Mike Burris Story for starting Spirit Music Meet-Ups
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Video – Intro to Spirit Music Meetups
Mike Burris’s Professional, Drum-Teaching, and Bible-Teaching Resumes
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Click on Pic for Mike Burris directing his Krakatoa Drum & Percussion Ensemble
Mike Burris founded the Spirit Music Meet-Ups organization for the worldwide music community on November 1st 2020 because the Lord had given him many prophetic dreams, visions, and directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words since 2010 concerning the worship music he had played since 1983. This gave him a real burden inside him, but this culminated in October 2020 when the Lord told him WHO he was NOT by taking him ‘through memory lane’ with the ‘jobs’ he has had and then finally declaring WHO he was – giving him his identity! Here is his recounting of the key events from 1972-2020 so you can understand his motivation for starting this ministry. Scan it if you get bored!
Mike Burris’ Story – The Early Years:
In 1972 at 12 I did landscape cleanup for years in Phoenix, Arizona to buy my first real drum set that cost me $1000. At 16 I scooped ice cream for a while at Baskin Robbins, and later cleaned up a beauty salon every night with my sister. At 17 I worked at Smitty’s Grocery store bagging, stocking, and doing carts and customer service to save for college. I also worked for that summer as an assistant in my dad’s drywall company to save more money. From 1977-80 until I was 20 I worked as a meat-cutter assistant and night-cleanup at Bashas Grocery store while going to Glendale Community College for an A.A. degree with honors – see Mike’s Resumes. My music-minor scholarship helped with money.
In 1980 at 20 I worked in the Watershed Management dept. of the University of Arizona to earn money, along with scholastic scholarships for a B.S. degree in Watershed-Management Hydrology with honors. One summer I did door-to-door encyclopedia sales in San Antonia, TX, but other summers I did my landscape business to get through college. I was always in school, working, or doing both. I became a Christian in September 1980 through the Church of Christ on campus. I felt the Spirit at my water-baptism but didn’t know what that was because the church didn’t teach about the Holy Spirit.
My Senior year in 1983 at 23 yrs old, after watching my church split from leaders fighting for control, and myself only knowing God through bible-study, I searched for God in prayer to see if Christianity was even real, or all this was just a cult. I gave up one day after a month of no contact with God, but as I turned around, before I could think another thought or take a step, I suddenly lost all strength, fell to the ground, and was filled with overwhelming unconditional-love followed by tears of joy and incredible peace.
I still didn’t know that was the Holy Spirit or that this was a Spirit-Baptism or Filling, but I knew it was “the real thing” God. I was on ‘Cloud 9’ for 6 months and saw so much in my life change. I no longer had religion, so I left that church, because I had a real relationship with a real God! They only had a book! I only knew 1 person on campus who understood my experience and I wanted more of it!
Mike’s Story – Playing drums in Church:
She told me about a charismatic church in town called “Grace Chapel” that was experiencing revival because of the presence of God. So I went there and immediately experienced “worshiping by [singular] Spirit and/coupled [singular] Truth” per John 4:23-24 (see intro to Promised Spirit) – not just great sermons ABOUT truth. In fact, I played drums in their services and experienced the anointing during worship, but again I had no clue that’s the name for what I was feeling, because ironically I never heard Grace Chapel teach on this either!
I had played drums in many secular bands, but never in church because the Church of Christ said it wasn’t “biblical” – another false teaching I found out from extensive studies on the subject. So you can see that poor or false teaching can greatly affect your experience and understanding of Spirit-kind-of things. What else happened in Mike Burris’ Story before the creation of Spirit Music Meet-Ups?
Mike Burris‘ Story – After the University of Arizona:
After graduating in 1983, I worked as a Water Rights Inventory Hydrologist for the Bureau of Land Management for a summer in Phoenix, but got a call to work as a Pyro-metallurgy technician for ARCO Metals, which got me back to Tucson where I wanted to live. Good thing my school transcripts were diverse and heavy on engineering, and a good thing my academic advisor was a good friend! After ARCO Metals folded a year later, I worked as a Civil Hydrology Engineer 1 at VEA/DMJM until they ran out of work, and then I went to Greiner Engineering as an Hydrologist Engineer 2 and department trainer. My computer programming skills exploded more as I continued streamlining the engineering process – something I started at VEA.
In 1985, I still really didn’t know much about my supernatural experience of 1983, so the girl that told me about Grace Chapel challenged me to study everything in the bible about the Spirit. One summer Saturday after 8 hours of using all my bible tools to find out that I had been deceived by the Church of Christ, I felt angry at myself for being so gullible and angry at them, but also so excited about this possibility of the Holy Spirit that explained what I had felt in 1983, and that I could have it again and again (a). Every time I read what was possible I said, “I want that!”
Click on Pic to learn about Spirit-Baptism and my other Fillings
Suddenly, I was very thirst like I had been in the desert for a week. So I stood up and turned around and took one step toward the refrigerator, but I was stopped in my tracks. I couldn’t move a muscle. I saw a shower of gold flood into my head and rush like a river through my body, out of my fingers like electricity, and down my legs to pin my feet to the floor. I was massively filled with overwhelming unconditional-love and tears of joy followed by incredible peace, just like the 1983 event, but this time I knew it was the Holy Spirit I had just studied and longed for. Again, so much in my life radically changed for about 6 months! <Notes> a) like Ephesians 5:18, which is a strong exhortation to “routinely become filled by the Spirit” – see Spirit-Baptism.
In 1987, after another industry slowdown and layoff, I helped Gospel Supplies Books & Gifts move to their new big location in Tucson Arizona, installed their Point-of-Sale/Inventory computer, trained people on its use, did floor sales, clerked the register, did customer service, and was the book buyer for the Reference & Pastoral Aids departments for so many pastors and bible students. This is where I saw that the Body-of-Christ was very ignorant about the bible. I developed a real burden about this.
Customers, staff, and family helped me get to Calvary Chapel Bible School for a semester in California, where I became the valedictorian. But I was disillusioned about the void of the presence of the Holy Spirit there. Although I met several kind Christians, there were a lot of fights over the bible and boy-girl pairing as if I were in a public high school, and I didn’t have money to go another semester anyway. What else happened in Mike Burris’ Story before the creation of Spirit Music Meet-Ups?
Mike’s Story – After Calvary Chapel Bible School:
So in 1988 I came home where I worked 4 jobs for Kelly Temporary Services until I picked up a short-term contract with APW Engineering Services as an Urban Hydrologist 3 consultant. When that ended I started another career in 1989 at Sunquest Information Systems, doubling my pay over the next 9 years, going from Client Support Specialist to Application Interfacing Programmer & Trainer, and then to Senior Programmer Analyst, receiving many awards for customer satisfaction.
I took various day and week classes while there including Dale Carnegie, Franklin Planner, Fred Pryor, Stephen Covey, and Landmark Education, and even got about half-way through a M.A. in Organizational Management (HR) from University of Phoenix before Sunquest decided to stop funding their continuing education program. Rats!
Even through Sunquest said I was a “mover & shaker” in the company, they didn’t want to move toward quality control but remain trapped in the “tyranny of the urgent putting out fires and building iron spokes for clay wheels.” I renegotiated my job description and pay as Engineering Services’ Process Re-engineering lead Programmer Analyst. I was also loaned out to the Application Interfacing department as their Department Trainer, especially for New Hires & Consultants. I also taught principle-centered leadership, time-management, and other courses through Client Education to help change our work environment.
Mike Burris‘ Story – Starting CoreBeat Drum Teaching:
However, I had already been making plans for a years to leave Sunquest because I could see they would never really change. Plus I had a burning passion to start my own business to do what I was passionate about – drumming! I wasn’t even really listening to God by then, but He still moves us along! In June 1998 I started my music career after 9 years of disillusionment with Sunquest. I started CoreBeat – Teaching Drums & Percussion and before long I was swamped with students, teaching from 4 locations. I played in many bands! I continued for 10 years until the economy took a big hit and went into a recession after Obama had been in office for only 1 year! Seems like we are going through a repeat performance with Biden in 2020. Coincidence?
But I regress now concerning my spiritual growth: In 1989, I also was an A student for 8 months at Southwest Bible College, 1 month at Moody Bible Institute online in 1990, 1 year at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1991 toward a Masters in Divinity Exegetical Theology degree, and 1 month in 1992 at Arizona Christian University – see Bible Credentials. I stopped pursuing this scholarly path because it was incredibly dry and few classes had any real spirituality to them – it felt like money and effort down the drain! What else happened in Mike Burris’ Story before the creation of Spirit Music Meet-Ups?
Mike Burris‘ Story – After ‘quitting’ church-ianity:
In 1993 after being very disillusioned by the greed and building program obsession of church leadership in several churches I had performed for, and disillusioned with the emptiness of studying the bible toward a degree, I quit playing and studying the bible and instead started developing products and workshops to be the next big motivational speaker, even creating a website called UMakeItSo.com and developing planning tools for it. Unfortunately when I ‘threw out the bathwater’ of church-ianity, I ‘threw out the baby’ – a relationship with God, that put me on a ‘slippery slope’ bringing the ‘fire of trials and tribulations’ into my life, just as Jesus said in John 15:4-6 would happen if you don’t meno ‘abide, remain-connected-to, dwell in’ the Vine who is Jesus.
But then in 2008, I got really sick with acute pancreatitis from rich food, alcohol abuse, and lots of caffeine. I lost so much weight and had horrendous sleep problems that I nearly died, even after going to so many doctors. Nobody helped and I only got hooked on their sleep meds! It wasn’t until 2010 before a Christian doctor Rachael Gordon and a Christian acupuncturist Reggie Stout helped me take the first steps of faith in getting free from the meds! This really humbled me to once again really seek God for a miracle.
I was watching lots of DVDs because of insomnia, and watched Miracles of the Passion, a documentary of Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. I was convinced that I could have a miracle happen in my life. The next week I found Passion of the Christ in the same exact spot of the last DVD – in fact, I though it was that one until I pulled it out. Wow! What else happened in Mike Burris’ Story before the creation of Spirit Music Meet-Ups?
Mike’s Story – The Lord finds His lost sheep:
On 8/28/2008 I watched Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson alone in my front room. Suddenly, I clearly saw the last 15 years of my life as a wasteful indulgence of self-centered sin that led me nowhere and I couldn’t imagine the next year, let alone 5 years, being the same. I clearly saw my desperate need to be entirely healed (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) from myself, and I clearly saw Christ on the cross as my only hope – I had tried everything and everybody else!
In many ways I was experiencing the process of salvation, the Greek word soteria meaning to be “delivered, rescued, and restored to wholeness.” I confessed to the Lord I wanted nothing to do with my past and just wanted to come home – that’s the meaning of “repentance,” a change of life direction – I had surrendered control!
Suddenly I was so thirsty and got up to go to the kitchen for some water and immediately walked into pure, no-strings-attached unconditional-love, completely forgiving and completely accepting of me, wrapping itself all around me as if I were being hugged by pure unconditional-love, or a blanket of unconditional-love was pulled around me like a big warm comforter – that is the meaning of Parakletos describing the Holy Spirit (a). It was so overwhelming I couldn’t even stand, so I fell to me knees and just wept profusely with pure joy – I was instantly home! I could have stayed there forever – nothing else mattered! <Notes> a) Parakletos: ‘Close-beside’ caller, summoner, or inviter; helper, succorer, or assistant; encouraging teacher, counselor, comforter, or consoler; defense-attorney, judicial-advocate, or court-intercessor.
This is when my miraculous healing began. Many life-long addictions just faded away – I felt like I had been released from a long prison sentence! I felt so unconditionally-loved, so full of joy, so at peace, and I just wanted to remain in this. I had forgotten my 1983 and 1985 Spirit-Baptisms or Fillings, but it just happened to me again – after 15 years of sin! That is unconditionally-loving-favor-of-grace! My body healed, though it took me a year to get off the sleep narcotics the doctors gave me! What else happened in Mike Burris’ Story before the creation of Spirit Music Meet-Ups?
Mike Burris‘ Story – After my Miraculous Healing:
In 11/2008 I worked for 6 months for Micro Import Service doing customer service, parts ordering, and organizing their database and parts room, but it was an extremely vulgar, emotionally abusive environment, not because of the owner who I greatly admired, but his manager. I had to pray just to get through every day there, so when the industry slowed down because GM had to be bailed out, and my company’s work dried up, I was grateful to get laid off! The also happened when Obama was running the country and lasted 6 years! I focused back on drumming as my body continued getting stronger.
Many manifestations of the Holy Spirit came into my life and I returned to drum teaching, but now with a perspective of ministry. Later on a long trip in Oregon to help a friend move, God spoke to me often about what ministry really is, so I realized I needed to scrap that whole deceptive UmakeItSo.com approach I had to life along with my motivational-speaking career. I was inspired to create JesusMakesItSo.com. The Lord got me back on track!
Working for SCI Solutions after 13 years out of the industry was like flying a Space Shuttle
Then in 2010 an old friend I used to work with 13 years earlier at Sunquest helped me get back into programming for SCI Solutions making 50% more money than when I left! It was super stressful after being gone for so long, having a huge learning curve – like flying a space shuttle – and I was seriously out of practice with the ‘dog-eat-dog’ office politics. My house roof also blew off in the beginning of the July monsoons and my mom got really sick with Alzheimer’s.
After I year I jumped at the opportunity to being let go from SCI Solutions because I still needed too much supervision and I was stressed out with everything else going on! Some of my pancreatic/adrenal gland problems were coming back! I used the time to help my mom move from home to home. Thank God that He provides money in the time of need – I was able to live off my salary and 3 month severance package for 3 years!
In 2011 my mom died and God knew I would need the time for all this, cleaning out the house with my sister, fixing it up, and getting it sold. Then I returned to CoreBeat Drumming. During this time I had so many incredible manifestations of the Holy Spirit while attending Freedom Fellowship church, more miraculous healings, and filled up many journals with directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words and events. What else happened in Mike Burris’ Story before the creation of Spirit Music Meet-Ups?
Mike’s Story – After restarting Drum Teaching & Playing:
I even took a profound class on the HolySpirit at the my old Grace Chapel church from an elder friend Gerry Loper I knew back in 1985 – the Lord miraculously led me to the class the week before it was going to start! I was reading a book on the Holy Spirit called Forgotten God – Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, by Francis Chan. I had seen it in one of the rooms at my mom’s nursing home that the room occupant said was changing her life, so I immediately bought it. Later I came out of a late night movie at the mall, saw a woman sit down in the food court, and something glowing came over her that I couldn’t describe.
It bothered me all the way home, so I returned with that book to continue reading it if I didn’t find that woman. As I reached for the mall door handles she came out at the same time and I explained what I had seen. She told me she had been Spirit-Baptized and was feeling the Spirit’s presence after a long day at work as she sat down to pray. I had seen a joy but also a glow on her face! She told me about Grace Chapel and that Gerry was teaching the Holy Spirit class. I about fell down, especially after I showed her the book. So I left a note on the church door, and my friend Gerry called me. Unbelievable! I reunited a week later with him like old friends!
Click on Pic: Learn more about the Promised Holy Spirit
Only 8 people signed up, but I knew I was supposed to be there. However, 50 people showed up and there was hardly any room! What? That class changed my life! I’ve never have seen the Holy Spirit invited into a church meeting, no teacher hogged the spotlight, and no pastor tried to take over the conversation! I’ve never seen such Body-of-Christ ministry! And I’ve never seen so many powerful-manifestations of the Holy Spirit through the Body-of-Christ ever! Almost everybody experienced supernatural tongues, even all throughout the day, signs & wonders and lots of prophecy. It was a crying shame that the main church leadership never agreed to continue the class, even though we all begged for it! A prophetess from Alaska heard about it, prophesied over the class (you could hear a pin drop), and singled out 2 of us for particular anointings – mine changed my life from then on!
In 2013 I got married at 53 for the first time, married to my wife Charlotte. What a radical transition in life! God brought someone into my life that for years had already heard way more prophetic words directly from the Lord, filled up even more journals than I had, had been writing a book from them called What One Sheep Heard the Shepherd Say, and been involved in Theophostic or Transformation Prayer counseling. What else happened in Mike Burris’ Story before the creation of Spirit Music Meet-Ups?
Mike Burris‘ Story – After my marriage in 2013:
From 2013-2016 I continued Corebeat.com Drumming and Teaching until I changed it to TeachMeToDrum.com in 2016. Teaching and drumming really dropped off, especially because of the COVID-19 lockdowns, but we’ve managed between our combined incomes and also by being frugal. Praise the Lord!
On January 1, 2020 I tried to go back to meat-cutting that I had learned at Bashas’ Groceries in 1977-1980, but now at Sprouts Farmers Market but couldn’t keep up with the intense janitorial night-cleaning. I proudly became an Ace Hardware man in mid-January and worked there until November 1st. Now for “the rest of the story!” as radioman Paul Harvey would always say – here’s the really good part.
Click on Pic to learn how important it is to understand our Identity
Remember, the Lord was having me review all this work experience within my journal? After I would remember each job and what I did for them and I journaled this, I sometimes felt proud, sometimes frustrated that it didn’t continue, and sometimes happy that it didn’t. It was a mix of emotions! Then I listened to the Lord for awhile, and He would say, “But that is NOT who I made you to be; This is NOT who you are.”
After a while thinking about this, I would agree that many times I was initially excited but then disillusioned, or I was only in it for the money to meet a pressing need, or that I was ultimately laid off anyway. Although I could sort of see how one thing prepared me for the next, some of it looked like a waste of time! After much introspection, I had to agree that “What I was doing THEN was really not who I was.”
My last job was at Ace Hardware, so for quite a while I would proudly tell people, “I’m an Ace Hardware man – but also a professional drummer and teacher when I’m not at Ace.” But in October 2020 the Lord said to me while on the way to work: “Mike, you are NOT an Ace Hardware man!” I had one really good boss and another that was so unhappy he just spread it to everybody, so I wasn’t too disappointed with God’s announcement! So I said, “But I’m still a good professional drum teacher and drummer.” After all, I gig 1-2 times a week, teach a bunch of students, and write drum books on the side that I hope to spread around and really influence drumming for the better. What else happened in Mike Burris’ Story before the creation of Spirit Music Meet-Ups?
Mike’s Story – God declares my Identity:
Then several days later on the way to working at Ace Hardware, the Lord said: “Mike, you are NOT a professional musician or drum teacher. That’s NOT who I created you to be.” I was nearly in tears for the rest of that work day, because I was so proud of having influenced over 5000 students, having had 2 big websites, played in 37 bands, and created so many teaching publications. For days I was numb, saying: “Then WHO am I?”
Then one day in the middle of October on the way to Ace Hardware, the Lord said: “You are an anointed musician, who knows what it means to be filled by My Spirit, who knows what it is to practice and perform by My Spirit, and one day you will play in My courtyards with many others that I have chosen.” Now, I do remember long ago while playing my rudiments on a pad in the bathroom, He told me about playing in His courtyards and that’s where the heavenly music people hear after Near Death Experiences comes from, but I had long forgotten this. Well, this has just blown my mind!
Once I accepted this, and started really listening and journaling and re-visiting my drum room for more Spirit-Drum-Practicing, many more directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God occurred. On 12/6/2020 I woke up from a very disturbing dream where the Lord told me much about the nature of God’s work, particularly for me – see the dream! After these many events happened, then everything quickly changed, and this Spirit Music Meet-Ups BLOG idea quickly came into my mind while I was Spirit-Drum-Practicing one day.
Since then, I’ve been working on this website nearly every day, especially after I stepped out in trusting-relying-faith and gave my 2 weeks’ notice for my October 30th resignation from Ace Hardware! It’s incredibly freeing to finally know WHO I was created TO BE – my identity in Christ. Once I “saw” this for myself, hundreds of dreams, visions, and prophecies I had before started coming together to make sense!
Mike Burris‘ Story – My Wife & I survived COVID-19:
In August 2020 my wife and I survived COVID-19 after being referred to great COVID doctors, Dr. Jane Orient and Dr. Cynthia Miley. Also 30 of my friends had got on hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and a regimen of supplements and were quickly healed – most of those who didn’t died in Tucson Medical Center! We posted our regimen and what I learned of others here. The Urgent Care and my Primary-Care NPN were worthless as they didn’t bother to read the actual worldwide COVID studies but went along with government propaganda from Dr. Fauci, the NIH, CDC, FDA, and Big Pharma that work closely together to perpetuate the COVID big-money chain, fraud, political power, and lockdown power.
I personally know of too many doctor and nurse eye-witnesses of this – even in nursing homes! I worked in healthcare for 10 years and had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to not divulge all the medical error, misreporting, HIPA violations, Medicare/Medicaid & Insurance fraud that hospitals try to cover up or get away with – “The Love of Money is the Root of ALL Evil” the Apostle Paul warned!
Mike Burris‘ Story – Getting back to the Mission
I told myself this JOB would be different because 1) it primarily wasn’t for money or the fear of lack as I have plenty of savings if I am frugal, 2) it would not define my identity, but it was primarily to have something meaningful to do with more of my time to keep me out of trouble and to develop relationships since I am a people-person.
So I had a miraculous object lesson given to me today 8/11: I went out for another long bike ride in the late afternoon only because it looked like it was getting cloudy (but they burned off – ugh). I went to my normal spot right behind Lowe’s along the Pantano wash. It was still flowing a little bit from yesterday’s rains but not much. Yesterday I saw a guy actually trying to paddle some kind of makeshift raft and I thought “Boy, that’s going to be difficult because there wasn’t much flow and it was quite hot.”
So I went on this ride today because I’ve been very discouraged that I was called in for an interview at 8:00 a.m. on Monday at Lowe’s by the general manager who didn’t even show up for the interview. I sat there for 45 minutes until the same guy Andrew who interviewed me 2 months ago reluctantly interviewed me again and said again “there’s no job positions, and I don’t know what John is talking about. Andrew didn’t look very happy but he said he would have John call me. Well Monday went by, Tuesday went by, Wednesday went by (and I had even emailed John on Wednesday), and a store clerk that I know handed John my card on Wed so he knew I was expecting a call, and here it is Thursday afternoon and still no call! Some other guy Tyler leaves a message on Friday to tell me the CDL driver position (the only one at the time) was filled but that he encouraged me to apply for other positions when they open, but there was no mention if there was, nor why John wanted to talk with me. It sure is chaotic there!
So I felt really let down on Thursday. So I went on this ride because during yesterday’s ride the Lord kept saying “Go with the flow” of the Holy Spirit and “Let go and let God,” but now there wasn’t very much flow actually going on in the Pantano wash as there was last week. Yet, that’s what I am still hearing from the Lord.
So today by the time I road to Craycroft Road it looked like there was no water flowing at all. And then as soon as I crossed under the Craycroft bridge, I noticed the wash was full of water and it was really flowing, and I wondered where did all this water come from? Well I looked across the wash and it was coming in from another direction. Well I rode along this for a while and I was overwhelmed by a clear message from the Lord flooding my mind that I was to “Go with the flow, NOT go with a trickle.” But I had been pursuing these JOBS for 2 months now without any results. I had followed up very well with every one of them and still nothing!
But God was saying that I was to “Go with the flow which is abundance.” I was actually seeing and feeling “abundance” and then I remember John 10:10 about Jesus “coming to bring abundant zoe life.” He wasn’t asking me to paddle in the mud like that guy was yesterday. But I feel like I was paddling in the mud for 2 months now – very much “down in the mud” dumps.
So as I was seeing all this abundant water I got more joy and realized that I had been making it very difficult on myself because I was barking up the wrong tree, I was paddling along the wrong wash. And here just a little further down the road, “down around the corner” (like that CCR song) – there was a real flow going on down there. BUT it was NOT down this dry wash, which means you can’t paddle your way out. You have to get out of the dry wash and go down the road, “down around the corner.”
When I came back toward Lowes on my bicycle I crossed over to the other side of the flowing wash on Dodge and sure enough there is a whole other watershed called the Rillito River at Craycroft that was coming from Mount Lemmon area that had got a lot of rain yesterday. And it was really flowing!
And then it really hit me that I had been trying to paddle up a trickling wash for 2 months insisting on my way, my ideas for the use of my time. So then I started asking “Well, where is the abundant flow that I can jump in that stream and be carried away by its abundant current?” As I rode my bicycle back to Lowes I came to the dry wash on the other side of Craycroft – what a stark difference that I could feel!
I rode the road back for a little while and suddenly “down around the corner” I saw a guy actually standing out near the bike path playing his saxophone and it was beautiful music. So strange of a site! So I stopped and talked with him for a quite a while. He has a real mission to bring peace thru music in parks & other community settings as he feels the urgency from raising crime rates from open borders and poverty despair from this and soaring government-caused inflation. I can tell from his language, this sax player is coming from a kind of African (he is negro) tribal & new age perspective. As he was talking to me about all this, I could hear God reminding me the original mission of www.SpiritMusicMeetups.org that he showed me in October 2020, but I had not fully fleshed it out. I got bogged down in the website development, intro videos, my own drumming development using new bass-drum pedals, house & yard projects, my wife’s job-hunting, and then my own.
I even stopped doing my own ministry in the parks! So this event has made me really reexamine the original purpose, which was to play in the Spirit with other musicians in the parks, churches, and other public venues, by reaching out to the churches thru mail and in person to get this going. I was going to do workshops with them by donations (for time & materials). I just never go to this stage! I got majorly side-tracked!
This sax player was saying very similar things, but he’s coming from a non-Christian, worldly viewpoint. It’s almost like there is an obvious perceived need that even some of the world’s musicians want to address. However, all the while as I’m listening to him, I’m actually hearing God say “Remember how I showed you MY much better plans that really can save America when my Presence comes in the Anointed, Prophetic, Spontaneous worship music?”
On this ride it was so clear that God was trying to get me back on track, back into the flow, into the current, into what I’m supposed to be doing, and that’s why nothing has happened on this “side track.” And so I literally have to get out of this “side track” and go down the road “down around the corner,” back in the direction I originally came from, when I started www.SpiritMusicMeetups.org.
By the time I got back to Lowes the water had actually completely stopped in this “side track” channel, which was telling me that Lowes is all dried up. This was really an object lesson! Friday’s call really was the ‘nail in the coffin.’ So I was able to really “Let go and Let God,” opening declaring that I will no longer pursue this 2 months of “paddling the trickle” – God gave me the faith with this experience. I got back on the road to the original October 2020 vision & mission statement. The Lord also reminded me about how I got off track from this: 12-6-2020-dream-the-nature-of-gods-callings-versus-the-worlds-jobs/.
I feel more joy and flow already! I look forward to seeing the current increase into abundance. I have an expectation of faith and that is the definition of elpis, translated hope!
As you can see from “My Story” above, Spirit Music Meet-Ups was birthed out of a “burden” I’ve carried inside me for years playing in 37 bands, 15 of which were in church ministry, and teaching drums to over 5000 students. This has really come to a head in the last few years, but especially since experiencing so much of God’s anointing in my last year-long church gig, despite the apparent lack of this anointing in most players or the worship leader, and particularly since experiencing so much anointing during my personal Spirit-Drum-Practice with the Lord. It really has been magnified in the last 10 months while seeking the Lord for direction in my life.
God has showed me and others “The Great Wall” that is quenching the Holy Spirit from freely moving in the modern Church. This is keeping much of today’s Church from experiencing the actual (instead of hyped-up) presence of the Lord, true revival, and profoundly influencing society around them. Let’s fix this together!
Our Time is Short!
I also have been given a sense of urgency in the last couple of years since the Lord gave me a dream about Billy Graham where God told him to “sew it up” right after he preached at Disneyland with relatively few interested, and 1 month later Billy died at 99. The Greek word soteria for “salvation” is a sewing term – “to mend torn pieces back together, to make whole again, reconcile, and save.” Many have been told Billy was the last apostle to the Gentiles, Paul being the first, having preached the simple gospel logos message of The Truth about Jesus Christ as the Son of God sent for us. Billy preached to 215 million people in 185 countries and territories since 1947. At least 3.2 million were converted in those gatherings!
God has showed me and others that not much time is left for the Church as He returns His focus onto Israel. The Lord is bringing us back to His priorities as He “sews it up.” Praise the Lord for His perfect plans! Once you get into God’s Holy Spirit, He always tells us: “Now, you can run as fast as you want!”
Mike Burris‘ Story – Musicians need to Surrender Control:
I’ve also found few Christian musicians that have actually learned to surrender control of their “might and power” in exchange for playing anointed, prophetic music even spontaneously. That’s what I found after playing drums for 52 years in 25 secular and 15 church bands and orchestras, teaching 5000-plus students for 22 years, reading too many books and websites about worship music, and watching so many Christian bands attempt it. Sadly, this is a key part of the “The Great Wall” quenching many musicians from realizing their God-given potential!
My desire is that Spirit Music Meet-Ups will help us ALL take obedient steps of faith back to the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant models of Body-of-Christ ministry and worship that were given to us, so that we may “routinely filled with the abundant-fullness of God, routinely being filled by-the-means-of the Holy Spirit (a)! May God bless us in our journey together! <Notes> a) Ephesians 3:19, 5:18.
Prayer:
“Lord, may this ministry by the Body-of-Christ to one another allow your Holy Spirit to speak freely in order to teach one another your ways of playing music. We lay everything that we have learned from religion and this world at you feet. Guide us Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Thank YOU for visiting: About Mike’s Story for Spirit Music Meet-Ups
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