This is the year of the favor of the Lord?

Isaiah 61. Jesus read it in the synagogue and said this day this Scripture is fulfilled in Himself. He is the anointed one! I was singing Andy Park’s song Spirit of the Sovereign Lord and was declaring this is the year of the favor of the Lord and vengeance of our God. When I’ve been home I’ve been inviting people to my home to worship and pray on Saturday nights. Tonite as I was praying and declaring this Scriptural song, I also remembered something Luis Palau said at Breakforth that He believes that this is the year for Revival in Canada. He then proceeded to share why. At that point I was assigned to pray in the main assembly and I was walking and praying for the speaker and the people gathered. At that point after the declaration of immanent revival in Canada, I went into travailing prayer, I began to weep uncontrollably and I went onto the floor in the dark amidst the 5000 faithful who had gathered to hear the last speaker at Breakforth. I asked the Lord what is going on. He said to me “You’ve been carrying a burden to pray for Revival since 1988, almost 30 years!” The tears were a sign that the answer to those prayers are coming soon. I started praying for Revival in my first year of Bible School at Bethany Bible Institute. I had been shaken by a book written called 88 reasons why 1988 is the year and specifically Rosh Hashana Sept 18 is the time when Jesus will come to rapture His church. As you might know Jesus never came for His church and raptured us on Sept 18, 1988. The writer said we wouldn’t know the hour but that didn’t mean we couldn’t know the weekend was his justification. Now, the rapture before the antichrist is revealed might be bad theology when you read Mathew 24 and what Jesus taught there doesn’t seem to be any rapture at all, it looks like we are here through it all and severely persecuted. However, with an evangelist who has been through a great revival in Argentina and regular preaches to many and sees many enter the kingdom of God, and he says he believes 2017 is the year. Do we believe him? How do I test a word like that? What does revival mean? What would a Canadian wide revival look like? I’m not sure we can test the word without simply waiting for 2017 to pass, and see. However, the real question is what is Jesus asking of us His bride? To love God with all our heart soul mind and strength and to love each other as Christ has loved us. That is the real question. As long as we are loving Christ and loving one another which we can’t do one without the other, perhaps it doesn’t really matter. The point is we need to faithful to Christ and what He is asking of us. I know if we all did that the church of Christ would be radiant and extremely attractive to the lost.  Even so, pour out Your Spirit God on your bride, wake us up, make us shine!   Those are my thoughts today. Had a great worship time and prayer time that didn’t record well of Terry Alward and I worshipping and praying our hearts out! I have a 45 minute video which I’m hoping to fix the audio somehow. If you want to hear it anyways, comment please. Hope you all have a great day worshipping the King of Kings today!

Love in Christ,

Your friendly neighbourhood music minstrel!

A Minstrel’s Missionary Call

I hope you have had a good week. I have been a little consumed with mud and tape this last week as I am pursuing to get the renovation to the painting stage as quick as I can and sacrificing quality time with My King and my kids more than I’d like but it is the vision of the finished house prepared for the Lord to use for His purposes that moves me to push so hard. It has been a long journey of over 2 years. My mission is to see the house restored to it full potential by going through it from repairing it’s structural problems, it’s plumbing, it’s electrical system, it’s food preparation area, it’s indoor and outdoor lighting systems, it’s covering, and it’s heating and cooling system and finishing off with it’s inner appearance so that it’s future occupants can have a safe, comfortable environment to raise a family in and carry out the mission God has given them. As the people of God we are God’s house, we are the temple that He lives in by his Spirit. We are His bride that one day our Father in heaven will say, Son, go get your bride, it’s time, everything is prepared for the wedding feast of the Lamb. So what does a house reno, and the fact that God’s people are being prepared to be a dwelling place for the Father and Son and Holy Spirit and the topic a Minstrel’s Missionary Call have in common? Well let me try to put it together.

The great commandment is this that we would love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The great commission is that we would go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing those who believe in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded. The big command being love each other as Jesus says in John 15. I believe these two things are encapsulated in the heart of every believer, but for the minstrel we have a leadership role where our job is to inspire, to paint a picture, to cause the people of God to remember and connect with both God’s character, and His actions that he has done for us to show His love for us. So our job is to lead people to love God above all, in response to His great love expressed to us through His Son who loved us and gave His life for us to bring us back into relationship with our Father in Heaven. The songs we sing both inspire and give expression to the love that God has put into our hearts for His Son and for Himself through the Holy Spirit. The songs that we sing can also be used to remind and remember the commands and teachings of Christ as the songs we sing act as a discipleship school reminding and teaching the bride of Christ of who He is and what we need to believe and practice. The songs we sing with the Bride of Christ give expression to her love for the one who first loved us. These songs give expression to our commitment and our love.

Now as we go into the world, I believe the minstrel is to go into the world proclaiming the gospel, preaching it through musical words and pictures of who He is and what He has done to show His love for every human being on the planet. We are evangelists who proclaim there is a God who made you and loves you like a bridegroom loves His bride, like a Father or Mother loves their child. Not just any Father or mother, not just any bridegroom, we are loved by a perfect Father and the perfect Bridegroom who is capable of meeting all our needs.

Our greatest need is for true love, that will cover over the multitude of our sins, and bridge the justice problem that is there because of our sin. God is a judge who must punish those who have rebelled against Him. God is also a loving Father who wants to save His wayward children who have rebelled and broken His commands showing contempt for Him and all He stands for. He brings His mercy and love and perfect justice in sending His one and only Son to become sin and be punished as a sinner and rebel on a Roman cross so that we might be covered over by an intercessor’s life who never sinned and therefore could pay the price for our rebellion once and for all. Punishment is dished out and at the same time a way to be merciful to every lawbreaking human being that has every lived because the sentence of death for sin has been served.

We have a love story to write about as singer songwriters like none other. The ministry of worship is part of our mission, and the ministry of reconciliation both between God’s children and God’s yet to be adopted children is the other half of our mission. The unity of God’s children is a huge strategy of our Father according to Jesus prayer in John 17 showing the reconciliation and love is His heart and that unity and love between us as believers in Christ will be a key to removing the blindness of unbelief in a world shrowded in the darkness of hate, indifference and selfishness.

I wrote this post over a week ago, but lost my zeal to finish it.  So here it is as part of the series on what is a minstrel.   As I have been writing these posts I realize that I am writing what I believe my call is from our Father and our Saviour Jesus as a minstrel.  It is good to reflect on what I believe not only for my call but also for the many others God is calling and has raised up and have gone before me as minstrels.

Here are two songs that reflect both the evangelistic call and the hunger that is in every human heart for love.

Do you know that Jesus Loves You – written by Lani Wiens my wife

Known by You – written by Kelly Wiens

I hope you have a good week!   Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t!

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

My Beloved!

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

Treasure Hunting with the Holy Spirit

                        

Hope you had a good Monday! Mine has been a recoup day from something which I absolutely love doing. Which is why your blog post which is supposed to arrive Sunday or Monday morning has not arrived until now. I’m going to take a break from the teaching on being a minstrel and just share a little from my weekend at Breakforth. What pray tell might this singing, songwriting, worship leader love doing even more than those things you may ask. It is the priestly ministry of connecting precious human beings with our God and Father and Jesus our Saviour through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I have now volunteered 4 times to be on the prayer team at a most amazing conference called BreakForth Canada in Edmonton, Alberta. It just gets better every year. Not only do I get to see people experience the love of God and healing and freedom for their souls, I get to go on adventures with God. And let me tell you there is nothing more satisfying nor rewarding as going on a Treasure Hunt with the Spirit of God being your guide!

What, you may ask, is going on a Treasure Hunt with God? Well, I’m not sure who coined the term, but this is how it went for me and my teammates at Breakforth. The first step is to pray and ask God the Father to show us a clue regarding someone He would like us to minister to. The second step is to wait for the Father to give us a clue through His Spirit who we are to minister to. In my team, two of the three of us received some information from the Father about how to recognize the person He wants to minister to. My sister in the Lord, Kimberly received a picture of a man wearing a cowboy hat. Her first reaction was, now that is going to be unlikely that a man wearing a cowboy hat will be at Edmonton at Breakforth but she had the faith to share with us what she saw. I received a brief picture in my mind of someone wearing a brilliant yellow shirt, and I couldn’t see whether the person was male or female. Both Kimberly and I haven’t had great experiences doing this before, this definitely is out of our comfort zone but we decide we are going to trust God and go for it. So here we go, three treasure hunters, Kimberly, mother of 13, Edna a Phillipino pastor and myself. As we began to look for the yellow shirt and the cowboy hat I also heard our Father say don’t fixate on trying to find these people just go forth and ask people as you come across whether you can pray for them. So we did. We prayed for volunteers we came across, shaw center staff who were serving as security or food services, registrants for the conference etc. It was rich and rewarding engaging with people and seeing God bless people through our intercessory prayers and short messages of encouragement the Holy Spirit would give us for people. Soon, much to Kimberley’s surprise, the man with the cowboy hat came on the scene. But it didn’t seem the right time because we were engaged in praying for another person and she felt some pressure so rather than try to make it happen right away she prayed and waited. We carried on and later in the day I heard a report back that she had come across this man and she determined she would just do what Father asked and the man was blessed by her prayers. She was excited that she had completed the assignment and found the treasure Father was wanting her to find and encouraged him. For me, the first day of the conference went by, and then the second and finally the third day the final session was all done and I had my last prayer appointment to finish in the prayer room and still no yellow shirt. Leaders expressed thanks to the team and we expressed our thanks back to our leaders by asking whether we could pray for them, which we did. It had been a great experience of seeing the Holy Spirit minister to so many people and we were tired but just enjoying each other and God, thanking Him for the privilege of co-laboring with Him in people’s lives. Then something happened I was not expecting, the directors of Breakforth Canada walked into the prayer room! Much to my shock and delight, guess what I saw…the yellow shirt. Sharol was wearing a brilliant yellow shirt and I ran over to Kimberly and said there is my yellow shirt! My emotional response was literally tears of joy, I couldn’t believe it! Kimberly makes sure I don’t chicken out and nudges me forward near this precious woman’s feet as she and her husband were being surrounded by our team to receive prayer and encouragement from our Father in heaven. But now the question was what was it the Father wanted to do or say in this woman’s life. So I prayed and I received my answer and it was quite simple. First I began by thanking my Father in heaven,”Thank you God that the treasure hunt is finally over, I have finally found the person with the yellow shirt.” Everyone had a good laugh at that point as we rejoiced in the faithfulness of our heavenly Father. The message I had was simple and I said something like “Sharol, I believe your Father in heaven wants you to know that You are His treasure, He cherishes you and takes great delight in you!  I looked up and saw tears in both her husband’s eyes and hers as the Fathers loving words sunk into their hearts. God is so good! His love for us is so amazing!  And now you know one of the many reasons why I love volunteering for prayer team at Breakforth Canada!

Have a great week and don’t forget to subscribe!  This week’s song is There is None Like You!  Hope you enjoy it!

https://soundcloud.com/kelly-wiens-1/there-is-none-like-you-final-master

The Minstrel as a Singer/Songwriter

I spent many hours, probably too many, watching a show called Nashville this last year in the evenings after a
long day working on the farm.  You may wonder why I would do such a thing and I did too some days but I learned some things as a watched this show.   If you want to be a great singer/songwriter that makes it in the music business that attracts many people to your sound, you need to have something to say.  You need an authentic message which comes straight from your heart that connects with people where they are and takes them somewhere.   This was the story of Layla Grant who had been runner-up in a singing competition and began to try to make it in the singing world amongst some bigger stars like Juliette who was also on the same record label.  Her initial problem was that she had nothing to say but then later after suffering incredible heartbreak out of her broken marriage with Will Lexington she began to write out of her pain and struggle of her brokenness.  Jeff Fordham hears her singing her new stuff and is enamored with the sound and Layla and so the story goes and the rebirth of her singing career begins.     To be a great singer/songwriter the songs need to come from a place of your own experience,  your own story.  These will be the songs that find resonance with others.

We were made in God’s image and therefore we were made in the image of love for God is love.  As human beings we are created to be loved by God and to love Him back.    God also created this incredibly beautiful counterpart to Adam his first creation,  Eve because Adam was longing to connect with someone like himself and there was nothing in all of creation that could do that.    Eve was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone created from him, like him but different in so many ways.  The enemy of our souls soon came to Eve and Adam seducing first Eve and then Adam to not trust God nor believe God but to believe him instead and pursue a different path of becoming our own gods, mapping our own destiny convincing us that death would not really happen, God wasn’t really telling the truth.   Then as Adam and Eve tasted the fruit of the knowledge of both good and evil they discovered for the first time fear and shame of their nakedness and the desire to hide from God.   Then God out of love dished out the consequences to all that were involved in the first rebellion to Adam, Eve and the serpent Satan.   God would promise Eve that one day,  someone would come from her that would destroy all that the serpent had deceived her into and redeem all that was lost, restoring the relationship with the Creator once again.   No more guilt, no more shame, a return to intimacy and trust, a return to a fearless relationship with Father God once again because a Lamb would die once and for all.  He would bear our rebellion and shame before a holy Father and make a way for us to come back to the garden and walk with Him once again.   Jesus is the name of that Lamb who died once and for all so that we could become like Him in every way.   Jesus is the love song of the Father sent from above to tell us how he feels about us, to show us who He really is.   As music minstrels in the Kingdom of God, our job is to keep the focus the heart of humanity on the loving Bridegroom Jesus Christ.   We can do this by singing songs that flow out of the experience of the songwriter with the lover of their souls Jesus Christ.  We do this by singing songs that flow out of the restored relationship with Father that Jesus has brought us into.

When I began as a worship leader and singer in choirs and small groups, I was singing songs written by other songwriters.   There is nothing wrong with this.   Not everyone writes songs, but for me soon there was a desire to express my heart to God via the medium of music for myself.  I loved God and I wanted to express how I felt through song.   I remember writing a song with my piano teacher Glen Barkman and he was helping me to create the harmonies for it.   I then tried to get my a cappella quartet to try to sing it.  It wasn’t quite finished to perfection.  There was some questions about which harmonies exactly were to be sung and some problems to figure it out.  I was anxious and pretty sensitive to any criticism at this point and when the practice didn’t go so well I gave up and never went back to that song.  It was called Come back to Me and it was about my experiencing the love of God my Father drawing me back to himself after I did something wrong and I was running away from Him.   Kinda sad, I don’t actually know where that song is and whether I could recreate it.  Oh, the joys of becoming a songwriter in the oh so perfectionistic world of music.  All this to say is I believe that as lovers of God and others we were made to express love in many ways.  One of those ways is through singing our love songs to God and one another.   I believe God loves to hear our voice and I know that those we love whether it be our girlfriend, boyfriend, our friends, our parents, our spouse or our children love to hear us sing over them or sing to them.  It is one of the simple and great pleasures of being created in the image of a God who is love.

The longing we have to be loved is cause we were made for it.  I’m gonna share a song with you that is about this cry and longing to be loved that I have found can only be met through the heavenly bridegroom Jesus.   First, He loves us and then He reveals our Father in heaven to us.   He also brings us others to love and be loved by which enriches our lives so much.   I hope you can identify with some of the longings expressed in the song.https://soundcloud.com/kelly-wiens-1/known-by-you-final-master/s-MLrHv

So here is my question of the week.  If you’ve written a song, what was your first one and what was it about?  How did the first attempt at sharing it go?   I’d like to hear your story!

 

 

The Heart and the Hand of the Lord

Now bring me a minstrel. And it came about,

when the minstrel played, that the hand of the

LORD came upon him.  2 Kings 3:15

King James Version

Welcome back!  I want to say thanks for reading my very professor like blog last week if you did and if you didn’t, and this is your first read, I encourage you to go back and read Heart of a Minstrel.     There is probably a lot more that could be mined from the research on that word I touched on and I invite your thoughts and insights on it.   a.k.a.  please comment, it helps me know how I’m doing as a writer and gives me food for thought.    As I keep doing what feels very new to me, the words of a pastor mentor in my life come back to me.  I’m not here to be a superstar minstrel or pastor who can minister better than everyone else, I’m here to learn and grow as I exercise the ministry responsibility the Lord has given me.   Thanks in advance for helping me learn and grow as a writer, teacher, and music minstrel.

I have always said the hand and the heart of a person are connected.   Some would say heart and spirit are interchangeable words and so if we did that, we would say the spirit of a person and their hand are intimately connected.   Jesus said in Luke 11:20 “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”   This sounds very familiar to the theme verse where Elisha says bring me a minstrel and it came about that the hand of the Lord came upon him as the minstrel played.   The hand has fingers and fingers point where the heart of the person wants someone to go.  In the case of deliverance from demonic possession or oppression, Jesus tells the demons where to go by the finger of God, namely the Holy Spirit.    So here with Elisha we see the phrase, “hand of the Lord” and given that fingers are on a hand we can interpret this as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one sent to express the Heart of the Father on earth as He wills in heaven through His sons and daughters.  Jesus said to His disciples for them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift our Father promised, namely the Holy Spirit.   When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost in Acts 2, Peter said this was in fulfillment of Joel 2.  Joel prophesied the coming of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh both male and female.  He said we would prophesy which would include having visions and dreams, which means we would hear God speak to us by His Spirit and that we would then proclaim what He has spoken to us.  This is prophesying.  We can also read in 1 Chronicles that the priesthood that was set apart by the Lord through King David to minister to the Lord day and night uses the word prophesying to describe the ministry of praising and thanking God for what He has done.

[ The Musicians ] David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres, and cymbals.  1Chronicles 25:1
So you can see there is a variety of things that can happen when a minstrel begins to play his or her stringed instrument and begins to praise the Lord with just the music or music and singing.   The Holy Spirit fills the minstrel and the Holy Spirit also comes upon and fills those who are around.  For Elisha, this meant that as the minstrel played the Holy Spirit came upon him enabling him to hear what God was saying and then he proclaimed it to the audience God had directed him to speak to.   In the context of the David Tabernacle, we know from David’s experience and other psalm writers that not only does praise and thanksgiving and worship flow to God from a Holy Spirit filled minstrel or singer but also predictive Jesus-centered prophecies came out of their songs that they sang.  Psalm 22 is a great example of that where David describes how Jesus would die for our sins many years before it happens.
The apostle Paul encourages everyone to prophesy and gives the command to pursue spiritual gifts especially the gift of prophecy because it encourages, comforts and strengthens those who hear the words spoken or sung via the filling of the Spirit.   It would seem that as believers in Jesus indwelled by His Spirit, we all can prophesy.   Apostle Paul also says that only the Spirit knows God’s thoughts and this is true with us too.   Through the indwelling of His Spirit God allows us to know Him and what He is thinking about us and others.   When we speak it out or sing it out,  it has an edifying effect on everyone who hears.   The mystery in all this is how God has made music as a medium through which our hearts can connect with Him and each other.   I don’t fully understand,  but I have experienced it many times.  How about you?   How have you experienced the Holy Spirit filling you when you play an instrument or sing?  Perhaps you are like Elisha and have been filled with the Spirit when a minstrel played and you began to prophesy encouraging things to those around you as the minstrel played.  I’d be interested to hear about this in the comments.
       My wife wrote the lyrics and melody to a song I added the chords to many years ago called “You Delight in Me”.   More recently I added a bridge that is a prophetic song from the Father’s heart to you and me as His children.   I hope you enjoy it and remember He delights in you!   Look forward to hearing your comments and stories.  Until next time, Shalom!
https://soundcloud.com/kelly-wiens-1/you-delight-in-me-final-master

The Heart of a Minstrel

Now bring me a minstrel.   And it came about, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him.  2 Kings 3:15

King James Version

As promised in the last post, I said I would share more about what is a minstrel and what are the prime motivations God has placed in the heart of His minstrels.   So I thought to be a  good student,  I would use a dictionary first to see why the translators of the King James Version chose the word minstrel to describe who and what Elisha was looking for.      Dictionary.com says this:

Word Origin and History for minstrel

n.early 13c., from Old French menestrel “entertainer, poet, musician;servant, workman; good-for-nothing, rogue,” from Medieval Latinministralis “servant, jester, singer,” from Late Latin ministerialem(nominative ministerialis) “imperial household officer, one having an official duty,” from ministerialis (adj.) “ministerial,” from Latin ministerium (seeministry ). The connecting notion is via the jester, etc., as a court position.

Specific sense of “musician” developed in Old French, but in English until16c. the word was used of anyone (singers, storytellers, jugglers,buffoons) whose profession was to entertain patrons. Only in 18c. was theword limited, in a historical sense, to “medieval singer of heroic or lyricpoetry who accompanied himself on a stringed instrument.”

I find it interesting that from the 13th century from the word menestrel,  it meant entertainer, poet, musician.  These words all connect with me as a musician as we are often called upon to entertain, and songs are often poetry to words.   I also find it interesting that minstrel came from the word to be a servant, a jester and a singer, as well from a word that meant to be an imperial household officer or one having an official duty flowing from the King and serving in His court.   Later it says in 16th century it moved from being a general term for entertainer including storytellers, singers, and jugglers, and buffoons to that of being a medieval singer of heroic or lyric poetry who accompanied himself on a stringed instrument.

After reading the dictionary, I think it is quite obvious why the translator chose to use minstrel for someone who played the harp or kinnor.   Now, I play a stringed instrument that has a harp and hammers, the piano or at least a digital instrument which replays a recording of a real piano.   I love to play the piano especially grand pianos, they are my favorite.   So when the Lord spoke to me in 1997 about me being a minstrel in His Kingdom, I definitely fit the criteria of being a minstrel from that simple definition and there is no question I love to sing songs from heroic poetry (the Psalms:)) which is the latter part of the definition.   As I think about being part of Gods kingdom it makes sense that the minstrel word comes from the French word for servant, as well the word that describes being an imperial officer, and one with a duty that has been delegated to them from the King.   Jesus said if we want to be great in His kingdom, we must become great at serving others.   As I reflect on the fact that minstrels often served before Kings in their courts or before nobles, as worship leaders I think that is the place we often find ourselves in.   We first enter into our Kings courts with praise and thanksgiving in song ourselves, and then we invite others in to join us in the Kings Presence.   This is our place of delegated authority and responsibility.   We are responsible to the King and our job is to serve everyone within earshot to come into the Kings presence and worship him with thankful and praise filled songs.  I like where this word comes from!

For many years the word entertainer was a real stumbling block for me as a musician.  I didn’t want to be seen as an entertainer as I heard a Youth For Christ speaker once say entertainment is the opposite of worship.  It tends to focus on trying to tickle the ears of its listeners to appeal to the desires of the eyes, the flesh, and its listener’s pride.   I agree that much of entertainment is this.  However, as I was preparing to share this with you today I realized there is a way to turn this upside down so that it is very right for us as minstrels to be entertainers.  As minstrels, we are to be servants of our King with a heart to see God glorified in the midst of His people.   What if we saw our job as first and foremost to bring pleasure to the King by what we say and play for Him.  What if our job as minstrels of the Kingdom of Heaven was not driven by trying to please men and women but the central drive of the heart of the minstrel in the Kingdom of heaven was to bring pleasure to the King of Kings, to put a smile on His face, to make Him laugh, and to bring Him joy.   I think I can get into that kind of entertainment.  So if I had to put it into one sentence.    The heart of a minstrel is a to be a servant who invites people into the Kings Courts to praise and worship Him whose primary joy is to bring delight and pleasure to the Kings heart!   How about you!

Next week I will share the second half of this post as I realized it was too long, which will focus on the second portion of this verse.  Elisha asked a minstrel to come and play so the hand of the Lord would come upon him and he could then prophesy.   Next week I want to explore the connection between the minstrel and the hand of the Lord coming upon us and others around us.   I think you will find it a good subject to reflect and meditate on, the relationship between you and your ministry as a minstrel and the Lords’ hand coming upon others.

As promised, a link to a song.  This is a simple song of worship I wrote down and played for the first time in the mid-nineties.  I hope you enjoy being in the presence of  King Jesus with me and experience His peace!https://soundcloud.com/kelly-wiens-1/i-worship-you-final-master  Chords and lyrics in Resources!

Please do not forget to subscribe so your next one comes on Monday morning to your inbox!

 

The Power of Promise Fulfilled

Good morning! It’s a beautiful sunny morning on a Saturday in Saskatoon Saskatchewan. Wow, that’s a lot of SSS’s! And as promised, I said I would have a website that was active on January 7. Thanks, Camille Schroeder for helping me get this site up. I had intended to have my first blog post being something a little meatier but technology has let me down so I think I will simply introduce who I am a little and what I want to talk about over the next months and years.

My name is Kelly Wiens. I am married to Lani now for almost 25 years, and we have 6 children together 4 sons and 2 daughters and one child in heaven they range in age from 10 to 20. I am 46 years old and I have been singing and playing musical instruments since I was preschool. I play very little guitar, a lot of piano/keyboard, sing, write songs and sing them to Lord and others. My experience in contemporary worship leading began when I was 20 in Bible School in Bethany Bible Institute leading a praise and prayer chapel on Fridays. Although I began by leading vocally only with great band leader, I have led since that time after acquiring some play by chord skills mostly with piano and keyboard. Since 1991 I have led worship in my two home churches mostly Hope Fellowship Church (1993-2007), Hillside Christian Fellowship Church in Beechy (2007-2014) and 2014 till the present Hope Fellowship church and other places I get invited, like the Bridge on 20th, Living Hope Church and Watchmen for the Nations Gatherings.    I think I like hope or something! I love to worship our God our Father and our Saviour Jesus and I love singing songs that come from His heart to encourage, strengthen and comfort us. So that’s enough about me for now, but I will share more as I go.

Minstrel Musings is a blog for minstrels. What is a minstrel? In a nutshell, a minstrel is a ministering musician of some kind made possible by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.   So whether you are a worship leader, singer, songwriter or an instrument player of any kind and you love the Lord Jesus Christ and love to minister to Him and others I want to talk to you. The Musings part means to simply reflect and meditate. I believe our Father has in history and is raising up many music minstrels to be His ministers and His messengers. This blog is a place is a place where I hope we can meditate and reflect upon the things our Father in heaven is teaching us as we minister. I hope this blog becomes a place of encouragement for you, and a place where you can reference when you are having struggles, have questions, looking for a little inspiration and lift in your spirit when you are downhearted.  Lastly, a lot of the things our Father has taught us as minstrels is contained in the songs He gives us so each month I plan to link you to a song to share with you. So my first musing will be on the topic The Heart of a Minstrel. Things I will be reflecting on will be what is a minstrel in more detail and what are the prime motivations in his or her heart. The follow up to that will be an intro to the connection between the minstrel and the Holy Spirit in us and others.
So if you are interested please subscribe, Heart of a Minstrel will come out Monday morning in your inbox God-willing!