As many of you know, I put out my first full-length worship album last fall entitled “Refine”. It is a worship and prayer CD filled with 10 original songs with piano and acoustic guitar. It’s been on iTunes and Spotify for a few months now, and I’m slowly integrating more songs and (soon to come) lyric videos to my YouTube and Facebook pages.
I just put out the song “Spirit I Come” in a video format onto my Facebook page and more and more people started sharing it! It was then that I realized how many people had not heard me talk about my heart and desire for worship and for the songs on this album. So for the next couple posts, I will be sharing my stories behind several songs on the album – how I wrote them, the Scriptures in them, and my prayer for you as you listen to them.
“Spirit I Come” was one of the first songs I wrote when I came back to Spring Hill from graduation at Southeastern University in Lakeland. It was written during a time where I felt like the Holy Spirit was not close to me; I was struggling to hear His voice and feel His presence. (I want to emphasize that just because you can’t see God moving or “feel” God moving in a situation doesn’t mean He isn’t there. Often His guidance and protection in those times when we least expect it, can be even more powerful and stronger than we realize!)
I was searching for what was next for me and in His will for my life; but I knew if I just drew close to Him then He would reveal Himself to me! I was making it more complicated in my mind then it needed to be, even if I didn’t have all the answers I was looking for – all I had to do was seek Him first!
This was one of the first songs I have written that I wrote with the body of Christ, singing this as a declaration, in mind. My perspective began to immediately lift up off of myself, inwardly as to what I was facing, to now outwardly towards my church, our community, and my focus was shifted on how this could also help others begin to seek Him!
The first verse of the song approaches the Lord and says,
“Spirit I come, with a sacrifice of praise
Spirit I come, longing just to see Your face
Spirit I wait, as I call upon Your name
Spirit I wait, for You to have Your way.”
Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
Through trials, turmoil, and hardship it is important that we still approach the throne of God in worship by giving Him everything we have. There’s no way we can come before Him and just ask Him to meet our needs without also seeking to praise Him, honor Him, and for Him to set His hearts and presence inside of us.
My prayer for the bridge of the song came from the story of the woman with the issue of blood, Mark 5:25-34. Her pursuit of Christ for her healing is astounding; she was so desperate for just a touch from Him that she knew that was all she needed to be made whole!
The bridge declares that same cry of desperation from this woman, now singing it as the collective body of Christ, crying out for more of His presence!
“We are hungry now for Your glory to show out
We’re desperate beyond doubt for You
Come and fan a flame in our hearts again today
We will not leave this place the same.”
Matthew 5:6 says,
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
If we draw near to God and His desires, He will always draw near to us. It’s amazing how we can come to a place in our faith that never stops being hungry for more of Him, that desire to go from glory, to glory, to glory every single day!
My prayer for our generation has always been that of the prophetic words from Joel 2 and Peter also references that on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
Joel 2:28-29,
“And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.”
I want to encourage you to take a listen to “Spirit I Come” and the other songs on “Refine” with these Scriptures in mind, and just let the Holy Spirit minister to you no matter what you are facing today.