Hungry for the Eternal

By Stephanie Farebrother - Limited Edition Journalist

In this hour of history, as the Second Coming draws nearer, a crucial battle is being fought for the hearts and minds of young adults. Music is one of the primary arenas in this battle, for music affects people in ways that sermons and seminars cannot.

Several young prophetic musicians from the International House of Prayer–Kansas City are taking a stand against darkness through their music and lifestyles. As prophetic musicians, they seek to understand and express the Lord’s emotions and purposes through music. Because they want to listen to the Holy Spirit and faithfully play what they hear, they have closely examined the influence that secular music has in their lives.

Seth Yates, an electric guitar player on Corry Asbury’s worship team, says that everything boils down to a spiritual battle, including music.

“There are two worship movements arising: one glorifies God and the other glorifies man,” he says.

Seth has been at IHOP–KC for two years. Over a year ago, he decided to completely give up secular music, which he categorizes as any music that exalts man and the needs of man. Two times previous Seth felt convinced to stop listening to secular music, but went back to it little by little. Finally, still feeling conviction from the Lord, Seth decided to do some research and find evidence for why he should abstain from secular music.

“I knew that there was a lot of music I was supposed to give up; I knew it was not edifying me or pleasing God,” he says.

After reviewing the history of music, Seth discovered that a majority of big-name rock bands and singers have been influenced by the occult and the New Age movement. He realized how ignorant and deceived he had been about what his favorite bands represented.

“I would always say that I need to listen to secular music to get creative inspiration, or that I didn’t listen to the words, just the music,” he explains. But after doing some research, he realized that all music is an expression of the heart, and by extension a representation of how that heart is aligned. If musicians are not for God in their hearts, then they are against Him. There are no gray areas.

Once Seth understood that music is a spiritual battleground and that secular artists had chosen to represent darkness, he removed secular music from his life.

“Once I gave it up, I really felt a fog lift, like I could think clearly,” he says.

A few months after he had given up secular music, Seth started having prophetic dreams and encounters that focused on the power of music. The Lord told Seth very clearly that he is to encourage others to embrace a new kind of music: the sounds coming from the throne room of God.

In one dream, Seth was talking with an angel about the music of heaven. The angel started playing him a melody line, but another musician interrupted the angel to say that the melody sounded too childish. Seth says the dream showed him that the melodies of Heaven are available, but you have to be willing to surrender your heart and receive from the Lord instead of the world. You cannot judge what you hear from the Lord based on the world’s standards.

“As a musician, it is hard to give up secular music,” Seth says, “because you are taking a leap of faith in trusting God as the Author of music to creatively inspire you in worship.”.

Jordan Vanderplate, another electric guitar player at the House of Prayer, emphasizes the importance of pursuing the music of the Spirit. Jordan is a self-taught musician who never listened to much secular music. Instead of feeling left out because his head isn’t full of all the latest songs, Jordan focuses on filling his heart with prophetic music.

“It provokes me to seek after the music of the Spirit. In the last days we are going to need to hear melodies in the Spirit to shift things,” Jordan says.

He understands that prophetic music can shift things in the spiritual realm. By playing based on what he hears from the Holy Spirit, Jordon can focus on releasing the power of God through his guitar, rather than just trying to play good music.

Jordan wants to see this ministry of prophetic music cultivated through his worship. He plays about six hours a day in the prayer room with three different worship teams, striving for excellence in his music.

“Your musical skill and playing will reflect your heart and the secret place—it totally hinges on your personal life in God,” Jordan explains.

Cassie Campbell, who plays the electric bass for Misty Edward’s team, also chose to get rid of all her secular music in order to pursue music born out of the spirit of prayer and prophecy.

“I felt like if I want to be a prophetic musician at the end of the age, I need to separate myself from darkness,” she explains.

Narrowing her scope of music was not motivated out of legalism, Cassie says, but out of a lack of interest in music not centered on Christ.

“As I got closer to the Lord, I didn’t want to listen to anything that wasn’t about Him,” she says.

Less than a week after deleting all her music, Cassie says the Lord confirmed to her heart that she had truly made the right decision. One evening during a worship set in the prayer room, Misty asked Cassie to start a cycle—to help set the mood and tempo for the team with Holy Spirit-inspired music.

While the team prayed in the Spirit and asked the Lord to come, Cassie asked the Lord for a prophetic melody and began to play her bass. The melody line she played that night eventually grew into the song “You Won’t Relent,” based on Song of Solomon 8:6. Misty had been asking the Lord for a song from that very verse, and Cassie’s bass line fueled the chorus.

“You think you would have to work for it and that the Lord would make you wait a while to prove you are faithful before blessing your music, but that night the Lord kissed our set with that sweet chorus,” she says.

According to Cassie, prophetic music should not be taken lightly.

“There is something in music that no one can touch—it prepares the way and opens up the spirit to godliness,” she says.

Cassie says that a good question to ask yourself is if the music you are listening to makes you want to satisfy the first and second commandments: to have no other gods before Him and to worship only Him. If the music does draw you to worship God, then listen to it, but if not, then she says to give it up.

Seth, Jordan and Cassie have chosen to separate themselves from secular music, not for the sake of religion, but to stand before the Lord in purity. They do this both as musicians who live in an atmosphere of constant prayer and worship, and as believers who want to be wholly devoted to God.

Music is more than just nice background noise for them. It is a spiritual door that can open a person’s heart to either light or darkness. These musicians understand the importance that worship music will have during the End Times. By rejecting a huge piece of the youth culture in America—culture that will have no lasting impact—they are able to embrace music with eternal significance. They have chosen to seek after melodies from Heaven and give themselves wholeheartedly to God.

“Music inspired by the Holy Spirit will leave you wanting to pursue holiness. Holiness is abandonment. Position yourself before God and abandon yourself to Him,” Seth says.