‘“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and alsoon My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days”’ Joel 2:28-29.

By Stephen Bennett

The latter-day outpouring of the Holy Spirit will see the rise of the prophet singer, with life-changing waves and moves of the Spirit of God like we have never seen before. Music will be a herald to this and the singers of the Lord around the earth will be awakened to be mighty people of the Spirit.

It won’t be just your talent, ability, or cool performance that will do it, but the mighty anointing of the Holy Ghost on your life, through the gifts the Lord has given you as you have been prepared in the kiln of life, living for God.

Many singers are too conscious of the perfecting of the natural, which is not a wrong thing to pursue, but it’s not the strength of where the foundation of your focus should be. The natural dynamics and technique of singing are very important at their various levels of delivery, but it’s important to have a firm handle on who you are as a singer in the House of God. This is the crucible that makes the technique effective.

Singing with Prophetic Power

To sing means to celebrate, shout and praise enthusiastically. To continually utter a tune, acting as an informer of the wind – like a kettle! A kettle can’t help but whistle a tune when it’s on the boil.

When you sing you are like a conduit for the Spirit of God. You make a sound and it is identifiable; people will hear God in your voice and be moved in their hearts, for He is in your song! You want to prophesy? Then get close to God and allow Him to blow the Wind of His Spirit through you. He will give you the pictures and the melodies to sing as you learn to listen and see.

The Spirit of God speaks, it’s like a substance that sits in a song and makes the difference between a performing person who consciously or unconsciously prefers their own glory, and someone who lives a lifestyle in the holy place. It’s not the brilliance with which you deliver the words, but the power in them that really makes the difference. This comes out of you, which is directly related to holiness separation and relationship with Christ. That power is prophetic in its nature.

‘For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power’ 1 Corinthians 4:20.

You are a messenger, an informer of God’s Spirit. The archangels are messengers – Lucifer was a messenger and informer of the sounds of Heaven as the Spirit of God blew through him and played him in the days before he fell from Heaven. Singing is a spiritual thing, a powerful gift of communication.

We live in the temporal world, and communication through song can be on many levels. One of the most powerful of these is the prophetic voice.

Singing Leadership and the Hot Showbread

There are singers who just sing and there are singers who have a gift to lead in their song. These are often front men or women, song leaders or worship leaders in terms of organised church life, and they have a particular recognisable strength in the song they sing.

Backing singers can also have this strength, as well as those who accompany themselves with an instrument, but the gift to really lead is different. Singing leadership requires more than just getting up and doing it. The role is a powerful position of spiritual authority requiring a consecrated heart to the Lord if our song is to have the hot bread in it that will minister and affect the heavens.

‘And some of their brethren of the sons of the Kohathites were in charge of preparing the showbread for every Sabbath. These are the singers, heads of the father’s houses of the Levites, who lodged in the chambers, and were free from other duties; for they were employed in that work day and night. These heads of the father’s houses of the Levites were heads throughout their generations. They dwelt in Jerusalem’ 1 Chronicles 9:32-34.

The head singers and their song was before God day and night and they were paid for it. Now wouldn’t that be nice! Hark I hear a song…“Night and day you are the one…!”

They were also in charge of preparing the showbread, a responsibility that in type is very significant. This was the holy bread of the sanctuary. It symbolised God’s on-going presence and His provision for His people. It was show bread because it was kept continually on show before God. Fresh bread was made each week and replaced on the Sabbath day. There were twelve loaves of bread used in the ritual – twelve being symbolic of government, or a position in which things are built upon.

The show you need to put on when you sing is The Provision of God Show! The songs you do one week may not be the bread the church needs for the next! The fresh, baker’s-hot, steamy, soft, spiritual melting-with-the-butter-of-Heaven bread in your lives (read it fast, its fun!) comes from a heart that is continually after God!

If there is no freshness there can’t be any governmental authority in the music you play. The prophetic edge will just fall by the wayside if all you have to offer is the old bread of tradition and the way it always has been done, or have-a-good-party-time fairy bread, like donuts covered in fluoro icing and crunchy bits.

The priests used to eat the older bread afterwards and burn the rest with incense as an offering to God, virtually saying, “Thanks Lord. Last week was great but we have something new now in our hearts from you and for the people this week!” It was new, constant, fresh, vital and important. Pastors do this with their messages; the same principles apply to the music in your church meetings and gatherings.

I remember being involved in a big city outreach once with a big band, PA and lots of effort and energy expelled. And I remember the Holy Spirit saying, “I’m not in this!” It was a self-indulgent waste of time, really. There wasn’t even anyone there to listen. It was good fun but we didn’t really achieve anything. I think there was a general lack of hot bread at the time!

King David of the Old Testament, the anointed prophet musician, understood about hot bread! King Saul, his mentor and boss, was out to kill him, so David wisely fled. At one stage on the road, he and his men were hungry so he boldly approached Ahimelech the priest in Nob, whom he knew, and asked him for something to eat.

‘Now therefore what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found. And the priest answered David and said, “there is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women,” Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was sanctified in the vessel this day.” So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day it was taken away’ 1 Samuel 21:3-6.

There was no high-fibre, wholegrain, or TipTop white slice available! But to David the holy bread was actually the same anyway, as he understood that his provision came from God and that he had to take the Lord’s provision and do something with it to get fresh new provision. David illustrated here in a New Testament truth that man’s needs were often more important than the technical keeping of the law. He ate the bread that really only the priests were allowed to eat. The needs of his men and himself were more important at that time – it’s amazing how God wasn’t upset about that!

You see, when the old bread is taken out of the way you can put hot bread in its place. Are you tired of singing the same old songs, tired of constant good-time party worship? And tired of ineffective praise times? You need to get before the Lord and get His heart, make some new bread and have something powerful to offer the people! You need to truly make Christ Lord of your gathering day!

Jesus – Lord of the Sabbath and Bread

Jesus did the same thing when he went through the wheat fields and ate grain with his disciples when they were hungry, even though it was unlawful.

‘And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?” And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath”’ Mark 2:24-28.

The Sabbath is for you to work with the Lord. You were not made to serve the stuffy religious forms of a religious day. Have you ever heard it said: “You can’t play that music here; it’s not the way we have always done it. This new stuff is too complicated to even think about.

Dealing with musicians and all their needs is a pain and I’m tired of it”? What’s more important – the keeping of those religious ways, allowing Sabbath traditions to rule the spiritual texture of your church, or bringing forth hot, current, anointed bread that will feed your people for now?

Mouldy old bread will eventually make people go mouldy in their spirit. This is how religiosity develops; people spiritually fall asleep and the church becomes ineffective. The singers made the showbread. They governed the atmosphere through their song, which contained relevant hot oil from Heaven. If the church is hungry and we are in an hour when the Lord is awakening the House of the Lord, we have to have hot bread. The gathering day is not for your show of talent, but for the show of bread that you have fresh from God for the people because you are given to Him! That’s how you become a really hot singer!

Ancient Prophet Singers

Throughout this book we have discovered a lot more of what it is to be a musician and singer from a Biblical perspective and I encourage you to keep studying and discovering! The calling on a singer is a very powerful calling, one of high honour and responsibility when it comes to the things of the Spirit.

The Bible gives us some very beautiful clear pictures of what a singer is.

‘And these are the ones who ministered with their sons: of the sons of the Kohathites were Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel…’ 1 Chronicles 6:33.

‘All these who were the sons of Heman the kings seer in the words of God, to exalt his horn. For God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters, all these were under the direction of their father for the music in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and harps, for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the authority of the king’ 1 Chronicles 25:5-6.

‘…The singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were to sound the cymbals of bronze…’ 1 Chronicles 15:19.

Imagine having your seventeen kids in the band! Heman was a leader and singer. In the Hebrew, his name means to be faithful, to build up and support like a parent or a nurse. He was trustworthy, one who was true and rendered things firmly. He sang with Asaph which, in the Hebrew, means the collector, the gatherer, one who takes and destroys, one who heals and restores. In Hebrew Ethan means chieftain, permanent, mighty, rough and strong! These guys were powerful men, prophets, spiritual warriors and leaders over many. This is part of the nature of a singer!

Sounding the Cymbals

They were to sound the cymbals of bronze when they sang. Bronze was a commonly used metal at the time. The cymbals were also made of copper. They made very loud, distinctive noises, the sort that would draw complaints like, “Turn the drums down!” The sound they made is described in the original Hebrew as an intelligently discerned sound that calls and brings to attention. These were often played with the accompaniment of the trumpets.

This is a clear picture or type of the prophetic nature of the singer. Through the common vessel of a man, the Lord will bring a clear distinctive sound that will crash in or ride like a cymbal, gathering people to Himself. Making a warring sound that destroys the enemy, heals the wounded soul, building and supporting the Lord’s House, rendering it firm.

When a plasterer renders a wall he seals it to make it strong then colours and textures it as per the design. So too the prophetic singer and musician, you are a seal in the Lord’s House in whatever style and texture of music you happen to bring in your particular situation. That’s why the singers were brought up onto the wall in the days of Nehemiah – the seal on the wall!

Seer’s Exalt the Horn of the Lord

Heman was a seer – a prophet. He was a prophet singer! A seer in Hebrew means a beholder of a vision, one who is looked upon by God with approval to bring forth that vision, because they have the ability to perceive a vision. A seer also provides seeing – he can open up the eyes and heart of the listener to see what he sees from God, and the very Spirit of that can ride in his voice.

The prophetic singer exalts the horn of the Lord, which means increasing the power and influence of God! This is a fantastic picture of the power of the prophetic voice of a singer. Horn in the Hebrew is queren, meaning projecting like a trumpet or cornet, the mountain peak, a ray of light, and power! This comes from the root word quaran meaning to shoot out rays of light, to have horns and to gore!

Man, when you understand this, you realise you’re not there just to entertain or perform, but to have spiritual horns! When you sing you shoot rays of the light of God into the air, goring, disgorging and confusing the darkness of the enemy, like breaking the chains of bondage’s from people’s lives in the days of Jehoshaphat! You’re a spiritual rhinoceros! Man, that jazz trumpet is a weapon, a tool that can speak and bring a presence and sound from the very mountain of God, bringing light into a dark place.

That very Spirit should be in the singer’s voice! It is a war sound, a prophetic sound, and an intimate sound.

Do you want to be a Great Singer?

Greatness will come as you start to increase His power and influence in your life, using it for His purposes. Singer is from a Hebrew word shuwr, meaning to stroll or travel around singing, with the ability to perceive, survey, behold and care for. To go on tour is an urge that comes with the gift!

This is not true of everyone, of course, but it’s amazing how travel really broadens your personality and perception of things, bringing a maturity that ends up in your song. The travelling minstrel! The singer’s gift is a very caring gift. Touching people with your art is a very satisfying thing. It is part of the singer’s makeup to want to do this. The singer’s gift is able to look down from a high place and see a big-picture perspective, bringing that insight into the song. When the Lord is the wind beneath your talented wings he will show you things that can change your world!

‘The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds feet and He will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments’ Habakkuk 3:19.

This song from the prophet Habakkuk was for his lead singer. This singer was a music director!

The Hebrew word here is nat sach, meaning to be eminent, as a superintendent, especially of temple services and music; a chief musician who oversees and sets forward in motion the Spirit of God.

Someone who is strong and permanent in Christ!

To glitter from afar, to be a bright object so at a distance you can be travelled toward like a goal through the idea of the brilliancy of the colour of blood, the grape! One full of splendour, truthfulness, confidence, strength and victory. WOW! It’s time to be a great singer! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Stephen Bennett, founder of Awesome City Music is an apostolic-prophetic musician based in Australia. He mentors Christian musicians worldwide and his teachings and anointed writings reveal divine insight into the artistic realm. https://www.youtube.com/AwesomeCityTV

Chapter excerpt from Prophet Musician — Reprinted with author’s permission.