Sex and Worship...

I was at an event the other day where the worship leader stated that worship was "about sex and intimacy". I'm not saying I agree with this statement in any way and throughout the course of the night some other, odder things were also said but it got me thinking...

The world is full of seductive things. Pleasure is addictive, cathartic, alluring. To escape the drudgery of everyday life with a mental, emotional or physical release is desirable and frankly, necessary. But to what source do we turn for such encounters? THAT is the question.

Twice now in my life, I've met someone with whom I connected so deeply in the Spirit that it began to confuse my soul. The response I developed to the Spirit in the person felt almost identical to the emotions experienced when I was crushing on a boy "back in the day". I was talking to a friend about this and she witnessed to having the same experience in her own life, so I guess I'm not just a freak, thank goodness for that! So I was talking to the Lord about it off and on and He began to cause me to notice what my emotions were doing when His presence would invade a place during extremely anointed worship. It felt amazing and it felt almost the same as both those emotional responses I'd been contemplating.

So here's what I think: When Jesus becomes more than an idea and begins to step into the experience of our senses as a real person, we respond. We can't help it, He triggers a response on every level of our being. It's not just a pretty metaphor that we're the bride of Christ, we're designed to be attracted to Him, and when we recognize Him in another person sometimes our soul doesn't know what to do with the impact of spiritual emotions triggered by a physical vessel. Without some frank conversations with God about it we run the risk of letting our soul guide the responses of our body which can end up leading to us doing something stupid. I think this is probably what happened with men and women of God in high-impact ministry, like Todd Bentley and his intern. What we really need to realize is it's not the person we're Jonesing for, it's the intimacy of the Spirit we crave.

Some people choose drugs or alcohol for their release, others choose sex or other things the world offers. Why? Because the experiences feel good, of course! But I've learned, as I press deeper into God that He can provide a high for body and soul that outclasses them all. Why would He bother to do this? Because He loves us purely, passionately and with every fiber of His being - Jesus is addicted to us and wants nothing more than for us to reciprocate the feeling; and so He begins to reveal more of Himself to those who press in to Him and He begins to woo us in new and unique ways. He wants our soul, right? He gets our spirit automatically when we're born again but we have to choose to give Him our soul - to work out the salvation of our souls with fear and trembling as the Word says. Fear, more accurately translated reverence or awe in modern English, speaks of an emotional response, a soul thing. Trembling, as He showed me of late, doesn't refer to being afraid, it's referring to a bodily response. That's why our bodies begin to do some odd things when we're really in His presence: Jerk, tremble, get weak, appear drunk, etc. As we walk into the unquenchable love which is our God, we surrender our souls and our bodies to Him and He responds in kind.

I'm so glad that He does, because when other things begin to vie for my attention I need to have a higher high to turn to lest I drop my guard and do some damage in the process. In short, there are many seductive things in our world but none so all-consuming as the seduction of the soul by the Spirit of the Living God. Life in the river is wild and I don't know about you but I can't wait to get drenched!