Spiritual Authority and Finding Your Voice

The question of how to develop your voice as a leader in the church seems to come up often. Here are just a few thoughts around growth in this area. This was an answer to a question I received.

Spiritual Authority on stage/finding your voice as a worship leader:

First, I’d strongly recommend some kind of mentorship in this from someone you know and look up to. There is something to be said for coming under someone else’s authority. 

Worship Leading can in so many ways be really just broken down into a series of skill sets. These skill sets can be worked and grown and there are many really brilliant and talented worship leaders, but they won’t ever be able carry what you can carry. The differentiating factor I think for a lot of environments is the authority that the leader (and band) carry. 

There are leaders that can walk on stage and get a massive response before even opening their mouth or playing a note, simply because they’re carrying something that shifts the atmosphere. 

Spiritual authority is cultivated, grown in the secret place. It’s forged in the fires of pain and loss and it rests in the redeemed dark nights of the soul. Your unique history with the Lord is the single greatest key to creating transcendent moments in a corporate setting. Your personal breakthrough with HS in the secret place as you dance before the Lord will lead to corporate breakthrough on the weekend. Your band can grow in authority and sit under your anointing which only compounds the impact you can have from the stage. 

Secondly I would just add one thing we teach is our leaders is ‘our credibility onstage is directly affected by our visibility and availability offstage’. It’s difficult to know how to minister to a specific room when you don’t know the people you’re leading well enough to even know what they need in a moment or what you should be shepherding them towards over the next 6 months. Relationship gives you insight and helps with intuition and hearing HS prompts for his people to create pivotal moments of connection. 

Your ‘voice’ comes from knowing yourself and learning what parts of yourself you’ve yet to tap into, your history with the Lord in the secret place, your relationship with HS, and your relationship with your tribe. 

One last thing, the enemy is terrified you will step into the full authority you have as a child of the Most High King. All of creation is groaning for your identity to be revealed. I would encourage you to become a student of the fullness of the Gospel message and who you are. What Jesus did worked so completely that it’s now your birthright to approach the throne boldly. You are a new creation, perfected for all time by one sacrifice, unified with Christ, hidden in Christ, called Gods own righteousness. Jesus has given you his own glory, all power and authority and as he is, so are you in this world. You are spotless, blameless, clean, holy, Saint, and you enjoy perfect unbroken intimacy with the Father 24/7. You can not lose this regardless of what you did last night or what you thought about this morning. 

Any guilt/shame/condemnation you are feeling doesn’t come from God. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You were given a new heart and you can trust it. Grace is teaching you and empowering you to live a Kingdom life and destroy the works of the enemy. Holy Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit (constantly trying to convince you) that you are a child of God. You are a co-heir with Christ and already seated with him in heavenly places. 

Your voice comes from your authority. If you are struggling to find it, first, you need to step into your authority. It happens offstage first. It always happens offstage first.