Jesus Culture Music introduces British Columbia-based worship leader and songwriter Heather Clark with Overcome, an 11-track, live recording. Known for her intimate lyrics and passionate worship, that have earned comparisons to Rita Springer and Kim Walker-Smith, Clark crafted Overcome to bless both congregations and individuals alike with its range of high praise moments and slower points of longing and pursuit. 

 

Recorded at Bethel Church in Redding, Calif., and produced by Jeremy Edwardson, Overcome features 10 original songs written by Clark along with a stirring version of "How Great Thou Art." Heather lives in British Columbia with her four children and travels internationally singing, leading worship and speaking, calling people into a greater place of wholeness, healing and freedom in their lives and in their relationship with God.

 

I'm very impressed by her powerful vocals which remind me of the other passionate female Jesus Culture singers, Kim Walker-Smith, Kristene DiMarco and Steffany Frizzell, as well as mainstream singer Sarah McLachlan. The album has a mesmerizing, contemplative vibe and every song invites the listener to join in with Heather as she praises our Savior and Lord Jesus with all of her heart and soul. No matter what you are going through in life, God's promise to His children is that one day we will overcome.

 

I had the great opportunity to interview Heather about her compelling song "Undivided Focus." 

 

 

The song was originally written in three sections. The first part of the song is the regular section of the song based on surrender, where I sing, "Holy Spirit, I surrender to You." The second part is the pre-chorus and chorus where I sing "And I am in love, with undivided focus." That was the original version of the song, minus the other two parts which I added later on this newest recording. 

 

The original song is based on where you get to those times in your life where you know that all you can really give to God is your surrender. You look at your life and your gifts and you think that you have nothing that's worthy enough to give to God. All you can actually do is surrender to Him. The song started out with that concept in mind, that all I want to do is surrender to whatever it is that God wants. 

 

The concept of undivided focus is based on the fact that most people today are way too busy. I'm one of those people. It's really hard to have undivided focus because there are so many things in life that distract us. I find that the only time in life that I completely slow down is when I'm worshipping God and I'm locked eye to eye with Him. Then everything in the world disappears and everything is right. That's the concept behind the song.

 

Romans 11:36-12:2: "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

 

 

In those moments when I'm locked eye to eye with God I don't want those moments to end. Heidi Baker is a missionary to Mozambique and has a really strong story about laying down your life for God. She has an incredible testimony and has done amazing things for God. I was ministering with her a lot and I got the line, "I want to be a laid-down lover." That wasn't originally part of the song but I started to sing that any time I was coming out of "Undivided Focus." I would sing, "I wanna be a laid-down lover, I wanna be a fearless lover, Filled with You." 

 

Again, the whole idea is that I want to be completely surrendered to God. I want to really get to that place of deep intimacy with God, and to do that you need to be fearless because it takes so much vulnerability. The third part of the song, "I run my hand along the wall" was spontaneous during the worship set and I loved it so we left it in the song as a bridge. 

 

I've been leading worship for twenty years and I've always had a picture of my heart as a castle. In the castle there are a lot of different rooms, or chambers. There's always a new room to visit. Worship is so enormous so you can't just limit it to a couple of rooms. I think of my heart in that way and you can find different aspects of God in these rooms. In one room, God's the warrior, or the lover, or the Father, or the King. In worship I picture myself in a hallway and I'm blindly leading my hand along the walls looking for new chambers. In those new rooms I can go in and experience God in a way I've never experienced Him before. That bridge is talking about that concept. The takeaway message is for people is that having undivided focus is a struggle we'll all have. We need to remember that we all need grace. We will stumble our way along that road, and the challenge is for people to let themselves be vulnerable. Take time to lock eyes with God. Have the experience of the closeness with God that we know we can have if we lay ourselves down before Him.

 

 

Heather is clearly in love with Jesus and how these songs convey her relationship with our Lord and Savior in these songs is truly inspiring and convicting. If you like albums with God-focused worshipful lyrics, musical diversity and engaging female vocals with a lot of range then you'll want to check out Overcome by Heather Clark. Every song on this album has quickly become a staple in my playlist of my favorite worship anthems. 

 

The songs are all worshipful and catchy. The vertical worship and number of songs I could imagine singing in union with fellow believers in a corporate worship setting is another highlight of this very solid album. Some of the songs that would be great additions to church services are "Come In," "Overcome," "Undivided Focus," "Shadow Of Your Wings" and "Lamb of God." 

 

This is one of the most emotionally moving albums I've ever heard. Heather's remarkable singing voice and her interesting music and lyrics are truly captivating. For sure, this will be among my top worship albums of the year.

 

Many of the songs blow me away with how vulnerable and personal they get. "Undivided Focus" has become my personal worship anthem with the gorgeous and prayerful offering reflecting the yearnings of my heart: "Holy Spirit, I surrender to You, take my life I lay it down, all my gifts, all my crowns, take my life and lay it down, I am Yours, I am in love with undivided focus, I am in love with You."  

There is incredible comfort and biblical Truth in this song and Heather's passionate vocals will have you hanging on every word, especially during the bridge which wrecks me—"I wanna be a laid-down lover, filled with You, I wanna be a fearless lover, filled with You." What an incredible prayer to our King and Savior. There is great comfort in knowing Jesus and being known by Him in every detail of our lives.

 

All of us are absolutely dependent on God. He is the source of all things and He works in all of us to bring glory to Him. God wants us to offer ourselves as "living sacrifices" out of gratitude for the forgiveness of our sins. God's love is changing us and calling us and He wants us to be "transformed by the renewing of our mind." It's all for Him. Amen.

 

(You can listen to this great song here.)