SID: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernaturally. And wow, that’s all I have to say. Lightening has hit twice because on Father’s Day, 1995, lightening hit in Pensacola, Florida, and there was a move of God’s spirit. Four-and-a-half million people went through the doors of your congregation. Never in your wildest imagination did you expect four-and-a-half million people from all over the world because they were hungry for God. And then that ended. But there was a prophesy that you didn’t know at the time about there was going to be 50 miles away another move of God’s spirit. Tell me about that.
JOHN: It was prophesied at the very time they prophesied the revivals coming to Pensacola that it would go 50 miles to the west, and I didn’t know that, you know. All I knew was there was there was a prophesy about a revival coming to Pensacola. And so whenever I left Brownsville, in 2003, I moved over here and started a church in 2006. I had been gone from Brownsville about close to three years. And when so I came over here to start this church I didn’t know at that time about the prophesy that it was gonna go 50 miles to the west. And if you leave the parking lot at Brownsville and go to the parking lot at the Daphne Civic Center it’s exactly 50 miles from parking lot to parking lot, exactly 50 miles.
SID: I want to take you back to that Father’s Day service because I like it. That’s why. I understand, you know, as any pastor that has a large congregation, you have to have certain authority and things in place, etc. But you got hit by the spirit of God to the point where you were on the floor for how many hours?
JOHN: That day I was on the floor for four hours. But honestly, I was really not incapacitated, but I was really almost useless for three months.
SID: I have an inside information on you, well maybe I won’t tell you who from, but someone in your house very close to you had to take your shoes and socks off every night because you didn’t have the ability.
JOHN: That’s right. And I had to have ladies come home with Brenda to help undress her and get her ready for bed because she couldn’t get herself ready for bed. I couldn’t take my shoes and socks off. And actually, it took me about three months to be able to function and to get my sea legs and to be able to function under the glory where I could pray for people. It took me about three months.
SID: John, what is the glory? How would you describe the glory?
JOHN: I would say the glory is the manifest presence of God. It comes from the word “kabad”. It’s a Hebrew word. It comes from it. And it means “heavy”, the heavy, weighty presence of God. And so, you know, most people understand the anointing. Most people understand the blood. But when you start talking about the glory they get confused and they sort of intermingle the glory with the anointing and they’re completely separate. The anointing is God’s authorization in a person’s life to do the works of the ministry, but the glory is God’s weighty presence. And that’s what happened when they dedicated Solomon’s temple. The glory came in to the point where they could not even stand to minister.
SID: I read about that, and it is so tangible there. And that was under the Old Covenant. How much more should we have under the New Covenant? But now let me take you fast forward. Lightening struck again. You had a young evangelist that you knew nothing about beyond, you know, he got a good reputation, but you had never heard him yourself, a little nervous and he speaks. When were you touched by the glory? And I understand this was the first time of this magnitude since the Brownsville-Pensacola days.
JOHN: Yeah. He spoke for me the remaining two nights of my conference, this year, which I held in July, and he did a wonderful job on Thursday night. But Friday night when he came in miracles actually broke out, and we saw blind eyes open and deaf ears pop open.
SID: Out of curiosity, about how many deaf ears popped open?
JOHN: I saw six people’s ears pop open within a space of 20 feet. I saw ears pop open.
SID: Did you know at that moment that he’s back, lightening has struck again?
JOHN: Yes, I really did. I knew, I heard the familiar sounds of a revival. A revival has a sound and I heard the sounds of revival. I heard them there and then I heard the moans, and I heard the praise, and the worship, and it was sustained. It hits a crescendo and it just sustains itself, and it brought back so many memories of Brownsville. And I knew, I said to myself, oh my God, it’s back. And so this revival is not only a revival of God’s presence like Brownsville was, but I would say that the differences, the miracles are more plenteous, they’re more frequent, and they’re major miracles. We had miracles at Brownsville, too, but these are all the time, and I would say by the hundreds.
SID: Wet my appetite. Tell me about that pastor’s wife. As I understand it, she had an auto accident and she was in a wheelchair unable to walk for 23 years.
JOHN: Twenty-two-and-a-half years. It happened on Christmas night 22-1/2 years ago and the only way I ever knew her was in wheelchair. As a matter of fact whenever I left Brownsville my wife, when she’d go to church she’d drive to Mobile to the Bishop’s church, so she knew that. We knew them and they’re wonderful people. And boy, when they came that night and made them pray for her and she said, “Oh, I feel your hand on my foot, my leg,” I knew that she didn’t have any feeling below the waist, and so I knew, I said, “Oh my goodness.” So she moved the foot things off the wheelchair and she tried to stand up, and she stood up just for a second and fell back down. You could tell, I mean, she didn’t have the ability to stand.
SID: Well her muscles had atrophied from all those years.
JOHN: They had atrophied. And so she sat there for about four or five more minutes, and this time she stood up. And when she stood up she sustained herself. And so Bishop got under one arm and I got under the other arm, and we began to help her walk. And at first she could just barely move her feet, but by the time we came back after two or three laps around the church she was moving her legs like a majorette.
SID: What was going on inside of you, in you?
JOHN: I wanted to run.
SID: You wanted to run.
JOHN: I mean, I was jumping up and down and I thought, my God, I’m gonna snatch her shoulder out. She had her shoulder wrapped around my arm and I just jumped up and down. I thought, I’m gonna snatch her shoulder out of the socket. ‘Cause, I mean, I was watching Bishop’s face, Sid, when she was walking the first time, ‘cause I knew that he new his wife, and I was watching his face when he was trying to help her walk.
SID: He had never seen her walk. How long had they been married?
JOHN: Nine years and she’s been a wheelchair 23 years. So I was watching his face, and whenever she started moving her feet I saw a look of horror come on his face like, oh my God. And then I saw tears jump out of his eyes.
SID: John, hold that thought. There is such a presence of God and that’s the name of this congregation, Church of the Presence of God. That’s what God told him to call this place. I can’t wait to what’s going to be happening when we come back. Be right back after this word.
JOHN: Something deep inside of me was calling out to the deep of God and I said, “Lord, there’s gotta be more.” And I would come in here in this building and I would scare myself, friend. It was the stillness of that dark pre-dawn hours, 4:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning, and I’d lay on that front row and I’d grab my belly and belt out like a cow. Oh God, I need you, Lord! I would walk these floors and I would cry out loud. I knew nobody was around. I knew nobody could hear and I’d lift my voice some times until I would be hoarse and I would say, “God, there’s more. There’s got to be more!”
