The Holy Spirit and Music Ministry-Part 6

                                The work of the Holy Spirit in music Ministry-Part 6

          What are some of the purposes of these Spirit-filled songs?  There are several answers to this question.  They are corporate or congregational.  These verses mention “speaking to yourselves”.  Some commentators believe that these words suggest antiphonal or responsoral singing.  I am not sure that careful exegesis bears this out.  However, these are songs addressed to the congregation.  They are intended to draw the worshiping body closer to the Lord.  They should be a means of grace to the believer.  They are an act of worship addressed to God.  These songs are not only addressed to the congregation, i.e. one another, but are also addressed “to the Lord” and “unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.  Albert Barnes states, 

Singing as here meant, is a direct and solemn act of worship, and should be considered such as prayer.[i] 

They are of value to the performer and the hearer.  They are the (logos-3056 Christos-5547) Word of Christ.  They should be expository.  They should expound the Word of God and the singing of these expository songs should cause the word to (enoikeo 1774) inhabit or dwell in the mind of the Spirit-filled.  They are (pneaumatikos-4152 oide-5603) spiritual songs.  They should exalt Christ; they should honor the Trinity; and they should express victorious Christian experience.  They contain (plousious-4146 sophia-4678) abundant wisdom, godly wisdom, heavenly wisdom, or the wisdom of the Spirit.  They should not be filled with “earthiness”, but instead the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth.  They are for teaching purposes (didasko 3121).  They teach the precepts of Christ and they are for the purpose of (noutheteo 3560) admonishing, warning, cautioning, and reproving the saint and sinner alike.  How should they be sung?  They are sung in the Holy Ghost. 
         These musical offerings are given in the beauty of holiness.  They should be sung with (charis 5485) grace or the divine influence upon the heart of the performer.  When I first came to teach at God’s Bible College., I remember hearing the great evangelist,  J. Wesley Adcock admonishing us to pray “in the Holy Ghost”.  I wonder church musicians, where are those out there who should be begging our musicians to sing in the Holy Spirit?  I am longing for our churches to experience more singing “in the Holy Ghost”.  We need musicians who sing and play with the divine influence upon their hearts, i.e. sing with Holy Ghost anointing.   

“Child of the Kingdom, be filled with the Spirit! 

Nothing but fullness thy longing can meet;

‘Tis the enduement for life and for service.

Thine is the promise, so certain, so sweet.

I will pour water on him that is thirsty;

I will pour floods upon the dry ground.

Open your heart for the gift I am bringing.

While ye are seeking me, I will be found.” 

(Lucy Rider – Worship in Song #203)    

[i] Commentary on the New Testament, Albert Barns, p. 1004