To whoever wants to hear, I received a very clear word from the Lord earlier this week.
I bought myself a classical guitar for Christmas this year, and have been practicing regularly. When playing classical style music, the guitarist is responsible for playing both the rhythm and lead simultaneously. Once skilled, a single guitarist can produce a sound which resembles that of multiple musicians. For a novice, it can be painful learning to keep the two separate streams of music separate yet cohesive.
Likewise, I feel God spoke to me very vividly that the majority of the church can be broken in to one of two groups- rhythm or lead. The rhythm must be very consistent throughtout the song, because it provides the pulse of the music. The lead plays off of the reliability of the rhythm, but is itself unpredictable, improvising outside of what was planned.
When God gave me this image, I was able to clearly see the source of much static within the church. At some point in most everyone’s life we find ourselves complaining “Why can’t other people be more like me?”, whether that be in consisitency, productivity, originality, spontaneity, whatever. We would be much better off appreciating the differences of one another instead of trying to pressure or shame others into being more like us.
Can you imagine how boring a song would be if the lead conformed itself to the contraints imposed on it by rhythm? Or how chaotic a song would be if rhythm was pressured into improvising with the lead? I pray God open our eyes to recognize which we and others are, that we might not conform to an unnatural role God did not give us, and also not pressure someone else out of their God given position. Each type needs to be playing from the sheet music God has given them to produce the sweet sound desired.
Shinja Ninja 