Instrumental Worship

Instrumental Worship

This isn’t a sharing on how we can worship God through instruments. But it is a reminder of how we are created to worship God. We are the instruments, and God is the Orchestra Conductor and Player.

In light of the upcoming Acts Conference, I sense that this is really a season that God wants to act in each of our lives to bring about great influence and to even do the Supernatural. To allow God to move powerfully, it is crucial for us to prepare our hearts and yield to the HS. We need to have this heart of instrumental worship, so that we can be vessels for God to pour forth his love and power.

It is true that we are all wonderfully made by God and are different. Hence we have different purposes and gifting. But regardless of our differences, we do have a common calling and can have one heart with the Church and with Christ.

1. Clean Instruments

 -For the instrument to function properly and produce beautiful sounds, it has to be clean, without defects. 

-2 Timothy 2:19-21 (In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.)

-The Character of God is reflected in the vessels he chooses to use (Illustration: When you go to a restaurant, you expect to have your food served in clean vessels. If you are served tea in a glass with lipstick on the rim, you will probably not return to that restaurant. It reflects the character of the restaurant)
-Romans 6:13-15 (Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.)

-1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.)

-Romans 12:1-2 (Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.) 

-Acts 9:15-16(But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”) God can even use Saul who persecuted him, to plant the most Churches in the world.

-Therefore, as we desire for God to act in our lives. Let us first and foremost allow ourselves to be cleansed and ready our hearts, so that we can receive whatever he wants to pour into our lives and not reject/distort it.

-But know that God is such a good God, that he will never stop loving you and will never stop pouring into your life even when we stumble and are filled with flaws.

-However, if you want to live life to the fullest and be the kind of person he created you to be, cleanse your heart and areas in your life which you shut away from God or are strongly attached to.

-Application: What areas in your life do you know are displeasing to God, but have not submitted it to God? Are there things in your life that have become like idols and u can’t let them go for God’s greater purposes and gifts? (Pray about it? Fast from it? Account about it? Spend less time on it to instead seek God?)

2. Being Instrumental

 -The next level in the heart of instrumental worship is to be an instrument itself. We do not just want to pursue righteousness, but love, which was how we attained righteousness through Jesus.

-As instruments, let us recognize that no matter how expensive we are, we can’t produce the melody unless God plays through it. John 15:5 (“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…”)

-Are we willing to be instrumental for God’s purposes, especially the great commission to reach out to all the lost in the world? Mission is finish-able, but not evangelism, and the end times are drawing near.

-Matthew 24:4-14 (Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come…”)

-The good news as we share the good news is that, Christ does have other sheep outside and he must bring his other sheep. And the sheep he calls will surely come. John 10:16 (And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.)
-And Jesus also says that we will receive a hundredfold in this time and in eternity. (Mark 10:28-30)

 -1 Corinthians 15:19 (If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.) Are we living our lives in such a way that we pursue Christ and his Kingdom is our treasure? Or are we often looking towards blessings and providence on Earth, such that we are living similarly to those who do not know Christ?

-Earlier on, I mentioned that the character of God is reflected in his vessels. Colossians 1:24 (Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.) Paul is saying that as we share in persecutions and sufferings with Christ, we help people to see more of Christ’ love and the infinite value of Christ’s afflictions.

-Missions, sufferings, persecutions, steps out of our comfort zone, how much we yield ourselves to God affect how much he can fulfill his purposes through us or others. And sufferings are sacrifices, but the blessings outweigh the losses, from the family in Christ, to God’s providence, to the more intimate fellowship with Jesus, to the witnessing of his power and glory, to the souls being saved, to the eternal inheritance we’ll receive, and the eternal fellowship we’ll have.

“Thank You, Natasha, Wherever You Are”

        Here’s an abstract from Sergei Kourdakov’s autobiography, The Persecutor. Kourdakov was commissioned by the Russian secret police to raid prayer gatherings and persecute believers with extraordinary brutality. But the afflictions of one believer changed his life:
        I saw Victor Marveyev reach and grab for a young girl [Natasha Zhdanova] who was trying to escape to another room. She was a beautiful young girl. What a waste to be a Believer. Victor caught her picked her above his head, and held her high in the air for a second. She was pleading “Don’t, please don’t. Dear God, help us!” Victor threw her so hard she hit the wall at the same height she was thrown, then dropped to the floor, semiconscious, moaning. Victor turned and laughed and exclaimed, “I’ll bet the idea of God went flying out of her head”.
        On a later raid, Sergei was shocked to see Natasha again.
        I quickly surveyed the room and saw a sight I couldn’t believe! There she was, the same girl! It couldn’t be. But it was. Only three nights before, she had been at the other meeting and had been viciously thrown across the room. It was the first time I really got a good look at her. She was more beautiful than I had first remembered – a very beautiful girl with long, flowing, blond hair, large blue eyes, and smooth skin, one of the most naturally beautiful girls I have ever seen…
        I picked her up and flung her on a table facedown. Two of us stripped her clothes off. One of my men held her down and I began to beat her again and again. My hands began to sting under the blows. Her skin started to blister. I continued to beat her, until pieces of bloody flesh came off on my hand. She moaned but fought desperately not to cry. To suppress her cries, she bit her lower lip until it was bitten through and blood ran down her chin.
        At last she gave in and began sobbing. When I was so exhausted I couldn’t raise my arm for even one more blow, and her backside was mass of raw flesh, I pushed her off the table, and she collapsed on the floor.
        To Sergei’s shock, he later encountered her at yet another prayer meeting. But this time something was different:
There she was again – Natasha Zhdanova!
        Several of the guys saw her too. Alex Gulyaev moved toward Natasha, hatred filling his face, his club raised above his head.
        Then something I never expected to see suddenly happened. Without warning. Victor jumped between Natasha and Alex, facing Alex head-on.
        “Get out of my way” Alex shouted angrily.
        Victor’s feet didn’t move. He raised his club and said menacingly, “Alex, I’m telling you, don’t touch her! No one touches her!”
        I listened in amazement. Incredibly, one of my most brutal men was protecting one of the Believers! “Get back!” he shouted to Alex. “Get back or I’ll let you have it.” He shielded Natasha, who was cowering on the floor.
Angered, Alex shouted, “You want her for yourself, don’t you?”
        “No,” Victor shouted back. “She has something we don’t have! Nobody touches her! Nobody!”
…For one of the first times in my life, I was deeply moved…Natasha did have something! She had been beaten horribly. She had been warned and threatened. She had gone through unbelievable suffering, but here she was again. Even Victor had been moved and recognized it. She had something we didn’t have. I wanted to run after her and ask, “What is it?” I wanted to talk to her, but she was gone. This heroic Christian girl who had suffered so much at our hands somehow touched and troubled me very much.

The Lord later opened Sergei’s heart to the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. As he later reflected on Natasha, whom he never saw again, he wrote:
        And finally, to Natasha, whom I beat terribly and who was willing to be beaten a third time for her faith, I want to say, Natasha, largely because of you, my life is now changed and I am a fellow Believer in Christ with you. I have a new life before me. God has forgiven me, I hope you can also.
        Thank you, Natasha, wherever you are.
        I will never never forget you.

-Application: Let’s start out by yielding and following the HS more each day, be it in the simple obedience of delighting in his Word and prayer daily, to taking courage to reach out and love those the Spirit prompts us to. And let’s also set some objectives for Conference in line with this, it can be in our family, our work, missions or more centrally our heart, and areas of our lives we want to sanctify to be instrumental instruments for God.

Concluding Exhortations

1 Corinthians 3:5-17

(What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.)

As in these verses, we are instruments. And earlier on it’s also mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:19-21 about articles of different materials used for God’s purposes. On our judgement day, may we be instruments pleasing to God, giving God glory and laying for ourselves this eternal inheritance.

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 As for myself, one area I want to commit to God is to also fast from Clash of Clans along with manga until SEAL camp is over. Like Candy Crush Saga, CoC is a game that often occupies the mind too. I plan to stop CoC-ing after the current clan war ends, and I couldn't come to this decision immediately. But I've decided that greater treasure is found in yielding our hearts to Christ. Also want to invite my aunt and my grandma, who have serious ailments to the Conference Healing Rally. Will also invite others as the Spirit prompts me too! God is gonna act in ACTS and beyond! :D