Article #300
by Bill Nugent
Today, we will glean lessons from the life of Bob Jones, a man who exemplified the office of New Testament prophet. (This is not the Bob Jones who founded Bob Jones University).
Prophecy and accurate fulfillment of prophecy is one of the hallmarks of our Judeo-Christian faith. God said: “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isaiah 46:10) and “before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them” (Isaiah 48:5). The Bible is filled with prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy. No other holy book of any other faith has anything to compare with the Bible’s record of prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy!
God has given us miracles to show us that He is God and that His word is truth. Fulfillment of prophecy is a miracle. God expects us to rationally examine miracles that point to Him. Thomas Aquinas, among many other great theologians, asserted that Christianity is rational. Christianity is not a blind faith. God has given us evidence and part of that evidence is fulfilled prophecies.
Many consider Bob Jones to have been one of the greatest prophetic voices of the contemporary church. Bob Jones was a humble man of God who was gifted by God as a seer prophet. “Seer” means that his prophetic gifting often involved visions given to him by God. His gift was very strong and reliable yet Bob never preferred to be called “Prophet Bob Jones.” He was just brother Bob.
Bobby Joe Jones was born on February 4, 1930 to a large sharecropper family in Arkansas. “Sharecropper” means the farmer rented the land and paid rent to the land owner with crops he grew on the land, hence he “shared” the crops with his landlord. The family lived in poverty. Born at the start of the Great Depression, Bob’s earliest memories were, no doubt, the dust bowl sandstorms that swept over the Midwest US in the 1930s.
He was called to the prophetic ministry during an angelic visitation at the age of nine. He was frightened and initially refused the call. He lived a rough worldly life after that. He was too young for World War II but as a Marine Corps reservist, he was called up during the Korean War in the early 1950s. He married Viola around that time. They had one son, Wayne.
Buffeted by the trials of life, Bob was briefly hospitalized in a mental institution in 1969. It was there the Lord helped Bob sort out his life and Bob repented and turned to the Lord. Upon his release, he and Viola attended Baptist churches over the next few years.
Bob began moving in his prophetic gift in a more powerful way the early 1970s. God gave Bob prophetic insight and words of warning for the church against abortion and homosexuality. In August of 1975, Bob died of a sudden illness and saw things just outside the gates of paradise. It was there that Bob heard the Lord Jesus ask people as they entered heaven, “Did you learn to love?” Bob’s spirit returned to his body and he recovered from this experience of temporary death.
Bob was fully healed and zealous to serve the Lord. He was instrumental in giving prophetic direction to Mike Bickle during the founding of Kansas City Fellowship in 1982. Bob and Viola lived in the Kansas City area, making their home in Independence, Missouri. He, along with John Paul Jackson and James Goll, would become known as “The Kansas City prophets.” There was some considerable controversy during the late eighties and early nineties over the prophetic ministry.
Ephesians 4:11 speaks of the five-fold ministry of the New Testament church: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” There is a ministry gifting and office of prophet in the church today. Some have abused the prophetic gift but that certainly doesn’t diminish the fact that prophecy is for today.
Bob and Viola relocated to southern Alabama, near the Gulf coast by the mid nineties. Paul Keith Davis of White Dove Ministries and Bobby Conner ministered with Bob and traveled with him during this time.
After the turn of the millennium Bob’s wife, Viola passed away. In 2006 Bob married Bonnie Kost, a gifted prophetic voice in her own right. They made their home near Charlotte, North Carolina and were closely connected to MorningStar Ministries, led by Rick Joyner. Years earlier, during the late eighties, Bob had given Rick Joyner great prophetic direction for MorningStar, especially in regards to Moravian Falls, North Carolina and the purchase and rehab of the Fort Mill, South Carolina hotel property formerly owned by PTL.
Bob enjoyed an active, fruitful prophetic ministry in his later years. He and Bonnie traveled extensively and I enjoyed their ministry when I lived in New York. I traveled to various churches in New England where Bob and Bonnie ministered. They were based in Statesville, North Carolina, just north of Charlotte. They had many visitors, including a busload of ministers from South Korea at one point.
Bob Jones had a phenomenal record of fulfilled prophecies. I remember just after I first heard of Bob Jones, he predicted a solar storm that was to occur on a certain date. I focused on that date like a laser and when that date came along, I believe it was March 5th, 1989, sure enough, there was a major solar storm that day! Bob often saw weather phenomena, solar activity, earthquakes and other natural phenomena in advance. Bob would predict the events and give warning to people and give prophetic insight as to what God was saying through the natural events.
God speaks to His people through the Bible which is God’s first book and also through nature, which is God’s second book. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2). God gives signs through astronomical phenomena. Bob was gifted to predict such events and give God’s message in them.
Bob prophesied over me personally in Grandview, Missouri on January 31, 1989. To say that he “read my mail” is to put it mildly. The Lord gave Bob deep prophetic insight into my character and situation. The Lord showed Bob things about me that he would have no natural way of knowing. Bob gave me good directional guidance from the Lord.
Bob was friendly, humorous, affable and when you spoke with him you always had his full attention. There would be a line of people waiting to talk to Bob after a church service. He patiently listened to each one, answered their questions and often gave prophetic words to them.
Bob Jones passed away on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2014 in Charlotte, North Carolina. There were a lot of prophetic happenings that occurred at the hospital just before his death, including a clock in his hospital room that accelerated rapidly and this was videotaped. In the video, you can see the hands of the clock spinning rapidly without a human hand touching them! I think the message in the clock acceleration is that things are now accelerating in the church in the end-times.
At Heritage International Ministries in Fort Mill, South Carolina, a building that will host 24/7 intercessory prayer has recently been completed. It’s called The Bob Jones Vision Center. Bob Jones was certainly a champion of prophetic intercession. It is fitting that this prayer center should be named in his honor. Bob’s website is at www.bobjones.org.
The ancient Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament certainly predicted the future with superb accuracy. Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of over 300 prophecies written in the pages of the Old Testament hundreds of years before His birth. No other figure in all of world history can make this claim! In Isaiah 53 and elsewhere, the prophets foretold that Christ would suffer and die, taking upon Himself the penalty we deserved because of our sins. They foretold that Christ would rise from the dead to offer forgiveness of sins to all who turn to Him in repentance. Call upon Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins!
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Prayer to receive salvation:
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!
Thanks for writing this article. May the Lord Bless you. Has Bob jones ever written any books?
Bob Jones hasn’t written any books. There have been books written about him. You can find these books at http://www.morningstarministries.org or at amazon.com.
I like hearing about Bob Jones, so read your material. Hope to hear more of your work, and his.
The comment in this article about Bob & Viola moving to Southern Alabama is incorrect. They moved to Sunny Hills, FL, which had a Chipley, FL address and zip code. I know this because we were neighbors there. Both he and Viola took me, my husband, and my daughters under their wing, and we were treated as if we were family. Viola passed in early 2005. I am only writing this because I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning from a dream where myself and my youngest daughter went to see Bob. In the dream he had a box with a number 31, lined up outside his home, among other boxes in a condo-type setting and some things had been stolen from his “box” in the dream; things that contained important truths and information in them. I’m still trying to process the dream, but I know every time Bob has come to me in a dream, or I have gone to him, it has been very important. Thank you for allowing me to share this.
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