Hungry people are always on the lookout for that which will satisfy their hunger. Once they have acknowledged their craving, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, feeding it becomes their first priority. Wherever they go and whatever they do, they have their nutritional “antenna” out, searching for even the tiniest signal that says, “Nourishment here.” Hunger motivates them to diligently seek something they otherwise might not even think about.
In the natural world we are surrounded by an endless cacophony of signals and messages of all kinds. They are in the very air around us: radio waves, television signals, cellular telephone communications, satellite digital transmissions, and the like. We live in the midst of an electronic “cocoon” of broadcast transmissions, both verbal and nonverbal, both civilian and military. In a very literal sense, there is music in the air (not to mention newscasts, talk shows, commercials, and every other type of communication imaginable).
All of these are completely silent to us, however, unless we have an antenna to pick up the signal and a receiver to interpret the message. We turn on our radio or television, adjust the tuner to a particular frequency or channel, and we can find the news or music or program we desire. What we choose to watch or listen to is up to us, but the choice itself is often difficult because there are so many options. Depending on our choices, we can either nourish or starve our spirit.
In order to nourish our spirit, we have to put out our spiritual “antenna.” Just as the physical air around us is full of signals and messages—“music in the air”—so the spiritual atmosphere is always filled with the melody of Heaven. In order to hear that melody we must have our spiritual antenna in place and tuned to the right frequency; otherwise we may pick up songs of darkness instead.
As Christians, we have two-way communication with the Lord that is on the air 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Holy Spirit is our divine “transceiver” through whom we both receive the melody of God and transmit our response. This kind of intimate interaction between God and us is the heart of both worship and prayer. When we are filled with the Spirit, He adjusts our “fine tuning” so that we are in perfect alignment with God’s “frequency.” The Spirit puts us on Heaven’s “wavelength” so that we can pick up the “harmonic vibrations” of God. Our best response is to pray in the Spirit through speaking in tongues. By praying in the Spirit we sing back to God a melody in response to what we have heard from Him through the Spirit.
Praying in tongues helps us pick up the melody of the Lord. God has given each of us a song to sing; the challenge is learning what it is. It may be a Scripture, an extended message, or perhaps only a single word. Whatever our song, we need to sing it with joy and enthusiasm. Praying in the Spirit—in tongues—gets us in harmony with Heaven and in line to understand the will of God. The apostle Paul recognized the importance of making this connection, which is why he wrote to the believers in Ephesus:
Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God (Ephesians 5:17-21).
On the Day of Pentecost, some scoffers accused the Spirit-baptized believers of being drunk. Even today, many Spirit-filled Christians often describe the experience as being “drunk in the Spirit.” In reality, however, there is a great difference between being drunk and being in the Spirit. Paul described being drunk with wine as “dissipation,” which means to expend wastefully in intemperate living or to be dissolute in the pursuit of pleasure. In another sense, the word means to allow something to spread thin or seep away. Drunkenness wastes gifts and talents. Alcohol is a depressant. Contrary to what many drinkers believe, intoxication dulls alertness and numbs sensibilities. It is impossible for someone under the influence of alcohol to perform at peak efficiency in any area.
Being filled with the Spirit, on the other hand, heightens our spiritual acuity. It increases our clarity of vision and understanding in both the spiritual and natural realms and raises our sensitivity to spiritual truth. That is why Paul placed such importance on it. The Holy Spirit, when He comes, brings to us an indescribable joy and a touch of the glory of Heaven. Being filled with the Spirit is not a one-time-only experience; the Lord’s will is that we be filled over and over and over again. In Greek, the word for “be filled” in verse 18 represents continuing action: “be being filled with the Spirit.” We are to experience continuous in-fillings. Our initial baptism in the Spirit is just the beginning, the first dose. We need to keep on being filled with the Spirit.
One result of that filling is that we will speak to one another “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” The filling of the Spirit, then, encourages and strengthens Christian fellowship. Another result is that we will sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord. Being filled with the Spirit draws us into deeper and more intimate communion with our heavenly Father. Making melody in our hearts to God by praying in the Spirit helps us stay connected to an open Heaven. When we speak in tongues, we cooperate or move in harmony with the “waves” of God’s glory. Speaking in tongues puts us in step with the mind and will of the Holy Spirit.
The more we pray in tongues, the more in tune we will be with the Holy Spirit, and the more in tune we are with the Holy Spirit, the more He will make our heart sing. We will pick up a melody of God that we cannot help but repeat. This will help protect our spirit because it keeps us focused on the right things. While one song is going on, it is difficult for us to sing another one. As long as we are singing the songs of heaven, of glory, of healing, of restoration, of the prophetic anointing, and of the end-time restoration of the Lord, we won’t be singing songs of darkness from the enemy. The world around us is full of those, too. Singing the melody of God will help us follow Paul’s admonition to “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:1b-2).
Getting in tune with Heaven means setting our minds and spirits on the things of God, things that align with His character and nature. Again, in the words of Paul:
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things (Philippians 4:8).
One of the keys to hearing and singing God’s melody in our hearts is to get into the habit of “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20). A thankless heart or an ungrateful spirit will drown out the melody of God. The more thankful we are, the more we will open the door of God’s blessings for ourselves and our families. Ingratitude, grumbling, and complaining, on the other hand, will make us more susceptible to demonic influence ruling over our situation.
Be filled with the Spirit. Pray in tongues. Make melody in your heart to the Lord, and bring in the atmosphere of glory.
Picking up the melody of God is like becoming a spiritual tuning fork. A tuning fork is a two-pronged instrument made out of a very pure metal that when struck vibrates at a precise frequency, producing a pure pitch with no overtones. If a vibrating tuning fork is brought into contact with a hard sur -face, such as a table, and another tuning fork that is not vibrating is also brought into contact with that surface, the second tuning fork will pick up the vibrations of the first one and begin vibrating in synchronization with it.
When we pray in the Spirit we are like that second tuning fork. The first fork hums with the vibrant harmonies of God, which are then transmitted through the table (the Holy Spirit). As we connect with the Spirit in prayer, we begin to “hum” in sympathetic resonance to the divine melody. Nothing feels better mentally or spiritually than to resonate “in synch” with God—to feel His “vibes”—or in the words of that classic Beach Boys’ song, to pick up those “good vibrations.”
To resonate with someone means to relate harmoniously or to be in harmony with him or her. Another meaning is to agree. When we resonate with the melody of God, it means we are in harmony with Him and in agreement with His will. We are “in synch” with One to whom everything belongs and for whom nothing is impossible.
Love is the melody of God. The main theme of His song is the blood of Jesus shed at Calvary, and it has many variations. Jesus was “struck” for us and the vibration of His death resonates louder than any other vibration in our lives. The blood of Jesus speaks for us. God’s love song sets our spirits humming in harmony with the One who was struck on our behalf.
A vibrating tuning fork gives off a tone that is very soft and hard to hear. A hard surface amplifies the tone so that it becomes plainly audible. In the same way, the Holy Spirit amplifies the melody of God so that we can hear it and sing along. We must be quiet, however, and listen to hear God’s love song. Psalm 46:10a says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” He wants to release us into peace without fear, into a love that is confident in letting go of our anxieties and dependence upon our own good works, to rest in His mercy and grace. Once we let go of our own song, we are able to pick up the Lord’s song from Heaven and sing in harmony with Him.
Singing the melody of God does more than just put us in harmony with Him vertically; it also harmonizes us horizontally with other believers, particularly those in the same church fellowship. One great hallmark of the Holy Spirit’s presence is unity in the body. From the beginning, the Lord has desired that His people be in harmony as a corporate body being built up in love, who acknowledge one Lord and speak with one voice by one Spirit.
On Monday, January 1, 1739, John Wesley, his brother Charles, and a few other associates gathered for a love feast at Fetter Lane in England, together with about 60 other believers. The meeting continued far into the night. As John Wesley recorded in his journal:
At about 3:00 in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us in so much that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His Majesty, we broke out with one voice, “We praise Thee, oh God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.”
Notice that when the presence of the Lord came down, Wesley and the other believers began to praise God “with one voice.” They were in harmony not only with the melody of God, but also with each other.
Harmony within the Body of Christ is absolutely essential if the Church of the new millennium is to be effective in reaching the nations with the gospel. The common denominator that unites us all is the melody of God: His love song of the shed blood of Jesus. Paul knew that song and described it as “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” We as the church must sing that song in perfect harmony if we want to be sure the world will understand. If we are divided or confused or singing different songs or even different parts of the same song, how can we expect anyone to respond to our message? “For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?” (1 Cor. 14:8)
Amos 3:3 asks, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” The writer of Ecclesiastes points out the strength and power of a unified group over an individual:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
God has always desired His people to live in harmony and relate in love. Today the Lord is calling His Church to walk with Him and agree with Him. Through the Holy Spirit He has tuned us to the melody of God, and the primary way we manifest our harmony is through corporate prayer. As we walk with the Lord both individually and corporately, the Holy Spirit will assist and enable us to agree (harmonize) with one another as we walk together.
Through the years the Church has tried all sorts of things and undertaken all kinds of programs to try to get together on theology, doctrine, and ministry. Corporate prayer is the best way for a church to harmonize, both within itself and with other fellowships, but it must be Spirit-filled, Spirit-led corporate prayer. Centering our efforts on the ideas or agendas of men will never work. John Wesley and the others simply gathered in the presence of the Lord, harmonizing together, waiting on God until He came.
Derek Prince has said that any prayer not led of the Holy Spirit will not touch God. If what he says is true, it reveals just how important the Holy Spirit is to everything we do. He prays for us at all times, and particularly when we don’t know what to say:
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).
“Groanings which cannot be uttered”—that’s the way the Spirit of God prays. Corporate prayer in the language of the Spirit harmonizes the Church and connects it to the conduit through which the power and anointing of God flow. Praying in the Spirit is aside from the dynamic of evangelism and salvation proclaimed in a language that can be clearly understood in order that the lost may see the light of Christ and come in. The two go together. Corporate prayer is the vehicle through which the Lord empowers His Church to proclaim the gospel with authority.
In many ways, learning to sing in the spiritual is like learning to sing in the natural. The first things beginning voice students learn are the mechanics of proper singing: erect posture, deep breathing, relaxation of throat, jaws, and vocal cords, and correct tone placement utilizing the resonant chambers of the mouth and sinus cavities. All of these must be in place if the student’s goal of becoming a good singer is to be realized. It is very similar in the spirit realm. If we wish to sing well the melody of God, we must learn to place ourselves in the proper posture of spiritual prayer, breathe deeply of the breath of Heaven and of the Spirit (the Greek word pneuma, which means “spirit,” also means “breath”), relax our spirits to rest in the Lord, and place our song in such a way that we can resonate with the music of glory.
It is the same with praying in the Spirit as with singing in the natural: The more we practice, the better we will get and the stronger we will become. The only way to increase our capacity is through exercise. If we want to become skilled singers of God’s song—the melody of love—we have to spend time practicing our spiritual voice lessons. As Jude says, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God…” (Jude 20-21a).
Praying in the Spirit consistently will lead to breakthrough in every area of life, and we will find ourselves greatly strengthened in our “inner man.” Every weak place, every doubting place, every discouraged place, every fearful place, every broken place, every oppressed place will be built up and strengthened.
Any skill or capacity will atrophy from disuse. Many Christians have weak and flaccid prayer “muscles” because they do not exercise them enough. Considering all the challenges that face us as the end-times generation in the new millennium, we cannot afford to be out of condition spiritually. There is too much at stake. It’s high time for all of us to get into the spiritual “gym” and exercise our prayer language and build our capacity to breathe the breath of Heaven and sing God’s love song with all our might.
Too often we tend to relegate our prayer language to some little religious corner of our lives, or squeeze it in between songs at church. How little attention we sometimes give to such an awesome gift! Whenever we pray in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit Himself is praying for us and with us, inter -ceding on our behalf. Who can pray better than He can? Who knows our hearts, our minds, and our needs better than the One who abides continually in us? Who knows our gifts and capacities better than the One who gave them to us? For most of us, our lives are too fast-paced for us to get by with prayers that are nothing more than 30-second spiritual “sound bites.” We need regular spiritual voice lessons to train us to sing God’s song, and consistent exercise to build up our prayer “muscle.”
Among the primary themes of God’s love song is to exalt the Lord. His song can be many things. God’s love song always exalts the Lord, but it can take many different forms. When we pray in the Spirit, we will not always sing the song the same way. We have to learn to just let it flow as the Spirit leads us. Sometimes our song will be like water tumbling down over rocks, very intense and pointed and with a nature of warfare and aggressive faith behind it. At other times it will be like a gentle flowing stream.
As we learn to flow in the Spirit, the Lord oftentimes will give revelation to our minds. We may see peoples’ faces or the impressions of nations or international events or other prophetic things. If we simply stay in the flow and don’t try to understand or figure these things out with our own minds, the Lord will increase our capacity and fill us to overflowing like a mighty river pouring through us to do His work. It is much easier (and wiser) for Him to pray the agenda and for us to simply give voice to it.
As we saw in Chapter four, praying in the Spirit is an avenue by which we may come to know the deep things of God, spiritual truths and realities that cannot be known or understood by human wisdom alone. Paul told the Corinthian believers that human wisdom and imagination could not conceive the things that God had prepared for those who love Him, but that the Holy Spirit had revealed them to believers (1 Cor. 2:9-10). The Holy Spirit gives us knowledge of those things that God has freely given us (see 1 Cor. 2:12).
Such knowledge is not only beyond the comprehension of unbelievers, but even seems foolish to them. “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). Our capacity to understand spiritual things is not because the Holy Spirit has “supercharged” our human minds, but because we have been given the mind of Christ. “For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).
Because we have the mind of Christ, once we begin praying in the Spirit we will start to understand more and more of what God has freely given to us, to our families, and to our churches. As we pray in the Spirit, the Lord will give us spiritual wisdom and insight, and we will be able to “sing with understanding” (1 Cor. 14:15b) the melody of God.
If learning to “give thanks always for all things” is one key to singing the melody of God, another key, even more important, is learning how to hear and recognize the voice of God. We cannot sing a song we do not know, and we cannot learn a song that we cannot hear. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to teach us to hear and follow the voice of our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.
One day Jesus was surrounded by Jewish religious leaders who were at odds with Him over some of His teaching. As they did often, they tested Him in an effort to trap Him with His own words.
Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:24-27).
In the natural realm, sheep know the voice of their shepherd and will follow no other. Even if several flocks of sheep are mingled together at one pasturing place, all a shepherd has to do is call out and his sheep will immediately separate themselves from the others and come to him. Those who are not his sheep will pay no attention.
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own” (Jn. 10:14). For those of us who believe, Jesus is our Shepherd and He knows us. Jesus knows everything about us: who we are, where we came from, our past, our present, and our future. He knows our likes and our dislikes, our joys and our sorrows, our hopes and our fears. He knows all our best points and all our worst points. Jesus knows us and speaks to us and we are able to hear and recognize His voice because He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep.
In John 10:27 Jesus describes three characteristics of His sheep: They hear His voice, He knows each of them, and they follow Him. This is in sharp contrast to Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:22-23: “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
The word for lawlessness in this passage is anomia. It comes from nomos signifying “food for grazing animals.” Jesus equates obeying His words to having intimate knowledge of Him. He said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door (of his heart), I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). Those who refuse to “eat” the words of the Shepherd are not His sheep!
Our destiny in Christ is to hear His voice in this hour and follow Him, to begin to resonate with the frequency of Heaven. When we pray in the Spirit we say the same thing as the voice that speaks from Heaven, letting the Word of God bubble up out of us as a living river for the nations of the earth.
The voice of the Shepherd, the spirit of prophecy, and the song of the sheep are closely intertwined. Both Ezekiel the prophet and John the Revelator were given the words of the Lord to eat. As they did so, both experienced His Word to be as sweet as honey in their mouths. In Ezekiel 2:8, God commands the prophet, “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” Ezekiel then saw a scroll written on both sides, after which God said, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel” (Ezek. 3:1). John had a similar experience in Revelation 10:9-11. An angel handed John a little book and said to him, “Take and eat it” and, after John had eaten the book, “You must prophesy…”
At the close of the Sermon on the Mount, right after His words about the danger of not knowing Him, Jesus makes it clear that obedience to the Word of God is the foundation for a secure life: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Mt. 7:24-25).
Knowing Christ is the first criterion for obeying Him. Everything else builds from that. The Holy Spirit brings us into knowledge of the Lord by revealing to us the things God has freely given us, things that are known only through spiritual discernment. Obedience brings intimacy with God. The more intimate we are with God, the better we will be able to hear His love song, and the better we can hear His love song, the better we will be able to sing it in harmony with Him.
Tongues is one of the great mysteries of God. I don’t understand it, but I’m going to continue to speak in tongues because it is a pathway of glory. The Lord is in the midst of doing something awesome in His Church, and He is inviting every one of us to participate. We each have a melody in our hearts, a harmony with God that is uniquely ours, and He wants us to sing it. The more we sing, the more He will begin to reveal some of the mystery. As we get in harmony with God, making melody in our hearts, He will release more of the spirit of revelation, with words of wisdom, words of knowledge, even prophetic songs.
Whatever song the Lord gives us, we need to take it up and sing because it connects us to the heart and mind of the Father. Praying in the Spirit and making melody in our hearts will allow us to see more of the glory atmosphere around us. It will be permeated with miracles: Healings and restoration miracles will come forth even more than before. Singing the melody of God charges the atmosphere around us. As we become conscious of that charged atmosphere and walk in it, we will begin to speak prophetically and creatively in a way that will help change people’s lives.
Although we can each sing our individual song, corporate prayer with other believers is where our harmony can best be heard. That is why it is important for us to stay connected and active with a Bible-believing, Spirit-filled, and Spirit-led church. Otherwise we run the risk of getting out of tune. Even in a large orchestra, one instrument out of tune will stand out and destroy the harmony of the rest of the group. If we insist on going it alone, we have no way to know for sure if our “instrument” is in proper tune or if we are still singing the right melody.
We need regular fellowship with other believers in the Lord’s house to make sure we stay in tune with the heart of God. The writer of Hebrews was very clear on this point:
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:23-25).
The “confession of our hope” is another way of describing God’s melody in our heart. When we assemble together regularly as believers, it is easier for all of us to pick up the melody of the Lord. Together we can sing songs of deliverance, songs of healing, songs of wisdom and knowledge, and then we can take those deliverance, healing, and knowledge situations with us wherever we go. The melody of God is transportable, but we need regular fellowship—with God and with each other—to make sure we stay in tune and sing the song correctly.
Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (Jn. 20:21b). Wherever He went during His earthly ministry, Jesus never simply accepted the atmosphere as He found it. He brought His tune into every situation and changed the atmosphere. Into an atmosphere of death He sang life; into an atmosphere of disease He sang healing; into an atmosphere of despair He sang hope. Jesus sang His tune into every situation; He did not allow that situation to sing its own tune or to call out the melody.
As children of God we are all kings and priests. Kings speak with authority and priests bring the connection of God into a situation. When we connect with the mind and heart of the Lord, He will give us glory songs that we can sing into the situations around us. God has given us the opportunity and privilege to be His instruments through whom He will transform people’s lives. This is an awesome but wonderful responsibility that calls for humility on our part as well as a deep sense of dependence, both on Christ and on each other. We must make certain that we are singing the right melody and that we are singing it clearly. This is why we must stay connected with the Word of God, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of other believers. If we are to sing the melody of God correctly, we must allow Him to use these things to restore and transform us.