What You Listen to Can Shut Out God’s Presence

“Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:18-19).

There is a beautiful and divine connection between love and music. They expand and reveal each other. Music has the power to transport us. Words immersed in music can touch places in our hearts that nothing else can reach.

Music is an essential key to awakening our love for God because music has the power to usher us past our present reality and into His very presence. It lifts our truest and deepest emotions closer to the surface and transports us to a dimension closer to the heart of God.

David described the relationship between music and God this way:

“But You are holy, O You who inhabits the praises of Israel” (Ps. 22:3).

Our praises exalt the position, power and authority of God in our lives!

And do you know there is an anointing on music? Therefore we must choose it wisely. In the New Testament, the anointing represents the indwelling and empowerment of the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ. So godly, anointed music is empowered by the Spirit to draw us into His presence.

There are songs of earth, and there are songs of heaven. Not all songs of earth are bad, but most will not draw us closer to God. Songs of heaven will. When we sing these songs, we proclaim our love and desire for God. This is a form of worship, and worshipping always empowers the worshipper with greater revelation of the object of their desire.

How is the music you are listening to affecting the way you relate to God? Does it bring you into closer communion with Him? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you how to use the power of song to stir your love for Him. May the songs we sing strengthen our relationships with Him and enthrone Him in our lives.

Adapted from Kissed the Girls and Made Them Cry: Why Women Lose When They Give In (Thomas Nelson, 2002) by Lisa Bevere.