God has been laying on my heart lately what true worship is and last night it came to fruition. This story starts 9 days ago at launch. We had some killer worship the first two nights, it was fantastic, the Spirit was present, the music was good, I was fully invested. But the last night it was different, it wasn’t as good musically, some of the band members had left, there was a new lead singer/guitarist; from a music perspective it just wasn’t as great and I noticed it right away but what I noticed next was a lesson God’s been teaching me lately, people worshipped just as well that night as the past nights, the Spirit was still moving just as much, it didn’t matter how good or a verge or bad the music was, God doesn’t care. He cares about how well we steward the gifts we have but in comparison to others He does not care about the quality, He cares about genuine hearts that desire to be with Him and praise Him. It’s taken me a while to get out of a “works” mentality and into a “love” mentality with God. The works will stem out of the love and genuine worship and love and relationship will thereby occur. I experienced this firsthand as I led worship for my squad last night. I was leading a bunch of songs I’ve never led before with another guitarist who only knew a couple of the 11 songs, and a djembe drum player who has been playing like a month or two. It could’ve been disastrous musically but the Spirit moved so powerfully. I can’t even begin to describe it because i hardly remember it. People have been saying good job and you had great words and a great prayer and i couldn’t tell you one thing i said. The Spirit was just moving in me and my squad mates, it was the most invigorating and overwhelming thing I’ve felt. I was going crazy on my guitar and was doing things I’ve never done and it felt so natural, not because of my skills, but because I was willing to allow the Spirit to move and to lead and use the few gifts I have that He might be glorified and my squad mates and I might be drawn into the throne room to the throne of grace. I saw squad mates moved by the Spirit, crying, prostrate, praying for each other, speaking words of encouragement and truth, spurring each other on to true worship and it was nothing I did, it was all the Spiriy. It was worship like I have never seen as a leader. I have experienced worship myself in the audience but never leading. And the biggest thing was I genuinely worshipped as well. Usually I’m so focused on making sure everything is perfect and sounds good that I don’t allow myself to worship but God had much more in store for me last night and had much more in store for me in the future whenever I lead worship again, true worship that draws people to the Father, to the throne of grace, to intimate relationship, love and grace.
