Sid Roth

SID: Just before John was arrested, he asked God for two things. What were those two things?

JOHN: I asked him, I knew I was going to jail and I let my children down once again. I said, “God, I want my children to forgive me and to love me one more time. And Father, I want to teach again” because I was a licensed teacher and I knew it would be taken away. I loved teaching so much. I wanted to teach again. And that’s the only [thing] that I asked. I didn’t ask him not to go to jail. I didn’t ask him anything else.

SID: The judge could have put you away for life. Sentencing day, tell me about it.

JOHN: Sentencing day comes around and in Minnesota we have the career criminal division, and when they prosecute you these guys are, they have no sympathy, no empathy for anything. It’s like you have crossed over the line. You have went over the sentencing guidelines. They’re, you know, we’re going to put you away for as long as humanly possible. Well the prosecutor that was prosecuting me, all of a sudden wasn’t there that day, and this guy really disliked me. He had prosecuted my son, my cousins and everybody. The judge had seen me time and time again, and was just tired of me. But that day, I had like nine months before I came for sentencing, and the judge told me, he’s seeing something different in me. And my lawyer was arguing for the ten-year, you know, let’s get him ten years. And I told my lawyer, “Just chill out, man.” And the judge said, “I’m going to give you probation. I don’t know why.”

SID: No time in jail?

JOHN: No time in jail.

SID: That’s a miracle. So those two prayers you prayed, I think God instantly answered them.

JOHN: He instantly answered them. And the place that I got shamed and got arrested at, that the cameras came to, they not only rehired me, but they promoted me.

SID: When you were talking about that day when the cameras were there, I saw crocodile tears coming out of your eyes. Why?

JOHN: There’s no way to explain when God does what he does and how blessed I was to receive it. I owe him everything and he did it for me, for me right there and then regardless of my past or anything. He did it for me.

SID: Would he do this for anyone if their past was even worse than yours?

JOHN: He would do it for any one of his children in an instant.

SID: Would you pray for the ones that are looking right now, and you know who you are, because God has been dealing with you and he loves as much as he loves John Turnipseed. He loves as much as he loves me. He loves you enough to die for you.

JOHN: God, you know us. We’re your babies. Father, sometimes we are disobedient. Sometimes we do not do what we’re supposed to do. But father, you told us that you loved us so much in John 3:16, that whoever believed in you shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And Father, we’re your babies. We need you in our life. Knock down the barriers for the ones that don’t believe in you, Father. Just knock the barriers down and let them know that you’re there, Father, because only until you come will they know how great you are, Father. So please, Jesus, just give us unyielded, unrestrained favor, today, Father, even if we don’t deserve it, Jesus. Amen.

SID: You know what? The Bible says if you confess your sins he is just and faithful to forgive you of all, all, all, no matter what you’ve done. Real quick, tell me the first message you ever gave, your first sermon.

JOHN: My first sermon, I gave my life to Christ and I went back to school to become a minister. I went to a funeral that another pastor was supposed to do. I get a phone call because he’s not there and it’s from a cousin of mine that tells me, “Hey, Johnny,” that’s what he called me, “I’m just telling you this because I know you’re at that funeral. The pastor ain’t showing up. The pastor owes us a whole lot of money and for drugs and I’m just telling.” Yeah, it’s hard to believe. “And until Monday, he’s gonna stay right here. So tell the family.” So I went to the family and I told them, I didn’t tell them whole story. I just said, “The pastor won’t show up.” And I said, “But I’m a pastor.” “You are?” And I said, “Yeah.” And they asked me, “Well would you do the service because the funeral home is waiting.” And I said, “I will.” And when I got up to speak the crowd there, I heard cursing.

SID: They know about you.

JOHN: He’s a pimp. He’s a thug. You know, he did this to me. I mean, all of this. And God just, I felt him. And I went up and I opened the service up with John 3:16. And I’ll tell you how I said it. I said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him, even Johnny Turnipseed, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” And then I told them, “I don’t know about the God you serve, but the one I serve said that and meant that, and I’m going to do this service.” And I got a standing ovation.

SID: Well now. What about that large extended family of pimps and fatherlessness, and prison, and murders, 34 members of your family serving time for murder right now? What’s going on with all of that family?

JOHN: Most of them that are in prison are saved.

SID: What percent would you say are saved?

JOHN: I would say 90 percent. I would say 90 percent. My children are saved. My brothers are saved. We are no longer raising criminals. We’re raising hopefully little preachers, you know. That’s my greatest hope. That’s bigger than the president in my family.

SID: Okay. With your family, you broke the curses. How can people watching you right now break the curses over their family, whether it’s sickness or whether it’s divorce, or whether it’s prison, or whether it’s addictions? Whatever. How?

JOHN: What I had to do with my family is we had to sit down and come face to face with these are the things, and be honest, that are plaguing our family, okay: the prostitution and the gang, and the drugs, all of that, father absence, men walking away from their children. We had to say some very unpleasant things about the reality of who we were. Okay. And then in agreement with each other we had to act on it. And then we had to arm ourself because the enemy came and he, man, did he ever come. When I started talking this message he started attacking my family more than he had, because before he could just leave us alone because we were doing it all by ourself. But once we started, we armed ourself with the Word and the blood of Jesus Christ and stuff that he had to back off. He had to back off.

SID: Did you hear that? He armed himself with the Word of God and the blood of Jesus. That’s why they had to back off. And I tell you the devil, the curses, are backing off in Jesus’ name.

JOHN: Amen.

We’ll be right back to It’s Supernatural.