The Holy Spirit and Worship
Workings of the Holy Spirit in corporate worship
It’s always interesting to see how God ties together various events in our lives. This past Sunday (1/12/20) our pastor preached a sermon entitled “Yield” which is part of a series on the spiritual growth of believers. Following are several points from the message (my outtakes in parentheses) that relate to the workings of the Holy Spirit:
“Everyone is part of God’s creation — but not all people are His children.” (so, if you’re a child of God, there’s a higher expectation level for you).
“If we’re more like Christ it’s due to the workings of the Holy Spirit.” (sanctification is not a suggestion, it’s a command to become more like Christ each day — we can’t get there on our own).
“The work of Holy Spirit inspires us to give our best.” (everyone has their own idea of what ‘success’ looks like — the Spirit will lead us to achieve more than we can conceive)
“The Holy Spirit gives us patience to overcome ‘snags.’ ” (what worship pastor hasn’t cringed when the sound system lets out an ear-piercing squeal during worship? People are more important than programs — helping the rookie sound tech overcome the ‘yips’ is more important than a ‘perfect’ service)
“The Holy Spirit’s work transforms us into the image of Christ; we should be living displays of Him.” (‘nuff said!)
There were numerous interesting observations regarding the Holy Spirit in the textbook readings (Introducing Christian Doctrine / 3rd Ed., Millard Erickson) and lectures for this week. As an equal part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit deserves our worship; in Southern Baptist life, He is often left out of our corporate worship (or at best given a passing mention). This is interesting, since the workings of the Holy Spirit are more prominent in this period of history than the other members of the Trinity — the Father being prominent in the OT and Jesus in the NT.
Perhaps because it’s difficult to ‘visualize’ the Holy Spirit is a reason why He is often downplayed — we have no concrete imagery of Him to focus on. Or, our lack of ascribing the Spirit His due might be in reaction to the over-emphasis that some denominations place on the workings of the Spirit and their inclusion of these (i.e. — speaking in tongues, baptism of the Spirit) as a requirement for salvation. The author related that we can’t determine if tongues is a gift still being bestowed by the Holy Spirit today — we can only apply the scriptural guidelines regarding the use of the gift (1 Cor 14). My take is that we need to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves (Matt 10:16) as we interact with others who hold a different interpretation of Scripture than we do.
The Holy Spirit gives skills for a particular task (Ex 31:3–5) and will provide us with what we need to accomplish what we are called to do in ministry. He guides all the aspects of the worship service — from planning to performance (while ‘performance’ might be a term with negative connotations for some, we do perform for an “Audience of One” [Big Daddy Weave}).
The Spirit will lead us as we plan for worship — but He’s not on our timetable. If we wait until the last minute to put together an order of worship, I believe we can hinder the Spirit’s leading. I’m a believer in planning ahead and timely communications — we can see how God cares about the ‘nuts and bolts’ of a project in the instructions He gives (see the construction of the ark and the building of the Temple) — but we need to be sensitive to times when the Spirit will lead us away from our ‘best laid plans.’ Events in the life of a church (i.e. — the unexpected death of a congregation member, a sweeping altar call response to a time of worship, etc.) might be times when we lay aside what we had planned and allow the Spirit to lead where He will.
He will bring to mind scripture passages and examples to share with the congregation as we lead worship (John 14:26) as He is the author or Scripture (2 Tim 3:16). The Spirit was at work in Christ’s teaching and preaching (Luke 4), and He will be at work in ours if we let Him.
If we are to lift ‘holy hands’ in worship (1 Tim 2:8) we need to be sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance and follow where He leads (especially if it’s to a place that’s difficult for us — like repairing a broken relationship with a ministry member, even if we feel that we were the one who was wronged.)
As worship leaders, we have an obligation to raise up, equip, and empower the next generations of leaders that will follow us. The Spirit has inspired others to pass along the wisdom and experience they have gained (see Bezalel — Ex. 35) — as worship leaders, we should be looking for opportunities to mentor others and equip them for leadership within worship ministry.
As a distinct person of the Trinity, the Spirit deserves an equal portion of our worship.
