greatness, majesty, glory… which we proclaim through our songs in tongues we know or in tongues unknown to us, in which case the Holy Spirit will give us understanding of the tongues spoken.

As God the Holy Spirit reveals God’s nature and attributes to us we shall have greater knowledge of our God and who He really is. We must speak out the words of adoration for our God with the words of our mouth as well. It’s important to confess with our mouth who our God is and to bless the Lord with all our being and exalt Him in us.

6-WORSHIP the Lord in the beauty of His holiness:

At this point God will receive us into His presence; the ‘Holiest of the Holy’. He will reveal to us His holiness, His being light and the king of kings and God above all gods…

In His presence we shall find great joy beyond our understanding, rest, peace, comfort, satisfaction…

Then He will speak to us in His own way; through the Word of God, still small voice in our heart, in our mind, through visions…

It’s very important to proceed as far as step 6. Only then we will understand that He is our God and Maker and that we are the people of His pasture, and His creation.

As we meet with God, He will pour out His love on us and take away all our fears, “ Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: because as He is, so are we in this world.”

“Thereis no fear in Love; but the perfect love casteth out fear…” (1 John 4:17,18)

His presence will encourage us, humble us, break us, melt us and fill us, satisfy us, build us, strengthen us…

He will reveal His plans for us, correct us, heal our broken heart, empty us of all the hurts, lift up our burdens, mould us and build us again. “ But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of God.” (2Cor. 3:18)

As we Praise and Worship God regularly, we will find more and more pleasure in meeting and knowing Him. We will realize that truly this life is vanity and He is all we live for. Even as king David said,” Because thy loving kindness IS better than life, my lips shall praise thee.”(Psalm 63:3)

Important points to remember:

·        To praise and worship with a loud voice. Loud voice will help us to keep a sound mind and it will make the enemy and the thief; satan flee.

·        We must worship in the freedom of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says,” Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2Cor. 3:17) In some churches we feel free but in some churches we may find it difficult to praise and worship freely and you might have people coming up to you to ask you to sit down, during the time of Praise and Worship as I once experienced in a Pentecostal church! But that will give us something to pray for and bind the spirit of RELIGION from the church.

·        The Word of God teaches us how to Praise and Worship God with new songs, dancing, musical instruments, shouts of joy, clapping our hands, lifting up our hands…(Psalms 95, 96, 134, 140, 150)

·        We must understand that only God the Holy Spirit can lead us in a time of Praise and Worship and we need to be open to His leading.

- The reason God gave us the first commandment is that our joy may increase and that we might be able to reach the promised land; the promises of our God might come true in our lives and that we might share in all His glories. “ When Christ, WHO IS our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)

-There’s a difference between ‘Praise and Worship’ and ‘Praying’:

In ‘Praise and Worship’ we give to the Lord the sacrifices acceptable to Him but in prayer we ask Him to give us/others His blessings.

We must understand that the reason God gave us the first commandment is not because He is in need of our Praise and worship. But because He knows that it is OUR need to meet Him through praise and worship and have communion with Him and grow into a deeper relationship with God. I believe this is why our God said,” Blessed are the poor in the spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:3)

Hence it is a GREAT PRIVILEGE for us to know Him more and grow in His LOVE, where lies our real joy and satisfaction.

True worshippers of the Living God will keep His Word no matter what the cost.

Every Christian must have his private time of praise and worship on a daily basis.

Every Christian couple must come together and praise and worship together, specially if they are serving the MOST HIGH GOD,( Psalm 113, 134, 135). As they come closer to God, they shall come closer to each other and the love of the Lord will grow among them.

Most churches will need to fix at least, one day per week, to just ‘Praise and Worship’, besides Sunday service & other church activities, (Ladies meetings, Men’s meeting, Youth meetings…)

True Praise and Worship will enable us to receive the highest and the best blessing which is God’s Presence in Power and Might.

By: Esther Eisa Khani

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