Don't let anybody tell you that "it's over" or "you're done." That's what I got from this incredible true story.
Best known for his hits “Intentional” and “Made A Way,” the Grammy and Stellar Award nominated artist, Travis Greene, has landed on the top of the Billboard charts. Kirk Franklin even called him one of the artists who are “the future of gospel music.”
But has all this been an overnight success? The singer and Pastor’s path to ministry started early in a powerful story from the very day he was born.
“When I was born – on the spot, my mother said that I wasn’t breathing. My skin color was purple, and doctors immediately said that I was stillborn. My mother and father just started praying and believing God, and He performed a miracle.” He said, during an interview with Jet Magazine.
But Travis still being here now is not the end of his testimony. That in itself is amazing, but he also has a powerful testimony of how he encountered Jesus Christ at the age of four.
The 40-year-old shocked the audience when he revealed that he fell four floors out of the window of a house his family was living in while in Germany.
“They [rescue team] got to my body and they covered me with white shirt. They said it was over (again) and the doctors pronounced me dead.”
https://youtu.be/MimVg0OMGvA?si=YwmBqWTrK1W0la6T
“But, then my mother came, she picked up my lifeless body and prayed to God to give me my life. He did it.” Travis said, quickly noting that she called on the name of Jesus twice, nothing happened, but the third time, she screamed the blood of Jesus.
Twenty-nine years later Travis is traveling the world, literally letting people know that Jesus’ alive, and He’s still able to do the impossible.
“I said mom I remember falling, but I never hit the ground. Right before I hit the ground, a man with a big hand caught me but I couldn’t see his face. I heard a voice and he said do you want to go with your mama. He said I should come to him and I looked at him and said I want my mom. He said okay, this time you are going but next time, you will come with me and I looked up… I asked what his name was. He didn’t say his name was Mohammed… He looked back said, ‘Son, my name is Jesus.”
https://youtu.be/VH3f0ellNv8?si=cO7eBre7HlJzjzWi
The singer says that the most profound lesson that he has learned is really finding his identity in Christ alone.
“God really had to deliver me from finding value in things, affirmation, pleasing people, and even with being impressed with people or wanting them to be impressed with me. He really extracted that from me, and then launched me to this level of success.”
“I don’t crave the stage in order to feel like I’m important, and I don’t anxiously crave an award, or anything like that. Now I’m able to really categorize all of those things in its proper place and prioritize which is more important–that’s God and family. Everything else is just secondary to that.” He told Jet Magazine.
He says that for any dream chaser, getting there is not the problem and how if you try to rush the process, you'll spoil the product.
“Everyone is always in grind mode–that’s the easy part. You can go on any show today, whether it’s American Idol, The Voice or Sunday’s Best or anything, and you can arrive to a place of glamor and lights. But, the question is can you stay there once you get there?
I think that only comes by way of process, and God really developing you and equipping you through that process. So, that’s what was necessary for me and I’m glad He did it.”
https://youtu.be/RMP5qc39QpY
Pastor Greene begins his Crossover album tour February 18, 2018, but he already has new lyrics in the works. He broke the news in his Studio 5 interview that his church is about to record its first worship album.
Travis and his wife, Dr. Jacqueline Gyamfi Greene, started Forward City Church in Columbia, South Carolina almost two years ago. And the church has already grown to include more than a thousand worshipers each week.
"I have been a part of a lot of churches and I have never seen this amount of talent and anointing in one space," shared Green.
"So, we don't want to be selfish with what we get every weekend. We want to capture what we do in worship and put it out for the world to hear."