The largest church I belonged to had an equally large choir and orchestra, and a very large stage, so it was difficult to keep everyone together. You may think sound travels fast enough to be nearly instantaneous from one side of the stage to the other, but it’s really not. The brass sat on one side, while the strings sat on the complete opposite side. There was just enough of a delay for the strings to always think the brass were coming in late, and the brass always thought the strings were late! The drummer tried to keep us together, as he sat in the middle, but sometimes, I admit, we ignored him. (Sorry!)
So we used a click track, as I described back in the chapter on discipline. This kept the beat for everyone, and, being electronic and traveling at the speed of light, was near enough to instantaneous for all of us. In addition, the keyboard player could give us directions over the connection as well, reminding us how many verses we were doing, or which song was next. Sometimes we had done a piece so many times, there were many notes handwritten on our music, but they didn’t necessarily apply to that day’s service. It helped to listen to the keyboard player’s guidance instead of relying on the old notes. The click track, sounding through earbuds, became our ears. It focused us, kept us from distraction, and kept us all together.
Oh, to hear the voice of God speaking in our ears! Wouldn’t that be an easy way to stay focused on what God wants us to do? We joke about our conscious talking to us, or about having two opposing little beings on our shoulders, one telling us to do the right thing, and the other telling us to do the bad yet more fun thing. But as Christians, we actually do have the Spirit of God speaking to us, if only we will listen. That other bad advice? That comes from our human nature wanting to choose its own way.
Which would you rather listen to? Do you listen to the good advice, and then ignore it? If the little voice in your ear says the next song will come after the prayer, do you go ahead and start playing your part before the prayer? Hopefully not, and so, hopefully, we will listen to and follow the advice of the Spirit. Make sure to listen to the right voice, and not somebody else’s old notes!
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
James 1:22
To answer before listening – that is folly and shame.
Proverbs 18:13
Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
Proverbs 19:27