Godsong Messages: How God Speaks To Us Through Music
Want to set a New Year intention of looking and listening for God? If so, I’ve got a fun exercise for you to try… using songs on the radio!
In the early 90’s, Country singer Trisha Yearwood had song on the radio called “The Song Remembers When.” It instantly touched my heart when I heard it, because its message is so pure and true. It paints a picture of how a song can instantly transport you back in time, evoking memories you haven’t thought of in years and awakening emotions long ago laid to rest.
Music is like that - It’s a universal language with no expiration date. Melodies and lyrics can reach across time and space, permeate walls that divide people, and be a vessel for God to show up in the exact moment when you need to hear from Him. He is The Creator of all, after all...so, why would His fingerprint not be present in the creation of songs?
Reflecting on this got me to thinking: Wouldn’t it be interesting to consider songs through the years that have impacted me, and how God may have been speaking to me through them?
It was a fun and revealing, Holy Spirit-led adventure — one that I’ve done several times since because of creative revelation it has brought. I encourage you to try it! When you do, don’t be surprised if you find yourself afterward “hearing God show up” in a song you’re listening to in the here-and-now. Recognizing His presence in the past helps enhance awareness of His presence in the present. It’s almost as if our spiritual antennae become more tuned-in to heaven’s radio dial.
The Godsong Messages Exercise
Step 1 - Make a list of songs that were/are your favorites. Think back as far as you can remember (even into your childhood). Ask Holy Spirit to bring musical memories and moments to mind. There are no rules of genre or what kind of music: songs you heard on the radio, TV shows and commercial jingles, church songs, etc.
Step 2 - Jot down memories associated with the songs, i.e. this song reminds me of our family trips to the beach…or… Christmas at Grandma’s house…or… roller skating rink in 8th grade, had a crush on ______.
Step 3 - Reflect on times when you KNOW God met you in an important moment, or conveyed a needed message straight to your heart. It might take some prayer and reflection, and it helps to think of milestone times in your life (i.e. the year I graduated…left home for college). If nothing is coming to mind, skip ahead to next step.
Step 4 - Listen to each song on YouTube (or wherever you stream music), asking the Lord as you listen to reveal any messages He wants to You to catch. [Tip: When I do this exercise, I like to find versions of songs that show the lyrics I can read while listening].
Feeling stuck? Just do the car ride version! Ask the Lord to speak to you through songs on the radio as you drive around for a while. Click on radio stations as you feel prompted to, and jot down notes or record voice memos about what happens. (This is an exercise I’ve done more than once. It’s amazing how God seems to “hand pick a playlist” just for me)!
Below are three of my own personal examples. What I learned from these songs might help unlock your own process of discovering how God can musically speak to you in your own journey. When you have done this exercise, I would love to hear about it! Click HERE to share your story.
Personal Examples of revelation I’ve received
through the Godsong Messages Exercise
Song 1: “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” (TV show theme song by Harry Nilsson)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6uxiSsPWuA
People let me tell you ‘bout my best friend...
One of my earliest memories was watching this show in the early 70’s as a young girl. I must have been 4-ish in age because I remember I wasn’t in school yet. When I came across this show’s theme song on YouTube, it transported me back in time. I wondered… Why did I like this song and that show?
People, let me tell you 'bout my best friend
He's a warm-hearted person who'll love me to the end
People let me tell you 'bout my best friend
He's a one-boy, cuddly toy, my up, my down, my pride and joy
People, let me tell you 'bout him, he's so much fun
Whether we're talkin' man to man
Or whether we're talkin' son to son
'Cause he's my best friend
Yeah, he's my best friend
Listening to the song now with adult ears, I realized I was probably drawn to it because of all the fun stuff Eddie and his dad did together, and how the words of the song reflected their close relationship I witnessed on screen. It hit me that God was showing me, way back then through a TV show, a representation of my heavenly Father Who knows me and loves me, and wants to have genuine relationship with me. He wants to carry me on His shoulders and spend quality time with me. And…He has a great sense of humor! My earthly dad was a good man – a hard worker and devoted provider for our family — but we didn’t have the kind of fun relationship Eddie and his dad had. My earthly dad (now in heaven with my heavenly Dad) was not a verbally expressive or “let’s go do something fun!” kind of Dad, though I’m still grateful for him. I actually got my musical abilities from him – a precious gift! One I now realize God was trying to tell me about through another song during my teenage years…
Song 2: “Finally Found A Home” by Huey Lewis & The News (1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWAdNXVM-FU
And I finally found a home...where I’ll never be alone
Right here where I belong...yeah I finally found a home...
Here, in a song.
I have clear memories of lying in bed at night during my middle school and high school years, looking at the ceiling and asking God, “WHAT IS MY PURPOSE? WHY AM I HERE? WHAT DID YOU CREATE ME TO DO???” Angst-filled teenage prayers that felt, at the time, like God was NOT answering.
This song by Huey Lewis & The News instantly struck a chord in my heart when I heard it back then; I would listen to it over and over again and sing along to every word. I didn’t realize at the time that God was using it to answer the questions I was begging Him to answer, night after night with my tearful prayers to the ceiling. Can God use an 80’s pop song to prophesy your future? YES! He will use any way or means to get through to you. All I had to do was come into agreement with it...something that, stubborn and willful as I was, He knew was going to take a while. The fear I had come into agreement with was louder than what God was trying to get through to me in the words of that song.
I come from a musical family, but I didn’t grow up writing songs and playing music. I loved listening to music, and through my high school years friends called me the queen of lyrics. If anyone wanted to know the words of pretty much any song, they just had to ask me. (This was before the internet existed and you could only learn the lyrics to songs by listening, memorizing and sometimes, guessing)! :-)
I could also memorize and mimic with my voice musical parts of songs – lead guitar solos on rock and pop songs, bass guitar or keyboard parts that I found catchy. I would make up my own harmony parts that weren’t in the songs. The irony of my “song expertise” was that it only came from hours of singing along to the record player in my room, recording Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” songs from the radio onto my cassette tape player, and then cranking up the car radio when I reached driving age. I wasn’t seeking any musical training, I wasn’t learning to play instruments, and I wasn’t entering any talent shows even though my friends who heard me sing along with the radio told me I had a good voice. Stage fright kept me from even considering God made me to pursue anything musical, after a traumatic experience singing a solo in a 6th grade school program resulted in my making passionate vow that I would NEVER…EVER!… sing in front of people on a stage again.
The good news (or should I say, the Huey Lewis & The News!) is that God doesn’t give up on us even when we’re stubbornly clinging to our own way (or “NO WAAAY!”) of doing things. Even when we’ve made a rock-solid pact with F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real), as I had back in the 6th grade, our Creator’s personally-tailored plan for us waits for the day when we’re ready to embrace it. I continued praying for His plans for my life through the fear and resistance, and He prepared a way for me to eventually get there. It was the long way around…
But I gradually came into agreement with what God had been telling me through that 80’s pop song I’d sung along with so many times. The nightclubs of St. Louis became a good training ground for me to start overcoming my stage fear after I graduated from high school, singing in a pop-rock band my brother started. When the band broke up, a surprise phone call came from a high school girlfriend telling me about a traveling band she knew about that was looking for a singer:
“...and I thought of you Lisa, because I remember you had such a good voice when I would hear you sing along with the radio back in our high school days....”
I said yes to that traveling band opportunity, which eventually led me to writing songs and singing in Nashville. God brought me every little moment I needed to take steps away from FEAR and toward HIM. All these years later, I still get goose (God!) bumps when I listen to that Huey Lewis & The News song that has now come-to-life in my life. I’ve finally found a home…where I’ll never be alone…right here where I belong... in a song!
Song 3: “God and My Girlfriends” by Reba McEntire (2017) (a song I co-wrote!)
God and My Girlfriends
They’re always there when I’m feeling down,
Always around, lifting me up…
I still have to pinch myself when I think about how I was actually resisting my purpose while I was asking God to show me my purpose. What a good Dad God is! What a great best friend! What an amazing Creator Who has designed me (and you!) down to the very last detail.
After I moved to Nashville to sing and write songs, Country artists eventually started recording my songs on their records. For me, this one takes the cake. (Could be the cake topper)! God used this song on Reba’s Grammy-winning album “Sing it Now: Songs of Faith and Hope” to remind me, once again, of the gift of music He put in me. He has also used it to give voice to so much more that He has had in store, for the purpose He created me for!
You can check out REBA’s recording or hear my own “pop flavored” version of the “God and My Girlfriends” song HERE. Learn about the GAMGstories faith & friendship community HERE .