I never really thought that my voice was important growing up. As a teen, I would pray for celebrities and offer prayer requests for them at my old youth group but I would get shot down alot and I didn't really understand why. You see, I had no problem praying for celebrities because the way I saw it, they needed prayer too. Maybe then Hollyweird would turn back into Hollywood. But I guess the people around me never really got that.
So I kept my mouth shut. For years and years. Isn't it amazing how one small instance in your entire life can bring you to your knees? Even while I was at the School of Ministry in Toronto, I would just keep my mouth shut. After all, I wanted people to like me and the only way I knew how was to not talk, for fear of saying something "stupid".
That all changed at the "Heavy Rain" conference [a young adult conference at TACF] of last year [or was it this year, since it took place around New Year's Eve]. For whatever reason, I got the freedom I so desperately needed to use my voice as a tool for God. It was awesome! All of a sudden, I was whooping and hollering and screaming and shouting!! It was pretty cool.
Now, God has been speaking to me about voices. Lately, I've been feeling like there has been tension in the atmosphere during worship at church, and I think it's because people have been silenced by the enemy for far too long. I just feel that he has been whispering stories to them, saying, "What do you know?" and "Come on, you aren't important, what do you have to say?" I should know. The enemy has been telling me these lies for so many years that when I look back, I feel disgusted with my past. It's time to take back what the enemy has stolen and start using the most powerful weapon that we have. See, the enemy doesn't want us to use our voices because using our voices is dangerous to him, especially when we invoke the name Jesus Christ when we want him to go away.
Anyway, God's been saying that your voice is important to Him. He gave you a voice to use to bring glory to God. Don't EVER let anyone bring you down by making you feel as if you aren't good enough or what you say is not good. It is good. After all, God had given you a voice for a reason. We don't use the mouth to catch flies, right? And if you look in the Bible, there are hundreds [if not thousands] of verses talking about your voice, mostly in Psalms. So God has given us voices for a reason and a purpose. Remember, you're the voice!