Zach Williams: God Can Rescue Any Story

God knows everything about who you are and for me it's what you're putting your focus in your mind on is what becomes your God and if you're doing that on your career and your you know your abilities and not the things of God then that's that's what you're gonna put first in your life we all have those moments where we need a little encouragement to get through our day someone to remind us that we are not alone find peace [Music] embrace joy seek God daily welcome to Jesus calling stories of faith our guest is Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Zach Williams growing up Zach had a loving supportive family atmosphere that was grounded in the faith but when Zach became a full-time touring musician he was pulled into a lifestyle of addiction that threatened to ruin all that was important to him I grew up in a you know small small town in Northeast Arkansas and I have an amazing mom and dad that at a very early age you know taught me what it was to just put my faith in my trust in Jesus and and you know I had it not been for just their relationship with Christ and the example that they were to myself and others I wouldn't you know I don't think I'd have the opportunities that I have today I certainly don't think I would be where I'm at Church was very much a big part of our life whenever I was growing up my dad and my mom were both part of music ministry my dad led worship my mom saying a church had a very good support system around me and I'm just a group of people that always you know told me I could do and be anything that I wanted to be growing up I never had an interest in playing music you know sports were or what I always wanted to do it was my dream to to get a scholarship and kind of move away from this small town unfortunately around 15 16 years old I got involved in drugs and alcohol and started making a lot of bad decisions and I started kind of drifting away from everything that my parents had taught me as I got older you know I kind of started running from everything that I've been taught and by my senior year I ended up with you know a Division one basketball scholarship offer but I lost that because I got involved in drugs and and ended up getting myself in trouble so I had to drop out of high school my senior year I ended up working for my dad's construction company for a year and and then a year later I walked on to a junior college I made the team I got a full scholarship I moved three hours away from home and then I found myself pretty much right back into the same you know things that I was struggling with you know whenever I was in high school and and my freshman year we were in a basketball practice and I was walking through some plays and I ended up jumping up to to dunk one and I landed on a guy's foot and I tore five ligaments in my ankle [Music] and I just saw it man what am I supposed to do now that this is everything I've ever wanted to do and here we are you know coming to school play basketball and I can't even play basketball anymore [Music] and so my freshman year I I stayed in my apartment while most of the guys traveled on you know the bus and played all these games and I was sitting around and I ended up teaching myself how to play my roommates guitar and I just fell in love with with this idea that you know I could start maybe writing these songs and tell these stories and these seasons laughing I was going through and I remember just the first time that I ever picked up a guitar just feeling this you know I was really drawn to this and and you know the bad thing was is when I started playing music I I started to kind of create this new persona of this guy that I was gonna be in this person I felt like if I'm gonna play music and I'm gonna be a rock star then I've got to embrace this lifestyle and this look and everything that goes along with it and so that's hit me down some pretty dark roads and I moved back home from college and I was playing music and I was you know honestly playing in any bar or any garage or party that it that I could go to that anybody would listen to my songs at and I was working for my dad's construction company and I remember I remember thinking you know like as long as I can you know get up and go to work everyday and you know you know do my job then the drugs and the alcohol shouldn't be a problem and you know I got pretty good at like functioning you know on drugs every day and so that was something that for a good part of my life you know I got up and and I would use drugs every day just to get through the day and do my job and you know as that is that continued to progress my my music career was you know kind of starting to take off and I here I was you know living this this kind of double life and I remember thinking you know all right here I am you know finally in a place where I'm playing music all the time and doing all these things that I thought I wanted to have but I'm still not happy I met my wife when I was about 30 years old and when we met she had two small kids and soon after we got married we had a little boy together and about that time I was traveling to Europe to to her and I went over to Europe and to her for a month I came back home and went back to work and you know that that was kind of rough because you know you've created this this person that you are and everybody thinks you're doing all these awesome things and honestly you're just working a construction job to pay the bills so you can go out and party and act like a rock star and it was it was oppressing and you know I'm here I was thinking that you know I should be happy for all the things that I have but you know nothing I was doing was filling this hole in my life and in a year or two went by and me and my wife continued to just struggle with you know our marriage and the things that I was doing and it got to a point where she was pregnant with our daughter and I remember I remember I was getting ready to leave to go to Europe for the second time for a month and she had kind of come to me and just kind of giving me an ultimatum you know and basically was like you know if if your drug use if your alcohol use if the lifestyle continues like I don't think that I can continue to be your wife and support what you're doing I'm just you know there's got to be some changes and I remember one night while we were on tour just kind of having this come to Jesus moment where I was like God if you would just show me who you are if you'll just give me something to just prove to me that you're real then I'll I'm done with this and I'll never look back and the very next day we were travelling on a bus in Europe and I had headphones on I was reading a book we were traveling about eight hours and our bus driver was scanning stations and I remember he was scanning radio station and it stopped on redeemed by Big Daddy wave and I remember hearing that song and just immediately thinking wow like what what are the odds and I just remember going to my hotel room and listening that song over and over and for me it was just like God you know showing his self to me and I called my wife and I told her that you know I was gonna quit my band and come home and we were gonna start going to church and and honestly that was the turning point for me that was like I never looked back from that point I remember coming home just asking my wife and kids for forgiveness I remember them leaving to go to school a few days later and I found a spot and my bedroom floor in my closet and just asked God to come in and live in my heart and honestly I didn't even know what I was praying at the time I remember thinking like you know I don't know what to pray or what to do but like I can't live this life anymore I don't want to be this person I've been and just instantly I remember feeling like for the first time I could breathe in and then I took a break from music and we just started working on our relationship with each other and with God and six months later I kind of found this new passion I started writing some music that felt faith-based and I remember my wife invited me to go to a prison with her and share some of these songs and for me that was like the first time that God had really spoke to me and said this is you know this is the songs these are the people these are the places this is the music that I had for you to write and that was kind of it for me that was like the turning point in in my life where I realized like God's got a special calling on my life for this music and this is what I want to do with it and the very first time I remember standing on stage and leading worship it was just honestly the first time that I ever felt you know comfortable in my own skin it was the first time I felt like okay I don't have to be this guy that I created to be I can be who I was made to be and stand on this stage and just singing that it's not a show it's not about me it's not about anything it's just about this relationship that I have in this moment with God honestly God had been preparing me of that from 20 years ago when I first started playing music like he was he was giving me this story and given me these things to walk through and these these trials and these things to to go through and laugh only to stand on the other side of it and tell people about his goodness and so you know for me it's just an honor and a privilege every time that I get to share a story or do an interview or sing a song like I feel like that's what he made me to do there are so many people with the same story just like me that struggle with the exact same things and to be able to tell them you know it's alright to struggle it's alright to be that like God is you know God knew who you were when he made you like he he sent his son to die for those things and there's freedom and knowing that you don't have to have it together and that you can fell and then also just to hear people share a story with me and be like hey man I heard your song here's a liar and you know it just it saved my life or it's totally changed you know this or it helped me through this season when you get to hear a story like that it's it's better than you know it's better than any award you're gonna get or any kind of recognition you just know that God heard that prayer and he used that song the way you hoped you would and and that's what keeps keeps us on the road it's what keeps us doing and keeps us writing these songs we'll be right back to hear how in a surprising twist Zack found himself sharing the stage with the legendary Dolly Parton right after this brief message from Jesus calling [Music] did you know that Sarah young the author of Jesus calling praised for her readers each day in that spirit we want to extend the Jesus calling prayer community out to you in a more personal way each Tuesday morning you can dial in to the Jesus calling weekly prayer call where the team from Jesus calling and special guests will minister to us during a 10-minute call to reflect on that day's passage from Jesus calling read scripture references and pray together for each other and our world prayer call times are 8:00 a.m. Eastern 7:00 a.m. central 6 a.m. mountain and 5 a.m. Pacific and are for us only for more information on the Jesus calling weekly prayer call or to submit prayer requests please visit Jesus calling calm / prayer - call Zak's new lease on life inspired him to write songs about his experiences which he included on his latest album rescue story the songs on this album really have just been a reflection of you know the last 20 years of my life since I started playing music and in the things that God's allowed me to walk through and the stories that he's allowed me to tell so there was a lot of things that I missed you know in those moments that now I'm looking back and realizing hey he was there working all this out even when I didn't see him we had a demo and we sent it out and had a had a had a lady sing on it and we got the demo back and I was talking to my producer and you know when we heard the demo I remember thinking the girl that was on it kind of had this Dolly Parton kind of sound and I turned to my producer and I was like it'd be really cool you know if we could get Dolly Parton to sing on this song and we kind of laughed about a little bit and about a month later somebody our record label told us that they had reached out and she had agreed to listen to the song and I just remember thinking wow like you know that's awesome but you know we need to be prayed up for this because I don't know if she's you know do it but it was really cool when the day we met in the studio her manager you know told me that she listened to the song and got about halfway through the first course and took her headphones off and was like I don't know who Zach Williams is but you know I want to sing on this song and you know it was alright with me that she didn't who I was that you know the fact that she wanted to be a part of it but honestly she was such a joy to work with now the fact that she's you know asked me to be a part of this CMA Awards is you know just such a huge opportunity but yeah I mean it's hard to believe but you know that's the thing like God has been doing some pretty amazing things in my life over the last few years that's been hard to believe too worship me only whatever occupies your mind the must becomes your God worries if indulge develop into idols anxiety gains a life of its own parasitically infesting your mind break free from this bondage by affirming your trust in me and refreshing yourself in my presence what goes on in your mind is invisible undetectable to other people but I read your thoughts continually searching for evidence of trust in me I rejoice when your mind turns toward me guard your thoughts diligently good thought choices will keep you close to me it wasn't honestly until I gave my life to the Lord and I just accepted you know who I am in Christ that I was able to see who I was before I met Christ and see that those things were all my fault you know and own up to him you know being man about it but also see who God's created me to be in him and and I think for me once I realized like I've been trying to fill a hole in my life that only God could feel it was only that was the only thing that that like really you know allowed me to move on in my life and like not need those things anymore it was like okay all these things that I had in my life that I thought were gonna make me happy didn't make me happy the only thing that's made me happy has been putting God in those places to find out more about Zacks latest album rescue story visit Zach Williams music.com next time on jesus calling stories of faith we talked with retired Air Force colonel Carlile Smitty Harris Colonel Harris survived eight years as a Pio W at the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison during the Vietnam War while there Smitty learned the tap code a World War two method of communicating through tapping on a common water pipe through teaching this code to others the prisoners all began to communicate about their shared love of God and country which helped them get through some of their darkest days as time went by our communication became so fast and so good and we were interested in so many things between each other and trying to find out information we found out about the lives of all people around us their kids what aircrafts they flew or what carrier they came and we're on just a lot of information about each other but we also found that a lot of our beliefs we talked about God religion and how important it was especially now thank you for watching Jesus calling stories of faith to learn more about how to keep up with our shows bimonthly and to listen to our weekly podcast please visit youtube.com slash Jesus calling book to view and hear previous episodes and to watch a short informational video about how to access all things Jesus calling on audio and video formats Plus learn how to subscribe to our podcast and video channels your subscription helps get the word out to more people who will benefit from these inspirational stories of faith [Music]

Channel: Jesus Calling Devotional & Podcast

Views: 25,161

Rating: 4.9729366 out of 5

Keywords: jesus calling, Sarah Young, Harper Collins, Experience Peace, Bible Devotions, Bestselling Devotional, zach williams, zach williams music, zach williams testimony, zach williams and dolly parton, zach williams interview, zach williams story

Id: W9FftAjLatQ

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Mon May 04 2020