Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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The Psalmist wrote and sang many new songs to the Lord, and he encouraged others to do the same. He said in one place, "Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the Lord with harp; sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto Him a new song! Play skillfully with a loud noise!"
Preacher Clark, in a sermon in 1968, said that those who stay in the Spirit will be continually receiving new songs from God. I believe that. I have to believe it, because I see it happening! The Lord has been giving the saints who meet at my house (the ones anointed for music) some of the most incredible songs ever written. We have recorded many of these new songs and are making CD's of them now. Two such CD's, Sister Sandy's Song of Moses and Sister Donna's God is our Refuge, are already out, and Brother Darren's songs have been blessing folks for a long time now. Let me tell you about some of the new songs that the Lord has given to me over the past two years. I cannot feel that several of these songs are my songs; they are, instead, songs entrusted to me by Jesus. I feel that they are beyond me and my ability to compose.
This is a song that the Lord gave me in a dream. With it, Jesus asked me a question. As I was hearing the song in my dream, somewhere in the background Jesus was tenderly asking, "Do you really know this about me?" It was as if he was trying to persuade me of his deep and abiding love. Throughout the song, he is telling us, "It does not matter what condition you find yourself in. I am your Savior, and there is nothing that I will not do for you. Can you find it in your heart to trust me? Please believe this about me. Oh, that you could believe that I really do love you this much!" Brother Darren's anointed playing of this song from Jesus makes it a powerful testimony to the love of God. It has touched souls very deeply. Several here have told me they think it is the most beautiful song ever written. It certainly is a song that I have never grown tired of hearing.
This was the first of the new generation of songs the Lord gave to me to write, in January of 2001. He gave it to me unexpectedly, as I drove from one town to another after enjoying a wonderful prayer meeting. It was a new kind of song for me, unlike any other I had ever written, but I had no idea that it was just the precursor to a new breed of love songs from Jesus to the saints here that were soon to follow.
If there is anything other than perfume and promises that this world offers to us as a substitute for Christ, I do not know what it is. If there is anything other than perfume and promises that Christianity offers to us as a substitute for Christ, I do not know what it is. This song emphasizes both the emptiness of all that the world has to offer and the foolishness of trading "the Pearl of great price" for the perfume and promises of a dying world.
Jesus gave me this song in a dream. It was given to me for a brother who was in trouble and hurting, and who needed to know that Jesus loved him. It can apply to every child of God who needs to know that Jesus still cares. Storms of life can surround us-indeed, fall upon us-but God's sheltering love in Christ will always be there to protect us because, as Jesus says in the song, "There is no one who loves thee as I know I do." If you have fallen short of God's best for you and are in need of encouragement, listen to this song. The fearful thunder of trouble will not disturb the rest that Jesus will give you. There is no one who loves, or is even able to love you, as he does.
On several occasions, some here have listened to this song for days (and nights) continuously. When the Spirit begins to use this song, it does not wax old. At one point, after hearing the song played for literally days on end, and seeing people lying on the floor under the powerful presence of God for many hours because of it, I asked Brother Gary in Louisville if he had ever heard of a song affecting people the way this song does, and he answered, "I've never heard of anything affecting people the way this song does."
I was impressed at how God uses this song to heal completely deep hurts that have burdened hearts, in some cases, from childhood. It has been astonishing to me to watch Jesus take the hurt and replace it with joy and peace such as some had never felt. I had never seen the like.
This is another song given to me in a dream. As we were completing the CD to take it to the company here that mass-produces CD's, Jesus gave me this song in the night. The powerful effect it had on all our hearts made us stop the process of producing my CD until this song was added to it. You will understand why we went through the trouble of re-working the CD when you hear this song.
The Lord gave me this song in the middle of the night, in a town to which Jesus sent me in order to rescue some saints who were confused and divided. I was troubled in my spirit after my first evening there. I did not know whether or not the pastor there would hear the word of the Lord that he had given to me for him, but Jesus came to me in the night with this song of absolute victory and joy, and, my, how it comforted me! The power of God fell so strongly upon me as I lay in the bed that I found myself weeping for the mercy and love that I felt, and then, I found myself dancing (while still lying horizontal!) under the mighty power of God. It was an unforgettable experience.
The version of The Lord is a Refuge for Me that will be on an upcoming CD of my songs is followed by a special "event" (I do not know what to call it) for which I am completely unable to prepare the listener. I am confident that few, if any, have ever heard anything quite like it. It was Thanksgiving, 2001, and Barbara and I had a lot of company. On one day, we recorded some songs in my office instead of the recording room so that people could be there to watch and listen to the songs being recorded. With this song, there was a group of about twenty-to-thirty saints gathered to listen. The Spirit fell on us all, and when Jesus does that to his people, wonderful, amazing things happen. At the end of the song, all I can say is that a "Jesus riot" broke out.
The only thing I can think of to tell anyone in order to prepare him for this rendition of The Lord is a Refuge for Me is to "buckle your seat belt and hold on to your faith. And enjoy the ride with "J-E-S-U-S!"
In about 1976, while I was a seminary student, the Lord gave me a tune to Isaiah 27:1. I don't remember sharing that tune with anyone, but for twenty-five years it would occasionally come to mind, especially when I read that part of Isaiah again. In 2001, I would often read from my father's old Bible in the mornings before my day began. In the spring of that year, it began to happen that the old Bible consistently fell open to Isaiah 14 whenever I laid it out on my desk to read.
After a while, I came to suspect that there was a divine hand in this oddity, and so, before I continued to read in other places, I would read Isaiah 14 whenever it opened itself to that chapter. For months this went on. I believed that God had a reason for wanting me to read Isaiah14. Then, one morning after the Bible had fallen open to Isaiah 14 again, and as I read it again, the Spirit of the Lord unexpectedly gave me a tune for the verses as I read them. Somehow, I knew that those verses belonged with the tune that the Lord had given to me twenty-five years before.
This is a war song, telling of Jesus' final victory over Satan. It is meant to be sung by God's victorious saints after the last, horrific battle. When the song first came to me, I envisioned an exhausted, muddy soldier standing alone in a smoky, dark, bomb-cratered battlefield. Nothing green has survived and it is dusk, made dimmer still by thick dust and smoke swirling in the air. The war-weary soldier is looking up toward the crest of a hill, near the top of which the trunk of a leafless tree survives, its limbs almost all having been blown away in the battle. As he wearily surveys the destruction, and with the greatest relief of heart, the dazed soldier is thinking to himself, "Wow. We really, really won."