Sid: I’m talking a bit this week about something that God has been doing with me lately. That’s one of the most wonderful things that I’ve done short of receiving Messiah. And that is spending time with God every morning. And I am finding such supernatural favor as I’m doing this; I am finding I am hearing God’s voice clearer than I’ve ever heard God’s voice before. And by the way I was sharing my testimony and one of the things I do is I thank God for what He rescued me from. The more you listen and when you get a hold of my testimony book “There Must Be Something More” you’ll see to him who has forgiven much He loves much.
You know I’ve never understood a backslider because I know what’s back there. At least when you read my book you’ll know what’s back there. You see I got involved in a New Age meditation course. I did something I wasn’t proud of I left my wife; I left my daughter, I left my job. I went in search for money or happiness for whatever this would be. Things got worse not better and by the end of about a year after being involved in a New Age Meditation course.
I had a free office, I thought my powers were giving that to me but no it was this Christian man who heard from God and God told him to come to see me and to offer me that free office; so they could have me in that office to pray for me. Now I come from a traditional Jewish background; I was interested in Jesus minus zero. I had no spiritual interest although I was raised in a good traditional Jewish family. But then one day one of the owners of the company that was giving me the free rent came to me and he read from the Deuteronomy the 18th chapter verse 9-12. And all of these things that God called abomination New Age things I was involved in. You can’t turn on television or go to the movie theater without seeing some of these snuck in. I remember there were nuns and priests involved in these New Age classes that I was in; they couldn’t be that bad. And besides that no rabbi ever told me not to do it. Sure enough in my own Torah, in my own Jewish Scriptures God called it an abomination. And so I thought that just in case the Scriptures were from God. See I wasn’t even sure that the Scriptures were from God at that point in my life. I am going to stop being involved in this power that I’m tapped into through the New Age and I’m just going to start reading the Scriptures and think for myself. And the more I read it the more I became convinced that what I was involved in was not good. In fact, I used to have the ability of grabbing a dictionary and just opening it at random and getting a message sort of like a Ouija Board and I would grab at random and write the first word down then open it at random and write the second word down. Before I knew it I had an intelligent sentence and this was what the sentence was. I was using a dictionary remember, “Refrain from this sinful book.” I mean I just threw that book down. I said “Oh, what’s going on?” I’m going to get out of here. So I went for a drive then I found myself in front of a secular book store the biggest one in town. When I went into this book store the biggest section was the New Age section. And I thought, this is getting too much and I looked at the titles of the books in the New Age section and I found a book it was almost as if it was written for me. It was called the “Jew, the Bible and the Supernatural.” I’m Jewish, I’m starting to read the Bible I’m into the supernatural. Written by McCandlish Phillips; they made a mistake at this bookstore, it’s a Christian book but they stuck it in the New Age section. That same Deuteronomy 18 it talks about but they had a new slant that my Christian friends had shown me. This is what this book shows; it shows that Jewish people are under a covenant with God. If anyone is involved in a New Age they suffer consequences. But when a Jewish person is involved in New Age they suffer more consequences because we should know more because we’re under a covenant with God. Whether we understand the covenant or not God must honor this covenant. And then he proceeds to list famous people that had lost their life for being in the New Age. Things that I was doing, things that everyone I knew were into. I mean going to fortunetellers; séances; talking about this like reincarnation; being involved in all sorts of Eastern exercise. I mean this is acceptable stuff; the 10 Commandments aren’t acceptable. But the religion of the devil is totally acceptable in our society. I mean I understand about this group of young Jewish men that the New Testament said “Turn the world upside down.” This world needs to be turned upside down.
So I went into the store and I got the book and I started reading it and one Jew after another was doing the same things that I was doing. Except the Jews when they’re involved; let me give you an example. My hero at the time was a Rock Group from England it was called the Beatles. Remember them? What you don’t remember is the all went to the Himalayas. They all were into investigating New Age things. One even said “He was more popular than Jesus Christ.” That was before any of them died but at that time only one of the entire group died that was involved in New Age things. Guess which one; the manager. The Jewish manager Brian Epstein my hero; he had everything that I thought could bring happiness. Of course I was wrong and he was dead.
Then at that point I had been involved in something that major universities are studying today and proving to be true. Russia has been using this for years it’s call astro-projection. It’s where your spirit leaves your body. And those that think that this is some wacko thing unfortunately it’s not. And I started branching into it. And just as I started branching into this a friend of mine said “Be very careful of this when this happens because you may get lost and not find yourself back in your body. And I had the most gross thoughts. I saw myself being buried alive. I mean I saw myself I mean it’s so horrible I can’t even talk about it. I remember when the telephone would ring I would tremble. I mean I was afraid of anything and everything. I even despaired of living. And let me tell you something “I didn’t want to die; do you remember that young kid of 8 years old that was trying to imagine what it would be like to cease to exist. Oh, I thought it was so objectionable that I’m not going to think about it because there is something in me that wants to be eternal. That does not want to cease to exist; well I never thought it was possible. I was a self-made person; I was an independent thinker; I could do anything that I would set my mind on. But I reached a point where death looked more appealing to me than life. And I didn’t want to live. And I remember the worst do of my life; I went home to my apartment. I was separated from my wife as I said. My wife Joy was raised Southern Baptist. In college she became an agnostic. When we got married I insisted that she convert to Orthodox Judaism. So you might say she was a Southern Baptist agnostic Orthodox Jew that did not know Jesus, but I thought every Christian knew Jesus. So I called my wife on the phone. And I said “I wasn’t going to explain it to her that my spirit’s leaving my body; I’m hearing voices; I mean she’d think I was mashuga you know crazy.” But I said “Joy it’s bad, pray for me good bye.” I hung up and she hung up. And you know what even though she was an agnostic for the first time in many many years she got down on her knees and prayed for me. I didn’t care whether I lived or died; I had a mezuzah I went out and bought it. To put in a mezuzah there is a little medallion that has scripture inside. I put it around my neck; I had a Bible at that time because I was reading. I’d seen enough movies about vampires I needed some help from the spirit realm. I was convinced that this spirit within me was a demon. I mean like I said “It was too much for me to handle.” Every one of us has a breaking point. I had that breaking point. And I cried out a two word prayer. It wasn’t a real classic prayer; I’d actually prayed a classic prayer. About a week earlier I had something called the 5 spiritual laws and I read through it and I expected something spectacular to happen like happened in the New Age. When it didn’t happen I wasn’t going to tell anyone that I prayed that prayer. But I’ll tell you I was so desperate; so desperate I didn’t know what I believed; I didn’t know what I didn’t believe. And I was told that there was a Name that was greater than the one that was trying to pull me apart and destroy my wife and destroy my daughter and destroy everything about me. And I prayed this two word prayer “Jesus help.” And I went to sleep and I didn’t care whether I lived or died. The next morning I woke up and the first thing I noticed was an absence of fear. I went to bed so fearful I wanted to die; and when I woke up I can’t tell you where it went but I can tell you it went. That fear was gone; and the next thing I realized is I am feeling such peace. Now I’ve never been into drugs in my life. I’ve never been an alcoholic, but I don’t believe drugs or alcohol could match what happened to me. I was so filled with the peace of God. The Shalom of God I couldn’t worry if I wanted to. And then I heard the audible voice of God for the first time of my life. And He said “Return to your wife and daughter.” Now I had a pretty bad marriage; I didn’t want to do it but I was so grateful I’d do anything for God.
We’re out of time we’ll pick up right here on tomorrow’s broadcast Mishpochah
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth