This isn't some empty self help talk.... The reality of the Kingdom of God is immense... IMMENSE

D.J. Butler's song has been upon my heart for hours now...

I Will Change Your Name.


What a most beautiful declaration of our God!

Here are the lyrics:

I will change your name 
You shall no longer be called 
Wounded, outcast 
Lonely or afraid 

I will change your name 
Your new name shall be 
Confidence, joyfulness 
Overcoming one 
Faithfulness, friend of God 
One who seeks my face. 


Let me add to those changed names the ones I have heard this afternoon...

Sought after, adored... loved, chosen... wanted....  beautiful one, precious...


You are no longer ever the last kid picked... You are no longer the one without a dance partner... You are no longer left, lonely or afraid...

You are sought after and adored...


The brilliance and majesty of the Kingdom of God is that there is a place, a home.. there is safety.. there is refuge... there is a shadow and a cool place from the hot burning sun of the scorching deserts of life.

This isn't some empty self help talk... this isn't pointing to some five step model that if only you can believe it strong enough or enact it effectively enough you will flourish... This is you flourish even when, (ESPECIALLY WHEN), you are weak and broken...  This is that you are NEVER not seen... This is that you are NEVER alone... This is that no matter what happens, no matter what you find yourself walking through, no matter what has happened or is happening there is strength and comfort and grace and compassion...

This is the beauty and majesty of our God... This is the hope and vibrancy of our Kingdom... This is where power and passion kiss and meet and waltz together to change lives, to change towns, to change the world...  

Knowing God empowers all to rise up and display strength... because confidence isn't in the flesh or in programming, confidence is placed in the Lord God Almighty who is and was and is to come... Confidence is put in the One who parted the Red Sea, or caused the walls of Jericho to come down.. Confidence is put in the One who rose up from the dead!


I have lifted my eyes to the mountains with the confidence that my help comes forth from the highest heights...

Being healed of mental illness does not mean that life is smooth and effortless... being made whole from the darkness of the past empowers me forward into the valleys, into the shadows, into the wilderness, into and beyond any landscape ... Because I have learned that He who has called me is beyond faithful...


I have set my eyes upon Him, I have gazed upon His beauty and seen Him high and lifted up and my passions are towards Him as His are towards me....  I have set my heart upon Him and I have learned to trust Him and be stilled like a newborn babe who is weaned and is resting upon its mother's breast...


While there are days that are perilous and times that are lonely and moments where hope might be hard to find I cause myself to remember His goodness and then I am stilled once again, then I am at peace once again...


I have been getting a lot of questions concerning what it means when I say I was healed of mental illness, and let me tell you the moment, that one moment when the songs of Heaven filled my head and I knew life was never going to be the same ever again was a most glorious moment.  Yet I was not brought home at that moment, my life didn't cease existing upon a fallen planet....  I was given hope back, I was given life back, I was given my mind (not back but probably for the very first time.)

I had never really attached to life, never fully captured the capacity to know remorse or have a fully formed conscience.. I couldn't care if I hurt someone because I just didn't have that capacity within me.. until those moments....


But since those moments I have had to learn life skills, I have had to learn trust... I have had to learn to cope not dissociate. I have learned to lean and I have learned to weep and I have learned to not despise weakness.  I have learned to know His strength and not been humiliated when upon it I had to lean with all my might, I have learned poverty so that I could know the greatest of wealth... I have learned the lessons of the life within the Kingdom and how that life looks very different than anything the world would ever have to offer...


There is healing and there is process.... I embrace both...  Redemption ...  moment by moment and step by step and glory to glory and strength to strength...

Take courage... take courage and have hope... we serve an amazing God and He is truly changing your name... He has done it and is doing it... He is bringing forth and He is declaring it over you.. Breath, rest... take courage... for the Lord God is near ...