Grace Community Fellowship

Three Good Ways To Inadvertently Strangle A Fledgling Prophetic Worship Ministry

Over the past two articles we’ve discussed prophetic worship.  We’ve talked about what prophetic worship is, and how to develop it in your ministry.  Now, we’re going to talk about how to kill it.  I know it comes off as being slightly negative, but I assure you that this article is coming from a place of encouragement, and is completely devoid of attitude.  It’s just easier to call a horse a horse, if you know what I mean.

We also understand that each and every one of the follies that we’re going to discuss can be undertaken out of concern and genuine good will.  The reason that we’re making mention of them is so that you can recognize the temptation and adjust accordingly.

1) Too Many Time Constraints. I wish we could take the stage and immediately enter into a place of deep, intimate, prophetic worship each and every time that we gathered together.  The truth is that it takes some time for all of us to shed off the concerns of our week and really press in to that place where we can transcend the music and begin to hear the Lord.

Setting time limitations on worship really hinders the band and the leaders from getting to that prophetic place of hearing God for several reasons.  First, it puts pressure on them to “make it happen” in twenty minutes, or not at all.  Second, it causes them to fly through songs in an attempt to get through the whole song list instead of taking the time to allow songs to develop to the level of prophetic worship.  Finally, if the band is able to get to that secret place, they will be abruptly cut off  as soon as the timer expires.  This causes frustration and reinforces the wrong values.

Things can be decent and orderly without being planned out to the minute.  Allow a little flex time to see what God will do.

Instead of setting a twenty or thirty minute limit for worship, try relying on God to tell you when worship is over and it’s time for the preaching to begin.  By doing that, you’ll allow the Holy Spirit to take control of your services, and you’ll likely see some miraculous things.

2) Fear. It doesn’t matter how much time you allow for worship if your people are scared to step out and be used in a prophetic way.  It’s a little unnerving at first to sing a new song into a microphone and allow your words to be tested for prophetic value.  Concerns range from being afraid that your words won’t rhyme (which nobody really expects anyway) to fearing that your pitch will suffer if you stray from the melody.

What people usually find is that prophetic ministry in the form of song is a beautiful, moving experience once they take the initiative to be used by the Lord in that capacity.  More often than not, singers and musicians will be hunted down by members of the congregation afterward who will gush about how prophetic the new song was, how it touched their heart, etc.  Remember, the song is coming from the Spirit, not the musician.  God’s word, in any form, never returns void.  You have nothing to worry about.  Here’s a cool promise from the book of Isaiah:

“ Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed;
Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame…” (Isaiah 54:4)

Remember, fear is the enemy of faith.  It will strangle the prophetic ministry in your church if you allow it to stand.  Fear can take the form of some less obvious phenomenon from time to time:

• Using Musicianship as a Crutch (“We can’t do that because it’s not written that way.” or “The music says we should do the chorus twice, not five times.”)
• Over-planning worship services (“We will not be deviating from the song list today.”)
• Refusing to allow less talented singers to contribute (“He’s not a good singer, and we don’t want him on the microphone)  If that less talented musician is the one with the word of the Lord for the moment, it won’t matter if he sings it on key or not.

3) Refusing to recognize other forms of prophetic worship besides song. Prophetic song is an awesome experience.  I’ve seen it many times, and it always blesses me.  Truthfully, there are many other (sometimes better) ways to allow the prophetic to flow in your worship services.

Are you prepared to allow prophetic interpretive dance to take center stage during your worship services?  How about prophetic painting?  What if one of your young people get’s 18 bars of prophetic rap from the Lord and wants to share it during your rendition of Amazing Grace?  What if it’s that rap that changes somebody’s life for good?  Would it be worth it then?

I’m challenging you here.  It’s not easy to submit yourself to that level of spiritual diversity, but it’s absolutely essential if you want to see a full expression of God’s heart through worship.  Pray about it.