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The power and purpose of music
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Photo credit: KingdomCauses.org
Music is a powerful medium that touches people at the core of their souls. It can evoke a range of emotions and moods like happiness, sadness, anger, even sensuality, and can aid in creating powerful imaginations and memories in the mind. Certain songs can take you back to a certain time period in your life or even a specific moment. Because of its strong influence, which is sometimes subconscious, it is so important to be careful what music you allow to come into your ear gate. You might not want to listen to DMX while driving if you have a problem with road rage! If you are struggling with lust, listening to artists like Jodeci can hinder that deliverance from taking place. As you have heard on the radio, music can be used for good or for evil, but have you ever stopped to wonder what God’s reasons were for creating music? God’s purposes for music can be found by digging through the Scriptures.
• Celebration. Our God is a God of celebration and He wants His children to be the same way. One example of how music accompanies celebrations at feasts (parties) can be found in Genesis 31:27 NLT. “Why did you slip away secretly? Why did you steal away? And why didn’t you say you wanted to leave? I would have given you a farewell feast, with singing and music, accompanied by tambourines and harps.” Judges 5:11 NLT is an illustration of a war victory celebration. “Listen to the village musicians gathered at the watering holes. They recount the righteous victories of the LORD and the victories of his villagers in Israel. Then the people of the LORD marched down to the city gates.” See these Scriptures for additional examples of how music is used to celebrate: I Samuel 18:6 and Luke 15:25-27.
• Worship, praise and giving thanks. Perhaps one of the most important and powerful uses of music found in the Bible is to worship, praise, and give thanks to God. God loves to be adored. Don’t you? He is worthy of the highest form of adoration that one can give, and one way to adore Him is to sing His praises. Praise and worship are not the same. Praise means to verbally extol, honor, or highly exalt or lift up. Worship is an offering of yourself to God, a deep adoration, love, reverence, and intimate devotion to God. I like to think of praise as an outer court experience with God, while worship will get you into the inner courts of God and can lead you behind the veil into the holy of holies. Many people have offered praise to God, but not all of them have experienced true worship unto Him. II Chronicles 5:13 and Psalm 33:2 are examples of this.
• Deliverance from evil spirits. There’s only one Scripture that I could recall in the Bible that demonstrates the anointed, yoke destroying power in music to free someone from the torment of evil spirits. This is why I strongly suggest that a person who is feeling depressed or vexed in their soul play anointed music. This example is found in I Samuel 16:16.
• Ministry in the House of the Lord. This is probably one of the most common uses of music among Christians today. When music is anointed, it goes beyond the surface hype to get you up on your feet clapping or raising the hairs on the back of your neck. Anointed music has the power to bring liberty to your soul, healing to your emotions, and the presence of God right where you are. It should be commonplace to hear anointed music that accompanies ministry in the House of the Lord. If the music is not anointed and the presence of God does not show up, then it’s just short of a concert full of performances. Take a look at I Chronicles 6:31-32, 9:33, and 25:6 which all illustrate music in the House of the Lord.
• Prophesying with instruments. Did you know that you can declare the Word of the Lord through sound? Anointed and skilled musicians can declare what God is doing or saying in the heavenly realm and bring it to earth with their instruments. (Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven). When God is releasing a sound of war on the enemy, the music should reflect that. When God is declaring peace to come over His people, there should be a different sound to reflect that. Music is a language that God created to convey His messages to us. We need to learn the language. See I Chronicles 25:1-3.
• Accompaniment to the army under government order. This is one purpose of music that you don’t hear about much if at all. Music has the ability to put people in a certain frame of mind. When it’s time to go to war, funeral music or love songs are obviously not appropriate. A war cry or something victorious sounding, or even aggressive or militant would be more fitting to call forth the inner warrior. This could also work for personal spiritual battles as well. When the enemy gets you down, a great way to get up is to put on some music that will strengthen the warrior in you. I Chronicles 25: 1-2 illustrates this point.
• Usher in the presence of God. If you have never been in the glorious presence of God, you are truly missing out! God responds to pure, true, heartfelt worship. In fact, He shows up and you are never the same once you’ve been in His presence. Healing and deliverance can also take place when God’s manifested presence invades you. Meditate on II Chronicles 5:13-14.
• Lamenting, expressing grief or sorrow. Funerals come to mind here. To lament also means to complain with tears. Sometimes when you are sad, only a song can truly convey what your heart if feeling. But it’s important that after you’ve allowed yourself to lament that you get back up again! Read Job 30:30-31 and Matthew 9:23.
I pray that you have been blessed by this article. My prayer is that you are more aware of the secret weapon hidden deeply in the language of music. What is your music communicating?
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If you are interested in beginning a relationship with God, it only requires two simple things from you: A verbal confession that Jesus Christ is Lord, and a belief from your heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Romans 10:9-10). Just pray this prayer out loud: God I believe that Jesus Christ is your only begotten Son and that you sent Him to earth, that He died and You raised Him from the dead. God, I believe that Jesus’ shed blood washes away my sins so that I can have a relationship with you. Lord, I invite you to be the only Lord of my life. Thank you for saving me. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray, amen.
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