onething Live Magnificent Obsession | Posted July 31, 2012
Back in September of 1999, minister Mike Bickle took a step of faith by leaving the church he was pasturing to launch a radical and almost unheard of ministry in the modern day Church. The International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOP–KC), is a sanctuary which holds unceasing prayer and worship--that’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
This thirteen year prayer meeting has drawn thousands of worshipers from all over the world, all gathering together to stop and take time to bask in the presence of God, whether it be in the light of day or the dark of night.
Every December, IHOP-KC holds an annual meeting knows as the onething Conference. While each year, the sessions focus mainly on teaching, prayer and evangelism, the fourteen round-the-clock worship teams also gather together to lead the massive group of believers, averaging 25,000 per year, in an unhindered time of praise and worship.
Back in 2009, onething Live, a conglomeration of all fourteen worship teams and the songs they’d written, released their first live CD/DVD project, simply known as onething Live. The album made waves upon its release and quickly garnered this unapologetically passionate group of worshipers a lot of attention in the worship music genre.
Coming three years after their first release, Magnificent Obsession serves as onething Live’s latest live worship effort, recorded, of course, at 2011’s record breaking onething Conference.
“Worthy Of All” starts this album off on a beautifully melodious note, building momentum along the way and becoming an explosive anthem of praise to our King. “All Is For Your Glory” is a convicting, yet moving tune about how our soul purpose in existing is to worship God, all of our fleeting ideas of success one day ultimately falling to the wayside. It runs over 11 minutes in length and feels almost too dragged out, but is a powerful moment of worship nonetheless.
“Wounded One” comes as a song of total adoration to Jesus, while “Storm All Around You” opens with an incredibly haunting piano sonata, and talks about the unmatched power of our God. “Be Exalted” has a rather awkward introduction, the track sounding like it begins right in the middle of the song. Unfortunately, it’s only confusing to the listener and almost makes you feel like you’ve missed something.
“Measure Of A Man” and “All Men Are Broken” are led by IHOP-KC worship leader and well known singer/songwriter Misty Edwards, and brings a nice change of pace to the album, the latter of the two becoming an incredible moment of spontaneous prophecy and prayer in the midst of worship.
“It’s My Joy To Love”, “New Jerusalem” and “There Is One Found Worthy” continue the flow of praise and do an excellent job of leading the listener into a place of total abandonment before God.
“Eyes To See”, led by Zachary Simms, serves as the most unconventional tune on the project, carrying a very indie sound, both musically and vocally. It still being very worshipful and poignant.
The project finally comes to a close with the track, “Never Gonna Leave Me Dry”, which happens to be my favorite. The song comes as an cry of personal honesty before God, and pulls passages from the Psalms to craft a lyrically stunning piece of work. (“God, make complacency my enemy and Your fight / And let desperation be like David’s key for my life.") I hope to see this song earn the recognition it deserves in the worship market, seeing as it could become huge within the next several years if given the exposure it deserves.
Closing Thoughts:
onething Live’s Magnificent Obsession is raw prophetic worship at it’s best--unfiltered, anointed, and chalk full of soul stirring moments of intimate praise. I felt the production quality overall was a tad disappointing, almost as if they left it completely unedited, making it considerably incommodious and vexing at times. Still, this is a delightful piece of God honoring art that is sure to leave worshipers in deeper and more passionate pursuit of Christ.
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