Last weekend we had a night of worship at our church. It went really well. One of my favorite things about these nights of worship is the level of expectation that everyone brings with them. When there is faith in the atmosphere anything can happen. Its impossible to please God without faith, Heb 11:6.

The most exciting part of leading a night of worship is the spontaneous flow of worship and the prophetic songs that come forth. As a leader, I don’t know what’s going to happen ahead of time. I just know to plan for spontaneity. I plan the set list with some breathing room. We’re not bound to follow the set list, we’re bound to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, the ultimate worship leader.

Usually what happens is that after we worship the Lord for 30-40 minutes the anointing comes pretty strong on us and then, whoosh “we have lift off!” The Spirit takes us to a new level in our worship, where all kinds of things can happen. The presence of the Lord is in the room and most of the people can sense and feel Him. This is usually where we start praying for the sick in the room -- and they get healed. This is where the prophetic starts to flow, in the room and on the stage. (Its also a good idea to pay attention to whats going on in the room at this point, the Lord may be giving words of knowledge or prophetic words to people in the congregation. We must make room for that in our worship. If that happens I usually quite the band down to let the people speak.)

At this particular night of worship, after praying for the sick during worship, I began to hear something about a river in my spirit and I was drawn to Ezekiel 47, the passage about the river that flows from the temple. I was wondering if I needed to open my bible and read the passage. Then the pastor’s wife took a mic and began prophesying about the river of the Spirit flowing starting at your ankles and then your knees and deeper and deeper until It sweeps you away. Aha! The exact passage of scripture that I was thinking of! So I knew I was supposed to read it. I opened it up and began reading, then as the anointing increased I began singing what I was reading. It turned into a really fun time with the Holy Spirit where we were dancing and getting free from the bondage of legalism and the fear of man.

A night of worship is great way to cultivate a deeper love for the Lord in corporate worship and if you are able to go off the map a little bit, its a great place to practice flowing in the Spirit and letting the Holy Spirit really direct a church service.