Supernatural Power of Music (eBook)

CHAPTER ONE

IN THE BEGINNING

In the very beginning, the Eternal God—the Unbegun One—stepped out onto the precipice of time and eternity, and through divine frequencies, He sang. His song gave birth to all matter, and every dimension was created. Because God is love, He sang a love song.

The words of the song said, “Let there be light.” When its crescendo peaked at its highest note, a burst of light exploded into being. His Voice sped through the dark at the speed of light.

Balls of fire and ice shone bright in the deepest darkness. A cloud of dust, which He sang as a nebula, formed a blood-red center surrounded by emerald fans of light. It danced to life and formed a solar system.

Asteroids and comets shot across the universe, singing back to their Creator. Swirls of color erupted. The Milky Way pirouetted into its place. Every particle of light danced to life and sang a song of its own. Songs of worship echoed at the speed of light.

The sun and the moon bowed to His majesty as they obeyed His command. Planets took form. Mars glowed red. Jupiter appeared, painted with swirls and stripes of color. Earth rocked on its axis until it locked in place. Seas and waters separated the solid masses. Trees clapped their hands in song. Rocks formed a rhythm of their own. All of creation joined His song.

A massive cosmic saturation of sound shot forth as praise to God. Every created thing harmonized in His chorus.

Many learned rabbis in Israel believe there is scriptural evidence that God not only spoke “Let there be,” but sang the worlds into existence. From this perspective music was downloaded into all of creation so that everything created had embedded within it the ability to sing a praise response back to God.

No wonder the Bible says in the Old Testament, “The morning stars sang together for joy at the work of his hands” (Job 38:7) and Jesus said in the New Testament, “If [the people] keep quiet, these stones will start shouting“ (Luke 19:40, CEV).

Physicists explain that our universe is expanding at the speed of light. Science suggests that it shows signs of acceleration beyond the speed of light. His words and musical notes have never stopped creating.

“The morning stars sang together
for joy at the work of his hands”
– (Job 38:7)

The Creative Power of Sound

It’s interesting that all matter was created by sound – the sound of His Voice. That sound created light. Light was created before the sun, which came into being on the fourth day.

How did that work? We’ll discuss it later. For now, just know that music plays a major role in creation, both then and now.

Growing up in the highlands of Virginia I learned to play guitar and sing the familiar folk songs of that area. These songs were saturated with history, humor, faith, and passion.

One Sunday afternoon I was playing and singing with friends and had leaned my guitar against the wall next to where I was seated. All of a sudden I heard it! My guitar was making sound all by itself. The strings were picking up the frequencies of the other stringed instruments being played across the room. I learned later that this is called sympathetic vibration. Even though I was very young, I grasped the concept that this was somehow related to God. Eventually I came to realize that my life should sympathetically resonate to the frequencies of God and allow them to flow through me to others. This ever-abiding fire in my bones has been a living reality now for many decades in my desire to be a conduit for the glory and love of God to pass through me to the hearts of other people.

As a singer and a songwriter, I struggled one day to find a melody to build around a new song I was writing. I was looking for a musical expression to convey to the listener my personal story of coming to faith in Jesus. I had the basic feel of the song, but I was struggling to grasp a tangible melody to build the song around.

It was a glorious fall afternoon, and the window in my study was open. I gazed outside, watching leaves of gold, orange, and crimson wave in the gentle breeze. Distracted from my song, I noticed a stunning red cardinal in the tree. He was so regal that I stopped to enjoy the moment.

Outside, I’d stacked firewood against the side of the house up to the bottom casement of the window. As if on cue, the cardinal fluttered to the top of the woodpile closest to the window. Then he turned to face me, looking right at me.

He paused, seeming to wait until he had my full attention. Then he sang a beautiful line of notes with tempo, syncopation and expression.

“Wow!” I thought, “That was beautiful!”

He stared me down. It felt like he was trying to tell me something. Then he hopped closer to the window and sang it again.

That’s when it hit me. That was the melody I’d been searching for! It was perfect in every way. It was even in the perfect key.

I wrote down the melody while it was fresh and played it on my guitar. In a moment of holy inspiration, the entire song—music and lyrics—flowed out of me. The song in its entirety was completed in less than 15 minutes. It became the title song for my CD, “Free in the Name.”

As I sat there, stunned, I thought of another scripture. “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you” (Job 12:7 ESV).

Biomusicologists argue that not only are the sounds of some animals pleasing, but they are also made up of the same musical language that humans use. Whales, for example, use many of the musical concepts found in human music, including similar rhythms, phrase lengths, and song structure. These similarities, the Science magazine writers maintain, “prove that these marine mammals are inveterate composers.”

The writers also point to birds as musicians, noting that bird songs follow rhythmic patterns and pitches that are in tune with human music. Birds not only create vocal sound, but some also add percussion to their songs.

Having been raised in the wild and beautiful highlands of Virginia, I had a good grip on nature, animals, weather, and the whole great outdoors experience. But that day, my sensitivity to the literal meaning of Psalm 66 took on new meaning. “All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.”

Psalm 50:11 says, “I know all the birds on the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine” (ESV).

That day, the word songbird took on a whole new meaning for me!

The point I’m making is that not only did sound create the universe and everything in it, but all of creation continues to sing in worship to God.

If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.
I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music.
I see my life in terms of music.
– Albert Einstein 1894-1955

My Journey

As a youngster, I craved to travel the world. My hunger for knowledge was so great that while in grade school, I read the encyclopedia from Aardvark through Zweig. I pored over every issue of National Geographic.

“That boy has wanderlust,” Mama said.

For as long as I could remember, I’d wanted to travel and sing. Sometimes I sang for pocket change. Often, I sang for free. Most of my experience was centered around acoustic folk music. Year after year, I developed my singing and guitar playing by participating in church choirs, fiddlers’ conventions, bluegrass festivals, and folk groups.

Later, in the Navy, I sang in the Blue Jacket Choir. Afterwards, I played and sang anywhere, anytime. It’s not that I wouldn’t do anything else. It’s more like I didn’t want to do anything else.

I was asked to be a guest singer at a country/gospel/bluegrass/folk event in Logan, West Virginia. Of course, it paid nothing. I was in Logan and flat broke two days before my three-song debut. On foot and hungry, I walked down the river road to a fast food drive-in. I had my guitar and backpack on as I went to the rear door of the drive-in to ask the manager if there was any work I could do in exchange for a meal.

As I look back on that experience, the manager reminds me of Polly Holliday’s character, Flo, on the 70’s sitcom Alice. I told her I was in town for the music event at the Veterans’ Memorial in two days. She got a mischievous glint in her eye. “If you’ll take your guitar and walk around the cars of all my drive-in customers and serenade them for half an hour, I’ll feed you whatever you’d like.”

And then, as if on cue, it started to rain.

Dripping wet, I sang, I ate, I cried.

Something inside me clicked that day: Sing =...