Interview with Francisco Arteaga, part 2

This is another post in my "Prophetic Musician Interviews" series. Today's interview is part 2 with Francisco "Paco" Arteaga, a drummer here at the house of prayer. If you haven't read the first one with Francisco, read it here.

Josh: Hey Paco, glad you're able to continue giving us more of your thoughts on prophetic music and drumming. You gave us some great tips on what you do to connect with the Lord while playing a worship set, but do you think there are any lifestyle practices we can walk in to cultivate the spirit of prophecy on our music?

Paco: Totally. The most important thing as a musician who loves Jesus is to have first things first; to love God with all our heart (1st Commandment, Matthew 22:37). We cultivate a spirit of prophecy as we cultivate a life of intimacy with Jesus and walk out the Sermon on the Mount. The two things (prophetic playing and a life in God) are not separate issues to me. It’s not like pursuing to be a prophetic musician is over here in one corner and a life in God is over there in the other. There are both in the same, and you cannot take one from the other. Our pursuit of cultivating a spirit of prophecy is in context with loving God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength. If we have this as our number one priority, I can assure you, you will play different than before. I look back at seasons of my life when this was not my number one priority and things were hard. I began to complain and got angry over small things - and worst of all my heart was dull, not tender, before the Lord. I got in a routine of doing "the thing".

It is truly a battle to keep this first in our hearts; I do well some seasons, other times I get too busy and lose sight of it.

In my opinion, the most important thing to cultivate the spirit of prophecy is to love God with all your heart (Matthew 22:36) and to pursue living the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). One cannot pursue the sprit of prophecy outside of pursuing a lifestyle of prayer, fasting and 100-fold obedience.

Josh: You're absolutely right man! I have felt the same way. We can't live in unrepentant compromise outside of our worship sets and expect to be prophetic when we are on them. Let's talk some more practicals for a second. How do you feel about practice? How often do you practice, and what would you say to musicians about the importance of practicing?

Paco: Practicing outside of worship sets is vital and is a must. To be completely honest with you I haven’t practiced in a while (a few months) and have noticed it, so I’m going to re-sign up again. But I usually aim for an hour a day (something very doable that can be done consistently), sometimes even more if I get in a “groove” (pun intended-haha). An hour a day is all I have sometimes but I encourage everyone to practice as much as you can. If you keep at it everyday you will see how much it helps even in a matter of weeks.

This is very important to becoming a prophetic musician because we are being stewards of the perfect gift God has given us but we are not perfect beings. So therefore practice is a vital part to grow in this context. The way I look at it is as if we were interpreters and we are supposed to translate something into the other language; we must first know the other language in order to communicate correctly. I personally believe one should practice and be eager to learn new things until you die. It is very important not to settle or feel like one has accomplished everything there is to know, because there will always be room to grow. Sometimes I get frustrated at myself because I hear things in my head but can’t play it. I’m big on practicing, practice, practice, practice!

Josh: Thanks again Paco!