About 2 years ago I was in Cronulla at a combined churches worship gathering and Christy Wimber was teaching on having lives that provided a resting place for God. She challenged us that if we really knew that the risen Jesus was living inside of us, we would walk into work, school, shops, parks, completely different.
This sparked my thinking about the dwelling places where God inhabits. The Old Testament talks about God’s presence in pillars of fire, clouds of smoke and resting above the ark in the tabernacle. But today through the gift of the Holy Spirit, God actually chooses to reside in us when we invite him. Wow!
‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?’ - 2 Corinthians 6:19
As I spent time exploring this promise God gives of himself setting up his residence in us, setting up his home in us, I was challenged about how we could make our lives a more inviting place for God to inhabit.
I just was longing for God to feel at home within my heart, not just a casual visitor, but that my heart might be a place where God could put his feet on my coffee table, grab a snack from the fridge and move furniture around. (If I can say it like that). I want Jesus to feel at home in my heart. How incredible is it that the one who ‘speaks dust to life’ would choose to have a ‘home in this heart’?!
After mulling over these thoughts, the lyrics and melody popped out as I sat down with my guitar one day after a long walk with my Pastor Claire. Most of the current verses and chorus are what was penned on that arvo. But over the last two years, this song has gone through a few stages, new bridges, new lyric lines, new melodies - but it’s finally it’s landed.
This song was written, not as ‘pleading’ God to fill us, but more of a response to his invitation of setting up his home in us. He has already promised the fullness of his presence to dwell within us, and so for me this song was a way of agreeing with that promise and saying ‘God, I invite you to set up your home here in my heart, you are so welcome in my heart’.
If my heart is a house and it has many rooms, this song helped me to invite God into all of those rooms. To let him clean out the bad stuff, heal up the broken stuff, and bring his breath of life into every part of me, so that others may see the living God displayed through me.
As we hung out on the road with youth groups and churches around NSW & ACT, we needed a new way of singing that exact prayer. So this seemed to be something that we should sing as a community. So now this song is all of ours to share, we'd love to hear how this song has become part of your story! Let us know
Download our demo recording from Bandcamp:
(to get it free, just enter $0 as the price)