Faith Walk / William Carroll
Faith Walk / William Carroll
Episode 28: The Armor of God in the Heart of a Firefighter
Embark on a transformative journey with me, William Carroll, as we navigate the realms where unwavering faith meets the tangible world. My tenure at Kilgore Fire Department was more than just a job—it was a testament to the power of belief, and I'm eager to share the stories that have shaped my path. From the legacy of giants in faith to the daily pursuit of the Spirit of God, our conversation today is not just about believing, but living that belief with every breath we take.
Today's episode takes us through the doors of the ammunition plant in Karnak, TX where the convergence of professional excellence and spiritual resilience illuminates my interview experience. The dance of preparation and faith doesn't end there; it carries into the spiritual battleground where we arm ourselves with Ephesians 6's full armor of God. I'll share how faith guided me through respectful transitions in my career, including the courtesy of a two-week notice to a supportive fire chief, a move that speaks volumes of character in times of change.
As we celebrate the 28th episode milestone of this faith-inspired podcast, we look forward with the possibility of even more content that encourages you to venture beyond your comfort zones. The upcoming episodes promise to be a beacon of encouragement, shining light on a deeper divine relationship and the extraordinary paths laid out for us. Join us on this expedition of the heart and soul, where the pursuit of belief is as real and persistent as the beating of our hearts.
Well, welcome back to Faith Walk podcast, william Carroll. I'm your host. You got the Holy Ghost Town dog here. You'll have to go back and listen to a couple of other ones before that to find out what it's talking about, or maybe I might even share a little bit of it with you. But listen on this podcast Got to lay it on my heart to share and testify to the faith that I have.
Speaker 1:That he blessed me with and he encouraged me and he led me and he guided me to stand on his word. The men of faith in my life that said, stand on the word of God. If God said it, he'll do it. He wants to prove himself to the world that he is God. He's the still, the fire at night that led the children of Israel and he's still the cloud and the shade by day. Go back to my first introduction and listen to how God provided me a cloud for my first first, the first time I ever stood upon his word and believed his word. He showed out and he showed out big and he provided me a cloud. Listen, we've been talking about faith and we've been talking about faith in the last two podcasts.
Speaker 1:This will be podcast. This will be episode four, season two, and God still still lead me and guide me to talk about faith. Man, some of y'all need your faith increased. I need my faith increased. That's why I'm believing in him, that's why I'm studying, that's why I believe he's speaking faith to me, you know, because he's got to stir me up, he's got to keep me stirred up and fired up. Oh Lord, send that Holy Ghost fire upon me. Let me be the Holy Ghost town dog Lord, and let me be running after you, chasing after you like a hound does a coon Lord, to run him up in a tree. Oh Lord, jesus, hallelujah, if you don't know what I talking, if you've never been raccoon hunting in the middle of the night, you know. And chasing them dogs. That dog, it don't give up. It don't give up that coon to try to throw him. That coon will try to go across water and it'll just try to do everything to distract the dog, to get it away. But if you've got a good coon dog, that coon dog it'll stay on the track, even if you change from tree to tree or cross a creek or whatever, that dog will pick up that scent.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I want to be to the spirit of God. I want to follow after the spirit of God. I want to run after the spirit of God. I want to chase the spirit of God down. You know John Wesley.
Speaker 1:John Wesley said, you know he said if I light myself on fire talking about the fire of God, now, not by fire or lighter or fire or gas, but he's talking about by the spirit of God If I light myself on fire people will come and see me burn. So I want to light myself on fire out the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire of God. You know Jesus John came baptizing with water, but Jesus came after. You know he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with the fire. Do you have that fire? Do you have that fire? You need the fire. Okay, so let's get the fire. Let the fire go, man, we are talking about faith today we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1:We've been talking about Hebrews, chapter one. I mean Hebrews, chapter 11, verse one. Hebrews, chapter 11, verse one. You remember what it says. You need to learn it. It needs to be a memory verse. You know it needs to be a memory verse says now faith is the substance, faith is the substance. Is the substance, the tangible substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So it's something that you hope for but there's no evidence that you see it. There's no evidence can be seen that it's there, but faith is the substance that will bring that into the earth rim. Right, that's what I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say in the earth rim, all right. So listen.
Speaker 1:So how did faith work with me at one time? Well, faith worked with me a lot. But let me tell you this I was working at Kilgore Fire Department and I know y'all been talking, you know I've been working at Kilgore Fire Department for a long time, but you know, but that was my ground, that was my faith ground where I learned to walk and to believe the word of God. That's where I learned to take God out of the box. You know that I had put him in with the religion that I had learned. I took him out of the box because it says, you know, religion says well, god, don't do that today. Well, I've never seen God move that way.
Speaker 1:You know, that's how we got all the different denominations, the different denominations with people that say people would stand up and say my God did this and my God can do this, and I've seen him do this and that, well, I've never seen it in my life. I just don't believe that God does that. Today, I'm just gonna move over here and I'm gonna start a new religion. I'll just start a denomination that believes something different. We're gonna believe the word of God, but we just don't believe those things are. For today, shame on you. That's what happened. That's how. That's what happened.
Speaker 1:That's how religion got in and we took the intimate relationship with Christ out, and we took God out and we took his power out and we says God have no power. Oh, he has power to save you, but that's all he has, just to save you. Well, you know, I got sick of that religion. I got sick of that religion and I wanted more. I wanted more of God. I said, lord, if this is all there is to it just believing that you can save me, and there's no power in your word, and there's no power in you and no power in the earth, then what good are you? I said that honestly to him. And when I said that, I said but if you're real, lord, I want you to show me you're real, I want to learn of you, I want to walk in your faith. I want to be a man of God after David's own heart. I want to serve you with my life. I want to surrender you. Have I always been right? Have I always done things right? Have I always hit the mark? No, I've missed the mark, but my God is a faithful God. So faith is the substance of things hoped for.
Speaker 1:So I was working two jobs I was working at I believe it. This time I was working at Longview EMS and I was working at the Kielgore Fire Department. I was working two jobs, trying to make the ends meet at my house and with my family. I was going 24 hours and then 18 hours of the next day and then I worked eight or nine hours the next day. At one time I was working at East Texas EMS 24, kilgore 24, and I was on call for 24. It was a never ending cycle. I did that, I know, for at least two years, all right.
Speaker 1:So I started believing God for a better job and my father-in-law was working. He had a construction business, is working for an oil company R-Lacey and I'd been out there and I'd done some dozer work and some different stuff pipeline work helping my father-in-law and I started believing for a job in the oil field. Because I had worked in the oil field before the fire department right, I was a hydraulic snubbing operator on a hydraulic rig. And so I started believing God. So I started praying and I started asking God for a job. And I said, lord, I thank you that you open up a job at R-Lacey. And I said, father, I thank you that I can turn two jobs into one and I can be home for my kids. It was an eight hour a job day, five days a week, not always off on the weekends. You rotated whatever they put you on, depending on how you work. But I just started praying for that job, I started asking God for that job, I started believing for that God, I started standing in faith. So for two years, two years, two years, I believed and prayed for that job.
Speaker 1:One day of the week, one week, I would call and I talked to the boss over there. His name was Debra Smith and I'd call him and I'd say, hey, I said Debra. I said, mr Smith, this is William Carroll. Yes, I said, man, I'm ready to go to work for you. And he said I don't have anything. I said, man, I said I'm ready to go to work for you. I'll make you a good employee. Whenever you have something, I want you to remember me. And he said okay, well, you might not have anything. Well, so the next week, come along, and I would. I worked in Kilgore so I'd drive up the road. I'd go to his office when I got off at seven. He'd be there at seven. I'd meet him at the office and I'd be sitting out there waiting on him and he would come in and he said well, how are you doing? I said I'm doing fine, mr Smith, I'm ready to go to work for you. I said whenever you have a job, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go to work for you today. And I said he said I don't have anything, william, and I said okay, well, keep me in mind when you do have something.
Speaker 1:For two years this went on two years. So at work I'd go into the fire department and I'd say well, they say, william, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm gonna go to work for Lacey. And they go you're gonna go to work for Lacey. Oh, have they called you? I said, no, well, how do you know? You're gonna go work for him. I said because I'm pregnant with it. I'm pregnant with it in the spiritual realm, I'm pregnant with this job by faith in the spiritual realm and I'm believing and I'm confessing and I'm believing that God's gonna answer my prayer and give birth to that job in the natural realm. See face of the substance, of things hoped for, the things unseen, unseen. See, I couldn't see that job, but I knew it was there. I knew God wanted to bless me.
Speaker 1:Well, at that time I had another job interview for another company. It was over in Carnac at the Emu Mission plant. It was a good job, paid more than I had. I would have been teaching EMS. I would have been teaching fire. I'd been on the fire department and EMS crew out there. I went in for the interview.
Speaker 1:Man, I used the interview, every question they have and I took their question and took it that much forward, that much forward. They'd say you know, how do you do this? How do you have a spaghetti load with a three inch line and what pressure do you set the three inch line? And how do you get 120 pounds of pressure at each end of the spaghetti load? And, man, I took it boom, boom, boom, boom. And then I'd just go that much further. You know, with every question They'd ask me one question or two and they stopped. They asked me questions, medical questions.
Speaker 1:Listen, I was running the ambulance almost every day and, man, I was making those calls. I was making 10, 11, 12, 15, 20 calls a day on the ambulance, you know, and I was up on, I was a EMT, special skills. That means I was one step underneath the paramedic. I could do anything and everything Almost that a medic could do, except push drugs, you know, and I could push certain kinds of drugs if the protocol of the hospital allowed it, all right. Well, I was the only one that was special skills at Kielgold Fire Department. I couldn't really use a whole lot of my skills there, but I could use it with the East Texas EMS and I could use it with Longview Fire Department when I, or Longview EMS, when I was over there, but anyway I kept.
Speaker 1:I tell them, you know, every day I'd walk in, I'd walk in and I say they'd say, well, have you heard? I said no, I hadn't heard, but I'm going, I'm going to go to work for Lacey, you know, all right. So at the end of the two years, you know. They kind of got the routine going on and they kind of knew what I was going to say. And one day I walked in and they said, they said hey, they said well, what's going on with him? And I said, well, I'm going to work for Lacey. That's what I said every day. And they go yeah, yeah, william, we know. See, they got tired of hearing it by this time. They said we know, we know, we know they haven't called you yet, but you're pregnant in the spiritual realm by faith, waiting to give birth to that job. See, they got what I was saying.
Speaker 1:They started quoting back what I was saying to them and I said I said, no matter of fact, I turned in my two week notice now because Delbert had called me and he said hey, william, I'm fixing to fire a guy today. Come to my office right now. Do you want to go to work for me? I walked in his office. He said do you want to go to work? I said yeah. He said can you be there Monday? I said no, I have to give two weeks notice because my fire chief, he's been good to me, he's treated me right and I would feel bad if I did not give him two weeks notice if I was going to leave. He said okay. He said well, he said next week I'll call you and you go take a physical and then you can come to work here.
Speaker 1:So that morning when I walked in and they said yeah, yeah, we know you're pregnant with it in the spiritual realm, waiting to give birth in the natural realm and see, that's what we are by faith. We don't see what we need, but it's the soaps and things. Hope for the evidence of things unseen, the evidence of things unseen. I didn't see that job, but I knew that God could provide that job for me, right, all right. So that day when I told them, they fell out, they almost fell off with the table, off the chairs. They said, and they go, you're kidding me. You don't really, you're not really going to work there, it is just by faith. And I said no. I said God has brought what I had in faith in the spiritual realm. God has brought that to fruition. God had brought that to come to pass and I got called and I'm giving two weeks notice. This morning I gave two weeks notice to the chief and then I'll go to work for Lacey.
Speaker 1:You know we, a lot of us don't even have faith for 10 minutes. You know, we say I got faith, god's going to do something, and we pray for something and we believe for about 10 minutes, you know, and that's how it goes Boom, that's it. Well, listen, I go to go to Ephesians. Right, quick, chapter six. Ephesians, chapter six God just brought this up to me so we need to go there. Oh, I'm sorry. Yep, ephesians, chapter six, that's right, and we're going to start down here.
Speaker 1:We're talking about the whole armor of God, the whole armor God. Put on the whole armor God. Ephesians, chapter six.
Speaker 1:Start in verse 10. It says, finally, my brother and be strong in the Lord and the power of his mind. Is God able? My God is able, my God is able. Yes, he is Cause he doesn't live in a box. He's the same God, today, yesterday and forever. Amen.
Speaker 1:Put on the whole armor, god, that you may be able to stand. Stand against what stand? Against the wiles of the devil. The wiles of devil, if you looked it up, it means the strategies. The wiles of the devil are the strategies of the devil. And listen, the devil's had a long time to practice his strategies to get you off of your faith, amen.
Speaker 1:Okay, before we wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but against principality powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. See, that's who we war against. We war against spiritual, dark and wickedness. Now listen, those spiritual darkness and wickedness, spiritual things in high places, those spiritual things transfer down to people who allow them to operate in them, just like the kingdom of God, just like faith. You know, in faith I had that job in the spiritual realm and believing you know the spiritual wickedness and try everything to do to not to let me have that job, to try to talk me out of it, to try to get me to doubt and unbelief. Two years I had plenty of time to doubt, have doubt and unbelief that God wasn't gonna provide me with that job.
Speaker 1:Well, you know the other job I was talking about. Hey, I just split and I took off, didn't I? I left you hanging over there. Well, you know, they sent me and this job I thought it was fixing to be this job too. Well, the job that I asked for out at Carnac, they sent me a letter and you know what they said. They said you're too qualified for the job. We don't think you'd be happy because you do too much at the fire department, too many fire calls, too many ambulance calls, and we do not think you would be happy just teaching that to others. So we're gonna decline to hire you at this time.
Speaker 1:And I had play, I prayed, I said, lord, if this is not the job that you want for me, slam the door shut. If it is, open it wide. And I walk through it. Because this was at the same time. I was still. I was believing for the job at Lacey. By faith. I had that job in the spiritual room. But this job popped up. See, sometimes something will pop up and it'll look so good to you that you forget what you're believing for and you quit standing on what you're believing for and you just jumped into something else and it's not what God wants. But a lot of times people don't pray about it and ask God and say, hey, god, is this what you want? Open the door wide. If it's not, slam it, shut door, close that door. And the guys at work said man, aren't you disappointed? I said no, because this wasn't a job for me. I said I know I'm still believing for the one with Lacey, that's the one I'm gonna get. And I said but this opportunity came up and I needed to put my application in and I needed to go before that interview board. I needed to have an interview because it broadened my horizons.
Speaker 1:It sees how I can walk in and I can do an interview with five or six people shooting questions about a fire department and about fire suppression and about ambulance and patient care man, I had a paramedic shooting me questions, but this paramedic was in practice in paramedic. He was just a teaching paramedic and when I started popping about them, those answers or this is what I do, this is what I do, this is what I do. He asked me two questions and he didn't ask me anymore. Same thing with the fire chief. He asked me one question on fire suppression and when I popped those answers out, he didn't ask me anymore. I went in there with the spirit of God. I went in there, prayed up, I went in there full of the fire of God because I know God gives me the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to do all things, all things according to his purpose. Amen, woo, all right. So so we're at 613.
Speaker 1:It says take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand. Take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and, having done all, having done all, stand, stand. What's the whole armor of God, man? The whole armor of God is learning about him, walking with him, believing in him, talking about him, sharing, believing he is the God that is and the God that can and the God that will. Amen, all right. So it says listen, take on the helmet of salvation. Okay, it says wait a minute. 15 says have your feet shied with the preparation of the gospel. So, have your feet shied. It means know the word, know where you're going, know what to do, walk Everywhere you walk, you take the gospel with you. I'm going to give you a real quick one. We might have to come back to this in another episode.
Speaker 1:Above all, it says above all, take the shield of faith with which you're able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, the fiery darts. That signifies error set on fire. That is shot in the shield of faith which they used back then. The shield of faith was a shield that was made of lack of wood, but it had skin stretched tight and it would bounce off the errors. Well, you dip that in water and then you would hold that shield of faith and the fiery darts. He'd put out the fiery darts if they hit it.
Speaker 1:But the fiery darts here that he's talking about is doubting unbelief. The fiery darts of the wicked are doubting unbelief. You have to pick up your shield of faith. What is faith? The faith is knowing, knowing that you're God. If he said it, he'll do it. If you stand on it. If he said it, you'll do it. But you've got to speak it, you've got to believe it and you've got to believe that he is going to do it. So, anyway, make a long story short because I'm running out of time right here.
Speaker 1:What are you believing for in your life? What are you believing for in your life and are you willing to stand upon the word of God, to find the scriptures that say that's what the way God wants you to go and that's where God wants you to go, and you get convicted in your heart and you stand on that, no matter what. See, I did that believing for my son. It's in another, I think, episode two of season one. I believe that I believe for a daughter, even when everything and everything said it was going to be a boy. God don't want you to have a daughter. Go back and listen to those. You need to listen to those. Go back and listen to those. Those are for a reason. Those are stirring up my faith and even now thinking about them. All right. So bye faith, bye faith, bye faith.
Speaker 1:We quench the strategies, the evil strategies that aimed against us by the evil one and spiritual wickedness and principalities and higher places, by faith, by taking that shield of faith. See, faith says I'm not moved by what I see, feel, hear, smell or taste. I'm only moved by the word of God and what the word of God says, by the word of God. The word of God says by his stripes, I am healed. The word of God says if I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ died upon the cross and he paid the price for my sin, and I believe it in my heart and I confess it with my mouth, I shall be saved.
Speaker 1:John Wesley, I said last time and I'll say again he said he said you're saved by faith and faith alone, not by works. We'll get into that later. But listen, I got to wrap this thing up. I've drawn a line in the sand. If you don't know Jesus Christ, if you have no faith in him, then I'm going to ask you right now to pray this prayer after me. Lord Jesus, forgive me, I'm in my sins. I believe in my heart that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for my sins. I confess with my mouth, according to your word, lord, that Jesus is Lord, and I believe and I have faith that I am saved. According to your word, according to your faith and according to your grace, I've drawn a line in the sand. If you don't know Jesus Christ, when you pray that prayer, god honor that prayer and I learned the word of God.
Speaker 1:Go to the book of John, the Gospel of John. Read the Gospel of John. It talks about who Jesus is. He's the truth, the light, the way. Jesus is the light that was in the world. Jesus is the band and we are the branches, and we're connected to him. When we're connected to him, we have the full rain, the full spirit that flows through us, teaching us, leading in Goddess. He says that he has to go, but he would send us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Guide, the Leader, the Teach, and he will teach us all things concerning Christ. Amen, until next time.
Speaker 1:Listen, I hope this is turning up. Remember, I'm on all the channels. You can look up FaithWalk William Carroll. You can put it in your Google search or your Safari search and it'll pull it up on iHeart. It'll pull it up on Spotify. It'll pull it up on Apple Podcasts, google Podcasts. Like I say, I'm on YouTube and on Rumble. I don't have a lot of them on Rumble yet, but you can see me by picture on YouTube and Rumble and I'm going to get after it. Man, I kind of took a break there for a little while, but I'm going to get after it this year. I'm going to stay on track.
Speaker 1:I did 24 episodes last year when God laid this on my heart, starting in September. September to December 31st. 24 episodes, that's two episodes a week. Right now, I feel like God is probably going to want me to do one episode a week, but you know what, if he wants me to do two, I'll do two. I usually drop them on Monday, but I'm going to drop this one, the first one that I did this time, which I hadn't got it up yet, but I'm working on getting it up. I got my editing crew working on it right now and it'll drop probably. I don't know when it's going to drop. I'm going to start dropping them and I'll have one Monday, every Monday, and I may have one on Thursday.
Speaker 1:It's just how God leads and how God keeps me stirred up and how God just opened in the door Because God wants us to glorify him. He wants us to speak the word of God. He wants people to be encouraged to take him out of the box, have an intimate relationship with him, learn of him, walk with him, trust in him Until next time. This is Faith. Walk your host, william Carroll. We'll see you then.
