“I have been a worship leader for most of the past thirty years. Recently, however I have been rethinking what true worship really means and the effect it has on The Body of Christ and on our cities. For too long, in "The Body", people have come to worship, hoping to get a "feel good" song that blesses them and feeds them without a thought of "Is this really touching the heart of God?" The Bible tells us in John 4: 23-24 “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship The Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” God is speaking to His people today telling us that He no longer wants His people to be "consumers"; those who are just coming to worship for what they can get out of it.  He desperately wants to turn us from "consumers" into the "consumed" - those set on fire by the presence and power of His Holy Spirit. In Thanksgiving and Praise, what we DO becomes a sacrifice, while in true, genuine worship, WE become the sacrifice!

God is calling the people in His kingdom to set themselves on fire in enthusiastic, Spirit-led worship. By doing so, the very atmosphere around us will be changed and people will be drawn to us and to the Lord. In the words of John Wesley, they will come to `watch us burn’. This is also spoken of by the prophet Amos and again by James in Acts 15:15-17. It says that when the Tabernacle of David is rebuilt, people from all nations will come, seeking The Lord. What was the Tabernacle of David? A house of Worship unto The Lord. It was a "Glory House" where God was worshiped 24 hours a day and The Glory of God was manifest there continually. The Presence residing in the Tabernacle of David changed the atmosphere of the city and the entire nation. I want to share something I found on Wikipedia:

 "It has long been recognized that `fires create their own weather.’ That is, the heat and moisture created by the fire feed back into the atmosphere, creating intense winds that drive the fire's behavior. The heat produced by the wildfire changes the temperature of the atmosphere and creates strong updrafts, which can change the direction of surface winds. The water vapor released by the fire changes the moisture balance of the atmosphere. The water vapor can be carried away, where the latent heat stored in the vapor is released through condensation, thus producing rain."

When forest fires burn, they can actually change the weather patterns around them. Looking at this from a spiritual perspective, when we determine that we are going to burn for Jesus no matter what others think or how undignified it makes us appear the `strong updrafts’ that are produced will change the `surface winds’ in our cities. Things will begin to shift. Places that were once dry will become saturated in the outpouring of the presence of God condensing in the passionate heat of our worship. At GLORY House, we consider worship to be the heartbeat of all we are and do and we believe it's time to press in. It's time to be fire starters, atmosphere changers and rain makers for the Kingdom. It's time to get swept up in the firestorm of revival, restore the Tabernacle of David as a house of worship and be a place where the Presence of God resides."

Stan Carlock