Hallelujah Festival Day 19 - Worship by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Worship serves two vital functions for the believer. First, it gives an opportunity to minister to God. Worship is one platform that allows any believer to minister directly to God. Second, worship gives an opportunity to receive a response from God. In worship, there is not only a giving to God — there is a receiving from God.

The way God responds to worshippers is by revealing his glory. When the weight of his glory appears, consider 2 Chronicles 5:13–14 — "And it came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good and his mercies endure forever; that the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God."

When believers minister to God in worship, he responds by releasing his glory.

Two Experiences the Glory Produces

When the glory of God appears, it brings about two experiences:

1. Encounters — The assignment of an encounter is to open the believer to dimensions of God that will deepen their knowledge of him. Encounters do not merely bring gifts; they bring convictions. They deepen the knowledge of God. In the atmosphere of an encounter, his holiness is revealed, his power is revealed, his wisdom is revealed.
2. Interventions — Miracles, healings, signs, wonders, and divine direction. God does not stop at encounters; through that same glory he brings tangible interventions into human circumstances.

Both must be expected simultaneously. It is important to have both at the front of the mind in worship.

• Worship that is intervention-based alone will produce miracles but will not deepen the knowledge of God or cause the believer to fall more deeply in love with him.
• Worship that is encounter-based alone will help the believer know the Lord and grow in knowledge of him, but personal needs will remain unmet.

A benevolent God will always make available, when his glory shows, both an encounter for knowing and loving him — and interventions for the practical necessities of life.

The Fruits of Each Experience

Encounters produce distinct spiritual fruit:

• Wisdom
• Visions
• Utterance and revelation — The eyes of understanding being enlightened, that the believer may come into a comprehension — the Greek word epignosis — a coming into oneness with a reality, oneness with a thought.

Many songs that carry the life of God within them came through encounters. That is why they are not merely musical compositions but vehicles of the Spirit.

Interventions, on the other hand, are the dimension where God comes to heal, lift, and change circumstances. Zephaniah 3:17 — "The Lord in the midst of thee is mighty to save." Every time his glory comes, it is mighty — not just to bless, but to save, to heal, to lift, to bring hope.

How to Worship Correctly

The object of worship must always be God himself — not personal needs. When attention is fixed on needs in worship, it becomes a subtle form of idolatry. True worship requires taking the eyes away from pain, frustration, and need, and fixing them entirely on the object of worship.

When attention is wholly on God — loving him, pressing in, singing, crying, kneeling, shouting — there will always be a response. The response from God is the release of his glory.

There is an intelligence to worship, not merely devotion and consecration. The songs of worship should bring blessing to the worshipper first. As the words are heard, the Holy Spirit quickens them. When his names are called — Jehovah Jireh, Rapha, Shammah, Mighty God, the Deliverer — the worshipper must not chant them mechanically. Each name is a theology. The meaning must be meditated upon.

This is the significance of the Hebrew word Selah. Selah means: pause, meditate, draw strength, then continue. That is the reason why, in worship, the Holy Spirit sometimes takes away words and allows the worshipper to hum and chant — because he is working, crystallizing a depth of conviction so that when singing resumes, the worshipper is not merely singing a song but ascending in the spirit to a deeper dimension of the knowledge of God.

The Goal of Every Worship Experience

Every genuine worship experience should produce a measurable result in the believer's life:

1. A new or deepened dimension of God — Not merely an emotional experience, but a documented addition to the believer's archive of knowing God. The Lord is gracious. The Lord is compassionate. The Lord is merciful. These are convictions that must be formed and retained, not merely felt in the moment.
2. A token of intervention — The glory of God is not only glorious; it is mighty. As 2 Corinthians 4:17 affirms, light and momentary afflictions work in the believer an eternal weight of glory. When the glory rests, everything that does not reflect that glory leaves.

The God who is worshipped is not an idol. He has hands that can reach. He has a voice that thunders over many waters. He is mighty to heal, mighty to save, mighty to lift, mighty to change a story, mighty to bring hope.

The prayer over every believer who worships sincerely is that God would grant an encounter that defines the next season of their Christian experience — because the God one knows is the God one reveals to their generation. One cannot reveal a theoretical God. Moses received an encounter at the burning bush: "I AM THAT I AM." Upon the strength of that encounter, Moses confronted Pharaoh. The encounter was the source of the authority.

Understanding Impartation

In addition to healings and deliverances in gathered worship settings, what many believers need most is an impartation — a transference of possibilities.

Results in the kingdom are not only predicated on the will of God, but on the degree of access to the graces available. When God wants to help a man, he shortens the distance between that man and someone anointed for his situation. Not every anointed person is sent to every individual. As Luke 4:26 illustrates — there were many widows in Zarephath, but Elijah was sent to none of them except one. The anointing must be specifically sent.

Understanding Prophetic Seasons and Anointed Songs

There are times when the Holy Spirit invests a particular anointing upon certain songs, causing them to play prophetic roles — like ladders — as the believer steps into new seasons. These songs are not merely musical compositions. They function as prophetic words.

• When a song is anointed for a season, the believer is to sing it as a prophetic declaration, not merely as worship.

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• By the time the battles the enemy has scheduled arrive, praise has already gone ahead — like Judah in battle — and the believer steps into prepared blessings and victories that came as a result of understanding the season.

Songs work all the time, but they do not carry the same essence and power in every season. Discerning which songs have been anointed for a specific season is part of spiritual intelligence.

Prophetic Declaration

Prayer for the Glory of God

Accept Jesus

The Bible declares in John 3:16 and John 3:17

If upon hearing the word, participating in worship, and following these prayers the Holy Spirit has been convicting of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment — that voice is certainly the Holy Spirit. Satan cannot convict anyone to come to Jesus; it is inconsistent with his nature.

There are two responses available:

1. Those who desire to make it right with Jesus for the first time.
2. Those who desire to rededicate their lives — to mean business with Jesus, with no going back and no faltering again.

Say this:

If you said that prayer, kindly make use of the link: