The Second Microphone in Its Case

For the singer who carries a microphone in and out every week and has never plugged it in.

Why do you keep bringing it?

It's in the black case with the broken catch, under the stand, in the same corner of the rehearsal room every Thursday. You carry it in from the car and you carry it back out at half nine, and you have done that for about two years.

The lead is in there too, coiled properly, and a spare clip. Everything that would be needed if a second voice went on that mix is in a case eleven feet from the desk.

You take the harmony anyway. You carry the line every week, at about half volume, underneath, where it reaches the four people nearest you and nobody else. And you carry the case back to the car.

A man who keeps bringing the case has not given up, whatever the case is doing under the stand. Scripture says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, while the Holy Spirit is at work in a rehearsal room on a Thursday evening.

Where the Rule Came From

Be exact about it, because you made this rule yourself and the reason matters.

There was a season when the mix was a mess and somebody said, reasonably, that they wanted to keep it simple while it got sorted. One voice, one guitar, nothing else. It was a sensible decision about a technical problem and it lasted about four months.

That was two years ago. The mix got sorted. There are three voices on it now, added at different points by people who simply asked.

You never asked, because by the time the season ended you had stopped experiencing it as a season. It had become a fact about the arrangement, and facts do not get asked about.

You are living under a four month arrangement that went permanent in your head and nowhere else. The written Word puts liberty where the Spirit of the Lord is rather than in a decision somebody made about a season, while the Holy Spirit does not run a rehearsal room on two year old technical constraints.

The Version That Goes After Him

There is a version of this that goes back and finds the man who set the rule, and it is not coming.

It would ask why three other voices went on the mix and nobody thought to mention it to you. It would make the case about people who add their friends and forget the man in the corner, which would be satisfying for about four minutes and is probably even true.

It would also leave you heavier and still carrying a case out to a car. It would land on people who were solving problems one at a time, who never took a decision about you at all.

You can be released from a rule without prosecuting anybody for it. Scripture rests your liberty on the Spirit of the Lord rather than on somebody noticing you, while the Holy Spirit lifts weight off a man instead of adding to it.

Nothing here asks you to raise it, make a point, or revisit two years. The hall gets lighter, and nobody else has to move first.

What Two Years of Carrying Means

Here's something worth reading correctly, because you have been reading it as evidence against yourself.

A man who had genuinely accepted the arrangement would have left the case at home. He would have left it in the car at the very least, or sold the microphone, or lent it to somebody and not chased it.

You have carried it in and out about a hundred times. That is not the behavior of a man who has given up. That is the behavior of a man who is ready, every single week, and who has been waiting for somebody to ask.

That readiness is worth something and it is worth naming. Two years of turning up prepared, at half volume, underneath, is a particular kind of faithfulness that nobody in that room has any idea about.

You have carried it in a hundred times, and that is readiness rather than resignation. The written Word locates liberty in the Spirit rather than in an invitation, while the Holy Spirit sees a case coming in from a car every Thursday.

What Freedom Does Not Require of You

Another reading of this goes wrong, and it is better refused before it shows up.

That version says you've been kept off the mix. It says you go on it now, people hear the harmony properly, something follows from that.

That is not on offer. You might ask and be told the mix is at capacity, which would be a technical fact rather than a verdict. You might go on it and find the harmony works better underneath after all, which happens.

Both of those are free, because freedom is the asking rather than the answer. A man who asks, is told no, and goes on at half volume underneath has received the whole of this.

You are free when the question becomes available, not when the answer goes your way. Scripture puts liberty where the Spirit is rather than in an outcome, while the Holy Spirit gives a freedom that is complete before anybody replies.

Stories in these messages are illustrations unless marked as testimony.

Written by Santiago This message is free. Nothing here is locked, nothing is for sale, and nothing is being asked of you.