I can remember one of my heart’s prayers about 15 years ago when I had been impacted by the move of the Spirit that hit Toronto. That prayer was that the Lord would in some way use the sounds of worship in my life to lift the prophets up in such a way as to hear the voice of God. I so clearly saw the connection between the sounds of worship and how they helped me to come to a place of experiencing His anointing and hearing His voice that I wanted to somehow see this happen on a broader scale.
In desperation, desire and just my lack of being satisfied with sitting in a pew on Sunday morning in a big church I found a Christian Classified paper. In this I found an advertisement that a worship leader was needed for a small church meeting in an electric company. So I responded to this ad and they welcomed me to do worship. At the time I played an acoustic guitar and God in His divine plan brought me an anointed drummer and keyboardist. We were called the three Js. It was John, John and Jason. It was an anointed combination. The other John was a dear African American brother that played the drums with passion. He knew the winds of the Spirit and was always on track with God. I remember numerous times when the anointing would hit and his eyes would always get as big as saucers! You knew that God was in the house! Jason, the keyboardist, flowed like a river. I always recommended the keyboard pad sounds under his piano. It added that extra ethereal element.
So here we were at the electric company having church. The people had come from a Presbyterian Church split. Can you imagine And most had not ever lifted up their hands, but by the time 2 months had rolled by that was a different story. They were lifting up their hands and worshiping with their hearts. Then a thick weighty presence began to fill the place on a regular basis. So much so that some could feel it before they even made it through the doors of the building! Then we began praying for people at the end of services. I remember one specific instance where a previously unchurched lady was prayed for while worship was flowing. She was completely knocked out by the electric Presence of God, completely out. The people in the congregation were so new to this Holy Spirit thing that they asked if they needed to call the hospital.
The Anointing
The Lord loves talent but He does not need it. Anointing always wins over performance and talent but it is always great when you can have both. But God will get a rock to praise Him if we don’t. He can use anything, even a donkey! He can use us! It really is all about the anointed sound that is accessed from heaven. Just hit the right heavenly divinely appointed note. On a music album I recently listened to, it is just one chord throughout the entire album. This guy can play just about anything on the planet but he only hits one chord on his keyboard. He lands on this chord in a live worship setting, the angels of God come and so he locks his keyboard pedal to find a place on the floor to go soak and let God do the rest.
The Voice in A Sound
A sound can be referred to as a voice. If you buy a synthesizer keyboard at the store and look in its programs you will see that there are voices that create sounds. I believe that this is true of all sounds. Sounds carry a voice or voices. There is DNA in the sound. So when a sound that is from heaven is released there is a seed within that sound that when tapped into will release the prophetic word of God in our hearts and through our mouths.
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.
Revelation 4:1
Worship lifts us to a higher place. The prophetic is seeing in that higher place. In our lives we typically see the heart and voice of God. Come up here and I will show you what must take place. That is coming up higher. It is high praise and worship that takes us there.
Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Revelation 19:10
We must ascend to the mountain of the Lord. Only those with clean hands and a pure heart are able to ascend (Ps. 24:4). Those who stay in the outer courts of just noisy soul-emanating praise will not ascend to the hill of God if they don’t learn to make the transition into the intimate divine worship that flows from the well of our spirit (Heb. 9:8). I love exuberant passionate praise. But there must come a transition where it is no longer just coming from our soul. The inner man (the spirit Eph. 3:16) within us must be releasing the sound. That is where the power of God lies dormant and where the Holy Spirit connects. Those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23).
We must come to a place of silencing noise. There are many voices that come from so many directions that we must be able to shut them out so that we can hear the One voice that matters (1 Kings 19:12-13). True obedience is never realized until we can hear His voice distinctly (John 10:27). But if we can come into His manifested tangible Presence in such a way that it lingers on our lives we can hear His voice clearly and know His will. Therefore, high praise and worship enable us to break through the veil that separates heaven and earth (Psalm 149:6). When we push through that membrane we are able to ascend into the light of God’s realm. In this place we can see. Revelation is realized. His voice and heart is seen. It is then from this place that we can speak prophetically the words that we see.
Out of the Depths
So what qualifies as high praise High praise is when it is no longer just a cool worship song to sing. It is when the sound or words are flowing from the depths of our being, from deep in our hearts. It is the same with prayer. Prayer must flow from deep within us.
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
Psalm 42:7
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
The deep heart of God calls to the depths of our spirit. When we speak or sing from the depths of our being our worship and words will have weight. And that is what all of us really want deep within us. Oh! That everything that we do would flow from the depths of our spirit (2 Cor. 4:7). So that when high praise is released it triggers a reaction in the spirit realm. It breaks through the barriers. It overthrows the natural boundaries through the anointed sound. When the anointed sound is released it will affect those around you. It establishes heaven’s atmosphere while displacing darkness. It will cause prophetic words to rise up in the hearts of people.
I’m sure that many of us have been in home settings where you have a good number of people gathered. Someone begins to release a sound in praise to God or a certain chord is struck on the instrument and it triggers someone to release a prophetic word, then another person and another person. Then everyone is standing in line to release his or her prophetic words. Someone pops the cork and everyone wants in on the party! That is how it works. The sound inspires because its inspiration is from heaven. The anointed sound brings multiplication.
Fresh Infatuation with the Spirit
This is why impartation is so important. We need to have anointed impartation upon our lives so that we will live in a place of multiplication and fruitfulness. Just by hanging out with God we can receive so much anointing from the Holy Spirit.
But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him.
1 John 2:27
There needs to be a fresh infatuation with the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It is He who breathes on us. It is He who creates the sounds. He is the source of all anointed sounds. We must continually invite His manifested Presence and activity in our midst (John 14:16-17). May the Holy Spirit of God release His sound within your spirit that you may be taken to a higher place to see the realm of heaven and know the heart of God.