Priscilla Shirer: God Is With You on the Path to Your Purpose! | Praise on TBN

Priscilla Shirer sits down with her brother, Anthony Evans Jr., to talk about the journey towards purpose and how God is with you in the hard times you will face.

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!

right before going up on the platform there were very clear signs that I was having a miscarriage and I just had to go up there and speak and and share what the Lord had put on my heart to share all the while knowing the very real possibility that I was having a miscarriage in that moment in that moment I felt left lost abandoned like God’s forgotten about me but I had to bounce my feelings off the truth and the truth is found in Verses like Philippians 1:6 it says I am confident in this that he who began a good work

will be faithful to complete it and that’s whether we feel like it or not you kind of stumbled into what actually is your destiny you stumbled into that because you had your actual father but in a lot of people’s lives it’s just a father figure or it’s a it’s a Moses that sees in Joshua something Joshua does not know he has the capacity to do and says you know what I’m going to put you at the front lines and then you just sort of put one foot in front of the other because you have a scholarship and

all of a sudden you kind of stumble into what is the path that the Lord has for you but it was not easy that’s the thing that I think people need to know is that you you kind of you know we see you now standing on stage you were on The Voice um you know a lot of times you know you’ve been on Saturday Night Live singing back up you know you’ve been in a lot of positions where people see you now and they don’t know sort of the path of hardship that you had to take to get there I wanted to read one little

excerpt from your book um I’m just going to start right here it it says that we were growing very very weary we had a number of Tours hundreds of them throughout the years concerts throughout the year and we were on the verge of collapse the illusion has often be been created in Christian music that service always comes first even if it’s tearing you apart inside one day after a string of back-to-back shows I was feeling sick my body was begging me to slow down and I had gotten to that dangerous place

where I was anxious exhausted emotional and overwhelmed sick or not I still had to unload a big old 18 wheeler set up the stage get dressed perform like everything was great tear the stage down pack the gear back up into the truck and hit the road then I had to do it all again the next day I was sitting in the dressing room of one of the churches we were scheduled to perform at I was quiet kind of keeping to myself and I guess my demeanor came off sour like I didn’t care I wanted to be respectful and appreciative but sometimes when you’re

hurt and dog tired things don’t come out right so the director marched up to me stared me in my face and told me I was worthless lazy and would never do anything or accomplish anything better than where I was at that moment I sat there stunned not knowing how to respond I guess I was still s super naive to think everyone in Christendom was soft-hearted and super nice how did it feel when you ran into people like that who you expected to behave a certain way and to have a certain attitude because they were

Christians and yet they just kept tearing you down all of those years that you were serving in Christian music in your early 20s yeah that was a hard lesson like when you’re reading that story and I’m reliving it right here yeah I can see the tears yeah yeah it’s it’s not a that’s that wasn’t a a a good moment at all um I learned I think my our parents did a great job of of in some ways Sheltering us from what you might be able what you might be facing even in christiandom you know what I

mean what what might come one thing about that is that I which is a whole other thing it’s the the concept that when you are in Ministry you’re supposed to drive yourself into the ground for the sake of of reaching people and ministering to people you’re supposed to sacrifice wellbeing for that that is a myth that that is that will ruin your life if you feel like that is what you’re supposed to be doing as a Believer is hyp extending yourself um you you you can’t obviously it sounds clich but you can’t Minister from a

place of being empty like that and I was taught earlier on um that through this experience you’re talking about that that’s that was what it was that’s what it was going to be yeah and we hadn’t seen that growing up like our family didn’t come to a place of collapse because Mom and Dad were so busy building the church that they didn’t attend to the six of us to our family life together so when you experience that out on the road of everybody being dog tired and ignoring even their own

physical health right you were like what is this yeah yeah and and I always speak up I I if I feel like something and that wasn’t really appreciated in that in that whole scenario that you were painting right there or that I painted in the book um yes so to hear those words come at me I I literally I could not believe that that was happening but I I yeah I couldn’t believe I still can’t believe those words were said to my face did you believe any of it when you were told you know what you will never

accomplish anything more than when you where you are right now at the time you’re like 22 years old did any of that stick with you and sort of did you have to fight through any of that to feel like you know what this isn’t it for me yes it did that those words do stick with me and people don’t necessarily realize a lot of times the weight of words you know what I mean a lot of people just say whatever they feel and they try they think they can come back and apologize and it be okay but a lot of times words can burn you down

emotionally to nothing and you have to reild yeah you have to rebuild that and a lot of a lot of times the apology doesn’t help you rebuild it like you have to like so those words did that to me and I feel like um I got to a point where I was like I’m I got to go to counseling I got to get this together because I cannot get up on the stage anymore and this is years later I can’t get up on the stage anymore and sing sing these songs from a place of emptiness or from a place place of uh wondering if if I’m good enough or

valuable enough and I do believe that that came the belief that I wasn’t good enough started with with those words and it lasted years and years I mean you know that that that was almost 20 years ago that that was said to me and it it lasted that long talk to us about Kirk Franklin well right after I finished this um the that chapter Kirk actually called me you know you get calls from people he started coming to our church when you get calls from people like that who say they want to work with you you’re like I’ll never talk to you again

like after this you know he was like you ready to come with me and I was like yeah yeah but he held up his end up that that phone call I got off of that bus and walked on to his and that was right when he was releasing the the rebirth record y’all remember that record yeah with Hosanna and brighter day and all these amazing songs uh so being able to tour the world with him at 22 years old he taught me about the 23 hours of a day that we spend off of a stage that’s what was important to him and I watched him

pursue faith in God off of a stage Integrity yes he he was he was all about growth and to be able to watch that and to be doing it at this scale like I a 22-year-old going on a a world tour for a year and a half with him and Yolanda Adams was there Donnie mcclerkin was there and Yolanda in the middle of the tour was like come sing with me too so I was on stage most of the night singing for these you know these these gospel greats and they were investing in my life so God was giving back to me what was what was really taken away in that M

that moment I I don’t want to sound like victim is and you know all that stuff but um yeah so yeah Kirk Kirk was an amazing blessing um that I mentioned that I got to a point though having years of you know we’re in everywhere anywhere you can think of Roy Albert Hall you talk about in London where you sang there my first event with him was in London and Kirk I come from this world of everything’s you know planned and you you sing this note here and Kirk is just all over the place and handed me a microphone in the middle of the show the

middle of his event I remember he he handed me the microphone and I was like y’all know how Kirk does when he just hands a singer a microphone and goes go at it do it do the thing and I didn’t come from that so I was like what’s wrong with you you sick you good why you handing me the mic like what you so you know those are some great memory he taught me about singing from my soul not just being a technician but singing from my my my soul and my heart tell us now kind of what things look like now you’ve been singing um once you