With Healing in His Wings

Our worship, when it begins in the heart of God, cannot help but inspire healing

Music is like the bridge that leads lost and found people through their valley low or mountaintop experiences. It’s the ultimate secret weapon for bringing back memories and prompting an outburst of emotions. Only music can make dignified, mild-mannered adults turn into momentary fools when their favorite band from generations past plays their favorite song at a concert. This is because melody lines have a way of attaching themselves to our souls.

I think God knew this. In fact, I wonder if the creative arts are not a mercy act on God’s part, allowing us an escape route from life’s pain and anguish. I believe music is meant to heal, and when we place the word worship before the word music, this truth is magnified even more.

Why? First, because according to Scripture, worship is happening around the throne 24/7. God is pleased by our adoration and praise, and we will be worshipping Him for all eternity. Also, when Jesus walked the earth, He couldn’t stop the power that caused hearts that were hardened to open, eyes that were blinded to see and legs that could not move to stand. 

If God the Father loves adoration and praise and His Son loves healing, we have a pattern that appears to be both profound and, ultimately, prophetic.

I am convinced that if we can get the “tone” of God’s love to lay across our melody lines and within our phrases, we would be able to access the spirit of a dying man and change its direction. The big question is not “Does God heal through worship?” but rather, “What kind of worship does He use to heal, and what kind of leader or writer does He use to do it?”

In the early Vineyard Music days, John Wimber visualized for Vineyard songwriters a circular progression that began with God and returned to God. His model was that, as writers, we were writing music as a direct result of God having given us a sound. Then we wrote those sounds down and gave them to the church. The church then gave those sounds in song straight back to God. 

This created the image of a circular motion with a constant flow that always had every bit of the glory headed back to God. 

I loved this picture! It propelled me to want to stay centered to hear from God what He was saying and promised that my delivery to the church would be well-phrased and hold a healing impact.

It’s important to understand, however, that God is not looking for perfect leaders and writers. He is looking for perfect willingness. The willingness to be used is key.

I’ve been approached by many people, saved and unsaved, who have shared with me the healing impact my songs have had on their lives. I receive emails and sit stunned at the miracles God does in the sound of songs I’ve penned while I was trying desperately to hear from His heart.

I ponder the young African mother who escaped from the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Sudan while singing a song of mine out loud, finding her way to the safety of a refugee camp. 

Then there’s the survivor of the 9/11 attacks who found healing and peace while singing worship songs while fleeing the north tower as it collapsed. 

Perhaps the most riveting healing story was that of an American man abducted by the Taliban and tortured in captivity for two months. He described moments in his darkest hour where, miraculously, he would hear me sing worship over his wounds, giving him hope to face another day with his attackers.

There is power in the name of Jesus. We can say it, pray it or sing it, and God’s healing is evident. Our willingness to be used by God, matched with our desire to know Him, inspires how much healing God pours into our tone and lyrics.

Rita Springer travels worldwide teaching and leading worship. Known for her unscripted, spontaneous worship, she founded the DIVE (Deep Innovative Vertical Expression) worship school in 2008 out of a passion for mentoring a new generation of worship leaders. Her latest book, Finding Eve—birthed out of a women’s conference she launched under the same name—released last month.