Today we’d like to introduce you to Deborah Esther Brooks.
Hi Deborah Esther, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi, I’m Deborah Esther (Yes, that’s my real name). I was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri (…NOT Kansas. People assume I’m from Kansas, and while that side of the city exists, the Missouri side is very different. lol). I’m a worshiper, multimedia artist, business owner, and community organizer, but ultimately, just a woman that Jesus saved.
After leaving a committed and long-term relationship (under the direction of the Holy Spirit), in my last year of undergrad, I was desperately seeking the Lord for answers and direction on the next chapter of my life.So, on the weekend of my birthday, I came to visit a friend here in Houston.
On my birthday,–I’ll never forget–the man of God at her church, who is now my own spiritual father, Prophet Kenneth Okojie-Dixon, told me to be there the following Sunday, and he would pray for me. I had never met him before, nor did I tell him anything about my life. But, I followed instructions.
On this day–December 2, 2018–Everything in my life changed!
He called me out of the crowd and to the front of the church. He didn’t just pray for me. The Lord used Him to reveal my DESTINY!
God CHANGED MY NAME from what it was to Deborah Esther! He said I’d been called into ministry and as a warrior. He prophesied business and government, and so many other things! Even the secret questions of my heart were answered–down to specific details. If that wasn’t enough, I was instructed…to MOVE TO HOUSTON!
I went back home after that trip…and didn’t know what to do next. I knew I was to go to Houston, but I didn’t know when. I didn’t know how. I was the first in my family to face such a challenge. Move to a city with no family, no husband, no job…because “God said so”?! Huh?! With a new set of questions, but a sure word from the Lord, I finished school and started preparing (my job, family, friends, and my own heart) for departure. There was this interim period of about 8 months of just praying, fasting and believing God between the Word and my move. I applied to hundreds of jobs, and took several flights for interviews and apartment viewings. By faith, in September of 2019, my family and I drove from Kansas City, Missouri to Houston, Texas…for the last time. It wasn’t until the day before I left that I actually received any job offer. The Sunday of my move weekend, the same man of God called me to the front, again. This time, He prophesied to me and my family. Once I settled in, I joined Christ Ignite International Ministries Lighthouse and submitted to Prophet Kenneth and Prophetess Fran Okojie-Dixon.
I submitted to God’s process. Like Abraham in Genesis 12:1, the Lord called me into a land….that He’s still showing me.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
What challenges have I overcome? Perhaps a question with a shorter answer is what have I not? In just three years, God has caused me to triumph over near-death sickness, physical and emotional abuse, poverty, legal name change, grief, loss, and persecution–all while growing me in leadership, influence, and responsibility.
I didn’t know that when I moved into my promised land that my first assignment was to…fight. You know, God doesn’t change. He’s always intentional. He released the “promised land” to Abraham in Genesis 12, but they obtained it through Joshua (nearly five books and generations of battles later).
Victory #1: Loss & Grief
Summer of 2020, I lost my grandmother to diabetes complications. While I miss her dearly, the Holy Spirit prepared a few months earlier for her homegoing. One of my greatest desires was for my grandma to see me get married. We used to talk about it all the time.. But I know we’ll spend eternity together with Jesus–which is way better.
Victory #2: Sickness
I lived with my friend and her family (s/o to Jovi and Marquita Obus, my angels!) for the first three months. Shortly after moving into my own place, I caught COVID-19. My recovery was quick, but soon disrupted. The following August, I started having severe stomach pain that prevented me from eating or drinking anything. After several emergency room visits, I ended up in the hospital for about eight days. My body rejected food and the medicine they gave me. It came to a point where my skin was darkening and all I could do was sleep. I dropped under 100 lbs. After extensive testing, bloodwork, and several specialists, Dr. Asif Ali, an amazing cardiologist, was finally able to identify the problem. He gave me a diagnosis and treatment plan. He said that while the condition was very treatable, it was not curable (but stay tuned, there’s more…) .
During recovery, my parents, Robert and Rosalyne Brooks, had driven from my home all the way to Houston to help me. My sister, Rakayla, was driving down from Prairie View A&M every weekend to care for me! This included cooking, cleaning, managing my meds, and driving me to appointments (and emergency rooms when symptoms were severe). I was too often fatigued or in too much pain to stand. My family really came to my rescue. It was very humbling to need my younger sister to take care of me. But, she did it, and I’m grateful! It was like I was a little baby again.
That was just the first year in Houston. In the last quarter of 2020, I moved back home and healed.
On Christmas day, My boyfriend at the time, had proposed to me! It was the most beautiful experience I’ve ever had. Both of our families were there. We did a gift exchange between the families. Apparently, everybody knew it was a surprise, because when I opened my eyes they all had their phones out (lol).We spent New Year’s together. Truly, one of the best moments in my life.
Victory #3: Intimate Partner Violence…and Leadership
Being engaged was exciting…for a while. Once the wedding planning began, strife entered and the relationship flipped on its head. The same arms that once provided safety for my vulnerability, were used to press my face into the floor.
The week I put the deposit down on my wedding dress, I drove to my fiance’s hometown for a visit– I drove back single and…broken.
But, I didn’t have time to cry…
Upon my arrival, I was positioned into two leadership roles. One, at my new job and one at my church. Leading the campaign at church–and well–was integral to our building project. No one but my family, pastors, and best friend knew what I had just survived.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What sets me apart? Jesus. He’s my relevance. He’s my resilience. He’s my hope. He’s my source .He’s the deciding factor.
One of the major ways Holy Spirit expresses Himself is through art.
My art history is, arguably, split into two parts. First, everything I was and created before my name changed. Second, everything I am becoming and creating since. Through the narrative work I’ve been doing with my therapist, I have realized that my past and future will always be in strife. The past is familiar, yet limiting and antithetical to purpose. The future is unknown, yet always revealing purpose. The challenge is properly placing each one and still creating amidst the tension.
In the past, I was married to one medium at a time—whether poetry, painting, or singing. I rarely allowed my food to touch,so to speak. Now I’m learning that I am not just one kind of artist. One message may require multiple media to actualize.
My identity isn’t in past traumas nor in past triumphs. Rather, my identity is in Jesus (God’s Word).
My first artistic endeavor as “myself”, Deborah Esther, is entitled, “Called By Name: A Memoir” is an interdisciplinary project. Rather than employing several media to serve independent purposes, such as in the case of multimedia works, this is interdependent on literature, poetry, painting, and music to give one narrative.
This work chronicles my journey since God changed my name in 2018. This journey has been holistically challenging and transformative. Quite frankly, the only stories even remotely similar to my own are found in the Bible. Yet, this is the exact revelation that my journey with God through this project has opened up to me. We all are living epistles. Every one of our lives has already been written in heavenly places, and our primary role is simply discovery.
A project such as this challenges social-emotional, artistic, and theological norms and boundaries. It puts pressure on “possibility” in artistic scope, challenges the respectability politics of creativity in the church, and empowers people to reconceptualize their lives as stories (written on and for purpose).
My target audience is women…who overcome. Whether their battle is racism, intimate partner violence,loss, grief, divorce, single parenthood, caring for sick loved ones, sex work,chronic or terminal illness, pioneering business and academics during a pandemic, my work serves women who come alive in adversity. These women are resilient.They have fire in their eyes and feet made of steel. I want to empower them to embrace what has happened to them as chapters in their stories, but not determinants of the future. I want them to embrace the journey to uncovering the purpose in their pain and the places of power they are called to occupy.
God has caused me to triumph over every battle. Unveiling my story invites other women to have self-compassion and deeply heal. Hopefully, this narrative and therapeutic approach will provide women a template and the license to obtain their promised land.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
No matter what I go through, the word of God says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). He promised me that my “present suffering is not even worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in” me (Romans 8:18). I know that “to whom much is given, much is required” (Luke 13:48). And I know that everything that we sow, especially if it’s sown in tears that we “will reap in joy” (Psalm 126:5).
I just believe…God is doing something in me. If there’s nothing else that I have learned in this life, if there’s nothing else that I’m going to gain in this life, I know that the Eternal One is with me.
…here’s the evidence:
Remember when I told you to stay tuned, earlier? A year after my cardiologist reviewed some results, he told me I didn’t need to go back to his office and that he didn’t see any issues!!
My blood pressure, energy, and appetite have significantly improved. I’ve gained nearly all my weight back, and haven’t had anymore bouts of pain–with no meds and no treatment.
My joy and sanity are intact. My career is growing.
When I didn’t have a home, I had a place to live. When I didn’t have a job, my bills were paid. When I was sick, he healed me. When I I thought grief and trauma were going to take my sanity, my mind was preserved.
The only moral to this story, to my story, is Jesus Christ is real. Jesus Christ is the LORD. He loves EVERYONE this way. I am not more special than you. Jesus died and rose to have this same intimacy with…YOU. All you have to do is receive it.
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