 Hi guys. Good morning. Welcome. What are you doing? Well, thanks for joining in. Let's get started. We started our recording. We completed a worship ministry in the local church, the organizational aspect in the last classes, last week, that is chapter 4. We move on now to the fifth chapter, which is the spiritual aspects of the worship ministry. Okay. But I hope you guys are doing well and ready to learn just a little bit more about worship ministry and the spiritual aspects of it. Okay. Am I audible enough? So one of the spiritual requirements of a worship team member in a local church is that the basic requirement that they are to be worshipers on stage and off stage. But I have been in worship ministry for almost close to two decades now, being part of the various worship teams and helping various worship ministries in their journey of worship, learning about worship, eventually later on teaching about worship. But what I have observed, at least in the place that I come from, people in the worship team are not known to be worshipers off stage. And that is a very sad reality. Okay. I don't have to make this up, but I'm just sharing what I have learned, what I have observed is that worshipers or people who are in the worship team are very different on stage and off stage. Of course, this is not all of them, but the reputation of worship team members are such as this, that okay, after the worship team, after the worship session is done, they will not sit for the sermon. They don't feel they feel entitled to be served after the worship session is done. And they will probably take a walk outside for breakfast, and then come back if necessary, if the pastor asks. I mean, it's understandable when a different team is coming in very early about having a breakfast or whatnot. So you plan accordingly in a way that how they can be served breakfast at the same time, be able to listen to the sermon. But I'm talking about the attitude of the manner how they carry them. So in the recent classes, we spoke about the differences between a local church worship team and a band, isn't it? And it is possible that we can have a mentality of a band, a member of a band that is, and have this spirit of entitlement saying that I deserve this. I don't need to sit for this. Once my role is done, singing on the worship team, I could do whatever I want to do after the 30 minutes, I don't have to sit. I can treat people very differently. I can be a very different person on stage saying, Oh, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, I love you, love you, love you, random offstage, not really care about the congregation. Right. So one of the things what we emphasize is that we need to emphasize is to live a lifestyle of worship, both on and offstage. The lifestyle offstage is very, very important than what you do for 30, 40 minutes on stage. At 30, 40 minutes, what happens on stage can probably be like the 0.40 percent of the whole entire worship ministry. Right. So that's very important. So there are three areas of responsibility that in order to live a lifestyle of worship, in order to be a worshipper on stage and offstage, there are three areas of responsibility slash accountability that one needs to take on. Right. If an individual is serious about growing as a worshipper. Okay. The first one is a personal life and testimony. Remember, we are talking about the spiritual aspects of the worship ministry now. We have moved from the organizational aspect, which is again, very important, but we are now in the spiritual aspect of worship ministry. So a personal life and testimony. What would that mean? It simply is talking about your walk with God. How is it? Right. That's neat. That needs to be in check. Okay. That needs to be in check with any area of worship or if you are not involved with full-time worship or part-time worship, that doesn't matter if you're a Christian. This matters. This point matters. It begins there. The foundation of a Christian life is that your personal is about your personal life and testimony. And then now, you know, we're talking about in context of worship ministry. So we link it to that. We need to realize that your personal walk with God and combining that with the skills that he is given and by his grace and his mercy is what qualifies us as a worship team member or be part of this worship ministry. So we need to strive to live a life of holiness, to live a life of consecration. Right. You know, Joshua chapter 3 verse 5. Joshua chapter 3 verse 5, it says, Consecrate yourself. So tomorrow, God will work among you. Well, tomorrow, God will do wonders among you. So in other words, Joshua in Joshua chapter 3 verse 5 is saying, you consecrate yourself today. And so tomorrow, God can do wonders in and through you. And so as a Christian, if we strive to live a consecrated life, a life of holiness, a life that is set apart for God, and tomorrow he will work and move in us and through us. Okay. And I'll now forget the statement that my friend made in 2011. He said, with intimacy, God will use you without intimacy. You will be using God. I will never forget that line. And so, you know, I can lead worship with absolute zero intimacy with God. I could have had a week of prayerlessness, haven't patched my Bible, haven't spent time listening to worship songs, only spent time worshiping even. But Sunday morning, I can pick up a guitar and start singing. And and God might show up. God will show up. And not because of that, not because of me, not because that I had any intimate relationship with him in the past week. But he will show up because he loves people. He wants to come and touch the people's hearts. He wants to heal people. He wants to encounter the congregation of people. And because he loves people, he will show up. And because he showed up, me as a worship leader can think that, okay, God showed up because of me. No, God showed up because of his grace and his mercy. What am I doing as an individual who did not spend time with him, reading his word, praying, I am using God. Okay, so I'll say that again, with intimacy, with intimacy, God will use you. Without intimacy, you will be using God. Okay. And so striving for a Godly life or the life of holiness is very important. The second aspect of that is the spiritual growth. The spiritual growth. There are three areas where we can grow spiritually, right? One is God's word, God's spirit, and our individual area of skill. So you see there's an image there in your notes, if you will. There's an image of a structure and the foundation at the base of it. You see that the foundation of this to have a personal, a good testimony, a life of holiness, that is the base being a vessel of honor. And on that foundation, we need to grow. We continue to grow, right? In the recent sermon, the last Sunday sermon, we are going through the series of Thessalonians. And in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, we see in one of the verses, it writes that we are to grow in love and grow in faith. Right. So what we experience physically, biologically in our bodies is that we grow, isn't it? From a baby to a toddler to a child. And there's a growth, isn't it? And that's the design. The God's design is designed for growth. Everything about God is growth. Everything about God is growth. The way he's designed us, we can learn so much from it. And it's the same thing that applies in our spiritual life. We cannot be content or satisfied at where we are spiritually. We cannot say, yes, you know, five years ago in the youth camp, I gave my life to God and I have done absolutely nothing since then to grow spiritual. To grow spiritually. That isn't going to work. We are designed to grow. And Scripture says, grow in faith, grow in love. At the same time, so we can grow spiritually in God's word and in his Holy Spirit. If you can just open up our Bible and read and read and read and read and be you know, theologically sound. It's not theologically sound, theologically might be a too strong word for those who are not studying theology. But if there are just worship team members in your team who are going about their professional lives, professional careers, teachers, school teachers, whatever. It's important to emphasize the importance of reading the Word of God and studying the Word of God. As a leader and as a pastor, it is your responsibility to encourage them to spend time in reading and studying the Word of God. And even teaching them the difference between what is reading the Bible and what is studying the Bible, because they are two very different things. So Bible was written for me. It was written for me so that I can open up its word and I can read through it and I can be strengthened and I can be encouraged. That is reading the Bible, isn't it? I go to the book of Isaiah and say, you know, and just read the read through it and he's speaking to me. And so we see that the Word of God was written for us. He will never leave. You're not mistaken. He's close to the broken hearted. There's nothing impossible with God. And so when you just read the Bible, it does something to us there, isn't it? So the Bible was written for us. However, the Bible was not written to us. The Bible was written to a different set of audience, a different set of recipients. And that is why for us to understand the context, we have to study the Bible. Okay, and so that is growing in God's Word and leaning into the Holy Spirit to ask Him to teach us. He is the one who reveals the Word of God to us. He brings it to life. It is the Holy Spirit that without Him it is just going to be another historical book, a very good historical book. Spending time praying in tongues or growing in the Holy Spirit in different areas of the Spirit is crucial. And finally, but not the least, is growing in our individual area of skill. Individual area of skill, I don't have to emphasize this, but it's a self-explanatory. Whatever you're good at, get better at it. Get better at it. So there was a recent study that says that if you clock in, say, 100 hours a year, 100 hours a year, your growth rate in whatever you do, you're going to, you have 95 to 96% chances of improving. So 100 hours a year is approximately, say, 10 to 12 minutes a day. So if you just put 10 minutes or 15 minutes to push yourself, that's 15 minutes to practice or in honing your skill in whatever it is you're good at. So let's just take an example of a month. Okay, one month. And let's consider there are 31 days, 30 days, whatever, right? If you practice something for 30 days, and every day, if you are improving just by 1%, if you are getting better only by 1% a day, that means at the end of the month you are 31% better than where you were at the beginning of the month. I hope you are following what I'm saying, sharing. I hope you're with me. But growing in skill is absolutely crucial. So, you know, I did my, I studied music. I had the privilege of doing my degree in music. So when I was doing that, you know, the music college had a lot of these small cubicles where students can go and practice. A keyboard will be set in a small, it's a very small cubicle. Just enough space for the instrument and for an individual, like a small box. You know, my college mates, friends, they would sit in there and practice their piano or singing, what any instrument of their choice for hours. Every day, this is minimum that they would practice was for two hours. Minimum was two hours. And the most I have heard a person practices for about eight hours, they would take a short 15 minute coffee break, tea breaks, and just to stretch themselves out. And they would just practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, up and down, up and down, up and down. You know, in the world of music, learning a song or a piece, there's a saying that don't learn or don't practice until you, until you can get it right. But practice a piece of music until you can't get it wrong. There's a difference, right? So some of us, what we tend to do is we learn something until we can get it right. But that means there's still room for mistakes. But we learn a piece of music or a song until we cannot get it wrong. It's impossible for you to get it wrong. That is skill. That is the skill. If you're a videographer or a video editor or a graphic designer, designer, whatever it is, there is area of room for you to grow on your skill. And so that is the spiritual growth. Speaking about Godly life, spiritual growth, growing God's word, his spirit, and your skill. Personal life of worship is again, re-emphasizing that if you are not a worshiper, how can you be a worship leader? If you need to be a worshiper first yourself, and only then you can lead people into worship. Truly. Yes, there's this passage in Exodus chapter 33 where it says, Moses took a tent and pitched it outside the camp of Israel. And then after he pitched it, as Moses walked in, the Lord, God came down in the pillar of cloud. And there he met with Moses face to face. Now it says, as Moses went into the tent, people of Israel, everybody came out at their tents and they worshiped. They fell face down and they worshiped. Nowhere in the passage you see that Moses took an instrument and encouraged them to say, okay, now everybody left up your hands. We're going to worship. Moses doesn't say that. Moses didn't lead in worship, but he was the lead worshiper. Okay, Moses was a lead worshiper. And so if you are a worshiper, if you are a lead worshiper, people will follow you. You don't have to, you know, keep pushing them to say, lift your hands, lift your hands, lift your hands, lift your hands. No, but sometimes we have to do that because it's not always your fault. But that's the point is that you cannot lead in worship if you are not a worshiper already. And you continue to grow in skill and worship and a growing in Christ likeness and serving with humility is crucial. Growing in Christ likeness. If you are growing in Christ likeness, the result of that is humility. John chapter 13, take a cloth around you, tie it to your waist, and start wiping, washing everybody's feet. That's what Jesus did. That is growing in Christ likeness is you are ready to serve. You realize that you've been anointed, but anointed to serve. So that's one personal life and testimony in that we see a lot of emphasis on your skill and your spiritual growth. ABC, we have a five foundational area of focus. In all of this that we try to emphasize one is core character, craft, chemistry, and community. Cool. How to truly worship in spirit and truth. That is the core character is you being worshipers for Jesus on and off stage, our conduct as worshipers of Jesus. Character is, you know, how constant is it by your on stage and off stage. Okay, you see the repetition and the emphasis on this is huge. You cannot be a different person on stage and a completely different person off stage. You can be very nice and you can come across a very nice and holy on stage, but and come across as a total jerk off stage, arrogant and full of pride. And you walk around with your, you know, with your neck high, like, yeah, I'm better than all of you. Kind of an attitude. That's a very stinking character for any person to have. And let me tell you that you do not need a person like that on your worship day. Okay, so the core character, continue working on your craft, music, keep pushing yourself, chemistry, how we engage each other as a team and the congregation in ministry and community. One of the things about chemistry, chemistry that I learned when I joined APC's worship team in 2013. So until 2013, you know, I've been part of a Christian band. And for that's up by then, it was almost 12 years. You know, we've been playing together as band, you know, so it's the same musician, you know, for every concert or gig as we call it. So it's the same sort of musician week after week after week that we would need for practice. And so our chemistry by the end of the 12th year was pretty deep. So I would know what exactly the electric guitarist would do as a drummer, and I would know what exactly, you know, the vocalist would do what he wanted to do, where he wanted to go without even communicating. So we had a pretty strong chemistry. But when I joined APC worship team, APC's worship team, every Sunday, I was playing with a different band. Each Sunday, a different person was leading worship. Each Sunday, it's a different bass guitarist or an electric guitarist, different vocalist. And it was my nightmare. Like, okay, you know, I had to learn how a certain worship leader stops the song, starts the song, et cetera, et cetera. You know, Pastor Jake would stop the song very differently than another worship leader. It was an absolute nightmare. And I was, I kept constant, I constantly kept complaining to God, Lord, what is this? There's no chemistry. Lord, what do I do? You know, so it almost towards the end of that year, God again, in his grace and his mercy, he asked me a very simple question. Okay, so you're complaining and whining about no chemistry, that you don't have an understanding with the other band members of the worship team. He asked me, what are you going to do about it? And so in other words, what, to make a long story short, what he wanted me to do was not just be a reactive, as in, don't wait for people to come and talk to me and ask me how I am doing and whatnot, but instead be proactive. That means you take the initiative, you go and speak to people and find out how are they doing, you know, have a chat with them, eventually, if they are free, ask them if they would like to catch up for a coffee with them, spend time with them. And so at that point of time, everything changed and I joined the team as a drummer, I'm always a drummer. And I started being proactive about meeting with the drummers, engaging with them, and slowly you see that this thing called chemistry changes. Right, so it all comes down to being proactive. If you want your, if you want your band to be healthy, your team members to be healthy, you know, have been proactive, it's a beautiful thing to do in life. And it's connected to every single relationship in our lives. You know, for example, why should I message Henry first, let him message me, then I will respond. You know, there's a sense of that you want to be reactive. And what happens when you're waiting to be reactive is that you can assume anything you want. Okay, he or she didn't message. And so maybe because he or she doesn't care. He or she doesn't care. So why should I care? So I'm not going to message. I'm not going to make that phone call. I hope you can relate to what I'm saying is that many of our relationships can get ruined because we are choosing to be reactive rather than being proactive, isn't it? Ministry in general is about people, and it's the same with worship ministry. And so we can't afford to be reactive. We cannot afford to be reactive. That's humility. Being proactive is humble. It's a sign of humility. It's okay if this person doesn't message or call me. I'm going to make that effort, isn't it? So yeah, that's five foundational areas of focus. And let's look a little bit into how we can learn to flow with the spirit. So again, you use that word flow with regards to the water, isn't it? The water flows, right? We talk about the river flow and the river of life and the river of God is flowing from his throne. And so how can we be sensitive to go with that flow? So we've broken down into a couple of sections here. So before worship time, how can you prepare yourself to flow with a first point? Look at worship as leading people into an encounter with God. Look at that 30 minutes, 40 minutes that you might have as corporate worship, as a corporate time of worshiping in church. Look at it as an opportunity to leading people into an encounter with God. And look at worship as a time of preparation for what God wants to do in their lives through the word and the ministry of his Spirit. So you are really a priest in a manner that you are a bridge between heaven and earth. The high priest, so when I've mentioned this before, when the high priest went into the tabernacle into the Holy of Holies, when he went in, he represented the people of Israel, like he would intercede on behalf of Israel for their sin. He would represent them when he went in but when he came out, he represented God to the people of Israel. He would bring the word from God and he would proclaim it and say, this is what the Lord says and thus says the Lord. And so the same thing with us is that we are priests. We are like bridges between humanity and divinity. We are leading people into an encounter with God. Moses led the people of Israel in wilderness to Mount Sinai and they were having an encounter with God which scared them. Okay. And so have a theme for your worship time. Listen to the Holy Spirit and see what he has to say, what he wants to do. We can throw in random songs, God will still move. You can also have a theme for your worship set. And that's basically more than having the theme. It's not about a theme. It's about what the Holy Spirit, what the Lord wants to do and through that session. Yes, it's not just having a theme for the sake of having a theme, so then you can, you know, kind of always see how wonderful the songs flow between one another. It's really about listening and leaning into the heart of God and asking him, what do you want to do Lord? What do you want to do? This is 30-40 minutes that we have. Let me say what you want me to say. Let me sing what you want me to sing. That is the heart of it, just before worship time. This is how you prepare to flow, right? Understand the different phrases of praise and worship, declaration, praise, worship, personal communion, selah, moments, repentance. So those are all things that you grow as a worship leader. You understand these different parts, phases of leading worship. When you're sensitive enough, you know that you have to, you know, erupt and praise, or you will be sensitive to the moment and say, okay, this is a selah moment. Let's be still in his presence. Okay. And so as we continue to be sensitive to the mood of his spirit, he will tell you what needs to be done, right? And so you prepare yourself before worship time. And during worship time, there are some points mentioned in your notes, during the time of worship, don't interrupt the flow by talking unnecessarily. Okay. Again, a lot of the worship leaders think that they are preachers. Let the preachers do their job and let the worship leader do his or her job. Let the worship leader not take on the role of a preacher. They will come later and do the preaching. But here's the thing. And so when I'm not saying exhorting or sharing is wrong, but when that happens constantly, that which is hindering the flow or interrupting the flow, it's absolutely not missing. Okay. Be sensitive to the prophetic and that again comes with your intimate walk with him, intimate walk with the Lord. Okay. Does anybody have any questions? Are you following what? Yeah. Any thoughts, any questions so far? Okay. So, you know, one of the things what will help in why, why do we emphasize the honing of your skills or growing your skill is again to be able to flow better with the Holy Spirit. Like for example, so you're in the worship moment and you can hear the Holy Spirit say, or you can feel him saying, okay, sing this song, be anything, you know, in moments like these or as the deer, pants for the waters, he might whisper or inspire or put in your heart any song that you want to, that he wants you to sing or declare. And so you can hear him, you're sensitive to his move. But if you, if you, because you didn't practice your instrument well and you're not skilled enough, and because you don't know the chords for that particular song, you will be like, okay, I can't sing the song because I don't know the chords for the song. What just happened? You have stopped Holy Spirit from moving because of the limitation of your skill, right? So we grow in skill, not for the sake of growing in skill, so that he can flow through you better. And so when he speaks, you are ready to move. Okay. So that's just preparing yourself to flow with this Holy Spirit before worship and during worship time. And one of the aspects is during ministry, during the ministry time when, when pastor, any of you, any of the preacher is preaching, how do we support that preacher? You know, if a pastor, if a pastor offered his sermon or before his sermon wants you to do a certain song, you know, you'd be prepared to do it. And after the sermon, and if you just want you to support him playing an instrument with, with just the piano or whatnot, don't overplay. Less is more is a very famous phrase in the world of music. Less is more. And we need to remember that don't overplay while he's speaking. Okay. Pastor is speaking about giving up, giving your heart, surrendering, and I'm not going to keep going in the piano, you know, that's going to cause a distraction. That's drawing attention to your set and not being sensitive to what God is doing. And so all of that comes with spiritual maturity as a musician, as, as a worshiper, etc. All right. And so this, and you can do all of this in training the team in the prophetic worship. You train your team to move in the prophetic. Okay. So again, I don't know which page I think page 60 in your notes. So prophetic is very simple about communicating audibly to his people through a person to speak or sing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a prediction of discourse of exhortation, edification, or comfort. That's basically what prophecy is. Right. And so a true worship, it says, we'll prepare our hearts to receive the word of the Lord and allow a flowing forth of gifts of the spirit. Our true worship will prepare our hearts to receive. Okay. So acts 30 was to simply, simply states that while they were worshiping the Lord, the Holy Spirit came and was at 10 was 11. It says Judah shall plow. Okay, ocean. Judah shall plow. What's the big deal? Right. Plowing is related to farming, right. Preparing the land to telling the land, isn't it? And so Judah shall plow. It simply means you prepare the way you prepare the land with praise. You prepare yourself with praise. And so when he decides to reign, you are ready to receive. Okay. So there are four dimensions of prophecy. One is prophecy of scripture. You know, it's a lot of prophecies that have been combined, combined in the canon of scripture. And that's one of the facets of prophecy, office of a prophet. Now, there is a difference between an office of a prophet and a gift of prophecy, which you were already learned in your prophetic course. Right. And so anybody can move in the gift of prophecy, you and me, you know, we are encouraged to do that. And then there are those who are called to the office of a prophet, like an evangelist, right? Or like an evangelist or a teacher or a preacher or a missionary, etc. So similarly like that, many would be called to a office of a prophet. So that is different. Okay. And then there's a spirit of prophecy, which again can move in and through us all. And it is only in the tabernacle of David where we see that all of this comes together, right? The worship, word and prophetic comes together on the tabernacle of David. And so how can you train and equip your team, you know, to grow in the prophetic? It's again very simple, intimate relationship with God. It's so basic, isn't it? We make it, we make it so complicated, right? You know, all being as individuals, we want to move in the prophetic. We want to, we want this gift of knowledge got to flow through us to and give us the word of knowledge and etc. and whatnot. But we get very bored of the foundations. We get very bored of the fundamentals. And the fundamental of all of that is your intimate relationship with God. It's as simple as that. How healthy is it? Everything, I mean, everything flows from the place of intimate relationship with the Lord. Our cup overflows with our intimate relationship with Him. Intimacy, as you might have heard me say before, is intimacy. If you break it down, it simply means into me you see because I show you, into me you see because I show you. So if you have an intimate relationship with the Lord, He's showing Himself to you. He's revealing Himself to you, His plans, what He wants to do in that moment, what He wants to do later, what He has in store for that person, that person. He might end up giving you names, He might end up giving you phone numbers, their addresses, their date of birth, or whatever the situation that they're going through. What is He doing? He's revealing Himself into me, you are seeing because I'm showing it to you. But that's just a basic part of getting to know the Lord and moving in prophetic. It's not complicated at all. We humbly go before Him and hungry and desperate for His presence. We understand His language. We understand what He's saying. That is intimate relationship with the Lord. You grow in that. And then it automatically is shown in your lifestyle of worship. You thrive for that lifestyle of prayer and fasting and intentional Bible study and meditation. Tell me one of these points of those four points that's in your notes. Tell me one of it which is new to you. It's the same thing you would have heard before so many, many times. But to move and grow as a worshiper and in prophetic and in all the different areas of ministry and in your life is very simple. Intimate relationship with the Lord. Intentional Bible study and meditation. Prayer life. It's very crucial. Prayerlessness. One of the things that prayerlessness does is lack. It causes lack. Bible says you have not because you ask not. You have not because you're asking. And prayerlessness. Each and every one of us are prone to temptation because we live in this body, flesh, and we live in this world. But it is the prayerlessness that causes you to fall into the trap of temptation. And when you live a life of prayer, no matter what temptation come, you overcome it. Isn't it? Now we see that about Jesus. Bible says that he was tempted in every way. Yet he overcame. Why? Because Jesus was a man of prayer. He is the Son of God. He didn't need to pray, but he had that intimate relationship with the Lord so intimately that God did signs and wonders through his own Son. Okay, so this is chapter 5, the spiritual aspect of worship ministry. It's pretty fundamental, but very, very important for the health of your worship ministry. Okay, and I hope you were able to follow and understand everything that was shared on this session. We pause here, we take a break, and we'll come back to the next session. Thank you.