The Spotlight Anointing

I see this happen quite often with inexperienced worship leaders. If they manage to unify the praises of God's people, they would bring up the momentum in worship - and suddenly pause the singing. They usually say something like "the presence of God is here!" but no one else is feeling anything.

It's as if the presence of God falls on the worship leader alone, like a spotlight. That's why I call this phenomenon the Spotlight Anointing.

I didn't understand this at first. I used to think there was something wrong with me or with the worship leader. That went on until I started leading worship and experienced the spotlight anointing firsthand. The presence of God would fall on me in an intense way, and I felt as if I need not go on in worship.

Why did I continue to press in during worship anyway? Well, the worship leader I was patterning myself after didn't stop so early, so I didn't stop either. Thank God for that! Or I would not have discovered that the presence of God spreads to the rest of the worshipers later as I continue.

I personally believe this anointing is represented in Psalm 133:2 - It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. (NIV) Imagine, what if the anointing oil that was poured on the head stopped there? Would you prefer that it stop? Or continue to flow to everyone else?

So what do you need to do as a worship leader? Keep going, keep pressing in. Recognize that the spotlight anointing is a way of telling you that you are on the right track, but you must preserver so that the others there will be blessed too.

There are three points to note about the spotlight anointing.

1) The spotlight anointing is good, because it shows that you are on the right track.

Many worship leaders don't even get to the point where they have to face this issue in the first place, because they usually don't unify the praises very well. They allow the musicians to play distracting music, or they do not structure the songs based on what would facilitate the singing. Once they get all these little petty details out of the way, they can then begin to experience the spotlight anointing - and go beyond it!

2) The spotlight anointing can fall upon musicians too.

We see that happen when the worship leader has begun to unify the singing, and then passes the baton over to a musician to do some instrumental solo. If this is done too early, the musician feels the intense presence of God, but the rest of the people do not. So it becomes a performance, more of a show from people in front rather than the singing of everyone in the place.

From this you can see that putting in instrument solo in the middle of worship is not as simple as the 'worship' CDs make it out to be.

3) The spotlight anointing can lead to laziness.

Some worship leaders do not consistently worship God unless they are leading worship. If they have to rotate with other worship leaders, they find it difficult to worship God when other people are leading the worship. Why? Is it because they have no genuine heart for worshipping God? Maybe.

But another possibility to look at is this: when the spotlight anointing comes on the worship leader, it comes very easily. When this person worships God by himself or herself, it may not come that easily. Because of that, people may just give up and not strive to seek God in worship in their own personal devotional lives.

But this is no excuse for laziness. When you lead worship it is hard to focus fully on God in worship, because you need to monitor the singing of the congregation and respond accordingly. This can take up a lot of your attention. But when you are worshiping God by yourself you can fully focus on God. You are more free to express your praises to God without having to worry about whether the congregation can keep up.

And if you do not worry about that when you lead worship, well, you OUGHT to!

So worship leaders, value your own personal worship time with God. It is time for you experience God one-on-one. Let the spotlight anointing be an added bonus, not the main thing!

Conclusion: The next time you lead worship or watch other people lead worship, pay attention to when the spotlight anointing manifests. When you understand how this anointing works you can avoid the pitfalls that follow, while enjoying this anointing to the full!