Every single one of us gets to play….

This whole subject of prophetic and spontaneous worship excites me! I love the insight that God gives to us so we can see where He is moving, what He wants to say and how He wants us to respond to Him. I used to see prophecy in complete isolation with worship leading a few years back. How wrong was I! It is just amazing that like in James 4:8 – if we “draw near to God and He will draw near to you”. And when we draw near to God in worship and praise He longs to draw near to us with encouragement and edification. Just wow!

I went to the New Wine Conference at the weekend and it was just so lovely meeting with God and worshipping in a building filled with so many other like minded people. And when a room full of people proper give it their all, you cannot outgive the giver! Awesome.

Anyway, before I go off on one again. We went to a seminar called “Prophecy in Worship” led by Becky Drake and Nick Herbert. I just thought to blog a few notes I took from it, many of which I found very affirming.  Hope they are of use or interest to you…

WHAT IS PROPHECY IN WORSHIP?  

– James 4:8 – “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”

– Worship is a 2 way dialogue. Its assessing God’s voice and movement and leaders need to develop the skill/gift of managing it.

– It is opening a space and surrendering to what the Holy Spirit wants us to do/sing/say

– I love this one… Its about creating and giving SPACE for the Spirit to break in

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS?

– Have an expectation of God moving

– expect more from Him

– be aware and remember that that is so much more of God than we could ever imagine. And feed that expectation.

– Acts 2:17 – ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams’.

– every single one of us has the ability to hear from God. John Wimber said “Every single one of us gets to play”

BE SPONTANEOUS 

– Its about doing the right thing at the right time.

– Its about getting insight

– John 5: 19 “I only do what I see the Father doing”

– Are we too ordered in a church service? Does is feel like the church in Corinthians when anything could happen? When was the last time you had a chat with the service leader/band members/minister in the moment?

– steward anything God is doing in the moment

CULTURE IS KEY

– Know why you do what you do!

– Continue to develop personal relationship with God and ask Him what He wants said, sung and done.

– Worship opens doors to God’s kingdom

– Many leaders have this wrong sense of responsibility to lead the worship and to lead the spontaneous etc – but we are to instead steward God’s plans and movements.

PROPHETIC SINGING

– Like David and his harp instrumentalists can use their music to bring God’s heart to His people. And singing can too.

– The main reasons to sing out are to edify and encourage. If it isn’t really what God wants to say its ok to take a risk as long as it edifies and encourages.

Things to do to get a prophetic song

1.) Pray for it!

2.) You can craft a set. Matt Redman does this and plans for the spontaneous times – they might be used, they might not, but its good to have plans for the band to follow just in case. Its about creating some time that is free for the Spirit.

3.) Have a bank of scripture to memorise amongst band that God can draw upon and then use them to maybe put scripture into a new song or an already written song.

4.) Stand back from the mic. speak or sing in tongues to fill up and reflect. Then take the bold move to put music to what God is saying and the responses (I bolded bold because thats a key word to me at the moment concerning all this stuff)

5.) Be disciplined with it. Maybe start things and then just stand back and see if the song is in the room. Don’t dominate – you aren’t leading, the Holy Spirit is.

6.) Don’t get too anxious! It is a partnership. God will use anything edifying and encouraging.

7.) Learn to minister/pray for others too. And encourage band members to get training as well so they all know what to expect and how to respond to God when He is on the move in times of worship.

TAKING RISKS (ARGH!)

– All God wants you to do is be obedient and let Him work

– Its about the Spirit of God leading the worship and standing in the moment and going for it

– “A risky space becomes a holy place”

1.) Recognise the tension between spontaneity and reality. See your set list like a boat and try to lead your worship like a meandering river rather than linear. Take risks but maybe go back to the boat (set list) if/when things get a little choppy. But take risks to stay in that place of freedom for as long as possible. 

2.) Think about how to respond if the congregation steps out or doesn’t. Think about the expecations.

3.) Don’t be afraid to wait – and question the culture if not

4.) Embrace mess

And above all KNOW WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO... Blessing comes in unity.

If you have an hour (or chunks of time) to what this. I found this really lovely insight about prophetic worship from Brian and Jenn Johnson at the Worship Central conference a couple of years ago. I’ll type up some notes on it in my next blog soon too 🙂

Erica x