Heaven's Worship May Offend Some People
But Why We Should Not Worry
Some people and particularly pastors may fear that if unusual worship is introduced to their congregations then someone may be offended and it may either turn away the big money givers in the case of a money minded pastor, or an immature pastor, who believes it is up to us to get people saved, could think that we may offend the new Christians that come into the church or an unsaved person may get turned away from the church if they see "weird worship" taking place. So, we should not have any weird worship in the church. Is this right?
KING DAVID AND "HIS WEIRD OFFENSIVE HEAVENLY WORSHIP"
We see a "Heaven's worship offense" taking place when King David danced his way to Zion with the ark of God accompanying him. When his wife saw him leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised her husband in her heart. Now, a corrupt pastor observing this would not want this going on in his church either because there may be many big givers who would be offended like David's wife was and would not want to keep giving. Furthermore, a young or an immature pastor would not want want this going on in his church as he may think such weird worship may offend young Christians or turn away the unsaved who may be present.
How would King David respond to the corrupt pastor or the immature pastor? He would respond the same way he responded to his wife. David basically communicated this: "If this worship offends you, I will become even more undignified in my praise to the Lord than the leaping and dancing before the Lord that you witnessed today." David was committed to freedom of worship even if it appeared weird to people. It is interesting that a synonym for the word "weird" is the word "supernatural". Worship inspired from above is definitely very supernatural. Heaven's worship is supernatural and weird ( unusual, strange, and abnormal).
The position of the corrupt pastor we will not even waste time examining because clearly any pastor who puts money ahead of the will of Heaven, should not be a pastor, or if he wants to keep on shepherding he should repent of being a hireling pastor, and he should allow full dancing expressions and even leaping to the Lord in his church during the praise and worship time. If the Lord had King David give us an example of undignified worship and also gave us a glimpse of Heaven's weird worship in Dean Braxton's book, then what pleases God in heaven should be allowed in every outpost of heaven which are the local churches.
Let us now examine the position of the immature pastor who is worried that Heaven's worship may offend an unsaved person who is checking out the church or may turn away new Christians who have not been taught about the different worship expressions available.
GAINING UNDERSTANDING FROM BOTH SCRIPTURE AND EXPERIENCE
First of all, we do not do the saving, God is the one who saves. For example, in John 6:44, Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” A little later in John 6:65, He reiterates this: “. . . no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” Without the Father providing an individual an approach to Christ, and drawing him or her, he or she cannot come to HIM for salvation. The Father must intervene first and human intervention can't stop someone who is appointed to salvation from being drawn in.
Acts chapter thirteen has the story of Paul and Barnabas preaching to the Gentiles that were in Antioch. Luke writes in verse forty eight: “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” Even though the apostles preached to many, only certain people believed what they heard because only they had been appointed to eternal life. Like it or not, that is what it says. Romans chapter nine talks about election and God's sovereign choice. Believe it !!!
Now, let us look at the experience of someone who was offended by the weird things going on in a charismatic worship service, but because she had an appointment that was set up by the Lord, the offense could not stand in the way of the healing appointment God had for her. I know which church she was in, and I know for sure that the things she described as really offensive were things she saw the people doing during the worship service in that church.
Below is a conversation between a former theologian, but now a missionary, whose name is Heidi Baker and Sid Roth who hosts the television show: IT'S SUPERNATURAL. You can see in this conversation how God worked to get a hold of her through a healing encounter that was clearly a divine appointment by God. You can see how the offensive (to her) things she saw in the worship meeting could not keep her from the divine appointment of healing because as she says: God sometimes offends the mind to get to the heart.
"HEIDI: Well I was very, very ill in the hospital, hooked up to IVs and they said you could die. And my husband was so totally transformed that he said he'd sell his camera to get me there, and I knew that had to be God. And I ended up getting to California, going back in the hospital when I landed on a stop-over, pulled the IV again and made my way to Canada.
SID: You know what you sound like? You sound like the woman the Bible has with the issue of blood. Nothing was going to stop you from getting there, and it was a Divine appointment because you got radically touched by God. Tell me what happened there.
HEIDI: The first thing that happened was I was offended by everything. I was offended by it all, and I was a theologian, and I didn't appreciate the theology or any of it. I was looking at people. I was just, it had been a bad habit, too. But one of them stood up and said, "There's, God is healing somewhere. You're a missionary. You have double pneumonia." And I thought, oh no, did someone find out, how could they know? And they said it again, "You have double pneumonia. Take a deep breath." So I thought I have nothing to lose. I am so ill and I was at the very, very back, in the corner, holding on to the wall to stand up. And I took a deep breath, and I was totally completely healed. Totally completely healed. It was awesome. Then they said, "You need to come to the front." And then I thought, oh no, more bad theology because they said if you don't come to the front you'll lose your healing. I'm thinking, wow, I don't even believe that. But God likes to get past a lot of things like that and he sometimes will offend the mind to get to the heart. And that's what happened with me. He really did. I went forward and they prayed for me, and just as I thought, oh, they have big hands and they're big people and they're going to push me down. I did fall down. I don't know if they pushed me or not and I don't care because I fell down and I saw multitudes, Sid. I saw people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. I saw hundreds and hundreds of thousands, and it went on, it had no end, a sea of humanity. And I was crying out, and I'm sad to tell you this, but this is my journey, and so if my journey helps someone else to say yes, my initial response to that vision was no. I said, no, I don't want to see them. I'm tired. My husband and I are tired, with 320 children......."
Found here: https://ofm6z46z825qpxk83fa00q1a-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IS958Transcript_Baker.pdf
So, if an agent of Heaven's worship restoration comes into your church and performs worship movements through the leading of the Holy Spirit that are different than ones you are used to, consider yourself blessed. Do not worry about that person causing an offense that could prevent a divine salvation appointment from taking place. Because we saw above through both Scripture and the experience of that former theologian that God's healing appointment is an appointment that man can not thwart.
Furthermore, do not offend the Holy Spirit and the agent of worship restoration with words that come from a despising heart or you may end up with a barren church. Michal spoke despising words to King David, who is the first worship restoration agent we know of, and Michal was barren for the rest of her life. Please read here. Stay clear of the sin of Michal.
AMEN.
KING DAVID AND "HIS WEIRD OFFENSIVE HEAVENLY WORSHIP"
We see a "Heaven's worship offense" taking place when King David danced his way to Zion with the ark of God accompanying him. When his wife saw him leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised her husband in her heart. Now, a corrupt pastor observing this would not want this going on in his church either because there may be many big givers who would be offended like David's wife was and would not want to keep giving. Furthermore, a young or an immature pastor would not want want this going on in his church as he may think such weird worship may offend young Christians or turn away the unsaved who may be present.
How would King David respond to the corrupt pastor or the immature pastor? He would respond the same way he responded to his wife. David basically communicated this: "If this worship offends you, I will become even more undignified in my praise to the Lord than the leaping and dancing before the Lord that you witnessed today." David was committed to freedom of worship even if it appeared weird to people. It is interesting that a synonym for the word "weird" is the word "supernatural". Worship inspired from above is definitely very supernatural. Heaven's worship is supernatural and weird ( unusual, strange, and abnormal).
The position of the corrupt pastor we will not even waste time examining because clearly any pastor who puts money ahead of the will of Heaven, should not be a pastor, or if he wants to keep on shepherding he should repent of being a hireling pastor, and he should allow full dancing expressions and even leaping to the Lord in his church during the praise and worship time. If the Lord had King David give us an example of undignified worship and also gave us a glimpse of Heaven's weird worship in Dean Braxton's book, then what pleases God in heaven should be allowed in every outpost of heaven which are the local churches.
Let us now examine the position of the immature pastor who is worried that Heaven's worship may offend an unsaved person who is checking out the church or may turn away new Christians who have not been taught about the different worship expressions available.
GAINING UNDERSTANDING FROM BOTH SCRIPTURE AND EXPERIENCE
First of all, we do not do the saving, God is the one who saves. For example, in John 6:44, Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” A little later in John 6:65, He reiterates this: “. . . no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” Without the Father providing an individual an approach to Christ, and drawing him or her, he or she cannot come to HIM for salvation. The Father must intervene first and human intervention can't stop someone who is appointed to salvation from being drawn in.
Acts chapter thirteen has the story of Paul and Barnabas preaching to the Gentiles that were in Antioch. Luke writes in verse forty eight: “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” Even though the apostles preached to many, only certain people believed what they heard because only they had been appointed to eternal life. Like it or not, that is what it says. Romans chapter nine talks about election and God's sovereign choice. Believe it !!!
Now, let us look at the experience of someone who was offended by the weird things going on in a charismatic worship service, but because she had an appointment that was set up by the Lord, the offense could not stand in the way of the healing appointment God had for her. I know which church she was in, and I know for sure that the things she described as really offensive were things she saw the people doing during the worship service in that church.
Below is a conversation between a former theologian, but now a missionary, whose name is Heidi Baker and Sid Roth who hosts the television show: IT'S SUPERNATURAL. You can see in this conversation how God worked to get a hold of her through a healing encounter that was clearly a divine appointment by God. You can see how the offensive (to her) things she saw in the worship meeting could not keep her from the divine appointment of healing because as she says: God sometimes offends the mind to get to the heart.
"HEIDI: Well I was very, very ill in the hospital, hooked up to IVs and they said you could die. And my husband was so totally transformed that he said he'd sell his camera to get me there, and I knew that had to be God. And I ended up getting to California, going back in the hospital when I landed on a stop-over, pulled the IV again and made my way to Canada.
SID: You know what you sound like? You sound like the woman the Bible has with the issue of blood. Nothing was going to stop you from getting there, and it was a Divine appointment because you got radically touched by God. Tell me what happened there.
HEIDI: The first thing that happened was I was offended by everything. I was offended by it all, and I was a theologian, and I didn't appreciate the theology or any of it. I was looking at people. I was just, it had been a bad habit, too. But one of them stood up and said, "There's, God is healing somewhere. You're a missionary. You have double pneumonia." And I thought, oh no, did someone find out, how could they know? And they said it again, "You have double pneumonia. Take a deep breath." So I thought I have nothing to lose. I am so ill and I was at the very, very back, in the corner, holding on to the wall to stand up. And I took a deep breath, and I was totally completely healed. Totally completely healed. It was awesome. Then they said, "You need to come to the front." And then I thought, oh no, more bad theology because they said if you don't come to the front you'll lose your healing. I'm thinking, wow, I don't even believe that. But God likes to get past a lot of things like that and he sometimes will offend the mind to get to the heart. And that's what happened with me. He really did. I went forward and they prayed for me, and just as I thought, oh, they have big hands and they're big people and they're going to push me down. I did fall down. I don't know if they pushed me or not and I don't care because I fell down and I saw multitudes, Sid. I saw people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. I saw hundreds and hundreds of thousands, and it went on, it had no end, a sea of humanity. And I was crying out, and I'm sad to tell you this, but this is my journey, and so if my journey helps someone else to say yes, my initial response to that vision was no. I said, no, I don't want to see them. I'm tired. My husband and I are tired, with 320 children......."
Found here: https://ofm6z46z825qpxk83fa00q1a-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IS958Transcript_Baker.pdf
So, if an agent of Heaven's worship restoration comes into your church and performs worship movements through the leading of the Holy Spirit that are different than ones you are used to, consider yourself blessed. Do not worry about that person causing an offense that could prevent a divine salvation appointment from taking place. Because we saw above through both Scripture and the experience of that former theologian that God's healing appointment is an appointment that man can not thwart.
Furthermore, do not offend the Holy Spirit and the agent of worship restoration with words that come from a despising heart or you may end up with a barren church. Michal spoke despising words to King David, who is the first worship restoration agent we know of, and Michal was barren for the rest of her life. Please read here. Stay clear of the sin of Michal.
AMEN.