Barbara Pittman - Jacksonville, FL - Part 1

Sister Barbara Pittman shares her testimony and Book-of-Acts encounters while doing ministry in Alaska and Florida, etc. This is Part 1 of a 2-part episode. 

 

In Part 1 she shares how she met Jesus, how two old ladies exploited her gift as a seer, and the supernatural things she 'saw' before and after her call to ministry. 

Please visit, share, and support Sis. Barbara's ministries:

1. Radio/Podcast: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedom-doors-ministries

2. Freedom Doors Ministries website: https://www.freedomdoorsministries.com/

3. Jesus in the Morning website: https://www.jesusinthemorningradio.com/

Find our website, Instagram, newsletter, and podcast on the Internet:

Website: https://urbanfreshgardens.com/

Instagram: urbanfreshgardens_ufg

Newsletter: https://ufg.beehiiv.com/

Podcast: https://theurbanlp.alitu.com/

 

Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to the Urban Fresh Podcast, where we interview missionaries from around the globe. I'm your host, Tanisha Knight, and I'm so glad you could join us today.

Speaker B: We are interviewing Barbara Pittman. What I loved about this interview is that it was unusual and refreshing. Unusual because it's not every day that I get to speak with prophetess, which I believe Sister Barbara is. And it was refreshing because.

Speaker C: I guess.

Speaker B: For the same reason I just mentioned. It's great. It's great to know that the Holy Spirit, God, is working right now to do miraculous things in people's lives. And he speaks to people, and there are miracles, there are visions, there are dreams still happening, and I wish that more of us were experiencing these things in our lives. And Sister Barbara, as she probably will tell you, that she's no different from any other Christian. But what is unique about her is that she has grown in obedience and is very sensitive to the Spirit. And I believe God has really given her some special gifts. So I hope you will enjoy this episode as much as I did. Thank you.

Speaker A: Okay, Sister Barbara, thank you so very much for joining us on the Urban Fresh podcast. As I said before to you, I am very pleased and honored that you decided to come, that the Spirit led you to come to us. Been listening to you for a while and love your ministry, and I'm pleased to be able to talk with you. So I wanted you to tell us about yourself and about your ministries. I know you have at least two Freedom ministries and Jesus in the morning.

Speaker C: Yes. I'm going to try to make it as short as possible, but to tell you about myself, really, I just love the Lord and I love what he has done for me and in me. And when nobody else could help me, he was the only one. So I often refer back to the song for myself that I once was sinking deep in sin and I was far from the peace for shore I was very deeply stained within sinking to rise no more but the master of the sea he heard my despair and cry My lips wasn't moving yet I was screaming and he heard it and from the waters he lifted me Today I can say safe am I love lifted me Almighty God. So today my life is hid in Christ. I'm no longer on my own. I still have to eat and sleep like everybody else. But when the Scripture says, delight yourself also in him, when the Scripture says, if we keep our mind on him, then I'm focused on these things. And just recently, almost a week ago, I was talking to him about more of him for me, for myself. And he brought me to this video on YouTube that says, put God first. Isn't that amazing? Put God first. Okay? You want more of me? You want to draw close to me? Put me first in everything. So he gets the first fruit of everything, the first fruit of our day, because I am his and he is mine. So that's what I can tell you about me. Now, as far as Freedom Doors ministry goes, it's an outreach ministry, and I evangelize all over the world. It's a ministry where people can come and talk to me about anything and not be judged. I don't care what it is. And whatever you share with me is between us, no one else. And God hears. And so many times, God will give me what to tell you, and then sometimes he give me nothing. I just need to be a listening ear. Yeah. Jesus in the morning is a podcast radio that I broadcast every morning, 07:00 a.m. Eastern time until 10:00 a.m. And people from all over the world come to take a listen every day. That's how I met Irene. Irene is from Australia, and so she come and she started listening. I think it's been a year or two, and she continues to come every morning. And what Jesus in the morning? It's an early morning church service. We physically have church, and then many days, whatever God does is what he does. I never know what he's going to do. I ask him, he tell me the title, the subject, the topic, and it goes from there. Nothing written down, none of that. Yeah, he just allowed me to flow in him.

Speaker A: Two things that you said there that I wanted to follow up on. The first thing is that you say that you hear the voice of God. And my husband and I were talking this week about that. Maybe it was last week, but this idea that we wanted to figure out how the prophets of old, of the Old Testament heard God, was it an audible voice? I think sometimes he did that. But was it more like a pressing on your conscience? For example? I know from what I've heard from you that you operate in the prophetic and in the discernment. How do you know when God is saying something to you to say to somebody?

Speaker C: Well, as you said, it's pressing sometimes. I mean, you can't get around it. Everywhere you look is there. Then some days you will hear. You will hear the audio voice. But now this is the thing. He speaks so soft. It's like quiet. Until if you're not really listening with your spiritual ear, you miss it. And once you begin to grow in him and the more you seek him, the more you're going to know that voice. The more you're going to know when he's pressing you. Some things happen by trial and error. Because in this life, we are busy. Some people have families, jobs, all kind of stuff. But he will make sure that you know it's him. And even in trial and error, you just continue in God, I have a prayer. I pray when I'm not certain. I say, Lord, if this is not you, don't let me do it. But, God, if this is you, let me go full force. I only want to go full force if it's you. And he not only here, but he answers. Yeah, I've been uncertain about some things. And when I opened my mouth, what he said to speak, I was going to say something else. He just speak it right out my mouth. And I'm like. And some days I keep myself together because I want to scream. Did you know that God just spoke to you? But I can't do it because people, they're not going to receive like that. So I just have to do what he asked me to do and keep it moving. Yeah.

Speaker A: Did you find that you had to grow in obedience to listening to God?

Speaker C: Yeah, I had to grow to hear. Listen. When I started off, I didn't start like this. I want to go to this first. This is how everything started. When I was a child, I knew I was differeNt, but I thought I was a weirdo. I could see you and see what was going to happen to you. But I didn't understand. I was a child. That was these two ladies, Miss Tom and Miss Annie. And I thought they just loved me to death. And they used to call me Prince Ella. Because I looked so much like my dad. And his name was Prince. So every time you turn around, they was inviting me over to their house to spend the night. And when I would come home, I would have fancy hairdos, all these fancy clothes and shoes. And my parents didn't allow me to eat ice cream too often because it would make me sick. But when I went to Miss Tom and Ms. Anna, oh, I just ate the ice cream. So one day, I had been doing this maybe three months. And one day my mom said, baby, what happens when you go over to Miss Tom and Miss Annie? I said, they asked me questions. She said, and what kind of questions? I said, they asked me what the number going to be. She said. I said, they asked me. They say, like on Tuesday, mama. They say, Prince Ella. What the cubic going to be this gambling. And what I would see, I would, oh, 73. And they would call this man, he would come. I know that now. I didn't know it back then. And they would gamble, bet on that number on Thursday. They would say, Prince Elva, what the toll going to be? They say, I see 28. I said, it's going to be 28. They said, oh, okay. And they would hug me, hug me. I was the greatest thing in the world to them two ladies. Boy, if you said anything to hurt my feeling, them two old women would get with you because I was their money. I was their bank. My mama said, baby, when your dad get home, we got to talk to you. We can't let you go over there anymore. She said, we're going to explain to you what gambling is. And that's not pleasing in the sight of God. Well, I walked away thinking she going to cut my ice cream off. I'm not going to get no more fancy hairdos, no more pro. I'm not going to be all that special no more because they're not going to let me go over there. When my dad got home after dinner, we cleared the table and they sat me down and they explained to me. Now, I really didn't understand, but I understood, but I didn't want to understand because I didn't want that ice cream to go away. So that's how it started. And I would see people and I would see things. And sometime I couldn't tell them because I didn't know how to. Wow. And I thought I was a weirdo. My best friend. This is before I fully come to the Lord. My best friend. I was married, but my best friend was a man. And he was from my old neighborhood. We grew up together. And one morning I woke up about 05:00 and I decided to get on up and get my day started, get my husband lunch and get him off to work. And I was sitting in the living room in the chair, and he come know, say goodbye to me. And he said, what's wrong? You got a weird look on your face. I just saw Dale kill himself. That was the best friend.

Speaker A: Oh, my God.

Speaker C: He said, what? I say, he was talking to this woman and he shot at her. And then he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. And I shook myself. He said, oh, it'll be all right. That's just a bad dream. And he went on to work. 04:00 that afternoon, one of my neighbor daughters, she was like a goddaughter to me. But she come down and she said, hey. I said, hey. She said, can you have a seat with me for a minute? But she was looking strange. And I sat down in the chair. She said, I just saw Dale'sister. Her name was Bobby, too, Barbara, but we called her Bobby. She said, I just saw Bobby. And she told me that she couldn't come and talk to you, but she wanted you to know Dale killed herself this morning. And exactly what I saw is exactly what he did. But I heard him say this in the vision. He was telling this woman, this is my son. I don't want another man over my son. And if I can't have you, nobody will. And that's when he pulled a gun and shot at her. I never did see her fall down or anything, but I saw him put the gun to his head and pull the trigger. And so when my husband got in, I told him he was like, what? I said, yeah. So it started from there in my childhood. I was born with that. I didn't have to go. Nobody taught me. I was born with it. So in 1993, I fully come to the Lord. And then I learned the gift came from him.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker C: And it is what it is. It's a gift. You can use it any way you want, but I asked God to use it for his glory and not mine. And so that's what he's done.

Speaker A: Yes. Wow, what a story. My great grandmother had that gift too. And she used to go around the community warning people, death, death, death. And sure enough, there was going to be death after a while. Yeah. Various members of our family have claimed to have that same gift. But I'm not convinced anyway.

Speaker C: And I know the feeling. Right.

Speaker A: So they're going to listen to this and chastise me. But the other thing I wanted to follow up on was what I love about you, and I said this to you in the email too, is that I know you are hearing from God. Because whenever I've listened, it's almost as though even, okay, say for example, you've recorded a podcast maybe five months ago. I somehow go and I listen to the one that exactly addresses what I'm talking to God about. Okay. For example, today I listened to your, I believe this was the most recent podcast that you did. And I read this morning from Romans, chapter six. The gist of that was talking about killing the old self. We're crucified. It's no longer us. Of course. That was part of the theme of your message today, right?

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker A: And so I really admire that and admire as. And obviously this is God's. Gifting to you, and he's speaking through you to us to bless us and to encourage us. Obviously, that's one of the ministries you have, the Ministry of Encouragement. One other brother, Jim Simbala, I also find that when I go and I log on to his website, and so I find very timely messages from God. So I'm really grateful for you and your gift to the kingdom. Paul mentioned his co laborers, and I know that two of the names, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but I think two of the names that I hear very often were three. I hear about Brother Louie and Sherry, and I hear about Ms. Jerry. Right?

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Tell me about how they have blessed you and blessed your ministry.

Speaker C: Louie and Sherry, for almost 14 years, they have come every morning to listen to Jesus in the morning radio. And in the mornings, I'm talking about something, but I don't have the scripture out. I'm just letting God use my mouth. Louis comes up with the scripture that addresses what I'm talking about, so I can take you to the word in it. Sherry, she's a kind of keen woman. These are white people. Sharon Lou. She's kind of keen and sweet and humble, and she loved me. And so whenever I'm in their presence, she always want to make sure I'm happy, I'm good, I'm taken care of. So she's been going through some eye surgery, so we've been praying for her. Sometimes Louis just send me money. If I say I need something and they have it, they'll just send it. And he manages the chat room for 14 years. Wow. So I know God placed these people. It's never no disagreement. It's never no problem. God put that Sister Jerry. I've known Jerry for 60 years. We went to elementary school together, and Jerry was just bad. So the teacher would say, barbara, take your friend Jerry to the office. I would have to take her. She would say, no, Barbara, look, the playground. We could go out on the playground. I said, jerry, prince, don't play like that. That's my dad. I said, prince, don't play like that, Jerry, come on. You go into the office. And that's where I would take her. So off and on, up and down through the years, Jerry and I stayed in touch. So she's got some medical issues now, and I've had to go over, know, take her places and help her and that kind of thing. So that's how she and I knew each other. Yeah.

Speaker A: And then the last person, this would be more of a mentor to you. You've talked about him, I think, in the very first episode that I listened to Bishop or Pastor Charles C. Wood II.

Speaker C: Yes. Glory. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. He was a pastor in Birmingham, Alabama, and We called him Bishop. And he was a great young man. He was about ten years younger than me, but I looked up to him. Yes, because he was very gifted, very gifted and prophetic. And if he prayed for you, it was happening. So I sat under his ministry, and I grew not in the ministry and in him, but I grew in God for his ministry. And he made me his assistant. And he would come to me and he would say, barbara, I got to go out of town. I need you to do this. And that. His wife would come. Her name was Juan. She would come and say, barbara, I got to go to Japan. Because she's saying with the mass choir, the Georgia Mass Choir. So she would say, I got to go to Japan. Do not let these women be all over my husband while I am gone.

Speaker A: You were the warden. You were the warden.

Speaker C: I was the warden. So she had never really experienced getting out. She come out of her parents house into marriage. So the corner store that sold pickles and chips and cookies and candy, she didn't really experience that. So one night before church, I took her to the store, and when we get back, Bishop looking, he said, OK, I see what y'all two up. So we're not up to nothing. He said, OK. And we went on into church. Well, a few months after that, I said, quan, have you ever been in the mall and taste coffee and chocolate? She was like, no, you know, Barbara, I don't really go to the mall like that. I said, well, let's go to the mall. So we both go to Bishop and we say, bishop, we going to the mall. We'll be back in a little bit. He's getting ready to have choir rehearsing because he was a musician, but a choir. He was like, okay. So we started to go out the door. He said, hey, both of you. He said, now, we never told him what we was going to do. Just our secret. He said to both of you, don't go to the mall eating all that chocolate and drinking all that coffee. Now, don't y'all do that? We looked at each other, we said, okay, bishop, we went on to the mall. I took us straight over there to Starbucks, and then we left there, and we went to the chocolate shop. I said, quan, taste it. This is a chocolate covered coffee bean. Oh, we just tasted milk chocolate. Just a little sample, but we tasted too much, and I didn't know about blood sugar, and she had diabetes. As soon as we walked back into church, he was sitting on the front pew, and we was coming up to where he was. He said, I asked y'all not to go to the mall and eat all that chocolate and drink all that coffee. He said, quan, you sick right now?

Speaker A: Oh, my goodness.

Speaker C: Didn't know that. And he sat right on there, and he didn't say another word to us. Wow. And we just sat feeling so bad because he did tell him. This man could call your Social Security number, your address. He could tell you who your parents. You never saw him a day in your life, and he never saw you.

Speaker A: Oh, my.

Speaker C: Go ahead.

Speaker A: Was this, like, people coming into a service and he's saying, wow, you're talking.

Speaker C: About some power packed, Holy Ghost anointed services. It was there. I was sick. Something was wrong with my stomach, and I was sick. And I went to church that Sunday, and he called me out, and when I came out, he said, you're sick and it's in your stomach. And he laid hands on my stomach. When he touched me, I went out under the power. I don't do that.

Speaker A: Oh, my.

Speaker C: I went out under the power. While I was out, God began to form an operation. Well, when I got up, I'm looking around, I say, who hit me out of the floor? Because I'm ready to fight. He didn't say a thing. But then in a few minutes, I noticed. I was like, oh, something happened to me. Now, this is what I'm thinking. Because, see, I wasn't fully in the knowledge yet.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker C: I was like, what did Bishop do to me while I was out on that flow? Because I'm not feeling the same way. But I learned. Tell God. Thank you. Don't look to Bishop. Yes, he put for it. It could have been cancer. It could have been anything. But whatever it was, God healed me. When he touched me, God healed me. He just used Bishop hand as a contact. Yeah.

Speaker A: You got a Holy Ghost knockout, huh?

Speaker C: Yes. I mean, just out for the.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker C: Didn't know where I was, what was going on.

Speaker A: Yes. Well, I think when I listened to that podcast, when you talked about Bishop Wood, you said that was around the time when you had just come to know Jesus. Correct. So that was the early stage of your ministry. I wanted to go back just a little bit and tell me about the day you met Jesus.

Speaker C: That day or night. Okay. This is what was happening. I sold dope. I sold drugs.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker C: And I was the dope lady. And basically, I was just in the world, just crazy and just doing anything I wanted to do. Drinking Crown Roar, smoking marijuana. But the more I got, the more I dwindled down in my mind. I wasn't happy. I couldn't. So I had gone to Florida to bring drugs back, and I was there, but nobody knew I was there but two nephews. My niece called me. How did she find me? She said, you need to go home. The state of Alabama got your children. They looking for you. They said, you're selling dope, and you're doing dope. Well, I never did drugs in my life, not like that. So I left the car, left my nephews in Florida, and I caught the bus and came on back, went to court. They was talking crazy to me and everything, but I just believe it would be worked out. But that morning, the first morning I got back, I stayed at the nephew house because I couldn't go home. I couldn't have peace. My children wasn't there.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker C: So I summoned the couch, and I could hear this. Repent. You're wrong. Repent. Wow. So I got up. There was this huge Ottoman in the living room, because my nephew, he was a big guy, so he had to have big furnace. So I kneel down to that Otoman, and I'm just crying, and I'm not really understanding what's going on. But then I begin to hear the voice of the Lord. And he wasn't really shouting, but he was stern in what he said. He said, you're wrong, and you know you're wrong. You wasn't brought up that way, and you're poisoning my people. He said, I'm going to bring you out and make you like you've never been before. He said, but don't you go back. If you go back, that body should surely Lay down and never get up again. Remember that until this day. So I get up, dry my face, because I'm a mess. And I get back on the couch. But I say, I can go home now. I go home, go to court and everything, get my children back, people helping me. But all of the drug money and anything to do with it, keep it. I don't want nothing to do with it. Gave the devil back all his tools. But my mind, you see, my mind wasn't right. And so I was in my bedroom, and I'm thinking, what going to happen to me now? I don't have nothing. I'm doing. What will happen to me? I went to the window, and I looked out the window up at the sky, I had these real sheer curtains, and I could see through these shears. And I started talking like this. I said, god, if there is a God, I don't know. I said, I've heard you real, and I want to believe you're real, but I don't really know. I said, but if you are real, I want to be as real in you as you are real. That's all I say. I went on. The next thing I know, I was kneeling down on the side of my bed, praying. Wow. The time, I didn't really know if I was talking to him or just talking in the app. And I told him, I said, I want to ask you to let me die so you can live in me. Wow. Nothing about, give me the house on the hill with the dog named Fluffy. Give me that big Mercedes, I need millions of dollars in the bank. Nothing like that crossed my mind. Yes, it was a spiritual thing. So what I'm telling him about me spiritually, he began to manifest it. I began to pray prayers and understand. I began to read the word and understand what I was reading. Well, all before, I didn't understand that Peter begot this one and that. I didn't understand that. But now I'm understanding. Well, I had a good friend named Faith. They love married me. So she come to the house to visit me, and she's walking back and forth in front of the window, back and forth. I'm like, what's wrong with her? She said, hey, Bob, Pete, this? I said, yeah. She said, I've been going to church. I was to myself, I'm like, what? You've been going where the building didn't burn in your mind how you think of people? She said, yeah. And I think the little man teaching me right, but I don't know. I said, well, hey, faith, quiet as it kept. I've been praying, reading my Bible, and I'm understanding what I'm reading. She was like, Bob, God trying to tell us something. I said, yeah. She said, why don't you come and go to the church with me, and maybe you can understand what he's saying and see if he's teaching us the truth. I said, okay. I started going. Had a beautiful wife. He was a beautiful man, bodily man, Pastor Rogers. And he was the one who taught me first and Second Samuel. And it connected to the Psalm, because I used to think the Psalms was, for if your enemies did something to you, you read those scriptures on your enemy. That's what I taught. But once he got through teaching me first and Second Samuel, and it connected to David over in the Psalms. When you learn better, you do better. But see, that was God. Was God preparing me and teaching me for such a time as this so that I could teach others who feel like they got to do witchcraft or voodoo. He don't need your help. He don't need your help. All you need is faith in God. And faith is to believe. And if you truly believe and begin to seek him with your whole heart, God is going to move.

Speaker A: Amen. Amen to that. And so you and your friend basically are coming to Jesus at the same time. And so you went to Pastor Rogers's church at that time. Okay, very good. Was that before or after Alaska?

Speaker C: Was before Alaska.

Speaker A: Before. Okay.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker A: So you were saved before you went to Alaska. Very good. I know you've been to many places, Alaska being one of them, and now you're in Jacksonville, Florida. So I wanted you to, if you could briefly tell us about your experience in Alaska, what drew you there? What brought you to Alaska in the first place?

Speaker C: Right before I left, I was in Orlando, Florida. I worked for the same boss off and on for 34 years. So wherever he went and opened a business, he would always drag me with him. Yes, that was the favor of the Lord. But anyway, I got there. My daughter, my oldest daughter, she passed away about two years ago. She was in Alaska, her and her husband, he was in the military. And Thanksgiving Day, she called me and said, Mama, tell me how to make that sweet potato pie. So I gave her the recipe, and I was walking her through it, and she said, you know what? You should come. Oh, it's beautiful here. You should come and visit. As soon as she spoke that the Lord said, go.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker C: Did anybody else hear that? I know they did.

Speaker A: Hey, if you're enjoying this podcast and you want to learn more about our ministry, please visit us@urbanfreshgardens.com. We can't wait to connect with you. Thank you so much for joining us today. We hope that this episode encourages you to do whatever the Lord is calling you to. This is Tanisha. See you in the next episode.