Here is what God is teaching me lately: (mp3's to download attached)
If I want the gifts of the Spirit I cannot assume that He just drooped one on me when I became a Christian, and that's all there is to it. In fact the gift dropped on me was the Holy Spirit Himself.
If I want a gift of the Spirit, I have to want the Spirit to control my life. I must desire to be in constant focus and submission to my Heavenly Father. I must obey Him in order to please Him and to receive from Him.
God has given every thing we need in the Holy Spirit. If He gives us a task, He supplies the gifts to perform the task.
Through the process we learn to trust Him more and receive more. If He just gave us or showed us all He has for us, we would be overwhelmed, and then we would have the responsibility to follow through and not to do so would be sin.
So God in His wisdom gives us what we can receive as we grow and are ready to receive it.
The little Spiritual gifts tests mean little, other than a very general perspective of how in our own strength would respond in a certain situation.
The true gifts of the Spirit come when we know God, seek His plan, and are ready to follow through with what He plans through the gift/s the Holy spirit gives us. The Holy Spirit directed Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted 40 days. He taught Jesus.
This is why when Jesus told the disciples that He was going away but "in essence" it was better for them to have the Holy Spirit in them than have Jesus beside them.
This same Holy Spirit is our gift and our teacher and provides our gifts as God wills and we are ready to receive and act.
Here are some clips of Community Bible Church Orchestra in Henry Co. Georgia. These recordings were made about 1997. The players were from 18 - 65 years old and all members of the church. Several had played since HS and others had been playing in church for many years.
I believe the fervor and dedication of amateur church musicians can produce wonderful sounds, and bring great joy and blessing. The Heaven Medley
Knowing God and walking daily as He leads is the essence of Faith. Our Life in Christ is not static. Neither should be our worship. Music in worship should reflect Christ and one of those reflections is the developmental nature of our worship.
Here is another way of expressing it: We begin as players with the basic, and grow to the more complex. We become the "eternal student." Why then does the music we play not reflect this same developmental aspect?
Why do we not play developmental - through composed music? It awakes the creative spirit. It moves us from A to B to C, and allows us to experience more than the elemental. The beginning of growth is with the awareness that there IS MORE.
Our hunger for the Lord drives us to know Him more and more each day. Great music has the ability to drive us to become more, see more, learn more, study more.
It is not an accident that the Bible points out that the Levites and musicians in the service of the Temple were to play "skillfully" upon the instruments. David played skillfully.
Why do repeat verse chorus verse in a hypnotic chant in our music? Can we not present music that leads to Christ and by example leads to creativity. Our children have no imagination. They choose the short cuts. They settle for what gets them by.
Our culture praises the machine and not the maker. God made us to be creative as He is the Great Creator.
I want you to listen to some developmental worship orchestrations by fine christian arrangers. These two examples are transcribed from Salvation Army band music to the "church-estra' format.
When I conducted the FBC Atlanta orchestra (1976-88) we strove for music excellence. Volunteer players creating a whole much greater the sum of the parts. Is this not a musical representation of the Body of Christ?
Have you wondered why so many musicians in the church consider it the last obligation on the priority list? Why do they not "study to show themselves approved...workmen rightly divided the sharps from the flats:)? It is because we as music leaders do not teach them by example. We do not lead them in the Word. We do not minister to them. We are afraid to offend some. We allow anyone any age any ability to participate in musical worship. We are to lazy to teach the beginners and intermediates. We fear changing the status quo.
Why not have auditions for the worship team? Why not have a strict attendance policy, why not have 2 hour rehearsals. & on & on& on& on& on& on& on& on& on& on& on...
