How can we move towards making the “private, group, and public” spaces of Spirit Music Meetups “holy”?

 

 

These 3 Meet-Up fellowships should not be treated as just any o’ common get-togethers, because then they wouldn’t be “vessels of honor” (a) – they would no longer be “special or uncommon” times of fellowship with God.  For that reason, we need to guard these times from distractions from our flesh, from the world, and especially from of other people’s flesh – saved or unsaved – that will beg to take control away from the Holy Spirit.  <Notes> a) 2 Timothy 2:20.

 

Here are some suggestions – the Spirit-Practice and Spirit-Perform pages have others:

 

• Although we are considering practical ways below to make our external space and time “holy,” we also need to consider the moral aspect of hagios as “unmixed purity,” so take some time to reflect on these verses and their context: “As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (a) and Since the heaven and earth are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and/coupled godliness” (b).  A much more frequent, related term to meditate on is hagnos meaning “pure from the flesh’s faults, immaculate, chase, modest” (c). <Notes> a) 1 Peter 1:15-16, b) 2 Peter 3:11, c) Meditate on these verses:  2 Corinthians 7:11; 11:2; Philippians 4:8; 1 Timothy 5:22; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:2; James 3:17; 1 John 3:3.

 

• Read the Anointing, Prophetic Rhema, and Spontaneous Music pages to understand what actually “is possible together with God” in koinonia fellowship (a) and take obedient steps of faith toward this. This will profoundly change what you do with your time and space, whether it will be “common” or “uncommonly, special, or holy” to the Lord. <Notes> a) Matthew 19:26.

 

• Turn your phone off and close the doors. Shut out the world’s distractions!  I don’t know how many times I just sat down to be in the presence of the Lord and to let Him send music into me and through me out onto the drums, and suddenly I was barraged by text notifications or phone calls or someone knocks on my house door!  I will never forget how many times a group of us would take turns going up to a microphone at the Gospel Rescue Mission to give our testimony.  Now during the worship there were no flies when we were sitting down, but as soon as you opened you mouth at the microphone to give your testimony, so much horn honking and outside sirens would come streaming through the windows, and flies would suddenly be at the microphone – talk about distractions!  Satan, Beelzebub as “the lord of the flies,” sure did not want those ruined men to be “overcome by the word of our testimony” (a)! <Notes> a) Revelation 12:11.

 

• Put your watch in your pocket and set a timer if you have a “hard break” deadline to be somewhere else. I put my “tic-tock” wind-up timer outside my closed door so I don’t look at the dial or listen to it.  There is nothing ruder than a student looking at the clock during a lesson, so I have it behind them but visible to me so that I can teach everything I need to during the lesson time.  When we are with God, we need to be focused on His every directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word, every feeling of His that He shares with us, and every vision we eido mentally “see” to understand/know for Him.  When need the clock distraction out of our view and out of our mind, and focus on our “One Teacher.”  We need to give Him that control over our time and attention and not be rude to Him.  I’ve seen/felt so many churches quench the Holy Spirit because they cared more about their clock and schedule than the presence of God – these are stones from the world building The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit in the Church.  It’s so rude, but “unconditional-love is not rude, insisting on its own way” (a), yet “these people draw near (b) with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, while their hearts are from Me, and their reverential awe of Me is but a commandment taught by men” (c).  Let’s be different from the pack! <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 13:5, b) Hebrew idiom for worship or ‘kiss toward’, c) Isaiah 29:13.

 

• Dedicate, consecrate, or set apart this time and place specifically for the Lord, thus making it holy, “for everything created by God is beautifully, harmoniously, magnificently, inspiringly excellent (h), and absolutely nothing in fact is to be rejected if it received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy (a) by the logos gospel message [of trusting-relying-faith in Christ, who is The Truth] and/coupled childlike-confidently-approaching-by-faith–prayer (b)” (c). Paul was arguing against the Jews who had 100s of commandments about what couldn’t “be handled, tasted, or touched” from the written and oral Torah Law (d).  Religion will always try to take away your “freedom in Christ” (e), but “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (f), and in every context it is “freedom from the Torah Law of conditional-favor that brings sin and death” (g).  The gospel alone gives us childlike, confident, trusting-relying-faith to approach the Father in proseuche conversational-prayer and to trust him that we no longer have to keep 613 rules to be right and pleasing to Him.  <Notes> a) hagiazo: consecrated, dedicated, made holy, b) enteuxis, c) 1 Timothy 4:4-5, d) Colossians 2:21, e) Galatians 2:4, f) 2 Corinthians 3:17, g) Romans 8:2, h) kalos.

 

Now if you think music isn’t part of “everything created by God,” so that the above doesn’t apply, then you are in for a big surprise!  The Church of Christ I was saved in doesn’t even believe in instrumental music in church – Man, they really don’t know the original languages of the bible!  Also, everybody who has ever seen heaven or heard its sounds will tell you that there is non-stop music emanating from everything and it is perfectly blended.  I’ve been told by the Lord that I and other musicians will play in God’s many courtyards!  The worship music before God’s throne is non-stop, and eternally blessed are those bright-shining musicians!  Lucifer was once the great worship-leader angel of light (a) because his giant wings were studded with many diamonds to reflect the glory of the Lord into many colors.  I’ve had so many God-dreams about music I can’t keep up!  I have a friend that woke up hearing an orchestra of violins playing in unison a hymn from church.  So take time to apply 1 Timothy 4:4-5 above to your music! <Notes> a) Ezekiel 28:13-19 – Lucifer was originally the “signet of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.”

 

• But prayer is more than just a monologue of giving God our laundry list of requests or supplications (a), even if we are confident they are in the will of God and thus would be answerable (b). The Lord calls us to an intimate dialogue or conversation with Him, where we gaze in awe with wide-open eyes upon (c) each other as lovers do, the same way Christian prophets eido mentally ‘see” to understand/know visions (d), where we akouo hear/listen to understand to each other, just as with any intimate, koinonia sharing fellowship.  This is a special kind of Jewish ‘drawing near’ into the presence of God (e) or the more common word for coming close (f), even to actually touch the Lord (g), even boldly approaching God in trusting-relying-faith (h) instead of by works (i), but there is only 1 letter difference between proserchomai for “drawing near” and the common Greek verb proseuchomai or noun proseuche for this waiting, watching, listening, conversational-prayer with God.  <Notes> a) deesis, b) 1 John 5:14-15, c) optanomai: Matthew 5:8; John 16:22; Romans 15:21; Acts 13:31; 1 John 3:2, d) Acts 2:17, e) eggizo into the very prescence: James 4:8; 1 Peter 4:7; Hebrews 7:19, f) Hebrews 7:25, proserchomai:  a Hebraism for “seeking an audience with, approaching, inquiring of, calling on to visit, or be heard by” God, thus closely akin in spelling and meaning to proseuche conversational-prayer and proskuneo worship, g) Luke 8:44, h) Hebrews 4:16, 10:22, 11:6, i) Hebrews 10:1.

 

Conversational-prayer is where we are “taught by God” (a), even when practiced during Christian koinonia fellowship when we can then be taught by one another, where we can akouo hear/listen to directly-spoken prophetic rhema words of God, where we can optanomai gaze in awe with wide-open eyes upon God (b), where we acquire the genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of God, and where we can even worship the Lord!  This is where the real “work” gets done in/by/with the Spirit.  Start and stay in this “zone” while you are playing and you will see a huge difference in results! <Notes> a) John 6:45; 1 Thessalonians 4:9, b) Matthew 5:8.

 

• Bible study done to have the knowledge of God is just another false religious “tradition of men,” as if “The Truth” was scriptural knowledge! The scribes and Pharisees were expert bible students, but look what Jesus said of them:  “You diligently search/study the scriptures because you suppose that in them you will lay hold of zoe genuine-life everlasting, but it is they that bear witness of Me, yet you refuse to COME TO ME that you may have zoe genuine-life” (a).  Paul said:  “Where is the wise one?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world” (b)?  Clearly “The Way” to God and worshipping Him is absolutely not more “WHATS” to learn, but the “WHO” of Jesus Christ to surrender ourselves to in order to genuinely, experientially, relationally epiginosko know  Better to spend your time in proseuche conversational-prayer and worship!  <Notes> a) John 5:39-40, b) 1 Corinthians 1:20.

 

• As prophetic musicians, we must shun religious advice on “WHAT to study harder” and even to “WHAT to practice harder” (a) in order to be more prepared for God to “use us,” and instead become more like “little children” who surrender ourselves to knowing WHO the Lord is by being relentlessly devoted to conversational-prayer like the early Christians were (b). Being taught directly by God is the key to the genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of God, so “we have absolutely in fact no need that someone should write to us or to teach us” (c)! <Notes> a) perfecting our “might and power”, b) Acts 2:42, 6:4; 1 Corinthians 7:5, c) 1 Thessalonians 4:9; 1 John 2:20, 27.

 

• Confess or agree with the Lord about the truth concerning where you’ve been with your own “might and power” equipment, knowledge, skill, and control in trying to musically “do it for God” and repent of this! That is, make a 180 degree about-face decision to go in the other direction by surrendering control of your “might and power” external resources and internal abilities to the Lord.  Until you are at the end of your rope and are willing to take that “step of faith to let go” of all your resources, all your skill, and all your control and instead completely have trusting-relying-faith in the Lord that He is there to catch you as you fall, then you will not be ready to take that “step of faith to let God,” and so you consequently will not be filled by the Holy Spirit’s anointed ability but left with you limited ability!

 

That’s because true repentance is a total surrender of your control to “let go and let God.”  The Holy Spirit won’t bargain or compromise with anybody, nor will He be controlled, and certainly not by you.  If you hold on with 0.5% of that rope, saying to yourself and God that you want the Holy Spirit to have the other 95.5% control of you, this sounds like you are being generous.  However, God doesn’t do fractions when it comes to you!  He doesn’t compete with any of your “might and power.”  God’s infinite gentleness of Galatians 5:23 prevents Him from twisting anybody’s arm, even a little bit.  He comes into catch you only after you “let go and let God.”  And He is patient until you finally “get there,” because He knows how little children are so insistent of their own ways.

 

You must die to your own abilities.  As Jesus was preparing for His journey to Jerusalem to die, He turned to His disciples and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Whoever loves his life shall actually lose it, but whoever hates/despises his life in this world shall actually keep it for eternal life.  If anyone would serve Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also.  If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him” (a).  The “seed” doesn’t come to life on the way to the ground, or even when it hits the ground, but when it gets “into the earth and dies.”  This naturally takes some time, so be patient.  The Lord showed me once that in order to receive a grace-gift from the Spirit you have to open your hand and “let go” of what you’re holding onto so tightly – exchanging our “might and power” for God’s filling and Spirit-power!  Jesus came to “set the captives free with The Truth, Himself” (b).  We are all prisoners of “traditions of men” that keep us imprisoned until the Lord frees us, but if we want to experience this freedom, we have to walk through that door when He unlocks it. <Notes> a) John 12:24-26, b) Luke 4:18; John 8:32, 36, 14:6.

 

• Invoke the Holy Spirit to have complete control of this holy time and space. Start out and stay fully surrendered to the control of the Holy Spirit.  Abandon the “might and power” of your flesh, your pride and trusting-relying-faith (a) in its external resources and internal abilities in exchange for “in/by/with the Spirit.”  Like the apostle Paul, consider it all “a pile of excrement compared to the surpassing gnosis info-knowledge belonging to Christ” (b).  Give up your “self-control” for the “self-control” of the Holy Spirit that is just one “flavor” of the [singular] fruit of His unconditional-love (c). Contrary to so much false teaching out there, “self-control” is not one of the [plural] fruits of the Holy Spirit, and it sure isn’t a fruit itself that you are somehow “to do” or “work” for God to acquire!  The Spirit’s “self-control” only comes when you are fully surrendered to “The unconditional-Love that belongs to Christ that constrains us” (d).  You can’t find it in any “Do not handle, touch, taste’ regulations from humanly-maintained precepts and teachings – including OT dietary laws, festivals, new moons, Sabbaths, etc. which are only [fuzzy] shadows of things to come but the substance/reality belongs to Christ.  Although they actually have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-maintained religion and asceticism and severity to the body, they are absolutely in fact of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (e). <Notes> a) pistis: relational conviction of trusting reliance, b) Philippians 3:8, c) Galatians 5:22-23, d) 2 Corinthians 5:14, e) Colossians 2:16-23.

 

“Self-control” in our moral life is absolutely impossible outside of the rapturing, unconditional-love of the Holy Spirit.  And if you want complete control over your voice and instrument to produce the most glorious music of heaven, you have to throw all your pride-blinded illusion of “self-control” by your own “might and power” works right in the “excrement can” and join the apostle Paul to receive “the surpassing gnosis info-knowledge that belongs to Christ.” <Notes> a) Philippians 3:8.

 

• Invoke the Holy Spirit to come to establish the Kingdom of God and Christ in this holy time and We proseuchomai conversationally-pray to the Father for His “Kingdom to come and His will to be done,” but this only happens when we “ongoingly crave and boldly ask for the good grace-gift of the Holy Spirit” (a).  The reign of the Holy Spirit IS God’s Kingdom come and His will being done on earth as it is already in heaven!  The dunamis Spirit’s enabling-power is the “dynamite-like action hero” of the Godhead – see the Promised Spirit and Spirit-Power pages.  Until we are “routinely filled with all the fullness of God . . . routinely filled by the means of the Holy Spirit” (b), there is absolutely no hope for anything but the “inherent weakness, feebleness, impotence, worthlessness, uselessness, and failure of the flesh” (c), but “together with God all things are possible” (d).  Routine Spirit-baptism is the unique ministry of Christ and the New Covenant.  This is absolutely vital to produce anointed, prophetic, even spontaneous music!  <Notes> a) Luke 11:1-13, b) Ephesians 3:19, 5:18, c) Matthew 26:41; John 6:63, d) Matthew 19:26.

 

• Invoke the Holy Spirit to be the “One Teacher” (a) of the “One Leader (b) Jesus of His “One Father (c)” (d). Trust in ONE to do this!  Trust what the apostle John wrote to warn Christians about the error and deception that can and often comes with human teachers:  “But you already have been anointed by the Holy One and thus you all already have, with ongoing results, mentally ‘seen’ to perceive/know (e).  I write to you, absolutely not in fact because you absolutely do not in fact, already, with ongoing results, mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know (e) The Truth, but because you do already, with ongoing results, mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know (e) it. . . . But the anointing that you have already received from Him ongoingly abides/remains in/by/with you and thus you ongoingly have absolutely in fact no need that anyone might ongoingly teach  But just as His anointing actually, ongoingly teaches you about ALL things and/coupled is trustworthy and/coupled not a lie – just as it has already actually taught you, abide/remain in Him” (f) – see the Teach One Another page.  <Notes> a) didaskalos, b) kathegetes: the leader who brings others down the road of learning, c) pater, d) Matthew 23:8-10 – see Teach One Another – BT10, e) eido, some manuscripts: “you have all knowledge”, f) 1 John 2:20-27.

 

This mentally ‘seeing’ to perceive eido knowledge is the way prophets (old and new) knew God – they didn’t read or study gnosis info-knowledge about God through scripture as the Jewish scribes and Pharisees did.  This was also a slap in the face of the Gentile Gnostics, and actually a warning to every Christian who had the anointing or Holy Spirit to stay clear of both – see the Knowledge page.

 

• Protect yourself during this holy time! Invoke the Holy Spirit’s protection, even by angels of God!  The Lord has shown me to go inside the Great Fortress-Rock of Christ, where I can abide/dwell/rest in Christ (h), where I’m completely safe from the world of sin, the flesh, and the devil.  I can also call for the anointing of God to pour over me like thick oil made of gold (i), wrapping me within His parakletos comfort, enveloping me in Him to save me from all danger.  It’s also a good idea to follow Paul’s advice in Ephesians 6:11-28 to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil . . . for we wrestle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places (a) . . . put on the belt of The Truth (b) . . . breastplate of righteousness (c) . . . shoes put on for the readiness given by the logos gospel message of peace (d) . . . taking up the shield of trusting-relying-faith (e) to extinguish ALL the flaming arrows of the evil one . . . putting on the helmet of salvation (f) and the sword of the Spirit which is the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of God, proseuchomai conversationally-praying at all time in/by/with the Spirit (g) with all types of proseuche conversational-prayer and deesis” <Notes> a) that’s 4 levels of hierarchy, b) Jesus Christ per John 14:6 is the logos Word/Message of God per John 1:1 who has given His logos gospel message of The Truth per Ephesians 1:13, c) Jesus Christ, our righteousness, the Holy One, d) Jesus, the Prince of peace, e) pistis: relational conviction of trusting reliance on Jesus, f) by Jesus our Savior, g) likely tongues: 1 Corinthians 14:14-15, h) John 15:1-11, i) Zechariah 4:12.

 

 

• Watch out for judgmental words! If you start hearing negative critique of your playing or negative judgments about how you are wasting your time and that you should be doing something more productive, I’ve found these to be the discouraging, accusing voice of Satan and his fallen angels and created demons.  They will bring your emotions down, darken your thinking, distract your concentration, tire you out, and make you want to quit!  Immediately, use your God-given delegated name/authority of Jesus to say, “The Lord rebuke you” (a)!  Concerning the forces of darkness, if “you give them an inch, they will take a mile!”  So “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (b).  Use the authority Christ gave us:  “Whatever you bind/tie up on earth shall be bound/tied up in heaven, and whatever you loose/unbind/untie on earth shall be loosed/unbound/untied in heaven.”  These are the “keys of the Kingdom of Heaven” so that the “gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church” (c).  One key binds, the other key looses. <Notes> a) Jude 1:9; Zechariah 3:2; Luke 10:17, b) 2 Corinthians 10:5, c) Matthew 16:19, 18:18.

 

“Binding and loosing” is what rabbis were given authority to do under the Torah Law of conditional-favor, enforcing or making God’s commandments “binding” or making it easier for others by untying or “loosening” the burden of commandments on others’ backs and carrying it for them.  Jesus heavily criticized the Pharisees for “binding,” even greatly adding to the Law with their own “Traditions of the Elders” that were often contradictory, but ignoring their “loosening” prerogative.  They were good at “commanding” and “adding to the commandments,” but not at “merciful helping” or “subtracting from their own commandments” (a). Whereas Jesus, the gentle and lowly Good Shepherd, makes the burden light because His yoke or training harness is easy (b).  <Notes> a) Matthew 23:2-4, 23; Luke 11:46; Acts 15:10; Mark 7:3-9, b) Matthew 11:28-30.

 

Well, when it comes to “binding and loosing” of “spirit forces of evil,” you will find the NT speaks often of commanding/binding demons from their activity to come out of people in the name/authority of Jesus, delegating us authority and Spirit-power over the enemy (a) in order to “loose/unbind/untie” the demonic burden on people’s lives so they can walk easier and lighter (b).  We have no authority in and of ourselves, but delegated authority because we are children of the King (c).  For “God did not give us a spirit of fear or timidity but of enabling-power (d) and unconditional-love and self-control” (e).  Unless you use this grace-gift, you will still be intimidated and even enslaved!  <Notes> a) Luke 10:19, b) Matthew 7:22; Mark 1:27, 9:25, 38, 16:17; Luke 4:36; Acts 16:18, c) Jude 1:8-10; Romans 8:17, d) dunamis, e) 2 Timothy 1:7.

 

• Get your head out of your music stand ASAP. Commit what you are doing mostly or entirely to memory so that you can watch and listen to more and more of what God wants to show you and say to you during your playing.  Much of the Christian life is creating opportunities for God to act and patiently waiting in expectant faith for this to happen!

 

• I use a mirror so I can better see what God is trying to show me about my technique! A picture really is worth a 1000 words – even 10,000 words!  Then you will see the “One Teacher” at work!  You can also see the effect on your face when the Holy Spirit fills you with joy!  This itself is an encouragement that the Lord is at work!

 

Can you think of anything else that will help people?  Let’s not fall into legalism, back into a “yoke of slavery,” thinking that we have to have more commandments and rules to box us in.  I’ve only added the above as suggestions.  We have only 2 commandments of trusting-relying-faith and unconditional-love in the New Covenant Way.  “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”  But what other suggestions may help us move in the direction of sacred spaces to eido see and akouo hear from the Lord more easily?  Has the Lord taught you something that will help others?