Wow! Bow. Worship. Repeat.

Grant Hill is a head Worship Pastor alongside his wife, Amber, with The Garden Gathering Church in San Angelo, Texas. He and his wife are called and long to hear, see and bring the symphony of worship in Heaven to the earth. You can hear or follow their team’s music with Beyond The Veil Worship.

“It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men.” – C. S. Lewis

The act of worship is precisely that, an action. It is a choice of our will and heart, to give our lives, will and emotions to anything we deem greater than ourselves. Worship is not an emotion, yet it is an emotionally engaging action. Bowing our hearts is not a requirement, yet when we encounter the divine, reverent fear causes an effortless submission.

In accordance to the Bible, there is only One which the earth has encountered who is truly worthy to encompass all of humanity’s worship. The God of Israel, Jesus Christ. Yet we know anything, and almost all things, can or have been given worship by mankind. Teachers, religion, money, kings and kingdoms, mountains and storms, power and positions of power are just the beginning of those things which we worship. Which reveals a very innate quality about us human beings, we have a strong desire to give our adoration, praise, honor… i.e. worship upon a greater power. We are essentially beings designed to worship, for the purpose of worship.

As stated, there has been only One great enough to receive the glory-giving worship of man. The Lord God Almighty. The One who has established mountains heights, and thrown starlight into the dark reaches of the universe with His very breath. The only God who has inspired and revealed His manifest wisdom throughout an astounding creation from generation to generation with daily paintings throughout our natural world. True worship stems from the awe and wonder produced in our heart when we encounter the greatness and glory of God.

Now days, often in Christian church lingo, “worship” is synonymous with the allotted time during a meeting the congregation sings 4-5 songs. While this isn’t technically the whole truth, the whole service should be an act of worship to God, music and worship do go together like peanut butter and jelly. (And just as delicious too!)

It has been debated by biblical scholars that perhaps humans are the only created beings who can actually sing. As in, using their voices to create melodic tunes of sound completely different from their tones of speech. Whether or not angels sing or don’t sing is not what I want to debate but what is true is we have an unique ability to create something beautiful to worship the omnipotent Creator with the most powerful tool we have, our tongue. For out of the tongue comes both blessing and cursing; the book of James states, and with this “instrument” singers have brought tears to men, sleep to children, comfort to souls, fire to our hearts, and a jive to our feet. How much more so can the tongue bring true worship to God in song?

“Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man that he should proclaim the Word of God through music.” — Martin Luther

Yet worship is not all about your vocal range. Music is the avenue that brings man’s worship into a cohesive action. If one act of worship is a mountain, music is the mountain range. When one brings a stream of praise, music creates a river of adoration. The gift of music girds up the song and gives a platform for the dance unto God. Therefore, normally when we refer to “worship”, music and song are involved. It is not the complete picture, nor should it be, but it is probably the majority of how we demonstrate the worship of our mind, will and emotions.

As we read in the C.S. Lewis quote at the beginning of this post, it is during the process of worship God communicates His presence to man. This is an amazing effect and yet vital reason as to why we continue to worship God. As long as we are worshiping the One true God and Holy Spirit, we worship due to a continuous unveiling of an all-powerful, awe-inspiring, fear inducing God who yet has the most tender, gracious and loving heart we have ever encountered. When we are given the grace to know Him, we can’t help but worship. Yet when we worship Him, He reveals more of Himself to us, so therefore we worship again.

And so, the act of true worship never ends…