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[Worship] God Showed Up!
I had an interesting experience last night. Our church (Presbyterian) has
started a Sunday evening service devoted to worship, prayer, and teaching on
the work of the Holy Spirit. I regularly play rhythm guitar on our worship
team, and my my wife and I lead worship for the Sunday night service. We are
a small start up church and we usually have 10 to 15 people attend the evening
service. We try to worship at least for 30 to 40 minutes before moving into
teaching and ministry.
My wife got home from shopping right before we were supposed to leave home and
set up for the service. She was already in a bad mood because our worship
team had struggled musically during the morning service. She was also
frustrated because we were going to miss a concert being put on by Vineyard
worship leader Brent Helming that evening at a nearby church.
We then had a little argument about our priorities, whether God really wanted
us to continue doing Sunday evening worship, the effect it was having on our
kids, etc, and whether we would be better off receiving ministry at the Brent
Helming concert or putting out for our little band of Sunday night attendees
at our church. Of course, I was not in a good mood when I got to church and
set up.
We set up quickly, had little time for prayer, and then launched into our 7
song worship set. I felt totally un-anointed, messed up on some guitar
chords and even had a hard time tuning my guitar (even with an electronic
tuner) since I had changed the strings the night before. By the end of the
set I figured God must be calling someone else to this ministry because I just
didn't have it. Then I looked up and noticed that many of the people in
attendance were crying. This included my wife. It seems that during a short
prayer I gave about Jesus' atonement for our sins on the cross before doing a
new Vineyard song called "This is Love" the Holy Spirit really moved on her
and showed her the depths of God's love for her; a love so strong that he was
willing to sacrifice his own Son on the cross for our sins. Others had been
similarly touched during various parts of the worship.
Even our teacher need some kleenex before beginning his teaching. Of course,
I was totally oblivious to God's move, being so fixated on my mistakes and
inadequacies.
The Lord showed me something last night. He comes when he wants to come; even
when we don't "feel" the anointing; even when we don't believe we played well;
even when leading the worship is done out of duty rather than out of the pure
joy of leading others into the presence of God. It has everything to do about
Him and nothing to do with ourselves. We only have to be available to be used
by Him. Sometimes this means dragging ourselves to church in a bad mood and
leading what we think is uninspired worship, only to see the Holy Spirit fall
on people with power.
Praise God for his all sufficient Grace, power and mercy!
Joel Incorvaia
Discovery Church
San Marcos CA
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