Our Guest John Bevere
SID: It ‘s like going to a football game!
JOHN: Yeah! So I’m sitting there going “this’ll calm down.” Well it doesn’t! They get through with the praise and worship and the leader comes up and starts reading out of the Bible. I’m still seeing people sitting there looking around, people looking down like this, people are whispering to one another, and you can actually hear “em mutter from the people whispering to one another. Now I’m angry, okay? I mean I am really angry. So they introduce me. First time I’ve ever spoken in Brazil, 1996, publically. I walk up, I walked up to the podium with my interpreter right beside me. And I just put my elbow on the podium and I just sat there and stared at “em and didn’t say a word. Now, now, now picture this, okay? Friday night, national conference, the guest speaker’s introduced and he’s just glaring at you for 45 seconds!
SID: Not too cool!
JOHN: That gets people’s attention, right! So when I knew every eye in the whole auditorium was on me, this is the first words in public I’ve ever said in Brazil, I said I have two questions. Question number one: you’re sitting across the table talking to somebody and the whole time you’re talking to them they got their hands in their pocket looking around like this, or they’re looking down like this, or they’re whispering to somebody sitting beside them, next to them at the table. I said, “Will you continue to talk to them?’
SID: No.
JOHN: They said, “No,” right. I said, “What if every time I go, you go over to somebody’s house and you knock on their door and they open up the door and they go, “Oh, it is you, again. Come in.” I said, “Will you continue to go to that house?” They went, “No.” So I said, “I’ve been in this auditorium for an hour and a half and I have, or an hour, and I have not felt one ounce of the presence of God.” And I said the reason is He’ll never come into an atmosphere where He’s not held in the utmost of respect. I said if Pele you’re, well first of all I said if your President, the President of Brazil would have walked onto this platform tonight he would have gotten ten times the respect you gave the Holy Spirit. You, you would have listened to every word he said, you would have given him your attention. I said if Pele would have walked on, Pele’s the greatest soccer player ever in Brazil, would have walked on this, out on this platform, you would have been on the edge of your seats!
SID: Of course.
JOHN: Okay? I said you’ve given no respect to the Holy Spirit. So I speak to them for 75 minutes on the fear of the Lord. At the end of that, now this is amazing what I am about to tell you. I said every person in here, you say you’re born again but you lack the fear of God, stand up, and you’re willing to repent, stand up. 75 percent of the whole auditorium stands up. Now this is what’s amazing. The moment they stand up the presence of God comes in. First time in two hours. And people are weeping, right? So it lasts a few minutes and it lifts. And the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says lead them in a prayer of repentance. So I led them in a simple prayer of repentance. Forgive me for my lack of reverence, for Your presence, Your work. All of a sudden another wave of His presence comes in. It’s even stronger, lasts 3 or 4 minutes. It lifts. So now we’re all there and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and He says I’m coming one last time. Now what I’m about to tell you I got emails on this 8 years after it happened. Okay? The only way I know how to describe what happened is you’re at the end of a runway and a Boeing Jet’s taking off right in front of you. That kind of a sound of a violent wind came blowing in to that auditorium. When it did, the people started screaming. Now can you imagine thousands of Latinos screaming? You know how loud that would be. The wind was louder. So that same thing that happened in Malaysia happened to me there. I’m like, “Oh my God!” There are like goose bumps on my goose bumps. And I’m standing there frozen, and I’m like “Whooooa…..” because it’s awesome! …what’s going on, and terrifying. And I remember it lasted for about 90 seconds and it left in its wake people collapsed on the chairs, people weeping and I’m like, “God, what do I do? And the Lord’s like, “I’m through with you.” (laughing) So I turned and I looked at the leader and I said “It’s all yours.” So he comes up, they walk me out into the car. And the singer, the national singer and her husband get in the car. She screams, I mean literally, you know how passionate Brazilians are, “Did you hear the wind!?” And I said, now I didn’t want to say it, I said, “Maybe it was a jet airplane flying right over the building.”
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)
JOHN: And she got angry at me. She said, (yelling) “What are you talking about? I saw fire all around the building.” And her husband’s a lot more analytical and quieter. He quieted her down, he said, “Sir, that wasn’t a jet airplane above the building. I said, “How do you know?” He said because there were union security men all around the outside the building. He said most of them aren’t even saved. He said when the wind started blowing they came running in to see what was going on and they started saying to our leaders “what’s going on?” He said I was at the sound board, because I had to check the levels for my wife. He said the decimal beaters were at zero the whole time the wind blew. It was 90 seconds the wind blew. He said “not one ounce of the sound came through our sound system.” I said, “My God, take me to my hotel room.’
AUDIENCE AND SID: (LAUGHTER)
JOHN: No kidding, I didn’t even go out to eat that night. And I remember I just sat on my balcony and worshipped until 1:30 in the morning. And so you’ll never find the Lord in an atmosphere where He’s not held with the utmost respect.
SID: ÖI want to ask you to do something.
JOHN: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
SID: I would like you to speak just a little while on the fear of the Lord and then lead us in repentance. Would you do that, John? Thank you.
AUDIENCE: (CLAPPING)
JOHN: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. So, what, what is the fear of the Lord? All right. Let me say this. And I’m, I’m going to say to you tonight, I’m going to repeat some things I just said on this program because I need to lay a foundation again. What is the fear of the Lord is NOT to be scared of God. And as I said, when Moses led Israel out of Egypt, and let me ask you as an audience, when Moses led Egypt out of the audience, or out of, excuse me.
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)
