Hey everybody! My name is Harmony Jade Houston and I’m 21 years old. I was born and raised in North Carolina and no, I don’t have that much of a country accent. Actually, a lot of people think I’m from up north…which I really don’t get.
Anyways, I was born in a Christian home and loving environment. I attended church more days of the week than I did school it seemed like, yet I never had a true relationship with King Jesus til many years later. My mouth and mask “proclaimed” that I was a follower of Christ but in my heart, I was an atheist. I did not believe in any of the stuff that was preached. After my parents divorced when I was about 5 years old, my heart literally turned cold towards the Lord. Yet, He still continued to bless me and cover me.
So let’s flash forward to age 14 when I went to Japan as a People to People student ambassador. It was the night before my money was due and I had only raised 5,000 of the 7,000 I needed for the trip. Now, I come from a long line of prayer warriors on my mom’s side, so my great-grandmother was sitting there watching me cry that I wasn’t going to be able to raise the money and I wouldn’t get to go to Japan. She looked at me and said “I’m not going to see you graduate, but you’re going to change the world” and then she handed me half the money I needed and one of my aunt’s gave me the other have a few minutes later. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes when she said that, but I was for certain that I was going to change the world through politics. And so now I’m in Japan a couple weeks later and on Mt. Fuji. We were literally above the clouds and I had gone off to a little space by myself, taking in the beauty. Then the most still and strong whisper was in my heart, yet I heard it audibly with my ears, “you will go to the nations”. It made my heart race and hairs stand up on my head and man, y’all it was one of the most intense things in my life. I remember getting mad at my friend Graham because he was the only one close to me (and by close I mean about 100 or so feet away). But that never escaped my heart or mind. It would come at the most random times when I would be doing only God knows what. But about 2 years later, grandmama passed and she didn’t get to see me graduate. But she knew and believed in a King that would arrest her great-granddaughter’s heart in only a way that He could.
The following 2 years after her passing were the darkest years I was in. I got caught up with the wrong crowd and everything, but from the outside looking in, I just looked like the normal teenager that made great grades, won awards, had tons of friends and that really hot guy on her arm. My life was normal but I was empty. It wasn’t too long before the high wasn’t high enough. The guys weren’t good enough. The parties weren’t wild enough. Nothing was enough. Then things started getting dangerous. People started dying and going to jail. And I wanted a way out. Bad.
January 26, 2014 at 3:07 am, I cried out to Him with everything in me. I’m pretty sure I was still high or drunk or both at that time because I remember coming in from hanging out with friends, but I literally shouted out to Him with everything within me. I said “God, if you are real, come down right now and I’ll give everything to you”. And for the next 3 to 4 hours, I was sobbing, wailing, giving Him things I was holding onto. Right in the middle of my mom’s living room, I was filled with the fire, my prayer language, and destiny, all in a night. I got up to never crave any drug, drink, or guy again. Did I struggle, yeah. Fail? A few times to be honest, but He’s kept me and nothing is going to pluck me from His hand.
So here I am today, redeemed and alive because of King Jesus. Everyone around me already said I was dead and there was no hope, but just like He did with Lazarus, He stepped into my stinking grave and commanded me to rise. King Jesus stopped my funeral, and by the leading of His Holy Spirit, I am going to partner with the Kingdom and see funerals interrupted over the next year and for the rest of my life.
So hopefully that gives you a bit about who I am. Thank you for taking time to read my story and I hope you are encouraged more than anything to believe in the King that steps into the middle of dead situations and brings them to life again. Be blessed!
