“ Spirit Move,” for example, it opens up with a spontaneous moment, and there is scripture throughout. A lot of where that came from is just the cry of my heart, recognizing the times when I’ ve needed the Lord to come through. Whether it has been a circumstance in my life that surpassed what I could do in my own efforts, or just the hunger of,“ God, I would always rather do this with You than alone. I’ d always rather have Your presence with me, hear Your opinion, and shape my life around that than just try and figure it out on my own.” Proverbs 3:5-6 comes to mind, where it talks about not leaning on our own understanding, but trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts.
Bill Johnson once said,“ You know there’ s something wrong with children when they’ re not hungry. It’ s an indicator that they’ re sick, or something in their system isn’ t what it should be. Their natural state is to want to eat.” Spiritually, we’ re made the same way. There’ s something wrong with us if we don’ t want to feast, or if we’ re not hungry. We need to come back to God and ask,“ Lord, how do I get my hunger back?”
Bill always says,“ You start eating to become hungry.” You feast on God’ s faithfulness, and in community, and in talking about Him and hearing other peoples’ testimonies, and on His Word.
I think it becomes a daily shaping of our lives that is more about overflow than it is about spontaneous. It’ s recognizing a hunger, a desire, and a need for God. When that is in the room you can easily put language to it because you are working at keeping yourself in that place of hunger and dependency, day in and day out. You’ re not just desiring for God to come be your savior, but to have a friendship with Him and a communion with Him.
[ Steffany ] I think that’ s the biggest thing I’ m trying to get to – staying connected. Not finding my connection once I get to that place of leading worship. There’ s no shame or judgment in any of this, because I’ ve been in lots of different places in my worship leading. When I was younger, I would come in and not be sure of what I was looking for or where we were going. We would sing until we found something. That still happens sometimes, but the hope is that we don’ t wait until we are there to get connected. We’ ve stayed connected and we come in continuing the open conversation. That becomes how you so easily tap into the presence of God during worship.
It really is simple, and it’ s supposed to be. When you try too hard, it feels awkward for everyone in the room. I’ ve been there. We’ ve all been there, where we tried to push something and make it happen. That’ s just a part of learning, a part of growing in maturity, wisdom, and favor with God and with man. It’ s about learning that your power is in your position, not your push. Like young worship leaders who learn that they don’ t have to scream to be powerful. You learn that when you’ re already connected, you don’ t need to shout when you’ re already that close. There’ s a moment for shouting, and there’ s a moment for just breathing. And neither are more or less powerful than the other.
[ Amanda ] I love the word‘ practical’ because it truly is about practice. When you learn an instrument, you practice, and you fail. It takes years and years to learn how to return to the well. With spiritual practice, we tend to exalt the scripture about going from“ glory to glory” and we don’ t know what to do with that tiny little word in the middle –“ to”. We spend a lot
14 June 2018 WorshipMusician. com