RICK JOYNER is the founder and executive director of Morning Star ministries in America. He is also the editor of the Morning Star Journal and the new youth journal The Message. This incisive look at the prophetic dimensions of music is from his book Mobilizing The Army Of God.

This great anointing can be perverted, which will only result in a greater depravity and corruption of soul. Major changes must be made in the way the church is now stewarding her music ministries before the Lord can give this greater anointing - for our own safety.

As a part of the preparation for this great battle, the Christian music ministry will come under a severe discipline from the Lord. We are now in a period of time that the Lord has given to allow all of those who are presently committed to Christian music to repent for allowing the ways of the world to take dominion over their ministries. Many of these have been true spiritual pioneers who simply made a wrong turn and need our help and prayers to find the right path again to do what God called them to do. However, those who refuse to repent, or correct their course, will pay a terrible price. It will begin with media exposés that will make the Christian music industry repulsive to both the world and the church.

Christian music is not meant to be an industry, but a ministry, and the Lord will recover it. The Lord cannot endorse an industry with the anointing that is coming. Those who have built their life and outreach upon the foundations of the world will go the way of the world if they do not repent. Those who do repent will quickly find their way again, and will be used mightily in the future to keep this ministry on its proper course, having gained discernment from their mistakes.

The present state of the Christian music industry should not be totally blamed on schemers with evil motives. It is largely the result of well meaning people who, seeking to reach the world, opened the door for the world to come flooding in. As the old proverb declares, "The ship in the sea is fine, but the sea in the ship is not!" The sea is now pouring in and this ship will soon go to the bottom. However, the Lord has another ship that will complete his intended journey for music.

Isaiah 33:21 reads, "But there the majestic One, the Lord, shall be for us a place of rivers and wide canals, on which no boat with oars shall go, and on which no mighty ship shall pass." As stated, "Boats with oars" represent ministries that are propelled by human power. "Mighty ships" represent what we might call "megaministries". Neither of these will be allowed when the River of Life begins to flow in these last days.

Ricky Joyner

Paul said, "...neither is he served by human hands..." (Act 17:25) By our own efforts we can make our ministries move and appear like they are really going somewhere, and we will be, but we will not be going where the Lord would have us to go. Those who appear not to be going anywhere may be closer to the will of God than those who are moving very fast, but by human effort.

During the time of Isaiah, the only other form of propulsion except for oars was the wind. Wind often represents the Spirit in Scripture (John 3:8). Oars were put on ships and boats because when the wind did not blow, or did not blow from the desired direction, they did not want to wait for it. That may be fine for commerce or warships, but [not] for those who serve the Lord. When the Spirit is not moving we must not move either. When we do move we only want to move in the direction that the Spirit is moving. This requires great faith and patience. If we want to inherit the promises of God, and not just waste our lives on what may be good works, but not his works, we must learn to sail with the wind, and be completely dependent upon the Spirit to move us.

"Mighty ships" can be useful on the ocean, but the River of Life is a river, not an ocean. In the day of the Lord's glory he will be a broad river, but not one on which "mighty ships" will be allowed. Even on the broadest rivers, large ships endanger all of the other vessels, blocking or hindering their free movement. We have been through a period in Western Christianity when we have perceived that the blessings of God upon a ministry were evidenced by their size and rate of growth. The Lord has blessed many of these, and blessed the church and the world through them as much as he could. However, the day is now upon us when being too large will handicap us from being able to continue moving with the Lord in his present purposes.

Because the Lord truly desires for all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, he does love numbers. However, there is a limit to the size where churches and ministries can maintain the manoeuvrability that will be required for following the Lord in the coming times. To have a hundred churches of a thousand people, or even a thousand churches of a hundred each, will be better than having a single church of a hundred thousand. We must learn to grow in ways that enable us to maintain our flexibility, or we will grow right out of the will of the Lord. Small "ships" and "boats" that are reproducing others are much to be preferred over mighty ones.

Anytime we use such general terms as "mighty" and "small" we must understand that this definition can change with times and places. What might be considered an excessively large church or ministry in one nation may be small in another. I considered Morning Star to be very small, and it is compared to the ministries of some of my friends. However, other friends consider Morning Star a behemoth. I think the key words here are "flexible" and "manoeuvrable". Can we navigate the course we have been given easily, and without endangering others?

Many churches and ministries grow because they are anointed and then they lose their anointing trying to sustain a level of growth beyond the level of domain that they have been given. How much of our growth really is because of the anointing and how much is the result of our own promotional skills? It is very possible to outgrow the Lord's purpose in our lives, which may disqualify us from the most important commission of all for which he could have otherwise used us.

All ministries must maintain the prophetic sensitivity to perceive even the smallest change of direction by the Holy Spirit. Contracts, the "business aspects" of being in a "successful" ministry, and other such trappings will disqualify many from being able to flow with the coming move of the Holy Spirit. Now is the time to get rid of excess baggage, trim down, and learn not to measure success by how many records or books are being sold, but by how much more intimate our fellowship is with the Lord.

There is a temporary success available to those who try to build according to the ways of the world. The enemy continues to offer every anointed vessel the world if they will just bow to his ways. This is the way that many do gain the whole world, or the attention of the world, but it will always be short-lived, and it will ultimately end in destruction. There are many promoters who prey upon the selfish ambitions of those who burst upon the scene with a measure of anointing. They can deliver on their promises and have helped many to the top of the Christian music world, or Christian ministry in general. Their motivation usually seems good, like being able to reach more people with the Gospel, but if you do it their way you may end up accomplishing much in the name of the Lord, but he will not know you (see Matthew 7:21 23).

This is not at all to imply that all large and visible ministries have grown this way. John the Baptist did not have all Israel coming out to him because of his promotions neither did Jesus. Neither did the apostle Paul become known throughout the world by self-promotion. Some will gain the visibility of the world because they are anointed. Those who gain influence by the anointing will not have to maintain a huge organisation to accomplish their mandate. They will not trust in "horses and chariots", they will trust the Holy Spirit.