Before I share my post with you today, apologies and giggles if you received an email of my last post with a photo of Derek on it! I hope that didn’t confuse you too much.  Hopefully, that is all fixed up now, and although I think he’s very handsome, I don’t really want his face on my posts! lol.

Now to the post…..

Did you know you can sing whatever words you want to any song?

Some Christians might think that’s a no-no. And that might be out of some sense of right or wrong, some sense of legal obligation, some sense of respect or honour of the original songwriter – (tree of knowledge).  Let me say this.

God is the original songwriter. He is the beginning and the end. All things are summed up in Christ. All things are held together in Christ. ALL things belong to Him.

There’s an old Barry Manilow song called I Write The Songs. Well, sorry Barry, no you don’t. God writes the songs.

Singing is pretty much a way of life for most if not all believers. It is one of our most universal automatic forms of worship and adoration of our God. In our religious traditions, we are taught many songs – hymns, scripture in song, and choruses. There is a multitude of contemporary Christian songs out there on the radio, Spotify, youtube, CDs etc.  Nearly every Christian sings songs about God and to God. It’s natural. It’s scriptural.  And it’s wonderful!  But I want to add to this.

Saint, as humans living on this planet we are bound by the laws of the land. We are exhorted in scripture to obey the laws of the land unless they conflict with God’s laws that are written on our hearts, such as being told we have to pledge allegiance, bow down and worship another god or leader or take on the mark of the beast! That sort of thing. So as far as songs and music are concerned we are bound by earthly laws such as copyright and plagiarism.  It is a sin for us to deliberately disobey these laws.

But! In the privacy of your own heart, your own home, your own car, in your shower, whilst you are walking in the fields, and with a group of saints in a meeting or gathering or just one or two together in fellowship – you can sing whatever christian or secular song you like with whatever words you like in your adoration and praise of our wonderful Lord!

Lift the glass ceiling off folks by seeing that EVERYTHING belongs to the Lord! That includes songs and music! Saints, we have the freedom in Christ to be led by Christ! We have the freedom to be led by His Spirit in us who moves us to open our mouths and let the expression of love and adoration,  of prophesy, of testimony come out!

I felt inspired to write this post this morning after having a precious time with the Lord with Derek. During our time of beholding the Lord together an old song rose in my heart.  You may be familiar with it. It is beautiful and the original words by Paul Armstrong from 1984, are as follows;

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me

Fill me anew, fill me anew

Spirit of the Lord, fall afresh on me

Well, sitting with Derek in the tangible presence of the Lord, I just couldn’t sing the words ‘fall afresh on me’ or ‘fill me anew’.  That kind of doesn’t fit with my theology anymore. The words that came to me in the moment were as follows;

Spirit of the living God, You are here in us

Spirit of the living God, You are here in us

You touch us anew, You touch us anew

Spirit of the Lord, You are here in us.

Can you hear the difference? Singing the words the Lord rises in our hearts – against such things there is no law! Everything belongs to Him, holy ones. Everything! And you know what? There may be another time when that same song will rise in my heart but with different words again and it’s ok! It’s ok. It’s wonderful. It’s free. It’s liberating. It’s Christ! It’s Christ in us! It’s His very own Spirit in us, drawing us closer to God.

We have the liberty in Christ saints, to move and be led as He leads us.  And there is sooooo much Life when we walk in the leading of His Spirit in this way.

So my encouragement and prayer today is that you, that we all, start lifting off that glass ceiling of religion, tradition, spiritually imposed thoughts and spiritual legalism. Let us with great abandonment, worship and adore our Lord in complete and utter freedom as He Himself leads and enables us to do so.  Wonderful Jesus!

If you have new words to an old or even a new song – be it a secular tune or a christian tune – I’d love for you to share it in the comment section below so that we all as the body of Christ might glorify the Lord in a fresh way together.

Love and blessings to you all today in our mighty, glorious Lord and King of whom we love to sing.