The overarching story of Big Daddy Weave's latest album, Love Come to Life, is about how being His children changes everything about us as believers. If we are God's sons and daughters and we have the thoughts we used to have—particularly thoughts that we are worthless and flawed—we can submit them to God and lay those thoughts at the feet of Jesus.

 

The story of their song, "Redeemed," is that we can tell the enemy, "That's not who I am, not even close." As Christians, our identity can be found in the righteousness of Jesus. As you reach that point, you don't have to be led around by the guilt and shame of feeling far away from God or not worthy to approach His throne of grace. The person of Jesus has purchased His chosen ones by His blood. That truth shakes us on the inside. 

 

Everything we do and everything we have needs to come from the place of who we are in Jesus. We need to wake up to the reality that we aren't who we used to be anymore. The Christian transformation is about who we are now, blameless in the eyes of God. That's what the Bible tells us. 

 

Christians have safety and security in the name of Jesus. Big Daddy Weave hit the music scene proclaiming, "In Christ I can do all things." That's been the mission and ministry of this anointed band, to proclaim God's goodness and finding our identity in Jesus. I had the opportunity to interview Mike Weaver about "The Only Name."

 

 

It's been so neat, because the first single from our album, "Love Come to Life," was technically from another record in a way, as it was on our Ultimate Hits album and then is the title track. Then, we were ready to release "Jesus Move" as our next single, and the Lord prompted me to share the story behind our song "Redeemed." As we were sharing about that song, it became clear that was our next single. That lasted for the past year since we last spoke. 

 

It's unbelievable what God has done with that song. Literally, we've been wondering how to follow that up. Surely we were sure it was time for "Jesus Move." Then, it became clear as we've been singing this song every night, and we felt people needed to hear it. 

 

I didn't even write this one, it is by Benji Cowart. It is cool, because this song is how I met Benji. He co-wrote "Redeemed" with me later. This song is a stepping stone to where God wants to take us next. The version that Benji originally wrote was a little more confusing than our version. It's still a bit confusing, but I think it finally fits in to what a normal song sounds like. It's kind of a song with three choruses in a way. Every part of the song is repetitive and we live there in a worship set in each part of the song. 

 

When I heard the part of the song, "When I wake up in the land of glory," I said uh-oh, we've got to check this out. The label constantly sends us songs. I started feeling guilty because we said no to everything. Then all of a sudden I heard this tune, and thought I've never heard it said like this before. The part in the middle, I don't even sing live, Joe sings, "Jesus." I step back from the microphone and sing it in the room with everyone else. Just that name, Jesus. 

 

 

In this year of seeing a lot of ministry occur around "Redeemed," I've seen also how we tend to glorify our problems. We tend to make our problems our testimony. Have you ever noticed how sometimes the worse off a person is, the more they make that their testimony? We really make a big deal out of our problems. What we really should be making a big deal out of isn't a what, it's Who, Jesus. 

 

That's the thing for me; in sharing my problem and having it resonate with people and people saying, "praise God," I want them to know that true freedom is found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is not only freedom from our problems, but freedom for a whole kind of new life that we have because of the name of Jesus and the person of Jesus. 

 

I've made myself sick over having too much religion in my life. It's protected me in a lot of ways. In other ways, to have this knowledge but not have life from this knowledge is just from knowing about Jesus, but not necessarily knowing Jesus Himself. That's where true life comes from, relationship with Jesus. It's taken a long time, but Jesus is breaking through all of those things. 

 

We sang about it years and years ago, "There's a place where religion finally dies," but we didn't full know what God was doing with us then. Now our theology is the person of Jesus. Jesus tells us that He does nothing of His own. He does what the Father asks. That's what He purchased for us, the ability to walk in the Spirit.

Philippians 2:9-11 (The Voice): "So God raised Him up to the highest place and gave Him the name above all. So when His name is called, every knee will bow, in heaven, on earth, and below. And every tongue will confess "Jesus, the Anointed One, is Lord," to the glory of God our Father!"

 

 

Philippians 2 says that God exalted Jesus to the highest place and has given Him a name that is higher than any other name. That's what we're living for as believers in Jesus. We're looking forward to the day that's beyond time when we stand blameless before God because of what Jesus has done for us. 

 

He's given us authority in His name. He's given us healing and redemption in His name. Our identity is wrapped up in the name of Jesus. As children of God, we are living for the glory of someone else, the Son of the living God. Jesus is the only name that matters. 

 

The older I get the songs I heard growing up mean more and more to me. That Bill Gaither song, "There's something about that Name": "Kings and Kingdoms will all pass away, but there's something about that name, Jesus." Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. We've seen that in the past year. Sickness has to bow at the name of Jesus. Bondage of any kind is broken at the name of Jesus. Not only at His name, but also His name on the lips of someone who is walking in the identity that His name provides us. 

 

It's one thing to be words. Words don't mean anything unless it's backed up by life. That's the same thing with faith. Faith without works is dead. We're not saying you have to work to show that you have faith, but faith produces a work. We're just on the cusp of this. We feel like babes in the woods, but I feel like when we get a hold of this, the atmosphere shakes. When you really believe that, it begins to change the way that you act. It changes everything. It changes what's important to you. It's all wrapped up in the name and person of Jesus. 

 

 

The Lord does "exceedingly, abundantly, beyond anything that we can imagine." I think it's awesome that this is the next song released by Big Daddy Weave as a follow-up to the hit song "Redeemed." More importantly, it's a great next statement in the journey of Big Daddy Weave of telling the story of Love Come to Life. That's been an ongoing story for the past few years. 

 

When people hear the full album or go to a worship concert with this great band, they'll also hear the call to worship, "Jesus Move," which sets the tone for the rest of the songs. The Holy Spirit is a Person, alive in the hearts of believers. Once you've been saved—"redeemed"—and set free from bondage, we know what we've been saved from. This song is one of the answers to what we are saved for, to worship the name of Jesus with all of our hearts, all of our minds, and all of our strength.

 

We know from Proverbs 18:10 (NKJV): "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." Isn't that a wonderful truth? The Person of Jesus is all that we have, and all that we need. Isn't crying out for the safety and protection of Jesus everything that we need? There's safety and security in the knowledge of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus. There's only one name under Heaven by which we can be saved, Jesus. This song is a celebration that "when I wake up in the land of glory, with the saints I will tell my story, there will be one name that I proclaim…Jesus just that name." Amen!

 

(You can listen to this song here.)