Music and Spiritual Connections

I continue with the message about our confusion when we hear another voices speak instead of God. But today I will focus on music and the corruption it introduces into our spirituality in our ignorance.

In the last post I mentioned music and instruments and how Satan uses them to advance his agenda even as we think we are in the thick of God-directed worship.

A friend mentioned something as we were talking about this topic. And it agrees with scripture. Instruments are a voice in themselves. They therefore speak a message as they are played. And the message they are carrying is very clear to the spirit world.

A case in point is King Saul when he was possessed by an evil spirit. When David is brought, we do not see him trying exorcism on him or most of the dramatics we see being practiced in churches today. He just plays his harp and healing occurs and the demons flee. Lest you think I am saying my own things let me give the verse. And there had been consistent frustration before then.

And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. (1Samuel 16:23)

And it was not a chance encounter. Saul’s advisors are the ones who offered that solution. It goes without say that they knew the spiritual efficacy of instruments played in the right spirit.

Psalm 19 also speaks of nature speaking a clear message about its creator.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. (Psalm 19: 1 – 3)

The fact that we are unable to understand the message they are speaking does not nullify the fact that they are speaking and our souls and spirits can connect. And as we have seen with David that an instrument played in the right spirit is powerful enough to command demons to leave. Would it not be wise to assume that an instrument played from the demonic spirit will unleash demons?

That is why a reggae tune will be danced the same whether it is in a church or a disco, even when the person hearing it being played has never seen a reggae dance. The spiritual connection being made when the music is played is the same. The lyrics are irrelevant to that spirit.

And you will see the same when it is a tribal tune, or any other tune. The message being spoken by the instrument releases the spirit that originated it.

Have you noticed that spiritual conmen rate music very highly in their ‘worship’? Many times instruments will be playing throughout their service (even when they are speaking), shifting their tempo and intensity depending on the response they expect from the people, from being slain to weeping and raising the hands. Go there with a contrary spirit and you will be spotted very quickly because the spirits released through those instruments will not resonate with your spirit.

Another thing they do is have abnormally long services. I remember going to a church when I was looking for partners in taking discipleship to the grassroots and found that their service runs from 7 am to 2 pm on Sundays. I then understood why it is called the church of women. Very few men can endure such infestation and receiving without corresponding activity. Incidentally there are services most of the other days and women flock there.

That is why a pastor might be jailed for swindling congregants and on being released find that his followers are still there. That is why he may be caught with other men’s wives and his congregation remains solidly behind him even though their wives are at a higher risk of also being abused. That is how a pastor is able to get anything from his starving congregation yet the only thing he does for them is preach. It happens because such services and sermons are demon releasing events.

How loyal are you to your pastor? Why are you loyal? Is it because you can’t live without his sermons or because he helps you grow to know and serve God more? Do you ever hear God speak apart from him? I need to state that him includes her. In fact there may be more hers than hims in this corruption because the Bible is clear about that. Does he ever release the goodies he receives from his congregations outside his loyalists? Or is he the only needy one in the church?

Does his preaching make you feel good and content or does it convict you of sin and selfishness and any other fleshy leanings? Does his preaching help you serve God more or does it cause you to beg God for more? Do you respond to your pastor’s issues more urgently than you would your family? Do you defend him before you have adequate information?

These are some check lists that can help you know that your pastor is cultic. And cultic means he uses demons to gain control over you. And that is why I know that some are screaming at me because I have touched a raw nerve that is their pastoral conman. But think soberly through that list and then go through the scriptures and you will get the point I am putting across.

If the preaching of a pastor does not result in increased holiness or a dwindling congregation initially due to that Christ-centered preaching, it is fair to assume that Christ is not the one being worshipped there.

Sorry for the diversion, but we were talking about music.

Did you know that the first players (most likely makers) of instruments were descendants of Cain? Did you also know that music probably started being played before worship?

And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. (Genesis 4:21)

That verse is in the passage that describes the lineage of Cain. Men starting to call on God come at the end of that chapter when Seth’s line is introduced.

The Bible therefore introduces devil inspired music and instruments before God’s anointed music and instruments.

It is therefore folly to assume that lyrics are the only things carrying a message. And even worse when we think that a tune is an innocent thing when played with anointed lyrics. Again let us get to the Bible.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. (Haggai 2: 11 – 13)

It is impossible to sanctify something that is defiled or from a defiled source. But it is automatic for the defiled object to transfer that defilement to everything it touches.

Why do we think that that reality does not apply to music as to baptize abominations with holy words so that we can comfortably enjoy dainties from God and the devil consequently as if it is possible?

The verses say that when we combine the holy and the profane, the result is that everything becomes profane irrespective of how large or holy the holy portion was. Reminds me of leaven.

Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? (1Corinthians 5:6)

Very little, if any, of the music we call Christian passes that test. And it is important to note that only a pinch of leaven affects a whole lump of flour. We cannot even talk proportions here.

Can a secular producer produce spiritual songs? Can a secular instrumentalist play a spiritual tune? Can a spiritually mixed up musician produce a spiritually relevant song? Can an unbeliever back up a spiritual singer? Can a super star be a Christian singer or producer? Can a Christian producer produce a secular singer or song? And can a Christian singer compose a secular song?

If the lyrics are the only gauge, then all this is possible. But looking at the scriptures and especially those verses from Haggai, it is IMPOSSIBLE. We see the same with Nehemiah and Ezra where even willfully offered assistance and gifts are rejected for the same reason. Read through the Pentateuch and that will be very clear.

But we are doing the mixing and matching in our music. Not only are we using profane persons to help us produce our ‘praise and worship’ songs, we are even stealing our tunes from the devil in our making of those songs. And we are not ashamed to call such songs Gospel!

No wonder we have been unable to deal with immorality in the worship teams, even surrendering the fight to the extent that we employ people we know are or have had a history of immorality because they have the ‘gift’ of music, employing Satan’s servants to handle church music because we think he did it so well in heaven. We willfully forget that he was thrown down from there.

We also talked about we normally call worship ministry and music.

What is worship? What do we see about it in the Bible?

Worship is a willing submission to the Lordship of Jesus. In the Bible almost every incident where worship is mentioned people fall prostrate with their faces to the ground. It also produced a ready willingness to leave all to be able to do whatever the Lord asks. The Strong’s Hebrew for the word translated worship or serve in God’s order to Pharaoh ‘Let My people go that they may abad Me’

a primitive root; to work (in any sense); by implication, to serve, till, (causatively) enslave, etc.:--X be, keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute, + husbandman, keep, labour(-ing man, bring to pass, (cause to, make to) serve(-ing, self), (be, become) servant(-s), do (use) service, till(-er), transgress (from margin), (set a) work, be wrought, worshipper

Does our worship produce that? What is the focus of our worship? What to us is a really fulfilling worship event?

Never in all the scriptures will you find worship that is focused on man. Should any worship offer satisfaction in the human direction or be sought for that purpose, you can be sure that it is inspired by the enemy. Just like greed and gluttony are works of the flesh, worship that seeks to give me gratification is of the flesh. Plainly speaking it is not a worship experience if it does not result in my being emptied so completely so that God can use me however He wants. And I can never worship God and fail in my pursuit of holiness. In fact another related word to worship is holiness, being set apart for God’s exclusive use.

Most of what we call worship is entertainment, plain and simple. God has nothing to do with it as He either is everything or nothing. It is not our joy that gives Him satisfaction. It is our absolute submission that does so. He did not purchase us to belong to ourselves and live for ourselves. He purchased us to swallow our individuality as completely as the car you buy exists for you to do as you will without asking for its permission. That is what lordship is. And that is what worship does; unless it is not the worship of God.

A short summary of the post: Music consists of a lot more than lyrics. Instruments carry a message that our souls and spirits respond to. The origin of that message is the spirit that inspired the player of the instruments. Coating music with good lyrics will not counter the original message and spirit being released by the instruments.

We do not have the capacity to know the kind of spirit responsible for particular songs, even the holiest of them. We have no capacity to know the kind of spirit that released the instrumental and music arrangement of the songs we sing. We could very easily be praising the enemy by our dance when our minds are really connecting to the healthy lyrics from the songs.

What is the solution? How do we know and counter the infiltration of the enemy through the songs we sing? Is there a solution to all this?

The first is to go back to the scriptures. We will need to establish in our hearts that we will do only what the scriptures say. Relevance to society is most times contrary to God as He says that friendship with the world is enmity to God.

Christ gave us an infallible standard to test everything by.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? (Matthew 7:16)

A worshipper who is not ashamed of sin does not worship God. Remember this popular gospel musician who openly confessed that he had left his wife for a homosexual ‘wife’? Though his music and songs may appear very rich and deep, Christ declares him of the devil. There are no two ways about it.

If you are unreachable and unreliable in your dealings with people, I am sorry to say that your worship is not of God. If there are sins you have not conclusively with and that you revisit once in a while, you worship the devil. If pride describes you, you are serving the devil in a greater way than you may admit. If your promise is not worth the paper you write it on, decide that you will stop deceiving people that you serve God. Otherwise you really are a con artist using God’s name for profit.

Worship transforms the worshipper completely and conclusively.

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. (Psalm 40:3)

Another thing we must do is sing songs that God has given us. This is because at least we know the origin of those songs, especially if they are products of our worshipful relationship with the King. One reason we fall into false worship is because we like copying songs, songs we have no idea of their origins. We find a song that excites our flesh (because many times assessing spiritual impact is complicated or illogical) and we want to recreate that feeling. We therefore copy it as accurately as we can.

Did God stop giving songs to His worshippers? Are we so unsure of our relationship to God that we have all but forgotten that simple promise? Are we really worshipping if our outpouring and response to God is copied? Did God stop giving new songs or our relationship is so barren that nothing spiritual can sprout there that we must copy and paste worship experiences?

But there is another very critical truth that we overlook. We do not get songs to record. We sing our worship and praise to God. I know that nowadays someone gets a song and immediately thinks of recording it. That is the wrong purpose for the songs God gives us. He gives us to enrich our relationship with Him. A second reason thinking of recording is dangerous is because songs come for particular purposes. Many songs are personal responses to and revelations from God. The fact that they are sing-able does not mean they are for public use.

But there is a greater danger to that, a danger that leads us straight into the enemy’s snare. God does not give us songs to trade with. In fact the reason many people think recording when they have a song is because an album can make one some good money and the resulting popularity. Again the focus of our songs will determine the path we will go with our songs. Thinking profit is of the devil, however logically we might reason.

I had composed over fifty songs before God gave me an assignment outside music. But there is only one song that I am thinking of recording. Though I sang and taught most of those songs, they were for the most part seasonal and providential. Though they were sound scripturally and solid musically, they ran their course and I will need to jog my mind very hard to remember them. But the one I am talking about has been in my heart and mind all the time though it was among the first songs God gave me. Even now there are many new songs I compose and sing with my family as we fellowship but they are for our family worship as opposed to recording masterpieces.

Singing as an act of worship is an end and not a means to a recording deal. I sing the overflow of my heart to my God and Lord. And we see the same when we look at David’s psalms. We do not see him thinking of them as universal anthems. They are for the most part his responses to a good God and his various situations he faced as he shared them with God.

How can a sane person charge for a worship event? Is that really worship? Can it be unto God? What actually is a worship concert? Can there be a worship performance with what the Bible calls worship? Can one charge to lead worship unto God?

These are some of the issues we must sort out before we can be able to sing praises to the Most High. This is because for the most part what we think is worship is just another flesh inspired performance that is thought as worship because it raises our heart rates or hair bristles. And that may have nothing to do with God.

Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: (Job 4:15)

Surely Eliphaz’s was not a worship experience or God could not have rebuked him later. The spirit that passed before him was therefore the evil one. And I guess many times such things happen in our worship events and especially concerts.

A sure gauge of worship is the transformation that can only be attributed to God. A worship experience that does not deal with your flirting is like Eliphaz’s. A worship experience that does not deal with the lies you speak especially when you are using a cell phone cannot be God’s. A worship encounter that does not result in healthy relationships with those of the opposite sex in your band or singing group is profane. A worship experience that does not make you dependable worships the wrong spirit. In short a worship encounter that does not result in a holiness that is evident to all at all time is not worship at all, at least not the worship of God.

A worshipper does not have to sing. Ezra prayed in secret until the whole congregation was convicted to get right with God. Samuel prayed and it rained during harvest and the people repented of their sins.

Will we worship God as He orders?