Sid Roth

SID: Now I was talking to James Durham about his visit to Heaven. And something intrigued me, because I’ve had prophetic words myself that there was an ancient door that was getting ready to open in my life. When you went to Heaven, describe that ancient door. I want to understand this.

JAMES: Well Sid, when I was lifted, this was sometime later. I had been to Heaven a few times. But I was lifted up and I saw this ancient arched wooden door, and it was an amazing door. It looked like it was very, very old, but the wood still looked very strong. What amazed me was that it had hinges on both sides and there was no doorknob. So by human means, there was no way that I could open that door, but I felt like I was supposed to go through the door. And my only opportunity was to ask the Holy Spirit help me somehow to understand how to get through this door. And suddenly, the door swung open.

SID: What was the first thing you saw when it swung open?

JAMES: Actually, I was looking into what appeared to be a room. But it was dark in the room, because where I was standing was a much brighter light, and I couldn’t see very clearly inside the room. But I was led by the Spirit to go inside the room. And as I walked through the door, I heard audibly three times, the Holy Spirit announced, “An oak of righteousness, an oak of righteousness, an oak of righteousness.”

SID: What does this mean?

JAMES: And I immediately thought of the words from Isaiah and that this was the secret place of the Most High God.

SID: Now when he was in the secret place of the Most High God, God commissioned him to do three things. What were these three things?

JAMES: Well the Lord told me that He wanted me to, number one, write a book, and I did not want to write a book.

SID: Why?

JAMES: I always said, I will never write a book. So I had to eat my words for many, many years.

SID: I’m sure.

JAMES: To write the book. Second thing He said was move. And I loved the house where we were living. It was exactly kind of like my dream house and a dream office. But I immediately began to get the house in order to move. The third thing He told me to do was to go back and invite people to come to the secret place and to give an impartation for heavenly visitation.

SID: Now would there be a lot of preparation involved before you invite people? When did you first do this with others?

JAMES: Well I was hoping there was going to be a lot instruction and a lot of time before I actually had to do this because I felt like people would think I was crazy to come back saying things like this. And so I asked the Lord, “How long do I have?” He said, “Until this Sunday,” which was like two days away.

SID: Well did you do it?

JAMES: I did it. I did it.

SID: And what happened?

JAMES: Well some people received that. Some people actually visited Heaven. But other people, I got some strong rejection from some of the people and I really understood that I was going to receive that rejection. It made it clear to me right away that when you obey God and you say things like this that are so far out of line with the way people normally think, you will experience some rejection.

SID: You know, then multitudes have been, when he teaches, have had experiences of going to Heaven. But why is it? I’m hearing, I think there’s a new believer. But I’m hearing so many people now, believers are having visits to Heaven. Why is that happening now?

JAMES: Well Sid, I believe the reason it’s happening now is that time is very short. In the First Letter of John, he says, “This is the last hour.” And I believe that God is getting the bride ready and He’s calling people to Heaven to give them instructions, the preparations, the correction, whatever discipline they may need to be ready. And I believe that we’re at the time of the great End Time harvest, and God is calling the harvesters to Heaven to train them and to empower them, and to gift them to go back into the harvest and win lost souls for the Kingdom. Some people were going to Heaven and some were not. So on one of the visits I asked the Lord, “Lord, why is that? I just don’t understand it.” And the Lord said, “The number one reason is grace.” That when we go Heaven and He tells us to do something, if we don’t do it, judgment will come, and He does not want to give judgment right now. He wants to give more grace and more mercy. And so he’s waiting until people are ready to obey, and that’s God’s grace.

SID: Now why did He choose you to talk about the ladder of going up to Heaven and coming back like the angels did? Why you?

JAMES: I think because there’s absolutely nothing special about me. I think at that time I had been away for 30 years in the military. I was basically unknown in the church, in the Body of Christ, and the Lord wanted someone who was unknown. So that when I would share with people I had been to Heaven, I figured they would look at me and say, well if he can do it, I can do it.

SID: I like to say that. Anything James can do, you can do better.

JAMES: Amen.

SID: We’ll be right back and maybe you’ll pray for us.

Sid: My guest by way of telephone I’m speaking to her at her home in Jerusalem, Israel is my friend Batya Segal. Batya had a job as a typesetter and guest what her first job was? The New Testament. She came from a very religious Yemenite background in Israel and she really had a tough time but she did typeset it; she read it and she fell in love with Yeshua. And then she had a visitation from an angel and then she went home to tell her husband the good news but it was bad news for him. He got so upset he said “I’m taking our daughter away from you” and so he proceeded with the religious courts to get rid of his wife Batya and to keep his daughter; but a great miracle happened and she was able to keep her daughter with her. I mean it’s an amazing miracle Batya even all of these years later as I think about it. Tell me what’s going on with your daughter today.

Batya: The amazing thing is even though I won the court case my husband then forced me to divorce him and I was able to raise up my daughter in faith and she grew up loving God. And she’s now assisting me in our humanitarian aid center and she’s wonder; she’s married and she’s wonderful and she has even a great relationship even with her father. I’ve been remarried and I have two other children and God has blessed me with a wonderful husband and family. And we’re praising the Lord together doing the work of the Lord in land blessing the poor and the needy. Bringing forth the good news of the Messiah from Jerusalem.

Sid: You’ve come a long way from that Yemenite background but I would like you to put Barry on the telephone. This is also a good friend of mine Barry Segal.

Barry: Shalom Sid from Jerusalem!

Sid: It sounds so good to hear that; the next best thing is for me to be there. (Laughing) Anyway Barry what I’d like to find out is you come also from a Jewish background maybe not quite as religious as Batya but tell me a bit about your background and how you became a Messianic Jew.

Barry: Well yes I always like to say that Batya was everything a good Jewish girl should be growing up, whereas I was everything maybe a good Jewish boy shouldn’t be growing up but not so bad. I was pretty much raised in a traditional Jewish home in suburban life in the United States; I’m actually from Motown the city of Detroit the city of a lot of music. And growing up kind of in that environment and growing up in the turbulent 60’s with the assassination of Kennedy and the Beatles coming out, then of course the Vietnam war and the anti-protest stream of things. I was pretty much growing up in this turbulent time of the 60’s and early 70’s. When I was bar mitzvah’d Sid according to our Jewish tradition where a boy becomes a man I decided the best thing I could do was go out into the world and prove I was a man was buy my first electric guitar and big amplifier. So by the age of 14 actually I was already playing in a Rock and Roll Rhythm and Blues band and my hair had grown down to my shoulders. I just really had a love and a passion for music and that was probably my primary goal in life.

Sid: And if someone had said “Barry one day you will be living in Jerusalem and you will be singing only for God” what would you have said to them?”

Barry: I think in those days it would have blown my mind; (Laughing).

Sid: Yeah, were you Zionistic at all, did you have any desire to go to Israel?

Barry: Well something happened the same month of my bar mitzvah in June 1967 I had this overwhelming realization as I was turning 13 the bar mitzvah, the 6 Day War that somehow I was born and breed to live in another country; whether it was Israel or somewhere I didn’t know. But there was something like a seed that was there that I knew that one day I would live outside of the borders of America. And Zionistic I think not so much because of my religious training but just something a deep inner conviction and an understanding historically of Israel’s fight for survival and that’s the home place for Jewish people. And so any how out of this situation and this kind of seeds being planted in my life I was about the age of 15 I went to hear a Rhythm and Blues band from San Francisco saw a tremendous guitar player with long black hair; a long flowing beard and a beautiful guitar over his shoulders and he looked like Jesus with an electric guitar.

Sid: Hm.

Barry: And to make a long story short basically this guy I walked up to him that night and he gave me a booklet of scripture and told me that Jesus is the only way and it was the most foreign thing Sid that I’ve ever heard in my life. I didn’t have the faintest idea what he was talking about; that Jesus was the only way and the answer in life. However, a seed was planted and about 2 years later after many other circumstances in my life and being very active in political protests and marches and things like that one night I was leaving a Jewish deli about 11 at night, I was in my right mind; I was walking home to go back to practice the guitar all of a sudden on the back side of the deli all traffic in the area completely stopped, no cars entered the area. There was an eeriness hovering around me and above me and as I was carrying this corn beef sandwich with Swiss cheese and Russian dressing, not very Kosher but tasty, it fell out onto the ground with this quart of milk I was carrying and when I saw the food spill on the ground then something hit me of a realization that I was just at the end of my understanding of what the purpose for my life was. And I fell to my knees with tears in my eyes, and as I fell to my knees tears continued to rush as if somebody else was crying out through me. And in the midst of those tears next to a tree an audible voice spoke to me and said “Barry you should have more faith than this.” All I could tell you and people have asked me for 33 years; they’ve asked me the same thing from that night in late June 1971 “How did you know that it was God and how did you know that Jesus, or who we call in Hebrew Yeshua, salvation, is the way and the truth and the life?” And the only answer I can give is “Once I was blind but now I see.”

Sid: Now tell me Barry about this CD that we’re making available “Go Through the Gates” very briefly. There’s something special about music from Israel, is there such a thing as an Israeli anointing?

Barry: I believe there’s such a thing as a Levitical anointing from heaven above upon Israeli’s.

Sid: Let’s listen to this selection from “Go Through the Gates.”

SID: Larry Randolph has got contacts in high places in our federal government, and they’ve learned that when he says things it happens. Give me one example before it happened.

LARRY: A number of years ago when we had the spill on the Gulf, the spill, the explosion, two months before it happened, the Lord showed me clearly that that was going to happen, and that there was going to be an explosion in the Gulf that was not terrorist related, but it was going to be environmentally related. It’s going to affect the ecosystems and all the coastlines, the whole Gulf of Mexico. I began to tell church intercessors. In addition to that, I already had contact with D.C. So I called them and told them, and of course, they were very curious about, you know, is this terrorist related? And I said, no, it’s environmentally related. And so they said, we will keep it in a file here. But anyway, so it did happen. I’m glad it was environmentally related because I like my telephone.

SID: What did God show you about cancer?

LARRY: He showed me that there would be a cure for cancer in my lifetime that would be as easy as taking a pill for a headache.

SID: That’s so wonderful.

LARRY: The doctors would have a breakthrough with it and everybody would, He said to me, everybody would get credit, the doctors, but the wisdom will come from Him. He said, “But I’m secure enough to deal with that.”

SID: Now tell me about, you actually were taken in the spirit around the globe and you saw what would be happening throughout the whole world. But tell me about a country that’s in the news a great deal, the former Soviet Union, Russia. Tell me about that.

LARRY: Yes. That was in the month of September, I saw a recording and video. I was preaching. I was taken around the world in my spirit to a lot of different places and shown some things. Some of the things have already come to pass like the [unintelligible]. I talk about that, and some other things. But I saw an angel, I saw coming from Heaven, I saw this giant sword and it was stuck in the heart of Russia. And it was in Russia, this sword was in Russia, I heard the words, “The thoughts and plans of man will come to nothing.” And so I had some time to distinguish between this as exactly what God says and this is my interpretation. I would believe that would mean, whatever intent Russia has in the sense of any harm or anything, that it will come to naught because God is in control. God loves the Russian, Ukrainian people, all peoples of Europe and all peoples of the Soviet Union, and I believe God is going to do a checkmate in that particular situation.

SID: Sounds good to me. Tell me about Israel.

LARRY: I saw this was, this is exciting to me. I saw Israel, and as I’m looking around the globe, I saw the land of Israel, and I saw it like I was three or four miles up in the atmosphere. And from the dust of the ground of Israel I saw this image coming out with dust, and I recognized it somehow in my spirit, it was King David and he was fully dressed with a robe on and with a sword, and he stood up for war. He was ready for war. And He said, and this is what I heard, “When David said to Goliath, ‘this day shall God deliver you into my hands,'” and the Scripture said, “And he ran toward Goliath,” and I saw this warring Davidic spirit to come out of Israel to take its enemies down. And I heard the Lord say, “The safety is Israel shall not be compromised.”

SID: I agree. Now briefly, very briefly, U.S.A.

LARRY: U.S.A. A number of things. But one that struck me the most was the fact that the U.S.A., especially those in higher government, from the very top to bottom, were not only in for a humbling, but a humbling beyond embarrassment. And the Lord has decided to answer the blood of our forefathers of this nation to end with prayers of intercessors as He did with Abraham. If he was righteous, He would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah. So many righteous in this country and God has heard the prayers, and God is about, the Scripture says, “If you don’t follow the rock it will fall on you.” The rock is about to fall on America in the sense, I don’t mean there’s some great judgment, but in a sense of humbling, which will be judgment for those that aren’t humble. It’s going to come from the very top of the government to the very bottom. We’re going to see a great humbling, and I believe that’s this year and next year in the government of the United States, because God is going to set right some things. Because the Lord said to me two years ago that the United States is going to, has received a period of grace. If Jezebel could get a space for repentance and revelation, why can’t we. God has extended grace to this nation. And the jury is out in some instances, because it depends on how we react as people of God and partner with God.

SID: The humbling is coming.

LARRY: The humbling, definitely, yes.

SID: Now would you pray right now for us to be, have permission to be who God called us to be, right now.

LARRY: I will do that. Father, we thank you. One of the difficult things we have to deal with is we’re all born an original, we’re all born unique, but the tragedy is most of us die copies. Help us not to fall into the sameness category, Lord. Help us not to copy. We’re not imitators of men. We’re imitators of Christ. Lord, help us to be what you called us to be. Help us to be us. Help us to show the creativity that you’ve given us and help us to disclose every piece of the DNA that you put in us. Lord, I give the men and women watching and the children watching this to be what God has called them to be. Don’t be afraid to be unique. Dare to be different. Dare to follow your dreams. And it’s just not about ministry. Maybe you’re called to be a doctor, a musician, an actor, an actress, a cook, a chef. I mean, whatever God has called you to in this great ecosystem, God needs you to be what He has called you to be. You need to be true. Shakespeare said, “To your own heart be true” and I believe Jesus is saying, “To your own heart be true.”

SID AND LARRY: Don’t be a copy. Be an original.

Sid: So LaDonna Taylor goes into the hospital having what she thought was relatively minor surgery it was botched. LaDonna does this happen often to people?

LaDonna: I’ve been told that it happens a lot. But for me when horrible things happen it seems like they always happen to someone else. But oh no now it happened to me.

Sid: Yeah, it’s easy to preach healing when you’re well, it is. It talks no talent at all. Okay, so then you proceed you have 8 surgeries and you go home after the 8^th and you figure your one the mend right now. But you figure wrong what happened?

LaDonna: I figure wrong, I was just home a few hours and I started getting extremely uncomfortable, sick to my stomach vomiting and it just continued and continued. Finally the doctor was called and from what we told him he knew he said “Get to the emergency room right away I’ll meet you there. When they met me there they took x-rays and they told me your colon is blocked, another surgery. “Oh, I just had 8 surgeries, I knew I’d lost strength like never in my life and now I’m facing another surgery.” They waited a few days but they ended up having to do that surgery. And then after that surgery my colon would not recover.

Sid: So what did the doctors say to you; what was the prognosis?

LaDonna: They were just waiting. I had to get stronger because they wanted to do a 10^th surgery, actually to remove the colon.

Sid: Yeah wait a second now, you’re 65 years old, your 89 pounds and losing weight all the time and another surgery? I mean enough is enough how could you take all of that LaDonna?

LaDonna: Well they wanted to do another one but they told me “You’re not strong enough for what we need to do so we’re just going to wait.” And in that waiting time is when death moved into the room.

Sid: Could you actually feel a spirit of death?

LaDonna:   Oh, I will never forget the day it happened. I just felt like it was trying to detach me from my body.

Sid: Hmm.

LaDonna: But I held on because there’s something I knew from my life with God and I knew “By His stripes I am healed” I knew that. I knew that I had more people to reach for Jesus Christ.

Sid: But you know the devil know his strategy; even someone that has that revelation knowledge when they’re sick you get worn out, you get tired, explain.

LaDonna: I got so tired there were several times that even with my focus on the Lord it was just the medicine in my mind and the fact that my body was so worn down several times I wanted to turn over and look at my son and say “Let’s, please let’s give up, take me to hospice I can’t fight anymore.”

Sid: Well, you had recently been a guest on It’s Supernatural Television, you did an amazing show for us and it was going to be aired while you were in the hospital. And you made arrangements to see it. (Laughing) Tell me what you did.

LaDonna:   I did, I received emails from your staff telling me the play date and I watched for it and I turned the TV on at the time I set my alarm and I watched my life from the time I was a child and what the Lord did in ministry and all the people that He healed. And as soon as the show started playing I have a little smart phone that was sitting by my hospital bed and I started getting little beeps one after another on the smart phone. People were emailing and as they saw how the Lord was using me in ministry for me to pray for them because they were dying.

Sid: But you’re dying and they want you to pray for them. Now you had a nurse assisting with you, what did she think of the show?

LaDonna: She cried through the whole show because she thought I was dying. She cried as she watched how God had used my life and she thought that was all in the past. But I was fighting, then I picked up my destiny again Sid as those emails came in I started praying for others.

Sid: You know I believe since there is no time in eternity that God knew that you needed to see your own show and arranged for you to do the show before you were in such critical condition. What an amazing God we serve!

LaDonna:   What an amazing God we serve, that’s when I picked my destiny back up. Now I will tell you that physically things didn’t change on the outside, but on the inside I had picked my destiny back up and I began to be restored with hope.

Sid: You know I feel like we should play from one of the CD’s we’re making available “Amazing Grace.” Let’s hear LaDonna Taylor on “Amazing Grace.”

Amazing Grace Excerpt