Worship, Prayer and Change

Phase 8:  Worship should be something we do before we ever ask the Lord to do anything for us; bfore we pray and then start seeing changes  in our life and circumstances.  "Change comes after we worship God, not before."  The author speaks about worship and faith.  The story of the canaanite woman seeking to get her daughter healed is a good example in Matthew 15:22-23.  The woman came out with a loud cry and begged have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David.  The woman's miracle came when she established that she had faith and that she was going to worship God.  God sees our heart, and sincerity of heart is the most important thing to him.  Our worship has to be real and comes out of a heart of genuine thankgiving and praise.  We must fix our minds and heart on the Lord when worshiping Him.  (John 4:23, 24).  Joyce states, "We all must be open to growth, which always means change.  Knowledge and revelation is progressive; if a thing is not moving, then it is dying."  The confession of our mouth is a powerful weapon.  The power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).  

Phase 9:  Change from worshiping; when you bow down and worship God, using King David's method, you will begin to see some marvelous things happen and deliverance from bondages.  In John chapter 6, the people asked "What must we do to please God?"  Jesus answered and said, "Believe." We are to believe the word of God and then see the manifestation.  We are to believe and enter God's rest, knowing that He is working on our behalf.  "When we praise God before we see change, we are saying with our actions that we believe and start declaring that we already have the victory.  The battle belongs to the Lord.

Phase 10:  Worship God with a pure conscience--True worship has to come from the heart.  It is not a learned behavior.  Paul spoke of the importance of keeping our conscience clear or clean.  This is one of the main functions of the Holy Spirit; to teach and lead us into all truth and convict us of sin in our lives and convince us of righteousness (John 16: 8,13).  Paul worshiped with a clear conscience.  This opens the door to repentence, if we confess our sins then God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Then we can live before Him with a clear conscience.   

Phase 11:  Transformation and Transfiguration--"Do not be conformed to this world (present age) but be transformed (Changed) by the renewing of your mind' (Romans 12: 2).  This is a Greek word metamorphoo, meaning "to change into another form."  We must die to self to live for Christ.  The example is the apostle Paul in the book of Galatians 2:20, crucified with Christ.  We must die to ungodly attitudes, patterns, ways of acting and speaking, our own plans and desires.  No pain, no gain.