Kirk Franklin's Story of Grace

It is such a joy to see how God is using Kirk Franklin to spread the message of our identity in Christ. Kirk is a Grammy Award winning, platinum album selling musician who is preaching grace! The following is his testimony,from CCM Magazine. If you haven't bought his latest CD, Hero, get it -- you won't be disappointed. The song at the bottom of the following article is my favorite on his new album. Called "Imagine Me," it describes the wonder of seeing ourselves as we are - free in Christ, with all our guilt and sins gone!


The Revolution of a Broken Man
By Melissa Riddle
From CCM Magazine


What "God saw" must have been what pastor Tony Evans saw when he spotted Kirk Franklin sitting in his worship service. Kirk was a bit confused at what Evans saw or didn’t see. Every church he’d gone to in recent years had catered to him as a celebrity, providing special parking and VIP seating. But not this one. It was the first time, he says, that "I realized that I had gotten conditioned and comfortable with that. And I started seeing my pride and my flesh really doing acrobats."

And when the pastor finally shared with Franklin what he saw in him, the singer was amazed. "He said to me ‘I see a young man who, if his inside can catch up with his outside, he’d be a great man of God.’ He saw all of the spiritual acrobats I was doing but saw no depth."

God had drawn Franklin to Evans’ church, Oakland Bible Fellowship, just about the same time Kirk’s professional life began to unravel. "He said to me at the beginning of the friendship that ‘Every great man of God that God ever used, God broke them before He used them.’"

At Evans’ church, Franklin found solid, biblical teaching and discipleship that would guide every aspect of his life.

Since the age of 12, Franklin had struggled with pornography. He had been sexually active from a young age. And although he’d been raised in the church, he had never once been taught what the Bible has to say on the subject.

When he became a Christian at age 15, he went to his pastor seeking help. "The pastor said, ‘Ah, boy, you’re young. You’ll grow out of it.’ But I never grew out of it. I grew into it. When I was 17 I had a child out of wedlock.... After I got married, I told my wife. I sat her down one day, and I shared with her my struggle with pornography.

"For years I’d go to great pastors that I really look up to, even after I’d done an album, going to them crying letting them know that I had this problem. But all I’d get was some oil, somebody laying hands on me, trying to lay me out in the floor, and that’s not going to fix that problem."

But in the summer of 1999, when Evans gave Kirk a copy of Steve McVey’s book called Grace Walk (Harvest House), he finally began to learn what he should’ve been taught years ago. "God started really giving me victory in the area of pornography," he says.

For the first time, Franklin says, he began learning and reading and understanding who he is in Christ. "I began to be discipled, and my pastor started talking about how we have the mind of Christ and those [impure] thoughts are not my thoughts. I said ‘What?’ It was Greek to me, Tony Evans talking about how it’s not me, but Christ living in me. I had read that Scripture before, but I had never had anyone tell me that before, that I’m a dead man walking.

"Then when you listen to cats like Charles Stanley or David Jeremiah or Jack Hayford or Ann Graham Lotz, you become a sponge, and you think ‘Where in the world has this kind of preaching and teaching been?’ ...I’d been blessed to minister to God’s people but didn’t know true ministry myself. And I never would have known that on the mountain. God only shows you that in the valley."

After years of thinking he knew exactly where he was going, Kirk Franklin was given the tools, the grace by which to live. "I’ve learned to understand that it was all part of a bigger plan. The plan was God breaking me. I couldn’t have made it through this season if not for the discipleship, the teaching and the humbleness, what God has allowed me to go through."

Brand New Day

Although it was recorded in 2000, Kirk Franklin’s latest release, The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin (Gospo Centric), announces to the world the revolution he’s experienced in his life. A live recording, Rebirth is almost prophetic in that it came in the middle of his dark night. What it signals is a new season of ministry, worship and growth.

"Whether it’s the Dove Awards, touring and album sales, time in the studio or on tour buses," he says, "it’s easy to forget that this world is not my home; it’s so easy to want to set up camp and stay." Our success or failure is not measured by society’s standards, Franklin says. Our success is measured in how well we love, how well we serve others.

Toward that end, Kirk says, he’s determined to spend more time with his wife, Tammy, and their four children, ages 6 months to 13 years, who remind him of his true purpose in life.

He surrounds himself with mentors, people who can speak truth into his life. They know him and hold him accountable to the truth. "My wife’s father is an incredible man of God. So, he’s affected my life. And God has given me a couple of good friends who hold me accountable, and they make up so much of my joy."

Franklin also spends a lot of time reaching out to his niece, whose mother, his sister, has been in prison for the last 10 years. He considers being a strong example to her an important responsibility and a privilege.

This year, he will also be sponsoring a mentoring program at the high school he attended, making time to talk to youth about the realities of life and what he’s experienced.

"What I try to do more than anything is be very honest and very transparent, whether it’s about the pornography or girls or whatever… because I came from a very promiscuous lifestyle, just trying to find love the sex way. So I try to talk about those things and be open about the mistakes I’ve made.

"I feel like one of the greatest gifts God has given me through this season is to be able help people. And you only help people by showing them your battle scars."

When it all comes down, Kirk Franklin—who redefined and revolutionized gospel music for the world—has finally met His maker, the author of his life and the giver of his gift. He’s had a revolution, from the inside out. He will never see himself the same way again. He will never be the same again.

"This season of testing," he says, "has shown me a God that I never knew—just like Job says in that last chapter when God gave him everything he lost back and even more, Job, who had been a servant of God all his life, said, ‘Before this, my ears had only heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You.’"