A Step Towards A Modern Levite

Last Thursday till Saturday night was a great boost for me! FCBC had her first Modern Levites Conference. I really enjoyed myself! Shall highlight some experience of the conference.

Opening Message by Ps Melvyn Mak
What is true worship? In John 4:21-24, we know that worship is not location-specific.

God seeks true worshippers! So worship God in Spirit and Truth, first by discovering who God is - a compassionate friend; then by doing what God wants - a consuming fire.

The heart of worship can be seen in Moses' desire for God's presence over the promiseland. God is a One who blesses, sometimes these blessings become too attractive and we focus on it instead of God. We should always on our guard, and be like Moses!

"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." James 4:8

Worship = Obedience
We learn more about the nature of God only through experiential obedience.
We all know (head-knowledge) some of the different names of God (e.g. Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Emmanuel and etc...) , but nothing beats knowing each name by experiencing it.

Plenary Session 1 & 5 by Vivien Hibbert
On a side note, I really enjoyed her sessions, not becoz i have the same first name as her =P haha... But she really stretched my horizon of the understanding of music worship.

"You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come." Ps 102:13

She went thru the 7 characters in the Bible who had the favour of God.
The point that she kept emphasizing was what the Fear of the Lord is:
1) to KNOW Him 2) to WORSHIP Him 3) to OBEY Him

Thru Noah, we receive favour of God to activate and release prophectic dreams, visions and plans. We should always work on a plan bigger than ourselves. In Isaiah 32:8, "But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands." And we will see salvation in our family members.

Thru Joseph, we've learnt that being a Modern Levite, we need to be DREAMERS! And like Joseph, whereever he was in good and bad times, God's favour was with him! This is will activate and release success, prosperity, wisdom and knowledge and authority.

Thru Job and David, we've learnt that we can receive favour from God that will preserve our spirit during times of suffering! And also to always praise Him

"The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised" Job 1:21b

Thru David, we've learnt that God sings! So we can sing prophetic songs over people, issues of our lives! Take His songs and put it in your heart.

Plenary Session 3 by Vivien Hibbert
This is the most awesome session that inspired me and got me excited about the band!
The first question to answer is What should a Modern Levite do?
1) Carry the Ark of Covenant (Presence of God)
2) Stand before the Lord and minister to Him
3) Go out and bless in His Name

She demonstrated, with the Paradise Band, to us how music instruments can sing and minister to people, even without lyrics. The foundation verse for that demonstration was Isaiah 6:1 - 8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;the whole earth is full of his glory."
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

The supposedly demonstration was for real actually! Vivien started telling us the "behind-the-scene" coordination of the music. For example, for v1, the opening music is without rhythm to make pple see. Also to bring in the feeling of the Fear of the Lord. Then in v3 the various guitars were playing, as if angels were calling to another "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;the whole earth is full of his glory."

Then slowly she brought in the rhythm to lighten the music to bring out the feeling of being loved by God. [I didn't know instruments can sing by playing the melody!]
In v8 when God spoke of His commission, the drums came in strong bringing the feeling of preparing for war.
Thru'out the whole experience i was looking at what was happening on stage. But I still was moved! Tears were just flowing! I could feel the part where Isaiah saw the glory of God and woe to himself. That is really a higher level of worship!

Quotes from Viven:
"It is impossible to stay the same when you encounter God."
"In every worship, there should be a change in the people, if not they are just merely singing songs."

Some new names that I've found it cool, sounded like angels' names to me, with a serious responsibility haha...
Those playing instruments on stage shouldn't just be called Musicians, they are "Keepers of the SOUND of God"
Those singing on stage shouldn't just be called Singers/Vocalists, they are "Keepers of the WORDS of God"
Those dancing on stage shouldn't just be called Dancers, they are "Keepers of the SIGHT of God"
Their roles are to TEACH THE CONGREGATION how to worship God!

I'm also very impressed with the 默契 that Paradise Band has! How long will we take to reach their standard? haha... As amatuers, we need to be humble, but at the same time have the childlike faith to believe that we can do it! Like what Pastor Matt shared When we take a step of faith, battles keep coming. But there is great power in going thru battles! And studies have shown that practice and training is correlated to success! So it is POSSIBLE!

Another thing that I've experienced is to worship God with more freedom! As I observed the Paradise Band led worship, they just got that freedom to worship, not that I didn't have, but it was just different. More freedom.

My overall rating for the Modern Levite Conference is AWESOME! Looking forward to the next one!

Vivien Po,

Ps Fei Fei's 12