The Prophetic Preacher

     I had the opportunity to hear the Rev. Jeffrey Brown give a testimony and preach at a revival in Wilson, North Carolina in 2007.  He took his shoes off and stepped up into the pulpit.  He had my attention.  I walked away that day my mind forever changed about healing power and I knew I would never allow people, limitations or circumstances to stop me from reaching the potential God gives to all of us.

     He began by saying, “I have to tell you right from the start that people have planned my funeral six times.  I’ve had cancer and recurring cancer.  One morning after I was healed from all this I felt my throat and a big lump had formed.  Back I went to the surgical room again.”

     This preacher continued on coming down into the midst of the people in his sock feet with an unbelievable strength of voice while his frail lanky body showed the visible scars of the numerous battles for his life.

     “The devil thought he had shut me up with this last surgery,” he said twisting up his mouth in a determined, rebuking manner.

     “During the surgery my vocal cords were damaged and separated,” he said with finality.

     He thought about the surgeon for a second, smiled and said, “I had this Iraqi doctor and he came in my hospital room the next morning with his charts and notes to try to explain to me why I would never speak again.  But he didn’t know people had already prayed for my healing once again and I had spoken to my wife that morning.  I just let him talk on and after he was finished telling me I would never preach again, I looked at him and said, is that right?”

     Well if I was the devil I would shutter when this man got up on his feet to speak because when he pointed his finger at you a supernatural knowledge was released from him onto you in a prophetic affirmation.

     Now I’m here to tell you that this preacher did not know anybody that day with the exception of the pastor and one deacon, yet he spoke the truth over about eight people’s lives.  He looked at one man and said, “God has a protective shield over you, I don’t know what you do or if your job is dangerous but you got a hedge around you.”

     We all looked at each other because the man he was speaking to was in law enforcement.

     Then he looks at another and says, “You’re called to a ministry.”  That man had recently rededicated his life and is a gifted singer and pianist.

     He told one young lady that she would preach to thousands.  That young lady preached at our church a few weeks ago.  I sat stunned and remembering Jeff Brown's prophecy over her.  She said she was more stunned than anybody over that prophecy that day.

     He asks an elderly lady what her daughter’s name was and she says, Marie.  He said, “she’s got grace in her life.”  That daughter’s little six year old girl’s name is Grace.

     He points his finger at me on the second night of the revival and says, “You got power in your tongue.  I see a garment on you with bells on the hem.  I am now a speaker and minister of education.
  
     The first night he was in the middle of his sermon and suddenly he looks up in the choir loft and points at my husband and tells him to come down.  He looks at me in the congregation and said, "This is your husband isn't it?"  Well I was crying by then because my husband and I had just gotten married a month earlier.  Still crying and overwhelmed by this man's discernment he wrapped an anointed cloth around both of our wrists and said, "You have a covenant and you two are going to the promise land."

     What this preacher didn't know was that in this Jubilee Year that I was a Jubilee birth.  It was my season.  God had moved me geographically to Wilson, North Carolina.  I remember saying, Lord has anything good ever come out of Wilson?  God had changed my name, and my husband had nicknamed me Hepzabah.  Two months after this revival God opened a door for me to go back to school where I earned my degree in biblical studies.

     Prophecy is not complicated.  You are either anointed for it or you're not.  In bible times if your prophecy didn't come about you would be killed. If someone prophecies over you make sure it is confirmed by two or more.

     Rev. Brown has went on to be with the Lord, but he touched so many people's lives and his words still linger in our lives today. God had allowed a thorn in his side but then it was that weakness in him that made the glory of God so pronounced in him.