Trusting Without Borders

Known to the world simply as Taya, she sings one of the most popular Christian worship songs in history and has a fondness for The Salvation Army.

Long before she performed “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” in front of worldwide audiences with Hillsong United, singer Taya Smith-Gaukrodger took part in community worship nights that sometimes met at a tiny Salvation Army church in her hometown of Goonellabah, Australia.

“What was really special is it was held in a poorer part of the community, and I just loved getting to see The Salvation Army be right at the center of getting to help people,”Taya recalls. “What’s really cool is I can still picture the cross in that church and you could see it from many different vantage points in the community. I loved that experience.

“I have a lot of friends who have been heavily impacted in the best way by The Salvation Army church. I am grateful they met Jesus there.”

Taya will meet up with The Salvation Army again this summer when she performs during The Salvation Army’s Commissioning Weekend on June 7 in Hershey, Pa. She has already read up on the ordination and commissioning of the Defenders of Justice session and the celebration of the two-year journey the cadets have traveled to become Salvation Army officers. Taya’s husband, Ben, and the couple’s baby boy, Bo, will join her.

“I consider it an immense honor, and so does my husband, that we get to come with our team,” Taya told SAconnects. “We’re believing and praying that God would have His hand upon that night and that it would be such a refreshing time in the presence of God—and that we can have fun together. I love in Proverbs 11 where it talks about those who refresh others will be refreshed. That’s really my prayer and my team’s prayer as we head into getting to be together.”

Taya will perform songs off her two solo albums and favorites from her Hillsong days, including the evocative anthem “Oceans,” one of the most popular Christian worship songs ever recorded. She is aware that most people know her as the “woman who sings ‘Oceans.’”

“I’m so OK with that,” Taya says with a laugh. “God has been so gracious and kind, and to get to sing a song God has used to encourage so many people is an honor.”

A song for the ages

“Oceans” has spent 191 total weeks on Billboard’s “Hot Christian Songs” chart—61 at the top—since its release in 2013. Billboard ranked it the top Christian song of the 2010s, and Christian congregations sing it every Sunday in churches around the world. The song made her an international star, and the ever-humble Taya admits it’s a lot to take in sometimes.

“What’s really cool about God is you just never know what He’s going to breathe on,” she says. “I think it’s a reminder that whatever we are doing, we’re working as unto the Lord. Even if it was only one person being impacted, it would always be worth all the effort. The way God has taken this song and used it to minister to people, and even called people unto Himself, is such a humbling honor. I’m very grateful.”

Taya didn’t write “Oceans,” but “getting to sing it ended up being a blessing in disguise for me.” She had no formal voice training and didn’t attend Bible college before joining Hillsong.

“All of a sudden, getting placed on these crazy platforms around the world and getting to carry this song, I think I need the confession of this song to even be able to figure out how to carry this call of God on my life,” Taya says. “It’s become a prayer that I think I’ll be praying for the rest of my life to trust Jesus and surrender to Him.”

“Oceans” is based on Matthew 14’s account of Jesus walking on the waters of the Sea of Galilee. He invites disciple Simon Peter to do the same; the apostle was fine until he lost trust and took his eyes off Jesus.

“Even if there are stumblings while we’re learning, our God is going to be there and helping us and enabling us and picking us up when we happen to take our eyes off of Him,” Taya says.

Trusting her Savior

The trust theme of “Oceans” runs through two other songs Taya will perform in Hershey, including “For All My Life” from her 2022 self-titled debut solo album and “Gonna Be Good” from her sophomore album.

Taya calls “For All My Life,” based on Proverbs 3:4–5, her testimony in melody. She co-wrote the song with Hank Bentley and Jon Guerra, and when the chorus was done, Taya realized it was “the confession of my life.” She has learned to trust an all-knowing God “completely and wholeheartedly” with everything, not just pieces of her life.

“I’ve been so grateful to get to carry that song because the last couple of years have looked a little differently in certain ways and slightly unexpectedly,” she says. “It’s a reminder I’m not leaning on my own understanding, but I’m going to acknowledge Him in everything and lay it before Him and allow Him to breathe and speak. If He wants us to change direction for things we didn’t foresee, so be it. He’s been faithful to do that, and I know He doesn’t change, so I’m confident He’ll continue to do that. I’m so pumped we’re going to get to worship Jesus through that song.”

New horizons

“Gonna Be Good,” based on Matthew 6, is about trusting Jesus and not worrying over the cares of life because He cares for the birds of the air and even the lilies of the field.

“I think it’s just that reminder not to worry and to learn how to trust and to be joyful at the same time,” Taya says. “Even when you’re not sure how He’s going to do it, know that He will because He’s a good Heavenly Father and He sees everything.”

Taya has a few new areas of her life to trust God in, including her six-year marriage and role as a new mother. Her son was born last October, and Taya says her growing family is learning to “do ministry together” on the road. A single woman when she joined Hillsong, Taya says she and her husband are “in no way professionals” yet.

“Marriage is one of the great gifts that was a God idea,” she says. “It’s beautiful when you step into it, and it’s such an obvious thing that God has brought two people together and just watching Him go above and beyond in blessing it. Iron sharpens iron in partnership, and getting to do life alongside someone is such a gift.

“I didn’t know this is what God would have for my life and I’m so grateful for it. But I’m also grateful for someone who knows how to intercede and has such a beautiful relationship with God, when it came to reading the Word of God in a way that has encouraged me to do so in a way that I hadn’t been reading the Word of God before.”

Besides trust, Taya says the word that comes to mind for her in motherhood is surrender.

“All of a sudden you have this sweet little human that is totally dependent on you,” she says. “I think in many ways it’s opening my eyes to show me the way God looks at us. Our son doesn’t have to do anything to make us love him or even be proud of him. We already are. I think it’s expanding my view of God in the same way, where He is not saying, ‘impress me’ or ‘you have to do this to earn my love.’ He loves us regardless.”

Lessons of motherhood

Sometimes, Taya says, she has trouble wrapping her mind around the love of God expressed in verses like Romans 5:8 (“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”).

Motherhood has helped.

“I think you get to see that even more so when you have a child of your own,” she says. “I think the surrender part in all this is surrendering our plans. Every day is quite unique with a little baby, especially our first one, and you’re learning everything, and you sometimes question everything. Is this a rash? Is he OK? I would say our prayer life is getting even better. I think we’re praying in the Spirit a little bit more than before.”

Being a busy mother can also make it difficult to spend time alone with God, but Taya is intentional about maintaining a vigorous devotional life, which doesn’t take a break when she’s touring the world and constantly in the public eye.

“Being on the road, for me, the most important thing is that time with Jesus,” she says. “Sometimes we can get into our routines, and it becomes more about the routine rather than being in the presence of God and being with Him and allowing Him to speak with us in every moment. For me, it’s important before I would ever step foot on a platform, that I would have that time of placing myself before God.”

In between concerts, Taya finds a quiet place, shuts the door, and reads the Bible and the classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest by the Scottish evangelist Oswald Chambers. She also spends time in prayer and journaling to express her deepest thoughts.

“I am definitely learning how to balance all that as a new mom,” she says. “I would say it’s one of the more important things because I can’t really pour out if I’m not filled up. It’s just making sure I know what the source is, and it’s not me. I’m making sure I’m going to the fountain of living water.”

Quiet time with God

Private devotional life is a key element of her songwriting process, Taya says, which “begins with a lot of prayer.” Returning to the theme of trust, she adds, she also must “trust the instincts God has given me on the inside” when writing. She announced her departure from Hillsong last year to embark on a solo career and focus more on songwriting.

“I know everyone writes differently,” she says. “For me, a lot of it comes from my quiet time with God. At different points, I’ll hop on the piano and just worship. Not all the time, but some things, I’ll hit record. I sometimes just write by ear and what sounds nice.” Usually a melody will come first and then the lyrics, she says, “because hopefully I’m in the Word of God every day, and just whatever God has been putting on my heart for that season or that week. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will drop in a theme or a line.”

Music has always been a key to Taya’s relationship with God. She remembers running around her house at age 3 “singing to the Lord in my heart,” but as she grew up singing in church, becoming an internationally known singer never crossed her mind. Her mother, who led Taya to faith in Christ at age 5, would play an acoustic guitar from the yellowed pages of hymns. Taya and her siblings learned the piano, cello, clarinet, and other instruments.

“I knew early on that I connected really easy with Jesus while singing,” she says. “I think definitely growing up in that household and attending and serving in church in such a big way left an indelible mark on my life and my sisters’ lives. Music was always encouraged.”

Looking ahead to Hershey

At age 21, instead of going to college, Taya left her hometown for Sydney in 2010 with only $200 and dreams of becoming a recording artist. She found Hillsong Church’s City Campus and got involved in youth and young adult ministries and with the creative team while working in retail.

Taya, now 35, began touring with Hillsong’s worship team in 2013. With the release of the group’s Zion album, featuring “Oceans,” she began to believe her dream was possible.

“It was always something I wanted to do, but perhaps didn’t know how to make happen,” she says.

Her latest tour is taking Taya all over the United States and Europe before she comes to Hershey. She began looking forward to the show and praying for the future Salvation Army officers months before they completed their two-year training.

“We’re praying that God would speak to each person there that night, us included, in whatever way that He wants to,” Taya says. “Just know that my team and I will be coming prayed up and believing that God is going to instill something in every single heart and mind that’s there—whether it’s a refreshing or an empowering by the Holy Spirit or just a reminder of something God had said even within those two years of training.

“I pray that it would be a sweet sealing of the Holy Spirit and His presence for what happened those two years and for the future as these officers and their families step into what God has called them to do.”

photos by Sam Scarce