WOFOYO INTERVIEWS: Carol and Willard McDonnell

We recorded this over at the Illinois State Capitol at a prayer meeting and this was combined through Eagle's Nest Watch Prophetic Ministry out of Carbondale , illinois , and this interview is with Willard and Carol McDonald out of St Louis , missouri .

You're going to have some background noise because it was windy and thank God it was because it was in the mid-90s , because it was in the mid 90s and it was hot , as long as you weren't in the shade and in the wind . So , without any further ado , willard and carol mcdonald woe fo yo .

Hey everybody , welcome to a joint venture between Wofo Yo Pathfinding Resources , the Wofo Yo podcast , and Eagle's Nest Watch Prophetic Ministry out of Carbondale , illinois . I have been waiting to talk to you all you are . First of all , we got Willard and Carol McDonald Carol and Willard and however you meet people and you're not supposed to say this as believers .

This is not very spiritual , but you have your favorites and I know just . I've met you before . I got to know Willard , and the more I know both of you , the more I like and the more impressed I am , because you two balance things very , very well . And let me go ahead and stick my foot in my mouth right now .

For those of you that are not familiar with prophetic ministry one of the things you constantly have to do and one of the things I see Carolyn Willard dealing very well with probably the best I've seen is being able to balance the liberty that's in Christ Jesus as well as as you're maturing .

Sometimes people haven't reached a level of maturity where they can discern what they're feeling versus what the Holy Spirit is saying , and they like to go on and on . And I have seen Carol balance out that firmness yet the love that needs to be had to nurture people so that they mature . So , welcome to the podcast . It's good to be here .

Yes , why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you all got started and what we're doing here ?

But I feel like the Lord had given me my mandate a number of years ago and he says I want you to love me and I want you to love my people and um , and so the motive of my heart has always been that we have been predestined to become conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ .

Amen , and whatever that looks for everyone and we're all in different levels of maturity and whatever , and I know that I have appreciated the prophetic word over my own life that has moved me along and helped me continue the course and mature in that , and it still happens .

I mean , I knew I wanted whatever God wanted to give me , which is what I said . And he said we'll give you whatever you'll take . And I'll say I'll take everything he'll give me . And he says God's not playing with you , he's wanting a response .

And and um , and here's some seasoned prophets behind me going oh , I wish you'd asked me that I know what to say . And I'm thinking well , I I don't , but my heart is I want whatever he wants to give me . And um , he says , well , do you want to prophesy and move in the gifts ? And I said yes .

He said , say it again , because it's being recorded in heaven . And he said now he's going to drag square through you his round knot hole because he's looking for those that are willing to die the death , pay the cost , live the life and flow the river .

There's been years of that dragging through that round knot hole and that knot hole gets smaller , but I am thankful for every step of the way because it's made me who I am and and I love what I do , and I love honoring and glorifying God amen , oh wow .

God to change you from the inside out . That has always been my heart . God changed me from the inside out . I can't change myself , but he can . Where a lot of people try to change themselves , thinking it's going to impress God , and it's like God already knows your failures because he knows the alpha and the omega .

So , messing up , you should be like a baby who falls down and hurts himself and runs back to mom or dad crying because you hurt yourself , and basically that's what it is when we mess up we have just missed the mark . God already knew you were going to miss the mark , but he wants you to have a heart where you don't want to miss the mark .

Your heart is not to miss the mark , but unfortunately we haven't been brought into the image and likeness of Jesus yet . So until we get there , we're going to miss the mark , and too many people beat themselves up for missing the mark and they waste months or years of their lives because they keep beating up on themselves .

So they become , uh , an advocate for the devil and they don't even realize it because the devil is the one that accuses the saints and , uh , my I guess my whole heart is is I just believe God is going to do what God says he's going to do . Whether I see it or not , has no bearing on anything . He is going to do .

What God says he's going to do , Whether I see it or not , has no bearing on anything . He is going to do what he said he's going to do because his word is eternal . His word can never fail because if it failed there wouldn't be no us because the whole thing would just disintegrate .

And one time this is going to sound strange , but one time he took me outside and it was like I almost saw down to the molecule level of these plants I was looking at . It was like I saw them almost moving , which I think in science it's a true thing .

But I mean I don't and it's like I'm like it almost felt like I was on drugs and I wasn't on drugs and it's like that's how he and he just holds everything together and people don't realize it and I don't know why he showed me that , but it made me know that he is working at the micro , micro , micro level of our lives .

Because he's working at the micro , micro level of everything we see , because the word said that I'm being distracted by the people prophesying over there . I'm sorry on the podcast , that doesn't sound good , but this is what life sounds like . Yes , this is life and it's live .

So we just you know , when God does this to you , there's a reason , and I think the reason is so that you understand how everything is held together in Jesus , because your faith has to come from Jesus , Because through Jesus , everything was created and everything is held together .

He paid the ultimate price so that we could be free and that we could be bearers of the image and likeness of himself , with his glory and his light , and that's where God wants to take us .

But I remember distinctly have any of y'all ever seen the old movie Christmas Story where the kid has a BB gun , oh yeah , and he blurts out what he wants for Christmas and he goes dude . And I remember just being in prayer and starting to hear from the Lord consistently and he let me know that I have a prophetic calling . And I go , oh ,

it's not for the faint of heart , and the gifting developed . But then it took the wilderness , the , the wilderness . You were talking about people . Oh , I wish that was me . Well , uh , my buddy that would do this podcast .

When we were talking about there was a time when we were growing , we were interacting with people that were in full-time ministry , you know , and had all the titles and all this and you need to be under our submission and you need to do all this and you need to do all that .

But every time they had some guest speaker come in from out of town , the one that they're hyping up , you're like , oh , you got a prophetic calling on , oh , and not just me but my buddy too , and it was the same thing .

But what we didn't know is at that time we were about to go into a big time wilderness period and I was a lot more hard-headed than he was because mine lasted about twice as long . But he develops your character to be able to love people .

He develops your character to be able to love people with his love and to minister properly and , like you all are saying , that doesn't look the same for everybody .

No , we're not cookie cutters and we've had a discussion or two recently on our podcast about how a lot of times what your protocols and all these things that happen in church they're meant to develop cookie cutter , good , obedient church sitters . They're not meant to .

They're not designed to develop formidable Christians and this idea of being so afraid of messing up that nobody does anything is a big reason of why we're having to reclaim ground in this country .

We need to realize we're individuals that God has created and to be comfortable in your own skin and be who you're going to be . Now . That doesn't mean be obnoxious or rude or any of that , because that's not Christlike , but to realize that God has made you special . I am definitely different , but that's how God made me . You know , I prophesied different .

My wife we got this word one time with John , who was it from CI prophesied that you were a machine gun and I was a nugget person John Webster , john Webster , prophet John Webster and it set me free because I realized now I'm giving more in-depth words now , but it freed me because it's like , well , I'll just give what I got and that's what I got .

I don't worry about if it's not long enough or it's not broad enough , I just give what God gives me and it's the purity of that and sometimes we just got to free ourselves from being put in a mold . Amen .

And he said , she said that you know , without him you'll burn everything up in its path , but if without you he won't go anywhere . And that is kind of , you know , prophetic words like that really help in a marriage relationship . You know , because you know we get to be who he's created us to be and you know it helped me to understand because I am that .

You know , even a while ago , when we were walking to go to the restroom , it's like , you know , I'm on a mission , so I'm walking at a higher pace . You know he's still back there . You know , and that's kind of a joke that we have with each other Are you 10 paces behind yet ? Kind of thing you know .

But the truth of it is is , I love the fact that he's steady and reliable and honest , full of integrity and , um , he has always supported the call of God on my life and that has been a real uh blessing . And it doesn't happen .

It takes a strong man to be married to a prophetic woman , in my opinion , which I've seen many times , that I've seen many times where the marriages fall apart because they can't handle , you know , living with a prophetic person and so that's been a real blessing in my life .

But the pressure to perform that we put on people in ministry , everybody has to have a word right then and now , especially if you're prophetic , well , I can tell you with me it don't work like that .

I'll go two or three months and I might hear some things from me , but usually it takes me sitting down and getting my head out of my rear end and go hey , lord , what you doing ? You're going to , you're going to ask , to ask , because you can get so busy doing everything and you're supposed to be doing those things .

But if we're not careful , like you mentioned , it's every day that you find out that , oh , there's some improvement that needs to be made , there's some work that needs to be done .

But one of the things that I have always appreciated about you because I've been watching you for a couple years now and I remember some words that you spoke to me which still stick with me the thing I love about him is a lot of times we don't know what we're saying , and that's something about being prophetic you have no idea , you're just out there hanging

out , have no idea , you're just out there hanging out . But you see , probably as good as anybody that I've

met , you see through the performative and are willing to address it . And that is something , especially if you get into the title heavy ministries oh , you can't correct that person . You can't correct that person . You can't correct because they have an apostle title , they have a bishop title , they have a prophetic title , you know , and all this stuff .

But I've just seen you two just go in with the love of God and address what needs to be addressed . And also one of the things you've got to deal with being a prophetic person is not everybody is going to listen and I've seen you all deal with that . Pretty doggone good .

But if you look in the scripture , god would send the prophets in over and over and they got killed and they got stoned and they , you know whatever , and they didn't want to listen and they didn't want to hear . But you know , the love of God causes us to keep speaking , keep talking , keep pressing in there and saying things .

I remember when I was ordained with Ernie and Verlinda in 2007 . And several of the prophetic voices that they had on the presbytery , the phrase was this One thing I know about Carol she'll tell you what God says and not what you want to hear . Amen , because , listen , we don't have time to play games .

I'm not a game player and I love you enough to tell you the truth , even if it hurts .

And when I made the comment of you know , I've been doing that since 1985 . And not that I can't learn more , because I can , but the Holy Spirit will reveal to me what I need to know from this point , because I've always listened , and so the prophetic word was quit trying to figure out what your predominant call is .

And years ago , I felt like the Lord spoke to me and told me that I was an apostolic teacher that stands in the office of a prophet was an apostolic teacher that stands in the office of a prophet .

So when I had to make a decision on which track to go down in school , the Lord told me to go back over my prophetic words that I had written , and you know , in my notebooks and things , and he said I want you to look for apostolic terminology . And I go well , what does that look like ? You know , I don't know .

And so I started with my first one that's recorded and I read , I don't know , to 2010 or something , and he would start saying that's apostolic , that's apostolic , that's apostolic . So I chose to go down the apostolic track , but because of the strong prophetic anointing that they've witnessed , they thought I was calling myself something I wasn't .

So that prophetic word , this is what she wound up saying . She says quit trying to figure out which is your predominant , because God says you're all fivefold Amen . And so that set me on a trajectory again of accepting the apostolic call of my life .

And it's really funny because I've been on this apostolic team with Berlinda , you know , and a couple other women from Illinois and Indiana , and you know . But I thought I was just the prophetic voice on this apostolic team , and the Lord said , seriously , you know how he can talk ? Oh yeah , and you know , wake you up , make you listen .

Well , that's what he did and I said so it was a transition , but my whole thing is is I don't want a title , I want to function .

And some people think , hey , would

you like a prophetic word ? I'm like I guess , but I'm still trying to get back on the last one that I got you know . I'm still trying to walk that one through .

It just wasn't his timing and the process of getting me to that place to be able to have the character to carry it .

And we're laughing , you know this is funny all the stuff we've seen , and I put the phone down . You know , and I hear , will you ? I guess you know , sure , sure , we'll do it , but in doing that we get .

I give out all my Bibles that I had these notes in from 2001 to 2004 that I've written down and it looked for about 15 years like I had missed , just missed , the Lord , and all of a sudden , in 2019 and 2020 , they were so accurate it was scary . But it took a process . There's a process .

But , willard , I'm to let you flow this out because I know you've got to be called upon here soon .

I was at McDonald's and I gave the lady some money for an order and she gave me $40 too much back . Now I could have kept the $40 , but I'm like there ain't no way I she gave me $40 too much back . Now I could have kept the $40 , but I'm like there ain't no way I'm keeping this $40 because it's gonna cost a whole lot more .

So I gave it back to her and you could just see her eyes like holy smokes . The person gave me it back . And then I was at a restaurant and the guy charged me the wrong amount for my meal and I pointed it out to him and he goes oh , that's okay , I wrote it down wrong , so it's on me . And I'm like okay , I can't do anything more than that .

But I think the Bible talks about the little things , the little things that we do or don't do .

a long time ago I can't remember who the minister was but he said there's like three levels that he was talking about and I remember one was gold and he says you want to be gold ? And it was like out to the audience I'm thinking , yeah , I want to be gold .

And then he goes well , you know , that costs a lot more to be gold to God because there's so much more he's got to do in you and I'm like I still want to be gold . So it's like you can have a 20 year ministry or you can have a three and a half year ministry , like somebody we know that was effective and it changed the world .

I want to change the world to the , to the glory of God , in whatever way that is , and it may just be something small , but it's like the guy that led . Oh , what's the famous guy that led all kinds of people to the Lord , billy Graham .

So the guy that led Billy Graham to the Lord got as much glory from all that Billy Graham did because he led Billy Graham to the Lord . But most people don't have that concept that the little things I do make a big difference in the world .

And that's the thing we all struggle with is we want to be recognized , and once you let God settle your heart where God you're , the only recognition I need . If you recognize me , that's all that matters . I remember being at a church we go to . It's called Fire Nest , st Louis Missouri . Right , st Louis Missouri .

If you're in St Louis Missouri , you want to go to a place to be refreshed . That's the place to go . But I was sitting up at the altar for some reason , and here's the prophetic word I got God sees you . That's all I got . God sees you .

Now I've had a lot of prophetic words , but at that time and place I was struggling with the fact that I'm getting older and I haven't fulfilled all the prophetic words I got . They're massive . And it's like how do I do this Lord ? And when he did that , not that at that second it changed me , but by him saying that I just got to the point .

It's like , wait a minute , I don't do any of this anyway . Whether I fulfill one thing or don't fulfill one thing , it's all in your hands , because you said that you're the one that causes us to come into fulfillment and completement in Christ . So it caused me to relax . So if I have one thing to tell people , relax . Amen .

God is your father who loves you , that if you get that , you've won the game . God loves you , jesus loves you , and if you can , just , I mean I want this . This is what Paul said . I want to know the height and depth and length and breadth of your love .

If we ever get to that point , we won't have to worry about what we do and what we don't do , because there'll be so much glory coming off of us . God won't affect people around us without us saying a word .

One of the people that I've been said that I'll be like is Smith Wigglesworth , and there's a story where he's in a train car and he doesn't say anything and he leaves the train car , I guess , to go to the bathroom . You know . He comes back in Everybody's crying and weeping and they go . What must we do to be safe .

And he didn't say a word , but it was the glory of the God that he carried in his life , and that's what I want .

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Remember , folks , if you want to grow , you got to woefoyo . Get in the word for yourself .