Hear the Lord’s Voice Through Worship

Jesus came to the earth, fulfilled God’s will and ascended to heaven. But before His ascension, He entrusted His disciples with a duty, which is to proclaim the news of salvation to the people outside of the Church so that they may come into the Church, and thereby become members of the body of Jesus Christ. This is the duty Jesus commissioned us with.

The church evangelizes and reaches out to souls through various methods in order to achieve this mission. Moreover, the church systematically teaches the people who have thus come inside the church. Likewise, there are tasks like preaching the Gospel which requires the church to be united as one, whereas some tasks must be accomplished by the saints individually. The latter refers to the purification of the saint’s own soul. For this, not only should the saints obey the words of God, but also give every effort to fulfill their duties within the church.

When saints serve the church, they are in fact, obeying the words of the Lord. While He was on the earth, the disciples listened to the Lord’s voice and obeyed in action. However the Lord is in heaven, and now He speaks to us by the Holy Spirit. By hearing His words through the Holy Spirit, we receive more accurate and specific instructions from the Lord than if we heard His voice physically (Jn16:13). One of the ways in which we can hear the Lord’s voice as such is worship.

Let Us Answer His Words With Amen

Many factors can make our faith life difficult, and one of the major factors is our carnal desires and mind. They not only bring great trouble to an individual’s personal faith, but in extreme cases, can cause a person to fall into temptation. Not only that, it can deter the church from making a strong march forward. If there is even one person led by his flesh within a gathering of saints, the whole group can be negatively influenced. Hence we need to discard our wicked ways and habits that we once had when we were of the world. Instead, we should now have the heart to dedicate for the Lord’s church.

In achieving this, there is one action which is very simple and yet full of impact we can take immediately. And that is, to answer “Amen!” with a loud voice when we hear God’s word through the sermon. In our daily lives, there are times when we hear words of faith. Our flesh, which hates listening to others, rejects those words though it knows that those words are right. The way that we can subdue our hearts in those moments is to answer “Amen!”. Though we might have had a hostile attitude to it at first, once we accept it with “Amen”, we can find ourselves putting those words into action, to our own amazement.

It is very important that we answer with “Amen!” as we listen to the sermon at church. If we think Speak, and I’ll accept whatever in the sermon seems useful to me, we would not be able to receive anything from God with such an attitude. On the contrary, if a person answers, “Amen!” during the sermon, he would be able to hear God’s voice. Pastors are God’s servants, His tools who deliver God’s message to the church through the Holy Spirit. Pastors also recognize that God has given them a message to deliver to His saints when they are preaching a sermon. And we must receive the message which the pastor delivers with such a heart as the words of God (1 The 2:13).

When the Lord’s servant is preaching the sermon, if a person either evaluates to select from the sermon what he wants to accept, or to simply sit and arrogantly expect the sermon to convince him is not the right attitude to have inside the church where the Holy Spirit operates, especially as someone who have been saved by the blood of Jesus. When we hear God’s words, we have to believe with our heart and confess with our lips.

Let Our Flesh Be Used as a Tool for the Gospel

We should not underestimate our flesh. Our flesh is a tool for the Gospel. Our duty is to hand out a visa to enter heaven to the people who are suffering in the devil’s den. To preach, “Believe in Jesus. He shed His blood and showed God’s love for us. He carried the burdens of us sinners”, is the same as preaching “Here is a visa to heaven. Please accept it”, and thus freeing them from the devil’s oppression. Isn’t it marvelous that our flesh which will later perish gets used for such a glorious ministry?

Later, we will meet the Lord who returns as the Judge. On that day, each person will be rewarded by the Lord according to what he has done. We have to make efforts now for that day. We must not be content at the fact that it is the time of grace, and ignore the word of God preached by His servant, without any longing for worship, or be indifferent to the matters of the church. We ought to remember that every deed of each person are being recorded before the Lord

All the saints need to make effort so that our worship before God may be full of glory and joy. This is not achieved simply by having honoring the worship with our hearts. When we come before God, we have to have a testimony as souls who have received grace. Those who are stingy and reluctant to give offering to God will struggle to draw God’s attention. If a church is miserly before God in offerings, that church will not be able to draw God’s attention either.

The prophet Haggai pointed out how the people of Israel who were returning to Jerusalem after captivity in Babylon were busy building their own homes while indifferent to rebuilding the temple of God. At that time, the people had a great and significant duty to rebuild the temple, for which they needed to give offerings with the utmost effort. However they were reluctant to give offerings. Unlike them, we are today serving the church as children of God, which means our heart and attitude in serving God should be different to theirs.

Each and every member of the church is responsible for the worship to be successful. During prayer, we must earnestly cry out, and confess our faith passionately when we praise. We should be like little children when we dance, putting aside our reputation. And we ought to respond with “Amen!” especially when we hear words of faith in a sermon. It is vain to say “Amen” only to the messages that suit our taste. Just as Jesus was only “Yes!” before God, we too should be “Amen!” to every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Heaven is where those who have received God endlessly cry out “Amen” (Rev 5:13-14). If one desires to go there, saying “Amen!” should be natural for him even from while he is on earth. There are various passages of the Bible which are followed by “Amen”. Romans 11:36 says, “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen”. Romans 15:33 says, “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” Galatians 6:18 also says, “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” And Revelations 1:6 writes, “And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Let Us Become the Amen Church

It should be most natural for us to respond with “Amen!” whenever we hear gracious words of God. When saints are gathered together, everyone should shout out “Amen!” together with one heart and one voice. Every saint must never forget that they have been commissioned as mediators of the Gospel at every moment of life. The church of Jesus is the Amen Church.