Pride of the Prophetic

I led worship for all the sessions of the Living Faith Church Pastors Conference last week.

Why is that significant to me?

You see, a month ago I received a strongly worded email about me, my life and all that. It came from someone whose heart I respect (in fact, I trust his sincerity a lot more than I trust my own) but whose level of insight is not always at a very high level.

Anyway, his email was on what he saw was wrong with my life. Simply put, he said that a lot of the fundamentals in my life were not in place and as long as there are not in place, my ministry will never go the way God wants it to go. He said that I would keep seeing people of a lesser capability than I, or younger in the faith, rise up and run further than I in worship ministry just because they are obedient to lay the foundations. I myself will be hovering and floating around trying to volunteer for worship ministry but never finding a place where I can take off.

Heavy going words, right? Makes me sound like the ultimate in pathetic, like Deu 28:68 - "There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

What gave him the ammo for his point was the postponement of my California ministry trip. To him, it's a spiritual matter, and further proof that God will close doors for me until I shape up.

Why do I even bother to give any thought to emails like that? Because that is how I am. I'm not interested in boasting of all the ministry opportunities that have come my way (and I have seized), I don't want to talk about how respected my ministry is amongst people with powerful prophetic insight and all that. Even if it proves this friend wrong.

Because:

1) he would just dismiss it anyway, saying that it doesn't count or the people involved are not spiritual leaders worth their salt (since they give open doors to someone he counts unworthy); AND

2) there is always the chance that there might be some truth in what he says. Ecc 10:1 says "As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor". I am the sort who wants to look past the dead flies at the perfume, get what I mean?

So I brought the entire matter before God. What I think or what my friend says about my ministry isn't important, it's what God says that matters. So I prayed "God, you show me what YOU think of me and my ministry!"

The Answer

And within a week I was asked to lead worship for all the sessions of the Pastors Conference. I still remember praying about it, "God, should I or shouldn't I? Can I afford the time to? Can I afford the strength? Is it your will? Am I moving in the flesh, trying to open doors for myself in my own power rather than your Spirit?" and so on.

People who know me well will be sniggering away by now, because they know I usually have no patience for this kind of self-centred, moribund, self-indulgent introspection that cripples many charismatics and worship ministers I know. Yeah, that is how contagious doubt is!

Once I could quiet down my spirit to really hear the voice of God, I felt God telling me "I opened this door for you in answer to your prayer. Why are you praying about whether to go in? This is not an opportunity for you to serve. Leading worship for this conference is your reward!"

I know it sounds weird to say that serving my heart out is itself a reward, but that truly was how I experienced those sessions. It was so easy to lead worship for those pastors, I was basking in the spotlight anointing so easily, in the end I was so richly blessed and edified by those worship sessions.

So my heart is at rest now. I know my ministry and my walk with Christ isn't perfect yet, but God has chosen to vindicate me. And I am grateful.

About that brother:

I know this post makes that brother-in-Christ look bad. He isn't a bad person. As I said earlier, I trust his sincerity more than I trust my own. I have totally no doubts over his motivations; he has more than proven himself to truly love me and my family with the love of God.

It's just that he's not open to input when he's already made up his mind.

Before he sent off that email to me, he could have asked the opinions of church leaders who are in active contact with me, and be willing to hear from them. In church I am actively serving under two small group leaders who are mature believers I respect. They are not spiritually gullible newbies in Christ, easily taken in by a charismatic song and dance routine. They've been around and they have a certain level of discernment.

And they told me that for the tangibles (what can be seen in my actions and words) the points of that email were inaccurate and wrong. Both told me to set my heart at rest.

But what about my heart?

What about the inner workings of my heart? What about my motivations, my priorities and all that?

This is going to offend some people, but I sincerely believe that God deals with us not based on the intangibles (like the heart) but based on the tangibles, like our actions. Consider how David prayed about wicked people who habour malice in their hearts:

• Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back upon them what they deserve. (Psa 28:4, NIV)

Notice David focuses on the obvious? God himself also judges us according to our deeds, rather than our hearts. He said so.

• "I, the LORD, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." (Jer 17:10, NIV)

Because I long realized that the heart is deceitful above all things and utterly wicked (Jer 17:9), I gave up looking at my heart, worked on getting my actions right, and letting the Lord himself do his work in my heart in his timing. When one of my leaders told this friend about my actions and how faithful I am in serving, he took the ultimate charismatic cop-out – when he couldn't find fault with my actions (the tangibles), he moved on to talk about the intangibles (like foundations and all that).

As I said, he isn't open to other opinions once he has made up his mind.

This is a kind of pride that prophetically inclined people have to watch out for. They have heard God accurately some times, and take that to mean that they hear God correctly all the time. And if other believers don't agree with them there must be something wrong with those other believers.

And we worship ministers…

We in the worship ministry ALSO have to beware of this kind of pride. Because the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy (Rev 19:10), and we worship leaders are actively testifying of Jesus through our words and songs, we will find ourselves moving in the prophetic (even if we don't know or don't believe in it).

And when that happens we have to watch out for the Pride of the Prophetic. We may hear God and even speak for him accurately some times, or even often, but that does not mean we hear him accurately all the time. We still have to keep ourselves humble and teachable. Moving in the Spirit of Prophecy does not mean that we have superseded the rest of the Word of God. All the non-glamorous verses in Proverbs still apply to us, verses such as:

• He who answers before listening — that is his folly and his shame. (Pro 18:13).

We still need to be willing to hear from other people, even those we consider spiritually younger or weaker than us. After all,

• A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. (Pro 18:2, NIV)

Anyway, that's about it for now. I have got some other things to look at this week, so I'll get on with them. Do share your thoughts with me on this? You may add your comments on the bottom of this page, in the comments section. Be blessed!

James' Law of Two Springs

People were telling me that someone I know is really anointed for worship. They say that he would break out into prophetic songs in the midst of worship and those who hear it are edified. "Wouldn't it be great if the two of you can combine your gifting and work together? Wonder-Twins activated!" (Reference to a kid's TV show from a long time ago)

No.

Given the choice I will not want to minister in worship with this person. Why? Because he violates what I call James' Law of Two Springs.

James 3:9-11 (NIV) With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Simply put, James' Law tells us we should not be one of those who praise God and verbally abuse or criticise other people. And because I have spent considerable amounts of time with that supposedly anointed guy, I know him to be such a person. He is the kind of person who would sing out loud, be very demonstrative and expressive in worship, and yet within hours after the service be complaining about his spouse or verbally abusing and threatening his kids.

Of course you would not know these things about a person just from casual acquaintance. But as time goes by a person's true colours are revealed. One of his closest friends from church (not me) confronted him over how he always managed to find something wrong in every situation, instead of looking for whatever he could thank God for (1 Thes 5:18). And within weeks of that confrontation this person was talking about wanting to change church because the worship leaders and the worship musicians were not doing a good job during worship.

Yeah, right.

Am I being too strict over this? I don't think so. Jesus said that all these are symptoms of an underlying problem, a defiled heart.

Matt 15:18 (NIV) - But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'

Especially when it comes to encountering God in worship, this is crucial. Consider Isaiah's encounter with God, recorded for us in Isaiah 6.

Isaiah 6:5 (NIV) - "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

When Isaiah received a vision of the LORD seated on his throne and the angels worshipping him, the first area of his life that troubled his conscience was his lips. This strongly suggests to me that we cannot meet God face-to-face in worship without his holiness challenging us in the area of our speech.

Someone can sing out loud, break into spontaneous worship (which really impresses charismatics, I noticed) and yet not truly meet God face-to-face in worship. How will I know? I listen to such a person's words in day-to-day life. As long as I can see two springs of water, fresh and salty, where there should not be, I know this person hasn't fully met the Lord in worship yet.

Isaiah 6, by the way, explains the two opposite reactions people may have after an intense time of worship. Some people talk, it seems as if their lips are loosed and they start speaking of godly things a lot more. This is not surprising, as the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10). As they testified of Jesus in worship, the Spirit of prophecy came upon them.

Other people, I noticed, just fall silent. It's as if they do not want to defile the holy atmosphere around them with their worldly words. Suddenly they have no need to speak, and it seems as if their souls have entered the quietness and rest of God (Isa 30:15).

The practical aspect of things:

If you are leading your worship team, especially the singers and the worship leaders, I highly recommend that you do not accept anyone on your team if he or she does not consistently follow James' Law of Two Springs.

If you have gone through my teaching materials you should know me by now. I don't talk very much about the spiritual side of worship, about the heart of worship and all that kind of stuff. Why? Because I have seen people major on all the intangible stuff because they don't have anything to share or impart about the tangible aspects of worship ministry. That's not my role in the Body of Christ.

But James' Law of Two Springs is the ONE thing I will teach and emphasize on when it comes to the intangible aspects of worship ministry. In my 14-15 years in the worship ministry, I would say that this is one of the most important aspects of a worshipper's personal life, and it has a direct spiritual correlation on this person's spiritual effectiveness (or otherwise) in the worship ministry.

Now what if YOU are violating James' Two Stream Law?
You need to get out of it. There are three steps:

1. Prayer – My own personal testimony: when I was 17 years old I was at a youth camp and the pastor shared about specially seeking out the people who get put down and showing God's kindness to them. As he shared I suddenly realized that I myself was one who would go around putting others down. So after that sharing I asked that pastor to pray for me.

And he did. He prayed that I would let go of all the hurts I received before and walk in forgiveness. After that time I found that I suddenly lost the drive to get in the last word, to dig an insult further in, and to make other people pay for all the pain I went through before. That cleaned up my speech very quickly!

So you pray also. Find some spiritual leader such as your pastor to pray for you. There is power that comes from humbling yourself in prayer and seeking God for him to rein in your tongue.

2. Scripture – Replace unedifying thoughts and speech with the Word of God.

Colossians 3:15-16 (NIV) – Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

3. Worship – In this I am not referring to serving in the worship ministry, but simply singing praises to God, both as part of a congregation and by yourself. Remember Isaiah 6? When Isaiah saw the Lord and realized the sinfulness of his speech, immediately he received atonement for his sin.

The more we faithfully and consistently offer praises onto God, the more opportunity we give God to meet with us and change us, and at a more gradual and comfortable pace than Saul had when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Many charismatics I've met seem to prefer the sudden God-turns-up-and-zaps-me kind of transformation. That sudden encounter worked for changing Saul on the road to Damascus, but it was certainly very uncomfortable! I'd rather live in submission to God and avoid such drastic measures.

Conclusion

Many people in church circles despise the power of a reined tongue. They make light of it by saying things like "He can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?" By this they imply that it is easier to say the right things than to do them. And then they think that because they do the right churchy kind of things, they need not watch their words.

James 1:26 (NIV) - If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

I have been touched by God in this area of my life. I know that my words, even when they offend, are not spoken out of malice or resentment. So I tell you: It can be done. God really wants to be there for you, to change your heart and purify the speech that arises from your lips. And when he has done his work you'll find that life is a lot better, your heart is a lot lighter and your praises to God feel a lot more powerful.

In other words, tap into the power of the One Spring!