{"id":2121,"date":"2015-05-06T09:54:57","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T13:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=2121"},"modified":"2015-05-06T10:06:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T14:06:30","slug":"worship-wednesday-open-up-the-heavens-with-meredith-andrews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=2121","title":{"rendered":"Worship Wednesday – Open Up the Heavens – with Meredith Andrews"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blog<\/a>The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”<\/span> And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” – Exodus 33:17-19<\/a><\/p>\n

Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;<\/span> who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin…” – Exodus 34:6-7a<\/a><\/p>\n

My prayers are too small for such a great God. Think of the life of Moses, and how God revealed so much of Himself to this stuttering, flawed, reluctant leader. God utterly transformed\u00a0this man and He changed the world through this man. When Moses asked God to see His glory, it’s possible he had no idea what all he was asking. He wanted to know God…to see Him as He is.<\/p>\n

God was gracious to Moses in answering his request. Whatever\u00a0transpired that day, in that transaction, Moses was forever altered. He was still human and often frail, but he knew, for sure, how to pray after that, because he had a glimpse of the glory of God. A face-to-face encounter with the Lover of our souls.<\/p>\n

Last night, I was part of a theater audience participating in a pre-release viewing of War Room<\/strong><\/em>, a Kendrick Brothers<\/a> film.\u00a0It tells the story of Liz (Priscilla Shirer) and Tony (T.C. Stallings) as a married couple whose marriage was in deep trouble. Enter Mrs. Clara (Karen Abercrombie) who doesn’t just believe in prayer, but does battle daily in prayer for those God brings\u00a0her way, or to her awareness. Although a story written by\u00a0Alex and Stephen Kendrick, it rang so true to my life experience of praying hard over something – “life or death” down on your knees, crying out to God sort of praying.\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

My heart was broken during that film over my own prayerlessness. Oh, I pray…and pray often through the day…but not like that. It’s not just to hope for what God will do through our praying. Prayer is meant to be our vehicle to know God as He is – to see Him in all His power and love and magnificence (or as much as our human frame can understand). To see Him as our Father who wants to show Himself to us in the heart-cries of our deepest longings – for our families, for the church, for the nations. More captivating than even answering our prayers. To see something of His glory, however He chooses to answer our prayers. That’s something I don’t want to miss anymore.<\/p>\n

You may know this old saying: “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” [attributed to Saint Augustine<\/span><\/u><\/a>]. Our dilemma with even this challenge is that we pray (a few minutes maybe), and then we go out and try to make a difference in the world, try to serve somehow, in the name of Jesus. When, maybe a deeper call is to remember that prayer is the work. We don’t leave off serving others, absolutely not. Yet, some of us, if not all of us, have the call, gifting, opportunity to make prayer our work. The fruit of that? Knowing God in all His glory as He moves in those situations and in our own hearts.<\/p>\n

Meredith Andrews’ song Open Up the Heavens <\/em>has been on my favorite radio station for months (PER Radio, 90.5 FM<\/a>). It must please God for us to pray boldly…to pray to see Him, as the song goes. For me, today, I’m praying differently for those young men in my life who need jobs; for those fighting cancer; for those moms with small ones; for our dear old ones with dementia; and…for the nations (including our own).<\/p>\n

Can I join you in praying like this? Will you pray for me to battle in prayer like this? “O, God, show us Your glory.”<\/p>\n

Worship<\/a> with me:\"Blog<\/a>Open Up the Heavens<\/strong>*<\/p>\n

We’ve waited for this day
\nWe’re gathered in Your name
\nCalling out to You
\nYour presence like a fire
\nAwakening desire
\nWill burn our hearts with truth<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re the reason we’re here
\nYou’re the reason we’re singing<\/p>\n

CHORUS
\nOpen up the heavens
\nWe want to see You
\nOpen up the floodgates
\nA mighty river
\nFlowing from Your heart
\nFilling every part of our praise<\/p>\n

Your presence in this place
\nYour glory on our face
\nWe’re looking to the sky
\nDescending like a cloud
\nYou’re standing with us now
\nLord, unveil our eyes<\/p>\n

You’re the reason we’re here
\nYou’re the reason we’re singing<\/p>\n

CHORUS<\/p>\n

Show us, show us Your glory
\nShow us, show us Your power
\nShow us, show us Your glory, Lord<\/p>\n

CHORUS<\/p>\n

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,\u00a0may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height–\u00a0<\/span>to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.\u00a0<\/span>Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> – Ephesians 3:17-21<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lyrics for Open Up the Heavens\u00a0– \u00a0<\/em>Writers: Meredith Andrews, Jason Ingram, Stuart Garrard, Andi Rozier, James MacDonald\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

YouTube Lyric Video for Open Up the Heavens<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Story Behind the Song Open Up the Heavens<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

YouTube Video – Meredith Andrews with Vertical Church Band – “Open Up the Heavens<\/em>“<\/a><\/p>\n

War Room Film<\/a><\/p>\n

A View of God’s Glory – The Spurgeon Archive<\/a><\/p>\n

Show Me Your Glory – sermon by Ray Pritchard<\/a><\/p>\n

The Effects of Seeing the Glory of God – David Wilkerson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Nearness of God – sermon by Melvin Newland<\/a><\/p>\n

Website for Meredith Andrews<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit – YouTube.com<\/a>\u00a0and WarRoomTheMovie.com<\/a> and cclitv.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and … Continue reading Worship Wednesday – Open Up the Heavens – with Meredith Andrews<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[794,147,808,1277,50,33,317,293,263,433,1221,719,761,610,47,203,946],"tags":[779,1279,1281,1282,648,1280,1278,360],"class_list":["post-2121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faithfulness","category-family-2","category-film","category-glory-of-god","category-god","category-inspired","category-lessons-learned","category-life-skills","category-lives-full-of-god","category-pray","category-rebellion-and-sin","category-reconciliationforgiveness","category-redeeming-restoring","category-thanksgiving-or-gratefulness","category-wednesday-worship","category-word-of-god","category-worship","tag-glory-of-god","tag-kendrick-brothers-films","tag-meredith-andrews","tag-open-up-the-heavens","tag-prayer","tag-priscilla-schirer","tag-war-room-film","tag-worship-wednesday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-yd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2121"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2944,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121\/revisions\/2944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}