The New Moon (Month) of Elul & The Sabbath Chronicles

Welcome, everybody. My name is Chadwick Harvey with Faithful Performance, and I am here today with my good friend Joseph Taylor Strickland. We want to wish everyone a happy last day of the Feast of Tabernacles — Hoshana Rabbah, the great day of salvation. There could not be a better day to release this album than today, the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles. The album is called The Ark of God, and it contains five songs that Taylor and I have been working on for about two years now. We are going to go through each one of them and give you a better understanding of who we are, how these songs originated, and the biblical inspiration behind each one. We appreciate everybody joining us on this beautiful Sunday afternoon in south Georgia.

Taylor, let me introduce you first. How is it going today?

Taylor: It is going great. I am just thankful to be here. I am thankful to be on God's team in the last days. Anyone who has not been paying attention — things are moving so quickly. I am grateful to be a part of what God is doing, even in a small part, and I appreciate you inviting me to be a part of this.

Chad: Taylor and I grew up in the same hometown in south Georgia. He is a little younger than me but a brother in every sense, spiritually and in the flesh. We have been on this journey together longer than the two years it took to produce the album. And I do want to give a word about how Faithful Performance got its name. It actually began before I was born again, around 2003, when my family and I were writing secular songs. My mother is the one who came up with the name Faithful Performance, so I have to give credit where credit is due. I basically borrowed it when I became born again in 2014 and turned it into a ministry name. What it means personally to me is trying to be faithful in our performance before the Lord every day, doing our part until the King returns. Faithful Performance is really a community — a community of Believers all trying to be faithful in our performance before him.

Taylor and I reconnected in 2014 or 2015. I had just written my first book, God's Prophetic Timeline, and he reached out to me through a mutual friend, Riley O'Berry, who had encouraged him to call me. That first phone call really set things in motion. Taylor puts it well — if someone came to that conversation with a hardened, arrogant theological certainty, they might have shut it down immediately, because I was sharing things they had never heard before. But Taylor came with humility and an open heart, and that is what allowed everything else to follow.

Taylor: That is really the underlying theme of everything — humility. If we had not had humility at every stage, none of this would have been possible. From that first phone call, to Shavuot when I came up to Tennessee and we listened to my personal album together, to every decision in the studio — it all required being humble enough to say "maybe God is trying to do something different here." When God says he resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, and that he will lift up those who humble themselves, that is not just theology. We experienced it in every decision in making this album.

Chad: On Shavuot — the Feast of Pentecost — on the Lord's Divine Appointment, Taylor came up to visit me in Tennessee and played his personal album for me. Right then I knew God was provoking me to ask if he would be willing to go on this journey together. He said yes, and about four to five months later we started work on The Ark of God album. We want to also give credit to the full team that made this possible: Tom Smith, our producer and mixer in Dallas, Texas, who did extraordinary work and whom we affectionately call Old Scratch because of how good he is in the studio; Nikki, our background vocalist, who elevated every song she touched; and Josh, our drummer, who laid down live drum tracks that set the groove for the entire album. All of this was done remotely, which makes it even more remarkable. Our hope is that one day we will all be in the same room performing together live.

One thing I want to say about the process of making this album: Taylor is more talented than I am as a studio musician. He handles all the instrumentation — guitar, bass, keyboards, organ, piano, and even mandolin. What I did was write the lyrics and bring the initial arrangement concept, and then I gave it to Taylor and let him make it his own. If he was not fully invested in it, it was not going to be everything it could be. And the result of that collaboration — two people with different styles, different strengths, each letting the other bring their gifts — is what you hear on this album.

The album is called The Ark of God, and that title comes from the first song. Let me tell you about it.

The first song, "The Ark of God," is a personal song built around the story of Noah's Ark. When I was born again on November 2, 2014, a lot of things dropped off immediately. But there are those harder things — temptations, strongholds — that require a journey of purification with the Lord to fully refine. In the middle of that journey, I made a bad decision that really got the Lord's attention, and he began a deeper work of cleansing. That is where this song comes from. The symbolism of the Ark runs through it: the fountains of the deep opening, the floodwaters rising, the past being washed away, the dove passing by, the rainbow — a covenant of peace. Even though I grieved his heart, just as mankind grieved God's heart and yet Noah found grace, I also found grace once I repented. The message of the song is simple: no matter what you have done, no matter how bad the sin, if you come to the Lord with a true broken and contrite spirit and ask for forgiveness, he will forgive you. He will give you the conviction to turn away from it and never return. And then he lifts you up to higher ground. The prayer at the end of the song — "Lord, thank you for saving me, lost to found, move me along the flood waters to higher ground, Lord, got me in your arms, safe and sound" — is really the theme song of Faithful Performance as a whole.

Taylor: What I love about this song musically is the space we created in the verses. There is a lot of breathing room — a Fender Rhodes-type keyboard, a little acoustic guitar, just enough to let the words breathe and carry their weight. Then when the chorus comes in we fill it up completely, and that contrast between the verse and the chorus really makes both more powerful. And at the end, there is a key change. A key change in a song signals to the listener that something different is happening — and at the end of "The Ark of God," the music becomes more intimate to match the personal prayer. That was the right place for the key change, and the drummer's use of the toms at that moment creates exactly the worship and praise feeling the lyrics call for. When we brought Nikki in on this song — we originally had not planned that — her harmonies elevated it to a completely different level.

Chad: The second song on the album is "The Desire of My Heart." It is an eight-minute song and, lyrically, it is simply a love song to the Lord. He is the desire of all of our hearts. He knew us before the foundation of the world, he called each of us for a specific purpose in his kingdom, and through the grace and mercy of his Son's blood we are all forgiven and free to do our part. The song opens in the heavenly places before creation — "In the beginning, you knew my name, from the womb he saw my frame" — and then moves through the wonder of being known by God and loved by him from eternity. That is really all there is to say about the lyrics, because sometimes the simplest expression of love is the most powerful.

Taylor: Musically, this was probably the hardest song on the album to record. It is a slow song, which means every vocal nuance is fully exposed. There is nowhere to hide. I wanted to be completely emotionally connected to the words — not just technically executing them, but genuinely feeling them. I set a high standard for myself, and Chad could tell I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I wanted people to actually feel, through my voice, the passion that I have in my heart for the Lord. The song started on the guitar and it just did not work, so we moved to the piano, and that is where the beauty of this song lives. The mandolin — which my mother gave me as a gift during the pandemic, a Gibson Flat Iron Festival that is no longer made — comes in and creates something very special. And then at the end the arrangement opens up with a beautiful piano piece and the dynamics shift to give the song a festive finish. Tom Smith's mix on this song is the best thing on the entire album. He brought Nikki's vocal high in the mix in a way I would never have thought to do, and it was exactly right. That is what you get when you are humble enough to let someone else bring their gifts and add them to yours.

Chad: The third song is "Arise O Lord," drawn directly from Psalm 86. King David wrote Psalm 86 as a prayer petitioning the Lord to hear his supplications, bow down his ear to him, and show him a sign for good. That is where the inspiration came from — asking the Lord to answer our prayers, to render righteous verdicts in the courts of heaven on behalf of his people. For those of you who have been with us on the feast day teachings, you know about the courts of heaven and the books being opened on the Feast of Trumpets and sealed on Yom Kippur — this song is the musical expression of that petition. Show me a sign for good. Give us the righteous rendered verdict.

Taylor: This song had the greatest transformation of any song on the album. The first time we made it, it had a darker, heavier feel — more of a minor key rock sound. The music was fine, but it did not match the tone of Chad's words at all. Chad had the wisdom to say, "Let's set this one aside and let God work on it." I was laboring over it and starting to spin my wheels, and Chad knew the right moment to press pause. That is a producer's instinct, and I am grateful for it. Eventually I locked myself away one day, moved everything to the piano, and the melody just came. When I sent it to Chad he said: "Yes. That is it." Then we brought Josh and Nikki in, and this was actually the first song we recorded with the full live band setup. The guitar intro that comes in at the top of the arrangement — that was the breakthrough piece. And then the extended bridge, where Taylor and Nikki build "arise, arise" into a full worship moment, is the pinnacle of the song. That is what we were going for from the beginning.

Chad: The fourth song is "Exodus to Aliyah," and it is a totally different kind of song. I call it our Bob Dylan song — it is a storytelling song, a narrative song that goes through all the exiles and returns of the Jewish people throughout biblical history, pointing toward the final redemption at the second coming of Messiah. The Lord put it on my heart to document all of these exoduses and all of these aliyas, because most people do not understand God's Plan of Salvation as it runs through the covenants he made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.

The song begins with the Exodus from Egypt — the blood of the Passover lamb on the doors, eagles' wings, the crossing of the Red Sea, Moses ascending on their behalf. Then the Babylonian captivity, when the nation was taken into exile for rejecting the Torah and the ways of the Lord, and after seventy years the promise kept, Ezra 1 and Jeremiah 25, and the aliyah to Jerusalem restored. Then the Romans in 70 AD, when they had rejected Yeshua as the atonement for sin, and the city was burned and the people scattered throughout the earth. Then the miraculous return — the nation born again in 1948, three to four million Jewish people making aliyah since then. That is biblical prophecy being fulfilled in front of our eyes. And then looking forward to the final exile and the final return: a false peace will rise with a covenant of death as Isaiah 28 describes, the Antichrist will abominate the temple, and then the Lion of Judah will return. He will march from Sinai northward to Jerusalem as Isaiah 63 describes — that is who the prophet Isaiah saw coming from Arabia, from Edom, with his garments stained and his strength mighty — and he will place his feet on the Mount of Olives. That is the final aliyah. The Hebrew bridge — "Baruch haba b'Shem Adonai," blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord — is what Matthew 23:39 tells us the Jewish people will proclaim when they finally see him. They will not see him again until they say those words.

Taylor: Singing in Hebrew was very special to me. The mystery and the depth of God's original language is something I have been growing into through studying the Complete Jewish Bible translation, which is translated by Messianic Jewish scholars with the Hebrew mindset. When I sang those Hebrew words, the Holy Spirit really welled up in me in a way that is hard to describe. It felt sacred in a way that was unlike anything I had sung before. Now he wants me to write everything in Hebrew, so I am going to have to help him pronounce it. Musically, we had a live bass guitar on this song, which we did not do on the others, and it gives it a very clean, natural, earthy feel — like a father sitting on a stump telling the story of history and prophecy to his grandchildren. That was exactly the vibe we wanted.

Chad: The fifth and final song is "I'm Free." It is about exactly what the title says: freedom from any kind of bondage, any kind of stronghold. When I was born again in November 2014, many things dropped off immediately by the grace of the Lord. But there were some deeper things — temptations and strongholds that are my particular weak areas — that required a longer journey of purification. This song is about that journey toward total freedom, and the encouragement that it is available to all of us through the blood of Yeshua and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Key of David is mentioned in the song — locking those things away once they are cleansed, never to return. And the chorus — "If the Son sets free, you're free indeed" — came to me while I was traveling in Dallas, Texas. Taylor had sent me the music for this one, and the moment I heard it the lyric just came. I knew it was the chorus. What a fitting time to release it, in a Jubilee year, as we step into a new season of what God wants to do in all of our lives.

Taylor: This song was musically different from what I usually do, but Chad trusted the process and gave me the space to work it out. The freedom feel of the instrumental section — the organ, the trumpets, the guitar solo — is by design. We wanted the music to demonstrate the liberation that the lyrics proclaim. And Taylor's right about the proclamation aspect of the song. Proclaiming freedom has a way of bringing freedom. Speaking those things that are not as though they are — thanking God for healing before the healing comes, declaring liberty before it is fully felt — that is faith, and faith moves the hand of God. I want this song to be an anthem for every believer who has ever been in bondage and needs to hear that the door of the cage is open. Jesus unlocked it. All you have to do is walk out.

All five songs — "The Ark of God," "The Desire of My Heart," "Arise O Lord," "Exodus to Aliyah," and "I'm Free" — are available for free download at faithfulperformance.com. They will also be on all the major streaming platforms, including Spotify, in about two weeks once TuneCore completes the upload. They are all free for your use and inspiration. I believe each one of them is a message, not just a song. They came out of the same season as the book The Cross to the Crown — the same period of revelation, the same journey — and they are really the musical companion to that book.

I also want to say to everyone here: use your gifts. Whatever God has given you — music, writing, prayer, teaching, encouragement — use it. He will give it to someone else who will use it if you bury it. Iron sharpens iron. Do your part in God's kingdom, and let him control the outcome. That is all any of us can do.

Taylor: Thank you all for tuning in. Hopefully this has been a little peek behind the curtain at how the Lord does things — taking two imperfect people with different strengths, requiring humility at every turn, and bringing something out of it that neither of us could have done alone. My personal album is also available on all major platforms — search Joseph Taylor Strickland — and the album is called Breaking Through. My wife and I also have a ministry called 2R1, which you can find at 2r1.org and on YouTube. God has been so faithful, and I am grateful for every bit of this journey.

Chad: Thank you, Taylor. No way these songs would sound anywhere near what they do without your gifts, and I mean that sincerely. Thank you to Tom Smith, to Nikki, to Josh, and to all of you for being with us on this beautiful last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Tonight at eight o'clock Eastern I will be doing a live Shmini Atzeret service to close out the fall feast days — the teaching will be about thirty minutes and then we will open it up for fellowship. Please join us for that. Until tonight, may God bless you, may he keep you, may his face shine upon you and give you his grace. We love all of you. Shalom.