and then God Responded.

I play guitar. recently a friend of mine saw me setting up for chapel band and looked at my gear, wondering what it all did. he asked me and i proceeded to explain everything on my pedal board to him. he just looked at me and said "man, guitar's really your passion, huh?" like, not just a hobby or a past time, but a Passion. i said yes.

i have always said Guitar is not just my way of leading worship, or of expressing myself, but rather one of the ways i talk to God. i offer my heart to God through song, yes, but more so through my guitar. i had a friend say she saw a few of the people at the Stirring (my church in redding) and when she looked at the electric guitarists God showed the Holy Spirit flowing into and out of their hearts, in beat to the electric guitars, but shinning mostly upward. she said with me it was starting from my heart and coming out through my arms through my guitar and escaping. at first i felt like she was saying that i only was playing whereas the other guys' hearts were involved, but she said it was more like the Holy spirit was blessing their hearts and using their hearts to lead people, but with me he was using my heart and my guitar as separate entities working together. that was amazing.
that was two years ago.

Brit, my girlfriend, and i have prayed together every night for around three months now. lately i have been praying that God would have me pray for someone, or prophesy over them or call them out on some issue randomly in a way that stretched me. i wanted him to give me something i could tangibly look back on and say "there's no way that wasn't God"

it didn't happen. i haven't been pulled to pray for anyone, or randomly started speaking in tongues, or prophecying. i haven't prayed for anyone to be healed, or performed any signs or miracles (by my own power or God's) nothing. i keep praying and wait patiently on God. i am not distraught about it, i just would sort of like the reminder.

two sundays ago, so i guess thats the 31st, we were playing music at the stirring, for the night services, and we came to the end of a song. i knew God had been working amazing things in the hearts of the people that were there, and i just felt happy and filled with the spirit. In the analogy of the sponge being filled so that water drips out of it, i was the sponge full of water waiting to drip on someone. and the song had almost ended, and i suddenly heard an electric guitar riff. i wasn't playing. i look around and only jenna was playing anything, and it was Chords.
i always say i talk to God with my guitar, and on halloween, he played back.

i beleive that when we worship we are just joining the heavenly worship;p session that will never end, and that attitude is crucial to approaching music in corporate worship. if you asked me for a highlight of my last two weeks i would say it was this: God adjusted my monitor and added a little of the heavenly guitar riff sound to my mix.