Devotions with Dre Episode 26: Hearing from God through Music with Sarah Holcomb

Dre: [00:00:00] Hey everyone. I'm sharing a bonus conversation with you today. This is from Sarah Holcomb's podcast. She's a good friend of mine. Her podcast is called Sincerely God, and it's all about hearing from God, and this conversation that I got to have with her is all about hearing from God through music. We talk about a couple other modalities as well, but really talk about examples of how to hear from God music, so if that's something you're interested in, stay tuned. This is actually a really meaningful episode to me and if you listen, you'll learn some things and be reminded of some good things about the Lord.

So enjoy and let me know what you think. Message me on Instagram at Binley worship and you can even suggest future episode topics. Thanks guys.

Sarah: I am really excited to introduce my friend Dre, who was super instrumental of getting me. Going on even how [00:01:00] to do a podcast and like what mic to get and all the cool stuff. But in season two, I really wanna do more interviews with people to talk about different ways that we hear from God. 


Because I don't want you to be limited to only the ways that I can personally speak from because God speaks in so many different ways. So Dre is a good friend of mine that really has been just an inspiration to me, a mentor in a lot of ways, and she hears from God in so, so many ways. But we're gonna talk about one specific one for sure today, but why don't you just a little bit of an introduction, ways that they can connect with you. 


Dre: Well, I was born in Louisiana. I grew up in Kansas City. When I was 18, I decided to move somewhere that was more of a music hub. So I was thinking either New York or Nashville or LA or maybe Berkeley School of Music in Boston, and the Lord made every door slam shut except for [00:02:00] APU. 


He like blessed me with a scholarship and everything kept working out and it felt like he was putting me at APU. My family came with me to visit. The campus and felt the peace of God just we were all like, yeah, you're supposed to be here. So when I was 18, I went to APU (Azusa Pacific University), surprised myself by actually finishing the degree. 


I thought it was just an excuse to come to LA and write songs. But I actually finished the degree, which almost killed me 'cause I was trying to do way too much at the same time. But graduated in’07 and then moved to Pasadena. Went on tour, moved to Sunland, which is like north of Burbank because I got a stalker in Pasadena…


And then lived with a house full of musicians. Learned a lot about music, production, sync, licensing, playing with bands, all that stuff. So started doing all that more. And then in 2009 I was on [00:03:00] tour on an international like solo tour. I got really sick. I had been not feeling great for a while, but I got really sick. 


It just finally hit me and my immune system just kind of crashed and burned my digestive system, especially. I had to move to Kansas City to just live in my parents' basement and just try to not die. And then by the end of 2010, my healing process had begun. And I was able to at least function. So I moved back to the house full of musicians. 


They helped me a lot. I worked part-time, went to a lot more doctors, tried to just start piecing my life back together. Definitely didn't travel internationally or anything for like a long time. And then the Lord started having me do like more worship music. So I still write pop songs and I still do things for sync licensing and I still play with other artists and a couple of random things. 


But this big addition to my music journey has [00:04:00] been just doing a ton of worship music at the church where we met and elsewhere with other people. So that's been really fun. Also, at the church where we met, I met my spouse, my husband. And we've been married 10 and a half years. So that's way too much about me. 


Sarah: And then you have a podcast.

Dre: I have a podcast called Devotions with Dre, and it's me talking about. The things I think God's highlighting in scripture. I love studying the Bible and I've done it. I'm old now, so I've done it for quite a long time. And while I don't have any formal like Masters of Divinity, I, I listen to a lot of conversations with people that do. 


And so anyway, I just, I love the Bible, so with all the disclaimers I go on and talk about different passages in the Bible that have meant a lot to me. So hopefully it's helping somebody, but if, if it's not, it's helping me. So I'm [00:05:00] learning more than ever.

Sarah: Awesome. Well, one of the things for this, this podcast is so much about hearing from God. 


So you've had quite a journey. How has hearing God speak to you impacted your life and your journey?

Dre: I mean, a lot of times I feel like it's saved my life. Like it's kept me safe. I did a lot of traveling before I got sick by myself. Like I would fly to like Asia all by myself and just be in some random city that I couldn't pronounce in Vietnam and play music and then try to find my way back home to a hotel. Like it was a lot of stuff that I don't recommend as far as safety concerns, but I was very adventurous, very independent as a younger person, and there were times that He, the Lord thankfully would like warn me not to go in a certain room or warn me not to make friends with a certain person. 


And it was [00:06:00] just, it wasn't audible, it was just a gut feeling. And even, I mean, non-Christians get gut feelings about certain people and stuff too, so maybe they would describe it as just the gift of fear kind of thing, like the, the gut feeling is always right, usually so, but it was the Lord in my case. 


He would supernaturally speak to me in my spirit and keep me out of dangerous situations. Or tell me what to say to get out of certain things. And that's been my whole life, honestly. Like from literally, there's so many miracles I can say of keeping me safe. I can just tell you time, after time after time, even with the stalker, the Lord was speaking through scripture to like warning me about bad people. 


Like every time I would read the Bible and I would journal prayers, like help me be safe. But I had no idea someone was following me until months into it. And then the Lord like kept like letting me see what was going on and revealing it to me. And then I got to go on tour in [00:07:00] another state and plan my exit, to move safely and stuff. So the whole thing was covered by Lord and that's why, that's why nothing happened to me. But yeah, sometimes He'll tell you things that you don't wanna hear. I didn't wanna hear that someone was… that I was in danger or someone was following me and like that I needed to move. 


And so in His grace he kept reiterating it and Yep. So I don't know if that makes any sense, but I think other ways that God's voice, quote unquote voice, 'cause it's usually not audible, has impacted my life, is like through the healing journey. A lot of times he would guide me specifically. And I know on the interview we just did, which will be on my podcast, you talked about how the solutions that the world offers, you always get negative consequence. 


Like when you're, let's say you're in chronic pain and you're trying to do physical therapy and you'd always get like a flare up with some other muscle or, that was happening to me in my [00:08:00] digestive illness where everything I would try, it was like the supplements I needed, I would react to and you know, everything. 


I would try to get this and they would take it off the market that same week, like the things kept happening. That was always like, what in the world? I'm just trying to get better and everything I'm doing is backfiring. But when the Lord would guide me to something, it would always be simple, affordable, and no backlash. Like you need to take activated charcoal for the next three days. Okay. And then all of a sudden I'd tolerate it fine and it would work. You know, so that would, that definitely happened a bazillion times on the healing journey, and I'm so grateful. And then even before I was physically sick, I was emotionally not okay. 


Like even in junior high. The Lord was consistently talking to me through music. I [00:09:00] remember, I, I think I had, honestly, I think I had clinical depression like in eighth grade, and I was crying a lot one day and I was like in my bathroom and my, I had like a CD player because this was a long time ago in my bathroom and I was laying on the floor just trying to stop crying one day. 


And I reached up and my grandma had (my nanny, my mom's mom) had put in a CD that she got me, and it was Michael W. Smith. So I literally hit play, hit fast forward in unknown amount of times, and just was like, okay. Random song. The song said quote, don't give up Andrea. Andrea, my name. Like, it did not, I'm not, I, I literally, after a few minutes of hearing this, that was the chorus, I'm like, okay, this is unreal. 


What is happening right now? Like, am I really, I had to go, I had to stand up, get myself together and just go look at the CD cover and be like, no. Yeah, the song's [00:10:00] saying Don't Give Up, Andrea, you know, I forget the title, but yeah, it was a Michael W. Smith old school Christian music song, and that's the one that I randomly like mm-hmm. 


Sarah: Randomly. Yeah. Coincidentally

Dre: He’s definitely always been speaking to me through music too. Yeah.

Sarah: Well, I mean, it sounds like you rec, you've recognized his voice. I, you know, used quote air quotes about that, but from a very young age, which is amazing. I think most of us don't, and then it sounds like there's so many different ways you've talked about gut feeling. What I would say is like people would describe as intuition, circumstances, music, and I think that's something that is a unique thing that I know I've personally experienced too with, with music. I, I think that there's something unique about music and sound. I mean, even if you look at in the Old [00:11:00] Testament, when the Israelites would go into battle, they would send the worshipers, the music, you know, musicians as a frontline. 


That just shows you that there is something special, and I've experienced it in some of my own healing and things of just like there's something about sound and music, so I wanna talk about that. Maybe some more examples, but also what are your thoughts? If, if it's been a way that, that God has spoken to you through it, and then of course your background in music and everything that you, you understand, even just as a musician, a singer, a songwriter. What do you think it is about music? You know, what are some of your thoughts? Even of just the how of that, the why of it, kind of as you're maybe sharing examples of how God speaks to you through music.

Dre: I mean, I a hundred percent agree with what you said, and that is absolutely true, that during times of group. 


Music, like worship [00:12:00] music. So a lot of times in our context, we'll think of like a church service, the first part where they do the singing together. But it could be less formal than that too. I mean, I've been to house gatherings where we're just like just all raising our voices and different songs at the same time and just praying through song and it's absolutely true that there is a spiritual component to musical worship in that, well, like the Bible says, the Lord inhabits the praises of his people, or even just the, the, the, the word that is sung in, in faith, like what you actually believe in Jesus and you're worshiping him. You are proclaiming into the physical space, into the air, into the atmosphere around you a particular truth that's actually riding on the waves - sound waves of these - I don't wanna get too weird, but I mean, I, I believe and many other religions as well, not just Christianity, has historically asserted [00:13:00] that physical singing. And sound and music is, carries a, a spiritual weight carries healing, carries a presence. And of course, the enemy uses music too. 


But what it is, is it's, it was designed in heaven before the foundation of the globe. We live on to be a means of praise and a means of communication between God and God's beloved creation. And when we enter into that, when we participate in that through adding our voice to the throng, the centuries of ongoing praise that have happened on the earth and in the kingdom of heaven, when we join into that, we're lining up with our purpose as a created being, and we're lining up with the most powerful force that exists, which is the magnificence of God in heaven. So when you worship, you are, you're activating your choosing. You know, you're, you're entering into [00:14:00] partnering with this power. 


It's the love of God, right? It's the communion with God. So when, when you sing to him, and I mean, I would sit on the swing as like a three-year-old and sing to God like definitely, this is who I am. Make up songs because it's a relationship and music is like an artistic expression of the love of that relationship. 


So that, I mean, it's all art, dance. Painting When Christians do art, I mean this is infused in it 'cause it's who we are as children of God. But like lyrics even, I don't know if you've ever had the experience of like waking up with a song in your head and you know it's God talking to you and sometimes it's a Christian song. 


Sometimes it's like literally not even a Christian song, but he's making it have a meaning that is like a conversation with you. And in my case, I'm a songwriter. Sometimes I'll wake up with songs in my head that. I know no one's written yet. And then other times [00:15:00] it'll be songs that I've, I've, like heard songs that are special to me or somebody remind me of somebody or, and you just take a moment before the song fades outta your head and you forget about it, and you just say, okay, Lord, like that's notable. 


Why did you put this song in my head? When I was going to move back to California after I was sick, my mom woke up with Happy Trails in her head and like bought me a card that said Happy Trails. But it was, it was God saying, okay, the next season's here, bless her as she moves back. 


Like God uses songs to communicate with us in so many ways, and I'm sure everyone's also had the experience of standing in a worship service. And feeling like that exact song applies to your exact need or situation. The Holy Spirit will do that often.

Sarah: Mm-hmm. I think I've experienced, I've definitely experienced the waking up with a song I that actually, I think once I started [00:16:00] noticing it, it happens frequently. 


I would say at least once a week, if not multiple times a week, I'll wake up with a song. It's usually, uh, a Christian song, but no, sometimes it's not. And, and I've had it where even like to the point where I'm like, ah, I gotta be somehow making this up, but why would I be making this up? I kept getting, I believe I can fly over and over again, like not just in, when I would wake up and I really felt like it was God speaking to me of like, this is what I'm calling you to, like, there is a next level, there's a level of freedom that is like flying and you have to believe it because I, I don't listen to that song. Like it's been years since I've, I've listened to that song.

Dre: Shout out to song that… What was it? Bugs Bunny in it.

Sarah: I believe, Space Jam.

Dre: Yes. Shout out to Space Jam, but not necessarily to the artist that sang that song that we will not name. Who is a horrible person,

Sarah: but Okay. Yes. Besides that, but like yeah. Total random. Mm-hmm. [00:17:00] Where it is focusing on the lyrics. Right. And then, I mean, I've experienced where. 


Even whether it's like classical or something where there's just something about music that speaks to so many different layers of who we are, right? And so there can even be no words, or it can be in a different language, but there's just like, there's a power in music and that can speak to your soul. 


I've experienced that too. I think it, I, you know, I've shared some of this before where it's like, be aware of what you're listening to because there's, it's, it's like somebody can say something to you or it can be sung to you and communicated in music. The power level between somebody saying it versus you receiving it through music is dramatic and so Sure that [00:18:00] whatever song, maybe like super catchy and super popular, but what's the message that it is communicating to your soul? Because it, it is impactful. There is something about music and not saying like, there's some amazing, you know, secular non-Christian, I'm not against like non-Christian music. It's just know that there is some kind of special power that I can't understand or describe within music and so be aware of what messages you're allowing to come into your soul with that power.

Dre: Yeah. We get to decide what we meditate on and what we feed into our brain. So yeah, I mean I've, a lot of times I've been in seasons where I'll fast all secular music for like 40 days or for, until I get through a certain battle because I want what I'm listening to, to be worship music.[00:19:00] 


But then in other seasons, I certainly feel liberated and free to like see what's on the top 10 chart on Spotify, especially if I'm writing a pop song that day and like trying to inspire off of like relevant things. But, but it is also, I'm very sensitive to. A lot of popular music that's non-Christian today is actually very attached to demonic things. 


I know this, the week that we're recording this, there's a lot of online conversation. 'cause most people are age that we know a lot of her parents. And the Taylor Swift album that just dropped is more overtly witchcrafty Now, if you haven't noticed before now that Taylor Swift as an artist is very witchy, welcome to finally realizing that. But it's 'cause one of her songs like. Basically, a lot of people are saying it mocks God. It's basically like, um, putting the church in a bad light or expressing a supposed bad experience with the church. I don't know that she has any [00:20:00] actual history of going to church, but she wrote a song that made it sound like she had some sort of bad experience. 


So all that to say. It is lonely to like be a music creator and be in love with God, and of course there's plenty of us, but we're in the minority and it's an industry that is very, very historically very dark and very troubled and demonic, honestly. So there is that.

Sarah: But I mean, we're talking about spiritual history, it makes sense, right? If, if Lucifer was. In charge of worship. Right. And like we're just talking about the fact that there's so much power in it. Of course there's going to be. You know, I believe that there are good and evil, you know, spiritual forces, that it's going to be an area where the enemy is going to try to influence and use that power, because he knows that there's, there's power in it. So, [00:21:00]

Dre: yeah. And you get people who are just like, oh, I don't listen to the words. It's to be, it's like, oh, stop being so pro clutchy. You know? Like it's art. But it's like, well, okay, but it's just like. Anything like, I am choosing to live an intentional life and I want to serve God with every part of me. 


Everything in my life. I mean, I have the freedom to listen to whatever I would want to, but nowadays I don't even, it's like most media is not appealing to me because it is so far down some other road of just like, I don't even wanna deal with having to discern all that and deal with all that like, so I'm pretty even what I like movies I'll watch or…, I think it's 'cause like how we're talking about like everyone's gifted differently, like discernment gift is like so sensitive that that I don’t listen to some of that media consumption stuff. [00:22:00]

Sarah: So my favorite book is called The Veil by Blake Healy, and he shares in it, pretty sure it's in that one, an experience that he had. So. He's one that sees in the spirit and he shares this experience where he had like a vision he was listening to, I don't even know what the band was. 


It was something, you know, non-Christian Drop F-bombs in it kind of a song. And he ha as he's listening to it in his headphones, he has a full on vision of this spiritual battle. That was basically the song. Even though it wasn't Christian, the, the artists of that song, like through their lyrics, through what they were, you know, their intent in that music, they were to the best of their ability partnering to fight for Good and what was coming through that music. 


He, he basically saw this whole like movie battle [00:23:00] scene play out and it was beautiful. Like I. I've read that book multiple times and it brings me to tears every time because it, it is just, it is very spiritual. I can sense the spiritual impact of it. So I, I bring that up because I know that… I don't want to send a message to say that, like, if it's not Christian, it's not good. 


Like that's not my intent at all because I absolutely believe that there is incredible power and good that can come from music, but. I've kind of noticed, so like, this isn't, I don't even say it was like an intentional thing that I did, but years ago, I, I like 99% of the music that I listened to is Christian and I think it started because it was like I just wasn't liking the popular music and I got tired of listening to kind of the oldies kind of thing. 


And it just, especially with just my [00:24:00] own seasons of life, like it. It uplifted me. But I do think, I mean, there's so many things about my own personal journey and healing journey that were intentional, that I think had significant impacts to be able to, to grow me and all the things. But I do think that it's just been this like, call it like undercurrent in my life for years now, a decade of anytime I'm in my car, like I listen to typically worship, music, Christian music all the time. Yeah. And some of it annoys me, some of it, even like the theology of it, like I wanna change the lyrics. But I do think it, it has had an influence. Like if there's power in music and sound, and the only messages that I am receiving through that powerful form are Jesus centered, how can it not have a positive influence? 


[00:25:00] That's just been for me, and I definitely, I'm not a, like, it wasn't something where I was like, I need to only listen to Christian. It was, it just kind of like, I ended up doing it just because I didn't really, I couldn't find a genre that I liked. But in hindsight, like I, I do actually think it's been very impactful. 


Um. So, yeah.

Dre: Yeah. Well, a couple things to add to that, just for additional nuance. Like you were saying, he was listening to a song that had F-bombs in it, but it was actually filled with truth in a way. Mm-hmm. Like it was a fight for good. Mm-hmm. Kind of like a, maybe about a certain justice issue or something. 


Well, there's a lot of music like that. If you look at certain genres of like rap or reggae or, you know, it's actually a lot of kingdom themes in it because, I mean, yeah, they're gonna say a cuss word every moment or two, but that's not a top thing that bothers me. But if you look at the content of the words, they're pointing [00:26:00] out truth. 


They're pointing out injustice. They're, um, singing about like oppressed people group and a situation that needs to be rectified. Like whether it's like in our nation or, or whatever. So. Those songs sometimes have a lot of good in them, and I, I love some of them. And then on the flip side, of course, the worship music industry is very imperfect. 


You have certain songs with questionable theology or even just certain artists that aren't living. The life that you would hope they would as a Christian and as an influencer, that's a Christian. And certain churches that create tons of music but are problematic in other ways or whatever. And I will even say this, if you've been through church hurt, sometimes you have trouble listening to worship music for a while, or if something horrible has happened in your life. 


There's gonna be a season where that would be a [00:27:00] difficult ask and a difficult burden to put on somebody because what they're walking through has been shocking and traumatic for whatever reason. And to stir up emotions through song and through songs about God… they're not ready for that yet, and it's not time to listen to worship music. 


And do I think that needs to be the rest of their life? No. Hopefully not. But. There's different seasons that we go through and there's different art forms that we find comfort in in those different seasons. What I find sad is when somebody can't listen to certain worship groups because of their personal experience at a church or at or with those worship people. 


So my prayer is just to like live my rest of my life, hopefully a little bit above reproach that way or above board so I can make music that isn't tainted by like some hidden scandal or some culty theology or some, you know, like [00:28:00] I just pray that God keeps me on kind of a straight narrow path and whoever's supposed to hear my worship stuff is like the right people that are supposed to hear it. 


And I know that I have been an imperfect leader slash influencer, so I'm not saying like that I hope my reputation goes unscathed 'cause that's already out the window. But I do hope to have integrity as I create this music. You know, so, I dunno, that was a little bit of a tangent, but.

Sarah: But I definitely like that whole point of it's not intended to be a burden, right? 


Anything that we turn into, it has to be exactly like this. That to me, that's not God. Right? That's not the way of love. And that's like, I definitely don't want that to be communicated. So if somebody, like if you were to talk to somebody and they, they say like, oh, I've never, I've never heard God speak to me through music, what might you encourage them in? 


Or like how would they maybe get started to pay more attention or [00:29:00] be aware of what that might look like for them?

Dre: Yeah. Well, okay. That's a great question. First, I think since we've made all these disclaimers about not wanting to be legalistic or exclusive with worship music and knowing that there's nuance and seasons, having said all that, and keeping it in consideration, in general, if you are someone who can't listen to worship music, sometimes there is a reason. 


Sometimes that is actually a spiritual blockage that you will want to address with the Lord, and sometimes you'll need people who are familiar with deliverance ministry to come along and help with that process and pray along with you and befriend you in that journey. If you're someone who part of your heart wants to start listening to worship music, but something's keeping you from it, or something's stopping you, that's usually significant and notable. 


Or maybe you have someone in your life that you're like, yeah, they're, now that [00:30:00] they are struggling in this way, I've noticed that they stopped listening to worship and they're only listening… You know, like it's a, it's a very common thing. It's a connector point, and so it's a good data point to see like, well, okay, is there something stopping me from connecting to God through song and, and consuming this stuff that I know would be good for me spiritually? 


And let me ask myself why, if so, and just let God come into that space and, and not in a condemning way, but just in a curious way, you know? But having said that, your question was, wait, it left my brain.

Sarah: If somebody hasn't recognized God speaking to them through music, how might you encourage them to start noticing that? 


Dre: I don't think that everyone's gonna be on the same exact level with this. Meaning we, we do have primary ways that we, uh, like my husband's is more nature, mine is more music. You know, my mom's is more like prayer and. [00:31:00] And my dad's is more Bible study, you know? So we all are gonna have our main connecting ways with God. 


And I don't think everyone's supposed to be as into music as me, but if you do desire to open this possibility up a little more openly and allow for some room, make room for God to speak if He would so choose through song. One thing you can do is just literally read lyrics so you know how on Sunday, part of what helps us pay attention out of church is that not only are we hearing the worship music, we're also reading along with it. 


So even if you're not necessarily someone who's gonna belt it out and sing really loud at that service, you're engaging and meditating on these same truths because you're hearing it and you're seeing it. Well, you can do that in your own time and it's easier than ever because if you're listening on Spotify, I think the lyrics are right there. 


I know on Apple music [00:32:00] there, but even just like YouTube lyric video, like find a song that you feel connected with or a topic and just type worship songs about blank topic and give yourself a little bit of time. Use it as a form of meditation, because especially these songs that have good theology, you really can let it sink in a little bit and take some time and like meditate on it. 


So maybe you're looking up the words and you're listening through the song. Maybe you're singing along. If no one's listening and you're home by yourself, you in your car and you're letting yourself kind of soak in the presence of God and the music is not necessary to do any of that, but it's a tool that often helps because it connects with our spirit. 


And music has a way of bypassing some of the blockades that we often have in our mind because it involves more than rational thought. So, yeah, maybe that's one way. Mm-hmm. Just to [00:33:00] make, make some space.

Sarah: Mm-hmm. And I think, you know, I've, I've shared this with dreams. Um, first ask, ask God, like, Hey, I, I want to be more open to this. 


Will you speak to me in this way? Will you gimme an awareness? And then take note. So it could be that you just have a random song coming into your head because you just listened to it, or it could be that it's something that God's communicating to you, but until you start noticing, and I think tracking, like there's the act of like writing it down is a stewarding of it. 


Like I talk about that with dreams, right? Even if you only remember a little bit, but making note writing down in some way, you're stewarding what has been given. So that would be another thing. And you might over time. Be able to look back and see, okay, I can actually see this particular song that came up.[00:34:00] 


It really meant something to me the next day or whatever. And what I will often do is if I wake up with a song or if. I just seem to keep getting a song like coming up in my mind. I'll go and listen to it. So I'll, I'll like, it's like leaning in, right? If somebody like whispers something to you, do you just keep walking or do you like stop and listen? 


So I think being intentional to say, okay, I'm not sure. I could just be songs are catchy. They get in our mind it could just be that, but I'm gonna go ahead and listen to it. Right? And then sometimes by listening to it. That's when you start, like it's, it starts hitting the other parts of you, right? 


Instead of just having this thought in your mind of this, the song, the chorus keeps playing. Now you're listening to it and all of a sudden it's like, okay, like whether it's the gut feeling, it's that heart, it's just like, mm-hmm. This is resonating to me. And then when I do typically get lyrics. [00:35:00] It's usually notable, which lyrics.


Like sometimes it'll be the, so I've had times where just the melody… I don't know the words, like maybe I don't know the song well enough, and I will wake up with, I'm like, I know this is a song and I can like, hum it, but I don't know the words. And like, those are fun Google searches of like, how do I find this song? 


But usually I do. And then it'll be like, okay, yeah, I, I needed that exact set of lyrics. So I, I almost look at it like sometimes I feel like we just have, when I, I think I, I talked about this a little bit in the dream interpretation prior episode where I talked about, it's like you get downloaded into your brain, into your mind, these different symbolic meanings, and then it becomes this catalog that God can choose to pick from like a glossary of terms in your computer. And [00:36:00] similarly music is so catchy, it creates this like download of phrases that God can pull out at any point in time. 


And sometimes it's easier for it to get pulled out as a song lyric than it is just like a straight thought in your mind of God speaking something.

Dre: yeah, I don't know why this just came to my imagination, but as an example of that, like if someone woke up going like. 


And they don't really know the words, but they're like, okay, I'm gonna try this thing Sarah said and see if I can Google and see if God's trying to tell me something. And then they're like, okay, clap along. Oh, okay. Here's the song. Clap along. If you feel that happiness is for you. And all of a sudden this phrase, happiness is for you, hits them in the gut because. 


They've never really thought about God caring if they were happy or not. And maybe [00:37:00] he's trying to tell them that happiness is for you. Like, I've actually created this thing and I want you to enjoy it, and I wanna help you get there. You know, so it, it is kind of like, God is fun. He's fun. The way he talks to us is fun. 


He has a sense of humor. He's a joyous God. And that happened to me with a song. I really felt like there were some significant truths. In a song. It was the song No Longer Slaves. So the first layer of it was I started singing it around my house because my husband and I have both had these kind of different journeys with like fear. 


So I started saying, I'm no longer a slave to fear. I'm a child of God. I'd be walking up the stairs singing. When he wasn't home, just singing it over my house as like, almost like when people walk around and anoint their house. Like I was just like doing that, but with a song, you know? And then [00:38:00] I realized like the first line was like, you surround me with a song. 


Well, second line. Of deliverance, and I'm like, you surround me with a song of deliverance. I think that's a Bible verse. So then I like study that Bible verse, and then I'm like, oh my goodness, He surrounds us with a song of deliverance. Like what? Like that's crazy. So I meditated on that for like two weeks. 


He's surrounding me with a song of deliverance from my enemies. Do you realize the war, the, the, the key. That song is in warfare, in the like, victory and deliverance in your life. So then I'm ge, I'm geeking out about this song, singing it everywhere, making up my own verses all the things. I fly to Nashville. 


I. I walk into my friend's church. She's singing another incredible song that she wrote called Make Room. Amazing. It's the first time I heard it, so I'm like over there like, wow, like worshiping. Her voice is like so [00:39:00] great. Well then after church, this lady walks up to me and she goes, when you walked in, I saw in the spirit all these music notes around you. Around you, like around your belly. And I was like, that's interesting because like the Lord's been telling me like, well, I'm a musician. So she's like, oh, I knew it. You know? And then I'm like, no. Like the Lord's been telling me he's surrounding me with a song. And that when we do battle, we can actually get to the place where we're not really doing battle because we're just like worshiping and as long as Moses' arms were raised up, you know, there was victory and the, the people of God were winning the battle. But, but at the moment where he got like tired, like his friends had to hold his arms up. So there was this posture that was important in the, in the victory, in the battle. Well, what that means to me is when I am worshiping God, that is my victory. [00:40:00] This is the point in my life. So whenever I'm doing it, that means that the enemy hasn't been able to keep me from doing it.

So that's the victory. Like I don't have to even really engage in warfare anymore in the way that I used to think. I mean, I may have a time where I have to like say in the name of Jesus, get outta here or something, but the amount of energy I used to think that I had to exude. 


Versus now. It's just like, no, it's like, it's like I just love God. I love him so much. There's no room for that crap anymore. I'm not afraid. I'm in love. You can't be in love and afraid at the same time. So anyway, so that song was a theme song for an entire season of what I was learning from Jesus, you know? 


So that's fun.

Sarah: That's beautiful. And just powerful and yeah, it's awesome. Well, is there anything else that you wanna share before we wrap [00:41:00] up?

Dre: My sister-in-law has always listened to my music, which is like the sweetest thing. She's four, almost four years older than me, and I've known her since I was in junior high. 


And she's just so awesome for being so supportive over the years of like just having my music in her life, you know, way over there in a different state. And she had a friend who got a severe injury, like she had a bad fall and she got severely injured, like traumatic brain injury. She was in the hospital and there's this really old song of mine called, It'll be All Right. 


And my sister-in-law knew it wasn't on Spotify, it's not out anymore. Like I took it the whole album. I was just like, that's very, very old. We can't be doing that. So I took it off everything and that was the only song. People were like, wait, where's It'll Be Alright. So she, so what I decided to do was on my last album, just like put a new version of it. 


Like re-release this [00:42:00] one old song. Right. Well, something just like made her want to. I just check one more time if it'll be All right. Might be on the internet somewhere. And it was the week that I had released that album and it, and she found it on Spotify and she was just like, oh my gosh, I'm about to go visit my friend in the hospital. 


And I'm so excited that this song is here now. And like she wrote me this message about how she's gonna share it with her. And I, I share that to say that was the Lord, like the timing and the prompting to look, and the prompting to me to put it on. Like he, I think He just likes music. Like he just, He chooses to speak to people through songs and the amount of humbling it is that it's like when it's your songs, sometimes, that's just cool. 


He just loves that stuff. I think he could [00:43:00] be boring and dry and just say it and plain old school vernacular with thee’s and thys in it. But he's fun and there's freshness and newness and creativity, right. So yeah, that's why he used the songs, you know. W

Sarah: ell, thank you so much for sharing everything. I would love for you to share how people can get in touch with you, and then I would love, if you would just kind of say a prayer over the people that are listening that, that they would maybe connect in new ways through music. Well, if, if for whatever reason you feel like you wanna get ahold of me, you can email me. You can follow my Instagrams. I have pop music and worship music.

@HopefulAndrea is pop music and then. B-I-N-L-E-Y. Worship is my worship side project. Yeah. Or you can find those things on [00:44:00] music platforms if you'd like to listen to them. And yeah, I would love to pray for, for anybody who's listening, and yeah, just bless them. God, we thank you for how creative you are and how beautiful you are, how unending the revelations of your beauty are. 


And a million, billion songs wouldn't be enough. But we love expressing our praise to you, writing new songs for you. We love singing to you. We love lifting our hands in awe and wonder and, and excitement about you. We love you and many, many of us have felt. Your prompting and your love and your grace in our lives and, and even through music, some of us. 


And God, we pray for more of that. We pray for more of your involvement. We invite you. We make room for you. We pause and yield and submit to you so that you would take over, speak to us clearer, draw us closer. Make us [00:45:00] more like you. Make us into people who know the shepherd's voice and follow your direction and hear the voice behind us telling us, go in this direction, or that help us tune into You. 


Help us focus on You. Help us get rid of distractions that keep us from you. It's all worth it, Lord, because knowing you is the most beautiful thing. We pray you would speak to us in new, fresh ways. And that your will would be done completely in each of our lives. I bless whoever's listening. I just pray a blessing and a fresh excitement about creativity and about newness and about art, and about the beauty in life. 


That their eyes would be open to see that, that their ears would be open to hear the goodness all around them. And it's all from you. Lord. We give you all the glory and all the credit. Pray these things in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.

Sarah: Thank you so much.

De: Thanks.