March 25, 2023 • 47 mins
Are you feeling spiritually dry or lackluster or BLAH? The antidote to malaise is WORSHIP and PRAISE! Seriously! We recently experienced refreshment and invigoration from attending two completely different Christian Women’s Conferences – both saturated with praise and worship. It was a huge reminder that we must make time for worship each day – even if it’s just ten minutes of waving our hands in the air in the car. (One hand on the wheel at all times, of course!) The Holy Spirit meets us in our willingness to sacrifice moments in our crazy busy schedules to worship JESUS! Also, we offer tips and suggestions on how to worship when it's the LAST thing you want to do -- so join the fun!
“Lead with your body the posture you want your heart to be in... Worship reorients us to our Creator. It reminds us WHO we belong to and WHO loves us, protects us, and guides us." (Danica)
“Praise often requires that we kill our pride, fear, or sloth – anything that threatens to diminish or interfere with our worship of the Lord.” The Spirit-Filled Life Bible, NLT Translation notes. (*This is one of our favorite study Bibles - https://amzn.to/3FUQJnM)
VERSES:
Hebrews 13:15 - “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”
Psalm 22:3 - “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”
Psalm 100 - "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands!"
King David dancing before the ark of the covenant in 2 Samuel 6:14-15; 21-22:
Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.... “I was dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!"
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Welcome!
01:26 - Pilot Light Analogy (Slightly Convoluted -- HA!)
03:46 - Worship Experience at Foursquare Women's Conference
06:34 - Danica's Reluctance Transformed into Refreshment (More Analogies!)
10:07 - How "Anointed' Worship Works
13:41 - Spiritual Formation Idea of "Leading with Your Body the Posture You Want Your Heart to Be In"
18:05 - Freedom in Worship
22:44 - Examples of the Impact of Worship (USC Campus & Mission Trip)
25:31 - Worship as Organic Deliverance & Warfare
29:19 - Worship Reorients Us to Our Creator. It reminds us WHO we belong to and WHO loves us, protects us, and guides us.
31:44 - ASK FOR MORE! You Have Not, Because You Ask Not. Go
ABOUT US:
DANICA CHILDS is a Spiritual Director with a MA in Spiritual Formation/Soul Care from Talbot Seminary and a MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Her sister AUTUMN is a storyteller passionate about the spiritual gifts and creating with the Holy Spirit. We’re sisters who've spent a combined forty years in various forms of ministry, including co-planting a church in Hollywood with other families, where we served in a variety of leadership roles for around a decade. Later we began THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURE as a Los Angeles based ministry in 2016. We daily pursue creative, artistic, messy, and joyful lives of adventure in Southern California with our family and friends!
"We're excited to adventure audaciously with YOU!"
- theaudaciousadventure.com
- @theaudaciousadventure on Instagram
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this journey progressed, and wewere on our fun adventure with
the Holy Spirit and, and kind ofresearching charismatic and
Pentecostal background andstarting to go forward with the
Holy Spirit on this adventure.
I'll never forget the time inchurch, I saw a friend and she
(00:22):
rose.
Danica Childs (00:24):
Was it a tentative one?
Autumn Cornwell (00:26):
It was one hand in the air. Yeah, I was like,
Oh, I can do that too. But ittook me a while. Then maybe
months later, I was like,I'm ready to hold my oh my
goodness. It felt like being ona roller coaster.
Like on Magic Mountain. You'reon a roller coaster. And you've
been holding on to the bar, butnow you're like, Okay, for just
a little step more. I'm gonnaraise my hand.
(00:49):
Hello, and welcome to theaudacious adventure. I'm Autumn
Cornwell
Danica Childs (00:52):
and I'm Danica Childs.
Autumn Cornwell (00:53):
And we're two sisters, adventuring with the
Holy Spirit.
Danica Childs (00:56):
And we are so thankful that you have joined us
today.
Autumn Cornwell (00:59):
We just wanted to talk to you today about
feeling blah, dry and whenyou're slogging through life.
Even as a Christian even as aChristian who loves Jesus filled
with the Holy Spirit. But youknow sometimes you know there
are those times when you're justlike, you know, everything is an
exertionand it feels like you're doing a
lot for God or for His kingdomfor your family friends,
(01:20):
workers, co workers neighbors,but you're you're just kind of
running on low - like a pilotlight is low. It's there but
it's low.
Danica Childs (01:28):
isn't the pilot light just one?
Autumn Cornwell (01:31):
the pilot lights the little light that's
on all the time in your oven sothen they say So the analogy is
as a Christian right your pilotlight is on but you're not on
fire right?
Danica Childs (01:41):
So the knob hasn't been turned up?
Autumn Cornwell (01:43):
Yeah, the Holy Spirit hasn't blown on you yet
Danica Childs (01:46):
not to be a pedantic but the pilot light
stays the same. the pilot lightis there to turn on the rest of
the gas depending on...
Autumn Cornwell (01:53):
Does it? it's always the same size?
Danica Childs (01:55):
So if pilot lights always lit
Autumn Cornwell (01:56):
Is it ireally?
Danica Childs (01:57):
Yeah,
Autumn Cornwell (01:57):
well I knew it was already lit - but doesn't it
go - whoosh. Doesn't it kind oflike light
Danica Childs (02:01):
It lights everything else once you turn
the knob
Autumn Cornwell (02:03):
But it itself is a little flame that stays a
little flame? even when it getsturned on. It's just letting
others
Danica Childs (02:10):
Remember in our old stoves there a pilot light
that was always lit.
well you guys had to light yourpilot, but we had a little pilot
light that was always there thatheated up the top even
if the burners weren't on but assoon as you turn the burners
then the burners catch the gasfrom the pilot light. What's
your spiritual analogy?
Autumn Cornwell (02:26):
Yes, it is a spiritual now. It's all good.
Just think of pilots. Yes. Nowokay, so anyway, getting back to
the topic of dryness andblindness or,
or even just being kind of hohum, lackluster, all those
adjectives, all those adjectiveswhere
Danica Childs (02:45):
nothing is really wrong in your life.
Autumn Cornwell (02:47):
No, nothing is really wrong. You're not
experiencing troubles oranything really bad. No, it's
just that there's a sense oflike, ennui.
Isn't that what the French say -ennui? Is that like boredom?
Danica Childs (03:03):
It's neither good nor bad. It feels lukewarm.
Chaise lounge. I just lovethose words together.
Autumn Cornwell (03:23):
Okay, let's work in a ton of French words.
Danica Childs (03:26):
We are having a Tete-a-tete here.
Autumn Cornwell (03:29):
And now croissant and yeah. Okay, so
basically Danica and I werefeeling like, we have moments
where we're kind of having asort of exuberant, high energy.
And then there's times, youknow, sloggin enters the
picture. So what happened was,we had signed up for a
conference with adenomination we hadn't had much
experience with.
(03:50):
It was a Foursquare Women'sConference. And so it was about
two and a half days, all told,and it was last week. And at in
the beginning, I was like,Oh, this would be fun, something
different, something inspiringto refresh us.
But then as I got closer, we hadso many things going on so many
events, so many things with thekids in their school,
and homeschool and all sorts ofdifferent activities with
(04:13):
friends, family, you know,neighbors,
Danica Childs (04:15):
I would also say to I think this is this is a
repeating pattern. Have younoticed that? Almost every time
we sign up to do something,especially if it's a spiritual,
something like remember when weused to run a prayer group out
of my house, Autumn and I wouldco lead it.
And it was once once a month,once a month, a Friday. And
(04:35):
every time weeks away, we'd beso excited about it. We'd be
like, yes, can't wait to do it.
And then the closer it came, themore we started dreading it
until the day of and then whenit actually happened.
We're like, Oh, that wasawesome. But there was this is
one of those things to wherehere's a conference, we've
signed up for it.
We were initially very excited.
Then the closer we get, the morewe're like, why did we do that?
Autumn Cornwell (04:56):
Yeah, we didn't have enough time in the day, let
alone the week to go on. havesomewhere to go to a conference.
It's almost like oh, you know,there's so many things, useful
things we could get done duringthat time.
And, and it's the thing of like,even with our prayer group, we
loved it. But it was just acouple days before. It's almost
like that's when youstarted not to feel that well,
or all these conflicts werehappening in your life
Danica Childs (05:19):
or you thought, you know, what I really need is
just to be alone alone
Autumn Cornwell (05:22):
with a glass of wine.
This actually goes back to someof the things we learned in
discernment with Danica, aboutyour decisions you make in
consolationdon't change the decision you
made in peace and joy with theLord, when you're feeling tired,
or under the weather, or youjust don't want to do anything.
You feel slothful, or you justfeel dry, don't change that
(05:43):
decision, right?
Because especially if it's aspiritual thing, because you
know, that's probably the enemysaying, I don't want you to do
that.
So I'm going to make you feellike you shouldn't do that.
So needless to say, Danica and Iwere like, Okay, we're going to
do this.
We're going to, you know, bepositive about this. We know God
can meet us in this. Some of uswere more positive than others.
(06:04):
But then when we got there, ehDanica, eh Danica, it was
amazing. Like, this was a tribeof women that we had never met
before.
And it was so much fun. It wasjust so inspiring, so
refreshing. so invigorating, andI'm hearing my dog move under
(06:25):
our feet.
Danica Childs (06:26):
He's digging around for a bone
Autumn Cornwell (06:29):
my Norwich terrier, our Hastings is doing
something down there. So we mayhave to let him out. But we'll
see.
Danica Childs (06:34):
To be perfectly honest, I woke up the first
morning of the first full day,dreading it.
And so my very first thingbefore I even got out of bed,
this is what I do. Everymorning, I tell God, how I'm
feeling.
So first thing in the morning,as I'm laying there, I'm like
God, I really don't want to goto this.
I don't want to get out of bed.
It's too early. I'm tired. And Ijust don't want to do this. But
I will do it. So that's how Iwas going into this conference.
Autumn Cornwell (06:58):
And a good thing. I just wanted to give a
compliment to my sister here.
That anytime we're supposed todo something together and then
suddenly she gets tired or isnot feeling it.
She's very full of grace andmercy.
And she doesn't totally dumpthat on me. You know, but but
we're honest about it. Like Ineither of us want to dampen the
other person's excitement,excitement or desire.
(07:20):
So I could tell she was notfeeling it as much. But she was
open and like, let's give this atry. So I have to hand it to you
you get a Kudo for that.
Danica Childs (07:28):
So when we first got to the conference, it wasn't
that I had a bad attitude oranything. It was just more like,
Okay, I'm here. And it reallywasn't expecting much, I think.
But as we got into theconference, they had some lovely
speakers. And what I foundmyself being moved my I think,
initially,the way they had it set up is
that before each of the mainspeakers, there would be some
(07:50):
prolonged worship and byworship,
we mean the the actual singingand praising God, that that type
of worship. And I would say inthe beginning, I wasn't,
I wasn't not worshiping, but Ijust didn't have a feeling of
anything.
But I enjoyed the presentations.
I enjoyed the conversations, thetalks that were happening, and I
(08:12):
would say before the worship,I think it was the the
discussions when they startedspeaking from the scriptures,
which is where I just could feela quickening, I guess you could
say in my spirit of like, oh,like refreshment on dry ground.
You know, like the the streamsof living water, the, you know,
(08:36):
the floods filling the desert.
You know, many water references,water analogies - we're being
flooded right now in California,Southern California.
So rain is a big, big thingright now. But I would say that
that was what started the justsort of like a softening a
refreshing.
It started with the Word of Godbeing spoken, being talked about
(08:57):
being exhorted from thesewonderful women who were the
main speakers of the conference.
And then I would say, by the endof the evening of that first
full day, that's when I reallydid then start to experience
more of a oh, I'm feeling I'mfeeling I'm feeling
Autumn Cornwell (09:17):
Yes, for someone who's self identifies as
a non feeler,
Danica Childs (09:21):
one who's like, I keep hearing these stories that
people feel things when theyworship, you know, I definitely
had a sense of much greatersense of like, oh, I can sense I
am sensing the spirit.
Now, in the worship, I amfeeling something you know, I
could feel things in my hands.
There was like a warmth and atingle.
(09:41):
And just a sense of peace, Ithink a sense of peace and of
shalom, that sense of well beinglike all shall be well, all
manner of things shall be well,all shall be well to use the
words of Julian of Norwich.
That was the sense I got by theend of that first full day. That
came about through I think theentirety of everything it was
(10:02):
through hearing the Word of God.
But it was also then marinatingin the worship time. And they
did such a lovely job with theworship the woman who led it was
definitely what you would say isanointed.
Autumn Cornwell (10:13):
Yes, the anointed term means something,
you know, that means that she iscalled by God been gifted with
spiritual, the spiritual gift ofworship of music singing.
And we've grown over the yearsto really appreciate people who
actually have that Holy Spiritgifting where it's not just a
performance, it's about engagingin worship of the holy God.
(10:38):
And then in the service orcommunity, who is joining in you
feel you all feel one, there's aunity, there's a sense of we're
all together, Christians of allbackgrounds coming together to
worship Jesus.
and a good worship leader kindof unifies the whole.And it's
about God, not them.
Danica Childs (11:00):
That is huge. And it really makes a difference
when they are sensitive to themovement of the spirit. As
opposed to having a checklist ofokay, these are the songs we
need to get through.
And this is how much time wehave. You know, and I'm
sympathetic to worship leadersthat are under those
constraints, you know,when you have an actual church
service, and you have thesekinds of constraints, and
everything.
(11:20):
But this worship leader, shejust did such a marvelous job. I
think you've talked about itbefore, like hosting the
presence of the Holy Spirit,inviting the Spirit in
and then giving the Spirit spaceto move, you know, knowing how
long to stay in a song.
How it's more than just thesinging. It's also her, what
(11:41):
would you say - her propheticprayers while singing as well?
Autumn Cornwell (11:45):
Yes, she was sensing what's going on. So
she's working with the HolySpirit. And that's when you hear
them say we were going to doanother song.
But we feel the Holy Spirit'sdoing something to let you have
space right now to pray or tointercede in different times
through the through the event,they would they would augment
their plans to serve the HolySpirit. And that is huge.
Danica Childs (12:04):
And it makes a huge difference not to overuse
the word huge, but it makes anenormous difference.
Autumn Cornwell (12:10):
It makes a gigantic difference
Danica Childs (12:12):
It makes a magnificent difference. I mean
it but it does make adifference. It is you can feel
the change. You can feel theshift from when it's, we're here
and we're singing.
And then there is a shift thathappens. Where are you all of a
sudden, you feel something morehas just happened?
Autumn Cornwell (12:31):
And when we talked about the glory cloud,
yeah, a couple episodes. It'sthis idea of you feel the sense
that it's like the Holy Spiritis just,
he's given permission to work.
And you can feel it, he has beengiven permission. And he What is
the Holy Spirit love to givehonor and glory to Jesus? I
mean, it's all about that.
So when we're all worshiping,and then you get that robustness
(12:51):
of all these women,you know, most of them raising
their hands, most of them likeengaged in full body worship. I
mean, there's nothing like itvery joyful, joy filled,
Danica Childs (13:00):
but I would say to its, there is so much that is
happening in this worship aswell. It isn't just people being
enthusiastic. Yeah, I would sayit's almost just like a
receptiveness.
Autumn Cornwell (13:16):
Yeah, receptive, receptive, they're
receiving and responding. Andthere's no, like,
calculatedness. I mean, I can'tWe can't speak for everybody,
but the general whole bunch ofwomen, were, I would say,
joyfully, engaging in worship.
whatever that looks like forthem.
Danica Childs (13:34):
I highly recommend it. Um, but so I think
the thing that was sofascinating about this is, you
know, so from a spiritualformation,
background, one of the thingsthat we often talk about is the
idea of leading with the body.
So even if you are not feelingsomething, even if you are not,
you know, necessarily wanting todo something, instead of sitting
(13:57):
in that posture the entire time,what you can do is lead with
your body,which means put your body
through some motions that sortof make you open to the Spirit.
And so, in this kind of worship,one of those postures is, you
know,worshiping with your hands out
with the idea that I am here toreceive from you.
So it's a reminder to the restof you that I, I am in a
(14:18):
receiving mode, even if I'm notfeeling anything, I'm going to
put my body into a posture,because that's a training you're
training yourself to be open tothe Spirit and so you put
yourself in a posture of like Iwant, whatever you have for me,
Holy Spirit.
And then the other one is likeif you are rejoicing, and
praising God is lifting yourarms in praise, putting your
(14:40):
hand you know, your arms overyour head, and really getting
into that posture.
Now again, you know, this isn'ta thing of like, fake it till
you make it that's not whatwe're talking about. But there
is somethingto be said about when you move
your body into certainpositions.
It is changes your own heartposture as well. And so as you
(15:03):
lift your arms and praise, or asyou, you know, rejoice while
singing songs of how Worthy theLamb is how worthy Jesus is.
it can help that process ofworship start taking place in
your own heart.
Autumn Cornwell (15:17):
Exactly. It's almost like the metaphor of a
lightning rod. It almost feelslike in a sense, sometimes
you're reaching out to God,you're you know, you're seeking
God, you're showing, you know,how much you love him.
And yes, emotions come withthat. And we're going to talk
about that in another episodeabout the emotions of God and
our emotions and how we connectto God through our emotions. And
(15:38):
that's wonderful.
it's not something to be snideabout, you know, they're so
emotional, no, hello, when wewere growing up in the
Lutheran church and other kindsof churches that did not have
that at all, because mostly itwas hymns, and we love hymns.
It's spiritual poetry.
But um, there was no sense oflike anybody raising their hand
or moving from this posture ofholding hymnal, right.
And so then, I'll never forgetthe time when I finally like, as
(16:01):
this journey progressed, and wewere on our fun adventure with
the Holy Spiritand, and kind of researching and
charismatic and Pentecostalbackground and starting to go
forward with the Holy Spirit onthis adventure.
I'll never forget the time inchurch, I saw a friend and she
rose,
Danica Childs (16:16):
was it a tentative arm?
Autumn Cornwell (16:19):
It was one hand in the air. And I was like, Oh,
I can do that, too. But it tookme a while, then maybe months
later, I was like, I'm ready tohold my hand in the air. Oh, my
goodness, it felt like being ona roller coaster, right?
Like on you know, MagicMountain, you're on a roller
coaster. And you've been holdingon to the bar. But now you're
like, Okay, for just a littlestep more, I'm gonna raise my
hands.
And there was something aboutthat in the scriptures that
(16:40):
says, you know, raise your handsand clap your hands and make a
joyful noise. And, like, comeon. And so there is something
powerful about that.
It's a little akin to whenpeople you kneel, to pray or get
on their knees and pray likethis, right? You know, that does
something to the body,
Danica Childs (16:55):
well, you're leading with the body, the
posture you want your heart tobe in. So if you want your, if
you want to be in a posture ofpraise before the Lord well put
your body in the posture first.
And then your heart oftenfollows. And then same thing
with kneeling prayer, when youhave a contrite heart, when you
are wanting forgiveness forsomething well then kneel.
(17:15):
And this could go both ways.
Sometimes it's because you'reyou feel you'd like you're on
holy ground with God.
And so you want to show yourhumility before the Lord and so,
but again, you're leading withyour body,
you're, you're falling over,you're getting on your knees to
show your reverence for theLord, you're leading with the
body, the posture you want inyour heart. So this is like, all
(17:36):
over Christianity.
Throughout the Christiantradition.
Autumn Cornwell (17:41):
and the Bible, they're always prostrating
themselves
Danica Childs (17:43):
of leading with the body, the posture you want
your heart to be in.
Autumn Cornwell (17:47):
it's encouraged all through Scripture. So the
Lord is always, you know, justcelebrate, you know, feast days
and come before me, and thenother times, like, repent, and
you're,you're, you're kneeling before
the Lord and you're, you know,there are emotions, and
postering is all through theBible.
Danica Childs (18:05):
I would just say here, then, you know, like, if
you if you're listening to this,and you're like, you know, I
love worshiping God, and yet Ido feel a constraint, you know,
and maybe you don't feelcomfortable doing it in a group
of people.
But you want to start practicingthis then I would suggest, you
know, practice in home, practicein your room where nobody can
see you and just practicesinging your praises to the Lord
(18:26):
or calling out your yourThanksgiving and moving your
body while you do it. And bythat it can be lifting your arms
it can be dancing before theLord
if you've never danced beforethe Lord while also singing or
praising him. Give it a whirl.
And yes, no pun intended.
Autumn Cornwell (18:42):
Don't save it for the raves. Because we used
to go to raves and techno clubsand all that and I would do you
know, have so much fun, boom,boom, boom, but And yet, church
was different. it's like, why?
Danica Childs (18:54):
Shouldn't church be more fun?
Autumn Cornwell (18:56):
Yes, Because worshiping the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world,let's go!
Danica Childs (19:02):
you know, should be
Autumn Cornwell (19:03):
if you're going to have exuberance at some point
in your life. It shouldn't be aballgame Only, it shouldn't be
at concerts only. It should bein church. It really should
because he is magnificent.
And you know, and you don't haveto be an extrovert or totally
outgoing personality. You can dojust the little arm raise...
Danica Childs (19:19):
on a side note this is my hobby horse right?
Easter is coming, people Easteris coming. April 9 is Easter.
This is the most important dayof the Christian calendar.
Easter.
The day Jesus Christresurrected. If he had not
(19:39):
resurrected we would not be wewould still be in our sins
right?
So this is the day we celebrateit is the most holy, most
important day.
Right? Because if Jesus did notrise again, then all of this is
meaningless. This in theChristian church should be the
most celebrated day of all theyear.
This is the day When every hymnshould be sung that is joyous
(20:03):
and makes you want to dance.
This is the day we should behaving dances in the church.
This is the day. You know whereit's like. This is when you let
out your exuberance for theLord. It should be on Easter.
Autumn Cornwell (20:12):
Exactly. Get out that bluegrass and gospel
Danica Childs (20:19):
If you are in charge of leading a service on
Easter, think about how you canbring your people into praise
and celebration with their wholebodies. This is the time to do
it.
Autumn Cornwell (20:31):
Exactly. Oh my gosh, yes.
Danica Childs (20:34):
I always get to Easter services. And I'm like,
Yes. When is it gonna happen?
When is it? Oh, oh, it's over.
It feels like there's neverenough songs.
I feel like there's neverthere's never enough dancing.
It's never enough. Like, yeah,you know, party.
Autumn Cornwell (20:48):
I know. It should be almost all
celebration, and then thereshould be a big banquet
afterwards.
You know, we've done things likethat, like we do this in our
homes. And we've done Easterworship. And we have a blast.
Danica Childs (21:00):
We love Easter parties.
Autumn Cornwell (21:01):
Yeah, but we wish it would be in the actual
church.
Danica Childs (21:03):
we want everybody to experience that. And then can
you imagine if you brought yourunbelieving friends to a service
like that where people were wildfor the Lord on
Easter Sunday because theyunderstood the magnitude of what
is going on?
Autumn Cornwell (21:14):
Hallelujah! Yes. Instead like this was
another hobbyhorse where, youknow, we weren't planning to
talk about this butwhy not insert it it's like we
have a little bit of a pet peevewhen when it becomes more of a
seeker service.
Yes, versus celebrating ourRisen Lord this is a time for
the Christians who all year havebeen waiting -slogging through
lent.
We want to get to Easter we wantto be boisterous and excited and
(21:37):
worshipful and honor Godand it's not a time to then try
to then pivot to say now if youdon't know Jesus, it's like they
will will they will look and beso interested in your our
collective excitement aboutJesus joy filled response to
Jesus,because this speaks for itself.
I think that day should be a dayholy unto the LORD.
Danica Childs (21:58):
And I think what happens is if you do bring
people like that it creates ahunger in them for what you have
Autumn Cornwell (22:03):
You don't need to over explain at that point.
they will want to come back ifthen they come back and there
was more like this right? Youknow what I mean?
That it keeps going to a certainextent. but they will know we
are Christians by our love.
Right? And the joy of the Lordis our strength. Yes, our
worship.
Danica Childs (22:17):
Our worship as Christians we are a worshiping
community. Yes, Christians areworshipping community. And part
of that worship is it islearning the Word of God.
It is hearing sermons that is aworship to like using our minds,
we can worship God with ourminds as well.
And our emotions, we worship Godwith our emotions, we worship
God with our entire being.
But a big part of that is theexuberance that comes from
praising God with our mouth,with our bodies with our with
(22:40):
song. That should be a big partof church.
Autumn Cornwell (22:44):
it's a huge witness. I mean, there's so many
stories of missionaries who theyjust us, I mean, I have a story
of being I think it was on theUSC campus years ago.
And there was some of us werelike prayer, walking, just to
bless the campus.
We weren't even planning to doanything more than prayer walk
and pray over this universityfor blessing the students there.
At that time. This was yearsago. And some people had brought
(23:05):
their guitars and then just kindof impromptu started to pray
some,I mean, singing some praise
music, you know, the kind thatyou do at camp, which is always
stirring, you know, because it'sacapella.
And it's like the guitars andlike, Jesus people movement, and
we were just hanging out andpeople started to come over
towards us.
And one guy, a student there,who was from India originally
said, What are you singing? I'mfeeling things inside, as you
(23:28):
sing. Who are you singing to?
What is this about? And he endedup, you know, getting,
you know, people prayed withthem, told them who you know,
Jesus was.
And he came to Jesus. I mean,literally, we weren't even there
to do anything like that,necessarily.
But he was drawn by hearing themusic of truth, but it's the
Holy Spirit active in thisright. And he it stirred him up.
(23:49):
So again, we weren't preaching agospel message to him. He wanted
to know he came in he wanted toknow and that has happened a lot
around the world. I hear thisall the time.
When people worship Jesus, thereare you know, and then speaking
of music as warfare on a sidetopic.
There's, you know, many storiesof people in different
countries, you know, playingworshipful music, like Spirit
(24:10):
fill worship,and the witchdoctors can't even
come into the gathering becausethey're reacting to what is
happening, it becomes aspiritual warfare, like they
can't do anything there.
Because they're, you know,there's too much activity in the
Holy Spirit and angels and allthat so.
Danica Childs (24:25):
So I think the thing we sometimes forget maybe
in the idea of worship,especially corporate worship is
so, so powerful.
I mean, that is definitely whatwe walked away from, from this
conference. It's just the powerof unified believers worshipping
the holy one worshipping JesusChrist worshipping the God the
(24:46):
Father, God, the Son, God, theHoly Spirit,
you know that there's it is sopowerful, and I think we
sometimes forget thesupernatural nature of what is
going on.
Autumn Cornwell (24:55):
Yes, It's Supernatural.
Danica Childs (24:58):
And that that is why it becomes so powerful. And
that is why it can move peoplewho don't even know what's going
on, like something does happen.
And we definitely felt that.
It's because these people weresensitive to the movement of the
Spirit.
Autumn Cornwell (25:11):
Yes. And they were giving time and space for
that.
Danica Childs (25:13):
And were praying for it and allowing us to, we
said, marinate in the Spirit'spresence during this time of
worship. And then when you'redoing that, the worship in you
becomes really spontaneous.
Because you just can't stopyourself.
Autumn Cornwell (25:30):
Yeah, the fear of man kind of dissipates, you
know,if you have somethingbinding you, it delivers you
from that, you know, lots ofextended worship does that it's
organic deliverance.
So that's why it's reallyimportant. If you're feeling
really oppressed, if you'reunder spiritual warfare, or
attack,play a lot of praise music, or
hymns or whatever kinds ofmusic, string rock, you know,
(25:51):
you know, Christian rock, orwhatever it is that you like,
or any or even just, you know,play people speaking the Word,
you know, word of God, you know,on Audible or whatever.
And you sing, you know, thescriptures, you sing songs, and
that is a superpower that is asuper powerful spiritual
warfare.
(26:11):
And what you are doing is you'remarinating, and what it does is
demons hate that. you're justkind of giving yourself some
space.
You're not I mean, it createsspace, but it creates buffer
around you.
Now, I'm not saying that youdon't have to do anything else,
but just worship and you canlive your life and do whatever
you want, and not obey God. Andit's fine. No, that's not what
we're saying.
Danica Childs (26:30):
Well, I would say like one of the one of the side
effects along with what Autumnis saying is like when you get
into this, when you startworshipping,
and you're worshiping in spiritand in truth, what ends up
happening is there is a desirein you for holiness.
I know we've talked about thisbefore, but there is a sense in
which when you are in thepresence of God, you and you see
(26:50):
thisthroughout Scripture is, you
know, that sense of like, I am,I am a man of unclean lips,
wasn't that Isaiah, when he, youknow, was before the Lord. It's
like, there's a sense of whichyou feel your own uncleanness
and you want it gone, you wantto be made pure, you want to be
made holy.
And so the sense of worship,getting into that place of
worship can help strengthen youin your obedience to do those
(27:14):
things that might be difficult,you know, they can give you it's
like a supercharge of the HolySpirit
in your life to give you the theempowerment, to be able to live
according to the commands Jesushas given us. Because we can't,
we can't obey the law withoutthe Holy Spirit.
Autumn Cornwell (27:36):
I mean, this is huge. This is really huge,
especially if you've grown up inchurches that kind of focus on
like, work not works in thatsense, but doing things.
Danica Childs (27:46):
Yeah. doing the right thing
Autumn Cornwell (27:47):
Being obedient and doing and, you know, you
read your Bible, and there's alot of actions you're supposed
to take, which isn't bad. Imean, we want to respond to God
in obedience.
But the difference is, whenyou're doing it out of
obligation, you're doing itbecause you should, instead of
I'm doing it,because I'm fueled by the Holy
Spirit, and I have joy, and Iwant to please my father God and
serve Jesus Christ.
Danica Childs (28:11):
well, what you're saying is it becomes a response
of love. like, God, I love Godso much that I want to obey His
commands,because I know his commands are
out of love for me. so I'm gonnarespond in love. But we, we
often try and do that in our ownself sufficiency.
And that's when it gets like aslog, you cannot do it in your
own power. You need the HolySpirit, you need a partner with
(28:34):
the Holy Spirit to become likeJesus.
Autumn Cornwell (28:36):
Exactly. And it's why, you know, I remember
being to go into meetings, likeat certain churches, and they
would go,Oh, we're gonna pray and praise
for 30 minutes. And I was like,really? coming from our
background. Don't we have tomake some decisions?
I mean, that was like, yearsago. And then I started to
understand, oh, no, you need to,we need to praise God,
we need to give him thesacrifice of our praise, as it
(28:56):
says in the Bible, and our timeand give him honor, and that
helps calibrate our heaven andheart posture.
And then it's easier to makedecisions as a team in unity and
all that and there's never awaste of praise, you know what
I'm saying?
Danica Childs (29:13):
the way I like to think about it is that worship
reorients us, it reorients us tothe truth, that God is the
Creator, and we are the created,that our dependence is upon God.
And so it's a reminder of who webelong to. It's a reminder of
who loves us, who cares for us,Who, who, who protects us who
(29:34):
guides us, it's a reminder thatwe are not the gods of our own
life,because we are made to worship
and well, we will worshipsomething and so when we worship
God, it's a reminder that thisis our true identity.
People who are supposed toworship the one true God.
Autumn Cornwell (29:49):
And if you're feeling dry, if you're feeling
and maybe you went throughseasons, like
we've gone through seasons whereI was like on fire and I was you
know, dancing up a storm in myroom and you know, worship and
then I it kind of dissipated.
And then I was like, oh, I needto do that, again, there what
Danica said was really great,like just dancing and singing,
and just being exuberant, itkind of supercharges you, you
know, and there was somethingand it's like,
(30:11):
it doesn't make total sense, butit does, you know, does, but it
doesn't.
And so, if you haven't, and youfeel like just blah, like in
your car in your room, you know,what you're getting in the
morning, or if you get up in theafternoon
or whatever you get up, youknow, playing music or singing
out loud, and just holding yourhands up and saying, Holy
Spirit, Come, Holy Spirit Come,I need you.
(30:31):
I need your supernatural love,joy and peace. Empower Me with
your joy. Empower Me with whoyou are again today, because I
know you're in me, but I justneed an extra filling
and please, you know, kind oflight me on fire with my first
love. Like, you know, the firstlove, you know, on fire me
are people like us who've beenin a journey with the Holy
Spirit and Jesus Christ andFather God for most of your
lives or a lot of your life.
(30:53):
You know, this one's kind of foryou. If you're new when you're
on fire. Great - keep going!Welcome to the club.
Danica Childs (30:58):
But there will come times when it starts when
you you have those valleys whenit's just like, Okay, I'm
putting one foot in front of theother and putting one foot in
front of the other.
And you don't even realize howmuch you're just kind of holding
on. Where you're just, oh, I amjust existing. And
I think going back to your pilotlight analogy, okay. we all have
(31:21):
the pilot light of the HolySpirit in us. But you know, we
have to partner with the Spirit.
God is not coercive. So he's notgoing to force himself on us. He
is not going to force us to doanything. But he will, if we
desire it, work with us work inour desires, enflame us to fall
in love for himself.
(31:41):
But it comes out of a partneringwith the Spirit in that.
So it's almost like we have toagree with the Spirit to say I
want to turn the heat up. I wantmore. And, you know, because it
says like You have not becauseyou ask not. And so if you are
desirous of this, then ask theHoly Spirit.
Always ask the Spirit, go toJesus, go to Jesus, go to Jesus.
(32:02):
That is, if you walk away withnothing else, We want you to
know in all things, turn toJesus,
In all things, turn to Jesus, inall things Ask the Spirit for
help, in all things, if you aredry, ask the Spirit for living
waters. If you are frustrated,ask for the help of the Holy
Spirit.
If you are angry, ask for thehelp of the Holy Spirit to help
(32:25):
you identify what is going onwith you that causes you so much
anger. In all things.
Autumn Cornwell (32:31):
even patience to do things you don't want to
do. You know, grace to do whatthe tasks you're just getting
bogged down by. And actuallycoming full circle.
I think we were praying forrefreshment when I happened upon
this conference that we didn'tknow about.
But it was a rabbit trail from adifferent thing. I was
researching online and somehowstumbled across it.
(32:52):
And I knew it was an answer fromGod of a prayer I had the day
before or the day before that Ican't remember what day I
remember going God,Danica and I have been working
hard and we just needrefreshment. You know, being in
ministry, you know, you get kindof like, you know, you need your
refreshing moments.
And I said, I don't know whereit's coming from, but just Lord
send someone or something torefresh us. That's new. And then
(33:13):
that came out of the blue andboy did it refresh us.
that was an answer to prayer.
And I noticed that like when Idon't feel like reading the
Bible, and I love to read theBible, and then I'll be like,
I'm just too tired to even pickit up and open it.
I'm just like, weakened.
Danica Childs (33:27):
Mr. Burns, Mr.
Burns, arms
Autumn Cornwell (33:30):
I can't even open, you know, and so and then
God will give me he'll, he'lljust like say, and he usually
says just open it up and startreading.
And then usually, like, I'lljust start reading and then I
start to get into it. And then Ithe Holy Spirit is usually doing
some funny things like he'll do,you know, putting a verse or
he'll get my sense of humor,or he'll, he'll draw me into
story because I love story. Andthen I'll before I know it, I
(33:50):
don't want to put it down andI'm not making lunch or
whatever, because I got into it.
But it's almost like you haveto, you're gonna partner, but be
honest and tell him I needrefreshing I'm having a hard
time doing this or,
Danica Childs (34:04):
you have just also articulated and given us an
example of what it looks like tolead with the body. Even in the
reading of Scripture, which ismy heart, my feeling my mind is
resistant to doing this.
But I know I should do it in asense because as Christians, we
should be in the Word of God,that is a positive should. And
(34:27):
so it's being honest with God, Idon't want to do this.
Always be honest with God, ifthere's something you don't want
to do in the Christian life,just be honest First. don't try
and hide and deny it and try andjustify it.
Just be honest with God firstand say I don't want to do this.
But then lead with your body.
Lead with your body, pick up theBible, physically.
Open the Bible, find one verse,you know, go through the Psalms.
(34:48):
If you don't know what to do, gothrough the Psalms, pick one
psalm, just read it lead withthe body and be open to the
Spirit - say Spirit. I don'twant to do this, but I'm open to
you and I'm going to do it.
Speak to me.
Autumn Cornwell (34:58):
Yes, exactly.
Danica Childs (35:00):
That can be five minutes,
Autumn Cornwell (35:01):
yeah, five minutes. And then if you if you
sense I should worship but Idon't want to worship, just pick
a song that you know, and justsing it out loud doesn't matter
if you can't carry a tune, Ican't.
The Lord loves it. He thinks I'mamazing when I sing some other
people may not,And then and then just start
singing, you know, a couple ofverses. And before you know it,
(35:23):
sometimes you're like, Oh,what's that other song I really
liked. And then you're doingthat.
And in the idea of releasingsound, reading, even reading
Psalms out loud, there'ssomething about release words,
they're powerful.
And then you're hearing themwhile you say them. And it's
powerful. So these are verysimple, very simple steps to
take to refresh.
Danica Childs (35:43):
worshipping with other believers, the unity of
believers is powerful.
And it is the it is somethingthat the enemy of our souls is
constantly working against, hedoes not want unity of
believers, because he knows thatwhere there is unity, there is
power, and there will be change,personal change, and social
change will come about whenbelievers are unified. And
(36:05):
so that's why I think there'salways so much stirring up of
believers when they're togetherand everything.
So when you can get together andworship, the Spirit will unify
you in that. And then that makesyou powerful as a group as well.
So in your church groups in yourlife groups, or whatever it is,
you are part of make worship ahabit.
Autumn Cornwell (36:23):
because it says where two or three are in
agreement. you have what You'veasked if it's in alignment with,
you know, what Jesus's heart isabout.
And so, and again, that's wherethe enemy will try to get at us
and make us be nitpicky aboutchurches, and oh, they do it
this way.
Or, I don't know about thatgroup, or whatever. It's like,
you know, what, if they loveJesus, and if they love the
(36:45):
Bible, and they believe it'sinerrant, and believe that Jesus
died and rose again from thedead For our sins.
and all that, then give it achance, you know, try and then
just get together and worshipwith them. were you gonna say
something?
Danica Childs (36:58):
I was going to say, we are guilty of that. we
can be very like scrutinizing ofour church experiences. And that
is not necessarily a good thing.
Autumn Cornwell (37:08):
But we can bring it to God and see the
thing you can say, I love thischurch, but this they do
differently than I'm comfortablewith.
Or I'm used to this, But then Ifeel like God then will meet
your needs in other ways, likehe met our need, for the things
we needed in this conference.
(37:29):
And then we have other friendswho love to worship like we do,
that we get together with onoccasion, and all play the kinds
of Christian music that we love,you know,
and so you make it happen ifyou're if your church is
awesome,but it's just not that it
doesn't seem to be cohesive foryou, in those kinds of
experiences, then create themyourself.
Danica Childs (37:50):
the thing that I loved about this conference that
we went to is that one, it isnot a denomination, Foursquare
is not our denomination,I don't think I've ever been to
anything Foursquare, although itseems to be coming up more in
our circles right now.
So that was new for usworshiping with a bunch of
Foursquare women. Two like allsorts of demographics, I would
say, you know, ethnicdemographics were all over age
(38:12):
was all over.
And economically it was verydiverse. And in educational
backgrounds
Autumn Cornwell (38:18):
and they came from all over the United States
Danica Childs (38:21):
So, so this was a taste of what heaven is going to
be like, where you have suchdiversity of people, but unity
in belief and worship.
Beautiful, beautiful.
And so this is it's something Ihave to say to myself
frequently. And so I encourageanybody else out there who is
similar,in that you don't need people
who look a certain way, act acertain way, have a certain
(38:44):
amount of money have a certaintype of job, or a certain type
of creative,any of those, you know, this is
no brainer, right? And yet, westill fall into those traps of
like, I need a church that lookslike XY and Z.
And this was just a reminder oflike, we don't really what we
need is a heart that is open towho whomever God puts us with,
(39:06):
to be able to see Jesus in them.
And together, we reflect Jesusto the world.
Autumn Cornwell (39:10):
Yes, and I think it was CS Lewis who talks
about going to church. He hassgreat things to say - you're not
gonna always enjoy it,but it's the obedience to God
like meeting the fellowship ofbelievers you're supposed to
meet regularly. That is acommand. we're supposed to meet
with believers.
Danica Childs (39:26):
And God uses all those weird believers that you
think are weird and obnoxiousand annoying to help in your
sanctification.
Autumn Cornwell (39:33):
Oh, yes, iron sharpens iron.
Danica Childs (39:40):
So, we hope that this encourages you to just
worship your little heart outjust worship through your little
heart out and you know,like I Autumn is far more
demonstrative than I am. And soyou know, for me being
demonstrative would be...
Autumn Cornwell (39:55):
Well buckle up she's going crazy.
Danica Childs (39:57):
But I did have a couple tears
Autumn Cornwell (39:59):
and you had shaking
Danica Childs (40:00):
I had some shaking and feeling in my hands,
you know. So it isn't to saythat you have, it has to look a
certain way in order to be trueworship.
That's not what we're saying.
We're saying, Worship comes froma posture of your heart. And it
comes from a desire, a desire torelease the joy, release the
praise, release the love thatyou have for your Creator God,
(40:22):
that is the posture of yourheart. And that can look any
number of ways. It may be, itmay look like you sitting still
in your seat, that is totallyfine.
So we're not saying you have ithas to look a certain way. Not
at all. It is a posture of theheart, but we do want to say,
release it, express it in a waythat works for you.
And it is your gift to yourheavenly Father. From yourself.
Autumn Cornwell (40:44):
Yes, that actually reminds me of that
verse that says, where's thatverse? Hold on? It's right here.
Psalm 22.3 yet you are holy,enthroned on the praises of
Israel.
So the idea of like, God isenthroned on our praises. It's a
really lovely, awesome visual.
And then again, in Hebrews13:15-16, through Jesus,
(41:05):
therefore, let us continuallyoffer to God a sacrifice of
praise, the fruit of lips thatopenly profess his name, and
make a joyful noise unto theLord.
And I love Psalm 100. Becauseit's very specific about that.
And there's two there'sdifferent versions that say,
Make a joyful Shout to the Lordall ye lands, and make a joyful
(41:26):
noise unto the Lord all yelands. So noise shout, you know,
Danica Childs (41:30):
Being loud and boisterous.
Autumn Cornwell (41:31):
Yeah, you can do it, if you're like me go for
it, you know, and if you want tobe more, you know, low key,
that's also perfectlyacceptable. And then a couple
other fun. Examples are,of course, David, I just love
David King David when he wasushering in the ark in the Old
Testament. And we see this in 2Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 15.
And the Ark is returning to theIsraelites after a long period
(41:55):
of time.
And so after a rather rockystart to get the Ark back, this
is their second chance to do it.
And I love it. So it says,wearing a linen ephod David was
dancing before the Lord with allhis might. And then there's a
part where his wife, Michael waswatching from a window.
(42:18):
And when she saw King Davidleaping and dancing before the
Lord, she despised him in herheart, which I think that's I'm
gonna say something about that.
And then he says,So then he returns and she says,
in disgust how distinguished theking look today, shamelessly
exposing himself to the servantgirls like any vulgar person
might.
And David retorted to Michael Iwas dancing before the Lord, who
(42:42):
chose me above your father andall his family,
he appointed me as the leader ofIsrael, the people of the Lord.
So I celebrate before the Lord,yes, and I am willing to look
even more foolish than this,even to be humiliated in my own
eyes.
So it's this idea of you can bea fool for Christ by how you
worship and don't let thatbother you. If it doesn't bother
(43:02):
God, you know, even if itbothers other people.
Yeah, and I love this last linewas another version in
Chronicles of the same story,Michael saw King David skipping
around and laughing with joy.
She had contempt for him, but Ilove that line. He was skipping
about and laughing with joy.
So we were talking aboutlaughing in the Spirit the other
the other day. So. And thenagain, just to wrap up, we also
(43:25):
have some scriptures throughoutActs just to remind you that in
Acts, especially Acts 2 and 4,they talked about meeting
together worshiping together atthe temple every day, and they
shared their meals with greatjoy and generosity, all the
while praising God and enjoyingthe goodwill of all the people.
And every day the Lord added totheir fellowship, those who are
(43:45):
being saved.
And so again, it says they metand they would ask Jesus for
courage and the ability tospread the word, and it says,
they were all filled with theHoly Spirit.
And then they preach the Word ofGod with boldness, and all the
believers were united, in heartand mind. so just to kind of go
back to what we were sayingearlier about how it unites us
(44:08):
praise and unity of fellowshipand prays together unites us
makes us bold, makes us want togo out, spread the Lord's word
and bless people right?
And that's our next the nextepisode we're going to talk a
little bit about how thisconference emboldened us, again,
afresh and how much fun we hadafter the conference. And yeah,
(44:28):
anything else Danica?
Danica Childs (44:29):
and just a reminder that you your very way
of being the way God created usas humans was to be worshipping
creatures.
So worshipping is something thatties us into who God actually
created us to be we are made toworship and so you know, when
your start feeling dry,it could be that that very thing
(44:50):
you were made for You need tostart doing.
Autumn Cornwell (44:54):
Oh, yes. It's like when I don't write and I'm
not writing because I'm awriter. I start to get edgy. and
irritable. and angry. I rememberMadeline L'Engle, the writer who
wrote A Wrinkle in Timewould say that when she started
to get really absent mindedand kind of sloppy and or
housekeeping and she would burnthe soup, her family would go,
you need to get back to writingMom, you're driving us crazy.
(45:16):
you know what I mean? The samething, like when you're feeling
dry, or you're just notyourself, and you're, you know,
it's like time to get back tothe worship and to the praise,
and have fun with it, ya know,whatever that looks like for
you.
Danica Childs (45:27):
And this doesn't mean there could be seasons in
your life, though. So I want tobe very careful here that there
can be seasons in your lifewhere God chooses to hide
himself for a season,for whatever reason. And so you
may not be getting feelings ofanything when you do worship,
but you should still worship.
So we don't worship just when wefeel like it. Because again,
(45:48):
we're leading with our body. Andit is something we are called to
do, and it's something we'recreated to do. So do it even
when you don't feel the feelingsof like, oh, I want to worship.
Autumn Cornwell (45:58):
I think that's excellent. Yeah. Because we
don't want to squelch emotions,but we don't want them to be
dictating everything.
Like, oh, you're not feelingthis, then don't do that. Right.
So I think that's a very goodpoint. Donica.
Danica Childs (46:09):
because otherwise, we would never
progress in the Christian life.
If we were always like, Oh, Ididn't feel like it today. I'm
so tired.
Oh but this, oh but that. Oh,no, why am I not more like
Christ? I don't know.
Autumn Cornwell (46:21):
Now my children are starving for two weeks,
whatevs...
I decided not to go to work.
Whatevs. I didn't feel it. Whatif We all did that for a week.
Well, we're gonna close bysinging our praises.
(46:42):
You've been very patient andloyal to stay this long.
Danica Childs (46:46):
But we do Thank you for joining us. For this
episode, where we talk aboutworship and why we should do it.
It's an antidote to spiritualweariness and malaise.
Autumn Cornwell (46:56):
yes, and refreshes, rejuvenates,
recalibrates, reorients,redirects.
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