Archive for December, 2015
Our Guest Dr. John Garr
Sid: My guest by way of telephone is Dr. John Garr we’ll be talking to him this week about his book about restoring our lost legacy. And let me read from the back of the book:
“We’ve Been Robbed!” These words of a Methodist Bishop in Brazil and Anglican Leader in India, and a Pentecostal Overseer in Africa express the sentiments of thousands of Christians around the world when they first discovered through the challenging teaching of Dr. John Garr the extent to which they have been deprived of the Hebrew heritage of their Christian faith. For the past 19 centuries millions of believers have been denied their Biblical legacy, the riches of the Hebrew foundations of their faith. Christian Judaeophobia, anti-Judaism, and anti-Semitism have conspired to rob them of the treasures of their inheritance.
I have to tell you John a lot of information in your book I was aware of, but you’ve put it together in such a wonderful fashion. And you have information in here that I was not aware of it’s been so helpful. I have to start out with a question that I posed to myself so many times. “How did something that started in a Jewish land Israel by Jewish people based on the Jewish scriptures, and the Jewish Messiah, and the Jewish blood of atonement, and the Jewish Festivals become the opposite of Judaism as we know it today how did that happen?
John: Well I think that we’ve not only have the $64 thousand question we’ve probably brought the $64 billion dollar question, how could it have been possible.
Sid: I mean is it what I just read from the back of your book “We’ve Been Robbed?”
John: We have been robbed and it’s basically all you can say is a conspiracy of the powers of evil that has been worked out very deceptively in the history of the Christian Church. I don’t think we have to go back and question the motives of many of the Hellenic and the Latin Fathers of the Church the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church in their efforts to contextualize the gospel into the societies in which they live, but the problem is in the effort to contextualize they crossed the line into syncretism and started to try to blend Greek philosophy and in some cases the Greek Paultheistic system with the Hebraic faith of Jesus and the apostles.
Sid: Weren’t they afraid to do this I mean God is there?
John: You know a lot of question about that and I think they should have certainly been afraid of it; they should have been very careful that they would maintain the purity of the faith of Jesus and the apostles. But again I think that they were making an effort to try to contextualize. But we do know that certain of the Greek Fathers and in particular origin and the Tertullian started out with an effort to syncretize, or blend together, Neo-Platonist philosophy. Of course they were both Neo-Platonist philosophers and to take that philosophy of the Greek world and blend it with the earliest Christian faith. And of course when you know that something about the history of both of them they’re like oil and water they just don’t mix.
Sid: Yes but some of the apostles and the disciples of the apostles must have fought this ferociously. I would have had I been there.
John: Yes and the history of the records that we have they were continuing battles over many of these issues up to the first 4th centuries of the Church in particular. Once we got up to the fourth and fifth centuries the process had been pretty much completed the Church had become Hellenized and then subsequently Latinized so the pure faith of Jesus and the apostles was pretty much lost. And this is one reason for the reformation in the 16th century and the counter reformation that was also taking place in the Roman Catholic Church at the same time was an effort at least to begin a step toward restoration and renewal in that reformative process. But the reality is we were in a terrible state that was far removed from the faith of Jesus and the apostles because as you so well said it was a Jewish faith. Christianity in its beginning as the early Jesus movement was not even thought of as being Christianity at all it was just another group within Judaism that was attempting to make their view normality. As a matter of fact…
Sid: But wait a second in the New Testament it refers to believers in Jesus as Christians.
John: Well the statement was made they were first called Christians at Antioch and this was about 10 years after the ascension of Jesus and was first used as a term of derision from the people outside the movement. The earliest term that we can arrive at that we can understand is that they were probably called the notsrim after the Hebrew word Netser, which means the root and Jesus was or the stem and the shaft of Jesse. And so they were patterning after that way so that they were actually trying to manifest the life of Jesus and they were being identify with that. By the time you come to Antioch and the Greek language they were called Christians because they seemed to be followers of Christ and this new strange new religion (Laughing) was being promoted from the outside and so they were called Christians.
Sid: But as you point out in your book it was actually in a derogatory sense the name Christian.
John: The origination of the term was derogatory but as we know terms that are used as terms of derogation over a period of time can be adopted by the people to who the name applies for instance the Friends Movement came be called the Quakers because of the experience that they manifest and the people outside started calling them Quakers and eventually they assumed that title to themselves. Another one that’s a good example is the term Jew. Originally the term Jew was used by the people outside of the society of Judah as a term of derision and it became adopted as the term for describing the people from the tribe of Judah and subsequently from all of the tribes of Israel that came to be associated and aligned within the tribe of Judah so that they all became described as Jews. And so this is not an uncommon phenomenon but the point is originally they were not called Christians. Jesus was not called Christian Jesus was only called a Jew the people that identified Him who were outside the scope of the community of Israel all identified Him as being a Jew. The woman at the well at Samaria said “You are a Jew.” And when Pilot came to a point of crucifying Him he had a legal inscription on the top of the cross “This is Jesus the King of the Jews.”
Sid: Yeah, it reminds me of a book by Francis Schaeffer’s wife, Edith Schaeffer, many years ago called “Christianity is Jewish.”
John: Absolutely, absolutely and when you get back to it you have to acknowledge historically and theologically that Christianity is a Jewish faith.
Sid: So do you believe that God never intended to say have Old Covenant Judaism and Christianity but just had Judaism?
John: I think that was God’s intention all along and in effect what Jesus came to do was to restore Judaism to its original inherent ideal. As a matter of fact Martin Buber made a statement that I think is very important. Martin Buber is one of the great Jewish philosophers of our times. He said “That the earliest Jewish movement was a radical call to doing Torah,” or in other words doing what the word of God says. So in effect it was not an effort to break away from the Biblical or 2nd Temple Judaism into which Jesus and the apostles were born and lived their lives. But it was an attempt to show that Jesus was the fulfillment and in Him came the forth the fullest flower of understanding of Jewish understanding of the Hebrew scriptures. And also to cause the world and particularly at that time the rest of their fellow Jewish community to recognize their understanding belief in Jesus was the fullness of all the scriptures had to say about the Messiah.
Sid: Maybe that what Paul meant when he said that “The believers are to provoke the Jewish people to jealousy.” You just don’t provoke the Jewish people to believer to jealousy by saying you too can have Easter bunnies and Easter eggs.
John: (Laughing) That’s absolutely true the jealousy element if we’re looking at that one is not jealous of something that one does not possess. And what you’re jealous of is that someone else is using what you think is exclusively yours then your jealous. So obviously the Christians Community as one Jewish person made the statement to me you know talk about our being jealous of Christians “Well frankly, Christians don’t have anything we want.” And the reason for that is because they don’t recognize anything in the traditional Christian model or the Christian Church that they can identify as being Jewish. And again that’s one of the great the problems I think in relational things between the traditional Jewish Community and the Christian Church is because the Christian Church has drifted so far from its original inherent ideal as being a Jewish faith established by a Jewish Lord on the basis of a Jewish book; teaching about the God of the Jews and being established in the land of Jews that the Jews can’t even see anything that identifies Christianity that it’s even related to them.
Sid: You know it’s one thing that we see how the Greco-Roman culture infiltrated the early Church, but it’s a totally another thing that is mind-blowing is how the Christian Church today is so not even intentionally but by its very nature anti-anything that’s Jewish. If Jewish people worship on Saturday we worship on Sunday, it Jewish people have put their hats on in the synagogue we take our hats off in the church. How did that kind of tension occur?
John: Well it’s basically as Christianity began to go into the Gentile world, and there was a lot of persecution in that time frame. One of the things that the leaders in the Third and Fourth Centuries began to distant themselves from Jews and Judaism.
Sid: Why?
John: For the sake of trying to keep themselves from being persecuted. They wanted to be recognized between their communities and be accepted among them and so they started distancing themselves. And so from that dynamic Christianity began defining itself from being not Jewish. By the same token Judaism in turn began define itself as not being not Christian. So our definition our self definition both in both communities has been based more on negatives than it has been on positives and especially in the Christian Community.
Sid: You know the definition, this is mind blowing to me, the definition of being Jewish is something you’re not something you are. The definition of being Jewish is you don’t believe in Jesus.
John: Hm hm.
Sid: I mean come on now give me a break you’re throwing out so many questions if it wasn’t for the fact that God has called Gentiles to provoke Jewish people to jealousy if salvation… Roman’s 11:11 “Salvation has come to the Gentile to provoke the Jew to jealousy. Even forgetting that all the richness that the church has lost in the understanding of the New Covenant by not understanding our Biblical Judaic roots…
Our Guest Lisa Bevere
SID: Lisa, so she has this vision of this lioness, she opens her Bible, she reads about the lioness arising. What, well first of all, who is the lioness to you?
LISA: So Jesus is the lion of the Tribe of Judah.
SID: Right.
LISA: And his bride who is the church, I believe is the lioness. And I believe that God is having a fierce awakening. And I think, you know, you’re even seeing women coming alongside the men, finding out that they have a voice. They don’t have a voice to push the men aside. They are actually adding their voice to the men’s voice. And so for me, the lioness is what God wants the church to rise up and look like. So Sid, what happened for me is God sort of opening doors for me. I started traveling, I started ministering and I began to think it was about me. I began to think, wow, I’m not a coward anymore. I’m not a captive anymore. I’m free. I’m traveling and speaking in these big conferences. I’m a lioness. And God was like, “No, this is not about you. I said with the birth of your son you would awaken a lioness”. And that is a fierce waking call for his church, and we need to be a people who know how to live in the light, but hunt in the dark, and that is the prophetic anointing that is coming on the church, to live in the light, but hunt in the dark, to see what is hidden, see what is captive. We need to be a people whose eyes are lit from within and that is something that lions have. They have an ability to interpret light of their environment to vision.
SID: And you know, you explain that lions in the dark can see. So how does a believer see in the dark?
LISA: Well because we’re lit from within. See, it’s too, it’s very much a tragic thing. I love how you open up some of the programs. We have people in the church who are praying scared prayers: “Oh God, can you please save us. It’s going to be such a bad time. I’m going to lose all my money.” You know what? We’re not supposed to pray scared prayers. We’re supposed to pray the prayers that are the Word of God. We’re supposed to pray scary prayers. We’re supposed to pray prayers that are so fierce, so strong, so God-ridden, that they scare us when they come to our ears. That is the way of the lioness. The lion, it doesn’t’ live in fear of what’s in its environment. We need to understand that that is the strength that God wants to impart to his people. And so we need to find out who we are and we need to find out what our strength is. And Sid, while I was studying and preaching this, I said, God, you know, just in case, I had that dream a long time ago. Just in case, if this is something, you know, you don’t want me to write on, you don’t want me to talk on, I just need a confirmation from you. And that night, now I live in Colorado, so this is a kind of frame of reference. That night, I found out my son had a school project. Eight p.m., Mom, I have a school project. I go down the stairs, I tear apart the three older boys’ school projects. I bring him the poster board. He’s like, no, this isn’t right. You have to brave a blizzard. So I go out, brave a blizzard, have my other three boys, you know, start to build his project from, have it all spread on the table when my husband does something that I would normally have called annoying. But when you’ve been married for more than 10 years and it’s still happening you need to call it cute. So anyway, he has this cute habit of calling me and putting me on the phone with strangers and that night was no exception. He said, “I have a man you need to talk to.” I’m like, “No, I’m sorry, I’m doing a school project now. I don’t need to talk to a stranger.” And he said, “No, you need to talk to this person.” So this guy calls me and he said, “Lisa, your husband mentioned that you’re teaching on lioness rising. He said that lions are the best killers, but lionesses are the best hunters.” He said, “I’m going to tell you why your work is important.” He said, “Do you know we are not winning the war in Afghanistan?” And I said, “I did know that.” And he said, “Do you want to know why?” And I said, “Sure.” He said, “Because we can’t speak to the women.” And he said, “When you can’t speak to the women you can’t flip the culture, and when you can’t flip a culture, you can’t win a war.” He said, “I am in charge of assembling special operative teams here at Fort Bragg.” And he said, “Up until this point we have focused on men because of the danger.” He said, “But now we are sending in special operative women who are going to tell the Afghan women they have voice and value. They’re going to take care of their minor medical needs. They’re going to deliver their babies and they’re going to tell them why democracy will serve their sons and daughters well.” He said, “They’re about ready to be deployed. It is called Team Lioness. May I have a copy of your resources for all of them?” So I got to resource Team Lioness going out of Fort Bragg, then Team Lioness going out of the Marines, out of Camp Lejeune. So if the U.S. military understands that without the involvement of women, we will fight, but we will not win. It is time that we understand in the Body of Christ that we need both the men and the women to win, and that has always been God’s dream. And God’s dream is the enemy’s nightmare.
SID: Okay. There is someone watching right now.
LISA: Yeah.
SID: And you are crying out in your heart, God, there must be something more. What would you say to them?
LISA: You know, I’m speaking straight to your spirit. There is something inside of you, you know you were created for something so much more than what you have seen. You have been living a life afraid. Well God has not given you a spirit of fear. God did not save you to tame you. He saved you to release you to be everything that he created you to be. I dare you, I dare you to stop being afraid of your strengths, in Jesus’ name.
SID: When we come back, Lisa is going to talk about how this stay at home mom is traveling to some of the hot spots of the world, rescuing women sold into slavery and sex trade. I mean, some of things you do, I am amazed. And guess what? Anything Lisa can do, you can do better. We’ll be right back.
Our Guest Benny Hinn
SID: Do you know that the same power that raised Messiah Jesus from the dead, can you imagine how much power that was, dwells, lives, tabernacles in you. Yes, in you. It blows my mind, as the teens would say. Tell me about the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of the Living God.
PASTOR BENNY: You know, when you and I were together a few days ago on my program, there was a tremendous exchange between you and I as we talked about the Bible. And the reason I’m so enjoying being, Sid, today is because he understands this. And you need to understand this. The Holy Spirit is the power of the Trinity. God Almighty will do nothing without it. God the Son will do nothing without it. In fact, when the Lord returned on Earth, if you remember when the Lord rose from the dead and walked among his disciples for 40 days, it says, “Through the Spirit he gave commandments.” When the Lord returns on Earth, he will destroy Antichrist by the breath of His mouth. That’s the Holy Ghost again.
SID: The Ruach.
PASTOR BENNY: The Ruach. So the Holy Spirit is the power of Heaven. Think about He is so mighty that He took God the Eternal One and turned Him into a seed. Think about that, how much power that is, and deposits Him in the womb of a virgin named Mary. Think about the power, like you just said, that raised Him from the dead.
SID: Right now through people, desperate people that need a healing, when you have your services, I’ve noticed something. There isn’t just a choir worshiping God. You are worshiping God. The choir is worshiping God. The people are. How important is worship?
PASTOR BENNY: Well worship brings His manifestation to us. And let’s just make this very clear. Do not seek the Holy Spirit. Seek Jesus. When you seek Jesus, He comes. Now fellowship with the Holy Spirit, that’s a different matter. Recognize the Holy Spirit, of course. He is our helper, the Bible says. He is our comforter, guide, teacher, leader. So when I talk about the Holy Spirit, I’m talking about a person who is here to help us and walk with us, and guide us. But the Bible says, “He shall glory. He will glorify the Lord. He will glorify Jesus.” His presence comes when Jesus is glorified. And so when we worship the Lord, the Son of God, the Holy Spirit comes and manifests His presence. And so that’s why it’s important to understand that when you worship the Lord, the Lord becomes real by the Holy Spirit. And when He becomes real, and this is the key, this is what brings miracles, and that is when the Lord Jesus becomes more real than your sickness.
SID: Well I’m going to tell you something. God has spoken to me [about] two conditions just now. Number one, He says there are people whose teeth are crooked. They’re going to be straightened. In fact, you’re going to have any kind of dental miracle you can believe when Pastor Benny prays. Number two, there are people with tremendous pains in your necks, in your back, and any pain in your body, I’m telling you, as Pastor Benny prays, you will be healed. Would you pray for healing right now.
PASTOR BENNY: I would love to right now. I want to, I’m stretching my hands towards you because I want you to come, if you can and place your hands across the screen. All that is, is the atmosphere. Or just stretch your hands towards the, place your hands on where the problem is because all that is, is the atmosphere. Dear Jesus, we come together in simple trust. And right now wonderful Lord, I pray every sickness will be healed, every bondage broken. Let the same resurrection power that raised you from the dead, the power of the Holy Ghost, flow through their body, bringing healing, life, strength and restoration. Skin cancer has just been healed and a lady, Lia is your name. L-I-A, the Lord just healed you of skin cancer. And somebody else with a muscle disease is healed completely. Listen, I don’t have to call you healing. All you have to do is call out His name: Jesus. And whosoever will call on His name will be delivered. Amen.
SID: The word in the Greek means delivered, healed, your sins paid for. Yeshua did it all. That’s Hebrew for Jesus. If you will confess with your mouth, that means speak it out loud, you then will believe in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead. Say this with me. Repeat it. Dear Jesus, I’m a sinner. Against you and you alone have I sinned. I’m so sorry. I believe the blood of Jesus washes away my sins and I am clean. It’s so good to be clean. And now that I am clean, Jesus come inside of me. I make you my Lord. Amen.
Our Guest Dr. James Maloney
Sid: My guest by way of telephone is Dr. James Maloney he’s a Professor at Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas. And Jim all this week has been telling me how God has used him in the miracle ministry but we haven’t talked a whole lot about how God uses him in the prophetic ministry. You were telling me when I rudely cut you off because that’s all the time the station would give us on yesterday’s broadcast about the first time you prophesied tell me about that again.
James: Well I was Sid 18 years of age I was young bible school student at Christ for the Nations. The minister that was teaching that evening just said “Any of you students feel led of the Lord to step out and let the Lord use you as a mouth piece.” And so I just stepped out and went up to a young lady and it was a little bit humorous because I put my hand on her forehead and said “Okay God give me a word.” And nothing was coming and then I felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit say “You step out and as you step out then I will fill your lips with My word.” And so it’s kind of difficult because you know you don’t want to make a mistake but I stepped out and when I did the Lord gave me a very specific word of knowledge and a prophetic word for her. And I said “When your mother and father forsake you the Lord will raise you up and you made a decision to come to this school and you even had to…” It sort of rolled out of my spirit.
Sid: Now you could easily be wrong on that.
James: Well I went on to say that she had also given up your fiancée to some to this Bible School but the Lord wants you to know that you made the right decision and the Lord’s got one for you.
Sid: For the first prophesy you really stepping out.
James: Well it was specific and it was great because what she did was she just shook and she just fell on her knees and just began to sob and sob and sob. And said “Lord that’s just exactly what I needed to here that’s exactly what I needed to hear.” And so when that happened it was like I word it this way to the students at the Christ for the Nations, when I share this, rockets went off in my spirit. And I just began to step out and then I did a lot of fasting and I did a lot of praying and I would get a burden or sensing a flow of love or compassion when I look upon a person then I would go to that person and I would pray for them the Lord would give me a revelation. Actually that’s how my wife and I got together because 6 months prior to meeting her personally I’d given her a word.
Sid: What was that?
James: Well I went up to her and told her “I’ve got a word for you.” And so I laid my hand upon her and I said “Truly the Lord saw you this morning underneath the tree by the picnic table and you were crying out to God and you were saying “Will I have a ministry among My people?” And the Lord would say “Yeah My daughter you have a ministry among My people and the Lord would further say “You’ll marry a traveling minister and have 2 children and travel all over the world.” And tears streamed down her eyes and I said “Isn’t that a great word sister God bless you and…
Sid: And you had no thought at that time that would be your wife?
James: I didn’t know who she was no.
Sid: And so you were prophesying about yourself and didn’t even know it.
James: Yeah and latter on I married her.
Sid: Some prophet (Laughing).
James: I tell the students at Christ for the Nations “Don’t you do that same thing.”
Sid: Well I’m going to ask you to take a step out.
James: Sure.
Sid: I want you to take a step out in the Spirit and just speak whatever God shows you.
James: Well I just sense Sid that there are many that are listening that you know there’s so much that you’re going through and in my heart I’m just sensing the compassion of Jesus going through my spirit. And I know that there is somebody listening that you have children and this really breaks my heart children that are laboring under disease or sickness and I just want to the mom’s and dad’s right now to reach out and just in faith maybe put your hand upon the radio and say I want to use this radio as a point of contact. And I believe there is a mom and a dad that has a little boy that has a blood disorder and the Lord wants that little boy to be healed. And I want to say also that there’s a little girl that has a real severe learning disorder and the Lord can touch her mind and quicken her in Jesus name. And I just want all of you to just right now just believe I’m prophesying this you know the Lord loves you with an everlasting love and I decree that He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. He wants you whole spirit, soul and body. And I just speak right now in Jesus name as I reach out to these people that are listening that are being touch with or without a word of knowledge Lord You know where they’re at let these words of knowledge and these words of wisdom create faith for those that are listening because I do sense that there are many that are in need of a touch. I know that right now. I sense that there’s a lady that is under therapy, under chemotherapy right now and she has had already a radical vasectomy and it’s in the lymph nodes and the Lord wants you to be healed. I think that there’s a lady that needs to put her hand underneath her arm there are lumps that are disappearing in Jesus name we’re believing that right now that you are being made whole. And there’s some parents that have I believe a child that has a severe asthmatic condition right now a little boy. And the little boy is around 10 or 11 years of age and this has been a severe problem and the Lord wants that little boy healed, and this is a point of contact and you can pray for him and just receive that healing in Jesus mighty name. I see a little girl that has a severe scoliosis of the spine, this has been debilitating excruciating pain we’ve seen many people healed of this where the Lord has just recreated reconstructed the spinal columns and in Jesus name I believe the little girl needs to grow about an inch and half – 2 inches. And so just right now just agree with me that your little girl is being touched and I just see severe headaches migraine headaches it is incredibly debilitating you need that healing virtue of the Lord right now because this thing is really you’ve labored under it and so we just proclaim healing in the mighty name of Jesus.
Sid: You know I feel the anointing all over my heard right now and that’s telling me that people that need healing anywhere in the head whether it’s specific words like migraine headaches that Jim has just mentioned or whether it’s tumors or anything in your head I tell you it’s yours take it. Hearing, allergies of any sort anything in the head it’s yours in Jesus name.
James: Amen just point your hand on any area of your body you that are listening just any area of your body somebody needs a severe creative miracle within their knee. And I sense that the lady’s got in the back of her knee a swelling in the arteries and blood clots and the Lord… just put your hands behind your knees. Wherever you’re hurting, your vexed, you’re oppressed you’re in pain just put your hands upon it that area because the Lord want to touch you right now and heal you. And we’ve seen 1000’s upon 1000’s no exaggeration of people that people as they laid their body they were set free in Jesus mighty name. And upon your heart somebody needs many of you need a healing in your heart right now your heart is irregular it’s not beating correctly a valve situation, whatever it is on your head as Sid shared just the Lord said I sense just like Sid like a spiritual oil that is just flowing down someone’s head right now like a warmth like a spiritual oil that’s covering them right now. Wherever you’ve got your hands upon your body you’ll sense the anointing there is no distance in the spirit realm Your sending forth Your word and healing me right now and You’re a God that heals Your Jehovah Rapha and just receive that just like a little child and the Lord will touch you and set you free. And many of you will experience an instant miracle begin to do something that you weren’t able to do and I mean it were a knee problem, or you were in accident and you couldn’t move your knee without pain begin to move your knee. Or move your back, bend your back, move that shoulder right now just whatever you weren’t able to do without discomfort or pain just begin to do it and you’ll see that many of you are getting touched I just sense a mass flow of anointing going forth right now in Jesus mighty name.
Sid: Amen boy I sure can feel it just very briefly Jim what do you see happening in the United States in the near future?
James: Well I believe Sid, that that’s a loaded question right there, but I believe that whatever we’re facing domestically and internationally I just think that the people of God as well as the people in the nation they just need to rally you know behind one and another and support and be a person or people of prayer. I believe that we’re going to experience some difficult times, things are being shaken that will shake as the Bible speaks but God is our source and if they’ll just put their eyes upon the Lord they’ll meet all of their need. And I believe that we’re going to experience prayerfully through all of the international domestic issues that we may be facing as difficult as they may be but I’m praying that God will use those things to turn people’s hearts towards Him.
Sid: Will there be a giant revival in America?
James: That’s what I’m believing Sid. I really believe that. I believe that the Bible speaks “Where sin abounds grace does more abound.” But though gross darkness is covering the face of the whole world as it says in Isaiah 60 “Yet the light of God is going to shine.”
Sid: I agree…
Our Guest Leif Hetland
Sid: My guest is a man by the name of Leif Hetland and Leif is known as the Ambassador of love. I have heard and you have too of a water baptism, I have heard and you have too of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. But how many have heard of the baptism of love. Before we get into this because Leif said that had a greater profound change in his life than even the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I believe that impartation when you just listen to him speak is going to jump off of him onto you. So you get to know Leif a little bit Leif where were you born?
Leif: I was born in Norway on the southwest coast and that’s why I have an accent.
Sid: And your parents were Pentecostal, but at age 9 you had an amazing supernatural experience that you didn’t even comprehend at 9 what happened?
Leif: Well I was sitting underneath a tree and I know it’s hard for people that know me today to believe that I was pretty shy of nature. I was actually at that age still sucking my thumb other kids was playing. We had a tree back yard and I was just sitting there I don’t know if I was half depressed but at least felt a little heavy. There was like a wind that came in but it was not the regular wind that we have in the southwest coast of Norway because it was just around where I was sitting around a tree I just suddenly saw all the tree branches everything else just started to swirl around. And next all of these small little lights started glistening and the presence of God. I didn’t know how to describe the presence of God but it was just a major encounter like I am here, I see you, I know you, I have found you underneath this tree. And there was something that took place in me that as a 9 year old I didn’t know how to process it, but it did something with me that I kind of put on the self I didn’t even tell anybody or talk about it it was just such an overwhelming experience where did this wind come from, where’s all of these lights, where is I don’t know it was an audible voice but the voice was clear enough that somebody’s speaking to me that says that “I see you and I know you and I’ve called you.”
Sid: Okay many years later your I believe it was England and speaking at a conference with Randy Clark and James Malone, and James had which he has quite often because he’s been a guest on our show an open vision and what did he see?
Leif: Yeah it was very unusual because as a speaker in a conference that he called me to come forward but he said “Leif I want you to come forward.” And it was like he had this panoramic vision where he saw like…he took me to 4 different places. And the first one back to when I was 9 years old and he described my backyard he described the tree, he described the wind and the light in the tree and how God was speaking to me. And at that moment well I cried just talking about it because at that moment I realized that the encounter that I had that here all of these years later this was maybe 5 years ago so I’m close to I’m 49 right now so I’m talking about I’m 44 years old at the time. So all of these years later there’s been kind of a puzzle of what was actually happening and I realized that the Creator of the Universe actually knew my address suddenly showed up and angelic visitation and that there was a hand of God even at the age of 9 they came upon me and had an incredible impact. And then at a conference in front of everybody he describes the detail of that where I lived and how the tree looked like, what happened in the atmosphere all of those details. And I was back again as a 9 year old and I saw myself when he described it and in the next moment it was just like a jolt of electricity I couldn’t stand any longer and I was undone.
Sid: Well and then going back to the chronological order of your life at 12 you turned away from the Lord you got into drugs. But at 17 you had another supernatural encounter with the Lord that really changed you what happened?
Leif: Well when I was 17 at that time period it was more of an encounter with Jesus and that’s what I’ve often told people that the encounter with Jesus saved me, healed me, saved me, set me free. And it was tremendous I just fell in love with Jesus. I had known of Jesus all of my life, I’d been running from Jesus but I had never encountered Jesus. But through this encounter with Jesus I actually was a little bit high back in those days, but through the encounter with Jesus something just shifted with me and shifted the course of my life where I knew this Jesus I had met that Jesus…
Sid: Now when you say encounter that means different things to different people take me back there what happened to you?
Leif: Well yeah it’s started actually with a journey that I walked on the street and I still didn’t even know if it was an angel or a person but I walked in the street of Haugesund, a small little town of where I was living, and somebody came up to me and just started…today I knew it would be a word of knowledge meaning that Jesus was speaking something to me. This person could have been an angel, it could have been a person I do not know, but when I was finished talking to this person he was sharing different things in my life and what I was looking for and longing for it created it started the created. I mean I need this Jesus, that’s the real Jesus I have not found Him I’ve known of Him, known everything about Him but that’s the Jesus that I have been looking for. And I saw it in somebody if that was I’ve never seen the person since if that wasn’t a person or if it was an angel I cannot describe it today. But the encounter had such an impact on my life that I knew that I need to say “No to anything else and I need to say yes to this Jesus.”
Sid: Tell me in 2000 when you had what you called the baptism in the Father’s love tell me what happened, tell me the circumstances.
Leif: Yes the story leads up to because over all of these years now I am ministering I am traveling the world on the staff of a mega church. Just to give the background I am living for God but I didn’t know how to live from God. I knew the Holy Spirit I knew power traveling around doing crusade I knew Jesus but I did not know the Father I did not know Poppa God as a good Poppa. God was more distant to be honest with you He was more kind of bipolar in nature to me and it was up to me to kind of please Him and if I did the right things then He was pleasing.
Sid: Just out of curiosity what was your relationship with your natural father?
Leif: I think that it was good but it was also distant. Being Norwegian Norwegians they do not express or often show and are unable to express love and affection in a very good way. But my dad was a very good father he provided, he took care of all of those needs. And I think that God also to a certain degree was a similar God that I mean you do these different things and He takes care of you but I did not know before this encounter I did not know it had existed something called the baptism of love. And so anyway it led to I was invited to go down to Florida and the 2 gentlemen who is pretty much well known here one is Jack Taylor Dr. Jack Taylor and Charles Corn. One is 84 and 1 is 81 years old today. Back then they invited me to come down to a group of men a small group in Holiday Inn in Florida outside of Melbourne. And my desperation level was pretty great at the time because I had been living with an orphan heart and an orphan spirit, and what I mean with that I was constantly out on the field working for God but I didn’t have a home, I didn’t have a place of security and love and value and purpose. I didn’t have a place deep within me a constantly. I call it it was a black hole in my soul. I was looking for something but I didn’t know what I was looking for.
Sid: Well at that time what was your home life like your family?
Leif: Again of course when I do not do enough with God then nobody else does enough. I think we function together to the best that we can and that is because I’m saying I’m the performer I was an achiever if I do all of these different things then things was fine. Of course when that’s the way I view God that’s the way my wife she has to do certain things, the kids so there was definitely there was a lot of pain, there was a lot of hurt, there was a lot of areas and I had so many love deficiency and I was right and everybody was wrong. Because I had power I could show the anointing I could come home with a video you could see the miracles, or you could come to the meeting and you could see God showing up and they had seen that. And so even if people try to confront me on certain things because my core values I’ve got power and that proves that somehow I’m right. So I think there was a definitely a lot of dysfunction going on.
Sid: Give me a few of the symptoms of someone that might be listening to us right now that has this as you call it orphan spirit.
Leif: Now I think it’s manifested usually in 2 ways, one would be definitely be religion and the other one rebellion. And what I mean for me now it was religion and that means that it is constantly what I do for God I value God, and I value my wife, I value my kids and I value everybody. What they’re going to do for me but I’m actually in the center. Because I am looking for something in my life that only Father God can fulfill that since it is not there then I expect everybody else and when they don’t live up to it we often because we live by fear as orphans because when you don’t have a home and I’m not talking about having a nice house because you can have a nice house but you don’t have a home you don’t have a place where you’re secure in the Father’s presence then as a result of that it’s awful to be around people working for me or anything else because when I don’t do enough nobody else does enough. And so when you feel that God is pretty critical of me I’m pretty critical at people and this was constantly going on so practically speaking it was manifested in every way. You maybe didn’t see it when you were on the pulpit but the core value system is what God is going to do for me, what people is going to do but I’m in the center of everything. And that’s what the orphan world because the orphan is all about themself.
Sid: How can someone…what your describing is someone that is very self-centered even though it’s cloaked in religion and maybe very prideful.
Leif: Definitely, definitely and it was my life. Looking back at it sometimes it is very difficult to want to see a movie of my own life. It was the best that I knew and let me just say one thing is I felt God clearly says “You’re not responsible for a revelation you did not have.” So I realized that also that I just did not know, I was just not comfortable with intimacy, I was not comfortable with love and as a result of that there was constantly this I would call it just a black hole in my soul and that’s going to have to be filled somehow.
Sid: So it could be filled with drugs or and a lot of people it just doesn’t even compute in the brain it could be filled with religion. What is the difference between the religion that is wrong and the religion that is right?
Leif: I think it is a very good question because I think you’re dealing with the same issue your just two branches. One of them is constantly having a core value because all of the good things I do and that’s the core value and I think that resulted that I have value. And the other one is just pretty much giving up because pain seeks pleasure when people have all of this pain that’s what it does then I’m looking for something to escape and that religion in a negative way now you rebel you’re doing things and that’s in the secret or whatever. I think that a lot of the addiction issues, the lot of issues that people have shame, guilt, all of those things then eventually that pain is going to look for something to be able to meet some of those root issues. And of course today I met 1000’s of people…
Sid: But wait a second but let’s suppose someone has this orphan spirit as you describe they pour themselves in religion, their motivation may not be the best is that they get pleasure out of it but they’re sure doing a lot for God’s kingdom what’s so wrong with that?
Leif: What I say there’s nothing wrong it’s just that there’s something that just not right.
Sid: (Laughing)
Leif: There is an element there that what you’re constantly doing for God it’s pretty much the best of what the flesh can produce. The challenge in this is also for me is because I operate in an anointing but still fear based, it’s rooted in fear. And as a result of that you control, you tried to control people you control circumstances because there’s fear in your life. And of course we know that He has not given us a spirit of fear that’s not God but I lived in fear.
Sid: Now what was your fear over in religion?
Leif: Well in regard to religion I want to make it first of all to share that God is pleased with me and I do the right things but I also fear what people are going to think about me. What if they know the real me, what if they know the real issue not the one they see on stage but what if I open up and they saw nakedness, what if they saw transparency? What if they had a camera in my home and they started to see that after the meetings over and I coming home that the same anointing that was saw there in the meeting was not in my home? And it is not the same anointing to love my wife or love my kids or the same anointing was not there in other areas of my life.
Sid: And in other words you were performing?
Leif: You’re performing and you’re good achiever because you got your value.
Sid: I got it. Okay now let me take you to the year 2000 you’re at a small gathering Jack Taylor is there, Dennis Jernigan the singer is there, tell me what happened?
Leif: Yeah as I was saying at that time period this hidden core pain was very deep in my life and in the middle of the meeting as I was saying there was less than 100 of us together and then suddenly Dennis Jernigan said “Leif I have this song for you.” And I wish that everyone that listens will hear that song by Dennis Jernigan it’s called “The Daddy Song.” I didn’t know anything about it, but Dennis in a small setting in a corner of this little Holiday Inn room he started to play “The Daddy Song, the Father Song.” And he started to sing a love song from Poppa God over me. And I couldn’t cry because I was hard, we are Norwegian if you were to hug me in 1999 it would be like hugging a tree stump because we’re cold people, cold nature. But now there’s love touched and before you know it I laid on the floor and even Jack Taylor says “I’ve never seen a man cry that much” but I laid there.
Sid: But wait wait wait are you telling me that you never cried before?
Leif: I could cry but I’m definitely not sure but it was very seldom that you would see me cry.
Sid: Did you ever cry like that before?
Leif: No, no, no, no definitely not, no not like that.
Sid: Now there was a couple of tears might come to your eyes once in a great while but that’s about it.
Leif: That’s the closest you will even find.
Sid: Okay.
Leif: Then that would maybe be if there was a funeral or something tragic that your controlled it.
Sid: Alright.
Leif: You controlled every emotion because you don’t show emotion that’s a weakness because then people can see who you are. So laying in this floor I ended up on the floor and the presence of God and for the first time when I laid there these waves started to flow and it was like liquid love and it just continued to flow as he sang. And it’s like I’m laying there and it’s almost having an x-ray that goes back into deepened hid core pain from childhood to the 9 year old, to the 12 year old, to the 15 year old I got clear pictures of me and then the love just rinsed it away the love just healed it. The love just these waves just went in there went into those areas…
Sid: You know as you’re sharing that right now I’m feeling those waves come across the airwaves just by you rehearsing what happened.
Leif: Yeah well I’m feeling it too and so that’s probably why (Laughing).
Sid: Hm.
Leif: I’m sitting here and just start crying again but it’s just hard for me to describe these experiences without taking me back to… (crying). So I just laid there but eventually it came to the root and I know this is that there was an audible voice that only time in my life that I can say 100% certainly that this was an audible voice. I’ve heard clear voices of God that I follow but in that voice it was so clear and He says “Leif you’re My beloved, you’re my beloved Son, not the servant, not the pastor, not the apostle, not business man, not you’re My beloved son, I love you.” And when He said the last word that’s when everything broke.
Sid: I’ll tell you what hold that thought I want to find out what happened but even more important that that you know today when Leif goes anywhere the whole atmosphere changes. And Leif says what happened to him God wants you to experience.