Sid Roth

Sid:  I know you want to have a deeper intimacy with the Lord.  Why? Because your spiritual DNA was created for this. And that’s why I have Carlos Sarmiento on the telephone. And Carlos is a Pastor, he’s… as a matter of fact you didn’t tell me a whole lot about at your congregation you have a facility.  Is it open 24 hours a day for prayer?

Carlos:  Well, we’ve been open right now we started 6 years ago and so we are currently doing 152 hours a week; there’s 168 in any given week. So we’re at 152 but we are as a matter of fact this is the most busiest month we’ve experienced because we’re getting ready right now to launch into 24-7 prayer next month and we’re really really excited.  We’re in a lot of planning strategizing getting ready to launch 24-7 and our belief is that we’ll be 24-7 with continual worship and continual prayer until Jesus comes back.

Sid: Tell me about some of these amazing supernatural manifestations that are occurring in your prayer-room.  For instance tell me about the time that you heard loud music coming out as you were heading there.

Carlos:  Well, that was actually the people that… our worship leaders that open up the 6 AM day who start off the day. They of course because we’re not open 24 hours a day as of yet, so we normally close at midnight.  So one morning; I believe that it was a Monday morning where these worship leaders, husband and wife team who open up at 6:00 AM on a Monday. They came and the parking lot is empty there’s nobody is there and they’re the first ones there but they hear this loud music coming from inside the prayer-room the sanctuary.  They were puzzled by it, they were startled by it and they didn’t know what to think, they weren’t sure if they should go inside or not but it was just… They said that it was just the most beautiful singing that they had ever heard. And they were wondering “Who was in there?”  What worship team is actually doing the set right now and we’re supposed to be closed.  And they were really bewildered because there was no lights on in the building. So they open the building anyway and turn the alarm off and the moment they open the door and turn the alarm off the singing stopped, the music stopped.

Sid: Who was in the prayer-room?

Carlos:  It was angels; because there was no computer, there was no CD, there was no DVD, the alarm was on there was nobody in there. And so we began to you know as we began to… we like to word it this way as we began to build a portal for the Lord.  We were actually giving permission like Jesus said “You know from this day… from now on you will see angels descend and ascend upon the Son of man.”  So where ever Jesus is exalted you create a portal for the angelic activity and for heaven and earth to meet.  So began to all of a sudden have these angelic encounters.  So the beautiful thing is that it was staff members that were saying “We’ve never seen anything like this what’s going on?  We began to have also smells, we could smell different kind of aromas. We could smell the presents of the Lord that would begin to just fill the atmosphere.” So these encounters became almost like a sign to us that the presence of the Lord is not only there but that He is taking great pleasure in this place of continual night and day prayer.  And night and day worship that’s taking place here.

Sid: What reports have you heard about angelic activity in your prayer-room? Have people seen them, what are the angels doing?

Carlos: Well for example one of the most recent reports was not too long ago. Actually my wife is part of one of the worship teams. And the way the prayer-room operates we have a full band, with intercessors who are part of the team. And so we normally have like a 2 hour cycle of prayer and worship and 30 minutes of intercession. We go back into worship about 20 minutes and then another 20 minutes of intercession, and then we transition into the next cycle.  Well in one of the cycle that we were transitioning from worship about to go into intercession all of a sudden she saw a flash and her eyes were open and as the intercessor began to pray and agree with the music because we actually flow together with what we call it harp and bowl, the worship and the intercession works together.  It’s really a unique concept but anyway as that was taking place as the singers began to agree with the intercessor she saw an angel that was standing right in the middle of the platform and the angel was like violently moving its arm like it had a sword in its hand. And it was an exact coordination with the intercessor. So the intercessor was actually moving his arms like striking the ground, striking the atmosphere as she was praying.  And my wife said that it was very interesting that as the intercessor was moving it was being done by the angelic being that was there on the platform.  And she’s not the only one that’s seen this; we’ve had other worship leaders seeing angels in the room that they’re actually sitting among the crowd sitting with the congregation in the prayer-room with their hands raised worshiping Jesus, exulting Jesus. Because that really is the true nature of the Spirit of Prophecy, the Spirit of Prophecy is the worship and the exultation of Jesus. So we’ve seen over and over and over again people smelling fragrances of the supernatural; angels worshiping, angels interceding, angels agreeing with the prayers that are being offered up here in the House of Prayer.

Sid: Now, you believe that it is actually a partnership between man and God that is released through prayer that can actually change a family, change a school, change a city, even change the United States. What changes have you seen in Orlando where you’re located?

Carlos:  Well as a matter of fact I was just looking at an article just the other day about the crime rate. And we’re just beginning to see the crime rate in Central Florida to begin to drop on a regular basis. Even in the area that we live; we live on the west side of the city of Orlando. We’re beginning to see things be exposed. For example we’ve had reports even as of recently where human trafficking rings all of a sudden are supernaturally exposed.  And we had over 81 woman and children rescued and it’s not a coincidence that we had just spend like 3 days of prayer and fasting. We felt and urgency of the Lord to focus on the issue of human trafficking. And so we as a staff as a team we briefed about it. And we said “Okay, we’re going to pray and fast for the next couple of days.” And at the same time we had a very good friend who runs a ministry here in the Orlando area who was going to bring awareness to human trafficking. And so between the 2 of us as he was out there ministering in the streets we were interceding and praying and covering him in prayer. And then all of a sudden we get reports from the east coast where a hidden ring of human traffickers was suddenly exposed and it was one of the largest on the east Coast of Florida. And that over 81 victims were rescued; we’ve seen that before.  We have seen the police department speak to us and say “Hey, your prayers are working, will you please partner with us and so…

Sid: The Police Department has actually said that to you?

Carlos:  Yes as a matter of fact about 2 months ago I had a meeting with the Chief of Police to partner and to discuss how we can… because they said to us “We know that there is human trafficking happening in these areas and we need to be able to see it exposed; so you’re partnership and prayer will go a long way.” So we have agreed to with the local Police Department here in our city to cover them in prayer. And so every so often we will have communication with them so that we can see how we can continue to pray for the police.  Because I truly believe that the Holy Spirit has given the authority to govern the earth to the church. In the absence of Jesus the…

Sid: You know when I watch the news and I see the stuff going on between political parties and it’s congress and the senate and they’re just bog down.  And I’ll tell you what if there wasn’t hope in the invisible realm there flat would be no hope for America.

Carlos:  Absolutely, there would be no hope.  And that’s what the hope has to be the church. And that’s why I go back to it as we were talking in the previous program; we’ve got to back to returning to our first love.

Sid: Okay, we were talking about the Holy Spirit taught you that there are 3 major key heart issues.  The first was going back to your first love and developing intimacy. And I asked you about how you prayed.  But because of time, what is the second key heart issue?

Carlos:   The second key heart issue the Lord began to reveal to me was that we must, if we’re going to be love sick believers and enjoy the presence of the Lord we cannot do so apart of the character of Christ. And so one of the things that we focus here at our ministry and we seek to really in-steal in the hearts of believers is the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle, not only returning to our first love but living like Christ, Matthew 5, 6 and 7.  We call around here and especially in the houses of prayer we call Matthew 5, 6 and 7 as a constitution of the Kingdom of God. Just like the US governments go the constitution and the independence and things of that nature. We believe that the way the church can be the freest she can be and walk in the fullness of her destiny and calling is that if we live Matthew 5, 6 and 7.  We walk in the humility of Christ, I believe that the Spirit of God that there will be no limits to how much He can trust us. One of the reasons why the church is very untrustworthy with power is because we corrupt ourselves with power. The greater the anointing, the greater the temptation upon individuals, upon ministries to take the glory for themselves, I word it by saying that we prostitute the anointing. It’s kind of like James and John.  You know Jesus “Do you want us to call down fire because they would not allow us to walk through Samaria?” And Jesus says “You don’t know what manner of spirit you speak from.”  But we know from scripture that Elijah called fire down from heaven to consume people.  Why could Elijah do it, why could not James and John?  The difference is character, the difference is the disposition of the heart; the value of the character of Christ.  When we don’t have that character established and Jesus becomes everything in our lives we corrupt ourselves of power, we corrupt ourselves of the anointing.

Sid: What was the third key heart issue?

Carlos:  The third key heart issue I believe is to be in a place of expectancy. I believe that the church at this moment is not living in a place of urgency.  We are living pretty much… we’re surviving pretty much the success of ministry. So the Holy Spirit began to reveal to us that son, over and over again in the gospel I said “Watch therefore, be alert, you know when you see this happen wake up.” And then Paul’s writing as well.

Sid: Well, I’ll tell you what, we’re out of time but there is an urgency for you to be equipped in the teaching that was downloaded to Carlos in heaven.  It literally he is a forerunner and you are not listening to me by accident.  I want your intimacy with God to so accelerate.