What do you take pride in?
God's word.
Predominantly. Faith Family and Friends would be the canopy. The last two things that I TAKE PRIDE IN is being Focused and Functioning.
He beating hair off the barber's chair with a dark purple gown
Scissoring a comb between his index and middle finger, he waves and motioning me to sit.
He begins. (Clippers on)
I begin.
"Where are you from?" I ask.
He jacks my chair his foot adjusting my seat a few notches up.
Kingston, Jamaica.
The word has given me my
worth
Born and raised till 13 then I came to the States.
I made my first foot print in soil country, everything about it was new.
At the moments I couldn't distinguish whether the new was good of not.
But moving to the U.S was probably one of the best decisions I never made for me.
ABSENCE OF COMFORT
BROUGHT ME TO CHRIST
What do you take pride in?
God's word. Predominantly.
Faith Family and Friends would be the canopy.
The last 2 things that I take pride in is being focused and functioning. So that I can acquire the necessary financial freedom.
Money is not the root of all evil. Financial freedom precipitates freedom in other areas.
Focusing on your function will bring about the finances will furnish your freedom. Society today is all about distractions. From the movies that continually put out to the television shows reality and scripted (Moses parted so do I)
I FOUND MY FIRST PURPOSE AT 10 YEARS OLD...
CUTTING HAIR
Where does your fashion sense come from?
People love the outward. They not even want to get to know you if they can't get past your appearance.
But more than the appearance there is the presence one conveys.
You can have an appearance but no presence and that throws things off. Some people look good but have a bad aura about them.
But you have more presence than Santa's Sleigh on Christmas Eve.
What in your life are you most grateful for?
Knowing his purpose for me. Knowing my purpose within his purpose.
Not wasting time trying to figure out what I'm here for.
I found my first purpose at 10yrs old. Cutting hair.
I didn't know that it would bring me to a greater purpose of shaping men's hearing.
Name a hard moment in life that made you?
My mother leaving me when I was 6. I have a saying: I went to sleep comforted and I woke up confused. I fell asleep in my mothers bosom and when I awoke she was no longer there.
And so all my life I've been like a junkie trying to get that 1st high. Trying to recapture what was in my mother's bosom.
But the absence of comfort is what brought me to Christ.
This is important because I discovered the comfort I was looking for was one more enduring than my mother's breast, but the milk of the breast of wisdom of Christ.
MY WORDS ARE TO THE MIND
WHAT MY CLIPPERS ARE TO THE LINE
You have such a captivating speaking style and a commanding presence. You could be an amazing motivational speaker or a top sales person. Why sell Jesus?
The word has given me my worth.
It's only right that I give back to what made me. It's only right to use it for the very thing that causes you to have it.
You have been given the gift by the word and the best gift you could give back to the word is the gift that the word gave you. It would be unappreciative to use my gift outside of the reason I've been given it.
MATTERS OF THE HEAD CAN BE TAUGHT IN AN INSTITUTION.
MATTERS OF THE HEART CANNOT.
You're a barber as well as a preacher. Are the two one?
At 10 years old I did mess someone's hair up so bad that his mother wanted to cut my hair. By the grace of God she never did catch me. She would love where I am now but then I'm sure she could only see the highway of a part I put in his hair. Needless to say it was on the house.
Of course there is a link. One of my favorite phrases about the correlation is this: My words are to the mind what my clippers are to the line. I think you get that. The same way men need to be shaped up faded and lined is the same way they need to have their heads in place. Men don't know who their head is. They know where their hair is located but they don't know who their head is. They come to me with their hair messed up and their heads messed up and leave with both in better shape. I change the way men's hair look and also how they hear.
GOD IS LOVE.
THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS TO ME
Isn't the bible another self-help book?
If I could help myself I wouldn't need the bible in the first place. Only some who didn't know what the bible is could say that.
Depending on who you ask will depend on what they say. The categories of the "some-say".
The world of God is God's revelation for the purpose and plan for the salvation of man. There's a chasm of difference between self-help and God's help. When you subscribe to the scriptures when you deal with the word of God you are dealing with God himself.
By what authority do you do what you do?
By the authority of having spent time with Jesus. By that authority.
And when they perceived that these men had not been to rabbinical school they perceived they had been with Jesus.
Do you feel like there is anything that might separate you from someone who has been to rabbinical school? Or Divinity school?
Matters of the head can be taught in an institution. Matters of the heart cannot. The level of conviction I speak with cannot be obtained through schooling.
Are you a Rabbi or Pastor?
I would just use the word teacher. A servant/ leader.
To anyone who knows you your conviction towards God is evident. Was there ever a moment in life when you doubted God's existence, involvement or concern?
I have doubted my faith.
I have doubted myself but I've never doubted God even in my lowest point. My doubts have been more directed towards myself and others. I can say with a certain level of conviction that neither depth, nor height, that nothing's will ever make me doubt God. "God is love." That is all that matters to me. I don't need an explanation. I don't need a reason. I just need to know that he is that. If I know that he is that you cannot convince me otherwise.
What sparked your interest in the word of God?
For most people, sadly Christians included, the Bible is a book that sits on the living room table waiting to one day be removed and leave a dark square of wood surrounded by a table full of dust.
What young man seeks out the Bible?
There was a moment of darkness that was so severe that light presented itself in the form of the word of God. Some people a test they're coming to the knowledge of God as being related to a trial or tragedy. I believe it was just my time. I believe that he was ready for me.
It's all about timing. Because I believe there's some people that are going through more than I have and have still not come to Christ.
I have tackled the demon of depression had on. And I've attempted to commit suicide three times but that It's not what led me to Christ. I have seen some of the most horrific things that life has to show and that has not brought me to Christ. I can't give credit to those things for having brought me to Christ. I just had a voice that nothing else I tried could fill.
Once I tried to shoot myself and the gun jammed, another time I tried to hang myself and the piece of wood that I tied the rope to gave away, even though I had tested it by pulling on it three times before. And another time I took pills and woke up upset.
Did you have a praying grandmother?
You cannot be raised in Jamaica and not have some sort of spiritual background. You had to have some sort of religious background. You were not able to just read bell against your mother and tell them you weren't going. They would drag you to church. I didn't have to be back to church it was something different to do, to me it was purely religious.
School
I have always been a smart kid but I've never liked school. When you find out what your purpose is you only want to be schooled according to your purpose. If you're not being schooled according to that purpose you become rebellious. One can say that I dropped out of school but I don't feel as if I dropped out of school. I never stop learning. I just pursued my passion. I just gave up what wasn't going to assist me in my purpose.
I was in the 10th grade when I figured out it wasn't going to work. Not to mention I wasn't good at reading so I hated it even more. While illiterate at 18, the irony is that I am able by the grace of God, A book that scholars wrestle with. Now I'm able to read any and everything. There are certain pronunciations I wrestle with largely due to my Jamaican culture.
SLAPPED CHRIST FROM DEATH
TO LIFE
What does it mean to be intimate with God?
Fellowship.
To know God's heart and not just his hand. You can have a relationship and not have fellowship. This is why I say nothing will ever make me doubt God. Because I may not always understand his hand but I believe in know and trust in his heart. And his heart is love.
God's hand is demonstrated in totality on the cross. That was the first and the last time we have really ever seen God's hand. God's hand was so manifest in Christ on the cross that his throne did a 180 from judgment to Grace. That's how powerful what happened on the cross was.
It's like your mama used to say that I will slap the fool out of you? That's conversion right there. God slapped Christ from death to life. The Scripture declares that God said that he would be smitten of me.
CHURCH IS AN ORGANISM AND NOT
AN ORGANIZATION
What is your greatest passion and besides God, what is your second greatest passion?
To teach gods word.
To be that father that my sons would be proud of.
Some people can be delusional how can you tell if you truly believe the word of God? No matter what happens you stand on it. When it's what you run to no matter what.
Can you be a Christian and enjoy watching the bad guy die in a diehard movie?
As a spiritual leader what do you see the best way to deal with racism?
There is no best way. This country is run by a racist. This country is all about racism. There is no in all reality. It's not a matter of NURTURE, it's a matter of NATURE. What are we going to do? Nurture, nurture, nurture. And the nature is going to surface back up!
What is been your greatest victory?
Transformation. To see things for what they are and not what they appear to be. It's very matrix like.
What is the hardest thing to let go of and picking up your cross?
Putting myself last.
What is clarity as a ministry and what makes you different from the church?
There is no association with church in the sense of organized religion. Clarity has everything to do with church as it pertains to being part of the body of Christ. Church is an organism and not an organization. Today's church is more of an organization than it is an organism. However it's not supposed to be because we are referred to as the body of Christ. We are supposed to be an organism that is organized. However, today's church puts organization before the organism, failing to realize we are not supposed to gather together we are supposed to assemble. Assembling and gathering are two different things. We have more gathering than assembly today. With an organization you can remove the head and remove the workers and have it function better. An organism is governed by blood. The Bible tells us to not for sake to assemble ourselves.
GOD IS LOVE.
THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS TO ME
What is clarity?
God's view
How do we obtain clarity?
Through the word of God.
Do you believe that the Bible has all the answers?
Yes. The reason why we believe it doesn't is because we believe that there are more problems than just three. The Bible says that we have not a high priest that cannot be touched by the feelings of our infirmities who was at all points tempted like us. Sin is the end result of someone succumbing to one of those points. There are only three points that tunnel us into sin. These produce all the problems we claim that are all the problems.
Again here we have a nurture and nature.
Jesus said that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
THERE ARE ONLY THREE POINTS THAT
TUNNEL US INTO SIN
Scripture says all that's in the world. What? All that's in the world. What? All that's in the world. This is why the Bible says that Jesus was at all points tempted. Did he faced everything that we have faced individually no... Question.
Of course he did. He might not of had to deal specifically with temptation to indulge in internet pornography, he might not have had to deal with he might not have lived next-door to a guy who pulled in with the newest Alexis, he might not have dealt with being offered a higher paying position by his boss that would keep him from his commitment Sunday school teaching.
I'm going to mention a few words and when I do I want you to say the first word that comes to your mind.
God. Love
Humanity. Salvation.
Worship. Intimacy.
Love. God.
Forgiveness. Grace.
Struggle. Opportunity.
Desire. Purpose.
Tacos. Do you want cheese?
Are there aliens?
Why do you think most people struggle with the concept of God? Because they think themselves to be that. Something outside of that it's too much to handle. People think their gods to themselves. To see beyond themselves too much for them.
What do you believe is one of the biggest misconceptions about God? That he is all powerful. Even he is subject to his own word. God is limited to his word. The moment he opens up his mouth he limits his power.
GOD IS LIMITED TO HIS
WORD
What do you think is missing from today's church that was present in the New Testament church?
Real people. Old and New Testament show you the vulnerability the inconsistency and the humanity of the people that God used. Today we have people acting as if they are untouchable. As if they had everything together. When we find out when someone did something out of character it takes us aback. Because we continue to view them in a perfected state. Not that we have apprehended that which we have apprehended.
If you could have anyone virtue from Jesus what would it be?
His commitment to his father. And then his ability to teach. (Even though I said only one.)
How would you describe the voice of God?
It's not audible but it's specific.
Which disciple are you most like?
John.
Did Judas does have a choice and betraying Jesus?
Yes.
Are there any preachers that you appreciate or identify with?
Bishop TD Jakes, A. R. Bernard, Bishop Noel Jones.
Some people say that your deep and some would say that you're too deep. What would you say to both these observations?
It's because they're not a sinking ship.
If you could constrain people to read the Bible for any one reason what would it be?
The love of God.
Which of the four seasons are you the most like?
Winter. Because I'm cold. It doesn't mean I lack compassion. I'm cold in the sense of dealing with life but not dealing with people.
If you were to die today what would be the one thing you wish you had done for God?
NEVER STOP.
THE WORST THING YOU CAN DO IS STOP
What is the end game for clarity?
So that people can truly see what God is all about. Worldwide. We are living in a time where people are more confused than ever.
I ask if there's a final word for any up and coming artist, evangelists or would be innovators?
The same thing Jesus did when he rose from the grave. Never stop. Not even death can stop you. Never stop. The worst thing you can do is stop it. And look back and say I wonder what would've happened if I had. It is best to continue and see what the outcome will be and say I remember when I was going to stop than to look back and say I wonder what if...
is a Brooklyn born writer, seminary student and performer. He is based in White Plains, New York, where he lives with his wife and two children and 14 year old chihuahua.