Worship and Praise
in Charismatic Churches
 my,
I received your email with the questions
you had sent. I'll go ahead and answer each one of them under
the captions below. You said you are not comfortable with and
are having a hard time in adjusting to the more intense levels
of praise and worship that you are seeing in the
non-denominational charismatic churches - especially with you
coming from a Catholic background.
I know quite a few ex-Catholics who now belong to
charismatic non-denominational churches who had a hard time
initially adjusting to the intensity levels in the way
charismatics worship and praise. Many newcomers have a real
hard time when they first walk into a Spirit-filled charismatic
type church - it is a major shock to their spiritual senses.
You are not alone in your feelings on this issue!
The first thing you need to realize is that you should never
compare your level of spiritual development in the Lord with
anyone else's. One of the things that I feel I have picked up
from the Lord is that everyone is operating at different levels
of spiritual development with Him - and everyone advances, in
their own spiritual walk with the Lord, at different rates of
speed. You should never compare where you are currently at with
the Lord with anyone else - including all of the people you see
at your church.
When you first enter into a real walk with the Lord, the
first thing He is going to do is to start working with you at
the level that you are currently operating at with Him. He will
not expect you to be operating at some of the higher or more
advanced levels you may see with some of these people who have
been walking with Him for 30 years.
The Bible says that God is the Potter and we are
the clay. It is God's job to mold, shape and transform us
into the express image of His Son Jesus Christ over the
course of our lives. This transformation process does not
occur overnight. It is a very gradual, slow process that
will literally take place over the entire course of your
life.
God actually does this through the Holy Spirit who lives on
the inside of you. Another word for this transforming process
is sanctification. God is in the business of making us into a
better and more holy people.
If you are not comfortable at your current level of
spiritual development with the Lord to raise your hands and
sing as intensely as what you are seeing in this church - then
I would not worry about it at this time!
You are 100% correct when you say you are not comfortable
with singing and raising your hands just to be like everyone
else. You have to be true to yourself and be true to the
Lord.
God perfectly knows where you are at in your own level of
spiritual development with Him. If this type of worship and
praise is not coming naturally to you at this time and you are
not comfortable in expressing yourself like this in a public
setting, then I would let it go at this time and not do it
until you are more comfortable in giving it a try.
God will have no problems with you on this issue because you
are just being honest with yourself and with Him. He knows that
you are not currently at this level to be able to do this at
this time. I actually believe that He would more approve of you
not doing it because you are being honest with Him and true to
yourself as versus trying to do it just to be like everyone
else.
The Bible says that God always looks on the heart of a
person. He knows you better than you can ever know yourself. He
perfectly knows why you do what you do and what your true
motives are. If you try to worship and praise Him just to try
and be like some of the others and it is not really coming from
your heart - God will see right through it - and I believe you
are better off not doing it until you feel you are ready to
make this kind of a leap.
Do not trip or get on a guilt trip because this is not
coming to you naturally at this time. The Bible says that there
is "no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus."
If anyone else looks at you funny because you are not
following the crowd - then they are wrong and they are
operating under judgmental and critical spirits which the Lord
detests. Don't worry about what anyone else may say or think
about you for not being able to do this at this time. God is
the only One that you have to please.
The fact that you are expressing yourself so honestly in not
being comfortable with this at this time shows that you are
being completely honest with both yourself and with Him. Trust
me - this really pleases God when you take this kind of honest
approach with Him!
What God is looking for at this time is that you keep
walking with Him and allow Him to start to gradually build you
up in Him and all of His ways. God will start to build up your
knowledge base in Him if you are open to receiving it.
The two main things God wants from you at this time is that
you continue to walk with Him and draw closer to Him in your
own personal relationship that you have established with Him -
and to increase your knowledge levels about Him and all of His
ways by reading the Bible. My initial impression from the way
you worded your email is that you are seeking after Him and
this is what He wants from you more than anything else.
The Holy Spirit
The second thing you need to realize when you watch many of
these people worship and praise as intensely as they are - is
that this ability to really do this comes from the Holy Spirit.
The Bible talks about us being able to worship, sing and praise
God "in the Spirit."
The word "Spirit" is with a capital "S," which means
it is referring to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One
who gives you the power and supernatural ability to really
worship God the Father in the way that you are seeing many of
these people do.
These people are in the Spirit when they are singing and
raising their hands. The reason that you are not comfortable in
being able to worship and praise like these people are doing is
because this ability has not been imparted to you at this time
by the Holy Spirit.
If you continue on in your walk with the Lord, the time may
come where the Holy Spirit will start to move on you in a
church setting and give you the ability, the courage, and the
desire to worship God in this manner. You will know it when it
comes on you.
But until that time comes - just be yourself in the church
setting and just do what comes naturally to you and what you
are comfortable with in doing. That is all God is looking from
you. God is not comparing you with anyone else in this church.
He is looking at you as an unique, special individual and He
will be judging you with the way you operate in your own level
of spiritual development with Him.
Comparing Yourself With Others
The second thing you mention in your email is that everyone
appears to be so good and that you feel like such a sinner
compared to how good and holy some of these other people look
like.
As I've stated above, you should not be comparing yourself
with any of these other people. First of all, you have no idea
how holy or how good some of these people really are. You can't
always judge a book by its cover - by what you see on the
outside.
The other thing to realize is that from time to time you are
going to run across some people who really are holy and good.
These people will be Spirit-filled to the point you can
literally see almost a glow or radiance coming out of their
face and countenance. You can sense that these people are
really close to God and have quite a bit of knowledge about Him
and the Bible. They are advanced in their walk with the
Lord.
When you get around these types of people, you may at first
feel intimidated and that you may not good enough to be around
them. You can feel and sense that they are much more developed
in the Lord than you are.
Amy, when you run across these types of true
saints - you should never feel intimidated or any less
better than they are. The Bible tells us that God is no
respecter of persons - which means He loves each and
everyone of us equally and unconditionally - which includes
you!
These people have paid their dues. They have walked with the
Lord for years and have developed very close personal
relationships with Him. You can feel the anointing all of over
these people.
You have to realize that your level of spiritual development
is not going to be the same as everyone else's. Some people
will be more advanced in their personal relationship with God
and in their knowledge of Him and all of His ways than what you
may be in your present level of development with Him.
Just realize that you could probably put everyone on
a scale of 1-10 in their spiritual development with the
Lord. Where you are at on the scale is irrelevant. What
matters is that you are in the game trying to be the best
person in the Lord that you can be, and that you play the
game as best and as hard as you can at the level that you
are currently operating at with Him. It's God's job to
raise you up on this scale as you progress in your walk and
personal relationship with Him.
And whatever you do - do not ever question your own personal
salvation with the Lord. If you already know that you are
saved, that you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior -
then nothing can ever take that away from you, no matter how
inferior or how unworthy you may feel at times - especially
when you start comparing yourself with other Spirit-filled
saints.
The Bible tells us that once we have accepted
Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior - then we are
"sealed" with the Holy Spirit. This means it is a done deal
- for eternity! Your salvation does not waver like your
emotions and feelings do. Just because you may not feel
saved if you are having a bad day does not mean you have
lost your salvation. If it did, then none of us would ever
make it into heaven.
Rest assured - your personal salvation in the Lord is a done
deal! You have been sealed by God's Holy Spirit and nothing,
and I mean nothing on this earth can ever take that away from
you!
So don't ever let your feelings of inferiority in how far
others may be more spiritually advanced in their walk with the
Lord than you are ever cause you to question your own personal
salvation in Him.
Amy, I hope all of the above answers all of your specific
questions. If you have any further questions or things
bothering you on the above issues, please feel free to email
them over and we'll hash it out until you get all of these
things settled in your own mind.
In the meantime, we do have another article in the
Sanctification Section of our site that goes deeper into being
able to worship the Lord in the Spirit. The title of this
article is "Worshipping the Lord."
In this article, I give you some of the main verses from the
Bible that will back up the intense way you are seeing some of
these people worship the Lord. It would be my recommendation
that you read this article as it will give you a much better
understanding of what you are seeing in some of these
non-denominational churches.
 Click here for reprint information
Wealth
and Prosperity
Slain in
the Spirit - Bible Verses
Baptism of the Holy
Spirit
Michael Bradley
Bible Teaching and
Bible Commentary,
Over 150 Free Bible
Lessons
Scripture taken from New King James
Version.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2008 by Michael Bradley.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
License.
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