Inspire Me!

I believe we all have those moments when we need inspiration. Not just generic inspiration – but specific inspiration for a specific task. I’m having one of those moments right now. April 25th, I will be recording my next project. It will be a live recording at my home church, Gethsemane Community Fellowship Baptist Church in Norfolk, VA. The task seems HUGE this time. Perhaps because the last time I recorded I had no idea going in just how much it was actually going to cost me – financially, emotionally and time-wise. But this time, I know that it can easily cost me $XX,000 and an entire year to produce a project with the quality of my last one. Mediocrity is often inexpensive. Excellence, on the other hand, is seldom cheap. God has put excellence in me. I have disdain for mediocrity. But when you don’t have $XX,000 at your disposal, it can become a bit overwhelming.

Last week I was sitting in a group session for a leadership institute that I’m attending at my church. The group mentor asked a question, “How do you know that a plan is of God?” We all tossed around various answers. But the mentor gave us an answer that trembled the core of my heart. He said, “You know it’s a plan from God when it requires an act of trust.” Then he went to the scriptures and read from Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy path.” At that very moment I heard God speaking these scriptures into me – like a song being played into my consciousness. I saw that I was being required to trust God. I was already facing financial challenges and trusting God to provide in other areas of my life. Now, in the middle of all of that, God was saying – “Launch out.” Yeah, this definitely required an act of trust.

Leaving that session, I was excited… feeling like the vision was confirmed. But this morning I woke up, exhausted from a very long weekend. The words of my wife are still ringing in my head, “Get some rest!” But, of course I woke up at 8:15 this morning and once I’m up, I’m up.
So, I opened my bible to have some devotional time with the Lord as I ate breakfast. Reading in Isaiah 11, I saw that the kingdom of God will be established in the earth and violence will cease. Even the lion will lay down with the lamb. I saw how Christ, the Branch from the stem of Jesse, would come demonstrating the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge and the fear of God. Then I went to verse 13 where it speaks of a cessation of the rivalry between Ephraim and Judah. I had to go back to the story of Ephraim’s blessing given by Jacob. Here, I was touched by the fact that Ephraim, the youngest son (I can relate to that. I’m the baby of my family), would receive the blessing of the eldest son.

That was good for the soul… but I still felt like I needed inspiration.

Over a week ago, one of the drummers at my church loaned me three DVDs to watch. Israel & New Breed, “Live in South Africa” was one of them. Now I’m fan of Israel & New Breed. But I hadn’t had time to watch the video until this morning. The entire DVD is a treat! But there were two things that really spoke to me.

There was a moment when Israel began to quote Zephaniah 3:17. That scripture resonated in my heart. Then Israel began singing prophetically, “Take The Limits Off.” I’d heard the song before on the CD. But, this time, God was speaking to me… “Release me to accomplish what I promised you.” I am very leery of anything resembling this “prosperity Gospel” that’s being preached in many pulpits today. But this morning, I saw a completely different revelation of the words, “No limit. No boundaries. I see increase all around me. Stretch forth. Break forth. Release me. Enlarge my territory.” This wasn’t about ME having stuff. This was about me accomplishing what God has poured into me. As I thought about it, I considered the fact that God wouldn’t be giving me these incredible songs like, “Bigger Than I Imagined” if He didn’t intend for these songs to bless the body of Christ. I can sing them at my home church… but that’s not the way He’s giving them to me. He’s given me songs for the home church before. But these songs are coming with production and arrangements that are beyond the scope of a “home church.” Then, Bishop Tudor Bismark took the mic and began to minister. Oh my God! I had a moment.

The other things that grabbed me was when Israel was singing “Alpha and Omega” and the glory of the Lord was so strong in the room that Israel could no longer stand on his feet. But right before this was the clip of his wife weeping in worship before the Lord. Then, when Israel fell to his knees on the stage, his wife came to the edge of the stage… just to worship with him. There, they wept and worshipped together. Then I thought about my wife, Sharon. And I thought about the moments that God uses me to lead worship and I can see the tears flowing from Sharon’s face as she worships with me. And I thought about the times we spend in prayer together and tears flow from her face as she lifts me up before God. I remembered the fact that she gave me complete support with the last project and has already given me total support with this venture. There is no limit to what God will do with a husband and wife connected in spirit, submitted to the will of God, courageous enough to launch out into the deep water and work for God’s kingdom.

As I’m writing this, I’m reminded about the moments on the stage in Italy, particularly in Sassari on the island of Sardinia. The moments when the worship became so intense that we couldn’t move to the next song… moments when the Holy Spirit translated the language for those sitting in the audience who didn’t know English but knew our Savior. After seeing God move like that, why am I letting this thing bother me? There is something that God dropped on me a little while ago. The project is His. It is for His glory. Everything that it takes to complete the project belongs to Him. He has it in all the right places. He will put it all where it needs to be when it needs to be there. God’s kingdom has the resources for a CD recording. It’s not about me anyway. It’s about God accomplishing something through me for His glory. So, I will trust Him.

Then, to top it off, I am reminded about the fact that the thing that woke me up at 8:15 this morning is that I heard “Join In This Praise” playing on the Contemporary Christian channel of Music Choice this morning. Music Choice is the cable and satellite radio network that Cox Cable and others use to play music. This means that the song is getting national play.

Thank you, Lord! I am inspired.