Knowing Your Position

When we think about how to worship we often quote verses like -

Ps 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

Or we remember the words of a song – “Take me past the outer court, through the Holy place, past the brazen altar….take me into the Holy of Holies…”

We envisage a process of

• going through the outer courts
• into the Holy place
• into the Holy of Holies in our worship.

What have we been taught? (spoken or unspoken)

• There is a process we must follow to come into God’s presence
• Coming into God’s presence takes work
• Maybe if we’re lucky we might sense his His presence
• That we try by human effort to overcome our thoughts, focus ourselves and try and come into the presence of God.

When this happens our approach to worship can become self effort and soulish and that is possibly one of the reasons why we struggle so much to get a sense of God’s presence in our meetings and worship times.

Ps.100 deals with Old Covenant worship. It sounds good but is it scripturally correct, considering what Christ has done for us through his death on the cross?

Ministers of a New Covenant

We are now ministers of the New Covenant so we must worship from a New Covenant perspective

• Jesus made for us a new and living way into the presence of God for us - When when the veil was torn and the Holy of Holies was opened up Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...
• We come through him Him to the Father; we become one with Him; we are in Christ.
• 2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
• And Christ is seated at the right hand of the father Father on high Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
• God also says that we are seated with him Him in heavenly places Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: … so that is where we are. When did we get positioned there? When we were born again. It is our position in Christ as taught in the scriptures Scriptures. Our bodies are on the earth, but our spirit man has access to the heavenlies.
• Hebrews 4:16 teaches: Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

The spirit – relates to the spirit realm

• A believer receives a “new spirit” and the Holy Spirit dwells within the spirit man of a born-again Christian. – Ezekiel 36:26,27; John 3:6 Ezek 36:26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
• You relate to the spirit realm through your spirit – your spirit man is full of glory because the King of Glory lives in you and because Jesus gave us the glory the Father gave him Him. John 17:22And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
• The spirit is “in Christ” when a person is born-again – Gal 5:6; 2 Cor 5:17
• Our position is one of intimacy with God through Christ.
• Right now our spirit has twenty four hour access to God as we are already positioned in Christ, seated with Him.

“Intimacy with God is not a feeling - it’s a legal position and it’s a state of being.”

God is in you and you are in Him, you cannot get any more intimate with God than you already are at this moment. You can walk in deeper revelation of that intimacy and get to know God – His heart, character and personality - better but you cannot get any more intimate than you are right now. It has already been settled in Christ.

What’s the core of the battle?

The battle is not so much to be able ‘trying to come into God’s presence’; the core of the battle is, and has always been, that the devil wants to stop us realizing that’s where we already are. Because we don’t know that’s where we already are, we continue to strive to come there.

We tend to worship from our soul instead of from our spirit. When we do that it is always a slow way to enter God’s presence by the time we get thoughts and distractions under control. When we do that, with the time it takes to get our thoughts and distractions under control, it is always a slow way to enter God’s presence. We usually worship from earth to heaven instead of realizing we are already in the presence of God, and that by faith we can worship face to face there.

You are seated with Christ in heavenly places, so worship Him from a third heaven, throne room perspective (from your spirit) not an earth to heaven one (from your soul).

John 4:23"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Worship from a third heaven, throne room perspective

(from your spirit) not an earth to heaven one(from your soul) John 4:23"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

Worship is a spiritual experience.

This is crucial to understand when it comes to worship and spiritual experiences – you get to go to where your spirit is already, you get to experience what your spirit is already experiencing. When it comes to worship and spiritual experiences it is crucial to understand this really important truth – you get to go to where your spirit is already; you get to experience what your spirit is already experiencing. Do you You want to have heavenly experiences? When you start to see yourself according to truth you’ll start to have experiences that line up with that truth.

What do you know about the worship that goes on around the throne? Have you looked, have you studied what that realm is like?

We need to consecrate and train our soul.

Part of the soul’s function is to translate spiritual realities into earthly experience. We are always having spiritual experiences whether our soul knows it or not.

Your soul will sometimes feel things that are contrary to truth. Your spirit operates according to truth. You choose what you connect to – spirit or soul. Sanctify your imagination (your vision centre). Consecrate and train your soul to come quickly into line with your spiritual reality. How? By revelation - understanding and aligning yourself with truth instead of going just by your feelings feeling, and by using the power of decree.

Let’s start to worship from a heavenly perspective, from our the throne room, third heaven reality.

Worship decree

Thank you, God, that I am close to You. I am always in Your presence. Even now You fill me with Your glory and by faith I join with the angels, beasts and elders around Your throne in worship. I don’t have to try and get there - I am already there. Now I worship from that perspective and I am immediately in Your presence. My soul and my body come into line with Spirit reality and they experience by faith the glory that surrounds You and fills You. and, because. Because of what Christ has done Your glory also fills me. In my spirit I constantly experience the realities of the throne room and so I worship you from a this throne room perspective. Hallelujah!