Kim Walker-Smith is a joyful, radical lover of Jesus! She lives to worship Him with every ounce of her being. One of the greatest desires of her heart is to see God's Kingdom and power manifest for people to be set free, healed, and radically changed as they encounter God in worship.

 

Kim currently leads worship and pastors the worship team at Bethel Church in Redding, Calif. She has quickly become one of the strongest voices for the current youth revival. She is a passionate worship leader with an anointing to bring an entire generation into an encounter with God. All of those who are in a worship service led by Kim will catch her contagious love to worship.

 

Jesus Culture Music presents, Still Believe, Kim Walker-Smith's second solo album. Primarily featuring originals, Still Believe was recorded during a night of live worship at the Cascade Theater in Redding. Song after song, Kim's voice carries such a strong and beautiful anointing with healing lyrics and the harmonious sounds of a strings section. "Still Believe" is a powerful album full of the presence and power of God. I had the great privilege to interview Kim about her stirring song.

 

 

"Still Believe" is a song that I started writing almost four years ago. I started writing the song just after I got married, and it's kind of funny as I had been praying for a long time about personal healing in my life. I have a lot of food allergies and I have some skin disorders. I have been dealing with that my entire life. I've been really praying and contending for breakthrough and healing in my life. I've done everything; I've been to doctors. 

 

I was also praying for healing for my family. My stepfather was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. That's been really hard and challenging. In the midst of all that, I sat down with my husband one day at the keyboard, and I'm not really trained on piano, but I know a few chords. I started playing those chords and praying to God about what I believe in the midst of these struggles. 

 

I know God heals and I've read that in the Bible over and over. God healed people, took sickness away, took disease away. I was questioning where my heart was knowing all of that. All of a sudden, this song came out of me. This song is really a declaration that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. We are really purposeful with every single word of the song, including saying "right now" at the end of the verses. I wanted that to be real that it's not far off or unattainable. Jesus is right here in this moment with us. Jesus who heals is here with us, right now. We want that to be real and in the moment.

 

 

When Jesus died on the Cross and rose again on the third day, He conquered death and bought us eternal life. In that eternal life is everything that we need. He holds those keys and gave them back to us with full authority to walk in healing and walk in victorious life and health. There's not really any explanation to our struggles. That's one of the hardest things about faith. What we see and know of God is that He loves us, He wants us to be healed, and He is good. Sometimes we live in these instances like with my family where we aren't seeing the healing and the breakthrough. We are choosing to stand in that hard spot and still believe that God is who He says He is. We still believe that He loves us and He wants us to be healed. 

 

I wrote this song as an anthem for my own life and what I believe about Jesus. For my family, when I played it for them, they just wept. It means so much to them as well. Skyler and I decided to try leading this song at a conference. Some of our musician friends told us they didn't know about this song, it's kind of weird. It's not a traditional worship song or typical.

 

Luke 9:23-24: "Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."

 

...Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

 

...and Hebrews 13:8: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

 

 

The very first time we led this song, a man from the crowd came up to us afterwards with tears streaming down his cheeks, about the line in the song, "Your blood sets the addict free, right now." He was a former drug addict and now that he was free from his addiction he told us he'd never sung a worship song with the word addict in the lyrics. He said it meant something so personal and the song came alive in him. He connected to God in a brand new way. These were his words and his story. Jesus came to set us free from our sins and our addictions. 

 

What I would love for people worshipping along with the album is for their resolve to rise up inside of them. Let your inner fighter come out. We're not run-over or victims. We have this magnificent Savior who went to the Cross and endured so much and gave everything for us so that we could have life, and have it abundantly. When we come into His presence, we have stress, anxiety and needs that try to weigh us down, distract us and overtake our minds, and wear out our emotions and energy. 

 

The truth is when we come into His presence, Jesus is so much bigger than all of those things. He is bigger than the biggest mountain in your life. He is more powerful than any struggle you are facing. All you have to do in His presence is lay those things down and fix our eyes on Him. In God's presence, it's not about songs, we are coming to give Him all that we have and all that we are and take a moment to pour our love on Him. I truly believe that we shouldn't leave the same. I don't know how we could stay the same. There's always a new revelation to have about God and when we encounter Him, we can't stay the same. We are not defeated. He conquered death, He conquered the grave, He came to give us life, and life abundantly. Worship with joy and happiness and claim what God has given us.

 

 

Asbury's Bible commentary on Ephesians 3:20-21: "What does Paul ask of God for these believers? There are two requests. First, he asks God to strengthen them with the power of the Spirit. Paul hopes that as the reality of spiritual power grips them, their resolve to maintain faith in Christ will grow, for they will realize that Christ is all they need for salvation. Second, he prays that they will be empowered to grasp the extent of that love by which they have been saved and made secure. If they can personally approve or acknowledge the love that they cannot comprehend, if they can experience the fullness of Christ's love for them, they will be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Divine power is at work in God's people to bring them to divine fullness. Thus God is glorified in the community of redeemed persons in whom the Spirit is at work."

 

The song stops me in my tracks as Kim slays me with her confessional and prayerful vocal style. God's thoughts and love for us are deep, such as cannot be known. We cannot think how many mercies we have received from Him. As the Lord knows us thoroughly, and we are strangers to ourselves, we should earnestly desire and pray to be searched and proved by His Word and Spirit. I love songs that are filled with biblical truth, and several stand-out tracks on the album have biblical references. The album is filled with catchy and inspirational songs for the Church. If you don't know how to word your prayers of thankfulness for what Jesus has done for you, just sing along with her incredible songs of faith. 

 

In "Still Believe" Kim proclaims: "And I still believe You're the same yesterday today, and forever, And I still believe Your blood is sufficient for me." Jesus is ever true to His Word. What He spoke on earth, He affirms in heaven. The Word is a message of grace. We can all take comfort in the Truth expressed in this song which comes directly from God's Word: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." God can do immeasurably more than anything and everything one can ask or even imagine and this song is a true celebration of the great biblical truth of "Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us" from Ephesians 3:20. 

 

For me, Easter is not about candy or dressing up and having a nice meal, but instead I think about the question that faces all of us: What are you going to do with Jesus? This week as we reflect on Jesus, you can sing this song to Jesus and know that He died just to save us. Don't be sad or feel guilty, but accept Jesus and celebrate that Jesus is alive, He rose again! Thank You Jesus! As this song proclaims: "No longer bound to sin, I am free." Amen to that!

 

(You can listen to the song here.)