I have songs that make my cheeks flush and my skin tingle. For as long as I can remember, I have sat at the feet of music, my hands beckoning, my heart raised within me, ripe ears tuned to receive lessons and counsel. Lessons on love, affection, commitment, passion, desire, romance…beauty.  For as long as I can remember, my soul would rise to heights of ecstasy and then dive to lows of woe, simply at the convergence  of certain melodies. “Music,” they say, “is an outburst of the soul.” How true.

However, when I renewed myself in my choice to be a Christ-follower, a bunch of years back, the Spirit stirred within me. He knew what music was to me. He also knew that the faces and paces of the music I had rended my heart to up until that time had warped my understanding of the very life He had now breathed into me.

“Your music has to come along for the journey, through the narrow gateway,” He said. But I wanted no such thing. I was convinced it would mean a life stripped of all tingling melodies. I couldn’t have that. I loved my music. I embraced the creative tones and the cleverly strung-out lyrics, even when the words and messages cringed at my newly reborn spirit. I loved to trail into dance spaces and have my feet respond to the soul-rustling sounds, my mood, rising, pulsating, lifting me, just because someone clicked ‘play’.  So I gripped tighter at my seat, at the feet of my old counsellors, my old teachers, my old music. “Take me through the narrow gateway Lord, if You must. But leave my music on the broad way!”

But there was a new Counsellor humming in my inner parts, and He was steppin’ like a boss, strutting from my eternal heart-space to His eternal heart-space, filling me with music, new lyrics and songs that strummed the chords of my spirit, like my old music never had. Life-giving melodies that drew me into a Presence that some have described as the purest euphony bursting forth. “You, oh Lord, are my symphony, perfect in harmony” – Fred Hammond.

So, if my soul must be captivated by rhythm, let it be glorious and heavenly. Let its harmonies fascinate my heart as it re-educates me about love, affection, commitment, passion, desire, romance…beauty, behind the narrow gateway. If my music is an outburst of my soul, and my love for its emotive eruptions compel me to remain seated at its feet, spellbound as it croons its counsel into my ears, then may I compel it, my music, to sit, fixated, channeled, composed, at the feet of the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit. “My music, my counsellor, meet the Counsellor. Come along; He’s taking us on a journey, through the narrow gateway.”

Here’s the song that’s fascinating me tonight. It pulls on my heart strings because its lyrics (captured in the feature image) tell of what I have tasted and seen.

‘Holy Spirit‘ as performed by Kim Walker Smith.

There’s nothing worth more that will ever come close
No thing can compare You’re our living hope
Your Presence Lord

I’ve tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves
Where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone
Your Presence Lord

Holy Spirit You are welcome here
Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere
Your glory God is what our hearts long for
To be overcome by Your Presence Lord

Let us become more aware of Your Presence
Let us experience the glory of Your goodness

Critically, I end this by saying I am Toyin, quirky writer of this piece. I am very much convicted by my own words, and I remain under construction.

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I’d love to hear from you!

Thank you for reading and engaging. I’d love to hear from you! What/who were your “counsellors” before your commitment to being a follower of Jesus Christ? Which of them still remain your counsellors and which have you allowed to accompany you on your transformation journey through the narrow gateway? Hey, maybe you have held back from making that commitment at all because you just are not up to bowing out your counsellors. Well, get in touch! Tell me your story.  Let’s see where it takes us.

Place your comments in the section below, or you could send me a private message on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. And don’t forget to like my page on Facebook (@coachtoyin) and follow me on Twitter (@thenarrowgate4) and on Instagram (@coach_toyin). Engage, share and re-share.

I look forward to getting to know you better. Keep truth-seeking.

Yours in truth-telling,

Toyin

Toyin is a writer, blogger, vlogger, speaker, chat-show host (WITNG Chats) and all round lover of encouraging life behind the narrow gateway. She is the founder of The Narrow Gateway, which is a platform that houses an ever-growing collection of creative resources and materials that are dipped in truth according to God’s Word, geared to trigger us to ask, WITNG? “What is the narrow gateway?” when we encounter life’s events and nuances. Because when we discover the narrow gateway in any given circumstance, we become kitted to be transformed, that is, to bring our thoughts, values and actions in line, so that as we increasingly resemble Christ, we can burst forth in expressing the gifts and callings that God embedded in us, which are designed to be the solutions to many quagmires in our world. (www.thenarrowgateway.com)