Music is accurately called "the universal language." It is a communication media that can cross almost any geographical, ideological or racial barrier. Music has a unique ability to touch the heart, not just the mind. It is therefore a language of the spirit. Those who know this language and can use it effectively have been entrusted with a potent weapon in the battle for the hearts of men. Anointed music will be one of the church's biggest guns in the battle of the last days.
It is important that we comprehend just how powerful music is as a spiritual force. However, like "the force" in the Star Wars movies, it can be used for both good and evil. As witnessed during the 1960's and 70's, music can prophesy and sustain major sociological shifts. It can also fuel revivals and spiritual awakenings such as it did for the great Salvation Army movement, and the Welsh Revival. The Lord is raising up a host of warriors who are now fighting to seize this music battleground from the enemy and use it for the kingdom. These prophetic minstrels will arrest the world's attention, and communicate powerful truths through song that will help set the course for the last day ministry.
Artists and musicians usually foresee and foretell the social direction of civilization. Likewise, Christian artists and musicians often have the prophetic insight to be in touch with the trends and forces that are impacting the course of the world. Many Christian musicians are finding the courage to press beyond the present limits of their time to help prepare the way for a great spiritual advance.
Music has a significant place in both heaven and in hell. Music has been one of the great spiritual battlegrounds of this century and the battle is increasing in intensity. Many men and women in this ministry are now being given a divine strategy and wisdom for the battle. These are also being used to mobilize those who are willing to fight this battle, and it will be one of the most important spiritual battlefields over the next few years.
The Lord is now placing chosen vessels in strategic positions of visibility from which they will be able to prophesy and help steer this generation toward its ultimate destiny. The ultimate position of the prophetic minstrels is not to just copy the world's style of music and try to do it better while adding Christian lyrics, but to capture the music that the Father loves, which is played in heaven, and transfer it to the earth. This music will be loved by the young and the old alike. It will be so compelling that those of every other musical persuasion will be drawn to it, and every other style of music, from country to the classics, will be impacted by it.
Music was created as a media for expressing our worship to God. Worship can be motivated by either adoration or fear, but all worship is basically a focus of our attention upon the object of worship. It is this power to focus men that has made music such a force in directing even basic cultural changes. If we do not learn to utilize music properly; the enemy will continue to fill the vacuum and use it against us.
The Power Of Worship
Along with capturing the attention and arresting the hearts of men, the coming anointing on music will propel the church to higher realms of worship, which will cause the entire church to more fully abide in the Lord. When the church enters into the higher realms of worship, the result will be a focus and a power that releases extraordinary spiritual advances. The Lord is going to use music to help take all of the light we have been given and focus it like a laser. The more focused it is the more power it will have to cut through any barrier or darkness.
The vision and strategies that the Lord is now giving His church will be put into songs that will help to seal the hearts of the people with those visions. This will not be accomplished just with catchy tunes or lyrics, but with a powerful anointing that will come from the heart of the Lord to grip the innermost being of His people. The sound is important because the harmony of musical sound is meant to be concordant with the tone of the message the Holy Spirit is seeking to convey; but the true power is not in the sound, but the anointing.
This music that the Lord is about to release to His people will be of such power that it cannot be trusted to those who are stilt in the snare of idol, or self, worship. To receive the highest anointing, minstrels must he healed of the spiritual wounds and insecurities that cause them to fall into the idolatry of self-centeredness. This great power can be perverted, which would only result in a greater depravity and corruption of soul. For our own safety, major changes must be made in the way the church is now stewarding her music ministries before the Lord can give this greater anointing-for our own safety.
As a part of the preparation for this great battle, the Christian music ministry will come under a severe discipline from the Lord. We are now in a period of time that the Lord has given to allow all of those who are presently committed to Christian music to repent for allowing the ways of the world to take dominion over their ministries. Those who refuse to repent, or correct their course, will pay a terrible price. The most terrible discipline of all will be to miss being a part of the great thing that the Lord is about to do.
What Propels Us?
Isaiah 33:21 reads, "But there the Lord in His glory will be to us a place of broad rivers and streams, upon which no boat with oars, nor large ships shall pass." "Boats with oars" represent ministries that are propelled by human power. "Large ships" represent what we might call "mega ministries." Neither of these will be allowed when the River of Life begins to flow in these last days.
During the time in which Isaiah wrote, the only other form of propulsion except for oars was the wind. Wind often represents the Spirit in Scripture (see John 3:8). Oars were put on ships and boats because when the wind did not blow, or did not blow from the desired direction, they did not want to wait for it. That may be fine for commerce or warships, but for those who serve the Lord, when the Spirit is not moving, we must not move.
When we do move, we only want to move in the direction that the Spirit is moving. This requires great faith and patience. If we want to inherit the promises. of God; and not just waste our lives on what may be good works, but not His works, we must learn to sail with the wind and be completely dependent upon the Spirit to move us.
If our goal is to be big, or to have great influence, we can achieve that goal and completely miss the will of the Lord. "Large ships" can be useful on the ocean, but the River of Life is a river, not an ocean. In the day of the Lord's glory He will be a broad river, but not one on which "large ships" will be allowed. Even on the broadest rivers, large ships endanger all of the other vessels, and/or block their free movement.
We have been through a period in Western Christianity when we have perceived that the blessings of God upon a ministry were evidenced by size and fast growth. The Lord has blessed many of these, and blessed the church and the world through them as much as He could. However, the day is now upon us when being too large can disqualify us from being able to continue moving with the Lord in His present purposes.
Because the Lord truly desires for all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, He does love numbers. However, there is a limit to the size where churches and ministries can maintain the maneuverability that will be required for following the Lord in the coming times. To have a hundred churches of a thousand people will be better than having a single church of a hundred thousand. We must learn to grow in ways that enable us to maintain our flexibility, or we will grow right out of the will of the Lord. Small “ships” and "boats" that are reproducing others are much to be preferred over large.
Anytime we use such general terms as "large" and "small" we must understand that this definition can change with times and places. What might be considered an excessively large church or ministry in one nation may be small in another. The key words here are "flexible" and "maneuverable." Can we navigate the course we have been given easily, and without endangering others?
What Is Success?
Ministries must maintain the prophetic sensitivity to perceive even the smallest change of direction by the Holy Spirit. The business aspects of being in a "successful" ministry and other such trappings can be such a consuming distraction that we lose the sensitivity that we must have to Holy Spirit. Now is the time to get rid of excess baggage, trim down, and learn not to measure success by how many records or books are being sold, but by how much closer our fellowship is with the Lord.
There is a temporary success available to those who try to build according to the ways of the world. The enemy continues to offer every anointed vessel the world if they will just bow to his ways. This is the way that many do gain the whole world, or the attention of the world, but it will always be short lived, and it will ultimately end in destruction.
This is not at all to imply that all large and visible ministries have grown this way. John the Baptist did not have all Israel coming out to him because of his promotions, neither did Jesus. Neither did the apostle Paul become known throughout the world by self-promotion. Some do gain such visibility in the world because they are anointed, but we do want to be sure that this is how we are doing it. As the Lord stated it, "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted" (Matthew 23:12). Those who promote themselves, seeking quick success, God will not promote; but those who humble themselves and walk the way of patience will be anointed. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper. time" (I Peter 5:6).
The music and the anointing that the Lord is about to share with those who can receive can have unprecedented commercial value, but He will not allow it to be prostituted. Therefore He is not going to trust us with it until we get the process right. The first step toward a repentance that will result in the Lord's endorsement is to return to our first love-worshiping Him. Because all music promotes worship in some form, if our hearts are not right we will pervert the power of this anointing. Our music must promote the worship of the Father, obedience to the Spirit, and the witness of Jesus.
The Church's Responsibility To Minstrels
The church has a responsibility to steward the anointing, and to protect the anointed. Christian musicians must be recognized as true ministers and be spiritually equipped and supported as such. When they go out to minister they should be sent out with prayer and sustained with continual intercession just as any other missionary would be sent out. There is a mighty army of music ministers who are about to given the prophetic power to capture the attention of a generation. A great opportunity is about to present itself to those who have the foresight and courage to recognize it, and steward it faithfully.
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