Atlanta Christian Web Jordan Feliz 4-18

Centricity Music's Jordan Feliz has quickly become one of Christian music's beloved new artists and with the release of his anticipated sophomore album Future, he wants people to know that trusting God has liberated him to be the artist he was called to be.
The first single, Witness, has reached the top 15 on Billboard's Contemporary Christian Music charts.

The following is an edited transcript of Feliz's interview with The Christian Post in which the young husband and father explains why, as a Christian, he's looking forward to all that's in store for the future. He also offers advice to others on how to let go of needing to be in control and start trusting God.

Your new album, Future, focuses on not having all of your life planned, and instead finding peace in the present.
As a millennial, can you tell us how you got to that point, especially since we're told that total satisfaction is impossible?

How I really got to finding peace in my current state, is honestly from community. I had somebody really speak into my life and remind me that my future was not dependent on how great I was or how good I was at something, or what I created. It was all wound up in the inheritance of God, which is just our salvation. It's what was paid for on the cross. That is what we have to look forward to - walking through day-to-day with a God who is sovereign over every season.

It's funny that we're told so many times in our lives, especially by our society, that satisfaction in life is impossible. It's like you can never make enough money, or you can never have enough stuff. But because, when we shake those expectations that the world tells us to have on ourselves, we really can find true peace, and where our satisfaction truly should lie in our self-worth, in Jesus.

How has trusting God as author of your life liberated you?

Honestly, it's probably one of the most liberating things I think anybody could ever go through, because that's where you find true freedom. That moment when you realize you don't have control and it's OK to not have control - that is what God calls us to do, He calls us to literally give Him our struggle, give Him our fears, give Him our anxieties.

It's funny, because these are all the stresses and insecurities that make us feel like we're just not good enough. It's why we try to fill our lives with materialistic things like cars and money and all this junk. It's the most liberating thing to rely on Jesus and put all of our trust and all of our hope in Him.

Your music is always so refreshing to listen to because of how stylistically different it is from most CCM. Do you get flack for being different or do you find it allows you to chart your own path?

I think it's a little bit of both, honestly. I have had some people tell me my sound is too pop. There have been radio stations and people who haven't played songs because they feel that it's too pop-oriented or something like that.

But I also feel like there's another side of the coin where people are responding with "man, it's just so different that it stands out and it creates something new for listeners, new for people, new for Christian music fans," and that's always exciting.

I think it's just really important to remind yourself that God has you in your lane for a purpose. You don't have to go look at everybody else's lane, where they are at and how fast or slow they're going. Just stay focused on where God has you; be genuine, authentic and honestly, that's why we believe in the Ultimate Provider.
He's going to be there for us no matter where we are, what we're doing or what we're creating, as long as we're trusting in Him to create or to give us these things, give us inspiration. Give those things to Him and trust in that, then we can stay in our lane and be really happy.

As times change and the world becomes more digital, what do you think will be the future of ministry?

Oh man! This is a kind of crazy question. I think that the future of ministry is just the fact that every single day, we have the entire world at our fingertips. We can communicate with people in different walks of life, different roles; you can interact with anyone these days. I think there is something that's really dangerous about it as well, but on a ministry level, we can do something really powerful with it.

The fact that someone can post a YouTube video with a message of hope and talk about Jesus, and it can be shared millions of times and millions, potentially billions, of people could view it and see it and hear the truth about Jesus, I think that's pretty amazing!

Did you ever anticipate your first album would be so well received? What do you think the future has in store for you?

I, 100 percent, had no idea that the first album would be received the way that it was. I'm so honored by it. It's been amazing to see all that God has done with it. I feel like God has given me such a peace about the future. I'm not sure if that means what the world might think is failure, or what the world might think is success, but I'm just trusting that He has my future. And I'm trusting that he's going use the songs for the good of the Kingdom, and for me that is the true success.

As an artist and a young man,
how do you discipline yourself
not to jump ahead of God?

I feel as though I've had to learn this lesson almost every year since I graduated high school. As humans, we just want control of things so badly. It's as if we're always trying to take control of what's coming. But I think oftentimes, I have to remind myself that whether I do the best thing that I could ever do, if Jesus has the reigns, if He's the one driving the ship, then there's going to be things that happen that I could never do in my wildest dreams.

I continually remind myself to be in prayer and remind myself that being in control might seem really strong here, but it's one of the weakest things we could do. The strongest thing to do is to give things to Jesus and let Him dictate our path, and guide us through life.

If you could offer advice to others on trusting God for their future,
what would you say?

I think the quick advice I would say on trusting God with their future, is to remind them that we believe in the Creator of the Universe. We believe in the Creator of the Heavens and the Stars, and if He can do all of this, then how can we not trust Him with something as simple as our lives.

We like to think that our lives are so complex, and sometimes they are. But no matter how hard it gets or how scary things may seem, we have to rely on the fact that we believe in a God who is sovereign over everything. No matter what situation, what season of life you're in, He's there. He's with you. He always will be and always has been. That's the beautiful thing, because He's always been there and never left. He knows everything that you're going through, and has walked through it before you have. That's really someone you can put your trust in.

Feliz can be seen kicking off the Winter Jam 2018 lineup in major cities nationwide and will be headlining his own "Future Tour" in April. For more information, visit his website.

~ from christianpost.com ~

See Jordan Feliz's - Witness (Lyric Video)

- Click Here

Jordan Feliz Breaks Down
New Album "Future"
and Talks Tour

By Maddy Agers, The Digital Breakdown

I saw you come through St. Louis on this tour and it was great. For anyone who has been to Winter Jam, they know you play "Witness" during your set. Tell me about that song's story and what it means to you.

Basically, the song really came out of a season of me coming out of the record The River. When I was writing for that record, there wasn't a whole lot of pressure because it was one of those albums where it could have succeeded or failed and probably no one would have known about it. But because it did so exceptionally well, it created stress, anxiety, and lots of fears for me.
So I spent half of the year writing the record and feeling like nothing was good enough, you know? Like, I wasn't going to be able to actually perform. So I literally just ended up sitting down with my producer and one of my favorite co-writers, Paul Duncan, who has written tons of songs on the new record. He also wrote Beloved and Satisfied with me on the first record.

We sat down and I was telling him what I was going through, and how I was super stressed out. Paul was like, "Dude, you have to realize that we have somebody who we can turn to at any moment in our lives who is sovereign over any state of our life." I looked at him and said, "that's what I want to write about today."

So we ended up writing Witness. It's really, truly, about the fact that every day, you and I are feeling different emotions, different things in our lives. There are 60 billion people, or whatever it is, all on the face of the planet. And we're all dealing with different things today - different emotions. Whether that's stress, anxiety, fear, joy - as believers, we have the capability to run to the person who is always sovereign over every state of our life, every second of our lives. That's really what Witness is about - coming together as the body of Christ and saying, "yes, he is sovereign over my life, can I get a witness?"

Yes! That's really powerful - and that message is really carried through the album. Another song I've enjoyed is Faith, because of the large role faith plays on the record - from the rough times fighting to still have faith or moving across the country on faith and pennies with your wife.
Have you heard any fans say what this song has meant to them?

Yeah, I actually have had a couple people already - which has been huge since the song hasn't had any radio play or anything like that. It's just been released on all the online music platforms, but I've already had people say it's made a massive impact on them. I had one guy write me on Instagram and said he had lost his job out of the blue, and he has three kids and a wife. He said Faith came out the day that happened and he downloaded it and told me he'd been listening to it straight for two weeks and praying God would provide, as he prayed and gave the situation to Him.

He sent me a message a couple weeks ago and said: "I just wanted to let you know that I got a new job, I've had it for two months now and I'm so excited about it so thank you for your song helping me get through it."

It's little things like that that make you realize how big God is, and how much He can do in the lives of people through music.

For sure, that's something we can all agree on - music has power. A relatable quality of your music is your honesty, which is all over the song All Along. When you sing that song, does it take you back and make you think of how far you've come?

Yes. (laughs) one hundred percent. That one has become one my favorite songs that I've ever been a part of, just because of how real it is, you know? And it is - it's really my story wrapped up in a three-minute snippet. It was really fun to write it and put it out and hopefully enjoy it.

So, Future is a song I have fallen in love with and I have to ask why you wanted to name the album after it.

For me, the day that we wrote Witness, a lot of our conversations were talking about what was to come. We were discussing how people are going to be stressing out because they don't know their future. We were looking at the last line of Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:18. It talks about how our future is found in the inheritance of God. When we read that, it kind of crushed all of us. It was one of those things where we knew right there that it's the most relevant thing today because so many of us are scared because we don't know what's coming.

Our society has this planning mentality and "I'm gonna make this happen" mentality. The thing is, a lot of that is wrong because none of it works out. But the beautiful thing is, that's not where our future has to be, in our own plan. It's not in our own "stuff", it's all in the inheritance that God has given us.

And the solution for that issue can be found in Lay it Down, really telling you to let go and lay it down before Jesus. It's especially applicable in this Millennial society where we all feel the need to do it ourselves, so it's nice to have that reminder to let go in a song. Does that song encourage you, too, and what made you want to write such an honest prayer like this?

This whole record has kind of been about what I learned in a short amount of time while writing the record. Each song pertains to a different lesson I've learned while learning how to give things up. I think that's a battle we fight every day - to choose to give it to Jesus. It's just like how salvation is a process, we choose to give our lives to Jesus and trust Him.

That's what Lay it Down is about, learning how to lay it down as humans and say "No, we're just gonna let this go and give it to the Lord. And He's gonna make it so beautiful because I'll be free of everything the world is throwing at me." You know what I mean?

Yes, completely. A couple other songs I found powerful are That's the Life and 180 because they talk about a shift in perspective due to your faith in God. When I was listening to That's the Life, I was thinking about how your view on the ideal life may have changed. Has your view on that changed as you've grown in your relationship with Christ?

Yes, oh man - one hundred percent! I think it's one of those things in life where it really comes into perspective, you know what I mean? That's the Life is kind of an anthem of that. Like, if we choose to see the miracles God does every day and, like you said, really learn and grow, that's really where the best life is.

That's so true. And I love what you said earlier about each song being a lesson you learned because the album totally takes you through your hills and valleys.

Oh, thank you. It means a lot!

You're welcome! So right now, you just finished Winter Jam and coming up soon is your Future tour. Are you rehearsing and getting ready for that next step?

We are planning right now and we rehearse in a rehearsal space three days before the tour! I'm so excited, I'm so pumped. I feel like it's going to be a great tour, and I'm so amped for the fact that we get to play the new songs for people. It's going to be so much fun!

Yes, I can't wait! Hopefully, we catch you on one of the dates. Thank you so much for talking with me today,
I appreciate your time!

~ from thedigitalbreakdown.com ~