What is prophetic worship? The first thing I would like to demystify is idea of “prophetic worship.” I want to begin with some workable biblical definitions of the words, Worship, Praise and Prophetic. I’ll begin by saying I am not going to give an even remotely exhaustive study of these words or ideas. There are many publications (audio, video and written form) available that will do a far better job than I could. I mean to give broad-brush strokes. If you would like more in-depth studies I’ll post some resources later.

We’ll begin with the word Worship many times throughout the bible it evolves both the heart and the body falling face down before the awesomeness of GOD. It implies putting what He wants above what we want. It is inner and outer thing. Jesus said worship must be in spirit and truth (John 4:24). It is a heart thing and head thing. Worship usually referrers to who God is, like His holiness, beauty, glory, etc… Also it seems to be less definable and less visible in contrast to praise. With all of this said I must say real worship must be experienced not just theorized about.

Praise many times is described as playing music while you sing a song to the Lord. It is usually based on a physical activity like, singing, dancing, clapping, etc… Also Praise is typically about something God has done. In the New Testament many times praise means to be in full agreement and by implication to know who we are (not worthy or faithful) and who God is (completely worthy and faithful).

Now to that funny yet important word that seems to trip most of us up, “Prophetic.” Just saying it out loud conjures up a mental picture of an old gray beard in robes saying in a loud voice, “Thus saith the LORD!” or a guy in a three-piece suit on TV in some sort of trance shaking and saying in a southern accent, “Thus saith the LORD!”

The first place we see the word prophet in the bible (Gen 20:7) is describing Abraham, he is called an “inspired man,” a Prophet, one who speaks or sings by inspiration.

Webster defines inspiration, as “To breathe into…infusion of ideas into the mind by the Holy Spirit… understanding of the divine will (or desires) by suggestion…” or in my words an “impression.”

In Numbers 11 we read about the Lord coming down in a cloud to Moses and the seventy elders during a meeting. The Spirit of the Lord came upon them and they began to Prophesy or speak by inspiration. One verse later we see two of the elders stayed back at the camp missing the meeting altogether yet we read that the Spirit rested upon them and they too begin to speak and sing under inspiration. One of the young leaders, Joshua, was angry and wanted them to stop. But, Moses said (in my words), “I wish all of God’s people were inspired and that the Lord would put his Spirit on all of them.”

Next 1 Samuel 10 gives us another interesting key to understand the “prophetic.” In this story the prophet Samuel is telling the soon-to-be King Saul that he will meet prophets, Inspired men, prophesying with musical instruments and that the Spirit of the Lord will come upon him and he will prophesy and be changed into another man. It happened just as Samuel had said. The interesting thing about this passage is that prophets were doing their prophecy with musical instruments, singing and playing music under inspiration or by impression.

Then 1 Chronicles 25:1-3 David and the leaders of Israel set apart certain musical Levites or priests “who were to prophesy with lyres, harps and cymbals…who prophesied in giving thanks and praising the Lord.” We see hundreds of Singers and musicians were put in place to prophecy by thanking the Lord and giving Him Praise through making music. These priests prophesied accompanied by music and actually prophesied through music. Earlier in chapter 6 we see that they would minister or serve the Lord through music from the reign of David until Solomon built the temple. Which would be about thirty years. A little later in chapter 9 we see that they held no other duty or job but bringing music to the Lord. Not only that but they did it every day and every night, 24 hours a day, 365 a year. For thirty years, night and day hundreds of singers and musicians were “paid” by to bring inspired music before the Lord.

After this we see David gives a command in Ps. 33:3, “Sing a New song or a “fresh” song to the Lord; play it skillfully…” The phrase “New Song” is used 9 times in the Bible. Many commentators believe that it implies a fresh response to God expressed through singing/playing music. In Ps. 40:3 David further says that, “The Lord put a new song in my mouth.” It literally means, “to place in.” The picture I get is the Lord having a song and putting it into you.

Finally Paul speaks of the “spiritual songs” in Ephesians and Colossians. In today’s language we could say a “song of the Spirit.” – a spontaneous song in the moment that is from our spirit to the Lord. Spiritual songs are typically unrehearsed or planned but sometimes they are. They are usually right off the top of your head and/or heart.

Like I said at the beginning if you would like something more in-depth about any of these topic or more I suggest purchasing any of the resource available on our website.

So lets do an overview of these three words in basic terms.

  1. Worship: Bending our will and desires to His. Letting the Lord have His way.
  2. Praise: Singing and playing music that agrees with who God is and what He wants.

(For the rest of the sessions will refer to Praise and Worship Synonymously as Worship.)

Prophetic:        Expression under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Based on the very brief survey of these topics in the bible we could piece these three terms together and get a pretty good idea of what prophetic worship is.

In conclusion

Prophetic Worship is: “Our dynamic loving response to the Lord through partnering with His impressions and inspiration through the use of any means of creative expression.”

Simply, It is a dynamic, expressive response of love to love.

Love’s response to Love. But, in our context we will specifically focus on prophecy while in the midst of a musical setting, cooperate or devotional. Asking the Lord, “What are you thinking, what are you feeling, what are you doing?”

So now that we have a working definition of Prophetic Worship lets began to dive in to the basics of what it means to be a Prophetic Worshiper.

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