“You won’t succeed by might or by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Armies.” Zechariah 4:6. In practical terms, what does this scripture mean to you? Let’s look at 3 practical ways to allow the Spirit of God to lead us worship leaders. This same principle applies in any of ministry as well as worship leading.
1.Allow the Spirit to help you make decisions
Being led by the Spirit means we pray and get the plan of God for that service. Is the purpose evangelistic? Is the purpose prayer? Is the purpose to exalt the person of Jesus? Is it to stir us to praise? Is it to spend more time in worship? I like to think in terms of themes. What theme is in my heart? Have we been singing about the Holy Spirit recently? What about the name of Jesus? How about giving thanks? I like to think of the service as a sermon with a theme. But I don’t get too analytic about it either. Sometimes a song comes to heart that doesn’t make sense but it’s the right song.
2.Aim to please the Spirit
Secondly, I think it’s so easy to get our focus on the musical strength of the service- cool chords or great transitions. These are wonderful frosting on the cake, but alone they don’t cause a service to be “by My Spirit”. We always rely on the Spirit of God to make the words come alive as we sing. If we truly worship from our spirit and choose songs full of the Word of God and faith- then we will connect with God. That’s the biggest “by my spirit” .
3. Consult God’s Spirit before making personnel decisions
Thirdly, “by my Spirit” is to check with Him about every decision- who to accept on your team and how to deal with a personnel problem. Different persons respond to correction differently and the Spirit of God knows this. Some are more mature and some are more tender. Only God’s Spirit knows the heart of every person and can reveal to us how to respond.
We don’t succeed by our plans- but God’s plans. We don’t lead worship by our strength- but His. We don’t lead well because of all we know- but by how well we are led by His Spirit.
Questions:
- Am I conferring with God’s Spirit in every aspect of my worship leading- from start to finish?
- Am I dealing with problems as Jesus would ?
