Debbie Milligan, who is the Executive Director of Healing Wings Ministries, is our next artist spotlight in the pages of Gospel Today.  Debbie’s music is her ministry to all of today’s Christians.   Her contemporary acoustic approach is her best attribute to her amazing songwriting.    Debbie is coming to music from a point of experience.   While growing up without a father or father figure in the home, Debbie was seduced into a life of hard-core drugs & alcohol abuse, domestic violence and multiple losses.   In 1980, something amazing happened to Debbie when she decided to turn her life over to God.  Debbie has allowed Gospel Today to come into her heart as she shares with us her love for the music she makes and Our God she loves.

 

 

Gospel Today: Thank you for allowing us to speak with you, Debbie.   Can you share with us your journey of what has brought you here to where you are at in your life now?

 

Debbie: I just celebrated 27 years off of drugs! I came from a broken background not unlike a lot of people in the world today. My drug-crazed years were merely an attempt to medicate the pain I had inside. I remember leaving home when I was 17 years old with the vow in my heart, “I will never do anything anyone tells me to do again!” You think I had a little rebellion going on? I was determined to be master of my own destiny & be in control of my life. I got involved in the radical biker lifestyle where I met my future husband. You know Isaac, I always went for the “safe” guys! (ha-ha-ha) This guy had just paroled out of San Quentin, was a heroine addict and a violent alcoholic. All my efforts to stay in control just caused me to spiral further out of control. God in His love for me had to allow my life to turn radically “south” before I could recognize my need for a Savior, and certainly before I could recognize something bigger than Debbie Milligan! I finally hit bottom and I had two choices: die or reach up to God. I chose life and I have been clean ever since!

     I wish I could share with you that once I became a Christian, Mary Poppins sprung onto the scene! When I gave Christ control of my life, it didn’t mean that all the baggage of my past; all the pain inside my heart just automatically disappeared. No, and keep in mind, I was still married to a man that would explode in violent rage. But, as I grew into the woman God created me to be, in the midst of those storms, there was tremendous value in learning to cling to Jesus when everything else around me was crashing down. I quickly learned that if I was ever going to experience peace and joy, it was not going to come from my circumstances, but from Christ alone.      

 

Gospel Today:  I read in your bio that your music ministry, Healing Wings Ministries, is a ministry dedicated to the message of emotional healing, focusing on issues surrounding the wounded heart. How has being involved with this helped your own deliverance of your music? 

Debbie: The deliverance that I have experienced has come through my relationship with Jesus Christ…allowing Him access to every room of my life-even the parts that have brought me the deepest shame- the parts that have been raw from failure and pain. His love has healed those areas of my life. Becoming a Christian is not just about getting a ticket to heaven, but allowing Christ to also be the “Healer” and “Liberator” of our life.  As Christ heals the wounded places within, then we have to learn how to live in the freedom of healing. Part of walking that out for me has been communicating through music. It keeps all that was dark exposed to the light. The more I share, the more free I become because, I see first hand how God can take the ashes of our past and turn them into holy jewels by using the very thing meant to destroy me to bring others into healing and freedom!

Gospel Today: You have under your belt four albums. Describe the feelings you had when recording each of your albums:

 

Debbie: I waited a long time to record my first album, “Teach Me to Dance in the Rain.” I wanted to have something I could be proud of. And actually, this is still my number one seller because of the title cut.  It was an exciting time of transitioning from 9 years of performing in mainstream venues to launching out into full time ministry.

     “Sweet Forgiveness” was recorded during a time of reconciliation as well as grieving. My first husband and I had been divorced four years, and he had gotten word to me that he wanted to see me. The doctors had just diagnosed him with terminal cancer and given him 6 months to live. I went to the hospital to see him and he broke down and cried asking for my forgiveness for the many years of pain he had caused me. He also wanted me to know that he finally had asked Christ into his heart and was ready to meet his Maker. I remember God’s voice going off in my head saying, “See, those years weren’t a waste after all! I have been years trying to answer your prayers for his salvation.” In that moment, God gave me purpose for the pain I had endured. When I left the hospital that day, he slipped into a coma and died that week. The last words he spoke were to me. He never regained consciousness. I was in the middle of recording this project during this time.

     During the recording of “Below the Surface,” I went through intense spiritual warfare because of the prayers we were praying over this album. We were using Is. 61:1-3 to pray a powerful anointing on each song. We prayed that people would be ministered to through each song, whether it is across the airwaves or through their own stereo system. It seemed as though all the relationships in my life were in crisis during this time, and the album itself went through one delay after another. Again, I sensed God speaking to me… “Debbie do you think this kind of anointing and ministry doesn’t also come with a price. Are you willing to pay the price for other people’s freedom?” The devil was fighting mad over the potential power this particular project could have in people’s lives and was trying shut it down.

     It was 7 years before I released my current album, “Come On.”  I simply never slowed down enough to get back in the studio. Running a full time ministry, traveling both nationally and internationally in the mission field, equipping teams for prayer and mission work and performing have kept me extremely busy. I am very excited about this project because it is the collaboration of both Kerry Conner, who is my songwriting partner and producer, and myself. We had talked about a duo project for quite awhile and decided to make this my next album.

 

Gospel Today: Debbie, your current project entitled, “Come On” has yielded its first cut, the song, “Teach Me to Dance in the Rain”.   Describe what is this song all about?

 

Debbie: Teach Me to Dance is the title cut off my first project. This is the song that I am most known for.  The concept is learning to have joy in the midst of the storms of life. God wants us to thrive in life not just survive. The bottom line is storms happen! Pain is no respecter of persons. We ask God, “Why?” I am learning the better question might be, “God what do you intend to be for me right now in this situation, that you couldn’t be for me any other time in my life? What do you want to reveal about yourself that I couldn’t see if I were not facing this storm?”

 

Gospel Today: As we come to a close, what are your last thoughts that you would like to share with everyone? 

 

Debbie: We all go through hard times. Christianity isn’t about not ever falling down but staying plugged into the One who picks up when we fall down. Our life is a journey and the bumps along the way become the sacred process that gets us to the finish line. There simply are no bad endings with Jesus! Wherever we find ourselves in this journey, we can take advantage of every turn in the road to experience more of Christ. Every breath we take, every minute of every day is an invitation to dance in His arms!