A NEW SOUND FROM HEAVEN IS ON EARTH TODAY
By Doug Addison
I keep hearing God speaking over and over to me that there is a new sound that has already been released from Heaven. I have heard prophecies about a new sound coming and many musicians and worship leaders are searching for it. I have not yet heard this new Heavenly sound in any church, but I can't stop hearing it in the spirit.
Music sets the pace for everything. Since God is doing something new in the earth right now, it is only appropriate that it would flow through music as well. Anointed music communicates God's desire and intention for each of us individually, for our church, our region and our generation. Worship music is not just leading songs that prepare our hearts to hear the Word of God, though there is great value in this. Worship is the cry of the Holy Spirit to lead us into His paths and higher purposes.
The new sound will overtake us like a storm and will be different than the way we currently worship. It will catch the ear of a younger generation that has yet to experience God the way many of us have in the past. Prophetic music, radical dance, new songs, and art will be major keys to the new sound and will ultimately usher in one of the biggest revivals in Church history. Just as in previous moves of God, not everyone in the Church will receive the new sound or even recognize it is from God.
And I heard a sound from Heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.—Revelation 14:2-3
Learn From the Last New Sound
In the 1960s a new sound from Great Britain swept the U.S. and the world. The Beatles came on the scene with a sound that took the essence of rhythm and blues and added a faster beat with a fun and exciting feeling to it. Most of their lyrics caused a generation of young people to feel empowered. But there was something special about that music that was almost anointed. James Ryle, in his book, Sons of Thunder, said that God showed him that the Beatles had a call of God but through circumstances and bad choices, they never found their greater destiny in the kingdom of God. As a result, their gifts and music were used to usher in the biggest movement of Middle Eastern religion in U.S. history. God inspired the new sound and music but the enemy distorted it.
I often wonder if someone had prophetically recognized that a new sound was coming, could they have helped the Beatles discover their Kingdom gifts and callings? Had the Church known back in the early 1960s that the new sound from Heaven was already in the pubs of Hamburg, Germany and Liverpool, England, would they have believed it?
I am declaring prophetically that the new sound is already on the earth today. Just as the Beatles influenced a generation away from God, so this new sound from Heaven will bring masses of this young generation to Him. This time it will not be stolen by the enemy.
Rock-n-roll music was not liked by the older generation. Churches tried to hold it back instead of embracing it as something that originated from God's heart to reach young people, so it got counterfeited and perverted by the enemy. It was not until the Jesus People Movement that the new rock sound was allowed in churches. But this was ten years too late.
In the early 1980s John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Church movement, had a vision in which he saw "garage bands" leading worship in churches. Garage bands are talented musicians that are unknown to the world. Sure enough, our modern-day worship and praise teams are now the equivalent of garage bands of the past. Interestingly, John Wimber himself was one of the original members of the Righteous Brothers band before he dedicated his life to Christ.
Torch Bearers Are Coming Forward
On July 16, 2009, I had a dream that was more of a spiritual experience. It was the night before I was to leave for a ministry trip to Bakersfield, California, and I was taken in the spirit to the meeting I was about to attend. During the experience I was instructed to assemble black handheld electronic devices that looked like electric torches but required no electricity. They were powered by the Holy Spirit and would be used to do ministry at an entirely new level.
As I screwed the handles to the torches, it created a sound in the spirit that was like no sound I have heard on earth. It had an electronic pitch and reverberated forever. The sound was so strange that it caused many Christians to get angry and I was attacked by many of them who did not want to hear this new sound. The next day, in real life, I arrived at the conference and even though I had never been to this building it was exactly as I had seen it in the experience.
I knew that God was releasing a new sound and a new anointing that will be so radical that many Christians would be tempted to reject it. The torches and the sound were reserved for a generation that will take it and run with it to new levels of God's supernatural glory unlike we have ever seen. It was interesting to note that the very weekend that this dream/experience happened, the largest oil field in Bakersfield was discovered. God used this to confirm that we are about to discover something new and very big in the spirit.
It is also significant that Bakersfield played a role in Country music's revolutionary "Outlaw" movement of the 1970s that brought a radical change to the sound coming out of Nashville. God wants to use places like Bakersfield, small unknown towns, that are ripe for change and willing to go outside the box to bring God's glory.
A few days later I was back home in Santa Maria, California, and I was telling my wife about the experience. We pulled up to a traffic light and saw two teenagers carrying a torch of fire running up the street yelling with joy. It looked like the Olympic torch with real fire and it happened in real life. God spoke to me that it is time to release the "torch bearers" who will take His light and love to the world like never before.
The Sounds of the Radio
In the late 1990s my wife and I planted our first church near Kent State University in Ohio. God spoke to me that we would reach this city by the "sounds of the radio." After experimenting with various types of music, it was a 16-year-old worship team member who stepped forward with an amazing set of Vineyard worship lyrics put to music of several popular songs from rock bands like Blink 182, Metallica, and Lit. The result was astonishing! As we learned to worship to a different style than we were accustomed to, we enabled young people to connect with God. It is similar to several revivalists like Charles Wesley, Martin Luther, and William Booth who put worship hymns to popular bar tunes and music of their day in order to reach people for Jesus.
Now, years later, I am a conference speaker and a traveling minister. Two years ago God directed me to redeem songs from the radio and show people how to worship to them. I began plugging my iPod into the sound system at churches and in the middle of my talks to reiterate a point. I play parts of songs like, I Can See Clearly Now (the Rain is Gone), or Don't Worry, Be Happy. I personally think that Tom Petty's, I Won't Back Down really should be a worship song.
Later, after we leave the church service, we can hear these songs play and immediately be able to worship God and bring the anointing into any setting and situation. I still believe in having worship teams and music, yet am also trying to get outside the box to discover more of what God has for us and for others who do not know God yet.
Embracing the New Sound
The new sound from Heaven that I heard was electronic but different than the typical electronic music today. It brought to mind the major switchover in music from Big Band in the 1940s to Rock-n-Roll music in the 1950s. The previous generation did not like the new rock music, but rock won out in the end. Now, 50 years later, there is a switch happening once again with rock beginning to lose out to techno. Just like previous generations, the old will hold on for dear life and even fight the new sound.
I am a rocker at heart, but I also see the value that my daughter's generation places on the new music, so I am trying to embrace it. At age 50, I am creating "worship mix" and learning to DJ using a new handheld technology. Interestingly, the new technology is a small black handheld device that creates electronic music. This is what I saw in my dream that was instrumental in releasing the new Sound from Heaven.
This new sound is already on the earth right now! Imagine the possibilities if Christians and the Church-at-large could embrace this next move of God instead of rejecting it like in the past. I am praying that God will give us "ears that can hear" what the Spirit is saying and doing right now.
Oh God, help us to partner with You for one of the greatest revivals in Church history!
Suggested Resource: Highest Of All Highs
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Doug Addison helps people transform their lives and discover their purpose. He uses stand-up comedy in his seminars on Hearing God, Understanding Dreams and Experiencing the Supernatural. He also leads dream and prophetic/power evangelism outreaches.
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