_______________________________ _______________________________ Praise & Worship by Colin Owen _______________________________ _______________________________ Preface You could be forgiven for thinking that in todays church we had praise and worship pretty well sorted out. But to be honest, nothing could be further from the truth. Almost anything passes these days for praise and worship. Im convinced that if I went into a church and sang about making tea theyd call it worship. I know of one instance when a very well known worship leader led the congregation in singing in the spirit whilst playing three blind mice. It really has to change if were to see the promised move of God that our nation, and world, so badly needs. If we, the church have lost sight of such a basic and important principal of Christianity, then what chance does the world have of ever being saved. In short church, its about time we put our house in order, before we attempt the big one. So! What about praise & worship? The Agape Principal: In John 3:16 we see Gods principal of Agape in operation. The Jews were looking for their Messiah. They had been waiting a long time, and during that long wait a picture had been built up of how the Messiah would look and act. Lets face it, the Jews wanted a Messiah who would kick out the Romans and lead them back to what they regarded as victory. So strong was the picture, that when Jesus their Messiah came in the manner prescribed by scripture, they totally missed it. God could have sent the kind of Messiah that the Jews wanted, but instead, He sent the Messiah the Jews needed. This is the Agape principal, to give what is needed, rather than what is wanted. The Jews wanted a warrior to fight, but needed a Lamb to die. God could see the long term, ie, eternity, whereas the Jews could only see the short term, the Roman occupation. When God gave His one and only Son, Jesus, do you think the world wanted Him? No, but it sure needed Him. This Agape principal, is the one I stand on when I minister for the Lord. I try with all my heart to speak what the church needs to hear, not what it wants to hear. Unfortunately there is sometimes a vast difference between the two. In the Spirit of the Lord, and in the Spirit of Agape I offer this teaching to my brothers and sisters in the precious body of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. _______________________________ _______________________________ 1. What is praise? As one who is called by the Lord into this most precious area of ministry, I have often wondered why it appears that this question is not asked much more often. Surely it is of prime importance to us all as believers that we know what God expects from us in praise, and also how to do it. Its not a difficult question to answer, the Bible is full of instances where Gods people praise Him. All we have to do is look. This will give us the how, the why, the where, and the when. Simple? Obviously not, if it were the church would be doing it, but in the main, the church isnt. Why? There are two reasons why. 1. The flesh hates to praise the Lord. Its the flesh that has to make that sacrifice of praise talked about in Heb 13:15. Praise is always boisterous, look in scripture, dancing, shouting, singing, playing instruments, clapping, speaking. All are associated with praise. Rejoicing and celebrating too are directly linked with praise, and you cant do either of these quietly. Our God is a God of noise! Look in Revelation, even His voice is like thunder. As for silence, it is mentioned, but only once and for half an hour. 2. The devil has seen to it that the church doesnt know how to praise God. Even in churches that are lively and play extremely fast songs he has seen to it that the flesh is the ruling factor. You only have to look at the lyrical focus of the songs that are popular to see this. We sing about ourselves! We sing about what we are going to do. We even sing about the enemy and his so called power, and all in the name of praise. Church its pathetic! So, what is praise? Praise is telling out in some way the mighty acts of our God. Speak it out, sing it out, shout it out, dance it out, play it out on musical instruments. Let everybody know about it! You cant say God is mighty quietly, you just have to shout it. If you cant shout Gods praises your spirit is not ruling your body, for it is by the Spirit we cry Abba Father. The flesh hates it, but the spirit rejoices in it. Isaiah 43:21 Tells us that we were formed by God for Himself to proclaim my praise. Praise is why we are here. Nowhere does the Bible say this about prayer! We were not formed to pray, we were formed to praise, and yet we pray a lot more than we praise. If you ask the congregation to speak out words of praise you will get prayers, try it and see. Notice in the verse it says that we may proclaim Gods praise. Praise is a privilege granted to us as Gods children, that is not granted to anyone else. What a privilege God has given us, through praise we can get to know Him. Praise teaches us about Him, and, when set to music we remember what we have learned. Praise helps us to form a relationship with Almighty God. What a privilege! Praise is a door to the Father, the Bible says enter His courts with praise. True worship comes out of our relationship with our Father. You cannot be intimate with, or love someone that you dont really know. This is the worlds way, the devils way. Find a stranger and vent your lust on them, then find another. This so called love, or intimacy, is empty and void because it has no foundation. Real love is built on a relationship, not lust. Without praise in our lives, we cannot develop a full relationship with our Father, because we are in disobedience, Psalm 113:3 commands us, from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised, a clear command to do it. _______________________________ _______________________________ 2. What is worship? Worship has become the buzz word of today. Everything to do with music is called worship, except in the Bible that is. Again, I challenge you to look for yourselves, you wont find a single direct link between music and worship. Not once is there an I will worship you with a song, or dance, or on a musical instrument, and yet we have made worship musical. Worship in scripture is always service. That service can take many forms, but in the main the Old Testament version of worship is performing a duty, either laying out the items of service ie, the show bread. Or, performing the acts of sacrifice, making offerings on behalf of the people (who are called worshippers even though they only stand and watch), and such like. Only the priest could perform these duties. Bowing down, prostrating oneself, kneeling are all strongly associated with the Hebrew words for worship. Some go even further than this and suggest work in any form, even to farming the land. In the New Testament worship is very much more limited in its scope. There is however one verse that clearly tells us what God expects (seeks) from us in worship, John 4:23. In this verse we have the key to worship. To start, there are very few Greek words used in the New Testament for worship, in fact, one word is used above all others, Proskuneo. It is a mix of two words, Pros, which means towards, and Kuneo, which means to kiss. A literal translation would be towards kiss. But, like nearly all Greek words it has other underlying associations. It speaks of faithfulness, and so is understood to convey a faithful dog licking his masters hand (set that to music!). It also means (yes you guessed it), to bow, prostrate, crouch, in homage. It also means adoration, or to adore. It is clear from Revelation, that the 24 elders are worshipping when they fall on their faces and cast their crowns before God. Chapter 4 verse 8 sees the living creature saying Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty......, whilst in verse 11 the Elders say You are worthy our Lord and our God to receive...... Both sets of beings say wonderful things to God, but the word worship (Proskuneo) is only applied to the Elders, why? Because they fell down before Him who lives forever..... (verse 10). Worship was the bodily act, that included words, not just the words. John 4:23 also says true worshippers, the Greek word , means: a) dependable, God is looking for dependable worshippers. Those who will turn up on time each day to worship Him, not just when they feel like it, and not just at meetings. You can only do this if worship is in your heart. When worship is a good idea, it doesnt last very long. Worship is a lifestyle, an every day lifestyle, not just a part of our church services. Worship is really a private thing. It is easier to be intimate in private, but let us not neglect public worship, it binds us together as a body, or should I say family. b) genuine, God seeks genuine worshippers, the real thing, nothing false. There is a lot of falsehood in todays worship. Some put on a show for the benefit of others, a sort of false piety that looks really spiritual, but in actual fact is an abomination in the sight of God. Many will not clean the church because it is beneath them, but cleaning the church is an act of worship. Many dont give their money into the church, because its theirs, yet giving to God is very much an act of worship. These people are not genuine worshippers, however nicely they sing, and God is not seeking them. c) real, God seeks real worshippers, not those who live in unreality. Jesus was a real worshipper, He lived in the real world not some fantasy land. The out working of this was evident for all to see, He walked around doing Gods will, which is worship. Ask some people to help paint the church and see what answers you get, its not my calling, or, Ill have to pray about it. This is spiritual fantasy land and unreality. God does not seek this kind of person. d) pure. God is seeking pure worshippers, not those who are tainted by the world, obviously this means sin, unrighteousness, and unholiness are out. There is far too much of the world in worship these days. Our means, methods, and motives must not be shaped by the world when we come to worship. Music concerts with pop stars at the front are not what God is seeking in worship. Its a heart attitude, we come to worship God, not the worship leader. We come to give to God our gift of worship and adoration, not because we like the songs. All of this obviously speaks about the character of the worshipper that God seeks. John 4:23 also states will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. This word truth is quite revealing, and exposes what the devil has done to worship. We think of lies as being the opposite to truth, so, when we read this verse we assume that God is only seeking those who dont lie. But, the Greek word that is used here means: dependability, integrity, and freedom from error. Nothing to do with lies at all! God expects us to worship Him in freedom from error. Already it is obvious that our concept of worship is in error. It has been reduced to singing slow songs, which are usually prayers, (well look at songs in the next section), Hymns, which can range from glorious truth to out and out tripe, and singing in the spirit, or singing in tongues. When we sing in tongues we edify ourselves, but, as we dont know what we are singing we have to take it by faith that we are in fact singing worship songs. It must be true, that it is more of an offering to God when we sing or speak with our understanding, after all, it is certainly harder to do than to sing or speak out in tongues. Just as in the same way it is harder to pray with our understanding than it is to pray in tongues. This truly is what worship is. An intimate offering to God that is for Him alone, with no thought of receiving a reward for ourselves, and no counting of the cost we must pay to bring this offering to Him. Worship is service given unto God either publicly or privately. It is an out pouring of our inner adoration for Him in words, whether spoken or sung, and deeds, whether bowing before Him, or cleaning the church for Him, or any other form of service we want to give to Him. Worship is our personal and intimate offering to God. _______________________________ _______________________________ 3. Where do songs fit in? Songs, this is a mine field, but one which we must cross to get to the truth. There are two main types of song: a ministry song, and a praise/worship song. The two are totally different. Unfortunately we as a church have mixed the two together, hence we sing ministry songs when we should be praising or worshipping the Lord. A ministry song has a specific ministry to people. This is the kind of song you see on performers albums. It ministers to the body in some way or other, and as such, has great value to those who listen to it. This type of song can be sung as a solo in the service. A praise/worship song is the opposite to a ministry song in that it ministers to the Lord not the body. The focus is different, a praise & worship song allows us to express what is inside us to the Lord. This is its only function in life. A praise/worship song should be a means to an end, not an end in itself. Put another way, a praise/worship song should be a vehicle by which we focus on the Lord, nothing more. We must not focus on the song, just the Lord. The ideal praise & worship song is transparent to the singer, so that the singer can only see the Lord. Complicated musical phrases are out. Concentration on the musical or vocal performance is out, (this is flesh). The Bible says,Make a joyful noise.... Only the Lord matters. It fits then that our ideal praise & worship song should only point to the Lord, not some side issue. This is where we have gone so badly wrong, we sing songs that are not praise & worship songs when we should be praising and worshipping the Lord. Songs have been written about almost every topic you can think of, even Satan and his darkness, (why on earth would you want to sing about the darkness?), and these songs are offered up to God as praise and worship. They may have their place, but it is certainly not in praise & worship. It has to be said that there is a serious lack of discernment in the church when it comes to music. Non anointed people should not write songs, and church leaders should be able to discern the difference between anointed and non anointed songs. There is a great need for Spirit led music directors, pastors cant be expected to do it all. Its like the wheat and the tares, there are good anointed songs, and there are bad non anointed songs, and both are growing side by side. The good ones do good, but the bad ones can cause all kinds of problems. We really need to weed out the bad ones, because they are getting in the way when it comes to praise and worship, and many are sowing wrong concepts of God. Remember that songs really do go into peoples minds and emotions and stay there. A song is made up of two parts: words, and music. Both have immense power, and should be used wisely. The office of song writer should only be held by a person who is called by, and anointed by God. As you are about to see great damage can be done if this principal is not adhered to. _______________________________ _______________________________ 4. The Lyrics: Ive heard people say, there is no good Christian music. People who think like this really need to repent of their worldly attitude. What we call good is very much dependent on our own personal likes and dislikes, ie, our emotions. And, any good pastor will tell you that you should never make judgments based on your emotions. Why? Because they are unstable, and change at a whim. To some people, good means that it sounds like Michael Jackson, to others it might have to be rock sounding. To still others it might have to be traditional sounding. Take any musical style and someone somewhere will think it sounds good. All this happens because we judge songs by the music. I once had a young chap come up to me and ask if there was any Christian acid house music! He obviously knew that the worldly sort was wrong, and so wanted to satisfy his desire for this style (perish the thought) of music, by looking for the Christian copy. Yes I said it, Christian copy. Much of our Christian music is just copycat. The devil does not have all the best tunes, in fact he doesnt have any of them! Romans 12:2 Says Dont be imitators of the world, so, dont. There are genuine music ministries that are using rock music, (and other sorts). You can always tell the genuine article by the converts. Always judge the tree by its fruit, if people are being saved and brought out of their old lifestyle to a new and Christian lifestyle, then say Amen. If they seemingly get saved but stay locked into the old music dominated lifestyle then you know its not the real thing. When the leather jackets and studs are discarded, its real. How then do you judge Christian music so that you can label it good? Simple, judge it not by the music, but by its message. In other words judge it by what it says. A good Christian song speaks the gospel, or clearly glorifies God, or Jesus. Many so called Christian songs carry veiled messages. No, a good Christian song speaks out its message loud and clear, and that message is the Lord. There is no other message! This takes us to the actual lyrics of the song, the bit that speaks directly to our brain, the bit that conveys the message to us. Ozzy Osbournes song suicide solution, is a prime example of the way the devil uses words set to music to infiltrate the human mind. To the gullible this form of brain washing is very effective, as the parents of a young American lad found out when they burst into his bedroom after hearing a shot, only to find him dead, on the floor, with this demonic filth still playing on the record player. Words set to music are very powerful. It follows then that Gods word set to music is even more powerful. Many musicians and song writers recognise this and use it as a weapon against Satan. I am one of them, it is a very effective way to preach the gospel. Used correctly, and by that I mean, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, many have and will be won for Christ. Used incorrectly, and by that I mean, by anyone who is not anointed to do it by the Holy Spirit, the results can be quite catastrophic. I kid you not, people who dabble in this area of ministry are a menace. Pastors will vet very carefully anyone who is about to preach, why not treat music with the same respect? What should we sing to praise our God? We should proclaim His mighty deeds, we should tell out how well He does everything. We can sing it to the world who dont know the truth because the devil has blinded them to it. We can sing it to each other to build one another up, we can sing it back to God so that we confess his goodness to us. By far the best focus is God. We will be blessed beyond measure when we really start to praise the Lord as it were, back to His face. In other words we direct our praise to Him. Singing about Him is good and has its place, but singing to Him is the best. With this in mind then, the lyrics of our praise songs should be such that they allow us to do this very thing. Its no good whatsoever to sing about what we will do, we have to do it! This has been one of Satans subtle side tracks. We sing I will celebrate, but we dont celebrate. We sing I will bow my knee, but we keep standing up! We sing I will proclaim..., but when it goes silent in the meeting we clam up! Its much better to have songs that incorporate the actual praise, ie, Jesus You are glorious, wonderful victorious, Jesus You are Lord of all etc, or, Jesus You are mighty Jesus Youre the King, Jesus You are glorious and You rule everything. This is praise, when you sing these songs you are praising the Lord, not singing about praising Him, but actually praising Him. This is the job of the song writer, it should be called song minister, for that is what it is. _______________________________ _______________________________ 5. What to avoid during praise & worship times: Avoid singing songs that focus on us. Each song has its place, keep it in that place. Just because its lively, doesnt mean that its praise, and just because its slow doesnt mean its worship. Ill deal with song types a little later. To focus on us at praise time is counter productive. By default we have to take our eyes off God to sing about us. Taking your eyes off God is a silly thing to do, no, once we have focused on God we should stay there, nothing is more important than the Lord, so why come back down to earth when you can be in heaven? Avoid just singing prayers. This is another of Satans side tracks. Much of what passes for worship today is just sung prayer. This is a totally unacceptable form of worship, in fact, it isnt worship at all. Worship is giving to God, not asking Him for something, however noble the cause. Worship is no time to sing save our nation, or, pour out Your Spirit on us. Worship is us loving God for who He is, not what we can get from Him. Please church, lets stop this error, and give God the worship due to Him. Avoid at all costs, songs that contradict scripture. Yes it does happen, and all too often. I cant avoid treading on someone's toes in this bit, so remember forgiveness is sweet! Mistakes usually happen when a song has been written from the flesh rather than the Spirit. The Holy Spirit tends not to make mistakes, we, on the other hand...... Thats why, only anointed people should write songs. An example of a song that contradicts scripture would be Within the veil (oops). This song implants the idea that there is actually a veil there, which of course there isnt, not since the cross anyway. No one needs to feel like there is a barrier between them and God, but this song suggests that there is one, even though God Himself removed it!. Also to look upon thy face, is not in line with Gods word. No one sees my face and lives, according to God, and Jesus states that no one has seen God at any time. Our emotions are tickled by these things and so we like to sing them, but Gods word is quite clear about error during worship! Another song that is sung a lot is More love more power. This one too is not in line with Gods word. It suggests that there is more love to come, which is ludicrous. God gave His all at Calvary, to ask for more is an insult. Again the song implies that there is something that God is holding back from me, which is not correct. He has given us everything we need for life and Godliness according to Peter. These are examples of the kind of thing we should discern and remove from our repertoire altogether. They have very little value as either praise or worship, and only serve to titillate our flesh which counts for nothing _______________________________ _______________________________ 6. The Music: Music has incredible power. Power to reach right into the emotions. Control the emotions and you can control the person. Far fetched? Over the top? No, the simple truth. Music is used throughout our society to control people every day. Go into a lift and you get soft sweet music to calm the person who might panic. Go into the young persons clothes shop and you get bombarded with the current musical style, but played with great aggression and drive. The music drives the shoppers in just the same way that it does at the house parties, and night clubs. It makes them feel like theyre in the night club so they stay longer or go in more often, which increases the likelihood of a sale. Go to the super market and the tempo is much slower, this makes the shoppers walk around more slowly, so that they see more and are tempted to buy. Its all calculated. Imagine a Dracula film without the music, or the Jaws films without the du du. How would you know when the shark was coming without the du du? How would you know when to be frightened without the music setting the scene? Its not only fear that can be manipulated, how often do people cry at the movies? How are we made to hate the bad guy? All of this is emotional control, and it is done through music. Music has great power. Music is used to aid deception. What better way for the devil to plant a lie into the church than to set it to nice music and get the church to sing it? We judge by the music. Some of the old Hymns have great words, but the tunes are awful, so, we dont sing them. We ignore the message because of the tune. Turn that around and you get a bad message being sung because people like the tune. We should always look at the words before we hear the tune. This way we can avoid a lot of problems caused by wrong ideas being implanted into our churches by the devil, and or miss guided folk who should not be writing songs. If a song doesnt come from the spirit it must come from the flesh, and believe me, flesh appeals to flesh. In other words, the flesh songs are liked by those who are not in tune with the Spirit, and they argue with you when you point out the deception of their favourite songs. On the other hand, songs that come from the Spirit appeal to the spirit. They lift you and bless you and minister to your spirit. These are the songs we need to sing, even if the tune is a bit yuky. You can tell the difference between the two quite easily. A flesh song will bless you whilst you are singing it, and leave you flat. But a spiritual song will lift you whilst you are singing it, and the blessing will remain with you, sometimes for days. Once you have tasted the real thing you wont want to go back to the other stuff. There is usually a certain amount of unreality in songs that have come from the flesh, I will dance and sing all day long, is not a realistic statement, nor is, Hold me in Your arms dear Lord. This kind of unreality comes from the good intentions of our flesh, but the Holy Spirit would never inspire us to write things that are not possible for us to actually do. Look at your song books and see just how much unreality there is in our thinking. It doesnt come from the Lord. _______________________________ _______________________________ 7. What about instrumental music? This is another area where Christians like to flirt with the world. True these guys can play, and their music maybe gentle and well polished, but did you hear what I said, their music. Music, like all things was created for Gods glory, but the devil has stolen it and perverted its beauty. Music plays a big part in Satans plan of subversion, even seemingly harmless stuff. Ask yourselves, why do they make music? Answer, to glorify self! (fame, fortune, adulation). Why was Lucifer thrown out of heaven? Because he wanted to glorify himself. Its the same spirit. The spirit of the world, the spirit of the antichrist, the spirit of the devil. There is spirit in music, any average Christian will detect the evil in acid house, or heavy rock, but not many will pick it up in Frank Sinatra, (My way, Strangers in the night!), or, opera, (Madame butterfly and Romeo and Juliet have suicide as their main theme). People still seem to think that it is just modern rock or pop music that is demonic, but the devil has been around for a long time doing his thing. All styles of music and the arts have been used by him. Look at Shakespeare, Mahler, Wagner. The devil is into all of it. On the other hand, when a born again, Spirit filled, anointed child of God makes music, its Gods Spirit that goes into the music, and your spirit will witness with it when you hear that music played. You see, anointed musicians only make music for Gods glory, not their own. God is our glory, for us there can be no other. So use this rule of thumb before you spend Gods money on the devils music: was this music created for Gods glory? If not, you have no business buying it, or listening to it. The word says, touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. Everything outside of Gods Kingdom is unclean. Having said all that, I would like to add a section about setting Christian lyrics to popular songs. This hideous practice has been around for quite some time, but seems to be on the increase. Even extremely well known preachers have subscribed to this rubbish. To do this is to say that the devils tunes are good, which they arent. Nothing the devil does is good! So why take the time to set your lyrics to one of his tunes? Its a mistake anyway to think that it has the intended effect. When you sing the song, people still think of the original, no matter how nice the new words, and if you think that the world will accept such a travesty youre wrong. The devil will use any means at his disposal to infiltrate the church, and singing Christian lyrics to the devils tunes is just opening the door and inviting him in. Not only this but it is giving him a place of honour. To sing words of praise or worship to God using one of the devils tunes is sickening. _______________________________ _______________________________ 8. Types of song and their uses: There are over 30 types of song listed in scripture, but our concern here is with praise & worship, so Ill restrict myself to the relevant types in no particular order: 1. Teaching songs: These songs are very effective in ramming home a Biblical truth. Ive already stated that singing is probably the best way to memorise scripture. These songs have great value. Bible teaching is a very important part of our Christian lives, but sometimes we want to get into the deep waters as it were, and we go looking for hidden mysteries that no-one has found yet, like, the second coming, or, who is the antichrist etc, deliverance is another favourite. You take my meaning. But the gospel is simple, and its in the simple things that we find some tremendous things, like: I am a new creation, no more in condemnation. What a tremendous song! Or this, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Or this one, He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Simple but immense truth that every Christian needs to know, but not many seem to. These songs fall into the rejoicing category as well, because this is something to rejoice over. Teaching songs can be fast or slow, how about this one, Im accepted, Im forgiven, I am loved by the true and living God, or this Glorious old Hymn, Great is Your faithfulness O God my Father, marvellous. Its such good stuff, but it must be used correctly. Four fast teaching songs dont make a praise time, a whoopee time yes, but not a praise time. Teaching songs can be used either before the praise time starts, to get everybody in the right frame of mind to praise the Lord, and to give them something to praise Him for! They can also be very effective after the preach to seal a message into the congregations minds. Used properly teaching songs are a great blessing to us all. 2. Prayer songs: These songs tend to be gentle and slow, so its easy to use them wrongly as worship songs. Prayer is prayer and has its own place in our services. Used correctly, prayer songs are excellent for opening people up to a prayer time, or for use during a prayer time to emphasise a topic. Alter calls are also a time when a prayer song can be used, Reign in me was the one sung when I was a lad, But Jesus take me as I am also fits the bill. The golden rule is to keep prayer songs for prayer times, not worship times. 3. Praise songs: Ive already discussed these, but to recap. A praise song is one that proclaims the mighty acts of our God, preferably to Him, but can be about Him to a third party. Both are valid. Praise songs should ideally come before the worship songs. Praise gets you into Gods presence where you can worship (be intimate with) Him. Of course, the Holy Spirit may have other ideas, in which case follow Him, not me! Some examples of praise songs to God would be: Lord of Lords King of Kings, Exalted You are exalted, and examples of songs about God would be, The Lord reigns, and, Mighty is our God, etc. 4. Worship songs: As worship is more about intimacy with God, and giving to Him than anything else, these songs are usually tender and expressive, and they must by default be focused on Him. The song itself must not get in the way, so worship songs are usually very simple to sing. Some examples would be: Jesus I love You Jesus, Great is Your Name, For thou O Lord art high..., etc 5. Rejoicing/Celebration songs: Rejoicing and celebrating are a lost art in the church. Read your Old Testament to see how they really did it! These songs are not necessarily praise songs, but they are always lively. You cant jump and dance to slow stuff, and thats what rejoicing and celebrating are. Some examples would be: Jesus we celebrate Your victory, My heart rejoices in the Lord, I delight greatly in the Lord, Soon and very soon were going to see the King, etc 6. Exhortation songs: These are songs that encourage us to do something. The kind of song that we can sing to one another as a sort of gentle push! Again they are usually quick rather that slow but not always. Some examples would be: Come magnify the name of the Lord, Come let us shout for joy to the Lord, Exalt the Lord who is clothed in majesty, etc 7. War songs: Warfare plays a large part in our prayer times and its good to have songs that can focus us on to the battle. I personally dont subscribe to praise as warfare, if praise is to God how can it be warfare? Be that as it may, songs can and do have a function in a warfare situation. Music too can be used to drive home prayer, try it! Songs like Mighty warrior, The Lord is marching, or, You are exalted Lord above all else, etc, have great value in our times of warfare and help us to focus on the job in hand ie, smashing the devil and his plans!!! 8. Prophetic songs: There always seems to be something mysterious surrounding anything connected with the prophetic, and the prophetic song is no exception. These songs are sometimes called, prophetic praise, which in most cases they arent, (prophetic I mean). The idea of prophetic praise is quite a simple one, you simply praise God for something that hasnt happened yet, hence prophetic. Is this too deep? I can remember praising the Lord for my new car six months before I actually got it, thats prophetic praise. I didnt sing it as far as I can remember, but had I, I would have been singing a prophetic song of praise. Sometimes these songs are called the song of the Lord, which is a better title than prophetic praise. Often the songs will be encouraging, and will sometimes speak quite specifically into someones life. These songs are rare, but very moving when they come. To be honest it takes a lot of faith to stand and sing out one of these songs, as basically you dont know where you are going next, nothing is memorised as in ordinary singing. Also many churches dont allow time for this to happen. A period of relative quiet is needed. Its one time when the band need to shut up, and the pastor not jump in with something in order to break the silence. Some pastors are afraid of silence, and some congregation members cant wait for it so that they can do their party piece. Am I really talking about church? Fraid so! When the Holy Spirit is in control, all is automatically done in proper order. Its a pity so many churches are afraid to try it. I hope and pray that this little booklet has brought some clarity to you about praise and worship. May the Lord bless you as you seek to praise & worship Him in spirit and in truth. AMEN Feel free to copy/use this material. e-mail: colin@jesusreigns.co.uk