SID: Listen to this, in a five year period in a sleepy southern town, 4 million people came to one church in this five year period. Of the 4 million people that came to this church, 450,000 gave their hearts to God. I have the pastor from that church, the Brownsville church in Pensacola Florida. I have to believe it still seems like a dream, I would have to … I never said that to you, but I mean that just doesn’t happen, John.
JOHN: I know.
SID: What attracted all those people?
JOHN: The presence of God, there’s no doubt about it. When the revival broke out that day, it’s like … we had been praying two and a half years and it was like the fumes were released in the church by gas fumes.
SID: Now I was told that earlier, before this Father’s Day, it was 1995 when the Holy Spirit just erupted, you had taught 10 lessons on the glory of God. What is the difference between teaching on the theory of the glory of God, and having the glory invade that place?
JOHN: Well, it was like … we prayed in two and a half years for revival, and it was like the fumes were in the air and so God sent the evangelist and he was the match that God used for revival to break forth. The thing that really surprised me about revival … I mean it’s been called the Pensacola outpouring, the Brownsville revival, the Father’s Day outpouring, but it was revival. I don’t doubt that at all, but I believe personally it was a reintroduction to the American church of the glory of God. That’s what I believe that it was. All the old timers knew about the glory, they talked about dying, going to glory, and they believed in the glory, loved the glory. Today, we hear a lot of talk about … and there’s nothing that can top the blood, the blood of Jesus is the main thing.
SID: So what is the glory?
JOHN: The glory of God is the weighty presence of the Lord. Now, I want to say this right upfront before I go any further, there’s nothing that can top the blood of Jesus. Nothing. Nothing can top it, but I will say that the glory of God is the presence of God and it’s what man craves. He wants to feel close to God, he wants to feel that presence.
SID: What can happen in the glory of God?
JOHN: I believe that’s where the major creative miracles will happen, is in the glory. When the glory comes in, I believe that’s where the real creative miracles … I remember one night in Brownsville, this woman started screaming during praise and worship. During praise and worship is usually when the presence of the Lord would be coming to heal. All of a sudden, we’re standing on the platform and you can feel that hot heat coming. This woman starts screaming, and she’s staring at her husband. I grabbed a handheld microphone and went down there and whenever I got there she didn’t even seem to care that I was coming. She was just staring at her husband. He was a Vietnam veteran, and they threw a grenade on him. He took that grenade and threw it out of the tent, and when he did it exploded midair but it blew part of his hand off. It blew all the meat off the tendons, and he had a crippled hand. Well, his hand was growing back in that presence of God.
SID: On this greater glory that’s coming, in fact you teach about the former and latter glory from the Scripture. Tell me about that?
JOHN: Well, there’s always been a former glory even when Solomon went into dedicate the temple, the Bible says that the glory of the Lord came, the presence of God came and the priest couldn’t even stand to minister. When the glory of God would come on me in the early days of revival, my eyelids would start closing. I was totally conscious, I could hear everything but my eyelids would start dropping and it felt like just a warm something came all over me and wherever it did, I was just totally, totally, totally, totally relaxed. I would just lay over on the chair beside me on the platform, or sometimes they’d put me behind the soundboard. Whenever the glory of God would come in, it’s so therapeutic that what I think is happening today in churches is that many churches are cutting down on their service times, and they’re rushing people in and rushing people out. We’re not giving God time to get to His people, to let the glory of God come in. We’ve got to give God time to get to His people.
JOHN: I believe that there’s people that go to church every Sunday, that love their pastor, and they love their church, and they’re not disgruntled. But I believe there’s people every week that go to church that are so desperate for the Lord that they go in one way, and they leave out the very same way. They’re not dissatisfied, they’re just unsatisfied. You need time to rest, and to soak, and to marinate in the glory of God. That’s what gives you the strength to make it through the week.
SID: But what would it be like if the presence of God would hang out in your home? What would it be like if the presence of God went with you wherever you went? What would it be like if that presence of God could be felt, could be seen, could be smelled, could be heard by nonbelievers when you come in their presence? We are going to talk about how that glory can hang out in your home, be right back.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth