15So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.
I have been thinking and praying a lot about worship lately. This passage from scripture gets to the heart of New Testament worship. We need to be worshiping Jesus with our spirit as well as our mind. Living in Minnesota, I have seen many, many, many worship services where people are only worshiping with their minds. Worshiping with your mind is the more 'technical' part of worship. Are you singing the correct notes? playing in tune? saying the right words? are the words Biblically based?
But there is another side to worship that is often missing in worship services. That is the worship in the spirit. Kevin J. Navarro states in his book 'The Complete Worship Leader'...
"Unregenerate people are incapable of worshiping the living God for they are too busy worshiping themselves or something else." pg. 51
"If we are to lead worship, we must be born again. And, if our congregations are to worship, they must be born again. This is so basic, yet greatly neglected in churches across America. If we are wondering why worship is cold in some of our churches, it is a possibility that our people are not born again." p. 52
In other words, are we worshiping in the Spirit?
I have been to powerful worship services where I have felt the Spirit and the experience has been very worshipful. Two stick out in my mind, because they we unique and in the extremes. The first was at a Michael W. Smith concert at the Excel Energy Center in Saint Paul Minnesota. The song was "Let It Rain." This was a simple song with simple lyrics... 'Let It Rain, Let It Rain... Open the Floodgates of heaven.' The Spirit was so powerful in there that evening that we were vibrating and tears were pouring down our cheeks. The second was at a small country church in Big Lake. It was their Christmas service and some of the members prepared special music to sing. The singer was not trained in singing, but had practiced the song to the best of their ability and as they presented the song, they were singing their heart out to the Lord and I could feel the Spirit move in that place and the tears also came. In both experiences, it was clear that this was worship that was happining in the Spirit.
So how do we get there? How do we worship in both mind and spirit? I have had the opportunity to participate in a few worship teams over the years. There is a point where you technically learn the music and it suddenly turns and the Spirit takes over and I was worshiping in both mind and Spirit. When this has occured to me it has been 1) when I had rehearsed the song so many times that it was memorized and I had worked out all of the technical issues 2) I prayed and surrendered my worship to God. There are many times I have been in worship where I no longer was singing. Something else takes over and it was complete focus on God. In that moment my entire focus is on God and I forget about everything else around me. This is when true worship happens for me.... I am worshiping in mind and spirit.
I know there have been times that I cannot get to that true worship. I have been so focused on the music and lyrics that I forget who I am there to worship in the first place. I am worshiping the technical aspects of the music and not worshiping God. Or the opposite is true, I am alowing my Spirit to turn to God but am not able to work out the technical elements. Either way has not worked out well for me. We need to be doing both in order to worship God.
I encourage you... the next time you are at church to focus on God when you sing, sing songs you know and turn your Spirit to Jesus. Try giving your heart and mind to Him as you worship.
Peace,
Lisa
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