Ken Spence

Leeds UK
It saddens me that here we all are writing songs and singing and yet apart from "Raise a Hallelujah" I am not aware of another song that celebrates the amazing heavenly gift of music itself. So this song is an attempt to put that right. Music is a fantastic gift with enormous God infused power and yet we seem to take it for granted without realising what we have on our fingertips and tongues. I can only explore a little of what music is about, but got to start somewhere!
I often travel by train from Leeds to London for work and the train journey can be a fertile place for songwriting inspiration. This is one example. The song is really about how God sees us, through the light of His glory. That’s a very different picture to the one we most probably have of ourselves. God sees us as we can be, a perfect creation …. Let that sink in! Once we start seeing ourselves as God sees us it is much easier to be that person and become the embodiment of His Kingdom, sharing His amazing unconditional love and praising Him through everything we do. To be able to love others as God loves us it helps if we can first love ourselves in the way God does.
This song is simply a prayer to ask the Holy Spirit to enable us to let go of all the stuff that prevents us from experiencing the full power of His presence. Whether we come from a traditional or charismatic church background we can have cultural baggage which gets in the way of us genuinely releasing ourselves to the Spirit’s work in us. From either background there is a pressure to conform to what we think is the accepted norm and also to judge others around us on that basis. Worshipping in Spirit and truth is a place where what happens is between us and God, the actions of others…. well that’s between them and God. What happens next? Well that’s between you and God. My prayer in this song is that you are able to let go of all your baggage and inhibitions and let the Spirit work in you.
An advent song that was the November 12 song challenge. It's a fun song with serious undertones and really a platform for people to jam and also add their own verses as the format is repetitive. The seven verses I have here are far from what could be possible but the last one always should be the last.
A song about how God talks to us. If you are envious of people who relate stories of how God has spoken to them, join the club. That type of thing can be both encouraging and discouraging prompting us to think “why doesn’t God talk to me like that?” Perhaps God does and we just don’t recognise the voice. Perhaps we are expecting thunderclaps and flashing light bulbs? Hmm …... I know God speaks to me but I often don’t realise it until some time afterwards when I have an “Oh, yeah” moment and often I don’t realise it at all. The reality is that the Holy Spirit is whispering to us all the time “help that person, share your bread, your friend needs a hug etc etc”. And “shock, horror” the Spirit whispers to everyone, not just Christians. But the biggest revelation to me was that God speaks to us all the time through every part of his creation. Listen to your own heartbeat and there is a whisper of God. “Every breath we take, every single heartbeat, every smile in the street” is a whisper of God’s voice. Wow!!!!!
A little a cappella number from a Taize 12 song challenge. It's roughly in the key of A but you can pitch it wherever feels most comfortable for congregation and harmonisers. The video is when I taught it to a small Sunday evening worship meeting. Lyrics in French are also included and a recording of the French version is available on request.
article 4 years ago
This was written at a United Adoration creative day in Durham at the beginning of 2024. The wonderful Elise Massa, who ran the day, chose Isaiah 55 as her theme scripture. She also helped me hone the lyrics. It's basically about us being so attractive that God's glory shines through us to attract others to God. It is therefore a challenge as well as a promise.
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