February, 2017 | Kelly B. Wiens

The Song of the Lord is a Shame Buster!

Happy Family Day to my Canadian readers! One of the privileges of being a ministering musician or minstrel is having the opportunity to share Jesus heart or our Fathers heart for others through a song. In the context of the Scriptural command to to be filled with the Spirit and to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs this would come under spiritual songs. Spiritual songs can come us in our life ahead of a gathering of the saints or they can come from the Holy Spirit right in the moment in a gathering of the saints as we are worshiping the Lord. Some might say that is is a “Rhema” word rather than a Logos written word filled song. So it is something that the Holy Spirit impresses upon your heart as a singer that is specifically for you or for the congregation you are ministering in or for a specific person or group of people within your congregation. It is rooted in Scriptural truth and may in fact be the Holy Spirit reminding you of Scripture and He is asking you to sing this truth from His heart over His bride right now to help them overcome the enemy’s lies in their life.
One of the great schemes of the enemy is to bind us up in shame over the things we have done or coming out of the sins that were done to us especially when we are young as they have a huge impact on how we think about ourselves. Right now I’m in a conquers group led on video by a pastor named Ted Roberts, facilitated by my friends Stuart and Linda Kasdorf. In this group we are there to learn how to live as someone who conquers our enemy and as Paul says in Romans 8 to be more than conquerors through Christ who loves us as we help others conquer . This is our sweet revenge against our enemy who has done so much to hurt us. What are we dealing with in this group? Sexual bondage and addiction. Pastor Ted says if you ever want to clear a room full of Christians just say that you are struggling with sexual bondage, almost anything else will be easily accepted as a struggle except that.

The shame associated with sexual bondage and or addictions is huge! The fear of rejection, condemnation or judgment coming from other Christians or our parents or other authority figures often is massive so we hide what we are caught in because of fear and shame. One of the things I am learning in this group is that sexual bondage and addiction comes out of trying to deal with the pain of wounds inflicted because of the sins of others against us that we have not healed from. Inside these wounds our enemy inserts lies about us that holds us captive until the Holy Spirit opens our hearts up and cuts to the depth of the wounds and speaks His truth there instead. As we submit to and believe what our Father says about us instead of what our enemy said to us we gains strength to resist the enemy which is rooted in our new identity in Christ. We are now more than conquerors, we are overcomers Jesus tells us and shame is swallowed up and we are now strengthened to resist temptation in that area based on a new core belief.
Now how here is how this has worked itself out in my life as a believer and minstrel who has struggled and who has wounds. One time when I was in an English class in University I was required to read a novel which described a sexually immoral act. After reading it I experienced both repulsion in my mind but to my horror my body responded sexually to what I read and I acted out on that response inspite of my repulsion. So now that repulsion was not just against that act in my mind, now it was against myself now as I had allowed myself to sin sexually against myself and God and my wife. I was now filled with shame and self hatred. Surprisingly the Lord Jesus and our Father in heaven came to me in a Holy Spirit filled song later that day as I was repenting and asking for forgiveness and desperately wanting to be cleansed of the guilt and shame I felt. What I believe the Lord was doing is saying yes I not only forgive you for what you did but I a m making sure that you do not fall prey to the lies of the enemy that this somehow changes who you are. You are a child of God and you are an overcomer.

So here is a simple version of a song I hope will speak to your identity in Christ as an overcomer!

Overcoming One

This Minstrel is still in Love

Hello, everyone! This minstrel is celebrating 25 years since the amazing day my Father in heaven led the way in
orchestrating the best ever engagement! It was a Friday morning after about 4 days of preparation. Earlier that divinely orchestrated week the Holy Spirit relayed some direction from our heavenly Father suggesting that Valentines Day would be a great day to get engaged. I said that’s a great idea, why didn’t I think of that. He then directed me to a Heinrichs Jewellery in Circle Park Mall where He said I would find a ring. So, on Wednesday that week, I went to Heinrichs and went right to the counter and looked down and knew I was looking at the ring I would put on Lani’s finger on Valentine’s day. Lani and I were working in music ministry with the Baptist Student Ministry at U of S, under Robert Hookers leadership. On Thursday, I informed my friend and roommate Clay Bergen that I would be getting engaged on Friday morning and I asked him to announce it at College and Careers that night. I had the perfect plan in mind. I was very nervous and excited all the way to Minot and so I talked incessantly. Lani wondered what was wrong with me. I think we got about two hours sleep that night maybe three before I had to get up at five or so to go to the airport where we would fly to Minneapolis and then to San Antonio Texas. I was desperate to get a rose to give Lani on Valentines Day when I proposed but alas no flower shops were open at five and so eventually I gave up and boarded the plane. To my amazement as I walked by the stewardess station as we called it back then, and there was a long stem rose in a glass of water. Could it be, our Father in heavens provision for a perfect moment? After taking off I just had to find out who that rose belonged to. So I asked the stewardess, she said oh, my husband gave it to me that morning for Valentines Day. I think I said something lame like ” Could I borrow your rose to get engaged today?” She said sure. I also asked her to ask the pilot to announce our engagement at 7:07 cause I planned to ask her at 7:00 am as the sun was supposed to rise at that moment in time and we would be at 30000 ft. At first, there was confusion, she thought I wanted the pilot to ask over the intercom, and I said no, I will do the asking, just announce the engagement please. So it was set, just before 7, I grabbed my backpack went to the bathroom got the ring out. I put the backpack back in the overhead compartment and walked to the front to get the rose. Just before 7, I started walked back toward my beloved Lani who I was told later had just finished reading her bible and praying that morning. She had her eyes closed and apparently, our heavenly Father had alerted her that she was going to get engaged today, to which her reply was one of unbelief. “That’s not going to happen today!” Little did she know she was moments away from me getting on one knee and nervously and shaking like leaf saying ” Lani will you marry me?” She said yes! I was so excited! Robert Hooker got it all on video and soon the pilot would announce the engagement and the whole plane cheered and we got a complimentary bottle of white wine from the airline. Thank you, Father for leading me to such a wonderful woman! Isn’t she just radiantly beautiful?

I have had the opportunity to tell this story many times, and even won best engagement story at a banquet we were at! God is truly creative, and He is the author and source of love! He is the ultimate matchmaker not only for bring husbands and wives together but also for His Son, He has chosen us to be His Son’s bride to love Him forever and to be loved by Him forever. I hope you have a special Valentines day and have the privilege of both giving and receiving love from those Father in heaven has surrounded you with.
Today’s song is about that special relationship that we have with Jesus as the Bride of Christ. We are dark but Lovely to Him! This song was written directly out of Songs of Songs with Roxane Bell and two other young songwriters in the worship arts school led by Lloanne Pinel and in the songwriting classI was a teacher for.

Dark But Lovely

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Minstrel as Friend of the Bridegroom

Have you ever been friends with both the bride and bridegroom at a wedding? Have you ever heard of a bride who gets anxious before her wedding day? Having thoughts of “I wonder whether he will show up on the wedding day”? Or been around a bride who wonders because of some of her past actions whether she might inherit a bridegroom who is unfaithful so that she reaps what she has sown? I know my wife had some of those thoughts on our wedding day. I think some of the women she had chosen to be around her who also knew me assured her that I would come just as I promised. I also remember my beautiful beloved engaged wife to be after I asked her to marry me having feelings the next day like I wonder if he really does love me, or he can’t possibly love me, what if what if? My wife actually tells me it was months after we were married that it finally sunk in that I actually loved her and that I wasn’t going to go anywhere. So it is with the Bride of Christ. I also remember now before we got engaged her wrestle with fear regarding our relationship. She wanted to run and so she was wrestling with the Father over whether she could trust me because she knew our relationship was heading fast toward total commitment and that scared her. Could she trust me? Fathers answer, Can you trust Me? Yes was her reply. Then you can trust me with him, because I sent him to you. Fear, anxiety, doubt, wrestling whether I’m really loved, and really loveable given all my flaws etc. These are the wrestlings of bride to be and even the bride after her wedding day. What if you knew the bridegroom well, in fact, you were one of his best friends? What would you tell your friend the bride to be as she is waiting for her wedding day and the face to face reality of their relationship to finally come? What would you tell her as she wrestles with doubts, anxiety, and fear, misguided passion, temptations to unfaithfulness etc. ? This is part of the job description of a minstrel who is worship leader and representative of the bridegroom to the bride. Your job is to represent His character and His heart by speaking and singing songs that remind the Bride of who He is. This can be through singing worship songs that focus on Jesus character and also prophetic songs which are songs given as the Holy Spirit gives us prophetic words from His heart to encourage, comfort and strengthen the Bride of Christ as apostle Paul tells us prophecy is in 1 Corinthians 12. He may gave the song ahead of time or ask us to sing a song given to another songwriter or He may give us one in the moment as we are leading on a Sunday morning.
I couldn’t sleep this last night now after sleeping for a couple hours. Guess what I had worship songs in my spirit from being in prayer for Hope Restored Canada team that was in Houston this week. “I just want to be where You are, I just want to be near Your heart, cause there is nothing like Your love, and then after that I began to hear in my spirit ” Your love will never stop chasing after me” by Urban Rescue as the Spirit of God reminded me of a song my friend and worship leader Colin Richet a minstrel I admire sing yesterday at my home church. This is one of the roles of the minstrel. You are the friend of the bridegroom who spends so much time with Him in His presence that you know His heart so well. So when you are before the saints of God who are the future bride of Christ, you are there to focus the eyes of her heart on her Bridegroom Jesus Christ. You are there to remind her that He will be faithful to the end, even if she is not at times. You are there to remind her that He can be trusted to keep His promises. And as a prophetic singer when you are in the midst of His worshipping Bride pouring out her love to Him, you sometimes have the privilege of having your ear close to His heart and as He can’t contain His love as she pours out and pours out her affection in songs of praise and love for her Bridegroom, He says to you in your spirit would you sing a love song from me to my Bride this morning? Would you express my heart to her so that she would know again that I love her, and that nothing can separate her from My love. Tell her that she doesn’t need to be anxious about my faithfulness, I will be faithful. Tell her that I love her and cherish her above all other loves except my love and loyalty to my Father. You and I are destined for complete oneness and one day I will come for you, be confident of this. I will come for you and I will wipe every tear from your face. I will wipe away every tear and I will comfort you with My presence forever. We will be wed at the wedding supper my Father has prepared, and I will show you and reward you for all the love you showed me as you waited for our wedding day. For every act of kindness you did to least of your brothers and sisters in Christ you did for me. Every act and word of kindness and love you expressed to the lost ones resulted in their being here with you enjoying my presence forever. This is is one of the great privileges of being a minstrel, a friend of the Bridegroom. It is not for us to gain the affection and love of the Bride but like John the Baptist we have the joy of hearing the Bridegrooms voice and sharing the message through songs of deliverance, songs of acceptance and love to the Bride. All the while saying with John, Jesus must increase in the Bride’s heart and me as His friend and representative must decrease and decrease so that all that remains is a passionate fiery Bride who has crazy confidence in her Bridegroom to do great feats of faithfulness and love in the face of her enemy before her wedding day. That’s our job and privilege and responsibility to help prepare the bride for her wedding day! Speaking His words over her washing her so that she will be without spot stain or wrinkle on her wedding day. Hallelujah it is going to be awesome, can’t wait!
Ok that’s the good stuff, that’s all I got and now it’s time to go back to sleep.

Now here’s a few housekeeping things. If you haven’t subscribed to the blog yet please do! Also in resources are song lyric sheets and chords stuff for a few songs and I plan to be adding more later this week. Also if you are my personal friend on Facebook please click follow and like on my minstrel page as eventually I want to just post there for music related stuff and keep my personal posting personal to those I know. Lastly, please feel free to interact and comment and if you could do me a huge favor, connect people who are ministering musicians to my blog who you think might be encouraged by it. Use the share and or tag method to connect people, thanks so much! Today I’m going to connect you to a youtube version of Where You Are, by Kalley Heilingenthal and Jeremy Riddle two minstrels I love being led into Jesus presence by and I’m going to share a song to a private link on Soundcloud that can only be accessed through this link on the blog. This song although called Trust Like a Child on Sound cloud could also be called Love like a Bride. It actually contains elements where both our Father and our Bridegroom to be express their hearts to us, the Father’s adoptive children because of our engagement in marriage to His Son Jesus Christ King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In it you will hear of the Father’s love, something Jesus promised He would reveal to us in John 17 and this would help us be one with each other as He prayed, and it also is song where I get to sing of the Bridegrooms passion and love for us to ignite that in return in us His Bride to be. Hope the song encourages you, You can trust Jesus your Bridegroom to be, He is 100% faithful and is passionately in love with you. One day I hope this pre-produced song will be the title cut on a radio quality recording! Thanks for reading and listening!

Love Like a Bride – Kelly B. Wiens

Where You Are – Kelley Heiligenthal and Jeremy Riddle