Joy
I heard a phrase recently that i haven’t been able to get out of my head. I have to admit i am a bit embarrased to say who i heard say it first….it was Oprah…yes, the Oprah. She was surprised at a Black Eyed Pea concert in down town Chicago when what started with one girl all out dancing her heart out on the front row turned into a sea of people breaking out into a seemingly spontaneous choreographed dance. Literally hundreds of strangers committed to perform a synchronized dance together…and it was incredible! The epidsode i was watching was a follow up to this event in which people who had been involved were on to talk about what it was like to be a part of something like this. As Oprah began to get riled up again about how moving it was to watch so many become the epitome of togetherness, she bursts out with, “it was like joy rising”. What an amazing phrase…Joy Rising! Have you ever been so overwhelmed with joy while singing praise and worship that you thought you may explode? Well, i have.
(i dont mean to plug the Oprah show or anything, but you can see the video on you -tube…it really is worth a look)
Gravity
So, back to the title of this blog. Regardless of whether that apple fell from that limb or Sir Isaac Newton threw it in the air and simply wasn’t very coordinated, it resulted in him establishing a scientific theory that changed the world. Gravity. He didn’t invent it, but he did prove it. He gave a mathematical reason for why when things go up, they must come down.
Rain
The first recorded time it rains in the bible is when God floods the earth. This isn’t the first mention of moisture though.
Genesis 2:6 says, “But there went up a mist from the land, and watered the whole face of the ground”. While researching this i came across another scientific term: the hydrologic cycle. This cycle gives a good explanation of how the dew that settled on the earth each day became the torrents of water that destroyed the world that The Creator created. It is the “process of evaporation, translation aloft by atmospheric circulation, condensation with electrical discharges and precipitation” (www.clarifyingchristianity.com). Basically the dew vaporized into the clouds that would hold that moisture until the exact right moment that God had appointed for the first rain to happen.
Psalm 135.7 gives us another scriptural reference to this:
“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightening for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”
My Question
So, what happens when we worship?? What happens when i am alone in my room singing to God, or when we gather as a corporate body on Sunday mornings and pray , or when thousands gather in an arena, singing at the top of their lungs to the One True God?? Something has to happen, right? When you throw a baseball in the air, you better duck or you’ll be sporting a black eye…or when enough water is evaporated into the atmosphere, it rains. What happens when you raise up praise?…Does anything come back down?
It has only been in the last few years that i have wondered such things. Perhaps because it has 
only been in the past few years that i have believed that my voice matters….that my voice makes a difference. By trying to make this correlation, i am by no means trying to say that singing a worship song to God demands Him to send down a blessing….but, maybe i am wondering about the give and take relationship between the child and the Father. The extreme favor on a man such as David was only bestowed upon him because of his radical pursuit of the Father’s heart that certainly was a part of his life way before he ever became king.
only been in the past few years that i have believed that my voice matters….that my voice makes a difference. By trying to make this correlation, i am by no means trying to say that singing a worship song to God demands Him to send down a blessing….but, maybe i am wondering about the give and take relationship between the child and the Father. The extreme favor on a man such as David was only bestowed upon him because of his radical pursuit of the Father’s heart that certainly was a part of his life way before he ever became king.Example
The International House of Prayer has been having 24/7 prayer for over 10 years now. Any time, day or night, you can go to the prayer room and hear worship music, sending up such a sweet aroma to the Lord. I have personally been a part of such worship and having seen it first hand- i am convinced that a group of young people crying out to God, on their faces, at 3 am must make a difference in the heavenlies. Recently, just after the 10 year anniversary, an extreme out pouring of the Spirit has been happening at the IHOP base in Kansas City. Here is what someone had to say after having experienced the outpouring that is still going strong, “The next day after student chapel, the prayer room was filled with the joy of the Lord…the joy overflowed into dance and worship…This has been one of the main points that we at the House of Prayer in Kansas City have been contending for, that joy will fill His house. (www.heartafteryou.wordpress.com).
Joy Rising
Is this not a perfect example of joy rising!? I am sure that those people in Chicago had a great time dancing at that concert, but how much more would it have been if they had been dancing for the King!! I dont think it takes a gathering of thousands to feel such a feeling. I felt it this morning when the 14 to18 of us stood in a room, was led by one guitar and simply started our day with praise and worship. His joy did come to me this morning and a song did spring forth from my lips…and i dare to say that in that moment i immediately got a return. This will be a phrase that will stay with me for a while…not because a celebrity “coined” it on national televsion, but because God has given me a way to describe those times when i am filled with so much joy i just may explode 🙂
