As February comes to a close I can't help but be excited because spring is around the corner!!  You know what happens in spring... EVERYTHING blossoms!!  I love to see new little buds come up on the trees, the beautiful flowers that come shortly after and the sweet aroma that fills the air.  I can only imagine that's what true Worship smells like to God.

I don't know if anybody else notices or if it happens this way for anybody else but every so often my worship completely shifts.  I was thinking back to a time where I could barely lift my hands, didn't really cry out or worship vocally.  Not because I didn't want to, simply because I was bound.  I couldn't praise God so how could I get in His presence?  I would sit in service and feel God moving but couldn't really express how I felt.  Then one day I was visiting what would become my church home and I went to the altar for prayer.  The pastor looked at me and said 3 words that were the catalyst for change in my life.  "You're a worshiper..." he went on to say that I hadn't been able to praise and worship God the way I felt because I was in a place of bondage.  He laid his hand on me and prayed a prayer of release and breakthrough.  From that moment on, my whole life changed.  Lying on that floor I cried out to God like never before.  I felt so free and so light.  It was the beginning of something truly magnificent.

As time would go on I began to lift my hands, sing, shout, cry, travail, dance, wave flags... and so many other things as part of my praise and worship to God. Then I shifted from just doing to being.  I began to live a lifestyle of worship and be mindful of what the word says...

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
 John 4:24

See when worship arrests you, it'll make you tell on yourself and examine every area of your life.  It shows you who you are, who you are in Christ and allows you to hear the heart of God concerning his people. When you truly embrace a lifestyle of worship you realize you're responsible for where you take your anointing, where you place your gifts and you become more aware of the eternal weight of your actions and decisions.  God has blessed me with many gifts and talents but I never want to operate solely on those gifts and talents.  I need the anointing.  It's the anointing that breaks the yokes, the anointing that can take one message and translate it into exactly what each individual needs, and the anointing that allows me to do the things God called me to do that I would never walk out in my own will or power.

I see so many people devalue worship and it's power.  I have some pretty amazing friends who are currently, or have been worship leaders and I'm sure they could tell you even better than I can... you talk about being a gatekeeper.... honey they're it!!  We can't keep missing the fact that worship requires a relationship with God, anybody can praise but worship requires an intimate knowing...  If you've never been in His presence you can't possibly lead others there?  One of the saddest things is to see someone pump and prime people to worship but nobody moves because the person is pouring their all into it, but there's no oil.. no anointing.

Romans 11:29 tells us
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

This is where the body of Christ gets in trouble... we fail to repent.  We can't continue in mess and expect to stand up and flow in our gifts and callings and expect the anointing of God to be on us.  He's tired of the garbage we present to Him.    Think about this for a minute.. In Acts 5:12-16 we see people being brought into the streets for healing.  Not so Jesus could lay hands on them or speak a word of healing... Simply in hopes that Peter's shadow would fall on them as he walked by.  That's the anointing... miracles signs and wonders followed these men of God... now days we sit inside the same for walls for 27 years and people in the church are dying because nobody has the gift of healing?? no, because people won't repent and get in God's presence to be downloaded with power and anointing.

True/authentic worship leads to repentance.  You can't continue to fellowship with God in a place of intimacy and not change... You can try it if you want to but let me remind you about offering up strange fire... Nadab and Abihu offered up strange fire on the altar of the Lord and were immediately devoured by fire from God...  I can't take that chance.  I would rather tell on myself a thousand times and ask God for the power to truly repent and walk worthy than to give him any old thing.  Tonight my prayer is that we would all come to a place of 2 Chronicles 7:14....

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.






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