Sid Roth

I see a lot of people I’ve laid hands on and I don’t see results. And it’s heartbreaking cause you care about people. But to just be real with you, you’ve got to press through the struggle and keep giving the burden to Jesus, not just carrying it for yourself. That’s Biblical. “Cast your burdens on Him for He cares for you.” It would be sin for me to carry the emotional weight of that but I still have to take responsibility and ask the Lord to change me. But now here we go. People ask me why don’t you just go and empty out a hospital? That’s a valid question and I tell them that. That’s a very fair question too. Cause they say if I could do what you could do I’d be at the hospital. I’d empty it out. And I’m like God bless you, you can do what I can do. Go to the hospital and empty it out!    

AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)

ART: Now the truth is I’m just one guy. Okay? Now we know the logistical problems. What hospital is going to let some random guy walk in and lay hands on every person in every bed? But if that was allowed logistically I’m just one guy. I would burn myself out. And honestly when would I meet your expectation? Because even if I did go in a hospital and empty it out you’d say why don’t you go to the next hospital? When would I ever satisfy your demands when the truth is I’ve got a calling and a mission on my life to train and equip the Church to do the same things which is even better because then all of you go in His name and now there’s millions of Jesus-like ministers of healing who can empty out hospitals because it’s not too much of a burden on one person.

And here’s the beauty of this. The Pool of Bethesda, when you look on a map of Jerusalem, it’s just outside the Sheep Gate and just inside the Sheep Gate is Solomon’s Colonnade. Acts chapter 5: “Every single person who was brought to the believers was healed.” And remember John chapter 5, it said “Here a number of sick and injured people used to lie.” Why didn’t they lay there anymore? The Bible doesn’t expressly say it but I’d better believe if there’s a whole bunch of sick people laying there and somebody goes Hey, just the other side of this gate everybody’s getting healed. Guess what? Carry me, buddy! Get me over there! Right? I’m not sticking around here waiting for some angel that may never show up. It’s working over there.

AUDIENCE: Right! (LAUGHTER)  ART: Those Christians were clearing out the sick from Jerusalem. And that’s what I want to see. That’s my vision for the Church. See we are the body of Jesus in this world. Everyone who touched Jesus” body was healed. And now you’re His body. Yes, physically He is in heaven at the right hand of the Father and He does have a physical body there but practically speaking according to First Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, various other scriptures, Ephesians 4, we are His body in this earth. I like to say that a head doesn’t just get from Point A to Point B on its own. Fair? Jesus has permanently submitted Himself to relationship with you. You see Jesus could appear to every single person on the planet right now at the drop of a hat and preach the gospel to ‘em! But He doesn’t. Why? Because He commissioned you. Jesus could snap his fingers and heal every single person on the planet! But He doesn’t. Why? Because He commissioned you. That’s the beauty of following this Jesus. He’s the one who paid for it. He’s the one who wants it. And I guarantee He will do His work. It’s inevitable.

SID: You’re not talking about storing up food or water. What are you talking about?

JAMES: I’m talking about that we need to become mentally tough, so that whatever circumstance comes, we can stand. As Paul said, when you’ve done everything to stand, stand. We’re going to become that kind of resilient followers of Jesus when we’re really prepared. The second part of that was that we need to have spiritual resilience, because things are going to happen in the spirit so quickly, that if we can’t move with the Lord, we’re going to be left behind. We’re going to be lost. So we need to right now build that kind of resilience that we can stand, no matter what, keep the spirit strong, stand on faith, and believe in the Lord, and trust him that he will be with us and take care of us.

SID: And what would you say to someone that says, “Well, all that is true, but we’ve got 50, 100 years. I’m not going to fool with that right now.”

JAMES: There are people who say that, and my concern is that they’re not discerning well enough in the spirit, and they need a gift of spiritual discernment, because everything I see in Jesus’ teachings about the last days is, they could come right now. It could happen today. It could happen tomorrow. It may be 100 years. If so, hallelujah, we’ll live with it and we’ll expect another day, but it could be today.

If I really believe and understand that, and I do, then I need to be ready every day, every moment of every day, to meet him when he does return. And so I believe that it’s imperative that we must prepare. A lot of people have gotten tired, tired of the messages about it. They’ve heard things over and over again, and it seemed like nothing manifested. I’m just believing, and Jesus told me, “Tell people, don’t give up. Don’t get tired. Don’t waiver, but hold to what I have taught you, and hold to the notion that it might happen any minute.”

SID: Well, Jesus says, “No man knows the day or hour.” Jesus told you, “You better tell people to be prepared.” James says special doors to heaven are being demonically blocked to prevent answers to your prayers. When we come back, James will share how you can have heaven open for all your prayers. For all of them.

SID: James, recently, you had an open heaven vision.

JAMES: Yes, I have. And it’s a vision similar to some I’ve had in the past, but this was very recent. And when I talk about open heaven, I’m not seeing something like rectangular shaped doors or windows, but I see like a round opening, almost like it goes through the clouds, and then heaven is opened up. And in this vision, I was kind of hovering in space and looking at the open… There were several of these, I call them portals instead of doors. There were several portals that were open into heaven, and it was my desire to go through one of those portals and spend some time with Jesus. That’s one of my favorite pastimes, is to spend time with Jesus. But as I looked up at these portals, dark clouds started covering over the openings of almost all of them. And the clouds would move, but then another dark cloud would come in and cover it up.

 JOHN: Okay? There were two men that were called the friend of God in the Old Testament. Okay? Who were the two men? Abraham and Moses. Were there others? Absolutely! Okay, I believe David was a friend of God, I believe Daniel was a friend of God, I believe Joseph was a friend of God, many others, Deborah, Esther. But these two men’s lives exemplified what it took to have a relationship of friendship with the Lord. Let’s talk about the first guy, Abraham. Why is Abraham called the friend of God? Because when Abraham was really old, one night God comes to him and says, “Abe?” “Yes, Lord, yes.” I want you to take your son who you really love, who you’ve really grown attached to, the son you’ve waited for for 25 years.

And I want you to go on a three-day journey and kill him for Me. Now, okay, you’ve heard the story a thousand times, okay, if not, if not more. But you had the Book of Genesis to read, he didn’t. You have to understand all God says to him this night is I want you to go three days and kill Isaac. He doesn’t tell him why. He doesn’t say if you sacrifice Isaac then I’ll send My Son. He does not say that! Do you understand what God is asking him to do? It would have been easier for Abraham to go kill himself, because there was nothing or no one more important to Abraham than Isaac. Yet do you know what my Bible says? Early the next morning Abraham saddles his donkey and is on his way. You know how some people say, “Well, you know the Lord’s been dealing with me about this now for several months” and they laugh.

AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)

JOHN: You are bragging about your lack of the fear of God. Okay? Okay? So now God gives him a three day journey. Why? To think it over. It’s easier when you heard the booming voice of God the night before. But what about three, two and a half days later, you haven’t heard one word from heaven and you’re looking at the mountain, you’re going to put the most important person or thing to death in your life just because God said do it and didn’t give you a reason to do it. But Abraham goes to the top of the mountain, he builds the altar. Can you imagine his emotions while he’s building that altar? And his son’s helping him build it. He ties up Isaac on that altar, he lifts up the knife and he’s ready to put the most important person or thing to death in his life just because God said do it and didn’t give him a reason.

And right as he’s ready to thrust the knife through Isaac, an angel of the Lord appears, and you go read it in your own Bible, and the angel says “Abraham stop, because now I know you fear God? How did the angel know that Abraham feared God? Because he obeyed instantly, because he obeyed when it didn’t make sense, because he obeyed when it hurt, because he obeyed when he didn’t see a benefit, and because he obeyed to completion. Abraham puts down the knife, unties Isaac, lifts up his eyes and there’s a ram caught in the thicket. And out of his inside comes this: JEHOVAH JIREH! The Lord my Provider! Now you’ve heard that before because you’ve read the Bible. But wait a minute. God just revealed a facet of His personality to Abraham no human being had ever known before. Why? Because he’s my friend.