Worship: An Instinct
by John Paul Jackson
"By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways. And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?" - Job 26:13-14
Each one of us has supernatural, deep, internal instincts and motivations that are driving us toward the Holy. These urges are God-given, and each time we fail to respond to the prompting of His Spirit, we become a little less whole, a little less alivea little less human.
Worship is More than Just A Happening
Worship is an instinct. It is more than just a happening. It is more than a decision you make at a given time or something you know you should do, should you ever find the time to do it. It is an instinct. At any given moment, if you are not worshipping God - if you are not living a life that is intimately connected with His - you are worshipping something else. It all goes back to Jesus statement in Matthew 6:21: "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
When you stand before the God who, with His own fingers, fashioned everything in existence, the One who calls thunder and lightning into being and holds the sun still in the sky - when you suddenly find yourself the end target of His focused gaze, worship can be your only response.
We are driven to this moment. We are driven to see Him as He is. Not all of us will have throne room experiences like the apostle John did, but all of us will have the opportunity to touch His heart on a daily basis. If we consistently miss the subtle urges of His Spirit, we can feel it. We might not be able to explain what we feel, but the longer we hold Him off, the more we sense that something is missing. Slowly, life becomes just a series of events that leaves us wondering if this is all there is.
We Are Driven to Worship
We are driven to worship; that is how He made us, and we exist on a subhuman level until our heart is in His hands.
No one can blithely hand us this depth of intimacy with God. Though it is not easy to do, we have to find it ourselveswe have to take a risk. We have to dare to change our habits, our lifestyle, our future, our work, our desires, our friends, whatever is necessary - in order to touch what is humanly impossible to touch. This is the greatest challenge, and hence the greatest adventure, we could ever know. We are driven to take part in it. St. Augustine wrote that we cannot rest until we rest in Him.
Worship - the art of touching God - is our life breath, our reason, and our purpose beyond all else.
John Paul Jackson
Streams Ministries International
www.streamsministries.com