I love being a musician and worship leader. I love playing my guitar before the Lord, because I know that the sound it produces when I play changes atmospheres. And in that changed atmosphere, I see the Lord touch peoples’ hearts.
Many guitar players are gifted with technology, but all the pedals and wires, switches and inputs and outputs—not my thing. Cables especially; I’m always tripping over them or getting tangled up in them. When I led worship up in Ohio, before leaving the platform after a practice or service, I would wait for my husband to come and make sure I was untangled enough to safely walk away.
For this reason, I always appreciate those who have a gift for running sound and making sure equipment is working as it should and helping the musicians flow in their anointings.
This morning, as I was setting up and plugging in, getting ready to run through our songs for the service, I hit a snag. The tuner wouldn’t give me a reading and my in-ear monitors weren’t feeding me my guitar sound. But I could hear my voice in my vocal microphone.
The worship pastor and sound man and I looked at the monitor panel, the sound board, and the guitar settings and didn’t see anything out of place. And then, we saw that my input cable was not completely connected to the pedal board that was connected to the system.
What occurred to me in that moment was a concept I learned called Occam’s Razor. Occam was a philosopher and theologian known for the brilliant idea that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Or at least, it should be considered, and not eliminated just because it seems too simple.
The answer in this case was simple: I wasn’t getting any power because I was not properly connected to the source. The analogy to spiritual power is pretty obvious.
If there is no connection at all, there is no power at all. That’s clear. Without the infilling of the Holy Spirit that connects us to the source of all truth, wisdom, and goodness, however we might try to make an impact on the spiritual realm, we can’t do it. Jesus said that if we are not integrally attached to him, “abiding in the vine,” we can do nothing (Jn 15). We can do nothing in his name that is, or for his kingdom. The stuff that matters the most.
Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ (John 3:5).
We don’t have access to spiritual power until we become born again of the Spirit.
We can also be connected in part, but not as completely as we need to be, like I was this morning. The tuner was receiving a signal, but it was garbled, and the tuner became confused and unstable. I could hear only part of the mix.
If we are not careful, we can find ourselves with one ear tuned to the good news of the Lord and the other ear tuned to the endless flow of bad news from the world. It can become difficult and confusing to discern the truth, and without the truth, we can’t operate in full spiritual power. We must worship him “in Spirit AND in truth” (Jn. 4:24), and to do this we must remove the impediments to our solid, reliable connection with him.
I’m glad we were able to quickly solve our little technical glitch and get on with the ministry. Often in the spiritual realm, it is also a simple answer:
My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, I will seek. (Ps. 27:8)
Let’s stay firmly connected to him this week, my friends.
