Baroni Bloggin’

“Beautiful in holiness awesome in Your praise
We marvel at the wonders of Your ways
We will never be forsaken, we are Yours forevermore
You are holy You are lovely and Your fiery love consumes us Oh Lord”

(from “Hear My Cry ( O Most High)” David Baroni/Meg Everhart

As I was thinking about the ardent affection expressed toward the Lord in the above song, I also thought about how some that don’t know Him would react to hearing or reading these lyrics.

Some people would think that the possibility of someone having a passionate, loving relationship with God would be unattainable, or if indeed if it was possible, the person that could be that close to God could only be that rarefied, one-in-a-hundred-million person that they would call a “saint”.

When you hear the term, whom do you think of? Mother Teresa? Francis of Assisi? Maybe Joan of Arc or the Apostle Paul?

Not to diminish the noteworthiness of those listed above, but the power of the Gospel is that it makes saints of all believers in Christ- and not just when we die!

Mufasa, the Lion King spoke from the stars to his searching son Simba one evening:
“You’ve forgotten who you are.” And “you are more than you’ve become.”

Our natural state as believers in Christ are that we are supernatural beings… we live by faith, led by the Spirit. We are separated unto God, “…partakers of His Divine nature.”
We are saints; even though we forget who we are, even when we don’t act like it.

This is not a reason to boast, our boasting is in the Lord-no; this call to be saints is a humbling one. A thrilling,sobering, wonderful reality… called to be saints!

Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni

My Help Comes From The Holy One

My help comes from the Holy One
My hope is far above
When storms and darkness threaten me
I’m anchored in His Love

My Faith has found a resting place
In Jesus Christ the Lord
Beyond what mortal eyes can see
I live by God’s own Word

And who in heav’n or on the earth
Compares with God Most High
Who laid aside His kingly robe
Through Mary born to die

The only One both God and man
Proclaimed God’s Kingdom come
The good news of redeeming Love
The Father’s will was done

They buried Him in borrowed tomb
Such sorrow on that day
But oh the joy came on the morn
The stone was rolled away

Christ rose into the heavenlies
At God’s right hand He reigns
And now we are complete in Him
Oh blessed be His Name!

My help comes from the Holy One
My hope is far above
When storms and darkness threaten me
I’m anchored in His Love
I’m anchored in His Love

(2007 David Baroni/ Kingdomsongs Inc./ BMI/CCLI)

If you would like a demo mp3 and a chord sheet for this song, email me at david@davidbaroni.com
Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni

While in Romania a few weeks ago, I heard two profound things. Early in the morning after I arrived in Timisoara, I opened the guest room window and heard… nothing! The sound of silence was stunning. No highway noises, people talking, horns beeping…nada!

As I tuned my ears to the silence, small sounds were magnified. A bird flew past the window and I could actually hear it’s wings flapping. This experience underscored just how noisy my life usually is. It was wonderful.

The second sound I heard was also early in the morning, it was also profound. It was a Sound of the Spirit… the Sound of Heaven.

In Genesis, Adam and Eve heard the “sound of the Lord God walking in the garden.” Some translations say they heard the “Voice” of the Lord walking…” I love that imagery. The Sound of Heaven is the sound of the vibrant praises of the passionate Romanian believers from the school of worship. It is the sound of the beautiful Ecuadoran dancers as they worshiped the Lord in Quito this past weekend. It is the sound of the Spirit- the sound of worship.

“Sound of Heaven”
David Baroni

Listen…. do you hear it?
There’s a sound arising in the earth
Growing stronger… in the nations
It’s the sound of worship it’s the sound of grace
As a desperate generation seeks His Face

It’s the Sound of heaven filling the earth
It’s the sound of freedom it’s the sound of Love
The Breath of God is blowing bringing life to these dry bones
Blow Wind blow
Flow River flow
Fill the earth… with the sound of heaven

Listen… can you feel it?
There’s a sound arising in this place
Getting louder… by the minute
It’s the sound of passion it’s the sound of joy
It’s the very Life of Jesus in our praise!

It’s the Sound of heaven filling the earth
It’s the sound of freedom it’s the sound of Love
The breath of God is blowing bringing life to these dry bones
Blow Wind blow
Flow river flow
Fill the earth… with the sound of heaven

It’s the sound of unity
And true humility
The sound of power
And healing in His name
You can hear it in the silence and the mighty rushing wind
The voice of God is walking in the garden again!

If you would like to see what I have been so blessed to be involved with in Timisoara, Romania all this past week (August 23-28) you can go to this link. (click below on Agape Church)
You can fast forward if you can’t speak Romanian! I start sharing at one hour and twenty minutes into the evening. It’s a message called “The Sound of Heaven”.
These folks are precious and powerful in God. Thank you for being interested in our ministry!
Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni
WorshipConference- Agape Church Timisoara, Romania August 28

I am listening to an hour of “Piano Praying 2″. It was recorded in a prayer time in Valley Center, KS earlier this year. As people walked around, or knelt or laid before the Lord, I ministered to God on the piano for the whole hour- which passed by quickly!

I trust that it would be a blessing to you as well. It is available as a free download at www.davidbaroni.com I would especially recommend Piano Praying 2 (there were 3 noontime sessions that are similar and available).

Godrest and Godspeed
David B

In my prophetic and songwriting classes, I exhort the students to keep their spiritual eyes and ears open to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit in myriad ways. Some are spectacular; like an effervescent sunrise or a drive through the mountains. More often, God speaks to me in the midst of the mundane. In the case of this blog, I heard from God through mis-reading a book title.

I was in Dallas, TX recently for the Worship Institute. While resting for a rare few minutes in our hotel room, I noticed the title of a Jan Karon book my wife was reading. I thought that the title was “Fight From Heaven”. Then, upon a closer look, I saw that the book was actually entitled “Light From Heaven”.

However, the phrase “Fight From Heaven” began to rattle around in my worship-addled brain.

As new creatures in Christ, believers are those who see the invisible, hear the inaudible, declare the unspeakable and hold the intangible. We view heaven as not just a far-off place that we will go to one sweet day, but a present (though of course invisible) reality to those who are led by the Spirit. We live by faith and as Paul the Apostle so eloquently and paradoxically declared: “We look not at the things which are seen for those things are temporal (of earth, temporary) but we behold the invisible.” (My paraphrase).

So we fight, yet not us but Christ the Warrior-Worshipper fights through us with mighty weapons that pull down strongholds and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We “fight from heaven”!

We live, yet not us, but Christ lives in us. We live from heaven. We sing from heaven, give from heaven, bless from heaven, pray from heaven, parent from heaven. Every aspect of life has potential to be lived “from heaven” by the grace of God, and the Presence of Christ in us the hope of glory.

In living from heaven (back to Jan Karon’s book title) we will also be “Light From Heaven”.
Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni

The theme for the 2008 Worship Institute was: “Embracing His Presence”. We did. And He embraced us.

It was a wonderful time of being with old friends, meeting some new ones and being held, challenged, encouraged and transformed by the Presence of our God. Ross Parsley, John Stevenson, Steve Fry, Dr. Jack Hayford, Leanne Albrecht, Robert Stearns and my dear friend Bob Sorge, among many others, ministered the grace and Word of the Lord this full week.

I enjoyed helping in the band, playing with Carl Albrecht, Karry Godwin and Rich Severson on guitar, Darrell Wren on bass and singing with my wife Rita, Lani Stacey, Meg Everhart, Antonia Lawrence and Erik Eskelund. My classes went well and many people responded to the song inspired and written with my African friends: “I Rest In You” (Not Afraid).

One person commented as we received a spontaneous love offering one session for a family in need: “Finally we didn’t just talk about it, we are doing it!”

What a week, time to rest!

Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni

I am emotional today.
Yesterday my son-in-law Ben and his bride, my daughter Bethany, introduced me to a song written by John Mark McMillan and led by Kim Walker called “How He Loves”.

I was blown away starting at the very first lines:

“He is jealous for me
He is a hurricane I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy…”

I highly recommend you acquiring this song, recorded live on the “We Cry Out” CD from Bill Johnson’s church in Redding, CA. Just go on Itunes and enter “How He Loves” and “Kim Walker” as the artist.

The freshness of the lyric, the obvious passion in Kim Walker and the well-done, heartfelt musical arrangement is a wonderful vehicle for the incredible love of God.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, with all this time of walking with the Lord, but I am amazed and delighted and overwhelmed afresh with the sense of His fiery love. “God loves us” can’t remain merely a soothing, sappy cliche’ when we really get a glimpse of His passionate heart for us…

God’s love sets us free from, again in the words of the song, the need to “maintain our regrets
when we think about the way… He loves us, Oh How He loves us”!

I am emotional for another reason:
Our daughter Charity is moving to L.A. on Thursday, May, 1st to pursue her dreams of being involved in the entertainment field. We are so for her and I believe she will do well and wonderfully there and… I am going to miss her so!

Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni

Patterns of thinking become ingrained after just a short time. I grew up with the concept that God was a harsh, demanding taskmaster that would only accept perfection- then dole out punishment when the inevitable failure happened.

I have been a “son of the Kingdom of God” for many years now and I know that the above description of God is… well, just plain wrong. However, it has taken me a long time to change my early mindset from one of fear to one of expectation of the generosity of God.

Granted, it was not just early training that instilled this wrong view of God. As a believer there were times when I encountered adversity that defied my attempts to pray it away, and I could see no natural or spiritual cause that precipitated what God had allowed. When the storm comes and things held dear get blown away, is God still generous?

As the whirlwind passes, so the wicked is no more but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.
(Proverbs 10:25)

Make no mistake, the wind blows and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Somehow, God works His redemptive purposes and all things do work together for those who love God, who are the called according to His purposes.

The Potter knows just how to mold, fire and form us into vessels of honor. He lovingly holds us on the wheel and in the refining fire, turns a deaf ear to our pitiful cries- not because He is not compassionate, but precisely because He IS!!

He knows that what He is taking out of us (everything not like Jesus) and forming in us (everything that is!) will be pleasing to Him and enable us to live in peace, fruitfulness and victory. We are being conformed to the image of Christ and what a destiny, what a gift… what generosity!

I wrote a little song a few years ago:

My arms are much too short to box with God
My arms are much too short to box with God
He would win every time!
He would win every time.

Even when I am afraid
I have it made in the shade
It’s high time I understood
God is out to do me good!

Dare to believe that the message of the Kingdom is great news from a Generous God!

Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni

Rita and I are having a great time here in Kuwait. Here are some of the thoughts that I shared in one of the meetings earlier today:

Two months after I resigned the only salary paying job I ever had as an adult, I found myself in a worship conference in Singapore as a “musicianary”. I told the attendees that I had always hoped for the right circumstances to be in my life so that I could just coast for the rest of my life.

I said that if I could just have the right financial circumstances or an encounter with God on a mountaintop that would make me forever peaceful, maybe that would bring contentment at last.
Then I told them that I knew that there wasn’t such an encounter or set of circumstances.

Why?

Because then I would trust in the encounter or circumstances and peace, a resting place, can only be found in a relationship with a Person… His Name is Jesus!
(By the way, God provided for us and our family wonderfully at that Christmas-time trip to Singapore!)

Jesus said “Man shall not live by bread (natural circumstances or provision-my paraphrase) alone- but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

In this day of the rapid proliferation of (mostly) useless words, it is easy for us to forget that words have power. God’s Word is what created the universe and holds it together!

In the encounter on the stormy sea when the Lord came walking upon the waves toward the disciples and they didn’t believe it was flesh and blood Jesus, but a “ghost”; Peter asked Jesus, “If it is really you, Master, then bid me come to you on the water.”

Jesus said one word: “Come!”

P.S. Look for our Freshword Teaching Series to be available any day now as downloadable MP3s at our online store!