House Church Worship
What would worship look like in a home? It depends. However it looks or does not look, at our meetings, it should have at least the following in common.
Praise – Praise songs engage us with a specific, Biblical Jesus, evoking thankfulness for His Finished Work in our lives. In praise, our focus is on Him. By magnifying Him, He minimizes our problems, issues, and distractions that come between us and Him – as we find we can trust Him enough to relinquish our control of those items to Him.
Worship – In worship, we enjoy our now unhindered relationship with Him. This is why praise is customarily offered before worship.
Praise
Praise songs engage us with a specific, Biblical Jesus, evoking thankfulness for His Finished Work in our lives.
Psalm 100:4 King James Bible
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Gates
Engaging – we choose to (a) enter in to His gates (b) open our gates (selves) to Him.
Psalm 24:7-10 King James Version (KJV) 7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.
Once we as gates of His presence open ourselves to Him, He has permission to enter us individually and corporately. As the Lord of hosts, by entering into his courts, we may entertain angels among us. They like to praise the worthy lamb of God.
Choosing to Praise
Notice the order in verses 7 and 9:
- we choose to lift up our heads
- we are lifted up
- King of Glory shall come in
Step 3 is a promise. That makes step one and two a prescription for praise. Notice that we made a decision with our spirit, soul (to praise him), and body (to lift our head). He backs our decision with His power.
Waiting for something to happen
If you want to keep the spirit of heaviness, then you do not want to put on the garment of praise. Choose to praise Him for who He is, and what He has done for you and in you. Then He has your permission to then help you enter His courts of Glory.
Isaiah 61 King James Bible The Year of the Lord’s Favor (Matthew 2:19-23; Matthew 13:53-58; Mark 6:1-6; Luke 2:39-40; Luke 4:16-30) 1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. 4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
Dealing with Heaviness
Per this passage, choose to engage with God in praise and in the following:
- Believing, receiving, and abiding in His Gospel
- Soul Healing
- Deliverance
- More healing of the heart/comfort
- Joy
- praise instead of heaviness
Having less of a heavy burden will make it easier to enter into His courts with praise.
Activating
Songs and/or dances of praise activate your spirit, soul, and body – engaging as one body with God for His glory.
Romans 6:13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life;
Engaging (offering ) your tongue by speaking in tongues can also break the heaviness and help you become aware of His presence provided by His finished work.
Name
Specific – While Non-Denominational Praise songs tend to be written around themes that everyone can agree upon, such as the four elements of pagan witchcraft (earth, wind, fire, and water), Apostolic Praise songs solidify specific Apostle’s teaching into a musical experience that draws us into intimate relationship: Focusing on what He has done for us to remove the barriers of iniquity, sin, transgressions, and consequent maladies (distractions from His presence) of spirit, soul, and body.
Flow
Once these blocks, barriers, or occlusions are dealt with in Christ and removed as distractions, we can focus better on His flow.
New American Standard Bible
1 John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'”
His Holy Spirit flows in the Bible as fire, water, wind, and shaking earth. These are fine themes for some, but not all lyrics.
Source
This is because the source of this flow must be identified lyrically, in order to distinguish us from cults and the occult. There is spiritual power in the occult, and they flow in power, but its source is not specifically defined or identified. It is concealed or occluded – hidden. The source of spiritual “higher power” that we connect with is a very well documented and defined historical man who we believe is God: Jesus of Nazareth.
Identity
Engaging with praise songs with apostolic lyrics direct us to the right address of God’s courts. “Name” in the Bible means identity. Essentially, by dialing the right Jesus, or putting His correct address in our GPS, we enter into His courts more efficiently.
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
Worship
Once we are in His courts, we wash in the bronze basin – as issues either come up to be discussed with Him or melt away as we release them to Him.
Praise vs. Worship
In praise, our focus is on Him. In worship, we begin to have enough focus on Him to rightly focus on our relationship with Him unhindered.
Intimacy
Worship music tends to have even longer interludes for times of meditation, contemplation, or receiving.
Style
Some churches only sing. Some sing-along with a recording. Some may accomplish all the above without music. Some do not sing to decrease risk of being discovered by dangerous enemies of the Gospel, such as their government’s Secret Police. We unite on the Apostle’s teaching. We do not divide over style of worship. We only ask that churches that have instruments, bands, musicians, etc. do not:
- idolize the music or musicians.
- rely upon them to “do the worship” for them, instead of participating and engaging with God.
- divide over style of music.
- neglect God’s stewardship commands in favor of spending on musical productions.
- view worship as an end goal instead of an out-flowing aspect of church life.
- fail to follow above guidelines in song selection and implementation.