And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” —Rev. 7:11–12
What is our posture towards God? How do we approach Him? The questions are relevant: many of us find ourselves hungering for the presence of God in church, yet find that hunger unslaked. Where is God? Why don’t we encounter Him? We may find that the answer turns on our attitude towards God. If we consider the experiences of those in the Bible who encountered the Lord, we cannot help but remark at the difference between biblical and contemporary worship. Scripture records that when people were in the presence of God they expressed feelings of profound respect and reverence and awe:
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” —Isaiah 6:5
Respect. Reverence. Awe. These are alien concepts in our time and culture. Granted, many in leadership today have proved to be unworthy of respect, yet we seem to have elevated insolence to a character strength. We lampoon our leaders; delight in the failings of public figures; and treat authority with impertinence. Unfortunately, this climate of irreverence has spilled over into the Church. In too many churches there seems to be neither esteem nor knowledge of the Holy or sacred. Which prompts this question: might our attitude toward God have something to do with His failure to authentically manifest in our churches?
Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face…. —Ezekiel 1:28
A quick survey of contemporary evangelical churches—particularly those within the purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, mega-church camp (including all those who aspire to be such)—will depress anyone looking for reverent, intentional worship of God. That which is called worship today is in truth nothing more than Christian entertainment. Worship is no longer about God—it is all about us. And this complaint really isn’t against the volume or the instruments—although frequently the volume is intolerable. Instead it is about the direction and purpose of worship. Worship today is targeted to meet the perceived needs and wants of the congregation—their feelings and emotions. I’ve heard pastors gush over their young people jumping up and down in so-called “mosh-pit worship,” but I honestly doubt that anyone there is having a genuine encounter with God. They are having a (admittedly sanctified) concert experience—not a revelation of God in His glory. In this form of worship, one does not greet God with a bowed knee and lowered head, but with a high-five and a “Hey, Dude!” And our church is poorer for it.
And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” — Judges 13:20–22
Whenever anyone hears, sees or encounters the Living God in the Bible, they are moved to a posture of absolute submission. Frequently they are reduced to a state of quaking fear. We do not see such things in church today. In its place we are subjected to a cacophonous orgy of writhing, jumping and running around, which, we are told, Sunday after Sunday, is worship. Then someone invariably asks if we sense God in the place! For those of us who find ourselves sitting further and further away from the speakers, we struggle with feelings of guilt and shame. What am I missing? Is God really here? But the question we really should ask is, if God is here, why does our experience differ so much from that which Scripture records in association with encounters with God?
He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. —Matthew 17:5–6
One wonders if today’s pastors and worship leaders even know Whom it is they claim to worship. Perhaps they have bought into the cartoon-like, children’s ministry characterizations of Jesus as the good friend and the Father as a white-haired old man…. How else could we explain the difference between our responses to the Spirit and those recorded in the Bible?
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. —Revelation 1:17
Of course it is true that God loves us and cares for us and seeks the best for us. He sent Jesus to take our part and substitute for us, to take upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh and suffer and die for us. And it is true that throughout the Scripture we hear the Lord comfort those who hear His voice or enter His presence with the words “fear not.” And yet do we recognize that this One with whom we have to do is the Almighty God, the great Three-in-One, the Ancient-of-Days, the Eternal I-AM? Do we tremble at the mere thought of standing before Him as Father, Son or Holy Spirit? If not, why not? Is it because we have fallen into thinking of Him as our personal playground companion, a buddy we can take or leave at our convenience? God forbid!
While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” —Luke 5:12
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” —Luke 5:8
The first step toward satisfying our hunger for the manifested presence of God in church is the recovery of an attitude of reverence, respect and awe for God. Which means we must recapture a right conception of God. This demands that we become people of the Word again. We will not find the truth about God in the society around us; sadly, we may not even find the truth about God in some churches. His Truth is in His Word. If you find yourself in a church that has abandoned the Word, flee! No church on earth is perfect, but when one has put aside the Bible, it has left mere imperfection and gone over to the false. And it grieves me to say this, but there are many churches today that have exchanged the truth about God for the false spirituality of contemporary culture.
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a place where God’s Word is preached and God’s people are instructed in proper discipleship. Above all, it is a place where God is reverenced—respected—and genuinely feared. It is a place where humans still stand in awe that such a God would deign to come down and rescue us; where men and woman and boys and girls possess a holy fear of offending such a great and powerful and loving God. A true church will help us escape the irreverent spirit of the age, and inculcate an appreciation for and respect of holiness and righteousness. Let us endeavor to find a place where God is truly reverenced. And let us be sure that our own attitude towards God is always one of profound respect, awe and genuine worship.
