My father, Johnny Carroll, has been blessed with a unique relationship with God. God speaks to him specifically and frequently, but not in the manner you might think; God often speaks to him in dreams. I cannot not tell you how many times that it has amazed me the way things God has shown him in dreams have come to pass. I would like to share a couple of those stories with you.
One the neat dreams that my father had was concerning a lady that would pray through in one of his revivals. One night my father had a dream that he, and some other church people, came across a shallow grave, and in that grave was a body. The grave was so shallow that you could see the outline of the person. So, my father began to remove the dirt with his hands, and very quickly uncovered a woman who was bound with rope. My father took a pocket knife and carefully began to cut away the ropes that bound her. In the dream the lady was short, with short dark hair.
Within a day or two a pastor called my father and asked him to come and preach a Revival. Of course my father told my mother and I the dream the next morning after he had it. So, when the first night of that revival came, in walked this lady, she was short and had short dark hair. My father immediately knew this was the lady that he had saw in the dream. She, like that lady in the dream, was bound with many ropes; ropes of cigarettes, and numerous other addictions. For 21 straight nights of revival my father prayed with her for at least 1 1/2 hours every single night, but my fathers faith never wavered because of what the Lord had shown him in the dream. On the 21st service she received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Another time we were camping as a family and during the night my father had a dream that he and my mother were fishing. My father was catching the fish and was throwing them up on the bank where my mother was. After a while he asked mother, "how many do you think there is," and she responded, "about 20-25." He was amazed that she had guessed so low and said, "there is at least 50." He woke up immediately and the Lord spoke to him that the fish were souls, and the that he was going to give us a revival of about fifty souls.
So, when we got Bakersfield, CA, for the first three weeks or so dad didn't preach but just a couple sermons. In fact, Brother Dawson said that he was wondering if he could even preach. After the first three weeks or so revival began to break and about fifteen weeks later the dream had come to pass!
I could spend hours telling stories just like this. It was amazing growing up and seeing a man operate in a dimension of faith for souls that you only read of in great revival books of the past. God has blessed me to see this occur hundreds of times.
I am really excited about leaving in the morning on my trip to Jamaica. I am making a 3 day stop in Ohio to preach for a friend there who will also be accompanying me, as well as two other ministers from his church, on my Jamaican journey. I will be preaching 11 times in about 8-9 days, so it is going to be a busy week and a half.