Faith Walk / William Carroll
Faith Walk / William Carroll
Episode 31: AD Darcy Carroll My Father's Battle for health and life
When faced with the darkest of times, where do you turn for strength? Join me, William Carroll, as I share a deeply personal journey of my family's unwavering faith amid my father, Arthur Darcy Carroll's, severe health crisis. As we navigate the stories of his time in law enforcement, his fight against a life-threatening bacterial infection, and my grandmother's profound faith, you'll be moved by the extraordinary resilience and hope that faith can provide, even when all seems lost.
In an exploration of healing and the power of prayer, this episode unveils the miraculous turnarounds in my father's condition, defying medical expectations with improved kidney and liver function and a successful heart valve replacement. The narrative takes an emotional pivot with the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the essence remains inspirational. You'll witness the bond of family and the profound effects of spiritual conviction through life’s harshest trials, an ode to the legacy left by my father and grandmother.
As we wrap up this heartfelt episode, I'll leave you with reflections on the importance of presence and prayer in our final moments with loved ones. The family gathering to bid farewell to my father reinforces the need for childlike faith and the power of forgiveness. I hope this story encourages you to walk in faith, stand firm in your beliefs, and spread the love that can move mountains, just as my father and grandmother did. Their legacy of faith is a powerful testimony to the strength we can all find in a personal relationship with God.
Well, good morning and welcome to Faith Walk podcast with William Carroll. I'm your host this morning and we've been talking about how God taught me the word, how learned the word, stood on the word and believed in the word, believed what God says. See, you've got to come to God with childlike face. You've got to take him out of the box that your church has put him in, because the church says God don't do that today, god don't do this today. And I'm here to tell you that God does. God does more than we're able to ask or think and we've got to get him out of the box and we have to have an intimate relationship with God you know a father-son relationship with childlike faith and go to him and ask him and stand on his word and watch him do signs, wonders and miracles. I've seen him in my life and he can do them in your life. He's no respecter of person. He wants to move through you so that other people see that God is who he says he is and his word is true. That's the simple gospel. The gospel isn't standing up and preaching in a church, though we need that, though you know it changes people and draws people to God. But the gospel is what has God done in my life and me proclaiming that to the world, amen. Well, listen, today I want to talk about my father, ad Carroll.
Speaker 1:Arthur Darcy Carroll and he went by AD with some friends and then some friends called him Darcy and he was a great father. You know he was always involved in the police department, the sheriff's department. He was an arson investigator in Fire Marshal for Galveston, texas, when I was growing up and his last job was at, I think Elendorf, I believe was the name of the town. Well, central Texas, it's south of Austin, over there by Floresville. It was a small town and he was a police chief over there. He had a volunteer force and all, but he just always loved that.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, my father, back in the 90s, late 90s, he had some kind of bacteria that he got from, we believe, oysters or seafood and it caused him to have diarrhea that he was uncontrolled. He could not control it Because if you ate something it came out faster. You know medicines would come out whole. It was just a terrible thing. He was working for Bear County arson and Fire Marshal's office at that time in San Antonio with a friend of his and it was his boss and he had just started to work there and he was right at, I believe, six months and he was one week away from getting, you know, full coverage on his insurance and this happened, this bacteria that he got, and he began having trouble. So he couldn't even leave the desk. He had to sit at the desk because he had to be right close to the bathroom, because he may go 25 or 30 times in an eight hour period. That's how bad it was.
Speaker 1:And when he did that he lost a whole lot of weight. When he lost that weight it put stress on his heart valve and his heart valve he always had a murmur all of his life. Now it never did bother him, but he had a heart murmur all of his life and it put stress on that. That valve started failing, that valve started leaking. He lost all that weight, which really stressed it out. And so, bear County, they let him go right before he got his insurance. They just cut him loose, you know, because they knew that he was fixing to have, I guess, some problems with his health and they cut him loose. That's how jobs work, you know. But anyway, he went through a period that he was probably 100 pounds. It was pitiful. Just to look at him was so pitiful. But he didn't ever lose his ill for life. He didn't lose his hope.
Speaker 1:Well, at one time I think he probably did, because my sisters caught me up and they said hey, they said you need to come talk to your dad. I said why? And they said because he's going around saying this is my last Thanksgiving, this is my last Christmas. You know, I'm going to go be with Mamie and R2, which is his parents and my grandparents, that's what we called him. And he said you know I won't be here long.
Speaker 1:Well, my grandmother had done that when she had cancer. She had some kind of bone cancer in one of her legs. They said radiation will cure this baby. Miss Carol, you're not, it's not, you're going to die of something else before you die of this. And she said oh, no, no, no, oh, it's going to take me out. I'm going to go see your grandfather, william. And she would tell me and my, my sisters and the whole family here you know that she was going to go and she was going to be with my grandfather and see her parents in heaven that she was sure she died. Well, it wasn't. She started that you know, this is my last Christmas, this is my last Thanksgiving. I won't be here much longer.
Speaker 1:Sure enough, she passed away right after the first of the year and she went to be with the Lord Her last thing. She was in a nursing home the last week and she was holding her hands out, stretched to heavens, and my sister and my dad's were there and they said you know, she was saying, the white men are coming for me, the white men are here for me, the men in white, they're here for me. I'm going to be with your grandfather and I'm going to be with my mother and daddy. And she passed away. So until my buddy at Sippin' All this is my favorite coffee cup got it in Adobe Pines Inn, taos, new Mexico. It's a bed and breakfast and, listen, community coffee is what I got. Yeah, mardi Gras King Cake. It's not sweet but it tastes like a King Cake. Ah, listen to my buddy that sipping all Brandon. Anyway, so she did. She went to be with the Lord.
Speaker 1:Well, my father was doing the same thing. He was sick, he was having a hard time. The doctors his cardiologist at that time said you know? Well, you know, there's just not a whole lot we can do. And I told him. I said dad.
Speaker 1:I said I went down there and I was talking to him. I said are you ready to go home? He said yeah. I said have you made your peace with God? He said oh yeah. I said you believe in him. You asked him into your heart. Yeah, he said I have and I'm ready when he's ready.
Speaker 1:I said are you really?
Speaker 1:I said because you better stop saying it, because a life and death is in the power and the tongue. That's what the scripture says. That means that what I speak, I speak life or death out of my tongue. And I said you keep speaking that you're gonna go home after the first of the year and this is gonna be your last thanksgiving, this, your last Christmas. I said you know God will give you what you say. I said you know that's what the Bible says God will give you what you say. And I said so you better be ready. And I said and I don't care if you're ready to go, I'll pray with you right now, after first of the year, the Lord calls you home.
Speaker 1:And he kind of looked at me funny, you know, and I think a lot of it was just in Jess that he didn't really. He was just trying to prepare himself in case that was the alternative. And I told him. I said, listen, I've got some scriptures for you. And I said if you're not ready to go, then you need to stop confessing that you're going home after the first of the year.
Speaker 1:I said you need to start confessing that you'll live and not die, because the grave cannot praise you. There's a whole bunch of scriptures like that in the Bible and Psalms. There's just there's scriptures that say that we can have what we say. Now, listen, it has to be according to the word of God, it has to be according to the spirit of God. The Holy Spirit and the word always agree. But listen, we can have what we say. If we always say we're going to die, we're going to die, we're surely going to die. I grant you that we really are Well. So I told him. I said you need to start confessing these scriptures that I'm going to live and proclaim the word of the God. I'm going to live and I'm going to testify with life, because the grave cannot praise him, but with my life I will praise him.
Speaker 1:And I began giving him all kinds of scriptures, you know, and he kind of seemed like he changed a little bit. And my sister said well, what did he say? And I said well, he said he was going to go see Mamie and R2 after the first year. And I told him he better make sure that's what he wants to do, because if he's confessing that, that's probably what will happen. And then he needed to change his confession. Now, a couple of days later I guess it was about well, it was the next week, when I was home, my mother called and she said well, you might not know what you said to him, and she said but he's decided that he's not going to die, he wants to live, he wants to stay around, he wants to be here. And he's completely changed. And we're looking for a new cardiologist.
Speaker 1:Well, they went to Austin Heart Hospital in Austin, texas. It's a small hospital but it's number 10 in the United States. And his doctor said we're going to replace the heart valve and we're going to do a new type of surgery that we hadn't done before. And they said we're going to go in through his rib, we're not going to crack his chest, we're going in through his rib, we're going to change out that heart valve and he'll be up and walking that afternoon. So we went down there Me and the family went down there and we prayed. And we were praying in the room and they had the surgery and it was supposed to be like a three-hour surgery and a four-hour surgery and I think it took like two hours and they said, man, it just went really well. We went in through the rib he's doing good. I went in and talked to him and they had him up and walking down the hall after that.
Speaker 1:Now my father did really good for 17 years. Now, listen, there was two types of valve. There was a medical valve, a metal valve that would rattle and you had to take blood thinners all the time, or a pig valve, which you didn't have to take. You had to take blood thinners all the time. So he chose the pig valve because it was supposed to last 15 years and he was probably oh gosh, I guess he was in his 60s at that time, and so everything went well.
Speaker 1:He did good, he went back to work. He was working in the police department in Ellendorf I believe it was the name of the town over there by Floorsville, texas, and everything was going good and then just jump along. I'm just trying to jump along a little bit because it's just a long story and I'm so proud of my father and I just loved him so much because he taught me that everything that I have is my kids. He never got mad when I tore anything up. I could take the boat up to the prop off. You think he got upset. He said, man, we'll just get it fixed. So that taught me a lot. But so jump along, so in.
Speaker 1:I think he passed away in 20, uh, let's see, I believe it was 2019, in June it was on Father's Day, but but anyway, he before that, his heart valve had started, uh, failing again. I got a call from my sisters about three years before he passed away and they and she said, uh, hey, listen, dad's in the hospital, his liver's quit working, his kidneys quit working and he wanted me to call you so that you could pray for him. And so I got on the phone and I said dad, what are you doing in that hospital? And he said, oh, I'm not doing too good. I want you to pray for me. So so I pray.
Speaker 1:You know, uh, the word of God says that if we speak, jesus said listen. Jesus said if you speak to that the victory and you say be cursed and plucked up from the roots, it'll be done. Or if you speak to this mountain, say be removed and be cast in the sea, it shall be done. He also said that we're two or three or gathered there. He is in the midst and when you agree as touching anything, my father in heaven will do it for you. You know this is Matthew 18, 19, 20, 23. Go read it. Go read it. Mark 11 says have faith in God, and if you say unto this mountain, be removed and cast in the sea, it shall be done.
Speaker 1:So I began praying in faith. I said, father, right now, in the name of Jesus, I thank you that his kidneys are going to work. I thank you that his kidneys are beginning to work right now. His liver is beginning to work right now, and I thank you in Jesus's name. Lord, it's done, cause your word says we're two or three or gathered there. You are in the midst and you are in the midst of us. You hear our prayers, the father hear the prayers of your children and Lord, touch you. Well, I got to call the next day. Well, dad's home. I said do what he said dad went home. I said home. They said no, he went to the house. They released him from the hospital. His kidneys started working after you prayed for him and his liver started working and they said we need to send him home.
Speaker 1:But they said the cardiologist said you know, he's just too old to have that heart valve replaced again. And it's the heart valve that wore out. And they said he just, you know, he just, there's nothing that they can do. He's 80 years old. And I said I said you know what. I said who is his cardiologist? And they told me, of course I didn't know. I said why don't you get a second opinion from the is the doctor that did his first heart valve replacement, still working? And they said yes. I said why don't you call him, get an appointment, get a second opinion and see what he says? So they did, got a second opinion. The heart doctor said most of our patients are in their 80s and 90s. And yes, he's not too old, we will change, we will do the heart valve surgery.
Speaker 1:So so they went and did the heart valve surgery and I went down there for it, you know, and we was with him and I stayed down there and we prayed and he went in and he did good. And he came out and he did good and and I mean he was doing good, he was. He was a out of the wheelchair, off of the walker, off of the cane, he was walking by himself. Therapy was keeping him up and then COVID hit. Covid hit, they shut down everything. They shut down all of the rehabs that he was doing. That was making him better and better and better and then he started regressing. He started regressing back and he started, you know, went back to the walker, went back to the chair, but they wouldn't come out and do rehab at the house, they wouldn't let him come up to the hospital. See, that killed a lot of people. That COVID killed a lot of people because we wasn't doing what we needed to do for those that needed it.
Speaker 1:Anyway, having said all that, I'm gonna tell you my dad never lost hope. He believed in God. He would go to church. He asked people to pray for him. He asked the congregation to lay hands and pray for him and he believed. And but he lived after that time that I'm talking about, where he had the first heart valve surgery. It was 17 years, 17 years. The pig valve supposed to last 15, 17 years, and then he had to have the heart valve replaced, which they replaced it, and he was doing so much good.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, I went, I got a call from my sisters and this was they, said one of the sisters. I said how's dad doing? Oh, he's good. He's doing good. He's beat, you know, he's weak but he's good. And I call my mom oh, he's good. And so I called my little sister and I said I said hey, I said what's going on with that? And I heard he's not doing good. And she said he's not doing good, he's not doing good at all, and if you want to see him, you better come down here this weekend. And I said really, I said well, mom and my older sister, they were saying they said she said they don't want to see it, they don't want to see it, but he's not doing good at all, so you need to come.
Speaker 1:So I went down there and when I got there, my mother and my older sister, which kind of took care of him and you know it was the COVID thing going on and all that junk, you know and went over to the house and he was in a bed in the living room. They'd already started morphine and they was putting him on a hospice, you know. And I said I went in and they said he hadn't really talked to us in two weeks. All he says is I'm hurting, I'm hurting. We give him the shot. He won't talk to you, he don't know who we are.
Speaker 1:So they went to town to make some arrangements and I went in there and my wife was with me and I went in there and I said, hey, dad. I said this is William, listen, what are you doing in this bed? And he looked at me and he started talking to me and I had prayed all the way down there Lord, let me visit with him before he goes home. Lord, if this is his time, he's ready, but let me visit with him before he gone. And he began talking to me and he just began speaking and I mean he knew everything. He was there, he knew we talked about old times, young, you know, the kids, the grandkids, and we just visited for about an hour I guess, and it was such a blessing to be able to visit with him and this was on a Saturday and I just I got to pray with him. And I prayed with him and I said, dad, when you're ready, it's okay. You can go home when you're ready and you're tired of the pain, it's all right. Dad, you know we're gonna be all right.
Speaker 1:And so I called my little sister and I said hey. I said dad's talking. She said he hadn't been talking to anybody for two weeks. I said, listen, I just had an hour visit with him. If you want to talk to him, you need to come over right now. Well, but you know they really don't want me over there. You know the COVID thing, you know the mask. We need a mask in this thing. I said, listen, I don't care about all that. If you want to see dad, you need to come over now.
Speaker 1:So she came over, went in there and began talking to him. He was in the living room in the chair and he just talked to her and they just I mean, he knew where he was and he knew what he was doing. And so my other sister, mom, come home. What you doing over here? You know he could get bad. You know, covid, like that's gonna hurt him. You know he's getting ready to go home to be with the Lord and to be with his family, and so they got over it really quick, you know, and I said he's been talking to us.
Speaker 1:Well, after Darcy left and my mother and sister the older sister was there and they went in and tried to talk to him, you know, and he just, he didn't say anything. He wouldn't say anything, he went back to just my pain. Well, that night he passed away. He was in terrible, terrible pain and they had to keep giving him the morphine, you know, and he was just in pain and he finally went to sleep. And the next morning I got a call at the hotel and they said you know, dad has passed away. And I kind of I had, I knew he was gonna go and I prayed that night Lord, let him go in his sleep, let it not be a stress on my mother or my sisters, let him go in his sleep. And that's what happened.
Speaker 1:But listen, I just wanna tell you that you know you need to pray for your loved ones, you need to just honor them and if they're sick, you need to get a hold of the word of God and you need to believe. You need to believe God and you need to believe that if you stand on the word of God. You pray the word of God and you believe it in your heart that God will do it. Cause he will. He cares about me, he cares about you, he cares about your family members. You know, you can tell people all day long. They say, oh, I'm having kidney failure. You can say, well, I'm praying for you, brother. And then you say a little old, two bit prayer, lord. If it, thy will find out what the will of God is. Find out what the will of God is. God says I'm the same yesterday, today and forever. He was a healer then. He's a healer now.
Speaker 1:It says to have the faith in God. All right, so listen, I'm gonna wrap up with this because I want to share the scripture with you that I stood on, that I stand on. I have seen God do miracles. It's not because of me, has nothing to do with me. It's because of who God is and it's because I believe that He'll do what he says. He'll do with childlike faith.
Speaker 1:Listen, mark 11 and 22 says Jesus answering them, talking about the fig tree. Okay, jesus answer says have faith in God. Now, if you look that up, there is a. It means have the faith of God. Well, what is the faith of God? God said let there be light, and there was light. God speaks words and it speaks creation into existence. You understand, have faith that when you say what God says, it shall be done. Not not because of you or anybody, not because you're worthy, but you're a child of God, the Holy Spirit's in your heart, and when you pray a prayer that God will honor, it's because it's based on His word, it's because it's backed up in His word. And God is going to back up His word and see that it's done. I'm telling you, listen to this Matthew 11, 22,.
Speaker 1:And Jesus answered them. Have faith in God, for verily, I say to you that whosoever, whosoever shall say to this mountain, be removed and be cast in the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he say shall come to pass. He shall have whatsoever. He say it. Now listen, I'm not saying go out and name it and claim it, and for car or million dollars. I'm talking about the things of God. I'm talking about the things that God want. You line up your heart with what God wants. You line up your heart with the word of God, with the spirit of God and you can have what you say, because God is going to honor your prayer. Let's go on. It says, therefore, I say unto you Matthew 11, 24, what things soever you desire when you pray, those desires have to be lined up with the word of God. Those desires has to line up with the heart of God, those desires that you prayed.
Speaker 1:Listen what it says. Therefore, I say what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Now, is the word of God true or not? And it says, mark 11, 20, 11, 25 says and when you stand praying, forgive. See, the hindrance to a lot of our prayers are forgiveness in our heart. We hold things against people and we hold them for years and years and years. And you say well, god don't answer my prayers. Well, check your heart, check your heart. Do you have unforgiveness in your heart for somebody? Make it right. It says forgive, forgive when you stand praying, forgive If you have ought against any. That your father also, which is in heaven, may forgive your trespasses. If you do not forgive, neither will your father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses, amen. Well, listen, let's go back over here to Matthew. Right, quick, because I did bring it up. So let's go to Matthew 18.
Speaker 1:You said, william, listen, in the mouth of two withness, let every word be established. You got to let the scripture line up in more than one place, so I'm just fixing to show you it. I'm fixing to go over here to Matthew, all right, talking about the same thing you know. And here it is. Look, it says, right here he's talking about trespasses again. And in Matthew 18, 16, he says wait a minute, Matthew 18, hold on, where am I? Matthew 18 and 16 is talking about going to a brother, talking to him, telling him that he wronged you. If he doesn't hear, you take somebody witnesses. And it says take with you two or three or more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. You say, william, well, that doesn't mean that if you take two or three witnesses out of the word, that that's the word of God. That's what he means. This is you're taking it out of context.
Speaker 1:Listen, I want to tell you something. You need to. You need to get right. You need to get right with God. You need to start believing what God is saying. You need to start doing what God is saying and you need to throw all of that junk teaching out that says God doesn't move like that, today and start believing in God, walking like he's your best friend and he's with you. Man, I'm gonna tell you something. Listen, you got me on a, you got me on a roll today.
Speaker 1:It says Matthew 18 and 18, verily, verily, I say unto you whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And again, I say unto you that if two or three of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them, of my father, which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together and my name, there I am in the midst of them. Listen, god wants to move. God wants to move in your life, the life of those around you and the life of those that are struggling and the life of those that are sick. You know, jesus healed the sick. Jesus laid hand on the sick and prayed for the sick, and they were healed. You know, and listen, listen, is he alive or is he not alive? Listen, I want to encourage this new generation.
Speaker 1:This is what this podcast is about. It's not about me. It's not about what God did in me or in my life. This podcast is about those things that he did in me in my life stirring up your heart and stirring up this generation to believe God is and he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. See, god will do the same thing in your life that he's done in my life.
Speaker 1:Why he wants to be glorified in the earth. What good is a God if you serve him and it's just? I go to church, I try to be good and I still sin, and I'm just a sinner saved by grace. And what good is all that nonsense If God isn't real, if God doesn't move in your life? The world is waiting for Christians to stand up and to take God into the streets and to preach a gospel, the full gospel. See, paul said the gospel is the power of God. Well, where is the power today? I just want to encourage you today. Listen, I'm running out of time. I want to encourage you today. I saw these things happen in my life because I believe in God. I believe what his word said. I stand on his word. I believe where two or three are gathered there. He is in my name.
Speaker 1:You know my father agreed with me when I was believing for a son. Go back and listen to that podcast about me believing and praying for a son. Everybody was against me except my pastor and my father. My father said I said hey, dad, he sent blue clothes to the little old baby shower. Everybody else sent pink.
Speaker 1:Because they said well, how do you know? God wants you to have a boy. I said because he loves me and I want to teach him. I want to teach him the word of God, I want to show him faith and I want to teach him faith and faith in Christ. And God wants to give me the desires of my heart. And they said well, he may give you a girl. And I said no, I believe he's gonna give me a boy because I prayed for a boy and I believe it. And my father, my pastor, both stayed in agreement and said we believe that God will give you a boy. You know? I said, dad, how did you know it was gonna be a boy? I said God, dad, guess what, guess what, guess what? We had the baby. And he said it's a boy. I said how do you know? He said, because you said he said, because you said it was gonna be a boy, because you prayed and asked God and God spoke to your heart. Listen, I love y'all.
Speaker 1:I know it kinda got wound up at the end, but it just kinda jits on me that people of faith have no faith. Do you know Jesus went around saying, oh ye little of faith. Oh ye little of faith. Oh ye little of faith. Will you not believe? Will you not believe in me? Will you not believe in God? If you don't believe in the words I speak, believe the works that I do. And Jesus said you shall do greater works because I go to the Father and I send you the comfort or the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Listen, the church needs to get back to doing the greater works of God, and you know the greater works are just small things. Believe in God will heal your loved ones and prayin' Does he always heal? No, god is a sovereign God, but he's not going to if you don't believe and you reach out in faith and you lay hands on the sick and you pray. And we talked about that in Mark, chapter 16 before. Listen, I love you. I gotta get off of here. Gone a little long today, but this has been stirring in my heart for a while have a great day. Start your faith, walk today believing God, reaching out and sharing him with the world. And Jesus this day, amen.
