Dec 16, '08 2:07 AM

Part 2: The Power of Sound

Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!

How you be this fine day?

Coffee's on.  Mine's poured.  I'm just kinda sittin' here, enjoyin' the wonderful aroma from those dark roasted Colombian beans. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............................

OK, Maury, I got it right this time: Colombian -- not Columbian!  We don't get our beans from some place on the Columbia River.  Hehehehehehe...............

Got a ways to go today, and we've got a lot to cover so let's get right to our discussion.

Some folks questioned the connection between the quote in our last Coffee Break from II Corinthians 10:3-5 and "The Sound of the Lord," and it may seem a bit far afield, but bear with me.  I'm getting there.

Let's begin today with a look at something the apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Ekklesia in Corinth.  As I did with the quote from II Corinthians 10:3-5, let me translate this passage from the original Greek text.

 As part of his teaching and discourse on speaking in tongues, Paul makes some rather revelatory statements.  Our English translations miss expressing the true sense of the Greek.  Take a look at I Corinthians 14:10-11.

"There are [and seem to be] so many generated and varied sounds in the world, and none of them is without articulated and tonal purpose.  (more on this concept momentarily) If, therefore, I do not know or perceive the power of the sound, I shall be a moral and mental ignoramus to the one giving forth that sound; and he that utters or creates the sound a rude and unlearned foreigner."

Did you catch that?  The way Paul phrases this is that every sound has tonal purpose!  Maybe that seems odd, but let's put that in its proper context.

Go back to something that David did in his final year as King of Israel, prior to turning the throne over to Solomon.

"Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals:"  (I Chronicles 25:1)

The Hebrew word translated "prophesy" in this instance is naba': to sing, to create a declarative sound.  In this command of David, he instructs Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun (the three heads of families who have spent the past 33 years in continuous praise and worship around the Tabernacle of David) to alter their function and purpose in praise.  Instead of simply offering up praise and worship, now they are to prophesy with their instruments.

How, pray tell, do you prophesy upon an instrument?  If you understand the power of sound -- especially under the anointing of the Holy Spirit -- you begin to realize that vast, creative power and authority is at your fingertips.  David clearly understood this when he sang, "Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight."  (Psalm 144:1)

How was David using his hands to war?  Simple.  On his harp.  On whatever instrument he played.  His fingers were engaged in the fight in and by the way they plucked the strings.  The sounds that came forth were prophetic.  These were tones -- musical notes -- that had specific meaning and purpose.  They had the authority and power of Heaven itself backing them.

Sound, all by itself, carries a certain power with it.  Perhaps you've been to a large gathering where folks have been praising and worshiping.  Let's take the Lakeland Outpouring as an example where Roy Fields would camp on certain notes on his synthesizer keyboard.  If it seemed repetitious and boring, that's only because you didn't understand that he was prophesying with certain tones or notes.  The sound of the Lord was going forth.  The Holy Spirit was sending forth a sound that literally was causing the gates of Hell to shake.

Let me illustrate this another way.  Most folks have seen it in person or at least seen a televised demonstration where an opera singer will hit a certain note.  As she holds the note, glass shatters.  Crystal flies apart and disintegrates with the force of the sound.

How does that happen?  The note hits a certain frequency and resonance.  The glass is susceptible to that frequency and begins to vibrate harmonically.  The harmonic vibrations cause the molecular structure of the glass or crystal to come apart and lose their cohesiveness.

That's in the natural or visible realm.  That's a small sample of what happens in the realm of the spirit.  Sound -- ALL SOUND -- has a force and power behind it.  You may think I'm going too far with this illustration, but go back to what Paul wrote, "none of {the sounds] are without articulated and tonal purpose."

Let's take this illustration forward to something Paul wrote to the Ephesians. (5:18-19)

"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."

The Greek word translated here "making melody in your heart" is: psallo: to twitch, to pluck, to twang, to rub the surface of strings.  And the Greek text expresses it more accurately "with" (your heart) rather than "in."  Thus one's heart is absolutely in the sound.

I will also remind you of the statement in Ephesians 6 where Paul writes, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood...." and the word used is esti-pale (<pallo), meaning: to vibrate; to create a sound in opposition [to that of the Enemy].  Are you beginning to see the picture?  Do you now understand that we as sons and daughters of the Most High have within our beings the Sound of the Lord -- a sound and tonal quality which opposes [and has the authority, ability and power to destroy the sound of Satan?

For those folks who understand the power of the sound in the realm of the Spirit, we have the ability to cause to disintegrate the thrones where Satan rules.  The Sound of the Lord going forth through us causes the molecular structure (you'll pardon me for expressing it like this) of Satan's strongholds to be broken.

Let me take Paul's statement here and put it into the overall context of what he is saying.  Go back to Ephesians 5:8-13.

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:"  (Remember the sound/light/life illustration in our last Coffee Break?)

"Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord."  How do you prove what is acceptable to the Lord?  Easy.  With the Sound of the Lord.  Take a look at the next verse.

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."  THERE'S your command to "vibrate" in opposition to the sound of the Enemy.  You reprove, you expose, you make visible and apparent for all to see, and you do so with the Sound of the Lord, "speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."  Music, you see, is the communication -- the sound, the tones, a language, if you will -- of the spirit.

OK, OK!  I know I've applied these verses a bit differently than you may have been previously taught -- and they do have other applications -- but it is perfectly appropriate to apply Paul's instruction within the context of the Sound of the Lord.  We'll come back to this application shortly.

Now let's revisit II Corinthians 10.

"For the weapons and instruments of our war and executed actions [against Satan] do not have their origins and [weak, impotent] operation in natural flesh and human abilities, but they are skillful, potent and powerful – like dynamite – through God to the demolition and extinction of all fortified and guarded places of opinions in opposition,"   Yup.  The weapons of our warfare ARE skillful, potent and powerful -- especially when we understand that the Sound of the Lord available in and through us is the means by which we wield those weapons.

"Bringing down violently and demolishing (to total extinction) all mental reasonings and thought processes, and every mental barrier or arrogant and self-elevated attitude that justifies itself in opposition to the knowledge of God; bringing into captivity and making a prisoner every perception of the intellect and every mental purpose or determination to the compliance and submission of Christ and His anointing."

Yessir!  The Sound of the Lord does just that!  You don't simply think other thoughts in order to deal with thoughts and mental reasonings: you only demolish thoughts and human rationale with the Sound of the Lord -- whether that sound be the speaking forth -- the rhema -- of the Word, whether that sound be singing in the Spirit, or whether that sound literally be tones or notes that come forth from your voice or an instrument in your hands.

My friends, it's time for the people of God to wake up and recognize how simple and yet how elegant the authority and power of God is in us and to exercise it against Satan.  This is not a fantasy.  This is life.  This is light!  This is the Sound of the Lord!

I said this before and I'll say it again.   Sound.  Light.  Life.  They are inseparable.  They go together.  You can't have one without the other.  Light exists because of sound.  Sound exists with light.  Life is both light and sound.

There's another side of this that perhaps you've begun to see as well in this midst of this discussion.  Darkness has a sound.  Satan has a sound.  Satan's whole existence is sound, and it is a sound that is inferior to and subject to the Sound of the Lord.  What is his sound?  The sound of doubt.  The sound of fear.  The sound of unbelief.  The sound of questioning.

We expose, we reprove, we make evident and we chase the sound of the Enemy with the Sound of the Lord.  Let me take you back to an example in the life of Israel in Moses' time.

Psalm 68:1 opens with, "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him."

What is not obvious in this King James Version translation is the fact that this was a cry that went forth every time Israel began to move.  The cloud which was the manifestation of the presence of the Lord God in their midst would begin to lift from the top of the Tabernacle indicating that God was ready to move His people onward.  A cry would go forth at Moses' command that could be heard throughout all of tribes of Israel.  (See also Numbers 10:35)

Long shofars would be blown like giant trumpets and men with strong voices would shout from the highest elevations available, "God is arising!  God is arising!  Let His enemies be scattered!  Let His enemies be scattered!  Let all those that hate Him flee before Him.  Let all those that hate Him flee before Him."

Then the cry would ring across the countryside until all heard it and began to move.  It was a sound that the heathen inhabitants of the land came to fear and dread.  Because God had so defended His people during their years in the wilderness and the stories of His mighty deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the annihilation of Pharaoh's armies and other such victories had spread throughout the nations of the region, that sound generated great fear among God's foes.  There was a power in it that defied description.

Many of you are familiar with the event recounted in II Chronicles 20 during the time that Jehoshaphat was King of Judah.  The armies of Moab and Ammon, coupled with an army from Idumaea (the Edomites), came against Judah, outnumbering the armies of Judah by some estimates as much as a hundred to one.  Following a period of fasting and a prophetic word given by Jahaziel, a descendant of Asaph (one of the three principal singing and praising families), Jehoshaphat sent out the praisers and worshipers before the armies as they headed to Engedi, the site of the expected battle.

II Chronicles 20:21-22 tells us, "And when he [Jehoshaphat] had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten."

But this was no ordinary destruction of the enemy.

"For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.  And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped."

This was total annihilation of the enemy.  Not one single soldier of Moab, Ammon or Mount Seir came out of it alive.

This was the Sound of the Lord at work!  In the midst of the sound of God's people praising and glorifying Him, the Lord "set ambushments" in the midst of the enemy's camp.  (Just as a side note, the Hebrew word which describes this is: 'arab:  In its various forms, this word (from whence we get the modern "Arab") means: to lie in wait, to lurk, to ambush, ambusher, an ambuscade.

The Scripture does not indicate where God got these "ambushers" and we don't know whether they were Moabites, Ammonites, or Edomites panicked by extreme fear, or what, but the Sound of the Lord coming forth from the singers and praisers was strong enough to trigger self-destruction among the enemies of God's people.

What we've just described is a tiny drop in the bucket of the power that goes forth in the Sound of the Lord.

Next: Where the Sound of Opposition Began (and why Paul describes it as "wrestling" in Ephesians 6).

Things are not what they seem to be: they're what God says they are.  The sound of His Word going forth is what determines the difference between light and darkness, life and death, health or sickness and disease, poverty or prosperity.

The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow!  (Proverbs 10:22)  Be blessed!