The Power of Live Worship

Live a life of worship. It’s what we were made to do, what’s being done in heaven right now (Revelation 4:1–11), and what we will do for all eternity.

While there are many forms of worship, exalting God with song is especially moving. Ephesians 5:19 exhorts us to speak “to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

Praise is powerful, and united praise can increase that power exponentially. From the Church’s earliest days, believers have gathered to worship and pray, creating a resting place for God.

That’s one of the reasons the International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOPKC) has maintained a corporate worship and prayer sanctuary day and night, without ceasing, since Sept. 19th of 1999.

It’s also why IHOPKC has hosted Onething, an annual year-end conference attracting 20,000 people, for the last 15 years. Corporate worship shifts the spiritual atmosphere, allowing lives to be changed.

To celebrate the release of All Cry Glory, the ninth Onething Live worship album, we’ve interviewed several of the featured artists about their songs, the album, and the power of live worship:

Laura Hackett Park

Songs: Family [with Jaye Thomas, spontaneous]; No Other Name; and Deluxe Album: Here as in Heaven [featuring Kyle Means; spontaneous].

On the song Family:

Family is one of my favorite tracks. We knew we had the chorus, “You brought me in and you changed my name.” And then I knew I wanted to do the chorus, “We’re a family, we’ll go anywhere, dying those daily deaths.

On the album itself:

I’m excited about this album in particular, because we’re including a lot of the prophetic moments, and trying to make it more of a snapshot of what it was like to gather corporately with thousands of believers. That’s just exhilarating, and I think it should be when thousands of people want to worship God together. It’s like a rock concert, but it’s 10 times better because we’re all singing to one Man.

On live worship:

Any large gathering of believers is epic, and when you get a recording of it, it’s awesome. That’s why live albums are personally my favorite, because you get to enter into a moment that you can playback again and again. It’s an honor to have songs included on the live Onething albums. On No Other Name, we even kept my praying for sick bodies to be healed. I love that kind of stuff in recordings.

Jaye Thomas

Family [with Laura Hackett Park; spontaneous]

On the song Family:

I love that our song is a spontaneous song that was mostly unplanned. The most significant moment I recall was when I sang the phrase “Before you were Creator, you were a Father.” Though this is ancient truth, there was something fresh and new about it in that moment.

Our team had been in a place for several months of singing through passages about family, so I was really feeling the nearness of the Father. My prayer is that many who hear it will experience the same nearness and sense of belonging.

On the album itself:

The best part of the impact of the worship from Onething Live is that it isn’t contingent upon having been there. The themes and messages stand alone, and the truths contained in these songs will long outlive the conference experience.

Justin Rizzo

Leaning

On the song Leaning:

I love the chorus, “I come up leaning, I come up leaning, my heart in Your hand, faith in Your goodness. I come up believing that You’ll never leave me. Though trials may test me, I come up leaning.” It’s a song of the heart. It’s a song of declaration.

This song focuses on what the power of His Spirit does for us. It causes us to trust and obey Him. When it may seem like all is lost, He wants us to come up leaning upon him. I think of what Jesus said in Matthew 16:24: “If anyone is to come after Me he must pick up his cross, deny himself, and follow Me.” The lifestyle of following Jesus is a narrow way and a way that requires ALL of our dependance and hope to be upon Him—I come up leaning.

This is a song of hope. Many people are facing challenges and this song reminds us that in the end it’s about trusting in Jesus, that He’s going to make everything new; I just need to trust and lean upon him.

On live worship:

The live corporate expression of worship is amazing because it gets every heart and mind focused on the same thing at the same time. I love corporate worship because as we all lift up our own voices, we are changed. The most powerful voice in our lives is our own, and when we declare truth we are forever changed.

Jonas Park

You are the Brightest [featuring Laura Hackett Park and Brandon Hampton]

On the song You are the Brightest:

This song was written to the Lord by a group of friends. The bridge, “You are the brightest. O Jesus You shine,” always feels really pure when we sing it. It always leads me in singing to Him, and when you boil everything down, it’s what I want to tell him and thank Him for. “We worship and adore You, creation bows before You, You are our Savior, You are our Friend.” It always feels intimate but also easy for others to join in the same song to Him.

I feel like I’m telling Jesus what I really want to say and what I want to thank Him for. “We worship and adore you . . . We stand in wonder, in awe of Your compassion.” It usually feels very personal to me and inclusive of others who want to join in and tell Him the same thing together.

On live worship:

Jesus said, “Wherever there are two or three gathered in My name, I’m in their midst,” and for me, when I worship along with a live recording like this, I feel it bring me into that promise that He is in our midst as I join with that corporate voice.

When I hear others singing to God, I want to join them in worship. I can join that crowd of people singing to Him at any time and it can resonate before God’s heart.

What is one of your most memorable worship experiences?

All Cry Glory, a live worship album from Onething 2016, featuring Misty Edwards, Laura Hackett Park, Jaye Thomas, Justin Rizzo, Jonas Park, Jonathan David and Melissa Helser, and others, will be released on June 23 from Forerunner Music and iTunes. Learn more »

Adam Wittenberg

position

A Detroit native who was raised in Vermont and Connecticut, Adam worked as a newspaper journalist until 2012, when he moved to Kansas City to complete the Intro to IHOPKC internship. Afterwards, he earned a four-year certificate in House of Prayer Leadership from IHOPU and is now on full-time staff in the Marketing department at IHOPKC. He also serves in the NightWatch (overnight prayer hours) and is active in evangelism. He, and his wife Stephany, have a vision to reach people everywhere with the good news of Jesus Christ.