The Most Beautiful Song in Heaven

By David Hobbs

I have only experienced the supernatural through my physical senses one time in my life. Many years ago, not long after being saved, I heard the voices of angels singing during a baptism down at the Yuba River (the full experience is described in my recent book, Walking in the Spirit, chapter 11, starting on page 104). Without a doubt it was the most beautiful song I have ever heard; literally, it was indescribable. Only two of us present at the baptism heard it, and it lasted just a short time before it was drowned out by a low-flying, “demon directed,” crop dusting airplane, out working on Sunday.

I’ve never heard it since, though I’ve begged God in prayer that He would let me hear it again, or better yet, let me see Him. And I know that day is coming.

But lately I have realized that as beautiful as that song was, even though more beautiful than any song on earth could possibly be, still it was not the most beautiful song in heaven. And though I might be willing to give my right arm to hear it again, there is another song that God is yearning to hear even more, one that caused Him to give up not His right arm, but His only Son. The Bible calls it the “Song of the Redeemed.” That’s what God is yearning to hear! The beauty of that song will vindicate all the sacrifice of the cross and the work of redemption that has stretched on for the last 6000 years.

Listen, can you hear it? It’s first mentioned in Isa. 35:9 (see also Isa. 51:11 and Rev. 14:4)

8 And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness….
9 … only the redeemed will walk there,
10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

What kind of song will these ransomed sing? These “ransomed” who are the only part of creation that has experienced the full gamut of being lost in sin, being “without hope and without God in the world;” to being saved yet still subject to sin and death, finally having hope but not yet the fullness of salvation, being sealed with the promise of deliverance but still suffering daily the weaknesses of being a vessel made of clay--to now at last entering the portals of heaven fully delivered: never again to suffer temptation or the weakness of human flesh; never again to wrestle with the carnal nature and its passions, lusts and fears; never again to groan “How long O Lord, how long?” Never again to suffer calamity after calamity. What kind of song will they be singing? To the ears of heaven that will be the most beautiful song ever. That’s what God has been waiting for all these years. That’s what is more beautiful than the songs of angels who have never known the agony of sin and the thrill of redemption.

Rev. 14 makes it plain that no one else can “learn” the song—not that they couldn’t learn notes or words—but they couldn’t duplicate the depth of expression the song called for (like white churches can’t “learn” negro spirituals).

Rev. 14:1--Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

Can you hear it? Are you ready? Are you ready to sing? Are you ready to sing for your Lord in the greatest command performance the universe will ever see? Are you ready to pour out the depths of your heart and soul to the One who gave His very life to snatch you out of the clutches of hell? Get ready. Get ready to sing church!

In Pursuit of Divine Healing

By David Hobbs

Do I believe in divine healing? I have seen many people in the church over the years afflicted with terminal illnesses. While some have died, some have been miraculously healed.

Mark was a lawyer. He and his family were in our home group when he was suddenly afflicted with a brain tumor at the age of about 40. A brain tumor is considered terminal. You can operate and cut it out, but it will grow back. That’s what happened to Mark. The brain tumor was cut out, it grew back, it was cut out again, it came back again….

Now the human body can only withstand so many brain surgeries. When further operations were ruled out, Mark, increasingly desperate, began seeking out alternative treatments, grasping at straws you might say. All the while, of course, the church was praying for him. But death was rapidly approaching.

His life insurance policies had a provision that in the case of a terminal illness, within the last few months of life they would pay the death benefit early to help with medical costs.

His life insurance policies paid off. Then God miraculously intervened and healed him! That was 10-15 years ago and he’s still walking around today, perfectly whole, though without any life insurance.

Then there was Ronnie: “Mr. Tough Guy,” ex-Green Beret. He was not serving God, but God was dealing with him. He came down with lung cancer, throat cancer, and emphysema, rapidly getting worse with no hope of recovery. There came a night in the hospital when they expected him to die before morning. His wife was there, and said the smell of death was in the room.

Then Jesus showed up, appearing to Ronnie in bright light and healing him. After his healing, Ronnie started a ministry to the homeless people living in the river bottoms. His church services now are bigger than most of the regular church services in town.

I hardly knew Ronnie before his healing. He had only started coming to church and was known mainly to our pastor, though we prayed for him in men’s prayer meetings. With Mark, though he was in my home group, I didn’t get actively involved with him either. That was before my personal revival, and to be honest, when I first heard of his brain tumor, I was overwhelmed by the seriousness of it, and whatever faith I had went right out the window. I prayed, but with no conviction he’d be healed. And it was to my shame but secret relief that the Lord moved him out of my home group to be around others with more faith.

But there were two people that I actively contended for and got personally involved in the spiritual battle for their lives. Bill a lovable man, again about 40, got Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). I joined the fight for him for years. They put him in a support group of others with the disease. He outlasted them all. He hung on for 5 years as we desperately prayed and hoped for healing. But then he died: a bitter blow to all of us.

And then there was Julia, a small but feisty, on-fire-for-Jesus gal in her 40s. Julia had a heart of love (sometimes "tough love") and was one of the most selfless people I have ever known.

She got cancer in her internal organs and at first they battled it mostly within the family. After an intense prayer fight it went into remission and we praised God for the victory. But a year later it came back. This time I threw myself into the fight. I was experiencing revival in my life at the time and was eager to see what the Lord would do in answer to our prayers.

Her husband Steve, as good a man as you’ll ever find anywhere, had prayer meetings in his house several times a week. We would pray for Julia, but also praise and worship to elicit the presence of the Lord. Steve even taught himself to play the piano so he’d never lack for a musician in the house. We had wonderful times of worship, the presence and love of Jesus often being so thick you could “cut it with a knife.”

I kept looking for the ultimate position from which to pray for her healing. One way was to claim the promises in the Bible: “By His stripes we are healed;” “He sent His word and healed them;” “[He] forgiveth all thine iniquities; [he] healeth all thy diseases,” etc. Another way was to make faith declarations to her: “Be healed in Jesus’ Name;” “Jesus heals thee; go in peace.” Then there were different variations of fighting the enemy such as cursing the cancer cells, binding the power of cancer and death, and resisting the work of the devil in her life. Then there was proclaiming the destiny of God being fulfilled in her life, and prohibiting anything from interfering in that. There was bringing forth the presence of God and His anointing through our worship, filling the house with the Holy Spirit and then praying Him to hover over and heal her; and also asking the Holy Spirit within her to rise up and throw off the disease and rebuke death on her behalf. We claimed healing, commanded healing, spoke healing, asked for healing, defied the devil…. Each thing we tried seemed a little better than the last, but then there was always something else that came along that looked even surer.

Finally, one evening I was sure I had found the ultimate stance to take; this could not be improved on. “Here I take my stand.” I even told Pastor Dave I thought I had finally found the ultimate prayer position from which to claim her healing. The next morning she died.

The irony of the timing was not lost on me. I was trying to apply human thinking to a spiritual situation and definitely came up short. (His thoughts are not our thoughts and our thoughts are not His thoughts.)

So the two people in whom I invested the most of myself, died; while the two people that I judged way beyond my level of faith were healed. In all cases it seemed like God did what He wanted to do and our prayers—while important , and though He commands us to pray—were not the determining factor whether they were healed or not.

What would I do differently today? I think that one person seeking God for His will and then praying accordingly with total conviction, is more powerful than a church full of people praying without discernment. The default position that the church has used with prayer for so long—if they’re sick pray for healing, if they’re in trouble pray for deliverance, etc.—needs to be re-thought. We need the mind of the Lord!

But yes I believe in divine healing. I’ve seen it too many times not to.

Miserable Christianity

By David Hobbs

Some of the saddest people around are young people who have been raised as Christians, yet have never met the Christ they profess. They try to follow the Christian moral code, while secretly longing for the fun their non-Christian friends seem to be having all the time. They’re torn inside, feeling that Christianity and its code of conduct are right, but wondering why whoever designed Christianity couldn’t have designed a little more fun into it! Their prayers don’t seem to get answered all that often, and they hope they don’t have to stand up in class and defend creationism over evolution while their classmates snicker and their teacher scoffs. And Please, please don’t make me explain why God sends people to hell forever just for not believing in Him!

Yes this Christianity can be a miserable business can’t it?

Paul touched on this when he said in 1 Corinthians 15:19—If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

There is no way to win the war of “Christianity vs. the World,” as long as we are locked into the natural realm. In the natural—the physical realm—what the world offers looks pretty attractive compared to Christianity. Strip away eternal life, final judgment, our heavenly home, divine approval, peace within, and Jesus’ atonement for our sins, and what are you left with? What the Bible calls the pleasures of sin for a season. As long as you don’t see outside the "season," it all looks pretty good.

And also as long as you’re in the realm of the human intellect, you will always be at a disadvantage when dealing with the power of worldly temptation. You can have all your intellectual arguments lined up why sex outside of marriage is wrong, but when a seductive face is inches from yours and your hormones are raging, those arguments don’t hold much restraining power!

So what’s the answer?

The answer, my friend, lies not in knowing about Christ, but in meeting Christ. It’s all in the meeting! When Jesus revealed Himself to me on that log pile off in the woods near the fire fighting barracks in Union Creek, Oregon that still, August evening of 1974, it revolutionized my life [P. 286 Out of the Fire, A Life Radically Changed]. I met the God of Power, the God who exists outside of creation and time, the God who not only created all things, but who is also upholding all things by the word of His power [Heb. 1:3].

I found I didn’t have to defend God and why He does what He does; He’s God. He can do whatever He wants. Why is there a hell? Who knows? Why does God send people to hell? I don’t know that either, He didn’t check with me first! But He does. Read the Bible for yourself and see how you interpret it! But that’s not the important thing; the important thing is that He made a way for us to escape and spend eternity with Him in heaven and it’s a free gift. Do you want to know how?

When you truly meet Christ, He comes into you and starts living His life through you. That’s when Christianity becomes the most exciting thing that life offers. What’s more exciting, a drunken binge with raging hangover the next day, or having Jesus heal somebody through you after letting you feel His deep compassion for them? What’s better, having sexual relationships one after another that always promise more then they deliver; or feeling Jesus’ white hot passion for you in a love that will go on throughout eternity?

You will be amazed at how the things of the Lord easily outstrip anything the world can offer, but only to those who meet Him and let Him live through them; only to those who yield their lives to Him and allow His divine life to flow out of them.