Interview:

The Bible says the stars were singing when God made the universe [Job 38:7]. I like the idea that God had to have background music when being creative. This lets me know that God loves music, it helps Him express Himself, and rightly so that it is also mirrored in us. Music helps us express ourselves. To say that music is a spiritual substance though is pushing it. In church worship, music helps us express our faith, but it is not music or singing that God is receiving, it is our thoughts, our feelings, and our faith that is the substance of our worship. God is not convinced by someone singing like an angel on Sunday when they’ve lived like a demon during the week. Romans 12:1 says, “… offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship”.

God made us all spirit, soul, and body. Someone’s spirit really represents their overall intent, motive, and purpose for life. For the Christian who’s spirit is surrendered to God, their purpose is now God’s purpose, they link with the Holy Spirit of God, and join in with His purposes. For those that are not, their spirits are looking for purpose, and of course we live in a world searching for purpose in many ways and many addictions. Music is like a newscast of our world. It is an expression of where we’re at, but I don’t believe music is a spiritual thing. Music merely helps our spirit express. Read the music of every age, and you will get an idea of where mankind was at. Don’t get me wrong, because I believe it is deep, very deep. Music encompasses the soul, involving the intellect and the heart. Music is an emotional language that enables expression otherwise impossible in many cases. I believe it is one of our most treasured gifts created by God Himself but not spiritual in itself. I myself have found identity, joy, and solace in music all my life. I have been a professional musician and producer for over twenty years, and now serve as an itinerant worship pastor with my wife helping to train and equip Christian worship teams around the world. I am more convinced now than ever that if a person hasn’t lived what they sing, they cannot sing with authority. How can you communicate what you do not know? This is true whether you worship God or the Devil. Whether you sing for money, love, or the record company. Every “Idol” competition proves it time and time again; people ultimately vote for the singer, and not the singing. We love the spirit of Kelly, Rueben, and Guy. We can relate to them, and they reflect us.

We are always looking for the spirit of a person, every salesman that comes to the door and tells us he cares for our family, every friend that shows up after we come into money, every politician’s speech, and every preacher’s sermon. It’s the spirit that speaks louder than the words, and lets everybody know our real motive. Some are convinced by the words regardless. People still buy the records by the fourteen year-old manufactured artist singing about love, because it still helps them express what THEY want to express. Music may create the atmosphere that helps us vent our anger or show our tenderness, it played behind our first kiss, our drive out of the city on vacation, but then again, it playing behind the breaking up of that relationship and the passing of our loved ones. Whatever we’re feeling, music helps us express and process. Music plays while we create our world around us just as it did when God created the world around Him. My conclusion: music is a most powerful means of communication and expression, not spiritual in substance, but both a reflection of and aid to the spirit of man and God.

“Music is a most powerful means of communication and expression, not spiritual in substance, but both a reflection of and aid to the spirit of man and God.”
– Wayne Huirua, producer, musician, educator and Worship Pastor