In this uplifting episode of Call to Freedom, Barbara Carmack and Kimberly discuss the importance of faith and the hope it brings to our lives. They share personal stories of miraculous outcomes and encourage listeners to embrace prayer first when facing life’s challenges. Dive deep into the Book of Revelation, unveiling the profound messages it holds and how it relates to the world around us. Through heartfelt discourse and spiritual insights, discover the true source of hope and joy in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.
SPEAKER 03 :
Ah, a big welcome to you from Call to Freedom. Welcome to the program. And Kimberly and I are going to have some exciting things to tell you today. Oh, may God’s peace cover you, my friend. His hope inspire you. His joy uplift you. And his love surround you. I’m praying that for you today. And I know Kimberly is in agreement with me. We’re praying that for you. And boy, when you realize in this world, there is no solid hope. There is no hope in Christ Jesus. And Kimberly, I was. Wait, there is no hope in the world. In the world. And the world system. Yes. But there is hope in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER 02 :
There’s no hope in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, yeah. Whoops. Wow. You know what? It’s okay. Thank you for being there. Yes. Yes. Because I was thinking about this hopeless story. I was telling you about that. Oh, right. that had a surgery that needed to be given to her or she would die. And she went from province to province. They couldn’t afford her a surgery or couldn’t do it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, they have to schedule out. They you can’t just go see a surgeon like you can here in America. That’s right. And they schedule it out. And it was no one was available. That’s right. And there were many surgeons who could not perform that surgery. That’s specific. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
And after I heard this story, I said, thank you, Lord, for the surgeons that we have in America. But anyway, they were going to help her out by helping her with assisted suicide. Yes. But he said that when the man said Glenn Beck was just what assisted suicide. And they they scheduled that. Now they could schedule that for next month for January. And he says, oh, that’s asinine. That’s unconscionable. That’s abhorrent. They were using all these adjectives. And he said three surgeons were listening to the program. Three American surgeons. American. American surgeons. And they said, oh, we will pay for the plane tickets. We’ll put the husband up in a hotel room. We will do this surgery for her. Wow. And so she came to America to get the surgery. So there are countries in this world, Kimberly, where they’re either not willing to do surgery or they can’t or…
SPEAKER 02 :
That story is so wonderful. It reminds me that we are one nation under God, under God. That is who we are. That is, that is our identity. And that’s where we find our hope is in him. So very often you might hear me talking on your program here that I, um, and I’m encouraging people to not put their trust in the medical system. But I don’t mean to never use it. Our Lord will lead us and guide us exactly where we need to be. It’s just that we’ve got so many amazing resources in this country that sometimes we we make those resources our source. Our source and our capital S source is not in all of those beautiful resources and we need to include our capital S source. The one we were created for. We need to include him in all of our conversations, in all of our prayers and let him guide and direct us instead of just grabbing for all of those great resources that look so good to us. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
There are people that have to go to the ER every few days or so. And Kimberly, I think it would be so great if we could pray first over the person that is having an issue and see what God can do. I know that hope is so important. And I was looking up in Colossians 1, verse 26. God willed to make known what is the riches of glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. The mystery, our friends, is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And we proclaim him, admonishing every man and woman. teaching every man and woman with all wisdom that we may present every man and woman complete in Christ. And that’s what we’re reaching for, that completeness, that wholeness in Jesus Christ. That’s right. Yesterday we were talking about Jesus the baby and how when Mary came to Elizabeth, John jumped in her womb, and I was reading from Luke 1, 46. And that’s what Mary exclaimed. And it’s really beautiful in the passion. The passion reads, “…the moment you came in the door and greeted me, my baby danced inside me with joy. Great favor rests upon you, Mary, for you have believed every word spoken to you from God.” And Mary sang this song, “…my soul is ecstatic, overflowing with praises to God.” My spirit bursts with joy over my life-giving God, for he set his tender gaze upon me, his lowly servant girl. And that’s who we are, Kimberly, in the light of when we see the power and the glory of God. We are servants of his. We are stewards of his absolute – he owns the earth, and we keep every little dominion that we have as stewards of his dominion. Praise the Lord. We do. And from here on, everyone will know that I have been favored and blessed, says Mary. The mighty one has worked a mighty miracle for me. Holy is his name. What a beautiful thing. So we thought today, since we talked about Jesus, the baby yesterday. We’re going to go to Revelation and talk about the ruler of all rulers. The revealed. The revealed, yes. Lord of all lords, king of all kings, yes. Oh, and John is writing this. And remember, John is on the Isle of Patmos, a small little island, rocky, desolate, and he has been put there by the Roman government. hopefully, of finding him dead one day, but God revealed his glory to John for us to remember him by and also to look forward to the future that we have in Jesus Christ. That’s right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And yeah, before you start reading from Revelation, I’m just going to point out that the book of Revelation, it’s about revealing. It’s about unveiling and revealing. And this is revealing Jesus. That’s what Revelation is. It’s revealing Jesus. It also mentions the Greek word apocalypsis a number of times in Revelation. Apocalypsis is where we get the word apocalypse and the whole idea of an apocalyptic season, apocalyptic age that is coming. And there are so many movies made of that and stories written that are really more on the scary side. images that come up in our minds because of Hollywood and some of the movies that have been produced. But apocalypse actually means, apo means to lift, and calupto is a veil and a covering. It’s something hidden that’s hidden behind a veil. So you’re lifting the veil. That’s all apocalypse means. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
To take the cover off of something that was hidden. Yes, that is. That’s our wonderful God.
SPEAKER 02 :
He wants to tell us what is going to happen before it happens or what is happening or happening or what has already happened in the past and open our eyes to it. Yes. Yes. Amen. He’s uncovering. So we’re excited about Revelation and how the Lord is uncovering Jesus in every passage of this book. Oh, amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
So we’re going to read from the Passion, Revelation 1, as much as we can today. I’m so excited about this. This is the unveiling of Jesus Christ, as we were just talking about. which God gave him to share with his loving servants, which must occur swiftly. Now, time with God is not like our time. So it’s swiftly coming to pass by God. And boy, it seems like long. How many times have I said, oh, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Lord Jesus, come. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. He signified it by sending his angel to his loving servant, John. I love this because John, as I told you just in the last few minutes, John is on. an island, a very desolate island. He has to scrape for his food every day. I don’t know what he ate. I don’t know how he survived. I don’t either. And he calls him his loving servant. He loved John so much. And sometimes we find ourselves in what we think is a difficult situation, impossible. Why, Lord, am I here? Why did you put me here? Well, maybe God has an absolutely wonderful plan for you. And you’ve got to go through that trial or tribulation. Jesus said, in this world, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I’ve overcome the world. So sometimes we have to just ask for the patience to go through that. Also, the mercy and the grace. To endure, because there’s a lot of times the verse is called about endurance. You’ve got to endure this because it builds up our character and strength in him.
SPEAKER 02 :
It does. And also gratitude and thanksgiving. Yes. I find myself often now praying that if I’m not thankful, make me more thankful.
SPEAKER 04 :
Mm hmm.
SPEAKER 02 :
If I’m not grateful, make me more grateful. I want to be able to be thanking you and praising you and constantly having gratitude pouring out of me in every situation because I trust you. I trust you, Lord.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yes, that’s so good. And verse two says, I, John, bore witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now, when Darren was here, we read through Revelation many years and enjoyed it so much because here in verse three, a joyous blessing. And Darren used to call it the book of joy. As you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you’re going to read through these pages and just exalt in God and and how his patient endurance of us has revealed this revelation to John. Verse 3 says, A joyous blessing rests upon the one who reads this message and upon those who hear and embrace the words of this prophecy. And here comes an interesting phrase. I don’t know if I ever saw it. I’m going to have to look it up here in verse 3 in the New American Standard. Now, here it says, for the time is near. There’s others that say that the appointed time is at hand. But here, Dr. Simmons has chosen, and it’s because he is a researcher of such, for the appointed time is in your hands only. A lot of implications here, Kimberly, that we have something to do with Jesus return.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, we do. We do. I believe that. I believe that. And I, I love those who are willing to research and put more words out there for us because there we’ve, we’ve said it before. There’s no way to translate the original Greek, the original Hebrew into only one word in one English word. one Greek word or one Hebrew word might, might be revealing to us. And it’s because it’s so layered. Every letter of the word has meaning and purpose in the word. We don’t have that in our English system. And so our depth of meaning to our words is not as deep as the Hebrew words.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And that’s why we need to stop the complaining or stop the negatives and and begin to realize that it’s in praise and worship of him, in thanksgiving. And it says in 1 Thessalonians 5, in everything give thanks. And boy, I used to really battle with that. Well, Lord, why did you put me in this situation? It’s not very thankful. And he says, are you thankful in every situation?
SPEAKER 02 :
Are you thankful? Yes. It’s not about the situation changing so that you can give thanks. It’s about learning to give thanks in the middle of the situation that you currently have.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, because what kept the children of Israel from entering into the promised land? It’s what the Hebrews called kvetching. K-V-E-T-C-H. Doesn’t it sound like complaining? Kvetching. Yeah. Kvetching. It’s complaining. And that’s what kept them out of the promised land. So we want you today to enter into your promised land that God is preparing for you and giving to you right now.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
If you’re praising him and thanking him in everything.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, so those who hear and embrace the words of this prophecy out of Revelation for this appointed time is in your hands. The appointed time of Jesus really appearing. And we’re not just talking literally, although I’m not throwing that out. Literally, he’s coming. Mm-hmm. But he also comes to us in Revelation, each of us individually. If you need to see more of Jesus, know more of Jesus, that appointed time is in your hands. And by thanking him for the journey that you’ve been on, for the path that has been set for your life, thanking him and saying, I thank you for this. Now I really would like more of you. I’ve enjoyed this life, but it’s nothing compared to you. And you might be saying that by faith, because maybe you don’t see that or understand that, that you don’t have to see it to have faith. You don’t have to hear it. You don’t. All you need is to believe that he is much better than anything that he has created in this world. Anything that he has allowed us to experience the greatest joys. He is so much better than all of that. He is amazing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Some of you may be in a, quote, bad marriage. And you say, why? Why do I have to endure this? I’m thinking about a divorce. And you’re thinking bad as that is your perspective, right? and ask God what his perspective about that is. It’s like you were telling the story about Hannah and how you hadn’t been involved in the photographs of her wedding as the mother of the bride.
SPEAKER 02 :
So five years ago, that really hurt. But now that I’ve paid a visit to her and we had some time together, it was really good. It was very healing. And, and when she mentioned to me, mom, I’ve just always remembered that you don’t like to be in photos. It came up as a subject just out of the blue. Wow. But Holy Spirit used it in that moment to just kind of tap on my heart. Like Jesus stands at the door and knocks, right? Just knocking and saying, now I’m revealing to you that you could choose to believe it’s in your hand. It’s in my hands. That’s right. Yeah. How do you choose to believe? And I have found myself lately experiencing still day to day heartbreaking situations. Things, things happen in this world, in this life or witnessing them, you know, whether you see it on the news or whatever resource you have that, that brings just some sad news. This is a broken world that we live in. And I have found myself lately saying, Lord, thank you that you have a plan to redeem, to restore, and that your redemption is better than what the life was before. Yes. That was just affected by this. And I find myself praying that when I pass by God. a, an ambulance or a fire truck, somebody, first responders that come up to an accident. I just pray over those, those first responders as well as the people who were involved in the accident and say, thank you. Thank you, Lord. We want to thank you for being the one who does restore, who does heal. You make us whole. And the other thing that I would say is thank Especially if it’s affecting me personally and something has wounded my spirit or my heart or just my feelings. I got my feelings hurt. I like to be able to say thank you for knowing what I needed to be fully saved and made completely whole. Thank you for saving me by allowing this to hurt me.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I can forgive in this situation. I can forgive and love my daughter whom I thought I had suspicions towards because she hadn’t taken pictures of me or counted me important. See, you have everything to do, my friend, with what decisions you make today, whether your marriage is bad. I don’t want to say any marriage is bad. There’s good in that partner relationship. that God gave to you. And if we could see any good and build on that in Jesus’ name, I think that’s so good.
SPEAKER 02 :
Call it forth. Call it up and out of them. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
So this message is upon those who hear and embrace the words of this prophecy. For the appointed time is in your hands. And verse 4 of Revelation 1 says, from John to the seven churches in western Turkey, may the kindness of God’s grace and peace overflow to you from he who is and who was and who is coming. Now, see, that’s what John is speaking over. The church’s kindness and God’s grace and peace overflowing. That’s something as believers we can do every day. Like you were just saying, when you come across something that doesn’t look good, you can pray peace and joy and harmony in those things.
SPEAKER 02 :
And you might be listening to this and saying, okay, that doesn’t have any real power. I remember my son when I was driving him to and from school before he had his driver’s license and he would hear me saying to people, oh, you are full of patience. And it was somebody who had just cut me off. You are full of patience. You are full of the grace of God. You make room for others. It’s good to be out here with all of you today, you know, just speaking over. And finally, it was months, months into these these rides to and from school that he finally looks over at me. He’s such a patient young man. All those months. But he finally looks over at me and he goes, Mom, you’re lying. Oh, how precious. And I just smiled. You know, I didn’t I didn’t even respond right away. I smiled and I nodded my head, you know, just up and down. Well, OK, you can choose to think of it that way. If that’s what you want to think, you can choose to think of it as lying. But have you noticed? And and it was true since I had started doing that. We had not one more time. It was every day that we were witnessing accidents, people broken down on the side of the road. And for months, months, months that I had been speaking every day, we didn’t see another accident. We didn’t see anybody broken down on the side of the road. We weren’t being cut off as much as much in traffic. And I said, have you noticed that? And he goes, huh? Actually, it’s really true, Kimberly.
SPEAKER 03 :
You were prophesying. You were actually prophesying. And we have grown up in the church that a prophecy has to be, Thus saith the Lord. Grew up like that. But no, you can speak and prophesy over the situation.
SPEAKER 02 :
And Holy Spirit’s going to go to work and the angels. And I do it all the time when I’m watching the news, when I’m passing an accident. I’m doing it all the time, blessing people. Mm-hmm. And this is what we’re asked to do, that we are his bride. So kindness of God’s grace and peace overflowing to you from him who is and who was and who is coming and from the seven spirits who are in front of his throne.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is perfection. You know, have you ever wanted something absolutely perfect? And a long time ago when I was doing the newsletter sale, Oh, Lord, I did a typo. And he says, listen, on this earth, we cannot be perfect. So I’m just going to help you and give you grace during that time. I’m always finding a typo or something. And the Holy Spirit say, that’s OK. You’re in this world. You’re human. We understand that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. And it’s not about that kind of perfection, that the perfection that’s being talked about in the word of God is a relationship that is a constant conversation with him. Yes. And we’re still going to trip. We’re still going to have typos. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. Yes. Oh, from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. He is the faithful witness, folks. You may not be faithful, and you may feel bad about that. But don’t feel that guilt because God says he remains faithful. When we are faithless, he remains faithful. And so he says the firstborn from among the dead and the ruling king who rules over the kings of the earth. Now to the one who constantly loves us. Oh, may his love just flow onto you, my friend, and has loosed us from the sins by his own blood. And to the one who has appointed us as a kingdom of priests forever. to serve his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion throughout the eternity of eternities. Amen. And so he sees us, Kimberly, as priests of his kingdom. And here in these next couple of verses, “…behold, he appears within the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the people of the earth will weep with sorrow because of him. And so it is to be. Amen.” Then, Kimberly, you’ve got a wonderful explanation of Omega, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. That’s the Greek of Alpha and Omega.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. And then the Hebrew, the Hebrew version is I am the Aleph and the Tav. Yes. And the Aleph is the first. The Aleph is the first letter of the Alephbet, the Hebrew alphabet. And she’s not saying Olive. No. She’s saying A-L-E-P-H. Yes. A-L-E-P-H. Yes. Aleph. Aleph. And the tav is the last letter. So the beginning, basically, it’s saying the beginning and the end. But there’s so much more to it than that. So much more. Oh, we could take weeks, really. But the tav is the last letter. And let me just say, when you’re thinking of last, you’re thinking of somebody going behind, somebody behind you, the last, the last. So the last letter is Tav in the Alephbet. And we don’t have a whole lot of time. So let me just say today, let me just describe the Tav is made up of two other letters, a Dalet and a Noon, D, Dalet, N, Noon. So D and N form the name Dan, which is one of the tribes. And that tribe used to go behind. It was always the last tribe to set out when they were leaving a camp and going to a new place. So Dan was the last one and they would follow behind and they would pick up. If anyone left something behind, Dan would return what was left behind. Right. Oh, by the tribes. They would return it to the other tribes. And it was in humility. So when you’re following behind, you’re the last. It’s in humility that you pick those things up. When you return them to the other tribes, then they are humbled by the truth, the fact that they weren’t very aware of what they had left behind and they needed somebody to follow behind. There’s going to be a whole lot more to talk about tomorrow, but we need to wrap up today and say, please, please join us for our Christmas party on Saturday. We would love to see you. So if you can make it, call us at 1-877-917-7256 and let us know that you’re coming. And if you’ve never been, we will call you back. Leave us a phone number. We will call you back and give you a directions to the restaurant at nine 30 and to our home at 11 o’clock and we’re having a gift exchange. So if you’re able to bring a gift, it’s not, not anything too expensive. Well, we would love to play games, sing songs and really focus on Jesus with you. Amen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Praise the Lord. God bless you and keep you our friends and take joy.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom, Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may leave your message at 1-877-917-7256. Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Power partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. You will be blessed supernaturally. Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.