I would pray about a song , and say , “ Lord , if this is what you want me to say I don ’ t know how you ’ re expecting me to wrap this up and call it something . Just tell me what I ’ m supposed to do .” And all I would get back from the Lord every single time I would pray was , “ Say it .” And it would be like , “ Say what I ’ ve done in your life . Say what I ’ ve delivered you from . Say what I am for you .” And it led me to write the most vulnerable and honest songs that I ’ ve made in my career .
[ WM ] I love the tune , “ Glorify ”. You ’ ve got 3 different versions of it on the new project . Tell us about that decision , your guest artists , and the song itself .
[ Jordan ] “ Glorify ” was one of those songs that came out of a really rough season of handling and tackling a lot of anxiety . It sounds crazy and I know people talk about it all the time . I ’ ve been raised in the Assemblies of God , and we pray for people and we do that stuff , but there is not a whole lot of charismatic teaching on crazy healings or anything . So , I ’ ve kind of been raised that we go to church on Sundays and we believe in God .
I think over the last couple years God has really charged me . And not charged like I ’ m being charged with something , but He ’ s just really come at me and been like , “ Listen , I work in many ways , I don ’ t just work in one way and you need to understand that .” So I had been dealing with anxiety really hard for almost three years , and I had a friend who actually plays for me now , and he literally prayed over me and it was the craziest thing , because when he was praying I just felt like somebody was lifting twenty pound dumbbells off my back . It was wild . I was crying and sobbing because I could feel all of this stuff just shaking off of me , and when he finished praying it was just gone , everything was gone . And I have not had an anxious thought since then . I ’ ve been stressed out here and there but the anxiety of it was gone . So , I had this huge moment of being delivered from something and watching someone pray over me and watching the Lord
Glorify
heal me from this thing .
It ’ s crazy because we hopped on the bus that night to go play some shows . I had writers and producers out to write for this record , and that was the night we wrote “ Glorify ”. I was just telling them about how this huge moment had come up and I said , “ All I want to do is just lift the name of Jesus , that ’ s all I want to do . One of my favorite lyricists in the entire world and has worked a lot with me , just looked at me and said , “ Glorify , bro . We ’ re here to glorify the Name .” And that was it . So , we wrote that song , and I started playing it live . It was the first song I ever played live before it was released . We started playing it on Hits Deep in 2020 before Covid19 hit , and people were losing their minds , it was so amazing . They didn ’ t even know the song . They couldn ’ t buy it and they couldn ’ t stream it . But they were there , and it was just such a cool experience . We knew we had something really special on our hands , and Toby ( Mac ) had approached me and said , “ Dude , this is my favorite song you ’ ve done since , ‘ The River ’. I would love to be a part of it somehow .” We had talked about doing some collabs on it , so I was like , “ Dude , come collab a version with me !” The only other person I really ever dreamt of doing a collaboration with was Lecrae because he was a dude that I grew up listening to and I just love him . So , he said
Jesus is Coming Back
“ yes ” as well , and that ’ s kind of how it all came to be . Then we added Terrian and Hulvey . I can ’ t imagine it any other way . Everybody just crushed it and I ’ m really proud of them .
[ WM ] Much of the message of early Jesus Music from the late 60 ’ s and the very early 70 ’ s was related to the promise that Jesus is coming back . However , much of that central theme has been lost over time . You have chosen to sing about it on “ Jesus is Coming Back ”. What can you tell us about this song ?
[ Jordan ] My producer Colby and I , and another guy I bring in , he ’ s like a songwriting ninja , his name is Paul , the three of us ended up in this townhouse in Franklin with a piano , and we were there for five days . We just hunkered down and started writing . It ’ s where the heart and the mindset of Say It came to be . We wrote “ Jesus is Coming Back ”, as well as two other songs that are on the record while we were there . Our conversation was that , this world , man , it ’ s a wild season of life that we ’ re going through over the last couple of years . We all started talking about how we feel like there are a lot of “ end times-y ” things going on in our world and our lives . My friend Paul said , “ You know , back in the day they had all of these songs about Jesus coming back and that promise .” But it was almost like , get your life straight because if you don ’ t , you ’ re not joining the club . So , he said , “ What if we could write it so that it would be celebrating the promise instead of directing the promise at people to figure their life out . This is going to happen ! Celebrate with us and join us . Grab my hand , this is a promise I believe in , jump in this water with me .”
It was kind of a scary topic , typically that isn ’ t a super anthemic upbeat pop ballad . The only thing we really had to go off of that ’ s relatively more modern was Crystal Lewis ’ s “ People Get Ready ”. So , we thought , “ Let ’ s write the exact opposite of that ”. We just kind of went down this road of wanting this song to be encouraging for people , not something they would feel threatened by , not something that