The Real Issue Isn’t AI. It’s Our Fear of New Instruments.
Rethinking anointing, creativity, and worship in a changing world.
There’s a Clip of Forrest Frank warning Christians about worshipping with AI, especially now that AI tracks have climbed to #1 on the Christian music charts! He’s an anointed and sincere musician, and is clearly trying to protect something sacred. But his critique rests on a misunderstanding that keeps surfacing in every generation whenever a new “instrument” appears.
He claims AI can’t have the Holy Spirit.
He’s right.
But the problem is: neither can anything else.
Tools don’t carry the Spirit. People do. A guitar doesn’t have the Holy Spirit. A microphone doesn’t. The pages of your Bible don’t. A melody doesn’t. What makes worship holy has never been the tool. It has always been the presence of the Lord—who dwells in the heart of a worshiper. Instruments only become conduits because someone surrendered is touching them.
AI is simply the newest instrument available. Its holiness or distortion depends entirely on the heart guiding and receiving it.
I saw that clearly when I helped my mother-in-law write a grief song for the two-year anniversary of her husband’s passing. She prayed those lyrics. She sang them as worship. God met her in that space. AI didn’t minister to her. She ministered to God. AI didn’t replace anointing. It helped her articulate the prayer already born in her spirit.
The Heart That Worships Anyway
There’s a story Sean Bolz tells about ministering at a church with Heidi Baker. The worship was, in his words, awful! Off-key and distracting. But when he looked over, he saw Heidi on her face, in deep worship. He asked how she could worship with such chaotic music? And she said, “I don’t need anyone to lead me into the throne room...” A child’s song, an out-of-tune guitar, a shaky voice—none of that ever stopped a surrendered heart from lifting praise, and from entering into worship. That moment reframed him. It should reframe us.
Worship has never depended on sound quality.
It has always depended on our posture of surrender.
What Critics Don’t Realize About Creating With AI
AI songwriting isn’t effortless. It’s not a magic wand producing flawless Christian hits. Anyone who has actually used Suno knows the truth: It’s messy. It’s inconsistent. It requires vision, rewriting, editing, direction, and discernment. It feels more like asking a musician, “Give me a few directions this idea could go,” and then spending hours shaping what resonates.
Most musicians hear immediately where it’s lacking. And the viral “AI hits” people point to are still edited heavily by human hands. AI doesn’t replace creatives. It collaborates with them.
Even writing prompts is an art. The better the vision, the better the song. And here’s the life hack: if you’re not great at prompts yet, ask AI to help you write a better prompt for AI. We are watching a new form of creativity emerge in real time, and behind all of it—there is still humanity.
Why Chart-Topping AI Songs Aren’t a Threat
And if a Christian AI track reaches the top of the charts? There’s nothing wrong with that. That didn’t happen by accident. Someone still had to dream something, feel something, write something, prompt something, refine something, and choose something.
If the wider world wants to hear Christian themes—even from AI-assisted creativity—why are we angry? Why wouldn’t we celebrate the reach of God’s name into unexpected places? This isn’t cheating. It’s simply a different kind of instrument being played by human hands.
The Miracle Hidden in the Creative Process
Honestly, I’m celebrating the miracle of it. The wonder. The awe. The fact that I can create a worship song for whatever moment I’m in with God—joy, grief, gratitude, longing—and turn it into a memory stone, even if it never becomes a record. And if I share it with my family and they love it, praise God. If I share it online and it resonates with others, praise God. If He breathes on it in ways I never expected, praise God.
Because at the end of the day, that is the point. Not the tool. Not the technique. Not the charts.
What matters is the breath of God on human offering.
AI is not holy. It’s not unholy. It’s simply raw material waiting for a surrendered heart. The Spirit does not dwell in code. He dwells in sons and daughters who worship from the depths of their being. And when that happens, anything in their hands—analog, digital, broken, limited, or algorithmic—can become a place of encounter.
Holiness has never depended on the instrument.
It has always depended on the one who worships.
Coincidentally, on Sunday I preached a sermon called “Divine Image Bearers in the Age of AI.” If interested, it can be seen here (sermon starts 27 minutes in): https://fb.watch/Dup_yXE6KK/?mibextid=wwXIfr
The word ‘technology’ means the study of skill, & practically, learning to make better tools. A cell phone is a tool in the same way a pencil is….
But when there is an intelligence interacting with humans that is being looked to as a “partner,” we need a new level of discernment. Do you know that the creator of open AI has said that he and those who began programming it no longer understand how it works? And, whatever casual onlookers think, he believes we are dealing with something beyond ourselves? He is a self proclaimed “transhumanist” - which includes belief/ prediction (which he celebrates) that humans will disappear as this thing we think we have created overtakes our ‘branch’ of the evolutionary tree.
I have had sincere friends share how Gemini or other bots have responded to the spiritual questions they are posing…. and the answers ‘go down smooth’ and carry a level of sophistication that could be “awe-inspiring” if not for their subtle seeds of humanism cloaked in Christianity. And it is also deeply disturbing to me to watch Christians interact with such things like the most advanced kind of ouija board. I see an angel of darkness disguised as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).
And maybe it’s seen as more innocent to ‘ask it’ to draw a picture or generate a sound track than engage from deep spiritual curiosity, but when I once watched a group of drunk teen friends interact with a ouija board, “it” started by having them sing the abc’s ….. & “won trust” slowly before drawing some of them into what was overtly & unquestionably evil and very dark.
And as is the topic of the sermon I shared, it is of great concern to me, in light of Revelation 13:15, to see an inanimate thing endowed with “pneuma” - the Greek word that is translated Spirit (with a capital when used with Hagios, ie Holy) or spirit. Rev 13:15 foretold of a living entity being given access to speak through something mankind makes in its own honor.
….which I know this is not your goal & that you are seeking to honor God, but on a grand scale, I think the door has opened to something that has an origin that is not aligned with your goals.
We’ve been talking about AI, asking similar questions and concerns about. I support what you’re saying here. Thanks for putting it in public.