As our society accelerates its descent into a secular abyss, a Jewish-Christian voice is shining the light of truth into the darkness!
Dr. Michael Brown refers to himself as a former heroin-shooting, LSD-using, rock drummer who became a believer in Jesus. Since 1971, he has been an avid disciple of and advocate for the Messiah, preaching a message of revival, revolution, and redemption throughout America and around the world.
I was delighted to sit down with him at his ministry headquarters near Charlotte, North Carolina in a recent episode of Christ in Prophecy. Let’s now hear the testimony of this remarkable modern-day prophetic voice.
Michael Brown’s Testimony
Tim Moore: Dr. Brown, I am fascinated by your testimony in that you said the Lord called you out of being a self-absorbed teenager from New York City and stoked a fire of faith in your heart. Tell us about that.
Michael Brown: I was born in New York City and raised in a Jewish home on Long Island. I was bar-mitzvahed at the age of 13, though we were not a deeply religious family. We were more nominal, so it was more of a social event than a spiritual event for me.
Later that year I attended my first rock concert. I saw Jimi Hendrix in concert. The whole crazed rock scene really appealed to me.
By the age of 14 I started getting high. I just wanted to experiment and try things out. I wasn’t searching for deeper meaning because I was just a kid who wanted to party. But, by the time I was 15, I was shooting heroin. I did everything in a crazy, radical way. I was radically into drugs during my teen years.
Then, at the age of 16, my two best friends and I played in a band together. To my surprise, they started to come to faith in Jesus Christ. Little by little they were drawn to Jesus. Then they started to witness to me. People in church started to pray for me. Eventually, the Holy Spirit brought me under deep conviction, revealed my sin to me, showed me the ugliness of my life, and revealed Jesus to me. By the end of 1971, I was radically set free! December 17, 1971, is a day I’ll always remember when I encountered God’s love.
Jesus became real to me. So, I promised, “I will never put a needle in my arm again.” I was free of drugs from that moment on.
Burdened by God
Tim Moore: Dr. Brown, you’ve become famous in Conservative circles for your articles and books commenting on current events from a Christian perspective. With so many glaring headlines about our moral drift as a society, how do you pick and choose which issues to focus on?
Michael Brown: It’s a real challenge to sift through all that is happening because you can get quite overwhelmed by the terrible news events being reported every single day. And so, I look to be moved by God. First Chronicles 12:32 speaks of the sons of Issachar who came to stand with David to turn the kingdom over to him. The passage says that they understood the times and knew what Israel should do.
So, when you read the headlines every day, you can get frustrated, angry, anxious, and feel like bursting. So, the following questions are laid before God: “Father what is on your heart? What are people dealing with in real life? Where do they need to be equipped? Which way is society heading? Where does the Church need to have a voice? Where is there the most confusion?”
I’m not really interested in politics, to be honest — I don’t like politics. Others do a much better job at exhibiting political insight and being political pundits. I’m more concerned about the direction of the culture, and that tends to intersect with politics and the Church. So, I will first step back and on a daily basis ask, “Lord, what’s on your heart?” And then, when I get really gripped, that burden will turn into a book. Or, I write five articles a week, so the burden can turn into multiple articles.
Aside from the attacks and the hatred that come against those of us who are Conservatives and Christian, I will also hear people saying, “Thank you for being our voice.” So, somehow it seems that the things that God is laying on my heart are the things that others are also dealing with. That’s what prophetic voices do — we equip God’s people how to be ready to live in this hour.
Michael Brown: That's what prophetic voices do—we equip God's people how to be ready to live in this hour. Click To TweetCutting Through the Noise
Tim Moore: How can the average Christian cut through all of the noise and recognize the common threads of satanic influence pulling our society further and further away from God? I assume that instead of focusing on the satanic influences, we point people to the Lord, to His revelation through Scripture, and to Jesus Christ who is the light that overwhelms the darkness of satanic influence?
Michael Brown: Yes, the key thing is to not be asleep. In other words, it’s so easy to get caught up in our own lives and the busyness of raising families and working jobs, church life, and other things like that. We can lose sight of the radical, dramatic, negative, destructive changes that are coming. On the other hand, we can become so focused on those that we lose hope.
So, the first thing we have to do is to always look to the Lord. The first thing we’ve got to do is be vibrant for Him, full of faith, and full of the Word of God. Recognizing that Christians have the answers for our messed up society. America is tetter-tottering on the edge of destruction. But, Christianity has the answer — the Gospel. So, rather than being “woke” in a PC society, let’s be truly awakened by the Gospel, and then let’s awaken others.
I love what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 46, “Regardless, whether the oceans rise, the mountains crumble away, we will not fear.” Christians should not be taken to fear or anxiety or despair, because we know the true and living God. The Bible assures us that God will bring justice for those who cry out to Him day and night and that He will not long delay in providing justice.
Jesus rhetorically asked in Luke 18:7-8, “When the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth?” That passage in Luke offers us two challenges, I believe. One, I would ask how many believers actually do cry out day and night for justice on the earth? Do they cry out to God, or do they just shout into the wind in frustration? So, it really becomes an indictment on us that we should be crying out to the Lord for Him to bring justice and for Him to prevail. We know He will in the end.
And, two, I also find this question to be posed to all of us as believers: “Was Jesus really posing a rhetorical question, or was He giving us a warning?” In other words, with nations, churches, and sometimes even families straying where faith was once prevalent, have we drifted so far that this question really seems closer to a warning than we would have thought at one point? That’s a serious question, but there is a warning in it. In fact, Luke 18:1 starts with Jesus giving a parable so people would pray always, and not cave in, nor faint, and not lose heart. Surely, along the way you are going to be tempted to lose heart, so stand strong in the Lord.
Jesus in Matthew 24 spoke about iniquity abounding and the love of many waxing cold. We’ve watched in America a sudden and dramatic decline in those who identify as being Christian. Now, we know that many of them weren’t Christians to begin with, but the number going from 80% to 70% in just a handful of years is staggering.
The rise of the religious “nones” — those who say they have no religious faith — is accelerating. A recent Gallup poll reports that, for the first time since they have been doing these polls, that after many decades less than 50% of Americans say they attend church regularly. The number was 70% steady for decades and decades, then suddenly in the 2000s, it dropped precipitously. Of course, that doesn’t mean we throw in the towel and say, “It’s all over.” But, it means there is a battle for the soul of our nation that we appear to be losing.
So much of the preaching in America today is just coddling people. It’s more about just scratching our itching ears and making us feel good about ourselves. We need prophetic voices that wake up the Church, that say we are waging a battle, and that the Enemy is coming to destroy many lives. What we’ve got to do is change our mentality from spectators to active participants. We’re soldiers, not taking up arms per se, but putting on the whole armor of God.
Who are the men and women saying, “Lord, if you are looking for someone to use, if you are looking for someone to be a witness, oh Lord, then here I am, send me, use me.” Sure, taking such a stand is going to be costly, but this is what being a Christian living in this fallen world is all about. Life is not some vacation; no, we are all called into service.
In the second segment of this interview with Jewish-Christian prophetic voice, Dr. Michael Brown, he’ll identify what areas the culture is shifting towards its own self-destruction.
I really enjoy watching your show, I like the fact that you travel to other parts to interview others and especially when you interviewed Jonathan Cahn, thank you that the show is taking on others that see through the eyes of the Lord. Keep up the good work!
Wil the United States repent? Will there be a revival? Why do we want repentence and a revival? Is it so we can sae our way of life and prosperity?
I certainly hope not. I hope and pray for repentance on the part of those who need Jesus. But can you honestly say that the United States will have a hand in eschatology?
Right now I see the United States as the “restrainor” protecting Israel. However we will be a non-issue in eschatology as the nations must rise against Israel for God to work out His Divine plan. Right now the US is keeping this from happening. We have been Israel’s protector, but as we crumble politically and lose our “Christian Nation” status, we will back down our support for Israel.
I hope I am wrong. Any thoughts?