When we set our heart upon the Lord, then the psalms that we sing are very beautiful, even though they may not be perfect technically. As we increase our worship, it is pleasing to God. Worship is in our will. The great sins against worship are withdrawal, rebellion, stubbornness, and pride. Pride is actually an attitude of your spirit. God continually talks about a proud spirit, a rebellious spirit, a stubborn spirit.
Set your will to worship God, first with all your heart, then with all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength—in that order. Worship comes out of the heart. When your spirit starts worshiping the Lord and you put a force into it with all of your will, then by the Holy Spirit you reach a supercharge or overdrive position. Come to the Lord, very simply praising and adoring Him. As you set your heart to worship Him with everything within your spirit, a force is generated by the Holy Spirit which increases the worship. The more your heart is set on God, the greater your worship becomes as you continue reaching into God, and the more your spirit becomes set.
Jesus said, God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24. You may say, “I can’t control my spirit.” Some day, with more wisdom, we will learn how to better control our spirit. Only to some extent can you control your spirit through your emotions and feelings, or through your reasoning. But you can do a great deal through your will. It is the leverage through which your spirit operates. It is the only area where you have a constant mental control of your spirit. If your will is set on God, you can control your spirit. Because your will is the activating force that controls your spirit, it can also reach down and subordinate your emotions and your feelings. If you say, “I was overtaken by temptation and I fell,” this means your will was not set correctly. When God blesses a man, He works in him both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).
Anything that God has put in your will, you will be able to accomplish. You will become a deeper worshiper of the Lord when your will is more set on the Lord. Such deep worship should be the prelude to every prophecy, every song in the Spirit, and to everything that comes in the service.
God is full of many things, and in His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). But when you reach into His heart, that joy sometimes gives way to a greater experience of what God has been feeling toward you. Worship will come in which you will feel the great victory of the Lord’s coming, the vengeance that has been building in His heart for some time, the wrath of God that is to visit the earth again. It is a grim feeling, almost a belligerance—not that you want Him to hurt anyone, but you are aware that God is moving and His arm is being made bare. You will sense the Spirit of the Father toward the earth and the Spirit of the coming Lord of lords and King of kings, who is ready to judge the adversary, ready to bring forth righteousness. Worship with all of your will until you have a revelation of this to your own heart, until you can almost feel that you are seated on one of those white horses who are following the Mighty Conqueror through the end of one age and into the Kingdom.
We learn to worship by our will. We set our will and our spirit goes into worship. When you pass from a focus of sound into one of silence, you will experience what is in the heart of God as you come close to Him. In heaven the worship is in silence through space when they witness Him opening the seals. There is something awesome in it.
When you worship together, give it voice; but when you are alone, experiment with soundless worship. Hold your hands up before the Lord until they seem to be alive. Close your eyes and look through the center of your forehead. Set your will and think the thoughts strongly; but without a sound of utterance, praise Him, the God of fire (our God is a consuming fire) before whom every enemy shall be brought down and made the footstool of His feet. Such worship is just as intense as when you worship aloud.
There are many ways to worship the Lord. Worship as you concentrate on submission. Don’t relax, but bring everything into submission, commanding everything within you to submit to love Him and worship Him. Sense that you are giving Him everything that is within you, that you are placing it under His authority, as you set your will upon God.
Worship can open the door to a closeness with the Lord, so that you know Him. Which one of the disciples would you want to be? The one who leaned on His bosom, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who fell at His feet as a dead man when he saw Him on the Isle of Patmos? Do you love Him that much? Will you lean on Him and adore Him?