Freedom and the Voice of God

I have just started reading Bill Hybels book, The Power Of A Whisper. Near the beginning of the book Bill talks about some of his experiences in hearing the voice of God, and how awesome and humbling it is to know that God would speak to us. Specifically to us.

Reading the first pages of the book reminded me of a time when I was as frustrated as I could be as a worship leader. We had joined the staff of a church in the northwest part of Denver and my assignment was to help transition this church from a fairly traditional congregational singing church to a worshipping church. What this entailed was working with a choir and musicians, helping them understand what we were trying to do, and to communicate to the congregation, mostly by our actions and attitudes and not a lot of talking. Week after week I carefully prepared music that would help us all make this transition. We learned some wonderful new worship music, we put together a small vocal worship team, we rehearsed faithfully each week, and we blended hymns and older songs into the mix so there would be something for everyone, and nothing. I mean nothing. Each week it felt like our musical offerings to the Lord made it to the end of our stage and dropped off onto the floor. I would look out and see people yawning, talking, half heartedly singing and it would wipe me out. I can remember telling the Lord how futile it was trying to help this congregation learn to worship Him.

On one Sunday, after the second service of the day, I was driving home alone, feeling sorry for myself and complaining to the Lord about how I thought things had gone. And then God spoke to me. I can take you to the exact place in the road where it happened. While I don't believe I heard the audible voice of God, the impact created a lifetime transformation for me. He said, "You are not responsible for any results. When you lead people into My Presence, it is up to Me to affect their lives. All you need to do is to worship Me, worship with all your heart, people will watch you, join with you and they will enter My Presence where I will have the opportunity to change their lives". I cannot tell you how freeing that was for me. While it took some time to totally let go of my need to "see people respond", it was the beginning of a change for this congregation. After this encounter I began to have people come up to me and tell me how "meaningful this song was", or "I really was able to worship God this morning". Sometimes people made these kind of comments to me and I remember looking out over the congregation and not seeing anything unusual happening to them. No hands raised, no "heavenly glow", but it didn't matter. God was at work and I didn't have to worry about the results. If you are in a ministry position today and you are struggling with your effectiveness, just do what God has called you to do. Let Him take care of the results. It's freeing....it really is.