Priscilla Shirer: Motivation to Trust God in Difficult Times | Praise on TBN

Priscilla Shirer sits down on TBN’s Praise with her brother, Anthony Evans, in a new interview about overcoming difficult times in our lives, and trusting in God’s perfect plan during seasons of waiting.

On the air since 1973, TBN’s flagship ministry and talk show Praise is one of the most recognizable — and most watched — Christian programs in the world. Taped before a live audience and hosted by TBN’s own Matt and Laurie Crouch along with other popular personalities, Praise features the best in contemporary Christian music and worship, fresh and impacting ministry voices, engaging interviews from a wide variety of guests, and a fast-moving hour of relevant talk you won’t want to miss!

When I see somebody else staying, I see, oh, I’m not the only. Yes.
That is known through a hard thinker that has had to make this decision to to push past my feelings to choose allegiance to god despite what’s happening in my life.
It’s just not me. Other folks are with me and like me. And like you said, there’s encouragement in that.
She got diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and we were told, like, in a in a very dramatic way.
Our dad breaking into tears. We don’t see him do that often, but we had about 9 months to literally say goodbye to our mother in in losing her.
It’s like One of the ways I figured out a way to work on grief Mhmm.
Was to do things in the now to honor her and her legacy That’s great.
Um, that helps you grieve to change that energy into that. And that’s what that’s what this song is.
This is my baby brother. We have there 4 of us. Crystal’s the oldest, then me. Mhmm.
And Anthony, and Jonathan is the youngest. So Anthony are right there in the middle.
Yes.
So we have this little special special little bond thing
that we
have these deep conversations that we get to have one of them today. I’m excited because you have new music.
I I do. I have new music and and a new journey and a new experience, and I’m glad to be talk about it with you and and all the honors.
I need to give the audience a breakdown though. You named our siblings. Yes. Crystal is mislogical.
Like, the tip oldest oldest sister, miss the smart, like, Everything’s methodical. Yes. And then Priscilla is mispersonality.
I gotta tell y’all she got in so much trouble for talking too much growing up, but now it’s all worked out nicely.
So that’s it. And then my brother Jonathan is an athlete and very determined, but I just I sit here and have flashbacks as being kids, and you just be a mispersonality.
And I’m like, this is great. So anyway.
The thing is, though, you said Crystal was the smart one.
No. You’re you’re And then you can see me
and said I had personalities.
Yes. Within this You’re smart right under that. Okay. You know what I’m saying? Alright. Fine.
Moving on. Okay. Yes. Sorry.
I would like to make clear before we even begin you are the guest.
Okay. Got it.
And I am the interviewer. In other words, this is my show. Okay.
I get to say and ask you whatever it is that I wanna say to you Okay.
And what I wanna ask you because what I’m thrilled about is that I we get to introduce to everyone that you have brand new music out after how many years have you now been making music
Oh, 2024. So I started when I was 8.
Or or so.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a 24 years. Okay. Um. Mhmm.
And this is your what number album? Eleven. Eleven albums in. That’s a lot of investment of creativity.
Of vocal capacity, and you’ve been stretching yourself.
The kind of music you’ve been doing through the years has shifted and changed
Mhmm.
Depending on where you are in your life.
Yes.
And the this is the thing I love about your music is you’re always writing songs, whether it’s a collaborative effort or whether you’re writing it yourself, you’re always coming out of place of where you’ve been in your life.
They reflect what you’ve been processing spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and this project, which is named Revive, talk to me about what in your life has been leading you towards even the title of the record before we even get to Right.
The songs themselves. Just what was happening in your life that made you wanna think about reviving, being revived.
What was a lot of things that was hap that was was happening in our lives, really, with with our family and a lot of prayers not being answered the way that I wanted them to be and my faith being in question, to be honest.
Like, I didn’t make music because I felt like an actor getting into character to go sing songs.
I no longer believed. That’s why I stopped. I would go sing places, but I would talk to the people who had me honestly and be like, I’m not in the play.
Like, I’m not recovered from what life has done to me, and I’m not aligned with what I’m singing right now.
So it took me a second to kinda like, I don’t wanna I don’t wanna feel like an actor singing Christian music.
That that’s that that’s not a good feeling. Yeah. So what happened is is I had to make a decision.
Do I just continue to let my faith deteriorate or do I take the steps and take take do what I can and then believe that god’s gonna do what I can’t and add himself to the effort that I put forward?
Cause I didn’t which way to go to recover from, like, for example, us losing our mom or in that way, um, or having the emotional spaces in my life just clouded.
I didn’t know which way to go.
So the album’s called revive because I started taking steps, and I felt god bringing things back to life in my heart and in my experience.
And I was like, the people need to know and experience this.
So it’s about the music, but it’s more about the message that he can bring dead things to life in your heart that you think that are just done.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Here’s the question I wanna ask you. It’s like 5 questions.
You can mark up in my my brain from everything you just said.
But Did you keep going even while you knew you didn’t feel like what it was you were singing or you didn’t feel like showing up?
There are a whole lot of people that had been through loss just like we have. Mhmm.
Evastating hardships one after the other, because not only did we lose mom, but there were 9 family members in the scope of 5 years that we lost.
It was like back to back loss and chaos in our lives, and you’re saying that you had to keep showing up to do a job.
That you didn’t feel emotionally, spiritually connected to.
Right. So
I’m wondering, did you pull back
and stop doing certain things,
or did you keep going while just at the same time.
I need to be working on the other area of my life.
So so many people have to keep going Yes.
Yeah.
While they’re struggling.
Yes. It was a balance because I had to keep going. Yeah.
But I would be strategic I the honest conversations that have being vulnerable and honest and authentic with the whether it was the a church, you know, the church in Florida, I go too often sitting down with those pastors and saying, This is what’s going on in my life right now.
So to get up on the stage, I I it was hard, but I didn’t feel like an actor because they knew the truth
because they knew the truth
because they knew the truth and then doing things with our family that was undergirding and helpful to me.
I got rid of the things that I could get rid of that were that were draining me of the energy to work on myself.
And that that varies for everybody watching.
There are certain things though that we can clear off our plate that leave capacity for healing because you’re not exhausted
Yes.
And and I had to strategically work that out in in my life. And don’t
you think that it takes a measure of courage? Oh.
To be willing to, number 1, be off authentic with the people around you that you can trust
Mhmm. Mhmm.
Um, to know the truth about what’s happening with you, but it also takes a level of courage to say, you know what?
This, this, this, this. People may be appreciating this. People may be applauding me for this.
Other folks may think based on what they prioritize that I need to do this, but it takes a level of courage to say, you know what?
Actually, I’m I’m doing this, and this is draining me. This is not ping me.
Right. And you actually told you you taught me that.
You taught me the power of no, and you taught me the art of when you say no to something, you’re sign you’re saying a simultaneous yes to something else.
So when I said no to whatever opportunity that people thought was amazing and huge, I was saying yes to my spiritual well-being.
And that yes matters more than the no There’ll be another opportunity. You you said this to me.
There’ll be another opportunity to go do that.
There won’t necessarily be another opportunity for you to walk this walk forward in healing at this time. Yeah.
So that was the decision that I had had to make.
And some of the nose were hard until you experienced
the yes. Yeah.
Yeah. When you can start to experience the yes, like me sitting here with a light heart and talking about music, I thought that would never happen again.
So but that was because the nos landed at this yes. That’s good.
And this yes in this project too. Yeah.
Like, that’s a big yes that you got to have the mental margin, the spiritual margin, the emotional margin, and the sparks of creativity that are required to be able to put any sort of project together in a valuable way.
Yeah. All of that diminishes when we just keep going and going and going while not tending to our emotional needs.
Absolutely.
The the sorry. No. Go ahead.
The the depth of these songs, and I I is because of of that.
Like, if I wouldn’t have taken the time to heal and just cranked out more music, it would not be it wouldn’t have the depth of these songs.
There’s a song on the album called 828 that’s Romans 828 him working things together for your good, but that’s coming from a different place now.
Like, we’ve quoted that verse for years.
A lot of us, that’s coming from a replaced or the bridge of that song is Adhesians 320.
Um, now to him who’s able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine.
Sometimes I stop that verse there, and I don’t go in to the end of that verse that talks about the power that is already in us.
I was not experiencing the power within me that was already in me because I was so attracted by doing too much.
And I did I was not con I think the enemy’s objective is to distract us from the power that is within us so that we will not be able to experience exceedingly abundantly more and I was distracted Yes.
From that power.
Come on. You’re preaching.
I I just really was. You know, daddy, I’m talking a lot because I’ve had too much coffee, but
I’m so excited. Slow down. So I always have to tell him to slow down.
But I have yeah. It’s a it’s a
Your coffee situation is out of control, sir. Okay. Okay. Dad. Gonna say something
to take us to the circus growing up, and I loved animals so so much.
And I remember seeing the elephants in the parking lot and being mesmerized by the fact that this elephant had a chain around its ankle that was in a stake in the ground, and it didn’t realize if he just pulled one good time He’d be running the show.
Try hard to pull Exactly. Yeah.
But he was fooled to he forgot the power within him because of that chain that was around his ankle.
He’d been trained to stay put
Exactly. The enemy’s objective is to train us to stay put and forget that we have the power within us to just do the effort to pull that pull that break that chain, and we can do it.
But if he can keep us distracted, we don’t experience it. Don’t experience don’t experience it.
If that
this album is revived uh, called revived because I’ve now experienced the power of breaking breaking those those chains.
I felt that in my spirit. I felt it in my spirit.
I love that. Because you’re the you’re the speaker. No.
Okay. But this is something people may not know about you, which I’m sure lends itself to your songwriting and your creative capacity, but you are a master illustrator.
Oh.
You’re a great storyteller. And, you know, that, like, we always are commenting on when we’re having conversations about regular life stuff, you are able to pull out an illustration like about the circus and an elephant and make a substantial spiritual point about something that’s impactful, and people can grab hold of that.
So you do that through your music too.
You’re telling a story that has spiritual principle and encouragement to help people to stay buoyed up in the midst of life’s hard stuff.
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
So describe a little bit more about this disparity you were seeing in your, um, work, your ministry, and what you were feeling.
Tell us how you were feeling in your heart, your soul, in your mind that was causing a discrepancy between what you were singing.
I felt like I was I felt like I was playing injured. I felt like an athlete. Here it is.
Here it is. Here it is.
Like an athlete who has a sprained ankle but the athlete that everybody expects to be on the court dunking, so they just wrap their ankle and go out and keep playing.
And, ultimately, the damage that can be done by you playing injured, you can be completely forever taken off the court if you keep playing injured.
Yeah.
So that’s what I felt like. I felt like Something’s off.
I know what I’m capable of, uh, with ministry in my side.
I know what I’m capable of, but something is off. And I didn’t make the choice to to sit down.
I, uh, the Olympics 2020 Simone Biles, the champion of the universe.
Everybody knows she’s about, I mean, the expectation on her was huge.
And she went up to do this vault and landed crazy, and everybody thought, what is happening to the champion.
There was she was capable of a lot, but her mind was not right.
And she had to admit I have the twisties.
And if he’s and if I keep going for y’all, I’m going to injure myself in a way that I might not be able to recover from because I’m trying to perform for y’all.
Yeah. So I that’s what I felt like, and I had to get to the point where if I keep going, like, I have the twisty spiritually, mentally, emotionally, I have the twisties, and I have to stop because if I keep going the injury to me is And the people and the people attached to you is going to be a problem.
So that’s that’s what I that’s what I felt like.
And so I had to, you know, uh, let let people down in some ways, but
I I look I don’t know why Anthony and I often joke about and comment on the fact that we are thinking similar things or, like, we’ll be one of us will text the other one when the other one is composing a tech send to the other one.
Like, it happens all the time.
Or you wear a purple shirt today? Go with this purple I don’t know. Like,
today, we showed up, and it looks like we tried to coordinate. And we didn’t.
We just showed up like this.
Yeah.
And the reason I say that is because I kid you not yesterday.
I was thinking about the Simone Biles situation.
The courage that it took that girl to say, I don’t care because, I mean, I don’t remember the media Oh, yeah.
I remember people canceling her speaking negatively about her. Why in the world? You’re representing the US.
Mean, think about the pressure. Yes. You’re representing all of us, and you’re gonna give up.
And I just remember seeing her look squarely into a camera to do a news little conference that she was doing.
And she was just saying and describing what the twisties were and that she knew she could decimate her entire career, not to mention the quality of her life with an injury if she just kept going because everybody else wanted her
to. Exactly. The
courage it takes to admit something is out of balance here, whether emotionally, spiritually, even physically, we can run ourselves into the ground physically.
In the in the state in the name of ministry,
in the name of ministry. So it takes courage.
What you’re saying is freeing somebody up right now is what it’s doing because the entire culture surrounding us in society, but also in ministry Mhmm.
Is hustle grind. Keep going all the way to the end, the end of yourself, the end of your physical health, the end of your family, people are afraid in every way, but they feel like around them, there’s this constant pressure to keep going.
And what you’re describing is having the courage to pause for a second. Take a deep breath.
Ask the lord about the season he has you in right now.
And then trust that this is not a fruitless season even though it might feel or seem less outwardly productive
Right.
That the lord is using this as groundwork for what’s coming next.
Exactly. Exactly. That when when you talk about, um, the season of kinda just waiting and you watch people, people around you are moving.
This is so random, but here’s another story.
Now I’m I’m I’m aware of it now that you’re talking about illustrations. I, you know, I love boats.
I love being on water. I love it so much.
Without they took us to the engine room because I was so intrigued about how this thing actually works.
And then they got to this point where they showed us in the engine room this automatic automatic stabilizer system that that that this yacht had.
And and bottom line is that when waves hit it, there was something inside of it that shot water out on the side that a wave hit on so that would not capsize.
It was an automated system that was built into it But for that system to be built in, it had to go to dry dock and had to sit it was made for the water, but had to sit on the dry dock to get this system put in it so it will not turn over when the waves hit.
The the time that I have taken off was my drydock time.
Well, everybody else is sailing and having the greatest time, but what got put in me through work on my mental health I’m like, obviously, my spiritual health are stabilizer.
So when life’s waves are hitting me, I don’t not feel the wave, but I don’t capsize because uh, Romans 828 will shoot out of my heart.
Our Philippines 16 will shoot out of my heart on the other side while while the scenarios are hit are hitting me hard.
So I Yeah.
So you need to know that I’m gonna steal all of that. I can assure you
when y’all read this in a book. I I told her I was
The first time I’ll give you credit after the
the lord the lord told me. I said it was? Okay. I’m just saying, yeah, that that’s kind of
That’s great. People need to hear that.
And out of you being at the dry dock, a whole new project, a project that wouldn’t have the depth, it wouldn’t have the creativity wouldn’t have the beauty and power that it’s going to have in people’s lives if you hadn’t taken time to just let the lord stabilize you.
Okay. We’re gonna talk about the music, but I wanna ask you one more question because you mentioned specifically mental health.
No. Yeah.
And I I want to sit here for just few minutes and talk to you about this because this has been a big deal for you.
Um, and you have invested in your mental health.
Yes.
I think that folks, particularly in the church, It’s more and more, um, acceptable now to discuss openly. Yes.
But, um, it hasn’t been historically. Right.
So I think you even discussing it now will give somebody permission to realize they can address their mental health how, what brought you to that point of realizing, uh, I need just like I might get a trainer to help me with my physical health Yeah.
Or a financial advisor to help me because I wanna plan and budget well for retirement. Mhmm.
You’re like, I need some training. Somebody to gird me up in my mental health.
What brought you to that point and what have you done over the course of more than a decade now.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you
just walked through this.
Yeah. You you mentioned the trainer or the or the, uh, somebody help you with your finances.
I liken it to a tutor.
In 9th grade, I had the hardest time in math class, I could not understand.
Miss Simmons would be at the board explaining this formula that works every time.
And she had a book of truth formula she was working out on the board, and I had my my aunt my, uh, hand up the whole class.
And finally, she goes, Anthony, in order for you to pass, you’re going to need tutoring.
And we have a book of truths here.
We have the formulas that always work, but you’re having a hard time understanding these formulas.
So in order if I did not fail because I admitted that I needed tutoring, mental health and therapy and working through things is not saying that the Bible doesn’t have the power or that you’re you don’t trust the lord.
It’s saying if I read be anxious for nothing, I need tools to help me be anxious for nothing because that’s not
How do I do that?
How do I do it? Yeah.
And implementing those in end of my life, and and having to admit to myself, I think it’s hard for Christians or people with faith or people in professional ministry to admit I need help.
But once I did that and people started coming to my life who were trained on a on a, uh, um, in mental health.
Yes. And I got to tie that into my faith That changed everything.
I learned the art of being kind to myself. I learned about toxic relationships.
And actually, because of my faith, I was setting myself up and getting into scenarios where I became a victim of my own compassion because I was forgiving, and now that’s a there comes a point where you know, like, if my Apple if my MacBook breaks or something, there comes a point where the restart doesn’t work.
You have to send it back to the manufacturer because they know how to fix it.
I wouldn’t send people back to the manufacturer. I would not turn them back over to god.
I would still keep trying to fix and fix and fix, and that was messing with my mind.
So I had to learn I had to I mean, those are just we could talk about this forever, but those are just a few things.
And once I got rid of toxic relationships, once I started being kind to self.
Once I admitted that I needed tutoring, uh, you know, tutoring nursing, that changed everything.
That was a major part of the revival in my heart and it I know it’d be a major part of the viewer’s revival in their their heart of having tools to help them.
Yes. So you’re not saying any of that for you placed or removed the primacy of the Bible of prayer of faith, all those things.
You’re just saying, here’s what I know to be true.
Now I’m gonna take this to someone so that they can have a conversation with me on the practical way to live in light of what I just read.
Practable way to live in light of my faith. That that’s where the
How does 3+2 equal 4 in this next twenty 4 hours of my actual day?
Exactly. Exactly. That’s it. And and, I remember just having to clear things out of my life when we were growing up our mom who we love so much.
She’s the best cook. She’s just with cook stuff.
But I remember she would not come place things on the table. If I had my homework in, like Yeah.
Twinkies or whatever on the table, dinner dinner would be Twinkies. I know. Just random snacks because too much.
Uh, but she would keep the she would not, um, serve the dinner until I cleared the table until
I cleared and set the table. Table off y’all set the table.
Yes. And so me working on my mental health, I believe that happens a lot with the lord.
He has something fresh for us, but we have clouded up our lives went so much and the clearing the table of my heart, my emotions, my life, I got things placed in front of me that now make it so much easier.
But what would prepared for you.
They were prepared to give to you, but you had to clear the space so you could receive
Yes. And when I didn’t clear the space for our mother, the meal would get cold.
And when you don’t clear the space in your life or what god has for you, what he has piping hot and ready, can start to cool down.
You may miss some of those things.
So that’s also part of her vibe is and and part of mental health and everything is just kinda clearing out all the clutter and allowing god to place something that he had for me.
And every time I clear, he places something down. So now it’s easy. I’m like, okay.
Okay. That’s alright. Because he has something. Because you have a track record that faithful, and he’s good.
He’s faithful.
And he’s kind. And just in case anybody’s discouraged because in that last illustration, you mentioned you know, waiting too long.
The meal gets cold. God’s grace and mercy is so sufficient that it is retroactive. Yep.
That he’s like, don’t worry about that. I got a good whole microwave system here.
Or I’ll do another. Yeah.
Or I’ll do something better.
That’s
what god does. Always. Always. Nothing is lost with him. No.
And out of this season of your life, of a lot of hard work because I I don’t want anybody to think you were sitting at the dry dock just like enjoying the sunrise.
No. You no. No. Uh-uh. You
you’ve done a lot I’ve had a lot of hard conversations
Mhmm.
With therapists, with your family, with the people close to you that you can be authentic and vulnerable with.
A lot of hard conversations, a lot of tears, a lot of struggle Mhmm.
As
you try to contend with the word of god and what it is that he wants you to do and And then the creativity that god’s so he’s so good that in seasons where we feel like nothing is happening all of a sudden, you start to see through the dry cracks of life just little bits, little glimpses of growth and greenery.
And like the lord’s saying, I’m still here. Yeah. I got it. Uh-huh. Some goods coming out of this.
And now we have revived.
Yeah. Yeah.
It’s such a good record, Anthony.
Oh, thank you.
We’ve had I keep saying record. Does that date mean we still It’s
it’s kind of a throwback term. You know what I mean? It’s a good record album. You know?
What do you call it? A album? What do the artist
call it? Yeah. An album record. We say that. Body of work. A new body of work
That sounds so official. Yeah.
It’s a little over over the top.
The thing is I’m glad you mentioned that because it is a body of work.
And in this day and age where Everybody’s downloading one song here, one song there.
What I see in revive is a story that you have told from beginning to end. Mhmm.
And I think when someone grabs full of the whole story
Mhmm.
There’s a revival that’s gonna take place in them because they’ll see the trajectory of where you were headed. Mhmm.
From point a to point b.
Yeah.
What’s what was the creative process for you like?
As you were writing these songs and then thinking about, um, musically how to get
them together and prepare them, what is the process like for producing a record like this. It is.
I I love to that at home connected feeling, you know, how I just I love to be with family and friends.
So the process to me starts at my house with with my friends who are wildly talented that that that the musicians I get to work with and the writers are just wildly talented.
So some of these songs started in just honest conversation about me talking about, like, there’s a song called Even If, and I was talking about I had to make choice at one point.
When the healing didn’t look the way that we would choose, would I worship him even if he didn’t allow that to happen?
And I was talking to my friend about that.
And then the song, even if came out of that, because I know that there are people who are like, I have to make a decision.
At some point, if god does not and map this out the way that I had intended or the way I thought, am I gonna worship him when circumstances don’t look like what I want them to?
So that’s the it just converse the songs come out of honest conversations and stuff like that.
I try not to go, like, hey. Now we’re gonna formulate a album. It’s not that.
It’s just just out of life out of the struggle.
Over the last year, the song about our our mom, for instance, I was I was asked to write a song for a movie, um, a a bet movie.
I had had got to produce the music for that.
And um, sons were singing to their mother in the movie. Mhmm.
And the actress, um, walked to me right after she’s saying I mean, it’s alright if I have sheet.
She’s in the scene. With tears in her eyes.
And she goes, I know you don’t know that I know the story of your mother, but she is so proud in every lyric you just wrote was for your mom and I felt it.
Wow. Then I finished the song for our mom because I was writing it for a movie, but she was like, no, you weren’t.
No, you weren’t. So that’s how that song got birth.
So it’s been a lot of A lot of scenarios like that where
Um, you know, you mentioned that song even if, which I’ve heard many times now, and every time you have sung that in front of a an audience that has been gathered.
I mean, the it’s like they can’t help but to stand up in response to this reality that it it’s a play it’s a throwback to the Hebrew boys
Mhmm.
Um, in the book of Daniel. Basically, we believe our god can.
But even if you don’t, we’ve still made a decision. Our allegiance is to Yahweh and Yahweh alone. Mhmm.
And you’ve we’ve had to live that out. Like, lord, we’re praying in this direction.
Not only would this be wonderful for us if you would answer with mom and with others.
Like, lord, if you would answer this way, um, but also it’d be good for you. Like, yeah.
Like, we’ll make sure we do all the things give you the lord. Like, you’ll yeah.
You will really be glorified, lord.
If you will do it this way in our timing, the way we would want you to.
But then being able to move the needle of your prayer to But even if even if your will doesn’t look like what we would prefer, we have decided.
That for me and my house, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna serve the lord.
That’s a hard truth to swallow. Even if you love the lord a hard truth to swallow.
But as you mentioned, when the audience starts to engage, it makes the truth easier for me to swallow.
Like, when I’m when I’m watching them join in that because everybody has their even if scenario. Totally.
If you are alive, you have a scenario where you’re like, god, if you don’t, I gotta make a decision.
I’m gonna still worship. I think when we collectively come together, authentically like that, that is what propels us forward in our faith is and that’s what the, again, the album’s about is us experiencing this together.
This isn’t a This isn’t a performance out. Might do some kind of other kind of music. Right.
Ain’t nobody got time for that. No. We we could be doing some different
If it was about book warrants. Yeah. So That’s that’s what it is. And that’s
yeah. Yeah. That’s what I think.
When people are responding to to music or to a message they’re hearing, the response, like, when we were talking about people standing, It’s almost like testimony.
When I see somebody else stand, I see, oh, I’m not the only one that is gone through a hard thinker that has had to make this decision to to push past my feelings to choose allegiance to god despite what’s happening in my life.
It’s just not me. Other folks are with me and like me. And like you said, there’s encouragement in that.
Yes. And that’s a powerful thing that we we do at your events.
You have people stand up who’ve experienced deliverance in a certain area and pray over others.
And for some people, them at at fervent events, that is their moment.
They see somebody next to them stand up having experienced deliverance and they know they’re not alone.
That’s the that’s what this album is a is about exactly what what you said.
Can you narrow down three things that you feel like god taught you during the May.
How long does it take you to make the album?
It’s been a year, a little over a year.
Alright. That’s just so important for people to
hear. Yeah. It wasn’t like last week we decided to Yeah.
Last week, we put a little record together. No. It’s a year process probably before that pen to paper.
Mhmm.
But then getting in the studio recording, making sure that all the tracks are right because you’re involved in every level of production of every song that you produce.
You’re not just like singing into a mic and then going home. Mhmm.
All of the balancing of everything, all of the singers, arranging all of the notes, of all of those details, That’s you.
Yeah.
So this is a year process, um, where you’re still living through this year.
You’re working on a project but you’re living through this year.
So can you look back over the course of the arch of that year and pinpoint 3 things?
2 or 3 things that while you were recording, god was teaching you this.
Oh my goodness. There’s so there’s so So many things while I was recording. Mhmm.
I mean, I guess what what I mentioned, one of the things that I mentioned of him being able to take your leftovers and make them into something beautiful.
I’d have moments along the way where we finished the vocal for a song, and I and I would remember how I felt a few years ago thinking that there’s no way that he could be working any of this together for my day.
There’s no And when that vocal finished him being like, yes, I can.
Like, in that moment, So that that’s one thing that that he taught me, but what it took me, uh, is doing what I could, and then god would do what I can’t.
That’s right. He magnifies your effort. So, daddy, we were little.
Would walk up behind me during Little League Baseball and grabbed the bat. And I was hitting nothing.
And daddy walked up behind me and grabbed the baseball bat. He didn’t tell me to walk away.
He grabbed the bat over my hands, and all of a sudden I became Babe Ruth. Yeah.
He magnified my effort. That is one of the things that god taught me is you have to do what you can, and I will wrap my arms around your circumstance and magnify your effort.
And you’ll go from striking out to home runs because you’re putting you’re doing what you can, but asking been inviting me into your circumstance.
So that Yeah. That was wildly, wildly huge.
He taught me, uh, briefly, uh, when it comes to setbacks in your life, like, in my career, I’ve had setbacks a long time ago when it wasn’t gospel and contemporary were so split and separate and everything.
And I felt very kinda alone in figuring it out.
He taught me that alone time that you fig you feeling alone was because I wanted to set you up to be self sufficient and to produce things I wanted I had events with your family in mind that I needed you to know this for.
And the only way you would know how to do this is if things didn’t work out for you and everybody was tanning you everything in your life.
So the setbacks, the current setbacks are setups. That was a big, a big, huge Okay.
I’m okay. I’m positive
here. Okay.
Because you’re saying so many incredible things, and I don’t want anybody to miss what it is you’re describing because When you talk about the early points in your career, you were in the middle of 2 worlds of music.
Mhmm. You’re not quite gospel enough to be in the gospel Right. Industry.
You’re not quite CCM enough to be, you know, in that radio play of all of those So you’re somewhere in the middle and you’re floundering and you’re all by yourself.
And this is years we’re talking about Mhmm.
Where you’re laying the groundwork of writing music or producing music and you’re signed with a label and all of that.
But it just seems to be sort of floundering. So this is lonely. This is frustrating. Yes.
You’re just feeling discouraged because all this work, but you don’t feel there’s fruit from the investment you’re making. Right.
Years later, you look back and realize that because you had to do so much alone, it actually prepared in you, not only the character, but the Plano flat out skill Mhmm.
Because
you had to produce so much by yourself
Right.
That now you have the skill to write whole records, to stand there and balance all the vocals, to think through how am I gonna make sure that people know the record exists so that they can grab hold of it into their own you know all that because of those hard years.
Right.
I do wanna talk about mom.
Okay.
We we’ve brought mom up several times already.
Um, but for many people who who don’t know what happened with our mother, just kinda walk them quickly through that and then what song on this album that was birthed out of that.
Yeah. Um, our mom, a beautiful regal, you know, like a like a queen’s presence.
She grew up in British Guyana.
So there was that part of her culture, the British part, but she’s also just a refined human being in general.
Um, dedicated life to ministry, supporting our dad, people here know the name Doctor Toni Evans, and they know Doctor Lewis Evans, but they don’t know that our mother undergirded every aspect uh like that.
Um, he he’s brilliant, but there was just plates being spun everywhere, and she would spin them and catch them as they fall.
So, um, while raising 4 of us, which is so confusing to me.
How how that was even possible, now that I’m watching y’all raise, I’m just lost.
But, um, she got diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and we were told, like, in a in a very dramatic way our dad breaking into tears.
We don’t see him do that often, uh, because he we we saw him hopeless, which we don’t see him, Bob, ever.
Mhmm. Or just not hopeless, but knowing what the solution
could be
because he’d been told there are no longer any solutions with this. Yeah.
That that was a hard hard thing to see, but we had about 9 months to literally say goodbye to our mother, believing the that whole time.
So, um, I the my gratitude for her, it’s kind of this this whole thing of hindsight 2020, which is um, the the song on this album is an encouragement to those who still have their moms to thank them to gloat over them.
Our mom wanted to make sure that mothers weren’t unseen. Women in Ministry weren’t unseen pastors wives.
That was her desire. So my desire in doing this song was to obviously thank our mom, but literally encouraged audience to think there are so many things that I promise you.
You will figure out later she was doing Mhmm. To keep you covered and to keep That’s right.
You have an opportunity to thank her now. And I that that’s what I wanna do.
I wanted to say thank you to our mom.
Um, and I think about her, obviously, multiple times a day and see another nuance of, like, she was doing this too.
This is crazy. But, um, in in losing her, it’s like, one of the ways I’ve figured out a way to work on grief Mhmm.
Was to do things in the now to honor her and her legacy. That’s great.
Um, that helps you grieve, um, to change that energy into that.
And that’s what that’s what song is, um, uh, as as related to being dedicated to her is is to kinda So
when someone outside of that particular song, when someone grabs hold of this project that you’ve spent a year of your life plus really investing in.
And, honestly, it’s just a year in the production process because, honestly, this has been 10 years in the world.
As you’ve worked through and walked through hard things
Mhmm.
Regular life things, but also difficult, hard things you’ve had to struggle through. Right.
So it’s been a big process for you to put this record together.
When someone grabs hold of it and incorporates it into the playlist of their life, What are you hoping they walk away with?
I’m hoping, uh, more than anything that they they walk away with hope. They walk away with not feeling alone.
And and they walk away knowing that again, when you do it, you can.
God will magnify it, and you can do what you can’t. That’s that’s and it’s all wrapped in excellence.
We want that to be the thing and to enjoy it.
But this is about having hope, um, coming from a a guy that’s been broken and has a bunch of issues but god just seems to take those issues and rearrange them and make them into something like this.
That that’s that’s the objective.
I just think we need to pray about, um, how the Lord’s gonna use this music and people’s lives to change us, to challenge us, and to encourage us to keep on going for his glory.
Mhmm. I will. I will. I love it. Um, lord, we are so grateful for your promises to us.
We are so grateful for your promises to us.
And more than that, for the fact that you do not break your promises to us, for the heart at home, who needs a a personal revival, who needs that needs to come back to life.
We ask right now that you would meet them there, that you would give them glimmers of hope that you would open their eyes to the things that you are currently doing while they’re in this dry season, that are preparing them for what you ultimately have for them.
Gotta pray that you would help us to corporately make the decision that even if scenario those don’t look the way that we are asking for them to look, that we will lift our hands, and that we will sing again, that you are good to us, that you are so good to us.
Yes, lord. God, remind us that when we do what we can, you will do what we cannot.
You will continue to work all things together for our good um, god that you can do exceedingly abundantly more in the life of every viewer in the life of us here than we could ask or imagine, but that’s according to the power that is within us.
So for every time the enemy tries to distract us from the power that is within us, I pray god, that you would pluck our pluck our hearts out of that scenario.
Remind us, god, that he is trying to distract us from our power so that we cannot experience exceedingly abundantly more and get us back on track.
Yes. We are so grateful for you.
Open our eyes to what you are doing when we feel like there is nothing happening in our lives.
For every viewer, again, god, I pray that you would cover their heart and your hope. Jesus. Right now.
We love you for all that you do.
We love you for the fact that you take our scenarios and bring them back to life.
We give you all the honor. We give you the glory. In your name, we pray.
Please, a snake. Amen. Amen.