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"SOCK IT TO ME!--THAT'S THE SPIRIT!"--MO December 31, 1970 NO.32--GP
1. SINGING IS SOMETHING BIG FOR ME!--I have to be inspired!
2. MY MOTHER USED TO MAKE ME SO MAD! SHE TRIED TO TURN ME ON LIKE A SWITCH.--"Now sing for the dear old ladies, Honey!" and then I would usually sing something she didn't like! I was a typical teenager!
3. SINGING HAS TO BE VERY EMOTIONAL with me. My type of singing was very, very moving. It made people cry! I actually got in the Spirit in my singing. The Holy Spirit really came through.
4. TO ME, SINGING HAS TO BE IN THE SPIRIT. It's really praising the Lord--like preaching or prophesying. I feel like I'm playing games when I just sing a little ditty. I hate some of those choruses they used to sing. Unless I felt they were really inspired, I didn't want to sing them. Like some people quote scriptures!--So many words without meaning!--Words without music!--The letter without the Spirit! It just means nothing!
5. THOSE BOYS' CHOIR WE HEARD THE OTHER DAY: all that gorgeous music--but what does it say?--What does it mean? Nothing but a bad spirit!--Sounded like it was inspired by the Devil!
6. REALLY, SINGING FOR ME IS CLOSE TO PROPHESYING.--Just like when my music teacher used to tell me, "Son, do your practicing at home, but when you get up there before the crowds, sing with your heart! Think with your head at home, but when you're out in front of them, forget the head and sing from the heart."
7. JENNY LIND, THE FAMOUS SWEDISH NIGHTINGALE, was considered one of the greatest popular singers of her day. Her music teacher said, "Jenny, you've got everything to make you the world's greatest singer, but one thing!" "What in the world is that?" she asked. "I practice all day long, and you say I have tremendous range, versatility, and talent! What haven't I got?" "To make you a truly great singer", he replied, "you have to have a broken heart!" So he there upon proceeded to break it for her! She fell in love with him, and he jilted her. Then she began to sing from her heart!--The songs she sang became her own--songs of loneliness and tears--not just a collection of words and music--but it was her own heart cry!
8. THAT'S WHAT MAKES OUR SONGS OF THE REVOLUTION GREAT--THE OUTCRY OF THE VERY HEARTS OF YOUTH TODAY! They don't come out of some dead hymnbook, and they're not some new fly-by-night pretty little ditty by some evangelist, to make him popular, to do some silly little childish motions to! But our songs come out of the depths of the Spirit, inspired by the Holy Ghost! They preach the Word! Not some doleful chant to hypnotise people into a stupor; or some organ lullaby to lull them to sleep; but they're like an electric shock which virtually shatters them--they're so startling, electrifying, shocking! Or they're a fountain of tears.--As Jeremiah said, "Oh, that my head were a fountain of tears, that I might weep for thee, O Jerusalem."--And when you hear some of our boys or our girls singing, sometimes you're hearing a fountain of tears--the heart cry, the heart-break, of youth today--inspired!--The Holy Ghost is weeping through them!
9. THEY'RE BROKEN--BROKEN-HEARTED YOUNG PEOPLE--DISILLUSIONED AND DISAPPOINTED IN THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD--CRYING OUT TO GOD for the Answer! Even some of the songs of the worldly young people are a genuine sincere heart cry--longing for the solution, protesting against the outrages of this world--an indictment against the System!
10. THIS IS WHAT OUR MUSIC IS! IT PREACHES A MESSAGE.--IT DOESN'T JUST SING A SONG.--It's not just a little sing-song! Although some of our music is delightful, happy, playful, song-and-dance music for our lighter seasons, most of it is real heavy, man--almost frightening--thrilling, scary, crying, wooing! It burns with a white-hot heat that either melts the heart or sears the soul! It doesn't stab you like a cold icicle! If it hurts, it's like the wounds of a friend. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Better are the wounds of a friend, than words of flattery!
11. THE CHURCH TODAY IS SINGING FLATTERY TO ITS PEOPLE: IT'S SOFT-SOAPING THEM, BUTTERING THEM UP with sickening-sweet drooly, sticky, icky, music that tells them they're wonderful and alright, and "Don't get excited: There's nothing to worry about! You are indeed the people! You have arrived You have everything!--Rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing!"
12. BUT OUR SONGS OF THE SPIRIT TELL 'EM THEY'RE WRETCHED, AND MISERABLE, AND POOR, AND BLIND, and naked, and have need of everything.--That we're nothing: We need everything! We're hopeless, helpless, and we need God! Or we're lost and undone and on the brink of disaster, ready to be judged by the Lord for our iniquity, if we don't repent!
13. SOME OF OUR SONGS ARE LIKE WAVING A RED FLAG IN FRONT OF A BULL; THEY INFURIATE THE SYSTEM--but they give the true colours! They tell it like it is! Let the chips fall where they may! They cut to the core! Now is the time to lay the axe to the root of the tree,--that every tree which beareth not fruit shall be cut down, and even every branch that beareth fruit shall be purged, that it may bring forth more fruit!
14. SOME OF OUR SONGS CUT YOU TO THE HEART! They make you squirm! They make you uncomfortable! They make you sick of yourself! They make you ashamed! They make you want to run--or repent--one or the other! There's no in-between with us! Our songs, our message, either makes you want to run the other way as fast as you can go, and get the hell out of here--or it makes you want to melt into our arms with your very being, and become one of us--one heart--one soul--one spirit--one mind--one body! There's no in-between! There's no compromise! They're no pretty little ditties! They're no soothing little lullabies! Our songs are total--total commitment! Most of them are based on Scriptures--with the Message of God! They're a red light flashing, warning this generation not to be partakers of the sins of their fathers! They're inspired by God: The weeping of the Holy Spirit.--Or the warning blast of the prophet! Whatever they are, they're whole-souled--all-out--total--naked and bare and shocking before all! They hide nothing! They pull no punches! They lay it on the line, and tell it like it is, and where it's really at! They're the shock wave of this generation! They break the sound barrier! They shatter you--or they melt you!
15. WHATEVER THEY DO, THEY DON'T JUST AMUSE YOU OR ENTERTAIN YOU! We're not here to entertain people--to put on a pretty little programme like the Church!--To tickle their ears, to please their eyes, to tantalise their taste buds and make 'em drool and slobber, and be sickening--like the Church!
16. OUR SONGS ARE STRONG MEAT!--THEY'RE HEAVY, MAN! THEY BURST YOUR EAR DRUMS AND BREAK YOUR HEART--BLOW YOUR MIND and make you want to explode, so you'll be heard around the world--because God wants to be heard! He's sick of playing games and pretty little ditties--like the Church, who has piped unto them, and they have not danced--and it wonders why! Because the songs were insincere! They weren't honest! They didn't mean anything! They didn't come from the heart! They didn't cry! They didn't weep! They didn't melt!--Neither did they shock, or slap, or awaken! The songs of the Church say, "Sleep on now, and take your rest!"
17. YOU CAN FEEL OUR SONGS! THEY HURT, OR THEY LOVE, OR THEY FEED, OR THEY'RE FRAGRANT--by the power of His Spirit! But they're never flat or meaningless, or sickening, or insincere, or lying, or deceiving, or sleepy-time tunes! Whatever they are, they come from the heart with feeling--real feeling! They reach out and touch you, love you, grip you,--sometimes violently fuck you,--and lift you into ecstasy in His Love, and leave you exhausted from His Passion.
18. WHATEVER IT IS, BROTHER, YOU FEEL IT! WHATEVER IT WAS, SISTER, YOU KNOW YOU'VE HAD IT! You can't ever be the same again! That is, if you respond--and respond you will--one way or the other! You'll either echo His Love to the wooing of His Spirit and melt into our arms and His, or they'll knock you flat and beat you up, and cast you out--and you'll run! Because you can't take any more! You can't stand it any longer!--You'll run with your fingers in your ears, and hope you never hear that sound again! It's too convicting, too strong, too heavy in the Spirit--too powerful by inspiration! It's all or nothing at all! You either take it or leave it! You have to do something--not just sit there like a bump on a log! Our music spurs you to action, either for us--or against us, like a woman being wooed: you've either got to fight it and run, or yield, melt, and surrender and become one!
19. IT'S NOT CHURCH MUSIC! IT'S NOT MUSIC TO SLEEP BY--or music to read by, that lulls you into lethargy! But it's music that startles you into action--some kind of action--one way or the other! You're either going to love it--or hate it--or fight it! It can't leave you the same! You can't come in our doors, sit for a pretty little hour of pretty little ditties, and go out pretty much the same as you were before! The power of the Spirit in our music is going to do something to you--it's going to change you--for better, or for worse--make you come or go--bring you, or send you--but it'll never leave you cold, unmoved, and unchanged! It'll either set you on fire--or burn you up, thrill you into ecstasy--or strip you, rape you, and send you screaming! Whatever it does, it leaves you breathless--because of the white-hot breath of the Spirit that's in it! You can't be indifferent to it! It'll excite you one way or the other. It'll suspend you or offend you--because it's not just music! It's not just sounds--not just words: It's power! Life to some, and death to others! It's living, or dying--not just existing! It's all the way--all-out: It's everything! Because it's Jesus!
20. FOR GOD'S SAKE, NEVER JUST SING TO BE SINGING, OR PLAY TO BE PLAYING, lest you be like them who entertain to be entertaining, and please to be pleasing, and soothe to be soothing, and lull to be lulling! But wake up the dead! Sound off! Wake her up! Shake her up! Fuck the daylights out of her! Knock some sense into her! Ram the fear of God into her! Give her a kick in the pants! Shatter her! If she fights you--if she resists you--if she runs away--let her go! If she weeps and cries and begs for mercy, take her into your arms and love her--again--and again--and again,--till she has nothing left but her Lord, and wants to do nothing else but bear His children and live for Him utterly--forsaking all others, till death do ye part! No, not even then will we part, thank God! Then we will be truly united!--The thunderous hymns of Heaven--Shocking!--Thrilling!--Moving!--Praises of the Spirit!--The angelic choirs of Glory! And we'll shake up the whole universe with the praises of God! Hallelujah!
21. WHATEVER IT IS, YOU'LL FEEL IT AND YOU'LL KNOW YOU'VE HAD IT--and it'll leave you breathless, with nothing left but the breath of the Spirit! "For the words that we sing unto you--they are Spirit, and they are Life!"
22. "FOR WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? IT'S BUT A VAPOUR! It's here a little while and then it's gone! You've got no guarantee of tomorrow!--Come on--Let's go! Start living today.--There's only one way! Jesus Christ is that way!"
23. OH, LET ME LIVE JUST ONE MORE DAY in service to my King!--For there's a cry of "Revolution" in my country. There's a cry of hatred of idolatry! Jezebel has borne a wicked child!
24. O, MY LORD, O MY LORD,--HOW MUCH LONGER? Oh how long can this go on? Don't be a hypocrite Quit doing your own thing--for the Lord is tired of it! Turn around, go back down--back the way you came!
25. MOUNTAIN CHILDREN, YES, YOU'RE MOUNTAIN CHILDREN.--I WILL BLESS MY COLONY! Mountain children, mountain children--Gypsies of the Lord!
26. THAT'S THE SPIRIT--SOCK IT TO 'EM! Whatever you do, sing in the Spirit! For it is the Spirit that quickeneth! The letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive! Don't sing any other way! If you can't sing in the Spirit, don't sing at all! The letter killeth! Only the Spirit brings life! Sing in the Spirit! Sock it to 'em! Let 'em have it--or love 'em up! Sock it to 'em in the Spirit, whatever you do! There's power in the Spirit! "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!" "Not by might, nor by power of your own, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord!" Without the Spirit, you're dead--you stink--it smells--and everybody can sense it!
27. DON'T TRY TO GET AWAY WITH OPERATING IN YOUR OWN FLESH! You'll show what an absolute fool you are without the Spirit! We've got nothing but God. Let's show them His Spirit, in the power and demonstration of the Spirit! That's all we've got! That's all that keeps us alive! Let's keep on burning, singing, preaching, praising and praying in the Spirit!
28. WHATEVER YOU DO, FOR GOD'S SAKE, DO IT IN THE SPIRIT--NOT IN THE FLESH--for the flesh profiteth nothing! "For we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." "For by Grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." "Not of works, lest any man should boast."--It's gotta be God!
29. IF THERE'S ANYTHING A SINGER IS PRONE TO, IT'S PRIDE! DON'T LET IT HAPPEN TO YOU! Don't let happen to us what happened to the Church! Look at them! Listen to their music--and be ye not like unto them--Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites--tombs full of the dead--whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones! Don't just rattle! Rise up and live, and sing in the Spirit of God!--And you'll be heard around the world!--'Cause that's what the world is waiting for! It's the real thing! It's what happiness is! It's life in the Spirit!--Or you'll be dead in the flesh!
30. MUSIC IS OUR MESSAGE! MUSIC IS OUR MINISTRY!--DON'T FAKE IT!--OR YOU'LL BE A PHONEY--like the rest of 'em! Use it!--Like it!--Feel it!--Sing it--Do it!--in the Spirit!--And it'll live in their hearts forever--by His Spirit!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family}
