Once, for well over a week, I “heard” a certain song going over and over in my spirit. No, not some clever “jingle” created by Madison Avenue. This has been a song that we used to sing years ago, and when I say I have “heard” it in my spirit, I am speaking of when the Holy Spirit “sings” to our hearts and spirits. Some of you know immediately and exactly what I’m saying, while some of you may think I’m “hearing voices”. Well, allow me to explain. This following hymn is not the song of which I am speaking, but I’ll use it to make a point; most of us are familiar with the hymn, In the Garden ~

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the Voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me,
And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

This is a most wonderful hymn, giving us a clear picture of how very “near” our Lord truly is. But Is He? Is He really that close to us? I believe He is, as do some of you, but we cannot “believe something” merely because we want to, or because we feel inspired by some song. So, let us move to the Word, to see what it may say. To begin with, Jeremiah speaks to us, followed by the words of Zephaniah, a minor prophet:

Jeremiah 32:41 “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul”.

Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God in the midst of you is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over you with singing”.

Here’s the NIV: Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His Love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Rejoice -- “to be bright, cheerful; be glad, greatly make joy, make mirth, rejoice.”

There are two words for Joy -- First: “He will rejoice over you with Joy” -- Joy here means “blithesomeness or glee, exceedingly filled with gladness, joy, joyfulness, mirth, pleasure, rejoicing; to be joyful, be merry-hearted, rejoicing.”

Second: “He will Joy over you with singing” -- “to spin round (under the influence of emotion), usually to rejoice; be glad, be joyful, rejoice.”

Singing --“shout of joy; to cry with gladness or joy; a proclamation, a rejoicing; shouting, singing, triumph”.

Also, we find in Luke 10:21, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, ‘I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Your sight’.”

As in Zephaniah 3:17, where we read “He will joy over you with singing”, this is the same manner in which Jesus rejoiced in spirit -- He “jumped for joy; exulted; He was exceeding glad, filled with exceeding joy; He rejoiced greatly; He leaped about and/or sprung up.” Was this undignified for the Son of God to have acted in such a manner? Should One Who is the Lord of All behave in such a way? He is, after all, the Mighty Warrior.

Let us not be so careless as to mis-judge what the Lord may do in our presence. Should He desire to rejoice and sing or leap before us, then we should rejoice and sing and leap with Him. Let’s look at another New Testament verse.

Hebrews 2: “(11) For both He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, (12) Saying, ‘I will declare Your Name unto My brethren; in the midst of the church I will sing praise unto You’.”

All of these preceding verses we’ve taken a look at clearly reveal that even the Lord rejoices, gets happy and displays that happiness in singing and, yes, even in dancing! The Spirit of God is not some gloomy, sad, heavy-hearted Person; He is bright and light and joyful. That is why it is good to “get to know” the Spirit of the Lord, that we may “get to know” His many moods and characteristics. One of the reasons I’ve spent the time saying all that I’ve said in the previous paragraphs, is because it helps to see how or why the Lord may sometimes use “these means” to either teach us or show us something we need to see. So...on to the song I mentioned earlier.

Ask and it shall be given unto you;
Seek and ye shall find;
Knock and the door will be opened unto you...
Allelu, Allelu-u-u-jah.

As I mentioned, that song stayed in my heart for over a week, and I knew it was the Lord “speaking” to me. He often speaks to my heart through a song. For years, He would minister to me through the song As the Deer (Panteth for the Water), and every time I heard that song, I would just sort of “melt” into His Hands, allowing Him to do whatever Work He may deem necessary. In my life, the Lord has used songs and singing more than any other method or area of ministry; I could get side-tracked here, telling story after story of how He used this song here and that song there, but I won’t. I greatly thank Him and praise Him for His Wonderful Work of Grace, which He has so patiently wrought out in my heart, and I’m especially grateful for the fact that He chose music to do it.

Many have been the nights when I’ve awaken to the sounds of music flowing in my heart and mind, and if I didn’t know that others have the same experience, I may have been a little “concerned” with it all at first. It is scriptural...here’s Psalm 149:5 to see what I’m talking about (actually, read the whole Psalm...it is very good) -- “Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds.” Also Job 35:10 -- “But none say, Where is God my maker, Who gives songs in the night.”

There is, dear saints, such a thing as God ministering to our hearts and minds, even during the night, during our sleeping or night-time hours. Also look at Psalm 127:2 -- “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so He gives His beloved sleep.” Yes, God even ministers to us in our sleep. Many times, as I said, I have awoken to “hear” the sound of some song or even some melody being “played” in my spirit. It is a most calming and refreshing experience, but -- beyond that -- there is a “purpose” to this blessing.

And so, the simple little chorus flowed through my heart and mind...but why? There always is a reason, when God places a thought, a scripture, or even a song on our hearts. All we need to do is discover just exactly what it is that He may be saying.

Now, I feel the need to make something “perfectly clear” before we go any further -- not every song or thought or idea that “pops” into our heads comes from God. I feel it so necessary to say this, for I have known some Christians who just carelessly “accepted” anything and everything, believing it had to be God. I repeat -- not every song or thought or idea that “pops” into our heads comes from God. This is so positively and absolutely true, but we must learn, through time and experience, to know the difference: What is God...what is me...what is the world or even what is the devil? Brothers and sisters...we must learn these things, long before we can ever expect to hear sounds of music from Him.

And so the chorus played on...

Ask and it shall be given unto you;
Seek and ye shall find;
Knock and the door will be opened unto you...
Allelu, Allelu-u-u-jah.

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given you...For every one that asks shall receive.”

Ask, the way it is used here, means to “ask, beg (as in pleading), call for, crave, desire or require.” What we are asking for, and the way it’s used here, means we have come to understand that we need something so badly we “crave, desire or require it.” We can even plead with God for this need...I have done this, and it works, when the heart and motive is right.

“Ask, and it shall be given you...”
Given -- means “bestowed, brought forth, committed, delivered (up), given, granted, made, ministered, offered, have power, placed, received, taken, yielded.” Ask, and it will be brought forth, committed, delivered (up), given, granted or offered to you. That’s when we ask with a great hunger and desire, pleading as it were.

“For every one that asks shall receive.”
Receive -- means to “accept, be amazed, attain, have, hold, obtain, receive, take up”. When we ask with a hungry heart, we can attain and obtain things which can be delivered, given and granted to us...not because of our faith, but rather because of our great desire and hunger and thirst to know Him. This is true desire. This is true hunger. How can I say this? Because of what “seek” means.

“Seek, and you shall find...
Find -- “to find, get, obtain, perceive, or see.” If our hearts are in a mode to worship God, desiring to be close to Him, endeavoring to know Him better, then we shall find...not only Him, but our perception of Him and His Ways will become more clear, and we will “see” and “understand” so much better. “Seeing” here is the kind of “seeing” Jesus speaks of often. It is the “understanding” kind of sight He is referring to: “he that has ears to hear and eyes to see” (Matthew 11:15 & 13:9, 16 & 43; Mark 4:9 & 23 & 7:16; Luke 8:8, 10:23 & 14:35).

“For he that seeks shall find.”
Find in this sense means the same as find above, but let’s add a little more meaning to it -- “to find, get, obtain, perceive, or see.” There are times, in the Lord, when “obtaining” is a good thing, as in Proverbs 18:22 -- “Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the LORD.”

Knock here, in this verse, means simply to “knock”, but in doing so it implies and signifies patient waiting. How many times have you gone to knock on someone’s door, only to have to wait for them to come open it? Usually, knocking on a door implies waiting...very seldom does someone come to the door at the very first touch of our knuckles to the door. And so it is with the Lord. We may have asked; we may have sought; and now we may be knocking...but we may just have to patiently “wait”.

“...to him that knocks, it shall be opened”
Opened in the manner in which it is used, gives us the meaning of a “reversal” of something or some situation. Example: That which was closed is now opened, as in Revelation 3:8 “I know your works...behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it”. To him that knocks and patiently waits for the answer, even continuing to knock...the Lord has promised: The door will be opened.

That for which we have been asking; that for which we have sought; even that for which we have been knocking and felt as though there would be no answer...there is always an answer. It may not come immediately or even clearly, but it does come. It may not be the answer we had hoped for, but it is His answer. It may even be something altogether unexpected, but it is still His answer. Learning to both hear and accept the answers from the Lord is one of the most difficult and trying things we, as Christians, will ever face, but we all must face these trying times in order to grow and learn and become more intimate with the Lord.

“Knowing” Him is more important than any other part of our relationship with Him. There will be those that do not know Him, as Jesus explains in Matthew 7:22 & 23 -- “Many will say to Me in that Day, ‘Lord, Lord, haven’t we prophesied in Your Name? And in Your Name haven’t we cast out devils? And in Your Name done many wonderful works?’ And then I will profess to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, you that work iniquity.”

I certainly do not want those words spoken to me at the Day He is speaking of...I want Him to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things...I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:21).

And here we see joy once more.

“(1) From where come wars and fightings among you? Do they not come from your lusts that war in your members? (2) You lust, and have not; you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. (3) (And when you do) ask, you don’t receive, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your own lusts. (4) You adulterers and adulteresses...don’t you know and understand (can’t you see?) that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (5) Do you think that the scripture says in vain, ‘The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy’?”

If we can truly get a grasp on what James is saying here, we would be better Christians, better brothers and sisters in the Lord and better husbands, wives and children. But, alas, the heart of man is evil, regardless of what the world may think. When James writes, “the spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy”, he is describing human nature at its worst. We strive against one another; we desire to have what others have; we ask for things amiss, which means we ask “badly, with diseased or evil intentions; we cause grievous harm; our prayers are miserable, sick, wicked, worthless and depraved”. This is a pretty strong charge put forth by James, but let us remember -- he was inspired to write that which he wrote...by the Holy Spirit.

Dear God, keep our hearts and our minds, and cause us to hear You when You call, being willing and obedient to do that which You have called us to do. Break us, mold us and make us into that which You desire. Let us be vessels of honor for You, fit for the Master’s use. Cause us to have willing hearts and minds, ever malleable and moldable in the Master’s Loving, Gentle Hands.

The thought: During the week, as I “listened” to this chorus in my heart and spirit, I want to make it clear...it was not an “intrusive sound” that I was hearing, nor was it disruptive or confusing in any way. It was, instead, a very calm and peaceful ebb and flow of the Spirit of God within the depths of my soul and spirit. This has happened on many occassions in my life, and I have learned to not only accept and appreciate it, but I’ve also learned not to take it for granted...I’ve learned to thank Him for such ministry to my heart and spirit. Whenever or however He chooses to speak and minister to us, let us be very careful to honor and respect and thank Him for it.