by David Dodd

When John Waller resurfaced on the Christian music scene, it was completely orchestrated by God.  John walked through open doors he would have never imagined, and through it all, he was obedient to God’s call.  One of his blessings is a ten-track collection of songs – The Blessing - crying out the glory to God.  It’s one of the most powerful and potent records of the year, embracing the true elements of God’s Grace set to an infectious musical array of swirling sounds destined to top the charts.  

Waller’s journey and blessings are a testimony of God’s Grace and Discernment.  John Waller tried to break into the music scene with success in the past, and he caught a glimpse of it, but he had no idea how the blessings would flow once he entirely focused on the Cross.

We can learn a lot from John’s walk.  

I love your story, I love what Christ has done for you.  Let’s go back to your journey from Fayetteville, Georgia to Colorado. 

I spent 14 years doing music, touring, traveling, making records, and trying to break into the music scene.  It really never happened the way I thought it would.  I was in a band called, According to John, and you know, God really used that band a lot.  He changed a lot of people’s hearts and a lot of people’s lives through our ministry, but I was really trying to do it my way, I was kinda like, ‘this is what I wanna do, this is the way it needs to look, so Lord, I just want you to bless it,’ you know?  So I just did my thing, and I think God used me in spite of me.  Sometimes God does that - we may not be walking in His perfect will, and yet His grace prevails and He uses us in spite of us. 

At the end of those 14 years, the doors kept closing. I mean I got turned down by every label in Nashville.  Some of them turned me down two or three times, and after the last time we got turned down we said, ‘you know what, we just need to lay it down,’ and so we disbanded.

I got a call from a friend who said ‘I’m planting a church in Colorado, we’re moving out there and I want to fly you out there and see what you think about the area and let me give you the vision for the church.’

So he cast the vision with us.  I had never been on staff at a church and was somewhat disconnected from the church because I traveled so much, and so God called us out there so we accepted the call and moved our family, two kids at the time, now we have three.  We didn’t know anyone out there except the pastor and his family.

We started a church and it was an amazing journey to see what God did.  I realized what God’s heartbeat is, His heart for the church, that’s His bride, He’s committed to it above all. And so I began to start using my gifts, you know, not just my ability to lead people to the Throne of God and worship, but to write songs that speak truth into people’s lives. 

I didn’t write for the first year because I was kind of healing from the wound of the dream coming to the end.  And so after that year was over the Lord said, ‘Mourning’s over, it’s time to write and to bear witness to what I’ve done in you.’  So I began to write songs for them.

And isn’t it interesting that when you decided to surrender, God gave it to you.  John, I don’t think people understand the true immensity of blessings that are out there for us. 

You know I have a good illustration for that.  When I moved to Colorado, the only thing I could do on the computer was I could send an email and I could write a Word document. The church got me a Mac so I started doing video editing, I starting creating music on the computer, stuff I’d never dreamed I would do I was doing on this computer.

One day, I needed to burn a DVD, I had just done a video for the church and I needed to burn a DVD, but I didn’t have any way to burn it, there was no program on the computer.  So I went to this store, and it was going to cost me about $150 to buy this program to burn DVD’s.  And the guy says, ‘Hey man, what kind of a computer do you have?’  And I said, ‘a Mac G5,’ and he said, ‘you should have a program to burn DVD’s on that, I mean it’s a Mac G5, it comes with all that.’  I’m like, ‘no, there’s nothing there.’

He talked me out of buying the program; I was going to buy the program.  So I got home and got the start-up disc out, put it in there, and it said, ‘to install the following programs, check the box.’  Well the one with the DVD burner was not checked.  I had it, it was mine, it belonged to me.  Did it benefit me at all?  Absolutely not, but I owned it.

We go looking elsewhere to try to fill those voids that God can fulfill with His promises and His blessings because we don’t realize that we’ve already got it!  That’s powerful.

 When you look back, John, do you look back in disbelief or a little bit of sadness about the idea of maybe you could have had this a long time ago, or do you know that this is exactly what God’s plan was for you because you’ve been refined and cleansed.

The answer to both of those questions is yes because I do look back sometimes and think of the sadness of if I’d only understood some of the truths that I understand now, it would have made all the difference, and yet, I look at God’s promise and I really cling to Romans 8:28 that God works all things together for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, so everything that I’ve done, none of it’s wasted, absolutely none of it’s wasted.  He’s still using it today.  A girl came up to me the other day, I did a youth minister’s luncheon in Missouri, at Six Flags, and I was sharing my story and I said I was in a band called According to John, and I heard someone out of my peripheral go, ahhhhhhhh, and afterwards she stood in line to meet me and she said, ‘You guys had a song called She’s in Love and that song was my life song, it changed my life.’  She goes, ‘I didn’t date because I chose to be in love with Jesus and just to date Jesus because of that song and here’s my husband, he’s a youth pastor and we’re in ministry together.’ 

I mean it’s like, you know what?  Yes we do mess up, but God takes the bad, He takes the good.  He doesn’t orchestrate the bad, He doesn’t orchestrate the stuff where we messed up, but He’ll take it and He’ll work it together for our good on such a level that we think He did it all, you know, and He didn’t do it all, we make our own decisions, but God can still take it and work it together for our good, it’s awesome. 

How did you come up with the concept of The Blessing? 

It came because I understood cursing; I’ve seen the effects of cursing.  When someone says, ‘Hey, you can’t do anything right,’ that’s a curse.  Speaking something over you and if you receive it, it will shape the way you think and it will shape the way you are, so that’s a curse. 

A blessing is, you know, you are fully accepted in Christ, or there are Biblical blessings like ‘May the Lord Bless You and Keep You.’

If our words when they’re negative are so powerful that they can literally mold a life for the negative, ruin a life by verbal abuse and curses, how much more, if we speak a blessing, if we understand the Old Testament blessings, in Deuteronomy 28, there’s a list of blessings that are all ours in Christ because he met all the requirements of the law.  So because He did that perfectly, we have all those blessings that are listed.  So I pray them out loud, I say, ‘Lord, this is mine because of what Jesus did.’  I speak those over my children, makes all the difference in the world.

We have those blessings because Christ died for us. 

Yes we do. I have a song called Identity, and the life I had is gone, I’m crucified with Christ, I don’t live anymore.  He lives in me, my life is in Him, and if this is true about Him it’s true about me.  If He’s love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control, that’s who I am in Christ.  You know, in my flesh, who I was, doesn’t deserve it.  Who I am now does deserve it. 

I think a blessing for you was when you were in the audience during last year’s Casting Crowns Lifesong Tour. 

Yes, Mark (Hall) sang on The Blessing and he gave us tickets to the show.

And then one of the many blessings . . .

Yes, I had no idea that when I watched that tour from the audience, and it was an awesome show.  I never even dreamed that they would include me in their next tour.   I was a little uneasy when I was in the audience.  I just had a lot of feelings about my future, and little did I know that God was already at work, orchestrating His perfect timing, and once again, sending me a tremendous blessing.

And you’ll be on the upcoming Casting Crowns tour with Leeland as well.

What a blessing! 

God can heel everything, can’t He? 

He can indeed.  When I was 12 my mother spoke over me, she told me, ‘John, you’re a manic depressive like me,’ and my grandmother was the same.  I had a girlfriend of two weeks, my first girlfriend. I was 12.  She broke up with me at church for another guy.  It was devastating rejection and spiritual rejection for the first time, I was down, I was depressed.  My mother saw that too and she spoke that over me. 

I believed it, I took it for her word, you know, she was my mother, she didn’t mean anything by it, she wasn’t trying to harm me, it’s what she knew.   So that stronghold was imparted to me in that moment and I struggled with it for 20 years.  I was on medication for 20 years for depression. 

Finally, at the end of that 20 years, someone challenged my thinking and said, ‘this is not the life that Jesus died to bring me, the life here and now,’ and so they prayed over me and I didn’t go off my medication at one time, it was a process, but I received God’s healing and I said, ‘Lord, please heal me,’ and I received it the best way that I knew how and over time, something was different.  When I went to Colorado, something was different. 

One day I said to my pastor, ‘God healed me, I feel different,’ and I began to slowly wean myself off the medication because I just felt like I didn’t need it.  I felt my brain was producing Serotonin the right way.

And so He did, He healed me, I’m a testimony.