Sid: You know I’ve been reading over the book of my guest that’s just literally right off the press, and it’s an unusual title called “Saved by Angels.” My guest’s name is Bruce Van Natta. I’m speaking to him at his home in Rudolph, Wisconsin just outside of Madison, and it’s an unusual title. And I kind of questioned it when I saw the title, but as I read the book the effect that it had on me is that it made me sharper in hearing God’s voice; it made me take a little leap from where I was to understand the supernatural realm even better. And I’m wondering Bruce, are you finding that others are having this effect when they read your book “Saved by Angels?”
Bruce: Yes, that is exactly what we’re hearing, receiving emails, phone calls, have people stopping me hear locally in town. With tears in their eyes saying that you know that there’s things, questions that they had and about their faith they just never talked about or brought up. And the Lord is just using this book as a tool to reach in their life and to show them that He wants a personal, intimate relationship specifically with them that touches every area of their life from waking to sleeping.
Sid: Well, you know I’m thinking of the scripture Jesus said and it’s true, “My sheep hear my voice.” And I have to tell you, when I read that I think in terms of being directed 24-7 with an audible voice from God. And I don’t think I’m alone, and I thing that’s where I’ve been messed up for many years. I’m waiting for this spectacular, as a man that’s in heaven now used to say, “I’m waiting for the spectacular and missing the supernatural.”
Bruce: Yeah, you know Jesus said, John 8:47 “He who belongs to God hears what God says.” And like you said, you know a lot of times people are looking for the thunder bolts and the lightning and they’re looking for that supernatural stuff and so they miss out when God is whispering. And we look at the scripture as a whole and we look back in the Old Testament and we see the prophet Elijah. You know the Lord didn’t speak to him in the wind, and He didn’t speak to him in the fire, and he didn’t speak to Him in the earthquake, He spoke to Him in that gentile whisper. And that’s what we should be looking for then if you know if you ask somebody the question, “What is the general whisper sound like?” Wouldn’t it be fair to say that that thought that pops into your mind that just comes into your mind, and that’s the typically I would say that the Holy Spirit speaks to us but we often times do miss it because we are looking for something spectacular.
Sid: And that’s it, we can have a thought and we can dismiss it as our thought when it’s really God’s thought. Why should we dismiss it if we belong to God if Jesus is inside of us, the Holy Spirit of God is inside of us. Like we had a going away party for one of our staff members last night and I had the thought because it was a surprise and she was coming in and I had the thought “Wouldn’t it be neat if everyone stands up because we had a lot of people there,” I don’t know thirty or forty people there, if everyone stands up and applauds when she comes in, it’ll be something she’ll never forget. So I’m looking around for the woman that’s in charge of the function and I can’t find her and as I’m looking the woman says she stands up and say’s let’s everyone stand up when this person comes in and applaud. And it’s like I don’t need to have that kind of conformation, but yet I guess my human side needs it but you know in light of reading your book and being more in tune to the voice of God as a result of the anointing on your book. It was very exciting to me, it wasn’t someone being healed of cancer, but it was just as exciting because I heard God’s voice.
Bruce: That’s right, that’s a validation, I love that when that happens too you know that you can be in a prayer meeting, or somewhere and you get that little thought, you know we can even say a voice whisper, whatever you feel comfort with. And that comes across your mind and if you take the chance, if you put your pride aside and take the chance and say “You know what I think…”
Sid: Is that what it is pride?
Bruce: I think a lot of times it comes down to that because we don’t want to seem foolish, we don’t want to let’s say sound presumptuous, we don’t want to make a spectacle and so we especially don’t want to be wrong. But when we put that stuff aside and just try an concentrate on the Lord and what He’s telling us, and something comes to your mind and you feel comfortable enough to say “You know I think the Lord might be saying this to me or just said this to me” it is such a great feeling when somebody else goes awe I just heard the same thing. And then what’s really great is when it’s even an exact wording you know when it’s the same words just as your example from last night.
Sid: Right, let me take you back this was a very dark period of your life and you were a child you were molested, abused, explain.
Bruce: Yeah, well my parents both worked out of the house. My father was an over the road truck driver, my mom worked out of the house too and so there was a family that I often had to stay with and this family was a husband a wife with a son and a daughter. And they molested their children and you know they would get drunk and perform sexual acts with each other and then the kids would get involved and it was just a really bad situation. So at that time in my life I can only remember being to church one time ever, as a small child. It was a weekend at my Grandpa and Grandma were babysitting me and because they were babysitting me I went to church with them to some little tiny small country church out in the middle of nowhere. The man that weekend that was in charge of the Sunday school told the children of three of four of us that were there that about the story where Jesus is hugging little children and blessing children and the disciples get angry and try to chase the parents and children away. And Jesus rebukes the disciples and say’s “No, let them come to me.” And the Sunday school teacher said that the reason this was an important story was so that we understood that Jesus loved us and that He would answer our prayers. And so fast forward five or six months I’m being molested over the period of roughly a year probably. Never told my parents what was going on. When you look up molest in the dictionary it talks about stealing innocence. At five years old, and I’ve got four small children and they are a little bit older than that now, but at five years old you can confuse and manipulate a child and so that’s what had happened. And so this stuff was going on, I was manipulated into not telling what was going on and finally some things happened that my parents realized you know something’s going on here. She asked me, I told her, my dad as I said was an over the road truck driver. So he was going to come home on this weekend and so he came home and my mother was worried about telling my dad a little bit how he might accept it or take it because of some of the things that had happened. And so as I’m listening to this conversation unfold out in the kitchen, I was in a bedroom that was just off of the kitchen/ The bedroom door went off of this kitchen and so I’m laying on top of the bed in the dark listening to my mother and father talk and it was getting later and they had actually been drinking and so the conversation kind of spun out of control. And like I said, my parents couldn’t understand why I hadn’t told sooner and why it didn’t come out sooner, and they’re worried about my future, worried about what I was going to turn into.
Sid: And you’re hearing all of this this has to have a devastating effect on you.
Bruce: Exactly, exactly and so as I was listening to it I kept feeling actually worse because I’m sure in defense of my parents I am sure they did not realize that I was listening to what was going on, but I was. I just kept feeling darker, and guilty and dirty, I just felt really dirty. And so as I’m listening to this all happen this thought this little whisper comes into my head and at that time obviously I didn’t know it but now I can say clearly that it must have been the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says in John that the Holy Spirit one of His jobs is to remind us of things, and so the Holy Spirit reminds me of this little thought just pops in my head and I remember what the Sunday school teacher said about Jesus loving little children and answering prayers. And so as a five year old all I wanted was to be is comforted, and the best way that I could think of to be comforted. You know if you can remember being a child or if you can think of the way your children if a person is listening to this today has children, you know when one of your children fall down and hurt themselves you know what do they want or if they feel bad or they cry, what do they want? They just want held and comforted and so that’s what I prayed for, I just prayed you know in my doubting Thomas personality that I have I just prayed, “Jesus if your real, if what that man says is real Jesus I want You to come and hug me right now, just hug me and hold me.”
Sid: Bruce, when I’m listening to you I hear Grace Williams singing, “Never Let Go.”
Bruce: And so the second those words left my mouth, and you know that dark room lite up, I mean instantaneously lite up and I felt arms wrapped around me tightly. Just holding me and comforting me. It was incredible because it was a physical sensation, I mean I physically felt the arms wrapped around me, but yet it was also emotional, on the inside, I was held inside and out. In fact I tried to describe it, but it’s so hard to describe to people, it’s like being dipped in liquid love because it covered me every inch of my body from head to toe and it was warm and it was glorious, it was just liquid love that would just dripped off of me. And I just instantly could no longer hear the conversation of my parents, instant peace just peace you know I guess the best way to describe it. Instant peace and just the most powerful feeling of love that you can possibly imagine; and I feel asleep in Jesus arms just like that, I feel asleep. And the next morning I woke up laying on top of my bed still dressed, just as I was the night before and I pondered okay, “What happened, I prayed that happened and even as a five year old it was completely obvious to me that a huge miracle had happened, I mean this was a miracle.” I prayed God answered in a huge way and you know the sad thing is, the sad part about the story is that I never told one single person what happened for over twenty years, I kept that to myself for over twenty years. Never did I tell.
Sid: We’re out of time but you received gifts of the Holy Spirit as a five year old.
Bruce: Yes.
Sid: That liquid love just descended on you.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth