Chain Breaker

Zach Williams & The Reformation lead singer Zach Williams was feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the lifestyle of fronting a secular rock band. After several missteps, he finally found his calling as the worship leader of Central Baptist in Jonesboro, Arkansas and signing to Provident Label Group - Essential Records as a solo artist. Penned with Mia Fieldes and Jonathan Smith, this song is about the better life he'd found in Jesus. "If you don't know what you're doing with your life then find a quiet place, fall down on your hands and knees, and ask God to come in and save your life," said Williams. "Surrender everything to Him. Jesus came and died on the cross so there would be a way for the chains of those struggles and addictions to be broken." "If you have pain, He's a pain taker, if you're lost, He is the way maker, and if you've got chains, He's the chain breaker," he added. "The first step is allowing Him to come in so He can set you free," Williams added.

Zach Williams expanded on the song's background in an interview with NewReleaseToday: "My wife and I were involved in a church that we helped launch because of our personal testimonies of what we had gone through in our lives. About the same time that we were launching that church campus, my wife was invited to go to a women's prison ministry visit. She came back from that trip on fire, and she told me that the next time that opportunity came up, she needed to sign me up to go. I was still wondering if that was something that I was interested in, and she and a pastor at the church signed me up for one of those trips. At that same time, I was starting to write my first Christian music about four years ago. I was getting in the groove of writing songs and wanted God to give me the words to use for my music, and my wife said this was the perfect opportunity for me to go down and sing these new songs for these women in prison. I brought a friend who played guitar, and my wife and I shared our testimonies, and twenty or more women got down on their hands and knees and got saved that night at the prison. I had to close my eyes in the middle of it because I was so floored, and tears were streaming from my eyes. The presence of God was so real at that moment in the room. If I had any doubt about what I should be doing with my life, God reassured me that leaving my former band and doing this was what God wanted. I came home from that prison trip and was choked up if I tried to talk about it. My wife and I went on several more prison trips. For me, that story was a big part of my personal testimony as I went to write this song with Mia Fields and Jonathan Smith. As we were sharing with each other, the next thing I knew Mia said we should write a song called 'Chain Breaker.' I laughed and said, 'That's been done already, hasn't it?' She said no, we needed to write this song. We went on writing this song about Jesus, packing in as many positives and truths about who Jesus is and what He has done as possible."

The song climbed to the top of Billboard's Christian songs chart on November 19, 2016.