It's Supernatural

Sid: My guest is Tommy O’Dell I’m speaking to him at his office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His grandfather, T.L. Osborn; his mother T.L. Osborn’s daughter who has a wonderful evangelistic ministry; I would say his grandfather has probably led more people to the Lord, and seen more miracles happen under his ministry than anyone on planet earth. Tommy how many years has your grandfather been in ministry?

Tommy: I believe more than 60 years.

Sid: And the fruit that he has had! Well on yesterday’s, I’m gonna get people upset if I don’t get right back to what happened to Tommy. Tommy even though he had this wonderful background, even though he saw miracles he never had an experience with Jesus himself. He had the Jesus of religion and that didn’t spin. He got into drugs, he got into eastern religions, Hinduism; he got so bad off in drugs he overdosed; he couldn’t put more than a couple of words together; his brain was fried, I guess that’s the vernacular; he couldn’t even think. I mean he overdosed and his friends were afraid so… where did they put your body?

Tommy: They just dumped me out of the car.

Sid: Oh good friends. (Laughing)

Tommy: They really were close friends, but they…

Sid: You should have seen what some of your enemies would of done, but go ahead. (Laughing)

Tommy: With friends like that who needs enemies. (Laughing) I felt my spirit actually leaving my body and I knew I wasn’t right with God. I didn’t call out on any of the Hindu deities, or I didn’t call out on the name of Buddha. That would have been nonsense when you study the Hinduism, or Buddhism there’s really no possibilities for miracles. The Hindus haven’t done miracles for thousands of years, and Buddha never did. So I called out on the name of Jesus, the seeds of the gospel were planted in my heart. The Bible says “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Something deep within me, you know people love to brag about the potency of the satanic seed, but there is nothing like the seed of the living God. You just can’t kill it it’s in you. When you plant that seed in a heart that’s willing it’s amazing what it can produce. Through all of searching and eastern religion and drugs, I did astral projection, and many different things to try and find spiritual peace. Everything failed. They say that all paths lead to the same destination and they do all paths lead to destruction, if it’s not Jesus. Jesus said “I am THE way, I am THE truth, I am THE life.” So I called out on the name of Jesus and the power of God literally went through me like fire. As this heat passed through me it passed through my mind and into body, and into deepest part of my being. Everywhere that fire burned it healed; I felt the healing life of God pour through me. I stood up and raised my hands and began to weep, and thank God. This presence of the living God bathed me it was the most wonderful thing. During that time I actually saw Jesus in my heart being beaten, being nailed to the cross, the flesh turned from His back with a whip. I recognized, what I later found in Isaiah 53 “That He was wounded for my transgressions, and bruised for my iniquities, the chastisement of my peace was on Him, and with His stripes I was healed.” He bore my pain; He bore my addiction; He bore my sin and my rebellion and my wickedness.

Sid: That’s what the Bible says, but you’re telling me that you experienced that.

Tommy: It happened to me. Yeah that’s the amazing thing, Jesus is more than a religion. Because religion you can never prove it, you can never demonstrate it. The life of Jesus Christ is irrefutable, it is undeniable when it is demonstrated by a miracle proof, and I am a miracle. Without a miracle I should either be dead, really I should be dead, or burnt out vegetable barely able to speak. To think about what God did for me as His power just poured through me and through my heart. I knew God was healing me, but I didn’t know all what He was doing to me; I didn’t know He was restoring my brain, all I knew was God reached down and grabbed that addiction. It was like an oak tree with deep roots and He tore it out at the roots.

Sid: Now who was the first person you saw after this experience?

Tommy: The first person I saw, I went back to my best friend Burl Beard, and walked to his home. When I walked to him he was astonished because the last time he saw me my mind was absolutely burnt out, I didn’t even know my own name. So he just began to weep and weep, he knew he was in the presence of a miracle. The next one was a friend of mine named Jason Brymer who’s Jewish, and I walked in he was so shocked. He said “Tommy I don’t believe in Jesus, I don’t believe in your Christianity, but I admit this is a miracle, this is a miracle. There’s no way I can deny it.” After that I went to my mother’s house and I rang the doorbell, the little intercom, and she heard me laughing. I was laughing and she thought I was there with some of my druggy friends, and she was scared to let me in. She…

Sid: Hmm. That reminds me of Peter knocking at the door remember? (Laughing) They’re praying for him, they’re praying for all they’re worth for Peter to get out of prison he’s there and they don’t even open the door. (Laughing)

Tommy: (Laughing) It was just like that. I kept ringing and ringing and she said “Tommy are you alone?” I got to thinking about it and it made me laugh harder, I said “No I’m not alone, I don’t think I’m ever going to have to be alone again.” (Laughing) She said “Are you alone?” I said “No Jesus has come to me I’m a miracle.” When she opened up the door she could tell I was changed. My mind was instantly healed, the addiction was gone. I didn’t go through any withdrawal, I was healed it was a miracle, and a fire came on me, a fire came upon me to tell the world about what Jesus had done for me. Now I knew Jesus is Lord, I knew that He is risen from the dead; I knew if He would come to me, if He would save me, if He would heal me He would do that for anybody.

Sid: Now you tell ahold of an old book that was almost out of print I think from your grandfather called “Miracles Proof of God’s Love.” Did you actually read that book out loud?

Tommy: Yes it was real…

Sid: Tell me about that.

Tommy: It was right after I was saved, and I found that book, it was out of print. It was a small book under a 100 pages. I began to read, and for some reason I began to read it out loud. In the middle of the book, as I was reading I just kept getting more and more excited because it revealed how God is God of the supernatural. I’ll never forget one of the quotes in the book my grandfather said he said “The love of the miraculous is not a mark of ignorance, that rather it reveals humanity’s intense desire to reach the unseen God.” As I continued to read the power of God began to course through me in a physical manifestation, like an electric current. It went from the top of my head through my extremities, up and down my arms and legs, it knocked me off of my feet, I fell on my back. My hands were glued to the book; I kept reading until I couldn’t hardly talk anymore, but worship the Lord in a heavenly language, and it was amazing. So what dawned on me as all this was happening to me was, you know this is a special book, this is an important…

Sid: Let me ask you, then at age 19 you had your first mass campaign. Tell me what happened.

Tommy: Oh that’s a wonderful story. See I was saved right before my 17^th birthday, and before I was saved I had lived in Africa. Remember, but I lived in Africa as an unbeliever.

Sid: Right.

Tommy: So I wanted to go back so bad, oh I was aching to go back to Africa, but I didn’t have enough money.  Nobody believed a young teenager like me had any business trying to go to Africa and preach and things. I got the opportunity to go to Holland. I didn’t have any desire to go to Holland, I didn’t know what a mission field Holland was. I looked on the globe and I saw that it was closer to Africa than Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Sid: (Laughing)

Tommy: (Laughing) So while I was in Holland I met my wife Elizabeth and she’s been my best friend, and we had the most remarkable and wonderful adventures together around the world. We’ve got 5 kids so I’m glad I went to Holland. After that we went all over Central America, and saw God do incredible miracles there, and finally we made it back to Africa right about our 19^th birthdays. We had a new little baby that was born in Nigeria. There was a military overthrow in Nigeria and we were there in the middle of it. We had a burden to go to Ghana, which was a country that had a real nasty military coup. To make matters worse after all the bloodshed from that coup d’état there was a famine that hit Ghana.

Sid: Were there many miracles at that particular event?

Tommy: Oh my goodness. When we went to Ghana we went to country that had been in famine, that had been war torn. We had a campaign, we were astonished there were more than 40 deaf mutes that were healed.

Sid: Did you say 4-0, 40?

Tommy: 40.

Sid: Dead mutes that were healed. You’re just a 19 year old punk, you’re coming off of drugs! I tell you what he read this book and the anointing of God came on him so strong.