About Me

Ed Carpenter was raised in a family that ran one of the Top 25 Christian book and music stores in the United States. This gave him the opportunity to cross paths with many famous Christian authors and singers over the years. After college, Ed left his comfortable boyhood life and went on a mission trip to connect with the Holy Spirit and tune in to the voice of God. This challenging quest for faith preceded a successful business and family, and sharing the knowledge of how to hear God with his wife and three daughters. Since semi-retiring and hearing the Lord ask him to help others hear His word, he has written this book.

The first time I remember seeing our Lord was when I was around five. I saw him walking next to my bed when I was trying to sleep and then walk into the other bedroom and back again. I would close my eyes every time He came near. The next morning, I was awoken by the police, as our house was robbed that night. The thief had actually used my pillowcase to load up the stolen items.

At the age of 10, my mother was teaching me how to praise the Lord. I was raptured up to heaven where I met Jesus and he placed a clear diamond-like crown on my head. When I came back my mother knew something had happened. She kept asking me to explain to her what I had experienced. I attended church regularly after that but was just like everyone else.

After graduating high school, I attended numerous colleges because I loved to party. Finally, at the age of 29, I graduated and decided to go to Italy for a master’s in business because I liked the Italian lifestyle. One night at the beach while partying, I had this thought, “What about knowing Me personally?” I didn’t know it was the Lord at the time. Well, that got my mind spinning, I thought, Wow, that would be the coolest thing in the world if that was possible.

Suddenly my whole life changed, and I ended up in YWAM (Youth With a Mission) on the big Island in Hawaii. Because their brochure said, “Want to know God personally?” I had two agendas when I went: Hear his voice and speak in tongues. Before going to Hawaii, I was happy in life – I was driving a corvette, single, living in Newport Beach, California, owned several apartments, which brought in a nice income, and surfed every day. Now here I was in the middle of nowhere being told when to wake and what to do.

I would sneak out late at night and just walk and complain. Saying things like: “Come on God. Look at all these stars you created. And you can’t talk to me?” On and on like this for about 6 weeks.

Long story short, one day, alone overlooking the sea I had a second chapter of Acts experience. The wind blew out of nowhere, all the colors became real, and when I came to I was on my knees and my tongue was just flying. I thought to myself, This is it I’m speaking in tongues!

Skip ahead a month, I’m now in Fiji. Again complaining why He won’t talk to me. Then I heard him. Inside me. The very next day at church, that voice told me to pray for the man I saw entering the church. The next thing I knew, he hit the ground and started acting like a snake. I was startled and thought, No way am I getting involved in this! Ultimately, we ended up at his home. God’s voice kept at me to pray for this man. I would watch pastor after pastor pray for the man and every time he would have those snake-like convulsions. (As an aside, his god was the snake god.) So finally, in fear, I prayed. Suddenly, the house filled with a thick presence of calm and the man was back in his right mind.

Just a quick insert. The third time I saw Jesus is when I was in Fiji, and I was debating with a Hindu regarding which God was real. I was honest, and maybe my views were American-skewed. Well, that night I was suddenly awoken, and in a bright light was Jesus standing in front of my showing me the holes in his hand. And yes, I was scared to death every time I encountered him.

So, all that to say: Following God’s voice inside me has lead me from being a California stoner/surfer, to marrying an awesome woman (who I only knew for three months, but God said marry, so I did), to owning a beautiful home, I couldn’t afford (but God said buy it, a miracle how that came through), having three girls to teach how to live by His voice, paid for their expensive private colleges with no government help, healing sick people, seeing others filled with the spirit, and went from living in poverty on government welfare to the owner of a multimillion-dollar insurance agency.

In this time, I also was president of our local Rotary chapter, two time president of Northwest Florida Insurance agents and an IFR-rated pilot.

The conclusion is seeing this book finished. I had no desire, nor the ability, to write it. But God kept after me, till I finally agreed, and now two years later, here it is in front of me. A testament to me on how something in the spirit becomes physical . I could go on and on with all kinds of stories. But I think this should do.

Thank you and sorry for the run on sentences, proof I’m not a writer… lol

Ed Carpenter