I have had "Invisible" by Kierra "KiKi" Sheard on repeat for a couple days now. In the song, Kierra is talking about how some gospel singers have now made everything about them. The song starts out, "A total eclipse has just begun, we've blocked out the Son. Can't believe this is what we've come to." Yea...neither can I, but that hit me so hard. It really hit me because I always say "I will serve God with all my heart, it's not about me, it's about Him reaching His people," but when I get up to sing every Sunday, it's a different story. I tend to worry about what the music sounds like and why I'm hearing things I really don't want to hear. The last thing on my mind while I'm up there is, I'm a vessel being used by God. Now we(the praise team, and musicians) pray together before service with one of the ministers but after that prayer, it seems as though we never prayed for God to use us.
The hook says "It's time to take to the stage, then I'll move out the way, so that they only see You that's inside of me. Don't let me block the view, that's not what I want to do. I want to be seen through, make sure they see You. Make me invisible..." My sincere prayer before service should be something like, "God I pray that you would show up today and use me as Your vessel. I will decrease so that you may increase. God make me invisible so that people will see You and not me. Holy Spirit, have your way in this place." The Word says, in John 3:30, "He must increase but I must decrease." We need too take heed to that verse. God can only increase if we decrease and put ourselves aside.
This blog is not just for singers and performers, but for leaders and clergy, as well as those who witness or testify. When we speak to people, they should not be seeing us, meaning, nothing should be about us. The focus should be on God. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't use yourself as an example to glorify God. Just don't make everything about you and say things like, "I did this" and "I did that," now I have peace, thank you JeSUSSSSS!!! God gave you peace, so it's not what you did.
I have some questions:
- Preachers, when you get up to do a sermon, are you focused on making sure God gets all the glory and letting him use you? Or are you trying to sound and look good? Are you just trying to get to your whoop so that people can get hype? Or are you trying to decrease yourself so that God can use you as a vessel to reach His people?
-Congregation, are you focused on what other people are doing to determine the reaction they will get from you? If you were in a dark room with a bunch or people and all you could do was hear and see the scriptures posted up on a screen, would you still have the same reaction you would have if the preacher was visible and jumping all over the pulpit? (Nothing against that, if the spirit causes you to jump, by all means, jump your life away.)
My point is that we need to start making God the ONLY focus in our lives, while preaching, while teaching, while singing, while praise dancing, while playing instruments. God make us invisible...
"My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him." -Psalm 62:5
Love you much!!!
Sista T
Dope! John 3:30 is such a challenging verse. I not only agree with what you said above, but also would even take this a step further, beyond the walls of the church and beyond those in leadership, and say that for any person who follows Christ, how we "perform" at our job, in our homes, on the train, in our day-to-day life, all of that should direct attention to God and demonstrate God's worth.
ReplyDelete(Matt 5:14-16, 1 Cor 10:31)
Great post T! I hope you keep 'em comin.