Sid Roth

Sid: My guest is Karen Wheaton and before we went on the air I was talking to Karen I’ve never met her in person, but I’ve seen her on TBN and other television shows frequently so I feel like I know her a little bit.  But I wanted to find out more and I found out that she was a featured singer on Jim Bakker’s PTL Praise the Lord Show.  And at 17 she actually went to Bible School there, then she ministered with Thurlow Spurr; she was with Jimmy Swaggart, she’s been a regular for years on TBN.  She was married and had a wonderful marriage, then the things it’s impossible it happens to someone that has a praying mother and the generations of praying mothers.  Her husband betrayed her and had an affair with her best friend.  Karen how does someone handle the problems that went on with Jim Bakker and PTL, the problems that went on with Jimmy Swaggart; these are people that I’m sure you got to know; then the problems in your personal life.  A lot of people would just throw in the towel; how did you handle that?

Karen:  Oh the blood of Jesus that washes away all sins for all of us. You know Sid His precious word is everything that we need to stand on and build our lives on. I’m thankful that as a young girl I was raised in a Christian home, and I was raised among a group of people in our church that were real in God.  I saw as a young girl there was a real God, and that His presence would come when we would pray and seek Him.  And so as a child I fell in love with Jesus.  I fell in love with His presence and His Word and I saw His Word work as a young girl. That gave me the foundation I needed when the winds and the storms of life would hit in later years.  It was the one thing that I could always go  back to to stand on that even though sometimes we’re disappointed in people we can all say “Lord You give us the strength, You were the One and the only One that never changes.”

Sid: Now, I’m hearing what you’re saying but what you went through was so devastating many people even knowing what you just said with your mouth would have thrown in the towel; why didn’t you?

Karen:  I was walking on the Word that God was giving me and the first Word that God gave me in going through that trial in a personal level was that I was to just forgive.  And in that trial when the fiery trial and the pain of betrayal and the pain of just the marital stress I was depending on His Word and He taught me that journey of forgiveness.  And I found that it was a decision that we make and that when we make a decision to obey the Word of God He will give us the grace that we need to do what He’s telling us to do.

Sid: But there was also one moment in which you were at a ministry and TD Jakes was there and he walked by you and just a couple words from God that God used him to deliver really at the right time, the right place tell me about that.

Karen:  Well, I was singing at a conference one time at Rod Parsley’s and TD Jakes happened to be there to preach.  He walked over to me in the middle of that fire and no one in the building really knew what I was going through that night and he walks over to me and with a word from the Lord he just says to me “Enough is enough.”  And it was as though the Holy Spirit was just telling me there comes a time when the Lord Himself can say to you “It’s over, it’s enough.”  When God says that it comes with a release in your spirit.  And you know I remember, I remember going through the pain of the infidelity, and I remember you go through such wide emotions and I was experiencing at times just the anger and the hatred and you want a place to put that anger and I learned that people are not our enemies.  Sometimes I want to put our anger on a person that has hurt us or betrayed us or people but people are not our enemy. We have a real enemy he comes to steal, kill and destroy.  He is the devil, there is a real God and there’s a real devil.  One time in the deepest part of my pain I remember being on the floor in my bedroom and I said to God “God, give me vengeance on the enemy; give me vengeance on the devil that did this to me and here’s the way I want it.”  I said “God give me a song of healing and deliverance and let me sing that song about people that I’ve ever dreamed possible; and for my vengeance on the enemy God I pray You will send me people that are hurting, send me woman that are hurting like I am hurting and men that have known the pain that I’ve known.  And let me take the healing You’re pouring into me and let me pour it into them and doing so let me make Satan regret the day he ever touched my heart.”  That’s the way we can get vengeance on the enemy is by letting God heal us so completely the place of our pain that becomes the source of healing for many.

Sid: I have to believe that although God didn’t do this to you because you went through this you have compassion like you would have never had before for others.

Karen:  It’s true Sid, and having been raised in a wonderful Christian home I had never known the depth of pain like that. I can tell you that when I’m praying for a woman who walks up to me and says “My marriage is falling apart, I’ve just found out my husband has been unfaithful, it is an unspeakable pain that only Jesus can heal, but having been through it on the other side I can tell you Sid He can heal that pain and I’m telling you heal it completely.”

Sid: Tell me about the song “I Know a Love.”

Karen:  “I Know a Love” was written by a lady that was actually going through the pain of betrayal of an unfaithful spouse.  It is the message of hope, it says in one place of this song “When the storms come and when these things arise I know one thing, I know that Your Spirit lives within me and I know that there is nothing that my God cannot do; I know a love to build my life on its unshakeable, it’s unmovable, it’s unchangeable and it’s the love of my Father.”

Sid: “I Know a Love” with Karen Wheaton. So many lives are radically changed when they listen to Karen Wheaton’s music.