06 Mar, 2008
Sunday Morning Video #3
Posted by: Bob Kauflin In: —Leading a Congregation|—Spiritual Gifts|Videos
The past two days I’ve posted videos from a recent Sunday morning at Covenant Life. The first one is here, the second one is here. These aren’t examples of someone doing everything right. Hardly. They just contain examples of a lot of the things I’ve written about at Worship Matters.
Today I’m posting an example of spontaneity. Being “reformed charismatics,” we value the sufficiency, authority, and inerrancy of Scripture as well as the active presence of the Holy Spirit through the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Cor. 14 and elsewhere. During the fourth song that Sunday, Lost in Wonder, two pastors came up and shared prophetic impressions from the Lord, similar to those described in 1 Cor. 14:29-31. The first addressed those who were thinking as we sang “How Great is our God” that their problems and trials were greater than God. The pastor read Ps. 145:1-3 and encouraged those individuals to search out how great God really is. The second word addressed those for whom the greatness of God’s name was obscured by the greatness of the names of “debt” and “disease.” He said God wanted to remind us that his name is above every name.
A Spontaneous Song
After we prayed for those individuals, I sensed I had a prophetic, or spontaneous, song from the Lord, that followed up on those two words. I’ve shared such songs for almost twenty years now. I don’t believe they’re “word for word” from the Lord, but do believe they’re an overflow of the love he demonstrated for us at Calvary and a sign of the Spirit’s working in our midst. Most often they come to me at the moment, although there have been occasions where lines for a song have come as I’m preparing or while someone has been preaching. More times than I can remember, I’ve seen God use the gift of prophecy, spoken or sung, to encourage, comfort, and build up his church (1 Cor. 14:3).
If you’re interested, these are the words to the song:
You’re lost in your problems
You’re lost in your fears
But you’re not lost in amazement
That I’ve brought you near
You’re lost in confusion
You’re lost in your pain
But you aren’t lost in wonder
That I know your nameI sent my Son
Upon the cross
He died to make you mine
So that you would never be lostAre you lost in amazement?
Are you lost in joy?
Are you lost in wonder
That you can hear my voice?
Are you lost in my mercy
That I purchased for you
Through the blood of my own Son?
That’s what he came to do
To give his life for you
So you could be lost in my love.
After the spontaneous song, we returned to the song we had been singing, Lost in Wonder.
Spontaneous prophetic songs aren’t the only evidence that the Holy Spirit is present and working in our meetings. He’s active during congregational singing, the preaching of God’s Word, prayer, fellowship, and other ways. But why limit the Spirit’s work to what he’s given us as we’ve planned and prepared? Why not allow room in your meeting for an unexpected prayer, or an unplanned emphasis? I should mention that I’ve built a high degree of trust with the pastors at my church which enables me to respond to spontaneous impressions on the fly. Make sure your pastor has confidence in you before you start changing the direction of the meeting.
For more on this topic, I’d encourage you to download some of these free MP3 messages.
