Interview:

I believe the spiritual significance of music is immense, as music touches deep into the spirit of people, as well as having a major impact on their soul (emotions), mind (thoughts), and body (sensations). I know this from the many experiences I have had, some of the key ones I will share here. My spiritual journey in music began in Fiji when I was six years old. I come from a family who don’t believe or perceive any spiritual reality, so God had to woo me and convince me. There was something about the spirit of the accapella singing particularly that touched me deep down. I was too young and inexperienced to understand that then, but I was hooked!

My next experience of the spiritual impact of music came through participation in hymns and classical choral singing, for example from Handel’s “The Messiah”, when at Public School, Dulwich College, on our U.K. posting. I was ten to thirteen at this time. There was such a power and majesty to the music, that I was caught up again. The style was radically different than in Fiji, but somehow God was revealing His Spirit through the different cultural expressions, but I knew it was His same heart beat! My understanding was growing. In time, the spiritual power of music was such a draw, that I left the usual career path I could have taken, much to the horror of my unbelieving family, to explore this journey at greater depth, and sing and play around the world. Another major experience of the power of the spirit in music was when I was around twenty, and I heard U2 in Auckland when they first came here in the early 1980’s. I had been fascinated with their Red Rocks video, featuring Psalm 40, and talk of them coming out of a Christian community in Ireland. When it came to the song “New Year’s Day” and the line “I will be with you again”, and the image of “all the colours bleeding into one”, a life-long passion of mine to see all people come together, I felt my spirit soar up through my back and up to the sky. It was a phenomenal experience!

I was hooked, further into a search for the Spirit of God, particularly through music. I have been learning more and more that music connected to the truths of the Bible, has a powerful impact on people’s spirits and lives. For example, I have been seeing music in God’s Spirit have a tangible healing effect in soul, mind, body, and spirit. I desire to see more of this as we pray “your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as in Heaven”. In contrast, during the years I played in bands with the likes of Stu G of delirious?, around the London clubs, it was blatantly obvious how many people engage with, or give air to, destructive spirits in and through music. There were many times I faced off the evil of this twisting of God’s intention of the positive power of music, through violent and sexually provocative incidents. These left me with the exact opposite feelings of the soothing, encouragement, and uplifting nature of music, as it is surrendered to the Spirit of God. I encourage you to embark on the ride of your life, in the amazing, creative, life-giving spiritual depth of God–given music! It is to be played out on all the world’s stages, so that others like me, might be drawn to the Creator, through this beautiful creative expression of His reality and on-going work in our lives, and His creation.

“I encourage you to embark on the ride of your life, in the amazing, creative, life-giving spiritual depth of God–given music!”
– David Lyle Morris, singer-songwriter