Sid: I have Tommy Welchel in the studio; he is the last living link to the Azusa Street Revival. Because as a young man he met some of the aged people; remember this revival was 100 years ago in the early 1900’s in Azusa Street in California. And they poured everything they had into him; he’s telling stories of what they saw firsthand and it’s just like you were there. And as he tells these stories people get healed; miracles start taking place. But Tommy you told me that a lot of these aged saints would always walk up to you and just pray and not even tell you what they were doing. And finally you asked; what did they tell you?
Tommy: Well, all of them would lay their hand on my shoulder and it was just a few seconds silent prayer. After about a year I got up to ask Brother Sines “What are you people doing when you do this?” He said “We’re inputting all of the anointing’s that we have off on to you.”
Sid: But can you picture one person being able to have the anointing for blindness; the anointing for people in wheelchairs; the anointing… and we’ve been talking about this all this week the anointing for children. How about animals; what happened with animals?
Tommy: Oh, I’ve seen some animals healed at Pisgah by these Saints. Lucille, there was this boxer bulldog to this young man that lived across the street. He loved this bulldog he was a little boy and a car had hit it and killed it. He came running for me; I went and the first one I saw was Lucille so I got her and said “Come on we need to go pray for this dog.” She says “A dog?” And I said “Yeah, he’s dead and you’ll raise it.” She said “Okay.” We go down there and we’re trying to get into the police; the police was saying “We’ve got to get him scooped up and we’ve got to get him into a bag!” And Lucille says “No! This little boy needs this dog back; I said let me pray for him.” And they had him in a bag and one guy said… and I said “What do you got to lose officer, she can either make a fool out of herself or we can have a miracle?” And he said “Pray for it lady.” She prayed for it and inside the body bag started jerking and kicking and that officer unzipped and out came the boxer bulldog. Totally, now he was crippled. I’d see the bones totally made whole. Then there was a cat that had got his eyes shot out by a BB gun and eyeball hanging out. Well they cleaned it out and this sister Mae came out and put her handkerchief over the eye and prayed for it. And there was one man named Kirk, he didn’t believe these miracles. She took the handoff and here was the eye totally whole. And he looked at me; turned and looked at me and said “Now, I believe.”
Sid: Hm. Now, just out of curiosity because I’m naturally a curious person. When there various saints from the great Azusa Street Revival would put their hands on your shoulder and pray for you did you feel anything special? Tell, me what went on.
Tommy: Every time they laid hands on me like a little tingle, like an electric tingle; not bad not… but a little tingle. I kind of enjoyed it but it only lasted about 6 or 7 seconds. I just was curious about what they were doing.
Sid: Well, I believe that you were raised up not just to tell those stories but to pass that anointing on to other people. And you’ve been on the radio before when you’ve shared stories what has happened?
Tommy: Houston Texas this one black brother had a program on one of the 6 stations that a black man owned them. Now they never let white guys come on; this man got me on and he handed me the microphone; is it okay to tell them the truth I got it and I don’t remember. They said I started… they said like an anointing came on me and I started talking. The owner of the stations came by and he was sick; he looked at me and he got healed; he knew what it was. He went into the controls and turned me on to all 6 radio stations. After it was over I just came to and I said “Okay, I’m through.” Right at the last second they were fixing to stop me. People started calling in; one woman was taking a shower and she had to brace herself up she kept a radio on in her bathroom. She got healed in the bathroom taking a shower and started dancing and she could hardly standup. One woman was paralyzed laying on her bed hadn’t felt anything from the waist down for years. She thought “What is this, what’s happening?” She had to have help to get up; before she knew it she was up dancing in her bedroom.
Sid: There is such a presence of God I believe that here’s what I want you to do Tommy; I want you to pray for healing and then we’re going to pray for a release of every anointing that these saints prayed for you to be release for those that are listening. Would you do that for me now?
Tommy: Yes, but that is my main ministry; telling my stories, answering questions and praying a prayer of impartation.
Sid: Okay, let’s start out with that prayer of impartation. Now you pray for every anointing that is in you “Freely you have received Tommy.”
Tommy: “Freely give.”
Sid: Pray that now Tommy.
Tommy: Heavenly Father I come to you right now. I’m asking that by Your anointing You release the anointing’s; all the anointing’s that these beloved Saints of God imparted to me back in the ’60’s. God I’m asking that it go out over these waves and it go to people in their houses and it go to Sid now. Your anointing fall and flow God; and I pray for healings coming in. And people calling in and say “They got healed in Jesus Name, amen.”
Sid: Amen. Now I want you to paint a picture for me right now with your word of what is going to be happening in America very soon, what type of miracles are you believing God will do? Are you believing like you talked about where someone’s arm was missing, part of their shoulder and the whole arm growing out? Paint me a picture.
Tommy: I’m seeing; I had a vision, a dream vision about a week ago. I saw arms growing out; I saw limbs; eyeballs coming back in; and I believe that’s going to be happening real soon Sid. But not just with me; with every believer; now if you don’t believe in this don’t worry you won’t get it; it’s for the believer.
Sid: But faith comes by hearing and that’s why your stories are so important.
Tommy: You’ve got to give the testimonies you’ve got to witness and testify of what God has done because He’s the God of everybody. He’s the same God back then; He’s the same God now; He will do the same for you. He’s not a respecter of persons; He’s not a respecter of persons. He will do it with anybody who will believe Him. In fact that little 13 year old girl; did you know that she had revival in her school.
Sid: Can you picture you know they’re so worried about our education system in America. Can you picture how in the world would administrators stop a move of God’s Spirit in the schools? They couldn’t do it. And you know what I’m hearing people that have gum diseases and teeth problems. Pray it; pray it right now; pray it pray it you’re seeing it too.
Tommy: Yes.
Sid: Pray for people to get new teeth.
Tommy: God we’re praying right now that teeth and gums will start growing back in peoples’ mouths. And that their whole dental system would clear up. And if they want new teeth they’ll get them and perfect teeth. God that revival will break lose through this and that souls will be saved all over the world and that Your Name will be glorified in America and then to the uttermost parts of the world. It is by faith and it is God by the anointing and I’m asking that move and go right now in Jesus Name.
Sid: And how about those people that need hip replacements and knee replacements their getting it right now. New knees, new hips in Jesus Name. And how about backs; pray for backs right now.
Tommy: Heavenly Father we’re asking that every back that’s been severed; every paralyzed person; everybody and pain will be healed in Jesus Name.
Sid: Okay let me tell you something, there are going to be so many even arthritis in the fingers (Laughing) it’s gone, it’s gone arthritis anywhere in your body it’s gone in Jesus Name.
Tommy: Yes.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
Sid: My guest by way of telephone Tulsa, Oklahoma, professor at Rhema for over 20 years, taught healing school for 9 years where people came from all over the world to be healed. He learned secrets if you will by his association with Dr. Kenneth Hagin, by his teaching at Rhema, but really by the 9 years in which he headed up the healing school that I believe the reason that I have missed healing in the past, and the reason that most of you have missed your healing in the past I believe are revealed in these 2 books by Doug Jones. Doug on yesterday’s broadcast when we ended I said we would start out talking about… there are 2 major vehicles through which healing can be obtained. Would you explain that?
Doug: Yes there are. Jesus ministered to the sick through 2 vehicles. First of all, by getting them in the word of God and teaching them the word forming beliefs within them, that’s really the purpose of our book Sid on “Positioning Yourself to Receive Healing.” Forming the beliefs that people need within them that they need in order to be healed by faith. You remember there in Mark chapter 6 verses 5 and 6 “He could there do no mighty work, except that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. And He went round about the villages teaching.” The reason why He went round about teaching Sid is because He needed to form within them the beliefs that they needed in order for them to be set free through faith.
Sid: I remember Dr. Kenneth Hagin saying many times “If you’re at my meeting” when he was there for a week’s teaching.
Doug: Yeah.
Sid: “Please if at all possible don’t come up for healing until Friday because I want to build up your faith with the word of God, and you’ll have much better results.”
Doug: Exactly right. Well at healing school we normally didn’t lay hands on the sick until Thursday encouraging them to do the same thing. You know there’s some scriptures in Luke that says “They came to hear and be healed.” There is a time of learning that needs to occur in most people’s lives before they have hands laid on them. Most people are not serious enough to where you have to lay hands on them just right away. Most people can be taught the word of God, get them in proper position for them to be able to cooperate with the laying on of hands, then go ahead and pray for them.
Sid: But you know I had such a misunderstanding. I would read the scriptures and I would see where there’s large crowds they would come to Jesus, He would lay hands everyone would be healed, so I’m looking for that instant miracle. Yet when I study the scriptures carefully I see He taught first.
Doug: Yes He did. Once He taught them and got them into faith then He was able to minister to them. But another way that Jesus ministered to the sick Sid was through the Holy Spirit. Leading Him, the Spirit of God, leading Him and guiding Him and directing Him to people, that was really how He was led to the man at the pool of Bethesda. The Spirit of God led Him to that man at the pool of Bethesda, showed Him some things about that man, and ministered through Jesus to that man, and the Spirit of God was able to heal that man. That was all by the Holy Ghost. You know that really brings us to the real issue, when it comes to ministering I think sometimes Sid that we become extremist. Most of the time it’s give them the word, give them the word, but there’s another side of the ministry of Jesus we need to duplicate. That is to make ourselves available to the Spirit of God while we are ministering to these people. While we make ourselves available to the Spirit of God here you have a sick individual you’re concerned about him, to just give him the word and not make yourself available to the Spirit of God is just ministering to them 50% of your capacity. If we give them the word of God, and yet on the other hand make ourselves available to the Spirit of God, then He maybe can maybe speak something to us that we can say to them, or show us something that we should do for them that can minister healing to them. Both vehicles need to be… that we need to be available to. I never forget where I kind of started picking this up at that we need to make ourselves available to the Spirit of God, and also give them the word of God. I’m thinking back of Brother Hagin when he was a young man on the bed of affliction. Paralyzed, had some tremendous physical problems. His endeavouring as a young teenager to obtain healing through faith; he’s reading Mark 5 the story of the woman with the issue of blood one day and he’s dealing with this issue “Can I be healed?” People had told him that it wasn’t God’s will for him to be well. The Spirit of God… hear it again I’m talking about the Holy Spirit being sensitive to Him. The Spirit of God spoke up on the inside of him and said “Well has faith been done away with?” Brother Hagin said “Well no faith has not been done away with because if faith had been done away with then you couldn’t become saved because the Bible says “For grace you’re saved through faith.” All of a sudden on the inside the scripture was read Mark 5 verse 34 He said “Daughter thy faith, thy faith, has made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy plague.” The Holy Ghost spoke up on the inside of him and said these words “If her faith can make her whole, then your faith can make you whole.” Well what was the Spirit of God doing right there? He was tweaking Brother Hagin’s beliefs. His beliefs were just a little off center, and the Spirit of God, which has been promised that He will lead us and guide us into all truth, was actually kind of almost correcting Brother Hagin’s belief system. I’ll never forget he tells the story about 3 months later. He’s still in the bed of affliction, still reading Mark chapter 5 the story of the woman with the issue of the blood. He kind of gets frustrated with it, throws his Bible at the foot of the bed, points up into heaven and says “With all due respect Lord Jesus, if you were to come down here and point your finger in my face and say to me ‘You do not have faith, you do not believe,’” he said “I’d have to call you a liar, I do believe I do have faith.” The moment he said those words he said the Spirit of God spoke up on the inside of him and said these words “You do believe as far as you know” and started talking to him about Mark 11 verse 24 “What things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” And Sid all of our listeners who have heard Brother Hagin’s testimony knows that he acted upon Mark 11:24 and received his healing and walked off of that bed of affliction. But it happened because he was listening and cooperated with the voice of the Spirit. It wasn’t just all word, word, word, although he was believing the word of God he was also being led. I’ll never forget we had an individual come to school a number of years ago, he was play circuit tennis pro player. To make a long story short he had a serious cancerous tumor that his mother through prayer and through faith was able to pretty well, and then cooperating with the doctors, was able to get that tumor completely almost gone from that boy’s body. But at the very end of his recovery before they released him out of the hospital, I mean the boy almost died. Before they released him they said “We’d like to maybe experiment a little bit with a certain type of medication.” So the mother said to me “I had a little check about that. I had something on the inside of her” you know the Bible talks about that inward witness, that still small voice, something wasn’t right about that but she said “I let the doctors override that check and I let them talk me into putting that into my son’s veins.” She said “As they were hooking that bag of medicine up to this drip line” she said “I stepped outside of the hospital room and just put my back up against the door jam,” and she started to pray in other tongues. She said “While I’m praying all of a sudden I heard the Holy Ghost say these words to me ‘Go in there lay your hands upon that protocol and command anything that would cause death to come out’” She thought to herself “That’s strange I’ve never done anything like that before” but she knew it was the Holy Ghost. She went ahead and obeyed the Spirit of God. Months later after her son was released, she goes back into that same doctor’s office and the doctor and the doctor told her privately “We put that medication on 13 people’s lives your son is the only one that lived through that.” She was led by the Holy Ghost. When it comes to ministering to others Sid, sometimes we get so “Give ‘em a book, give ‘em a tape” and we send them on their way. What about making ourselves available to the Spirit of God on their behalf?
Sid: What I’ve noticed is it seems as though every time that Jesus ministered He’d do it in a slightly different way.
Doug: Yeah.
Sid: The way that particular individual needed it and what we’re doing is learning formulas.
Doug: Yes we are. We are not making ourselves available to the Spirit of God at all. The Spirit of God will lead and guide us, He’ll actually show us. What happens is here again, we’re not taking the time to help others. You know as well as I do, and I’ve talked to Brother Hagin about this before he passed away. Back in his day back in the 50’s, back in the 1950’s, boy you get somebody sick and half the church was over to their home. In the day time, you know, that sick person is there in bed she can’t do anything for herself she is sick. Those little ladies would get in and they’d wash the dishes, they’d do the laundry, but the whole time they’re doing it they’re singing and worshiping God ministering to the Lord. During those times sometimes the Spirit of God would give them things about that person. Here again a word of knowledge, or gifts of the Spirit manifestation that could that individual receive her healing. Many of those people were healed. Nowadays, nowadays bless our hearts you get sick you’re pretty much left on your own. Nobody comes to visit you. Nobody sings, nobody makes themselves available much less pray about your situation. Sid what I’m talking about is our love for one another needs to be expressed sometimes in just making ourselves available. Taking time to pray one for another making ourselves available to the Spirit of God. Brother Hagin used as an example all the time, I’m going to miss hearing it. He’d say “Put up your spiritual antenna” in other words make yourself available seek the Lord if He has anything to say to you about that person. See if the Lord has anything that He would show you about that other person that you desire for them to be well. If He says something to you Sid go ahead and say it to them. If He tells you to do something then go ahead and do it.
Sid: We’re out of time today.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
Sid: I have a man that’s red hot for the Messiah. And you know it says in scripture that “To him who’s forgiven much they love much.” The truth is the most holy person when you don’t know the Messiah you need to be forgiven much because you are separated from God. And although the person thinks they’re living a good lifestyle compared to the righteousness of God our garments are like filthy rags. And I want you to listen to my new friend Pastor Ricky Sinclair. He’s Senior Pastor of Miracle Place Church in Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. But Ricky there are so many people caught up in what they consider the good life; the fast lane; smoking marijuana; doing drugs; partying and they don’t recognize a time is coming when all the facade disappears and the realize they are just totally empty.
Ricky: That’s exactly right.
Sid: So the people get to know you a little bit; tell me a little bit about your early childhood.
Ricky: Well, Sid I’m so glad to be with you today. I was raised in a home, a middle class family in Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge actually. And I was raised in a family where I watched my mom and dad drink alcohol every day of my life. And they lived a party life. And as a result of living in that kind of environment and that kind of lifestyle I took on that kind of lifestyle for my own life. And it led me down a terrible, terrible road. I ended up getting into the party scene and the drug scene and the fast lane scene. And as a result of that I ended up getting busted in 1982 with distribution of cocaine, marijuana, and Diazepam; Diazepam is the same thing as Valium. As a result of getting busted here I was 17 years old in high school; had quit my senior year playing football. Was a dynamic football player and had an opportunity to go to at least a small college to play football. Coaches loved me; and the drugs because of the party scene the drugs scene actually destroyed my life. Now let me just say there are people that are listening to us today. And what it starts out it starts out to be a party; it starts out to be fun; it starts out on Friday and Saturday night that you’re riding around with your friends and you’re getting high. And you’re living in the fast lane; you’re chasing girls; you’re chasing boys. And it seems like it’s fun but what happens is it becomes like a big monster that attacks you. And what it does it puts you in bondage and then all of a sudden you’ve got a stronghold in your life. And when you start to do drugs you go through the levels; I call it the levels of conscience of conviction. You don’t start out smoking cocaine by freebasing pipe or shooting cocaine or shooting drugs with a needle. You start out smoking cigarettes and then you progress to the next level; the next conscience of conviction. It’s almost like crossing over lines of conscience of conviction in your life. It’s hard to cross over conscience of conviction if you’ve never done it; well it feels awkward for you to do it. But each line you cross you go deeper and deeper in a downward spiral and that’s what took place in my life. So I started out smoking cigarettes; sneaking them from my mom and my dad. And then the next thing I did was it made it easier for me to go right into smoking marijuana because I had smoked cigarettes. And then the next thing I did crossing over into the next line of conscience of conviction I started taking pills. And then from there I started snorting powder cocaine; and then from there I said “Why don’t I instead of snort it why don’t I just smoke some cocaine.” So I started smoking crack; what they call crack today. And then ultimately the very thing I said I’d never do in my life was actually stick a needle in my arm. And the very thing that I said I would never do as I had progressed downward in the downward spiral; the horrible pit I found myself one day with a syringe shooting cocaine and shooting morphine. And ultimately I ended up OD’ing 3 times; twice on morphine and once on cocaine. Busted in 1982, I stated just a minute ago, distribution of cocaine, marijuana and Diazepam which is Valium and then ultimately in 1986 I got busted again with distribution of marijuana. Now they didn’t catch me at my house when they kicked the door down; my wife and I had a little boy then were at the house. And the police kicked the door down and searched the house and I wasn’t there but I was on my way home that day. And I’ll never forget when I got ready to turn into my driveway I looked at my house and there was a SWAT Team that had surrounded my house. I had some people that were there at my house and they were all laying out on the ground; they had them laid out with guns on them. And I’ll never forget what I did was… and let me say this that when the police are chasing you are not living right and you’re in drugs and you see the SWAT Team at your house Sid you don’t feel like going home that day.
Sid: For sure.
Ricky: I didn’t I didn’t turn into my driveway I kept on driving; ultimately ended in New Orleans, Louisiana and started dealing drug again in New Orleans. I called one of my contacts out of McAllen, Texas, was right there at the border of Mexico. I set up a deal where Lalo would bring 30 pounds of marijuana to me. And I’d pick him up at the bus station in New Orleans1987 picked Lalo up at the bus station; brought him to my house; started dealing drugs and that night they kicked the door down. And I’ll never forget that when they kicked the door down they came through with about a 60 or 80 pound ramming bar. Actually what happened was they took the whole door off the hinges; and I was sitting there watching TV with my wife and I had a little boy at that time and I saw the whole door come off the hinges and it was skipping across the living room floor. And I heard the police as they came out through the backdoor and the front door and this was what they said “Lay down on your face; you’re hands behind your head; your hands leave your head your head leaves your shoulders.”
Sid: Hm.
Ricky: I’m just thinking “I’m down on the floor, my wife’s down on the floor, I got a little baby that’s about 2 years old; I’m a little boy that’s running from the police and we’re dealing drugs; I’m in a mess Sid.”
Sid: What was life like just immediately before the police busted into your house?
Ricky: I’m running Sid; here I am running from the police; I got a little 2 year old baby; I’m staying from hotel to hotel. You know when you’re dealing drugs; when you got drugs and you’re dealing them you got money. When you’re not dealing drugs you don’t have money especially when you’re using them like I was. So here’s my little baby in a towel from the bathroom because we didn’t have enough money to buy diapers. Here we are giving him watered down milk in a bottle because we didn’t have enough money to buy milk. Here we are eating turkey sandwiches because we didn’t have enough money to buy food; running from the police. I got alias names; Kent Douglas Smith is one of my alias.
Sid: How old are you at that time?
Ricky: I am 21 or 22 years old.
Sid: Hm.
Ricky: I am 21 or 22 years old at this time.
Sid: How about your wife; how old was she?
Ricky: My wife is 3 years behind me and she’s been with me since she was 14 years old.
Sid: Hm.
Ricky: So I was 17 years old and she was 14.
Sid: And you know what; I just want to point out. You came from a good middleclass background as far as being financially being provided. I mean how do you I mean I know how you get used to being with money; how do you get used to being on the run like that. And living on a sandwich for the whole family and a towel for a diaper for your kid?
Ricky: Well, you don’t get used to it Sid that’s for sure. (Laughing) Nobody gets used to living that kind of a lifestyle. And actually in essence I realized that really God was using these events that I was going through to try to get a hold to me to give me a truth. Because I realized that when I was living in sin and in living for myself and living astray like that it was actually bringing a curse upon my life. And really God was trying to take that curse that was in my life to give me a revelation to show me that if you continue to live for yourself and you continue to do your own thing then you are going to have a curse on your life. Really in essence God was really trying to get a hold of my attention through all of the circumstances and things that I was going through to try and reach me. And so I realized today; and of course I’m living for God today and I have God’s favor and blessing on my life. I realized that all the things that I went through in my life, and that’s not all Sid, let me tell you after running from the police from St. Francisville which is where I got busted the first time and now I’m in New Orleans I got Lalo in the house; they kick the door down.
Sid: This was a Mexican smuggler that was delivering 30 pounds of marijuana; they knock your door down and what happened next?
Ricky: Then the police searched the house and they find 14 pounds of marijuana and they find about 5 to $8,000 cash on me. And what they do they tell my wife that they’re fixing to take her baby away if she doesn’t tell the police where we got the drugs and whose all involved. And then they took us down to jail and I gave them an alias name Kent Douglas Smith and tried to find out ultimately one of the people that was in the house told the law my real name. By the way there’s no honor among sinners; just like there’s no honor among thieves.
Sid: Ricky we’re out of time; we’ll pick up here on tomorrow’s broadcast.
Sid: I have a man that’s red hot for the Messiah. And you know it says in scripture that “To him who’s forgiven much they love much.” The truth is the most holy person when you don’t know the Messiah you need to be forgiven much because you are separated from God. And although the person thinks they’re living a good lifestyle compared to the righteousness of God our garments are like filthy rags. And I want you to listen to my new friend Pastor Ricky Sinclair. He’s Senior Pastor of Miracle Place Church in Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. But Ricky there are so many people caught up in what they consider the good life; the fast lane; smoking marijuana; doing drugs; partying and they don’t recognize a time is coming when all the facade disappears and the realize they are just totally empty.
Ricky: That’s exactly right.
Sid: So the people get to know you a little bit; tell me a little bit about your early childhood.
Ricky: Well, Sid I’m so glad to be with you today. I was raised in a home, a middle class family in Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge actually. And I was raised in a family where I watched my mom and dad drink alcohol every day of my life. And they lived a party life. And as a result of living in that kind of environment and that kind of lifestyle I took on that kind of lifestyle for my own life. And it led me down a terrible, terrible road. I ended up getting into the party scene and the drug scene and the fast lane scene. And as a result of that I ended up getting busted in 1982 with distribution of cocaine, marijuana, and Diazepam; Diazepam is the same thing as Valium. As a result of getting busted here I was 17 years old in high school; had quit my senior year playing football. Was a dynamic football player and had an opportunity to go to at least a small college to play football. Coaches loved me; and the drugs because of the party scene the drugs scene actually destroyed my life. Now let me just say there are people that are listening to us today. And what it starts out it starts out to be a party; it starts out to be fun; it starts out on Friday and Saturday night that you’re riding around with your friends and you’re getting high. And you’re living in the fast lane; you’re chasing girls; you’re chasing boys. And it seems like it’s fun but what happens is it becomes like a big monster that attacks you. And what it does it puts you in bondage and then all of a sudden you’ve got a stronghold in your life. And when you start to do drugs you go through the levels; I call it the levels of conscience of conviction. You don’t start out smoking cocaine by freebasing pipe or shooting cocaine or shooting drugs with a needle. You start out smoking cigarettes and then you progress to the next level; the next conscience of conviction. It’s almost like crossing over lines of conscience of conviction in your life. It’s hard to cross over conscience of conviction if you’ve never done it; well it feels awkward for you to do it. But each line you cross you go deeper and deeper in a downward spiral and that’s what took place in my life. So I started out smoking cigarettes; sneaking them from my mom and my dad. And then the next thing I did was it made it easier for me to go right into smoking marijuana because I had smoked cigarettes. And then the next thing I did crossing over into the next line of conscience of conviction I started taking pills. And then from there I started snorting powder cocaine; and then from there I said “Why don’t I instead of snort it why don’t I just smoke some cocaine.” So I started smoking crack; what they call crack today. And then ultimately the very thing I said I’d never do in my life was actually stick a needle in my arm. And the very thing that I said I would never do as I had progressed downward in the downward spiral; the horrible pit I found myself one day with a syringe shooting cocaine and shooting morphine. And ultimately I ended up OD’ing 3 times; twice on morphine and once on cocaine. Busted in 1982, I stated just a minute ago, distribution of cocaine, marijuana and Diazepam which is Valium and then ultimately in 1986 I got busted again with distribution of marijuana. Now they didn’t catch me at my house when they kicked the door down; my wife and I had a little boy then were at the house. And the police kicked the door down and searched the house and I wasn’t there but I was on my way home that day. And I’ll never forget when I got ready to turn into my driveway I looked at my house and there was a SWAT Team that had surrounded my house. I had some people that were there at my house and they were all laying out on the ground; they had them laid out with guns on them. And I’ll never forget what I did was… and let me say this that when the police are chasing you are not living right and you’re in drugs and you see the SWAT Team at your house Sid you don’t feel like going home that day.
Sid: For sure.
Ricky: I didn’t I didn’t turn into my driveway I kept on driving; ultimately ended in New Orleans, Louisiana and started dealing drug again in New Orleans. I called one of my contacts out of McAllen, Texas, was right there at the border of Mexico. I set up a deal where Lalo would bring 30 pounds of marijuana to me. And I’d pick him up at the bus station in New Orleans1987 picked Lalo up at the bus station; brought him to my house; started dealing drugs and that night they kicked the door down. And I’ll never forget that when they kicked the door down they came through with about a 60 or 80 pound ramming bar. Actually what happened was they took the whole door off the hinges; and I was sitting there watching TV with my wife and I had a little boy at that time and I saw the whole door come off the hinges and it was skipping across the living room floor. And I heard the police as they came out through the backdoor and the front door and this was what they said “Lay down on your face; you’re hands behind your head; your hands leave your head your head leaves your shoulders.”
Sid: Hm.
Ricky: I’m just thinking “I’m down on the floor, my wife’s down on the floor, I got a little baby that’s about 2 years old; I’m a little boy that’s running from the police and we’re dealing drugs; I’m in a mess Sid.”
Sid: What was life like just immediately before the police busted into your house?
Ricky: I’m running Sid; here I am running from the police; I got a little 2 year old baby; I’m staying from hotel to hotel. You know when you’re dealing drugs; when you got drugs and you’re dealing them you got money. When you’re not dealing drugs you don’t have money especially when you’re using them like I was. So here’s my little baby in a towel from the bathroom because we didn’t have enough money to buy diapers. Here we are giving him watered down milk in a bottle because we didn’t have enough money to buy milk. Here we are eating turkey sandwiches because we didn’t have enough money to buy food; running from the police. I got alias names; Kent Douglas Smith is one of my alias.
Sid: How old are you at that time?
Ricky: I am 21 or 22 years old.
Sid: Hm.
Ricky: I am 21 or 22 years old at this time.
Sid: How about your wife; how old was she?
Ricky: My wife is 3 years behind me and she’s been with me since she was 14 years old.
Sid: Hm.
Ricky: So I was 17 years old and she was 14.
Sid: And you know what; I just want to point out. You came from a good middleclass background as far as being financially being provided. I mean how do you I mean I know how you get used to being with money; how do you get used to being on the run like that. And living on a sandwich for the whole family and a towel for a diaper for your kid?
Ricky: Well, you don’t get used to it Sid that’s for sure. (Laughing) Nobody gets used to living that kind of a lifestyle. And actually in essence I realized that really God was using these events that I was going through to try to get a hold to me to give me a truth. Because I realized that when I was living in sin and in living for myself and living astray like that it was actually bringing a curse upon my life. And really God was trying to take that curse that was in my life to give me a revelation to show me that if you continue to live for yourself and you continue to do your own thing then you are going to have a curse on your life. Really in essence God was really trying to get a hold of my attention through all of the circumstances and things that I was going through to try and reach me. And so I realized today; and of course I’m living for God today and I have God’s favor and blessing on my life. I realized that all the things that I went through in my life, and that’s not all Sid, let me tell you after running from the police from St. Francisville which is where I got busted the first time and now I’m in New Orleans I got Lalo in the house; they kick the door down.
Sid: This was a Mexican smuggler that was delivering 30 pounds of marijuana; they knock your door down and what happened next?
Ricky: Then the police searched the house and they find 14 pounds of marijuana and they find about 5 to $8,000 cash on me. And what they do they tell my wife that they’re fixing to take her baby away if she doesn’t tell the police where we got the drugs and whose all involved. And then they took us down to jail and I gave them an alias name Kent Douglas Smith and tried to find out ultimately one of the people that was in the house told the law my real name. By the way there’s no honor among sinners; just like there’s no honor among thieves.
Sid: Ricky we’re out of time; we’ll pick up here on tomorrow’s broadcast.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
Sid: My guest by way of telephone at his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan is Tommy Almonte. Tommy was born in the Dominican Republic his mother was an Assistant Pastor at AG Church all he knows is going to church morning, noon and night. But he went to a church that saw dramatic miracles. When he was 9 he literally had a visitation; he was told the future of his family. And then at 10 it started to come to pass they moved to the United States to Michigan. As a teenager one of his best friends from the Dominican Republic who had also moved to the United States committed suicide. This put Tommy in a tailspin he literally was backslidden, then one day it had to be God he doesn’t even know why but he was unhappy backslidden, unhappy as a believer. One day he said “God, I’m going to make a deal with You I’ll pursue you if you can take away these guilty feelings I have inside of me.” And He knew God couldn’t do that; but he was told by the Holy Spirit to have a meeting with Him for a whole day every Saturday. So he started meeting with God and he started reading the Bible and he began to see that the whole purpose of creation starting in the book of Genesis was for man to have intimacy with God. He literally started falling asleep when he would spend that whole day and felt, gotten under condemnation, but he found that while he was sleeping God was performing surgery because there were so many obstacles to him having intimacy with God. And then after a few months Tommy you were shocked when you heard an audible voice from the Holy Spirit and what did this audible voice say?
Tommy: You know all he said to me was “Good morning Tommy.”
Sid: That’s enough!
Tommy: That was enough to hear because I was getting to a point where now I knew Him and I wanted to know Him more. I wanted more of Him and just to hear His voice was enough for me to say “I found Him.”
Sid: Yeah, and you told me yesterday that you that when you first heard His voice you thought that you were going… there’s a Hebrew word “Mashuga or nuts.”
Tommy: As it were yes and as a matter of fact I didn’t say anything to anyone because I was afraid people would say “Tommy’s losing his mind.”
Sid: (Laughing)
Tommy: And we have to take him you know to get check.
Sid: But you saw all this stuff happen as a kid in church.
Tommy: Yes, but you know there is something about when we talk about spiritual things even though that we know it but we have a hard time believing it. And anytime that we talk about the Holy Spirit even within our churches we get the same sort of check you know “Is this person okay.” Is this person losing his mind.
Sid: Let me ask you a question why do you think the Holy Spirit waited 2 months before you realized that He was really there, and in such a tangible fashion?
Tommy: Well, I do believe that there are a couple of reasons to that; one I was sleeping in the beginning and He was you know really doing surgery and taking all of these things that I had inside of me that were blocking you know that could potentially could have blocked my pursue of intimacy with Him. I also believe that God doesn’t just… the most precious valuable thing that God has to offer is intimacy. Intimacy is priceless for God. You can ask Him for a house, you can ask Him for the gift of the Spirit, you can ask Him for everything else but when you ask Him for intimacy really what you’re asking for is I want to know Your thoughts, I want to know Your heart. The Bible says only the spirit within a man know his thoughts. The same with the Holy Spirit; the Bible says “He knows the thoughts of God.” So by asking for intimacy what we’re saying is “I want to know You in a way that You can trust me to share things there that are not yet to happen you know.
Sid: So would you say that the Holy Spirit wanted to see if you were really truly serious about knowing Him. And that’s why He didn’t immediately start talking to you.
Tommy: Yeah, and not only that He wanted to show me that to know Him it was to pursue Him as any other relationship that I had. And any other relationship you know before… something that I want to mention Sid is that one of the things; the first thing that I did even before He said my name I asked Him for forgiveness. One of the things that He put in my spirit was that we cannot engage into intimate relationship until you ask for forgiveness. And my question was forgiveness for what? And He said “Anytime that you have mocked the Holy Spirit, anytime that you have made comments about the Holy Spirit that are negative you have grieved the Holy Spirit.” So before any meaningful relationship can take place as any other relationship you have to ask for forgiveness.
Sid: Did you grieve the Holy Spirit, had you been mocking the Holy Spirit?
Tommy: Yeah, and I remember when I was walking away from God I would see someone on television talking about God, or preaching the gospel, or ministering to the people. And I would laugh and say “Ha that’s fake.”
Sid: Especially when we see things that are out of our frame of reference we say “That can’t be God.”
Tommy: That’s right.
Sid: But who are we to know all of God?
Tommy: That’s right and what I have learned Sid is that when I see someone on television doing that’s representing God even if I get offensive where I’m not comfortable with it. If I’m going to criticize it I change the channel because I’d rather side and not be wrong and criticize some that they’ve been used by the Holy Spirit.
Sid: So have you found that it’s really easy to grieve the Holy Spirit; I mean can He really get hurt by this?
Tommy: Yeah, one of the… I think one of the main areas that we struggle with is really believing that the Holy Spirit is a person and that He has feelings and emotions. In the Bible He’s described as the one in the Bible says “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” You cannot grieve someone if they don’t have the ability to feel and to have feelings. The reason why that is in the Bible is to let us know that the Holy Spirit is a person. The Bible explains that but sometimes we just have a hard time believing that. You know it’s sad to see a statistic like the one I was recently reading that the Barna Research Institute put out a research and they show that 52% of Born Again Christians they reject the assistance of the Holy Spirit. You know…
Sid: And imagine that if you grieve the Holy Spirit imagine how much grief he has with half of the Christians in America.
Tommy: Reject Him you know and you know…
Sid: By the way when you repented for grieving the Holy Spirit what reaction did He have or did you have?
Tommy: I didn’t hear anything but what I had was a sense of relief. Something was relieved within me; something was gone. And I do believe that it was that weight I do believe that I was carrying from mocking and saying things that hurt the Holy Spirit.
Sid: By the way every time that you come into prayer do you hear the Holy Spirit greet you?
Tommy: Yes, and it’s something that I will always cherish.
Sid: Is it audible?
Tommy: Yes, that He said “Good Morning Tommy.” And for me it is one of the most valuable things that I believe in our relationship is that not only that He does that but what he means. What He means by saying “Good morning friend.”
Sid: Well, one time you were late “What did He say to you?”
Tommy: You know I became comfortable as any other relationship that we have eventually you become comfortable. You start doing things that prior to that you were not doing and one of the things is that in the back of my mind I didn’t really think it made a difference that I was late to our appointment. I met the Holy Spirit appointment at 5:30 in the morning and it is my time with Him. But one day I was late and I got up and I went into the room and the first thing He said to me He didn’t say “Good Morning Tommy” he said “Your late!”
Sid: Again, an audible voice?
Tommy: Yes, and what it did inside of me is it moved, it was something it was a lie inside of me and I was believing that lie; I really didn’t care if I was on time or whether I was late. But if I set up an appointment with you and I show up a half hour late it would do something to you. In the same way…
Sid: It would say that you don’t think that I’m very important.
Tommy: That’s right.
Sid: That’s what it would say.
Tommy: That’s what it would say and the same way with the Holy Spirit. You know what I have found is that not only does He want to meet with me but He wants me to know that He takes out relationship seriously.
Sid: You know Tommy, I must say this right now; everyone that is listening to us right now God the Holy Spirit craves intimacy with you.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
SID: I’m here with Dr. Michael Brown and you will not believe what he just told me during our commercial break. The hyper grace people are advocating not only throwing out the Old Testament, but get this, throwing out the words of Jesus. Explain.
DR. BROWN: Well one hyper grace teacher actually says this, he says, “The Bible Society”— I don’t know which Bible society he means—”The Bible Society made a terrible mistake when they put the Old Testament together with the New Testament. It totally confuses people.” Another leading hyper grace teacher, well known, TV, books, he actually has a series teaching the differences between the God of the Old Testament, the cruel, angry God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament is the Father of Jesus. I mean, it’s mind boggling they get this wrong. But some teach this in mainstream that what Jesus said before the Cross was for the Jewish people that were listening to him then, and he gave teaching so that they would come to despair and see their own legalistic righteousness, how that fails, and they finally leave for grace, but it doesn’t apply to us. Well why does Jesus say in John 15, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will, it will be done for you,” why does Jesus in the great commission in Matthew 28 say that, the way we make disciples is to teach them to “observe everything I commanded you”? Why does it say in John 14 that, “The Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance everything I’ve taught”? Why in fact did the gospel authors work for years to put their accounts together and then publish them, and why were these words prized by the early believers if they’re just for the Jews “before the cross”? It’s crazy. And Sid, that means all the demands of Jesus, take up your cross, follow me, I don’t have to worry about that. That means all the parables of accountability and I’m going to stand before God, I don’t have to worry about it because that makes me feel uncomfortable. That makes me feel condemned. What we need to do is not remove these passages, but ground people in the security of the love of God. God is not out with a stick to beat you. He’s demonstrated His love by Jesus dying for you. Unless you turn your back on Him and walk away from Him, He is for you. He is not against you, and He’s promised to keep you. When I fly overseas, which is quite frequently, I don’t worry about the plane going down. I feel confident it’s going to get there safely. And unless I try to pry open that emergency door and jump out, I can just go to sleep. I can rest. There’s a sense in which we rest secure in the Lord, and God wants everyone to know it. God wants us to know the depth of His love. God wants us to know that even on our worst day He still loves us and cares for us, and wants us to live right. But Sid, when we eliminate God dealing with our sin, when we eliminate the challenges of Jesus, there are some who say spirituality is completely effortless. Well, when Paul says, “Run your race with perseverance, run so as to win,” you’ve got to throw those out. Strive to overcome.
SID: So why, I still don’t get it. Why do good men that love God just teach this part[ial] message rather than the full message, which causes full, what they’re doing, causes full deception?
DR. BROWN: There are two things. One, they get caught up in the glory of God’s grace. I mean, you read Ephesians 1, you read Ephesians 2. While we are attending our sins, He gives us life and then He seats us together in heavenly places. It’s mind boggling, the power of grace, the beauty of grace, the glory of grace. It says that he lavishes his grace on us. It’s absolutely amazing. So they get caught up with that. But it’s almost like a helium balloon that flies away and it loses its tether because it’s not tethered to the rest of the scripture. It doesn’t have a right appreciation for the use of the Old Testament. It doesn’t have a right appreciation for the words of Jesus, and even some of what Paul says they have to cut away. And hey, it’s a lot easier on the flesh. How do you like this diet, Sid? You can eat whatever you want. You don’t have to exercise and you’ll be just as healthy and just as fit.
SID: Sign me up.
DR. BROWN: Exactly.
SID: That’s what’s going on.
DR. BROWN: People are signing up in massive numbers.
SID: Okay. Sanctification. What does the word “sanctification” mean?
DR. BROWN: Sanctification means being set apart, being made holy, being given over to God. And Scripture makes clear that the moment we’re saved, we’re set apart as holy. We’re sanctified. That’s why we’re called saints in the New Testament. Saints sin. We don’t have to wait for some church to canonize us. We’re called saints the moment we get saved. So we are sanctified the moment we’re saved. Then there’s an ongoing sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul says, “This is the will of God: your sanctification.” Now live it out. Now live a holy life. Now abstain from adultery. Now abstain from stealing. Now abstain from covetousness. Live a holy life. Give the members of your body over to God, and then an ultimate sanctification, where we’ll be resurrected and made absolutely perfect.
SID: What is this the Bible talks about die to self? Is that what you’re talking about?
DR. BROWN: This is ongoing. It is an ongoing thing. Luke, the ninth chapter, “Take up your cross daily.” On a daily basis, not as sinners struggling somehow to make it, please God. No, as overcomers, as children of God, as victorious we say no to sin. We consider ourselves dead to sin. We live for God. It is worked out. Hyper grace says, no, no, no, you have already been totally and perfectly sanctified. Sanctification is not process.
SID: It’s not a process? You should have seen the way I thought, 40 years ago, when coming from an orthodox Jewish background, Jesus just revealed himself to me. Yes, I knew he was real. Yes, I knew the Bible was from him. But yes, my mind was not renewed. And the moment I would read the Word and say, oh, I never even realized this. God, I’ve sinned. I mean, where’s the tenderness before God?
DR. BROWN: It’s elation.
SID: It’s a worldly thing.
DR. BROWN: Something strange, it’s theoretically often more than relational. One influential teacher says the idea that sanctification is a process is “a murderous lie”. That’s what he says. I asked one hyper grace pastor, I said, “If you sinned against your wife, you lost your temper, you were nasty, you walked out of the house, you came back two hours later, wouldn’t you say, ‘Honey, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I was an animal. I was completely unjustified. There’s no reason, forgive me'” He said, “Of course I would.” I said, “Wouldn’t you do that with God?” He said, “No, no, I have a different relationship with God.” Something is funny there, Sid.
SID: Would you pray? See, I believe there’s a spiritual scale on the eyes of many Christians, and I believe they’re going to be set free right now as you pray for them.
DR. BROWN: Father, in Jesus’ name, I pray for everyone watching this broadcast that they would be delivered from every deception, from every addition to grace, from every subtraction from grace, from every pollution, distortion of grace, and they would be brought into the glorious liberty, security and power of your true grace. Father, open eyes by the power of your Spirit. Deliver from error. Ground us in your true grace, Father, in Jesus’ name.
SID: And as Mike was praying, I believe people are being delivered. You’re beginning to start reading the Bible, start thinking for yourself. By the way, someone was just physically healed in their hand, their fingers, arthritis. You can move your fingers. You moved your wrist now in Jesus’ name. In Jesus’ name, behold.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth