Well hello there wonderful people of God and welcome back to Ashley En Vogue. Today we're going to discuss a topic that people don't really like to hear about in the Body of Christ but someone has to say it: Are Christians supposed to listen to worldly music? Mhh...ask yourself!
All the people who know me in real life know, how extra I am with letting people know how I feel about secular music. Me Nah like it. I'm that friend that will get into your car and ask you to change the song, I'm that person who would walk out of a store if the music they're playing is agitating my spirit and I'm the one to turn the TV on mute during commercials so that I wouldn't even have to listen to any of it. (Yeah, I'm a bit of an extremist there but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do in order to keep herself Holy just as the Lord is Holy)
Now I need to admit that I didn't just drop from heaven all saved and sanctified. I used to looove wordly music...a lot. All of it. I was the worst of them all. I couldn't even listen to a censored song because it wouldn't give me the satisfaction I needed. I used to love Afro Beats, Dancehall, RnB, Rap... you name it. But the Lord has delivered me. (Can I get an Amen?)
I stopped listening to worldly music in 2016 and honestly the day I deleted all my secular music it wasn't even a big deal. I have been struggling with it for years and years. I felt convicted by God. To know that out of the same mouth that I worship I'm singing songs that are hostile to God. So what I did in the beginning when I had the desire to stop was fooling myself with litte rules that I made. I had rules like: "Okay Ashley just listen to a worship song first thing in the morning to start your day right and after that you can change it to whatever else you want to listen to." Or "I listen to secular music only from Monday to Saturday and Gospel only on Sunday because it's like a holy day, right." What this showed me is that religion will make you do some things to clear your conscience temporarily but it won't deal with the root of the issue. It showed me that I can not please God out of my own strength or out of my own righteousness and that it took the grace of God to really free me.
What happened in 2016 was that I fell in love with a certain song and it stirred up a hunger for God in me that I have never experienced before. I found myself listening to Here as in Heaven by elevation worship day and night and as other similar songs were suggested to me as a result of that on youtube they gradually replaced the word songs I was usually listening to. So after one prayer meeting my phone told me that I had no more storage on my phone so I deleted all the songs that weren't Christian songs since I havent been listening to them for many months at that point.
I always thought the day I would do that the trumpet would blow and thats it. I'm going to heaven. I could never sse myself letting go of it completely because it was such a big part of my life. But God just took it away from me. He had prepared my heart to do it gradually. That's why a post like this will never come from a place of condemnation or judgment. Because I know that I was set free by grace, not by my own righteousness, not because I'm this Holy Saint that has arrived but because of Mercy. I don't believe in deleting your playlist from one day to the next and forcing to be holy. If you're not there yet it's fine the problem begins when we get comfortable as Christians. When we don't desire change, transformation and growth. The goal is to get more like Christ each and every day.
I don't want to tell you what is right and what's wrong concerning secular music but what I rather want to do is ask you a few questions?
What we really need to ask ourselves as believers, is how does listening to this kind of music give honor to God. The word tells us in 1. Corinthians 10:31 whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
How will God receive Glory from a song that promotes fornication, greed, and violence?
How can we call ourselves Christians and nod our head to music that condones drunkenness, lust and a lifestyle that God despises?
One of the biggest area the enemy attacks us is in our mind. The Bible says we have the mind of Christ (1. Corinthians 2:16) but when our thoughts revolve around thoughts of lust how can we say we have the mind of Christ? And don't be out here fooling yourself and acting like it does nothing to you.
What are you thinking when these songs play in your headphones, where is your mind going, what are you daydreaming about when listening to this music?
Philippians 4:8 says whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely whatever things are of good report if there's any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.
The word gives us a list of criteria that we should consider before we allow certain things to even enter our minds.
We are transformed by the renewal of our mind but with these things lingering in our minds we are hindering the Holy Spirit from doing what He does best. One thing God has called me out on was the fact that even on my way into His presence I was blasting secular music. There was no way that my heart could have been prepared for what He wanted to do in me.
Are you asking yourself why it's so hard for you to stay on fire for God, why it's hard for you to be consistent with your prayer life, why everyone else is getting revelations and is having encounters with God but you and could it be that you have grieved the Spirit of God in you?
The same way worship and praise music were created under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit there is a Spirit behind secular music. The writers had something in mind, they had a thought, that turned into a vision and into a melody. And this persons Spirit will sooner or later affect you.
The Holy Spirit should be the only Spirit living in you. He's not about to share His place with several different spirits inside of you. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons (1: Corinthians 10:21).
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30
My advice to all to people who struggle with this is not to delete your entire music and only listen to hymns. It's not to do it Ashley's way. Because when you do it out of your own strenght you will probably find yourself going back to it at some pint and that's not the point. Let God do His perfect work in you. Ask God to take away the desire for it and to change your taste in music. The key is surrender and a willing heart.
And for all the people who still aren't convinced, I say All things are allowed but not all things are good for you(1 Corinthians 10:23). As long as you are not convicted in your Spirit it's not a sin.
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