If you had the opportunity to attend Winter Jam, then you were treated to Ireland's We Are Messengers and their energetic and worshipful set, including "Everything Comes Alive," "I'm on Fire" and the worshipful "I Don't Have the Answers." The band has completed the world's largest Christian music tour, and in the same week the This is Winter Jam movie premiers on April 19, they are ready to release their full-length debut album We Are Messengers with Word Label Group on April 22. 

Every song on the album is a testimony to the grace and love of Jesus Christ and a creative musical expression. I had the chance to speak with Darren Mulligan about the celebratory "Everything Comes Alive."

Please tell me the personal story behind this song.

This song was the second song I wrote when I came to Nashville in 2014. I wrote it with a good friend of mine, Josh Bronleewe. I wasn't signed to a record label or to make an album at that time. I came to America from Ireland not knowing what I was doing or what God was doing. I wasn't trying to be a successful musician. The morning I woke up to write this song, I had Ephesians 2 in my mind, and that's my life chapter. It talks about "once dead in my sin, but God in His rich mercy and grace and love, has rescued me and made me alive." It goes on to say "God in Christ Jesus has seated us in Heavenly places." 

For me, that song was a song to try to capture the redemption in my life and my wife's life. We both lived lives where we had hurt people. I came to Christ as a 27-year-old, and we both had a radical transformation in our lives. What we've tried to do in the most joyous way possible is reflect on what it means for everything to come alive in your life. For everything that was dead in sin, to bring them to life. To live in that new life and reach anyone, the lost, the least, the broken, people like me, people like you. 

It's a song about rejoicing in the metaphor of a 24-hour day. What would redemption look like if you were talking about your day? That's where the verses come from: "in the morning" and "in the evening" and "when my day is done." The outro, "my heart is beating to the rhythm of Your love, my feet are running ever faster to Your grace," only came to us about six months ago, about a year after writing the song. It was a moment of great joy that this life that has come alive, that we are going to live in that. We're going to chase after God, and He's going to realign our hearts with His heart and His will. That's really what the song is about.

Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?

Ephesians 2:1 (NKJV): "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins."

Ephesians 2:6 (NIV): "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus."

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT): "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago."
 
Ephesians 2:11-13 (NKJV): "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands--that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

What is the takeaway message?

If you imagine your life as a day, what does the Gospel look like? I tried to encapsulate 24 hours as a representation of life with Jesus into this three-minute song. I was so dead in my sin, but when I acknowledged who I was and who God is, I came alive. We're just carrying His message from our hearts up into our mouths and out into our hands. God's given us something to say through words and songs and through our lives. We ask the same questions every day: "What is God saying?" "What opportunity is God bringing?" 

Christ came to serve and showed us how to serve, and we want to do that. We want to tell people about the goodness of God. Music allows us to have that conversation. We want to love people the way He loves us. We want to wash people's feet. We've been rescued so that we could give ourselves away. The Bible says "lose your life and you'll find it," and we're determined to keep giving ourselves away until we die, so that when it comes to the end of the race, we're spent, we're done.

My goal with this album was to be completely honest, and what I thought I could give as an evangelist is to share the truth about who I am, feeling broken as I still am, and also talking about my past openly and trying to make it clear how God intersects with our humanity and our humanity intersects with God, which is at the Cross. That's the pinnacle of our faith. 

I was trying to write words in a conversational way so that anybody could listen to this album and understand it. I tried not to use typical Christian terms, as much as possible, because I believe the Bible is perfect in all of its ways, and I wanted to also use some cultural language that we use today to frame the perfect, immutable, unchanging truths of the Gospel in a contemporary way. Once they are drawn in by the words and music, we can have a conversation about the Gospel. If we are just making music, there is no point in that. If we are making music that glorifies God and opens a conversation, I think we are doing something valuable in the name of Jesus. We need to tell each other about this great love we have found in Jesus.

Lyrics:
In the morning when my heart is cold
You're the heat for my weary soul
You're the good in all I know

In the mirror all that I seen
Is Your grace looking back at me
I'm not the man that I used to be

There's a song, there's a song
Rising from my heart

Everything comes alive
Everything comes alive
Everything comes alive
In You

In the evening when my bones are tired
You're my strength and my heart's desire
You're the light when the sun expires

I remember how far I've come
I'm not lost with You I'm home
I didn't find You on my own

There's a song, there's a song
Rising from my heart

I'm made alive
Now I'm by Your side
I've come alive
I've come alive

And when my days are done
I've got a Hope that I'm sure of
I'll be with You in heavenly places
I'll be with You in heavenly places

My heart is beating to the rhythm of Your love
My feet are running ever faster to Your grace

This worship anthem is just the type of infusion that the Church needs with its honesty and bold lyrics. We serve a God who is much bigger than our struggles. This song challenges us to think about whether we really believe that Jesus is "the good in all I know." What would your life look like if everything was taken away in this moment? Would Jesus be enough?
 
Corrie ten Boom said, "When we are powerless to do anything, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus." This is an infectious song and really reflects the joy we receive when we don't rely on our own understanding, but instead fully submit ourselves to faithfulness and trust in the ability of Jesus to lift us up no matter our circumstances. 

Remember this Scripture passage: "God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it" (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT). God wants us to boldly approach the Throne of mercy and grace to receive and obtain what we need from Him. When we acknowledge our identity in Christ through this song, our burdens are removed. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:12-13: "having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

This is a great message and song for us to celebrate our freedom based on our faith in Christ Jesus. The song has a very catchy and worshipful musical style with a holy energy and vitality pulsing through every word. "Everything Comes Alive" is also an amazing reminder of how we are called to be a light for Jesus, every day, "without complaining or arguing." Allow the fullness of Christ's Love to indwell in your heart and proclaims the truth of this song: "Everything comes alive, everything comes alive, everything comes alive in You." Amen to that!

Watch the music video below.