Filmmaker Matthew Thayer’s new movie, “Can You Hear Me Now?” tackles biblical prophecy, exploring whether prophets still deliver messages to the masses today.
As part of the film, Thayer did one of the final interviews with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk before his assassination.
“I interviewed him with the impetus of talking to him about … the separation of church and state, Christian nationalism, all of the stuff that he was so eloquent at communicating,” Thayer said. “And it was a great interview.”
The filmmaker said he asked Kirk about prophecy and for his general take on whether it still occurs today.
“What he said blew me away,” said Thayer. “[Kirk’s] like, ‘Yeah, absolutely. I believe that there’s prophets, there’s prophecy — it’s a gift.’ It can be abused, but he’s seen it work and he’s seen it transform lives. But one of the things that he said that I thought was just right on was that a word from a prophet is not an excuse for … [inaction] or apathy.”
Kirk worried people might not have worked as hard as they could have in the 2020 election because they were relying on what they were told by a prophet and assumed it would be easily won.
“That actually, to me, points to a real fatalistic viewpoint that’s prevalent within the church of the will of God,” Thayer said. “That, if God speaks, it’s just going to happen. I don’t have to do anything about it. I can just pop some corn and sit on my couch and watch it all happen.”
Conversely, he said, a prophet’s role is to show up and alert people that situations are going the wrong way.
“A prophet’s word should be directional and actually require action upon the people and upon the people that are hearing it,” Thayer continued.
Ultimately, Thayer said he hopes “Can You Hear Me Now?” will inspire people to think deeper about how God might be speaking to them today.
“The biggest thing that was really kind of stuck with me the entire last year as we were making this film was all of the people that came out after Charlie Kirk’s death and were posting online going, ‘I’m being drawn to the Bible … Why do I want to go to church? I’m going to go to church’ — that was God speaking to all of those people.”
Thayer continued, “And so I really had a heart to really reach those people who are really infants in Christ and … kind of grab them by the collar and just go, ‘God’s speaking to you’ … because … there’s a whole swath of Christianity that doesn’t believe that God really kind of speaks.”
Find out more about “Can You Hear Me Now?”
