It's Supernatural

Sid:  You know something?  It just dawned on me I’m interviewing Pastor Benny Perez who is in Las Vegas and what he’s describing to me is literally; you know it talks about being baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire.  Pastor Benny!  That’s what’s going on with you the fire of the Holy Spirit has hit you; hit your congregation. Why?  Because you’re in sin city and that’s I mean where else would God want His fire to be?

Benny:  Absolutely, Las Vegas and it’s interesting that you would say fire Sid because in my book I actually talk about one of the chapters if “Getting lit up.”  And I talk about the fire of God.  We know that actually in the scriptures God says that He’s a consuming fire, when you see God show up many times in the Bible He shows up in fire.  Exodus chapter 3 with Moses, the God that answers by fire on Mt. Carmel with Elijah He is God, and then even in the New Testament you see that in Acts chapter 2 He appeared as flames of burning fire of tongues on people.  And the fire of God Sid it calls you; it will clean you up; and it consumes you and the fire of God is literally the presence of God manifested in your life.

Sid:  And for someone to lay down their self life for the life of God you can’t do it without the fire of God.

Benny:  No you can’t I mean I’m the first one to say I need the fire of God Sid every day of my life.  And I don’t know about anyone else not just because I’m a minister, not because I’m just a pastor of a church, but because I’m a believer in Jesus Christ and my relationship with Him is so important I pray Holy Spirit do a work in me a fresh and a new today.  Because I need to be delivered not just from my sins, I say this to my church you know what here’s what Jesus loves to deliver us from; form ourselves.

Sid:  You know we’re making available your new book it’s title is “Upside Down” and it’s a guide book for people that hunger and thirst for more of God.  But and we were talking about older business people getting principals to live their life by that are just revolutionizing their life from your handbook.  But tell me about some young people in particular you were talking about a young man in your church and school by the name of Eric.

Benny:  Yeah, Eric Hadenna is actually a student a student; he’s a young man he’s twenty years old and he’s in our Bible College here.  We have a Las Vegas Leadership Institute that people could come and be enrolled full time in a Bible College and be involved in ministry.  Well one of the text books they read is my book. He read this book and he got so on fire for God because the principals are nothing more than just from the Bible that he decided “I’m going to start to do something unusual.”  And what he did he started actually a church on a high School campus so were not just having youth group on Wednesday nights; we’re having youth group church on campuses here in the Las Vegas Valley where he goes and he helps students organize it where they have church right after school and invite all their friends and preach.

Sid:  I thought church had to be with a building with a steeple.

Benny:  Well, I mean religious mindsets you know think that, but the Bible’s clear and we know this that we are the church that wherever we go we are the temple of God.  The temple, the Holy Spirit dwells within us; I tell people at times especially young people hey, if they said “No more prayer in school and no more God in school; God is still going to show up if there’s one Christian young person on that campus; guess what, God is all over that campus.  They can’t hold the church back because we’re not a building we are a movement of people filled with the power of God. That God is sending out into the world; not just Las Vegas, but everywhere around this world to shine His light wherever we go.

Sid:  And you know a lot of people are upset because we can’t list the Ten Commandments in government buildings and in schools anymore, but I’ve always thought putting the commandments on a piece of paper means nothing.  Living the commandments means everything.

Benny:  Well, absolutely Sid and I’m with you 100%. You know what I wish they wouldn’t do what they’re doing, but man last time I read God said that He would write the commandments on our hearts.  And if we’d live the life as Jesus said, He said, “Hey your light, your salt and light and salt makes a difference.” When we begin to live like Jesus wants us to live it doesn’t matter what’s written anywhere they see a changed life.

Sid:  So this guy Eric is not saying “Come to my church for a Wednesday night Bible study,” he saying, “Let’s meet right here at school!”

Benny:   And you know he’s gone and he’s approached the principals and he’s done, and you know we have to obey the laws of the land and the rules, but he’s done that and we are excited about the possibility that God has for us as we come into the new year.  And I just think that it’s getting ready to explode in another dimension.

Sid:  Oh, tell me one of the things that I excites me about you and me, and actually I do the same thing, and I like to see have other believers with me so that they can then do what I do, but the experiences that you have in restaurants they’re almost unbelievable.

Benny:  Well, and I was saying before that, my wife never believed by stories until she married me, and then she was caught up in the moment.  I could tell you one story; I walked into a restaurant and it was rather late and I just finished preaching it was about midnight and I walked into this restaurant that’s open 24 hours a day and I’m at the wait to be seated section and the waitress comes up and she looks at me and the first thing she asked me Sid is “How many in your group, smoking or nonsmoking?”  She said, “Will you pray for me?”  I don’t have a clergy collar on, I’m wearing jeans and just a nice shirt and I said, “What?”  She goes, “Will you pray for me?”

Sid:  Well, how did she know that you even knew Jesus?

Benny:  Well, she didn’t, I didn’t say anything I just walked in; apparently she saw something or the Holy Spirit nudged her so I’m just thinking Sid I’m just going to lay my hand on her and pray a little prayer that learned in Bible College “Lord bless her, keep her and let face shine upon her and I’d just pray a little prayer.  She grabs my hand Sid and she says “No, I want you to pray for me.”  I said, “Lady you don’t really want me to pray for you.”  We’re in the middle of Denny’s in between smoking and nonsmoking section; well she’s so provoked me I said, “Okay, I laid my hands on her, I began to pray the unction of God came, the power of God came she screams like she’s being touched with fire and she falls to the ground in the restaurant.  The smoking section erupts as they’re so scared they keep on puffing on those cigarettes, people are looking, I said, “It’s okay, it’s okay she’s fine, she’s fine, I tell my wife get down there and begin to pray for her.  People start walking in, true story, I start giving menus, “How many to be seated?”  I start seating people, I said, “Don’t worry she’s fine,” you know and literally I’m seating people while the lady after about five minutes she starts coming out of the power of God that hit her, we sit her down and she’s “Woo, woo,” I mean she’s just gone Sid and I said, “Mam are you okay mam,” she starts crying Sid as she tells me “You don’t understand do you?”  I said, “What you don’t understand is right now I have two bottles of prescription pills in my car and tonight after my shift I was going to overdose and kill myself; but when you walked in a voice spoke to me and said, “Ask that man to pray for you and it took all my courage she told me to ask you to pray for me.”  And I stood there Sid and “I’m saying dear God we just saved a life from suicide because somebody was bold enough to ask; somebody was bold enough to pray and we didn’t care that we were in a restaurant and God saved a life that night.”

Sid:  And do you know what I’m thinking about Benny, I’m thinking about that young man that was backslidden, was walking on a beach to do a beach ministry just to see the girls in bikinis and the fire of God came on you, but I would imagine that there were many times you could have let that fire go out and you would have missed what you just described.

Benny:  Absolutely Sid and you know what I want to tell everybody that Benny Perez is a normal man that needs to stay in touch with the supernatural God.  And I know that it sounds trite, but prayer, daily prayer, daily devotions, daily sensitivity to the Spirit.  See there’s sometimes I just leave my office and I go into my sanctuary and I just worship, and I just worship Him.  I don’t ask Him for anything, I just worship because I need Him more today than I did twenty-one years ago.

Sid:  Benny, in your heart of hearts, why did you write the book “Upside Down”?

Benny:  Because I wanted to equip believers to do the things that God has done through me; that is the bottom line.  I was commissioned by the publisher to write a book that could literally be a handbook, a manual that people could read, grasp, and then allow God to use them in a supernatural way.

Sid:    I believe someone could take this book themselves and be used in a supernatural way, but I believe it would be a tremendous Bible study, has anyone used it as a Bible study?

Benny:  Absolutely youth groups have done it, small groups have done it, it’s broken in such a way that you could actually do each chapter as a Bible study.  At the end of each chapter Sid it actually has a Turning Upside Down questions.  There’s usually four to five questions that you can use in a small group setting that really cement the principals in people’s lives.

Sid:  You must have quite a phenomenal church; you have young people, you have older people but according to my notes you have some former hookers.

Benny:  Yes we do Sid in fact we have a former hooker was one of the top call girls, prostitutes in our city and she had a radical encounter with Jesus Christ. She is leading now outreaches, praying for prostitutes, strippers right on the street. Her name is Annie Lobert and she has a website, HookersforJesus.net. People go “Wait a second you should say ex-hookers”; HookersforJesus.net when you go there you will read incredible testimonies of the power of God and now she’s being asked by Rolling Stone magazine, MTV to share her testimony.  When she gets on Sid she says “Jesus Christ and His power has transformed my life and He can do it for somebody else.”  And I’m telling you we’re seeing incredible things through her ministry and we’re partnering with her as we’re literally seeing pimps, prostitutes get radically saved, and touched by the power of God.

Sid:  What is the feedback you get from people that are going through your book.  Take that that businessman you were telling me about earlier; did you tell me that he’s reading the manual for the second time with 40,000 business people under him?

Benny:  He actually has read it a second time and he’s bought 50 some books to distribute to his higher management team because they say “Where are you learning this?”  Because he said, “Why, this book,” and “Where can we get this book?”  And he said “You know what I’m going to do, I’m going to buy them and give them to you.”