Can You Hear Me Now? Matt Thayer on Charlie Kirk, Prophecy & America’s Reawakening

0:00 Hello everyone and welcome to this very special edition of The Strang Report. I'm Stephen Strang. Today I have the privilege of interviewing my longtime friend, Matt Thayer, who's a filmmaker and has just made a fantastic new film. It'll actually be out on September 10th, 2026, which is the one year anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And Charlie Kirk plays prominently in this documentary. It's called Can You Hear Me Now? And Matt interviewed him about two weeks before his untimely death. And so I think there'll be a lot of interest. But let me start by welcoming you and just ask you what prompted you to do a documentary. We'll talk a little bit about your work in a minute, but this is an unusual documentary because it's about the prophetic, and you can see how Charlie Kirk actually believed that God speaks to us through the prophetic.

1:00 Yeah, it was kind of crazy because we pursued an interview with Charlie Kirk not really from that angle. Obviously, we didn't know that he was going to. passed away two weeks after we interviewed him at all. That wasn't part of the plan. But we really were interested in having a conversation with him around the separation of church and state and Christian nationalism. It was just some of the stuff that he shares with on campuses. But because this film, the impetus of this film was around God speaking and when God speaks, how is the church supposed to activate or respond? I did ask him questions about the prophetic and about the gifts and he was very open and honest about it and totally was like, yep, I believe it. I've had experience with that. He said, I can't speak into it as deeply as some theologians, but he says, I've absolutely seen them active and we need to always apply it to scripture. He was definitely a believer in the prophetic, which I found extraordinarily fascinating. And everybody that I've shown those clips to are going like, wow, really? So I'm hoping that it really encourages people to watch the documentary. And the point of the documentary is to just encourage people to rethink how we go about thinking how God speaks to us. Well you have done six other documentaries several which i've watched i have a lot of respect for

2:31 you as a filmmaker. And i think one of the first things i want to do is to show the very short trailer so people have a contacts and then we'll talk about some of the people in it i'll talk about my own reaction to it and. Before we started this podcast, you told me that there's a five minute clip and what I'm going to do is just play that at the very end of the podcast. So people that want to see more can actually see the first five minutes of the documentary while it's still in play. You're still tweaking it some between now and the time that it comes out. So here without further ado is the trailer. I do believe that those gifts are active. I'm not at a position to speak openly about that as much as theologians. I will say this, it can be abused, it's very real, but I've seen it work. Not only work, I've seen it transform lives and some people absolutely have the gift of prophecy. The reason we need prophets is because we need God to reveal his heart and God has always chosen, whenever he wants to say something, he looks for a human vessel. We saw depression go up, anxiety go up, we saw crime go up. The problem is we're looking for the government to tackle moral issues. The problem with being deceived is you're deceived and you don't know it. Christ called us to be salt and light. We as Christians should change

4:01 the environment that we come in contact with. People will often come to me and say, well, as a pastor, you really should not be involved. The first question is why should Christians be involved in anything? A nation. who acknowledges God is going to be blessed. Well, you can't be blessed if you're the church, if you're to eliminate yourself from it. Whether it be Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Moses, Aaron, they all thought deeply about how to either influence secular government for God's purposes or form a government for God's purposes. Everybody will look around and wonder, is anybody going to stand up? When you hear his voice in the mouths of his messengers, it tunes people into knowing what he sounds like. We are going to see the value of hearing his voice for every area of life and society. Well, I found that very interesting and I think that people will want to stay tuned to the end of the podcast to see a little bit longer I personally know I I counted there are seven people that you have including Charlie Kirk who I met briefly I did not know him very well. I knew all but two of them and So it was just interesting for me knowing their lives and ministries in a couple of cases actually being friends and what they had to say

5:31 And of course, with covering the Charismatic Renewal and Pentecostal movement as I have for the past five decades, the prophetic and God -speaking is somewhat controversial. There are people who use the term the prophetic or the prophetic movement. There are other people that blast it and just say it's wrong. And partly, it's because as human beings, the prophetic is not always accurate as we saw with the prophecies in 2020 that Donald Trump would be elected again. So tell me how you dealt with it, because I know that you were also very involved with the revival aspect. Well, as far as the prophetic, this is the thing that's challenging to me, and that you brought up the 2020 election. We don't know.

6:28 if actually Donald Trump won that election. There's investigations going on right now. He may have very well won. And the enemy is a deceiver and a liar. And so I don't understand how we, Jesus himself calls the enemy the father of lies. And yet we don't think he's capable of hoodwinking an entire nation. So that's interesting to me. And the fact that back in you know, the book of Jeremiah, which we kind of go into on this documentary. Jeremiah was called the false prophet. You know, we want to, we want to say today, we want to pound the table and say, we want old Testament prophets to just say it and it happens.

7:09 And it's like, well, in the moment, nobody knew who was actually speaking for God. At one point he was put in prison because they thought he was on Nebuchadnezzar's payroll. So, uh, you know, The fact that we are living in a time period where certain things aren't maybe as clear as we would like them to be does not mean that the prophetic isn't working and it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be paying attention and it doesn't mean that they're false. It just means that we're in a space where we actually have to use faith and we actually have to use discernment, which is really what we're supposed to be doing. Because Paul said to Timothy, Paul said to Timothy, use the prophetic words spoken over you to fight the good fight. Well, doesn't that imply that there's going to be points where our reality isn't actually matching up with what God's spoken?

8:02 So I don't know. Well, that's absolutely right. And I'm very interested in this part about Donald Trump because I wrote a book about the prophetic and Donald Trump. It was called God and Donald Trump. I wrote it in 217 right after he was inaugurated because there were several prophetic voices, Kim Clement being the best known, and you can go on YouTube and Google or search for Kim Clement, prophecy, and it'll pop up. There were two of them. And in around 07, long before Trump was talking about running, Kim Clement said without naming him specifically, that God was going to raise up a trumpet or something like that. He would not be a praying man when he went into the White House. He'd be praying later and the God was raising him up and I'm not repeating it very well. But, uh, and then there were some other prophets like Chuck Pierce who said this unlikely real estate mogul who was a TV celebrity was going to be president. It looked impossible.

9:05 I wasn't for Trump to start with because all I knew that he was a brash New York celebrity on TV. But then I began to see that he was open to pastors praying for him. And you can go and see those clips as well. So anyway, I'll just say this. The reason I wrote that book was I felt that there was an untold story. The story of Trump winning didn't bring this question in. Did God raise him up? And there were several ministers who said that Trump was like Cyrus. God used Cyrus who wasn't even a believer. And could God use Trump? So that's the background of what happened in 2020. Kim Clement said that he'd be in two terms. And so when 2020 rolled around, I thought, well, he'll probably win.

9:54 And there were some other prophets who picked it up the second time around. It was interesting they didn't say it the first time around. And they were very emphatic, very emphatic, even when it was called for Joe Biden. But what I always said, and I like your opinion about this, is that they said two terms, but they didn't say they'd be in a row. And of course it has turned out to be two terms. Right. Yeah. And, and like I said, you know, God doesn't honor the fraud, doesn't honor the fraudulent results of, of, uh, you know, crazy machines. Um, he knows, he knows, he knows who vote, who, who voted. He knows who they voted for and he knows who won. And, um, you know, and I just. That's my opinion on it. I think it's interesting. I don't have answers, but I just look at those kinds of things and I'm like going, you know, God knows. Just because a machine certifies something doesn't mean that it's true. That's absolutely right. And we may find out later that there was fraud, but back to the documentary. I'm interested in Charlie Kirk. You know, there have been few people whose assassination has made such a big impact on the country. I mean, wasn't there a hundred thousand people that came to his memorial at the stadium in Arizona? So tell us about that interview and tell my viewers kind of what he said. You referred to it earlier, but I would

11:25 like to do a deeper dive. I had seen a clip about, you know, he was talking about the separation of church and estate. And one of the things that we knew about this documentary was like going, you know, God doesn't just speak to give us warm and fuzzy feelings. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, he's a good father. He wants to speak blessings over us, but we've kind of limited a lot of our own personal words from the Lord as just kind of words of encouragement. But he really does actually, want to shape nations. He wants to shape the world, you know what I mean? Like, he went through a lot of, you know, a lot of trouble, really, you know, to get to the point where Christ is on the throne and is the King. And why wouldn't he have, you know, opinions on how societies run? And he really does want to have a good society. So the separation of church and state conversation was really what I was interviewing Charlie Kirk about, you know, of how the church has become absent. in the conversation, you know, thinking like, well, we can't be a part of politics because that's somebody else's problem or that's not part of the church or, you know, all of this stuff when, you know, growing up, I knew our Christian heritage. I was, you know, I was homeschooled. I was, you know, privileged to be raised by some amazing parents who taught me, you know, the origins of our country. And I'm like going, how is it that, you know, now all of a sudden it's like, we have, you know, we're not a part of this conversation when it

12:57 was like literally the Christians that formed the country. And we've been called a Christian nation for all of these years. And now all of a sudden it's like hands off. It doesn't make any sense. So I knew that this documentary, if we're going to be talking about, you know, words around 2020, if we're going to be talking about how the prophetic works today, God speaking, He's doing something, you know, he said, let there be light and the entire universe started, right? You know what I mean? So it's like his words have purpose and power. And so what would that be? What would he be trying to get the church to engage with? And so, um, Charlie just articulates that extraordinarily well. And so we talked a lot about that, had an interview with him for about an hour. Um, great guy, by the way, just, I mean, his staff is amazing. Everybody was just super, super cool. And then we just talked to him about God speaking in the prophetic, and it really surprised me the answers that he gave and how he believes in that. He believes that God speaks. He believes that there are people that have the gift of prophecy. But he also said that a word from a prophet should never ever be an excuse for an action. And that's the thing that I think a lot of people mistake. It's like, well, God speaks, so therefore it's just gonna happen. It's like, no, there's actually examples in the Bible where that's not true. And we have to participate. We actually have to hear God's plan, you know, Papa's purposes. And then we as his children, his sons and daughters who are carrying his name forward on the planet, we have

14:29 to engage in a way that carries out those plans and purposes, you know? Um, so Charlie, you know, was amazing and did that. And then all of a sudden, like we're thinking we're going kind of in a different direction with this thing. And then all of a sudden, you know, death just blew up everything, um, all over the place. And, you know, you see all of these people coming to the Lord and these people going to the church and people saying, I've been attracted to the Bible. I mean, you're just going like, wow, God, like, and then, and then, like you said, I mean, this memorial service. I w I was standing there in my living room and I am. sobbing. I am just sobbing like a baby. And my kids are looking at me going like, dad, like we've never seen you like this.

15:12 And I'm just sobbing because it was like this bittersweet of like, you know, grieving for Erica for losing her husband, grieving for, you know, his daughters who are going to grow up without a dad, you know, grieving for, you know, like the fact that it took this you know, for to wake us all up. But then like looking and thinking about how for 20, 30, 40 years, my parents have been longing for something like this, you know, and knowing all of the prayers of the saints that have been going into revival and watching it happen. I mean, it's just, it was, I was just overwhelmed by the entire experience and I couldn't help but go like, Lord, you're going to do something extraordinary with this generation. You're, you're, you're in the, we're in the middle of a revival.

15:56 We're in the middle of a reawakening right now. And there's nobody that can convince me otherwise. Well, I agree with you on that. And I just thought you did a magnificent job of presenting something that is obviously very controversial, something that a lot of people don't really understand. I've had the privilege of seeing a couple of your documentaries, The Trump I Know, which I thought was brilliant and made the case very well that Donald Trump was not like a lot of the media portray him to be, and then the enemy within with Patrick Byrne, who we actually did a podcast on, as I recall. And I thought it was very well done. And this one, I grew up in this.

16:43 I've been covering the prophetic for years, but yep, my own eyes were opened with a few of the things that were said, especially with one of the people, I won't say who it was. who had been embroiled in some controversy, and it didn't really affect me, but I had to look at that person's ministry in a little bit different light. I thought, you know, I probably have judged them based on what I heard, and it really had nothing to do with you, and if I'd been exposed to them in another setting, undoubtedly I would have come to the same conclusion. So I'm just saying that it affected me personally, and I think it'll affect the people who watch it. So tell me what your goal is. Do you think, you know, obviously you're coming out at a time when everyone's going to be thinking about Charlie Kirk and his assassination, although this is not really about Charlie Kirk.

17:34 He's just the most prominent person that you interviewed, and it's very interesting to look back and hear what he had to say about God speaking. But do you think this is going to fuel the revival? It's just an indication that a proof that a revival is happening? It'll wake up people to be more open to listen to prophetic voices Do you think it brings me balance in the prophetic because you know, there's some the prophetic Bias very nature invites people that maybe are false prophets, you know, the Bible talks about false prophet prophets are just people that are Extremists. What do you think? You know, we obviously I mean, this is what I do for a living, you know means I want to be successful and you know And there's monetary value in that. But when something is monetarily successful, that also means that it's having an impact. It also means that a lot of people are watching it, and a lot of people are talking about it. And really what was on my heart the entire time when I was making this for the last year was just all of those people that I saw on Instagram and TikTok that were going like, I'm just attracted to Jesus right now. Why would all of a sudden the death of Charlie Kirk all of a sudden have this magnetic pull towards the Bible where a woman is like, I'm picking up my husband's Bible for the first time or I'm going

19:05 back to church for the first time that I haven't been ever or in decades or whatever. Why is that having that impact? I mean, I think that was... what was just kept going through my mind. And I'm like, Lord, there's, there's so many new believers coming to your church. And we've done a really bad job at getting people to understand that they can hear you and how to discern your voice, but yet you're a dad. You know what I mean? Like it's like, we tell people that God is our father. You're, he's your father. He's your father, but no, he doesn't speak to you except for through this book that he wrote like a thousand years ago. You know what I mean? And you're just like, what kind of dad would not talk to you? Like, it just doesn't make any sense.

19:51 And so there's this, but there's this balance between what we have in the word, what we have in people. There are people that are prophets. There are people that can pick up his transmissions better than others, but we all have the ability to hear his voice and those tools give us the ability to tune in to what he sounds like. So that we can actually then therefore enjoy that relationship that everybody wants to say we have with him, but you can't have a relationship without a conversation. And so anyway, I was, I'm hoping that the people that were, you know, attracted to the church and attracted to the Bible and attracted to relationship with Jesus through the death of Charlie Kirk would find this film and they would watch it because Charlie's in it. And all of a sudden they're like, oh wow, like God loves me. and he's got a plan. And I just think that would be amazing because, like I said, I think the church has done such a horrible job managing conversations around the prophetic.

20:49 We don't understand what a prophet really is and how they function. We get onto all these weird circular logic conversations that just go nowhere. And I wanted to just try to, as a storyteller, not as a theologian, just go, all right, let's try to make this make sense. Just ask some questions and try to get to a place where we can just be curious about a relationship with an amazing God. Well said. And I know that there are ways that people can get involved in this. And one of them is you're setting up a GoFundMe. Your documentary is pretty much done.

21:34 So what will the money from the GoFundMe allow you to do that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise? And then how can people be involved? Well, essentially the GoFundMe will essentially double our marketing reach. And like I said, I have a relationship with you. I have a relationship with lots of other podcasters. I can get in front of audiences and most audiences that I can get in front of. are people that are going to be like, yeah, this is awesome. And, you know, agree with, you know, the content and, you know, go out and want to watch it and share it. But, you know, to really, to get the impact that we want to have and the impact that I was just describing, we really need to get outside of that circle. And so, you know, the GoFundMe gives us the ability to, or want to raise $550 ,000 to add to the marketing war chest so that we can get more digital ad space, you know, get more, just more Yeah, just more marketing. It's like we just need to get it out there more ads, you know, more videos on YouTube, all of the stuff that you have to do, especially nowadays, because you got to really break through the noise. I mean, you know this, you know, you got to break through to get you get your message out there so people even hear about it. So anyway, so and what I love about that is that people like your audience who are already engaged in the conversation, they're already interested in, you know, conversations about the prophetic. they're going to watch this and they're going to go, wow, this is really important. And I really need to share this with so and so and so and so and so and so. Well, this is an opportunity where you can get in early.

23:03 And like Steve said, we're going to play, you know, five minutes of the film, the first five minutes of the film. So you can see, you know, we're done with this thing. I mean, I'm doing some finishing touches this week, but we're pretty much done and it's going to get out there. And so, but you can actually be a part of being the army that helps to get it out there further. you know, by going to the crowd fund on give, send, go and, um, you know, giving us, you know, whatever you can, um, and then sharing it with other people and saying like, no, this is something that you guys need to be a part of. This is really important. This is going to have some cultural impact. And we'll put on the screen how people can get involved. I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be in my podcast.

23:46 We've got several podcasts and we'll have, we'll have to do another one closer to when. The film debuts in September. And for those who don't subscribe to my podcast, I want to remind you to subscribe, give us a thumbs up, share the podcast with people that you think would be interested in this film on The Prophetic. And so now without further ado, we'll close by playing this five minute clip. The first five minutes of this important new documentary called Can You The truth is, I never wanted to make documentaries. And this might sound strange, considering I've made seven in the last six years. Why then do I do it? Short answer? I believe God told me to. But more on that later. When asked to create a film regarding the confusion of prophetic words spoken over

25:18 the 2020 election, I asked, why me? Because even though I believe God speaks, I've still had my issues with the prophetic, especially around politics. Oh boy. And my documentaries have tackled some pretty controversial things. Election fraud? Women who support Trump, the weaponization of government, fraudulent information around COVID, and the rise of patriotic conferences during the Biden administration. But modern -day prophets? There's entire groups of Christians who don't believe they exist. But something about it intrigued me. In sensing a deeper conversation, I had my team invite Charlie Kirk to be interviewed for the film. I asked him what he thought about the prophetic. A word from a prophet should never be an excuse for inaction or apathy. It can be abused. It's very real. I think it's something that we need to always apply and submit to scripture.

26:15 But I've seen it work. Not only work, I've seen it transform lives. And some people absolutely have the gift of prophecy. That conversation happened two weeks to the minute before Charlie was. Watching the event unfold that day, I couldn't help but think, why would God have me be one of the last people to interview Charlie before he died? Is there something he's trying to say? Why do you believe what you believe? Why do I believe what I believe? Belief comes from information.

27:05 But where does information come from? Everything we currently believe is based on information we once saw or read or heard. This information forms an inner formation we refer to as a belief system. Like an operating system in a computer, we hope this system is based on good information. But sometimes what we believe is based on bad information. This forms a lie. Where do you get your information? How do you filter out the lies and keep the good? Even those of you who don't believe in God, stay with me for a moment. If God exists, how would He inject His information into our world? More than likely, He would use humans. And what do we call these humans who claim to carry heavenly messages? Oracles? Seers?

28:02 But what do you believe about prophets? Some people believe they no longer exist. Others insist they still do. Every culture has legends of those supposedly touched by the divine. Many fear them. Others mock them. And it doesn't help matters that those who claim to have a connection to the invisible world have led people to do... crazy things. Another issue? Prophets tend to be a little odd. But hasn't this always been the case? Even looking through the Christian Bible I find Isaiah strolling around naked. Jeremiah walking around with a wooden ox yoke on his shoulders.

29:14 Ezekiel camping out for weeks, cooking bread over cow dung. Seriously. But peel back all these peculiarities and thundering words. Weren't they all just ordinary humans? I was introduced to a few people, others have called prophets. I was curious to hear their stories of when they believed they first heard God's voice.