Spirit of the Living God

by Daniel Iverson

Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me
Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me

Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me
Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on me

God certainly works in mysterious ways. I was notified over the weekend that someone had left a comment on RedHatRob on the “about” page.

The author was one Bill Iverson, who is a graduate of Davidson College, class of 1947 – about 30 years before my time. He had been a professor at King College in the late 1960s and took his students to Covenant College in 1971 to hear an unusual Christian apologist with an international ministry based in Switzerland – Francis Schaeffer of L’Abri.

But the story gets richer. Bill Iverson is also a retired Presbyterian minister who asked me a number of questions about the Schaeffer Study Center and prayed with me over the phone (which was a great encouragement). His father was Dan Iverson, a Presbyterian evangelist who was active in Florida in the 1920s, 1930s, & 1940s. In 1926, he wrote the hymn, Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh on Me.

When that song was first sung at an evangelistic event in 1926, it became the focus of an entire evangelistic meeting.

Here is Bill Iverson’s description:

My father’s famous chorus was written in the First Presbyterian Church, Orlando in 1926, located next to a 4000 capacity temporary tabernacle.  He presented the hymn before preaching and never got to the sermon.  The congregation sung the chorus for forty-five minutes.  Helen Leonard,  wife of Col. (Chaplain) Bill Leonard was ten years old at that time. She told my mother about how  her father, Presbyterian evangelist George Stephens,  gave an invitation after the one hymn worship service with four hundred persons responding.  The atmosphere was electric and this one time in her life she knew what the Presence is.

I’ve added to the site a letter Bill composed to his dad a few months ago, on his Dad’s 118th birthday. Bill sent me a copy in an email earlier today.

Take a minute and read it: Bill Iverson – Tribute to my Father.

It will refresh, inspire and encourage you…

– Rob