Leaders, Worship Leading, Worship Theology
#ClosenessWithGod
#ClosenessWithGod
3 min read
How’s Your Connection?
Before you lead the song, do you think about your connection to God? Do you feel truly connected, or is there something that stands in the way and competes for your attention? It is possible to be better connected, and it’s not found in leading worship.It’s found in living worship, you can be closer to God like never before. Leading worship doesn’t start with the lights, the music or the stage. It begins with God and what He begins in you.
So how can you be authentically connected to God?
I’ve heard worship leaders say that they can lead the worship and music just fine. The problem is their hearts are not connected. They feel like they are going through the motions in their own church. They may not have a problem worshiping somewhere else, but when it comes to their congregation, they cannot find themselves in worship. Is this you? Number one: Do not be deceived to believe there is something wrong with you. In fact, there is something right. What is it? Your response to God’s prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Number two: Your vocation is your vocation. Because your role as a volunteer or staff is a leadership position, it is a job – in the sense that it is a task to perform. You lead people in worship and song – just as the pastor leads people in the word, prayer and message. More often than you realize, leaders in this position get burned out. Regardless, God’s love for you never changes and your relationship with Him comes first.
So how do we deal with disconnectedness?
Don’t mistake His voice. When we listen to the Holy Spirit, we become in-tune with God. But how do you hear Him? Remember that feeling you get when you feel like your spiritual wifi is spotty or blocked? It’s not just you recognizing the interference, it is the Holy Spirit Himself prompting you to the issue. There should be a comfort here, not a condemnation.The Lord desires to draw you close, not to turn you away. We are to hear His voice and do what He says. This is how we become connected, this is what God says about it in His word: “So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,” Heb 3.7 Put it this way: if you didn’t care about what you were feeling, that connection interference would not matter. What you may be you experiencing is God Himself, stirring in your soul, a need to draw near and close to Him. Isn’t that comforting?
Let us not ignore the Voice of the Lord. May we embrace what the Holy Spirit is doing to bring us in connection with him. You may say or feel, “yeah, but I’m so far off, how will God accept me / draw me near?” There is nothing more you can do to gain God’s attention. There is nothing more you can do to make Him love you anymore or less.
His nature and character is love and chooses to compassionately pursue you. It is the grace and mercy of Jesus, not your works and effort to be connected to God. James 4.8 encourages us, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Even when we feel far-off or under-confident, Hebrews also reminds us to: “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.”
“Before we connect with the church, we first connect with God.” @BranonDempsey
How can we increase our spiritual bandwidth?
As a leader in worship or in the church, your relationship and worship with God is the number one priority. Because He draws us close, he brings us into alignment of His word. His ways become our ways, His thoughts become our thoughts. (Ref. Isa.55.9) We are to be one in Him, by His word and by his spirit.This kind of connectedness results in giving God worship, thanks and praise. When we allow the Lord to work in our lives, our spirits will naturally respond in worship, and not mechanically out of tradition or compulsion.
Theme of the week:
#ClosenessWithGod
The key is: before we connect with the church and leading worship, we are to be connected to God first in our personal relationship/worship. It is becoming one with Him alone as He is one with us. What better way is there to lead worship among our church, when we are one with God?
What God wants is your heart, not your music. He desires your full connectivity. He loves you, accepts you and longs to bring you into His hands. So let him have all of you. Be close to God.
@BranonDempsey @worshiptt
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