Sid Roth

SID: Hello. Sid Roth. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural even here on location in Houston, Texas. I have a woman that has been known as Pastor John Osteen’s wife. I have a woman who has been known as Pastor Joel Osteen’s mother, but I found out she operates in a supernatural gift that I want. I have with me Dodie Osteen. Most of you don’t know her, but I tell you this, she’s known in Heaven and you’re about ready to get to know her. It’s not an accident that you and your husband John started a tiny, tiny little church called Lakewood Church, in 1959. What was that building like?

DODIE: Oh it was terrible. It was an old feed store. It had holes in the floor.

SID: You have to help me. I’m not a country boy. What is a feed store?

DODIE: I wasn’t either. They sold feed.

SID: For animals.

DODIE: For animals, yes. And boards, the planks on the floor had big gaps in them so that anything could fall through, the hay, whatever they had in there. And it was not pretty. We didn’t even have a restroom inside. We didn’t have a water faucet, but our people got in there and cleaned up that thing, Sid, and made it into a church. And we didn’t mind what it looked like. We just did the best we could with it. Ninety people, had 90 seats in there.

SID: Now today Lakewood Church has how many people?

DODIE: Well they say 35 or 40,000 come on the weekends, but it seats 60,300.

SID: Your children say that you will pray about anything. You’ll pray about machinery, and they told me to ask you a question about the mole you prayed for.

DODIE: We didn’t know anything about heat. John was just beginning to learn that Jesus was the same yesterday, today and forever, and I thought I’ll just try it. Here I was a little girl. I didn’t know what I was doing either. We had two children and I said, “Paul, let me pray for them.” And I just prayed for those warts to leave and just in a few days they left. And he came running in from the back and he said, “Mama, mama, look, they’re gone.” I was surprised myself.

SID: You know, Joel Osteen is who is he is today because of his mother and father. Speaking of Joel, you had a dream that saved his life.

DODIE: I did. I’m so glad I had that dream. A few times I had dream when Paul, the older boy who is a doctor, was in Africa, that he was in trouble, and he was. He had malaria, even though he taken malaria injections or tablets, whatever it was. And I dreamed that he was on my shoulder like a little baby, and he was a student in ORU. He was in medical school. And it was on the very same day that he had that. And he said, “Mother, I thought I was dying, but I recovered.” And it was on the same day I had that dream. But Joel, I had the dream about, I dreamed sometime about snakes and all the demonic, and a snake was in the kitchen in the house. And out of all the children that I had, I called Joel. I said, “Joel, come help me get this snake.” I didn’t tell anybody about it because I didn’t want to frighten anybody. But I prayed that whatever harm was coming to my son, “Devil I rebuke you, I command you to take your hands off of Joel.” Just a little while later, a week or two later he was going home from the church and he hydroplaned. It had been raining in Houston, and just hydroplaned, and this truck did the same thing, great big truck, and he came within three feet of hitting that truck and stopped. And the truck driver got out and said, “Son, you sure are one lucky little boy.” And I thought he was lucky, brother. He was blessed with the Lord.

SID: Now when you were young, you were hit with a lot of adversity. At two, you had polio.

DODIE: Yes I did.

SID: And as a result there was a difference in one foot and the other. And but it didn’t stop you, did it?

DODIE: No, I just kept on going. I had been conscious all these years about not wearing pretty shoes, but you know what, thank God I can walk. I had five children without difficulty, done everything that I’ve done and God has just helped me. And the story about Dr. Osborn, he was so kind, did so much for Jesus. But he was walking with John and I was walking at the head of him and he said, “Look at Miss Dodie, she walks like a princess.” I never forgot that because I could see myself in the mirrors as I passed the windows of store buildings and all where I lived, and I was conscious of it. And I wore a brace when I was young up to the fourth grade. And when he said that, it just grieved me. And just thought, look at me, I walk like a princess. So I just walk like a princess because of the words of one man.

SID: And do you know what, that one man didn’t realize the power of that statement that he made.

DODIE: Words can make people or break people. See what an encouraging word can do for people when they’re so down? People tell me sometimes when I think I look so tacky, “Miss Dodie, you look so pretty.” That lifts me up. Let’s make our words sweet. John used to say that all the time and I remind the children of this, make your words sweet because you don’t know many that you’ll have to eat.

SID: Well when you were 48, this is so hard to say, at 48, she goes in the hospital and she gets a death sentence. She’s going to be dead in a couple of weeks. How did she handle that? You’ll find out when we come back.