The Leader of Worship – Part II

Read Part I

To come to an understanding of this participation in the ministry of Christ, the worship leader must initially have a hunger and thirst for deep personal relationship with God in actuality and experience.  Hunger and thirst are the foundational feelings of need for the basic necessities of life – food and water.  It is just as innate and natural to hunger and thirst for actual relationship with God, as the worship leader is a human being, created for this relationship as their only true fulfillment in life.  As the worship leader seeks to sate his own hunger and thirst, and discovers the way to do so, he will be able to lead others to the same ‘spiritual food’ and ‘living water’ that he has found.  This concept has been eloquently expounded by Jack Hayford in his book on the essentials of Christian worship:

“There is a fundamental prerequisite for everyone who would worship God or lead others to do so.  David abundantly manifests that quintessential trait of a heart filled with a passion for God:

My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.  So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory (Ps. 63:1-2).

David reveals a largeness of heart, which not only desires God’s working in his own life but longs for His manifest glory “in the sanctuary.”  The deep cry of such a leader’s soul for both his own need and that of his people will never go unrewarded.”[i]

But what sort of person is it that hungers and thirsts for God in this way?  It is normally a person who realizes that there is something that is far greater than they are, and that it is far beyond their ability to approach, and be found worthy, on their own.  It is a person who also realizes that without the actual once-for-all cleansing of the blood of Christ, and the actual and continual purifying of their heart by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, they cannot possibly draw near, as follows:

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?  Who may stand in His holy place?  The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol, or swear by a false god.  (Ps. 24:3-4 NIV)

This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.  Where is the house you will build for me?  Where will my resting place be?  Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord.  “These are the ones I look on with favor:  those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.”  (Is. 66:1-2  NIV).

This alone is the type of person that may draw near to God, and may lead others into His presence as well.  This alone is the type of person, like David, that God will assess as being a person after His own heart, who He will seek out to be a leader of His people,[ii]

who will offer their body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God as their spiritual act of worship, who will continue in this way and become completely transformed in their mind and heart to do the will of God.[iii]  Consider the following statements of Andrew Murray and embrace the challenge to not settle for a status quo form of diluted Christianity, especially if you desire to be leading other people into a worship relationship with God:

“There are not a few who know indeed what the greatness of God’s pardoning love is, who yet never reach out to claim, as equally sure, the greatness of His sanctifying grace.  The necessity of daily sinning, the impossibility of living for one day without actual transgression, is such a deeply-rooted conviction, and there is such confidence that God’s Word teaches it, that the mind cannot for a moment enter into what the Word has said of the radical difference between the old covenant and the new in this respect.  The confounding of the freedom from any sinful tendency, and freedom in the power of Christ’s indwelling from actual sinning, even with the sinful tendency still remaining, is so universal, that every attempt to press home the promise of the law written in the heart, in its contrast to the Old Testament life, is regarded as dangerous.  The wonderful promise is leveled down to the ordinary experience of the ordinary Christian life.  No wonder then that the crowning promise, …with its direct teaching on the Holy Spirit, and its direct fellowship with God through the Spirit, is neither valued nor claimed, and the entrance through the rent veil into the Holiest of All and the presence of God postponed to another world.”[iv]

Though it seemingly appears here that Murray was advocating a ‘second work of grace’ such as that found in early Methodism, the Holiness Movement, and in Pentecostalism,[v] it is actually a bit different from that.  He is rather advocating a ‘second look’ at one’s original salvation experience, realizing that many have been taught only to receive forgiveness of sins by faith, without being taught that, along with this, there is also a receiving of the indwelling Spirit of freedom, by that same faith.[vi]  It is only the one who has this Spirit indwelling their own bodily temple that will be able to lead others behind the veil within the heavenly Temple itself, so that God might be worshiped in spirit and in truth:

“The forming of the soul that it might be a dwelling place for God is the primary work of the Christian leader.  This is not an add-on, an option, or a third-level priority.  Without this core activity, one almost guarantees that he/she will not last in leadership for a lifetime or that what work is accomplished will become less reflective of God’s honor and God’s purpose.”[vii]

The one, therefore, who desires to lead others into the presence of God to worship Him must be spiritually prepared to do so, handling the Psalms with reverence, and being continually transformed by their message and by their Spirit into a true worshiper of God.

Psalm 119

Beth

By what way may young people be keeping their way clear?

By being like Your Word, observing it in reverent fear

Because with all my heart I will depend on You to stand

I will not swerve, meander, will not turn from Your commands

But all that You have spoken I will treasure in my heart

So that I might not miss the mark, by sin, from You depart

Because of You, I will give praise, my simple mind will turn

To be taught by Your statutes, to be exercised, to learn

By my lips, I will recount, my tongue enunciate

All the judgments from Your mouth, my lifestyle will relate

Because of Your testimonies I rejoice along the way

For they are like great riches – I have enough for every day

Because Your visitations give me leave to meditate

I trust more in Your way of truth, Your path will be my fate

By all of Your prescriptions I am pleased, filled with delights

I never will forget Your Word You’ve spoken from the heights

Read Part I

Citations

[i] See Jack Hayford. Worship His Majesty.  Regal Books: Ventura, Ca.: 2000.  p. 133.

[ii] See I Samuel 13:14.

[iii] See Romans 12:1-2.

[iv] See Andrew Murray, The Holiest of All: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews  Fleming H. Revell Co., Old Tappan, N.J.: 1894  p. 281.

[v] See Vinson Synan. The Holiness-Pentecostal tradition: Charismatic movements in the twentieth century. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids: 1997. pp. 67.  See also, Donald L Alexander and Sinclair B. Ferguson,. Christian spirituality: five views of sanctification. InterVarsity Press. Downer’s Grove: 1988 p. 97.

[vi] To some this would indeed seem like a second work of grace, as their first teachers neglected to inform them of the depth of their salvation experience, which was not only salvation from God’s wrath, but also actual salvation from the power of sin and death, and being brought near to God in welcoming fellowship, even familial relationship – and all of this in the one experience!  For an extended discussion of this theme, see Donald L. Alexander and Sinclair B. Ferguson.  Christian Spirituality:  Five Views of Sanctification.  InterVarsity Press.  Downer’s Grove: 1988.

[vii] See Gordon MacDonald. “Cultivating the Soul: Spiritual Formation Can Happen Without Saying a Word.”  Leadership Vol.XXVI  Summer 2005, p.51.

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The excerpt above is from The Metrical Psalms: A New Translation and Versification from the Original Hebrew Texts.  Find the link below the book cover’s picture. 

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