It's Supernatural

Sid:  My guest by way of telephone is red hot for Jesus his name is Gary Carpenter.  I’m speaking to him at his office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gary had been saved for a long time and he had started out in what was known as “Word of Faith Teaching” and it just wasn’t working until one day he went into a church, Dave Roberson’s the pastor of in early 90’s. He listened to Dave’s revelation of what happens, what changes occur in an individual that is Spirit filled and prays for hours at a time in unknown tongues. Based on this challenge at the time Gary was driving a truck he decided that when he was in the truck he would pray in unknown tongues. I mean the first time you did that Gary how long were you able to pray?

Gary:  A typical shift for a long haul trucker is 10 hours on 10 hours off. So my first shift praying in other tongues was 10 hours if you can believe that.

Sid:  Now was that difficult the first time?

Gary:  Was it difficult (laughing)? After about the first… I started off with great gusto with a voice of authority, and speaking rather loud. After about the first 2 hours would you like to know what I had received?

Sid:  Sure.

Gary:  A dry throat and a very sore tongue.

Sid:  Oh my. You know a lot of people would have stopped after that.

Gary:  Well again I had studied the message that Dave had taught for 6 months checking out every verse, checking out scripture. I had listened to cassette tapes I would take them with me on the road during that 6 months and I would listen to them again and again. I would check out every scripture. I was convinced that Dave was right. So the only change I had made because Dave had told us that God’s not hard of hearing. He said you can pray softly and He hears you just as well. So what I did after the first 2 hours I lowered my voice about a normal speaking voice like I’m doing now and I would just pray. Now that first day I have to tell there were times when my mind would drift and suddenly I would become aware that I wasn’t praying in tongues anymore. I don’t know how long I had not you know 5 minutes, 10 minutes who knows. Well I could do was say “Oops! I’m sorry Lord I’ll begin again forgive me.”  I’d start again, now after while it to where my mind wouldn’t drift much like that and I was able to continue praying in other tongues…

Sid:  Now what happened after doing that that first day did anything unusual go on with you?

Gary:  My life… that day was the beginning of the complete change and revolution of our entire lives. Not just for me but for my family, many people that receive our tapes. Now this part is important because nothing happened I didn’t hear God say anything, I didn’t have any visions, I didn’t have anything until sometime during sometime between the 9^th and the 10^th hour.

Sid:  What happened?

Gary:  Thank God I didn’t quit…

Sid:  (Laughing)

Gary:  …after 7 hours, after 8 hours (laughing).

Sid:  Listen there are people listening to us that have been praying in tongues for 20 years and have never prayed in tongues more than 1 hour in their life.

Gary:  And I know I was one of those. I always thought it was nifty that God would give us these supernatural languages but I never understood what they were for until Dave Roberson taught me. Anyway, you asked what happened. I had what I call a teaching vision, let me describe to you what I mean by that. Now thank God when you’re driving an 80 thousand pound big rig through downtown Memphis during rush hour that it wasn’t the kind of vision where everything goes away and you’re transported to another realm.

Sid:  Out of curiosity had you had this type of a vision previously?

Gary:  Not really.

Sid:  Now you’ve been saved for at least a decade, right?

Gary:  That’s right and what scares me now is that I had the teacher living in me all that whole decade but I never knew how to activate His teaching gift until Pastor Dave taught me.

Sid:  So what happened to you?

Gary:  Suddenly I had what I call a teaching vision and the best way I know to describe it is this. I could still see what I was doing, I could see the traffic, but you know how you can remember a scene from a movie, it’s like most people have seen “Gone With the Wind.” You can recall various scenes from that movie even while we are talking now.

Sid:  Sure.

Gary:  It’s very much like that, it’s almost like a memory, it’s almost like a movie playing across the screen of your mind, but you can still see with your natural eyes and comprehend with everything that is going on around you. Well in this vision, and I’ll just briefly describe it, I saw these ellipses like up in the sky, and I saw a man standing on a flat plane of the horizon. Written on those ellipses or circles in the sky were wonderful things like: health, faith, love, joy, peace later I learned He was describing the fruit of the Spirit. The man was looking up at those things from earth and he really wanted them bad he wanted and needed all of those things. As I’m looking at the vision he’s jumping and reaching but there’s no way he can reach up into the sky. I mean they’re there, they are obtainable but not by him because he has no way to get to where they are. They’re in heaven he’s on the earth. In the vision suddenly lines, just like pencil lines almost, were being drawn from these circles down to the man. When they reached the man then the contents of the circle like love began flowing down the line to the man and he was receiving all of those things. I’m going “What are those lines? What is that?”

Sid:  I want them (laughing).

Gary:  I’m watching this unfold before my very eyes. Suddenly on every one of those lines and that word was “Faith.”  By faith you receive from God’s grace. Suddenly all that teaching that I had heard for so many years about the faith message and what faith is, and all the definitions suddenly I understood it in a way that it was personal just for me. It was like the Holy Spirit had designed this vision to communicate it to Gary Carpenter in a way that Gary Carpenter could personally understand it. From that day to this I have never been the same. I know how to receive from my God.

Sid:  Now February 1994 you heard an audible voice from God what did He say?

Gary:  Well He didn’t come as teacher that day He came as Lord (laughing). What He told me was this, He said… I was on a regular trip and He said “This is to be your last trip as a truck driver. When you return back to Tulsa I want you to give your dispatcher 2 weeks’ notice, he will not require it of you and you will be free to serve me full-time. I’m calling you full-time into the ministry.” That was pretty much the message whether it was actually audible I don’t know but it sounded to me like if you had been in that cab of that truck with me you would have heard it.

Sid:  Did you immediately tell your wife and quit your job?

Gary:  I absolutely did not tell my wife?

Sid:  Why?

Gary:  (Laughing) Well my wife is very much a faith woman and led of the Lord with all of her heart and had she known she would have been after me to obey Him.

Sid:  Oh I was thinking the opposite okay (laughing).

Gary:  Yeah it’s not what you think my wife is… the Lord has told me more than once that her heart is even more His servant than mine.

Sid:  So you were afraid to tell her because she would make you do it. You mean you were even hesitant about doing if God told you to do this?

Gary:  Oh I was absolutely hesitant.

Sid:  Why?

Gary:  My real training is in engineering and I’m a very pragmatic person as you know, like you say you are and I imagine you are. We have not met yet I hope to meet you soon, but can I be real can I be honest?

Sid:  Please.

Gary:  I’m going…

Sid:  I mean there’s too much hype and junk out there it’s about time we be transparent.

Gary:  He’s basically calling me full-time into the ministry there’s only one problem with that…

Sid:  What’s that?

Gary:  What ministry (laughing)…

Sid:  He didn’t tell you what?

Gary:  He didn’t tell, and this is the principle now I didn’t know this at the time I know it now in hindsight. You can forget about asking Him about step 2 until you’ve already obeyed what He told you in step 1 (laughing). I started begging the Lord I started saying “Well Lord how am I going to feed my family? We have rent, we have car payments…”

Sid:  Did you have children?

Gary:  At the time… I do have 3 daughters but at the time none of them were living here.

Sid:  Okay.

Gary:  They were grown.

Sid:  Hmm hm.

Gary: But still we had all the normal expenses like everybody else has the electric company they like to be paid every month…

Sid:  Did you have much in savings?

Gary:  Oh no (laughing) hardly any at all and we were in debt and most of it was junky debt. I mean credit card bills and just typical Americans you know.  I had not… He did not say a word about how any of that was to be paid. He didn’t tell me even what He was going to have me be doing. He just said “You’ll be working full-time for Me” that’s all that I knew. I kept begging and asking and talking with Him every day “Well Lord how will we eat? How will I pay my rent? How will we make the car payment? How will we keep the utilities on?” The silence Sid was deafening (laughing). It was deafening. He never said anything to me about that.

Sid:  Alright so He didn’t answer, you didn’t answer, you didn’t quit your job, did you feel bad about not answering that?

Gary:  I felt really bad, I felt really bad. I did answer Him I didn’t answer Him in words I answered Him in my action. I said “No!”

Sid:  But 10 months later, in fact I know the exact date December 4, 1994 you were driving in the state of Arkansas on a cold foggy night and what happened?

Gary:  Well let me preface to what happened with this, because many people think when I tell you about what I am to say many people think the Lord did this to me and He most certainly did not. Safety for any sheep is to stay very close to their shepherd and if He’s leading down a certain path if the sheep wants to stay safe he needs to be staying close to where He’s leading.

Sid:  You know some people say to me when they hear of a Jewish person called to Israel they say “How can this be with all the unrest that’s going on there?” What they don’t understand is if that person is called to Israel and they go to Israel they’ll be safer in Israel than they’ll be in the United States.

Gary:  Oh absolutely I believe that with all of my heart. As you long as you stay close to Him that is the place of ultimate safety, that is the place of protection.

Sid:  Gary I hate to do this to our Mishpochah but I want you to pick up on what happened on that date.