It's Supernatural

Sid:  Recently I was a guest on TBN and there was another guest on TBN. I recognized the presence of God, and I said “This man has a story to tell,” and I found out that that inclination by the Holy Spirit it was right.  His name is Pastor Shane Warren, he’s Senior Pastor of the First Assembly of God in West Monroe, Louisiana.  And Shane when you were twelve years old you had such an encounter with God that it forever changed your life, tell me about that.

Shane:  Well, Sid when I was twelve years old first of all I grew up in a home I had great parents, but none of us served the Lord, none of my grandparents served the Lord; so I didn’t know who Jesus was at all.  And my grandfather had a farm, and from time to time I would go to his house. I loved staying with him, and he had built me a fort in the back of this farm.  And I had one day went out to this fort and sat down in this fort for whatever reason, and looked up and there was a man standing before me. I’ve heard people say that His clothes were like white, it looked like He was clothed in the sun, it was like the brightest thing you could ever see.  He was standing in front of me, and for years Sid I’ve looked for words to describe how I felt that day when the Lord Jesus appeared to me and they only thing that I can find in the scripture is in Isaiah 6 when the Bible says, “Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and he said, I am undone.”  I was twelve years old, I hadn’t really, I hadn’t committed any major terrible sin so to speak of, but I knew that something was undone in me and yet at the same time it was like I was just bathed or washed like in a bathtub of the most pure love that any human being could ever experience in their life.  And I started to weep and at this time this man walked up to me, put his right hand upon my head, my forehead and he said, “I’ve called you to the nations,” and when he said that I closed my eyes and I started weeping more and I could feel His hand upon my head and so thinking He was still there I opened my eyes only to find that He was gone.  And at that moment I knew something drastic, you know of course that happened in my life.  I didn’t see a ghost, it wasn’t that kind of an apparition appearing, this was something that was real.  So I jumped up, ran as fast I could run to my grandfather’s house approached him and said I called him Pop I said, “Pop tell me what I just saw, what just happened” and I shared it with him and he started to weep.  And he said, “Son I’m not sure, but you have an aunt that has just started going to church and will take you to her.”  And at that time her name was Barbara and I went to her and shared my story and shared what I had seen and she said, “I believe that you saw Jesus.”  And that was the beginning of my journey Sid I had a Supernatural beginning.  You know your show being named “It’s Supernatural” I just don’t think that people grasp how big and how wonderful and how supernatural our God really is.  And that’s how this thing started with me.

Sid:  What changes occurred after that visitation, what changes occurred in your life?

Shane:  Yeah, immediately you know my whole demeanor, my whole outlook, my whole feel of where I was going in life you know at twelve you have dreams of being a fireman, or a police officer, or a president, but from that point forward I knew that there was something on my life that I was going to do in the work of the Lord.  And you know that aunt led me to a church service, that church service was in an old Assembly of God Church in Nashville, Tennessee and the preacher that service that morning was Easter Sunday morning 1982. For whatever reason you know they took up the offering at the first of the service so the guys got up to walk down the front; I’d never been in church in my life when they stood up that’s when I thought everybody did so I just ran down to the front and you know the preacher whose name is Bill Carver, he’s still alive to this day looked at me and said, “Young man, what do you need?”  I said, “I don’t know.”  He said, “Have you received Jesus, I said, “No I haven’t that’s what I need.” He led me to Jesus that day again that was 1982 Easter Sunday morning, Resurrection Sunday, I don’t like the word Easter, I like the word Resurrection Sunday morning.  And that was the Resurrection of my soul that day. It began a supernatural walk for me that has continued to this day and has made me hungry and more hungry every day for supernatural things of God.

Sid:  Now when you had that visitation and the Lord put His hand on your head did He speak anything?

Shane:  Yeah, He spoke to me and He said, “I’ve called you to the nations,” and what’s interesting to the nations.

Sid:  But what does that mean today looking back at that?

Shane:  Well looking back, you know now I’ve been in numerous countries of the world, probably more than I can count. I’ve been in almost every state in America preaching the gospel and sharing the love of Jesus Christ, and seeing miracles by His hands as He demonstrates the gospel to people everywhere.

Sid:  Speaking of miracles at age seventeen something new started happening from what I understand when you feel the Lord touch your head like he did when you were age twelve miracles breakout; you begin to see things in the Spirit, but at seventeen this is off the chart you know peoples’ names and addresses; things about their future; you see glows around them; tell me one person.  Oh how about that person where you knew about their dream.

Shane:  Well, this happened several years ago, I was in a church and was on the platform; there was a choir of about sixty to seventy people behind me approximately 800 to 1,000 people in the audience.  And when I walked up on the platform the night before to back up, the night before I had had a dream and in this dream I was standing in somebody’s dream.  I know that sounds weird, but that’s the only way I know how to describe what I’m telling you.  I was standing in somebody’s dream and I was watching this dream unfold.  And then so the next day when I woke up I knew that something special was going to happen at that service.  When I walked on the platform and I got the microphone and began my portion of the service I said, “There’s somebody here and I said, “Last night or you had a dream that’s a reoccurring dream” and I gave the entire dream.  Little did I know standing behind me in the choir loft was a young lady and she lifted her hand and I called her out and I said “This is the dream you had and she said, “Yes.”  And I said, “Does anybody else know about this dream?”  And she said “Yes.”  And I said, “So you’ve told what I’m telling you to other people?”  She said, “Yes,” and I said not only have you had this dream, but immediately God gave me two more dreams that she had had that were reoccurring dreams and I said “You have had two more dreams.”  I gave her those dreams and then God gave me the interpretation of all three like a story beginning put together that was about her future.  Now on this side of that dream and that interpretation we and her parents have all seen that come to past everything that was spoken in that dream and the interpretations.  But when I said that her and her parents immediately were slain in the Spirit on the platform, and God began to move in the gift of word of knowledge and word of wisdom and word of prophecy throughout the congregation. Literally hundreds of people receiving you know things from the Lord.  But when those things happen I can literally feel His hand like I felt that day setting in the woods when He put His hand upon my head and said, those words to me, “I’ve called you to the nations.”

Sid:  Out of curiosity, how much faith is involved when you speak a word?  By that I mean do you hear it real clear, is it just an impression; is it a voice?

Shane:  It comes in different ways at different times, back when I was fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old I would go into sometimes I would go into restaurants for example and the waitress would be waiting on us and I was with my parents and I didn’t know what it was; the church that I was in didn’t teach about those things and so you know I would like for example the waitress I would say “You’re going to have a beautiful baby and his name is going to be Michael or something to that effect.”  And the lady would say “How did you know that I’m pregnant?”  And I said, “I didn’t.”  “Well, I’ve already picked out a name and his name was Michael.”  And I didn’t know what those things were at first so it was so ignorant; I was so ignorant and simple when I approached it.  So there are times that it takes extraordinary levels of faith to step out in courage to deliver what God’s given me.  And other times it almost comes out before I’ve realized I’ve said it and that how I prefer it to happen.  But then there’s abundance of times where I’ve been in places and God just used me to preach the word, and not necessarily flow in word of knowledge and word of wisdom and word of prophesy. When I’ve asked Him about that He said, “Is not My word a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, a word of prophesy.”  And I’ve said, “Yes, it is.”  And so you know it just flows at different levels, the Bible says that those gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to everyman severally as He wills.  So they’re not something you can turn on and off like a waterfall, they are something that if you’ll surrender to and submit to the Holy Spirit will use you in and I believe He’ll use every believer in that given the opportunity to flow through them.

Sid: … You literally have prayed over this book that people that read the book and learn how to worship would be able to enter the throne room just like you; would be able to live in the throne room 24-7.  Are you getting any feedback from people that have heard your 3 CD series called “Living in the Throne Room,” or read the book “Secrets of the Well?”

Shane:  Oh sure, right now thousands of people have purchased and read that book and listened to those messages you know intimacy with God is the key…