Last week, I was at a worship weekend at Glory Zion (my Mandarin morning church). One of the things we do at Glory of Zion is pray and discern if the Holy Spirit prompts you to go up and lead worship from the stage. If this sounds familiar to you, yes, this is one of the places where I got the idea to do so for Wildfire.
On Saturday morning, I didn’t really feel any kind of nudge or conviction to go up and lead, so I didn’t, but our leader told me that that depending on what the team receives during worship, I might get called up anyway.
The worship was pretty powerful. The presence of the Lord was saturating the room, and so many people were getting things from the Lord to release in the worship in song and dance. Midway through the session, one of the worship leads felt led to switch out to another instrument and called me up, so I went up to take his place. I even received a song or two to lead up there. It was pretty good.
Worship is definitely a form of spiritual warfare, and it can be pretty draining too. After the morning session, I was pretty low on energy and and we all know the feeling of being sleepy after eating a large lunch. With that promising combination, I don’t really know if it was my spirit, soul, or body saying, “no, I didn’t receive anything from the Lord about leading worship,” but I know I was definitely starting to doze off during the afternoon worship session.
Someone nicely pulled me into the dance portion of worship (probably to keep me awake), and at some point, I was walking the fine line between soaking and sleeping. At another point, one of the worship leaders felt led to join the dance worshippers, and his spot was open. He asked if I wanted to take his spot, but I was feeling that the Lord said “It’s ok to rest and just soak it in”, so I did just that and stayed where I was.
This really reminded me of a passage in Ecclesiastes:
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
– Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
If you look at the things described in this passage, they’re not inherently good or bad (for the most part) but there is, as Solomon said, a timing and season to everything, which is predestined by God.
I saw this theme throughout the worship weekend. There was a time to lead, to rest, to dance, to lie down and soak, and, unbeknownst to me before I almost got stepped on, a time to continue dancing. There was also a time to pray, to get anointed with oil, and to share testimonies. It was through the Holy Spitit’s guidance that all these shifts and times happened.
I’ll admit that it can feel more normal and comfortable to just keep doing what we’ve always been doing. I thought I would help lead worship on guitar for the whole weekend, as that’s what I usually do, but that afternoon session of not leading was a time for me to rest and receive what God wanted to show and give me. It was different from the morning session, but it was good.
Sometimes God will call us to something just as good or even better than what we’ve been doing, but in His time. It’s up to us to seek and listen for His guidance to discern what season He has us in and act on it.
Lord, please guide us into the time and season that we need to be in. Let us not get so comfortable in what we’ve been doing that we miss or ignore the time and season you’ve called us into. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart that yearns to sense, see, and act on your direction.
In Jesus Name we pray, Amen!