What’s In Your Mouth?

You remember the Capital One commercial “What’s in your wallet?”

I’m asking with that same feeling, “What’s in your mouth?”

Is it the high praises of God?

Wait, what are the high praises of God? 

It’s not just upbeat songs. I think the spirit behind that idea is a song that praises God boldly and exclusively coming from the depths of our hearts. It’s a song with anointing. Sometimes they are written, sometimes they are spontaneous.

Either way, it’s the anointing in the song that breaks the yoke. And dadgummit if we as a culture don’t have a yoke on us! We need to break us some yokes with the high praises of God in our mouths, with the new song of the Lord, with anointing from the mighty one of Israel!

A friend that I was worshiping with this week asked me if I write songs. He said he had noticed that I seem to come up with little phrases to sing in moments where we linger after (or during) a song.

Honestly, I’m as surprised as the next guy when those things pop up in me and seem to make sense, even rhyme, and I don’t forget it the second time I sing it!

It’s usually a repeating phrase that the congregation can join in after hearing once or twice. It drives the truth of the song home in a more personal way. It allows a deeper meaning to settle and shift our hearts toward the LORD. It gets us off autopilot and requires something more of us.

I lead it differently depending on the church culture that I’m serving. As it should.

But where did this practice originate?

In the early years of my worship leading, I went to numerous Kent Henry conferences. Many voices and perspectives in the church laid a strong foundation for my understanding and practice as a leader.

One such teaching was called “Developing a Prophetic Spirit” by a guy named Dave Blomgren.

His teaching is a bit methodical and saturated with scripture. Those of you who don’t have any background in charismatic worship will appreciate that grounding. The speaker came from a Baptist background. :)

As you listen to it, imagine yourself sitting as a new worship leader in the large auditorium full of worship leaders at the Kent Henry conference at Life Christian Center in St. Louis in the summer of 1992 during a thunderstorm.

-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

What’s In Your Mouth? (Nº 275)