In this episode, titled ‘What’s Next’, we will explore some of the year 2020 and one particular facet of it. Yes there is much to talk about, of last years events, and most of it controversial but, this statement I am about to submit to you is not really about politics nor any political agenda. What I am about to share with you is basically my own personal observation and experiences, into the realm of ‘God’s Prophetic Voice’. Many of you may not quite understand most of this but, if you endure this podcast to the end, you just may come away with some valuable information for your future. We can all use some of that, RIGHT! Let’s get started.
The year is early 1992. I had just hit rock bottom in 91′. My 20 year drug addiction and social parting days had taken it’s toll on my body and marriage. However, what happened next was nothing less than a miracle. Ya see, when you call out to Jesus and ask Him for his help, and it is heart felt, He will oblige you because of His love for you. I had been forged in God’s furnace, all those years of parting, and was now ready to be separated and readied to be introduced into the ‘Prophetic Realm’ of God’s Grace.
On my 43 birthday in March of 92′, after I had been consulting with the Lord about which church I should attend in the area, I walked into a local Southern Baptist Church in the town we lived in. Little did I know at that time, that my training was about to begin. At about five months new in Christ, the pastor started asking for a Sunday day school teacher for a youth class. To my surprise however, no one came forward for the position. I had trouble understanding why no one was offering their assistance for the position, so I asked the Lord for an answer. To my surprise, He told me ”you take the position”; yeah right! But Lord, I said, I know very little of the bible and surely have no teaching skills? Sounded like Moses on Mt. Sinai! [Exodus 3:10-12] God says to Moses “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” So He (God) said, “I will certainly be with you….” If any are interested, read the rest or at least more of the book of Exodus.
Now before any of you bible thump-pers out there get in a uproar, and thinking I am trying to compare myself to Moses, you are way out in left-field somewhere.
So after I told God about me being totally lacking in teaching skills and bible knowledge, he revealed to me that I was to rely on His Holy Spirit and his anointing.
[Luke 12:12] Jesus stated: “For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say”. And again in [John 15:26] Jesus says: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” Basically, God was telling me to rely totally upon Him and I did.
I told the pastor that I was willing to take the teaching position. He told me however that I would have to become a member of the church and be water baptized. I already believed I was a member of God’s Church but I did want to be baptized with water. For what ever reason, they did not believe in being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Guess they didn’t read the same bible as I did. Anyways, that came at another time and church.
I was 6 months old in Christ and teaching Sunday School. Come to find out, that was pretty much unheard of in a Southern Baptist Church. God does move in mysterious ways, for sure. Nothing is impossible with God. [Matthew 19:26] Jesus said: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” [Luke 1:37] This is Gabriel the angel speaking to Mary. “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
So I taught for two and a half years and our two girls and the wife were also water baptized. We stayed there for three and a half years and then it was time to move on to what the Lord had for us next. Well, I might need to say what my next Prophetic Training season was going to be.
During my first three and a half years, of church meetings, I had been drawn into the Prophetic Ministry. I studied all the Old Testament Prophets and also the ones in the New Testament. Also I read some books that a few so called today Prophets had written.
We started going to camp meetings and so called revival meetings to a rare tent meetings and just about everything in-between.
On one occasion, a friend of mine invited us to his church, which was two county’s away from us. The first few times I went alone and scoped it out. They had a worship team and the music was a nice treat from the Baptist church. It was along the style of a charismatic church which by the way was about a 180 degree turn from our previous church.
They were having guest speakers come in. Some Prophets, some Apostles and so forth. Actually they invited the total five fold ministry to come and minister. Ephesians
[4:11-12]: And He Himself [Jesus] gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Being a musician myself, after a few years I ended up becoming worship leader. Boy that was a buzz. I’m thinking we attended that church about 10 years or so. Believe me, the training there was off the roof! I must have liked it because we lived 50 miles, one way, from there. As time went on, I noticed a few things here and there. And realized that our season was coming to a close.
I had paid close attention to every five fold minister that stopped by. Most seemed legit but a few not so. You really need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit to keep from being deceived.
As I reflect back over these years, I can see that the Lord had specifically shone me and taught me much; and I am grateful. As I experienced more and more however, I started seeing a patterned developing that in all honestly, started to turn my stomach. Now understand, this is in the Prophetic Ministry I’m talking about. I mean Jesus even stated [Matthew 24:24] “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Sure Jesus is referring to end-time prophecy, however, deception can happen at any moment in time.
True prophets of old, and even of today, urge(d) the people of God to turn back from their wickedness and turn back to their righteous God. I feel that too many of these professed prophets today, may have had self induce fabricated dreams or have misinterpreted what the Lord has actually given them, if they have received anything at all from Him; because of their carnality. Lets face it folks, we, me, and mankind in general are still fallible. It is not hard to step back into the carnal minded man.
Paul writes to the Corinthians: [1 Corinthians 2:14] ‘But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’ And again [1 Corinthians 3:1-3] ‘And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
God has created order in His churches. Now when we come together, in a church meeting, God’s word states: [1 Corinthians 14:29-32] ‘Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.’
Look, I ‘m not trying to bash any of our prophets of today, as long as they have been called to the Office of the Prophet. I commend you. If you haven’t been called to that anointed position, why are you portraying one? One day, we all will answer to God.
I totally believe in the office of the prophet. This office is part of the ‘Five Fold Ministry’. However, I also believe in false prophets! Why? Because God’s word says so! Plus, I’ve meet a few over the years. You need to have the discerning of spirits gift. In [1Corinthians 12:4-11] talking about spiritual gifts, God’s word states, I’m just going to read verse (10); you should read all of them, ‘to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kind of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.’ These are all spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit to any whom ask. Believe me you need them. Also, you need to test the spirits!
[1 John 4:1] ‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because false prophets have gone out into the world.’
God’s people (that’s all of us) are prophetic by design because we are all made in His likeness and image! This is Peter speaking: [Acts 2:16-18] “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.’
Looks like to me that the days are coming when many if not all of us will be prophesying. Hey, we won’t have to be chasing after the prophetic voices, because we will become the ‘Prophetic Voice’ of the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Listen folks! I’ve listened, I’ve read books, I’ve been on line and especially YouTube, I’ve been prophesied over, been given words from others and I’ve given words to others and everything else. It’s either true or it’s false! There is no in between! I’ve followed prophets on line and bought a few of their books.
I started noticing however, that the same prophets I liked to follow weren’t giving out the word they said they were receiving from the Lord. I had been lured asleep! When they said that they had received a word or dream from the Lord, they usually would tell it verbally. Now they were saying that it would be out in their new book. SAY WHAT!? I have to pay for the Prophetic Voice from the Lord! I Think not!
So one day I woke up. I realized that I was more or less, like a prophetic groupie or junkie. I would go to this meeting to hear this prophet or apostle, evangelist, and so forth. Even go on YouTube for a prophetic fix. You getting the picture, Right! I feel like I must have lost my mind, or at least my God given spiritual calling!
Let me ask you this! Does any of this sound familiar to you? Have you been chasing after the Prophetic Voice? Have you been seeking a word from God through someone else other than God himself? Jesus tells us that we can go directly to the Father. Do you believe Him? Jesus tells us in [John 16:23] “And in that day you will ask Me (Jesus) nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” So you see we can, and should, go directly to our Father in Heaven. We don’t have to go around chasing after prophets and other godly ministers searching for a word or message from the Lord.
Here, let me give you an example. One night, at the church we attended at the time, the anointed minister we had that night was walking around the room talking and praying for anyone who wanted or needed prayer. Let me interject here! Wanting prayer and needing prayer are actually two different things. So the worship team had finished and our guest speaker had given his message. Now it was a time to directly minister to God’s children.
I was walking around the room seeing if anyone were to go out under the anointing, I could help them to the floor. This does happen to some people and if it does, it is nice to have someone break their fall. I know this statement is very controversial in many churches. In all honestly, it should not be so. So if you are having any doubt, you need to listen to my 2nd podcast titled ‘Temple Worship Restored’. There is a section on this very subject in it!
OK, so I’m walking around watching and listening. I been noticing this woman walking around asking, what I thought was for prayer, but wasn’t. I watched her go to this person and then that one. She went to a couple of the worship team members and come away looking unsatisfied. Then she went to our pastor and I could just hear him say, in a quiet and gentle voice, that he didn’t have anything for her. She looked very disgusted. After the pastor, she came over to our guest speaker. Being as I was close by, I could hear the short conversation.
The woman was actually seeking a word from the Lord or a prophecy. Say, she was looking for a prophetic fix! He told her that he didn’t have anything for her. By then, she was not a happy camper and her face showed it. Then she spotted me. I can only presume that she must have figured that I was her last resort, because of being worship leader maybe a little more responsive. Little did she know that I had already had the time to seek the Holy Spirit about what was about to happen. Being as He, that’s the Holy Spirit, did not give me anything to give to her, that is what my response was when she asked me. Boy was she peeved off! She spitted out a few loud un-niceties about the church, and then stomped out. It was obvious to, that she was still feeding off the milk of salvation. We never saw her again.
So as I stated earlier, each of us has the ability to go directly to our Lord for anything and everything we need. Jesus stated: [Luke 11:9-10] “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
Listen! If you need something, Ask your heavenly FATHER; and if you are Seeking something, Seek it through the Love of your Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST; and if the door seems like it is closed or locked, Knock on the Heart of the HOLY SPIRIT.
Folks, quit your feeding off the breast of salvation (milk) and grow some teeth! If you continue to run after this minister or that one, you may never become a mature child of God. Remember about the carnal man earlier [1 Corinthians 3:1-3]. By now, depending on your age and spiritual condition, you should be rolling in knowledge and the Anointing of the Holy Spirit. He is not only your teacher, He is your friend. Start using Him! He Loves You. Say, if you have not had the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, you need too.
OK, now that’s a whole other podcast, the Lord willing maybe I’ll cover it sometime. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this. Remember: Ask, Seek and Knock! Here are a couple of scriptures to get you started. [Matthew 3:11-16], [Luke 3:21-22], [Acts 2:1-8].
If you have trouble with reading your Bible, I highly recommend the New King James Bible. I have many different Bible versions, to me, this one is the best for my brain. It is best if you experiment which is best for you.
Now to the meat of this podcast:
A survey from 9/20/2019 claims that: 90 million Christians in America are eligible to vote, but as many as 40 million fail to vote in Presidential election cycles. And 15 million are not even registered to vote, according to the My Faith Votes website.
So what kind of deal is that? I mean, I understand that this survey is from 2019 and the 2020 stats may be different but, simply stating the obvious; This is totally dysfunctional and unacceptable. Now there were 56 men who signed theDeclaration ofIndependence. Of those 56 individuals, almost half (24 that is) held seminary or Bible school degrees. Amazing! So, all this is really telling me is that there are way to many professed Christians riding the fence. The question is WHY! Not going to get into the logistics of this right now.
Back to last year 2020. If you had gone to YouTube, and I’m sure many of you do and did, the buzz category was the ‘Prophets’ predicting the outcome of the Presidential Elections. I went a few times myself. Fortunately, it did not take me to long to figure
out what was going on. Already been there done that. I’m not going to take the time,
here, to dissect all that was predicted or prophesied. I will say though, I could see some copycatting. I could see some very elaborate dreams and or visions, some of them very lengthy. Now elaborate dreams and visions make for a very nice book reading. I saw a lot of enthusiasm, joy and hope within the Christian community. Now unfortunately, way to many Christians seemed to be hoping in man, talking about the five fold ministry.
The five fold ministry has a specific purpose and that is: [Ephesians 4:11-16] ‘And He (Jesus) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a Perfect Man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
‘That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ–from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.’
Folks, we all have a part in the body of Christ. Jesus has given each and every one of us a part to do. Each of us helps the body to grow into maturity. However, the five fold ministry are the ones that should prepare us. Let me ask you this. Have you ever had a prophet, or other minister, come up to you in a meeting, and give you a prophecy or word from the Lord? And then say, that he or she could have a couple of meetings with you to help you get started with what God had for you to do, or at least have some reading material available? I been fortunate and have had that happen several times. However, I’ve been in meetings where only the message was given and the one ministering would just turn and walk away.
OK, so What’s Next? The YouTube videos, towards the middle of November 2020, started to say “did the prophets get it wrong?” And most of the prophets temporarily went silent! Look folks, if you were relying on the word from the prophets last year, I can imagine you have some serious mixed up emotions right now. The question arises, Why! Ya need to quit relying on man and rely on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look! In the old testament days, God used priests and prophets and angels to communicate His will to His children. Things were different back then. There wasn’t this huge communication network like we have today. Once Jesus came upon the scene however, this opened the door for direct communication with the Lord our Creator, thru prayer and intersession. Hey, we have a one on one relationship with Him! Remember, the position of the five fold ministry is: ‘for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.’
I think that the five fold ministry of the church today, and even the church in general may need an overhaul. First of all repentance, restructuring and possibly retraining may be needed. Don’t forget this means me also, I’ve not reached that perfect stasis yet. “I repent Lord Jesus. Continue to teach me and direct me Holy Spirit. Bless the Lord oh my soul.” Let us get back to the things of the Lord and then, equipping the saints like we are supposed to be doing. We are all in this together. The hour is getting shorter.
God is the one who raises up kings, presidents and leaders for His purposes. Either to bless or chastise a nation. I suppose that as the days go by, we will find out what the final outcome is or will be. I do understand this! It is not good for the children of God to go about chasing after every wind blown prophecy or word out there. If you desire knowledge about something, then go to the all knowing One who loves you and cares for you, and will steer you in the right direction. Jesus Christ our Lord.
Folks, your faith and trust should be in God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the
Holy Spirit. In God period! And I do mean PERIOD!
All scripture references are from the New King James Bible translation, and can be found at bottom of this written script.
Thank you for the time you have taken to listen to this podcast titled ‘What’s Next’.
What’s Next in you life, will depend on your responses to your Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
I’m your host Donald Carpenter, and till next time, be blessed in Jesus name, Amen.
Scripture
[Exodus 3:10-12] [Luke 12:12] [John 15:26] [Matthew 19:26] [Luke 1:37]
[Ephesians 4:11-12] [Matthew 24:24] [1 Corinthians 2:14] [1 Corinthians 3:1-3]
[1 Corinthians 14:29-32] [1Corinthians 12:4-11] [1 John 4:1] [Acts 2:16-18]
[John 16:23] [Luke 11:9-10] [1 Corinthians 3:1-3] [Matthew 3:11-16],
[Luke 3:21-22], [Acts 2:1-8] [Ephesians 4:11-16]
©2021 Rev. Donald F. Carpenter
