BREAKING BARRENNESS - PART 2

THE INHERITANCE OF THE SONG

In our previous article we discussed the singing cry or shout of praise and worship that breaks the spirit of barrenness (see Isaiah 54:1). Our purposeful praise and worship makes welcome the presence of the Lord and with Him comes His strength and power that sets us on our path of victory.

Psalm 22:3 teaches us that praise brings the presence of God: “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” The Hebrew word enthroned or inhabit (as used in the King James Version) means “to sit down, to remain, to settle, to marry.” In other words, our praise causes God to take up residence. When the Bible was first being translated into the Japanese language the translators had difficulty with the word enthroned. Apparently there was no comparable word in Japanese so the translators decided to use the following “When God’s people praise Him, He brings a big chair and sits there.” I love this! What a marvelous visual image. (Special thanks to Dick Eastman and his excellent book, “Intercessory Worship.”)

Isaiah 54:2-3 continues this teaching on Breaking Bareness and speaks of the inheritance that comes to the barren who enter into strong and focused praise and worship.

“Enlarge the place of your tent,
      And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;
      Do not spare;
      Lengthen your cords,
      And strengthen your stakes.
      For you shall expand to the right and to the left,
      And your descendants will inherit the nations,
      And make the desolate cities inhabited.”

Our family was a part of Dr. Jack Hayford’s church, The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, CA, from 1977 to 1990. Those were exciting years of spiritual and numeric growth for the church and affected all of us who were there. In the late 70s a new sanctuary was built to accommodate the growing attendance. At one stage of the construction, all of us active leaders in the church were invited to take a brief walking tour through the construction site. Accompanied by one of the associate pastors, we embarked on our tour.

About halfway through the new building, the associate pastor stopped and asked, “What is the Lord saying to you about this building—right now?” In a flash, verses 2 and 3 of Isaiah 54 came to my mind and I answered, “Enlarge the place of your tent, strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left—from Isaiah 54.” The associate pastor smiled and said, “David, those verses came first to the pastoral staff and have now been confirmed by many of our leadership like yourself.”

What I didn’t realize at that moment was that as a church we had already been taught to sing, to praise and worship. We had already learned to “sing” and now, as a body of believers, we were beginning to reap the inheritance of the song. Fruitfulness follows worship—the inheritance follows the song—and worship leads the way to victory.

“Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.” This means that the church or individual believer is not to sit back and revel in the growth and fruitfulness that comes because barrenness has been broken. No, this is an injunction to strengthen ourselves and those whom the Lord has entrusted to us. For Israel, the tent was a symbol of their dwelling place. Increased fruitfulness could put stress on their dwellings and barns and so they were to enlarge and secure the dwelling so that the increase would not end up destroying them.

In the years we were a part of The Church on the Way, it went from being a successful local church to an internationally-known megachurch. Over the years thousands of pastors visited to see how Pastor Jack and the church did things. Often, pastors would fly in and visit the church for a few days to “watch and learn.” The well-meaning pastor would see a few things that were different and rush home to put these “revelations” into practice. What often happened to those who only took a brief glimpse at this move of God was that they rushed home and adjusted a few things and then . . . nothing happened! They made a few changes—which meant they just rearranged the furniture!

Many of these well-meaning pastors who were hungry for breakthrough failed to initially understand the reason for the fruitfulness of that church. It was not because of some different approaches to home groups, or offerings, or teaching; good or bad, those things did not affect the fruitfulness of the church body. What released that congregation into fruitfulness was the foundation that God had led Dr. Hayford to teach to the church about prayer and worship. The Church on the Way was a worshipping church—and worship led the way to victory and fruitfulness.

The song, as I call it, breaks the back of the spirit of barrenness and leads us to the inheritance of worship.

 

Get ready for growth, singers of worship! The more you worship, the more your inheritance is being released, and the more you worship, the less you will care that it is happening. But it will happen—and God will release the inheritance through you to the needy around you.

Are you ready to sing?