Priscilla Shirer sits down with Anthony Evans in a new interview to discuss his journey to make his new album, Revive, and the value and direction you can find in seasons of waiting. Know that God is aligning your footsteps! This video was brought to you by TBN Networks®. SUBSCRIBE here and never miss an upload! https://www.youtube.com/c/PraiseTBN/?… PODCAST: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…

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NEED PRAYER? TBN’s Prayer Partners would love to pray with you and are available 24/7: 714-731-1000 (U.S. and Canada) and +1-714-731-1000 (International). 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! #tbn #praise #priscillashirer 00:00 Intro 00:39 The Shirer Family 01:48 Hungry for Revival 04:35 Hidden Hardship 07:48 The Power Within You 10:17 Aware of Your Limits 14:04 Seasons of Waiting 15:52 Investing in Mental Health 19:21 Clear the Table for God’s Plan

the entire culture surrounding Us in

society but also in Ministry 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 for those you who don’t know we’re

siblings we just in case you were

wondering we are siblings this is my

baby brother we have there are four of

us Crystal’s the oldest then me then

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 where we have

all these deep conversations and 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 able

to talk about it with you and and all

the audience I need to give the audience

a breakdown though you named our

siblings yes crystal is Miss logical

like the tip oldest oldest sister miss

the smart like everything is methodical

yes and then Priscilla is missp

personality I got to tell you 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 athlete and very determined but

I just I sit here and have flashbacks to

us being kids and you just be in Miss

personality and I’m like this is great

so anyway so the thing is though you

said Crystal was the smart one no you’re

you’re and then you came me and said I

had personality yes but then you’re

smart right under

that okay you know what I’m saying all

right fine moving on okay yeah sorry I

would like to make clear before we even

begin You Are The Guest okay got it and

I am the interviewer and other words

this is my show I get to say and ask you

whatever it is that I want to say to you

and what I want want to 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 20 24

so I started when I was

eight or or so yeah yeah yeah it’s a TW

24 years okay um and this is your what

number album 11 11 albums in that’s a

lot of investment of creativity of um

vocal Capac

and you’ve been stretching yourself the

kind of music you’ve been doing through

the years has shifted and changed

depending on where you are in your life

yes and 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 always coming out

of a 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 the songs themselves just what

was happening in your life that made you

want to think about Reviving being

revived well was a lot of things that

was H 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

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 kind of like I don’t want to I

don’t want to feel like an actor singing

Christian music that that’s that that’s

not a good feeling yeah so what happened

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

going to do what I can’t and add himself

to the effort that I put forward because

I didn’t even know 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 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 okay here’s the

question I want to ask you like five

questions spk off 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

have been through loss just like we have

devastating hardships one after the

other because not only did we lose mom

but there were nine family members in

the scope of five years that we lost it

was like backtack loss and Chaos in our

lives and you’re saying that you had to

keep showing showing up to do a job that

you didn’t feel emotionally spiritually

connected to so I’m wondering did you

pull back and stop doing certain things

or did you keep going while just

recognizing at the same time I need to

be working on the other area of my life

there’s so many people that 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 I have

being vulnerable and honest and

authentic with the whether it was the a

church you know the church in Florida I

go to 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 cuz

they knew the truth cuz they knew the

truth because they knew the truth and

then doing things with our family that

was underg guring 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 okay 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 and and I had to strategically

work that out in in my life you think

that it takes a measure of Courage oh to

be willing to number one be authentic

with the people around you that you can

trust 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 helping me right and you

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 s 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 make and

some of the NOS were hard until you

experience the yes yeah yeah when you

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 nose landed at this yes

that’s good and this yes in this project

too 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 Val way all of that

diminishes when we just keep going and

going and going while not tending to our

emotional needs absolutely the the sorry

go ahead the depth of these songs and 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 different place or

the bridge of that song as Ephesians

3:20 um now to him who is 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

distracted by doing too much and I did I

was not connect 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

from that power come on

I just really was you know Daddy I’m

talking a lot cuz I’ve had too much

coffee I’m slow down slow I always have

to tell him to slow down yeah it’s it’s

your coffee situation is out of control

sir so okay Dad you gonna say something

he used 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 Stak in

the ground and it didn’t realize if he

just pulled one good time he’d be

try hard to pull exactly 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

don’t experience don’t experience it and

that’s this album is revived uh called

revived because I’ve now experience the

power of breaking breaking those those

chains my life I felt that in my spirit

I felt it in my spirit that’s a big deal

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 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 were able to pull out an

illustration like about the cus 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 booed up in the

midst of life’s hard stuff 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 and 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 like an athlete here goes the

illustration 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 so that’s

what I felt like I felt like something’s

off I know what I’m capable of with

Ministry and 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 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 twisties 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 ATT

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 kind of let let people down in some

ways but I I love 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 text to send to

the other one like it happens all the

time or you’ll wear a purple shirt today

and I wear this purple sht on today we

showed up and it looks like we tried to

coordinate and we didn’t we just showed

up like this and the reason I say that

is because I kid you not yesterday I was

thinking about the Simone B situation

the courage that it took that girl to

say I don’t care cuz I mean I remember

the media coming I remember people

canceling her speaking negatively about

her why in the world you’re representing

the US I mean think about the pressure

that you’re representing all of us and

you’re going to give up and I just

remember seeing her look squarely into a

camera to do a news um 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 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 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 when you talk about

um the season of kind of just waiting

and you watch people people around you

are moving that this is so random but

here’s another story now I’m I’m I’m

aware of it now that you talking about

illustrations I you know I love boats I

love being on Water I love it so much

but that they took us to the engine room

because I was so intrigued about how

this thing actually works and they got

to this point where they showed us in

the engine room this automatic automatic

stabilizer system

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 it had to sit

on the dry dock to get the system put in

it so it will not turn over when the

waves hit the the time that I have taken

off wow was my dry dock time while

everybody else is sailing and having the

greatest time but what got put in me

through work on my mental health on my

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 or

Philippians 1:6 will shoot out of my

heart on the other side while while the

scenarios are are hitting me hard so I

sh you need to know that I’m gonna steal

all of that I can assure you y read this

in a book I I told her the first time

I’ll give you credit after that 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 it 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 want to ask you one more question

because you mentioned specifically

mental health oh yeah and I I want to

sit here for just a 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 or a financial adviser to help me

because I want to plan and budget well

for retirement you’re like I need some

training somebody to G 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 just walk through this yeah you you

mentioned the trainer the or the

somebody helping you with your finances

I liking it to a tutor in ninth grade I

had the hardest time in math class I

could not understand Miss Simmons would

be at the board explaining this formula

Works time and she had a book of Truth

formulas she was working out on the

board and I had my AR my 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

Truth here we have the formulas that

always work but you’re having a hard

time understanding these formulas so in

order I did not fail because I admitted

that I needed tutoring mental health and

therapy and working through things it’s

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 cuz that’s not

how do I do that how do I do it and

implementing those in into my life and

and having to admit to myself I think

it’s hard for Christians or people of

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 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 all that St there

comes a point where you know like if my

Apple 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 myself once I admitted

that I needed tutoring uh you know

tutoring that changed everything that

was a major part of the Revival in my

heart and it I know it can be a major

part of the viewers Revival in their

their heart of having tools to help them

yes so you’re not saying any of that for

you displaced or removed the pracy 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 going to 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

practical way to live in light of my

faith that that’s where the how does

plus two equal four in this next 24

hours of my actual day exactly exactly

and um I remember just having to clear

things out of my life we were growing up

our mom who we love so much she’s the

best cook she just would cook stuff but

I remember she would not come place

things on the table if I had my homework

and like Twinkies or whatever on the

table dinner dinner would be I know just

random snacks because I ate too much but

she would keep the she would not um

serve the dinner until I cleared the

table until I cleared and set the table

clear the 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 with so

much and 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 because that were prepared for

you they were prepared to give to you

but you had to clear the space so you

could receive them 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 for 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

revive is and and part of mental health

and everything is just kind of clearing

out all the Clutter and allowing God to

plac something there he had for me and

every time I clear he places something

down so now it’s easy I’m like okay okay

right CU he has something because you

have a track record that he’s 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 back here or I’ll

do something better that’s what God does

nothing is lost with him and out of this

season of your life of a lot of hard

work CU I I don’t want anybody to think

you were sitting at the dry dock just

like enjoying the sunrise no you no no

uhuh you you’ve done a lot of had a lot

of hard conversations with therapist

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 as you try to contend with the

word of God and what it is that he wants

you to do and and then creativity that

God 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 I got it some Goods coming out of

this and now we have revive yeah yeah

it’s such a good record Anthony 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

a good record album you know what do you

call it an 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 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 and I think when

someone grabs hold of the whole story

there’s Revival that’s going to take

place in them because they’ll see the TR

trory of where you were headed from

point A to point B