This Sunday we will be singing a powerful song called “The Great I Am.” Jared Anderson did a beautiful job constructing the lyrics and melody for this song. I get chills when we sing, “The mountains shake before you, the demons run and flee, at the mention of your name, King of Majesty. There is no power in hell, or any who can stand, before the power and the presence of the Great I Am!”
There is one line, though, I got permission to change from the publisher: “So heaven is real and death is a lie.” Even when we rely on the power of the Great I Am, The Alpha and the Omega, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, death is very real. Just ask Smiley and Nelda Garcia who lost their son Nick to cancer. Death is real. I do think that Jared Anderson was using poetic license to mean that death is like a lie because Jesus has conquered it and we have life everlasting. But as many have been touched by death in the past several years, we know for certain that death is one of the truest parts of life.
However, we have hope because Jesus conquered death and rose again. With that in mind, I changed the lyric (with permission) to “death is defied.” I think this paints a stronger picture of our Lord and Savior as he defied death and rose again. In fact, we are called to die to ourselves so that we may then defy death and rise again in Christ. Not only is that the hope we have when we breath our last breath, But we get to live into the hope of defying death and celebrating resurrection each and every day as we live into God’s great kingdom!
I look forward to celebrating the victory we have in the Great I Am with you this Sunday!
Great I Am
I wanna be close
Close to Your side
So Heaven is real
And death is defied (a lie)
I wanna hear voices
Of angels above
Singing as one
Hallelujah
Holy, Holy
God almighty
The great I am
Who is worthy
None beside thee
God almighty
The great I am
I wanna be near
Near to your heart
Loving the world
Hating the dark
I wanna see dry bones
Living again
Singing as one
Hallelujah
Holy, Holy
God almighty
The great I am
Who is worthy
None beside thee
God almighty
The great I am
The great I am
The mountains shake before You
The demons run and flee
At the mention of the name king of majesty
There is no power in hell
Or any who can stand
Before the power and the presence of the Great I am
The Great I am
The Great I am