“Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise him from the skies!
Praise him, all his angels...
Let every created thing give praise to the Lord,
For He issued His command, and they came into being.”
Psalms 148:1-6 NLT
If someone had said to me back in 2008 that in the next nine
years I would publish nineteen music albums of original music I would have told
them that they were insane.
Yet unbelievably I have just published my nineteenth music
album.
“Where Angels Dance,”
features vibrant worship instrumentals that were all inspired by the Holy
Spirit.
Music was never one of my gifts growing up, nor did I ever
want anything to do with any of the performance arts.
I was passionate about Art. I never sat down without a pen
and sketchpad.
I had taught art, worked as a freelance artist, written and
illustrated my own books, and earned my college degree in art & writing. I
was certain that God had called me to be a children’s book author and
Illustrator.
One day I fell asleep after taking my dog for a walk.
I dreamed I went to Heaven.
There I saw angels and saints dancing before Christ’s
Throne.
They were joyfully worshiping the Lord.
Beautiful music was playing in the background as they
danced.
When I awoke from my dream, the music was echoing in my
mind.
The Lord spoke to my heart, “You can play that song.”
The keyboard that my sister had given us was in front of me.
I felt compelled to try even though there was no reason I
should have any hopes of playing that beautiful song from my dream.
Except that the Lord had said I could. And if God said I
could, it must be true since He can’t lie.
But what if I was just imagining that God said it?
The only way to find out would be to try…
I sat down and played that song. It was amazing but somehow,
I just knew how to do it.
My version wasn’t as lovely as what I had heard in the
dream, but it sounded similar.
When the Lord taught me how to play the piano, it was purely
by faith. All He asked of me was that I believed His word to me, “You can play
that song.” After I played that one song, He said, “From now on you can play
any song I teach you. Just believe.”
“He spoke and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast.”
Psalm 33:9
Though I had never wanted to be a musician before, suddenly,
I loved worshiping God with this beautiful new gift.
Then the Lord asked me to SHARE the praise music He’d taught
me to play.
I froze. It was one thing to play these songs that sounded
amazing to me just for the Lord in my worship time, but quite another to make
them public.
FEAR & DOUBT reared their ugly heads and whispered, “You
know absolutely nothing! These songs only sound good to you because you don’t
know anything at all about music. You are only an artist, you aren’t really a
musician. No one will listen to this music from God and everyone will make fun
of you.”
It was then that I decided, “Maybe the Lord wants me to take
piano lessons.”
However, after going through three piano teachers and never
being able to quite finish even one beginner book because reading notes was
such a challenge for me, I finally realized it was not what the Lord wanted for
me.
“For we walk by faith
and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
One teacher looked at a printed musical score from an
original composition from the Lord and just shook her head, mystified. “This is
way beyond you.”
“But I created it, I mean, God created it through me,” I
said.
One great thing did come of my piano lessons though. I loved
learning the music scales! Somehow that is the one thing that I could master
and the Lord helped me use this knowledge to compose many prayer songs.
Yet my music from the Lord sounded very different from other
contemporary Christian music.
I had to come to terms with the fact that its true Creator,
the risen Lord Jesus Christ who lives in my heart, was composing His music
through me just the way He wanted it.
I had to trust Him that it was good enough.
This was going to take a significant leap of faith and
courage.
When I had been working as a professional artist, I would
never submit anything unless it rose to my “perfectionist” standards.
To me, my piano prayers were a beautiful gift from the Lord
that I played back to Him in worship. They did not have to measure up to any
human standard of musical taste or preference for I knew that Jesus had made
them, loved them, and accepted them.
Now the Lord was asking me to share His songs with the
public who did measure its music to a standard. I had no idea what those
musical standards were. I had no real musical knowledge.
“Oh Lord, I’m just an artist, not a real musician. Do You
really want me to share Your songs?”
Suddenly I realized I could say, “Yes or no, Lord,” to His
beautiful gift.
But then, He had laid down His life for me. He had said to
His Father when faced with a humiliating, agonizing death on the cross just to
bear all my sins, to be made a curse for me so that I might have eternal life
with Him, “Father, not My will but Thy will.”
He knew people would make fun of Him, scorn Him, reject Him,
that He would even have to face the cold dark waters of death, the stench of
hell where His beloved Father, from whom He had never been separated could not
come. He faced all of this to pay the ransom for my soul.
How could I, if I truly loved my Savior, not lay down my
life, my will for Him? How could I not share His songs, come what may?
True love lays down its life for Jesus.
I realized then, it’s not about me, or my will, but what God
wants to do through me, even if I end up looking like a fool.
Love obeys her Lord and Savior no matter what He asks her to
do for Him.
The most amazing thing I’ve learned through this experience
is that God would choose an ordinary sinful woman like me, saved only by the
almighty grace of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and say, “Here is a gift.
All you need to do is receive it by faith.”
Just like the gift of salvation He offers each of us in
Christ.
And then it terrified me that He would take that same
ordinary Christian woman, and say, “Now use that gift for My glory!”
I’m not perfect, far from it, nor is any of my music.
But God uses imperfect vessels.
God up and turned me into a musician for HIS glory-not mine.
He put in me a gift I knew absolutely NOTHING about.
How I thank the Lord for the way He has used the gift of
music to lovingly humble me in all of my other gifts.
"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could
ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by
pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within
us." Ephesians 3:20-21(The Message Bible)
Most of the music the Lord gives me is inspired by the
Bible.
The songs all begin as prayers, and I will praise the Lord
forever for giving me this wonderful way to worship Him.
My fervent prayer is that many people will be blessed and encouraged by this gift of God’s music. For all of the songs are essentially prayers ascending to heaven in a musical form breathed into life by the God who lives in me.
The Lord Is My Light And My Salvation ~ Piano Solo ~
"Where Angels Dance Original Piano, Guitar, & String Instrumentals"
Available on iTunes, Amazon, CDbaby, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and more...
"Christ Prays For Us" ~ 5" inch x 7" inch, Double-Matted Fine Art Print. Copyright © 2015 Suzanne Davis Harden All Rights Reserved..jpg)