Those whom He calls into this ministry should be well-trained with their tools and gifts. Their skills are usually developed before they answer the call into the ministry; before they even get saved.
You'll find out that most people who are in music have had years of musical training before they ever start turning it toward God. They got out of balance with music and either made it their god or what they wanted to attain through music became their god. Music was a tool, but they hadn't used it for the purpose for which God created it. Since they didn't have any knowledge of it, how could they use it for God?
One Day It All Changed
Then one day they get saved and fall in love with God. Now, what do they do with the talents God has already developed in them?
Most people, when they get saved, aren't called directly into a public ministry. We're all called to be ministers of reconciliation, to minister salvation to the lost and to minister to one another as brothers and sisters, through the Word of God. We know that.
But most people are not called into a public ministry. However, I have never seen a person who was highly trained in music who didn't have the call of God on his life to minister. Now, most of the people I've seen haven't answered that call or have only gone a step or two with it, however, the call of God is irrevocably on them. Many musicians are just unaware of that call.
One Sunday morning at Rhema Bible Church in South Africa, the Word of the Lord came to me and said, "Tell every musician to get up out of their seat and run down to the front." I told them, I didn't qualify it. I didn't explain it. I just said it.
Making Them Aware Of It
About 20 people popped out of their seats and came running forward. The Spirit of God told me to prophesy to them, and I did. I spoke of the gifts that had been given to them by God. Then God spoke sharply to them and said, "This night I require my gift back. This night I require my gift to be turned toward me."
God told me to give my guitar (the only one I had with me in South Africa) to one of the young men. I gave him the guitar, and he began to weep.
The Lord spoke to that man and said, "You are going to be an ambassador from this church to go out and do the good works of the Lord Jesus."
That night, after my husband, Bill, preached, he gave an invitation for salvation. Every one of those musicians who was not saved, got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. The call of God was already on their lives, but now they had been made aware of it.
Two months after I returned to the United States I received a letter from the young man I had given my guitar to, saying he had completely sold out to God. Today, he is the leader of a very famous rock-and-roll group in South Africa. He and his whole group have committed their lives to the Lord, and they are all out ministering from that church.
Christian Musicians?
I have seen many people in the world doing the work of the Lord, and they aren't even saved! They're just doing it as a business. My husband used to design album covers for a lot of southern gospel singers. Some of them would be in the studio smoking and telling raunchy stories. At the time it didn't bother me, because I was also a sinner. I would look at them and think, "These guys aren't any different than I am. Why do I need what they have?"
Then I got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost. When they would come into the studio, I would walk up to them, throw my arms around them and say, "Guess what happened to me! I received Jesus in my heart!" I thought anybody who did anything in the name of Jesus was okay. They would push me away and say, "Oh, is that right?"
I was deeply hurt inside. It didn't even dawn on me that you could sing gospel music and not be saved! It was then I realized that God had called these people, and they had a desire to serve Him, but singing gospel music was the only part of their calling they had fulfilled.
There is a God gap inside all of us and only God can fill it. We try to fill it with all kinds of junk - music is one of them; school is another; business success is another. It doesn't matter what you try, there is only one thing that fits comfortably in there, and that is the Spirit of God.
Major Distractions
One of the things the devil has done is taken all the tools designed to worship God and perverted them and distracted people with them. He has turned their attention on the things of this world, and made people fall in love with themselves and false gods.
In the fourth chapter of Mark, the distraction of the ages is one of the things named that comes to steal the Word of God once it has been planted in a heart. Music is one of the distractions of the ages when it is not used to glorify God.
I'll be so frank as to say that anything in music that isn't directed toward encouraging you to think on things which are above, anything that doesn't turn your spirit, soul and body toward God is of the devil.
Music is used by the world to seduce, to destroy and to manipulate. I don't care if it is nice sweet music. They play nice sweet music in the grocery store. Do you know why they use music in the grocery store? Do you think it is to make you feel good? No! It is to relax you so that you'll spend more time in the store and buy more merchandise. That music isn't nice, and it isn't sweet. God is sweet. Music isn't sweet unless it puts your mind on God.
For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and loveable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].Those are the things you should think on. Music that does not direct your thoughts to God is not worth listening to.
(Phil. 4:8)
Perhaps you say, "I don't listen to rock-and-roll. But there isn't any good Christian music I can listen to."
Music Is Ministry
Well, you are not supposed to be entertained when you listen to Christian music. It is supposed to be something that relieves your spirit, soul and body of the heaviness of the day and puts your mind toward God. It should remind you of how much you love God and how much God loves you.
If the music you are listening to doesn't do that, then it is not worth listening to.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers