The Teaching Through Preaching, but the Feeling Through Worship

An excerpt from the testimony of Nehemiah Williams

Every Thursday we’ll release a new episode of “From Work To Worship”, where we explore how people’s calling becomes their calling card, how vocation fuels occupation, and how “to work” can be “to worship” when we understand who we were made for. Episode 1 is my friend, musician, and business partner, Nehemiah Williams, the other side of PPDK Productions.

Every Saturday we’ll be releasing a read only excerpt from this week’s episode. This will be one of many pieces of content exclusive to Substack. We’re also exploring what bonus content we’ll offer subscribers.

Here is some of my interview with Nehemiah Williams.

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Nathanael

So, when did you first know God was real?

Nehemiah

I first knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was real when I was eight years old.

I was either eight or nine and I went to a summer camp, one of those Bible camps up in Big Bear and I was up there and there was a worship session and I did my best to get into it, try to get into the spirit of the moment and reach God. And I just felt his full presence and it moved me on the inside to where I was in tears.

Like I just knew that whatever reality was, it was bigger than me. It was significant and it was loving. Like it actually was true everything that they said about God and who he was: that he actually considers me specifically. And so yeah – I guess yeah – that was my first encounter with the divine.

Nathanael

So you said a few things: you said: everything they said about him was true. What were those things?

Nehemiah

So, I grew up with my mom reading Bible stories as bedtime stories to me, my mom and my dad. And they would teach me because they were urban missionaries, in the hood, they were teaching people about Jesus, especially in L. A. and they were both a part of this ministry that raised people up in that. And if they wanted, they could join the ministry and continue spreading the gospel through reaching out to children, creating groups for the neighborhood, whoever was willing to come.

And my mom joined that group, especially right after high school. My dad joined that group after he finished his military service and that's where they met. And so they were servants of the gospel for the better part of their young lives, probably their twenties until they got married. And then they had us and we were raised in that environment.

And the same teachings that they would hand out to them, they introduced to us because a lot of their ministry was dealing with kids, elementary age and youths, teenagers and all that. So they kind of knew what to do and they raised us up in it. And so you can say that I was raised in the church.

Common things I heard about God was that he's loving, he's all powerful. He holds the whole world in his hand. There's literally songs about that and, and that he knows you, he created you and that he has a plan for you. And that plan is good. And that's what I came to understand in that moment, that all of those things about God were true.

Nathanael:

A few minutes in, you're already almost making me cry. That's incredible. Okay. So two things that I want to highlight, which is that your parents met through this ministry that brought them together, but then also inculcated certain values within you, which led to you experiencing God through worship.

So those five things you said, loving, all powerful, he has a plan. What are the other two?

Nehemiah:

That, he created you, he created everything, and, I don't think I remember the last one. He holds you in the palm of his hand.

Nathanael:

So, okay, so you go to a summer camp in Big Bear, and you're doing a worship session.

Are you performing music?

Nehemiah:

I wasn't performing, no, but I was always enthralled by the musical aspect of, all religious, let's call it that for now, all religious engagements that I was a part of, and there were many, and I was always just like super into the musical aspects from young, like my parents literally tell me, even as a child, the thing that would grab my attention the most was music in general.

So whenever I would go to church or some religious thing, whenever the music was on, I was fully into it. And, So that moment had layers of significance for me because the music was happening, but I was also being invited into having this encounter experience with God. And when I, I guess I opened up myself to the possibility that I could have that encounter.

I was even desiring to have it like, wow, let me try this. And it fully like, the only way I can describe it is, yeah, I can describe, they say that you, part of being saved is just being fully convinced on a deep level that Jesus is Lord. And for me, that moment was like, the deep internal, like soul, all soul encompassing moment of just that inner knowing that, Oh, wow, this thing is real.God is real and what they say about them as well.

Nathanael

So, wow. So in that, in that worshipful moment, you just felt fully convinced and how old were you?

Nehemiah:

I was, I think I was nine years old. Yeah. I was nine years old. So a lot of some of the most significant spiritual encounters I've had were in my first 10 years of life, the formative years.

Yeah, I was the first, I got saved at a summer camp, the same one a year prior. And then that next year I went back to the same summer camp at nine years old and I encountered Jesus, with the spirit, whatever you want to say.

Nathanael:

So tell me about getting saved.

So that first year, I have to go a little further back to when I was maybe five or six.

So, I don't know how to describe this as anything else, but miraculous, but, like I said, I grew up in the church. And the protocol was, we go to church. And I was always into the musical aspect, which usually happens at the beginning. But once that was over, we would all sit down. The preacher would start preaching, and that's when I would just fall asleep.

I would just be lulled to sleep, and I would just take a nap. But as I grew older, obviously, I don't know, I think it was my parents who were encouraging me to try to pay attention to the pastor in church. Cause they did have a kids church, but it wasn't consistent. They didn't always have that available.

And if you got in trouble, you got sent back with your parents and stuff like that. So, In church, I decided at some point around five or six years old that I wanted to try and listen and understand the pastor during the service. And when I gave it a genuine try, I was able to follow the logic and understand the concepts and teachings of the preacher at my childhood church.

And I was very, very, like, I remember being thrilled to go to church from that point on because I was like, Oh, wow, I was proud of myself, but I was also super into what was being taught. I thought it was just good. Like it gave me energy to like, listen and understand, and so that was happening like every Sunday at my church.

And then when I went to the Bible camp in the summertime, there was an invitation to receive Christ and declare your salvation and all that. And I was, I was fully ready. I was just ready to give my life.

Nathanael

So you declared in that moment.

Nehemiah

Yeah. Yeah.

Nathanael

And then a year later, you're at the summer camp and then you're worshiping. So there was a inward declaration, verbal, outward, everything – this is real, I'm putting my life on this and then it took another year for you to actually have that personal encounter with Jesus, The Holy Spirit and understand and be fully convinced so it's like you made the the step and then now, Bang together, now it's real.

Nehemiah

Mm-hmm.

Nathanael

Wow. At nine years old.

Nehemiah

Nine years old.

Nathanael

Dang. Early for a lot of people. I mean, you were raised in it. Yes. So there's that.

Nehemiah

Yes. And I used to think that like the fact that I received Christ so early in that was a major influence in my life, makes me kind of like trivialize. My salvation and my faith walk, honestly, because it's like, oh, my whole life was bent towards this.

This was destiny, but I started to go away from those ideas because there's a scripture that talks about how Christ, he, he called, he goes into the pasture and calls his sheep and this and he knows them by name and the sheep The sheep that respond to his call, the sheep that belong to him will come, but the sheep that don't belong to him will not.

And so there's, when I really look back at my story, there was something that was calling me. The fact that I can understand the message at such an early age when every other child was being lulled to sleep or playing their video games, Game Boy at the time. And, Or just whatever being distracted um Yeah, like There was something that was calling, like tugging on my soul, and I simply responded to the call. Like, that's so, that's the best way to describe it, honestly. And, it got me at an early age, and I'm actually quite fortunate that that's the case, because I can think of a lot of things that I sidestepped because of it.A lot of trouble. Not to say that I haven't gotten myself into trouble a fair bit.

Nathanael

So, what do you, what do you do with that? So you have the personal encounter. You're fully convinced. It happens in worship, which music becomes a huge part of your life. That's what's drawing you in. What drew you in was the worship. But then you took a second to go, let me listen to the teaching.

Nehemiah

Yeah.

Nathanael

So, what do you do with that?

Nehemiah

So, So, I want to touch on that music point, because from an early age the clear Like, it's clear that there is something deeply rooted in me when it comes to music. Like, it's a part of who I am and not necessarily just something I'm interested in.

Yes, I'm interested in it, but on a deep level. And so I started playing the piano. So my mom was super involved in church. And so was my dad, but we would spend a lot of extra hours at church with my mom and there was a piano in the back of our church and so to pass that time where I would just be around while my mom was doing whatever I would play that piano and that is one of the joys of my early childhood years.

The ability to play the piano and like a lot of my early musicianship is just me figuring stuff on my own at the piano in the back of that church and like music has always been the pursuit of music. It's a pursuit, it's a journey and has always been deeply connected and been parallel to my stories with God because when I started, when I got saved, I really started to seek out others in order to learn how to play the piano better.

And people started showing me stuff here and there and I would take it and run with it and I got better. Nobody had to tell me, nobody had to encourage me to go figure it out, it was all me. I was after it and and so like all of the best, some of my most joyous moments when I figured out how to play certain things on the piano, and I don't even play the piano today.

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You can listen to the full episode of part 1 here:

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Get tickets to our next show and see Nehemiah perform his testimony through song, Nathanael perform through comedy, and them together through verse and poetry. We might even see Nehemiah perform an original song on the piano. Stay tuned.