What It Means To Be A Worship Leader?

What is a worship leader? 

 Worship leader is one who facilitates worship.It is the primary duty of a worship leader, therefore, to be aligned with God’s will and to be humble before God. He must lead in humility and genuine concern for those who are under her care.It is the responsibility of the worship leader to ensure that it is not the music, nor the instruments, nor the presentation, nor the voices which are the focus of the worship service. Worship is bowing humbly before God and exalting Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. 

It is necessary to know that it is our responsibility as worship leader to become less, that Jesus Christ can become more. As we seek God's principle of what our worship means that it harmonizes with God's word. I believed that worship facilitator need to seek God's guidance and asked His wisdom before His presence. 

Those who lead the singing and the worship of God plays a very prominent role recognizing the importance of worshipping God in every aspect of life. This simply means, -taking the moment on reflecting what God desires of us, I believe it is important to understand what our goals ought to be as we gather to exalt and worship God, in Spirit and in Truth, as we encourage other believers in giving God the glory, we were created to be. 
 One who understand that we have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me (Galatians 2:20)
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

What is an effective worship leader?

A worship leader who seeks not to moved the souls with our songs and music but to the seek the presence of God in our worship. Worship that is led by the Holy Spirit with songs and music to magnify the Lord to the redemptive work of the father through His son Jesus Christ, proclaiming and seeking to live all of life for His glory. 

Worship leader or music facilitators are the one's motivating the congregation to join in giving God the highest praise. As believers we are not ask but commanded by our creator to give God the glory He deserves!
" This people I have formed for myself; they shall declare My praise." (Isaiah 43:2)
This explains that praise is one  reason we were all created and for this, worship must become our life and breath as it is ultimately the key that unlocks our whole lives to provide a way of experiencing God's every depth in Him.
 

When we don't seek God's wisdom, we can easily drift into thinking that worship is primarily about personal preferences or a music lifestyle.
Here's the point, our worship may not be, worship at all but actually reinvention of our own mind if we don't seek His wisdom on how He should be worshiped. 
Truly, if were not careful enough we can easily turned worship with a vague ideas of love of Christ which present nothing of His glory rather than just a great vocals, feel good music or what we think in our minds. 

True worship is inspired by the Holy Spirit, self- revelation of God in Christ and Scripture having a deep reflection of who He really is, and what he has done,– His undying love to all mankind. . We now have the confidence to enter Holy places by the blood reflecting on Jesus sacrifice, which we know that  God is able to forgive all of us from our sins as He poured out on His son the cup of His wrath we deserved. And having Jesus drank it all to the last drop. 

Glory to the Lamb! Jesus the son of God who came to save us,  who lived a life of humility, He was a living demonstration of what it means to be humble. We are to worship Him and give Him the honor He deserves! His grace, love and humility is truly humbling..

^"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."
( 2 Cor. 8:9)

I don't know about you, but as I reflect on God's grace upon us just reminds that there is nothing to be prideful for anything. Humility is what he preached and practice,- we ought to be humble and stay grounded. Because when our hearts are set on the Lord, there's no way you can be proud. 

And let me expound a little bit more on this topic where experienced musicians know that music can communicate and promote good feel music, everything in between from peace to passion. 

 Let's face it, actors have elicited passion in an audience. We also know bands have brought millions of fans to their feet and its through impressive arrays of music and sound. 

I believe worship leader should never look to music alone and impressive performance to inspire worship in God's people. Music indeed is valuable  for worship and only when it supports or if it is related to biblical truth.

Any emotion we exhibit should be our natural response to our understanding of God at that moment. Because our purpose is not to get attention to ourselves. When we sing to God were not there to perform. 

Now, if Satan was the worship leader in heaven, I think we can learn from him. Over time, he became selfish and prideful, wanting to be the object of worship himself. He wanted to take the focus off of God and put it on himself. One main point, that I get out of this is that as a worship leader myself, I must always avoid selfishness and pride, so help me, God! I know satan can try and will try to creep in the lives of those who wants to be closer to God. 

We see what happened to Satan-he became God's enemy and now leads people AWAY from God. We cannot become like him while we are trying to lead the people of God INTO the presence of God.The treasured moments that we should be longing for is the intimacy with God as we worship Him wholeheartedly. Our worship is not about singing to move souls, but to enter in the presence of God.

We have to be open to talents that put us in the background more than in the spotlight, when the spotlight should only be focused to God, in giving Him the glory." "Our stage presence" is only an idolatrous counterfeit to worshiping God's glory. 
I don't mean to step on anyone's toes, because I truly feel it needs to be addressed. As we read in John 4:24, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." To worship in truth is to worship as the word of God directs. 

Jesus said in John 17:17, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth." Since the word of God is truth, when we worship God in truth, we worship Him according to His word. The only way God will accept our worship is to follow His directions in the Bible. Also if we try to worship God "in truth" but not "in spirit", that is not with the proper motive of honoring God and with reverence, then we are just practicing ritualism and our heart is far from it. 

This type of worship is also vain and unacceptable to God, for Jesus says in Matthew 15:8, "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." We must worship God both in spirit and in truth. And this is the word of God.

God's  word commands us, "Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day" (Psa.96:2) As we proclaim God's salvation we are announcing to spiritual rulers and principalities, to ourselves, and to each other that  there is no other name to be praised but Jesus Christ, our resurrected Lord, the Lion of Judah, has triumph over hell, Satan and the grave! 
Our worship is to proclaim the truth of God consciously God-focused, faith-filled, and God-glorifying worship. Which means, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! who deserves all the glory, all the honor, all the praises of His people and nothing else but God alone!. Let me end this with this verse in

Philippians 3:8

^"What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ."
 

It is telling us that all else are worthless in this world, all rubbish compared that of knowing Jesus Christ who gave us hope and salvation. Peace everyone!

Parables

Have you ever thought, what is the Purpose of the Parables?

It's when the disciples of Jesus ask what the parable meant and Jesus answered,

" To you it has been given to know the secret of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this:

The seed is the word of God. The one's along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from the their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the one's on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.

And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. " And this is the word of God.

My Prayer:

Dear Lord,

Help us to live right in your eyes, to live in your truth and take heed of your instructions. Help us to discern what is good and evil, and to follow your path of righteousness and turn away from what is evil. Help us, O Lord, to do what is only pleasing,-- not in the counsels of man but what is pleasing in your eyes O, Lord! In Jesus name!