Romans 12:1
2 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. (NLT)
Deuteronomy 5:29-
29 Oh, that they would always have hearts like this, that they might fear me and obey all my commands! If they did, they and their descendants would prosper forever. (NLT)
I had a dream…
As I looked up, I saw that I was sitting on a chair in a gathering of people. It was impressed upon me that though I was not in a church, this gathering was meant to be a service, dedicated to worship and studying the word of God. There must have been about 30 people in the enclave where I was sitting, and several more standing around the area. Everyone looked bored, and people were lounging about in a somber manner. The atmosphere felt bizarre because it was clear that nobody really wanted to be there.
Suddenly, I noticed that there was a screen facing the audience, in front of the enclave where I sat. A man walked up to me and said, “Have you ever heard of ‘Senseè’ music?” (he pronounced it ‘Sen-say’, and in the dream it seemed as though was meant to be emulating a French word that sounded similar to the word ‘sensual’).
I said no, and he then told me that he would put it on for me and show me. He had a device that connected to the screen, and suddenly loud music rang out in the area and colorful pictures filled the screen. The lyrics to the music playing appeared on the screen as well.
At first, I strained to recognize the music, it sounded like French Afrobeat’s. The music was catchy, and I began to move my body from side to side. I stood engrossed in my thoughts for a split-second, but before I could reply to the man, I noticed that the atmosphere had completely changed. Everyone in the area became extremely excited and began to dance vigorously. Even the lighting was brighter, and I was surrounded by smiles and cheers.
I thought to myself as I moved from side to side, “This music sounds good, like Tay-c, he is good/talented”. Immediately, the song playing changed to “African Sugar”, by Tay-c and Tiwa Savage. The lyrics appeared on the screen as Tiwa sang, and they were incredibly explicit and raunchy. Even more so than the song in real life. Everybody kept dancing with fervor.
A voice cried out, “Look at the people who are supposed to be worshipping God!”, and I swung my head back.
I peered in shock at the crowd behind me. People were grinding on one another in a sexual manner. Men on men, women on women, women on men. Pairs of 2, 3, and 4. As my body moved, I felt so uncomfortable. I closed my eyes and looked up thinking, “What am I doing here? I don’t want to be here. I don’t belong here.” I hated the atmosphere of the place.
When I opened my eyes again, the crowd was gone. I felt so tired and sad, and I walked up to a couch to lay down. I saw some clothes strewn about the couch, and in the dream, I knew the people had gone to fornicate. As I lay down, I could see a woman with a hair covering sitting at the back of the room, and she gave me a knowing smile. I remembered that I had seen her at the very beginning of the worship service, before the afrobeat’s music came on, and it seemed as if she had sat there to watch and wait when the music started. I closed my eyes.
At this point, I woke up.
When I woke up, I was in shock for a while. It took me several minutes to process what I had seen before I prayed. The dream brought up so many thoughts and emotions, it reminded me of my own process as of late. In the past year, one of the many things God convicted me about was my music library. I had to delete 90% of it.
I used to be the Afrobeat’s aficionado, there was hardly an artist/song that I did not know. I love being Nigerian (as most people who know a Nigerian will say, we won’t shut up about being Nigerian). Don’t get me wrong, who can blame us? We’ve got the juice, and the sauce (humbly 🙂 ).
Being so proud of my people, I was also enthusiastic about the music. West African Afrobeat’s is dominating the world stage, and listening to the music made me feel more ‘Nigerian’. I even felt that if I stopped listening to it, it would be as if I was disowning my own cultural heritage. To the point where over time, I ignored the small voice in me that was disturbed, until I couldn’t hear anything anymore.
The juice, and the sauce.
When God began to deal with me last year, I didn’t give up the music at first. I wanted to hold onto it, as if I could spare my spirit the consequence of listening, as long as I didn’t act on the lyrics. But then over time, I began to hear the phrase ‘Christ over culture’. Where does my primary identity come from?
I had to take an honest look at the music I was listening to. Not all Afrobeat’s is bad, there are still some things I can listen to, and I cannot tell others what to do, but as for me as a Christian many of my favorite artists were profane. All they sang about was the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (i.e. women -and how they were enthralled with their bodies as they danced, money, fame, boasting about others coveting them, and how their material possessions exalted them above others).
1 John 2:16
16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. (NLT)
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (KJV)
James 3:14-16
14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
I would dance to music glamorizing fornication, even though I am a woman saving myself for marriage. I would sing “Life is all about the money oh!”, even though my bible tells me in Ecclesiastes 12:13, “Everything you were taught can be put into a few words: Respect and obey God! This is what life is all about.” I moved through my music library with cognitive dissonance, for fear of alienating myself or seeming ‘too extreme’ or ‘holier than though’.
1 Peter 2:11
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; (KJV)
11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. (NLT)
Honestly, I can now step back and see that sometimes the music was ministering to an insecure part of me. It also empowered my flesh. I was verbally and emotionally abused by my peers quite a lot growing up, and usually the topic of concern would be my appearance and/or desirability. I can’t tell you the number of times I was called ugly or worse, and if I had a dollar for every time, I’d be on the cover of Forbes magazine. When you hear something so much, you can begin to believe it. And even after growing up and coming into my own, having been affirmed by God and those that love me, something deep inside of me would still feel like that hurt girl. In listening to and dancing to the music, I could live vicariously through it. I would feel affirmed and beautiful. And in knowing the influence that my beauty and allure could have, I would even feel powerful.
Life is spiritual. And of all the elements of this life, music is one of the most spiritual. Every song has a spirit that inspired it, and the aim of the spirit is always to minister through the musician to receive worship from those that hear it. Even if the people listening are physically still, the spirit is still satisfied as long the message/influence of the music has come into agreement with something inside of the person. Why? Because worship happens in the spirit. Worship is another word for communion. When we worship God, in the physical realm we may see a person standing there with hands lifted, but in the spiritual realm their human spirit is coming into agreement with the Spirit of God, in submission. Worship is an act of intimacy that renders the worshiper subject/slave to the influence and molding power of the adulated being.
To worship is to come into agreement with a spirit, in the spirit, so that you can act/live out the influence of the spirit you are exalting in the physical realm.
Example of David ministering to Saul when he was troubled by demonic spirits:
1 Samuel 16:14-23
14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit[a] that filled him with depression and fear.
15 Some of Saul’s servants said to him, “A tormenting spirit from God is troubling you.
16 Let us find a good musician to play the harp whenever the tormenting spirit troubles you. He will play soothing music, and you will soon be well again.”
17 “All right,” Saul said. “Find me someone who plays well ,and bring him here.”
18 One of the servants said to Saul, “One of Jesse’s sons from Bethlehem is a talented harp player. Not only that—he is a brave warrior, a man of war, and has good judgment. He is also a fine-looking young man, and the Lord is with him.”
19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, the shepherd.”
20 Jesse responded by sending David to Saul, along with a young goat, a donkey loaded with bread, and a wineskin full of wine.
21 So David went to Saul and began serving him. Saul loved David very much, and David became his armor bearer.
22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse asking, “Please let David remain in my service, for I am very pleased with him.”
23 And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away.
David’s music didn’t even have words, but that’s because it’s not the lyrics that determine the effect of the music. It’s the intent behind the music, the influence of the spirit that inspires the music, that matters. The Spirit David was submitted to was the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor 3:17). David ministered out of the intent of the Spirit of God, and under that influence Saul felt relief. You cannot separate the art from the artist, because whatever spirit the artist is submitted to, will be the spirit ministering to you through their art.
“You cannot separate the art from the artist, because whatever spirit the artist is submitted to, will be the spirit ministering to you through their art.”
God’s Spirit chooses to operate through people to accomplish his will on the face of the earth. Other spirits need to operate through people, and they need the devotion of human bodies to accomplish their will. One means of securing devotion is through music, because of its addictive influence on the human spirit and psyche. (Why is it so hard to give certain songs/artist up?) Demonic spirits are aware of this principle, and unfortunately, their music and influence has entered into the body of Christ, to our detriment.
And so back to the dream.
One of the things I love most about God is how he is concerned with the details of our lives (Ps 37:23), and he’s a straight shooter. He cuts through the superficial fluff in all things and gets his message across (Heb. 4:12). Isn’t it wonderful to serve a God who speaks from the heart, to the heart?
At the point in time when I had this dream, I had already stopped listening to most secular Afrobeats artists on my personal time. However, a few days earlier I had used the song “African Sugar” by Tay-c, as the background song for one of my Instagram stories. When using the music for my story something in me was cautioned, but I brushed it off as me just being ‘extreme’ with my religion, or ‘paranoid’. I’ll say this, I’m grateful that God made sure his heart was heard by using the song in the dream, despite my disobedience. I am still being led by the Spirit about what my boundaries will be concerning music. Does that mean I won’t go be able to any African parties anymore (cuz all they play is Afrobeats)? I honestly don’t know. I’m just sharing my progress along this journey.
Hebrews 4:12-12 God’s Word is living and powerful. It is sharper than a sword that cuts both ways. It cuts straight into where the soul and spirit meet, and it divides them. It cuts into the joints and bones. It tells what the heart is thinking about and what it wants to do.
God’s heart is this:
“15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16.
The dream spoke about the grief of God, over his children having lost passion for his house. His children being excited over content that influences them to lust and fall into sin, but being bored when it’s time to worship him. Lust, sin, distraction, and preoccupation goes well beyond our music choices. Lust and selfish ambition, just as worship, is a lifestyle.
James 3:16
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
Haggai 1: 9-11
9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
“because of you the heavens have withheld their dew…”
Are we, as the body of Christ, so full of lust and selfish ambition, that we spend all our time running after our own vision for our lives? Running after our own glory? So consumed with temporary pleasure, and achievement, that we have neglected God’s kingdom and his standards for our lives? And then wondering why we aren’t fulfilled, why things are going wrong, why God isn’t blessing what we’re doing? And when the things that preoccupy us seem to go well for a time, even when we aren’t living right, do we confuse that as God’s emphatic approval of our lifestyles?
Malachi 3:8-12
8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!
“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’
“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 11 Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Let’s not cheat God. Though we are no longer under the law in tithes and offerings, the principle remains the same. God’s character remains the same. Once we enter into a covenant with him, we then learn what he requires of us, in order to offer him what he is due. And what he is due is us, our wholeheartedness.
Romans 12:1
2 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. (NLT)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (NIV)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (KJV)
An Open Heaven
Why are we no longer seeing miracles? Healing, signs, and wonders? Why are the heavens closed?
To worship is to regard with extravagant respect, honor, or devotion.
If we yearn to see the miracles, power, wonders, and blessings of a supernatural God in an ‘extravagant’ and ‘in your face’ way, what God requires is worship, which is extravagant obedience. Obedience that may at times seem a bit ‘too much’. We must live life like Jesus, in a way that says, “Everything I do is so that the Word, all righteousness, will be fulfilled”.
We must live life like Jesus, in a way that says, “Everything I do is so that the Word, all righteousness, will be fulfilled”.
Matthew 3: 15-16
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Deuteronomy 28: 12-13
12 The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. 13 If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.
The purpose of sending rain is to multiply something. God uses his rain to show his favor, and to mark something as representative of him. If there is a seed that looks like him, in due time he will water it, so it grows, and in it’s prosperity and abundance he gets the ultimate glory.
If God were to rain on you, would it bring him glory?
Luke 2:14-
“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
So let’s do our best, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to live lives that are pleasing to God. We can’t accomplish it in our own efforts, but in him all things are possible (Mark 9:23). Let’s remember him in the music we listen to, the way we treat others, and the achievements we run after. Where, or from whom, does the mental picture of our ‘ideal life’ come from? Let’s remember to consult him for that too. He promises us that in remembering him, he will remember us.
Shall we run our race together, under an open heaven?
Malachi 3:16-18
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name.
17 “They will be my people,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. 18 Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
Prayer:
Dear Father, thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being holy. Thank you for never changing. Worship, and holiness, is a privilege. We thank you for the sacrifice of your Son, that gives us the privilege of worshiping you. Lord, please help us to live lives that are worthy of what you established for us on the cross. Because you have made us righteous, we are righteous. So please help us live as righteous people. We pray for the discernment, strength, and obedience, to accomplish that in this world. Let your will be done on Earth, through us. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.
