UNDERSTANDING THE WORSHIP MOVEMENT AT THE END OF THE AGE
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Perspective
1. A Dim Reflection
Since the dawn of time it has only been during small slivers of history and in isolated geographical regions that God’s searching
eyes have looked upon the earth and found a reflection of what constantly surrounds Him upon the throne – incessant
worship.
8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night,
saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:8
2. Current Trend
a. Yet in our day we are witnessing an unprecedented phenomenon. All throughout the earth the saints are
gathering with a desire to establish night and day prayer. In cities all over the world, houses of prayer are popping
up completely independent of any coordinated effort or organization.
b. It must be emphasized that this has never happened before. History does provide some wonderful examples of night
and day prayer but nothing even remotely comparable to the scale of the present movement.
c. To have night and day prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David is one of the rarest privileges in history. We
can say with David, “Praise is awaiting You, O God…”
1 Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed. Psalm 65:1
B. Understanding the Worship and Prayer Movement
The mere presence of this trend should be encouraging to us, but it should also cause us to inquire as to the meaning
behind it and why it is happening now.
1. Answering these questions is essential whether you are presently in the context of night and prayer, laboring to
establish a house of prayer, or simply desiring to see the fragrance of worship fill the earth.
2. As we will see, they lead us into a much larger story that is moving toward an ending we cannot even imagine.
Our hearts are strengthened and sustained as our breath is stolen from us by surveying the grand drama unfolding in
this hour of history.
II. EXALTATION OF GOD ALONE
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven. Psalm 148:13
A. The Great Transition
1. Presently across the nations the pride of man goes largely unchecked. So deep and pervasive is the current of arrogant
lawlessness among the sons of men that widespread, defiant rebellion against God actually dominates the condition of the earth.
2. Yet the world is not aimlessly spinning into the future, and the haughtiness of men will not long persist. God has ordained
a day in which His glory and His name alone are esteemed and exalted by the inhabitants of the earth.
11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be
exalted in that day. 12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything
lifted up—and it shall be brought low… Isaiah 2:11-12
3. The extreme disparity between the present condition of the earth and the unstoppable, global exaltation of God
alone should cause us to tremble because it will necessitate a worldwide upheaval unlike anything we can fathom. He
will soon arise and shake everything that can be shaken.
17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; the LORD alone will be
exalted in that day, 18 But the idols He shall utterly abolish. 19 They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the
caves of the earth, From the terror of the LORD and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth
mightily. Isaiah 2:17-19
B. God’s Zeal for His Glory
There are two very general reasons driving His sovereign purpose, and understanding these allows us to view this severity as
necessary rather than unreasonable.
1. His Glory
a. God is fiercely committed to His glory, for there is none who compare to Him and it is right that He should receive
all honor and praise.
8 I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. Isaiah 42:8
b. He is unspeakably worthy and the fact that day after day men fail to laud Him is treason of the highest order.
2. His People
a. Yet His commitment to His exclusive exaltation is also a profound expression of mercy toward humanity. The act
of giving our affection and allegiance to anyone or anything else ultimately leads to death. He loves the nations too much
to allow them to persist in their idolatrous delusion.
b. He is jealous over the human heart and desires worship born out of voluntary love. God created us for Himself and it
moves Him when He receives the inheritance of our affections.
c. The acceleration of the worship movement in the earth is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s restoration of the first
commandment to first place, for when love abounds, praise abounds.
C. Summary
1. Taken together, these purposes point us toward the very important realization that God’s self-exaltation is not
arbitrary. It is about the realization of who He is and how the people of the earth respond to Him.
2. At the end of the age He will shatter the religious pluralism that presently reigns in the earth and confront the
earth with His identity so that all must reckon with the truth that He alone is the living God.
3. The consequence of this radical clarification will be that men will either love Him fully or hate Him fully. His
unprecedented self-revelation will remove all neutrality and He alone will be exalted - either through the adoring, reverent
worship of all who repent or through His swift judgment of everyone and everything that resists.
III. THE DRAMA OF THE AGES
Having looked briefly at why God is so ardent in His commitment to exalt Himself we turn to the question of how this will occur.
In other words, how will He be exalted, or how will He confront the earth with His unique identity? We will consider the
issue of response in a moment.
A. Name Above All Names
1. Isaiah 45 is one of the pinnacles of the monotheistic faith mandated by the Old Testament. Nine times in this
single chapter the Lord emphatically declares that He is the Lord – Yahweh – and that He alone is God. Furthermore,
it also describes that great hour when the entire earth will acknowledge His unique identity and bow before Him.
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me… 6 That they may know from the rising of the sun to
its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other… 18 For thus says the LORD, Who
created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in
vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “ I am the LORD, and there is no other… And there is no other God besides Me,
a just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me. 22 “ Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am
God, and there is no other. 23 I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall
not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. Isaiah 45:5-6, 18, 21-23
2. Quoting the passage above, Paul makes clear that the way in which all the nations will recognize the identity of
the true living God and bow before His majesty is in the person of Christ – the Holy One of Israel incarnate.
6 …who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God to be used for His own advantage, 7 but made Himself
of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance
as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God
also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:6-11
3. The name above every name is not Jesus, but rather Lord. The latter is the reverential substitute in Greek for the
Divine Name of Yahweh, which is clear even from the context of Isaiah 45. Jesus is the LORD – Yahweh – and it is He
who alone will be exalted in that day, rebounding to the glory of the Father and the Spirit.
4. He who is now largely forgotten in the Church in the West and a byword in the nations will be revealed in all His
glory and universally revered by all as God Himself. Every knee will bow, every idol will be crushed, and every thing that
now exalts itself will be brought to the dust before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The drama that the Godhead
has orchestrated to bring this about is simply called eschatology.
B. The Exaltation of Christ
In moving toward a contextualization of the worship movement it is important to recognize that the ultimate, crowning
moment of Christ’s exaltation is the climax of a much larger story, and it is what burns in the heart of the Father and the
Spirit right now.
1. An Outrageous Silence
a. In the verses above from Philippians 2, the Holy Spirit offers us a concise statement of the story of the Son of God. It is
one of glory, mercy, humiliation, and vindication.
b. Descending from the heavenly court where He was enthroned and perpetually adored, something outlandish
occurred in the incarnation. For the first time since the dawn of creation, the second person of the Trinity was not
surrounded by worship.
c. Instead of the myriad eyes of the seraphim it was only two overwhelmed Jewish parents who looked upon Him as
He lay in a manger. As a boy in Nazareth He walked unnoticed through the streets, met with no special attention aside
from an occasional whisper of ‘bastard’ from mouths He had formed. His chosen fate would be to die alone and rejected
by those He came to redeem, His bloody frame mocked and reviled by humanity.
2. Vindication
a. This outlandish humbling of Himself was answered by the exaltation to the highest place through the resurrection
and ascension, and He now dwells once more in His former glory as a man.
13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Isaiah 52:13
5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
John 17:5
b. Yet that was only the beginning, and the Father is vehemently committed to ensuring that the Son of His love
(Col 1:13) receive the adoration and affection He is truly worthy of. The extent to which we are abandoned to the
preeminence of Christ in all things is the extent to which we are in agreement with the heart of God.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Colossians 1:17-18
22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, 23 that all should honor the Son just as they honor
the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. John 5:22-23
c. Colossians 1:18 at its highest expression is identical to the promise of Isaiah 2:11, 17. And the scene described in
Isaiah 45:23/Philippians 2:10-11 is both the accomplishment of the eschatological exaltation of God alone and the
ultimate vindication of the identity of Jesus in one grand event – the climax of the age.
IV. WORSHIP MOVEMENT
8 I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images… 10 Sing to the
LORD a new song, and His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you
coastlands and you inhabitants of them!... 12 Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare His praise in the coastlands.
Isaiah 42:8, 10, 12
11 For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place
incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations,” says the
LORD of hosts. Malachi 1:11
A. Worship
1. Perspective
10… that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth—in Him. Ephesians 1:10
a. Now we can return to the groundswell of night and day prayer in the nations and better appreciate both its meaning
and its timing.
b. As the return of Jesus is drawing near and the dynamic convergence of heaven and earth slowly begins, the Lord
is establishing the prayer and worship movement unto the larger purpose of Jesus being adored as He deserves and as
He is in heaven – incessantly and universally.
2. Reason
One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the LORD…. Psalm 27:4
a. We must have clarity on the implications of this foundational premise. The goal of night and day is not to organize
people to do an activity without stopping, nor does it exist primarily because there is so much need that we must petition
Him unceasingly in the hopes of revival or transformation.
b. Before there were lost souls that needed to be saved, prior to any humanitarian need, the confession of those
who beheld Him was that His beauty warranted undivided attention and incessant adoration. Today as we give ourselves
to twenty-four seven prayer, this confession must remain our ultimate reason and motivation.
c. And in the age to come, when the long-awaited reign of righteousness has finally dawned upon the earth and even into
the new heavens & new earth, still He will be worthy of unrelenting worship.
B. Our Magnificent Obsession
1. Though now our worship is rightly mingled with intercessory cries for the intervention of God in the affairs of a
fractured and fallen race that has gone astray, at the center of night and day prayer stands a breathtaking Beauty that
knows no rivals.
2 You are fairer than the sons of men; grace is poured upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever.
Psalm 45:2
10 My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among ten thousand. 16 His mouth is most sweet, yes, he is altogether lovely…
This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem! Song of Songs 5:10, 16
2. As the Holy Spirit increasingly brings the glory of Jesus to the forefront in the Church there will be no need to
convince anyone of the legitimacy or necessity of night and day worship. Love will compel them to stand before Him in
adoration and spend their strength at His feet.
3. At the end of the age the deepest affections of His people throughout the globe will be captured by His beauty
and it will be our greatest joy to offer the perpetual incense of praise from the rising of the sun to its going down.
2 In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious… Isaiah 4:2
17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty… Isaiah 33:17