Welcome to Keep It 100 Podcast with Sean and Christa Smith. Join us in this space where we take on real issues with real insight and real inspiration. This podcast is for those not looking for temporary relief to change circumstance, but revelation to forever change lives. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Keep It 100 with Sean and Christa. Hey, what's going on everybody? We are super excited to have you with us for another episode. You know what?
This is going to be a great conversation. Before we dive into the conversation today, we got some really cool gatherings that are happening around the nation. The first one we wanted to really talk to you about, I'm sure many of you have heard about it already, if you've been a part of the Keep It 100 Tribe, is we're doing another prophetic masterclass we did one last year in fall of 2022. We're now doing another one September 1 and 2 in Bowie, Maryland.
We're calling this the prophetic masterclass East Coast. Yep, it is going to be September 1 and 2. You can go to our website, seanandchristasmith.com. Christa is going to be speaking. I'm going to be speaking. We're going to have our great friend, Prof. Julian Adams. He's from the Boston area. He did such a phenomenal job. The guy is deep in the word, has a true just understanding of the prophetic. He actually has a school and does a great job.
So he is as good a quipper as we know and we're super excited. You need to get in the room. But also, if you're not able to make it out to the East Coast in Bowie, Maryland and Washington, DC area, we now have the live stream option. We really do. And I think, you know, for people to hear, this is more than a gathering. The purpose of this is to really activate the prophetic gift in your life. For many people, they want to go to the next level in the prophetic gift.
They've, you know, kind of in the entry level and they're like, hey, I want to go deeper. This is for you. For others, you're like, I love the prophetic. I'm around the prophetic. And I see people move in the prophetic. And I think, man, I wish I could move like that. This is for you. This is for wherever you're at in your prophetic journey, we're honestly going to have something for you. And this is going to go from a foundational, fundamental teaching to advanced teachings.
And we really want to get people equipped in the area of the gift of prophecy. So don't miss this two day extensive teaching where you're going to be learning how to hear the voice of God. You're going to step into a new dimension of sensitivity, the Holy Spirit. And you're going to learn how to prophesy with greater confidence. And I believe this will be a marking time for you as well. So don't miss it.
Hey, this episode, we're going to be talking, we're going to have an interview later on with Heath King and we'll kind of tee that up for you in a moment. But we're one of the things that we're kind of wanting to address and kick around a little bit is the whole aspect of our life as a worship under God and purposely and intentionally living with verticality. And so when we talk about living vertically, I think a good place to start and I was thinking about this is King Hezekiah Christa.
And the thing about King Hezekiah like is that he was a king that brought revival. One of the best revivals in the book of Chronicles in the, I think it's the second Chronicles in the Old Testament. Hezekiah had brought revival after several kings that there were some bad kings in that had really brought the nation of Israel down. And the verse says something like this. And again, we're talking about vertical Christianity versus horizontal Christianity.
And it says in second Chronicles 31 21, speaking of Hezekiah, we know that he organized proper temple leadership, got the priest right. He restored the celebration of the Passover. He cleans and restore temple worship. He opened up the temple doors and it says in second Chronicles 31 21 says, and in every work that he began in the service of the house of God and in the law and in the commandments to seek his God, and he did it with all his heart and prospered.
And it's, you see right there, King Hezekiah understood the importance of the vertical relationship first and foremost. And then the horizontal plane falls into place. Previous kings, it did political alliances and essentially it's kind of the, you want to bring it into the New Testament. It's the political spirit, but it made the horizontal and the moment they made the horizontal, the be all in all, they fell into idolatry. They fell into kind of compromising relationships with pagan nations.
And I kind of feel like this part of establishing the verticality is so important. You know, it really is. We have to understand that, you know, vertical, a vertical worship is more than songs being sung on a Sunday morning. Vertical worship is a lifestyle and we really see this, you know, in this portion of scripture says, therefore, brethren, I implore you by the mercies of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God, a spiritual act of worship.
And I love that that's Romans 12, one. And that portion of scripture really captures that our lives are a living sacrifice. And that means we are not, we're in the world, but we're not of the world.
We live a life that is vertically focused with vertical adoration, vertical surrender, that God gets the full glory for our lives and that our lives are not compartmentalized, but a, but truly an offering before the Lord as we live our lives, we get the privilege that everything that we do is for his glory. And so when we understand that we have the opportunity to be a living sacrifice, one that brings adoration and honor to God, what a joy that we get to worship more than a song.
We get to worship in our lifestyle. So true. And you know, I think you can take this even another step further. I think there are times even in my life where all of a sudden the horizontal, you know, being a minister, you're ministering to people, you're serving people, you're meeting the needs of people that sometimes you can get an imbalance and maybe to someone else, maybe it's your job, maybe it's your hobby, maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's your pet, maybe it's whatever.
But those kinds of things, you just get so busy with the horizontal that all of a sudden you get an imbalance in your life. When you get that imbalance, all of a sudden it can lead to burnout. It could lead to you becoming distant from God. It could lead to you. Literally, as we've seen this quite often, the enemy begins to piggyback on that and begins to cause people to go through a season. You kind of get, you lose your peace. There's anxiety.
There's essentially, there's so many, I would say consequences that when we're not living with that vertical intentionality that God is first and it's got to be that way. And the cool thing is I'm starting to see that in church. I think for a while, even the way we did church, it becomes so horizontal. We were kind of treating the people in our community as a demographic. We were bringing them in and all of a sudden kind of offering a service like they were consumers and all of that stuff.
But now you're beginning to see, I'd say post pandemic and just certain churches that you're beginning to see a verticality restore that, hey, this thing is about loving Jesus. This thing is about worship under God. This thing is about appearance, simple devotion. And as we've been doing a lot of Gen Z stuff, really this emerging generation is hungry to really have an authentic connection to Jesus. They want to know his heart.
And when you begin to realize that, hey, Christianity isn't about pleasing you, it's about pleasing him because when you begin to please you, you're going to begin to please man. And the moment you put man, a man pleasing spirit over a God pleasing spirit, then all of a sudden the horizontal has replaced the vertical. And we know the cross, there was a vertical aspect of one of the wood pieces, obviously was vertical, almost over his honor.
We know there is a horizontal aspect that we serve others that we fulfill the great commission, but that has to come secondary. And I think the verse is in when Jesus called the disciples to be with him, then he sent them out to do ministry. But the first thing is he called them to be with them. And so part of the question begs is really keep 100 tribe in each of us. How vertical is your Christianity right now? That's so good.
How much is Jesus, the focus and the motivation and the heart and the fuel and the be all and all that Jesus is, this isn't a means to an end. I'm doing the Jesus thing so I can get blessed Jesus thing. So what I'm putting my hands to will be prospered, but that Jesus is the be all end all.
I love that because I think your question makes us recognize of how much self we have in our Christianity, that if we're going to have a vertical worship, lifestyle, if our worship for Jesus is going to be in our life and devotion to Jesus is going to be fully vertical, the self part of us has to truly that flesh must die. And there must be that full surrender, we have to die to self and that's not an option. It really is a requirement to be a follower of Jesus.
And I think if we understand truly to live vertically is that we understand that we live for the kingdom of God, that that's our highest allegiance. That's our highest alliance is the kingdom of God. And we've aligned ourselves with so many other things right in this world. We've aligned ourselves maybe with a political party or we've aligned ourselves, you know, with things that don't have eternal gain or value, but we have to recognize that we have to be about kingdom above all.
And you've even addressed this on a racial level that you're like above being African American, you are a child of God, you're for the kingdom of God above being white or Scottish French Irish that I am. It's like above all those things above my ethnicity. I'm a child of God and our allegiance must be to the kingdom of God because that's truly the highest alliance, but that is a lifestyle and even a mentality of verticality. Wow. I mean, that is true. And it really gets down to that.
And I think it's not the popularized version of Christianity today. A popularized version of Christianity is horizontal. I want music that makes me feel good. I like the beat. I like the song. I want to sing songs that kind of my playlist and I get it. Hey, you know, there's a little bit of that that we're always going to glean towards songs that we feel that are aesthetically, you know, in terms of the listening quality better. But at the end of the day, we got to say, does that lift up Jesus?
And right now I think there's a redefinition in a good way because there's been a bad definition in the past. And the bad definition is, hey, you follow Jesus on your own terms, but the Bible talks about in Matthew 16, 24, Jesus told his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. So Jesus is defining what does it mean to follow him?
To follow him doesn't mean that, you know, and this is the horizontal version is that, hey, I wear Christian gear. Hey, I'll identify. I'll put a little handle on one of my social media. I'll do a little Christian post time to time. I'll let people know I'm listening to this worship group and that group. Jesus said to follow him is not a social media move. He's saying it is a deny yourself, take up your cross move.
And that's getting your Christianity back to the vertical place because taking up your cross, you have to understand there is a cross for you to carry that Jesus died on the cross, but you still have to pick up the cross. And that part of that cross, I believe is to a certain extent dying to that horizontal being the ultimate priority of my life and coming back to it's about Jesus first. It's about his heart. And I think there's a lot of people and, you know, we talk to people like that.
We've prayed through stuff in our own lives and that because we certainly don't have it together, but I think when you're getting offended a lot, it's kind of proof that the horizontal is eclipsing the vertical. When you get overly hurt as it relates to people letting you down in the church. And so all of a sudden you fall out as it relates to the church in general. I'm not talking about a particular church. I'm talking about the church universal of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you begin to do it, it's proof that the horizontal eclipsed the vertical because we have to understand he's a chief shepherd and his word calls us to stay in connection. And at the end of the day, Jesus is coming back for a bride. He's coming back for a bride and you want to be a part of that bride. And he tells us how that looks and that means to stay in community, stay in connection. So it's honoring that vertical over the horizontal.
And there's even a vertical narrative, which is Bible biblical worldview and a horizontal narrative of how people are telling you what's right, what's what you should do, how you should think, but the vertical is what you said. Really it was also in Dennis back to that worship.
You know, I'm really excited for this conversation today because I just feel like it's such a great segue into what really is important and what we're talking about today with Heath King, just an incredible worship leader. We're bringing them out for a momentum night, August 25th. And it's just, it's just going to be such a powerful time with him. But I love this conversation. It's going to be kind of a part two of what you and I have just talked about.
So keep it 100 tribe, get ready, because it's such a powerful conversation between Sean and Heath. Hey, keep it 100 tribe. You guys are going to be so blessed. We got Heath King here. Heath, what's going on, man? Nothing much. How are you? Hey, I'm doing good. I'm doing good, bro. Man, what's going on in Florida, man? What you doing? It's hot, but it's good. Just been busy with church things here, traveling, doing some shows around town because I'm into theater and the arts community as well.
So just been busy doing all of that, but it's good. Hey, I love that. I love that, man. For our listeners, man, Heath and I, we met at a Power and Love conference with a mutual friend of ours, Todd White. And we were out there, help me out. We're in Pennsylvania. Is that right? I think we're in Pennsylvania. Green. Pennsylvania. And we did a Power and Love. We trained and quit people and Heath led and worship.
And the moment he did, keep it 100 tribe, I stood up and I got, oh my goodness, this brother is annoying it. He's the real deal, man. It was powerful and we got connected there and we're going to have him out coming up here August 25th in Oakland, California. Oh, Tom. Yeah. So excited. Come on, bro. And we're going to have a worship and flow night and Heath is going to lead us and he's going to be worshiping and flowing and Kristen and I are going to get up. So we invite you. It's a free event.
You guys can go to our website, Sean and Chris, the Smith.com, get any information you need on that. Heath, you were saying you're in the arts. Man, that is so important because this generation, you know, you're Gen Z, man. It is such, I think at this point in time, something that God is highlighting is he's breathing on the arts, that prophetic inclination in a generation. Obviously you sing. What else do you do in the area of arts, bro? So I'm a performer at Disney World. Nice. So I do a show.
I do find an Nemo. I'm one of the Blowfish character. I am the Blowfish character. But then I also do a show during the holiday season called Joyful and it's a gospel celebration of the season in Epcot. And so we're getting ready to kick that off about the end of October, beginning of November. And that's literally, I mean, we're singing, you know, gospel songs for Christmas and we'd lift up the name of Jesus in Epcot. So that's fun.
But for now, those are the two shows that I kind of juggle between throughout the year. Oh man, dude, I love that. I love that you're expressing that. You get a chance to do all that. Hey, Heath, one of the things we love to do, man, to keep it 100, bro. We love to find out origin stories, man. So give us your origin story and it could be, you know, how did Jesus make the kingdom real to you? How the miraculous power of Jesus or how you got saved, whatever. But give us your origin story, bro.
Awesome. Yes, sir. So I am born and raised here in Orlando, Florida. All of my family's here. I'm, well, I'll be 24 soon, but I'm 23 now. I've been leading worship and in church my whole life, but I started leading worship when I was eight. My grandmother was a pastor. My mom is a worship pastor. So I kind of juggle between two different churches kind of growing up. One was more old school. One was a little bit more modern or new school, if you will.
And so I juggle between the two of those throughout my life and church just is what I, you know, I love to do. I love to play church, you know, in the garage and things like that. And my grandmother, my grandmother, she cultivated or she let me cultivate my space for me in the garage and it became like my just like safe haven and music studio. I used to want to be a pastor. So I said, you know, this was, I had a church name and everything. And I just lived out there.
You know, if I wasn't at school, I was in the garage or if I wasn't in the garage, I was at a church service. And so I just, you know, used to just spend all my time in there and seek God. And although sometimes it was plain, it did get real many times. You know, as a young boy, I would just see things in church and I would mimic that in the garage and pray that the same encounter that we had in church will hit the garage. And sometimes it really did.
And so, yeah, I feel like for me, that's kind of how it started. I would say that as a young boy, obviously growing up in church, I've known the Lord my whole life until I don't have like a crazy story of running away and having to find God again necessarily. But my biological father was not present in my life. He left when I was age of three. And so because of that, I battled with a lot of identity problems and I battled with rejection and depression.
And a lot of things that I didn't know was because of that until about 2019. We were in Hawaii. I was traveling with Eddie James at the time and we were singing one of his songs called Abba. And a young man shared his testimony about coming home and finding his father dead in the bedroom. And when he shared that testimony, I literally broke and I ran out the church because for so long I had to carry this weight of me not having my father in my life.
And for a long time, I thought I was like, oh, I will be okay if he died. Like, if something was to happen to him, I'll be okay. Like we don't have a relationship. I just thought I was okay and I would tell myself I was okay. And people would always say, you need to reach out. You need to reach out. But he also wasn't doing his part either. And so because of that, I kind of just grew, I would say numb to the whole situation until that night.
And I sent him a long message, kind of just releasing him and forgiving him and just letting go of that weight. And as the more I typed, the more I felt lifted and freer. And I found my identity again and got that night. And so I would say for that moment, it was kind of like a recommitment moment. So like I said, I never left church throughout that time, I was just leading worship but battling secretly. And so until that moment, it became real to me again.
And so yeah, I would say that's kind of like my origin story, if you will. Bro, number one, to go back home in your garage and bro, turn it into a sanctuary and bro, play church, but you got to know from heaven's perspective, man, Father God was looking down, smiling on you, angels was joining in that. But as you were sharing that moment when you grew up, your dad not being in position and stepping out. And then that point of you just reaching out to him, forgiving him, releasing him.
That is such a huge thing. Obviously, we have such a fabulous generation, orphan generation, the Old Testament canon, which means Old Testament scriptures closes out by saying that the spirit of Elijah would come again, turn the hearts of fathers to children, turn them to fathers. And for you to have that moment, man, and that was just a profound thing.
Like from that point on, would you say, man, Father God became that much more real to you and you experienced more Father God's pleasure over your life, healing. Obviously, you addressed that, but just in the area of his feltness of his presence, identity, and just being feeling freer. Would you say that's the case? Absolutely. Because for a long time, like I said, I've been leading worship, I was eight. And so at this point, I was like 19, going on 20.
And so from then to I was 19, I had been carrying this weight and this just like I was depressed. But I wasn't talking about it. I would still get up and I would sing and I would declare healing and break through over the room and people would be, lives would be changed and the yolks were being destroyed and things were happening. But in reality, I was like inside, nothing was happening for me. And so I would go home many times and I'm like, Lord, I see you're doing it for others.
You're using me mightily in church. You're using me mightily different places where I go. And I would come home and I'll just be broken or I believe the platform still feeling broken. And so then that night, like I said, so much of that was released off to me. Even when I started traveling with Eddie earlier that earlier that year, 2019 is when I started, I was singing for a long time.
We were singing every night, day in, day out, and we were declaring this same song over and over again to everyone. You know, we were everywhere we went. We were releasing about Abba being father. And I, you know, again, I was still numb to my earthly father until that one night when it became real to me. So absolutely, I felt his love again. I felt like a new perspective. He gave me like new perspective. And even now, although my father, his response wasn't what I thought it would be.
We still don't have a relationship, but I love him. I am, I don't have hatred in my heart towards him. I can smile about the situation now. Like it doesn't bring me sadness anymore. So yeah, the whole thing just kind of that moment shifted the whole situation for me. So yeah. Hey man, that's profile dude. And I know there are people listening that that would really minister to them.
Hey, that might even be a challenge for them to reach out to their biological father or paternal figure in their life, man, to make sure those things are right. Hey, let me throw something else at you. How did you discover your spiritual gift, your musical giftings and predilections? How did that come about for you, bro? So like I said, I grew up in church. So with my grandmother's church, specifically, I did a little bit of everything. My grandmother had me on the usherboard.
I was in MIT, which they don't really do anymore, but I was a part of ministers and training. I played drums for a little bit. And my grandmother, my mother too, but my grandmother was very supportive of whatever I wanted to do. And so if I said I want to play drums, she went to a garage sale and found a drum kit and brought it home. If I said I wanted to play piano, I had a piano out there. I had a guitar, had a bass, had an acoustic guitar, had it all out there.
I don't play none of them, but there was a little season in church where I tried drums a little bit. I was singing. I was dancing on the team. And I was preaching by the time I was like seven or eight, giving little sermonettes on some Sundays. And although I feel like I shy away from that now, but back then I was just all in. I just knew, I was like, I don't know what it is I want to do fully, but I know it involves the Lord and I know it involves something in the house of God.
And so I just did it all. I was dancing with the dance team. If I needed to be a junior deacon and take up the offer, I did that. I just did it all because I knew that whatever I wanted to do. And so like I said, I would go home and there's some videos out there on YouTube and such of me at home, just in my room. I have a room like this now, but back then I was little. And so I would be in my room with my bears or my cars.
We were having church and my church name used to be tearing down the walls of Jericho International Ministries. And I had this whole idea. But I knew whatever I was going to do in life, it had like it revolved around the Lord and it was something in church. And then like I said, around eight or nine, I started leading worship more consistently. And I found my passion, I believe fully there. I still love all the arts. I love going to dance conferences.
I love, you know, getting to minister in different areas, pertaining the arts still too. But worship leading kind of just, I guess also being in choir and school kind of maybe find my passion in singing. And so that became more the forefront of what I was doing. I still, you know, would tink around on the piano or play drums from time to time. Don't ask me to do it now because it's not good.
But like I was still exploring their options, but I realized sooner or later that leading and singing was more so the main part of my gifting. And so I've been doing that since then. And then I started leading at my mother's church. Like I said, she's a worship pastor at our home church here in Orlando. And so kind of just being raised up between my grandmother, who was a pastor, my mom, a worship pastor, they kept me in church. And I, you know, I loved it. I wanted to be in church.
Like I didn't want to play sports. I didn't want to do anything. If the church doors are open or if my grandma was going to a service, I was right there with them. And I believe just by doing that, it just cultivated the gift that I have now. That's amazing. You know, in spiritual gifts discovery, he, as you know, some point in time, any of us that we, whatever it is that God has graced us to do, we begin to develop a passion for it.
You were describing that you wanted to be that you begin to step out and some people, when they first step into something, they may not be particularly as good, but there's something in them that they want to continually do. And then at a certain point in time, you just feel the presence of God when you're doing what it is that you've been gifted to do that you're mantle to do. And then obviously there comes a point where other people who have authority who understand they begin to confirm.
So when you first sang in that choir, did somebody go, Oh my God, he, man, you got a voice or you got a gift or you have potential son. How did, how did that happen? You know, that's funny because I listened to videos now during like when I was younger and I'm like, I sounded a mess. Like, why don't you guys let me know? Like, why did you let me sing?
But I would say going back to that time, I think when at first I was probably around 10 or 11 and our praise team at my mother's church, our youth praise team, we had, we would do like youth Sundays. And around this time I was kind of, well, this might have been around like 13, 14, I was headed into high school and we were, our youth team would sing and there was one particular service. I'll never forget it.
And sometimes I still go back and watch it because it's on YouTube, but there was one particular service. It was around like Easter time, but it was youth Sunday, but it wasn't on Easter, but it was around that time and our youth praise team we sung. And when we didn't, my pastor couldn't preach like nothing else could happen during service because the spirit of God was moving so strong. We could not get past this moment.
And just to see like the, us being used by God like that, it really impacted my life. And I always go back to that moment and watch that video every so often because for me, it's a reminder of just like why I do what I do. And I've been forever marked by that moment. And so I would say because of moments like that, they keep the, you know, even now they keep me going or I go back to those moments when I need like a reminder or a refresher.
I'm so grateful for YouTube because they're still on there. And so, yeah, I would say moments like that are what marked it. Yes, people would say, he, you can sing, you're great. You do this, but those for me, because especially when I've listened to videos, I'm like, Oh, okay, well, you know, if you say I'm good, I'm good. But moments like in the presence of Lord like that are really what marked me. And so, bro, that is so profound.
Just that saying that, and then receiving that kind of affirmation. Hey, you know, it's leading worship and you're, you're gifted and you've had Eddie James, great friend of ours, Kristen and I, and he's just an amazing worship leader. I can't even take this decades ago, we did some stuff together. He had the team out here in California. We were actually a south of us in Fresno. And then we immediately clicked and we've done a lot of stuff since that time. But how important is purity of heart?
Let's say, let's be specific in leading people into the presence of God. Like how important is that as a worship leader in terms of what you look for in others and what you can tend for and hold a standard up in your own life? Yeah. Well, for me, when I was studying this question, you sent it, I wrote down that purity is what allows entrance into the presence of God. And so we see that in Matthew five and eight, one that says, bless are the pure and heart facial, see God.
We see it in Psalms 24, around the verse three, when it says, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, those who have clean hands and a pure heart. And I love Psalms 24 and the passion translation. I just want to read it. It says, who then is allowed to ascend to the mountain of Yahweh and who has the privilege of entering God's holy place. Those who are clean, whose works and ways are pure, whose hearts are true and sealed by truth who those who never deceived those whose words are sure.
And so as a worship leader, it is our job to make worship accessible to the church. And I feel like we sometimes do a bad job by putting these unrealistic expectations on people to perform and to commit and to like be obey and just expect them to be holy. When in reality, we should be accepting them where they are. And as long as their worship is sincere and transparent, it's pure to God. And so I believe that's the kind of purity that allows us to enter into the presence of God.
And then even as a worship leader, leading a team, sometimes we put again, those same, I don't want to say unrealistic expectations on our team members, but we just expect people to be perfect. And in reality, of course, we know that nobody is, although we all strive to be. And so it's our job in the house and on our team to create a culture of us leaning into, trusting into and looking, trying to look after, look like Christ.
And so it should just really be our desire, I believe that in a, to wrap it up, purity for us to really be our desire to be more like him all around. And so, yeah, I love that, man. I love that answer, you know, especially that scripture is one of my kind of life scripture. Bless of the pure and heart for those see God that Lord says, he spoke to me one time. He said, son, if you'll take care of the purity of your heart, I'll take the clarity of your revelation of me.
And I think we've seen, you know, we're not here to put anybody on blast or anything like that because we all need grace. And I love that you hit that where it's not about perfection. It's about progression. Christ is our perfection when I look like him, but we've seen, you know, some, some people, they're gifting their ability to lead worship, their platform outgrew their, their purity, their, as you would say, their, their, their, you know, that place in their lives where they look like Jesus.
And, you know, you don't like to see that, but something happens. And we all have had that contrast where maybe we, you know, listen to worship, we go, oh, something doesn't feel right. But then one of the things when I heard you lead worship, we've got a great worship leader we're associated with out here, Chris Alderjuice Day. And I give him a shout out that there's certain worship leaders that this is the thing. There's a, you feel clean. They feel clean. There's a cleanest about them.
And when that happens, I believe what happens is it's, it's like, it's a thinness in the air. And I hope people are kind of catching the way I'm trying to describe it is that when, when there's a lack of purity and there's kind of, it doesn't feel clean. You feel like there's barriers there and worship. There's so many aspects to worship, man. I mean, we could, we could talk and write a book on it.
But one of it is you're trying to eliminate the barriers between that person you're leading and the Lord. And then they get them to ascend that holy hill. And man, I just believe that's so important. Like, you know, I think it's so key that you're right. It's not just on worship leaders. It's on ministers. It's on preachers. It's on everyday us, everyday rank of how believers is the desire.
And I feel like that, that purity is our protection, that purity is our likeness unto Jesus, that purity, you know, when, when Jesus says, Hey, the ruler of this world is being cast down, but he has no hole in me. In other words, doesn't have any kind of any kind of hook or anything like that.
Like again, for you, are you ever in a position where maybe either as you travel out or you get around different worship teams, that you sense that there's like different convictions and stuff, not that you're judging them, but you're just right as a while. I get sense that there's just a difference. Yeah, I think I definitely could feel that.
And even like you were saying about the congregation, I think us as humans, we can, we just all can normally recognize when something doesn't feel authentic. And I feel like that goes back to me saying sometimes I have to, I go back and I watch videos of me as a young boy because it was pure and it was innocent and it wasn't clouded by money. It wasn't clouded by like this is like my job or anything. It was literally just pure and it was sincere.
I saw, I believe it was Tasha Cobb, she was preaching a sermon about this purity too and just getting back to the place of where you started. And I believe if we keep that as a reminder, especially as a leader and the more that we're exposed to the world and the more that we're exposed to, as God takes us higher and things like that, it's important for us to keep that reminder of like why we started.
So I always faith in, like I said, I go back and I watch videos sometimes just because it was pure and like it wasn't tainted. I hadn't been exposed to the industry or had been exposed to the church. I was just an innocent boy in the garage worshiping because I just love to do it. And so I always try to remain in that place and I believe that's why my ministry is how it is because I always try to remain in that place of this little boy in the garage.
And so every church I enter, every place that I go, no matter if I've been there before, I've been there 20 times, even at my local assembly. Now it's just a garage to me. Like it's not about money. It's not about check. It's just me and the Lord. And so, Oh bro, I mean, that is pure man was it Psalms 27. This one thing that I will desire. One thing that I asked, I may dwell in the house of the Lord, the temple to behold his beauty. Bro, that's, that's so profound.
Hey, we were talking and now I want to bring the listeners in on this. We were having a conversation just a little bit about kind of the difference of vertical and horizontal worship. And what, what do you see is how would you define it? And what do you give us some examples of what you feel the distinction is between horizontal and vertical worship? Yeah. So I think in a short description, vertical is to God horizontal is about God.
And so I think, I think where we go wrong with the horizontal side is we forget that God is still the center of it and it becomes so much about ourselves that it feels like, and I think that's why it's so much of a like discussion in the church now because horizontal worship is biblical. I wrote it down first Corinthians 14, pretty much that whole kind of chapter.
It gives us instructions on what like vertical, I mean, horizontal worship should look like it should be mutually edifying conviction of sin. It should encourage love and thanksgiving and witnessing to our unbelievers or others. And so, but the center of that is still the, our focus is still about God.
And so when we go wrong is sometimes as worship leaders, we may hear a song and I can be guilty of it where we hit this great song on the radio and we're like, oh, this is going to hit on Sunday morning. But in reality, like it's just like a kind of like this encouragement to each other, which is great and it's needed. But if that consumes our whole set, we lose the focus on God.
And so then I feel like that's why this conversation of vertical and horizontal is so prominent in the church now, because we're losing that even though we're singing, it may not be exactly to God, we're still missing the about God element. And so I believe a great worship service should exemplify both of those. Our focus should always still be God, whether it's to him or about him, as long as we keep that the focus, both can happen in a moment.
Man, I tell you, that's probably one of the most profound definitions. I love that. Vertical worship is to God. Horizontal worship is about God. And just giving us that example. Man, we were talking about this as well. And I love this because it has a little bit of, you know, there are going to be some people that they're going to give them something to think when you say this.
And so we're talking about the balance between the audience of one and the whole aspect of finding this place where you're bringing the entire room into Jesus. You know, this understanding of community, this understanding of communicating God. So talk to us about this. Because obviously what we often hear is worship is the audience of one, the audience of one. But you had some thoughts on that. I think it's powerful. Share that with us.
Well, because for me as a worship leader, my job is to bring the room together to ascend like we talked about. And so if my focus going out the gate is only on the audience of one, I can do that in my room. But as a worship leader to me is not needed like a, and they were in the corporate setting, but in the corporate setting, my focus or I can even look at it like this with my praise team and rehearsal, we sing to the audience of one. That's where we're getting it for us.
That's where we're making sure that God is pleased with us. In those moments, I may change songs like it could just be because for me, that's maybe where the audience of one element can work.
But in the corporate setting, my job as a worship leader, especially if I leave this local assembly week after week, it is to read the room and understand what's happening week after week because it's not the same and it's my job to, well, one make way so that the word is easy when it's time for pastor to get up there. And so I need to kind of be sensing what's happening.
If I'm only focused on the one, then I'm missing what's needed, what the room needs the one to do in their lives, if I can say it that way. And so ultimately when I started Praise Worship set, I mean, yes, again, I'm singing about God, I'm singing to God, I want to glorify His name. But at the same time, I also am reading and I'm asking the Holy Spirit to guide me because maybe this song is not need to be sung just yet. Like maybe we'll get to that in a moment.
And so then once the whole room is on one accord and I feel like we're ready to ascend and we're ready to go, then we can focus our attention on the one. And so I believe there has to be a balance of both. If that makes sense. No, totally. Because the way I'm, I got this picture as you're talking, I'm thinking about a bridge, but a bridge, if it doesn't connect both sides, it's a peer, right? Absolutely.
Connect. And so I think we've seen a lot where people can connect to people and they don't connect to God where you're not a bridge. So you're making a great example. I think a great example is sometimes, especially some of the newer ways of how people call like spontaneous worship and things like that.
And we, you feel like as when you're in the room, especially when the worship moment first starts and like the leaders facing the back wall, they're like already like, they're already to that place and you feel left out. I feel like when you get so focused on, we're just worshiping the one, you lose what the, what your job as a leader is supposed to do for the room.
And so I've been in places before where the first thing that the leader gets out there and does, they get on their knees, their barefoot there, and it's just really to them and they're singing, but they, they haven't grabbed us and taken us with them just yet. And so we focus so much, like I said, on this audience of one idea, which is great and I love it. And I do understand what people say when they mean it.
So I don't want to get that, like that I'm not a get, you know, that I'm just against it. But of course, the leader, my job is much bigger than just me focused on the one. And my job is more to, in this corporate setting, to bring all of us to focus on the one. I love that because you brought a good balance, even as we were talking earlier that, hey, God will always be the object, objective, be all into all of our worship. Absolutely.
What you're saying is if you don't bring the people with you, then it fails to be a corporate worship of the Lord. It's just a singular worship. And I love that idea because I think, you know, Paul as an apostle, but as an evangelist, he says, I became all things to all men in some way that I may win some.
In other words, if I go out and I'm talking over people's heads, you know, there's another analogy, but if I'm out and I'm in a, you know, a un-church crowd and I'm using all my Christian ease, they're not tracking with me. They're wondering like, what's going on? I don't, I don't even connect. So I could be sharing in my estimation, I'm connecting with God. I feel like I'm sharing the gospel, but if they don't understand and they can't track with me, I can't lead them anywhere.
And so what you're saying is you're not kicking the audience or one to the curb. You're saying, Hey, he's the objective. He's the be all in on. That's what we're trying to get. But as a worship leader, you got to take in consideration. Where is the room at? What's going on this Sunday? And I think that's part of being prophetic is that what, what, what is the Holy Spirit breathing on that is the key to this service to unlock the corporate expression of where God wants to bring up a people.
Yeah, I saw an analogy and I hope I say it correctly, but they basically said that the audience of one kind of mindset is basically saying that God is the audience, but then that makes everybody else in the room, either the actors or the directors. And it's more like a stage play to God. And so like I said, it just has to be a balance, I believe to both of those.
I want any set I do or any worship experience or service I'm a part of my ultimate goal is whether I have five minutes, 20 minutes, 30, 45 minutes at the end of it, I want us all to be at that place together. I want us all to be worshiping the one. I want us all at the end of it all to be singing to him, sit upon the throne, be blessed in honor and glory and power. But it can't sometimes it doesn't, it's not always easy to start that way. Sometimes you have to break through some foul ground.
Sometimes you have to, you know, help people shake off their day or shake off, but they just, maybe they were in the car fighting on the way to church and they just not ready to come in right away, singing to him who sits upon the throne, you know? And so there just has to be a balance. And sometimes I just think as worshiping is we can miss that because we're so focused on the water.
Man, and it's so true because if I'm hearing you correctly and I love this, it's that worship is partial if it's only an action. What you're saying is that action has to lead to transaction. Absolutely. So if we do this thing where it's just the action, you're saying if we're just the actors, we're just doing actions, but God is his heart that it become transactional.
And part of that is you're taking in not only from our end, what we need to do, but from God's end, his heart is he wants to release something amongst the people corporately, but if they're not, if they're not connected, they're distant, distracted, gone, never, never caught your bridge. It's like you're a boat, you docked and I need all y'all to get on this boat because we got to take you over to that God Island over there.
But if you, you're making people jump and they can't make the boat, they can't get on safely. Yeah. Some people make it, but some people, they step. But beach, man, I love that man. Hey, Heath, we're going to have you here in Oakland, California, man, and we're going to have you for our momentum night. And I told you, man, we just, we gather the hungry, we gather the revival core, we gather the loss. We gather people that man is struggling some areas, just people that want the more of God.
Yeah. Man, what can you give or speak to someone as to why they need to be there? August 25th, seven o'clock at 4292 Keller Avenue, Sequoia Church. Why do they need to come and join us that night, bro? Yeah. I guess as a traveling artist or minister, I love when I get to go from different coast to coast or different regions in the, uh, and I'll say the United States. But I specifically love when I go over to the West Coast because there's such a, it's a different hunger over there.
And especially the ones that are tapped in and they're a part of it. Everybody's contending for the same thing. And so maybe there's going to be somebody that, um, maybe he's not there just yet, but once they get inside that room and everybody's going after the same thing and they are fires start exoniting each other's. And, um, I just believe that a fresh fire is going to be activated in you that night. I believe that the Lord wants to encounter you that night.
And so if I was you, I wouldn't miss it. I wouldn't want to miss this moment in this person, not just because I'm coming. I'm a nobody. I'm just singing about somebody trying to lead us off to him. And so I would just encourage you to be there and not miss this moment, um, to be set a blaze again and to get this passion and this fire reignited again. It's going to be amazing. And I'm super excited. Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be there. Excited about what God's going to do.
Um, yeah, I'm just expecting. Come on. Hey, man, I know there's some people that are listening, uh, man that would love to stay in touch and connect with you, your ministry and the stuff you're going on. How can our listeners, and I just want to commend you, keep you 100 try, follow the story of this guy, get his materials, download his stuff, whatever he's got. It's amazing. So he talked to us, man. How can our people stay in contact with you? Yeah, I am on Facebook.
You can just type in Heath King, um, a page will pop up there. I'm on Instagram, Heath King music. Uh, you can also go to my website. I have music there and also on all digital platforms. Um, but my website, I am heathking.com. Um, to stay connected there. There's some merch that you can buy and enjoy and wear. Um, and I'm working on some new projects. I'm working on an album soon. Um, and so just super excited about, and it's called mission crowd heaven.
There's also my mission is to depopulate hell and crowd heaven. And so I'm my first album. I wanted it to be a representation of that. And so it's all about heaven. It's all about winning souls and they're all scripture based songs. So we're working on that. Hopefully it's released at the beginning of the year. Um, but I'm working on a single that's going to come out in October. So yeah, you can, all of those details and updates will be on my social media platform from my website.
Um, and yeah, come on, Heath man. Sure appreciate you're looking forward here that we're about to have you up here in the Bay shortly. Hey man, thanks for jumping on the pod with this. Heath, you're amazing. We sure love you bro. Yes, sir. I love you too. Thank you for having me. Hey you guys, was that amazing or what? Oh my gosh, I love this guy. He's just, he's amazing.
I'm so excited for him to be in the Bay with us to bring what he carries and just his revelation of, you know, what it is to bring the room into the throne, throne room to have a corporate encounter and just what he carries in the journey he's walked in. I mean, being Mark since he was a little guy. I mean, that's just unique. I just, he's, I just love that he has recognized he's always had a hunger and an appetite for the things of God.
You know, the thing that I think stood out, there's a couple things, obviously that one is that he would come back from church and he would play church in the garage setup. And he said he'd play church, but then all of a sudden Jesus starts showing up. I love that the Holy Spirit touched him. But he even said today that he always goes back to just that little kid that just wanted Jesus to show up in the garage. And I think that's keeping it simple. It's keeping it pure. It's keeping it vertical.
It's keeping it intentional. It's keeping it authentic. And I, and I feel like maybe in that there's a call to us to go back to those moments when Jesus first made himself real to us, those moments when our motives were pure, maybe for some of us there was less demands on us. And it was just kind of like we, we were coming to Jesus is cause we love Jesus and we knew Jesus loved us and making that pure. And I think that's really part of what worship is getting back to that.
And what happens is it transcends into your lifestyle. You know, so well said. And I think it really captures the heart of what this is all about. It really is about giving our lives fully and completely to Jesus in whatever vein. Some of you are not a worship leader or a preacher in a traditional sense, but keep one under tribe. I want you to know wherever you find your influence, your sphere of influence in your life, let it be an example of vertical worship cause it changes atmospheres.
It changes lives. And we just want to encourage you truly you have one life to live one. That's it. And we all know it goes really fast and the older you get, the quicker it gets. I mean, there's the truth in that and really recognize in that one life, let it be fully devoted to Jesus. There's no greater posture you can have in your life than devoting your life fully and completely to Jesus. Thanks so much for tuning into the keep it 100 podcast.
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