Gospel Spotlight : SAVED BY MERCY: The Dunamis Reignz story

As a younger man, Greg Grant was on a devious path laced with trouble-making, drugs and guns. He fell into a dangerous lifestyle and was roaming the streets in a gang.

"I can't really go in depth into what I would do," he told THE WEEKEND STAR, "but I was very rebellious."

It was the tears of his mother that made Grant pause and contemplate the ultimate effect of his lifestyle.

"You know how girls love daddy and boys love mommy?" he asked in rhetoric. It was similar with his family, and Grant's heart broke at the sight of his mother crying because of things she would hear that her son was doing.

"I would remember seeing my mom crying ... . Even though she didn't know the full extent of what I was doing, she had an idea. I wouldn't communicate with her. I wouldn't communicate with anybody at all," except his band of marauders.

"We all covered for each other, so there was never any proof. But, you know mother's intuition, where you can know that something change? She knew something changed," he added.

Grant, at the time, was a young adult living in Golden Spring, St Andrew.

DISHONESTY

Now 33, he recalls that about 13 years ago, his gang of friends accused him of dishonesty regarding a particular transaction. It led to his life being threatened.

"It was just the device of the enemy because nothing went the way they perceived it," Grant told THE WEEKEND STAR.

He believes that God allowed that situation to happen so that he would be boxed into a corner and be forced to think about his future.

His decision mimicked the adage 'kill or be killed', so he went to his primary aggravator's house.

"I was waiting on him at his gate," he told THE WEEKEND STAR, with a shake of his head and a slight smile.

Grant said that when the other person realised what was about to happen, "him just turn and run".

"I'm not trying to kill him; they are the ones trying to kill me so why run?"

The ordeal sent Grant into a contemplative mood. He recalls sitting alone for a long time after leaving his friend's gate. He sat with a gun on his lap and a ganja spliff in his hand.

It was in that moment that he listened to the voice of God and concluded that his life was worth much more.

"I've always been a spiritual person," he said. "I grew up in church, (so it was) not like I didn't know anything about God. I used to listen to a lot of Sizzla Kalonji ... , but I couldn't bring myself to say Selassie," because of his church upbringing.

"I told myself I'm going to go to church, but I couldn't bring myself to church."

Despite convincing himself of the need to take the step from sin to grace, Grant spent a year covered in a cloud of confusion. He wanted to go to church, but because of the shady dealings of his past, he was wary of venturing outside the community. And then a miracle happened.

"God built a church in my community just for me," he said.

A late pastor, Steadley Hessing, despite the discouragement of many, bought land and built a church in Grant's community, to which he proudly admits that he was one of its first members. Slowly, Grant chipped away at his shell, so effectively, that he eventually accepted invitations to choir practice.

The man, who, today, has the moniker Dunamis Reignz, admits that at first, he didn't even like reggae gospel.

"I didn't think that kind of music could have any kind of impact of anyone," he told THE WEEKEND STAR.

But that was until he watched his friends, in a cipher of sorts, taking turns with the mic, each singing or deejaying a few lines.

"Honestly, I didn't even want to listen, even though is my friend!" But Grant grappled with the question, 'Do you see the work of God in him?' The only answer was yes. He decided to listen and was amazed to hear the word of God in this small circle. Eventually, he took the mic and ended up shocking his friends and overwhelming himself.

Now, he is working on an EP named for his popular song, Broken, but refused to approximate a release date.

"I'm gonna be singing, deejaying, rapping I don't know what I'm not gonna be doing on that CD," he laughed.

He hopes to use music to share his testimony reflecting on things that have happened to him and how he has managed to overcome them.

"Go to the upper room and power shall come upon you. That is the dynamic power, the life-transforming power," he said, quoting from the Bible.