Circumcision of the Heart Ministry
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, nd rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Philippians 3:3
Pastor Kenneth Douglas
                                                                          The Wonders of Worship 
                                                                         By, Pastor Kenneth Douglas

Because there are no coincidences with God and everything happens for a reason you should know that I’m here on assignment. There is something going on in the spirit realm with the body of the church that has summoned me here. Those who are here have been beating on the doors of our father’s heart and his response to you all is “come closer”. One of the gifts that God has given me is the ability to teach his people how to get close to him. There is something that you all have been doing in the spirit that causes God to respond to you by saying “I love you”.

Listen as he speaks to you all. "I am Love; you may come and worship me. I welcome you appropriately; bring glory to me because it’s right. It is also good for your own sake that you worship me; not because I need your worship, but because through it you will be progressively liberated from yourself (which is life’s worst bondage). "

"By worshipping me you are also being brought to a place of intimate relationship, one of knowing, understanding and walking with me." “As well I want you to know where my focus is; my will, my interest, my power, my purpose, my commandments, my plans, and objectives are never about me, they are about you. The reason I have given my ways of worship to you is this; so that by these means you might come up from where you are and enter into all I have for you.”

Worship brings you into realization of who you were created to be. The first time worship is seen in the bible is in Genesis Chapter 3; any time you see sacrifices being done in the bible, they symbolize worship. Before the fall of man there was no need for sacrifices, because man shared an unbroken relationship with their creator.

What does God mean “that were naked”? It means that you don’t have clothes on; no royal robes. It spiritually signifies the stripping away of royal authority, power, and righteousness, Isaiah 61:10. Many of us in the body of Christ are just like it says, “He clothed me with garments salvation, He……Adam and Eve.

We know there is something wrong; where is the power? The dead are not being raised, the blind eyes not opened, we are people of God and are naked of our authority in the earth. Sin strips us of this clothing. What the Lord is about to reveal to his people is that these privileges were lost through worship by Adam serving and listening to Satan. They were restored through Christ and the institution of worship. There will be no power without spending time with God. Praise gets you into the courts; worship ushers you into his presence.

The latter part of verse 7 says”and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings; because they lost their ability to worship God alone. Their worship has become religion now. Fig leaves symbolize self atonement, self made religion, church without God, but if what Adam had did was right God wouldn’t have changed it. Knowing now that Adam and his mate couldn’t get back to him; the Lord set out to show man how to get back in his presence.

Verse 8

“The Lord reveals how sin causes man to hide from him or at least think they’re hiding from his presence. Many of us won’t come to church if we’ve slipped up and sinned. We let the devil and people make us feel condemned. The last time I checked Romans 6, told me there’s now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Man can’t send me to hell. I ask God to forgive me and get back into his presence.

Sin makes you feel unworthy and if you feel like that you won’t get in his presence there will be no power to heal the sick, if we don’t spend time with God. Before I show you the first time worship is seen in Genesis chapter 1, I must explain one of the definitions of worship. The word comes from an ancient English word called “weorthscipe”. It denotes the idea of ascribed worth; it meant fundamentally that true worship of God is more than an exercise of religious rituals. It is a human expression of a proper value placed on a person.

In other words, because I value my relationship with God I don’t live like hell through the week; then give God one day on Sunday and call it worship. Because God has done so much for me, he is worth me doing my best every second of the day to live a consecrated lifestyle.
God knew that Adam wanted to make things right between the two, because of his effort to cover himself. So, God shows the husband and the wife his method of being close to him.

Verse 12
 
Here the Lord reveals his first requirement for intimacy with him. He says if you want the authority, the power, and relationship back that was lost, something that has to be killed. Whatever it is that is keeping us from this privilege the Lord says the slaughter begins today.
Just coming to church doesn’t qualify you as a worshipper, at least not according to God’s word; dying does. “He, who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.” Christ said, “If you die like me, then you are following me.”

Go quickly to Numbers 28:1-4, when you mix God’s food, which is praise and worship (with fire) (which is passion and energy while praising it sends an aroma). One of the requirements for temple worship for the priest was to keep something dying in God’s presence; they kept a sacrifice on the altar. When he shows you that you are a gossiper, take that to him; then he will show you something else. As long as you’re on this earth you will never run out of something to put on the altar.

The offerings were consumed by God. He sent fire on the altar. Man didn’t cause these sacrifices to burn, God did. Every time I bring something to God, I don’t like doing, I need to give up, and he burns it out of me.

In Genesis chapter 4, God reveals another generation of worshippers. Read verses 3-5. In this text the first thing I want to point out is that years have passed. We come to that conclusion, because the verse says, in the process or course of time, indicating time has passed. Over the years Cain was taught by his father, what required in worship. However Cain was like many of us, we grow weary in doing well and start bringing God what we want him to have. Through this experience of these two brothers God reveals the condition of his church. One meaning of the word “two” is to be divided.
 
God’s church is in this condition for one or two reasons, either we don’t know how to worship God or we don’t care to worship him correctly. This is the case in Cain’s life. Cain deliberately lived how he wanted to live before God. When God says in verse 3, “they brought an offering to him. What they were really presenting to God was the way they lived before him each and every day. So, when we come to the house of God on Sunday, we are presenting ourselves corporately to God to offer ourselves in worship; bringing our gifts, talents, time, money, and love to him.

Read verse 4

Abel shows every believer the correct way to worship God. The first principle you must take back home with you is that Abel gave God what belongs to God first. He didn’t pay anybody until he gave God his first. Our problem is we can’t see how God will do it so we keep God’s tenth; but when we do that we find ourselves in a deeper hole than we were before.

Abel knew that if he wanted his business as a keeper of the flock to continue flourishing he had better give God his first. People of God, God is not trying to take something from you; he is trying to get something to you. We worship God when we give him His first. This verse continues by saying “and of the fat portions…” the tabernacle, of the Old Testament the priest would cut off the sacrifice and set it out before the Lord to be consumed by the fire. It was the best part of the animal and they gave it to God. God is not asking for perfection, but he does require you to give it your best.

God had respect for Abel and his offering; the reason was because Abel had respect for God’s way of worshipping him. God didn’t respect Cain’s because both men knew what God wanted; they both were brought up in the church. They knew that something had to die if they wanted to be right with God. God rejected Cain’s worship for the same reason. God rejects many of our…what we call worship for the same reason. Cain offered God the same substance that the Lord removed from covering his father.

Sin has to be covered by blood, not by plants or trees. That’s why God taught Adam the correct way, so that he could teach his children. The same goes for us as parents; we are not suppose to teach our children how to be the best dressed in the church or how to show up every Sunday; but to teach them how to kill the flesh, so that they can be close to God.

Read 6-8
 
God tells us that Cain wasn’t living right and because his brother was…Cain planned to murder him. How funny is it that we see this same spirit plaguing our churches, those who love God and want to truly worship him. We have our brothers and sisters assassinating their character. We murder with our mouths those whose life tell on ours, because they provoke us to change. I release now the spirit of Abel in this house. Families coming to a building doesn’t change people, worshipping God does. I’ll prove it to you.

Read Isaiah 6:1

After Uzziah died Isaiah set out to seek the Lord. God gives him a vision of a worship service going on in heaven that literally ushers Him in it. Verse 3, the focus of this worship service is God’s holiness or God’s wholeness spiritually.

Verse 6-7

The Lord says if you’ll begin to worship him and point out the body part that keep causing you to sin against God. Instantly while in God’s presence, he tells God the problems he’s been having with his mouth. This is what worship does to the believer instead of pointing out other people’s sins, worship causes you see yourself.

Verse8
 
Worship God not only on Sunday and he says he will deliver you from that sin and give your assignment. He will reveal your purpose for being on this earth through worship and He will kill that sin that has you bound.
I am convinced after studying this scripture that as a pastor, I don’t have to scream and holler and tell you that you are going to hell to convince you to live right. God says if I teach you how to worship him like Isaiah…you will tell him that you want to live right.


                                                       By, Pastor Kenneth Douglas