Psalm 22:3 But you are holy, O you that inhabits the praises of Israel.
The word inhabits here is the Hebrew word yä·shav' which means to dwell, inhabit, or sit.
Most translations use the word enthrone to suggest being seated in a place associated with authority or influence of the praises of Israel. God not only inhabits our praises he is enthroned or seated in his authority, in the mists of our praises.
This is where our worship should bring us, with God seated in the mists of our praise and adoration for who he is and what he has done.
For us to reach this level of worship it requires us to speak, to listen, and do, in order to process the desires of our hearts while showing the value God is to us. As we express our deepest gratitude for who God is, we involve our minds with speaking by raising our voices in jubilant praise for all He is and what he has done. This can be in the form of singing or reading or expressing in words out loud.
“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name” (Psm. 100:4).
We can worship anywhere, at any time.
It can be in your quiet place, your war room, your house, your office, your school, or your church. In a building down town, a store, a park or an open field.
There is no limit to a place and there is no limit to a time. You can worship God when you wake up, go to sleep, before and after you eat, while you work, or when you are walking on the beach or around your neighborhood.
It does not matter the time or place because God can inhabit the smallest particle of dust to the largest sun or heavens that we has been discovered. He lives in an eternal state that is not confined to an hour or month, or even a specific year. He can go back into the past or reach far out into the future, without interfering with the rhythm he put in place in the creation.
The time and place of our praise and worship does not restrict God, for he dwells there and has made this the place of his authority. Psalm 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
As our praise crescendos into blasts of highest adoration, we must turn our ears to listening in order to hear what God would have for us to know. To have all praise and not listening would lose the chance for instruction, leaving worship one-sided and people unfinished in the experience of worshiping God. After we have listened, we must put action to the worship by doing that which we learned through the instruction. Our actions prove our love and gratitude for all that God has done as we turn our praises toward Jesus, we express these same things to him as our Savior and King.
Together we praise God the Father and Jesus the Christ as our provider, sustainer, healer, and forgiver. Out of their great love we receive all these and many more benefits. As this knowledge rises up in us, we respond by loving our Heavenly Father for his goodness which he passes on to us. The love of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is shown so profoundly by his sacrifice on the cross. We respond to Christ with worship and praise through expressions of joy, happiness, and overwhelming thankfulness!
There is worship that is offered up.
There is worship that is received down.
There is worship that allows expression.
There is worship that brings freedom.
There is worship that allows humility and stillness.
We worship God through hands raised, hearts rejoicing, voices singing, feet dancing, bodies jumping, and people shouting.
There is worship that brings complete and total freedom.
Freedom from your body, from your mind, from your world, and from all that holds you back. In this worship, you enter into eternity by the Spirit, abiding in God, as you are in his presence. This worship is different because, instead God being invited to come into our abiding, we enter into his presence, in his abiding.
This is a place where the mortal body escalades past mortality and enters into the eternal; into the full presence and full knowledge of God. Ephesians 3:19 ". . .to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
It is here that time does not exist because it is the eternal presence of God.
This is where you can be involved with God in worship and time has no dominion over the length of your worship. Adoration and praise turns into fellowship which results in love and complete surrender to the will of God.
This heightened level of fellowship and surrender starts with the act of worship.
In the mist of this kind of worship, physical reactions are taking place in us where nothing can affect the physical body.
The Mortal Reaction of Worship
The type of worship we have been discussing can causes us to have physical and chemical reactions in our bodies resulting in raised body temperatures, raised blood pressure, and other noticeable changes to the body.
The minds produces larger amounts of endorphins as your excitement rises during intense worship. Endorphins are compound amino acids that interact with receptors in the brain to reduce our perception of pain, much like the drugs of morphine and codeine. Large amounts of endorphins result in less pain in your body. Areas of the body with lower levels of endorphins causes you to have pain. When you become excited during worship your body experiences less pain because the body is experiencing high levels of endorphins.
It's like getting a spiritual injection that affects the physical body.
Alabama Public Radio published an article in July 21, 2009, entitled "Is This Your Brain on God?" that reported how religious activity is directly connected to chemical reactions in the brain [http://www.npr.org/news/specials/2009/brain/].
The article reveals religious studies have shown more than half of adult Americans involved in religious activities report they have had a spiritual experience that changed their lives. Scientists from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they were affected while having spiritual experiences, ranging from speak in tongues to claims of near-death experiences. The following is some of the results of these studies which describes how the different parts of the brain reacts to specific spiritual activities.
Brainstem: The God Chemical
At John Hopkins University, research suggests chemicals that act on the serotonin system triggers mystical experiences that are life-altering. Serotonin is a chemical messenger that helps regulate mood and sleep. The research suggests brain chemistry is a necessary conduit for people to reach God?
Temporal Lobe: The God Spot
Neurologists believe they've found the sweet spot for spiritual experience in the temporal lobe. Some scientists say the temporal lobe, which is associated with emotion and memory, is the seat of spirituality. It's also where epileptic activity takes place. If Satan can destroy the ability of the temporal lobe with the sickness of epilepsy, spirituality can become unstable. If worship seats God's authority over this part of your mind, epilepsy is overthrown as God has a place where our emotions are enthroned by worship.
Parietal Lobe: Spiritual Virtuoso
Researchers who study the brain science of spiritual experience have found that the brains of those who pray or meditate operate differently from normal brains. Dr. Andrew Newberg at the University of Pennsylvania has found that those who meditate have increased activity in the frontal lobe (part of the brain involved in concentration and attention) and decreased activity in the parietal lobe (the sensory functions of direction, feeling, taste, hearing, seeing, and smell). Subjects who were channeling God (intently seeking him) had decreased activity in the frontal lobe and increased activity in the parietal lobe resulting in your physical senses being heightened.
Frontal Lobe: Near Death Experiences
Most scientists say that when the brain stops operating, so does consciousness. An increasing number of scientists post that consciousness is related to, but not dependent on, the material brain. They have found that the brains of people who have near-death experiences closely mirror those of nuns and monks, who spend much time in prayer and meditation.
What these studies have shown is within the different parts of the brain exists chemicals that trigger specific brain activities to enhance spiritual experiences. Through high levels of meditation and prayer our brains can trigger levels of activity that responds in praise and worship, resulting in our bodies being physically transformed due to these spiritual activities.
It is in moments like this, when we reach peaks of worship that connect us to God through the Spirit, we can experience miraculous acts of healing to our bodies. While involved in worship on this level the following is taking place:
Our brainstem is touching God through the spirit.
God seats himself in us, connecting with us in the spirit through our temporal lobe.
This activity heightens the senses in our parietal lobe and we hear God in our spirit as we connect and understand God more perfectly. In the parietal lobe we start gaining wisdom and knowledge of who God is and how we connect to him.
Then in the frontal lobe, all the brain activity is brought together as the worship experience. It is here we begin experiencing spiritual concept and learning to accept the reality of the worship experience.
In truth, our brains help us to process God because he created the brain with chemicals that respond to high levels of spiritual activity. These chemicals trigger the body to respond with corrective measures that actually result in healing and regeneration. Worship activates these chemicals causing us the ability to be healed of all diseases and sickness.
Worship is the Door to Hearing and Healing
When the work on Solomon's Temple was complete Israel had one of the greatest worship services recorded in the Bible starting in 2Chronicles Chapter 5. This worship was so powerful and so intense that God himself came down with his presence and filled the temple.
The service started with a parade. Solomon had the elders and Levites starting at the tabernacle that King David had put in place (1Chronicles 16:1). If you remember this is the tabernacle King David had erected when he brought the Arch of the Covenant to Jerusalem. This was the event when King David went before the Arch of the Covenant, dancing unto the Lord.
They are bringing the Arch of the Covenant to its permanent place and as they were dedicating the temple unto the Lord, Solomon offered up a tremendous prayer of supplication and worship in 2Chronicles Chapter 6.
As the procession left the Tabernacle they were led by 120 Levitical priests carrying trumpets -- shofars -- and following them were hundreds of singers also from the tribe of Levi. Behind them where two priest from the sons of Kohath (Numbers 7:9; 2Samuel 6:3) who were carrying the Arch of the Covenant.
Preceding the parade, Israel had so many sacrifices of sheep and oxen, the Bible says the number could not be counted (2Chronicles 5:6). As the parade led all of Israel to the Temple they placed the Arch in its place, in the Holy of Hollies, and the Bible says as they departed this most holy place all the singers and players of instruments started praising God with music. This was their worship team preparing them for worship. Wow! What a worship team!
As the music crescendo-ed with all the singers, instruments of strings, harp, cymbals, and shofars (trumpets) blasting, they made one single sound (2Chronicles 5:13). The word used here in the Hebrew for "sound" is a musical term meaning "note". Note as in a music note. That one note of sound was Israel's que to shout out in praise saying: "For He is good. For His mercy endures forever" (2Chronicles 5:13). This praise was so intense the Lord God filled the Temple with his presences in the form of a cloud. It was so dense the priests could not go back into the inner sanctum to minister.
Then Solomon stood up and spoke to the people(2Chronicles 6:1-42).
In Ecclesiastes 1:1 he calls himself the "Preacher." So the preacher of Israel stands and speaks in the mist of this powerful worship service where even the Lord himself is present as the Temple is being dedicating to Him.
The worship team has prepared the people; the presence of the Lord has come in and made himself known; and now it is time for the preacher to speak. Solomon first blessed the people and then he dedicated the Temple to the Lord. In his dramatic prayer to the Lord, the King asked the Lord in 6:21, any time the people offered prayers and supplications toward the Temple, would He hear from his dwelling place and forgive?
The word dwelling used here in 2Chronicles 6:21 is the same word inhabits used in Psalm 22:3 But you are holy, O you that inhabits the praises of Israel. As I said in the beginning this means to enthrone the praise. Solomon is asking the Lord to hear and forgive from the place he enthrones, the praise of his people.
When the king finished with his dedication prayer, the Lord had fire come down from heaven, consume the offerings and sacrifices, and he continued filling the Temple with his glory. God received the offerings and sacrifices that were so many they could not be numbered. He was ENTHRONING himself in their praise and worship.
The very next thing recording in the Bible was God appearing to Solomon in the night and personally answered him concerning his request in prayer (2Chronicles 7:12-22). From this answer we have the most quoted verse of scripture for blessings upon a nation:
2Chronicles 7:14
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
Corporate worship, toward God, is the most powerful tool any one group of people can have. This is why "Going to Church" has always been looked at as the highest point of the week for believers. Some Christians will mistake going to church as more important than having a personal relationship with God.
When worship rises to the magnitude a congregation draws the presences God to abide in their praise, it starts with the praise and worship of the worship team. They prepare the people in song, hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16); then the pastor who has been listening to God throughout the week and is prepared to share God's word from his heart, becomes the voice of God to the people.
As the message is shared. . .the People starts to hear from God!. . . .And as God starts to hear from the people, He forgives them and starts healing the people.
Worship Causes Healing
When a person is involve with this type worship, sickness can't enter in; it can't be present.
Any sickness that is there becomes stabilized and continued worship eliminates the sickness by their depth of worship one enters into.
You are healed in that very moment of anything in your body.
The devour is rebuked and he cannot touch you because this is a spiritual act.
Though it is affecting your entire body in a physical way, it is a spiritual move.
Satan has no power over us in spiritual matters.
Then as you continue throughout the day worshiping and praying in the Spirit, the devil still cannot touch you, because of the depth of worship you have entered into.
This type worship brings total and complete healing.
It brings freedom to everything that keeps you from being All in All with God.
It brings crucifixion of the body.
It brings purification of the body.
It is when we come back from worship some tend to take their sickness back on themselves instead of continuing in the worship.
Conclusion
So. . .
When you're at work and things do not go like you want them to. . .Worship!
When sickness is overcoming you and you don't know what to do. . .Worship!
When you're at school and you can't seem to make the grade, though you are trying. . .Worship!
When life is closing in on you; your family is caving in and you don't know what to do. . .Worship!
When your finances have all ran out, the bills are overwhelming you. . .Worship!
When your marriage is drowning in heartache and sorrow. . .Worship!
When all hope seems to be gone out of life and you want to end it all. . . DON'T END IT!. . .Worship!
Worship is the beginning of all things spiritual. Whether you worship in some quite place away for the crowds or you involve in corporate worship, freedom and healing can become your end result.
This is why the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:18-21, "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God." [NKJV]