Lion and the Lamb

This is a track from Invisible, Leeland's first full-length album in five years. Leeland Mooring told NewReleaseToday the story behind this song: "We've had a lot of changes in our band. About two-and-a-half years ago I was at a writer's retreat at a cabin in Nashville, and we had an amazing three days. The third day, I was hanging out with Brenton Brown, and he's a good buddy of mine. Rewinding a bit, the chorus of this song first came about three years ago when we were leading worship at a church in California for three days. The people coming to church were very hungry for God and very expectant. Every night got more intense, and the expectations and hunger grew. It was amazing leading worship for them because none of them cared about us, they were just there for Jesus and pursuing Him. We sang like two full-length songs, and lots of spiritual songs, where we were singing words like 'Holy' and 'Worthy' over and over for an hour. The Bible talks about spiritual songs, which come out of your heart and Spirit. They aren't necessarily a written song, but come out of your heart. That's what we were doing, and everyone was singing their own songs to God. We were just weeping, and there wasn't a dry eye in the room. My brother came over to me and asked me to play at the piano while he went down to pray for people. While I was there, God dropped the whole chorus of this song on me right there. I recorded the chorus on my phone. For a year and a half, I played it for artists and nobody really connected with it. I played it for Brenton, and he just latched on to it. It spoke to him a lot, and he started working on verses with me. Then I met up with Brian Johnson, and we talked about writing songs together, and I reached out to him as well. He loved it as well. Together, the three of us finished the song in about a month. We sang it at a youth camp, and all the kids just sang along, and we knew the song was done."

In the Bible, God is pictured as both a Lion (symbolizing his authority and power) and a Lamb (symbolizing his gentleness). Leeland Moring said: "My brother and I were talking about this song and God's attributes, about the power and tenderness of God at the same time. You see it with John in Heaven in Revelation. On earth, he laid his head on Jesus' chest, and in Heaven he sees Jesus in all of His glory. He falls down like a dead man. God is so mighty and powerful, and Jesus puts His hand on his shoulder and tells him to not be afraid. It's an amazing picture of how we tremble at His power and might and glory, and at the same time He is tender like a Lamb. It is amazing that He is both to us, for us and with us. I'm excited to see how the song has connected with people. I really didn't have much to do with the song, as the Lord just gave me the chorus."

The song was originally included on Bethel Music's Have It All worship album, which was released four months earlier. Leeland Moring said: "We've loved being connected with Bethel Music, as after some changes our band it's just me and Casey (Moore, guitar). We felt like nomads, wanted to put roots down and joined up with Bethel. The first time I sang and recorded this song was at Bethel Church. We thought we were just there to visit, and we did some songwriting, and on Saturday night Brian (Johnson) asked me to sing this song with him the next morning at the church service. It was awesome. We sang this song for the first time together. We moved forward, and when they recorded the Have it All album, we came out again and sang the song for the recording in a set with Cory Asbury and Jonathan Helser. The presence of God was really strong. It didn't feel like a recording, it was just an awesome Sunday morning worship time. We changed it up a little for the studio recording for the album Invisible. What's different is that it's more of a synth-based musical style and fits really well on the album."