Growing up in a musical family, the place and importance of music has never been lost on me. My father schooled me and taught me most of what I know concerning bands and choirs, etc. When Holy Spirit rocked our world back in 1992, He began to school me in worship in both leading and participating. Being involved with “Toronto Airport Vineyard” during the years of the “Toronto Blessing” launched me into a whole new understanding of worship. I learned so much from playing with and watching leaders worship leaders like Georgian Banov, Jeremy Sinnott and especially David Ruis (I never had the privilege of playing with David). David was super creative, like Kevin Prosch. Then for the last 25 years, Don Potter has been one of my best friends and brothers in the Lord. “Jesus Culture” was birthed from a music school he and Christine taught out in Redding California years ago. The book Don wrote “Facing the Wall” is a must read for every worshipper. It teaches the difference between performance and entertaining the presence of the Lord. Then with friends like JoAnn McFatter, Alberto and Kimberly Rivera, my exposure to worship has been wonderful.
That’s probably why as a pastor, I love worship and worshipping the Lord more than anything else. Teaching and instructing from the scripture is a close second.
The church of this past season has been way too concerned about the prophetic and not enough about His presence. That will change in this next season. It’s interesting that this message comes from a prophetic word from Acts 15:16 (ESV),
“‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it,”
That prophetic word was given in. the context of the “Council of Jerusalem” I love Acts 15:17 (ESV)
”so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does these things…
What many don’t realize is that “David’s Tabernacle was different from both Moses’ and Solomon’s Tabernacle for it had no walls of separation between the people and the Arc. People from all over the world could come and worship the visible presence of the Lord. God’s presence was manifest, and the glow of the glory permeated everything. I believe the continual presence of David’s Tent in Washington DC has had a major impact on all the transformation going on behind the scenes in our nation presently.
Prophetically, the Lord has been speaking to me a lot about what will come in this next season. There will be places around the globe that will be so soaked in His presence and the main emphasis will be worship that exalts the Lord. There must be a purity in the worship because the anointing will be strong enough to heal some of the most broken of our society. Holiness will be vital. Hebrews 12:14 (ESV)
14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
How else do we prepare for these days? There must be a honing of skill. This will involve not just becoming a technically better musician but more sensitive to the leading and presence of the Lord. David understood this as we read from his testimony in Psalm18:34a (ESV)
“He trains my hands for war,”
He is also taking us from glory to glory (2 Cor 3). Where we are going, we’ve never been before. So, being sensitive to Holy Spirit will be paramount and trump everything else.
The next element will be preparation of the worshipper’s heart. The true worshipper will be totally given over to the Lord. Gone will be self-promotion, self-exaltation and performance. The Lord and His presence will be the prize, not the praise and exaltation from others. Lucifer was chief cherub in heaven who was responsible for worship. Scripture says there was no creature more beautiful. Musical instruments were actually built right into him.However, His pride was his downfall, He wanted the same worship that the Lord received. He then created a mutiny in heaven that took a third of the angels with him. (Revelation 13).
Finally, in these special places God ordains, there will be a merging of the sounds of heaven with the sounds of earth. This is how Jesus prayed “that it would be on earth as it is in heaven”. Certainly, the “Best is yet to come!” Awesome days are before us! Let the Lord check your heart. Don’t disqualify yourself by refusing to let go of what has become normal and predictable in this season. In this next season, heaven will come and kiss earth. It will be the most glorious days of the true remnant church. The harvest will be the greatest this world has ever seen.