Spoken For

The name Spoken For has a two-fold meaning for us. As believers we are spoken for by Christ. He has claimed us as we have claimed Him. We are spoken for by the God of the universe. The name also means that God speaks on our behalf. Every time we get on stage, we have to let go of everything that is of ourselves and allow Christ to speak through us, to speak for us. Everything that He is is so much greater than anything we could hope to be, so it is absolutely necessary for us to step out of His way. He tells us in His word that His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. For us to try to speak any words of ourselves would completely undermine the purpose of what God has called us to do. When we allow Him to speak for us, when we allow His Spirit to draw people to Him, we fulfill the purpose for which He's brought us together. Not long ago, we were led to begin searching for a scripture that would tell people what we were about. We had several in mind. We looked in our Bibles' concordances for anything about music, praise, etc. One of the verses God led us to was Psalm 63:3-4. When we all read it, we were blown away by how perfectly it described our hearts about what God was leading us to do. It says: "Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands." We exist to do just that. God brought us together to tell the world about that love that is better than life. It is because of that love that we do what we do. When we write a song, play a concert, lead worship, or just talk to people, we do it because of the love of God. A friend of ours once told us that he saw us not as worship leaders but as lead worshippers. The difference in those titles may seem, at first, to be inconsequential, but God has shown us over and over how different it is to be a lead worshipper. Jesus did not just lead in worship. He did not just speak words or sing songs. He taught people how to worship the Living God by worshipping the Living God. He taught us how to pray. He taught us how to depend on the Father. He taught us how to lead lives that were living sacrifices to the Father. He was a lead worshipper! He was the ultimate lead worshipper. He led by His example. Being a lead worshipper means that we must lead lives that worship God. It means that we must whole-heartedly seek after the face of the One who made us. It means we must glorify Him because His love is better than life. We must praise Him and lift up our hands in His name because His perfect love is better than anything this world has to offer.