You're Never Giving Up

Three days after Jesus was crucified, the disciples were locked in a room hiding in fear. They thought their story was coming to end, but really it was just about to begin. All of a sudden, Jesus walked through the walls and said, "Peace be unto you, just as the Father sent me I am sending you", and then He breathed on them the Holy Spirit. The men who had fearfully locked themselves in that room came out and changed the world.

When we stepped into the studio to record "You're Never Giving Up," we had only planned on recording a simple song that would last a few minutes, but God had other plans. When we thought the song was coming to an end, Jesus walked through the walls of the studio and we realized the song was just beginning. The song that we thought would only last a few minutes turned into a fifteen minute experience.

A few days ago we uncovered the raw footage of this spontaneous moment in "You're Never Giving Up." One the greatest moments in this song was having my Dad in the studio sing with me. We had not planned this ahead of time. He had just dropped by to see us. The whole idea happened minutes before we hit the record button. We put my Dad in Melissa's vocal booth and moved her into the room with me. We had not planed on Melissa singing on this song, but the Lord had other plans. You can see on the video that Melissa is on the other side of the room when she starts singing and then she moves closer to my mic. This has become my favorite moment in all the recording sessions. Everything you see on the video we could have never planned, it was a moment where Jesus hijacked our plan with His dream



Click here to see "You're Never Giving Up"

Jonathan David Helser | I've Seen I Am

I've seen I Am, now I know that I am loved. I've seen I Am, now I know who I am…..I wrote these lyrics over 8 years ago and I think I am just starting to scratch the surface of what they really mean. All it takes is one look into His eyes and everything changes. Just think about the pioneers who have gone before us…..

Moses sees the I Am in a bush on the backend of the wilderness and finds out who he really is. For 40 years Moses ran from his destiny and in one moment he discovers what he was made to be. He leaves this encounter with Love and frees a nation from 400 years of slavery. The same thing happens to Gideon. He is hiding in fear from the enemies who are robbing his destiny. He sees the I Am on the threshing floor and in the next moment he leaves his fears behind and leads a nation into freedom. Just think about the disciples after the crucifixion. They have locked themselves in a room hiding in fear. All of a sudden, the I Am walks through the walls and they see perfect Love standing before them and touch the scars in His hands and feet. The men who had fearfully locked themselves in that room came out and changed the world. The fears that once paralyzed them no longer held them down, because they found out who they really were and how much they were truly loved.

A broken generation is crying out somebody tell me who I am and what I was born to do. They are wandering through the wilderness looking for Love. My dream is to see this generation encounter the eyes of Love and find out who they truly are. Last month in the city of Dublin, Ireland I began to see a flicker of this dream burring into reality, as we gathered with 400 kids from all over the world to seek the face of the I Am. In between the conference sessions we slipped into the back part of the hotels pub and filmed this simple video of this song in one take. My great friend Luke Skaggs joins me on his fiddle.

They tamed him and the color of the wheat was different.....

I am sitting on my porch the night after our school the "18 inch Journey" ended. I feel super emotional...I keep reflecting on a moment I had with Cadence, my 8 year old son last night...we were at our house eating freshly made pound cake, with a lemon glaze sauce drinking coffee and getting ready to do our last night of encouraging each other. By that I mean we were sitting around one by one telling each other the things that we love about one another and speaking life into each others hearts. You don't realize how much you crave encouragement until your sitting in that chair. Cadence asked to stay up and I said no its time for bed, he called me into the pantry closed the door and said, "Please mom." I started to say no again...but I quickly saw tears streaming down his face. He looked me in the eyes in a way he never has before and said, "why does it have to go by so fast, it was like a flash of lighting. I am going to miss the students so much." In that moment I realized that my little 8 year old son had received a revelation from heaven. He really felt the pain of love. He began to tell me that all day he had thoughts of the first day they arrived, he remembered waking up and being so excited to go down to the farm and meet them all. His new family for 2 months. So many memories he said as he uncontrollably cried in my arms. I know it would seem that I am exaggerating the moment but it was so intense I cried and cried with him, not knowing what to say. I realized in that moment that my 8 year old was really learning how to love. They tamed him and the color of the wheat was different. [taken from the Little Prince a children's book we read this summer] We sat in our living room all 25 of us circled up one by one loving on one another, and Cadence Zion laid down in the center and fell asleep surrounded by love. For all of you who don't really know what we do in the summer...Here is a simple picture. We have a school in June and July for 60 days. Where we have about 15 students and 10 staff and a lot of the Holy Spirit. In this school we don't teach them how to be amazing worship leaders or incredible artists we don't even teach them how to do ministry really well. We teach them how to love...love each other, love the Lord and love themselves. We teach them how to live lives of extravagance and give themselves to the dream of God over their life. Yep in the middle of no where in Sophia, NC we took twenty-five, 18-25 year olds on a journey, an 18 inch journey, to be exact. The longest journey we ever make is the journey from our heads to our hearts. I could blog all day and all night about the little moments that made up the journey but I would subject myself to a lot of tears and I think I have run out. I cry because I am alive. And tonight I am swimming in a river of thanksgiving for the overwhelming love of the father. He came so intentionally this summer and I can't believe it is over.

Melissa Helser

Your thoughts define me

So I had this amazing experience the other day..... My wife took my little daughter Haven shopping for the first time and let her pick out her own dress. When they returned I was in my room reading in my favorite chair. I heard my little girls feet run up the stairs to her room above me. I could tell by the commotion that she was either wrestling a alligator or that she was changing into her new clothes with the fury of a four year old. Then I heard her little feet come back down the stairs and she burst into my room. Without any words she ran and stopped in front of me wearing the new dress she had picked out. This was one of those moments when time also seemed to stop in front of me. As she stood still and time stood still, I realized it was one of the greatest moments I would ever have as a Father. She was waiting to be defined by my voice. Her little heart was like clay waiting on my thoughts to shape her. So with everything inside me I looked deep inside her and said "Haven you look more beautiful right now that you have in your whole life."

Everyday for the next week Haven would put on her new dress and come find me. No matter what I was doing she would pause before me and wait for my voice to tell her again that she was beautiful. It was like her little heart was saying over and over to me "do it again daddy.... tell me who I am."

Identity is discovered through the voice we listen to. We have all been created to be defined by a Fathers voice. Every girl is made to hear those words, "You are beautiful" and every boy is designed to hear the words "well done." My words over Haven are but a shadow of the radiant thoughts that the Father in heaven has for her. Until we each have an encounter with our Father in heaven like my daughter had with me, we will spend our lives broken in search of our identity.

The Father is sitting in His favorite chair, just waiting on us to burst into his presence and say "Daddy, do it again, tell me who I am."

Worship Echos

The worship we give on this earth resounds into eternity. We can give the Father something
right now, that we will not be able to give him when we stand in heaven. In heaven worship will
explode from every pore of who we are as we behold His face. In heaven we will not chose to
worship. Worship will be the very essence of who we are. On this earth worship has great cost.
Worship is a choice to believe He is more real than what our eyes can see.

Have you ever thought about the idea of there being no tears in heaven? If there are no tears
in heaven, that means we can give the Lord something on this earth that we can not give to him in heaven. Even the angels can not give him what we have to give him. That's why our tears are precious to God and he collects each one and puts our tears in his bottle. (Psalm 56:8) I love the stories of the women who radically broke religious boxes and interrupted meetings by pouring their tears, perfume and adoration upon Jesus. The religious leaders of those days questioned such outrageous worship, but Jesus said that this kind of worship was a beautiful thing. The worship we give on this earth is precious to the Lord. He collects every tear that falls from our eyes and keeps them forever.

I love when Mary radically "wasted" a bottle of perfume worth a years wages on the Lord. In
our modern times that bottle of perfume would be worth about 40,000 dollars. That's outrageous worship. Mary gave a gift of devotion that had great cost. You can't give that kind of gift in heaven. The concept of cost does not exist in heaven. Money has no value there. They have so much gold there they are paving streets with it. Jesus said that what Mary gave would resonate into every corner of the earth where the gospel is preached. The fragrance of Mary's adoration still fills the earth.

Jesus said that Mary's perfume was for the day of his burial. Have you ever thought that the
aroma of Mary's worship surrounded the Son of God on the greatest three days in the history of the world. He could smell Mary's love upon him as he was beaten. The fragrance of her perfume was with him as he hung alone on the cross. What if that perfume was even upon him as he rose from the grave and entered heaven to wash the world of its sin. What if the Father smelled that perfume as the Son of God sat down by His side? What if the Father looked at Jesus and said, "My Son you smell so good, what is that aroma?" and Jesus replied "PaPa that's the fragrance of true worship from Mary's heart. The perfume she gave me on the earth, they don't make here in heaven. Mary has done a beautiful thing for me."