Welcome to God First, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's episode. It's a privilege to join you each week. I want to thank you for tuning in.
And today I am very excited. I have a frequent guest of our program who is joining us. His name is Pastor Bill Jenkins, and he's come to discuss his latest book. He is the senior pastor of Destinyland Christian Center in Rancho Cucamonga, California.
He is also an author, radio host, husband, and father of three boys. So Pastor Bill, it is always an honor and a privilege to speak with you. And I want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule to speak with us today. Well, hey, Brian, always good to be with you. I love the questions you ask and just love your radio voice. And I know this is going to be a good time for both of us. All right.
Well, thank you so much. And you are doing great things for the kingdom. And is it accurate to say that what you do, what you're doing is a series each year, a prophetic almanac series. And so you're coming up now with 2022, the prophetic almanac. So is that accurate to say you would call this an annual series of books that you're writing?
Yeah, I think that's more than fair to say. And I write other books and I have another book coming out here in just a few months that is already done and ready to be released. But I do this sort of like the farmer's almanac. You know, the farmer's almanac comes out every year.
What we need is the spiritual equivalent in the church. And so the Lord really put it upon my heart to write the prophetic almanac. So since 2015, I've been writing these annual books to sort of give people an idea of what to expect of God and what God expects of them and what the vision is based upon that important number for that year.
OK, awesome. And we've had you on, I think, for the last three, including this one, 2020, 21 and 22. And so the first one you said was in 2015, right?
Yeah, the first one was 2015. The Lord has been using numbers in the Bible to sort of teach me to release a vision since probably 2008 or nine. But I put it in book form since 2015. It really was birthed out of a desire to know God more. And so he really began to teach me how to study numbers and colors, names, places, people and symbols of the Bible in order to expand my thinking of the word. Because there are thirty one thousand one hundred and two verses in the Bible. Every verse is important. If every verse is important, every word is important. If every word is important, then there's a reason why numbers are in the Bible. Colors are in the Bible. Symbols are in the Bible.
And that's what the Lord has sort of given me some revelation on is to help you to understand what it means based upon the consistency of when and where it's mentioned in the Bible. All right. Good stuff.
Good stuff. OK, so let's unpack it as far as the book goes. So again, this is for the year 2022. So you're putting a heavy emphasis on the number 22. So to get us started, what what does the number 22 mean when mentioned in the Bible and how do you outline it in the book? Well, what I do is I first of all look at the number of mentions in the Bible. So 22 is actually mentioned only nine times in the Bible.
And when it's mentioned, it revolves around three things that you're going to have to get the book to get it all. But I'll give you a little taste, because when you see 22, it really revolves around number one, marriage. The Bible mentions marriage 22 times. And so I think this is a year where if you're single, you need to prepare your heart for maybe your destiny mate, for your spirit mate.
And instead of looking for the right person, start being the right person. And if you're married, let's understand that the divorce rate in the church is now equal to that in the world. And we got to stop that. So I tell you things that we can do, according to the Bible, to fix our marriages, to stimulate and stir up our marriage, to have better marriages, because this is a year we're going to have to focus in on our marriage.
We can't focus in on the world. We get our own houses in order. And so we got to get our houses in order by getting our hearts in order and by getting our marriages in order. The second thing that the number 22 revolves around when it's mentioned in the Bible is the Holy Spirit.
You know the story. You know the scripture. John 20 22.
We're living in 2022. The scripture, John 20 22 says, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. This is a year when we've got to live by the Holy Spirit, give by the Holy Spirit, just walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Think by the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Everything we do do in 22 needs to revolve around the power of the Holy Spirit that's in our life.
And so 22 revolves around marriage, revolves around the Holy Spirit. And third of all, it revolves around disorder. The number 11 is the number of chaos.
Take 11 times 2. 22, you have a doubling of the disorder, physical disorder, civil disorder, political disorder, mental disorders are on the rise. And so we need to come against this disorder that's invading our land by making sure that our houses are where they need to be. Get our houses in order. We've got a banner in our church right in the front that says, get your house in order, because this is a year. If you don't get in an order, you are going to live in chaos in 2022.
The devil's out to get us all the time, right? But 2022 is a year where he's increasing his attack upon the church. If you look in the Bible, the Bible even says that Abraham, when he sacrificed his son, Isaac, when he was going to sacrifice his son, he laid the wood and placed the wood in order. Abraham also got his affairs in order before he died.
Hezekiah, when he got his affairs in order, according to the word of the prophet, he got a 15-year extension in his life. And so this is a year we have to focus in on marriage, we have to focus in on the Holy Spirit, and we have to focus in on getting our houses in order here in 2022. And I just love the way you laid out about marriage and getting our house in order, because that's an excellent point. So many people that are single, I see it and hear it a lot.
I was guilty of it myself when I was single years ago when you have this list of things that you're looking for in a person. But as you said, how many people are really examining themselves to be the right person to get their house in order? And I just think that when we do that and we emphasize living for the Lord, then that person that he wants for us will come along.
We'll be preparing, getting ourselves prepared for that mate when they show up. Yeah, I mean, one of the greatest things that any of us can do, whether married or single, is to be a servant. So for a servant, when we're single, it's going to carry over into our married life, because one of the keys to a successful marriage is that you out serve your spouse. You do things to bless them. You put them ahead of yourself. You treat them better than yourself, because you realize that that is the one that God has sent you. They're a godsend.
My wife, I've been married 23 years, she's a godsend. She's not a thorn in the flesh, she's a godsend. And so I have to realize that for me and for her, it goes both ways, that we are here to celebrate one another, not to tolerate one another. And if we learn to celebrate one another, we're going to want to out serve. We're going to bless. We're going to want to give. We're going to want to do.
We're going to want to speak their love languages. We're going to want to do whatever is necessary to feed that relationship so that it can grow to be everything that God designed it to be. Wow, that's so good.
That's so good. I think you stepped on a lot of toes right there when you said we are to be servants. We are to serve one another in marriage. A lot of people don't think of marriage in that way.
So that's so powerful. Also share with us, so you laid out in the book about the church and of course, we as followers of Jesus Christ, we are the church and we're always examining the church. What is the church doing today in light of the things that are going on in the world, the cultural events? We stress here having a biblical worldview. So what commands for the church do you lay out in this almanac?
Well, we have to get back to really understanding that we need to walk in obedience to the Lord. One of the best things about the book is when I break down every book of the Bible that has a chapter 22. Now, you know, the Bible had six books, but it only there's only 22 books that have a 22nd chapter.
So that's pretty cool. And so what I do is I break it down for you. I look at every book of the Bible that has a chapter 22, and then I tell you exactly what you can expect for this year, what you need to look out for, what you need to be on guard for, what you need to prepare your heart for.
And I just break it down. For instance, Genesis 22 is about Abraham offering his son Isaac. And this is a year where our faith is going to be tested. Exodus 22 is about fulfilling our social responsibility. We have a social responsibility. You can't be so spiritual that you're no earthly good.
You have to understand there's responsibilities you have just as a person, just as being someone in society and humanity that requires certain things of you. Leviticus 22 is about following priestly guidelines. Numbers 22 is how you need to be smarter than a donkey. You remember the story of Balaam.
It's a great story, man. I break it down for you. Numbers 22 is about honoring your marriage. Joshua 22 is about seeking peaceful resolutions. 1 Samuel 22 is about having the heart of God. 2 Samuel 22 is about writing your own song. I teach you how to write your own song this year.
It may not be on the radio, it may not be sung by some famous singer, but the bottom line is you write a song for you because the devil wants to steal our song. God wants to give us our song back in 2022, and so I take you on the journey how we need to train our children, be a watchman, reject stubbornness, learn how to carry our cross, understand there's still time to change, speak up and speak out for God. All of these things I put in the book based upon what's in these chapter 22s, and it's a pretty cool chapter to me. I let the Old Testament and the New Testament speak wherever there's a book of the Bible that has a chapter 22. It's one of my favorite parts of the book because it's almost like having 22 different sermons that if a pastor is out there, they can use to sort of stir up their spirit each and every week for a half a year to really preach the things and to have insight into things. But it's just a little outline. It's going to help them.
They've still got to come up with the meat and potatoes, but I give them the outline. I'm proud of that part of the book more than anything because it's all about the Bible. Yeah, and I love the story of Balaam in the Bible.
I mean, that's one that I talk about a lot, even to kids, because kids seem to really have an interest in it, a strong interest, and that is just an amazing account of things that are going on there. And also, when you lay this out, it's for the purpose of providing wisdom and guidance. And Pastor Bill, that is what we need right now. When we look at all these things going on in the world with COVID, you know, here we are going on for more than two years now, and still, I don't think that there's any more harmony concerning COVID and how to approach it and address it now than there was a year and a half ago. It seems like people are continuing to be at one another, whether to vax or not vax, whether to gather in the church or not gather, whether to mask or not mask. And when we look at things like critical race theory that is just so in division, so many things that are happening in our nation and throughout the world. And so people, they need this because they need to have the wisdom and the guidance that God gives us in the Bible to understand how to navigate these issues.
Yeah. And you said it perfectly right there. I mean, the Bible is our guidebook.
It's our GPS. And so if we don't use the Bible, we're going to fail. Our country is split right down the middle. We're no better. We're no different.
Things are still the same before COVID as they are right now. And so we have to turn to the Bible. We have to get rid of this sort of disorder because it's only going to double. You know, if you ignore something, it doesn't get better on its own.
It's only going to get better when you address it and you have direction on how to get out of that. Well, our direction is found in and through the word of God. And so this book is, you know, it's something where, you know, I give you direction.
I give you sort of the map in order to help you to get out. We're not giving you some weird Christian calculation. I'm not trying to sanctify numerology or deceive you with some new doctrine here. I'm really giving you the truth of the word of God.
I'm a word guy. So everything I give you is based upon the Bible. It's based upon scripture. And so when we look at that number 22, it is what it is. It means what it means. I'm not just pulling something out of my ear to give you a vision for this year.
I'm really looking at the number 22 when it's mentioned in the Bible, dissecting it, and then helping you to understand the areas that you need to focus in on throughout this year so that you can be successful. So that we can be successful. And if we don't do that, that just falls back on us. But hopefully people will have a desire.
You know, they're sick and tired of being sick and tired. We're getting, you know, direction from people who sometimes don't even know what they're talking about. We need to go to the word because we know that God always knows what he's talking about.
And he can help us to sort of hit that reset button, get on the right path and start heading in the direction that, you know, we believe that God wants us to begin to head in in our lives and in our world. Pastor Bill, how can listeners find a copy? How can they purchase a copy of this almanac? Yeah, they can go to Amazon. They can download it on e-book Kindle.
They can go to eBay. We're really excited that Walmart has just picked this up. And so the largest retailer in the world, Walmart, has decided to start carrying our books.
And so we're really excited about that. Barnes and Noble, probably the best place that you can get the book, though, is pastorbilljenkins.org. Because not only can you get this book, you can get all 16 of my books. You can listen to all the archive programs we have for our radio program, which is a daily radio program Monday through Friday every single day. And you can connect with me on social media to get my Minute That Matters. It's a one-minute little video devotional every single day.
So Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. If you know how to get there, great. You can find me real easy. If you don't, go to pastorbilljenkins.org.
Hit the little icon that'll take you there. I give you a daily devotional. It never goes past 60 seconds. It's one minute.
You'll be surprised how much I get in in just one minute time. So go check it out all out at pastorbilljenkins.org. All right.
And we'll give out that information again at the end of the program. And Pastor Bill, you know, again, as we talk about just how to navigate these issues, and I want to talk about, again, just the church for just a couple more minutes, because when I look at the church today, and I just want to ask your opinion, and we're not here, folks, to to shame anyone or to cast stones. You know, you're a pastor and I know your focus is on your church, but at the same time, you have a heart for all of humanity. So when it comes to the church as a whole, and let's really look at in the United States of America, how close do you think we are to really hitting the mark of what God is calling us as the church to be and to do in these times that we're living in?
Oh, wow. I don't want to be negative. But listen, if you ask me that question, I got to be honest, because, you know, I think we're missing the mark big time. I think we're focusing in on the minors and instead of focusing in on the majors. I think if you go to most churches, you don't feel the conviction in the service the way you should. We're petting devils instead of casting devils out. And so I think that we need to go into the pulpits with a more honest approach. Live the life before you get in the pulpit so you have the right to preach what you're living, not just preach in the word of God. You know, I'm a big person on integrity, integrity in your heart, integrity in your life, with your marriage, children.
If I can't be a good father, if I can't be a good husband, I don't deserve to be in the pulpit preaching to people. And so I'm just big on that. You know, I was raised where people, you know, I saw a lot of fake stuff and I wanted to be genuine. I don't like synthetics, fake people.
I want real people. If you don't like me, that's fine. I don't care. One of the things that I got delivered of that was probably the greatest deliverance that I ever experienced in my life was not freedom for drugs or alcohol.
It was freedom for myself where I quit caring about what people thought about me. And so we can't be, you know, we need limp-wristed, wimpy preachers in the pulpit. We've got to preach the truth. And if people don't like it, that's fine. But I don't want to be the preacher that somebody's looking for in hell because I lied to them.
I want to be the one that are looking for me in heaven saying, thank you. I didn't like what you always said, but you always preach the truth. And so I think we have to be honest.
I think we have to be straightforward. Quit playing games, quit yanking people's chains. Quit talking about things that really don't matter. Focus in on the major things and quit focusing in on these minor things that really don't make a difference. Wow.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I was talking to a man a few weeks ago, a few months ago, and he's now in his mid-forties to fifties. And he told me the influence that it had on him growing up as a child because he said that he would attend church with his grandmother. And in church, he said he would see these these ladies and they're in there with their their nice dresses on and the hats and they're giving praise and going through all the things that you see in church. But he said then after church, they would walk out and you would just hear them using all this profane language and just all these ungodly acts that they were doing.
And he said he was scratching his head because he said what they were living is not matching up. And we see that. But especially as you said, the pastor is called to be a man of integrity, to live out what it is that he's preaching.
And you're right. You just don't hear a lot of truth in churches today. You don't hear a lot of speaking out against sin, speaking about repentance and addressing the issues of our day. I know some people say, well, we can't get political, but we can't divorce ourselves from any area of life because we are a warriors for Jesus Christ. So we have to be a part of everything in this world that we're living in.
The Bible says to be in the world, but not of the world. So we're here and we have to be an influence. We have to be the salt and light. But but we, of course, don't partake in the ways of the world, the ungodliness. We are to instead be the influence that gets the world to repent and turn back to Jesus Christ. So so I agree with you totally on that.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard to find the difference anymore between the saints and the aunts. And so we've got to stand out among the crowd, not just fit in. I think we have a desire to fit in and go with the flow and, you know, think that silence is golden.
And it's not. We need to speak up, speak out. This is the year we have to do that. And I believe, you know, we've had too many echoes and not enough voices. This is a year when I think God is raising up voices and he's going to stifle all of those echoes. We don't need people just repeat the same old stuff they heard on the Internet. I want somebody to get into the Lord, man, and give me a word from God for the now, for that Rhema word. I need something that's going to bring life to me today.
I don't I don't need, you know, you to just talk about, you know, this, that or the other. I need the word of God. If somebody can get the word, then they're going to get life.
Think about this. You know, you never get a healing, a miracle deliverance from God. You always get a word from God. I can prove to you in the scripture that before anybody ever got a healing, a miracle deliverance or a blessing, they got a word. And what they did with that word determines the difference between success and failure. So what you need is not a healing, what you need is not a miracle, what you need is not a deliverance, what you need is not a blessing.
What you need is a word. When you get a word from God, that will bring, that will release those things into your life. And so we've got to get back to, you know, standing up, speaking out, telling the truth, quit worrying about what people are going to think about us. We're here to be messengers. We're here to be voices, not just fit in, but stand out here in 2022. Well said. Well said.
I love it. All right. So in the Almanac, you also mentioned some specific dates, places and people to watch in 2022. So can you speak to that? Yeah, I always give, you know, different people to watch.
You know, there's really no rhyme or reason for it. It's just people that the Lord put on my heart to tell us to watch. You know, Luke Adonship, you know, NBA superstar Taylor Swift, Roman Reigns, the vice president, Kamala Harris, Patrick Mahomes, James Corden, Dua Lipa, Elon Musk, Maurice Witherspoon. I give you 22 different names to watch. And then I give you prophetic dates. Twenty two prophetic dates are just dates to keep your eyes and ears open on for something to happen that will go along with the vision of marriage, of, you know, the Holy Spirit or of order or disorder going on in our world. By the way, if you'll take last year's Almanac and look at those dates that I gave you for prophetic dates in 2021, you're going to see how cool it is that it's going to actually just Google the dates and it's going to bring up different things that happened on that day to coincide with the vision for last year.
I do this every year. So it's one of the coolest things to do. So I give you movies to watch. I tell you a scripture of the year, which is John 20, 22, where Jesus breathed on him and said, receive you the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the spirit, which is patience.
I give you different things like places to watch the animal of the year Bible characters. So it's really a fun book, 120 pages, really filled with inspiration, information and divine revelation to sort of guide you through your path in 2022. All right.
That is indeed very, very interesting. All right. So to wrap things up, let's close out with I love the fact that you give a spiritual forecast in these almanacs for our nation. So what do you have to say concerning the United States of America in 2022?
Again, like we said earlier, we see the division that is happening with so many things. But but what is the spiritual forecast that you have? And, you know, we're not asking you to give it all because we want people to read the book. But just give us a little teaser of what you have to say in there. Oh, absolutely.
I mean, this is a year when, you know, God is sort of trying to speak a word to sober us up. And what I do is I break the 50 states down into five regions. I give you one word for America. And so if you get the book, no matter what state you live in, there's a little word for you. And then I give you like the state of that region to watch for a prayer for that region, a scripture, the Book of the Bible to read for that region. I give you a landmark, a major city, a state and then key munch for that region.
So all five regions. But let me give you one word. And basically it is a sobering word that we have had eyes to see, but we are blind. We have ears to hear, but we don't listen.
We've had a mouth to speak, but we're silent and we have a mind to think. But we have shed out common sense from the scriptures and ignored the pleas of the Lord. And we've chosen to follow other paths, you know, in life. And they are leading to our destruction because of peer pressure in society. And we're not discerning the times, we're forgetting the spiritual lessons.
The elect are being deceived and are falling in an inescapable trap is one of the things that the Lord has spoke to me. And we're making excuses. And we've got to stop making excuses.
And we have to sort of wake up in 2022. Remember when Adam sinned, God went looking for Adam and it wasn't that he couldn't find him. He said, Adam, where are you? And I think he's asking us in 2022, where are you? Where are you hiding?
What bush are you hiding behind? Come out, stand up, speak out, declare the truth, live your life, draw a circle around yourself and be the kind of person that you need to be. We always say we want things, but are we willing to be what we want? Are we willing to do what we need? Are we willing to follow God in total obedience?
Partial obedience is still disobedience. So this is a year where God is calling the church to walk in obedience, to stay connected, to minimize that gap between us and the Lord, to do everything that we can to close that gap between us and the Lord. And to understand that this is a year when we've got to do our part to be the salt and the light in this society in order to bring change.
We're sitting here twiddling our thumbs. We need to be out there declaring the truth, showing the love of God and making sure that people know who Jesus Christ really is. He's the savior of the earth, but he's also got purposes for our life. He's also got plans for our life. And when we learn the principles of Christ and don't just know the person of Christ, I'm telling you, we're going to be able to be setting us up and setting others up for great success here in 2022.
But we've got to know the person and we've got to apply the principles. And it's our job to make sure we're getting the good news out there to the world here in 2022. And well, to all of that, I say a hearty amen.
Very, very well said. Share with us again, Pastor Bill. How can the listeners get a copy of the Prophetic Almanac for 2022 and also give out the information for your church as well? Yeah, go to Amazon, download it on e-book, Kindle, go to eBay, go to Wal-Mart.
You can go online right now. You can get it at Wal-Mart. You can go to Barnes and Noble. Go to Pastor Bill Jenkins dot org.
That way, when you go to Pastor Bill Jenkins dot org, not only can you get this book, you can get all 16 of my books in total. You can listen to all the archive radio programs. They're 30 minute little radio programs, absolutely free. You can listen to them on Pastor Bill Jenkins dot org.
And then you can get my Minute That Matters. People around the world, radio stations around the world play this little Minute That Matters. It's a little devotional every single day, Monday through Friday. It's a cool little way to connect with me and for me to give you just a prophetic word, a little nugget, one minute, 60 seconds every day called the Minute That Matters. And so if you go to Pastor Bill Jenkins dot org, you can see the little icons for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. You can hit those little icons or you can go directly to those social media websites and you get my Minute That Matters every single day. But if you want the book, the best place, Pastor Bill Jenkins dot org. That way you can get it all.
It's a one stop shop. All right. Well, Pastor Bill, thank you so much again for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. We just pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry and just keep going forward with all the great things that you're doing.
Thanks, Brian. Love your heart. Love what you're doing. Praying free, man. Appreciate the opportunity to be with you. All right.
Thank you so much. And to our listening audience, never underestimate the importance of prophecy, because our Lord Jesus gave various prophetic passages in which he stated, when you see all these things begin to happen, to look up and watch because your redemption draws near. So the prophetic ministry is biblical and we should always be forward thinking and forward looking. We're not here to be sensationalist, but we are to be looking to see if these are the times that our Lord was speaking of.
He said you would know the seasons and the times. So I want to thank you for tuning in. Please come back and join us again next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. To the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to the God first program. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.
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