Song is a powerful thing in the Lord isn't it? It almost feels like you are there. I guess that is the purpose isn't it? When the Lord gives us a song in our hearts, He is in effect trying to take us to another place. He is bringing us into His Presence where His Voice can be heard more clearly. When you hear the music, move towards it. Song is a powerful thing in the Lord.
I once heard Henry Gruver with Joyful Sound Ministries tell a story about how God taught him this principle. As a very young man at the age of 18, he began spending one night a week passing out Bible tracts on the Skid Row streets of Phoenix in 1961. He would walk around after dark and pass out his material to whomever would take one. After many weeks of doing this he started noticing most of his tracts were blowing around in the wind on the ground, having been continually discarded by the people he was handing them to.
In frustration he went to the Lord and asked him how to more effectively minister to the people. The Lord's response to him was simple: "When you walk, I will put a song in your heart and I will give you peace. Only walk where you continually have that song and have that peace. If ever at anytime you lose that song and that peace, stop and go back to the last place you had it and either stay there or continue walking in another direction. Wherever you go, maintain that peace and that song. Now start walking!" (I am trying to repeat the words as best as I remember Henry tell them).
So Henry re-engages the streets of Phoenix. He goes back out one night and the Lord gives him a song in his heart and gives him peace. He continues to walk only when and where he has them. If he stepped onto a sidewalk or in a direction where he lost that song and that peace, he would back up, go to the last place that he remembered having it, and go in another direction. On this night, he eventually finds himself standing still outside of the front door of a tavern in one particular area of downtown. That is where the Lord led him. Everytime he would try to move from that spot he would lose his song and his peace. So he finally just committs to standing still on the sidewalk where the Lord placed him.
All of the sudden, out of nowhere, a drunk man comes flying out of the door of the tavern and charges directly at Henry. The man ran right up to him, got right in his face and started screaming at him. The man was demon possessed. Suddely the man rears back and tries to punch Henry in the face. When he did he completely missed Henry who is just standing there with his feet glued to the ground. Henry can't move. He's just standing there and everytime the man tries to punch him he "miraculously" misses. The Lord was causing him to miss and protecting his servant, who was abiding in God's song and God's peace.
At that point Henry began to pray and ask the Lord to make this man go away. While all of this was happening people were just pouring out of the tavern because a fight was breaking out. So here is Henry, just standing there with his pockets bulging with tracts and people standing everywhere around him. Suddenly the demoniac turns around and goes back into the tavern. At that point God focused Henry's attention on a man standing in the crowd watching what was going on. The Lord told him to go tell the man that Jesus loved him. So Henry walks over, tells this guy that Jesus loves him, and the man just breaks down and starts crying and confessing that he knows that what Henry is telling him is true. Then the Lord speaks to Henry to minister to another man in the crowd who is just standing their crying as he is watching all of this unfold. The presence of the Lord just broke forth in the moment and started dealing with the hearts of the people, and all because an 18 year old kid started walking with a song in his heart. Suddenly people in the crowd are asking him for tracts. He completely emptied his pockets of tracts before the police showed up.
The point I believe we need to make is this. When we get up in the morning and engage life itself, we need to be listening for a song. Jesus will give us a song if we will listen for it. One of the key ways that his voice manifests is in SONG. It is a powerful manifestation of the voice of the Lord. Look at the following verse:
"For God does speak - now one way, now another - though man may not perceive it." Job 33:14
The word "perceive" in this verse is the Hebrew word Shoor. Shoor is defined two ways in Hebrew. One, it means to be perceptive or discerning. Secondly, it means to stroll about with a song in your heart. So according to the Hebrew language, a person who is discerning and perceiving what God is saying in his heart is a person that also continually has a song in the heart......Do you remember the prophet Elisha? In 2 Kings 3 we find him ministering prophetically to the kings of Israel, Edom and Judah...but not before the music starts playing.
"But now bring me a harpist. While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha and he said......" 2 Kings 3:15
Elisha prophesied as the harpist was playing. Elisha could perceive and discern the mind of Christ because he could hear the song, the joyful sound.
"Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance." Psalm 89: 15.
Worship helps facilitate a flow of the voice of the Lord. Actually, spiritual worship in the form of a song is the beginnings of the voice of the Lord. He gives a song to us. He speaks to us in song.
"He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God." Psalm 40:3
It serves two purposes in our walks with the Lord. One, we hear God in song as we are fellowshipping with him in prayer. Two, we hear God in song as we go about God's business on the streets of our cities and communities, our jobs and our homes, among our families and friends and among people we do not yet know. The Lord speaks to us in song continually if we will just listen to our hearts. Song is a manifestation of the voice of the Lord. When you are hearing a psalm, hymn or spiritual song you are, in effect, hearing God's voice. Consider the following two verses.
"...be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ....." Ephesians 5:18,19
"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." Colossians 3:15,16
Our hearts should be an atmosphere where both peace and the word of God (the voice of God) dwells in us in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Peace and Song go together as we are "in Christ."
"If any man be in Christ he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17
The voice of the Lord will carry with us throughout the day, from the time we get up in the morning until the time we go to bed, and even throughout the night at times, in Song. When we go before the Lord in prayer we reach for him, exam ourselves, respond to conviction if he brings it, and then we move in Song. As we leave the closet and go forth in His Work we can expect a continaution of the peace of God that accompanies Song. Song is a powerful thing in the Lord because Song is in fact the manifestation of his voice in one of its various forms.
Can you hear the joyful sound? Can you hear the Song the Lord is giving to you today? Ask for a song and go forth in peace. Ask him for it. It's a part of our inheritance in Him. Be Blessed.
JEB
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