Join Barbara Carmack and Kimberly in this enlightening episode of Call to Freedom, as they delve into the intersection of faith, tradition, and personal growth. Discover how embracing the Word of God above man-made traditions can lead to a profound spiritual awakening. With heartfelt anecdotes and scriptural insights, they guide listeners towards finding their true purpose in life and fulfilling their divine calling.
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 :
Oh, welcome to Call to Freedom. I hope you had a wonderful weekend, a weekend of joy and fellowship and good food. And I hope you were staying warm during those cold days. And it’s going to be cold this week in Denver. But I hope you’re warm and enjoying the day today or the evening that you’re going to go fast asleep. Sweet sleep to you who are going to sleep after the 1015 program. May the Spirit of God show you how precious you are today and how carefully and wonderfully you were made for a special purpose, my friend, a special purpose. Let’s do the Monday Bible slogan. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I do what it tells me to do. This is my Bible. It has given me new life. It is the Word of God. Oh, and it’s just such a joy to be in this studio. The sun is coming through the window, even though it’s cold outside, the sun is coming through and warming our hearts. And Kimberly is with me in the studio. Surprise, surprise.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s good to be here. Oh, yes. It’s good to have you. Even if it is significantly colder than where I came from, it’s really good to be here.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. You aren’t going to be trimming bushes and stuff like you have before. Although you did bring a little saw, a chainsaw. We have some grass that needs to be cut maybe next week sometime. But not now. It warms up a little bit. Yes. In December, as you give to Call to Freedom, either by donating to the website at freedomstreet.org, or if you mail a donation to Call to Freedom, you will receive a 2026 calendar. And that will be with your receipt in January. I tried to figure out a way to send it in December and… This was the best way. So I’ll send your receipt from December with your calendar so that you can get both at the same time. And I hope you enjoy that. It’s been a blessing for me to be able to provide a year’s calendar. Can you believe that year is gone? I just feel like I just mailed them out just a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER 04 :
It does feel like December came a little early this year. Wow. Like we had two Decembers this year.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. I’ll tell you what Darren said 40 years ago. God is really collapsing the time and multiplying the anointing. And you may not see it figuratively, but I’ll tell you what, spiritually, we’re just on a race.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, there’s so much revival happening. It’s beautiful to see the awakening of hearts and minds. It’s beautiful. And we’re a part of it. We get to live during this very time. It’s exciting.
SPEAKER 03 :
It really is, Kimberly. There’s no way to express ourselves but to say enjoy. Just enjoy every minute of every day. And then I just want to remind you that December the 13th is our meeting, our Christmas meeting. Brunch at 930. That’s a half hour break. earlier than 10 o’clock 9 30 it’s it seems to work out a little bit better and then the christmas meeting at 10 o’clock and there will be a gift exchange so if you find something really cute or and affordable just wrap it up and bring it on december the 13th if this is the first time you’ve called or to make reservations for the restaurant, call me at 1-877-917-7256. And I’ve got a memory verse this week from Romans 1, verse 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And Kimberly, I’m reminded that Paul thought he was going to the Jew first. with some of the revelation that Holy Spirit had given to him. And I made, it wasn’t a mistake. Holy Spirit says, this is not a mistake. I told you that the memory verse was going to be in Galatians 1.16. And he said, you go to Galatians and talk about how Paul had to come against that religious spirit that he’d grown up with. And it says even in the 14th verse of Galatians 1, Paul was advancing in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries. He was working to be a Pharisee and maybe the high priest. And he said, being more extremely zealous for my faith, ancestral tradition from his mother’s womb, he was taught that, Kimberly.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right. Now, that’s such a good point because we’re talking about tradition. And we can be taught growing up in church to be morally good people and to follow the law and to follow the rules and the Ten Commandments. And when we are taught that we can fall into this tradition, the spirit of tradition and the spirit of pride that is walking everything out according to what we believe is the very best, according to the tradition of man. So we are talking about a morally very good person when we’re talking about Paul, who used to be Saul. We’re talking about the Apostle Paul here, who was morally the best. He was at the top of his class morally. But guess what? He needed salvation just as much as the immoral person. That’s right. He needed to be interrupted on his path because he I like how the Passion Translation says this. By now, we’re reading from Galatians one. And verse 13 says, by now you have heard stories of how severely I harassed and persecuted Christians and did my best to systematically destroy God’s church, all because of my radical devotion to the Jewish religion. And then it goes into what you were talking about, the tradition, my zeal and passion for the traditions and doctrines of Judaism distinguished me among my people. Well, sure. He was advanced. He was distinguished among his people, but it was not for God’s purposes. It was for the tradition of a religion and that needed the revival, the restoration, the revelation of God, just as much as an immoral person needs. So like God sent Jonah to the Ninevites, the Ninevites were very immoral, very wicked, evil people. But guess what? Their wickedness and evil was not worse than Paul’s wickedness and evil being on a rampage to go persecute and murder Christians.
SPEAKER 03 :
Or Jonah’s, you know, who had to be in a whale for three days and three nights. Yes. For Paul, who was thrown off his donkey or horse, whatever it was. Yes. Gone blind, being led blind. to see a man who was going to lay hands on him and bring his sight back. But at that point, he didn’t know if he would ever receive his sight. And then he went behind the mountain. Some of you precious people listening, you feel like God has forgotten you and you don’t have a purpose in life. And what am I going to do for God? You just keep loving him. He’s going to love you right into that purpose and that identity, that true identity. That’s it.
SPEAKER 04 :
We are called to fall in love with him. That’s what we’re called to. If you’re wondering what your calling is in life, what your assignment in life is, what your career should be, your career should be loving him. And you can’t go wrong when you make that your first priority. I know this. I know this. You cannot go wrong finding a true peace and a true joy that outweighs any other piece of this world. The piece of this world is fragile. It shatters very easily, but not his, not his. And if you want a really solid piece, then keep falling in love with him. Search for him. with all your heart. Seek him and his ways and his will for your life. It might look a lot different than what you’re actually walking out right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. It’s like when I told Darren after we had just started dating and I said, Darren, you’re not my source. You’re not my priority in life. It’s God who’s my source. And we found out that we had so much in common because he went away in the mornings and studied the word of God and I did too. It gave me a a time when I could be alone with God, when Darren went apart and went into the Word. So we knew that God was our first priority in our lives. And boy, that makes a marriage so complete. It really does. When the husband and the wife are on the same page spiritually. Now we can find somebody that looks good, that smells good, that cooks good food, that goes to the restaurants with us, goes to church even on Sunday. But if they’re not seeking God, like you were just saying, Kimberly, as their first priority, it’s going to be tough.
SPEAKER 04 :
So when you told Darren, when you told Papa that he was not your source, that is something that released him. And he could be seeking God first, knowing you were seeking God first. That’s wonderful. Yes. There are some that are offended by being told that they are not someone’s source. Especially the husband. Yes. And it can be taken in a way that is offensive. And if we have become offended by that, then we might really dig our heels in and not be looking with an attitude of, okay, let’s seek God first. But with an attitude of, well, why would you not make me first priority in your life?
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m your mate.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m the head of the family here. That’s tradition. That’s the tradition of man. And we will nullify the word of God. So I’m kind of bouncing off the encore on Friday because as I was traveling, I heard you and Papa on that encore. And if any of you want to listen to that, you can go to freedomstreet.org and look at the radio shows there. Click on Fridays.
SPEAKER 03 :
November the 28th.
SPEAKER 04 :
November 28th. Yes. Yes. And you were talking about the traditions of man that make void the word of God. This is written in Mark 7, 13. It’s also in Matthew 15, 6. And there I looked this up in several translations. This means that our traditions, the way that we think traditionally in our relationships, in our jobs, the way that we just naturally are bent toward, this nullifies the word of God. It makes the word of God to no effect. Isn’t that something? Cancels it. I’m pulling all of these words. It gives it no power when you are steeped in the tradition of man. Okay. That’s a sobering thought. I mean, it really arrested me to hear that on Friday and go, oh, wait a minute. Any thought of mine that thinks that I, I need to have boundaries, you know, because I’ve been taught boundaries by you, the therapist and, and, oh, I know. He is good for the season. And I do understand why there are some needs for boundaries. And please have those boundaries. If you do not have faith and the spirit of the living God that you know will speak to those things that need to be spoken to around you and will change them. If you don’t have that faith, then then go and have these other boundaries because we do want you protected. But let me tell you, the faith. that we gain in the word of God. The word became life. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And he has got power. Do you ever once read in all the gospels and in acts where Jesus was here on earth that he was putting boundaries up? He didn’t need boundaries. He was the son of God. He was God himself. God does not need boundaries. And so this is where we might have traditions coming in and saying, you know, I really need a boundary with you. I don’t need to be. Oh, I don’t know if that’s what the love of God would say to someone. The love of God might go right in there and speak life, speak health, speak wholeness, Speak a calm and a peace to the rage that might be there. And that’s the faith that we want to gain. We don’t want to deprive the word of God of its power because of our own traditions and the way that we work things out in our human nature.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. And the fact is, when John wrote 1 John 2, 27, he says, as far as for the anointing, you have no human being to teach you. You don’t need any human being to teach you because the word of God will teach you. And I agree with you, Kimberly. There comes a point after all the therapists, after all the doctors, after all of the lawyers, after all the counseling, after all the human wisdom is gone. Who do you go to? Who do you go to?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, we know we go to the rock of our salvation. And really, I’m talking about this in real time. We were talking earlier today that I’m not a big proponent of the fear tactic that people will say, oh, if you don’t make the right decision, then you, for the rest of eternity, have no hope. That’s not what I’m talking about here. Moment to moment. We are all faced with some kind of suffering in this life. It’s moment to moment for me. It’s on a daily basis that I might see something or hear something or experience something that produces suffering. It hurts. This world is broken and it’s hard. It’s hard to navigate and hard to maneuver through. When we have faith in the word of God and we choose to do things his way, not the traditional way of man, but choose his way. That’s when we feel whole and healed. Yes. And there were some circumstances in Oklahoma. I had been caring for someone in the hospital, more than one someone, and more than one instance. And I felt a little weary. And even though I had a lot of time in the vehicle, which I love my time with Jesus in my van on the way here. I was still not completely refreshed because of some of those circumstances that I had experienced in Oklahoma. And when I came to you, one of the first things I admitted to you is, oh, I’m feeling really weary. And your reading was right out of Ezekiel 37.
SPEAKER 03 :
That was your reading for the day. It’s been beautiful. The whole weekend we have been studying Ezekiel. And what a book. You study Ezekiel. What can you find in Ezekiel? Oh, come on. Listen, my friend. It is wonderful, especially when the Holy Spirit begins to reveal the great things, the awesome things in store. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
So you were reminding me of Ezekiel 37, which is the Valley of Dry Bones. Yes. You know what, I came to you and I admitted, oh, I’m feeling weary.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, in fact, you all actually stayed another day at the motel in the panhandle before coming. You just needed some extra rest, physical rest. And sometimes we think, well, we’re spiritual, we don’t need that rest. Oh, your body needs that. Yeah, I slept.
SPEAKER 04 :
I allowed myself the rest and I slept and I was still feeling weary when I got to you. And so being reminded of those dry bones, yeah, that’s what it feels like. I feel like I have dry bones in me, you know, and being able to say, prophesy to those bones, you know, If you’re listening right now and you’re not ready to be prophetic and prophesying over someone else’s bones, prophesy to your own. I started speaking to my bones that morning, that day with you. I started speaking to my bones. All right, receive. Receive the life of God. Receive the breath of God. Blow upon me a wind of God from the north and from the south, from the east and from the west. Come from the four corners and fill me with your faith, your hope, your life, because my faith is not in the way things turn out in this life. My faith is much greater than that. This realm is actually an illusion compared to the reality of my eternal life. I’m an eternal being. And time here is an illusion. That’s why it can be collapsed.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. We can’t collapse eternity. I think that’s what Ezekiel discovered as God was giving him all this prophecy and all these visions. But also Paul, he gained so much from being alone, alone with God. And that’s why he could say, I’m going to read Romans 1 16 again from the passion. I refuse to be ashamed of the wonderful message of God’s liberating power unleashed in us through Christ. This was after he he was prayed over and he went to the other side of the mountain for 14 years and he came out free. being an absolutely spirit-filled prophet of God. And he said, For I am thrilled to preach that everyone who believes is saved. The Jew first, he thought he was going to the Jews, and then people everywhere. Well, we know that he spoke in Corinth and in Ephesus and Galatia and Philippi to the Gentiles. And he says a perfect righteousness given to us when we believe and it moves us from receiving life through faith to the power of living by faith. That’s what Holy Spirit does. Yes. This is what the scripture means when it says we are right with God through life giving faith. That’s right. And there’s times, Kimberly, when we lose hope. You know, in Ezekiel, we see him going from the people going from trusting God. In Jerusalem, the city, I mean, it had walls and it was safe and secure. And the temple, the Holy of Holies was there. And then trusting in the leaders and the preachers and the prophets. Well, they found out in Ezekiel 34 that they were all false prophets. They were false leaders. They were false teachers. They were spewing at the sheep and eating the sheep and shearing the sheep and using the sheep and killing the sheep. And God is saying, that’s my flock. Those are my sheep. And then they fled to other countries for help. They didn’t flee to God. And finally, there was no hope. There was no hope left. That’s where the Lord loves us to be. Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
At the end of our rope. I like how the message version of Matthew five says that you are blessed when you’re at the end of your rope for with less of you, there’s more of God and his rule. And that’s where we need to learn to rest in him. We’re being invited into his rest. Jesus calls himself an oasis of rest. Come to me. All you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest, he says. And so this hope that we have is a moment by moment when we receive news, when we hear from somebody out of the blue we weren’t expecting to hear from, that we maybe didn’t want to hear from. These things are moment by moment trying to sap us of our hope and our joy in the flesh. But if we will look to God and say, I choose to enter your rest on this, I choose to do this Jesus way, I choose to have faith in what you are writing, you’re writing about better story. You’re writing a better story. And so I have a friend that I’ve known for two decades and she and I, we have met in the middle of the night over and over many and many times, not even knowing that each other were there at the church, but we were just called and by the Holy Spirit just awakened in the middle of the night and we drive to the church. totally separately, not knowing that she would be there. I didn’t know she didn’t know I would be there. And in the middle of the night, we’ve had many, many encounters of just praying together in the dark. And she is a powerhouse. She’s from Africa and she is, she is just full of warrior spirit. And so, um, worshiping also, she’s a worshiper and she goes to my church in Oklahoma and she had a very difficult summer. And her summer, she ended up with some news that was so hard. It really, really hurt her heart and her physical body was affected. She became very ill and I’m so ill that when I went to her home to visit her about three weeks ago, she couldn’t even hold her head up and I was holding her head in her bed. I was holding her head because she couldn’t hold it up. And I, I was praying and speaking to her and, and then I just finally looked at her. I said, sister, what is going on? Have you given up hope? Have you given up? And she started crying. She couldn’t even speak. She was so weak, but the tears just started flowing down her cheeks and I was wiping the tears away for her. And I could tell her heart was just so broken. And I said, no, you and I, we’ve been through too much together. Sister, this is not how you are going out.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re going out. That’s right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Going strong and victorious. That’s right. You and I both are going to dance out of this life. We are not going out like this in hopelessness.
SPEAKER 03 :
And you needed those times when you met each other at the church. You did not know you were going to do that, but you met each other time and time again and developed such a close relationship. We can’t talk with a person that we do not know. No, I couldn’t have gone into a stranger’s.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. Absolutely. No, I could not have gone into a stranger’s home and done the same thing. But with her, I could, you know, with her, I could say, no, sister, this is not how you’re going out.
SPEAKER 03 :
And she had been in nursing, so she was kind of… Oh, she’s a nurse. Yeah. She didn’t want to think hospital or doctor or anything. Or medication. No. So it actually took her husband, her ex-husband from Texas… Driving up.
SPEAKER 04 :
Driving up. Seeing her and saying, okay, we’re going. And he drove her to the hospital and she needed to be there for a week. It turns out she had a blood infection and she wasn’t able to keep any food down for weeks. She was she was so weak. So, yes, she needed she needed some help. And I saw her in church last Sunday, not yesterday, but the Sunday before. And she and I were worshiping together and she looked stronger than ever, younger than ever. I looked at her and I said, sister, you are so restored. You look like the picture of health itself. You are strong. You are young. And she said, yes, I am so restored. She said, I’ll never forget you asking me, sister, have you given up? Have you given up and telling me this is not how you’re going out? And she and I started dancing together on the platform. This is not how you’re going out. We’re going out dancing. You know, we want to end strong. We want to end strong in life. And we don’t want any situation to bring hopelessness and discouragement. We have so much more that we want to say about this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, about yes, Christine and her son. That’s something I want to get into tomorrow on the program.
SPEAKER 04 :
Because it’s a tradition to think that maybe your son or your daughter or your mate or your mother or your father is going to come to your side and be the strength for you. But it is not a man that is our strength. It is God who is our strength. And we make void his word and his strength when we lean on human tradition and human thinking. So we want to talk about that more tomorrow. I hope you are able to join us. And if you need to repeat some of what you’ve heard today or some of last week, go to freedomstreet.org and click on radio programs and enjoy some of what we’ve been talking about. God bless you 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 370-367, 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. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom’s website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara’s daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to calltofreedom.org. 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.
