Effective praise and worship: It Goes Beyond Your Dance Steps - Christian Personal Development

What is the effective praise and worship of God that the Bible recommends? You will find the secrets in this edition of the Bible Short Reports series.

Many sing and dance in the church but are all these dancers worshipping or praising God effectively? Find out in this free Christian ebook.

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Effective praise and worship: Read It Goes Beyond Your Dance Steps

Please read the free book on effective praise and worship of God below. Let me read your comment at the end of the book. Please share the post and book with your friends.

It Goes Beyond Your Dance Steps

Sesan Oguntade

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Copyright 2015 Sesan Oguntade

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV). Scripture quotation marked (TLB), (NIV), (MSG), are taken from The Living Bible, The New International Version Bible, the Message Bible Versions respectively.

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Book Text

“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:21-24)

Chapter 1: Introduction to effective praise and worship of God 

Sometimes ago, I attended a prayer vigil in a church and I was thrilled to be in the midst of people who I believed loved God due to the way they all danced and sang songs of praises to worship God at the beginning of the service. However, I was surprised to see almost the entire people conveniently slept off when the Presiding Pastor mounted the pulpit to preach the sermon! This people also did not show strong interest in the various prayer sessions during this service. An amazing observation to me again was the way this same people jerked up the moment they heard the sound of the drums and song from the choir. They danced whenever it was time for songs and slept off whenever it was time for the Word and prayers. The scene above describes the irresponsible attitude of the people of God towards the basic things that has to do with serving, worshipping God almighty and Christianity in general.

In my part of the world, I see a lot of dance worshippers in our churches than heart worshippers. The people sing like angels and dance like David in church services but become “devils” the moment they leave the four-walls of the church fellowship. They dance to God with their bodies but not with their hearts. They dance to impress fellow church members and the Pastors but not to worship God! Yet only heart worshippers will truly walk with God and reign with Jesus when He comes back! God’s Word (our bible text) supports this in Amos 5: 21 – 24.

Your dance offerings are good but God requires heart worshippers and servers. I hope you will become one after you have read the last part of this edition of Bible Short Reports.

I want to give God’s Spirit all the glory for this work.

Sesan Ogunotade

infobooks@sesanoguntade.com

Chapter 2: Effective praise and worship of God: A Look at Faith Giants

While I studied this topic, I began to look at the lives and ministries of faith giants in my country and in the bible and I was able to pick up important notes that are relevant for this book project. I observed that one of the most respected clergy in my country, E.A Adeboye, who is the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, arguably the fastest growing pentecostal mission in the world, hardly dance during worship services. Usually, he shakes his body sparingly and uses the tambourine during praise sessions. Similarly, another clergy, Sam Adeyemi, the Senior Pastor of Daystar Christ Centre, a Christian mission that is presently birthing leaders that are making great impacts in the society, hardly shakes his body in the dance during praise sessions.

However, I observed the Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide, a mission which built a 50, 000 capacity auditorium reputed to be the largest in the world, Dr, David Oyedepo usually worship God with his nice dance steps during praise sessions. Now we can see great results on ground which shows the presence of God’s power and grace in these different ministries and the lives of the set men. These great ministers of the gospel fear God and it is evident that God loves them and their ministries.

From my observations above, we can conclude that the secret of the exploits of these ministers in God’s vineyard is not in their dance steps! Two hardly shake their bodies during praise sessions. One hit the dance floor with all his strength dancing to the Lord in worship. Yet all enjoy the presence and power of God in their lives and ministries.

What then is the secret of their sweet and cordial relationship or walk with God?

Dr. David Oyedepo once supplied the answer to this important question above and which provides a basic information for this edition of Bible Short Reports. He said, “If you want to know my secret, come and check my heartbeat for God”. I have heard that from him on many occasions and I bless God for inspiring him to give us that information about the secret of his exploits in God’s vineyard. Now the man of God who I believe to be one of the best dancers in a praise session in my country has revealed the secret of his great relationship with God. I believe this should be  a great information to any Christian who desire to walk effectively with God in his or her lifetime.

To gather more information on my immediate observation above, I took my search into the bible to look at the lives and ministries of faith giants in the bible, that is, those who truly walk with God. This is what I discovered:

Abraham: God called Abraham His friend. He also made this great statesman about him, “Should I do anything without …” (Genesis 18 : 17 – 18). All these show Abraham had a great relationship with God during his lifetime. Yet the bible never recorded a single moment which described Abraham dancing unto God in praise.

Joseph (Genesis 37): Joseph dreamt about his God future at an early age of 17. A dream which came to fulfilment 13 years after. Within these periods, Joseph went through series of trials and test of faith. He passed all the tests and overcame all the trials. He walked effectively with God. Yet we have not read a single statement in the biblical description of the story of Joseph where he danced to worship God.

Moses: Moses also walked effectively with God but in a contrast and just like the case of Dr. David Oyedepo, he was  man of songs (and probably a man of dance), he loves to sing just like he did with the other Israelites after they got victory over Pharaoh and the Red Sea (Exodus 15). Now because Moses loves to sing and actually loves music, we can conclude that he must also be a good dancer in the worship of God.

David: God referred to this man as a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 3; 14). David walked with God effectively and God really loved him. Just like Moses and Dr. David Oyedepo, David was an incurable dancer to the Lord in worship. His famous dance session in the worship of the Lord as recorded in 1 Chronicles 15 is a classic example of how this man used his dance steps to worship God.

Elijah (1 Kings 17): This is another man who walked effectively with God. With the way the bible describes the personality of Elijah, it will be unthinkable to imagine Elijah dancing to worship God! I believed he never even made one single attempt to sing songs to worship God. Yet he walked with God effectively.

John the Baptist: The bible describes him as the Elijah of the new testament (Malachi 4 : 5). Just like the old testament Elijah, I can’t imagine seeing him hit the ground floor dancing in the worship of God. The bible gives this weird description of him in Matthew 3 : 4, “Now John himself was clothed in camels hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey”. John the Baptist and Elijah are people we can call non-musical personalities yet they walked effectively with God effectively and fulfilled purpose.

Paul: A great Apostle and Author of the most books in the New Testament. He said this to show how effectively he walked with God, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter”. (2 Corinthians 12 : 2 – 4). This man was opportune to see series of revelations that he found difficult sharing with others. A great man, a lover of God and God loved him. Yet the bible never really attributed his success to the beauty of his dance steps in the worship of God. Even in a tough situation in a prison with Silas, they only sang hymns unto God and heaven came down into the prison.

Just like I mentioned earlier about our post – bible day’s faith giants, some worshipped and praised God with their dance while some were not fond of doing so, yet all of them walked effectively with God. A careful look into the stories of these people, you will observe that their secrets were not in their dance steps but in the dedication and loyalty of their hearts to God.

Chapter 3: Are Those Dance Steps Totally Bad?

This Bible Short Report (BSR) edition is not out to condemn the use of dance steps in the worship of God. We just read about how some faith giants really used this in the worship of God. The Psalmist also wrote, “praise God with the timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! (Psalm 150:4). It is good to hit the dance floor at every opportune period dancing to the praise of God but it is bad and ungodly if your dance steps are not motivated by a dedicated and loyal heart towards God! Some people are body dancers to God but not heart dancers to God. They danced to worship God but their hearts are very far from God! Therefore, their dance offerings are not accepted in the sight of God! While they dance in the church, the devil laughs them to scorn because he knows they are just engaging themselves in body exercises which will do nothing to shake him and his evil government!

God showed His preference for heart worshippers in our Book Text in Amos 5 : 23, “take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments“ This BSR is out to condemn dance steps that are not motivated by a dedicated lifestyle  or heart to God from the people of God. God wants heart servers who will use their songs and dances to truly worship Him and not dancers whose hearts are not perfect with God. Truly, a lot of worshippers today in our churches do this out of ignorance. They believed that is all to serving the living God. They want to impress fellow worshippers and the Pastor with their dance steps during praise sessions. If you are in this category, then this BSR is meant for you. A life of effective walk with God goes beyond this! It requires a dedicated heart service to God and this is the platform where every other thing you do in the worship of God will make meaningful impact in heaven and on earth.

Remember the wise and revealing words of God’s servants, Dr. David Oyedepo, “If you want to know my secret, check my heartbeat for God”. This is his secret and that of others before him and I have embraced this information with all my heart. I hope you will do the same after you have read the last word in this BSR.

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Chapter 4: Primary and Secondary Reactions to God

There’s one single primary reaction to God but there are many secondary reactions to God. The single primary reaction to God is done on the platform of the heart. Every man who wants to walk effectively with God must get it right on this platform before any other thing. This is the reason why salvation from sin through the confession and acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Saviour starts from the heart, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.“ (Romans 10: 10). You can’t get this primary reaction to God right if you have not been redeemed from your sin through the blood of Jesus. If you are not saved yet, you need to say this simple prayer below:

“Father in heaven, forgive my sinful past. I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and His shed blood has wiped away my sins. I believe He is the Son of the Living God. I accept Him as my Lord and Saviour. I want Him to begin to rule in my life as from now on. I believe I am saved. Thank you God for hearing my prayer”.

Congratulations for taking this step. Now that is not the end of it for your reaction to God to be on the right path. You must now begin to carry out Godly spiritual activities that will help you to know more of God and His ways. This way you will be helping your heart to continually perform its primary function of reaction effectively to God.

Let me state here that my submission above is not applicable to new Christians alone. Old Christians must also embrace the suggestion above. Most old Christians have not primarily reacted well to God all their Christian lives because they have not constantly got engaged in Godly spiritual activities to know more about God every day.  

The secret behind your right primary reaction to God is that your heart must be dedicatedly in love with God. When this is settled other things can follow. When God took the decision to allow Saul rule His people, Israel, He commanded Prophet Samuel to anoint him with oil (1 Sam 10 : 1). His Spirit came on him (1 Sam 10 : 6) and he was given a new heart  (1 Sam 10:9). With a new heart, his primary reaction to God was put on course. Saul, however did not keep an eye on the health of his relationship with God so that his heart will continue to serve God dedicatedly. His heart turned against God and he lost his throne and future.

Likewise, King Solomon’s primary and secondary reactions to God were good until his wife turned his heart against God (1 Kings 11 : 4).

Your secondary reactions to God are all other things you will do in the worship and service of God. You will sing effective songs to praise God if your primary reaction (or your heart) is right towards God. You will dance effectively in the worship of God if your primary reaction is right. You will be able to obey God’s instructions if your heart is right with God. Most people struggle with their secondary reactions to God because their primary reaction to Him is faulty. This explains the reason why I believe many dance offerings in our churches today are not acceptable before God! The bible advises that we should keep our hearts with all diligence. This implies that we must ensure we keep our primary reaction towards God healthy all the time. This is important!

The condition of your heart will determine how heaven qualifies your dance offering. To men, you may be a great dance worshipper but to God, this may not be so. Man looks at outward appearance but God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16 : 30). God said, “David is a man after my own heart” (1 Samuel 13 : 14). There was a great heart connection between David’s heart and God’s heart. Two healthy hearts (Paul and Silas) sang hymns to God in Acts 16 : 25, the bible records that “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them ”. Jehoshaphat also led a congregation of heart worshippers to sing unto God in 2 Chronicles 12: 15.

Chapter 5: Hear This: Your Nice Dance Steps Is Not a Passport to Heaven!

“Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them: Sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!” (Exodus 15 : 20 – 21)

Can you see the description of the celebration of the children of Israel after they moved through the Red Sea. Any time I read this part of the bible, I tried to imagine myself in this gathering and to feel the nice songs and dance steps of these women as described by the passage above.

Now I want you read the bible passage below:

“Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the Lord” (Deuteronomy 1: 35 – 36)

A large percentage of the dancers in Exodus 15 did not make it to the Promised Land! They consistently sinned against God in the wilderness and their sins destroyed their qualifications to be candidate of the Promised Land!

In fact, after their wonderful dance and song offerings to God in Exodus 15 they began to react negatively to God and His prophet right from the same chapter, “And the people complained against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?” (Exodus 15:24). Their primary reaction to God was out of place so their secondary reactions could not be right to God. Their dance steps did not guarantee their entry into the Promised Land. Your dance steps are not guarantee for you to reign with Christ when He returns! Don’t dance unto God in worship until you have got your primary reaction to Him on the right track! Is your heart walking together with God?

Chapter 6: Effective praise and worship: The True Worship

I want you to read the message translation of Jesus’ direct statement on what God, the Father wants from us as sweet and acceptable worship: “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That is the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship. God is sheer being itself – Spirit. Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration” (John 4:23-24).

The NKJV translation reads “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit , and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth”. God wants our very being to worship Him. Our spirits represent our very being, which are our true selves. If all is not well with this part of our lives then we can’t really do any other thing that will truly worship God almighty. If you are not a Christian but you are the best dancer during praise sessions, you are deceiving yourself; your dance offering is not getting anywhere! If you are a Christian but your heart is still very far away from God; your dance offering is just a body exercise.

Let all your dance activities during praise sessions be motivated and inspired by a right spirit and a dedicated heart to God. This way you can bring God down during praise sessions. This way you flow in revelations during praise sessions. The solutions you need to a stubborn problem will just hit your mind during a praise sessions because your worthy praise activities (songs and dance steps) have brought God down with His power.

Chapter 7: Worship is a Lifestyle!

Rick Warren, in his very successful book, The Purpose Driven Life describes worship as a lifestyle. He further wrote, “Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship. Every part of a church service is an act of worship: praying, scripture reading, singing, confession, silence, being still, listening to a sermon, taking notes, given offering, baptism,…”. With the facts above well understood by believers, I believe they can be delivered from the erroneous belief that their dance steps and songs in Church gatherings will catch the attention of God despite their sloppy and carnal living.

It is common to see believers in my part of the world who steal or shares stolen money in their offices but who come into church gatherings to show all their sweet dance steps or carry out other public-show activities in the worship of God!

Your worship activities for the living God does not start and end with your singing and dancing activities during praise sessions. Your Christian comportment outside the church (at home, your private times, in the neighborhood, in your offices) show so much about how well you worship the living God.

I once heard about the story of a Choir master who sings and dance in church gatherings but does not see anything wrong in harboring a lady he is not married to in his home! Rick Warren further wrote in his book, “This is the secret lifestyle of worship – doing everything as if you were doing it for Jesus”. God’s secrets are with those who fear Him (Psalm 25 : 14) and not with those who don’t fear Him but dance elaborately to Him during praise sessions. God confides in true worshippers, they are the ones who re qualified to be His friends!

Chapter 8: Activities That Truly Worship God

I will be using this section to share with you the activities that truly worship God.

1. Worship: Jesus states this very clearly in John 4 : 23 – 24 (quoted above). Jesus also showed this in Matthew 26 : 6 – 13 when He preferred and approved the worship activities of a woman who poured oil on Him in worship to His disciples’ suggestions of using the proceeds from the sale of the oil in ministering to the needy. Every human being must understand the need to get involved in activities that will worship the living God. He desires it and He made us this way. We are made to do things that will give pleasure to Him. The write of the book of Ecclesiastes summarizes the whole duty of man on this earth: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Ecclesiastes 12 : 13).

If I have established that it is a worthy requirement for us all to worship the almighty God, then you need to further know the various activities that will ensure you live a lifestyle of worship of God throughout your lifetime.

2. Obedience: The bible shows that your praise sessions will qualify as ordinary, ineffective sacrifice before God if you are not living a life of obedience. Always allow God’s Word and instruction to be the final authority on any decision or action you take.
3. Purpose Discovery: “Thou art worthy, for you have created all things and for thy pleasure…” (Revelation 5 : 12). You and I are created to fulfill God’s pleasure on this earth. We will not be able to fully fulfill His pleasure if we are not doing what He created us to do on this earth. Finding out your purpose and putting your resources into the fulfillment of your purpose is an effective way to worship the living God on this earth.
4. Others: There are many others like: being full of thanksgiving (Psalm 95 : 2), praises  (Psalm 147 : 1), the use of resources to  promote His kingdom (Matthew 6 : 33), giving to the needy (Ephesians 4 : 28), the use of our gifts in the service of others (2 Timothy 1 : 6), regular personal prayer time (1 Thessalonian 5 : 17), regular personal Word study time (2 Timothy 2 : 16), regular fellowship with other brethren (Hebrews 10 : 25).

There are many more activities described in the bible on how you and I can truly worship God almighty. You should start reading the bible diligently to find out more.

Chapter 9: Let Righteousness Motivates Your Dance Steps

Finally, just as I have showed severally in this book, a life of right living before God is more important than your nice dance steps during praise sessions. If at all you will use those dance steps in the worship of God, let it be inspired, motivated and coordinated by a life of Godliness or righteousness. The true worshippers are the heart worshippers who truly fear the Lord and not the ones who are beautiful dancers and singers but whose hearts are far from the Lord. Your heart is supposed to fear the Lord and not to be be far from the Lord.

The Psalmist in Psalm 25: 12 – 14 describes the benefits that accrue to heart worshippers of God, “…. (God) teaches you in the way He chooses…. (you) dwell in prosperity… (your) descendants shall inherit the earth. (God) shows them His covenants” (emphasis mine).

BSR Prayer Sessions

1. God, I thank you for creating me to worship you (Psalm 150: 6)
2. Oh God, forgive me for not giving true worship to you so far.
3. Oh God, henceforth help me to begin to worship you with the whole of my life (Psalm 46: 1)
4. Oh God, help to spread the tentacles of this book series from Success Christian Home. Let it continue to do your will and to bless lots of lives. Continue to strengthen the author and other staff of Success Christian Home.
5. Thank you God for answered prayers.

Send your comments to: 

Infobooksng@gmail.com 

infobooks@sesanoguntade.com 

234-08034300979, 234-07066360364

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Please Note This!: You are free to share this Report (or the link www.sesanoguntade.com) with your friends and also encourage them to share it with their friends. You can send it to their emails. Let this good thing go round as many people as possible. God bless you as you do so.

The Ultimate Decision

“For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10). If you have not known Jesus but you have enjoyed the success principles described in this book and you want to give your life to Jesus so that these principles can start working in your life, you can say the following in prayer:

“Father in heaven, forgive my sinful past. I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and His shed blood has wiped away my sins. I believe He is the Son of the Living God. I accept Him as my Lord and Saviour. I want Him to begin to rule in my life as from now on. I believe I am saved. Thank you God for hearing my prayer”.

Congratulations! This is going to be the greatest decision you will ever take. Congratulations once again! Now begin to enjoy Christ unlimited and good success will never elude you again. Please let me read from you about your experience or how this book has helped you. You can contact me in either of these ways: E-mail:mailto: infobooksng@gmail.com Phone: +234-08034300979, +234-07066360364

About The Author

Sesan Ogunotade is an insightful teacher of the word, bible success researcher, Christian personal development expert and author of many books amongst which is the popular “Jesus and Your Success” (available free at http://www.sesanoguntade.com ). He believes that the solution to ANY problem lies in the WORD of GOD. His central message to the world is “without Jesus, you cannot succeed” (John 15:5b). He presides over Success Christian Home, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, a Christian organization with the vision of raising problem solvers in the society. He is also the founder of The Success Laboratory International Seminars, a platform where pure bible principles that solve practical societal and personal problems are taught. You can add him on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/successebooks

http://www.facebook.com/successchristianhome. You can follow him on twitter, @SesanOguntade. He is married to Olutoke Success Ogunotade and they are blessed with children.

Till the next Bible Short Report next month, remember that it is only in Christ Jesus that you can truly succeed. God bless you.

Are You Rapture Compatible?

Are you sure you will be rapturable today if the trumpet of the end comes suddenly? If you are not sure, you need to settle issues with God in prayer. The greatest prayer you can say if you are not a child of God through Jesus Christ is the one I have for you in the content under The Ultimate Decision below. Please say the prayer and let me read from you.

Please Note This!

You are free to share this Report (or the link www.sesanoguntade.com/shortreports.html) with your friends and also encourage them to share it with their friends. You can send it to their emails. Let this good thing go round as many people as possible. God bless you as you do so.

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