Archive for February, 2017
Our Guest Dave Roberson
Sid: I believe that God has risen up my guest I’m speaking to him at his office in Tulsa, Oklahoma the he’s Senior Pastor of Family Prayer Center Dave Roberson just for you. Dave many people would question why did Jesus fast for 40 days? Why was it even necessary? What did he really accomplish by fasting?
Dave: Sid it says in Matthew 4 that Jesus is led up of the Spirit He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. And while He was in the wilderness He fasted for 40 days. And the question I had over that in the Lord’s prayer He said “Lead us not into temptation.” Yet here He’s saying that He was led up the Spirit into the wilderness for the purpose of being tempted by Satan. See when He went into the wilderness He was actually going in as part of the substitution in identification work that He did for you and I. Such as He was made to be sin, you and I was made the righteousness of God in Christ. He bore our sicknesses and He carried our pains that we might be whole. And the chastisement of our lack of peace was laid up Him with His stripes we were healed. So He began the redemption work substitution identification when he was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. But He fasted to shut His flesh down to prepare Himself for that temptation. And He went out into the wilderness as my substitute to be tempted in my place. So He fastest to prepare His flesh to face Satan and He was tempted in 3 realms, 3 areas spirit, soul and body. In the Body it says that “If you are the Son of God turn of God turn those stones into bread.” And Jesus He stood up to him the horriblest strongest temptation that could ever be brought to a man. Jesus had to be able to stand up under it and He did and He said “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” So Satan then moved his temptations up a level into the soul when he couldn’t defeat Him on the level of the flesh. And he said “If You’re the Son of God jump off the pinnacle of the temple he said because it’s written that the angels would bare you up less you dash Your foot against a stone.” And Jesus resisted the emotional level of torment and temptation that would put a man in the levels of an insane asylum on the miss interpretation of a verse. He said “Jump off the pinnacle of the temple” as he tempted him in the emotions of the soul he said “Jump off.” And Jesus resisted and He says “I will not tempt God.” So when he could not defeat Him in the realms of the soul he moved onto the realms of the spirit. And he said “Look I’ll make you a world ruler” he said “Look at all of the kingdoms of this world look at the glory of them, look at the wealth of them all you have to do is fall down and worship me” and he said “I’ll give all of them and all of the glory of them to you.” And Jesus said “I will not,” He said “I’ll worship the God and God alone will I serve.” And so He was tempted inconceivably in those 3 areas spirit, soul and body as my substitute and he defeated Satan. And then as an act of grace that victory that standing that he received from passing that temptation and defeating Satan by an act of grace He turned around you and I Sid and by grace He gave us His standing that standing that He defeated Satan with. So that when you turn around to the devil and say “Come out” that devil has to come out because Jesus defeated him in the wilderness. So Jesus fasted for the same reason that you and I fast that was to prepare his flesh for that temptation that Satan tried to bring Him under and defeat Him with. So somebody asked me “Well what if the devil doesn’t come out when I tell him to come out Brother Roberson?” I said “This is why Jesus said ‘This kind cometh out by prayer and fasting.’” Fasting will drive your flesh down below the level of the operation of your spirit and enforces that position of grace that Jesus gives you which is His standing. When that standing He has given you is free then those devils will come out because it’s not you see it’s Him. So He fasted Sid for the same reason that you and I fast and that was to positionally or to prepare His flesh for that temptation and to defeat Satan.
Sid: Dave for the past number of years there have been men and women moving in a very strong anointing we’ve been calling it revival and then people’s lives have been touched and they literally got excited and passionate for the Lord. But then over a period of time they slipped back to right where they were before. Is this really revival that’s it’s been labeled as revival in a number of churches in America?
Dave: What I’ve seen Sid is what some classify as revival you know I wouldn’t classify it as revival and a lot of times when the pastor is not hungry you know and people will get hungry and he said “One being taught is not above the disciple the one teaching him or the teacher.” And a lot of people are just held there just held passively in one place to just abide their time till the years go by and they remain exactly the same they just kind of babysit them in their salvation until Jesus comes. I’ve seen moves of the Spirit and things they classify as revival, but then and but then I’ve seen and read about revival that has come in times past and I haven’t seen too many of them but I have seen some. One was in the Amazon State in Brazil by a man Sid that got our fasting series and right now he’s causing a raging revival in the village along the Amazon. But this man we trained for 5 years and for the last 6 months up to this time in fact this last year for 6 months he did the series fasting a few days on and off. And ended it with a 36 day fast and was caught up into heaven Sid and they talked to the creatures that worshipped God around the throne and came back. And he told me 1000’s are pouring out now down in the Amazon and they’re coming to this village wherever he is they’re laying them down and they’re getting them healed. I mean the things that are happening are absolutely incredible.
Sid: Are you impressed with a seeker sensitive church that’s got 5000 people and just seems to grow and grow and grow, but really isn’t close to a demonstration to the power of God are you impressed with that?
Dave: No not at all Sid. The other day Sid a good friend of mine said “What do you measure the success of your ministry on Brother Roberson?” And I said “That’s easy on the permanent change that it brings in people’s life as they grow in Christ.” No it doesn’t impress me at all because I know that numbers has nothing to do with that.
Sid: Going back to fasting tell me some changes you’ve seen in other people that have moved into fasting.
Dave: The biggest changes that I see Sid is like it happened in me that whatever’s in these ceilings that causes them to be weak the Holy Spirit and the fasting begins to destroy them. And I’ve noticed that it will bring those problems in view where you yourself can see them and understand the weakness and understand the complacency and the difference. Myself I begin to hate those things so bad as He revealed them that God said “Good to me” He said “Good that you hate them because when you loved them indifferently in the world what did I have to work with? But now that you’ve fasted and you hate them as much as I do you’ve given Me something to work with and I can move them out of your life and I can destroy them.” And they range from habitual things to strongholds from people’s past such as being hurt very bad and generational things as they would call and generational things as they would call them, curses and things like that. But the change is phenomenal Sid because as it breaks the power of the flesh.
Our Guest Dave Roberson
Sid: I have on the telephone Dave Roberson I’m speaking to him at his office in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he’s Senior Pastor of the Family Prayer Center. And Dave is a man of the Spirit but he had certain limits that he seemed he just couldn’t breakthrough areas in his life that he calls it ceilings, in difference to people that were needy. There was something more and his spirit knew it but there was something limiting him something putting a ceiling on him. And God started teaching him about the true purpose of fasting and his life was revolutionized. Dave tells me something some of the personal things that happened in your own life through fasting the way that God instructed you to.
Dave: Sid after ministering for several years that something would not even know hot explain what it was except that a strongman or ministry came under attack in my mind and since then I’ve run into so many ministers that were under the same attack and have even had been destroyed by it not counting the believers just people that love God. That to this day I thank God for the road that fasting played in bringing me out of that. Because when it seemed that the strongman came almost like an assignment to destroy me even though I was doing camp meetings and people were set free and I’d ministered to them and I’d heard the same thing from so many preachers like there was a ceiling over my ministry I just couldn’t break through. And I’d would go in the service to minister to the people and then I’d go to my hotel room or go home and this torment would begin horrible I mean. And it felt like a 1000 fish hooks was in my flesh and I couldn’t break through it. And so when I learned about fasting I’d begin to fast and to pray and break that off of me. And when I was fasting and praying I didn’t know the role that fasting and praying played at that time, well prayer fasting linked together with prayer. All I knew I just couldn’t go on anymore and I just got so tormented in my emotions I just couldn’t hardly open my Bible I couldn’t pray it didn’t seem like I could do anything. I could remember in desperation I just remembered what people said about fasting, “I’m just going to fast and pray until I break this.” I just…one day I quit eating and even though I was in a fast I still couldn’t pray or anything. But after so many days I woke up and I just felt like I could pray again I could open my Bible again. Well I’d finished that fast but then before the year was over I went on another one and things was waking up and I was getting so hungry for God that on this one I fasted, well I fasted so long that my wife got worried about me that I wasn’t because I had such a supernatural peace on the inside. And near the end of the fast the devil literally manifested himself to me in such a way that he was exposed. I knew what was fighting my ministry I couldn’t see him but I could hear him. And he said to me he said “I’m going to kill you.” And I said “Oh you can’t if you could kill me you’d already done it.” And he said “I’m going to destroy you and your family” but I said “You can’t if you could have done it.” And he threatened me and said “I’m going to empty your church out.” And he almost succeeded in that and I never will forget what followed that fast such an increase in revelation and Satan’s war machine and how he fights and overturns ministries tempts them and draws them off and I’ve learned so much.
Sid: You can understand how well there’s no need to mention by name a number of prominent ministries just hard to believe that slipped, those are the reason?
Dave: Yes when a person fasts you destroy the hold that the flesh has over you and many of them just don’t understand that. A lot of the people they did at that time the devil made it that far to attempt to run people out of the church that I never will forget the result when the day come that I was able to break it. Sid I’ll never forget it I remember when I come out of the prayer closet and had my first prayer life I’ll never forget it that I just lifted my hands to pray for people and it was a line that people got in that were bound by devils habitual things and had a lot of trouble things like smoking and had addictions to drugs and also prescription drugs and a lot of tormented people from their past that had strongholds of abuse, inner healing things the whole front was full of people. And so I got up to lay my hands on some of the first ones and the glory of God came so strong that it literally through them through the air and they landed on their back. And I heard this wimpy little voice and crying out of this one that just couldn’t get free and I mean in the past this wimpy little voice crying and whimpering saying “Do I have to come out?”
Sid: Hmm.
Dave: It was the devil talking “Do I have to come out? Do I have to come out?” And I could remember I was so shocked about it that I just simply answered you know I was amazed usually I would muster up my voice of authority you know.
Sid: Right.
Dave: But I could say and announce it it’s not how large you are, it’s not how quiet you are it’s that if he can come and do what you’re asking Him to do. He said “This kind cometh not but by prayer and fasting.” Anyway I was so shocked at that devil whimpering instead of screaming challenging me like so many had done “I’ll not come out!” many of them would say but this one said “Do I have to come out?” And just the voice like I’m talking to you I said “Yes you do, you have to come out.” And he came out and this was happening to many people. And Sid this I found out that fasting it is absolute death sentence to indifference and complacency and this is what Jesus was talking about prophecy in Isaiah 58 in the 7th verse it says “This is the fast he’s chosen this is the fast He has chosen He said to give thy bread to the hungry, that you bring the poor that are cast out of your house, that when you see the naked that you cover him.” And then he said “That you hide not yourself from your own flesh.” And this verse I didn’t know what that means. I said “Father God what do you mean that you hide not yourself from your flesh?” Well I can tell you now, Sid the day that a man decides to fast, the day is the day that you’ve decided not to hide from your own flesh anymore. You’ve decided to quit hiding from whatever it is on the inside of you it just doesn’t care about the naked, that just doesn’t care about the poor, about the hungry about those that are cast out of God’s house whatever it is that’s in you just does not care. The day that you decide to fast is the day that you’ve decided to quit hiding from your own flesh whatever it is that is in you that just doesn’t care. Nobody has to show you movies anymore, the starving children, the horrendous needs of people in the world to be saved; surely you’re need you’re not hiding anymore. Fasting is a death sentence to indifference and complacency.
Sid: Dave when you talk about fasting there’s a lot of questions that are triggered, “Is Dave intimated that I should fast for 40 days, what does he mean by fasting what is he telling me to do?” How would you answer that?
Dave: When a man fast there are several levels of fasting and the highest is nothing but water and lock yourself away. But the serious of fasting the personal fast a few days on and a few days off and possibly just drink a little bit of liquids in a partial fast. But there are times when people fast 40 days and they were discouraged because nothing appeared to happen. But you have to remember your fast is not moving God it’s moving you into a place by destroying the flesh to receive from God so don’t get discouraged.
Sid: Would a one day fast benefit moving into these areas?
Dave: Yes it would because in serious fasting or one day, 10, or even 40 the thing is don’t stop just keep going back to fasting don’t get discouraged don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Say 40 day and you don’t see what you wanted to see because you actually line upon line you moving your flesh out of the way and moving yourself into a place of the Spirit. It may take a little longer but eventually you will cross that line and you will see God begin to move for you like He’s never moved before.
Sid: Dave I believe that we’re talking to specific believers right now that God orchestrated for them to listen to this discussion that God has heard their prayers and is saying “This is your answer.”
Our Guest Dave Roberson
Sid: I have on the telephone Dave Roberson he’s Senior Pastor of the Family Prayer Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And we’re talking about a revelation that Dave received from God that allows believers to get from the level they’re at in the Spirit where they’ve been for years and years and years and breakthrough to where God really wants them. Others have been praying for years and years and years and it’s almost as though “Well I believe God’s going to answer this prayer someday” but year after year after year you’re praying and you’re not seeing results. Others don’t have the intimacy with God Dave for many years you’ve been a man of the Spirit. You spent many many days praying 5, 6, 7, 8 hours in tongues, you really have been moving in the Spirit. But when you got the revelation on fasting that it wasn’t something that moves God. What does fasting really do, you told us on yesterday’s broadcast, but review that what does fasting really do for you?
Dave: Well in Romans 8:10 because I wondered when that devil wouldn’t come out that Jesus had ended up casting out for the disciples the apostles and they turned around and asked Him “Why wouldn’t that devil come out?” He was very plain He said “He would not come out because of your unbelief.” And then he went on to say something tremendous “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you could say to that mountain be removed and be cast beyond us and it would obey you.” And then He said “Absolutely nothing, nothing should be impossible to you.” So the disciples had been casting devils out up until that time and suddenly a devil just would not come out. And when they asked Jesus the reason He said “It’s because of your unbelief.” So when I saw this I thought to myself “Well if the primary reason that devil wouldn’t come out is because of their unbelief then I wondered what in the world does fasting have to do with unbelief? Now what does going without eating what does that have to do with my unbelief period? But yet it does because Jesus said that “If you ever dealt with this particular unbelief.” You know the kind that the apostles had or the disciples had that day when they couldn’t cast that devil out. Because if they knew why they couldn’t cast that devil out they wouldn’t have asked Jesus but they couldn’t get it to come out so they asked Him why? He said “Because of your unbelief.” So we’re talking about a very seductive, deceptive kind of unbelief that had put a ceiling on a person’s life. A kind of unbelief that we don’t even know that we have for one year is like the next until decades turn into generations and pretty soon our whole life can go by.
Sid: Do you believe that people have a very specific destiny from God and many people never even know what it is let alone accomplish it?
Dave: I do because of these kind of ceilings that’s over their life and the unbelief that’s involved we bounce off of that ceiling prisoned in that world of unbelief many times. Put into that world by doctrines that people preach and teach that’s not exactly true. It puts us in a holding tank and we spin our wheels all of our lives and we don’t know why we can’t break through into our ministries and our calls. Just like this particular kind of unbelief they didn’t know why they had it but He told them that they devil wouldn’t come out because of your unbelief. Meaning, Sid if you and I ever learned how to deal with that kind of unbelief that He was talking about that subtle kind that we spend years in sometimes just not knowing how to breakout. But if we ever learn to deal with it we’ve got a person promise from Jesus that absolutely nothing and I mean nothing would be impossible to you. But then He said “How be it…” an analytical word, “…how be it this kind He said to come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. And that certainly wasn’t the prayer that hovered over the demon possessed boy because that one didn’t work. He was talking about a lifestyle of prayer. But He said “By prayer and fasting.” And so my question to God I said “Oh Father what does fasting have to do with my unbelief especially that very subtle kind that a person doesn’t even know that they have and just explain a little bit on that?” Let’s say that the whole room was full of wheelchairs and children in them and Jesus walked in and emptied all of the wheelchairs in His glorify body and I’ve said I’d already prayed for him and I couldn’t…why didn’t you do that when I prayed? He’d turn to me and say the same thing. He’d say “Son it was because of your unbelief.” But then I know Jesus and he does not speak a problem he doesn’t outline a problem without going on and giving the answer to the problem before He’s finished. And I knew that if He walked into the room he would tell me exactly the same thing He told His apostle that day. He said that “It’s because of your unbelief how be it this kind will come out but prayer and fasting?” Now He just wasn’t talking about deliverance He said “You see that mountain and you could speak to it and that mountain would move.” He was talking about power and ministry when you can destroy those kind of ceilings that keep you in the same place your whole life time see. So my question “What does it have to do with unbelief?” And that’s when I found out Romans 8 and 10 “If Christ is in me,” and He is, my spirit is already seated in heavenly places with Him. He didn’t say “It’s alive.” People in hell are alive my spirit has entered into the Zoe that kind of new nature life with Him. But my body has been declared dead as far as its ability to reign over my spirit positionally the carnal appetites of the flesh has had its position provided for it which is dead. And fasting enforces that position. When I began to fast then it began to drive my flesh down below an operation of my spirit. And I used to think fasting moved God but the moment my flesh dropped below the operation of my spirit things that I’d been believing for, power I had longed to operate in, habits that were not pleasing to God they begin to die. And prayers that I had on hold for years began to come to past.
Sid: Can you get a little specific in your life Dave?
Dave: Yes.
Sid: Tell me specific things that happened to Dave Roberson.
Dave: Marilyn Hickey’s and Wally Hickey’s and I had gravitated towards the flesh and felt like I was out of control. I kept getting no peace and I asked Marilyn “Can you help me?” She said “Yes I can get you an appointment Dr. Cho.” I said “Oh thank you” but on the way home in my airplane God told me he said “Do you remember I told you to go as far into Me as you could?” I got home Sid and canceled my meetings and I managed to go on a longer fast and 2½ fasts later I entered into…I mean I broke levels the flesh off of me and a peace came back the torment left, a peace came back so strong I finally ended up doing a teaching on “Peace the aggressive weapon of God” because it broke the power of the flesh. When I first entered into it Sid I couldn’t even read my Bible hardly I couldn’t do anything it’s so crazy and I couldn’t have any peace to pray and even open my Bible felt like a thousand fish hooks was pulling my flesh back…
Sid: What was stopping you from opening your Bible?
Dave: Emotions that were unexplainable, I mean they were so strong I couldn’t force myself to do it like a supernatural presence had gotten ahold of me and was tormenting me. And for the first days of the fast Sid I just laid there on the bed and went “Uhhhh” and I couldn’t do anything hardly but I refused to eat. And it wasn’t too long into the flesh and one day I woke up I felt like praying again, you know I felt like opening my Bible again. Something had broken and I didn’t know at that time that I had driven my flesh down below the operation of the life that was in my spirit and I started getting free. It was a tremendous thing (Laughing) when I think back over it now you know I just want to cry.
Sid: You know I’ve heard your series on peace.
Dave: Yes.
Sid: Explain just briefly what is this peace you have experienced every believer experiences peace from time to time as they walk with the Lord.
Dave: Yes Sid when the further I walked out of the flesh and into His love He said “That where I am you may be also as I am so are you in this world. Seated at the right hand of the Father in His glorified humanity as man and as God.” He talked about it “So are you in this world.” That peace He has there I can have here. And the further I got into God’s love the stronger this peace got. But there isn’t that there isn’t tornadoes that come right up to me that die right at the tip of my toes. It’s not that there not alive and around me but they do not enter in, not meat, eat and drink but righteousness, peace and joy they do not get in. And when I conquered that would of peace on the inside that’s when I began to conquer the world around me. I used to have to have God changed the world around me to have peace but now if He can change that world on the inside of you that’s the key to changing the world around you. And boy that peace is one of the strongest things I ever ever had the pleasure of walking with, with my Savior.