Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours, a time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast.
So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here. No. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We are continuing our topic of the new name/slash identity and sharing some stories and sharing some clips like we always do.
But basically, how Gods came after us to correct how the enemy has attacked us in our whole life. Andy, you wanted to talk a little bit about that? Can you share that before we get to our first clip? Yeah, I mean. In search for your new name, and again, you're asking God to tell you what it is.
What gets in the way, I think, a lot of times is it's hard for us to believe who He says we are because we've been labeled so much with all the counter stuff of that.
So if you're looking for your glory or your That's a term for basically your identity or what your new name is or what it's related to. It's that. It's the opposite of that a lot of times. You're called something The inferior of that positive characteristic or trait that you may carry that identifies you uniquely, and the enemy tries to pound that and pound that. And as long as he can get you to believe the negative part of who you are, that's what you're going to gravitate to.
That's why it's so hard for us. To come into the new name. Our default is the bad, the name, the fallen name, the name that the enemy wants to keep us bound up by. Yeah, it is key. He attacks us with us so frequently, we believe that's our identity.
You know, Darren, in your story before the show, before this show and the previous show, you know, he had attacked you with all the dangerous things you'd done that didn't work out well, you know, that wasn't a positive attribute. Yeah, I mean, he had convinced me that being dangerous was the worst possible thing. Right.
So. when God said, You're dangerous. I bought in really quickly. Yep. Yeah, I know God, but I'm trying to quit.
You know, I mean, like smoking. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty much like that for me. And do you got a patch for that? You know, I mean, but anyway, God. slowly begin to work with me on that and convince me that, no, I I created you that way.
And not only did I create you that way, but I need you to be that way. You're going to bear my glory in a way Through that identity, that no one else is. And if you don't do it, it's not going to get done. And so when I started living in that, You know, Dinish is sitting here beside me. Dinish and I.
We had one of the best Daddy-daughter relationships in the history of the world for many, many years of her young life. But then things began to go awry. And Um It wasn't until I began to Walk in that new name and begin to use that as a gauge for is this. Being dangerous, or is this being dangerous, you know, sort of thing? And it wasn't until I started doing that.
That I became more free, but what ended up happening was those waves ripple far beyond you. It it began to set her free and it began to set other people free. And so we're Lucky that we're getting to see second and third generation now beginning to walk in this. message.
So no, absolutely. You know, I I've had my boys at boot camp. and to hear them talk about and then live out of their new name. It is pretty amazing. We'll get to our clip here in a few minutes, but Dinish, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about if you'd like to share anything about your experiences in this topic.
Well, obviously Dad. Um getting his new name and um set the precedent for not only for, you know, him changing and him Gauging, but it set the precedent and an example for us. It also allowed us to see, okay, What does that even mean?
So, obviously, like he said, we're we're now into second and third generations of it and my brother and I both got to experience it. Um I I was given mine in 2013. But I didn't understand it. I did to an extent because it boiled back down to the original five-year-old little girl that wanted to fight for everybody. And when she couldn't rescue them, she cried her eyes out and things like that.
And I But I was hurt by that over and over and over again. And so it was a way for Satan to use that against me or tell me, you know. That's You're just gonna get hurt. You're just gonna get hurt. It's not until the last probably five years that I've really understood.
fully what, um and probably not even fully at this point, but Understood what God was trying to tell me in that.
So it's Men Searching there or going after this, it's not just for you. It's definitely for. The other people in your lives, and it sets the example. it changes the narrative completely. Um and all of Your All of anybody you touch, it's going to change the narrative of their lives because you are being able to be used by God in the way that He intended fully.
Absolutely. Yeah, thank you. If Robby was here, he would talk about, and he's probably one of the best ones I know at this, is calling out other people's glory. Right, and when we're talking about glory, it's not your glory, it's your reflection of God's glory. Right, we are called image bearers and an image bearer is a reflection.
Right, but you reflect God in a way that only you do, and we've talked about that many times, but it's something that you have to learn to grasp. Because it's it's a big honor and it's a big responsibility both. Right, but you have the opportunity when you see it in your family, when you see it in your friends, to call out those glorious things that say, Wow, you really do this well. Yeah, and I think that's the other part of this, it's allowed even me as a parent, understanding that those messages have way more power than we realize, especially as young parents. To call out my children's glory and say, No, Lily, this is not who you are.
No, Jackson, this is not who you are. This is who you are. From the very beginning, this is who God made you.
So, It's it's just a really Neat. thing to speak into your The people that are in your lives in that way, too. Absolutely, it is. Are you comfortable sharing your name? My name?
Yeah, that God gave you? Yeah, it's um Tender Warrior.
Okay.
So uh how has God helped you see that differently, if you don't mind me asking? Um I've always had a drive, like I said, to help. Or to I had a save your complex is what, you know, is what I guess the world calls it. And I I used it. Negatively, and Satan was able to really play on that with me.
um over the last five years of really digging into that. It's more about going after the hearts of using my story, using my. The stuff that's happened to me, but also the redemption in my story that God has provided to fight for the hearts of. younger females or um and help them work through a lot of what happens to them in today's time.
So he's He's still allowing me to fight, and yeah, I still have the very tender, soft heart, and I it's hard for me to understand a lot of things sometimes and I have to go to God and just, God, this really hurts. Why? You know? And he has to remind me, it's because I gave you that heart. And I've asked him, why did you give me this heart?
Why? Because you could bear it. Yeah, but at times you do ask yourself, can I? But you can. And so it's been a really cool thing for God and I to explore that.
Yeah, and you made the point very perfectly there that are out of good intention, We step into arenas thinking we need to go do something, and you're absolutely correct. You were made to go do something, but we did it in the absence of God, right? Right, and that's where it typically failed. right, that we that we charted off in uncharted territory without our guide. You know, and and then we wonder why we end up at a place we didn't think we'd end up.
Or you, I mean, you may even think that you're doing it with God, but you're not. Going to God. You're not asking the questions that need to be asked. You're not submitting. You're not.
allowing him to guide your being the guide you're controlling. And so You can think you're Doing it in God's name or whatever, but until you submit and let him have the control of that. It's it's It's usually not going to have a great outcome. Letting him think for us. Absolutely.
And to follow his lead. The two best things I ever did as a father for my kids is: number one, let God work on my heart, as Darren articulated well. And the second thing was to realize I had to constantly pray: God, I don't know how to be a father of fill-in-the-blank, a child that's in this situation, a child that's feeling this way. I need you to father me. Because I have no answers.
I'm lost well after their teenage years. They lost me there. And to lean into him and say, God, I need you to father me in this because I don't know how to be their father. Yeah, I mean pretty much everybody in this room is in the latter half of the you know hundred years. And yet every morning, every morning, without fail, I am usually praying, God, father me through.
X. Right.
Whatever it is. It's father me through being a good grandfather. Father me through being a friend. Father me through being a good husband. But being a, you know.
a thousand different things, but it's constantly saying God, I don't know how to do this. And and asking in a very personal way for him to use his father's heart, to nurture my father's heart. Absolutely. Absolutely. Andy, would uh I know we have some clips, but if we don't get the clips, we don't get the clips.
But uh d do you have uh do you feel like sharing anything about your new name? Because everybody it's a different experience, right?
Sometimes we have a hard time believing it. Because it's been attacked, as you illustrated well when you talked about it.
Sometimes we don't, we're afraid of what it's going to require of us. There's lots of ways that the enemy attacks us. And if you'd share a little bit about yours, I'd love to hear it.
So. Whenever I first started coming to boot camps, that was a new concept. I'd read it in a book, but to hear people talk about it, testify it. bringing up the whole idea of your glory being attacked. I was totally open to it, but like a lot of guys, you're used to believing.
A negative side, or you don't want to. Presume You don't want to impose it on God. You don't want to name yourself. That would be stupid. You know?
I don't really want to do it. I'm Thor. That's right. No, you're not. Exactly.
It's just another opportunity to pose, right? I'm Gumer. Yeah, right.
So anyway, uh the first Thing I heard was Mighty Warriors.
So I kind of received that. Didn't seem like it just resonated, didn't seem that personal. And I don't think it necessarily is, but quite frankly, everything that we teach or what we know in these boot camps, we all are mighty warriors. And I needed the context that we are this is something we're fighting for and that I needed to do that.
So there was that. And then I just kept praying, and I think it was two or three boot camps later. Um, probably my third or fourth, I was like, God, what is it? And I was just like. He said Go look up your given name.
So before I get into that, I'm gonna ge be real vulnerable and give you guys a lot of opportunities to blackmail me and all kinds of stuff. But my my mom didn't expect a boy and she her my name was supposed to be Tina Marie.
So, you know, there you go, guys. Mine was supposed to be Sesabama. Just throwing that out there for you, Amy. Oh man, I can hardly believe this guy. Right, exactly.
Thank you, thank you very much. Yeah. But I don't know. I don't so sh they've they've I was born, and they had to come up with something. And you'd think, oh, well, that was kind of an afterthought, right?
And I know this story. And uh it was Andrew Benton, which I don't it was like The Bible and some history stuff she threw together. And, you know, I went through life. With that. And then my dad, it's a big part of my story.
It's related to my womb. My dad disappears in my life. And my Uh junior junior high time.
So I didn't really have I had a step dad who didn't really do my heart well. And I didn't get a lot that you know, we talk on here about masculinity is bestowed upon one another, and I didn't have a lot of bestowing going on. And I felt weak as a man. I didn't feel like I had control of my emotions. I had, as we like to, everybody hears me talk about an orphan spirit.
You know, you can have parents you know that love you, but you can live like an orphan. And I did for a long time. And so, anyway, getting back to my new name, there's that. There's my glory being attacked was I had no strength. And I didn't even realize it.
It's one of those things that sit under the surface. But I knew when I tried to rise up, I was a mess. And I ended up hurting people or not stepping up. I hurt people by going too far. Or hurt people by not you know by hiding not going far enough not going far enough not stepping into things But anyway, God said, look your name up.
And I mean I just I about wept when I s saw it. The definition was strong or manly, which is the opposite of what I felt. And So, what that looks like now over time is that, you know, I. For example, I'm having a tough week at work. There's been opportunities to be, if you listen to the other show, wanting to switch my name to Drew, you know, because there's been an opportunity to get angry.
And, you know, I haven't. there's still just a a sense That I'm strong. I would have handled it differently in the past. But there's a strength in entering into my daughter's life. When I used to just argue and bring my, I listen, I just bring a strength, and it's his strength.
I used to, at first, when I thought that, well, oh, yeah, good, I get strength. It's really, we talk about reflecting his glory, it's his strength. But it's identifying with that. And if I'm truly. made in his image and he carries strength, and I'm made in his image, that means I get a a measure of strength.
And strength was what was being attacked.
So anyway, that's what I got.
Well, thank you. Harold, I wanted to get to you to see what you wanted to talk about on this topic before I get to our uh the next clip.
Well Sometimes I think the new name comes to you and and you think like I did. God, are you sure that's it? You know do you really think that that I'm a g golden shepherd? Mm-hmm. Because the the name that he gave me was loyal.
The more I thought about it, the more I thought. Yeah, that fits. I've been married sixty over sixty one years. Loyalty is something that's extremely important to me and has been most of my life. I want to clarify to the same person for 61 years.
Some people could say that, and it's three people. Even the same person, which is the same thing. And he's been loyal to the Auburn Tigers every But well, a lot longer than 61 years. We want to switch names. Mine means gentlemen.
Gentlemen, okay. But uh anyway th If you if you really sincerely ask God what He thinks of you, He'll tell you. Just be prepared for it to be something that you think is not acceptable. or it may be completely acceptable. But it's his.
With with that thought being said, What keeps you from asking? What keeps most men from asking God, what's my new name? Fear of some kind, right? They're afraid of what God may say, but it's going to be what you see in yourself. Right.
They're afraid God's going to say what everybody else has said. You're a loser, you're a quitter, you're whatever, you're dangerous, you're. Hurtful, any of those things, you're afraid God's going to confirm it. And so that. Causes men to go, yeah, no, I'm good.
I'm good. I'd rather not ask, I'd rather not know than be confirmed. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: One of the real beauties of my name. is the fact that I'm not short. I'm not old.
I'm loyal. Absolutely. Yeah, it does. That's one thing that can never be taken from you, Harold. is as you are a very loyal person.
I'm going to play a clip that we play at boot camp when we're talking about this topic. And this is a name this when they're talking about getting your new name, this is the essential clip that we play. And it's from um Gladiator. And if you've ever seen the movie, you've ever seen really just about anything, you probably have heard this before. But we're gonna play it and then come back and talk about it.
But it's as he's in the arena with Commodus. And Commodus is wanting to know what his name is, and so we pick it up from there. Yeah. Gladiator, the Emperor has asked for you. I'm at the Emperor's service.
Rise, rise. Your fame is well deserved, Spanish. I don't think there's ever been a gladiator to match you. Just for this young man, he insists you are Hector Reborn. What's it take you?
Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name? You do have a name. My name is Gladiator. How dare you show your battery? Slake.
Will you remove your helmet and tell me your name? My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North. General of the Felix. Allegiance. Loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife? And I will have my vengeance in this life or the next. Um It uh you go out and you hear this clip. Right, and you hear it, and you're like, oh, yeah, I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to go out and get my name. I'm going to get Maximus, I'm going to get William Wallace, I'm going to get something really cool. And so, my, and I've gotten many names over the years. The longer you stay with God, you know, God gives you more names. Just like Jesus has many names, God has many names, you have many names.
As Santa Claus had in our clip last show, there's many aspects of your personality, many aspects of your identity in Christ, right? And so, when I went out for my first boot camp, I'm ready for this name, man. I'm ready, He's going to give me a great name. I know it. And I go out there and he goes, uh, teacher.
Like, okay. You got another one? And so I'm sitting there and he says, and he gave me another one. He's like, facilitator. I'm like, great, God, you're giving me vocations.
I appreciate that. You know, I mean, I don't thank you, I guess. I don't really know. You know, and I complained about those, even though God gave me some other names. And that was in 2002.
And it took until twenty twenty five No, we're in 25. in the fall of twenty four, where God finally harvested that. I was complaining about it once again on stage as I'm doing the new name talk at the time. And I'm going to share more of what God's done. And in the middle of complaining about saying the word teacher, saying, you know, he tells me teacher and then he tells me facilitator.
God obviously has a thesaurus, you know, because I'm thinking they're the same thing. And as I'm complaining about that on the stage, I hear Jesus whisper in my ear.
Well, you know they called me teacher. And I was floored. And I I realized that that was an incredible honor. That he had given me, and it took me so many years. He was trying to tell me in 2002, and it took me to 2024.
to really understand it more fully. And in 2002 you had no concept of having done, I don't know, close to 900 Radio shows and podcasts, either. No. And talked at. You know, 25, 30 boot camps.
Right.
Yeah, that's when I thought I could never even get up into an announcement because of my wounding. Right.
Right.
God gave me a name of something that felt so abstract. Mm-hmm. But at the end of the day it was incredibly personal and then Robby helped me understand that a lot of what God's had me do on the radio show when I'm hosting is to play facilitator. Mm-hmm. That they are different things.
You know, and I've embraced those in a special way, just as I have other names. Andy, like you, they can make fun of me as well. My dad was not expecting a boy.
So they, I don't know what my girl name was. It's not as great as Tina Marie. But I'm sure there was a name, or Sasquatch Mitch, or whatever your name was. I don't remember what that was. Sapsawana.
I go I I don't remember what yours was. Yeah, I didn't I didn't even have anything to come back with. Like you were from I want that name. Yeah, I got nothing. You guys have got something.
Sasquatchia. My great-grandmother's name was Cecily. Bama.
Okay.
The rash. She was born in Alabama on her way to the Oklahoma land rush of 1889. And so that was how she got her name, and I was going to be named after her. Oh, now I feel almost bad. Yeah.
I tried hard. It was close. I tried really hard. We got to have to work on that. They had a plan for you.
Yeah, yeah. You know, God's done some amazing things and and like with you, Andy, you know, at another boot boot camp, you know, and you guys have heard my wounding on other shows that, you know, I had nothing important to say, right? That no one's gonna listen to you anyway.
So the names like teacher and facilitator, what's that resonate with somebody that has nothing to say? You know, i i it could almost feel cruel, although I never felt that from God. The enemy never had a foothold there. But when God told me through uh one of our friends at a boot camp, I'm losing his name at the moment, to look up the name Samuel. What it means.
It means God hears. Right? And so, you know, he very quickly came after my heart to say: look, it doesn't matter what men think. I hear you.
So, does it really matter if other people hear you? And again, that's a game changer for me. And there's other names that God's given me along the way. And so I'd encourage you to spend time investing in Him to say, God, help me see this. You know, to use Andy's advice, look at where you've been wounded, where the enemies beat you down.
Robby likes to call it whack-a-mole. You know, every time it pops up to God's glory, he whacks it back down. Look at those clues and find a way to say, God, how have you been trying to tell me? why you created me. We all want to know our purpose in life.
Our purpose is to reflect God. You just got to figure out how you do that uniquely. Yeah, I've hur heard, um, Sam Eldridge, John's son who wrote Wild at Heart, speak about this whole idea, the Bible is chock full of talking about us being the sons of God and the identity that we have in them. And all those things are true, but they're not personal. And that's what I was talking to the guys earlier.
What the new name meant to me, it was very personal. And the Bible is not is very targeted, but it is written for the masses, but God wants us to receive it as an individual. And so But what he was saying was that All those things became much more true when he got his personal new name. All those things, you can step into those. Even more, You know, not everybody receives a new name, but I don't think it's because of if you're asking, He's going to give it to you.
I think it's just, it says if we don't ask, we won't get. Yeah, we still have blinders on. We don't have ears to hear, right? God is throwing it out there. My new name, I'm not a tattoo person.
My name was so important to me that I got in Hebrew God hears, I got Samuel. Put in Hebrew on my shoulder. And it was just for me that when I'm having a bad day and I get out of the shower, which is an unpleasant thought all day to begin with, I get out of the shower and I look at my shoulder. I can see God hears me. Go to masconjourney.org to register for boot camp.
We will talk with you next week. Let God love on you this week. Mm. Um
