|
A.
You
need to pray for a mind to work.
To be renewed in the mind and to have the mind of
Christ. (Rom 12:1-2) Consider anything you think about,
God thinks of differently. You need the mind of God.
This mind has to work. In Genesis 1, God created by
speaking. But then you will see in Genesis 2, God goes
to work with His job (creation).
He folds up His sleeves and uses His hands. It
takes work. So start by getting your mind to work.
B.
Pray
for the pastor. Always lift up your pastor before the
Lord. Never forget that you work along with your pastor.
The arrows that missed your pastor may be coming your
way. You need to be in the same spirit with your pastor.
Your pastor is the presiding prophet. It is he or she,
the prophet who gives you permission to play music.
Respect, listen and obey your pastor for they are placed
there by God.
C.
Study
the word of God. Music is work and one needs to study
and rightly divide the word of God. (2 Timothy 2:15) We
sing the word of God, the Christian artist needs to know
what songs are scripture based. What we sing needs to
bring life not death. Many times our songs have brought
death instead of life for it is not the word of God.
Many songs have beautiful melodies but the lyrics are
not from God. For the word of God is living and active.
(Hebrews
4:12) This means, surely as you are living, so is the
word of God. It is breathing and it is active in ways we
cannot imagine. It is sharper than a double edged sword,
it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints
and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the
heart. That is what the word can do. Musicians, please
let’s get serious and dig deeper into the word. Psalms
149:6 says: “May the praise of God be their mouths and
a double-edged sword in their hands.” This means the
music we do needs to be accompanied by the word of God.
D.
Be
quiet before the Lord. We tend to always have something
to say. I love Benny Hinn’s example when he talks
about entering the presence of God. He says he’s not
in a rush to speak. He puts on nice worship music that
will bring him into to presence of God. He closes his
eyes and forces his soul, spirit and body to focus on
the Lord until he feels the presence of God in the room,
then he speaks. Let us learn to be quiet before the Lord
and just listen and behold His majesty. We especially
want to avoid being like Peter who was quick to talk,
and therefore cut someone’s ear off. (Matthew
26:47-56)
E.
Listen
in order to identify the voice of the Lord for
instructions. How will you distinguish the voice of God
from other voices? Well, God always tells things that
are challenging, unexpected. You may think He wants you
to sing and He tells you not to. He tells you to just
stand there, or run around the church. This is
challenging because of mans ego. Well, that’s just one
example out of many others. Listen to God for
instruction.
F.
Write
down His instructions so you do not forget.
G.
Follow
His directions. God’s direction many times comes
through your pastor. That is one of the many reasons God
put them there. God respects the chain of command. He is
a God of order. God loves protocol. As you lead worship,
you will come to understand that God loves to be
presented as He enters the room.
So respect those in authority because God
respects and honors that.
H.
Meditate
on the word. Every second, minute, hour, day, week,
month, year, go over the word in your heart. Memorize
it. Make it yours. One of my pastors in Congo used to
tell us to memorize the word while we were still young
but many of us neglected to do so. Do not let this Book
of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day
and night. (Joshua 1:8)
Well,
meet you next time as we talk about dedication for music
ministry.
M.
David Kasonga
|
