Sound of

Heaven,

Symphony of

Earth

Sound of

Heaven,

Symphony of

Earth

RAY HUGHES

Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

Copyright © 2000 by Ray Hughes

Published by MorningStar Publications,

P. O. Box 19409, Charlotte, NC 28219-9409

For information, call 704-522-8111

www.MorningStarMinistries.org

International Standard Book Number 1-878327-93-3.

Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The New King James Version.

Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any

other, without permission in writing from the author.

Edited by Marcus Yoars, Angie Carpenter and Debbie Johnson Cover and Book Design by

Sharon Taylor Photography by Sharon Taylor and Ramey Hughes

Printed in the United States of America.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to a man who was a well digger all his life. And though

he was uneducated, he was the most prolific storyteller I ever knew. He never

failed to communicate his love and encouragement to my life. He instilled in me

that gift of storytelling and communication, and in so doing instilled in me the

desire to dig wells of revelation. And though he will never read this book, I

lovingly dedicate it to his memory. Thanks, Pa.

RAYMOND HUGHES

NOVEMBER 22, 1933 - OCTOBER 4, 1999

5

Contents

Introduction 9

Chapter 1 Snakes in the Hen House 13

Chapter 2 The Big Band Sound of the Church 17

Chapter 3 Science of Sound 23

Chapter 4 Sounds of Shouting, Marching & Rain 29

Chapter 5 Early American Sound 39

Chapter 6 Water & Thunder 51

Chapter 7 Resistance & Sound 59

Chapter 8 Ringing the Bells of Heaven 65

Chapter 9 Trumpets, Shofars & Ram’s Horns 71

Chapter 10 Drums of Thunder 79

Chapter 11 Leaving Egypt with a New Sound 85

Chapter 12 The Sound of War 91

Chapter 13 The Sound of Heaven 103

Chapter 14 The Symphony of Earth 109

Additional Reading List 119

Acknowledgment

Many, many, many thanks to Marcus Yoars, and Angie Carpenter for the

many, many, many hours of helping me sort through the mountains of research

and thought that went into this book. Without their endless energy and

encouragement, it simply wouldn't have happened.

7

Introduction

INFORMATION OR IN-FORMATION

This is not a book on the how-to's of praise and worship, nor is it a book

about the seven Hebrew words for praise or how to be released into dance. It is

not a book about improving musical techniques, developing your song-writing

skills, or preparing for a Sunday morning worship service. Although much

material has been written on those subjects and we have been blessed to grow in

all those areas, that is not what this book is about. Rather than an endeavor to

release more information, Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth, is an endeavor to

bring the body of Christ in formation.

We live in the "Information Age,” a day of increasing revelation, prophetic

insight, and sensitivity to the spirit realm. There is certainly no shortage of

intellectual stimulation, and spirituality has become almost a flippant byword in

some circles. This is a time when science fiction can quickly become science

fact. Although this isn't a science book, I take advantage of scientific information

that helps to qualify the reality of God. The information I share with you will be

based on scientific fact, speculation, and spiritual revelation.

The more I researched and mined the truths for this book, the more I realized

there is much we don't yet know about sound and its relationship to the unveiling

of God's glory. By no means will I attempt to convince you that I am a scientist

or an educator. However, I believe that the Holy Spirit has given me some of the

pieces of the puzzle to heaven's sound. As revelation increases within the body of

Christ, I pray that this book will be a foundation which introduces new paths to

those who have a heart to pursue God. The way in which He reveals Himself to

those who read this will be varied and infinite as God seeks to capture our hearts

and minds.

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

WORSHIPING GOD'S WAY

I enjoy opportunities to sit around a table and chat with well-informed

thinkers, musicians, and students of the Word. What impresses me most are the

many different ways God chooses to arrest our lives and overwhelm us with His

greatness. Seeing the many ways in which He reveals Himself continually leaves

me in a state of wonder. When I see how God shed His light of revelation from

generation to generation, I'm continually amazed that God speaks to us in

whatever way it takes to keep us hungering and thirsting for a greater knowledge

and understanding of Him. It takes true abandonment and bravery to pursue the

glory of God when Scripture reveals that no man has seen God and lived. This

tells me that no matter who we are, seeking to know and hear God requires a

dying process to produce true life. To the degree that we experience death and

resurrection life, is the degree that we will have God's wisdom and

understanding.

Regretfully, we often insist that we have been given the liberty to worship

God in our own way. Truthfully there is no liberty in that attitude. True liberty

comes with the abandonment of self in our worshiping God, freeing us to

worship in His way, not ours. Dissecting the act of worship and endeavoring to

scripturally justify our preferences and preach them as convictions can open up a

huge can of worms. When we are left to worship God in our own way we simply

will not worship God, for our flesh will not allow us to do this. Historically, we

see that man's preferences preached as conviction brings only greater bondage

and limits our liberties in worship. My desire is to eliminate bondage while

encouraging us in a new liberty in worship. We need God to give us the

discernment that will keep us from making the mistake of embracing limitless

boundaries, only to find ourselves embracing lawlessness in worship. When

lawlessness is embraced, there is no true worship at all. If some of the writing in

this book stretches us beyond where we are and points us to a greater realization

of whom He is, it will have accomplished its purpose. Be aware that every

barricade in scientific research seems to only introduce new possibilities in other

areas. At times, it may appear I am attaching a greater importance to the nature of

sound than might be necessary. The uniqueness of the subject of sound as seen in

Scripture may stir some to be overly conscious, and even extreme, in their

evaluation of sound. Let's take caution not to diminish what God is doing through

sound in the latest spiritual trend.

1 encourage all of us to be courageous enough to not only read between the

lines, but also to prayerfully give our best ear to hearing what the Spirit of the

10

Introduction

Lord is saying to us as individuals and as a corporate body This kind of courage

is necessary for the time in which we're living. Let's determine in our hearts right

now that we will not only read, but hear. While great feats have been

accomplished through bravery and inspiration, even greater feats can be

accomplished through boldness and impartation. Let's boldly go before the throne

for an impartation of grace.

11

Chapter One

Snakes in the Hen

1

House

As a child, I had an experience that taught me the difference between bravery

and boldness. One day my grandpa commissioned me to go out to the chicken

house and bring in the eggs. At that time in my life, this was quite a

commissioning, because I had a childish fear of going into the dark, old, chicken

house, running my hand under a living creature, and taking what was surely her

prized possession. To think of walking in that old tin shack and taking those eggs

out from under an animal with a sharp beak, was more than my five-year-old

mind could handle. However, at my grandpa's word, I struck out for the chicken

house.

I approached the chicken house, and just before I took the last step into the

darkness of the little shack, I saw a big black chicken snake crawling across the

ground inside the building. If you had been raised in a holler in Kentucky, you

were conditioned from birth to know that snakes are not your friends. So I

stopped in my tracks, grabbed a tobacco stick by the door and began to pound the

side of that old tin chicken house, making a noise that could be heard a mile

away.

The tin walls were rattling and vibrating with such intensity that the snake

immediately realized he was unwelcome. He raced under the walls of the chicken

house, and slithered away. When I realized how effective I was at scaring him

with the obnoxious pounding, I grabbed the lid off of a feed bucket (which was

nothing more than a garbage can full of chicken feed) and began to chase him,

banging on the tin lid with the stick. I chased him up the hill, past the apple tree,

past the outhouse, past the pond, and lost him somewhere in the tobacco patch.

13

Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

Feeling very proud of my brave feat, 1 went back to the house and told

Grandpa what I had done. He smiled and commended me for my bravery with a

pat on the back. Then he introduced me to some wisdom and revelation I'll never

forget. He said, "You done good, boy. That was a brave thing you did. But he'll

be back. You can't keep a snake out of the hen house with noise. The only way to

keep a snake out of the hen house is to kill him."

We can apply this story to the church today. In a day of great revelation in

the areas of praise, worship, and music, many of these radical releases of praise

are biblical and have a tremendous effect in spiritual warfare. However, if all

we're doing is making enough noise to get the snake out of the hen house, then

we can rest assured he'll be back. Today there's a sound of rattling and thunder in

the house of God that's not only running the snakes out, but the chickens as well.

The house of God is no longer comfortable for chickens. There's a sound of

violence and aggression. We're not called to be chickens, we're called to be

eagles. Snakes devour chickens. Eagles devour snakes.

Another word for volume is amplitude. Spiritual amplitude determines our

spiritual attitude. Attitude determines our spiritual altitude. Let's exchange

natural amplitude for spiritual amplitude, fleshly attitudes for the attitudes of the

Spirit, and the heights of this world for higher altitudes in God. The aggressive

sound coming to the church will bring a higher altitude in the spirit realm. Eagles

can spot prey from extremely high altitudes. At this new altitude, the church will

have the revelatory eye of an eagle needed to become devourers of the slithering

snakes in the hen house.

THE EYE OF THE EAGLE

While an eagle flies thousands of feet in the air, a snake or rabbit can move

on the ground and draw the attention of the eagle, causing it to swoop down and

devour its prey. May God give us the eye of the eagle. With the eye of the eagle

comes laser accuracy in the area of discernment, but it's impossible to have

effective spiritual discernment without God's wisdom and understanding. If we

only have discernment, what good does it do? We must have God's wisdom and

understanding to be effective in destroying our true enemies. Much of what we

discern to be our enemy is not our enemy at all. How many times have we

discerned things by the so-called "Spirit" and it was only suspicion. This kind of

"discernment" that comes without wisdom and understanding can be greatly

harmful to others. God wants to fine-tune our spiritual eyes so that we can see

His true purposes in praise, worship, and warfare. He will jolt us into reality by

14

Snakes in the Hen House

taking a stick to the side of the hen house of the church. But He will also do the

complete work. He will take the head off the snake! Taking a stick to the side of

the hen house is a brave action. Taking the head off of a snake is a bold action.

Bravery can be inspired, but boldness requires an impartation of the Holy Spirit.

Through boldness and impartation, the Lord will bring victories and cause us

to be effective against our enemies. These victories will assure us of our spiritual

authority in Christ, so we don't waste our days in a defensive mode. As we fly as

eagles, our concentration ceases to be downward and turns upward. We soar into

new heights in God as the Lord bears us up on eagle's wings and brings us to

Himself. Wouldn't you love to have a season of soaring higher and higher in

God? To break out of the roller-coaster mentality? To get into the third-heaven

revelation of whom you were created to be? From that place of revelation, high

above the noise of traffic and sound pollution, God invites us to see and hear

things that will change this earthly realm. If you desire more revelation than what

you're walking in now, let's go together and explore the sound of heaven, the

symphony of earth.

15

Chapter 2

The Big Band Sound

2

of the Church

There is a balance between being Spirit-filled and Spirit-skilled. Some of

what we credit in worship to the working of the Holy Spirit is simply a

justification for a lack of skill. Some years ago a pastor invited me to come and

minister at his church. When he picked me up at the airport, I remembered him

from a conference 1 had spoken at earlier in the year. As we drove from the

airport, we briefly discussed the wonderful move of God we experienced at that

conference, and he voiced a genuine desire to see a release of God in his church.

He felt that my being there was timely and that God was doing great things with

his musicians. Then he made a request. "In tonight's service our praise team will

be ministering, and I would like for you to make mental notes of areas in our

music and worship that need attention. The service tomorrow evening will be just

for our musicians. I would like for you to share the things you think need

improvement and minister in whatever way you consider appropriate."

That night we arrived at the church about ten minutes before the service was

to begin. The parking lot was full, and people were filing into the church. The

sounds of musicians tuning up, and the pre-service fellowship rolled down the

hall into the pastor's office where we were chatting. He quickly glanced at his

watch, grabbed my hand, and prayed a thirty-second prayer for eternal anointing.

We were out the door, down the hall and into the auditorium through a side door

before I could pop a breath mint. It was there that I was suddenly blasted into the

awareness that "The Band" had started. Let me introduce you to "The Band."

On the piano Beverly Baptist was rocking and swatting the keys open-

handedly as if she was trying to kill a mouse scurrying on the keyboard. Myrna

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

Methodist sat perched on the organ with her head bowed, one eye closed, a bare

left foot waving and consistently bouncing a half-beat behind. Her left hand

sustained at least an octave of notes moaning a minor chord against a major right

hand, and pulling stops as if to land a Cessna in a corn field. Thurman the

Thumper on the booming bass was muting and popping most notes, except for

the ones accidentally sustained, which caused a tingling effect on the hair of my

legs. The Marvelous Mario Metronome on the triple-bass electronic drums was

obviously a Grand Funk Railroad fan. The combined sound of Tommy Twelve-

String, Bubba Bluegrass, Jimmy Jerk-A-Lot and Hot Lick Herbert on guitars

brought to mind Willie Nelson and Eddie Van Halen playing dueling guitars to

Lester Flatt and Earl Scrugg's "Foggy Mountain Breakdown." Last, but not least,

was little Tammy-No-Tune on the piercing piccolo.

Then, of course, there were the vocalists: The Holy-Spirit-Led (which way

did He go?!) World Reaction Singers were graciously led by the worship leader,

(If-I-close-my- eyes-they'll-never-see-me) Sammy Sedate. Sammy just happened

to be a dead ringer for a male Whoopi Goldberg with two prominent gold fillings

in his back upper teeth. Holding it all together from the first row was Sister Ethel

and her Tasmanian tambourine, formerly of the Bun-on-the-Head Bunch from

Days-Gone-By, Arkansas.

Though the names have all been changed to protect the guilty, I do believe

that Nostradamus owes us a great debt, for I'm sure he must have seen this

coming in the last days and simply didn't tell us. As I stood there evaluating the

situation and trying to maintain some clarity of thought, I just raised my hands,

closed my eyes and thanked God they didn't have a steel guitar player.

In the midst of the pandemonium and chaos of flying notes and feedback,

God began speaking to me, and I began to understand some things. First, it

gradually became obvious to me, "Ah, Majesty. Majesty. Yes, that's it, 'Majesty.'

The song they're doing is 'Majesty'!" Second, I realized that without a proper

understanding of our roles in His presence, musicians sometimes take the

position of whoever gets there first, wins. Third, God had finally answered a

question that had been in my heart for years: "Where did the word

'Charismaniacs' come from?!"

I know you would undoubtedly like to hear some of the pearls of great

wisdom I brought forth to the musicians on Monday night, as well as the Godly

counsel I gave to the pastor. However, to be quite honest, I can't tell you the rest

of the story; it's too depressing. He that hath an undamaged ear, let him hear.

I'm sure there has been a time in all our lives when we have asked the

18

The Big Band Sound of the Church

question, "Is God looking at this situation and laughing? Or is He crying?" I

believe that in this particular situation, He was laughing. He heard all the bad

notes and the many rhythmical and metrical inconsistencies. He saw all the facial

contortions and religious gestures being performed in the name of worship.

Ridiculous as it may sound, I believe His laughter could be heard throughout

heaven. God desires excellence, and musical skill is very important. I realize

there is no excuse for musical ignorance or laziness. However, when we take the

music of all the different lifestyles, cultures, denominational backgrounds,

musical preferences, and educational influences that determine who we are

musically, and put them all together into one 45-minute explosion on Sunday, I

believe what He sees the most are the pure hearts of His children. I think He

looks around, laughs, and says, "Hey! Where are my steel guitar players?!"

“GODIDIC" WORSHIP

I'm sure King David had to deal with some of the same problems in his time.

Imagine the task of conducting a four thousand-piece orchestra—complete with

all the string, brass, woodwind, and percussion sections that we have in today's

orchestras. Add to that the task of handling 288 lead singers and thousands of

congregational singers. Try keeping all that in order. But David understood the

necessity of order for musicians in the House of the Lord. More importantly he

understood the importance of releasing a unified sound from the orchestra in

which God Himself would dwell.

Years before David began organizing worship in Israel, God established His

sound in the heart of David. Perhaps as a youth, David was just a hairy-legged,

redheaded guitar-picker sitting on a flat rock playing to sheep. He had no

political future or prowess. But God saw his heart as he daily worshiped with

every ounce of himself. David's love and worship touched the very heart of God

to the point that He said, "That boy loves me so much he's after My own heart.

Well then, I'll just give him My heart!" The reason God gave David His heart is

because He knew David had already given his away. This is still true today. If we

really desire to have God's heart, we must give ours away. To the degree that

we're willing to give our heart to God, He is willing to give His heart to us. Not

only was David a prophet, priest, and king of the nation, he was also the worship

leader. Two things dominate the personality of a true worship leader. First, he has

a fire in his heart to worship God that will not go out. Second, he has the same

fire in his heart to see others worship God.

God knew that kings establish standards, so He set David as king over His

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

chosen people to establish the standard of worship for an entire nation. The

design for order in what we call Davidic worship is not "Davidic" worship, but

"Godidic" worship, for it began in the heart of God (Okay, I know "Godidic" is

not a word, but hey, it works). Nevertheless, God deposited His order and sound

into the heart of a man raised up as prophet, priest, and king.

It is valid to think of David as the scriptural epitome of a musician, but we

must understand that music and sound existed before David. God simply used

David to bring a concentrated implementation of music and sound to His people.

David prophetically focused with song on what God desired to do to and through

His people. There are 839 verses in the Word of God that relate to music. Before

and after David's time, music was an expression of God. What we typically

understand to be music is made up of sound.

Psalm 150 creates the imagery of the heavenly orchestra God designed

through David. It is full of various sounds, all pronounced as one voice through

the power of praise. It's a listing of the parts which cried out in praise: the

trumpet, the harp and lyre, the tambourine, the strings and flute, and the

resounding cymbals. David listed these as we would list the parts of our body and

call them to attention. "Lift, arm. Walk, leg. See, eyes. Hear, ears." Each

instrument of Psalm 150 has a unique function, just like the parts of the body. As

Paul says in I Corinthians 12:18, "God has set the members, each one of them,

in the body just as He pleased." We know Paul is speaking of the church. As a

prophet generations before, David understood and used this application of the

body to the various elements of sound. All the instruments are needed to operate

together, just as all body parts are needed to function properly.

In an orchestra, certain instruments rest while others work. Parts of the body

function at different times. For example, when I'm sitting at the table having a

conversation with someone, I might use my hands, vocal chords, facial gestures,

and so on. As I'm elaborating in the conversation, I might stomp my foot on the

floor to make a point. The point has been made, and the foot goes back to a

rested position. Then my hands might continue to visually accentuate what I'm

audibly speaking. Different parts of my body are used within the same

conversation.

Applied to musical expression, we discover every member of the orchestral

body has its own unique purpose at specific times. In David's orchestra, the

trumpets would at times blare to accentuate a particular expression of that Psalm,

or drums would be pounded to release a sound of might and fear, or the stringed

instruments would be used to paint a picture of peaceful flight. At times, there

20

The Big Band Sound of the Church

would be the lifting of the hands expressed by the word yadah. At times worship

would imply kneeling, falling prostrate or dancing with all your might. The

instruments became such extensions of the musicians' bodies that as they were

called to dance, their instruments would dance with them. Every element of

tabernacle worship involved times of work and rest, or for the instruments,

tension and release.

David understood the dynamics of musical tension and release. That's why he

designated some songs to be accompanied by the flute, stringed instrument or

drum, while others specifically called for the clapping of hands. In the body of a

song, he would employ a selah which would bring emphasis and clarity to the

vocabulary of that song. This musical selah perfectly matched the lyric, or the

prophetic word. This reflected an emotional response expressing God's heart to

His people or the people's heart to God. David employed the selah to add full

impact to what was being spoken. The music would interpret the vocabulary of

the song bringing mental imagery through the dynamics of sounds. This

instrumentation then caused the lyric to have its greatest impact either to the

spirit of man or to the Spirit of God.

Let's begin this journey into music and sound where it all began—in Genesis.

21

Chapter 3

Science of Sound

3

The day God chose to create light was the day music began. Light and sound

travel through the medium of waves. Moving light waves are called

electromagnetic waves. The wavelength of an electromagnetic wave determines

which type of light it is. As humans, we're only able to see 3 percent of the entire

light spectrum, and part of the 97 percent of invisible light is categorized as

electromagnetic light. Within electromagnetic light exists a range of wavelengths

called radio waves. Within this category of radio waves exists an even smaller

range of waves which humans can hear. Essentially, we know that all these

categories and forms of light and sound exist within the same spectrum. The first

time God said, "Let there be light," (Genesis 1:3). He was also proclaiming the

beginning of sound. And He wasn't asking permission for there to be sound. He

wasn't in the heavens saying, "Pleeeeaze... let there be light" or, "Aw, come on

guys... just let there be some, you know, light." All He said was, "Or!" Or is the

Hebrew root word for light. This was instantaneous creativity of God in action.

The thought was said and done. When the voice of God spoke, it became—it was

there.

When He said, "light," it was heard in the silent void and darkness. In reality,

He was releasing the light of His glory. Remember, the sun and moon were not

created until the fourth day, so this light was the light of His glory. In this instant,

music was born. Although light and sound are located on different frequencies,

they are the same thing. The Bible says, "God is light, and in Him there is no

darkness at all" (I John 1:5 NAS). Everything that God has ever brought forth

has come from His creative voice, the same voice which impregnates the earth

with light, sound, music, and glory, the elements of God.

The sound of heaven that is called the "sound of many waters" (Revelation

14:2 NAS), encompasses all the frequencies in the sound spectrum. The four

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

universal elements are water, wind, fire, and earth. The sound of heaven—all the

frequencies of the sound spectrum—can be heard in water, wind, and fire. We are

made of the fourth element which is dirt. God desires for that same sound to be

heard through the earth. When He created us, He simply animated dirt. Imagine

the first sound Adam ever heard was God breathing the wind or the breath of His

Spirit. We were the only ones made in His image. We are the creatures God

chose to give free will to accept or reject His sound breathing in us. The wind

does not have a will, and neither does fire nor water. Man has been given a will,

because man has been given a soul. Therefore, we have a choice to align our

sound with the sound of heaven, while the other elements remain inanimate. Fire

simply sounds like fire, wind sounds like wind, and water sounds like water. Man

sounds like man, but we have been given the creative ability to release the sound

of God. The larger the mass of corporate worship we have, the more we sound

like a brewing tornado, a blazing forest fire, or a raging geyser. So "let

everything that has breath praise the Lord!" (Psalm 150:6)

Sound is an amazing force. A pair of 30 inch speakers connected to a tone

generator can generate a note low enough to literally physically move a building

off its foundation. We cannot begin to understand sound until we realize that we

are unable to hear most of the sounds that exist. We are continually in the

presence of ultrasonic and subsonic sound waves. "Ultra," which means "above,"

are waves above our threshold of hearing. "Sub," which means "beneath," are

waves beneath our threshold of hearing. Just because we don't see the wind does

not mean it is not there. Just because we don't hear a sound does not mean it was

never made. If a man stands in a forest and speaks, and a woman is not there to

correct him, is he still wrong? (Just kidding).

Though I don't recommend anyone trying it because of the physical dangers

involved, scientists have experimented and found that by harnessing the energy

of an oil well in New Mexico, that they could create an amplifier powerful

enough to be heard in Italy. Imagine taking an old Martin guitar, and hammering

a D chord, and the sound literally being heard around the world. Most of us walk

around unaware of what really surrounds us. We have a great big God who is

able to do whatever He wants. He created sound with enough power to cause

earthquakes by the sound modulations under the earth's surface. He created

sound to be devastating enough to leave nations crumbled to ruins. With

awesome earthquakes and mighty continental rumblings, it's amazing to think

there is nothing that catches the ear of God more than a simple whisper of praise

from the heart of a child.

24

Science of Sound

SIGHT AND SOUND

Sound has the power to change everything. Imagine a scene from a movie

where a woman is walking down a sidewalk. I'll add some details to spice it up.

It's a fall afternoon and the wind is picking up, making the dead leaves swirl

around her feet with every step. The street is downtown in a big city. It is

crowded with business people on their lunch break. The woman, in her forties, is

wearing a navy blue skirt and a white blouse. Her right hand is clutching the strap

of her purse, and she is walking extremely fast. From these visuals what do we

know about the situation? Very little. We can guess at what the situation might

be—maybe she's late for a meeting, maybe she doesn't work and has come

downtown to give her husband something at his office. The truth is, we know

nothing except for what our eyes see. Our eyes simply give us facts.

Now take the same scene and add the eerie sound of a lonely faint chime.

Voice this over the background of a futuresque dissonant chord from a

synthesizer. Add the boom of a bass drum playing sporadically as if in a death

march. Now we feel something. We're concerned for the woman, maybe even

scared and on the edge of our seats because we think she's being chased. Change

the music to a light piccolo playing over the staccato plucks of an orchestra's

violin section and the scene becomes more playful, as if she's running against the

heavy flow of people walking the other way. With this background music, she

becomes more of an individual heroine whom we're rooting for. Finally, change

the music to the slow, lush sound of strings passionately playing "The Love

Song" and our hearts drop. Perhaps she is on the way to the hospital where her

love lies dying and has only hours to live.

Sound can create a story from dry facts. It stirs our emotions to go beyond

facts to feeling. The scene's meaning depends entirely on how the viewer and the

listener choose to respond emotionally, and the meaning can also depend on their

mood while watching and listening. The revelation that comes to the seer has

everything to do with the sounds of the scene.

The woman walking is a picture of the church, progressively taking steps

forward, often frantically. The sound being heard as the church goes forward has

everything to do with how the seers will interpret what goes on. Therefore, the

sound impacts how they will pray, how they will believe, and how they will

interpret the activity they see in the church. Is she walking into a season of peace,

a season of joy, or a season of being raped and violated by the world? Music is

the indicator. Music sets the tone of her destiny.

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

Throughout the generations of history, the spiritual climate of God's people

has always had a musical indicator. With every revival, there has been a release

of new music or new sound. Whether the music released revival, or whether the

revival released the music varies from generation to generation. However, the

sound changes as God's people's responses change to what God is doing and

saying. I know we could argue that sound and music continually change as a

result of the development of the technology of any given generation. But the fact

is, God gives the technology also. It's a chicken or egg deal. Any way you look at

it, God unveils new songs and new sounds in relationship to the new revelation

of His presence in His people. That's why the enemy fights so hard to counterfeit

everything that God desires to do musically in a generation.

David was able to impact his generation not only politically, but poetically,

and prophetically. This prophet, priest, and king brought God into all arenas of

life in Israel. As a prophet, He was a worshiping prophet. As a priest, he was a

worshiping priest. And as a king, he was a worshiping king. All authority in

Israel, whether it is political, ecclesiastical or personal, rested on this man, who

was after God's own heart. He established the standards of the day to see, hear,

and know God. David, as a worshiper, had committed to performing a vow of

worship seven times a day unto God (see Psalm 119:164). Seven times a day, he

took his harp and spontaneously sang to God. Those spontaneous expressions of

his worship relationship with his God became the lyrics of the nation, and a truth

that endures to all generations.

To get the fullness of this lyric, we must understand how the prophets

thought. They thought with a Hebrew mindset, which is often confusing to us, for

we think with a Greek mindset. When God spoke to the prophets of old, they

understood that when God said it, it was done. There was no necessity for

working up a lather of faith and motivating themselves to believe that God would

do what He said He would do. When God said it, that was enough. In their

understanding, God saying it was the same as God doing it. In the Hebrew mind,

everything was intuitive and nothing was philosophical. Their thinking did not

coordinate and relate things into a system as the Greek mind does. The Hebrew

mind didn't normally think logically Jesus was not Socrates. There were no

shades of meaning and stages of transition in thought, for the Hebrew thought

with the eye. Their connection to the prophetic was always optical rather than

logical. David saw one thing, then another, and the connections between the two

visions were not always obvious to the reader. Over the years, Bible scholars

have struggled to interpret Scripture in ways the Greek mind can understand.

Within one Psalm, the atmosphere and imagery can change a dozen times. Most

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Science of Sound

commentators stumble through the Psalms and are frustrated with the lack of

unity in imagery, when in fact David simply sang what he saw, and what he saw

was what God was saying. With that in mind, let's see David in the pastoral scene

of Psalm 23.

SEEING AND SINGING

David is sitting on a hillside looking across the green pastures with his harp

on his lap, accompanied by thoughts of caring for his sheep. He begins to sing,

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in

green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He

leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake" (Psalm 23:1-3).

The images here are a loving shepherd and his sheep lying at rest in green

pastures by still waters. Then, in verse four, the imagery is suddenly changed to

walking through the valley of the shadow of death: "Yea, though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are

with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Then comes a

stumbling block for the commentators, because in the middle of the pastoral

scene we're suddenly at an indoor banquet with a table prepared for us.

Imagine David sitting on the side of a hill, looking across a meadow at a

shepherd and his sheep. Sitting there he sees the shepherd's house, a little black

tent made of goat hide. He also sees a fugitive who had just committed murder

fleeing across the desert. Chasing him are the avengers of the murder. Though

the fugitive is running for his life, if he can only touch the ropes of that tent, he'll

be safe, for he knows the laws of hospitality in the desert demand that the

shepherd take him in and set the finest table possible before him. The shepherd

will then anoint the fugitive's head with oil and give his best provisions at a

banquet while the avengers have to stand outside. There's nothing they can do but

wait. Inside the shepherd host will serve, bless, and anoint him in this place of

sanctuary for two days and the intervening night. For that period of time, the

fugitive is safe and nothing can touch him except the blessings of his host. When

the period of time is over, he must rise, leave the hospice and bear his bloody

death.

As the poet David sees this scene, he thinks of the hospitality of God which

is without a limit. For in this song, he brings lyric forth as an expression of his

life. He could have sung it this way: Though harm and death come to the fugitive

that is being followed by the avengers, "Surely goodness and mercy shall

follow me All the days of my life" (verse 6). And I'll not dwell in the House of

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

the Lord for two days and the intervening night "... I will dwell in the house of

the Lord forever" (verse 6).

When we think with the eye, the connection is optical rather than logical. If

you see it, sing it. Remember that the Psalms were sung. Not only were they

sung, they were accompanied with gestures. In Psalm 36:12 where the words,

"There the workers of iniquity have fallen" were spoken, I can assure you a

finger was pointing as he declared, "There the workers of iniquity have

fallen." In Psalm 2:4 the psalmist gives us a picture of "God laughing." Gestures

and emotions were always a part of the expression of song. The reporter gets the

words, but it's the camera that gets the picture.

The eye gate is as important as the ear gate, for unless we see what the Father

is doing, how can we hear what He is saying? The foundation of the prophetic

song is musically coming into agreement and accompanying what God is doing

and saying (see John 5:19). He is now developing our sensitivity to His Spirit

through the emphasis on prayer, intercession, praise, and worship, causing His

church to walk as a victorious lady in a blue skirt surrounded by songs of

deliverance, seeing and hearing with each step the sights and sounds of God's

heavenly purpose. May the accompanying soundtrack of this scene impact the

world that views us, that they might hear the sound of heaven as we walk with

our God.

28

Chapter 4

Sounds of Shouting,

4

Marching & Rain

Let's look at a few examples of God using sound to accomplish His purposes

in man throughout history. Many times in Scripture, God uses strange and bizarre

methods to accomplish His purposes. They seldom make sense to the natural

mind. But hopefully, found in some of the examples shared, we'll find the

ingredients for stretching our faith, which will unveil an even greater wonder of

God than we've known. In His infinite wisdom, He many times defies logic just

to capture our hearts. However, I want to present these stories in such a way that

He can also capture our logic and arrest our thinking. Truly His thoughts are

higher than our thoughts. That is why unusual tactics such as shouting, marching,

and rain were used by God to carry out His will.

SHOUT!

How many times have we heard the story of Joshua and the city of Jericho

and never understood what really happened when God's people shouted? First,

let's look at the word "shout" in Scripture. There are more than fifty words used

in the Hebrew language in connection with praise.

Though they are different words, they are all related. Many of them are

derived from the same root word. Praise always requires a body function—

clapping, kneeling, singing, etc. One of those words is the word shabach, which

means "to shout, to address in a loud tone or to commend." It's the most

exclamatory form of praise. Shabach is translated "praise" four times in the book

of Psalms. For instance, Psalm 63:3 says, "Because Your lovingkindness is

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

better than life, my lips shall praise (shabach or shout) You." Psalm 117:1

says, "Praise (shabach or shout) Him all you people." In Psalm 145:4, "One

generation shall praise (shout) Your works to another, and shall declare

Your mighty acts." Psalm 147:12 says, "Praise (shout to) the Lord, O

Jerusalem!" In Daniel 2:23, we find the corresponding word shebach as Daniel

shouts his praises to God for giving him wisdom and power.

Note that there is a scriptural principle of shouting the mighty works and acts

of God from one generation to another. If a shout can be powerful enough to

reach into the next generation, it would behoove us to look deeper into the

dynamics and physics of what takes place in the spirit realm when God's people

shout. The shout of praise is an exclamatory expression of the heart that's been

overwhelmed by God's lovingkindness and greatness. Though more could be said

about the shout of praise, let's look instead at another side of this shout. The

shout can also be a sound to impact and even devastate the enemy in spiritual

warfare.

The first time God identified Himself as the Lord of hosts was with Joshua.

In Joshua 5, we find this chosen leader of God laying with his head on a rock,

moanin' and groanin', crying, "God, You've called me to take the most fortified

city. I can't do it. No way, not me." He was basically in a "Well, I-would-just-

throw-myself-at-the-ground-but-I'm-afraid-I'd miss" state of mind. Lying in his

poor-me mentality and the grips of depression, a mighty soldier appeared before

him, standing with a sword drawn. He was the most fearful-looking sight Joshua

had ever seen. Joshua immediately said to him, "You've got to tell me. Are you

on my side or you on their side?" The warrior looked Joshua in the eye and said,

"No. You are on My side. I am the Captain of the hosts. I'm the Commander of

the army of the Lord. So that puts you on My side." And Joshua fell on his face

and began to worship. Then he said to him, "What does my Lord want to say to

me?" The Captain of the Lord's army replied, "Take your sandals off your feet,

for the place where you stand is holy" (Joshua 5:15). Joshua immediately did

so.

Notice how quickly a state of fear and depression turned into a release of

worship, and how quickly a state of worship turned into a release of God's

instruction. Not only do we speak to God in worship, but God desires to speak to

us. Sometimes the greatest worship is listening. Suddenly Jericho was out of the

picture for Joshua. God had his attention. Rather than becoming arrogantly bold

to go after Jericho, Joshua simply said, "What does the Lord desire for me to

do?" The Captain of the Hosts told him to take off his shoes. Have you ever tried

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Sounds of Shouting, Marching & Rain

to walk around on the stony terrain of desert mountains barefoot? You'll find that

if you walk barefoot across sharp rocks and hard dry ground, you'll walk

tenderly. This is a picture of a tender walk in the presence of the Lord. How

quickly depression and terror can turn into tenderness and desire when we

worship God. From that position, God began to implement His vision through

Joshua for releasing the people of God from the oppression of the enemy.

Joshua asked the commander of the Lord's army, "What you want me to do?"

The Captain gave him the strategy:

"Listen, you go down there, take seven laps around the wall, give me a big

'Yee-haw' and I'll fold the place.” This strategy didn't make sense to the natural

mind. Can't you just see Joshua coming back to the people of Israel, saying,

"Okay guys, I've heard from God. This is what we're going to do: We're going to

go down there, take seven laps around the city, blow the trumpet, holler a 'Yee-

haw' and God's going to do it!" Everybody said, "Right, Joshua." It didn't make

sense to their natural minds either. But God was not looking for smarts, He was

looking for obedience. Lack of obedience is a major issue with the church today.

We have been educated beyond obedience. Smarts and hearts aren't the same

thing. He was looking for them to walk in obedience to His Word, no matter

what it looked like. It doesn't make sense to the natural mind to bring someone in

a church with cancer, rub a little 10W-40 oil on their head, and they walk out

healed. Somebody tell me how that works. It's obedience to His Word that works.

In Joshua 6:2-5, we see that Jericho was shut up. In verse two the Lord said

to Joshua:

See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men

of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; You shall go

all around the city once. This you shall do six days.

And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the

ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and

the priests shall blow the trumpets. Then it shall come to pass, when they

make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you HEAR the SOUND of

the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall

of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight

before him.

Notice that the Lord told Joshua to "See" for "I have given Jericho into

your hand" (verse 2). It was important for Joshua to see as he heard. In verse six

he began the process of mobilizing the people of God to obedience, which tells

us that he saw what God was saying. God had given the strategy, He had spelled

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

out the tactics and it was time to release the sound of agreement.

In Joshua 6:5 it says, "when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that

ALL the people shall shout with a great shout... then the wall of the city

will fall down flat." The people responded out of obedience to God, resulting

from Joshua hearing and seeing what the Lord was saying. There was a sound

used to implement God's will, and Joshua was required to agree with it. Had they

not believed God would do what He said, they certainly would have had no

business standing in the face of their enemies tooting their horns and hollering. It

took honest-to-goodness mobilized obedience for them to do what they did. As a

result of them obeying and releasing the sound, God did what He said He would

do.

God instructed them to shout with a great shout. But this was not the

shabach shout here. This was the word ruah, which according to Strong's means

"to split the ears with sound, as in blowing an alarm or crying out." When they

walked in obedience and began to release this earsplitting shout joined with the

sound of the shofar, and the trumpet blast of prophetic release, the stage for the

miraculous was set. The second word for shout used in verse five is not ruah, but

truah. Truah is "the clamor or acclamation of the battle cry, especially the

clangor of trumpets." This word was prefaced with the words, "with a great

shout." This was the shout of God.

When God's people shouted out of obedience, God got involved and shouted

too. As a unit, they took the city. God's Word had come to pass according to

verse two: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand." God did what He said

He would do. When they walked in obedience and released a battle cry by faith,

God's voice joined the sound. I propose that was more miraculous than meets the

eye. Think of it. Jericho was fortified with a double wall. The outer wall was six

feet thick and the inner wall was twelve feet thick. The two walls were fifteen

feet apart, and this space of separation was sometimes packed with sand and

stone. So basically Joshua's men faced a wall thirty-three feet wide and thirty feet

high. If a wall of that size fell, an army still couldn't get over the rubble. There

would be just a big pile of rocks. But in response to the shout, the hand of God

telescoped the wall into the ground and the Israelites walked across on flat

ground. When God joins the shout of His people, spiritual walls will fall.

SHOUT FOR THE PRESENCE

After a loss of 4,000 Israelite soldiers at the hands of the Philistines, the

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Sounds of Shouting, Marching & Rain

elders of Israel realized their desperate need for the presence of God (see I

Samuel 4:3). They said, "Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord

from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the

hand of our enemies." So they went to Shiloh to retrieve the ark of the covenant

which was also with Joshua at Jericho. When the ark entered the camp, all Israel

shouted rah with a great shout truth so that the earth rang (verse 5). The last time

the rah and truth came forth, the earth trembled and quaked and the walls of

Jericho fell. This time when the shout came, the earth rang. When the Philistines

heard the noise of the shout, they understood God had come to battle on behalf of

Israel. The Philistines cried, "Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of

these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the

plagues in the wilderness" (verse 8). They knew the awesome power of God.

The Philistines said to one another, "We don't want to be slaves of these

Hebrews, so let's get out there and fight like men." The Philistines fought and

killed 30,000 of Israel's footman that day. The ark of God was taken and Israel

lost a great battle.

PRESUMPTION BRINGS DEFEAT

You might say, "Wait a minute! The ark of the covenant was there just like

Jericho! The shout took place just like Jericho! It was God's people, just like the

battle of Jericho! What was the difference?" The difference was, Hophni and

Phinehas, the rebellious sons of the priest Eli, had stolen the ark of the covenant

and brought it into battle to be used as a trump card. There was not an obedient

bone in their bodies. Yes, the shout sowed fear into the minds and hearts of the

enemy, but the fear only motivated them to fight even harder against the

Israelites. This was not God's strategy. Therefore, God did not honor it. God

refused to be reduced to a formula. He's not a formula, He's a Father.

Whether it is a shout of praise, warfare, or presumption, there can be great

spiritual power in the shout. If you've ever been to a football stadium or a

concert, you know how impacting it can be standing in the midst of 80,000

people shouting with aggression. A shout for a shout's sake can be very

motivating, but its effect is only temporary. Imagine you're now in the same

stadium filled with 80,000 who walk humbly with God and wholeheartedly

embrace His strategy in spiritual warfare. As they shout, it's out of obedience to

His eternal purposes. They shout to bring forth His power and grace. Needless to

say, there's nothing temporary about the effect of that shout.

There are many other instances of the shout in Scripture and a variety of

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

Hebrew words that are translated "shout," which I won't take time to address

here. But I want to clarify that there is a definite distinction between the shout of

praise you find in the book of Psalms, and the shout that releases God's power, as

seen in the book of Joshua. One incites praise to the Father, while the other

invokes the power of the Father. Both require humility and obedience to be

effective. The key is to rise up out of depression and fear as Joshua did and

behold the Captain of the Hosts. The host of the Lord is a myriad of heavenly

warriors—an army with the power of heaven and the strength of their awesome

God to war with you, not against you. In other words, when we shout, we don't

shout alone. The shout of God is an awesome thing.

THE SOUND OF MARCHING

Another example of God using sound to accomplish His purposes through

man is found in II Samuel 5. In verse 18, the Philistines had come against David.

In verse 19, "And David inquired of the Lord, saying, 'Shall I go up against

the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?' And the Lord said to

David, 'Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.'"

So David smote the Philistines and said, "The Lord has broken through my

enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water" (verse 20). Then he took

their idols and their images and burned them.

Later, the Philistines came up against David again. Knowing that the Lord

had anointed him to overcome the Philistines, David could have simply gone out

and fought them. But he didn't presume a victory. He inquired of the Lord again.

This time the Lord surprisingly said, "You shall not go up; circle around

behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And it

shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry

trees, then you shall advance quickly" (II Samuel 5:23-24). The sound of

marching indicated to David that the Lord had gone out to strike the camp of the

Philistines.

The sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees was the sound of the

heavenly host of warriors fighting on David's behalf. Again, there was a sound

involved. After their enemies had been overcome, David and the Israelites

brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.

I'll bet the sound of those voices and trumpets blasting wasn't too different from

what the enemy heard on the tops of the mulberry trees.

THE SOUND OF RAIN

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Sounds of Shouting, Marching & Rain

The shout of God and the sound of marching that David and Joshua heard

came at desperate times. Both men were in war, needing a miracle to overcome

their enemies. However, in the Old Testament, the sound of heaven wasn't

exclusively heard in war times. God demonstrated His power through Elijah in I

Kings 18, as the prophet called down fire from heaven. As fire from heaven

consumed the sacrifice, all the People fell on their faces and began to worship

God. When three years of famine passed, Elijah told the Israelite king, Ahab, to

rise up, eat and drink, for he had heard in his spirit a "sound of an abundance of

rain" (I Kings 18:41). Immediately, Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel,

cast himself to the earth with his face between his knees in a travailing or

birthing position. Elijah told his servant to go look toward the sea. The servant

looked and saw nothing. Elijah told him to go and look for rain seven times. On

the seventh time, he said, "Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea,

like a man's hand" (verse 44 KJV). Notice this happened on the seventh time.

With Joshua seven laps were required with seven trumpets to take Jericho.

Throughout Scripture, seven is understood to be the number of completion or

perfection. At the completion of your obedience you will find the completion of

God's will.

Elijah told his servant to go tell Ahab to get his chariot harnessed up, because

rain was coming. Soon the heavens became black with clouds and wind, and

there was a great rain. Notice in verse 41 that Elijah heard the "sound of an

abundance of rain," which brought him to a place of intense prayer and travail.

In verse 44, his servant declared that he could see a cloud. There was a hearing

and a seeing of the coming rain. Then a manifestation of clouds, wind and a great

rain occurred. I think it would be safe to say that if Elijah had not heard the

sound, and come into agreement with what he heard, and declared accordingly,

he would not have seen the rain. Just as David had seen and brought forth the

hearing (see Psalm 23), we see that Elijah heard and brought forth the seeing.

When we align ourselves with the prophetic hearing and seeing that God is

unveiling today, I believe it will bring a whole new understanding to the New

Testament Scripture, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into

the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love

Him" (I Corinthians 2:9).

THE SOUND OF CHARIOTS AND HORSES

Elisha experienced the supernatural sound of heaven in the form of

thundering horses and chariots. In II Kings 6, the king of Syria was warring

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

against Israel. The king took council with his servants and told them where he

was going to place his camp. Elisha told the king of Israel to avoid passing the

place where the Syrians were. Needless to say, the king of Syria was very angry

at Elisha for warning the king of Israel. The king of Syria sent his spies out with

a great host of chariots, horses and soldiers to abduct Elisha. Afraid, Elisha's

servant said to him, "What shall we do? "(verse 15) He told his servant not to

fear "For those who are with us are more than those who are with them"

(verse 16). Realizing this did not calm his servant's fears, Elisha prayed and said,

"Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see" (verse 17). The Lord opened the

young man's eyes, and he saw in the spirit that the mountain was full of horses

and chariots of fire all around Elisha. God opened the spirit realm according to

Elisha's prayer. What would it do for our faith if we had a lifestyle of prayer and

prophetic insight into the spirit realm? What if we could see not only our enemies

but the heavenly warriors given to us for the purpose of spiritual warfare? In the

natural, the young man saw Syrian soldiers. After Elisha prayed, the servant's

spiritual eyes were opened to see the heavenly warriors there to war on behalf of

the man of God. What would just one experience of being able to see with

spiritual eyes do to us?

In the same chapter, Samaria is surrounded by the Syrians. There was a

famine so great in Samaria that people were selling a donkey head for eighty

pieces of silver and dove's dung for five pieces. The famine was so horrendous

that some were literally eating their own children. In II Kings 7:1, Elisha stood

and said, "HEAR the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: Tomorrow

about this time, a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs

of barley for a shekel" (II Kings 7:1). Right in the middle of total devastation

and depravity, Elisha prophesied the bizarre. Within 24 hours, everything was

going to be different. One of the king's men in a sarcastic tone said, "Well I

guess, maybe if the Lord opens the windows of heaven." Elisha's response to his

unbelief was, "You're going to see it with your eyes, but you will not eat a bite of

it" (verse 2). In the meantime four outcasts sat outside the gate of the city—four

leprous men who had not heard the prophet.

Some years ago, I had the privilege of ministering in a leper colony seventy

miles off the Black Sea in southern Russia. I spent an afternoon in a room with

about seventy-five lepers. To see the impact of that disease on a physical body is

astounding. I saw people without ears, eyes, noses, or fingers, and many or most

of them had at least one limb missing as a result of this horrible disease.

Nevertheless, they were some of the most wonderful people I'd ever met in my

life. As they shared their life stories and I shared mine, there was an instant bond

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Sounds of Shouting, Marching & Rain

of friendship. I could hardly believe some of them had spent as many as fifty

years sitting in this room every day I was one of the first Americans they had

ever seen. Their stories greatly impacted me. I will take many of their stories and

acts of kindness with me throughout my life. As I prepared to leave after two and

a half hours of conversation, an old Russian leper stood on the only leg he had

left and with a smile on his face, said, "Young man, an old Russian proverb says

that one old friend is better than two new ones. So please come again, because

now you are our old friend." As touched and exhilarated as I was by that

encounter, the reality is that people in that condition do not have much to look

forward to, since their bodies are daily being weakened by the cursed disease.

Having experienced the hopelessness of these people gave me an idea of what

was going on in the hearts and minds of these four leprous men sitting at the gate

of Samaria.

Perhaps one of the lepers looked at the other and said, "What are our

choices? If we go into the city, we'll just die like all the rest. If we just sit here,

we'll eventually die of leprosy. Our other choice is to get up and walk into the

camp of the enemy. Then they will do one of two things: they will either kill us

or feed us. If they spare us, we live. If they kill us, we die." So they rose early the

next morning and walked into the camp of the Syrians. When they got there,

nobody was home. What had happened? These four little eighty-pound, eyeless,

ear-less, nose-less lepers with possibly five feet between them and two arms in

the crowd, shuffled and dragged their wretched little bodies along the road. As

they went, God caused their footsteps to be heard in the ears of their enemy as

the noise of thousands of chariots, thousands of horses, and the noise of a great

host. The enemy thought Israel must have hired the massive armies of the Hittites

and the Egyptians to fight them. So they jumped up and ran for their lives when

they heard "the noise of horses—the noise of a great army" (II Kings 7:6)

coming down on them. Pandemonium and chaos swept over the entire camp.

But it was nothing more than four little wilted-away lepers. All because

Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord" (I Kings 7:1). The enemy fled their

camp in fear of their own lives and left all of their food, drink, silver, gold, and

raiment. When the news came back to the city, the king and his assistant still

couldn't believe it. There was such a stampede as the food was being brought in

the gates that the sarcastic king's assistant was trampled under feet. This fulfilled

what the prophet had told him: "you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall

not eat of it"(verse 2).

This story provides a vivid picture of the greatness of our God and His ability

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

to bring His Word to pass. Do you think in the natural that there is any possibility

those four leprous men's withered limbs dragging along the road made the sound

that was heard? No. But 1 do believe the horses and chariots of fire that Elisha

had seen earlier had a part in all of this. That was the bunch making the noise. If

our spiritual prophetic eyes are opened as Elisha's servant's eyes were opened, we

will be able to see how God can accomplish His Word. A sound was used by

God to free the people from famine, poverty, depression, oppression, and

ungodly authority (for the king died in the gates as well). All this happened

within twenty-four hours.

38

Chapter 5

Early American Sound

5

When this nation began, it didn't inherently have music simply because it

was a newborn nation. At least five European countries—Spain, England, France,

Holland and Sweden sent ships across the Atlantic ocean to make settlements in

the land we know today as the United States. These ships brought people with

their own individual customs, habits and ideas, which formed the culture of this

new nation. No doubt some of them brought their sailor songs while others

brought their traditional sounds. There wasn't a significant number of musical

instruments of any kind during those times because cargo space was too precious

to waste on musical gear. However, the old hymns of praise sung in their

homelands and lullabies that lulled their babies to sleep certainly became a part

of the new communities. In some of the countries, music played a more

important role than in others. But the only kind of music the Pilgrims and

Puritans brought with them to this country were the psalms they had sung in

England. There were only eight melodies or tunes, and the ability to sing these

tunes constituted the colonists' entire knowledge of music. There were no

instruments to speak of in their culture, and instruments were certainly not used

during worship.

Imagine a Sunday church service in New England in colonial times. At 9:00

a.m. people were called to church by the sound of a conch shell, a trumpet, or the

roll of a drum. The long service was broken up by the singing of songs. A

deacon, elder or minister acted as the song leader. At times they would even

gather their pitch for leading the a cappella songs by pecking on a candle holder.

There were few songbooks, if any, and most of the congregation couldn't have

read them if they had them. As a result, the songs were sung by a method called

lining. The leader would sing one line, and the congregation would repeat it, and

so on. Can you imagine what it must have been like the day they sang the 119th

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Psalm? If the leader had a good ear or good pitch, the singing would be musical.

But if the leader couldn't carry a tune in a bucket or if he pitched the song too

high or too low, the sound hardly resembled music. With all the different accents

and pronunciations, sometimes it was nothing more than a loud noise. At times, it

must have taken at least an hour to get through a Psalm—but it was a beginning.

The New Englanders were dead-set against music as a means of pleasure.

While they had lived in England, they objected to such pleasures as plays,

dancing and music—particularly instrumental music. Musical instruments were

considered to be instruments of the devil. These colonists found reasons in the

Bible for many of their beliefs. For example, Amos 5:23 says, "I will not hear

the melody of your stringed instruments." This was interpreted to mean

that instrumental music was improper. Some of the colonists of the day did not

even believe in the singing of songs. They justified that by the passage in the

New Testament that says a Christian should make melody only "in his heart"

(Ephesians 5:19). One group even organized an anti-singing church because

they opposed any kind of singing or music. There were heated discussions about

how singing should be done among those who embraced singing. Some of the

questions most frequently raised were: Should one person sing for the whole

congregation, the others joining in only to sing "Amen," or should the whole

congregation sing? Should women be allowed to sing or only men? Should carnal

men and pagans be permitted to sing or only Christians and church members?

Should it be lawful to sing songs and tunes invented by men or should the

congregation sing as inspired?

One group determined that singing was the sole right of Christians. Heathen

Indians were given only the privilege of saying "Amen" at the end of the song.

This group also said that women could not sing or utter an "Amen" at the end of

the song. Others believed that to sing a melody composed or made by a man was

only a vain show. They believed God would not be pleased with the praise in

which man had created the melody. Others considered the hymn tunes by many

to be as sacred as the words themselves.

The preface to the songbooks published in England, from which their songs

were taken, gives us an idea of the direction the Christian colonists followed in

singing. The psalms of tribulation were to be sung "with a low voice and in long

measure." The psalms of thanksgiving were to be sung with an "indifferent voice,

neither too loud nor too slow." The psalms of rejoicing were to be sung "with a

loud voice and in swift measure."

The Jamestown colonists arrived several years before the Puritans and

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Early American Sound

Pilgrims, but left no record of music. We know little of the music of any of the

southern colonists who were in America during the first hundred years. It seems

likely, however, that these early settlers must have enjoyed music a little more

than the Northern colonists. These early settlers whistled and hummed at their

work, sang at their church services, and did not have all the religious objections

to singing and instruments that the New Englanders had. By the late 1600s, in

Williamsburg, Virginia, there were concerts and plays, complete with gentlemen

and their ladies in velvet, dancing to stately minuets and Virginia reels. Music in

the North, however, maintained a primitive, stoic attitude with no freedom in

rhythms or melodies.

THE SOUND OF THE STORM

Our musical heritage continued through the Triangular Slave Trade. English

shipowners traveled to the west coast of Africa to capture slaves, then crossed the

Atlantic to America, and sailed back again to England. Their journey formed a

triangular pattern and was thus named the Triangular Slave Trade. America, the

new "land of the free, and home of the brave," had such a high demand for slaves

that some of these slave-ship owners had to provide as many as 3,000 slaves per

year just to make their quota and stay in good standing with the British

government. Later, history revealed that many of the African jungle tribe leaders

wanted to get in on the action and profit. Some tribal leaders intentionally created

war situations between tribes in the same culture. At that time, it was justifiable

to capture another tribe or nation and bring them into slavery during war times.

As the chiefs captured other tribes, they would sell them to the British as slaves.

Through selling their rivals to slave traders, they were able to create a better

economy for themselves by receiving goods such as iron, metals, and other things

they didn't have.

In the middle of this greed and commerce, the victims were the tribes

overcome by their oppressors. They fought for their lives using their instruments

for spiritual warfare to call on their gods. Many African tribes had no lyric in

their music, only rhythm, harmony, and various tones. They spiritually used these

elements, without vocabulary, to call upon the gods to bring storms. The

traditions of some pagan rituals such as Voodoo dolls and pagan ceremonies

emerged this way. They would axe out the heads of gargoyle-looking things and

stick them in trees. Initially they were put there to ward off the evil spirits

working to take them into slavery. Through these and other rituals, they called

upon the gods of the sun, moon, stars, fire, river, mountains, thunder, sea, wind,

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love, and death. They beckoned these gods to bring tornadoes, hurricanes, fires,

and other violent weather to the west coast of Africa. They wanted the storms to

hinder English ships from coming into port to capture them.

During every season of bad weather the tribes were at peace. They believed

they were using their music to call up these storms. When they heard the sound

of storms—the sound of the rushing wind, water, and rain—they knew it

represented peace for them and they would not be brought into slavery and

oppression. Their physical condition and spiritual climate were directly related to

what they believed they were conjuring up through their music. Then suddenly a

season would come with a gentle southerly breeze blowing, and they would come

under panic and fear. They moved their camp because they knew the peaceful,

calm seasons were the very seasons in which they could be destroyed and taken

into slavery.

In that era, the English captured slaves by the thousands. One of the most

notorious of all the slave-traders was John Newton. He had even been taken as a

slave once himself. After he gave his heart to the Lord, he scripted the words to

"Amazing Grace" out of the guilt and shame of his slave trading. As the

quickening of the Holy Spirit brought truth to his life, he wrote:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind, but now I see

He realized that he had been wrongly blinded to the injustice of slavery.

"Amazing Grace" became an expression of an entire people and still is today. It

is the song most frequently sung in black churches across America. Talk about

the redemptive purposes of God! Repentance is the right action. God wants to

bring a nation to repentance that has had generations of wrong responses to sin

and violation against one another. Warring in the spirit realm musically is

important as musical styles are restored.

The white wealthy plantation owners, who justified slavery biblically

because there were slaves in the Bible, were proud to have slaves doing all their

work and making money for them. Some slave holders even thought of the

African Americans as "animals without souls." To these slave holders, the

African slaves were considered just an animal out of a jungle somewhere.

Understand this attitude was not true in every case. There are many accounts of

slave holders and slaves who had true friendships and acts of kindness between

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them—as kind as it could possibly be and still be called slavery. Nevertheless,

many slave holders realized the black man's talent for making sounds to entertain

them. The slaves sang harmonies the whites had never heard before. The

Africans' musical DNA brought rhythm, harmony and the natural ability to hear

harmonies to America. At that time, harmony wasn't allowed in the church in

America because it was thought to bring attention to man rather than God. Choirs

weren't allowed in churches because they were believed to be a display of talent.

Music schools didn't exist. There were no professional musicians. Music was not

a priority of the day for the white man, though it played a stronger role in the

lives of his ancestors. He didn't have time for music. He was trying to build a

country.

The slaves of the southern plantations began to sing a song the white man

had never heard before. The slave holders used the blacks for their own

entertainment. They were called "coon singers" because they would sit out in the

dark at night singing their strange harmonies, with only the whites of their eyes

shining in the dark. It was an eerie, wonderful sound that provided entertainment

—their television or radio of the day, if you will.

A few of the white folks became fond of their slaves because they were so

entertained by their rhythm and dance. The slaves' music had all the things that

the white man's music lacked. The white churches' music consisted of opening up

the Psalter and singing in a drone:

My God, my God why has thou forsaken me?

(My God, my God why has thou forsaken me?)

Oh God, my God I cry in the daytime.

(Oh God, my God I cry in the daytime)

SONGS OF DELIVERANCE

The slaves didn't even know how to spell "harmony,” but they had it in them.

The white slave holders were so entertained by their singing that they didn't

allow slaves to talk while working in the fields, but forced them to sing. The

white man designated a single line-boss to set the tempo for the work of the day.

This was often an elderly black man chosen by the white owner. As they worked

the cotton fields, the line-boss started them by singing, "When the big rivah meet

the little rivah." All the slaves, called "darkies," replied, Follow the drinkin'

gourd. The line-boss led, "And when the sun shine on the other side of the

mountain." Follow the drinkin' gourd. "And when the wind come and meet your

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face." Follow the drinkin’ gourd.

They sang this song in an antiphonal response, also called "lining," which is

the same way David and the Israelites, the Puritan settlers, and other people

groups sang. Because most of the workers were uneducated, the Scriptures were

learned through antiphonal response singing. In this way, they musically came

into agreement with the Word of God, or the prophetic word of the lead singer.

The reality of that spiritual release became a part of them. Through song they

were confessing what the prophet of the Lord sang. Now the white man, in his

"superior intelligence," didn't know what was going on. The slaves were actually

singing the map to the underground railroad. The "drinking gourd" referred to the

Big Dipper. The lyrics covertly told them to follow the Big Dipper when they

came to where the two rivers met. The lyrics "when the sun shine" indicated that

escaping slaves were to rest during the day and travel at night.

The entire underground railroad, their pathway to freedom, was mapped out

in song. David would have called this a song of deliverance. An entire race of

people taught and admonished one another with songs, hymns and spiritual

spontaneous songs (ode pneu maticos in Greek). These spiritual songs were sown

into their very being. They knew the path to freedom as well as they knew their

own names. These were true songs of deliverance. There were various versions

of the song, depending on where you were located. Escaping from the Delta, for

instance, required a different route than escaping from the North Georgia

mountains. Whatever the case, each slave planted the lyrics to these songs—

which could sometimes contain dozens of verses—deep within their hearts. Just

as David spoke of hiding the Word of God in one's heart, these slaves hid the

pathway to freedom in their hearts.

How could they memorize all the lyrics? First, these songs were the only

communication the slaves had with one another all during the day of work. For

ten hours, they would be in the cotton fields repeating the songs over and over

again, making sure everyone knew every word to each verse. They weren't just

memorizing the words, they were planting and nurturing these words of hope and

life in the core of their beings. Second, realize their very lives depended on

remembering these words. Think about it. If your chance to freedom, and the

freedom of your family's next five generations, was dependant upon you

remembering the words of this song, you would memorize each word, whatever

the cost.

SPIRITUALS AND SHOUTS

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Meanwhile, some of the white men made a big mistake—they started loving

these people and took a few of them to church, especially in Kentucky. Black

churches began to spring up everywhere because there was less oppression in

Kentucky than in the deep South. Suddenly, all these black folks started getting

saved right and left, and God was pouring out His Spirit on them. However, some

of the white folks eventually realized strength was emerging from this, and they

brought the blacks back into harsher submission.

The black man had two kinds of expressions for worship. First they had the

spirituals. As they sang spirituals, they sat on old benches and rocked back and

forth. Their bodies had to say what their spirits were saying. They got involved in

the music—body soul, and spirit. If you're going to sing it, you've got to feel it. If

you don't feel it, it's not even real. The second expression was the shouts. They

brought the same exuberance that was natural to their rhythms in the African

jungles into the kingdom of God. They birthed what the Pentecostal movement

later called "Jericho marches." It was a natural part of their worship. When those

shouts would start in the service, they had an old deacon who would stand there

and make sure nobody lifted their feet off the floor as they shuffled around the

room. They superstitiously believed if their feet came off the floor they might trip

over the cross and go to hell. They would also bring a big cauldron and turn it

upside down in the middle of the floor because they believed the cauldron would

capture their sounds to keep the boss man from hearing it. The cauldron would

hold the sound so they wouldn't be beaten and whipped by the slave-owners. It

was another African superstition taken from the Voodoo tradition. But God

honored it and it worked.

As the people circled the room in these "shouts," there was always one

person in the group that could read, typically a woman who worked in the "big

house" with access to books. From Psalm 21 she would say, "The King shall joy

in thy salvation." Then everyone would sing the line together, repeating after

her. It was like tag-team preaching. Again, it was antiphonal response. It was a

declaration of freedom coming through the Word of God. As soon as it was taken

in, it would be declared by the people.

The instrumentation of the "shouts" consisted of a stick about the size of a

broomstick. An old man called the "stick man" would set the tempo for each

song by tapping the stick. As he would hammer out a rhythm on the floor

accompanied by hand-clapping and foot-tapping, all the melodies and harmonies

would combine a call-and-response type of singing. The words and music

blended to release a sound perfectly responding to what the leader declared.

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One thing God wants to release prophetically now is a reality of our

authority. As soon as the Word of God comes, we are to have the authority in

God and the integrity of the Holy Spirit to release the Word. We must release the

Word, not letting it get caught in the spiritual battlefield of our minds keeping us

in bondage generation after generation, afraid of the reality of God coming forth

in us. Instruments will be involved in this prophetic release. As soon as the

instrument strikes, healing will take place and bondage will be broken. As soon

as the word is verbalized, release will come. It will be just like the prophets of

old. When God declares it, that means He will do it. It's not a matter of working

up a spiritual lather of faith and moving in presumption and manipulation. It's a

matter of agreeing with the Word, and becoming the action of the Word.

At times, the slaves would sing a song called "Jubilee." The lyric was,

"Shout, my children, 'cause yo free." They were singing and shouting their

freedom before the Emancipation Proclamation. They proclaimed it before

Lincoln ever penned it. In that sense it was a prophetic song.

THE SOUND OF SLAVERY

The songs of the slaves weren't written neatly on paper, nor were they

composed one Sunday while sitting in a nice church pew. These songs were born

with the same elements of a natural birth—blood, sweat, and tears. As part of

oral tradition, they were passed down from generation to generation. Perhaps old

Aunt Hattie would lie in the middle of the night in a slave camp in upper North

Carolina. She would be thinking about the preaching and dancing that had taken

place, and the prayers that had been said that day in the "meetin' house.” One

prayer recorded from these churches was from a slave preacher who said:

O mah God an' mah Father, ain't you see how dis groun' do trimble same

like judgment day? Come down hyuh, Lawd, an' help po' people in dere trial

and tribbilation, but O, do Mass Gawd, be sho' an' come yo 'self an’ doan sen’

Yo' Son, because dis ain' no time for chillun....

That was straight from his heart-from a real man to a real God. His

theologies were a little sideways, but all of our theologies have been a little

sideways at times. We've all walked in the light we've had. Now we're walking in

a time when the light's coming on.

But old Aunt Hattie would lay there in a soft, low, groan-of-a-tone, and sing,

"Mmm." In those shanty shacks with paper-thin walls, everyone would hear it

when old Aunt Hattie started to sing. She would sing "Mmm" and all of the

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others would wake up and sing back to her: "Mmm." She would do it again, as

they would. And then she would start to remember what the old preacher had

preached that night, and she would sing, "We are..." They knew to repeat her: We

are... She'd take a switch to them the next day if they didn't. "Climbin'..."

Climbin'. "Jacob's ... "Jacob’s. "Ladder ... "Ladder. "We are..." We are...

"Climbin'" Climbin'. "Jacob's... "Jacob's. "Ladder...." Ladder. And the song would begin swirling around in a round. Whatever she said, they would sing, and

the whole thing would become a song. Traditionally it became part of their

culture, that responsive sound and soul to the black music.

THE BLUES WERE BORN BLACK

There was a well-educated woman named Charlotte Forten who was born in

the North and brought South to Edisto Island, South Carolina. She was a brilliant,

young black teacher and poet. Not long after she arrived in South Carolina, in the

middle of the night she heard the sounds of screaming from a young man being

flogged in the quarters by slave owners. It gripped her heart because she had

never experienced anything like that before. She only knew of it from a distance.

It had such an impact on her that before light broke the next morning, after being

awake all night tormented by the sounds of the beating, she began writing to

express the depths of hurt and pain. The only way she knew to express it was

poetically, using the color blue to depict her state of mind. Obviously, expressing

herself through her poetry brought some relief. But for those like this young man

who did not have the education to write or reason away their anguish, she

wondered how they dealt with their hurt and pain. She later asked the young man,

to which he replied, with his back still shredded, "Ma'am, I sings it away"

Nothing could take the song away from him. As long as he had a song, he had a

future.

Charlotte Forten wrote poems that were distributed throughout the South

under another name so readers wouldn't know it was "just some black woman."

Her poems went throughout the South and into the Delta, where a line from a

poem in which she wrote about "the blue night" became a coined phrase for the

oppressed, poor, destitute lives of the slaves. It became the word that was planted

upon a musical style called the "blues."

The blues were born as a derivation of jazz. The first Jazz group in America

was called "Stale Bread and the Spasms," a group of young men from New

Orleans. They took all the inherited expressions of music they had learned from

their slave parents and had sung in church, and formed an entirely new style of

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sound. But it always reverted back to the roots. Old Aunt Hattie would take the

"lead” in singing, and everyone else would become the band, although it was all

vocal. These men took the sounds, and once they had instruments, created jazz

out of the very same expression sown into them by their parents. As these new

styles made their way up and across the Delta, they planted seeds that were later

harvested as the Memphis blues and the St. Louis blues. In St. Louis, the blues

were transformed by W. C. Handy into the St. Louis blues. As the people and

music continually made their way to different parts of the culture, this evolved

into the Chicago blues.

A combination of the blues and jazz styles even made its way into the

Pentecostal churches. The sound became so raw and rugged that it formed the

musical foundation for the Pentecostal sound. The sound continued to evolve,

until out of the Assemblies of God sound, (which influenced people like Elvis

Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins), rock music was born. From the

combination of the Pentecostal church sound and the juke joints of the Delta

came the world's most revolutionary music, "rock 'n' roll."

RAW AND RUGGED'S OK

Today the sound continues to evolve. In the cross-pollination of all these

other music styles, I believe God says, "Listen guys, go ahead and do whatever

you want to for all the purposes you desire that are gratifying to your flesh—I'm

still going to win this thing in the end. I'm still going to bring it all back home

where it belongs. It's going to be a rugged, raw sound. It's going to have some

kick and bite to it. It's going to have times of tenderness to it. It's going to have

times of stillness and intimacy to it, and times of growling, kicking, snorting, and

shouting to it. It's going to have all those things, and they're all going to be

combined into one sound that will be heard in thanksgiving and praise unto Me."

The evolution of a sound, which encompasses rhythm, melody, and harmony,

and all the emotional and physical responses the sound evokes, can be used to

mold and shape the belief systems of man. The sound can either deposit faith in

God or rebellion towards God causing a positive or negative impact on an entire

generation. When four kids from Liverpool, influenced by the fathers of rock 'n'

roll, can hypnotize the nations using their unique expression of sound, we must

agree it's a powerful force. The powerful force of the Beatles gave millions of

people a united vocabulary and expression.

Our vocabulary is groomed throughout all the days of our lives by the impact

our music has on us. Our state songs reflect this. For example, Tennessee has a

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state song of betrayal. It's a song of a lover being lost to a best friend, called the

"Tennessee Waltz." I don't believe there has ever been a more beautiful melody

penned by any writer or composer. But in its beauty, it talks about hurt,

wounding and betrayal. And we wonder why Tennessee has one of the highest

divorce rates in all of America. It has to do with our belief system, which is

directly related to what is being sung and released over the land on a continual,

daily basis.

I want to know something. Where are the congregations that will release the

song with the Holy Spirit's power and dynamics to change the belief systems of a

nation and declare that abortion, sexual abuse, drugs, and murders are

abominations before God? If we really believe what we say believe, where's the

grit to release it and get something done? I believe God is putting spiritual

cannons in churches across the nation that will release His power in song. His

power is released through song as we have the same vocabulary, at the same

time, with the same rhythm and melody unto the same Lord. If we bring a united

expression from our diversity of musical styles and preferences, whether it is

rock, bluegrass, jazz, blues, classical or gospel, we will see God go to war on our

behalf. If we can lift up our voices and instruments to make one united sound,

whether it is the sound of the wind of the Spirit, the fire of the Spirit, or the shout

or the whisper, He will wreak havoc and destruction on the camps of our

enemies. These are the enemies that have provoked mankind to hate, abuse,

oppress, and violate one another. He will break the chains of bondage over those

who have become slaves to sin. May God once again sound His song of

deliverance into all our hearts that says, "Follow the drinkin' gourd."

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Chapter 6

Water & Thunder

6

Revelation 19:6 refers to the "sound of many waters" and of "mighty

thunderings." That's the sound of corporate worship in heaven. For us to

understand what that sounds like, think of 10,000 Niagara Falls. Think of

250,000 people in the Super Dome, multiplied 250,000 times and every person

releasing every ounce of their energy, body, soul, and spirit in an explosive

expression of worship unto God. It sounds like white noise, or the sound of many

waters.

That sound in heaven is an awesome force that comes straight from the

throne. Have you ever been to Niagara Falls? It's a sight to see. I've gone three or

four times, and every time I'm blown away I remember the first time I went with

my family. We got out of the car and I stood all my young'uns beside our green

Plymouth Valiant. It's what my mother used to do to us and I thought it was what

a parent was supposed to do. I said, "Listen here young'uns. We're out in public. I

expect you to act like you got some sense." My mama always said that. "Boy, I

expect you to act like you got some sense." In other words, "Well, we know you

really don't have any sense, but we're going to pretend today that you do."

So we got out of the car and started walking across the parking lot to the

waterfall wearing our go-to-town britches, looking like tourists. About halfway

there, I started feeling vibrations in the ground. I could hear a rumbling sound.

The closer I got, the more awesome it became. By the time I got to the waterfall

and was leaning over the railing looking at this awesome sight, all I could hear

was the sound. It sounded as though the ground was thundering. If I listened

closely in the middle of the thunderous noise, I could hear a hiss from the mist of

spray, a sound like the sound of many waters. I said to myself, "That's a bunch of

water going over there." That's the greatest theological thing I could come up

with: "Honey, that's a bunch of water right there, ain't it?"

The fact is, that's what it sounds like in heaven. As humans, God created us

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with the ability to hear between 16 and 16,000 hertz. That's 16 vibrations per

second up to 16,000 vibrations per second. When I hit an "A" note on the piano,

your eardrum vibrates 440 times per second. That's what makes it an "A" note.

When you go up a note, your eardrum vibrates more times per second. When you

go down a note, it vibrates fewer times per second.

If the entire sound spectrum were represented by a graph, three feet wide,

humans could only hear three-fourths of an inch of the entire spectrum. There's a

huge portion of sound that we never hear because it's either above or below the

human audio threshold. It's like a dog whistle. When we blow a dog whistle, we

don't hear it. But a dog goes totally silly over the thing because his hearing is

created a little differently than ours. We hear only three-fourths of an inch of that

three-foot graph.

An oscilloscope is a device created to detect and determine sound

frequencies. If you set an oscilloscope beside Niagara Falls, it will go off both

ends at the same time. There are sounds within the sound of the falls that are

beyond what an oscilloscope can measure. Our invented devices to capture the

unheard and unseen things on earth are limited. In heaven, however, there are no

limitations. There, 24 hours a day, the sound of many waters rolls from the

throne and into the throne room.

DEDICATING TIKES AND TEMPLES

When the sound of many waters, which is the song of the Lord, comes

illuminating out of heaven and joins the realm that we are living in, phenomenal

things happen. Take a look at the shepherds on the night Jesus was born. Just

imagine you're a shepherd in those back fields of Israel. I've got to tell you,

there's not much that goes on during the nightshift in the sheep-herding business.

Every now and then you'll hear a little old "baa." The rest of the time, well, it's

sort of laid back.

You're standing out there at 3:00 a. m., recollecting the four wonderful

"baas" you've heard during the night, when all of a sudden the angel of the Lord

appears, a massive blast of light shines around you and out of heaven this

multitude of angelic voices start singing, "Hallelujah." Think about that. A

couple of minutes ago, you were waiting on a "baa," and now all of a sudden, all

of heaven is lit up and there's the sound of many waters and the sound of thunder.

The sound of heaven has come to earth. And it's just announcing this little baby

being born. Now that's some baby dedication service!

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This same sound had been heard earlier on earth. Actually, it was right in the

middle of another dedication service, as told in II Chronicles 5:11-14. Only this

time it was the dedication of the resting place for the ark of the covenant, God's

presence:

And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place

(for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without

keeping to their divisions), and the Levites who were the singers, all those of

Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood

at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed

instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests

sounding with trumpets indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and

singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and

thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets

and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: "For

He is good, For His mercy endures forever," that the house, the house of the

Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue

ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house

of God.

The entire nation of Israel gathered to dedicate the long-awaited temple of

the Lord. Generations had waited for this magnificent structure, for they knew it

was more than stubble and brick. This was the heart of their inheritance of the

land, a place where God Himself would dwell as He promised. The tabernacle of

David had already been in existence for 33 years, with 24 hour worship going on

continuously. Yet this was the true temple, built under the reign of Solomon,

containing the Most Holy Place into which they were now moving the ark of the

covenant.

At such a historic moment, the Hebrew people knew that the sounding of

their instruments was just as important as their prayers of thanksgiving. So on

this day all the Levites stood at the east end of the altar, having already sanctified

themselves. The chief musicians and their sons stood with the singers,

percussionists, string players and one hundred twenty Phil Driscolls blowing

trumpets. Imagine that sound. Phil has been known to blow his trumpet and you

can hear it as far as seven miles away. Can you imagine 120 of those guys lined

up on the walls? Notice the priests of the Lord played silver trumpets, and they

were dressed in white linen, which represented the purity of their lives. These

were pure vessels of honor in the presence of God. They weren't just playing a

tune, they were playing the very expression of their being. They understood

music. They understood the fullness of this creative force that God spoke into

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existence the very day He said, "Let there be..." (Genesis 1:3). These were men

who had feasted upon the Word of God their entire lives. They were full of the

Word of God. When they began to play their instruments, they were not

expecting hot licks. They expected the very light of God within their lives to flow

out of their instruments, which were simply extensions of whom they were.

That's one of the reasons back then that a part of your job and daily work as a

musician in the house of the Lord, was to build and construct your own

instrument. David designed all of the instruments used in worship in the house of

God, but each musician was required to build his own instrument. By the time he

finished constructing it, he had a relationship with his instrument. He understood

that his instrument was to be an expression and extension of who he was from the

initial moment of its creation. The Bible says they all used the same kind of

wood. After all the instruments to be played in the house of the Lord were made,

tradition says, that kind of wood was no longer found in the earth (I Kings 10:11-

12).

Boy, wouldn't you love to have an old D-28 Martin guitar made out of that

stuff!

As stated in II Chronicles 5:13, "indeed it came to pass, when the

trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in

praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the

trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music." When the blasting of

prophetic declaration was perfectly combined in the spirit with the voice of man,

the party started kicking! The phrase “were as one" literally speaks of one note,

one sound in unison. Notice they lifted up their "voice," not "voices." Revelation

19:6 says "And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the

sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying

'Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!'" This was one note, one

purified, sanctified sound of Spirit-induced worship that came from the hearts

and instruments of an entire nation.

When this sound pierced the heart of God, He responded with nothing

less than His glory. It says the "priests could not continue ministering

because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God"

(II Chronicles 5:14).

Think of that. In the midst of joining His people with a truly holy sound, it's

as if He knows we can't stand it any longer and fills the temple with Himself so

we are forced to retreat. Don't we long to see the day when we all—preachers,

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Water & Thunder

platform teachers, musicians, and those who volunteer to clean the sanctuary

after the service—are forced out of the temple because His presence is so strong?

Are we willing to be that boldly interrupted?

When God's glory filled the temple, it was still not the end of the service for

the Israelites. Solomon had the guts to stand up and speak in the midst of God's

glory cloud. He declared before his people the goodness of his God. Solomon

declared, "The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud. But I have surely

built You an exalted house, and a place for You to dwell in forever"(II

Chronicles 6:1-2). He reminded his people what the Lord promised through his

father, David. Solomon's entire sermon and prayers display the transferral of

what God deposited into David's heart moving into Solomon's heart of wisdom.

David literally shouted the praises of God into the next generation—-into the

very heart of his son, Solomon (see Psalms 145:4). As a result Solomon burned

with desire to see a place of habitation for God among His people. The temple

was finally built according to God's design.

It is imperative we understand that the temple was the place where God dwelt

in the midst of His people. Imagine that—the very presence of God Himself. He

chose to reveal Himself in the song or sound at the dedication or birthing of the

temple. The significance of that event was fully realized at the birth of Jesus, the

true ark, when God once again revealed Himself with a sound. His Light (sound)

to the world exploded the heavens with a song that declared the name

"Emmanuel—God with us” (see Matthew 1:23). A tike yet a temple, and the

tearing down of that temple exploded again on the third day to fulfill the

covenant and send His Spirit, His very Presence to dwell in His people. Not with

us but now in us—that we might be in one accord at the dedication of our lives as

temples or dwelling places of God. Our unity in His presence welcomes the

sound of heaven.

THE SOUND OF UNITY

The sound of heaven was heard in the temple during its dedication and

during the night of King Jesus' birth. When was the next time we experienced

this sound? In Acts 2, the disciples went to the upper room and did just as was

done in the Old Testament. In II Chronicles 5, they lifted up their voice "as one"

with the trumpet. In Acts, when the sound of heaven suddenly visits them again

"they were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1).

The sound came when that true unity—real unity—was there. The real unity.

Unity for unity's sake isn't worth a flip. We keep trying to have unity meetings,

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

but it's not going to happen. There's only one thing that will unite the body of

Christ: When the center of the church is no longer the pulpit, but the center of the

church is the throne of God. The definition of unity is corporate humility. That

means none of us have any agendas, and none of us are trying to be responsible

for just our little half-acre on the side of a mountain. God wants us to take the

nations for Him, and we're just wanting to control our little half-acre!

Unity for unity's sake is just another form of religious humanism, because

somewhere in the midst of that unity, people begin rallying around a person, an

idea or a teaching. Though it might have started out of a pure heart, it becomes

just another buzz. Gradually people begin desiring the anointing more than the

presence of God. Then whoever is most anointed or whatever teaching is most

powerful and moving becomes the thing that unites everyone. It's a seasonal

thing. We're conditioned to believe there is power in numbers, and in some ways

that's true. But there can only be fruit in numbers when God has the individuals'

hearts—individuals who are seeing and hearing what He's saying and doing, and

uniting around that. God wants us to unite around His kingdom purposes rather

than just kingdom exercises. Kingdom exercises are the things we do, programs

we establish and systems we build all in the name of furthering the kingdom. We

turn our focus to those exercises so much that they become our little kingdoms. It

becomes a noble thing to unite around secondary purposes because we present

them in such a noble fashion. But if our unity is not solely around His throne, at

best all those things can do is pacify us until He occupies us. It's hard for Him to

occupy us when most of the time He has to stumble over us.

The disciples are in unity, and what happens? All of a sudden there is the

sound as a mighty rushing wind coming through. I used to think, boy, all of

sudden, this wind comes through, everybody's ears are pinned back, their hair's

waving back and forth, there's quivering tongues of fire, shutters rattling around

the sides of the upper room... what a scene! Boy, the Holy Ghost comes in style,

doesn't He? But that's not at all what happened. The Bible says it was a sound as

a rushing mighty wind. It was not a mighty rushing wind. This sound of heaven

came rushing into that room and the church was born. The sound of heaven

visited the earth the night Jesus was born and the night the church was born. As

the sound of heaven becomes the sound of the earth, it won't just be an

experience, but a birthing that takes place in the people of God.

There are prophetic connections between the sound visiting Solomon's

temple, the upper room, and the continual worshiping assembly in heaven. The

matching numbers aren't by coincidence. God's plan is always perfect, and when

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Water & Thunder

we slowly discover the intricacies involved in it, we're continually blown away.

Notice at the temple dedication. There were 24 choruses of musicians gathered,

representing the 24 elders in Revelation worshiping before the throne of God,

constantly falling on their face. At the temple dedication, there were also 120

trumpeters. There were 120 gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost.

In Luke 24:50-53, we see that the group had returned to Jerusalem and were

continually in the temple praising and worshiping God until the day He would

send His promised Holy Spirit. Notice 500 people were initially invited, but only

120 showed up. Any time the Lord calls, He calls all. The majority reacts and the

remnant responds. So the 120 were gathered in one accord, in one place—just

like the assembly in II Chronicles—and suddenly there came a sound from

heaven. The precursor was that they had to be in a position to hear the sound

before they could actually hear it.

Does this now mean we have a formula for bringing the sound of many

waters to earth? Sure, as much as we can move God with our flesh. The last

person that tried that (or at least the most famous) was Uzza in I Chronicles 13:9.

As I recall, he was fried on the highway in front of his friends and family. My

point? There is nothing we can do to make God pour out the sounds of heaven on

us but to obey Him. "To obey is better than sacrifice" (I Samuel 15:22).

Through obedience we soon find ourselves sanctified as the priests on the day of

dedication. Only now, on the other side of the cross, we are sanctified by the

blood of Jesus and dressed in white robes not of ceremony but of radiant glory.

Every time the sound of many waters visits the earth, the entire generation is

impacted by that release of God. I believe with my whole heart—and this is not

just motivational writing or making a good point in a sermonette to

"Christianettes"—that God wants to do something so dynamic that the entire next

generation is going to experience it. "The high praises of God" are in our

mouth and the "two-edged sword" is in our hand (see Psalm 149:6). The high

praises take place when heaven touches earth and earth touches heaven. Then the

execution of God's vengeance takes place (see Psalm 149:6-9).

When the sound of heaven is magnified by the creative force of God

releasing His authority to the Earth, the sound of corporate worship is heard. It is

the sound of many waters and the sound of mighty thunder. In Revelation 14:2,

John even heard these sounds of heaven combined with the "sound of harpists

playing their harps." Every time that sound visited the Earth something

phenomenal took place. When the sound that resonates out of the heart of God's

people comes into agreement with the sound resonating out of God's heart, we

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find worship on earth as it is in heaven. To experience the worship of heaven is

God's greatest desire for our lives.

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Chapter 7

Resistance & Sound

7

Heaven's sound of a rushing mighty wind is dependent on the element of

resistance. Wind never makes a sound unless there is resistance. It can rush like

rapids and be as mighty as the Grand Canyon and still remain silent. If you stand

in the middle of a field on a beautiful sunny day and listen to the wind blowing

by it's not because it sings by itself. The wind makes a sound according to the

resistance caused by your ears sticking out of your head, by the wheat stalks

standing up from the ground or by the trees and leaves standing firm. Wind by

itself is void of sound, but have it blow by something that is strongly rooted or

grounded, and the music of wind is produced.

Man in his unredeemed state stands as a resistance to the wind of the Spirit.

A man's spiritual state determines the sound coming out of his life. When you

come into agreement with the sound of heaven, lining your life up with the heard

order of God, your life takes on the anointing and blessing of all heaven. When

you are in perpetual disagreement with God's sound, the sound coming out of

your life will be more in tune with the enemy's plan to "steal, kill, and destroy"

you.

In a storm, wind doesn't make a sound until there's a resistance to rain.

Though thunder resounds and shakes the earth while lightning lights up the sky,

wind remains voiceless until combined with another element. It is the

combination of rain and wind that creates the song. The same applies to a

running brook. Water smashing steadily against firmly embedded rocks creates

the sound of a river or stream.

Tubal-Cain, mentioned in Genesis 4:22, understood the powers of resistance

and combining forces. He was the brother of Jubal, the father of music, and was

skilled in working with iron. His craft involved striking an object against another,

producing a clang reminiscent of early percussive instruments. Imagine Jubal

observing his brother smite iron against iron, noticing how the sound got lower

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when Tubal-Cain used larger pieces and higher when smaller ones were

involved. Imagine Jubal, the original musician with a mind bent toward

spontaneous creativity, running off to create the first percussion instrument.

Perhaps simple, curious observation of sounds produced from the resistance of

one piece against another birthed an entire realm of sound incorporated into

music. One definition of music is the manipulation of agreeing and disagreeing,

or dissonant tones.

The idea of resistance making music birthed a line of instruments. The

Appalachian wind harp and Herrari harps are both created to play by themselves

as a result of resistance. They are created in such a way that, hanging outside, the

wind blows across the resistance of strings and causes them to vibrate, thus

producing notes.

A harmonica is based on the same idea, as is a flute and all other woodwind

and brass instruments. Resistance occurs when air is blown into an instrument.

The instrument is created with chambers inside to provide a momentary "home”

for the wind passing through. Notes are changed by increasing and decreasing the

amount of time the breath experiences resistance inside the instrument. The

amount of time changes with the lengthening or shortening of the internal

chambers. That's why a tuba sounds different from a trumpet or a clarinet is

different from an oboe.

CHANGING SOUND

Imagine yourself standing out on a porch in the country. Your house is close

to the railroad tracks, and like everyone else in your small town, life stops when a

train comes through. Every conversation, every thought, every sound is

immersed in the massive roar of a train passing through town. Often, during these

moments of interruption, you take careful note of the sound you hear. You notice

the sound changes as it nears. It starts faintly, with the periodic exclamation of

the train's whistle being sounded. But as the train gets closer, you notice the pitch

in your ear changing, becoming higher and louder. As the train passes in front of

your house, you can hardly hear anything but the roar of the engine and the

engineer blowing the ear-piercing scream of the train's whistle. You even feel the

noise shaking the ground. Then as the train slowly slips into the distance, you

again notice the amplitude changing. The noise becomes softer, its pitch lowering

and returning to what it was when you could barely see the train approaching.

We can all relate to the relationship between sound and distance from

experience with passing trains, cars, motorcycles or anything that moves past us

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with a sound. When the sound of heaven passes by, however, our hearing is

changed. We look back on things differently. Though an approaching train is at a

distance while you are standing on your porch, it has a particular note. When it

passes by, the note changes volume. The moment of its greatest intensity is the

same moment that the sound reaches a peak in its volume. And as it goes past

you, it sounds like the note's pitch actually drops.

Compare this to a word from God in season. The word, like the sound of a

train, does not change, though the bending of its pitch seems to indicate

otherwise. Likewise, the Source of the sound does not change. What changes is

the number of impulses reaching our ears per second. The impact the word or

sound has upon our ears changes. So while the declaration and purposes of God

in our lives stay the same, how we hear those words depends entirely upon where

we stand. So let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the church

(see Revelation 2:7).

As in the train example, only our position relative to the source of sound

changes. If Joe Country's house is a mile ahead of mine, he's hearing a different

note being "played" by the train as it passes through town. Likewise, by the time

it reaches his house, I'm hearing a lower pitch than he is. As the train goes by, its

sound has less impact on my ear. As the Word of God "goes by" our lives

through various seasons, we find the words having less impact on us than when

they were relevant to our daily living.

All of this points to one thing: we need to be finely tuned and be ready to

respond in season. The key to the train example is our position in hearing the

sound. If the train's sound is going to maintain its pitch—if the sound is going to

maintain its impact upon us—we must be on the train of heaven, not on the

porch. If we're not part of the movement, we will spend our lives hearing the

sound of heaven diminish as it goes by. It all has to do with our positional

relationship to the sound, which is God's sound. It's as simple as that. If we want

to be led by the sound of heaven as the Israelites were led by the cloud and pillar,

then we must hop on board with the Source of the sound.

For example, currently the Lord is speaking loudly about bells, trumpets, and

drums. For some reason He has chosen to sound these instruments as a wake-up

call to his orchestra of warrior musicians. Now is the time to hear that sound and

assimilate it to our hearts and lives. In music and sound, timing is everything,

which brings the element of rhythm into music. How we respond to the music

determines whether we will be in time or out of rhythm. It's a matter of hearing

and responding.

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Here is our hope: Christ is in us, "the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). If

our lives in eternity were dependant upon our in-time response to God, we would

all be as out of rhythm as a deaf man leading a marching band. The phrase

"Christ in you" (Colossians 1:27) means to be hidden in Christ. It is not just a

matter of the Master of the Universe being contained in us, but rather us

contained in Him.

A GLORIFIED SOUND

Have you ever thought about why there's such a difference between a guitar

and a trumpet? Or how about a trumpet and a cornet? What makes a trumpet

sound like a trumpet and a cornet sound like a cornet? It all has to do with the

vibrations reflecting off different pieces of matter in the instrument. The

vibrations coming out of a trumpet are different from those coming out of a

cornet. They have a different rate, frequency or even length. Therefore, a

rounder, softer sound out of a trumpet and a higher, more direct sound from a

cornet occurs. The sound produced from an instrument has everything to do with

the size and texture of the material of the instrument from which it's reflecting.

Every instrument ever made is unique, for it contains its own sound.

Sound through God's creation becomes individual and therefore, dependent

upon the instrument. With our hope of glory—Christ dwelling in us, we produce

a sound that's been in us since the beginning of time. We bring to life the full

meaning of Emmanuel—Christ with us, Christ revealed in us. Isaiah 22:14 says,

"Then it was revealed in my hearing by the Lord of hosts." Christ will be

revealed as we hear His sound and release our individual, God-appointed sound

as His unique instruments.

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). The word "glory"

means "lightified." As stated earlier, light and sound are interchangeable, and

made of the same elements. From this, we can say that Christ in you is the hope

of being "lit," or the hope of being sounded. Christ is your hope of producing the

sound that has resided in you since the beginning of time. Your sole purpose of

existence as a worshiper of God, is to be the personal instrument He created you

to be, and played for His glory. Within the very truth of the living Christ is the

assurance that you will be played before God.

RESOLVED TENSION

What is seen in the spirit can be seen in the natural. The spiritual always

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Resistance & Sound

precedes the natural. So it is with the spiritual make-up of music. There are three

notes that make up a chord—first, third, and fifth. There are three parts that make

up God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Likewise, as we are made in the image of

God, there are three parts that make up man—spirit, soul, and body. Anyone who

knows anything about playing the piano knows the fingering to a major chord

involves the thumb, middle finger, and pinky When you drop the middle finger

one note, you have a minor chord, which creates a tension in the music. When

you play a fourth note—your fourth finger—in place of the third, creates what is

called a suspended chord. At its base level, music is made up of tension and

release. When the middle note of a chord is dropped or replaced by something

else (like a suspended chord), it creates a tension that can only be resolved by

again playing the first, third, and fifth notes of a major chord.

In the spirit realm when you drop the Son, you end up with a minor chord.

For centuries denominations and people groups have dropped part of the Holy

Triad. Many embraced the Father and cast down the deity of His Son. Others

who have accepted the deity of the Son have forsaken the Holy Spirit. The result

is, and always has been tension. There can be no resolve until the right notes are

played—until the three intended parts are accepted as part of the whole chord. If

there's no relationship with the Son, there can be no revealing of the Father. If

there's no relationship with the Holy Spirit, there can be no revelation of the Son,

who points us to the Father.

This brings us back to the meaning of Emmanuel, Christ revealed in or to us.

The word "reveal" literally means "to strip or denude, to show, to make known,

to tell or to uncover." As Christ is revealed to us, we are revealed to the Holy

Spirit and drawn by Him back to our original union with the Father. We have to

understand we are not just bodies that happen to have a spirit included as part of

the package. We are spirits who just happen to have a body. Too often we rely on

everything but the Holy Spirit in our spirit man for our senses. Again, we are

made up of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Our body is always

environmentally conscious. Our soul is always self-conscious, and our spirit is

God-conscious. Our mistake is that we deal with the things of the Spirit by the

soul, which robs us of our spirit of revelation.

I Corinthians 2:9-10 says, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have

entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those

who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the

Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." As we talk about the

sound of heaven, it's essential to understand that our eyes have not seen and our

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

ears have not heard. Our soulish senses cannot take in the truth of God. But it is

His Spirit within us, Emmanuel, that reveals. As we hop on board the train rather

than just let it pass us by, we become hidden in Him and He is revealed in us.

The sound we previously heard from afar suddenly becomes the same sound He

is playing through our lives.

64

Chapter 8

Ringing the Bells of

8

Heaven

There's little doubt that the earliest musical instruments created were

percussion instruments. The Bible names Jubal as being the "father of all those

who play the harp and flute" (Genesis 4:21). This passage in Genesis 4 only

mentions the harp and the organ, which were instruments of strings and wind.

Yet legend reports that Jubal caught the first suggestion of his art from the ring of

his brother Tubal-Cain's hammer on his anvil. Early musical notes sounded by a

blow on some tone-producing object such as wood or a rock most likely

produced tones that were not definite and clear. However, we do know they were

a result of percussion.

In Genesis 31:27 Laban says to Jacob, "I might have sent you away with

joy and songs, with timbrel and harp." This was the second mention of music

in the Bible. Here we see the music of strings mingled with the sounds produced

by striking the tightened skin of the timbrel. The song of praise through which

Miriam and her maidens celebrated the triumphant exodus from Egypt was

accompanied exclusively by timbrels. These instruments resembled the modern-

day tambourine, in which a drum-like sound produced by tapping upon the skin

is mingled with the jingling of small metal plates striking together, as the timbrel

is swung or shaken in the air.

Musical instruments evolved out of the very early age of civilization.

Interesting illustrations are found in the musical history of the Asian nations.

They have retained their musical history through many ages. One of the most

elaborate instruments known to the Chinese is the king, invented by one of their

emperors more than two thousand years before Christ. It consists of sixteen flat

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Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

stones suspended in two ranks within a frame. The stones were of different sizes

and shapes, so that when it was struck with a wooden mallet it produced a varied

scale of notes. They also used drums of every kind and size, rows of copper

plates, clappers of wood, wooden tubs struck with a hammer, and huge cymbals.

A picture of a Japanese native orchestra that was engraved in Siebold's work on

Japan shows seven performers playing a flute, a large drum shaped like an

hourglass, two small drums, two bell rattles and a set of wooden clappers. In this

engraving, out of the seven instruments, all but one is a percussion instrument.

Other Asian nations exhibit similar instrumentation, although wind and string

instruments play a larger role in many. This primitive yet widespread discovery

of tones being produced by blows or strikes on stones and metal brings

understanding of the beginnings of the bell.

In early art, pictures resemble the modern bell in its shape. There should be

no surprise to find many early authors of poetry and literature making numerous

allusions to the use of bells as a musical instrument. The book of Exodus gives us

the earliest mention of bells in Scripture. It speaks of small golden bells which

tinkled around the hem of the Levitical high priest (see Exodus 28:33). Also,

Zechariah spoke of the bells adorning the harnesses of the horses (see Zechariah

14:20).

The striking of bells is a sound that has been heard in the ears of man almost

from his beginning. I challenge you to try and buy a new synthesized keyboard

that does not include bell-oriented sounds. Even today, though the sounds are

synthesized or synthetic—and from keyboard to keyboard there will be

noticeable changes in the tones and resonance of the bells—it's obvious bells are

a sound that still incite an emotional response from listeners today. Suffice it to

say, bells to one degree or another have impacted every generation since the

beginning of music. Throughout history, if there has been an impact in the

natural, I can assure you there has been an impact in the spirit realm. The bell is

an instrument of proclamation.

CALLING THEM IN

The role of a messenger boy, page, or town herald has long been replaced

with television, radio, and endless other means of electronic communication.

What used to be announced with the human voice has turned into words on a

computer screen or a catchy jingle on a television commercial. Did you ever

wonder why we call them jingles? Few things grab the ear as quickly as the

ringing of a bell. For centuries, people have used the sound of metal clanging

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Ringing the Bells of Heaven

against metal to grab the attention of hearts everywhere. There is more to this

gripping sound, however.

The bell has always been a means to call people in. Such spiritual heroes as

Charles Wesley and George Whitfield used bells to call people into the middle of

their towns, so they could preach the saving message of God to them. Bells have

been used inside the belfries of the world's grandest cathedrals, where it has often

required up to sixty men to ring them. Bells were rung in the tiny steeples of the

smallest country churches, where a smiling old deacon would call in the

worshipers. Wherever they were rung, they were rung with one intent—to draw

those from miles away into the house of God.

The bell has also been forever connected with preachers and prophets, those

declaring and bringing forth the word of the Lord. John Knox and George Fox

walked through the middle of their cities ringing bells while declaring the word

of the Lord over the land. These men believed in the reality of releasing what was

in the spirit with a natural sound. Unfortunately, this belief was twisted into sheer

superstition. During the same era it was believed a bell was to be rung whenever

a person died. As soon as the dying breathed their last breath, a witness would

ring the bell in hopes of startling the evil spirits waiting to capture the person's

soul. They believed this gave the person a head start in finding their way into

eternity without the evil spirits getting them first. Though superstitious, it's

important to note how these people were still aware of the spiritual release

behind the sounding of a bell.

The bells in Europe had yet another purpose. Before the invention of the

watch, bells were the primary keepers of time. Throughout the day, townspeople

were able to mark the time by the bells which started at 6:00 a.m. and rang every

three hours. The one exception to this three-hour system was the curfew bell

which rang at 8:00 p.m. This was the notification of sleeping time, or translated

from French, the "time to cover the fires." In fact, the French word for curfew is

couvre-feu, to "cover the fire." Following a night of rest, the bells would resume

again at 6:00 a.m. and the fires would be started again.

The bells of the Holy Spirit are being rung now to awaken a sleeping church.

Musician Keith Green once phrased us as a people "asleep in the Light." The

fires of our self-induced, self-maintained revivals are being covered by the hand

of God, and we are seeing His revival fires lit sporadically across the world.

These are the fires of truth, and the bells heard are the sounds of this truth.

Bells not only announce and declare but also pronounce imminent war. In the

eleventh and twelfth century, most war ships had bells mounted to them. While a

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lookout was in the crow's nest, the sound of wind and water was so loud that it

was impossible for others to hear his shouts warning of approaching enemies. To

make sure everyone on board heard the warning cry, he used the bell to alert the

crew of nearing ships. This ringing was a call to war. Upon hearing it, every crew

member prepared himself for battle. Many today have heard the call to war in

their spirits. God is now sending the sound to declare the call. The time for war is

being marked with the very bells of heaven.

We must take the sound we hear to heart. Bells have always been the

forerunning sound of revival. They have been used for the calling of warriors, for

the marking of time and the calling of service (thus we have the term "bell

captain"). They have been used ceremoniously for blessings and curses

throughout generations since the book of Leviticus. During times of war, they

have been stolen from abbey towers and melted down to make weapons and

instruments of war. For instance, in Richmond, Virginia, the Second Baptist

Church donated their bronze bells to Robert E. Lee's Confederate army to be

melted down and made into cannons. And during times of peace, these cannons

and other weapons of war have been in turn melted down and made back into

bells. In peace or war we cannot lose sight of the meaning and purpose of bells.

We must heed the sound that so pierces our spirits.

CHRISTMAS BELLS

Nothing is as beautiful as the sound of the bells that ring across the nations of

the world at Christmas time. It is a tradition that began to mark one of the chief

festivals and fasts of the Christian year. The tradition differed at times from

country to country, but England was responsible for the prominence of the event.

At one time in history, England was called the "ringing island." Bells were used

to follow the course of the church's year in marking the various seasons, festivals,

and fasts. As the year neared its end, it was common to hear bells ringing from

the steeple of the local parish church once or twice a week. Of all the times the

bells were rung during the year, the ringing of the joyous bells of Christmas was

undoubtedly the most glorious event of the year.

The ringing of the devil's knell on Christmas Eve was one of the most

curious and noteworthy uses of bells during the Christmas season. It is alleged

that the bells were rung in celebration of the night Christ was born, when He

eternally destroyed and broke the power of the evil one over man. The bells

would ring from midnight until two o'clock in the morning. All the bells of

England would be rung simultaneously, proclaiming joy and liberty to all

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mankind. Wouldn't you have loved to have been sitting on a cloud hearing the

blending of bells ranging from 432,000 pounds down to two ounces and all

proclaiming, "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST" (Luke 2:14).

For years we've heard prophets declare the coming of a new sound. From the

thundering roar of earthquakes to the slightest rush of wind, God is speaking. In

His faithfulness, the Holy Spirit is quickening the people of God to be sensitive

to sound. Whether it is heard from a 432,000-pound bell or a two-ounce bell,

"He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches"

(Revelation 2:7).

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Trumpets, Shofars &

9

Ram’s Horns

Whenever the sounding of a trumpet is mentioned in Scripture, a significant

event follows. From its first mention in Exodus 19:13, establishing the law of

God, to the seven blasts in Revelation 8:6-Revelation 10, which still resound

today, the blowing of the trumpet marks the very announcement of God's

presence. Imagine the day all of God's people were gathered at the foot of Mount

Sinai.

In Exodus 19:16-19, the scene is set:

Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were

thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the

sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the

camp trembled.

And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and

they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in

smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like

the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder

and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.

The audible voice of God was connected to the sound of the trumpet, along

with thunder, lightning, fire, and smoke. In Exodus 20:18: "Now all the people

witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet,

and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and

stood afar off." In a nutshell, the children of Israel told Moses, "Go up and tell

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God He will be our God, and we will be His people. We'll go where He tells us to

go, we'll do what He tell us to do, we'll walk in obedience to His will if He'll just

speak to us."

God spoke and His voice was thunder, lightning, smoke, and the sounding of

a loud trumpet. He basically grabbed the desert and mountain and shook them.

Immediately after, we find God's people saying, "Moses, go and tell God that He

will be our God, and we will be His people. We'll go where He tells us to go,

we'll do what He tell us to do, we'll walk in obedience to His will, if He just

won't speak to us anymore." How often do we find ourselves in this same

situation? "God, I'll do anything You want me to do, I'll go anywhere You want

me to go. I'll be anything You want me to be, if You'll just speak to me!" Then

when God begins to speak, He shakes everything in our lives. Thunder and

lightning begin to rage, and storms begin to blow. The fire of God begins to

devour things in our lives. And suddenly we say, "God, I will teach Sunday

school. I'll be a deacon. I'll be a good testimony. I'll be anything... but just don't

speak to me anymore!" We begin to close ourselves off from the voice of God

and choose the comforts of religious Christianity instead. I submit to you that the

voice of the Lord is about to be heard so distinctly that lines will be drawn and

wars will be fought, the likes of which we have never seen. We must be a people

willing to hear the sound of the trumpet without shrinking back, but pursuing the

mountain of the Lord's presence. Without a doubt there is a prophetic trumpet

being sounded today that will be accompanied by the thunder of heaven and the

lightning of God's presence. It will devour everything in our lives that might

cause us to shrink back because of its awesome nature and power.

Throughout Scripture, the awesome trumpet sound could be heard to call

soldiers to war, pronounce death to an enemy, mark the days of atonement,

declare times of jubilee, tear down the walls of Jericho, or call the people of God

to worship. There has always been a significant spiritual force behind the

resonance in a trumpet's call.

In Revelation 1:10, we find one of the many times the source of this spiritual

force is revealed. John writes, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I

heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet." In Revelation 4:1, he says,

"And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me,

saying, 'Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place

after this.'" The voice of God is repeatedly described as sounding like a trumpet.

As the Lord identifies Himself in Revelation, He declares to John the revelation

of Jesus with His voice as the sound of a trumpet. To grasp the revelation, He

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beckons John to "come up here." With God's voice—the blaring of a trumpet—

we are called into a higher place of revelation and worship of Jesus Christ.

The voice John heard quickly becomes vision. Immediately after hearing the

loud voice in the beginning of the first chapter, he turns towards the voice and

sees seven lamp stands (see Revelation l:12). From this point on, his vision

increases and the sights and sounds of the heavens are opened up to him. The

Lord's voice (or in John's case, the voice of the angel) came as a trumpet and as

"the sound of rushing waters" (Revelation 1:15). He speaks through both with

the same power and significance.

THE BLAST ON HIGH STREET

While traveling throughout the British Isles in 1998, the group I was with

had many unique encounters. As I write this, the memory of an event in

Edinburgh, Scotland, keeps cropping up in my spirit. Though at the time it

seemed small, I am continually realizing its significance and timeliness to what

God is saying.

As typical tourists, the members of our group had split up that afternoon to

scour the streets of Edinburgh for souvenirs and traditional Scottish items. We

had just visited the city's main castle, where we were able to see the Stone of

Destiny, the Scottish war memorial and the historical fortresses and cannons of

protection upon the city's summit. After this we walked down High Street, from

the castle to the home of John Knox, where we tasted of the godliness and

devotion of Scotland's great evangelist and prophet. Upon stepping out of his

home, the contrast of the peacefulness of Knox's home to the crowded streets was

powerful. High Street was a sightseeing mecca lined with tourist shops, New Age

shops, restaurants and cafes, a cathedral, and endless other attractions to entice

visitors.

As one of the thousands walking this street, I wandered into a souvenir shop.

A couple from Texas was also with us on the trip. While glancing over the rows

of decorations and souvenirs, my friend found a huge cow horn with a trumpet

mouthpiece attached to it, which he immediately recognized as a "Texas shofar."

He asked the shop-owner if he could step outside and try it out, to which he was

given permission. Little did the shop-owner know that God had spoken to the

Texan to sound the blast of a trumpet on High Street.

In the midst of the passing buses, taxis, and cars, with thousands of people

milling through the streets, suddenly, without warning, a powerful blast of sound

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reflected off the surrounding buildings and cobblestone sidewalks at a mind-

boggling volume. The blast was heard from Edinburgh castle to John Knox's

home—almost eight blocks. Though I couldn't see where it came from, I

immediately knew who was responsible for this explosion of sound. I was paying

for a postcard at the store counter of a bustling shop when the sound hit. I noticed

the reactions of people around me. Every person in the shop froze in their tracks.

The look on people's faces was as if to say "What was that? Where did that come

from? What should we do?" Everyone in the store was stunned to silence. Just as

everyone quietly resumed their movements, the sound came again.

This time people scurried towards the windows to determine what was going

on. It was as if a storm warning or some emergency had taken place. The lady

behind the counter asked, "What is it?" to which I jokingly replied, "I bet you a

dollar to a doughnut there's a big Texan on the other end of this deal."

I made my way to the door, past the people peering out the window, when

the third blast came. As I walked past a Scottish gentleman, he said, "My God,

that's remarkable!" I stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked across the street.

There my friend stood with a huge grin on his face as he saw the stunned look on

the faces of people. The street had virtually come to a halt. After a few moments,

things returned to normal and the clutter of street sound resumed its dominance

in the air.

What most caught my attention about the scene was the response of the

people. Upon hearing the first blow, virtually every person on the street was

stilled. From this abrupt halt of regular momentum there was a sense of wonder,

from the simple "What is that?" to the more introspective, "What should I do?"

The initial sounding of God often leaves people stunned, walking around as if in

a daze. The second sounding drew people in. Shoppers ignored their search for

items, to instead find the source behind the sound. Their attention was fully on

figuring out what this was all about. By the third blast of the trumpet, people

were amazed. The man remarking, "My, that's remarkable, ” was typifying our

natural amazement with sound. Yet following this, he and the rest of the

streetwalkers simply resumed their activities.

Their apathetic reaction astonished me. In I Corinthians 14:8 (NIV), Paul

writes, "If the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for

battle?" My friend's trumpet call was clear—clear enough for a stretch of eight

blocks to stop its motion. Yet how clear are our spiritual ears when we can hear

such a blast in the spirit realm and respond by momentarily wondering, only to

eventually resume our own activity? Is this a simple case of "He who has an

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ear, let him hear?" I believe it's more than that. As end-time people, we are in

the midst of hearing a trumpet sound with undeniable clarity. The Lord is

sounding His trumpet to the nations. Many are saying, "What is it?" only to go

right back to what they're doing. However, we know from the seven angels

sounding their trumpets in Revelation 8 that the final trumpet calls will be heard

by everyone and will bring judgment and destruction. In the midst of those calls

is heard, "Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the

trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!" (Revelation

8:13 NIV)

These trumpet calls are not playful melodies to slowly awaken us from our

slumber; they are powerful and destructive blasts that split the ear and separate

the saved from the unsaved. They are declarations of the righteousness and

holiness of God. For years, prophets and evangelists have sounded their trumpets

to bring people back into the house of God. We must now pray for the anointing

to be on those called to sound the trumpet. Pray that their blast will cause the

army of the Lord to truly prepare for the battle at hand. Even more, we must pray

for a clear sound to be released, one which is heard undeniably by every living

creature and causes us to respond with immediate, Spirit-induced change.

SHOFARS AND SILVER TRUMPETS

There are two types of trumpets used in the Bible. The shofar is depicted

more than eighty times as being either a ram's horn or a trumpet. In traditional

Israel, however, it was called a ram's horn. As I stated earlier, it is first mentioned

in Exodus 19:16, where the voice of the trumpet was heard in relation to the

voice of the Lord. In Exodus 19:18, according to the Torah, the sound was so

penetrating, the people could actually see the sound. But that is not the first

mention of the ram's horn. The ram's horn, first mentioned in Exodus 19:13, is a

reminder of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and God's provision of a ram as a

substitute. The shofar was blown at the start of the jubilee year of Yom Kippur in

Leviticus 25:9. Does this make you wonder where Jubal got his name? The father

of music's name, Jubal, literally means "trumpet." The trumpet was used to

announce the beginning of the festivals in Numbers 10:2. In Joshua 6, the battle

of Jericho was won with the blast of the trumpet. Gideon and his army used the

sound of the trumpet for a victory in Judges 7. The Israelites used the shofar to

signal the assembly during war times in Judges 3, II Samuel 20 and Amos 3. It

was also used for the coronation of kings. King Solomon was an example of this

in I Kings 1. In Psalm 47, the shofar reminded Israel that God is sovereign.

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During temple ceremonies in Jerusalem, the shofar was used to accompany other

musical instruments during times of celebration, as in Psalm 98. According to

Isaiah 27, the shofar will be used at the end, gathering the exiles to Israel. The

blowing of the shofar is a call to repentance in Isaiah 58 and a warning in Ezekiel

33 and Numbers 10. The shofar ushers in the day of the Lord in Joel 2.

In the New Testament, the shofar is sounded at the resurrection of the dead in

I Thessalonians 4:16. John was taken up to heaven in Revelation 4 by the sound

of the shofar, where we find seven trumpets as God judges the earth during

tribulation. There are many more references to the trumpet, the shofar and the

ram's horn. These are just a few to give you an idea of the significance of this

instrument that creates such a powerful sound.

The second kind of trumpet in the Bible is the silver trumpet. Numbers 10:1-

10 gives us information about the silver trumpets:

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "Make two silver trumpets for

yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for

calling the assembly and for directing the movement of the camps. When

they blow both of them, all the congregation shall gather before you at the

door of the tabernacle of meeting. But if they blow only one, then the

leaders, the heads of the divisions of Israel, shall gather to you. When you

sound the advance, the camps that lie on the east side shall then begin their

journey. When you sound the advance the second time, then the camps that

lie on the south side shall begin their journey; they shall sound the call for

them to begin their journeys. And when the assembly is to be gathered

together, you shall blow, but not sound the advance. The sons of Aaron, the

priests, shall blow the trumpets; and these shall be to you as an ordinance

forever throughout your generations. When you go to war in your land

against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with

the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and

you will be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, in

your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow

the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace

offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the

Lord your God."

First, notice there were two different trumpets: a trumpet of assemblage and a

trumpet of alarm. At the sound of one trumpet, all the people assembled

themselves as a congregation, but at the blowing of an alarm, they would

advance and go forward. Notice it also says when the priests were to blow these

trumpets, "These shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your

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generations" (verse 8). When they went to war against their enemies, they were

to blow an alarm with the trumpets. God would hear the sound, remember them,

and save them. It was more than just a tradition. There was a continual

remembrance of the promises of God and His power to fulfill His covenant. The

trumpet sound caused the hearts of men to tremble at the greatness of the God of

Israel. At the sound, they knew they must assemble or reject the instructions of

their God. Notice that His instructions were prompted by the sounding of the

trumpet.

The trumpet was also blown for days of gladness, solemn days, and the

beginning of months. They were blown over their burnt offerings and peace

offerings for the purpose of being a memorial or reminder that God was indeed

their God. On each Sabbath in the temple, two men with silver trumpets and a

man with a shofar would make three trumpet blasts twice during the day. They

would bring forth a staccato sound with the horn, which is the word teruah,

meaning "shout." A sign of dedication on the temple wall said, “To the house of

the blowing of the trumpet."

Rosh Hashanah is the day of the blowing of the trumpets. The original name

was Yom Teruah. Yom means "day" and teruah means "shout." From this we

have the staccato sound, or the shout, of the horn. According to the Mishnah, the

trumpet used for Rosh Hashanah is the ram's horn, rather than those made of

metal or silver. A shofar, or ram's horn, delivers the first blast, a silver trumpet

the second, and then the shofar is sounded again for the third. When our English

Bibles use the word trumpet, most of the time they refer to the ram's horn. Today

in Israel, because there is no temple, the silver trumpet is not used, and in its

place the kudu shofar is used. The small shofars seen today in many praise and

worship gatherings and conferences are the ram's horns, or more accurately

called yemmenite shofars. The larger yemmenite shofar comes from the kudu,

which is an African antelope. It is used in many congregations as a call to

worship.

Throughout Scripture, trumpets of many sizes, shapes, pitches, and tones

have been used to demonstrate different acts, workings and memorials to God.

The trumpet is used in countless ways of worship, but by and large, it is an

instrument of the prophetic. The words trumpet, silver trumpet, shofar and ram's

horn are conversationally interchangeable—and to a degree, rightfully so. The

first mention of horns in the Bible is one of the most prophetically significant

happenings in all of Scripture.

As stated in Genesis 22:13-14,

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Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a

ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram,

and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham

called the name of the place, Jehovah-Jirah; as it is said to this day, In the

Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.

It is undetermined at what point in history the horns could be taken from a ram's

head, hollowed out, and release a blast of air creating a tone. But the prophetic

reality is that a ram lost his life and was sacrificed on behalf of Abraham, Isaac,

Jacob and the many generations to come. The horns of a ram had become a

trumpet by the time Moses and the children of Israel met God at the foot of

Mount Sinai. The trumpets sounded loud and long as God demonstrated his

power to keep His covenant with the people. Leviticus 25:9 says, "Then you

shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the

seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to

sound throughout all your land." This was the continuation of God's covenant

being declared with the trumpet on the Day of Atonement. Throughout Scripture,

the festivals, feasts, and fasts were accompanied by trumpets, used as both calls

to worship and as declarations commemorating the acts of God toward the

children of Israel.

Jesus was the Lamb sacrificed to finally bring that covenant to its fulfillment.

It's interesting to note the reference to the horn in the story of His birth in Luke

16:9. "Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed

His people, And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His

servant David." From Genesis to Revelation, the sound of the trumpet has

always played a part in redeeming and reminding us of God's eternal position.

From the ram to the lamb, the trumpet is still sounding today for every man in his

unredeemed state. Those who have embraced this reality have become new

creations, accepting the fulfillment of the covenant. We are commanded in

Scripture to praise God for the awesome things He has done.

Lightning, thunder, and a cloud of smoke vibrated heaven and earth around

Mount Sinai, and the first trumpet was heard in all of its awesome power. If the

first sound of the trumpet was that awesome, what will the last trumpet sound

like? The last trumpet in Scripture will be the blast of Gabriel's horn, calling forth

the hosts of earth to join the hosts of heaven in a praise that will never end. I can't

biblically validate what I am about to say, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if

Gabriel has not already taken his trumpet out from its case, placed it to his lips

and inhaled.

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Chapter 10

Drums of Thunder

10

Since its creation, the drum has always been an instrument of thunder.

During the years of the Triangular Slave Trade, African tribes used drums to pray

for rainstorms of protection to ward off slave traders. The Lambeg drums of the

Scottish Highlands were used to strike fear into their enemies with thunderous

sound. Even in the United States, our revolutionary and civil wars were fought to

the beat of drums resounding through the hills and mountains. In fact, you can

find the use of drums in every war and army throughout history. What element

does this instrument possess that it has always been the marker of war?

Furthermore, what mysterious quality has made it a controversial subject in

modern Christianity? What is it about rhythm that enflames the spirit of religion

to create such a breeding ground for "beat-a-phobics?"

I use the word "beat-a-phobics" in order to offend you early if you cater to

the belief that drums are of the devil. I recently spoke at a seminar and was

responding to questions in regards to music. The statement was made that there

are no drums to be found in any concordance or Scripture. My reply was, "Sure,

they're in there—right under the verse on pianos, next to the passage on

restrooms and Sunday school. There are many things in Scripture not spelled out

with our modern-day understanding. The great, great, great-grandfather of the

drums is found throughout Scripture, just as you can find the great, great, great-

grandfather of the piano and the great, great, great-grandfather of Sunday school

and restrooms." Remember the dung gate? (Just kidding). Then I collected

myself, repented for my sarcasm and went ahead, which is what I intend to do

now.

It's obvious that when men or women try with all their hearts to live pure

lives, that purity in and of itself always offends those who don't understand it.

That's one reason it is historically correct that the judgment of God has always

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come upon a nation when it is no longer acceptable to be a righteous man in that

society. Truth and righteousness offend those who do not understand it. It is a

biblical reality that drums were used in Scripture to offend the enemies of God. If

you are offended by rhythm or by a particular beat and have bought the idea that

a particular beat can conjure up demonic spirits and release them in the church, I

hope the truth you're about to hear doesn't just offend you. I hope it's a truth that

sets you free.

The fact is, rhythm was created by God, not the devil. A song with a beat is

not the enemy of piety. According to Webster, rhythm is a "regularity or flow of

movement which groups by recurrent heavy and light accents or beats." Let me

say again, the devil did not create rhythm. God created rhythm. If your heart gets

out of rhythm, you'll understand very quickly that God created rhythm for His

purposes. You can stand on the seashore and the ocean's waves will crash against

the rocks in perfect rhythm, for God created them to do so. Let's see how

Webster defines the word beat. Bear in mind, I use a Webster's dictionary written

in the 1800s, before the humanists influenced it. Mentally apply these definitions

and thoughts as to be used against the enemy, not against the purposes of God.

"Beat" means

to strike repeatedly; to lay on repeated blows with a stick or with the

hand, or with any instrument; to render punishment; to strike an

instrument of music; to play on, as a drum; to break, bruise or pulverize

by beating or pounding; to strike; to tread, as a path (a beaten path); to

overcome in battle, contest or strife; to vanquish or conquer, as one beats

another; to beat down; to break, destroy or throw down by beating or

battering; to press down or lay flat, as by treading, by a current of water

or by a violent wind; to depress or crush; a recurring stroke; a pulsation,

as a beat of the pulse.

Get the idea?

Webster defines the word "drum" as "a marshal instrument of music, in the

form of a hollow cylinder and covered at the ends with a skin or hide; the drum

of the ear, to the tympanum or barrel of the ear—the membrane which receives

the vibrations of air and sound." Now let's look to the time of the great, great,

great-grandfathers of instruments, before pianos had keys, trumpets had valves,

guitars had amplifiers, and dung gates had porcelain bowls.

TIMBRELS AND CYMBALS

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Before the drums evolved into today's elaborate sets of multi-sized kits, the

instruments and the mechanics of playing the instruments were quite different.

Drums were born out of what we consider to be percussion instruments such as

tabrets, timbrels, tambourines, and bells. Each of these required a striking action

producing a percussive tone, which in turn produced the striking or beating of

sound on the ear drum. In its truest definition, a piano is a percussion instrument

because the tone is produced by the striking of hammers or small mallets upon

metal strings. The xylophone or marimba are percussion instruments that pre-

date what we know to be the piano. There are many variations of it, such as the

clavichord, harpsichord and even the hammer dulcimer. All these instruments

were first used as a result of striking two objects together, which produced

sounds and eventually evolved into instruments that would produce tones. In

Exodus 28:33-34, we see that on the hem of the priest's garment there were

pomegranates and bells of gold. The Hebrew word "bells" is the word pah-

gamohn, which simply means "as struck." It's translated "bell" only twice in

Scripture. Today we do not find a wide use of bells as musical instruments in

Judaic culture. However, they did exist, and a variation of the bell was the

cymbal, which we will look at in a moment. The principle of the striking of bells

that we have already covered obviously gave them their name. It's also obvious

the bell was a model of a larger instrument that was evidently struck. Thus, we

have the clapper or striker inside the bell or the mallet used to strike the outside.

Cymbals, like bells, were instruments that would sound through vibration.

The Hebrew word for cymbal is tz'lah- tzahl. It employs the idea of vibration—to

tinkle or to rattle together. "Cymbal" means "to clatter, as in clanging together,"

and is used in II Samuel 6:5 and Psalm 150:5. The Hebrew word m'tzil-tah-yim

tells us that the cymbals are doubled. This word is used in I Chronicles 13:8;

15:16, 19, 28; 16:5, 42; Ezra 3:10 and Nehemiah 12:27. Strangely enough, this

word is also translated "bells" in Zechariah 14:20. To put this in proper context,

one referred to the clattering of a cymbal, while the other dealt with numerous

cymbals rattling against each another in the same fashion as small ten-inch

cymbals on the side of a tambourine. This reminds us of what drummers today

call high-hats or trap-cymbals. The Greek word kumbalon is a cymbal spoken of

in I Corinthians 13:1 as a hollow cymbal. There are two main types of cymbals

used: the loud cymbals and the high-sounding cymbals, both seen in Psalm 150.

When we look at II Samuel 6:5, we see the word cornets. This word is wrongly

translated. It's the word m'nah-gan-geem, and means a "sistrum," called so

because of its rattling sound. It's an instrument with metal rods on metal rings

that move up and down when shaken back and forth. These cymbals were

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typically made of brass. I Corinthians 13:1 referred to these cymbals as the

sounding of brass. When David rode back into the city after the slaughter of the

Philistines, the women of Israel met him with three-stringed instruments which

kept rhythm while they sang prophetically and danced. We know it was a

prophetic song because the lyrics were, "Saul has slain his thousands, but

David his ten thousands" (I Samuel 29:5). David had not slain his ten

thousands yet. It was the beginning of his career. The instrument they used was

the shah-leesh. It was a musical instrument in the form of a triangle with small

stones and cymbals that created a rattling, jingling sound.

Many times in Scripture we see the word "timbrel." In Exodus 15:20, Psalm

81:2 and 150:4, this word literally means "to drum." The word tohph is often

translated "timbrel," and on other occasions as "tabret." As time progressed, these

grandfathers of the modern-day drums continued to evolve. Eventually these

instruments, used to establish the cadence and rhythm of poetry and prophecy,

grew into drums as large as a truck. In the ancient writings and art from every

nation, the use of percussion instruments and drums is mentioned. Pagan nations

such as Egypt and Assyria used drums as well. To this day, drums are used with

an anointing of an unholy spirit in idolatry. Although there is sometimes a

perversion of rhythms, gestures, and releases of emotion that employ drums, I

dare say God never intended for us to throw away what He designed to be used in

our worship of Him. We are to be a people of redemption and restoration,

anointed of the Holy Spirit, to exercise all of our creativity and demonstrate all

of our emotions as we submit our spirits, souls, and bodies to show forth the

praises of God. Drums were used to augment and enhance the dynamics and

expressions of worship, and must continue to serve that purpose today.

IN RHYTHM WITH GOD

Like you, I have heard the argument that African jungle music has the power

to conjure up evil and stir our minds and emotions to lust, cannibalize, and take

part in every other ungodly expression. I've heard it said that those things are

brought about as a result of evil music. I declare to you there is no such thing as

evil music any more than there is good music, for music is not moral or immoral.

It's amoral. Music is nothing more than an outward expression of the inward

health or sickness of our spirits. God created music. God also created all the

components of music and deposited within every man, woman, and child a desire

to worship. Remember music is not worship. Music is a means God has given us

to express worship. If we are not worshipers of God with our music, we have

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forfeited the reason we exist, for He created us as worshipers. There are people

all over the world who resist the music of the church because it's not aggressive

enough. It doesn't have that driving edge they relate to in music. There are also

people in the church all over the world that resist the aggressive sounds because

they feel God would be displeased with such extreme, aggressive expression.

Many in the church today can remember the emotional hoops they jumped

through just to come to a place where they could actually raise their hands in a

public demonstration of praise. For some, clapping hands to the beat of a song in

church seemed like blasphemy. The fact of the matter is God desires for us to

sing, dance, clap our hands, be clamorously foolish, and like David, praise Him

with all our might.

Every one of the seven words translated "praise" in Scripture requires a

bodily function. When we see the word "praise" it is a prompting to sing, clap,

kneel, shout, lift our hands, clasp our hands, and rave or boast as expressions of

His overwhelming grace in our lives. A song is nothing more than a means of

uniting our focus. A song gives us the same lyric to the same tempo to the same

rhythm to the same beat to the same Lord at the same time. It would be

impossible for us to accomplish that without the use of rhythm. We can

accomplish rhythm without aggression, but its time we understand God desires

aggressive praise and worship. We need to be freed in our own hearts from the lie

that rhythm and volume are from the devil. Another word for volume is

amplitude. We must understand that amplitude determines attitude, and attitude

determines our altitude in praise. We need to make a united, joyful noise unto the

Lord. Lift up our voices! Get in rhythm with the heartbeat of God.

There must be a dramatic change in the sound in the house of the Lord. In

many cultures we have adopted a nice, acceptable, palatable sound of worship,

marketable to our musical preferences. I dare say God is even going to change

our musical preferences. No more of this little Casio-charismatic, effeminate

praise and worship. God's about to put some grit back into it. David danced

before the Lord with all his might. He looked like seventeen cheerleaders in one

body heading up that nine-mile road from Obed-Edom's house to Mount Zion in

front of the ark. It says he praised the Lord, dancing with all his might. If you

danced for nine miles, it would be all of your might, too!

In the spirit realm, we have given allegiance to this effeminate, passive sound

of music. It's a spiritual thing, for all music is a spiritual reality. God desires to

release a sound that our petty issues cannot resist. Where's the best place in the

world to hide from God? In the church. The number one reason people don't go

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to church is because they've already been, and there isn't anything there that

impacts them and brings freedom to their lives. They see it as just another social

event requiring time, energy, and money if they get involved. Many people hide

in the church simply by dealing with their personal guilt issues from a religious

mindset. But the sound God desires to release will chase religion from the church

and bring truth. He desires the sound of many waters, the sound of mighty

thunder, and the sound of His glory and authority in the church.

It's time to use drums in intercession to call out to the Spirit of God to smite

our enemies. In Isaiah 30, the Lord spoke of His judgment against Assyria, the

enemy nation of Israel. Verse 31 -32 says, "For through the voice of the Lord

Assyria will be beaten down, as He strikes the rod. And in everyplace where

the staff of punishment passes, which the Lord lays on him, it will be with

tambourines and harps; and in battles of brandishing He will fight with it."

The Israelites defeated the enemy by literally smiting their tambourines and

harps. The word used for tambourine is tohph, means "drum, timbrel, or tabret."

Using the rhythm of God they warred with instruments using the same passion

and aggression with which they worshiped.

I believe one of the reasons rhythm is such an issue in the church today is

because the world has so effectively used music with aggressive rhythms and

beats. We've seen its impact on people living rebellious lives. The rebellion has

offended us to the point that we've become accustomed to rejecting the sound.

Many have never been exposed to an effective use of aggressive music, rhythms,

or beats with Godly purposes. We need to quit being offended by it and start

offending the enemy with it. According to Scripture as we submit to God, He will

strike our enemies with the rod. "In every place where the staff of punishment

passes, Which the Lord lays on him, It will be with tambourines tabrets,

timbrels and drums" (Isaiah 30:32). To offend requires that we get on the

offensive. Let's give up our defensive positions and march to the cadence of the

Spirit of God. May the sound of our drums come into agreement with the mighty

thunder of worship in heaven. Then the storms and wind of the Spirit will be

released to free us from the slavery the enemy intends for us. May our worship

become the "warship" that carries us to victory as we restore the treasures that

rightfully belong to a people of truth. May we never again be victims or slaves to

our enemies, but be a people who can truly say, "Blessed are the people who

know the joyful sound!" (Psalm 89:15)

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Leaving Egypt with a

11

New Sound

God desires to release a new sound that is free from man's oppression, just as

He did through His chosen people Israel as they came out of Egypt. Israel was in

bondage to Egypt, and they could not worship while in bondage to man. Exodus

5:1 says Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel:

'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'" In

verse 3, the issue of conflict is spelled out again when Moses and Aaron said,

"The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days

journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God." In verse 8, the

children of Israel were crying out, "Let us go and sacrifice to our God."

Freedom of worship was the issue which led them to fight for their freedom.

If you study the original Hebrew writings, you'll find that during the 400

years of Israel's physical and spiritual bondage, their music was also in bondage.

Scholars and linguists say the inflections of the Hebrew language at that time

were marked in such a way to give us understanding of the variation of notes,

tones, and melodies of the Hebrew people. There were only three notes in what

we understand today to be their musical scale. Keep in mind, music is always an

expression of the state of man's mind and spirit. The three notes found in their

writings during those 400 years were of a minor mode composing a hauntingly

morbid sound. Their music reflected their depression and bondage. It was

"mashing-out-mud-and-making-bricks-music," that was saturated with

depression. As a result of Moses and Aaron's persistence in declaring God's

desire to Pharaoh, God miraculously performed all the plagues and disasters

against Egypt. Pharaoh finally gave in. God completely healed each of the

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children of Israel. Psalm 105:37-38 says that there was not one sick or feeble

person among them and that all of Egypt, plagued with disease and sickness as a

result of God's hand against it, was glad to see them go.

The children of Israel soon realized that even though they were freed from

their enemies, it did not keep them from being pursued by them, and pursue they

did, right into the Red Sea. When the children of Israel walked across the Red

Sea and looked back to see their enemies utterly destroyed, something

phenomenal took place. They all received immediate deliverance from the fear of

their enemies, and their music came into agreement with this miracle. Suddenly,

Miriam grabbed her tambourine—her hand drum, if you will—and said, "C'mon,

girls!" "Sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and

its rider, He has thrown into the sea!" (Exodus 15:20) They sang 21 verses

and danced with their timbrels and tambourines. Right there, within those 21

verses, their music was changed into a full scale of notes, with movement,

melody, joy, and victory that had not been heard in the people of God for 400

years. They gained their freedom to worship God, and their music reflected it. As

God brought them into a new freedom, they brought forth the new sound.

WORSHIPING IN BONDAGE

Bondage can be blatant or it can be subtle and deceptive. In America, the

land of the free, and the home of the brave, we have been given permission even

in our Constitution to worship God in our own way. We can all truly thank God

for that. But let me say that Scripture never tells us we can worship God in our

own way. We are not to worship God in our own way. We are to worship Him in

His own way. Scripture clearly spells out that we are to worship Him according

to His Word, His instruction and His way. If man was left to worship God in his

own way, he simply would not worship Him. He would create numerous rules,

regulations, stipulations, and religious hoops to jump through in his quest to find

some intellectually stimulating way to put God in a box. This would diminish the

purity of heartfelt worship to a religious ritual.

Throughout history, we have simply not had the revelation that we have

today in personal or corporate worship. In light of the revelation that's come to

the body of Christ in the last generation, we can look back at some of the

religious antics and ideas we've embraced and have a good laugh, or perhaps a

good cry. An interesting example of our embrace of the absurd came when the

Quakers settled in Pennsylvania. At the time, there was much controversy and

division regarding what man thought was musically acceptable to God in the

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church. The Quakers resisted music along with other things they opposed, such

as plays, games, and dancing. This attitude was a marked contrast to the members

of the Church of England who consistently championed light amusements and

favored music. The Germans and Swedes who settled in the neighborhood of

Philadelphia used vocal and instrumental music at that time. They attached such

a priority to music in the church that one pastor of a Swedish church imposed a

fine of six shillings upon certain members of his congregation for what he called

"untimely singing." But none of these groups gave much attention to the reality

of music being a heartfelt expression of intimacy or worship to God. It was

strictly a religious rite.

A group of Germans called the Pietists, who came to America for religious

reasons, also settled near Philadelphia. They brought instruments with them and

accompanied their hymn singing with instrumental music. They offended many

in their day with their use of the trumpet, viol, hautboy (oboe), and a kettle drum.

Another group of Germans settled west of Philadelphia at Ephratah. One of its

leaders devised a very interesting and peculiar type of music. He took his ideas

from nature and tried to represent the Aeolian harp by means of harmony of

voices. An Aeolian harp is a thin-sounding box with strings that are played by the

wind. In the group's music, the voices of the choir imitated soft instrumental

music. The music was set in two, four, five, and seven parts. All the parts except

the bass were sung by women's voices. The bass was set in two parts, the high

and low bass, with the latter resembling the deep tones of an organ. The melody

was sung with falsetto voice, and the singers were disallowed to open their

mouths or move their lips. It's said that the effect produced by this peculiar

technique of singing made it seem like the music entered the room from above in

some mysterious way and hovered over the heads of the audience. The

mysterious sound gave them some sense of awe in an attempt to introduce a

mystical presence in the service. They embraced the pietistic notion that if any

attention was given to the performance of the music, God would be displeased.

Needless to say, this practice didn't last very long, so this guy was canned for

being a little too weird. But it demonstrates man's desire to find ways to express

his worship. Unfortunately, he didn't always use solid theology and Scriptural

justification. Just as it is today, I'm sure there were many church squabbles and

heated debates on how to worship God. Unfortunately, controversy and conflict

have always given way to strife and anger, therefore diminishing unity. I believe

the real key to corporate worship is unity brought about by corporate humility.

If we're constantly fighting for position to worship God in our own ways,

God will never be worshiped in the way He desires. If we give all attention to the

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"how-to" worship and no attention to the "Who-to" worship, we're in trouble.

However, Scripture has given us guidelines and clarity on the "how" if we

genuinely desire the "Who." The "how" of worship is an inexhaustible subject

with literally infinite possibilities. He is an infinite God. If we can simply agree

with the wonderful drama of worship taking place in heaven, we'll find that

worship is not nearly as weird or boring as man has made it in his search to put

God in his religious boxes. God truly desires a people to worship Him, to come

out of the slavery and bondage to man. We give our life energy to mashing out

mud and making bricks to the tune of three mundane notes. God desires for us to

step across the Red Sea and give birth to a new sound from heaven.

WORSHIP IN THE EARLY CHURCH

History remembers the year's A.D. 400-900 as the Dark Ages. I propose

there have been many times in history of "dark ages" with regards to music.

There are seasons in history where sparse light and revelation were brought to

music and sound. Into such a season, Jesus was born. The night the heavenly

choir and the burst of light jolted the universe with the sound of heaven, the

sound rang out to a world full of misery. There was constant warfare between the

once-powerful Roman empire and the many barbaric tribes such as the Teutonic

(German), Celtic (Irish), Norse (Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian) and Gallic

(French). All of these nations and tribes were fighting for existence, developing

into the nations we know today. Islam or the Mohammedan religion—not

Christianity—was the great influence. Julius Caesar had just completed a season

of invading the entire world as best he could. This was a world of selfishness,

with little love for humanity, little sympathy for the downtrodden and unhappy,

few kind words for the poor and sick, very little justice and even less mercy. In

the middle of that dark world, the Light of the World came with a song.

A few hundred years after the time of Jesus, the world went through a period

called the Dark Ages. We might ask how it could have been any darker than the

time prior to Jesus' birth. But this period was ushered in by the fall of the Roman

Empire around A.D. 476. Rome, the city of glorious victories and advanced

culture, became the prey of barbaric tribes such as the Huns, Goths, Visigoths,

Vandals, Franks, Saxons, and Slavs, until it seemed that civilization would be

wiped out and people would become primitive again. But during these early

centuries, music was saved by a small band of faithful followers of Jesus. Jesus

Himself was brought up in the religion of the Hebrews and on many occasions

we find Him singing the songs of His father David. The beautiful musical

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tradition of the Jewish race found its way into the services of the early Christian

church since those early believers were well acquainted with Hebrew beliefs.

Following this, the Hebrew Bible text was translated into Latin, the everyday

language of the Romans. Since most of the early Christians lived in Rome, they

followed the rules of music the Romans learned from the Greeks. So our church

music of today was influenced by both Hebrews and Greeks.

For about three hundred years, the early Christians had to hold their services

in secret, because they were punished even by death for worshiping any god but

Jupiter and other Roman gods. The Christians were not the rich and influential

people of the day. They were simply humble folks who embraced with their

whole hearts the teachings of Jesus. They had no beautiful palaces in which to

hold services. They were hiding from the Roman centurions, so they worshiped

in dark, secret places without musical instruments so as not to attract the attention

of the enemy. Needless to say, it was a season in history where music had a hard

time just staying alive. From what we gather, the early Christians chanted their

songs much as the Hebrews did. As time progressed, emperors like Constantine

began to take away the death penalty for believing in Jesus. One of the main

reasons for this, serves as a powerful testimony to the power of worship.

Christians were frequently thrown to the lions as a source of Roman

entertainment. The Christians believed deeply in their hearts in worshiping God

with song. As the lions rushed into the arena to devour them, they would stand

boldly and lift their voices and sing praises to their God. These songs were so

powerful and anointed, the violent roar from the crowd turned into a hush so the

lyrics could be heard. Time after time, as these Christians would be thrown to the

lions only to release a song before their death, it became such a moving and

awesome scene that it simply lost the sense of victory and sport for the barbaric

audience.

During the early days of such martyrdom, thousands of Christians faced the

horrors of this kind of death. But out of these harsh and primitive times, music

began to have seasons of growth and development. In one sense, man was

leaving the Dark Ages. Yet in another, he was merely walking into the next, even

darker age, as Roman and Greek ways of thinking began to dominate the Hebrew

mindset, giving way for idolatry to become part of Christian worship. In Exodus

20:4, God forbade the Hebrews to make images: " You shall not make for

yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,

or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." With

such a strict command, it's understandable why there aren't many pictures of

singers and instruments from the days of the Hebrew prophets. But along with

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the Roman influence, the face of Christianity changed as the Greeks brought their

mythology and idolatry into worship. To this day, some religious denominations

embrace an unhealthy attraction to idols and graven images that have been

incorporated into what they consider Christian worship.

Music in Hebrew history also developed during the early days when people

wandered from place to place as shepherd tribes. Their only meeting house was a

tent. Their music was simple but extremely expressive and demonstrative. Moses

was quite learned in music, as he had been educated in Pharaoh's household. He

learned music from Egyptian priests. As the Hebrews were led by Moses, they

adopted the Egyptian customs concerning instruments in the making of their

own. An example would be when Moses received the command from God to

make two silver trumpets. If God was going to tell him to build a trumpet, he had

to have some point of reference.

Throughout history, whether it is ancient biblical history or recent history

from last week, man and his music have been in a constant state of development

and change. But one thing has been true in every time period: We have been ever

seeking to worship God. This is why we were created. If We are not worshipers

of God, we have forfeited our reason for existence. Through the ages, man has

clumsily stumbled in and out of every imaginable spiritual calisthenics in his

quest to worship God.

Musical transformation throughout history was brought about by man's

desire to worship. This is one of the reasons I believe David has become the

model for our worship. He simply worshiped God with all his heart, and with all

his might. Everything within him came bursting forth in passionate worship. His

focus was not how to worship. His focus was truly the "Who" that he worshiped.

Therefore, his life, with all its strengths and weaknesses, victories and defeats,

became a pattern for the people of God in his day, while his songs became a lyric

for generations. That's why the Word prophetically declares in the last days God

"will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen down. I will rebuild

its ruins, And I will set it up, So that the rest of mankind may seek the

Lord" (Acts 15:16-17).

Those ruins separate us from priority one, which is seeking the Lord. They

can be walls of religion, unsanctified ambition, ungodly desire, strife or walls of

idolatry. They can even be walls built of the timbers from the tree of knowledge

of good and evil. Knowledge can be the greatest enemy of truth. The great desire

of God's heart is a people who will worship Him in spirit and truth, not from the

mind. May we step out of our personal dark ages into truth and light.

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Chapter 12

The Sound of War

12

There are at least 20 different types of songs recorded in the Bible, from

songs of praise to songs of harlots and drunkards. One type of song worthy of

note is the war song. Every nation seems to produce most of its songs during

times of conflict. More songs were written during and immediately after

America's Civil War than any other time in our nation's history. One of the

reasons for this is because music at that time was the primary means of

communicating the news of the day. But the romantic, melancholy songs of war

time are not the subjects here. The focus is the role the song, or the sound,

actually played in times of war.

Many instruments from virtually every part of the globe have played an

important role in battle. As stated previously, many times the trumpet was used,

and in more modern times, the bugle was used. During the Revolutionary War,

the fife and drum alerted the enemy that they were about to be attacked. What an

amazing concept! "Let us play the fife and drum and make all the noise possible

to inform our enemy we're coming toward them." So much for surprise attack!

Why did the buglers of the cavalry see it necessary to release the blast and

provoke the charge? What sometimes seems to be so obvious often has some

very pertinent hidden nuggets that we overlook.

A WORSHIPING WILLIAM WALLACE

Most of us had never heard of William Wallace until the 1995 film

Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson, which overtook America's screens. I had the

privilege of traveling to Scotland and doing in-depth research on this great

warrior. I found many interesting facts that didn't make it to Hollywood. Though

much of the movie's account was historically accurate, I'd like to give you a

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slightly different version, which includes some hidden history of the battles of

William Wallace. And I ask you to please not take offense if you are British.

History teaches that the British ruthlessly oppressed many nations over the years.

The offended have been slow to forget. Yet, how quickly we forget that some of

the greatest preachers and missionaries in history made their way to the four

corners of the earth from England's shores. Sometimes we fail to see the light that

they brought to the nations and focus on the darkness. Truly this was a time of

darkness and oppression.

William Wallace was born near Paisley, Scotland, to Sir Malcolm Wallace, a

small-land owner. His family, probably of Norman descent, was not wealthy, and

William had none of the advantages of the ruling elite of the day. He was taught

the usual marshal skills and apparently, even as a youngster, showed great

promise as he wielded the sword and claymore. His skill proved quite useful in

the years ahead. He became an expert hunter. While William was still young, his

father was killed by the English as they oppressed Scotland. Fatherless, Wallace

was then raised and educated by clerics. He was daily taught the Word of God

and had a particular love for the Psalms. The priests who raised him instilled in

him a strong sense of freedom. It was said he particularly loved the story of King

David and considered him to be the greatest Jewish freedom fighter of all time.

Wallace memorized the entire book of Psalms by heart, which became the

greatest inspiration in his struggles for his nation.

He was a young man of God who easily reconciled violence and piety. In the

thirteenth century, "might" usually meant "right." The theological argument was

that strength was given to those who "deserved" it. Physical bravery was a virtue

in itself, and courage was synonymous with faith. They believed victors had the

support of the angels, while the defeated were often considered too weak of

character to triumph. It was a very Old Testament view of life, with little room

for love and grace. Times were hard and produced hard men. However, even in

the midst of his most violent campaigns, Wallace would find time to sneak away

to churches and take part in the services. He carried a psalter, or the book of

Psalms, everywhere he went. Before his greatest battles, these songs gave him

comfort as well as the inspiration he would need to release the fury of his heart

upon his enemies. Prior to battle, he would gather his followers together and

preach the Word of God in such a way to impart fire to their souls and courage to

their hearts. This same mentality led to the formation of warrior monks like the

Templars and the Hospitalers, who saw no contradiction in combining their

fighting skills with their deep Christian faith.

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William grew into a giant of a figure. Even as a young man, he stood six feet

seven inches tall. He was muscular and strong with unbelievable endurance in

battle. He had nothing going for him politically, no wealth, and no military

budget. Instead he relied upon his physical attributes, strength and his deep belief

that God's justice would bring him forth as a victor. The declining state of his

country, and the harsh injustices imposed upon the poor by the ruthless and

barbaric bondage of English oppression continually furthered Wallace's incentive

to fight. Because his father had died fighting the English, William had been

forced into a life of exile. In his desperate and brooding heart, he felt he had to

take some kind of action. All things considered, he had nothing to lose. At every

opportunity he single-handedly confronted English soldiers and miraculously

overcame his enemies, though he was sometimes outnumbered fifteen to one. He

was like a fighting machine as he wielded his claymore of five feet eight inches.

He made a profound impression on many of the oppressed young locals, and they

decided they would create a small band of warriors to fight for the cause. There

was much talk among them about forming a strategy for expelling the English.

One day, while in the village, a garrison of English soldiers challenged

young William. In a split-second, out of nowhere, he whirled his ferocious sword

and sliced off the arm of his opponent before anyone had time to react. William

and his companions, vastly outnumbered by reinforcements arriving by the

minute, managed to escape leaving more than 50 dead or wounded behind. They

fled to William's house and then out a back garden gate into the open countryside

and into the hills. The soldiers arrived outside of William's house, where his wife

Marion waited. They demanded she hand over Wallace, but she blatantly defied

them, barred the door and shouted at them from an upstairs window, giving

William and his comrades time to make good his escape. The soldiers smashed in

the door and stormed the house. When they realized she had been stalling, the

sheriff ordered Marion executed on the spot. Her dying words were in defiance to

Scotland's oppressors.

When William heard about the murder of his wife, he took his psalter and

went away in solitude and grief. After dark, Wallace's small group of men

wandered back into the town, some were disguised as monks. The English

troops, believing their hunted outlaws were far away, paid little attention to these

stragglers—not even to the large monster of a figure dressed like a monk.

William walked straight to the sheriff's house and in one blow burst the door in,

bolted up the stairs and executed immediate vengeance upon the murderer of his

bride. It didn't stop there. Before the night was over, the streets ran red with the

blood of the English. That night 100 died. Only women, children, and priests

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were spared. News of this event spread like a wildfire across Scotland as a signal

to the oppressed that a revolt had begun. Suddenly Wallace's picture was on

every post office wall in the land. The capture of Wallace was now top priority

for the English army. As this news spread through the villages of Scotland, old

and young men alike believed this incident showed that God did not appear to be

on the side of the English, since He did not protect them from Wallace. His name

was spoken of in every tavern across the land as a folk hero and leader of the day.

This young, heartbroken, exiled, outlawed warrior burning with anger, was ready

to take on all the might King Edward could throw at him.

Wallace soon found himself to be the commander of a raw, impoverished,

desperate army of highlanders carrying sticks, rocks, rusty battle axes, hunting

spears, and homemade swords. They possessed a fire in their desperate hearts to

see their enemies utterly destroyed. Wallace had never imagined himself as the

leader of an army. He was simply fighting out of desperation, principle, and a

sense of justice. Now he found himself having to address the issues of the day

from a political position as well as being a military strategist. The clansmen who

had gravitated to him were nothing more than a ragtag bunch of farmers and

sheep herders with a common dream of freedom. William led them north into the

highlands where Andrew deMoray, a young knight as wild and vicious as

Wallace, was raising up mounted troops of Gaels. Together, under Wallace's

leadership, they began terrorizing the English. They established a network of

spies to keep them informed of English activity. They began attacking English

outposts and garrisons and even stormed entire cities. William led an attack on

Glasgow, and as he headed his men up High Street, he ordered them to "stock

well the Clyde River with English soldiers." This command is commemorated to

this day in the name of Stockwell Street, which leads down to the river.

The English army which faced Wallace was known as the greatest fighting

machine of its age. It consisted of proud knights in their finest armor. Their huge

war horses wore fancy harnesses. The knights were all decked out in colorful

finery with banners hanging from every lance, shield, and ornament that

glistened in the sun. It was an army that had never known defeat. The Scots, in

contrast, were a bunch of ill-disciplined, poorly-armed, ragged men with

homemade weapons. They came down the hills in their rough tunics carrying

supplies of oaks, lentils, and bags over their shoulders. But they had God and

Wallace, and for them that was enough. For years, they had suffered under the

English burden, and now it was time to strike back and free their country. A

showdown was imminent.

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A SOUND OF DEATH

On September 10, 1297, the stage was set at Sterling Bridge. The English

forces sent a messenger to the Scots demanding they submit or else. William

looked down the mountain at the thousands of glittering spears held by foot-

soldiers and, knowing he was outnumbered ten to one, told the messenger, "Tell

your people we have not come here to gain peace but for battle, to avenge and

deliver our country. Let them come up when they like and they will find us ready

to meet them to their beards." In other words, we'll be in their faces.

From the hilltops that evening at sundown, the eerie sound of a primitive

version of the Highland pipes began to screech and moan across the valley. The

sound of the Lambeg drums began to thunder, announcing to its hearers

bloodshed was sure. Remember, these highlanders were ancestors of the warring

Celts and Piets, both known for their vicious tenacity in war. Their military

conduct was like nothing you would see at West Point.

I don't know about you, but if I were going to fight an enemy in hand-to-hand

combat, I'd have a hard time finding enough tenacity to physically fight a man

wearing a dress. Okay, a kilt. Where I'm from, for a man to wear a dress he'd

have to be an awfully good fighter. And furthermore, he'd get a lot of daily

practice. So in my estimation, a man who would be mean enough to put on a

dress is not a man I'd want to fight. In the movie Braveheart, do you remember

when they painted their faces blue and white, decorating themselves with what

we think of as Indian war paint? That's not the way it was in the days of the Celts

and Piets. They painted their entire bodies from head to foot with this sky blue

paste and covered their hair with white ashes.

I guess you could say they looked like really mean Smurfs. They didn't wear

kilts in battle, either. As a matter of fact, in one sweeping motion, they would

throw off their kilts, tunics or whatever they wore. With a violent battle cry, they

corporately shouted and screamed as they charged their enemy. It was a massive

mobilization of terror on foot. They would completely abandon themselves to the

fight. It was extremely effective for introducing fear to the enemy before the

actual physical attack.

Probably the most effective tactic used in that type of warfare took place at

the beginning of sundown the night before battle. Huge bonfires were built and

massive drums maintained a steady rumble of beats throughout the night, while

the screeching of the pipes would permeate the ears and minds of the enemy. The

pipes were a warring instrument. It was a sound used even in David's time. As

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David's musicians would release a death-nell selah on the enemy of Israel, the

moans and groans of the reed pipes would pronounce judgment and death. Fear

would grip the hearts of the enemy of Israel's God, for that sound declared God

was going to war on behalf of His people. The reputation of God to those heathen

and pagan nations was that He was an awesome God able to break down walls

and drown entire Egyptian armies in the Red Sea. Now get this: Low frequencies

cause a physical response in the circulatory system of the body. High frequencies

cause a response in the nervous system. That's one of the reasons extremely high

sounds get on your nerves. High screaming tones can put your teeth on edge.

Certain low frequencies can literally stop your heart.

At sundown, Wallace's army began to release the low thundering sounds and

frequencies that were, if not physically, at least mentally impacting their enemy.

The sound sent out the message that hearts would stop beating and bloodshed

would be a reality. The high frequencies screeched and moaned out the sad,

dreary sound. Needless to say, after a few hours, these unending notes would get

on your nerves.

I don't use the word "unending" loosely, for a bagpipe is an instrument that

has been created to sustain a note forever. You can sustain a note on a bagpipe

until a tree dies somewhere, because it has its own lung. The bag is a reservoir of

air that continues to blow a continuous note while the player has opportunity to

breathe. Imagine that you're one of those English soldiers camping down in the

valley while your enemy is bombarding you with these eerie sounds. These are

sounds of aggression, fear, and the sadness of death. Imagine Wallace gathering

his men before daybreak, calling the musicians to silence as he opens the psalter

and soberly brings the Word of God. He reminds all that "if God be for us, who

can be against us?" (Romans 8:31 KJV) Even as David slew thousands for the

purpose of freeing God's people from the bondage of man, so we will come forth

victorious as our God fights for us and with us. As he prays a prayer of blessing

and protection over them, a signal from his lookout informs them the English are

beginning to move.

At dawn, 5,000 English foot-soldiers began crossing the bridge as Wallace

and his men moved into position for an all-out attack. As the sun began to peak

over that valley it shone on the painted faces of a determined army. Wallace

ordered his spear-men to hold their ground until they heard his horn, which only

he was allowed to blow, and then to charge forward down the hill. As the English

army made its way over the wooden bridge, Wallace and his men viewed the

slow movement of their forces from a high vantage point. This must have been

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an awesome sight, seeing the ranks of their enemies swell below them, yet

keeping calm with ears tuned in anticipation of the blast of Wallace's horn.

Wallace knew that a premature move would be destructive for his small band of

warriors. The English viewed his hesitancy and inaction as cowardly. They were

anxious to charge, even though only half of their men had crossed over the river.

Suddenly, before the English could fully ready themselves for a charge, Wallace

judged that enough of the enemy was spread below him as to give him the perfect

opportunity for his attack. He gave a mighty blast on his horn and the Scots

surged down upon their enemy, yelling their blood-curling war cries and

screaming their way toward the bridge. Wallace, with his massive sword in hand,

declared Psalm 91 over his enemies. The bridge was long and narrow, only wide

enough to allow horses to cross two by two. With half of the foot soldiers on one

side of the river, half on the other, and the bridge clogged with the mounted

soldiers in all their armor, chaos ruled the English army. Four hundred knights

and archers and five thousand foot-soldiers lost their lives. No prisoners were

taken, while Scottish losses were negligible.

As horrible as this may sound (and you must remember the day and time I'm

speaking of), the English leader was killed and skinned. To this day, his flesh

provides the leather for the handle of Wallace's sword, where it is encased at the

William Wallace monument that stands on a mountain which overlooks the scene

of the Battle of Sterling Bridge. From that victory many others came, until finally

the English were able to overwhelm Wallace as a result of betrayal in Wallace's

own camp.

We can learn much from Wallace's story. Sound has always been and always

will be one of the most important forces God ever created. Simple sound can give

way to every imaginable emotion. It can calm our souls at the side of a brook as

we hear water trickling over small stones. It can utterly frighten us in an instant

as a tray of dishes are dropped in a restaurant. Sound can soothe the weary mind

to a place of sleep and rest. Sound can cause the earth to convulse in the form of

an earthquake. An earthquake is nothing more than sound modulations between

two layers of stone formations that can be miles under the earth. Windows can be

blown out of your house as airplanes break the sound barrier. Nerves can be put

on edge at the sound of the monotonous dripping of a faucet. Man can be

motivated by the sound of a song to give his life for his country. Man can be

motivated by the sound of enticing words to betray a Godly marriage and carry

out lustful and sinful acts. We can swell with pride at the sound of an anthem

being played as our sons and daughters walk down the aisle with tasseled caps.

We can be jolted into action at the sound of a fire alarm, or we can be lulled to

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sleep at the whisper of a breeze.

The movie Braveheart depicted the scene where young William Wallace had

just received the news that his father was dead. His aged, old uncle had come to

take him home. The scene was sad and moving as a piper played a mournful song

in the moonlight. The young boy questioned the old man about the piper. The old

man simply said, "He's playing an outlawed song on outlawed pipes." The reason

pipes and songs were outlawed was because they stirred such national sentiment

and memories of better days. The piper reminded them of a simpler time without

the harsh, oppressing, malicious presence of English rule. So in times of battle,

those pipes and songs would stir up loyalty, strength, unity, and national pride.

The pipes meant disloyalty to the throne of England. In order for England to

bring them into bondage, their music had to be in bondage as well. At one point,

England confiscated all the pipes and drums they could find and burned them in

huge bonfires. Let me ask you, was the strength of the army in the drum? Was

the strength of the army in the pipe? Was the strength of the army found in the

blasting horn or the shout? No. These were simply exterior sounds depicting the

inner heart attitude. The instruments provided a means for the heart to be

expressed.

Is there a particular anointing on instruments or sounds today that will give

us the upper hand on our enemies? Yes and no. Yes, because particular sounds,

tones, and frequencies motivate us to particular responses. And no, because an

instrument does not have a life of its own. It is an inanimate object. However,

God can use inanimate objects to do miraculous things. Remember what

happened when the hem of the garment of Jesus was touched? Remember what

happened when the inanimate stone hit Goliath between the eyes?

A lifeless musical instrument is nothing more than a tool used for the

expression of one that does have life. There's nothing more holy in a Martin

guitar than there is in a Gibson guitar. However, different sounds demand

different actions. Different rhythms promote different attitudes. Different

melodies and harmonies bring forth different emotions. Various lyrics create

entirely different images causing us to have a united focus in corporate praise and

worship. When we sing the word "freedom" in a congregational song with a

heartfelt release of faith, it can be as powerful as David's stone thrown at the

head of the enemy. We should have faith for that. After all, how many Bible

stories do we have to hear before we'll start believing God desires us to be free?

Freedom from the bondage of sin and the curse of the enemy was the very issue

which brought Jesus to mankind. Since the garden, Satan has tried to use man to

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implement his desires and enslave us in every arena of life. Satan knows if he can

enslave one man, he can potentially use that man to enslave others.

Through the ages, history records that men have always desired to dominate

one another on every level. Man is engaged in a continual struggle to be king of

the mountain. If one kingdom can overcome another with ungodly authority, it is

then able to enjoy the intoxication of power for a season. Nations and kingdoms

gain a sense of power as a result of taking peoples and lands through domination

and slavery. Most of the time it is motivated out of a desire for riches. If you

dominate the people, your reward is resources. If I own the land, I own the gold,

oil, timber, and water, and I control the people to harvest all those resources. That

gives me power and wealth. God sent His Son to introduce mankind to His

purpose for authority while combating the perversion of authority by domination

and greed. When Jesus came, He said, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be

last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). The Bible also declares "if the Son

makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). God desires us to be

free from every bondage of the enemy. There is another example given about

freedom brought about through praise and worship. I'm sure you know the story.

WHEN GOD SINGS BASS

Paul and Silas walked into town. They had come to spread the gospel in

Rome. Everywhere Paul and Silas went, they wound up in jail! An evangelist

today checks out the Holiday Inns and the Marriotts when he comes into town.

I imagine Paul and Silas checked out the local jail when they came into town.

They knew they'd wind up there sooner or later before they left! The Bible says

they were walking down the street going to pray somewhere and ran into a

woman possessed by a spirit of divination (Acts 16:16). For many days this

loudmouthed woman followed them around declaring, "These men are the

servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation"

(verse 17).

Paul finally had all he could take, and being grieved by this spirit of

divination, though it was speaking truth, turned and said to the spirit, "I

command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her" (verse 18).

And it did. When her master saw that Paul had just torn up his meal ticket (she

was a demonic moneymaking machine for him), he and his men caught Paul and

Silas and dragged them to the rulers at the marketplace. He declared to the

magistrates, "These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they

teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or

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observe" (verses 20-21). The whole crowd rose up against them. The

magistrates ripped Paul and Silas' clothes off and had them beaten and thrown

into the inner prison. They were in what we would consider a maximum security

cell, with their feet in stocks chained to the wall. The citizens and magistrates

believed that to maintain their lifestyles and laws, they had to bring Paul and

Silas into bondage.

Paul and Silas lay in the darkness of this cell at midnight, praying and

singing to God. The prisoners were listening to them. Did you know you cannot

pray or sing to God without Him getting involved? You know God loves a

concert. While Paul and Silas were singing praises, God heard the prayers of

these two righteous men and gave His attention to the expression of their hearts.

Picture God sitting on His throne, and enjoying the song they were singing. He

begins to tap His foot. Then He begins to hum. Then He begins to sing, and God

sings bass, you know. In Zephaniah 3:17, it says "He will rejoice over you with

singing." Well, when God began to sing, it was such a powerful low frequency

that in Acts 16:26 it says, "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 chains were loosed."

Now imagine that. As a result of a simple song of praise God performed the

miraculous. You know He loves to do that! They were suddenly released from

the bondage placed upon them by man. The keeper of the prison was awakened

out of a deep sleep to see the prison doors open. The very man oppressing him

now drew his sword to commit suicide. Those who are so quick to ridicule the

praise and worship of others, who consider others to be too weird or too heavenly

minded to be any earthly good, are prime candidates for experiencing a spiritual

earthquake. In one traumatic moment, the sneer of God can turn into the fear of

God. Let tragedy hit where they live and they'll do just as this jailer did. Unable

to cope with this catastrophe, he went running to Paul and Silas and fell down

trembling before them. Remember this: At any given moment, you can have

people trembling on your porch looking for answers, and looking for life. They

might be just like the jailer who cried out, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

(verse 30)

I believe the number one tool of evangelism in the earth today is praise. Out

of praise, a sound is released that suddenly shakes the chains of our bondage and

grabs the attention of the lost around us. For instance, the night the church was

born in the upper room, while they were praying and worshiping God, another

suddenly happened. For suddenly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon them as a

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sound of a rushing mighty wind. Later, as that sound was noised abroad in the

streets, thousands were added daily to the church. The jailer who gave his heart

to the Lord witnessed his entire family being saved that very night because he

took Paul and Silas home with him. He washed their stripes and ministered to

their needs. Paul and Silas baptized his entire family. When the magistrates heard

about all of this, their attitude changed from aggressive superiority to subtle

arrogance. They sent officers to give the jailer a message: "Let those men go"

(Acts 16:35). The jailer should have sent a message back, saying, "God has

already done that." Imagine the presumption of those magistrates assuming they

could let these men go. Pride really is something, isn't it?

Whether you find yourself in the grips of political and national oppression or

simply dominated by the oppressive personality of your neighbor, oppression is

still oppression. Bondage is still bondage. William Wallace cried out his dying

words in the faces of his oppressors who insisted he yield to their throne, at his

shout of the word "freedom," he truly experienced it. His cry for freedom took

him to heaven, where he found it. May we be a people with such power, prayer,

and praise that we can bring heaven to us. May our shouts shake the very

foundation of every prison we find ourselves in, break the chains of bondage and

cause the nations to tremble at the Word of the Lord. God grant us the authority

in the spirit realm to touch heaven, and that the sound of heaven would be heard

in the earth.

If your oppressors try to storm the battlefield of your mind, or break your

body down with disease, you can defy them in the spirit realm with praise. All

depression, despondency, and despair will flee. Like David, lift up a shout and

watch your enemies flee a thousand ways.

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13

PEOPLE OF PRAISE

America is a concentrated nucleus of the world's sounds. All the different

ethnic and cultural sounds can be found here in America because each culture

brought their sounds with them. Every nation in this world has its own folk dance

and its own national anthem. Particular tones and timbres have been given to

every nation. Every nation has a sound that causes a response in the spirits of

individuals born into that culture. There's a common thread in the nature of every

black man on earth that makes him respond to certain tones and rhythms. Every

Irishman on earth has that common element in his nature that makes him respond

when he hears the pipes played. Every culture and ethnic group have things that

cause a response by their spirits. No one on this earth was born without a spirit.

Because music is a force, God created it to open the spirit of every creature—

including animals. There is no living or breathing creation of God that will not

respond to music. Man has been given the sole opportunity to use that as an act

of intimacy and worship with God. There is an element and a part of God's divine

nature He placed in us that He didn't place in any other form of creation. It's His

divine attribute of creativity.

Musicians have a common thread directly linked to the creative nature of

God. Lucifer, in his jealousy, has tried to sow such calamities, confusion, and

deception into every creative person. Satan, the fallen chief musician, steals,

kills, and destroys by using the very thing that gives us an audience with God—

music (see John 10:10). Lucifer covets the position he had. His name was

"anointed cherub who covers" the throne of God (see Ezekiel 28:14). When he

was cast down, he left the throne uncovered. When he was created, in his very

being was created the sound of all instruments (see Isaiah 14:11 and Ezekiel

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28:13). He held within him the sound of the piano, flute, guitar, drums, pipes, and

organ. All sound was created in him as part of his voice and music. He breathed

notes. When he was cast down, he perverted those sounds, trying to use them to

fulfill his vision for every man's life, which is to "steal, and to kill, and to

destroy" (John 10:10 NIV).

When Satan left the throne uncovered, I believe God said, "I will create a

people that will be a holy habitation for My presence, and I will enthrone Myself

in the praises of My people." The covering of God's throne that was once lost, is

now being restored as He creates a generation that will show forth His praises—a

generation that will walk in signs, wonders, and power. One of the signs and

wonders released will be the sound of heaven, a sound that is seen and heard.

Once in recent years, I saw it suddenly rain inside a church building during

worship. In another meeting, people throughout the congregation simultaneously

heard the sounds of instruments not physically in the room. Once I was present

with three thousand others when a cloud the size of a grand piano appeared on

stage. I would say those were signs and wonders, wouldn't you? But all that is a

rehearsal for God. All He's doing is creating a stirring hunger in us. It's the

season for the beginning of the release of those signs and wonders.

What the devil has meant for evil, God will use for good (see Genesis 50:20).

Our very differences—the unique deposits in each ethnic group—are going to

become one corporate sound joined with the angelic hosts of heaven, resonating

the sound of heaven throughout the earth. God will take one of the strengths from

each of those groups, though they are somewhat cross-pollinated, and blend them

into a unified sound. Isaiah "saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted

up, and the train of His robe filled the temple"(Isaiah 6:1). The train

represents God's people who follow Him into His holy habitation by the power of

praise and worship. We live in an extremely exciting time. Down through the

years, the enemy has tried to rob every people group. But now in the last days

what the devil has meant for evil, God will use for good, capitalizing on the

diversity He has created in us.

THE IRISH SOUND

More than a million Irish people flocked to the United States in the 1840s as

a result of the Potato Famine. Lucky just to be alive following the excruciating

journey across the Atlantic, the survivors were impoverished. Only their

traditional sounds came with them. In the last few years, there has been a

sweeping popularity and fascination with the Irish sound as seen and heard in

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such successes as Braveheart, Titanic, and Riverdance. Something comes alive in

us when we hear the sound of these productions. It causes a response. Advertisers

and promoters have used this stirring of emotions as an effective ploy to make

money. But God created the Irish sound and desires to use it for His purposes

now. At one time, the traditional Irish dance was one with shoulders high, back

straight. As the Irish were exiled from their land and came to America, the

offspring of that prideful Irish dance was clogging. In the transition, the

shoulders dropped and head lowered. The Scotch-Irish expression became

individual. It was no longer a war dance, and no longer carried a sense of

militancy. The people suffered such harsh conditions when they came to America

that their dance turned into an inward, individual expression of clogging.

Clogging was a part of the isolation, depression, and poverty of the Appalachian

Mountains. The men were the only ones who danced, as it was forbidden for

women to dance in public. That's why it was called "buck dancing." Though they

danced in public, these old mountain men would never sing in their homes.

Singing was the important job for mothers. As they washed clothes and did daily

chores in the isolation of their mountain homes, they would sing all day to pass

the traditions of their homeland to their children. They couldn't read or write,

which meant they couldn't teach their kids the fading traditions through literacy.

So they would sing the traditions to them. This was called "lilting," singing the

diddly-diddly-doo kind of sound. The women sang the Irish and Scottish airs

with a high, mournful sound poured into their spirits through the Irish fiddle and

other such instruments. The mothers were the ones who put the song in their

children. They grew up understanding that singing was what they heard from

mama. From this tradition, the high lonesome sound was born with the moaning,

groaning, and the bending of notes.

A CHURCH WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS

As the militancy of the Irish dance was robbed from its people, so was the

militancy and passionate aggression in church music. Through the years, it seems

the church has been insensitive to the needs of the common people and their

cultural expression, whether it is the music or the dance of the homeland. At

times, the church has even aggressively resisted those cultural traditional

expressions. For example, for many years the church imposed the belief that the

fiddle was the devil's box. Because the church took the instruments out of the

hands of musicians and threw them out, music was lost. The church went through

hundreds of years of what you would call the musical dark ages. Huge organs

filling half the room replaced the instruments. This one big machine produced the

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sound of an orchestra without the need for tolerating the pettiness and overly-

sensitive nature of some needy musicians. The result was an entire group of

people in the eleventh century called the goliards. The goliards were defrocked

priests, minstrels, and poet-prophets that wound up in the streets as traveling

minstrels and troubadours. Because they were no longer wanted or needed by the

church, now all the acts of ministry and worship were taken completely away

from the people. All that was left was the drone of liturgical chants. These chants

took the creative expression out of the hearts of God's people. Worship now

consisted of leaders lulling both God and His people to sleep.

Out of that time period came a very passive, feminine sound. The warrior

heart and sound of music, as well as the individual expression, was lost. The

religious world has depicted heaven as some "ooh-ah, Kumbayah," ethereal place

where people spend thousands of years musically bored, while the world

continually finds newfangled technologies and ideas for enjoyment. The truth is

quite the opposite. If we look at the complacent and apathetic dullness of some

religious music as a depiction of what heaven will be like, we must agree it's

going to be a never-ending yawn. However, in Scripture we see quite a different

picture of heaven. We find great rejoicing, thunderous praise, harpists harping,

hosannas, hallelujahs, lifted voices, and joyful noise. There's only 30 minutes of

silence in the eternal heaven, and that's just while the angels inhale! Then they

unload for another 1,000 years with all that's in them and all of creation joins in a

terrific blast of sound. I believe it's going to be loud in heaven.

I used to think, "My goodness, after about 10,000 years of floating around on

a cloud singing 'Kumbayah,' heaven's going to get a little boring!" I had this

mental picture of walking into heaven and watching angels pass out twelve-

string guitars. We'd all take these twelve-strings, harps, or whatever we'd get and

float around for another million years. That was my view of heaven and it

seemed mighty boring to me. Now I realize it will never get boring in heaven

because endless creativity is the very nature of God. The 24 courses of musicians

established in the tabernacle of David represent the 24 elders in the book of

Revelation. I love those elders. Every time the elders are mentioned, we find

them on their faces worshiping God. I heard a man say one time, "It'll be worth it

to go to heaven just to find a group of elders who will consistently worship God."

Why does it never get boring in heaven? Because just like in the tabernacle

of David and the temple of Solomon, there is a continual, fresh new beginning.

When we get to heaven and we begin to see God as He really is, about every hour

on the hour throughout eternity, He will reveal a whole new dimension of His

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nature that we've never understood in earthly realms. It will always be exciting.

Look at Revelation 4. Everything and everyone surrounding the throne of God is

walking around in a daze. All they can say is, "Holy! Holy! Holy!" (verse 8).

Why "holy?" Because as they behold each new part of God's nature for that one

moment in heaven, all they can respond with is "Holy!" Then as they rotate

around again, they catch a glimpse of something new and again cry, "Holy!

Holy! Holy! Holy!" Each "holy” has an entirely different meaning. Each is a

different response to something new they are seeing. Throughout eternity God is

continually revealing a new part of His nature that astounds us and motivates us

to praise and worship.

He will continue building upon our revelation of who He really is. Perhaps

every hour on the hour there will be a brand new explosion of praise within the

people of God. It cannot get boring because we'll be looking and beholding the

beauty of His face in reality in that very moment. It will no longer be a spiritual

thing "out there" that we have to move into through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Instead we'll be sitting on His lap singing. I'm telling you, it can't get boring

there!

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Chapter 14

The Symphony of Earth

14

THE SYMPHONY OF SOUND

If we are in constant agreement with the Word of God, we become

instruments through which His sound is played. We become musical vessels and

carriers of what in musical terms is called "sympathetic vibration." A good

example of sympathetic vibration is when someone sets their guitar down on a

stand. If you were to put your ear close to the guitar's body while other noises

were being made in the room, you would hear a sound emanating from the

instrument. For instance, if someone was talking, you would hear the guitar make

a sound with each word spoken. This is because the vibration of the person's

voice comes into "agreement" with the vibrations the guitar has the capability of

producing.

The Greek word for this is sumphoneo, and means "to be harmonious, to

agree or to be together with." It is where we get the word "symphony." In

Matthew 18:19 Jesus says, "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on

earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My

Father in heaven." The word for agree there is sumphoneo. In music that

agreement is what makes up a chord. A chord is simply tones of agreement. Two

different notes in agreement create harmony. If they are not in agreement they

create discord. That's why in II Chronicles 5:13, it says they lifted up their voice

"to make one sound." They were in agreement, in sumphoneo. Matthew 18:19

shows the validity of agreement.

Agreement always touches heaven, for "where two or three are gathered

together" in Jesus' name, He declares Himself "in the midst of them"

(Matthew 18:20). That's why agreement with what God is saying and doing, is

so important. Agreement is a musical principle. The definition for a chord is "a

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combination of two or more sounds uttered at the same time, according to the

laws of harmony.' In II Chronicles, there were 4,000 musicians with instruments

in agreement, and you know what happened. In Acts 2, there were 120

worshipers in agreement. You know what happened. Heaven is full of worshipers

in agreement. If today we were able to bring together a gathering that could truly

come into agreement, I wonder what would happen?

THE ORCHESTRA OF GOD

Think of the kingdom of God as a massive band or orchestra. Within that

orchestra, there are individual instruments or churches. Within each individual

instrument are many components. As an example, let's look at a guitar. A quality

guitar can be constructed from materials gathered from around the world. For

instance, one of my guitars which I dearly love, has the back and sides made of

Brazilian rosewood. The fingerboard and bridge are made of ebony from the

West Coast of Africa and from Sri Lanka. The neck is a Honduran mahogany,

and its keys are made of silver from Germany. The pick-guard is tortoise shell

from a tortoise somewhere (God only knows), and the top is sitka spruce from

Alaska. The inlay on the neck is made of abalone from Australia, while the

position dots are made out of pearl from an oyster shell found off the shores of

Japan. The bridge plate is a wood called purple heart from South America. The

rosette and herringbone purfling are made of German maple. The nut and saddle

are made out of ivory from old fossilized mastodon tusks.

All of these components have been gathered, and each part has gone through

its own unique process to finally come into shape as a completed guitar. Think

about it. Somewhere in Brazil or Canada, a tree had to go through seasons of

rain, of drought, of scorching heat or bone-chilling blizzards. After seeing

generation after generation pass, the same tree eventually had to give its life for

the sake of this instrument. Out of all the trees in the world, the tree was chosen

based on the density of its grain, because a tree grown in the climate of Brazil is

different than one grown in Alaska. Different weather conditions and climates

develop different strengths and weaknesses in the fabric of the wood. In turn, this

causes the various pieces of the guitar to respond differently to the frequencies

and tones played.

Once the wood is harvested, it goes through a drying or dying process.

Before the wood can be built into the guitar, it must be put into a controlled

environment. For 3 years it is kept in 100 degree heat and 30 percent relative

humidity. This makes the wood more stable and enhances the tonal qualities once

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it's become an instrument of music. If it did not endure the heat of the drying

process and was prematurely built into an instrument, the guitar would bend,

warp, crack, and ultimately self-destruct when the tension of the strings was

applied. Believe it or not, the tension applied to a neck and body of a guitar with

medium gauge strings is about 165 pounds of pressure. It fluctuates as the guitar

is played with more or less aggression. Either way, the guitar must be able to

maintain stability no matter how, where, or when it's played. A guitar that cannot

maintain stability will constantly be in and out of tune. It will bring an unpleasant

sound to the listener and be an aggravation to the player. But when everything

functions in agreement with each piece of wood rightly related one to another,

"fitly joined together," sumphoneo is accomplished.

On a fine guitar, a master luthier understands the principles of tension, the

characteristics of different woods and the tonal differences in mahogany versus

rosewood, and rosewood versus walnut, etc. The brace inside a guitar is for the

purpose of adding strength to the body. He understands that the brace can be off

one inch and completely change the sound of the guitar and diminish the

vibrations of the top. This diminishes its ability to produce tones of beauty and

agreement. To bring all of the parts of a guitar into unity, every tree, every pearl,

and every ounce of silver had to die, be brought out of its original state and

restructured by molding, shaping, cutting, filing, melting, and sanding. It has to

be altered from its original state and ultimately transformed into a new creation.

The tree that died, and stood in a forest resisting the natural wind, has been

recreated by the hand of the luthier, and resurrected to bring forth a new sound.

The new sound is to be the expression of the heart of the musician agreeing with

the sound of worship in heaven. It is sufficient to say, much has to be done to a

tree for it to sing.

AN ORCHESTRA OF NATIONS

Many times in Scripture, wood represents humanity. For instance, we are the

"trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord" (Isaiah 61:3). For a tree to

become a guitar, much sawdust is created. There is much cutting away, filing,

and sanding. The guitar's creation process parallels our individual lives. We have

gone through the changes and various seasons of shaping and molding. It more

appropriately pictures the local church. Throughout Scripture, God always

moved as a result of unity and agreement. One definition of unity is corporate

humility. Humility is nothing more than losing our identities for the purpose of

unity and agreement with God. As we lose our identities in Him, we find a new

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identity as new creations in Christ Jesus. We may not all look alike—some may

be ebony, some spruce, and some rosewood. We may come from the four corners

of the earth.

This point remains: God will raise us up from different environments,

circumstances, experiences, and from different parts of the world to interweave

our lives with each other. The woman sitting next to you in church may be from

Uganda, while the family sitting on the front row is from Hong Kong.

Metropolitan areas such as Atlanta or New Orleans perfectly show this "melting

pot" by bringing together every culture and subculture under one giant umbrella

of a city. When we are continually reaching into our community with the gospel,

the church in turn represents all the nations in that city.

But how did we all end up in the same place? How did the Ugandan woman

or the family from Hong Kong end up at your church? Each person had to go

through a certain transition, a certain adjustment to be part of the church. In the

United States, the family from Hong Kong can't continue speaking Cantonese,

but must adapt to the English language. Part of whom they are must be shed in

order to be part of the whole. Naturally, there are elements that cannot and should

not be shed. The woman from Uganda cannot shed her darker skin, nor can the

Chinese family shed their black hair. These are natural elements which God

purposely made as unique parts of the kaleidoscope of the earth's cultures.

Think again of the components of a guitar. The back and sides of a guitar

were not always simple slabs of wood. Years ago they were part of a majestic

Brazilian rosewood that stood in a mighty forest. It took severe transformation to

make that huge tree into the back of a guitar. The piece certainly doesn't have the

regal look it had as a massive figure in the forest. Whereas, before it was without

voice, now it can sing as a significant part of a fine instrument. As individuals we

may no longer be trees, but instead a bridge plate. Or we may no longer be a

beautiful raw pearl in an oyster shell, but are instead a position dot on the neck.

As a church, we're made of the different components of an instrument. We have

different colors, textures and innate abilities, yet we make up one unified

instrument, or one church. Now, together—in sumphoneo—we can sing.

As we lose our identities, we're put in the posture of becoming a corporate

church. Lest we become haughty and arrogant, we need to humble ourselves and

realize there are other vital churches in our city. They are the other instruments in

His orchestra. The church down the road doesn't look like a guitar or sound like a

guitar, and isn't even made of the same fiber as a guitar. It is a flute, with a lilting

whisper of the wind, creating beautiful tones of meditation. And the church down

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the road from that one, is a trumpet that will blare forth a prophetic sound,

declaring war upon the enemies. The church across the road is possibly a harp

that brings the beautiful sounds of intimacy and worship. And the church across

town is a tympani. This is one of the main reasons the Lord wants us to lose our

identities on every level. Individually, on a local church level and on an extra-

local level, we can't be arrogant and think we're special because we as a city have

unified ourselves and put together a great meeting or conference. It would be

worth our while to not be arrogant, but to truly humble ourselves as a city, so

there might be a state-wide and national unity brought around the place of praise

and worship. Then we will release the sound of heaven.

If we're looking at a city as an orchestra, we must also think of the sections

involved. There could be ten trumpet churches in the city, ten guitar churches,

and eight tympani. After all, a corporate sound of praise is what God has been

trying to build in us for years. If you remember in the days of the Old Testament

prophets, there was not much attention given to individual salvation. It was a

corporate salvation that encompassed all of God's people. I think God is

reminding us of that now. We need each other to complete the sound, to bring all

the tones, timbres, rhythms and melodic variations to the church. To take it

further, Nashville does not sound like New York. New York does not sound like

New Orleans. And New Orleans does not sound like Boston. The United States

does not sound like Switzerland. Switzerland does not sound like Bangladesh,

nor Bangladesh like Peru. The whole earth has the potential to sound like heaven.

THE SONG OF THE NATIONS

On the day David brought the ark of God, and placed it in the midst of the

tent that would become known as the tabernacle of David, he appointed ministers

of music to minister before the Ark of the Lord. The musicians were to record

songs, and also to thank and praise the Lord God (see I Chronicles 16). On the

first day of a 33-year, 24 hour-a-day worship service, David delivered the first

psalm into the hand of Asaph, one of the chief musicians. Let me point out some

of the highlights of the lyrics of this song. Starting in I Chronicles 16:8-12, 14-

15). David sang:

Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His

deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His

wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice

who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek his face

evermore! Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His

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wonders and the judgments of His mouth, He is the Lord our God; His

judgments are in ALL the earth. Remember His covenant always, The

word which He commanded for a thousand generations.

It sounds like a pretty serious song, doesn't it? Look at verse 23-25:"Sing

to the Lord, ALL the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation

from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders

among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised." And

in verse 31, "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; And let

them say among the nations, The Lord reigns.'" Notice how much the

nations were emphasized in the lyrics of this song. And remember, it was a

song. David said in Psalm 57:7 "My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is

steadfast; I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory! Awake lute and

harp! I will awaken the dawn, I will praise You, O Lord, among the

peoples; I will sing to You among the nations. For Your mercy reaches

unto the heavens, And Your truth unto the clouds. Be exalted, O God,

above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth." As stated

earlier, David said he would sing what he saw. May we begin to sing what we

see. Truly we are in a day of a new revelation that is not new at all. It is a only a

fresh release of the prophetic coming to the sounds that are seen and heard in

God's people. So may the harps, psalteries, guitars, trumpets, banjos, ukuleles,

and tubas that have been fashioned as instruments of praise begin to declare the

glory above all the earth.

David sang lyrics and declared that release of the Lord over his nation and

the nations of the world. Haven't we been given the same lyric? Do we not have

the same God of the nations dwelling in our fixed hearts that David had? Are we

not the last days generation in which God has declared He will rebuild the

tabernacle of David? Therefore, we have the responsibility and ability to respond

in agreement to the call and the anointing on us as a people. We are the

generation that must show forth the praises of God, and release His glory in the

earth.

I believe that we are instruments fashioned for the purpose of high praises

unto our God. If you go to an opera or ballet, the stage is set for the visual show.

The orchestra finds itself in a pit, only creating a supporting background for the

visual performance of the dancers. But I believe that the real orchestra of the

spirit is no longer in the pit, it's on stage.

PREPARING THE ORCHESTRA

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If you've ever had the opportunity to hear a major symphony, you know the

power and impact it can have upon the emotions of an audience. With the rise

and fall of dynamics, beauty comes from the masterpieces composed over the

centuries. When I go to a symphony, it is intriguing what takes place before they

start: the hustle and bustle, the rustling of papers, the scurrying of musicians, the

squeaks and squawks of the woodwinds tuning, the moaning of the double basses

and the last minute preparations of the percussion section. After 20 to 30 minutes

of the sounds of pandemonium, the conductor gives three simple taps of the

baton upon the podium. Immediately everything comes to attention. A massive

sound of unity and agreement is suddenly heard, whereas 10 seconds earlier, the

sound of dissonance and disagreement dominated the room. Three little clicks on

the podium changed everything. As the conductor's hands are raised, the

downbeat is imminent. Hustle and bustle gives way to order, as every eye in the

orchestra focuses on the conductor. With his gestures and facial expressions, he

conducts the dynamics of each section of the orchestra. With his hand, he mixes

and blends the music as it is being played. To start, however, we hear a simple

first tap of the conductor's baton. Click.

The physical setup of an orchestra gives every player a clear line of vision to

the conductor. From the flutist to the cellist, every member of the orchestra must

have the ability to simultaneously see their music and the conductor. A music

stand is positioned so that a musician hardly has to move his eyes from the score,

and can simply stare over the top of his pages to see the next instruction from the

conductor. God has given us His Word as our music. As a church, we have

rehearsed it over and over again. But in order to play in agreement with God's

instructions—in sumphoneo with His direction—we must keep our eyes on the

conductor of all men, Jesus Christ. We must keep a clear line of vision to see His

command of when we should come in, when we should back off a little, or when

we should play a phrase with every ounce of energy in us. To sound the music of

His Word, we must be in complete accordance with His conducting. I venture to

say that if we listen closely we can hear the second click of a heavenly baton

calling every eye to Him. Click. Click. May we be in tune.

The difference between a warrior and a wimp is simple. When the heat of

battle comes, the wimp folds and the warrior focuses. As individuals warm up in

a corporate sound of dissonance, the conductor gives opportunity for the

preparation, the hustle and bustle, the shaping, molding, and fine tuning of each

instrument. We've come to the place now that two clicks have been heard. Before

the third click is sounded, we must determine in our hearts whether we are wimps

or warriors. On the third click, we must be ready to release the thunder of a pure

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tone. Immediately after the third click is heard, His hands are raised to signify an

inhaling. When the conductor's hands come down, it will be the prompting to

exhale a blast of the wind of the Spirit and jolt the enemies of God into

submission to His authority in us.

Before the Conductor's arms swing down in a sweeping motion to start the

music, every player must know his place. No more wishy-washy personality

conflicts of wondering if you're in the right section, or even in the right orchestra.

Every musician has a purpose and a holy assurance of his important and needed

role to the entire orchestra. As the members of David's orchestra spent their

entire lives creating, molding, and shaping their instruments to become

extensions of themselves, our lives must be the instruments of our worship.

Through this, our place in His orchestra is sure.

Have you ever wondered what use an orchestra would possibly have for a

piccolo? The piccolo has consistently been an instrument of revolution. It has

been the aggressive cry, the front-leader of warriors marching in a unified

purpose to declare war against their enemy. In the spirit, the piccolo is a foghorn.

Behind the sounds of the piccolo and drum of the revolutionary war beat, the

hearts of a people willing to give their lives for their beliefs. The very truth that

we yawn about today, they gave their blood for yesterday. The living faith of the

dead has become the dead faith of the living. But God wants to release a sound

within us that will bring resurrection to the church. We have to begin to see

ourselves as a corporate sound, a people who have humbled ourselves and sought

the face of God.

Though some of us are mined as silver out of Germany, we have to lose our

identities as Germans. Though some were once mighty rosewood trees in a

Brazilian forest, now we find ourselves as a plain slab of wood on the back of a

guitar. Though we maintain some individual qualities, we have to humble

ourselves to come into unity and agreement with some of the other components

that make up the church, or the guitar, if you will. With this in mind, let me

paraphrase a song we all know. It's the 133rd song in the book of Psalms: "Now

see how good and how pleasant it is to have lost our identities as a result of the

molding, shaping, chiseling, and sanding of the hand of God on our lives that

would cause us to become one instrument, united for the purpose of coming into

agreement with the sound of heaven—the sound of corporate worship that

requires corporate humility. And as God plays through His Body, both

corporately and individually, may the sound of heaven and the symphony of

earth resound its never-ending praise to Him."

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The Father is eager to release into our earthly realm sounds of heaven that

will radically change the corporate walk of the church. These supernatural sounds

contain the powerful essence of His creative voice and nature. As God's people

come together with one unified voice to worship Him, the sounds of our praises

will rise to His throne as a powerful symphony from the earth. I believe His

response to earth's symphony will be an outpouring of the sounds of heaven both

in us and the creation around us. The eternal praises, the sound of heaven, will

merge with the symphony of earth. Let's individually and corporately pursue the

high praises of God, giving ourselves to the worship of Jesus. As we do, we will

enter the realm of the sounds of heaven, and the sounds of heaven will enter the

realm of the earth. Our God will then receive the praise and honor of which He is

so worthy.

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Additional Reading List

For additional helpful sources of reading on topics covered in this book, please

read:

Bauer, Marion, and Ethel Peyser, How Music Grew, Putnam, New York, 1939.

Burk, Cassie, et al., America's Musical Heritage, Laidlaw, New York, 1942.

Forbes, George, William Wallace: Freedom Fighter, Lang Syne, Glasgow, 1996.

Geiringer, Karl, Musical Instruments, Trans. Bernard Miall, Oxford UP, New

York, 1945.

Grame, Theodore, America's Ethnic Music, Cultural Maintenance, Tarpon

Springs, 1976.

Howard, John Tasker, and George Kent Bellows, A Short History of Music in

America, New York, 1957.

Leichtentritt, Hugo, Music, History and Ideas, Harvard UP, Cambridge, 1946.

Lomax, Alan, The Folk Songs of North America, Doubleday, New York, 1960.

Machlis, Joseph, The Enjoyment of Music, Norton & Co., New York, 1955.

Oliver, Paul, The Story of Blues, Chilton, New York, 1969.

Paterson, John, The Praises of Israel, Scribner, New York, 1950.

Scott, Sir Walter, Scotland, Collier, New York, 1829.

Small, Stephen, An Irish Century: 1845-1945, Barnes & Noble, New York, 1998.

Tyack, Rev. G. S., A Book About Bells, Andrews & Co., London, 1898.

Wood, Alex, The Physical Basis of Music, Cambridge UP, Cambridge, 1913.

119

Document Outline

- Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

- Dedication

- Contents

- Introduction

- INFORMATION OR IN-FORMATION

- WORSHIPING GOD'S WAY

- 1 Snakes in the Hen House

- THE EYE OF THE EAGLE

- 2 The Big Band Sound of the Church

- “GODIDIC" WORSHIP

- 3 Science of Sound

- SIGHT AND SOUND

- SEEING AND SINGING

- 4 Sounds of Shouting, Marching & Rain

- SHOUT!

- SHOUT FOR THE PRESENCE

- PRESUMPTION BRINGS DEFEAT

- THE SOUND OF MARCHING

- THE SOUND OF RAIN

- THE SOUND OF CHARIOTS AND HORSES

- 5 Early American Sound

- THE SOUND OF THE STORM

- SONGS OF DELIVERANCE

- SPIRITUALS AND SHOUTS

- THE SOUND OF SLAVERY

- THE BLUES WERE BORN BLACK

- RAW AND RUGGED'S OK

- 6 Water & Thunder

- DEDICATING TIKES AND TEMPLES

- THE SOUND OF UNITY

- 7 Resistance & Sound

- CHANGING SOUND

- A GLORIFIED SOUND

- RESOLVED TENSION

- 8 Ringing the Bells of Heaven

- CALLING THEM IN

- CHRISTMAS BELLS

- 9 Trumpets, Shofars & Ram’s Horns

- THE BLAST ON HIGH STREET

- SHOFARS AND SILVER TRUMPETS

- 10 Drums of Thunder

- TIMBRELS AND CYMBALS

- IN RHYTHM WITH GOD

- 11 Leaving Egypt with a New Sound

- WORSHIPING IN BONDAGE

- WORSHIP IN THE EARLY CHURCH

- 12 The Sound of War

- A WORSHIPING WILLIAM WALLACE

- A SOUND OF DEATH

- WHEN GOD SINGS BASS

- 13 The Sound of Heaven

- PEOPLE OF PRAISE

- THE IRISH SOUND

- A CHURCH WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS

- 14 The Symphony of Earth

- THE SYMPHONY OF SOUND

- THE ORCHESTRA OF GOD

- AN ORCHESTRA OF NATIONS

- THE SONG OF THE NATIONS

- PREPARING THE ORCHESTRA

- Additional Reading List

Table of Contents

Introduction

Snakes in the Hen House

The Big Band Sound of the Church

Science of Sound

Sounds of Shouting, Marching & Rain

Early American Sound

Water & Thunder

Resistance & Sound

Ringing the Bells of Heaven

Trumpets, Shofars & Ram’s Horns

Drums of Thunder

Leaving Egypt with a New Sound

The Sound of War

The Sound of Heaven

The Symphony of Earth

Additional Reading List

Sound of Heaven, Symphony of Earth

Dedication

Contents

WORSHIPING GOD'S WAY

THE EYE OF THE EAGLE

“GODIDIC" WORSHIP

SIGHT AND SOUND

SEEING AND SINGING

SHOUT FOR THE PRESENCE

PRESUMPTION BRINGS DEFEAT

THE SOUND OF MARCHING

THE SOUND OF CHARIOTS AND HORSES

THE SOUND OF THE STORM

SONGS OF DELIVERANCE

SPIRITUALS AND SHOUTS

THE SOUND OF SLAVERY

THE BLUES WERE BORN BLACK

RAW AND RUGGED'S OK

DEDICATING TIKES AND TEMPLES

THE SOUND OF UNITY

CHANGING SOUND

A GLORIFIED SOUND

CALLING THEM IN

CHRISTMAS BELLS

THE BLAST ON HIGH STREET

SHOFARS AND SILVER TRUMPETS

TIMBRELS AND CYMBALS

IN RHYTHM WITH GOD

WORSHIPING IN BONDAGE

WORSHIP IN THE EARLY CHURCH

A SOUND OF DEATH

WHEN GOD SINGS BASS

THE IRISH SOUND

A CHURCH WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS