What if walking with God is about moving in rhythm with the Holy Spirit — like a jazz musician improvising in the moment? We explore what it means to live in a Heaven and Earth Jazz Jam session. Listening, responding, and co-creating with God. Drawing on Scripture, spiritual insight, and the creative lessons of jazz, we explore how to sharpen spiritual intuition and flow in unexpected moments in every area of life and work.

----------

See the full episode transcript below.

👉 Explore more episodes: JesusSmart.com/podcast

If this episode gave you a fresh perspective on Kingdom Living, share it with someone who needs encouragement.

Be sure to follow the podcast—each episode is designed to help you think more clearly and pursue the kind of life only Jesus makes possible.

Stay current via The Smart Edit newsletter—Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly. 5 minutes to grow. Unsubscribe anytime. Sign up at JesusSmart.com.

----------

EPISOSDE TRANSCRIPT -- Life in the Groove — Improvising with the Holy Spirit (EP 354)

In this episode of Jesus Smart X Podcast, Brian Del Turco explores the idea of moving in rhythm with the Holy Spirit — like a jazz musician improvising in the moment. Drawing on Scripture, spiritual insight, and the creative lessons of jazz, we explore how to sharpen spiritual intuition, respond in unexpected moments, and co-create with God in every area of life and work.

Between Episodes: Continuing the Conversation with Frank Viola

Before diving in, Brian mentions the ongoing two-part series with Frank Viola. Episode 353, The New Testament Like You've Never Seen It, explores reading the New Testament as a single, unfolding narrative, discovering the heartbeat of the early church, and seeing how our personal life story fits into Jesus’ larger story.

Don’t forget to check out the Smart Edit newsletter at jesussmart.com.

Elevate your faith. Live smart. Make an impact. Free. Weekly, each Thursday. 5 minutes to grow. Unsubscribe anytime. Sign up at JesusSmart.com.

Jazz and the Brain: A Spiritual Parallel

Listening to jazz activates nearly every part of the brain, enhancing focus, emotional depth, flexibility, and anticipation. Jazz requires us to listen actively, adapt to shifting harmonies, and respond creatively.

This is an excellent metaphor for walking with the Holy Spirit. Our relationship with God isn’t meant to be rigid or scripted. Scripture is our key signature — steady, unchanging, and true — while the Spirit invites us to improvise within that framework.

As Galatians 5:25 reminds us, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

Walking with the Spirit is not marching in lockstep; it’s keeping time in a living rhythm, a cadence flowing from the Father through the Holy Spirit.

The Improvisational Life: Flowing with the Spirit

Jazz and the Spirit share a key principle: tension and release, anticipation, and responsiveness. Life with the Holy Spirit requires mental and spiritual flexibility — a readiness to pivot, adapt, and respond in a Christlike way.

As Dallas Willard taught, true discipleship is Christ in you, living through your life circumstances. This requires alertness, creativity, and continual renewal — exactly what Romans 12:2 calls the “renewing of your mind.”

Classical music offers structure, discipline, and symmetry, while jazz develops intuition, sensitivity, and improvisation. Life in the Spirit demands both: grounded truth and openness to surprise, ready to follow God’s lead in the moment.

The Heaven and Earth Jazz Jam Session

A powerful image: the Heaven and Earth jazz jam session. Just as musicians listen, respond, and create together, we are invited to move in harmony with God and with a community of believers.

This Micro Ecclesia — a small, tight-knit group — becomes a spiritual “studio” where prayer, worship, and collaboration sharpen our ability to listen to God and to one another. The Holy Spirit orchestrates, guiding the flow, rhythm, and improvisation of our lives.

Practical Ways to Improvise Spirit-Led Life

Five practical ways to cultivate this jazz-like flow with God:

• Quiet Your Heart – Set aside time for stillness. Remove agendas and lists, leaving space for the Spirit to move.
• Flow in Prayer – Begin praying, allowing the Holy Spirit to shift your words and thoughts. Let your prayers take unexpected directions.
• Journal the “Royal Riffs” – Capture insights, nudges, or impressions from the Spirit. There is authority in recording what God reveals.
• Partner with Others – Some revelations unlock only in community. Pray, worship, and move with other Spirit-led believers.
• Take Spirit-Prompted Risks – Step out in faith when the Spirit calls you to speak, start, stop, or act. Trust His guidance, even in improvisation.

Each step strengthens your spiritual ear, teaching you to respond to God’s cues and to participate in the divine rhythm of life.

The Kingdom Symphony in Action

Walking with the Spirit is not about performance. It’s about partnership. The Holy Spirit leads, and we join in, improvising in sync with God’s rhythm. Ephesians 5:18-19 reminds us to be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Spontaneously, joyfully, and in harmony.

Whether in prayer, relationships, or ministry, this improvisational flow equips us to pursue God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. By listening, trusting, and playing our part, we become part of a larger Kingdom symphony, co-creating with God in real time.

Closing Thoughts

Brian encourages listeners to embrace a Heaven and Earth jazz jam session in daily life:

• Listen attentively.
• Respond creatively.
• Trust God’s lead.
• Partner with Spirit-led believers.

God has written the ultimate score of redemption, and He invites us to play within it. Life with the Holy Spirit is alive, dynamic, and deeply creative. Let’s keep in step with Him, improvise faithfully, and enjoy the melody He is creating in and through us.

Catch this episode and enhanced show notes at jesussmart.com, complete with a full transcript.

Remember: God is calling us to partner, not perform. Listen, trust, and play your part in the Kingdom Symphony.

Hey there friends. Welcome to the podcast. This is Brian Del Turco, Jesus Smart X Podcast. I'm glad you're here.

I have something today that I think is hopefully going to light you up. I'm calling it your spirit or your renewed mind on jazz. I'm talking about jazz with the Holy Spirit.

We could also call it the Heaven and Earth Jazz Jam session. Hang with me. I think you're going to love this. I doubt that you've heard anything like this. I'm excited to share it with you.

Before I do that, I want to mention that we are between parts one and two with a special podcast little two part series with Frank Viola. I encourage you to go back and Listen to episode 353. I believe you can find it at jesussmart.com 353 the New Testament like you've never seen it.

The whole concept that he's bringing forth out of an epic book that he wrote is what if we could read the New Testament as a single unfolding narrative, seeing the books in their real life flow, their real life context and discovering the heartbeat of the early church, century one Christians, century one Christ followers. And we take it a step further.

How our storyline, our personal life storyline is a continuation of that storyline and how it fits into the storyline of Jesus. Episode 353. That's part one.

This is episode 354 today and next week episode 355 will be part two of what I think is a pretty dynamic conversation with Frank Viola. Also want to just mention our newsletter, the Smart Edit. You can go to jesussmart.com right at the top of the homepage you'll see a big giant button.

A big giant opportunity to leave your email. It's your emails handled in confidence. It'll never be shared, never be sold. And this comes out.

The long form version of this newsletter comes out every Thursday. It's something of a little magazine format and it includes a big idea like a kingdom dynamic section.

And also what I think are a series of other different very interesting topics and little themes you can focus on. And I think people are really enjoying it, really benefiting from it. I'd love to have you on the list. It's free now friends.

I've been vibing with a station on SiriusXM lately. What it sounds like real jazz, classic jazz, but they also mix it with some other genres that I would think are cousins of jazz.

Very interesting station and it's stirring something in me.

I'm finding out I've been doing a Little bit of research, and I'm finding out that jazz as a genre of music, does something very special to our thinking, to our brain. A source with the Cleveland Clinic even says that music like this activates almost every part of our mind. It trains focus.

There's emotional depth to it, dimension, which is stimulated and flexibility. And we have to listen to it and anticipate what comes next in the jazz music, adapt to it. Now this.

This has me thinking, friend, about our walk with the Lord and specifically maybe staying in alignment with the Holy Spirit. I think it's a picture, a very good picture of walking with the Holy Spirit. You see, our relationship with God isn't supposed to be rigid.

You know, every move, like, scripted, charted. Our relationship with God is dynamic. It's alive, responsive, and interactive.

Now, the Word of God, the Bible, the inspired scriptures is our key signature. It's steady, it's unchanging, it's true, it's unalterable. But the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, invites us to improvise within that framework.

I guess I'm talking about moving with the Spirit's rhythm. Surprise. There's a great verse in Galatians 5. 25. The apostle Paul says, if we live by the Spirit, which we do, we live.

We're born again by the Holy Spirit. The very beginning of our life in God is by the Spirit. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. I. I love the niv.

The new international version rendition of this verse. Let us keep in step with the Spirit. We could say striding with the Spirit. Okay.

Walking by the Spirit isn't really like marching in lockstep, but it's keeping time, and it's a living rhythm. When we walk the Spirit, it's really a cadence and a rhythm which comes to us from the Father above via the Holy Spirit.

Now, what we're finding out and what I'm learning, I mean, I'm sure they knew this for some time, but what I'm learning now is that when we listen to jazz, our brain lights up in a way that is enhanced and beyond some other types of music. Okay. Because what's happening with jazz? Well, we're tracking shifting harmonies. We are predicting.

Our mind is trying to predict where the next phrase might go. Because it's so improvisational, we're following this tension and release, tension and release.

And when we engage in active listening with jazz, we really can't tune out. I think it's healthy to listen to jazz in the background. Like if we're working or doing chores or Something or it's just in the house, in our car.

I also think active, intentional listening to jazz has its own level of benefit as well. And I'm saying that this is how the Holy Spirit trains us to. The Holy Spirit is seeking, questing to develop mental, spiritual flexibility.

Sort of like that new wineskin stretch when we walk with him. When we walk with the Spirit, we learn to pivot. We may adapt to something and respond in a Christlike way. And this is really upstream from.

This is really a primary aspect of God's will for us, that we are conformed to the image of Christ, the formation of Christ's actual living nature and presence within us. So like as Dallas Willard might say, he would say, he did say that true discipleship is Christ in you, in your life.

And you end up doing what he would do if he were you in your circumstance, in your setting, with that opportunity. So we stay awake, we stay alert, and we're creative in the moment. You see, we need to be constantly renewed in the Lord.

I love the passage in Romans 12:2 where Paul says, don't be conformed to this world. It really means this age, the world system of doing things.

Don't be conformed to that, but be transformed by the renewing your mind, the renewing of our minds. The renewed mind is an improvisational mind. We become responsive to God, the Father, cues, prompts.

Okay, we're ready for something fresh and new and frankly, fermented, the new wine that Jesus offers. I think there's real value in classical music, too. Classical music is.

Classical music, along with jazz music, is probably the smartest music you can listen to. Classical music builds order, symmetry, discipline. Jazz develops intuition and sensitivity. And here's what I'm suggesting, my friend.

Life in the Holy Spirit requires both. We need the order, the discipline, the symmetry, the composition, if you will. We also need intuition, sensitivity, creativity, and improvisation.

Life in the Spirit requires both. Right? We're grounded in the truth, but we're also ready for surprise and the lead of God in the moment.

So I think our life, like a given week, like Father, Holy Spirit, here's a great prayer. Or even this weekend I'm releasing this on a Friday.

If you're listening to this going into the weekend, or maybe you're approaching the next week, maybe in the middle of a week, it really doesn't matter. We can pray this, though. Father, give me a Heaven and Earth jazz jam session this day. Okay?

Give me a Heaven and Earth jazz jam session this week, this month, this year. What's a jam Session. Here's, here's what I love about jazz musicians. They don't just play notes, they listen. They're in conversation with each other.

They hear the drummer's cadence, his accent. You know, they're vibing with that bass player's groove or, you know, they're flourishing in that color that's coming off that keyboard, that piano.

They adjust, they respond.

And this is a perfect moment to introduce the concept of living and relating and moving with a band, a tight band of believers that you really vibe with and resonate with. I like to call it, it's not my term, but I like to call it, refer to it as the micro ecclesia.

A small band of believers who begin to know each other, begin to have tenure with each other relationally and know how to play together in the Lord. And that works itself out in relationships. It works itself out in everyday doing, you know, responding together in this thing we call life.

But it also really, if we worship together or pray together, that's really an incubator, that's really a studio man, a studio experience with some like minded believers. And then we learn how to listen to each other and how to play off of each other and how to compose music in the spirit together, if you will.

I call it the Heaven and Earth jazz jam session. Okay, we know the key. We know the key of the kingdom. We have the inspired scriptures. That's right.

We know the structure, God's word, but the composition, the melody, the melodic flow, that's where the Spirit moves. That's where the Spirit moves in our lives individually and even together. And we tend to underestimate the togetherness aspect that the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament word for this is coin. And it's a, it's a partnership. It's a highly organic relational experience.

You see, I don't know what, you know, challenge you're facing, opportunity, what door is before you. I don't know what your faith horizon is that you're questing, that you're leaning into. This applies to all of it.

You know, the Holy Spirit may lead you and you may instinctively feel and it just comes up in you that you need to hold that note out a little longer than you planned. What is that note? I don't know.

It could be a passage of scripture that lights up for you that you want to meditate on and pray into and begin to actually do it and move in it. I was reading this morning in Isaiah chapter 59 through like 62 or 63, you know, familiar passage to me. But some Things were kind of.

Yeah, lighting up a little bit. And you know what? And I'm just. I want to get into that more. I want to. To. To pray some of those verses. I want to look at that again maybe today.

I want to pray into it. I want to speak it forth. Maybe hold that note out a little longer, you see?

Or maybe the Holy Spirit's prompting you to step out and take a solo you didn't expect. You know, the sax player stands up or the.

You know, the guitarist, the light comes on him and he's stepping out on a riff or a solo that maybe he didn't expect. But, hey, it's time to let it flow, man.

You're staying current in the moment, stepping out with that solo that fits into the Heaven and Earth jazz jam session. The rhythm may shift. The rhythm could shift in your prayer life. It could shift in your relational life.

It could shift in your work life, the kingdom contribution that you're bringing to your church. It could shift there. The harmony may change in a relationship. A relationship may mature and move into a new phase where the harmony changes.

Or maybe your life purpose itself, the current assignments you're in, which are set in seasons, which are set in a larger context of your life purpose and calling. Maybe it modulates. Maybe that assignment modulates. Maybe the season modulates. Maybe the overall evolving maturing of your life purpose modulates.

It's the Heaven and Earth jazz jam session. This is not chaos. This is a Heaven and Earth divine collaboration we're talking about. You know, the Holy Spirit isn't a, like, static metronome.

You know, that device in music that just gives you the pacing, the tone, and it's. It's a metronome. Beginning piano players will use a metronome, but the Holy Spirit is a creative partner.

Holy Spirit, show me what is to come. Because Jesus said that too. Holy Spirit, bring to my remembrance all that Jesus has said to us. We need that. We're thirsty for that.

We're dehydrated for that. The Holy Spirit will whisper in the moment. That tension you're feeling right now about whatever the Holy Spirit is your teacher in the tension.

It's a learning moment. The Holy Spirit is calling you to Play something beautiful to play something new. It's that heaven and Earth jazz jam session.

So what can this look like in real time? In real life, it's learning to listen before we play. Primarily listening to the Holy Spirit and even with others.

If you're married with your spouse, if it's a quality friendship, or if you're moving and flowing in that tight band of believers. I'm talking about learning to listen to each other before we act or even as we act in real time. When we. Here's another way it looks when we pray.

Pause. Give the Holy Spirit space to speak to you. More importantly, give yourself space to hear that voice. Hey, we're facing a challenge. Here's another way.

Let's. Let's listen for. Let's listen for that royal rhythm, that kingdom rhythm that's under the noise of that problem. Oh, yeah.

That's where the confidence is at. That's where the faith is at. That's where the solution is at. It's coming.

Or even if life shifts, like unexpectedly, something comes out of the blue and hits you right up between the eyes. Let's not panic this time. Let's improvise in faith.

You know, I may not have the whole chart of music in front of me, but I do know the key I'm questing to be in that kingdom. Key. I do know the larger scheme of God's word that I'm questing to live within and work within and move within.

But sometimes the Spirit will change the tempo. Sometimes he'll hold a long, quiet rest. We have to trust that he knows the full peace. We're making music with the Holy Spirit.

It's that heaven and earth jazz jam session. Session. Here's a great verse in Ephesians 5, 18 and 19 that Paul wrote.

And this is really in relationship to our little jazz band that we're a part of, our fellow believers, but be filled with the Spirit speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. What are spiritual songs? Well, I think those are songs maybe inspired by the Spirit in real time, in the moment.

It says, singing and making melody with our heart to the Lord. Making melody. Making music with our heart to the Lord. This is a fruit or an expression of the Spirit's activity.

Activity in a little jazz band with your fellow believers. Amazing. Don't you want this? Don't you need this? What could be downstream from this? What refreshing could it bring to you? How could it stimulate you?

How could it be a key aspect and a key part of those experiences from time to time? With believers that actually give you the endurance, the cadence, the stamina to move in this thing we call life.

To quest after God's will on earth as it is in heaven, to move more accurately into what he's envisioning, that faith horizon he has before you. Making melody together is like a relational language. It's spontaneous, spirit led, joy, strength, refreshing.

When the Spirit fills us, we become part of heaven's music. Here's a few practical ideas, okay, that are good for me and I'm going to share them with you. And I hope you see that they could be good for you.

This jazz walk with God, quiet our heart. Okay, Brian. Brian, just set aside some time, will you? Just to listen. No agenda, no lists, no bullet points, no script.

Just white space for the Spirit to move, to prompt, to suggest. Okay, Brian, Number two, flow in prayer, Start praying, start. But let him shift your words and your thoughts.

May there be like a stream of Christ consciousness by his Spirit that flows into me. May I follow his music? May I follow his melody? If he asked me to step out in prayer in a solo, just all by myself or whatever.

But even if it takes you somewhere unexpected in prayer, you know, a big part of prayer is taking you to a place that you don't expect going into it. He's going to deal with our nature, our character. He's going to put his finger on things.

He's going to open up horizons before us we didn't see before we started praying.

I mean, we can't like totally script it out and lock them into like a one page, eight and a half by 11 bullet point list and not be open to him putting its finger on things in our lives, our character, our capacity. He wants to increase our capacity and even unfolding horizons before us that are unexpected and surprising to us. My goodness, we need that.

Here's a third thing, Brian. Share it with you too. Hey, let's journal the rifts. Why don't we call them royal rifts? Riffs from the King.

When we sense God, when we sense the Spirit giving us an insight or a nudge. Write it down, write it down. There is authority in your pen or keyboard. I'm telling you, don't worry about over evaluating it right away.

Right now, capture it. Here's another thing. Partner with others. There are some things that will not unlock for you. I believe me.

Without others, without members of the body of Christ, the Holy Spirit will reserve some things and hold some things back. I believe that are only unlocked or discovered or illuminated in relationship with others. Just like Jazz players feed off of each other.

We have to pray, worship, converse, move with friends who listen to the Holy Spirit and to each other. And just a fifth point, take spirit prompted risks. Sometimes the spirit. Often we would say the spirit will call us to step out.

We have to say something, start something, or maybe stop something. That's where the faith improvises. So as we. Each time we respond in these ways, we are strengthening our spiritual ear.

I think Jesus said one time, you know, that if we hear with our ear and respond, this is a really loose paraphrase. If we will respond to what we're hearing, we will hear more. Okay, we're learning the language of heaven's music.

So I'm pretty confident about saying this right now. I sense this for my life and for. And for your life, if I could say that. There are times where we've been afraid to miss a note.

We've been holding back, you know, waiting for perfect clarity before we move on. Something the Holy Spirit is saying, just start playing with me. The Spirit will guide us as we go. We don't have to know the whole arrangement.

We just need to start with what we hear and keep listening and keep playing and keep responding to prompts as we do. The music will unfurl before us. It will come alive. Isaiah said in Isaiah, chapter 30, verse 21. Well, it's the Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah.

Your ears will hear a word behind you. This is the way, walk in it. Whatever you turn to the right or to the left. That's the Holy Spirit's voice. He's a gentleman.

It's subtle, guiding and rhythmic. Usually it comes across that way. Soft, subtle, guiding, rhythmic to it. We're part of the band, the spirits playing lead.

But he's inviting us to join in individually and in together. So, Father, we thank you right now that you are the ultimate creator.

You've written the score of redemption, but you welcome us to play within it, to explore, to respond, to co create, even Holy Spirit, tune our hearts like a tuning fork to your frequencies. Help us to keep in step with you, Holy Spirit. We don't want to rush ahead. We don't want to lag behind. We don't want to get out of sync.

We don't want to veer off in a pathway that's not right for us. But we want to walk in partnership, in syncopation with your rhythm to Holy Spirit.

We're inviting you, we're asking you to teach us to listen, to improvise, to flow. May our lives become a partnership. This Heaven and Earth jazz jam session that glorifies Jesus, that contributes to his storyline, his kingdom.

We thank you for it. Amen. Remember, God's not calling us to perform. He's calling us to partner. Let's listen, trust and play our part in the Kingdom Symphony.

I appreciate you, my friend. You can catch this episode@jesussmart.com 3:54 with enhanced show notes. It'll be going up at least within a day, we'll say.

By the way, we have a new feature on our enhanced show notes pages that we're building out complete transcript if you like. If you want to go back and catch something, you can actually read the transcript of our episodes, even when we have guests on the podcast. Okay.

I appreciate you. My desire for you and for me is that we would quest after what we've talked about today that we would develop in it. And I think the sky is the limit.

I think all bets are off and I think we just need to play with the Holy Spirit, play music with him. Catch you next time.