Wisdom and Direction

through the gift of

Prophecy

       In 1986, a retired school teacher and 34 year Christian had a remarkable breakthrough in his spiritual gifts, specifically the gifts of prophecy and interpretation of unknown tongues as mentioned in I Corinthians, chapters 12 and 14 in the New Testament. Although the word “prophecy” is commonly associated with foretelling future events, these communications from heaven focused primarily on the principles for successful Christian living. This wisdom and knowledge was articulated over a period of many years to Ollen and Flora Hardin during their personal devotional times at home. In this private space they received wonderful insights about the Bible, healthy reminders for spiritual growth, and needed encouragement when struggling through challenges.
       Their devotional times had always included some combination of song, worship, prayer, and Bible reading. But with the sudden blossoming of the Holy Spirit’s prophetic and interpretation abilities through Ollen, he and his wife often felt the Lord had something to say using these gifts. They were definitely honored and excited with what seemed like the Lord’s focused attention, but at the same time wondered why this privilege was given to them since they didn't see themselves as anyone special.
       While serving in the U.S. Navy in 1952, at the age of 23, Ollen Hardin committed his life to Christ through a Christian ministry to people in military service. Soon after he experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spoke in an unknown tongue, a very personal and wonderful spiritual experience. After being honorably discharged from the Navy, he met and married his wife, Flora, and began a family. Gradually Ollen realized that the Holy Spirit had given him the gift of interpretation of tongues and the prophetic gift but he was hesitant to use it.
       About 1986, they felt a longing to become even closer to the Lord and began seeking him much more diligently, attending church services and revival meetings almost every night for a while. They met a local pastor who was especially eloquent in the way he expressed the oral gifts of the Spirit and began attending his church. He encouraged Ollen to open up and use his gift of prophecy and interpretation of tongues. Consequently, from the pastor’s own example as well as the comfort level to the moving of the Holy Spirit in his church, Mr. Hardin’s spiritual gift began to blossom.
       By the fall of 1986, Ollen and Flora started to meet weekly with others from their church in a home setting for more in-depth prayer and worship. Here Mr. Hardin continued to fine-tune his gift, and he brought forth a wellspring of uplifting and down-to-earth monologues from the Holy Spirit. After a while, the Hardins were amazed to discover that this gift would also activate within their normal devotional or prayer time at home, with the Lord talking to just the two of them. Because they felt this was so unusual, they were uneasy about sharing this with others, except for those who attended a small home group. It was like their own special treasure. They were reassured, however, by the verse in Matthew 18:20 which says, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
       In the spring of 1987, Mr. & Mrs. Hardin moved back to California to be closer to their two sons and their growing families, but the intimate fellowship and spiritual liberty they had enjoyed in Arkansas was difficult to replace. However, they continued with their frequent home devotional times of prayer and Bible studying, having learned to keep a tape recorder handy to preserve whatever the Lord would say to them. Before long they revealed to their sons, Ken and Keith, how the Lord was speaking to them and invited them to be a part of their devotional time anytime they wanted to. After some initial surprise and contemplation, they embraced what the Lord was doing in their lives, and when duties permitted, did join in on these sessions.
       The Lord continued to speak to them for many years thereafter. However, about 1992, the messages started becoming shorter, more fragmented, and less frequent. There were no recordings in the second half of the 1990s except for a lone message on 11-14-1999. In the spring of 2000, Ollen had a minor stroke which left him unable to speak for several months. However, when his speech did return his ability to prophesy had gone strangely dormant.
       Perhaps this was part of the Lord’s timing. For it was only then that the Hardins started seriously feeling that perhaps these utterances weren't just for them alone. So with prayerful earnestness, Ken began to transcribe the hundreds of audio tapes that had accumulated over the years. He finally finished in 2009 and then he took another year to create a book using excerpts from the messages. Ollen's health continued to slowly decline, yet Flora managed to care for him at home. But the time eventually came for his departure from this world and on August 22, 2008 he passed on to meet his Lord and heaven's rewards.

The excerpts from the full-length transcriptions have been organized into the topics below which are in the Lips of Clay Transcriptions book and can be ordered through Amazon. Within this website you can download the Master File that contains the all the excerpts contained under these headings.

Angels, Ministering SpiritsNew Testament People and Events

Bible, Word of God, ScripturesOld Testament People and Events

Bride, Body of Christ, the ChurchPraise, Singing, Worship

Creation of the Universe, Earth, MankindPrayer, Intercession

Death, Judgment, HellPurpose of Life, Why We are Here

Deception, Falling Away, the Last DaysRapture, Millennial, New Heavens and Earth

Enemy, Lucifer, Opposing SpiritsSalvation, Born Again, Set Free, New Life

Evangelism, Being a Witness, a LightSpiritual Coasting, Lukewarm Heart

Faith, Perseverance, Spiritual GrowthSpiritual Gifts, Pentecost, Baptism in H.S.

Free Will, Personal Choice, Decision Making
Spiritual Warfare, Training for Battle

Giving, Tithing, Riches, Wealth
Temple of the H. S., New Testament Priest

Healing, Health, the BodyTrails, Temptations, Depression, Suicide

Heaven, the Afterlife
Will of God, Spiritual Guidance

Heavenly Books, Record Keeping
Working in the Harvest Fields

Intimacy, Fellowship with God


 

The full-length transcriptions have been organized by the dates on which they were originally spoken. Below are some good examples. You can download this "Best Of" file if you scroll further down. All files are in the PDF format.

January 5, 1987September 21, 1988
September 1, 1987 amJanuary 29, 1990
December 4, 1987 amJune 3, 1990
May 29, 1988

If you want all of the full-length transcripts to read you can download that "Master File" from the same place. It totals 822 pages including a cover and introduction. You can take the PDF file to a copy center and have printed out if you wish to read from hard copy. It's designed to be double-sided, 3 hole punched on letter sized paper.

Don't forget about the powerful search capabilities of the PDF format. To search for certain words in the transcriptions, open the file, click and hold on the word "Edit" in the menu at the top left. Select the word "Search" in the pull down menu. Type in the word or phrase you want to find. Click "Search" again. All places that have that exact wording you've typed will be listed. By clicking on each selection in the list the PDF file will take you directly to the page where it is found.

All Lips of Clay Topics

Master file for all Topics in the Lips of Clay book

Best of Full-Length Transcriptions

Ten messages that the Editor believes are some of the best.

All Full-Length Transcriptions

Master file for all Full-Length Transcriptions

       Ollen and Flora’s devotional times usually began with some combination of singing, worship, praying, and reading the Bible. At some point they would then wait on the Lord to see if he had anything to say through the Spirit-given gifts. Many times either he, his wife, or their sons (if present) would feel prompted to first speak in their own spiritual language, which is described in the Bible in I Corinthians, chapters 12 and 14 and is illustrated in various parts of the book of Acts.
       The messages received thereafter would on occasion be a literal interpretation of that tongue, from the viewpoint of that person’s inner spirit speaking to the Lord. But the vast majority of the time, it seemed to be more of a catalyst to spark the prophetic gift, in which the Heaven spoke directly to them. Furthermore, the length of time he would prophesy in English would be far greater than the minute or less the unknown tongue was spoken.
       With his eyes closed, several words would become very strong in his mind, being distinctly different than his own thoughts. As soon as he spoke those, other words would immediately follow and there was a rhythm achieved between receiving the words and speaking them. Interestingly, he had to speak the first group of words in his mind before any other words would follow. It was like being in a sandbag relay, where he needed to pass on what he had before being handed any more.
       From outward appearances, it looked as if he was just talking with his eyes closed. It was all very natural and casual. There were no odd movements, physical excitement, or change in pitch or tone from his normal voice. He was conscious of his surroundings and was not in a trance. However, he could be very much affected by what he spoke and was by no means emotionless. Ollen could laugh or weep, being touched by the joyful or serious tone of what was coming forth.
       During the first five years or so, the length of an average message would last between five to ten minutes before the words would stop. But sometimes, especially in the first couple of years, they could last as long as thirty minutes. When the flow of words would end and Ollen would usually add the phrase, “And then there is a pause” to indicate the break. However, for the sake of simplicity in the full-length transcriptions, the greek letter “omega” Ω is used instead.
       The spiritual utterance part of their devotions usually contained several messages, with many starts and stops. The subsequent ones could continue along the same theme or they could take an entirely different direction. A devotional would finally end when either the messages stopped coming, Ollen grew tired, or they just needed to get on with daily activities.
       During the first few months after his gift’s sudden growth period, Mr. Hardin had a significant disadvantage in that he himself could remember only a general sense of the message he had just spoken. Yet if he tried to think about what he was saying at that same time he was speaking them, this interrupted his spiritual reception. He therefore learned to keep his concentration on speaking what he was getting until the words paused or stopped on their own. He would then try to remember what he could or have others who were present repeat what they remembered, so he himself could be edified.
       It soon became apparent that the best solution to this problem was to use a tape recorder so the messages could simply be played back for him. This could be conveniently done within their own prayer time at home. And since they treasured what was happening, they did not record over previous ones, but preserved all  recordings they could.
       As you would expect, typesetting the messages as close as possible to the audio tape was the goal. But many times a conversational style, with loose sentence structures and liberties with grammar, may be perfectly acceptable when heard, but is awkward when put in writing. In addition, there were sometimes gaps in the sentences, as if he had missed or skipped over some words, as well as jumbled phrasing and incorrect verb tenses. Therefore, it was decided that some editing needed to be employed to make them more consistent with proper written English. Although almost all of the messages were grammatically improved in some way, care was taken not to affect the meaning or tone they were originally spoken in.
       Except for the names of Ollen and Flora, or their sons Ken and Keith, any other real names of individuals mentioned are either deleted or changed for the sake of privacy. Sometimes personal problems and even some unusual spiritual issues were talked about. If the family felt that any of this was too personal in nature, inappropriate for a wider audience, or required too much background information to be understood properly, they were also omitted.

       There is no doubt that our great and mighty Creator is communicating to the Church on the foundation of the inspired writings of the Holy Bible. Christians rightly expect for God to minister to them from its study, from an active prayer life, and consistently gathering with other committed believers. But the idea of a more direct kind of communication is typically regarded by many churches as perhaps some kind of mental illness, the deception of demons, or at best reserved for an outstanding person of God on an infrequent basis.
       This is said because of the sincere belief that the Holy Spirit no longer uses some of the spiritual gifts employed when Christianity first began. Many born again and knowledgeable scholars of the Bible teach that God’s use of these particular gifts—the speaking of an unknown language, the interpretation of this tongue, and/or prophesying—were intended only for the Christians of the first or second century A.D. until the written New Testament was firmly established.
       Unfortunately, with these kinds of strongly held beliefs, biases, and worries about the deception or distortion of the Biblical truth, these manifestations can become very divisive within the Christian community. In addition, the modern Christian mind in general seems to be uncomfortable with them, perhaps because they are so distinctly supernatural and therefore unpredictable, and cannot be scheduled into the program of a church meeting.
       Yet there is a significant, vital, and growing part of the Church that knows that all of the original gifts of the Holy Spirit as seen in the New Testament are intended to be exercised today, and that they are meant to be an active part of its spiritual arsenal. In fact, it has been estimated that millions of Christians are using the gift of tongues throughout the world today, though it seems the gift of interpretation of the tongues and/or prophecy is given to far fewer. These Protestant or Catholic believers are usually known as Pentecostals or Charismatics. But even within these various groups and churches, there would still be differences of scriptural and/or personal conviction as to how much importance these spoken gifts should have, in addition to how and when they should be used in a public setting.
       Although their ability to function comes from the power of the Holy Spirit, there is still a lack of understanding of what elements are actually at play when these spiritual gifts are active. One might wonder if the process could possibly be tampered with by the forces of darkness? Could the message-giver’s own subconscious or character weaknesses unintentionally influence what is spoken? Should Christians make allowances if there are occasional factual mistakes or minor inconsistencies—for whatever reason?
       As a disclosure, a very small portion of these messages do have biblical and mathematical errors. But unlike the grammar issues, this was felt to be far too relevant to merely correct, since it deals (among other things) with the issue of credibility, even if one already accepts these kinds of gifts as genuine. Though none of these errors were included in the Lips of Clay Transcriptions book, the full-length transcripts will show the occasional errors that either the editor has left as is but footnoted the needed correction OR the correction was inserted and the original wording footnoted. Of course, it is expected that people will ask, “If these messages are really from God, why do they have these problems?” Frankly, the Hardin family does not have conclusive answers from their current understanding.
       Although there were some feelings of embarrassment to disclose this, they had to remind themselves that the Lord has chosen to work in and through his people, despite their sinful nature, weaknesses, fears, or outside hindrances. Few Christians could claim that they have never had any sort of resistance, distortion, or ineffectiveness in the use of a spiritual gift—of any kind. Does not the Lord train and teach, and are not mistakes an expected part of this learning process? This is probably why Paul, in I Corinthians 14:29, stated that prophetic utterances were to be judged or evaluated by the Christians who heard them, not just blindly embraced.
       If you are not familiar with these kinds of spiritual gifts and want more information in general, there are many well-reasoned Christian books and websites that will offer in-depth scriptural examination -- pro and con. A Google search for phrases such as “gift of tongues or prophecy,” “gifts of the Holy Spirit,” or “prophetic utterances” will bring up scores of hits, some Christian, some not. But don’t be content to just read about it. Experience the utterances first hand and meet the people who have these gifts. Contact the leaders of your local Pentecostal or Charismatic churches.

       The Hardin family has endeavored to prepare this personal collection for publication out of a conviction that this is what they should do with what they have been given. Furthermore, the Hardins know full well that at their most basic level, the words received by Ollen are merely a record of his own experiences. Proof of their authenticity will be a harmony with the Bible and the witness of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of God’s people.
       The Hardins hope that these words assist others to become more aware that God’s love is very real, and He’s always there to listen and help his children. They'll rejoice if they can touch hearts in a life-changing way. They're praying that somewhere in this hurting world they can be part of the Holy Spirit’s continuing effort to spread the message of God’s love through Jesus Christ, and to strengthen and motivate the Church in these last days before the Lord’s personal return to earth.
       If these messages have made a positive impact in your spiritual life, the Editor would be pleased to hear from you. You can contact him at KEN42418@VERIZON.NET.