Sid: My guest is Misty Edwards and you know as I started doing research on how God has used you Misty. She is Worship Leader of IHOP ministry, but you weren’t a musician you only knew a few chords how did you become a worship leader? Just knowing a couple of chords on the piano?
Misty: That is a great question and one I’ve asked myself many times. I grew up in a musical family so I had a certain grid for music but I never really applied myself to it. I wanted to become a lawyer I thought musicians were just kind of flaky, so I never really studied it. But when the House of Prayer started the International House of Prayer here in Kansas City we were determined to go 24 hours a day 7 days a week nonstop you know music, so all of our prayer is bathed on music. And there was only about 50 of us at the time.
Sid: Now just out of curiosity when I think of prayer being religious my religious mind doesn’t have music I just think you just get down on your knees and you pray. Where did all this music come from?
Misty: Well, in revelation you see the harp and the bowl around the throne you have the prayers of the bowl the incense which would be more the intercessory prayers as you just mentioned. And the getting on your knees and just crying out; but then there is this mysterious element of the harp and the music. And so what we thought to do we thought to make prayer sustainable. And one of the ways to sustain prayer is by making it enjoyable. And to make it enjoyable we discovered that music is one of the primary ways to actually make it sustainable and enjoyable. You know that you can sing a worship song or two or three for an hour far easier than you can… then only pray. So what we’ve done is we combined the spoken prayers with the singing prayers and together we find that it’s sustainable. Fourteen years later we’ve still been going day and night.
Sid: Okay let’s go back to how yes you were raised in a musical family but you were going to an attorney, you knew a couple of chords on the piano so how did you become a worship leader?
Misty: Yeah, well like I was saying you know we had this nobility that we had signed up to do 24 – 7 day and night the fire on the alter cannot go out which we were defining on the bed of music. So everybody was playing an instrument it was like “All hands on deck the fire could not go out.” So I started doing just doing my two chords, I had about four or five worship songs you know I was building up to. Then I would just do spontaneous stuff just because I didn’t know anything. So for two hours I would just sing, do spontaneous and I ended up doing that probably four to eight hours a day in those early years just because of raw need. And after doing four to eight hours a day my skill level just got better and better and I leaned more chords and I got a few new songs. Just over time I became a Worship Leader it was never my intention it just kind of happened.
Sid: Okay but then I mean you’re moving into your calling for life and your just 19 years of age. How does a 19 year old cope with cancer?
Misty: Yes, I got diagnosed with cancer at 19 for the first time and it definitely jolted me, it jolted me, but it jolted me in a good way because you know it was a cancer that was growing in my leg. And the doctor told me that at that time either I was going to lose my life because of the speed of which it was growing, or at best I was going to lose my leg. So I was looking at an amputation or maybe even death. So all of those feelings you know from the time I was very little I had thoughts of eternity. And now at 19 they were just coming rushing in on me like a flood. So it was at this point in my life that I really determined I am going to know God; I am going to face death in the eye and I’m going to find my purpose beyond the grave. And that’s the only way I could make sense of the life I’m living if it’s six months or if it’s 60 years. The only way I can make sense of it is the continuity of into eternity. And so I looked God in the eye so to speak and just began a wrestling match about 19 and 20.
Sid: What about when someone gets cancer they look at every method, every formula that is ever worked for any person. We’re you in that realm?
Misty: Yes we did you know I tried many options I was trying to avoid the medical option just because of the effects of chemotherapy and all of the side effects. Yeah, I looked at many different options and sought the Lord, I went forward for healing many many times. We believed in healing and I believe that the Lord did give me a measure of healing, I still have my leg today so praise the Lord for that. Yeah, I was searching for many many methods and having to go through chemotherapy I lost my hair just all of that for a 19 year old girl is a little bit overwhelming.
Sid: So between you and me, how come you didn’t lose your zeal? How come you didn’t lose your faith when you’re saying “Here I am, selling out to you since a 5 year old. I’ve been a believer in You Lord, now get rid of this come on God!
Misty: I had to ask those questions, I had that wrestling in my heart but the thing is the options to walk away from Him there was no option. I felt so divinely hedged in. I mean what was I going to do there was just nothing but a black hole outside of God. So to walk away from Him I felt complete despair. So even though I felt like I was in a wrestling match with Him it was better to be in the fight with Him than to turn my back on Him. That wasn’t even an option to me it was way too despairing.
Sid: Well, most people are demanding answers from God but you got to a point I guess of surrender; tell me about this song we’re going to play right now “Finally I surrender.”
Misty: Yeah, “Finally I Surrender” was written in a time in my life where I was in that wrestling match and you know I have a certain tenacity with God I hope He appreciates where I was just like “Answer Me!” You know I feel like I was kind of in His face like “Answer me!” And He answered me similar like He would have answered Job. “Like were you there when I spread out the Heavens like a curtain, were you there when I said to the sea this far and no further?” It was one of those kind of “I am God, and you are not,” and just pour out your soul. And I found a sweetness in the surrender to His sovereignty and going “You know what I’m a person who loves understanding but I’m not always going to understand everything but I trust you anyway.” And to trust Him in His sovereignty knowing His heart is for me was a powerful thing for someone who loves, whose analytical and loves understanding.
Sid: Let’s here “Finally I Surrender,” I believe there’s a message for you.
Misty: “Finally I Surrender.”
Sid: If you like that music the anointing, I mean all those hours of prayer and revelation on Misty. Do you want your first love back? I know you do. Do you want that fire back you had when you were first believer. Do you want that hunger back when you first came to the Lord? Do you want a hunger so much that you want to be in God’s presence and that hunger is going to lead to the experiences that God has for you in your life?
