When we come together for our worship, we come to meet the Lord. And in selecting the songs we sing, I have always felt that we should seek the leading of the Holy Spirit. In order to do this, it is a help to know ahead of time the basic Word that God is going to give in the service. Of course, this puts a double responsibility upon the one who is to select the songs and lead the worship. For many years, I would choose the songs to sing, because I could select those which were related to the Word that God had given me to preach. Then we moved into a higher level, in which so much of the Word was preached by revelation that when the worship leader asked, “What are you going to preach on?” I often said, “I don’t know yet.” But if the worship leader does know what the Word is going to be, he can select those songs that will prepare the people and open their spirits up to the Lord to better receive the Word.
We are to become worshipers on a level we have never reached before. We still sing the intense faith and intercession songs that came forth in the early days of Shiloh, and they are helpful—especially when everything seems difficult. But God has already given us a Word that a higher level of worship is coming. The song leaders must not pump up worship like a cheerleader; instead, they must help the people enter into the deeper worship that has been prophesied for some time. We have a new liberty in worship. We need this worship. We need to open our spirits before the Lord.
We may like the songs we sing now, but we could make a rut out of some of them too. A song comes for the need of the moment and it is something that we use. But in the days to come, we will go through our songbooks and take out many songs, because they will no longer apply to the spiritual level that we will have reached. Let’s continue to sing our present songs, but let’s keep reaching more and more into the deeper level of worship that God is giving us. Seek confirmation to your own heart about this worship that we are looking to God for.
Comment: Faith cannot thrive in a habit. And when we start getting into habits, faith can no longer freely move. Every day must be fresh; we have to say, “This day we can’t follow the path that we know, because faith is exhibited in people who don’t know where they are going.” We must be like Abraham. By faith he went out, and he did not know where he was going (Hebrews 11:8–9); but he found favor in the sight of God because he responded to a Word. It is the same with us as we are burdened for the deep level of worship that is coming.
You have spoken about not using the instruments at all. Some of the deepest worship we had at Shiloh was during times when we didn’t use any instruments. People then could tune into the Spirit of the Lord, and the awareness of the Lord in their own hearts. This change is already taking place. There is still a drive in our spirits, a freedom there; but anytime we make a habit out of something, that is the day we have made a mistake. We will follow the leading of the Spirit with an awareness of the things that God has set before us.
Comment: A Word came in August, 1970, called “Expressing Our Faith In His Word By Worship.” During a thirty-day period of worship, you brought this truth of expressing our faith in what God has already accomplished. Then the Feast of Tabernacles came, and we moved into a whole new level, believing for worship that is on the plane of pure spirit, that level of deep awareness of the Lord. The last Word of that Feast was on the revelation of the Lord. How does the revelation of the Lord come? The awareness comes in the worship as we are magnifying Him. This awesome presence of the Lord is what He is leading us into. It goes beyond anything of an emotional surge that we could pump up. It comes on a plane of pure spirit where we are awestruck by the glory of the Lord in our midst.
We went through a transition period which some disliked, because they did not have a revelation of what was happening. But others welcomed it, and they seized hold of the intense expression of faith in the new songs and in the intercession, because they recognized what it was accomplishing. We had to get off the ground; we had to get out of that area where the spiritual gravity was always pulling us down. It is like leaving the earth’s atmosphere; if we thrust off hard enough, we reach an area where we can drop off our booster rocket. We have to have a strong, earnest thrust to get up above the downward pull, and then we drop it. The people who did not use the period of strong intercession and songs, the ones who criticized, will remain on a lower level. They will regress and probably go back to singing old songs like those that were used for funeral services in an earlier day. But this thrust into the Kingdom is not a funeral; this is to be resurrection life.
During the transition period, we use the booster; we sing songs which will thrust us up into the next level. But the very means we use to give us the thrust to break through this realm of indifference and lukewarmness—this Laodicean bondage (Revelation 3:14–16)—can become a hindrance after we break through. We use it to break out of the old realm; and the minute that we break out of it, we let the old thing go. If we don’t, it will pull us right back into the old level. What we are doing now is a blessing, because we are using it for God’s immediate purpose to be accomplished. But a few months from now, it will be a hindrance.
“Oh,” you say, “I don’t want to let it go.” You will always find this to be true: something that is useful for the moment you will hang onto if you are not careful. You may feel, “But I have enjoyed these songs so much. They helped me in the long, lonely years in which I was waiting for the promise to come.” Abraham must have felt this as he waited for God to fulfill His promise and bring forth Isaac. He could have said, “It is so much fun to play with little Ishmael” (Genesis 17:18). But the day finally came when God said, “Send Ishmael away; cast out the son of the bondwoman” (Genesis 21:10–12).
No matter how good something may have seemed to be, there must be that time when we go on from the imperfect to the better. Remember that Ishmael was Abraham’s son too, but he was the son of the slave. Isaac, the son of the freeborn, had to be the one who would receive the inheritance (Galatians 4:23–31). We reach the place at every stage of our spiritual development where we have to drop off a little bit more of the past bondage, even though it is deeply rooted in everything that we are.
We must be loosed from our limited ways. We must rise to the highest level of worship that God wants us to have. There will be no fulfillment on earth of the will of God in His Kingdom without a people coming forth who use every means He lays in their hands to thrust themselves up into a high place. Revelation 12:1–5 speaks of the manchild who is to rule all the nations. When he is born, he is caught up into the heavens to God’s throne. Either that happens, or else he faces the snapping jaws of the great red dragon who stands ready to devour him from the moment that he is born. As part of the manchild company, we are born with Satan snapping at us, ready to destroy us; but the thrust that we take spiritually is lifting us up to a realm of rule, a realm of authority, a realm of greater works, and this is what we are reaching for. If we do not see all of this as a means to an end and we make it an end in itself, then we will defeat ourselves.
What God wanted us to do is expressed in Joel 3:10: “Take your plowshares, and beat them into swords. Take your pruning hooks, and beat them into spears.” And that is exactly what we did. Now a time comes when God is speaking about fruitfulness, and we don’t want to be stuck with swords and spears. We will have to beat them back into plowshares and pruning hooks (Isaiah 2:4). We were and still are in warfare to break through, but the goal is those hosts of people out there who will be brought into a walk with God. I do not think they will be particularly attracted to the type of song we have had; this is not what will win them. But it will be difficult for them to resist the high level of worship that we will be in. This is what will draw them in. Does it seem that we are not being consistent? We are consistently inconsistent. We do not have to be consistent to any pattern or form. Only a fool will never change his mind or his approach to things. A man is a complete fool if he sets himself on one phase or procedure, and becomes inflexible. This is the quickest way to become a pharisaic wineskin who is so hardened that when God does something new and fresh, he cannot yield to it.
And He was also telling them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’ ” Luke 5:36–39.
We are getting ready for God to do the greatest thing that has ever been done on the earth. The song of Zion is going to be heard to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 35:10; 42:9–10; 51:11). I do not want to be hung up with anything of the past, or to hold onto anything that will cause me to be inflexible. We will do anything God says to do. But we will not make a religious rut out of any phase. It will all be just an expression of our spiritual thrust and our approach to His presence—to live in His presence, to worship Him, and to serve Him with all of our heart (Hosea 6:2; John 4:23; Deuteronomy 6:5).
“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! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it. You islands and those who dwell on them. Isaiah 42:9–10.
So the ransomed of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isaiah 51:11.
The songs that were a blessing yesterday may be a burden today.
Our worship yesterday expressed our spiritual level then. Our worship today should express our spiritual level today.