The Journey Begins

Last night I had the awesome opportunity to have great friends over to my house to begin to pray into the vision God's given me for The Worship Studio and raising up the artists! We shared our hearts, our unique journey's that brought us to where we are now and our dreams for the future. It's always so cool to me how God brings people together with like vision to accomplish His purposes in the earth. We were all blown away by the divine synergy in the room last night.

Tom Tanner, my pastor at Riverstone Church, preached an incredible message on Sunday on the vision of our church, where we were going and who we were called to be as a body. He referenced a sermon he preached years ago about 3 kinds of churches/people: wave watchers, wave riders and wave makers. Wave watchers are the people who like to be around the waves, chase the waves, run away from the waves, complain about the waves, comment on the waves and examine the waves. Wave riders love the adventure of riding the waves - they love to get wet, and get in the middle of the water. They love the adventure of riding the waves of life and God.

Wave makers on the other hand are many times never seen. Waves don't begin on the surface - they begin in the depths of the ocean with groanings and rumblings way out at sea. Eventually what the earth has been groaning and rumbling for produces waves that are seem miles and miles away on the surface for others to enjoy. Tom believed that we were such a church. That analogy struck me in relation to The Worship Studio. That's who we are called to be - wave makers.

There are so many artists out there who are wave riders - who long to use their giftings in the adventure of the Kingdom of God - but for most, they have no venue, no place, no opportunity to flow both skillfully and prophetically in the Glory of God. Our role as The Worship Studio is to begin, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to create a wave - a tsunami - that will elevate the vision, the arts and the artist within the Body of Christ to a place where they can flow in what God's calling them to do - reveal his Glory in the earth! We know full well that we are groaning and rumbling in the depths right now for generations to come that we may never see. We're praying and laying the foundation for a work that will have lasting impact. This is the work and the passion of our lives - to see the Glory of God revealed in the earth and to see the arts and artists redeemed for the purposes of God's Kingdom.

So the journey begins... it's overwhelming, the vision God's given us as a leadership team - and yet, we don't want it any other way. If it was too easy, it wouldn't be God! The the vision arise!

What is Prophetic Worship?

 The Definition of Prophetic Worship

Growing up as an evangelical Christian, there are some words I just never used... prophetic was one of them. Seemed kinda spooky, out there and unattainable. Over the last few years in the Body of Christ, especially as one who falls on the charismatic side of the theological fence I've seen alot of things people called "prophetic".

Getting a Healthy Understanding

Through some searching and hopefully some discernment, I think I have a healthy understanding of what being prophetic really means - especially as it relates to creative expression: to hear the voice of God and translate it into an understandable medium - sometimes a 'word in season' - sometimes a 'thus saith the Lord' - but for the artist, it's hearing the voice of God, sensing His Spirit and yielding to His moving through your unique creative expression. I believe there are things that God wants to communicate in the earth that will never come to fullness without the yielding of creative people - artists who know they are prophetic and desire to release that through the arts.

The Definition of Prophetic Worship

I saw this article online at http://www.theworshiparts.com/worshipartsblog/ and thought I would share here... how simple! :)

"In its basic definition, prophetic worship is speaking, singing or acting under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord which, in turn, shows our complete surrender in worship to Him (God). Prophetic worship is meant to allow God’s reflection to be seen in us so that others may respond and come to know him.

To prophesy [or be prophetic] simply means to speak, sing, write or act under divine inspiration…nabiy’ (1 of four Hebrew Old Testament words) & prophēteuō (Greek) are common original language words found in scripture.

To worship means to bow low, express respect, or lean forward [as to kiss the hand]… shachah (1 of three Hebrew Old Testament words) & proskyneō (1 of eight New Testament Greek words) are common original language words found in scripture.

A further biblical study of the Old and New Testament prophets, as well as those who operate in prophetic giftings, would reveal the controversial nature of the prophetic…. although this is not always so, prophetic people often cause disturbances….Jesus certainly did!

A Way of Life

Prophetic worship is a way to live life so that God’s heart, words and voice are made obvious to those around us."

My heart for The Worship Studio is that we would raise up a generation of artists who, under the influence of the Holy Spirit and able to hear His voice, will respond to Him through their own unique creative expression. Let's not let words scare us or push us apart. A divine, prophetic connection to the creative heart of God is available now for all of us who seek after Him through worship and creative expression!

Learn About the Definition and Importance of Prophetic Worship

I Love to Worship You

I love to worship you
With everything I am I love to worship you
From deep within my heart I love to worship you
To be with you and gaze upon your throne

I love to be with you
To waste my life in worship just to be with you
With no other agenda but to be with you
To pour my life of worship at your throne

I love to hear your voice
Confident in you I love to hear your voice
I tune my ears to listen and I make my choice
To wait on you and bow before your throne

I love to worship you
Abandoning my fears I love to worship you
Giving all I am i love to worship you
To join in heaven's song around your throne

Copyright 2009 Matt Tommey

Here in Your Presence

The stillness of your presence is refreshing to my soul
When everything inside my heart longs to take control
In quietness and rest I will receive and be made whole
The stillness of your presence is refreshing to my soul

I worship you here in your presence
I worship you here in your glory
captivated still by the glory you reveal time and time again

Hearing your voice, singing your love song
Feeling your touch as you dance over my soul
Here I am whole, Here I am free, Here I am yours...
Here in your presence

Copyright 2009 Matt Tommey

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The Swirl of Kingdom Connection

When the Lord begins to rebirth vision in your heart, it's not always how you think it will be. In fact, it's usually from a totally different perspective. One of the things God's doing right now as He births The Worship Studio is reconnecting me with people I've known in the past but for whatever reason have been disconnected from. One of those cool people or couples is Sharon and Michael Angel. Their website is here http://www.michaelangelart.com/

It's been a while since I last spoke to Michael and Sharon, so I checked out their website to see what God had been up to. The collection of abstract paintings Michael has done immediately drew my attention. The bold colors, the bold swirls flowing across the canvas. I love it! This collection in particular reminded me of how God's kingdom works.. it's not just about some boring, linear path - get saved, follow the rules and get out of hell. It's about a dance, a journey, a winding road with bold colors swirling us through this life and the next. It's about the relationships we thought that were lost now coming back around. It's about the dance of His Spirit with us!

I am sensing more and more each day that's what The Worship Studio is all about - connecting people to the dance of His Spirit through creative expression. Facilitating experiences through the arts where people really know - with all their senses - the power, glory and majesty of God. To desire more of the dance and to look with expectation toward the Glory that is to come as we flow in Him!

Take a second to visit the website and see what God's doing through their incredible art! What's God saying to you?

Hearing God Under The Azaleas

Well, today was a very fruitful day! I cleaned out and trenched around all my flowerbeds, prepared my daylillies and roses for the spring, cut my grass and put out 20 bails of long needle pinestraw! Needless to say, the yard looks great! One of the things I wanted to do today was to take out all the old pinestraw and replace it with new... freshen things up, etc...

There I am, literally under an azalea raking old straw out from under there and the Lord tells me to use the old pinestraw to encircle my trees and crape myrtle. So I begin to take all this old, nasty pinestrawy mess with leaves, straw, sticks, etc and put it around these trees. He started showing me how using the old nasty straw would serve as a reservoir of water for the trees during the hot summer weather. And it looks pretty cool too :)

It became so clear to me this morning under the azaleas in my front yard... in our life, there's plenty of junk we've all gone through - stuff we'd rather forget about and yet the stuff that has to some extent defined our life. The Lord showed me that there is a season in each of our lives when He will give us the grace to go under the 'pretty blooms' of our life and allow Him to clean us up from the hidden stuff. He so desires to redeem what once was nasty and use it as a reservoir of life for someone else. I'm continually amazed how the brokenness in my own life is used by God to provide strength and encouragement to others who are struggling with the same circumstances.

I pray tonight that the Lord would give you the grace to let Him clean up the junk and let Him redeem it and restore you for His Kingdom purposes in this generation!

The Worship of My Life

It's funny where the Lord has me right now... this balance between ministry and marketplace. A divine tension is having to exist in my life whose purpose is to keep me tuned in to the Father for every piece of the puzzle. The focus of my heart is really to have His Kingdom revealed through me on a daily basis, whether that be as a marketing consultant or a worship leader, a dad or a husband. Am I the kind of man God can flow through easily?

For most of my life I've not been easy to flow through. I was prideful, calloused, scared, fearful of how people would perceive me... always covered up in some mask. But God's healing that woundedness in my heart. He's bringing me to such a beautiful place of trust, rest and worship in Him that makes all that other stuff just fade away. It's all about the cracking open of this, what Watchman Nee calls "The Outer Man" and allowing my Spirit Man to come forth in a beautiful and uninhibited way where I can sense God's delight and His love for me.

I guess we're always wrestling with that tension, huh? That is, how much of my life is really 'me' and how much is really 'Him through me'. As I've wrestled with in my own journey, I've found a couple of things that are making the worship of my life produce beautiful fruit. The first is this: The More I'm Around Him, The More I'm Like Him. That seems obvious but for me, it was always a struggle. I love to 'worship' or sing/play worship music, but to have a regular 'quiet time' with the Lord never seemed to be a something that I connected with. I guess I'm ADD in that way. However, during this recent period of brokenness in my life over the last few years, the Lord has caused a deep hunger to rise up in me... a hunger where my first thoughts in the morning are "I wonder what God's going to say to me this morning?". His presence in me is so real... and the more I'm with Him, the more I've noticed my emotions, my reactions, my desires, my temperament, and the worship of my life are reflecting Him. I literally turned around the other day and thought "Wow, I've not felt like this in a LONG" time... free, happy, fulfilled, unpressured. It's not that circumstances in my life have changed all that much - it's that the focus of my life is shifting. I'm learning to live in the Glory Zone - the zone of creative flow, supernatural love and peace, and the place where I'm in constant communion with Him.

The second thing that's wrecking me right now is recognizing His heart for me. My relationship with my dad was not great growing up, although I know he did the best he knew how. I praise God that He's restored that relationship today. But for a lot of years, my idea of 'father God' what really screwed up. Internally, deep down, below my conscious thoughts, I believed the same things about Father God that I believed about my own dad - his love is conditional, his moods are unpredictable, if he knew the real me he wouldn't love me, he's ashamed of me, etc. Again, through this recent season of brokenness in my life, I've found my Father's heart for me is anything but conditional. In fact, He loves me with an everlasting love that goes beyond any circumstance, brokenness or season in my life, It's only through coming to the end of myself - riding until the wheels fell off - that I've been able to really let down my guard and let God in. Until then, I still has some semblance of control in my life where I thought I was driving, I could call the shots. I am so grateful for the brokenness God has allowed in my life because it's brought me to the end of myself and given me a radical desire to pursue the things of God like never before. And the coolest thing is, the things I thought were dead in me - my "heart's desire" that I thought was gone forever - God is stirring and rebirthing in my heart. He's orchestrating a beautiful symphony of circumstances and divine connections to place me right in the middle of where He wants me to be.

So the worship of my life has become like an alabaster box - a life of brokenness poured out to the Father that He's using for His Glory. Daily I pour out my life to Him and let Him direct the flow of my life where He wills. The funny thing is, I'm flowing now in places I always dreamed of, yet was never able to reach on my own. Convinced of His unfailing love for me and endless mercy in my life, I press on.

http://www.imeem.com/people/CmrdBPH/music/gyrDGXpF/julie-meyer-alabaster-box/