You Put This Love In My Heart

How Keith Green's music formed my early Christian life; memoir episode 10

There was just something about Keith Green’s music. Some would call it an anointing, which means that it seemed to have a special touch of the Spirit upon it. It did. I didn’t necessarily care for the style of Keith’s music but when I listened to it, it drew me deeper into Christ. His music challenged me to live this radical faith of total surrender to God. 

I was introduced to Keith’s music in the 90’s not long after I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was his music that seemed to be the impetus to my wanting to be in full time ministry or missions. The call in almost all of his songs and all the things he said was to totally surrender to Jesus, even if it meant going to the farthest reaches of the world; even if it meant martyrdom. I was all in and God used Keith Green’s music to invite me in. 

Keith Green had died in a plane crash several years before I had discovered his music. Melody Green, his wife, wrote a book about his life called No Compromise. The book tells of his early days of becoming a pop star and his conversion to Christ. He was an incredible piano player! For me, the anointing was not just in the words of his songs, but also in the music itself, particularly in the way he played the piano. His call to radical conversion and surrender to Christ was felt in the way he played the piano. It was also in his prophetic voice. At concerts he preached a message of “no compromise”. He didn’t mince words; there was no half way Christianity in his message, it was all or nothing! And I wanted to give my all to Jesus!

In the book, Melody tells about how she and Keith became followers of Jesus during the days of the Jesus Movement in the mid 70’s; when drugged out hippies were turning to Christ. They ended up opening their home to start a kind of commune filled with hippie seekers. Keith led these people to Christ and discipled them to be radical followers of Jesus. Their community grew to the point that they ended up moving from California to Texas and starting a large missionary community called Last Days Ministries. This community was still continuing even after Keith’s death, with Melody at the helm when I was reading Keith’s biography. Kim and I came very close to moving there in the early 90’s.

They published a little magazine called Last Days Magazine. I encountered other prophetic voices through this magazine. Most of the writings and articles were geared towards discipleship and spiritual formation. Those days of reading Keith’s biography and reading that magazine were very formational for me in my Christian life. Every month I couldn’t wait until the next magazine was published and I devoured every article. That magazine introduced me to some of the most powerful Christian writers, prophets and evangelists; Charles Finney, Leonard Ravenhill, David Wilkerson and many others. My early days of following Jesus were formed by these writers. I wanted to be just like them. I wanted to have a powerful ministry that had the same kind of impact on others that these ministers had on me. I would listen to Keith’s music and dream of ministering to others with that same kind of anointing. 

I know now this desire was disordered. My need to be seen as this powerful prophetic person was not of God. But this is the way I was thinking and feeling at that time. 

Desires are not wrong, desires themselves are neutral. It was spiritual desire that led Keith Green to do what he did. It’s the misplaced, disordered desires that can lead down the wrong path. I cringe now to think how disordered my desires were back then; that I was even jealous of my own son because he received a “word” from God that he would be “used powerfully” and I didn’t (see my previous memoir episode for this embarrassing story). Looking back I see how gracious God was to me in those days. I needed to learn some things; I needed to grow in humility. I do not disdain those days, I can see that they were, for me, a necessary part of my journey. Soon all my desires to be seen as this type of powerful minister would come crashing all around me. But it’s God’s grace that was at work… and still is.