Experiencing A.W.E. — A Worship Encounter…
AWE (A Worship Encounter) happens Whenever you Worship. In God’s presence, you set the stage for an engagement that inspires HIM to want to do awesome things with you.
Exodus 34:5-11 Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9 Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
10 And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD.
For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. NKJV
So here we are at the start of another year. Many people are planning their annual “seeking God” for direction for the year. Honestly, I never liked that notion. It is the thought of doing in January something that for the believer should be a lifestyle of connecting with God all the time. That’s like saving all the AWE encounters till January.
That is what makes this passage describing Moses’ AWE encounter with God so amazing. Moses went to mountain church and God preached his own sermon. Moses responded with AWE worship. He just bowed and worshiped. I wish more churches would have programs where everybody would shut up and let God preach his own sermon.
God has his own thoughts about what is happening over here. And yet most of us, myself included are too busy telling him how to solve problems that God can blink away. I heard a message that reprogrammed a line in my brain. I think it was Graham Cooke who said, “I want to hear what Jesus is praying at the right hand of the father and just come into agreement with him.” That is powerful. Just find out what Jesus is saying as he intercedes and repeat.
Jesus is praying to the father for us. And Holy Spirit takes hold together with our spirit and prays the perfect prayer in harmony with Jesus. Together it is the ultimate prayer partnership. It’s all GOD THOUGHT. No wasted human interjections. No clanging symbols. Just God thoughts filling the air. God’s thoughts are so amazing. You just say, WOW God!
It makes you want to fall on your face and do nothing but soak up his greatness. There is nothing to say. There is nothing to do. Just AWE Worship.
What is so amazing about this whole exchange is that at the end of God’s sermon, Moses found the courage to ask, “Hey Lord, by the way, do you think you could go along with us? I know we suck! I know we have major issues! I know we are hard headed and stiff-necked. But the reality God is that we need you. Will you help us out?” (That’s the Stella’s paraphrase version)
And God said, YES! and he was glad about it! It gets better! Even with all the problems he was marrying, God still said yes and basically declared that I can make this ugly bride called Israel, beautiful (that is what good means, beautiful). And he closes out this mountain church meeting with Moses with this amazing declaration…
“For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you!”
God is thinking awesome things… about YOU! And He has awesome ideas about what he wants to do with you and I. But he doesn’t just tell everybody what is on his mind. Some things he makes you search out. It is how your royalty manifests.
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter. KJV
Honoring God leads to A.W.E. The more you dig into him, the more he takes your breath away. If you are not hungry for HIM, eat just a bit of his presence, and your hunger will increase. In the natural, the more you eat the less hungry you are. But in the spiritual, the more you eat, the hungrier you get.
Taste him. He is good.
Psalms 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man who trusts in him. KJV
If you are having difficulty changing the way you think. Have a sampling of his goodness.
Romans 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness… not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? NKJV
It is not possible to encounter God and NOT run head on into his Goodness. Because God is well… Good. And you experience ever-increasing measures of that goodness in AWE. So as you are planning your annual “meet with God session, change it up a bit. Be quiet, Let God preach his own sermon. I promise you the AWE will come and you wont have to say a thing!
Aah the AWE of God, have some!
