What is Your Pursuit in Music?
by Michael David Riggs
President, Perfect Praise Inc.
“Your playing is anointed. That’s not something I can teach you. That’s something the Holy Spirit has to do – He puts that on your music when your life and your music please Him. He breaths on your music and causes it to affect other people and desire to be with Him. He puts His presence on your music.”
That’s part of a conversation I had with one of my students a few days ago. I had said to her that this was one of the best lessons she’s ever had. I said to her that I thought her songs on guitar and on piano were the best she’d ever played for me. Then I said the above. Far and away, the anointing mentioned above was the most important part of that conversation with my young student. It is the most important part of our music, without any comparison.
What caused David to so move the heart of God that God made covenant with David and literally gave him the moon (Psalm 89:37). What caused God to be so moved – so drawn in and taken by what David established that God promised to restore it as His eternal abode and as His worship model for us-of course I’m speaking of the Tabernacle of David. It was simply that David, a man infested with faults and weaknesses, was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:32; Psalm 89:20). In spite of all David’s failings and fallings he was a man in passionate pursuit of God. Being a man after God’s heart says to me that he never quite caught it but he always chased it. That is a foundational requirement of God for us. It is to seek the Lord. And we’re told that if we seek Him we will find Him. This is a huge factor in the manifestation of God and His presence as we pursue Him in worship and with our music. Are you a person after God’s own heart? Are you in pursuit of the heart of God – the desires of His heart? Are you in pursuit of knowing what He thinks about… whatever the subject in question might be?
What is your pursuit as a musician? Parents, what is your purpose in wanting your children to pursue music? So many musicians meet an end that is tragic. After watching this for decades I’ve become convinced that it is because their pursuit is off-center. This reminds me of the chief fallen angel who was created so that his every movement made music, and yet his final end will be eternal damnation and not ever being able to fulfill the purpose for which he was created. The pursuit of music is one of pursuing the heart of God. That’s why my emphasis to my students that I teach is a greater one of learning to improvise – that is, play the music God put inside you – rather than the main emphasis being on playing written music, which is another person‘s creation. Written music is a method to teach one how to create music. Music should then flow from the heart through the instrument into the ears of the listener and mainly into the ears of the One who created us to make music to Him. Music should be birthed out of the Holy Spirit’s moving in the musician.
What is your pursuit in music?
© Michael David Riggs 2018
~Michael David Riggs