Fighting The Music Devil

I've lived with the Music Devil pretty much all my life.

I know what it is to struggle---and lose the fight---with the Music Devil.

Many who will read this blog may have never heard my piano playing. There are those, however, that can attest to the ability that God has seen fit to bless me with, and I readily give Him all the glory for it.

I can play the Jerry Lee Lewis "Whole Lotta Shakin'" style, the good ol' southern gospel style, the Floyd Cramer stuff, the jazzy-bluesy feel, the black gospel stuff...God has been very, very, very good to me in trusting me with such ability. It's all Him. I've never had lessons, and can't read music.

When I went to Jackson College of Ministries a few years ago, everyone naturally assumed that I was attending as a music major.

I wasn't.

When we came to Austin two years ago, everyone assumed I would immediately jump into the music program.

I didn't.

I know all too well the struggle with the Music Devil. I didn't want to fight him again...not that early in the transition period of ministry.

I have been abundantly blessed with music through most of my life; I have been the "musician that you couldn't do without" in too many churches to count. I've been the one who made the faces, who griped about the sound man, who mouthed off during choir practices. I am the one Bro. Pastor patted on the back, gave a pep-talk to, turned his head the other way when I was acting the fool, yet kept putting me up on the piano bench.

And I hated myself for it.

But you know something? I despised even moreso the pastors who put up with me.

Nothing is more spineless and pathetic than a supposed "man of God" who doesn't have the backbone to sit a musician down when they're not measuring up. Give me a pastor that will set me on a pew and sing off-key acapella rather than allow me to have my petty little way and ruin the service.

You want to have a move of God, pastors? You want to stop what's hindering the flow of the Holy Ghost on your platform? Then sit the carnal musician down, tell them to line up with the Word of God and your God-ordained platform policy, or send them packing.

What's more important? Having a clear channel for the Holy Ghost to move through? or having a praise team that can "rock the house" and impress all your visitors? Give me no music and the Presence of the Almighty any day over an incredibly-talented praise team missing the Anointing.

Let me share with you something that I never thought I would share with anyone...

I was the piano player in a service one night several years ago; we were singing some old Pentecostal worship chorus..."He Set Me Free" or something similar...people were going nuts. At one particular place in the chorus, I would do one of my little Jerry Lee "Killer" runs, and the congregation would "worship" even more frantically. I watched with complete detachment (I wasn't feeling a thing) as "my" music controlled the temperature of the congregation. Almost like a scientist in a lab out to prove a theory, I went into a very passive mode of playing for about two passes of the chorus...the worship toned down, the shouters quit shouting, the jumpers quit jumping...and then, at the appropriate time, WHAM! I did my little "Goodness gracious, great balls 'o' fire!" run and hit the keyboard wide open...The place went absolutely berserk again.

Musicians understand the power they have over a service. More importantly, the spirit within understands that power, which is why the struggle is so great. You are not dealing merely with talented people who are moody; you are dealing with talented people that Satan knows are moody. And if he can get to them before you do, before God does, he understands that your services are doomed.

We are much like the teenage daughter who pushed her parents to see how much they would allow her to get away with. The one man...yea, the ONLY man...to ever sit me down, get in my face, and tell me point-blank, "I don't need you, I don't need your talent, and I don't need your attitude" has more of my respect, love, and admiration than all the other pastors I ever had...combined.

Why? Because I was dealing with a spirit of darkness, and I knew it. I needed a strong man to help me stare that spirit down and defeat it. And once I found that man, I had no problems dealing with the "Music Devil".

We don't need to be coddled, Pastor. We need to be led by men who are stronger than we are, and who realize they're stronger than we are. Men who are not afraid to sing off-key, if need be, to have a move of the Holy Ghost.

Probably the one thing that you said that I disagree with is the statement: "There is always a replacement...and usually much better than he is." This is not true. Quality musicians are not so easy to find in our churches anymore. And we know it, in spite of what you try to preach from your pulpits.

But that's where you, Bro. Pastor, cannot be afraid to sit us down.

If you dare let us think that you would rather have good music than a move of the Spirit, the Music Devil will come calling.

And the next time we go a day or two without praying, the next time someone doesn't sing the song the way we learned it, the next time someone pulls an old musty-dusty out of the hymnal, the Music Devil will be there whispering that you can't make it without us, that you can't have church without us.

Prove us wrong. Prove the Music Devil wrong.

Help us musicians whip the Music Devil.

Some of us hate him even worse than you do, because we have to fight him every time we step up to an instrument.