Trinity Concepts (2.12) Functions of Music and Arts in Society

Prophetic

Worship/ Exaltation

Performance

The three main functions of music and the arts in culture are: Performance, Exaltation and Prophetic.

Performance is given from man to man.  This is centered on man’s skill and social acceptance.  It is beneficial in our society to create a sense of ‘community’, in which there is commonality of experience.  This kind of activity produces a ‘foundation’ for social interaction and opens a doorway of communication through this commonality for dialogue.  It is interesting that in youth cultures this is particularly needful, as young people are endeavoring to establish relationships beyond their own home, gravitating towards music and art that will identify them among their own unique generation, geographical location and philosophy.

Exaltation is a different use of music and the arts, in that it is not directed towards man, but rather towards an object of worship.  Music and the arts are successful tools in ‘exalting’ whatever they point towards.  It can be anything from the banal to the sublime.  It can be used to exalt “Coca-Cola” or the Most High God.

Prophetic is neither art for man, nor exaltation, but something different altogether.  Prophetic music and art is rather God speaking through the art-form to an individual or society.  It is not contrived, originated or initiated from man’s imagination or choosing, but rather by divine intervention.  The artist yields himself to the inspiration of God, bringing forth a particular message relevant to the culture, but not necessarily always accepted by that culture. 

(for more on this, see The Three Main Uses of Music and the Arts)

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)



Trinity Concepts (1.07) Love

Agape

Phileo

Eros

There are several different Biblical definitions of love, versus the one English word.  When we say the word ‘love’, it can mean anything from a ‘fetish’ to a life-long marital commitment.  Although the Bible outlines a number of different words for our one word 'Love', there are three primary definitions that are most prevalent. 

These three basic definitions of love outline the dimensions of Spirit, Soul and Body (I Thess. 5:23) and the corresponding parts of the Old Testament Tabernacle: the Holy of Holies, the Inner Court, and the Outer Court, respectively.

The highest form of love, correlating to the spirit of man and the Holy of holies is that of Agape.  Agape is unconditional.  It is typified by Jesus willingly going to the cross on behalf of the sins of mankind.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16) 

This love can also be expressed through us, as believers in Jesus Christ: “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (I Jn. 3:16)   This kind of love cannot be generated by man himself in his own power and strength.  It can only come through man as he is aligned with the Spirit of God.  It’s like the acoustical phenomena of sympathetic vibration.  The still object resonates by the energy coming from another source.  “God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (I Jn. 4:16)  Agape is not originally emotional, although it can encompass emotion.  It is centered in the will.  It is a moral love, emanating from righteousness, unchanged by surrounding circumstances.  It gives regardless of whether or not it is received by the intended recipient.  This kind of love encompasses all moral traits and is the cumulative characteristic of all morality and Truth.  (See I Cor. 13)

The next kind of love correlates to the soul of man and Inner Court of the Tabernacle.  It is Phileo.  This kind of love is one of reciprocity and friendship.  It requires “a just weight” (Prov. 11:1), an even distribution of giving between the two parties involved.  Phileo is successful as long as both parties continue to justly give to one another (in each other’s perception) what is a ‘fair exchange’.  When this scenario begins to break down (and it always will at some point, due to human selfishness), the friendship or relationship will be dissolved.  The only remedy for this lack of equity is forgiveness, which can only come from Agape.  Agape is the ‘lubricant’ that makes successful Phileo possible.  Without love and forgiveness, ultimately all Phileo will fail. 

Economy is based upon the model of Phileo, and is thus categorically aligned with the Mind of the Soul and the Lust of the Eyes.  Phileo always seeks to ‘calculate’ what it is owed.  “I did such and such, so they owe me this or that.”  Or, “They did this or that for me, now I need to do something for them, so we’ll be even.”  This is not morally a bad thing.  Even God desires a just recompense between parties: “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.” (Prov. 11:1)  The problem is that Phileo is humanly impossible to keep perpetually.  With Agape as the foundation, however, it is possible to function in successful Phileo.

The last and lowest kind of love which correlates to the body of man and the Outer Court of the Tabernacle is that of Eros.  Some philosophies consider the human body to be evil; however, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead physically, and even ate food in His resurrected body (Lk. 21:41-43) doctrinally establishes that God does not view the body as evil, but rather the fleshly desires and carnal willfulness against His Spirit. (Gal. 5:19-21)   

Having established this fact, Eros (or sexual love) is needful to procreate the human race, which is also God’s desire: “And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth…” (Gen. 1:28)  Unfortunately, Eros (which is centered in the Emotion of man), when exalted above Phileo and Agape, produces chaos, disorder, disharmony and wars, both internal and external.  The exaltation of Emotion over the Mind and the Will of man is destructive due to its imbalance of the Trinity pattern. 

Eros is successful, however, when it is functioning in the Choice of Agape in marriage and the relationship of Phileo in friendship (within that marriage).  It is in this divine Trinity balance that Eros can be enjoyed to its fullest benefit through the establishment of wholeness in Family.

(for more on this subject, see My Vision: The Community- A Means of Exchange)

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Trinity Concepts (1.06) Christian Activity

Prayer

 Study of Word

 Worship

The balance of Christian activity flows from the Trinity of God, as well.  Needlessly, we often see imbalances in Christian’s lives, churches and entire denominations, even when we have been shown the proper function and relationship between the three aspects of the Trinity very clearly (John 14-17).

Worship relates to the Holy Spirit.  In this ‘category’ we also find emotion in the human soul.  How often have believers been emotionally caught up in worship, only to realize that they weren’t anchored in reality.  As glorious as the experience of worship was the day before, there are still bills to pay and nagging life circumstances that just won’t go away, no matter how much time we yield our passions in worship.  Emotion is good, when it is in proper priority to the other parts of our human existence.  Emotionalism in worship, unbalanced, ultimately leads to a vacuum of conclusive life-solutions.

Worship, however, that has its foundation and roots in the revealed Word and timed by the obedience of a relationship through prayer with the Father, is infused with power into the physical realm that releases the miraculous.  Healings, deliverances and a tangible sense of His Presence is overwhelming.  Many believers then seek ‘worship’ again, to bring them this manifestation of God’s blessing, not realizing that it was an outflow from the prayer that went forth behind the scenes and the revelation of the Word giving fuel to the flames of the Holy Spirit’s movement.  Without prayer and the revealed Word, worship is consumed and cannot exist, for it has nothing to empower it.  When believers turn to worship over and over again to try to fill their spiritual hunger, it becomes dry and they wonder why this is.  It’s because they have lost their memory of why they are rejoicing.  Without the obedience of the Cross, and the revelation of the Resurrection, there can be no exaltation of the Ascension.   The joy of worship comes from knowing why we are worshiping.  Without this, we’re just worshiping worship.

The revealed Word is known as Rhema.  It is different than the historical word, Logos.  Jesus is the Word made flesh.  He came into a fleshly body subject to decay.  The letter kills but the Spirit gives life.  Jesus, the Word died.  The logos will die, but the resurrected Rhema lives forever.  Our relationship with the Word is a two-edged sword, killing our flesh and breathing life into our renewing soul.  “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Rom. 12:2)  The mind of the soul and the Word are linked together categorically.  Too often, however, the un-renewed mind of carnal Christians will turn what was intentionally Rhema from the Scriptures into law (Logos).  Again, without the balance of the areas of prayer and worship, the Scriptures become dry and legal.  Indeed we cannot even come to Jesus (the Word) unless the Father (prayer/obedience) draws us to Him.  Our relationship with the Father, through a hunger for and obedience to His will and purpose, is critical in order for our eyes to be opened with new revelation.  God will only give us the Revealed Rhema when our hearts are fully toward Him.

Worship and Prayer are often mistaken for each other.  They are quite different, however.  Worship is a manifestation on the outside of a conviction on the inside.  It’s the amplified signal shouting on the rooftops.  In essence, it is evangelical.  Prayer, however, is on the inside.  Jesus told us to go into our inner rooms and shut the doors when we pray.  This is not just a physical command, but also, and perhaps mostly, a metaphoric command, for we are spirit, soul and body.  He dwells in our spirit.  That is where we are to go, our spirit, in communion with His Spirit in us, our ‘Holy of holies’.  This can be when we are walking down the street, or in the midst of an intense battle pressuring us on every side.  He still dwells in that secret place in our spirit. 

Prayer relates to our soul in the area of the will.  Jesus said for us to pray, “May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matt. 6:10) When He himself was in the garden before His arrest, He prayed, “Father...not my will, but Yours be done.” (Lk. 22:42) Prayer is about submission to His will. 

Our will is sovereign.  It chooses what to think, what to feel.  God, in His Sovereignty, chose to give us a portion of Himself.  If our will is sovereign, and He is the only Sovereign, we must admit that He is not divided between Himself and us.  He gives us, in love, a perfect balance to choose.  “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life in order that you may live." (Deut. 30:19)  If we still choose death, however, He takes responsibility for it.  It was not Him Who made us choose it, but because our will is part of His Sovereignty, he still takes responsibility for it.  In this is the death of Jesus, and in this is the death of our flesh, our carnality.  Jesus died as God’s response to our failure, with His responsibility of payment for it.  He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev. 13:8)  As we live in Him, our fleshly nature, our carnality, is challenged and cut away from us in the likeness of His death. Obedience to His will and disobedience to our own, is the process of our inward renewal. How our will responds to His will happens in prayer.  Our covenant with Him is forged by our relationship with Him.  “How much do I do in this situation (empowered by His Spirit), and to what extent do I remain trustingly uninvolved?”  The answer lies within our relationship with Him through prayer, as He reveals it to us in our ‘Holy of holies’. 

He reveals Himself through His Word and His Spirit, as analogized earlier by speech: articulation and breath, respectively.  (See, Trinity Concepts 1.02 God)  Without His revelation, even our prayer goes awry.  “He who turns his ear away from listening to the law (Word of God), even his prayer is an abomination.” (Prov. 28:9)  God, in His fullness, must be allowed to flow though us, in priority and in balance, in order for each aspect of our Christian growth to be complete.  As the wise saying goes, “All Word and no Spirit, you dry up.  All Spirit and no Word, you blow up.  The Word and the Spirit together, and you grow up.”

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)