As the Lord brings the days of the Kingdom expanding to us, we are aware that the prophets of old spoke of this day and said that great things were going to be accomplished, especially in the realm of music. Isaiah prophesied: Thus says God the Lord, “Behold, the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things; before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.” Sing to the Lord a new song, sing His praise from the end of the earth! Isaiah 42:5a, 9–10a.
This is marvelous, for in this day we are reaching into God for the restoration, or the establishment, of all the things that He prophesied, in the Old and New Testament alike, which are to be a part of the end time of this age, and of the beginning of a new level of the Kingdom, and of the age to come (Acts 3:19–21). We are seeing that worship music will not be as we have known it, just the exercise of singing a few songs before we have a sermon; but actually, music will be many channels by which God will move in the earth and accomplish many things.
This is not a new concept at all. In the Scriptures are recorded many wonderful things that God has wrought through music. David is probably one of the outstanding Old Testament examples of this, as we see in I Samuel chapters 16 and 18.
Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him. Saul’s servants then said to him, “Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. Let our lord now command your servants who are before you. Let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the harp; and it shall come about when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he shall play the harp with his hand, and you will be well.” So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.”
Then one of the young men answered and said, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handsome man; and the Lord is with him.” So Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, “Send me your son David who is with the flock.” And Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread and a jug of wine and a young goat, and sent them to Saul by David his son. Then David came to Saul and attended him, and Saul loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David now stand before me; for he has found favor in my sight.” So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him. I Samuel 16:14–23.
This is a beautiful story; and we could either take it at face value, or we could probe into what David was really doing. It says that he was a man of valor, a warrior, a man prudent in speech and very handsome. Remember that this was before David killed Goliath, so he may have been about fifteen or sixteen years old when he came to play for Saul; and he became his armor bearer as well. But the thing that is uppermost in the story is the fact that whenever David began to play, the evil spirit would depart from Saul, and Saul would be refreshed and be well. This means that the music which David had, by virtue of being an anointed boy whom God had blessed, was an authority or a ministry over evil spirits, and it brought a healing that came in the name of the Lord.
The days will come in which the anointed, inspired music of the people of God will be enough to dispel all spiritual oppression. Much that we have known in intercession and in spiritual warfare and in being under assault will be taken away as we begin to sing this new song that Isaiah spoke of. He prophesied, “The Lord is going to do a new thing,” and then he said, “Sing to the Lord a new song,” as though it were all tied together (Isaiah 42:9–10a).
David certainly was an inspired boy, to sing as he did. And as we read on into the eighteenth chapter, we find more of this.
1 Samuel 18:10–12: Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house, while David was playing the harp with his hand, as usual; and a spear was in Saul’s hand. And Saul hurled the spear for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David escaped from his presence twice. Now Saul was afraid of David, for the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.
Notice this—Saul raved. The time finally came when the music no longer soothed Saul, because Saul had even rejected the ministry of David to play and sing for him. Throughout the Psalms we find those wonderful songs of David in which he sang before the presence of the Lord. It was a way of worship, but it was also a channel by which authority over spirits was manifested and healing came to those who were oppressed. In Saul’s case it was devil-possession as well as some form of madness that seemed to come upon him until he was like an insane man.
We begin to understand that these sounds are very important. And when we get into the New Testament, this is emphasized again and again for us. For instance, we read in Ephesians 5:18b–19: But be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.
And then, of course, there is the important directive in Colossians: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16.
We can do more than just dispel devils. Do you believe that it is possible for us to sing and find that there is great wisdom in the psalms that are sung? We can teach and admonish one another—all by psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thanksgiving, or thankfulness, in our hearts to the Lord.
Colossians says, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, and then you sing.” And all of this marvelous teaching, an edifying ministry, comes forth from you. Ephesians says, “Be filled with the Spirit, and then speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” One verse speaks of the fullness of the Spirit, and the other speaks about the Word of Christ dwelling in you richly. In each case the Scriptures are speaking of what you have in your spirit—of being filled with the Holy Spirit, of being filled with the Word of God. And then you find that you have become one more of those many channels of music. You have become a person like David who can sing away the spirits, who can sing blessings and healing to people. This is very important for us.
This message has such a purpose for you! There are many channels of music. God has created it that way.
Another function of this music is that you can actually see miracles come forth from it. Does this mean that you can sing up a miracle? Yes! Let us read in the Word about a miracle that was actually created by music. This occurred when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, and they needed water very badly.
The Lord spoke to Moses: “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.” Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well! Sing to it! The well, which the leaders sank, which the nobles of the people dug, with the sceptre and with their staffs.” Numbers 21:16–18a.
This is a beautiful story. The leaders of Israel stuck their staffs down into the ground and began singing, and the Lord caused the water to come forth. But this is more than just a story; it is like a parable. It is like a precept. The many channels of music include this miracle power, a miracle provision, impartation.
I yearn for the day when our times of impartation will see certain channels of blessing through the ministry of music. Let me explain how this could work. We could have several people gathered around, Spirit-filled and anointed, at a time of laying on of hands, or of prophesying a prophetic ministry over a person, or of personal impartation. And as we would give that ministry, wouldn’t it be fantastic if other people would be singing, as Israel sang in the wilderness, and the wells would begin to spring up? What we would look for is not just to impart, but we would look for an anointing of the Lord for appropriation too, singing to the heart until the person becomes like that rock in the wilderness, gushing forth the water of blessing in the name of the Lord. This, again, is one of the many channels of music—creative impartation, the miracle provision of God to provide for our needs.
If we would get into this, then we could correct a great error in our bringing our worship offerings to the Lord. The offering time seems almost to be a little recess or a break, a time when everyone begins to talk or to go here and there, trying to get a message to someone, instead of just standing before the Lord and singing. The finances would increase a great deal, and what God would do to bring forth blessing from those finances would increase a hundredfold, if we were blessing our offerings and singing a blessing from the Lord to the people who were givers, singing blessing on the gifts that were given. It would be like singing to the desert and seeing the wells begin to gush up. All of these things are very much in the mind of the Lord.
Closely related to these examples is the truth in II Chronicles 20, which shows us that one of the many channels of music is judgment. In this case it was judgment over the enemy who had come to terrorize the inhabitants of Judah. All Judah gathered together to seek the Lord, and the Lord gave direction through the prophet Jehaziel. Then Jehoshaphat spoke.
“Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” And when they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. II Chronicles 20:20b–22.
What a beautiful picture! We see that the judgment of God was channeled through the worship and the praise of those people in the days of Jehoshaphat. The victory was very great; it took them three days to take the spoil after God had routed the enemy (verses 24–25).
Verse 26: Then on the fourth day they assembled in the valley of Beracah, for there they blessed the Lord. Therefore they have named that place “The Valley of Beracah” until today.
“The Valley of Beracah” means “the valley of blessing.” That is what they called the valley there in Judah where God routed the enemy, as the people were singing and becoming a perfect channel through music to bring judgment upon the enemy. I think we can learn a lesson from this.
Some of our intercession might be more pleasing to God and more effective if we would just stand and sing, while God confounded the enemy totally.
Verses 28–29: And they came to Jerusalem with harps, lyres, and trumpets to the house of the Lord. And the dread of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. So God gave the land rest from invasion, from trouble, from judgment (verse 30).
It is interesting that earlier in the chapter, before it speaks of all of this, the people of Judah had had a promise from the prophet: “ ‘You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you.” II Chronicles 20:17. When they heard that, they worshiped the Lord (verse 18).
So you see, they were told that their weapons would not be carnal, but that their weapons would be mighty through God to the destroying of the enemy (II Corinthians 10:4). And that is exactly what happened. Again, we see that the many channels of music are a provision for God to move. We could add story after story to this. For instance, we read in Acts 16 about what happened at Philippi. Paul and Silas had been beaten and put in prison for casting the spirit of divination out of a fortune teller. At midnight, while they were in the inner prison with their feet in the stocks, they began singing praises to God; and again, music was a channel of the miracle power of God to come. There was a great earthquake, and all the prison doors were opened, and everyone’s chains fell off (Acts 16:16–26). So we see that music—anointed, spiritual music—can be a manifold channel by which God does so many wonderful things for us.
Music can be a channel of oneness too. In Romans 15:5–13 we read: Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus (this is speaking of oneness, of how we are to be of the same mind with one another); that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to Thee among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Thy name.” And again he says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.” And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him.” And again Isaiah says, “There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles hope.” Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Notice that these passages which Paul quoted, from Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah, all said that we are going to sing; we are going to sing praises to His name. These passages were very real to the early Church in New Testament times, because the Church was born in Judea where Christ was crucified, and the early Christians were largely Jewish believers. Then later the Gentile world began to believe more than the Jews did, and it was not long until there were more Gentile believers than there were Jewish believers. And so it has continued on from that time. But in Romans 15 Paul said, “God is going to give you all one accord and one voice to glorify God, and you are going to sing that one song together.” What he was saying, in effect, is that music is one of the many channels of God. In this case it was to be a channel of oneness, an indication of the unity that God was bringing between the Jew and the Gentile who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The same is true in this day. If we would just get together and with our hearts begin to sing before the Lord, we would find that a great deal of the differences and the conflicts which exist between people in the church could be corrected.
I cannot see that we can sing together in the Spirit and still have division and contention among us. We should face the fact that music has become the many channels through which God will pour His blessing out upon us and unite our hearts as one.
Now let us review these channels of music. One was the deliverance that came as with Paul and Silas. Another was authority over devil spirits and the healing that came through David as he ministered to Saul. There was the tremendous ministry of judgment over the enemy—total, perfect deliverance that came in the days of Jehoshaphat. And there was the miracle of creative impartation and bringing God’s provisions in hand as they sang in the desert and the wells began to spring up out of the dry, barren desert floor. Also, the unity and oneness were prophesied to come forth as we all begin to sing together for the glory of God. These are just some of the many channels of music.
Isaiah prophesied that God is going to do a new thing, and in the next verse he said, “Sing to the Lord a new song” (Isaiah 42:9–10). And as we have music conferences and these efforts to see God restore, or perhaps create for the very first time in the history of the world, a music that is going to be very effective, that music will be many channels of God flowing into our lives. I see it coming. Not only will we enjoy the tapes that bring us the Living Word, but we are going to enjoy, also, tapes of music that will have such power to bless people. Over and over again these new songs are going to be heard, and the Word says that they will be heard from the ends of the earth (Psalm 48:10; Isaiah 42:10). This means that God is going to reach out with a Living Word to the whole world. And we will know that it is effective when we begin to hear the new song coming back. In a great sense the Word will create the music, and then the new song will create many things. Music is the many channels of God to bring forth tremendous things in the world.
Sometimes when you cannot say it, you can sing it and God will bless and use it anyway. The Lord made that real to me in the early days of this walk, over thirty years ago. I was crying in the midst of a deep dealing of the Lord upon my life, and the Spirit of the Lord said, “Sing to the Lord.” I remember singing through tears with my voice breaking. I said, “Lord, I’m making every effort by faith to sing, but my heart is broken.” But that was one of the greatest deliverances I ever received in my life. In the midst of devastation, or persecution, or trouble, or need, or demonic harassment, or any need or anything to be corrected in your life, the thing to do is look to the Lord and say, “Lord, You promised to do a new thing in my life. Now anoint me to sing that new song, and let the many channels of blessing flow into my life.”
This becomes something so very important for us, for in these days the Lord is speaking much to us about this anointed music. It will have a dimension in the spirit that we have not known before. In John 6:63, Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life.” And He made this very important observation: the flesh profits nothing.
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” John 6:63.
And if those are the words of a song, all the better, because God can take a heart that is in tune with Him, a heart that is filled with His Word, and what tremendous things can flow through the church because of that heart!
We must come to this greater music, this greater worship. Worship was the birth of all of our walk with God, as we began to sing in the Spirit before Him. Those days, now over thirty years ago, were very blessed, but we do not want to go back to them; we want to go forward. Let the end of a thing be better than the beginning, as the Word says (Ecclesiastes 7:8). Let’s find God bringing us, one by one, into such a harmony in the Spirit with Him and with one another, with His Word dwelling in us richly and His Spirit filling our very lives, that we will speak to one another, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:18–19).
There is no limit to what can be imparted from one to another through the Holy Spirit, as God uses the many channels of music to bless you and to minister to you. Let’s believe God for a revival and a whole new breakthrough in the realm of worship in music.
This message should become quite a matter of faith, of believing. If you have an old well around in the Body or in the family which seems to be all dried up, go sing to that person. Sing to him; bless him and pray for him. If a service is a little dead, stop it and say, “Let’s just sing before the Lord.” There was a time in the Old Testament when Elisha the prophet could not prophesy, and so he said, “Bring a minstrel to me.” As the minstrel began to sing, the prophet opened up and could prophesy the Word of the Lord (II Kings 3:15). So we see that God does use the many channels of music—music that comes forth by His Spirit, music that comes forth by a believing heart that is full of His Word to accomplish fantastic things in His name.
Now, Lord, we look to You. In the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we ask for Thy Spirit to fill us afresh, to refill us anew. By Thy Word that we have just read, anoint us again. O God, that music which comes by the Word and by Your Spirit will be such channels of blessing to us—blessings which we need very much. Anoint us afresh, O Lord, to sing the songs of Zion, that new song which will be heard to the very ends of the earth. You have told us that it will come, and we believe it with all of our heart.
And now we say, as the Word has declared: “Behold, the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things; before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.” Sing to the Lord a new song, sing His praise from the end of the earth! Isaiah 42:9–10a.
And so we do, Lord. We are taught by Thy Spirit to sing; and if our heart is open to sing, then we too become one of those many channels of music through which God can bless the whole world.
If a song unto the Lord controls your own spirit, how much more can it subdue the spirit that assaults you?
The key to the song in the Spirit is that you be filled with the Holy Spirit and filled with the Word.
If you sing unto the Lord, you either have the victory in your heart, or you are about to obtain it.
Our anointed song to the Lord might be more effective intercession than our travailing before Him.
If your brother won’t listen to your angry exhortation, why not try singing it to him?