Direct link to YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/MGH8Vpnp_tI
We were on our way to minister with our friends Roger and Roxanne Sachs on the Central Coast of California at a church that has over time, and transitions, become known as Pearl Chapel.
Roger and I used to hang out with Lonnie Frisbee back in the day, while going to some of those wild meetings Lonnie was doing around Orange County and Palm Springs.
Roger has written some books on Lonnie’s legacy as the pioneer evangelist of the Jesus People Revival and the catalytic minister who introduced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into what was Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda at the time, later to be called the Vineyard, and sparking what was coined by Peter Wagner as the Third Wave Revival.
Anyways, as we were on our way to minister at their church, we ran into some traffic in LA and got delayed. We got to their place late and then had to get up early the next morning for the service.
At the last minute, the worship leader got sick before we were heading out to the service the next morning, so Roger asked: “Hey, can you do the worship as well as preach?”
I was a little bleary eyed from lack of sleep and a long drive, but I told him: “You know what? We’ll do it and just do our best to let the Holy Spirit take over—regardless if I am not familiar with the guitar I’ll be playing, and it is last minute, and I am a bit out of it—but we’ll just trust the Holy Spirit.”
Sometimes those last-minute things have a way of highlighting our need in the moment, thus allowing the Lord to take over… I was tired but I did my best to just let the Holy Spirit flow regardless of being a little strained and stretched. So, after a little sermonette on Pentecost—since it happened to be Pentecost Sunday—we got into the worship, and we were glad when we discerned the Lord’s presence was with us in it.
There were some people in the meeting that day who’d been in the early Vineyard and they said the worship and ministry very much reminded them of those early days back in the day at Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda at the Canyon High School gym, back when the Holy Spirit was just flowing so much during that early season. I was humbled and thankful for those comments, especially since it was back then where I was actually drawn into worship.
Well, in the middle of us leading the worship that day, and quite out of nowhere, our son Patrick, being a quite a young boy at that point, jumped up and and came up where we were leading and spontaneously joined with us in the worship leading.
It was prophetic confirmation of knowing that the Lord had a purpose and calling for him to do worship later on himself.
Patrick also got filled and baptized in the Holy Spirit sometime around this same time period. That spontaneously and just sovereignly happened when we were filming at our friend Dave’s place, further up on the Central Coast. Dave was sharing about how he got filled with the Holy Spirit when we prayed for him while we were ministering in Hawaii (https://youtu.be/cN9jNLKCbVA)
Dave was in midstream of sharing together with me, as we recounted the story on camera together. Meanwhile, over on the couch, Patrick was listening, and the Holy Spirit just fell in power on him! He began lifting his hands, weeping, and speaking in tongues! Glory!
The Lord’s Mercy and Patience
I took the time to teach Patrick guitar and stuff like that over the years. I gave him words numerous times during his young days that he was going to be called on to do worship at some point.
However, we can all hit those rebellious moments, especially in the teen years and
he hit that time in his mid-teens when he resisted...
I was trying to teach him about doing worship on the guitar and he just wanted to do riffs and leads. I told him yeah, it is all fun to do that kind of stuff, I like to do it too, but you also need to learn some worship stuff too…but like a typical teenager, he responded: “Well, what if I don’t want to do worship…?!” Sometimes just because the parent is saying it, they can get ornery and resist.
It is important to persevere and hold onto the promises of the Lord even when there are trying seasons. Continuing to pray and persevere is important in these times. I remember Billy and Ruth Graham talking about the perseverance in prayer they needed with some of their own children.
Well, lo and behold, the Lord has a way…and pours out and displays mercy…. because Patrick is now leading worship on the guitar every week with his girlfriend Emily, they lead worship together at a house church! They have also become committed in their relationship as well, which we have been rejoicing in!
Praise the Lord for His great patience with all of us and all of our fallen human rebelliousness and resistance at times. He tarries patiently with our weaknesses! If not for His mercy and grace none of us could stand! His mercy endures forever!
The Lord Draws us Deeper in Unexpected Ways
When I first experienced the worship at what was then called Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda that met at Canyon High School Gym, later to be called Anaheim Vineyard, it was quite a shock to me.
I came into the gym where people had their hands up in the air everywhere and many were loud and emotional—I didn’t know yet that the Holy Spirit was moving on so many of them during the worship.
I didn't grow up going to church. My first response was to literally think that the place was full of emotionally and mentally challenged people. I soon became one of those emotionally and mentally challenged people after I got filled and baptized in the Holy Spirit myself (https://gwmgracenotes.blogspot.com/2020/05/40th-anniversary-of-mothers-day.html).
My first experience with worship had been at some youth-oriented meetings at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. I had come there via a wild divine appointment (https://gwmgracenotes.blogspot.com/2013/10/acid-trippers-and-hippie-crash-pads.html).
I was hanging out at a summer apartment in Huntington Beach that me and some friends had rented to be closer to the surf. The place became a hippy crash pad filled with surfboards and sleeping bags, filled with everything but food. One day, a dude showed up (people were always coming and going there) and asked if we wanted to go to a concert. A bunch of us piled in the car and he took us all the way across town down into Newport and up into Costa Mesa to what was Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa which was still in the throes of the Jesus People Revival movement.
I had previously accepted Christ while accidentally—Godcidentally—listening to a Pentecostal preacher on the radio and accepted Christ into my heart but had never really attended a church.
After getting introduced to the fellowship there, I began to attend some of the youth Bible studies at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, as well as other ones connected with it, when I had working transportation. I had traded a surfboard for a car that would not always start. I would have to round up other people to help me “push start” it quite often!
The youth-oriented Bible Studies I’d go to when the transportation was working usually just had 2 or 3 short songs before the actual “Bible Study” part got going.
This high school gym experience however, at Canyon High School, was at a whole other level! People were so engaged and deeply worshiping the Lord and it just went on for what seemed like forever, it was just mind blowing!
After I got filled with the Holy Spirit I began to get drawn into the worship and took an interest in learning to do it as well.
I had learned a little guitar earlier on. However, after my parents got divorced, I drifted away from it. My older brother had moved his rock band equipment into the living room after my parents split and was blowing the paint off the walls with his band’s regular practice sessions. Not wanting to go deaf, I bailed out of that scene and lost interest in learning any music stuff and hit the beach to escape destroying my eardrums.
However, as I was drawn into the worship in the Canyon High School Gym—those early days of worship there were off the charts, especially when Carl Tuttle was doing it—I got interested in learning some songs and I eventually ended up trading one of my surfboards for a guitar.
That rickety guitar got me going into learning a couple worship songs. I had a long way to go but was getting back into playing. I got thrown into the deep end a little sooner than I expected though.
I attended an occasional kinship here and there, and one of them was Ken Fish’s. One night I was in there messing around with someone else’s guitar before the meeting started… Ken came up and said: “Hey, the worship leader can’t make it here tonight, why don’t you do a few songs for us?” I said: “No way,” to which he replied: “Oh, you can give it a try.”
Why or how I agreed in the end to do it, I don’t even know, but I was shaking from being so nervous! I did not know what I was doing, and I only knew two songs, it was terribly stressful, and I completely butchered it! However, I knew the Lord was using that awkward moment to draw me into leading worship. God can use all things—even awkward moments where you feel like a fool— for good and for His purposes!
I had my own Bible study later where I began doing the worship regularly, as well as leading worship quite regularly with some other friends at a College group at Newport Vineyard.
Thank God for his patience and grace to move us forward past hard experiences, as well as rebellious moments. He tarries patiently with our weaknesses.
Paul the Apostle reminds us of the unlimited patience of the Lord who tarries with us to move us forward in His grace.
“…I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patienceas an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” 1 Timothy 1:16
A Few Insights
I learned some important things along the way. One of them was from Scott Brenner, a worship leader and songwriter, who said: “Sure, it is good to learn a few technical things with the guitar and vocals and all, but the most important thing is learning to let the Holy Spirit lead us as we lead!”
Well, I have come to find out that this is an ongoing lifelong process once you are willing to enter into the “School of the Holy Spirit!”
While so many get caught up in “what is the latest, coolest worship song, from the popular fellowship at the moment” it’s more important to learn to be led by the Holy Spirit whether you are singing hymns or praise choruses—new or old. What is important is being led by the Holy Spirit and cultivating intimacy with the Lord.
“As many as are led by the Holy Spirit these are the children of God.” Romans 8:14
Jesus said that the Father seeks those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth. John 4:23
So, whether it’s doing worship, speaking, serving, witnessing, praying for someone, or anything else in serving the Lord, one of the most important things is found in Paul’s Capital Epistle to the Romans 8:14: where his high point is “As many as are led by the Spirit these are the children of God!”
Learning to be led by the Spirit is not just some fringe Charismatic idea, but it is actually the high point and goal for us all as believers in Jesus Christ. We should be filled with praise and worship when we understand the grace and mercy He gives us through Christ our Savior!
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