The worship event pushes all your buttons.  When you are up, the opportunity to praise God expresses all that you are.  When you are down, songs lift you up to where you can face life again, knowing that God is with you.

The way you are

• YOU FEEL CLOSEST TO GOD WHEN YOU ARE INVOLVED IN CORPORATE WORSHIP
• MUSIC TOUCHES YOUR HEART
• YOU CAN REMEMBER HEARING FROM GOD DURING TIMES OF PRAISE
• YOU FIND A PROPHETIC SPIRIT GROWING IN YOU IN TIMES OF WORSHIP
• YOU WOULD LIKE TO PRAY OUT LOUD DURING WORSHIP, EVEN IF YOU DON’T
• YOU FIND YOU WANT TO DANCE OR EXPRESS YOURSELF PHYSICALLY EVEN IF YOU FIND IT TOO EMBARRASSING TO DO SO
• WORSHIP SONGS MAKE SENSE TO YOU.  YOU 'GET' THE IMAGES THEY USE
• THE WORSHIP EVENT IS WHERE YOU FIND HEALING, EVEN IF THERE IS NOT CHANCE TO RECEIVE PRAYER

Hearing from God

Your best times of receiving God's word are through prophecy or personal ministry in times of worship

Biblical Example

Miriam, Moses’ sister. King David, possibly the world's best-known songwriter

Other Example

Tim Hughes and your favourite band leaders.

Build

• Get to SUNDAYS early and get on down the front.

• Use worship CDs and mp3s.  Make your car or ironing board a worship space.

• Push beyond your favourite songwriters and learn songs and hymns old and new.

• Develop your expressive awareness through movement when you are alone and when appropriate in groups, too.
• Sing a new song.  Write or improvise your own to existing music or your own tune.
• Ask God for the gift of tongues.  Sing what you feel is on God's heart and become prophetic.

Beware

• One of the important things about celebration is that to become worship it has to focus on God.  Closeness and even hearing God speak are side-effects; not the main deal.  With some of the other pathways they actually are the main deal.
• Be careful not to judge those who aren’t as expressive as you in worship.
• Watch that you don’t worship worship.
• Pay attention to what stirs you and learn to divide between heightened emotion and what God is stirring. 
• Beware of treating any time of corporate praise as a performance which went well or badly.
• Make sure that you are as ready to hear news, drink coffee, and listen to teaching as well as sing

Balance

• Learn to recognise the presence of God when music isn't happening.
• Engage in the discipline of STUDY.
• Serve God in concrete ways as an extension of your worship.  Caring for people is a pretty good way to carry on worshipping 24/7
• Remain committed to your community of faith. 

Note

(Expression in other forms overlaps with celebration.  At some stage we would like to write about other forms of expression than music. Part of it is understanding how dance, graphics, painting etc function as celebration rather than performance.)

To comment on or discuss Spiritual Pathways further click HERE.