God Still Has a Plan for You

Zach Williams on answering God’s call

There are seasons when many of us quietly wonder if we missed our moment—or if the life we’re living now somehow placed us outside God’s plan. The detours feel real. The waiting feels long. And calling can feel like something meant for someone else. Even then, God is still at work.

Zach Williams knows what that kind of season feels like. Long before the awards, the worship songs, and the stages, his life included years of searching and distance from the God who had already shaped his identity and purpose. Today, his story reminds us that God’s plan doesn’t fade with time—it patiently unfolds, even when we don’t yet recognize it.

When Identity Is Spoken Before You Understand It
Zach began, “I didn’t find this out until I was 33 years old, but when I was born, my parents were going to this church in Pensacola, Florida, and, they decided to have me dedicated one Sunday.”

As his parents carried him toward the front of the church, something unexpected happened. “As they were walking me down to the front, I started like, making all this noise and getting crazy.” The moment caught the pastor’s attention. “[The pastor] said, ‘You know, sounds like it sounds like Zach’s got a strong set of lungs’… basically, my dad said, ‘he spoke over you and said that you would be a voice for your generation.’”

Words like that carry weight—especially when they’re spoken before a person has any idea how their life will unfold.

Sometimes God speaks identity long before we know how to live it. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5 NIV)

Zach grew up never knowing those words had been spoken. But his parents did. “My parents held on to that for 33 years, and I didn’t find out about it till after I gave my life to the Lord. And so they knew. But I didn’t.”

For years, Zach’s life didn’t look like a calling in motion. After a basketball injury in college, music entered the picture almost by accident. “I went to college to play basketball and, tore my ankle up my freshman year and, picked up a guitar, my roommate’s guitar, and taught myself how to play.”

What followed wasn’t a straight line.

Zach continued to retell what his father shared with him. “We watched you slip into this lifestyle, drugs and alcohol, and live in this life for the next 15 years of your life.” Still, his parents never stopped believing there was more ahead.

His father’s words lingered as Zach spoke them. “The whole time that that was going on… we just knew that God had another plan for your life.”

Even when Zach couldn’t see it, God was still moving—often through the quiet faithfulness of others.

Calling Clarified in Christ
Everything began to change after Zach surrendered his life to Christ. “After I gave my life to the Lord and I started working at the church, I was writing music.” It was then, on a job site during a lunch break that his dad finally told him the story from the dedication.

When Zach questions why he didn’t reveal the words spoken until then, he said his father “joked and said he didn’t want to put any pressure on me.”

Sometimes God becomes clear only after we anchor our identity in Him.

Becoming who you were created to be doesn’t happen on a timeline you control. And purpose doesn’t disappear when life takes unexpected turns.

If you’re still becoming—still waiting, still wondering—Zach’s story offers hope. God is not finished. And He still has a plan for you.

Want to go deeper—and wake up to who you are in Christ?
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