Faith Walk / William Carroll
Faith Walk / William Carroll
Ep 43 Reigniting the Flame: My. Journey of Faith and the Open Road Ministry
Have you ever felt like you were wandering aimlessly through your spiritual life? Today, I, William Carroll, will take you on a profound exploration of rediscovering faith and purpose. William's story is a testament to the power of divine intervention, as he shares the moment that re-ignited his commitment to Christ and how it led to a heartfelt reconnection with his friends and community. With a newfound zeal, he joined the Chariots of Light Motorcycle Ministry, turning the open road into his mission field. We delved into the transformative effects of personal testimonies and the importance of wearing faith as a badge of honor—a call to live out loud in a world that often encourages silence about one's beliefs.
As we journeyed further, William illuminated the path by reflecting on the sacrifices of early Christians and the echoing call for believers today to boldly share their faith. His experiences at community events and personal encounters underscore the impact of the Gospel on individuals and the profound influence of biblical narratives on our lives. Ending on a note of encouragement and solidarity, I shared an uplifting prayer extending an invitation to all those yearning to rekindle their connection with spirituality. Whether you're seeking a return to your faith journey or looking to deepen your existing bonds, this episode promises to be a companion along the way.
Well, good morning and welcome to Faith Walk with William Carroll. I'm your host and I am leading and guiding you through my Faith Walk, sharing the testimonies that I have seen, the things I've seen God do in my life and the lives of others, just by trusting him, by taking him out of the box, believing that he is God and he will do what he'll say he'll do. And on the last episode episode 42, I shared how that I had checked out on God and how that I had gone to a service and God spoke to my heart during that service and had told me that I had checked out. And I shared with you the scripture that I had used when I did checked out and how that I had quoted it wrong and how I had applied it wrong in my heart. See, that's what the devil tries to do. He tries to get you to apply scripture wrongly or leave out part of the scripture that God has says, you know, uh, that's how he attacks us and tax our faith. But to continue the story.
Speaker 1:So I, after God, checked me back in, he had me do something. He laid it on my heart that I should call all of the friends that I'd been riding with that I'd been hanging out with that I'd been doing all kinds of spending all my time with, and I had to call him and I had to tell him what happened. So the conversation kind of went like this I call him up, I say, hey, man, there's something that you don't know about me and I need to tell you. And I mean there was silence on the end of the phone. I mean a cold, hard silence. You know, I don't know what they were expecting to hear. I don't know you know what they thought, but there was a silence on the phone and I said listen, I said this weekend, I said I repented and I gave my life back to Christ and I said, before you knew me, I served God for 24 years.
Speaker 1:I was a, I was a men's minister, I was a, a youth sponsor and a youth pastor and I went to the jail ministry and I and I and I just served the church and I was in church every time the doors opened and I said and then I got a divorce and and then my, my, I went through two-year depression. My friend died but two of my friends died and then when I met y'all, I was. I was where I wasn't wanting to be, but that's where I was. You know, I was walking a walk. I wanted to get back, get close to God, but I was. You know, I was walking a walk. I wanted to get back, get close to God, but I was away from him and I said, and I gave my life back to Christ. You know, today, and all of them was very understanding and wow that, you know, thought it was a good thing and, and but that was hard to do, that was hard to call up every one of my friends, you know, the ones that God laid on my heart. I had to call them up and I had to tell them that and I had to share that with them. You know why? Because I wasn't ashamed of it. I was ashamed of the way I had been living, but I wasn't ashamed of the way that God called me back, because that's where I wanted to be. See, the call of God is without repentance. If God called you, then he's not through with you.
Speaker 1:Yet I started riding with the Chariots of Light Motorcycle Ministry. Brother Jerry Savelle had started that group. It's an outreach group. We went to all kinds of Sturgis, daytona, all kinds of rallies, local rallies, local events and what we do. We use the hand of God. And the hand of God is I have a brother that calls it HOG H-O-G. Hand of God and we would just greet people, stick our hand up and when they took our hand it wasn't our hand. We realized it's not our hand but the hand of God that they took and it was an opportunity to share Christ with them and we would talk to them and just learn about them and talk to them and visit with them and then say, hey, listen, can I ask you one question before you leave? You know, if you die today or 20 years from now, do you know where you'd spend eternity? Some of them would say I'd bust hell wide open. Some of them say I'd live with my Savior, jesus Christ. But we always would ask them sit on a scale of one to five. Being honest, if you're truthful to yourself today, where would you say you are Five, being closest to God? Some of them say two, some of them say three, and then we'll pray with them. We say, well, would you like to pray that God gives you a closer walk? Would you like to pray that God would, would start leading and guide you in a closer walk and then we'll pray with them, you know, and we'll pray for whatever they need. Well, we started doing that. I started doing that and I started going with the chariots a lot. And, um, you know we would. I started doing that and I started going with the chariots a lot, and you know we would. I started riding every weekend somewhere and you see, god checked me back in.
Speaker 1:Well, the there was a group of, at once a month, all of the motorcycle ministry groups would meet in Shreveport, louisiana, and they would go to a church somewhere and have service with that church. And so, on this particular Sunday, we met in Bossier City and I got there and it was a big crowd of people there and the Brothers Church that we was going to, we was going to the First Methodist Church in Ringgold, louisiana, ringgold, louisiana. I mean, you got to be going there to get there. It's not something you just pass through. But he asked, as we were having prayer before we left, he said is there anybody who would like to give a testimony about what God's done in their life? And you know, I was a new one to the group.
Speaker 1:This was my second time to go, you know, to the ministerial alliance and to the group. You know, the first time was when I went and God checked me back in, because he checked, I checked out, but he checked me back in and so nobody said anything. And so he asked again, you know, and, and I didn't want to be forward and you know, step up, hey, I want to speak, you know. And I just I waited, I gave people the opportunity, nobody said anything and he said, well, all right. And he said, well, if nobody wants to, then then that's all right, all right. And he said, well, if nobody wants to, then that's all right, I'll just tell the pastor when we get there. And I said, hey, I'd like to share. And he says okay. He says what's your name? And I said William Carroll.
Speaker 1:And actually Turkey spoke up. He says that's my friend, william Carroll, because they all knew him. He'd been a part of this group for a while and going for a while. And we went down to Ringo, louisiana, and listen to this, you know, you can't make this stuff up the pastor's name, the pastor's name, I can't remember his name. I'm sorry, I can't remember his name, that he went by. But what he told me he says my name is so-and-so Bill.
Speaker 1:So-and-so, he says, but my name before adoption was William Carroll. I said, oh, really. He said yes, he said that was my name, that's my name, that's my original name, that was given to me at birth. It's William Carroll. And I said okay. And he said so, do you have a testimony? I said yeah, I got a testimony.
Speaker 1:So what I shared in that testimony when he said he came up and turned it over to me. He said, william, would you like to share? I said yes, I would. And I shared about being checked out. God laid it on my heart that I would share my testimony, how that I had served him, how that I had loved him and ministered to him.
Speaker 1:And then, because of the divorce and because of my depression and because of my friend dying and because my other friend died, that I checked out on God. And God laid it on my heart to say unto them you know, some of you in this church have checked out. You used to teach Sunday school, you used to be involved in the church, you used to have the joy of salvation, but you just feel like you're not walking with God. You're walking, you know, parallel to him and you want to get back, but you don't know how to get back. But you checked out because of life circumstances. Some of you listening today have checked out because of life circumstances. Some of you listening today have checked out because of life circumstances, whether it's divorce, loss of a job, loss of a loved one See, the loss of a loved one can do that too. And we check out. We just check out. We feel abandoned and sometimes we're not even conscious of the fact that we're the ones that checked out. God didn't check out, god didn't leave us, but we left him in a part of our life. And I just told him. I said you got to get back. Some of y'all got to get back right now. You need to check back in today because God's not through with you yet and life's too short to be miserable.
Speaker 1:And I gave an altar call and people received that altar call and after church I walked out and I was standing up front. I mean, I was standing there, you know, outside we all met and gathered together and then we had a fellowship meal and all before we rode back but there was two young kids, a boy and a girl. They was I don't know man. They were, you know, eight, nine, 10 years old probably, and they had kind of acted like ushers doing some of the service, you know, and it was a blessing to see them, man. And so when I walked out, this little girl, she's sitting there and she's leaning up against the post.
Speaker 1:And when I walked out, she says you spoke today, didn't you? And I said yes, ma'am, I did. And she said she said I just want to tell you that was very good. That touched my heart and I mean it broke my heart, see. And I knew it wasn't me, I knew it wasn't my gift of speaking, I knew it wasn't anything in myself, I knew it was the Holy Spirit, speaking through me that stirred the heart. It stirred the heart of this young girl and it put a fire in her eyes, you know, and she just was beside herself, you know, and I said well good, you know, I'm glad the Lord spoke to you. And then I had a guy that was about 70 years old come up and he told me how much he appreciated the word that he had checked out because of the loss of his wife, and it was time for him to check back in. And I'm telling you what. I was so excited.
Speaker 1:And then there was other men and other women coming out of the church and they would make it a point to come over and to talk to me and to tell me how the message ministered to their heart that day. Well, listen, that's God, only God, only the Holy Spirit of God through you, can touch the hearts of someone that is nine or 10 years old, all the way up to 70, 80 years old. It's only the spirit of God. It's not in the power of myself, it's not in the power that I have to speak as a speaker, because if I can speak all I want, if the anointing of God isn't there, then it's not going to do any good. If the Holy Spirit hadn't anointed that word and put power the dunamis that I keep talking about in that word, then it's not going to change people.
Speaker 1:Listen, if you're going to church and you don't see people's lives changing, if you don't see people coming to the Lord, then what are we doing at church? That's all I got to say. Is what are we doing at church? See, the preaching of the gospel should draw a line in the sand and then you should give the opportunity for people to cross that line in the sand. That's what the gospel is. It's a sword, a sword of the spirit, to draw a line in the sand, to give the opportunity for people to to change their lives, to believe in God. Now, listen, at some point some of y'all have listened, some of y'all have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you may have something, may have turned your way, but there's no joy in serving the Lord. There's no fire in sharing the word of God. There's no fire in sharing your experience with Christ at the job or even at the baseball park or wherever you go. See the places that we go or not. We're going there as an ambassador for Christ. Once you are saved and born again, you are an ambassador for Christ. You are an ambassador for Christ. That's what you are an ambassador To wit, to wit what that means to witness that Jesus Christ is alive in you. And that's what we need to do, listen.
Speaker 1:So I got checked back in man. I started going everywhere. I started riding with the chariots of light and I started going anywhere. They wanted me to go and anytime they had something to do we'd go. But we really focused, my group really started focusing on local ministries, because in Shreveport, before pre-COVID there was something every weekend in the area Louisiana, somewhere in Louisiana, you know, was something every weekend in the area Louisiana, somewhere in Louisiana. Some, you know, cause I'm in East Texas, so most of the Texas stuff was was further West. You had to drive three or four hours in Louisiana. You can drive an hour or two, you know, and you can get there. And and that's what we started doing. We started going to Arkansas, louisiana and part of Texas, you know, but just sharing the word of God, just sharing the word of God, and God kind of changed my ministry, he opened up a door for me to minister in that way, you know, at that time, and it's just, it encouraged me, see, because a lot of the people at the Chariots of Light, you know, they're blessed people, man, I love every one of them. They, you know we got a patch that says every member a soul winner, you know. Well, we also got a patch that says every member is a soul, a seed sower.
Speaker 1:Well, some people, you know they really don't like to witness to people. You know that that's not what they feel like, you know, but I seen them step out of their comfort zone and win people to the Lord and realize how easy it is. Once we get past ourself. Some people will say, well, I just don't think you know we should have witnessed to people. You know Some people will say, well, I just don't think you know we should witness to people. You know, you know why not, why not? You better wake up.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you that's what's wrong with the church in America today is because we wanted to take our relationship private and keep it with us in our homes and in our church. Well, you know, the first Christians didn't do that. They thought they were willing to die for their testimony. They were willing to die for telling people the word of God. They were willing to put their life on the line because they wanted to see some people saved. They wanted people to know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news is what God did in my life. See, the gospel today is what God did in my life. Yes, it's the word, it's the Holy Bible. Yes, but it's how that affected me that I can share it with you.
Speaker 1:You know, and as we started riding with the chariot's light, we started going. You know, I started looking for people. I started saying, Lord, open the door. Open the door that I might minister. Open the door, father. Open the door of the hearts of the people. Open the door that I might share your word with somebody. Lord, if you open the door, I'll put my foot in it and I'll share your word. And you know, I've shared the word in cowboy churches, in Methodist churches, in Baptist churches, in Pentecostal and denominational churches.
Speaker 1:You know what you might say. Well, william, what are you? Well, I'm a Baptist, methodist, catholic, costal. I'm all things to all men that I might save some. You see, those labels don't mean nothing to God. Those labels don't mean one thing to God. But I don't mind going to all of them and talking about Jesus Christ and what he's done in my life and to encourage them to seek for the power, pray for power, read the red and pray for power. That's what one pastor used to say. He used to say read the red and pray for power. Now, what does that mean? It says read the gospels where Jesus is speaking and pray for power.
Speaker 1:You know, I've noticed today in the churches a lot of times we stay in the epistles all the time. We never talk about the Old Testament much. We don't talk about the story. There's so many kids that's never heard the stories of the gospel, the old stories of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Tamar and everybody else. They don't know the stories and they don't read it themselves. But when you speak the stories to these younger generations, man, they'll look at you and go, wow, that's in the Bible, yeah, that's in the Bible. Well, also in the Bible is red. It's the words of Jesus, you know. And a lot of times we just don't even hear the words of Jesus in the church too much because we're focused too much on the epistles of Paul. It's almost like we put Paul's word over Christ's word.
Speaker 1:Now, I know it's not meant to be doing that, but, you know, at some point in time we have to stop and we have to think. And we, you know what are we preaching? We're preaching the cross and Jesus Christ, crucified and rose again, born of a Virgin Mary. And then we, the gospel is how he's changed my life man, he changed my life man, he woke me up. We, we, we, we like, I like to go out, I like to pop a tent, you know, at some of these festivals, you know, art festivals or whatever, and just go out there and just pray for people, you know, give them water, give them donuts, ask them how are you doing today?
Speaker 1:You know, and a lot of times they'll tell you that's the wrong thing to ask me today and they'll break down in tears. And then you can get on their level with them and say, no, that was the right question. How can I pray for you? And then pray for them? And it makes a difference in their life. And if they need Jesus, lead them to Jesus, lead them in the prayer.
Speaker 1:Right now you might need Jesus. You might say I need help today. I need help right now. You know I don't understand what all you're saying, but I know I need help. I need God to help me. Is he real? Is he real? Is God real? And I want to tell you, yes, he's real. He's real. He knows who you are, where you are, what you are and what you're going to be, and he has a heart for you. And if you reach out to him, he'll reach back to you. See, jesus will check you in. If you reach out to him, he'll reach back to you. See, jesus will check you in if you've never been checked in. And if you've checked out, jesus will check you back in because he loves you. He's not going to give up on you. He's not going to let the devil steal you out of his hands, because he loves you. The father loves, christ loves you. So if you're yelling right now, I need to check back in. I checked out.
Speaker 1:For whatever reason, it doesn't matter the reason. God will forgive you if you have a repentant heart and you ask him. So all you have to do is pray this prayer after me. Lord Jesus, I believe you're the son of God. I believe that you paid the price upon the cross for my sins and I ask you, lord, to come into my heart to be the Lord of my life. I confess you, oh Lord, as my Lord and savior. Amen. Now. If you pray that prayer, god will honor that prayer. He'll come into your life.
Speaker 1:Now, listen, do you have something to do? Yes, get in the word of god. Learn what the word of god says, because I tell you what the devil tries to twist the word, even as he did in my life after I'd been serving god. Reading his word, learning his word started in his word for 24 years, but he took that one scripture that I shared with y'all about. He wouldn't put more on me than I'm able to handle. Well, see, that was that in the middle of a, it wasn't the whole verse. It says with that, he will give you a way of escape, see, because God doesn't want us to stumble or fall. But see, I just took that and I just popped it in my memory, instead of going out and reading the whole scripture again and reading the chapter before and the chapter after, I just said, oh yeah, that's what God said. And I checked out on him, but he checked me back in.
Speaker 1:Thank God, I believe that there is an awakening coming. You say, well, what's an awakening? Well, there was awakening with John Wesley and George Whitfield and Charles Wesley. There was awakening that happened in America right before the Revolutionary War. There was awakening that happened in Europe.
Speaker 1:And you say, oh, you mean revival. Listen, revival is for the church. I believe there's coming an awakening, but I believe that the awakening there has to be a revival in the church first. Revival starts in the church. See, to revive something means that it was alive, but now it's dead and it needs to be revived. It needs some CPR, some Holy Ghost CPR. It needs the fire of the spirit and the breath of the spirit and the oil of the spirit. See, that's what the church needs, that's what we need as individuals. We need to get on fire.
Speaker 1:You know, charles Restley said man. He says, you know, if I set myself on fire, people will come to watch. He's talking about on the fire of God. You know, john said that there's one that comes after me whose shoes I'm not worthy to lift. He said that he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire man.
Speaker 1:You need to pray for the Holy Ghost and fire and fire man. You need to pray for the Holy Ghost and fire. You need to pray for that dunamis, that dunamis power that's talks about in Acts chapter one and Acts chapter two, that dunamis power, that power, miracle working power, that exploding miracle, god power to preach the gospel, to share the gospel, to share your testimony. You need it to. You say, well, I'm not a preacher, well, that's okay, to share your testimony with power and to change lives. See, we got to quit. Focus on me, me, me. That's what we've done in the United States is focus on us, focus on me, focus on you know my job and my family and my this, and I don't want to get involved with anybody else. I just want to go to church and do my thing and go home and I'm good.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what? There's coming a shaking. God promised that there would be a shaking. In the last days that shaking has started, you know. It says we'll see wars and rumors of wars, and we'll see divers earthquakes and diverse things in different places. And it says but the end is not yet. The end is not yet, for when they say peace and safety, sudden destruction comes upon them. So fear not, but be prepared, get ready, come awake. Get awake, Arise and shine, and let the glory of the Lord be seen on you. Isaiah, chapter 60, verse 1.
Speaker 1:Listen, this is William Carroll Faith Walk podcast. I hope this has blessed you and share it. You know like it subscribe, hit the little old bell and, you know, tell your friends about it. I'm just trying to encourage you. What God's done for me, he'll do for you. The word of God said he's no respecter of persons, and it's true. God is no respecter of persons and I have seen him move in mighty ways in my life and in the life of others and through prayer for others. God is a God that is still on the throne and he's still here on earth through the power of his Holy Spirit and through the power of his people that believe in him, that walk in faith. Start your faith walk today. Tell me about it at faithwalk1960 at outlookcom. Faithwalk1960 at outlookcom. And you can hear this broadcast on spotify, iheart, google podcast, apple podcast, buzzsproutcom, faithwalk, william carroll, buzzsproutcom. Y'all, tune in, go back and listen to some of the other ones until next time. God bless you.
