2. THE MELODIES OF HEAVEN

By Pastor Peter Tan


Turn to Col. 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We need to set our hearts and our minds on things in heaven. That is the reason why we are teaching on this series Wonders of Heaven. Our key verse we have taken is from the book of Hebrews chapter 6:5 And have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come. God wants us to draw from our inside the things from our spirit to taste of the good word. And the author of Hebrews says of the powers of the age to come.

We have talked about the gifts of the Spirit and how the gifts of the Spirit some times manifest in our lives. And all the manifestation of the Spirit has to do with the things that are in heaven. So lets just close our eyes and set our hearts and affection on the things of heaven. Think of some of the things that are in heaven and let the longing come upon our hearts and our lives as we draw towards the things of heaven. The reason we have you to sing some songs even though we are going to minister the word is because there is some thing about music and singing that we are going to talk about.

We have talked about the Power of Life. And in heaven there is what we call the power of music or melody. That is another realm that is in heaven. In heaven music flows on continuously. It is non-stop. All the time the music just keeps flowing. And there is not a moment or time when music ceases. Except in the time of revelation where it talked about God was about to show His wrath, and as He was grieving there was silence in heaven for a moment of time. And the music that is in heaven is very powerful. It is some thing that we only have a foretaste of on this earth. In fact being filled with the Spirit is being linked up to the kind of music that we can receive from God.

Turn to Eph. 5:18-19 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Some times when the Spirit of God move we feel like some thing in our hearts wants to reach out onto Him. Most of the time we grab a song or a melody that we know and we sing it and it comes out from our life. But as our walk in God increases the heavenly presence is so much in us that the earthly melody cannot contain what we want to express. And we need to reach into some thing deeper than that. And that is why God gives us a new tongue to worship Him. Like this morning you could sense it in your spirit you feel like there is some thing in you that just want to reach out to God. And unless we could let that melody flowing out there is some thing that is just not contacted or some thing that is just not there. Just close your eyes and lift up your hands for a moment. And just let the melody on your inside worship God. And you sense the atmosphere different. Doesn’t some thing on your inside feel good like some thing lifting you up? Like some thing is lifting you up into the heavenly presence.

That’s what we want to talk about this morning that the words that God gives us and the tune that God gives us in Eph. 5:19. Making melodies in your heart has a sort of quality you can call it power that seems to take some thing from inside us and bring us into the heavenly place. We know that He gave us melody in chapter 5:19 of Ephesians. The question we want to deal with is why He gives us the melody.

In the Hebrew language there are many words for the word rejoice which is also translated as gladness some times. In English we have rejoice, cheer, joy, and in the Hebrew they have different words to express that joy in our hearts. There are different degrees of what I call the heavenly music that can fill our lives. How many of you felt that atmosphere different just after you worship in tongues. Why should it be different? That’s what we are going to touch on this morning. To gain some understanding of why is it different and what is the process that was taking place. We know it is different but we want to know why it is different.

In the book of Proverbs chapter 17:22 A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones. There is some thing about the joy that God gives that has a supernatural quality of being able to transform our life and bring healing to us. The word merry in the Hebrew is the word sameah. And sameah has a bigger meaning than the word merry. When we think about the word merry it just reminds us of merry making. We wish you a merry Christmas. But today we changed the tune to we wish you a blessed Christmas because we want more the blessing than just the merriness. Because merry making reminds us a little bit too much about wining and drinking and that kind of fun that they have in the world. It is not that Christians do not have fun, we have fun but our fun is a different type with no hangovers. The merry is the word sameah, which has a very wide element of joy. Now in Hebrew there is a joy that refers to the joy that is in our spirits, in our hearts. There is a joy that is in our soul. And there is a joy that is in our physical body.

And music is actually just harmonizing vibrations. You could even take a musical instrument and you just simply strike any key but it won’t just harmonize. It has to be in a certain tune. When the keys are struck in a certain pattern that is harmonized one to another it carries a different impact on our lives. The bible does say that all that has breath worship and praise God. God has put music in life. Where there is life there is music. Everything in this life flows according to some rhythm. Electricity flows in a rhythm. Even your tap water doesn’t just come in one flow. If you observe very carefully it comes in rhythm. And depending on the speed of the rhythm you cannot see it. There is a rhythm to life and that rhythm we call music. The music that God had set in the heart, in the spirit, the music in our soul and the music in our physical body. Even all the atoms and molecules synchronized with one and another.

Do you know that when your body is sick your body is not in rhythm? Most of you know about X-ray. And today they also know about the sonar scan where they use sound waves to scan for example the position of a baby. But they also have another way of scanning call the magneto scan where the cells that are sick show up in a spot because its not in the pattern. Sick cells, diseased body parts show up in a magnetic scan because they cannot move in rhythm. If there was a cancerous cell on a magneto scan they can see a dark spot where the magnetic lines could not flow through. It has lost its ability to flow in the rhythm. It’s based on a simple principle of magnetic rhythm in our body.

The bible says a merry heart doth good like a medicine. Its because the rhythm that is in heaven where health is there where life is there flows upon our spirit, upon our soul and upon our body. And our body began to beat with the rhythm in heaven. And healing is there. There is a process of health and healing that is there. The only reason why your body is in sickness is your body lost that rhythm. I am not talking about tongue rhythm but there is a heavenly rhythm that it has lost. The cells are not able to move in the rhythm of life.

Adam and Eve were created with the heavenly nature, and the Garden of Eden was like a heaven. Every thing was in harmony. But the moment Adam and Eve fell into sin this was the curse that came in. Genesis 3 verse 17-19 Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and dust you shall return. To the woman He says in verse 16 I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing. Sorrow only came in after the fall. Remember the testimony by Sister Sally. She said in heaven she could not see a single sad face because in heaven there is the heavenly music that is joy. It is on earth and since the fall of man that sorrow came. From the time that Adam fell into sin all the trees and all the herbs began to produce things that were not really designed to produce. From that day onwards suddenly there were thorns. The rhythm in the plant was disrupted. And the energy that went to produce beautiful flowers and eternal leaves went to produce thorns. Obviously the rhythm of life is disrupted. It is just like a beautiful plant and you began to take away nutrition from it. That beautiful plant can become crumpled and wrinkled. Just like many of you who have eaten well, you look well. You see people who are undernourished especially in Africa. You see those young children who don’t have enough food their facial features look like old man because they didn’t have enough nutrition. Now amplify that a million times because when Adam fell into sin it was more than that. It was passing out of spiritual life into darkness. And all the energy of that rhythm of life began to produce noise. The noise of the rhythm of life ended up with thorns.

And so from that day onwards in Romans chapter 8:20-22 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now. All of creation from the day of the fall lost its music. When we lost the rhythm of life sickness came, sorrow came, imperfection came. You could in a sense say in this manner that when Adam and Eve fell we lost our music. When Adam and Eve fell mankind lost the heavenly music. And man for thousands of years has tried to lift themselves out of that mighty cave with their own form of music. And music has played a role in all of man’s highest moments. Any wedding in any culture in any religion is not complete without music. Then the greatest suffering of mankind when man face death in a funeral. When man wrestle with things that are so difficult to accept they need music. Have you gone to a funeral service where there is no music?

From that day when man fell man struggled to get back that music. Some times he succeeded in a small degree and it lift him up. Sometimes he failed. From time to time mankind has managed to taste some of the heavenly music. People like Beethoven his music has certain majesty involved. And when you hear it, it lifts you up. And some other kind of music that has lifted mankind out of their suffering, out of their sorrow, helped mankind taste the fullness of joy. And all of the highest music of man cannot reach what it takes to reach the musical state before Adam fell into sin. From that day onwards men sought for that music. Which is why in Proverbs 17 it says a merry heart do good like a medicine. When at least a little bit of that rhythm is still there you get divine health.

Just to give you an idea of how powerful the original music that we have lost if you really have that heavenly music you don’t just have health you have immortality. If a merry heart does good like a medicine heavenly music brings you immortality. Adam and Eve were once immortal. They could have lived for 10000 years and still have not a single wrinkle. Imagine living 10000 years without sorrows. All of us have lived many years but we could never say that all those years were without sorrows. There have been sorrows there have been joy and all overall if your joy is more than your sorrow you are still going strong. If your sorrow is more than your joy you feel very depressing. Thank God Jesus is your joy. Can you imagine living 10000 years and not knowing sorrow? See that heavenly music that we only have a glimpse of not only have the power of life it has a power of immortality. And that is that kind of music we are talking about the sameah that comes from the Spirit and will affect your soul and your body.

Turn to Acts 2:25-26 For David says concerning him, “I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; there my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will dwell in hope. Now you know why this is a reference to Jesus Christ? The music in Jesus’ life and the joy that was in His heart never dies. Hebrews 12 verse 2 tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ when He saw the cross had joy, looking onto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross..” Now this is the same Lord Jesus who for the joy that was set before Him, the joy that was in Him, the music that was in Him his flesh did not see corruption. No germ, no virus could touch that body. Yes He did die for our sins and for our sicknesses. He Himself bore our sickness and diseases and that was a legal transaction.

So then what happened at Gethsemane when He cried? What about Hebrews 5 when Jesus cried and wept? Have you ever experienced where you laugh and laugh until you cried? If you really let go you laugh until you cry. You laugh until the tears come out from your eyes. It is possible to weep because you are happy. Now Jesus Christ had 2 things going on at Gethsemane. In His heart there was joy that He will be raised up again. See Jesus looked to the cross expectantly. Although He told the Father that, “If you desire let this cup pass from Me” but then He goes on and said, “Nevertheless not my will but yours be done.” Some of you got the wrong picture in Gethsemane that Jesus was saying to the Father, “I don’t like this take it away from me.” Jesus never lost His joy.

You ask, “How do you know?” Don’t you remember the night before He was betrayed what was He talking about?

Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take away from you (John 16:22)

Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16: 24)

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16: 33)
This is the Lord Jesus speaking on the night when He was betrayed. He was there comforting His disciples and imparting joy into their lives although there was sorrow because of physical separation and the sin of the world. Yet on His spirit of joy for doing God’s will is there. That’s why on the cross 2 things happened. He took our sorrows but His joy was more powerful than our sorrow that’s why He won. The life that was in Him yielded to God and that resurrection life flowed out of Him.

But this reference in Acts 2 Peter was explaining about the tongues they had received. They were speaking in tongues and all the people say they were drunkard. And Peter was explaining that this is the outpouring of the Spirit as prophesied by Joel. And this is what David says in verse 26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Now the word glad is a special Greek word and not the normal word for joy. It is the word, which means leaping with joy. And my tongue was leaping with joy. It is the word translated jumping with joy. He was giving a picture of the Lord filling their lives. The filling of the Spirit is the filling of joy. He anoint us with the oil of gladness, and that ties back to Eph. 5:18-19 it says, “Be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourself in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart.” When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit God gives you a melodious inspiration on your inside. And it was so full you can’t contain it you say praise God, thank you Lord. See that joy that filled your inside is your tongue leaping.

Cross reference to where he took that passage from in the book of Psalms 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; Now the word glad in Hebrew here is the same word found in Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart do good like a medicine. A sameah heart do good like a medicine. My heart is sameah my heart is so happy. And he says my soul (in reference to the tongue) rejoices. The word rejoices here is the word gul or gil, which means to spring about. No wonder when they translated it into the New Testament in Greek they have to choose a special word. Remember that verse in Isaiah 28:11 For with stammering lips and another tongue. And Paul later in Corinthians refers that to speaking in tongues.

I point to all these words to show forth that when God filled us with the Holy Spirit in the process He gave us some thing that He longed to give to mankind the heavenly melody in our life. Which is why some times you go deep into tongues and you pray in tongues and Paul says I will sing with my spirit and I will sing with my understanding. And as he sings with the spirit he touched on the heavenly melody where there is some scene of immortality.

Now there are many Hebrew words for the word rejoice. There are some that are not applicable so much in the spirit but more in the natural realm. There is a word kadar which is found in Exodus 18:4 and its like Jethro rejoicing over the goodness that was in Moses life. All these are natural joy. Why do the Hebrews have so many words for joy? They discovered all the different types of joy. There is a joy you can have because something good is happening. That is kadar happiness. Then there is a natural joy masos and this is a joy of happy events like for example a wedding. It’s a joy that comes because of a happy event. There is another joy tsahal for example Ex. 8:13 and that is the joy that comes when they have just been delivered. Like the Berlin wall came down you should see those East German faces. There is a joy that comes from deliverance. So these are the different examples of natural joy that the Hebrew has a word for it. But there are different degrees of joy that Hebrews talk about. There is a joy you have learnt just now the word gil or gul and that joy is a joy that affects the physical body. It talks about your physical body reacting to that joy. See some people who were born again, tongue talking, demon chasing but their face don’t tell you they are Christians. They were supposed to have the peace and joy of our Lord Jesus but it didn’t look on their faces. They have sameah joy in their spirit but it never affected into gil or gul joy. A joy that makes you want to celebrate. So gil or gul is a joy that affects your body, and causing you to be leaping and dancing. Some time we forgot that the spiritual natural rhythm the most spontaneous with the Lord would be the most beautiful. That’s what joy is about. See joy can never be conformed to rules. You can be trained to smile but if it doesn’t come from your heart there is some thing missing. So its important for us to understand that there is a sameah joy and a gil or gul joy. From your inside it affects your outside. And that’s when healing began to result.

In Isa. 35:1 and 2 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice (gil or gul) and blossom like the rose, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. Now how could a desert blossom, your body could be sick and be like a desert and it needs to blossom in the health and the life of God. You must have gil or gul. And that’s the joy from sameah that comes into your body when your tongue moves, your legs moves and you rejoice in the Lord. Even if an untrained person is dancing as the Lord touches him or her there is a beauty to it. Of course when you are trained you can get rid of some discordant movements but don’t let that remove that natural rhythm. Do you know what makes a person go from average to genius? They go beyond the boundaries. There are a lot of people who go to art school but not all of them become great artists. Because most people confine themselves to the rules and never look beyond the rules to touch on realms that others dream about. When Beethoven who came after Mozart started his style it was astounding to the people of his time. See genius comes by going beyond the average. Remember what makes people average. They never go beyond their training. They just limit themselves. This is the law. This is the way but they never touch on the beauty of their training. You can learn to play tennis under a great tennis coach but there must be some thing on your inside that takes those rules and make you a master of some special area.
When golf as a sport was just starting, the golfers were still mastering the rules. In the past, the top golfers were the ones who really could really play the rules well. But then after many years of golf many can play the rules very well. What was considered great 30 years ago becomes average today. Normally when you use a golf club they tell you that the angle must be only at a certain length. So all the masters were teaching that because that was the rule. Then this American came along. He broke every rule. He put it at a stronger angle. His shots were more powerful. And every master was asking how did he do it. They analyzed his shots and found he increased the angle to what the masters were saying you should never do. And his shots were so powerful that it goes beyond others.

So what are we talking about? You got to flow with the rhythm. When there is a rule you got to understand why the rules are there. And perhaps there is another way to flow around those rules. Man cannot fly. Man has to discover ways to break the law of gravity. You know what the rules say. Anything that is heavier than air cannot fly. But there are other rules so that a Boeing 747 that weigh about 85 tons still can fly. The aeronautical engineers have figured out a way to get around those things without breaking the natural laws. So its important for us to let the flow or rhythm comes forth. Remember every thing that you earn in life is there and is still in the state of evolution. All the engineering schools are still in a state of evolution. Even the laws continue to change. Every thing is in a state of evolution, because things that are seen are subject to a state of change.

How do you control those changes? You don’t break the laws of music to create great music. You flow with those laws and you bring it to a higher pattern. You take those things and there is a rhythm because there is a rhythm that is deep in your spirit. Like the first man who built a suspension bridge, all the engineers looked at him and said it cannot be done. But he dreamt and dreamt and said that it can be done. And he conquered that engineering problems and he built a suspension bridge. Today it is nothing to build a suspension bridge. You could be trained in school to do it. But the first man who did it had no school to attend.

There is rhythm in our spirit that we need to flow with the music of our soul so that we are not limited by boundaries. So there is a gil or gul that is there. Notice in Isa. 35:1 the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. That means that if the desert doesn’t rejoice it shall not blossom. If the desert doesn’t have gil it will not blossom. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice. Look at verse 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Verse 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. It all starts with the joy. Every promise of the Holy Spirit is the promise of the heavenly rhythm coming into our lives.
In the book of Joel there is a prophecy on the outpouring of the Spirit. Now Joel chapter 2 starts with fasting and seeking the Lord. And as you seek the Lord there is weeping and mourning. But that is not supposed to be your main condition. That leads to some thing. There is a fast in verse 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion. Then look at verse 21 now the Lord began to move in their lives. As the Lord moves in their lives what came first. The outpouring came first or the music came first. Let me tell you the music came first. If you want to see visions of heaven, if you want the heavenly experience, let the heavenly music touch you first in your heart. And let it flow out from you, from your spirit to your soul, to your body. Verse 21 Fear not, O land; be glad (the word glad is the word “gil” let that joy touch your body) and (sameah) rejoice. The same word found in Proverbs 17:22 be merry. Verse 23 Be glad (gil) O sons of Zion and (sameah) rejoice in the Lord, your God; for He has given the early rain for your vindication. See there is a heavenly music that God gives to us in the New Testament. It is linked to the outpouring of the Spirit.
Every move of God in church history has been accompanied with music. James 5:13 Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Why does he ask those who suffering to pray? And those who have joy let the joy fill their life even more. There is a clue given to you in Isaiah 56:7 These I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them (sameah) joyful in My house of prayer. Not you know why those who are sad or sorrowful let them pray. Because when you enter the house of prayer He gives you sameah. It makes your heart merry again. He tells you what happen in His house of prayer. Those who enter His house He gives you sameah which is Proverbs 17:22 a merry heart when you pray through because He wants to keep us in His covenant of blessing in our lives.

There is a word the joy in the soul too. Let turn to Ps. 35:9 Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in His deliverance. That word joy is the word sic and that joy is the joy of the soul. So there are many Hebrew words for the word joy. There is a word gil or gul, which refers to the joy that affects the body. There is a word sic that affects the soul. There is a word sameah that is a joy that is in our spirit. So when we talk about rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice, there are different degrees of that joy. We must first of all have sameah. Then we need to have our soul rejoicing sic. Then we need to have gil or gul, which is an outward expression of that joy.
And look at what Ps. 35:10 says All my bones shall say. You know your bones can talk. No wonder He says a merry heart do good like a medicine. For when sameah becomes sic and gil in your life, your body began to beat in the rhythm of God. Divine health comes in. There are several Hebrew words with a slight different meaning. The word alas speaks about times when nothing around you seems joyful. You are the only one seem joyful like in Habakkuk. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord though the fig tree does not blossom and the vine doesn’t bear fruit yet I will alas before the Lord, which means I will rejoice by faith. The word alas is the word of triumph. I will let joy triumph over my situation. Then there is a word renun, which means to sing out loud to the Lord. All these are related to the joy of sameah, sic and glu.

As we sing and look at heavenly music, we realize that heavenly music begins as a melody in your heart. And every time before God does some thing you look at the book of Revelation there is always a new song that goes up to God. Today human beings are in sin and they in discord. A lot of the human music is discord. They don’t produce health and healing. A lot of the rock music stirs up physical passion. They are in disharmony against God. A lot of the sentimental music gives you a melancholy spirit. It makes you very sad and moody. And so we need to hear the heavenly music that is so different from this earth. You can use any instrument that is there in the natural world but you must play it in the heavenly rhythm. That will produce immortal life. May God give us spiritual ears tune to them. It’s the power of music, if you allow this heavenly music to affect you. It starts with your tongue and melody in your heart. You will touch the realm of the heavenly nature.


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