Spiritual Encounters & Creative Worship with Esther Skopp (10/19/25)
- Kristina Gonzales
- Feb 9
- 14 min read
Updated: Feb 11
Before we begin, I want to share how excited I am to release this. This blog actually came about with the idea to do interviews with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It didn't start with me just wanting to share my testimony and write articles around what I've learned.
I started talking to God about wanting to do creative things again, and immediately interview articles came to mind and I was lit up in my spirit, and for whatever reason Esther was the first person I thought about starting the interview articles with.
I had the idea for a blog site for about a year or so, and I honestly completely forgot about it for a few months. It wasn't until the Lord started stirring it up in me again that I started to ponder on it. I believed that I finally had the green light to go, and I knew that Esther was the one I had to reach out to.
It took us a while to actually get the interview done and a friend of mine asked, "why don't you do the first interview with someone else first?" I said, "no, for whatever reason I know I have to start with Esther. I can't start it with anyone else." I was very adamant on this, regardless of how long it was going to take, and now here we are! A year and a couple of months later!
Thank you to Esther for giving me her time to start this off, and thank you God for your faithfulness and goodness!
October 19th, 2025 - La Cabana Coffee Shop in Wayne, NJ
It’s a sunny and cool Sunday afternoon. I rushed out of church and almost cancelled the interview, which we were trying to get done for about four months or so. The one day we were finally able to do it, I almost cancelled because I was enjoying church service too much and didn’t want to miss any of the Word being preached. I was eager and leaning in, hungry for the deeper things of God. I was able to leave right when the service ended, and Esther was already at the coffee shop.
Esther Skopp.
She’s wearing a green sweater, statement earrings, and light pink eyeshadow (photo shown here is not a photo taken during time of interview). It takes us a while to get settled in as both of us are in a time crunch. Music blares right under us as we sit under speakers. The whole setup reminds me that not everything has to be perfect. God just requires our obedience.
Tell me a little about yourself, and how you came to Christ.
“Gosh, where do I even begin?” Esther asks in response to the first question.
Esther Cho Skopp, married to Lee Skopp. Born in NY, Flushing. Esther has lived most of her life now in New Jersey. She has lived on both the east coast and the west coast, living in LA for a period of her life and attending Rutgers, New Brunswick in New Jersey for her undergrad. Both of her parents were pastors, and at one point in her life she herself said she never wanted to be one.
It wasn’t until the Lord directed her to go to seminary in 2004 and opened up doors for her to pastor that the thing she said she never wanted to do, became the thing that she did do. In college, Esther’s undergrad was English and Journalism, and then the Lord started to steer her more towards worship music.
According to Esther, “music was always my passion, but I didn’t know how much God would make it a part of the ministry I do.” Over the years, Esther has served in worship ministry in different capacities. Most recently, she’s been playing bass at The Altar in New Jersey (how I came to know her) and various churches across the region.
You weren’t as passionate about worship at first, but you were passionate about music. How did you get into worship, or how did God direct you to it? Because I got to know you mainly through a worship ministry (the Altar), so it’s interesting to me that it wasn’t something you always thought of doing.
"It was in college that I started to ask God if I could use music in some way to serve Him,” Esther says. She already knew how to play guitar, but it was the bass that God was leading her to. She recalls that the earliest memory of when God made it clear that she was called to be a worshipper was around 2008 or so. It was at Gateway Christian Fellowship in West Haven, Connecticut, pastored by Brian and Candice Simmons at the time.
At this point in Esther’s life, she wasn’t used to charismatic churches, and Gateway Christian Fellowship was one of the few that she knew around the area. She was there for a one day conference, and she brings up an encounter that she had with the Lord. It was towards the end of a preaching, and they asked for people who were involved with music to step forward.
She was in the middle of the aisle with her hands raised and asked God, “Okay God, what instrument am I supposed to use to be serving you?” Suddenly and automatically, with no thought, her hands went straight into the position of playing bass. Esther notes that at this time, she remembered that she always had a love for writing songs. When she learned how to play guitar, she would write songs and record snippets on a microcassette recorder.
During this time, a vision came to Esther. She saw a thick snake draped across her arms and asked God what she was supposed to do with it. The snake became thin and puny, and then the mouth of the snake started to open and something started to come out. It was the microcassette recorder that she used to use to record songs on! In this moment, God was giving her the revelation that the enemy was trying to swallow up her songwriting gift and dream.
Before all of this transpired with the vision of the snake, a lady came over to pray for her while she was at the altar and this lady was talking about a python spirit and breaking it off. All Esther could hear the lady saying was, “python spirit.” At this time, Esther didn’t know what the python spirit was and never heard it before.
But, by the help of Holy Spirit and the revelation she received through her vision, she saw what this spirit was trying to do. It was trying to swallow up and squeeze her (hence python) so that she wouldn’t walk in the gift and the desire of songwriting that the Lord gave to her. It was in this encounter with God that confirmed to Esther that she was called to play bass and to be a worshipper. She goes on to note that there were a lot of encounters with God where He confirmed this, and this just being one out of many.
My curiosity grew as she kept saying how this encounter was all new to her at this time in her life - meaning the vision and the python spirit - all something she encountered for the first time. I proceeded to ask,
Since you were raised as a PK (pastor’s kid), did you grow up seeing the supernatural works of God growing up?
Esther opens up the question with Flushing, NY in the early 1980s. She notes that there was a move of God within the Korean American immigrant community. She doesn’t remember much about it as she was just a kid, but her parents told her all about it.
Around this time, there was an American preacher (name can’t be recalled) and he carried an anointing that wasn’t as common during this time. When he would pray, people would fall over. This occurrence is definitely more common now, although it might seem new for people who have not seen moves of God like this, but back then in the 1980s the term Esther uses is that it was, “shockingly new.”
[Note for the reader, there were people in other parts of the body of Christ at this time who were familiar with Azusa Street Revival and other things like that, but in this community that Esther was surrounded with during this time in her life it wasn’t as familiar].
In one particular meeting with this preacher, her mom brought Esther with her. Esther was about 2 years old, and small enough where her mom was able to hold her in her arms. Her mom received prayer from the preacher and fell out while Esther was still in her arms. It was remarkable that she was “glued” onto her mom even as she fell back, making both of them fall down together. It wasn’t until later in her life that the Lord told Esther that she also received impartation from this encounter.
She says that this was probably her first charismatic experience, despite her not remembering much of it. Then it was “nothing, nothing, nothing” all the way until right before seminary, when she was about 25 years old. At this time, her parents' church went on a retreat and a speaker was there. This was a different speaker, but he was also from Korea and he was giving a sermon on speaking in tongues. As Esther puts it, “this speaker was anointed in being able to teach on the gift of tongues and to release it to others.” The speaker was explaining why you need the gift of tongues and what it’s for.
“I thought it was this weird thing that only some people get and it’s special. I didn’t see why I needed it and thought that I wasn’t qualified for it,” she says as she shares what her thoughts were about speaking in tongues at this time.
Esther was part of the worship team at her parents' church, and at the end of the night the head of the worship team said that they were going to continue to pray for anyone on the team who did not receive the gift of speaking in tongues. Esther was one of them, along with another girl. The worship team circled around them both praying, and that’s when it came forth. This was the first time she experienced something supernatural like this, where she wasn’t doing anything on her own accord, but her tongue was just moving by itself.
The next supernatural encounter she recalls was in 2007. She calls this particular encounter her “baptism of fire” because that’s the best way to describe it, as it was very dramatic. At this time, Esther was at a very low point in her life where she was depressed and just had no will to live anymore. Not necessarily to the point where she wanted to harm herself, but just where it was really tough for her to live day by day.
One night, she goes to what they called it at the time a “praise night” for the youth in a church that was in Wayne, NJ. That night they invited revivalist preacher Matt Sorger to come and speak. She described him as, “he has such an anointing of power to impart the Holy Spirit to activate other people in the gifts of the Spirit and to bring revival, healings, and miracles.” This night, very intentionally, Esther went forward to receive this kind of prayer (this “reviving” prayer) and it was here that Esther fell out on her own for the first time. She describes that night as “all heaven broke loose.”
Since we talked a lot about her previous encounters, I started to veer off to more personal questions.
Is there something specifically right now in your season that you are really passionate about wanting to learn? Or something that you’re just really hungry for? (this question is tied to the time the interview took place - October 2025).
In this particular season, Esther shares how she’s unsure on how to particularly pinpoint what the theme is, but she does mention that for the past few years she’s been immersed in this book that she’s writing with God. The book pertains to worship, music, the presence of God, and creativity. It’s particularly aimed for creative worshippers.
She brings up a quote from Thomas Edison:
She says that when it comes to this book, she’s in the 99 percent perspiration part. One of the challenging parts about writing the book is the warfare. Not the type of warfare that’s blatantly displayed such as witches casting spells and dealing with getting into car accidents or getting sick and dealing with curses, but it’s the warfare of the mind. It’s the practice and the obedience of taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
She says that in the midst of writing the book, there’s also the part of walking with Holy Spirit in the everyday living acts. “He’s not only there when we’re in the revival meetings when people are falling over, cancers are getting healed, and tumors are dissolving, but also learning how to apply that same power through these everyday things we may struggle with.”
What’s your heart for creative worshippers, if you could give them advice on anything what would it be?
“Definitely get your heart right with the Lord,” is the first thing she says. It’s important to be spiritually and emotionally healthy and to be set free because creative arts is mainly about performing. She brings up a painting, and how when a painting is shared people will be looking at it. “They will be influenced by it. They will receive what you put out through your art.”
If someone is a singer, or someone plays the instrument (she also includes social media in this list), it’s so easy for people to “find recognition and sense of value on the praise they receive and how many people are watching or listening. Even in churches, it’s easy to promote and be promoted because of your gift and not your character.”
“Character flows out of the healthiness of the heart.”
Esther goes on to say that she’s been in church all her life, and she knows what it’s like to be seen as humble and not actually be humble on the inside. One of Esther’s most dramatic deliverance experiences, the first time she went through an intentional deliverance session, she describes it as very “messy, embarrassing, and dramatic,” but it was a spirit of pride that was casted out of her. She was a pastor’s kid. Someone who was considered very humble, very polite, and well mannered. She knew the Bible so well, but yet she had a spirit of pride.
As she journeyed with Holy Spirit, He opened up so much of her understanding that she was not grounded in her identity in Christ. She understood the concept of what it is to value the things of the kingdom and to know that you're loved, to know that we’re saved by grace, but deep down inside she says “I don’t think I received that. I didn’t fully embrace that spirit of sonship yet. There was so much that had to be opened up and broken off, even in that one area.”
This goes back to creatives and performers.
“It’s so easy to be celebrated because of your gift, and it’s easy to be promoted and put on a platform and be like, ‘oh you’re so anointed!' and still be very broken inside and not have a sense of identity, and eventually that all will come out.”
Another advice she gives is that we need to do everything out of the presence of God and with the Holy Spirit. Starting right from the conception of the creative things we decide to put out. She mentions the secret place and says, “even when you’re practicing your instrument, are you inviting Holy Spirit? Are we asking Him to download a new technique? When we write songs, do we ask Him to give us ideas? Before we start painting, do we ever sit and just try to wait on Him?”
She goes on to acknowledge that with the creative process, there is never really just one way to do it, and says that "sometimes God already has given you an idea, and it might feel like your own but you have this flash of inspiration, and then you walk into it. But even in that, do we seek Him? Do we go, 'okay God here I am, let’s do this together,' and be very intentional even in the idea and the inspiration given? Do we pray during the creative process, in all production parts of it?" She says she’s not perfect at this either, as she herself is still practicing and learning.
“And it’s not even on the practical things of, ‘Oh Holy Spirit I’m having trouble with this, what do I do next?’ or ‘What colors should I pick out for this?’ But also about experiencing fellowship with Holy Spirit and to just have Him there. That He’s fellowshipping with us so that His Spirit would saturate every aspect of the creation.”
I end on my last question:
If you could give advice or a word to a new believer in this generation, in their walk with Christ, what would you tell them?
The first thing that pops into Esther’s mind is relationship. With her background of growing up in the church, she knew the Word so well. “Easily more than 90% of my peers,” she says.
She gets vulnerable and shares a thought about what she believed Christianity was all about at one point in her life. “The goal of Christianity was to try and sin as little as possible to check off the boxes.” It was when this lie was completely broken off that she had a massive paradigm shift.
She continues, “When your whole walk with God is about ‘what are the rules so I don't break them?’ then you’re trying to find what are the limits, how far can I go without breaking them? Because it’s hard not to break rules. You’re pretty much trying to find the freedom to do what it is that you want. That becomes legalistic, but you end up trying to lower the standards for you in a way and it’s kinda a paradox.”
She mentions Jesus, and how during the time He came the Torah, the Laws, and all the Old Testament books were already out. The Pharisees thought they had a handle on following God because they had the books, and knew the rules, and knew how to cut corners without crossing the line. Then Jesus came along and didn’t make it easier, but He actually made it impossible to be a good believer and a good Jew.
She brings up Matthew 5:21-26, and says how Jesus was not exaggerating. If you get angry with someone, then you’ve murdered them in your heart. “It’s insane to think about it. It’s just too difficult to follow.” Jesus showed us the impossibility of trying to please God in righteousness by just trying to follow all the rules. It’s not possible, and the only way out is to only put our faith in Jesus who did live everything 100% perfectly.
“And he lived this perfect life on earth so that he could earn a perfect record, and then just transfer His perfect record to us. But how do we get that? It’s through a relationship with Him. Yes, you believe in Him but that’s not just a once time thing. That’s just the beginning of a personal relationship with Him.”
She goes on to share about how there’s such a variety of people in the church who come from different backgrounds, and how each walk leans towards what it is that you need in your relationship with God. For example, people who are getting saved now but they grew up in church. So they know the Word so well, but they need to learn the relational part, the knowing and learning who Holy Spirit is and knowing God in a close, intimate, loving relationship. This was Esther’s background.
Then there’s people who come into the church now because someone evangelized to them, or they had this experience with God - they were healed on the street, they were delivered, there was experience and that encounter. There was a relationship first, but there was no Word. So they need to fill up in the knowledge of the Word to balance that out (like my testimony).
For a new believer, it’s normal for them to want to learn what are the right things to do.
“Yes, you will need to read the Bible (there’s no way out of that). You do need to go to a church, you do need to pray, and you should be in fellowship and community with other Christians because you need help. You read the Bible, but it’s not the end, it’s the means to grow in your relationship with God.”
It’s the “understanding what does He like, what makes Him tick, what makes Him happy, what things displeases him? Because I don’t want that (the things that displeases Him). I don’t want any distance in my relationship with God. It’s not about, 'if I do too many sins, now he’s gonna get rid of me.' It’s the same thing with prayer, with evangelizing, with going on missions trips, with ministry, giving to the poor, and so on. All things that the Bible says are really important to do! But, if it becomes a rule in and of itself then you’ve already lost the plot. It has to be, “how can I do this in a way that grows my relationship with God?”
