Envy almost influenced me to walk away from what I do best. Envy is a subtle and powerful weapon of darkness. If I am not careful, I will casually let envy erode the confidence and clear conscience needed to bring fulfillment in the plans and will of God for my life.

The book by Bob Sorge is a great exploration of the destructive poison of the spirit of envy.

Let’s get into our Worship Leader Review of Bob Sorge’s book called  Envy -The Enemy Within

• Total pages: 150
• Shortest chapter length 26 pages
• Longest chapter length 8 pages
• Personal Stories & Scriptural Examples
• first published 2003

Chapter Titles

1. The Most Common Problem that Nobody Has
2. What is Envy?
3. The Brothers
4. The Great Talent Showdown
5. Why Revival Tarries
6. The Cross: Death of Envy
7. Perceiving the “Measure of Grace”
8. The Envy Detour: Death or Destiny
9. Rooted in Love

Quotes about praise

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Bob Sorge’s book Envy; The Enemy Within:

1. Envy is the internal pain we feel over someone else’s success
2. Envy is the Natural by-product of being favored by God – Michael Cavanaugh
3. It’s the tallest tree that gets hit by lightning
4. Envy is always an issue with the brothers
5. No amount of practice can give you a gift you haven’t received from God
6. There is always somebody more talented than you
7. When revival hits two things typically begin to gather in abundance; people and money
8. God protects power with problems
9. My goal is to be known in Heaven
10. The best antidote for envy is the pursuit of the knowledge of the love of Christ

The Great Talent Showdown

My favorite chapter in this book is titled The Great Talent Showdown. This chapter contributes to a deeper understanding of the parable Jesus Christ shared regarding the talents found in the book of  Matthew 25:14-30

…each according to his own ability. Matthew 25: 15 

Bob concludes that when it comes to the ministry of music, one’s level of giftedness becomes so measurable, you can almost put a numerical value on it.

I also like this idea that Bob brings to light; It might be tempting to look at someone else with more gifts than you and envy what they have; but the truth is that if you had their level of gifting, you could potentially suffer quick burnout and utter frustration. Your ‘ability’ may not be meant to handle it.
Having said that, I like that Bob points out that you can only work with what giftings and talents god gives you, but you can also multiply them!

Bob Sorge has also included Mike Bickle’s perspective on talents. The more talent and giftedness a person is,  more publicly and visually expressed towards a more prominent public platform.
And finally, when it comes to leadership, I like this thoughtful illustration Bob makes explain the various talents given by The Lord:

“If the level of excellence in the worship ministry (and other ministries) doesn’t grow with the church, the growth of the church will level off and will plateau according to the level of giftedness among its leaders.”  -Bob Sorge

This is a 162 page compilation book of six authors who write from their experience as international worship leaders. This means variety in perspective.

In this book The Lost Art of Pure Worship, Chris Dupre, Jeff Deyo, Sean Feucht, Julie Meyer, Rachel Goll Tucker, and James W Goll all share their understandings and ideas of worship.
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The book is segmented into three: For the Audience of One, Equal Access to the Throne, and Tips for the journey.

Quotes from Worship Leaders.

I like underlining the ideas I find in books that stick out to me. Do you? Here a few from this book. I have organized them according to worship leader.

Chris Dupre

• With out David, our conversations about worship would end up using words like blood, sacrifice, knife, dead, wash, splattered, animal…you get the picture.
• When I am secure in his affection, I do not need to draw my life from others because I already have it in him.
• When our gifting or calling becomes our title, it is only a short distance  away from having it become our identity.
• Oxen and carts are for work, not for worship.
• We need to be lovers of God who happen to play music as opposed to musicians who  happen to be Christians.
  
  

James W Goll

• I take my questions and I worship him with my questions.
• worship and prayer are not ends in themselves, they lead to the very presence of God.
• Spiritual principles stand firm always, but we are not worshiping spiritual principles.
• Gates and doors are closed to shut things out and open to let things in.
• Today, our access to God is not limited by artifacts and ceremonies.
  
  

Julie Meyer

• Oil is one of the most valuable commodities  in the earth and it is also the most needed substance for worship.
• We must have oil for the journey of worship.
• Don’t get offended, get oil.
• Offense never lets you go, you have to let it go.
  
  

Sean Feucht

• We are called to carry, embody, and release worship everywhere we go.
• The reviving of the secret place will always lead to the reviving of the public places.
• The Spirit’s presence is not so fragile that he requires our help through lengthy explanations.
  
  

Jeff Deyo

• Worship is who I am , not just what I sing.
• …we need to move from ‘practicing what we preach’ to ‘preaching what we practice.
• God’s musical tastes, however, have very little to do with style.
• To him, each thing you do on this earth is like a note on a musical staff.
• God hears things differently. To Him, if the sound has not come from an obedient heart, that sound is not godly.
• if we simply turn our energy from the outside of the cup to the inside of the cup – from the part everyone sees to the part nobody sees – He will take care of the part everyone sees, on our behalf.
  
  

Rachel Goll Tucker

• Life is entirely too short to waste it without making an impact on our society.
  
  

Orlando House of Prayer

This was the last required book for my services at the Orlando House of Prayer. Each Monday evening from 10 pm to midnight I hosted a live musical devotion which was streamed worldwide.  I lead this two devotion from January 2017 to the end of July 2017. The program required a training on prayer and worship called The Harp and Bowl Training as well as list of recommended and required reading.


The lost Art of Pure Worship

How to Inspire Others to Help You with Your Vision...
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You’ve got an amazing vision….an incredible dream. You know where you are going and you know how to get there. Now you are going to need to recruit some help to make it happen.

I like what Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States of America, says about delegated leadership,  “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” 

Top sales associate, motivational speaker and author of the book See You at The Top  Zig Ziglar shares a very simple,  profound and ancient concept. Some accept this ancient concept as a universal spiritual law.

“You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.” -Zig Ziglar

Delegation

Zig Ziglar’s quote sounds simple enough; work to help others get what they want and you will get what you want. hmmm…

You may have come to know this idea as the law of ‘sowing and reaping’. Perhaps you may have chosen to know it as ‘karma’….or….quite rhetorically, ‘what goes around, comes around’.

It may be a bit of a stretch of the imagination to think that helping other people get what they want is a viable form of delegation…but let’s stretch for a moment.

What did Joshua do to delegate? Then Joshua gave orders to the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan River and take the land the Lord your God is giving you.’ ” NCV

Joshua gave orders. Other versions say it this way:

• He commanded
• He instructed
• He charged
• He appointed
  
  

Joshua gave orders. He gave orders to the leaders of Israel.

Here is how delegation worked with Joshua. He simply issued a clear directive. He gave a short and quick order:

• Go through the camp
• Tell the people
  
  

Using the power of delegation, Joshua gave the entire nation of Israel an expected timeline of three days. “Three days from now you will cross the Jordan River and take the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

Joshua communicated to the masses, by communicating first to his appointed leaders and officers.
Joshua knew God was giving the land to the people. It was not Joshua land, it was the peoples. Joshua was giving the people what they wanted…guess what, He got what he wanted too.

Knowing what to do next is a very importantPerhaps, right now…as you read these words, you are finding yourself in a particular circumstance which is producing a required response from you.
You have come to the end of something and now it is obvious and apparent that you must make some type of decision. It is now time to move forward…to move on. You know it’s time for that next step, but you are unclear of what it might be.

If this is you, I suggest a reminder of how to find out where you are going.

You must first know where you are going and how to get there before you can confidently delegate.