"There is a fiery atmosphere to be found in the Shekinah Glory of God's presence, it is a blazing inferno in which the 4th Man, Jesus Christ, reveals Himself. In this fire, bondages are burned away (the ropes were burned off the hands of the Hebrew men). In this fire, there are manifestations of the Glory of God. There are healings and miracles; there is power to be delivered from demonic snares; there is a holy anointing that causes unbelievers to fall on their face in conviction to confess their sin".
Graphic by Russ Drinkard
" Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?" They replied, ' Certainly, O king.' He said, ' Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the Son of God." Daniel 3:24-25
Bob Sorge in his book Following The River, shared that when we speak of worship being an organic entity that finds it's own energy in the dynamism of the river (River of the Lord or the anointing of the Lord); there is also the dynamism of the "unholy river" found in secular music.
One of the most fascinating advents of the rock-n-roll era has been the uncommon legacy of an American band called "The Grateful Dead." The driving force of the band was guitarist Jerry Garcia, who led the band with his innovative chord sequences and colourful harmonics. The group toured regularly from the late 1960's until Garcia's death in 1995.
The band would go through their customary songs during their concerts but then at some point would shift gears. Turning from their prepared repertoire, they would launch out into an improvisational riff, find a groove that was working musically, and then begin to push the envelope. The drummer would throw in unusual syncopations; the guitars would whine and scream creatively; the keyboard would strain for colour and dissonance. Together they would move out to the edge of almost losing one another musically, but yet would follow each other's improvisational iniatives closely enough so that they stayed together. Occasionally, the band would catch a wave of momentum, an emotional energy would ripple through the auditorium, a power would grip both the band members and the audience, and the concert would take off into another dimension - they have found "it."
When this happened - whatever it was - the concert hall became an explosive altar or spiritual encounter. Everybody in the place knew that a line had been crossed, the transition had been made, and now the night became a pulsating celebration of connectedness to a cosmic consciousness. It became unclear whether the band or the audience was leading, as the concert became a participatory dance that included every attendee. It was spirit, and it was palpably real. The spiritual atmosphere that filled the concerts was so powerfully compelling, in fact, that many fans became spiritual followers, actually making the Grateful Dead their religion. They called themselves Dead Heads.
When the band performs, Mickey Hart (one of the band members) coined a term to describe what was happening. He would say, "It's when the 7th man shows up." Bob asked his friends what he meant by that term. Apparently there were six people in the band at the time he coined the phrase. He was recognizing that there was a power present in the concert that went beyond the members of the band. There was a spiritual presence which gave to the band an impact. The Greatful Dead had found the river - "the unholy river." (for more information check it our at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_Dead - The Grateful Dead’s early music was part of the process of establishing what "psychedelic music" was, but theirs was essentially a "street party" form of it. )
Worshippers, the point that Bob Sorge wants to make is that where there is the counterfeit (let's not forget that Satan, the master counertfeit was also once a worship leader in the heavenlies), it is a testimony to the existence of the genuine. The experiences of a secular band only serve to substantiate that there is a reality that is available to us in God - a river of divine glory that can be touched in corporate worship.
When they touched their river, they described it as "when the seventh man shows up." But when we touch our river, let's call it "When the 4th MAN shows up." (Daniel 3:24-25)
An extract from : Following The River - A Vision For Corporate Worship by Bob Sorge
When the worship leader & band by the grace of the Lord is able to let their music flow in the anointing of the River of God or explode in the Fire of His Glory, we can expect the Fourth Man to show up
Blessings / TPWC
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