Less of Me & More of Christ

Today, let us listen to an impacting and an encouraging conversation between Pastor Priji and Vihan Damaris. Vihan is an YouTuber, a christian singer & songwriter, musician and an artist from Bangalore. We will look through her life’s journey of finding her purpose & calling in God!

Pastor Priji: Could you just give us a little background about your family and what went into making the person that you are today?

Vihan Damaris: God has been leading me to be less of myself and more of Christ in me and that has taken all this to be. My family has been very supportive in that because God is doing the same in their lives as well. I saw God through my parents and that really motivated me to explore who is God for me.

My mum helped me to grow in a creative and unique way and so I learned to look at things more than what they seem to be. As I got to know God more, it was not a very steadfast process and there were lots of ups and downs. Once I was completely convinced in my heart that God is real, then, I was able to ask Him to help to be the person that He has made me so that I can be a witness for Him.

Pastor Priji: How was the process for you from the time you first came to the deep conviction about God being real to reach a point where you are willing to give up everything to serve Him and to devout what He wants you to be?

Vihan Damaris: It was a most difficult process of all and it is still taking place, but I am happy that I can see God as a majority in my life and less of myself. The process was hard because you are not initially thinking that I am going to God only for blessing and I am using Him for my own needs but I noticed that most of my prayers session when I came to God was all about what can He do for me and I found that different when I read the bible and the people in the bible are not talking that way and the prayer that Jesus taught to His disciples was so completely different from how I was praying. I read of praise, thanksgiving, worship, and what is His will. Reading the bible definitely helped me a lot. Knowing that God loves me and He is someone I can trust helps me to surrender.

Pastor Priji: Who are the people that influenced you as you grew up?

Vihan Damaris: Parents were my main tool. They did by example and then they made sure to do it. Slowly, I began to see the fruit of it, and then, it became a desire and then it became a longing and then it became a delight as I grew up. Along with them, I did have some good Sunday school teachers. They encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone. The people in churches that I went to encouraged me to do the things that God is calling me to do. I consider Samuel, David, and Jeremiah as role models for myself.

Pastor Priji: How did you discover your calling? Did it just come naturally over a period of time or did you have a moment of encounter with God where God spoke to you about what you need to do?

Vihan Damaris: It was many moments throughout my life. My parents would treat me like you are here in the earth for a purpose and you need to seek that from Him so I grew up with purpose always. Figuring that out was pretty tough because I love so many things (music, arts, drawing, reading books, and writing). I know I can’t be doing everything and there were prophecies that came my way from strangers that I am going to be used very mightily by God in music when nobody knew that I had the talent other than God.

Initially, I interpreted the prophecies differently from what God was saying, but during the 40 days of my fasting and receiving the real call to dedicate my voice to Him, I realised that my purpose is not necessarily to be a singer but it is to worship Him. It is not do great at music but it is to love Him and love His people. It became about relationship with God. That’s how my calling developed and I started thinking of myself less as a singer or song writer and more of servant of Jesus and that is still developing.

Pastor Priji: How did you get inspired to start the YouTube channel? Did you ever think that it will grow to such a huge platform where so many people are being impacted?

Vihan Damaris: God showed me glimpses of the impact that He wanted to do through me and that kind of helped me to have faith in what He was doing and allow Him to push me out of my comfort zone because what He showed was so incredible and magnificent that I thought that is really impossible. Up till recently, no one knew at all about me, I had a huge waiting period, and at this time He would show me glimpses but He also really humbled me to the core that He broke all my pride and ambition, and He made it all about Him.

I never really thought of being on YouTube, and it was my younger brother who is visually challenged got invited to be on a song by one of the singers in Bangalore. My brother featured on this singer’s album on YouTube. It was kind of like an envy and motivation I went on the same day to studio and I did a cover of “what child is this” and put that audio on YouTube. That is how it started. During a Christian camp, I got the courage to think of videos and a few months later I released the song that I wrote in my fasting time.

Pastor Priji: How you define leadership?

Vihan Damaris: I had to redefine leadership many times. Interestingly when I was in primary school, I was actually a leader and it was all about me at that time and God very quickly broke that and I became an opposite kind of person where you had to really pull me out of the back bench. Now that God is again calling me to be a leader, I had to see what is He defines as leadership. Jesus says those who want to be great among you they have to be servant/least of all. So, I had to understand what that means practically and I have seen that the more responsibility God puts on you it is not to puff you up but it is to help others to see who He is. You need to make sure that you are walking with the Lord.

The more the responsibility God gives, the more we have to go to Him to spend more private time and read the word even more. Jesus did it so well. He was with the crowds but He was alone on the mountains. He made sure that He would get that time with God. To me leadership is all those things like responsibility, burden and privilege. It is a good privilege to serve people. It is a responsibility that you have to keep yourself walking in the light. It is also a burden sometimes that I pick up which God did not give to me but I understood as long as I am with Him He makes leadership really fun and a lovely process.

Pastor Priji: Other than YouTube, what are the platforms our viewers can reach out to you?

Vihan Damaris: Other than YouTube, I am on Instagram and Facebook as Vihan Damaris.