Chapter 1 - Introduction to Music

And be not drunk with wine, which is riotous; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Then Acts 16:25 says,

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s bands were loosed.

Can you imagine what life would be like without music? Have you ever thought about that? You see, life without music would be like life without color, because music is as to listening and sound as color is to sight.

Music Brings Things to Life

I remember the days when they first brought out TV and it was only in black and white. Man, we were so excited to go and watch things on TV, and we didn’t even notice that it was just black and white until that first day when I saw it in color.

I just couldn’t believe it was the same picture. I couldn’t believe it was the same movies I’d been watching before in black and white.

There was a whole new dimension to it. The thing came to life. It was no longer just a picture on a screen. It was like I was really there, like I could really see the person.

Music is like that. We have sounds, we have speech, we have talk, we have noises all around us. But when you add music to that noise it adds a new depth and a new dimension to the world around about you.

Music is a very, powerful force, and in these modern days we can see how powerful music is, because the music industry is one of the biggest industries that is going at the moment.

Can you imagine what would happen to the youth if right now we were to take away all of their stereo cassette players and sound systems, and ban the recording of music and singing groups?

Can you imagine life amongst young people without music? And can you imagine life amongst us older people without music? It would be a horrible existence.

Music is at the very fiber of our being. And in this lesson I’m going to try and show you from the Word and from general observations that I’ve made, and you’ll understand just why music is so important to us.

I’m just going to start an introduction to this subject here so we can get into how important music is in the Prophetic Ministry.

So here I’m just going to look at music. We’re not going to be going much further than music and singing, let alone getting into actual praise and worship and psalmody. So, let’s just see how it goes and see if I can keep it down and see whether God shows us something.

Music Adds Power

Music has a power. Have you noticed that music is used in advertising to make you buy the product? Have you ever tried to watch a movie that doesn’t have a musical background sound track?

Have you ever tried that? I know in South Africa where we came from they used to often buy movies from all over the world. This was when things became tight and you couldn’t get a lot of stuff because the country was being sanctioned politically.

So they would buy all the junk that they could get from all over the world. And you’d sometimes get these horrible movies. The acting was okay. The people spoke clearly, but there was no musical background.

You know what it’s like when the guy crawls up with that intense moment of suspense and there’s no music that goes tada! It just takes the power all away from it.

You don’t realize how important music is. You don’t even notice the music when you watch a movie. We’ll look at that more just now.

Music Has Power Over Creation

Music has power over the creation. Have you ever seen the picture of the snake charmer sitting with his flute and the snake is swaying around? There’s a great big deadly cobra and he’s dancing to the music.

Well they say it’s not the music, because the snake’s deaf and it really just watches the piper as he waves his pipe. I don’t know. I think there’s a power there that they don’t realize. There’s a power there that makes a deaf snake respond to music.

How does that work? I don’t know. But music has power over creation. People have always known that. That’s why you’ve got the old story of the Pied Piper.

He was the guy with the flute who charmed all the rats out of town. Then when they wouldn’t pay him his money, he went and took all the kids away. You know the story. It’s a legend.

There is a terrific power in music. It’s there and we can’t deny it’s existence, because experience proves to us that it’s there. But why?

Music and Happiness Are Synonymous

Music and happiness go together. When you’re feeling happy unwound and free of care you start to sing. When a guy’s had a few drinks and the alcohol starts to take effect and he starts to lose his inhibitions, he starts to sing.

You have heard of the old singing drunk. Why? Because singing and music tend to go together with that feeling of contentment, of joy, of peace.

Have you ever sung in the bath? Of course you have. You see you’re relaxed there in the beautiful warm water and you’re feeling like just letting go of the cares of the day. You are feeling wonderful and relaxed and could just lie there all night, and you just burst out in song.

And that small bathroom makes you sound like one of the great opera singers, so you let rip. It’s amazing how good you sound, until you get out of the bath and come into a normal room, and your voice sounds all flat again. You think,

“I just wish I could live in a bathroom all the time so I could sing that way.”

Don’t you feel the same way? You see singing is an expression of the heart. It’s got a terrific power to lift your spirit, to lift your soul and to stir your emotions.

Music also holds the key to releasing God’s power into the earth. And that is what I want us to speak about here.






← Chapter 20Chapter 2 →

Music And The Spiritual Life - Chapter 1 of 20