Impartation Through Worship

I have had a lot of conversations lately with leaders who long for a break through of worship in their communities. Most of these communities are full of artists and musicians, but there is still a need for worship to break forth. Worship is part of the fullness of the Kingdom. In the context of worship (the response to the presence of God), the fullness of the presence of God can manifest. Teaching can happen, prophecy can happen, healing, deliverance…I believe these leaders are actually longing for the fullness of the kingdom to come into their people, and they sense worship might be a key.

Robert, a young man living outside of Dublin, Ireland, wants to see a worship school established. My friends Brad and Julie Riley have been facilitating teams to do worship camps with this community for a number of years. From what I hear, it is amazing and God is touching the young people and the artists in powerful ways. But there was a tiredness in Robert’s voice as he recounted frustrating conversations and experiences with people. Robert has had people try to convince him of their philosophy and ministry models and he has tried to communicate what God has placed in his heart about leaders and worship, but people, “just don’t get it.” I finally said to him, “Robert, education has its place, but the ministry of the Holy Spirit is impartation.”

Defining Impartation

“I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong” Romans 1:11, NKJ. Impart, metadidomi {met-ad-id'-o-mee} in the greek, means to give or to share the substance of yourself. Unlike the world which requires you to earn your way up, growing in God only depends on us receiving what He has for us. We receive Jesus, his love and forgiveness and that is salvation. We receive the Holy Spirit and that is our power. We receive the “dispensation of grace” (Eph 3:2) in order to do the ministry God has called us to. None of those things have anything to do with earning, just receiving. Understanding impartation might free us from the bondage of having to do something, into the reality of being who God created us to be, no matter what we do.

What we have to offer others is what we have received from God and this ministry of God giving us gifts and grace and then the Holy Spirit using us to bring it out in someone else is impartation. Pretty much all of the wise people I find myself with tell me to get around people who have a fullness of authority in the gift I am either longing for, or showing signs of having. My friend David says it’s like burning coal. You might have coal in you, but it might not be ignited yet, so you get around someone who is burning and the fire is kindled when you are together.

I have been traveling with a prophet for about two years now. I am not a prophet, but I can move in the prophetic, especially when I am with Doug. I never considered myself a worship leader before I met Ben and Robin Pasley. They recognized in me a grace I didn’t even see. After spending a bit of time and worshipping with them, I began to step out as a worship leader in the unique sphere of influence God had given me and it was amazing. Now I would describe myself as a worship leader before I would a musician (They are completely different although often related).

Impartation is not limited to gifts. Imparting the Kingdom might be synonymous with restoring the Kingdom when we are talking about the work of believers. “For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law” Gal 3:21. A couple of years ago I was confronted with the fact that I had a real difficulty receiving love. I had a broken family growing up and my natural identity as a daughter had been broken and perverted so I was having a very hard time being a daughter in the spiritual (which is the foundation of everything because it involves receiving the love of the Father). I couldn’t read a book that would tell me how to be a daughter. I couldn’t just figure it out. I had to pray for a restoration of my Kingdom identity and I spent time around people who had a grace to Father and Mother because they seemed to help call it out of me. Being around people living in the truth of their kingdom identity helped restore it in me.

What About Worship?

I am constantly dumfounded by the letters of Paul, who has such clear wisdom concerning the Kingdom and he only spent a few moments with Jesus. He didn’t sit through the Sermon on the Mount. While Jesus talked in parables to people who would not receive him, he poured the fullness of himself “his substance” into Paul in a single moment. I know a good number of people who have had heavenly visitations and were different afterwards. But the ever present fullness of Christ in this world is the Church. Together we are the body. So in corporate worship, Christ is present, we invite the presence of the Father and we can allow the Holy Spirit to flow and manifest. It is a posture of submission, of giving as we bless him, and receiving as we respond to his presence.

We can also be intentional about imparting the Kingdom, physically, to the area we are worshiping in…just as one believer might lay her hands on another, we can worship on the concrete of an impoverished city and call out life. For the past two years I have helped my friends at Source in Minneapolis facilitate public worship in the street during Artfest. They block off a section of street and view the whole day as an act of worship…beautiful murals, music, serving food, dance. It is amazing because the believers are actually responding to the presence of God, and the people and families who are coming for other reasons, like food, or because they know their kids will be safe, are touched by the same Spirit flowing through the Church!

Collaboration

There is also room for us to be individuals in worship (like the trinity, three separate but one). That’s why it is so powerful to come together with others. We are not all the same though we receive the same love. When we all bring our unique grace and perspective and songs, there is a fullness that does not exist when we are alone. In worship, I offer all I am to God, but I impart the unique gift I am to the people around me.

I am preparing for a trip to Brazil. I am going with a team focusing on worship and impartational ministry. What we have to offer with our minds becomes less powerful when we are not fluent in a language and culture. But what we have to offer in the Spirit is eternal. We worship together and impart to each other what we have received from God. And if coming together as a family helps us understand our infinitely creative God more, how much more so when we step across boundaries the world has manifest in language and nations?

A Lasting Hope

“But the hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such worship to Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23.24). Worship is our eternal spiritual reality. Living in truth and worshiping in truth allows the gift we are to spread spirit to spirit.