Should I sing Insatiable by Kim Walker Smith in church?

OK, so I listened to Insatiable by Kim Walker Smith today and the music is wonderful. A really powerful bit of musicianship with a great melody and passionate vocals that I’d hear being played and immediately think ‘I love this song’.

It’s a great piece of power pop and am sure it is completely heartfelt.

So what’s the problem? Sadly, as with Reckless Love, which came out of the same Bethel stable, there are many.

I found myself listening to the lyrics and becoming enraged. Why? Because this song continues a rapid downslide towards the God of ‘me’.

You might say it’s all about the love of God – it is God focused and about ‘giving everything’ to God and, yep, on the face of it, it is. But this is not creating an accurate picture of the God of the Bible.

Here are some quick points on why, like Reckless Love, this song should not be sung in church and ideally nowhere else if you respect the God of the Universe.

Problem #1: It sensualises God
I’m pretty sure the naming of the song was not a quick decision. Like Reckless Love, it is a cheap commercial trick to create controversy, start a debate and be cool. It worked with Reckless Love and I’m sure it will work here.

Problem is, it sensualises God and makes him seem like someone’s lover. Yes, you can explain that ‘meaning’ in a song documentary, but to the average listener, it creates a false image of God.

Like Kari Jobes ‘I find you on my knees’, it is inappropriate language for a Christian worship song and is a better description of Satan than Yahweh.

Problem #2: God is not your boyfriend/stalker
As nice as it may seem, Insatiable turns God into the doting lover gazing at our awesomeness waiting like a puppy for us to return to him, in our own time while he just longs for us.

Don’t get me wrong, as with the Prodigal Son, God the Father does await our return and will have patience with us, but he is our father, not a love-sick teenager. And, note that the prodigal son CAME HOME. God wasn’t just gazing dumbstruck at him as he came and went as he pleased.

Now I’m sure Kim’s lyrics suggest commitment, but it is the overall twisting of truth and balance that causes the problem.

In scripture, our God is an all powerful, loving, but wrathful God, to be feared, mighty in power, full of forgiveness, but full of righteous judgement.

His love is one attribute of many and he requires adulation not with human romantic love or lust, but agape love. Romantic lust or love grows cold fast, agape love is strong.

Kim’s God is just sat there waiting, whatever. But the God of the Bible is different. He says – you’d better come back to me before it’s too late, because nobody knows the day or hour when you will face judgement.

So it’s a subtle twisting. Kim’s lyrics suggest there is no rush. There is.

Problem #3: More utterly inappropriate fire references
The lyrics to the bridge of the song tell us God’s “love is an all consuming fire”.

Now, I know modern Christians LOVE fire references in relation to the Holy Spirit, but please be wary.

Bar reference to tongues of fire at Pentecost, the Bible often talks about fire in terms of judgement and in a bad way. It can also refer to refinement, yes, but in the End Times (which arguably we are in or fast approaching) God expressly warns that it is the FALSE PROPHET (false Christian leader or leaders) that will ‘make fire fall from heaven in the sight of men’. Literal or symbolic? All I know is that many Charismatic and other denominations (often rich and dubious) are asking for fire to fall these days. Christians lap it up.

So, in the case of Kim’s very catchy, powerful bridge, we shouldn’t be surprised to see her taking God’s word and twisting it on its head.

Why should that matter? Because it is deceiving a generation into believing things that are not true.

The verse in question and the source material for her lyric is Hebrews 12:19 – “For OUR GOD is a consuming fire”, not God’s love. Doesn’t matter. Yes it does.

Read the whole of Hebrews 12. It is about JUDGEMENT. It is about making sure we are ready for his coming return because God will BURN UP the chaff.

Really? I thought God was a doting boyfriend? I didn’t think Jesus would be trampling the wine press of the blood of the enemies of God as stated in Revelation. I didn’t think Jesus would spit the lukewarm church out of his mouth. He idolises me according to Kim Walker Smith and Jesus Culture?

YES he is loving. YES he is forgiving, but YES he will judge the sheep from the goats and those who loved a different God than the Jesus of the gospels will be consumed by the fire.

It is quite apt (or ironic, or purposeful) that the verse before Hebrews 12:29 reads: “Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God ACCEPTABLY with REVERENCE AND AWE. For our God is a consuming fire.”

This explains why I feel it IS important that people don’t sing this song in church or believe it’s theology. This verse (in the New Testament) is warning believers that, while God loves us intensely, we need to be on our guard and worship him in fear and trembling, because he is fearsome, not a doting puppy.

Problem #4: origins
This problem is unfortunate, but we cannot turn a blind eye to where a song comes from. From a personal perspective, if a song has lyrics that fully glorify God and are scriptural, I don’t care where the song comes from. I sing some songs from Bethel that I think are fantastic lyrically.

However, when I hear a song from a church I know holds extremely suspect theology – such as Bethel – I study the lyrics more carefully, and you should too. As an aside, even if the source IS good, still look out for serious bad teaching.

I don’t suggest pulling songs apart word by word, but sometimes the problems are too big to be ignored and, if the song comes from a place like Bethel, the red warning signs should be going off.

Kim Walker Smith is a child of Bethel and has been brought up with their new age take on Jesus (fire tunnels for kids, grave soaking, gold dust, Christian tarot cards, vibrations and dolphin therapy etc) and adoption or love of strange manifestations and impartations, signs and wonders. Basic research on this site or another will tell you, using their own footage, all you need to know.

So, when we listen to one of her songs, we have to keep that in mind and, as with any deceit by Satan, expect 95% of it to SEEM fine, but to come with a subtle twist. Satan is a deceiver. It isn’t obvious. The Bible makes it clear he will be dressed as an angel of light and, as he did when tempting Adam and then Jesus, he will dress things up as OK and harmless, (even dressed in scripture) that are actually soul destroying, literally.

There is no denying that Insatiable sounds great. But it compromises the character of God, is tricking young people into a false sense of security and a false concept of God, and is thus not acceptable for use in church.

Problem #5 The bigger picture
In my opinion, the self-named new apostles of the false church movement (not Kim necessarily but her church leaders) are gently creeping their agenda of new age Jesus through the backdoor in the guise of catchy worship music.

Many use music as a substitute for Bible teaching these days and trust the mega-church worship bands, not knowing what these churches stand for or their warped theology.

Couple Bethel Music’s Reckless Love, performed by a guy brought up in IHOP Kansas and some other churches with questionable theology (doesn’t mean he’s not a good person or that people can’t change, but worth noting), and we start to see a very un-Jesus image of Jesus being formed in the minds of young people who are increasingly being told that the Bible is ‘for yesterday’, and that experience and new miracles, done through the new generation of ‘apostles’ is for today.

Why is that dangerous, because these churches, and Satan, don’t want you reading your Bible (even though its the thing the Bible says will give you true vision). Like the Catholic church, they want the Bible to be sat gathering dust on the shelf.

The Jesus that Jesus Culture, Bethel, etc are creating is ‘Reckless’ ‘Insatiable’ and madly in love with you because you are awesome (not because you are otherwise a hopeless sinner in need of his mercy and otherwise destined for destruction).

Reckless (unless you read the song explanation) means to the majority of people on this Earth who hear this song that God acts without a care for the consequences.

As a father, if you called me reckless I’d be massively offended regardless of your explanation and how clever you thought it was, so why risk singing it to your creator??

You may say, ‘it’s one word in a song’ ‘don’t pick it apart’. Well, yes, it is the one word in the song that I take issue with, but it is also the most important, most deceitful word.

If we believe that God is reckless and wants us to be reckless and take risks, we are more likely to do rash or dangerous things – such as surrendering to false spirits or uniting with false apostate churches because ‘God takes risks’.

But God is not a rebel and he isn’t restless (quite the opposite – we find rest in him). Equally, God is not reckless (he has everything carefully planned out in advance). He is also not going to appear as your sensual lover or a blue eyed blonde haired angel of light. Those attributes are better attributed to Satan.

The Bible says God is an all consuming fire because he will burn up and judge his enemies. It is not a romantic statement. It is a warning. Be wary of how you worship Jesus. Make sure you do it with reverence and in awe of his greatness.

With love, in Christ.

FOOTNOTES/DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a hater, far from it, I love the church of Christ, my brothers and sisters in Christ and all who need him. I write this in love as Paul might write with warnings to the churches. I am not judging you or anyone mentioned in this post, that is between you and your God. I am not jealous of Christian music artists success, I acknowledge that, hopefully, their music will bring people, whether initially or later, to a true relationship with Christ. If so and if it is the real Jesus of the gospel, fantastic, but check everything via scripture. I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit who guides us and fills us with the gifts as God allocates, not all to all, but some with prophesy, some with tongues, some with other gifts and, perhaps most importantly, gentleness, patience, love, caring, self control. I do not pull apart every Christian song. I do not hate these churches or people, I do not claim to be better than anyone, I am a helpless sinner made pure only by the blood of Jesus. I am not saying people mentioned in this post or organisations do not or have not done any good work, are not necessarily nice people or that they are necessarily knowingly deceiving people. What I do ask is that you do not fall into the trap the chosen people did at the time of Jesus and harden your heart to things you don’t want to know because you feel guilt or because you like someone or like a particular song. View things openly, consult scripture and let it be your guide. Check everything, but enjoy the love and freedom bought by the real Christ.

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