Worshiper First, Worker Second

"Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10)

I think that God has given me a little bit of a spirit of a crusader and I am crusading where I can that Christians of all denominations and shades of theological thought might be restored again to our original purpose.

We're here to be worshipers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshiper, and after that he can learn to be a worker.

Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel" (Mark 16:15). Peter wanted to go at once, but Christ said, "Don't go yet. Wait until you are endued with power." (Luke 24:49).

Power for service? Yes, but that's only half of it; maybe that's only one-tenth of it. The other nine-tenths are that the Holy Spirit may restore to us again the spirit of worship. Out of enraptured, admiring, adoring, worhshiping souls, then, God does His work. The work done by a worshiper will have eternity in it.

What God asks from us is worship. The homage He claims is the devotion of our hearts.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Worship and Work in the Spirit

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).

Only the Holy Spirit can enable a fallen man to worship God acceptably. As far as that's concerned, only the Holy Spirit can pray acceptably; only the Holy Spirit can do anything acceptably. My brethren, I don't know your position about the gifts of the Spirit, but I believe that all the gifts of the Spirit not only ought to be but have been present in His Church all down the centuries.

You cannot account for Augustine and Chrysostom and Luther and Charnock and Wesley and Finney except they were men gifted by the Holy Spirit.

I believe that the Holy Spirit distributes His gifts severally as He will. The Church has been propagated by the Holy Spirit, so we can only worship in the Spirit, we can only pray in the Spirit, and we can only preach effectively in the Spirit, and what we do must be done by the power of the Spirit.

We do not need many gifts but one ... The Holy Spirit is wisdom, power, holiness, faith, love - all comprehended in the one living Presence that comes to abide in the heart that is yielded wholly to Him.

~A. W. Tozer~