JUSTICE 524: Comin’ to Your City
Soooo…I thought I completed “the assignment” with the release of the JUSTICE song in October of 2022. Then, there it was again…the ‘tap on the shoulder’ from God. A whisper in the summer of 2023: There’s more on the JUSTICE song I want you to do.
What more could there be for me to do with a song that has already been released and featured in a music video, I wondered. I decided to pray about it to make sure I’d heard Him right.
The tap persisted over the following weeks and months. As I prayed about what the ‘more on this song’ could be, I felt the Lord impressing on my heart that the ‘22 version was an “announcement” assignment of His justice coming to a world in need. At the end of the music video for that release, I’d felt led to put Proverbs 21:15 on screen:
“When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.” A verse that is an encouraging promise for God’s people who have been praying and waiting. And to the perpetrators of evil, also containing a stern warning: This is your last call to repent and turn from your wicked ways!
Now I was sensing the Lord telling me that a new version with a different sound was the next assignment: One that serves as a proclamation and declaration that the time is NOW for My justice to be seen and heard by the world. The ‘last call for repentance’ window is closing!
It was a bit strange going back into the studio, feeling my way through the journey of a new sound and vibe. Once again, questioning whether my voice was really the right one to deliver this message. Dennis and I bounced new production ideas off of each other that gradually took shape into what felt right. As I sang the various parts during our tracking dates, my vocal delivery was stretched beyond what I thought I was capable of. After a few months as tracking, tweaking and mixing steps came to a close, I kept asking God the same question:
“When you say the time is NOW…what exactly do You mean by that? How am I supposed to know what day to release the new version of this song? When is the date of Your proclamation?”
It was the end of the year (2023) when I got the answer. Just like the car ride experience I’d had with my questions about the first recording of JUSTICE [see story here], a green-light goosebump moment came suddenly, on my way to the studio one day. I was praying in the car that the Lord would show me which verse I should plan on putting at the end of the music video for this new version of the song. Immediately I was led to a verse in the Bible I have never seen before — Amos 5:24:
“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” I spoke it aloud, feeling a knowing that this was the verse. God’s righteous justice is about to roll out…and we are all going to see it with our own eyes!
When I arrived at the studio that morning, I told Dennis about the verse I’d been led to. As I spoke it aloud to him, that’s when the release date hit me. The date is identified in the verse, Amos 5:24. During the 5th month of the year 2024, that’s when You will release this new version. I pulled up my calendar to see how many Fridays there are in May (since music industry advisors always say that Fridays are the best day of the week to release new songs).
“Wellllll imagine that…” I said to Dennis, “It turns out that the 24th of May, in 2024, just happens to fall on a Friday!” It felt like clear confirmation: the date of this song release would match up with the Amos 5:24 bible verse.
Isn’t it great when God shows up and shows off like that?! I hope you enjoy this new version of a Wild West cowboy song born again!