Sid: For those of you that don’t understand the one new man; I just got back from two weeks in Israel and what I have been prophesying with my mouth I saw with my eyes. I saw large numbers of Jewish people make professions of faith; we had thirty holocaust survivors, these are men and woman in their eighties that should have been dead. Each one is a walking miracle the fact that they survived Hitler’s holocaust, and they never heard the gospel and I was able to present the gospel; I might add the Jewish way. What do I mean by the Jewish way? The scripture say the Jew requires a sign, signs and wonders erupted and of the thirty people that were there twenty-eight stood up and received the Messiah. That was all over Israel. Why is this happening right now? Because there is a spiritual DNA in physical Jewish people that is unique, and there is a spiritual DNA in Gentile Christians that is unique. And we can keep the church Gentile and it will do a wonderful job, but if we can merge and break down the middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile and merge these two people groups together according to Ephesians 2 we will have the full dwelling place of God. And perhaps that’s what Jesus meant when He said, “You’ll do the same works that I have done,” because he just had the Jewish believers with him at that time; but even greater that’s when the Gentile Christian DNA merges with the Jewish spiritual DNA to form the one new man. You need help to get confused on this it’s so easy. But my guest knows about the presence of God; my guest knows about intimacy with God and my guest has written a manual for those that are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. I’m speaking to the pastor of the church at South Las Vegas which is a four year old congregation that went from a hundred to twenty-five hundred people and that doesn’t mean diddly to me; what counts is he knows about intimacy with God. He knows how to keep the presence of God rather than how to aggravate the Holy Spirit and lose the presence of God. Pastor Benny Perez you told me that in your last service there was such an awesome presence of God; tell me about it.
Benny: It was incredible Sid as we had been preaching on presence and it’s all about the Holy Spirit’s. His presence came upon Mary and that which was conceived of her was conceived of the Holy Spirit. So we began to talk about the presence; one thing that I realize when you talk about the presence of God, when you hunger after the presence of God; when you seek after the presence of God the Bible says you draw near to Him He’ll draw near to you. And what happened on Saturday night was exactly that; after I preached the presence of God just overwhelmed our congregation; there were words of knowledge. In particular a couple that’s been coming for six weeks I pulled them out and gave them a word of knowledge, laid my hands on them. The presence of the Holy Spirit came and these are people that don’t know they’re supposed to fall, don’t know their supposed to do anything, they are not of a charismatic church; have never experienced this before yet their lives have been so impacted by the presence of the Holy Spirit that His employees have asked him “What has happened to you Steve, you are a different man.” And it’s all because of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Sid: Well, we have such a seeker sensitive form of religion that many pastors would be afraid of God to invade their midst yet they speak that they would like it. But when God invades your midst it’s not decently and in order according to human standards, but its decent and in order according to God’s standards.
Benny: Yes, absolutely and I told my church, I said, “When you look at the scriptures both Old and New Testament I mean God from a human perspective is a little strange.” I mean you know when you talk about Moses in Exodus chapter 3 God didn’t drop a parchment down that he could have read; His instructions about what he was to do about delivering the children of Israel. What does God do? He shows up in a burning bush that talks! I mean that’s the way God chooses to do some things and as a human being it is a little strange. I mean you can go throughout the whole Bible and find these supernatural manifestations of God, that to the human mind would seem really preposterous or ridiculous why would God do that? Because He’s God!
Sid: And Pastor Benny, how much more the fact that we’re so close to His return.
Benny: Absolutely! I mean Sid you know what the Apostle Paul I think said it this way, “I didn’t come to you with persuasive words of man’s wisdom, but in the power and the demonstration of the Spirit of God. And I think as Christ return comes quicker and quicker as we get closer to that I believe God wants to continue to pour our even greater signs and wonders through His people.
Sid: Let me ask you a bit about yourself; you came to know the Lord at a young age, and then you became what the Bible calls lukewarm and you go out in a beach ministry because you’re very interested in seeing the women in bathing suits. But God had something else in mind, tell me about that.
Benny: Absolutely Sid, I was backslidden from 1983 to 1986; I was a Christians when…I became a Christians when I was a third grader, but I became lukewarm in high school, unfortunately like a lot of young people do. And in 1986 I ended up going to a beach retreat with our college group from our church that I was forced to attend by my parents not because I wanted to but I wanted to stay at home rent free and have food on the table. That was a good deal to go to church one a week. And so I ended up going because I wanted to see the girls in the bathing suits and bikinis and after about two days of being at this beach camp I just started walking along the beach with a friend of mine named Paul. And it was a Wednesday and we just walking 2:00 in the afternoon and low and behold no preacher, no music, no setting in church like we know it today; but literally the supernatural power of God showed up on a beach. I literally fell to His power Sid on my body, I felt conviction that I was so far from God. Literally I began to weep at 2:00 in the afternoon in the month of July at San Onofre State Beach.
Sid: Well, didn’t it bother you that there were people looking at you weeping?
Benny: It came to the point where my friend says “What’s wrong with you?” But before you knew it the same presence that was on me of the Holy Spirit jumped on him.
Sid: [Laughing]
Benny: He was backslidden, well he’s crying, I’m crying we kneel down on the beach; people at this time have stopped and are looking at these two grown men; twenty-one years of age crying with their arms around each other. And Sid at that moment when you’re in the presence of God it doesn’t really matter what men think, it didn’t matter to me what they were saying, it didn’t matter to me that we were looking rather funny on a beach crying and at that moment Sid I said a prayer, “I said Lord I come back to You; you never left me I left You; come back into my heart.” And Then I said a prayer I said “God if you want me in the full time ministry I’ll do it.” And at that moment of time Sid a supernatural occurrence occurred where I believe again I rededicated my life to the Lord and I prayed that prayer and in one instance rededicated and God called me to the ministry. And here I am twenty-one years later, almost twenty-two years later now pasturing in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sid: And now this is not you know De Moen, Iowa, this is sin city Las Vegas, Nevada. Why in the world would you pick Las Vegas?
Benny: Well, you know Sid to be quite honest with you I didn’t pick it; I wanted to go to San Diego.
Sid: You like the weather?
Benny: I like the weather but God moved us here for my traveling ministry in 2001 and I though, “Well, okay it’s for my traveling ministry because I travel all over the world preaching and ministering.” But after living here Sid for about a year and half the Holy Spirit spoke to me and “The reason I brought you here to Las Vegas from Seattle was to plant a church.” And so sure enough we planted a church.
Sid: Let me ask you a question; we’re making available your new book “Upside down.” And it’s kind of neat, the cover is upside down and it’s a guide book for those that are hungering and thirsting for more of God. But you were tilling me about a businessman who walked into your church and shard a testimony about this book; tell me about it.
Benny: Well what is interesting is that the book is really touching various segments, and this businessman I just handed my book after meeting with him and talking to him about various things both spiritual and in the business world and I didn’t think anything about it. Because the book really is a handbook of how to turn your world upside down according to the book of Acts where the men came in and said, “Men that have turned the world upside down have come here too.” And so I gave him the book, he ends up reading most of it on the plane back to where he came from; called me up the next day and says “This book is phenomenal and about a week later he told me how he spoke to these business leaders of his about this book and they were clamoring for it and so ended up buying over fifty come copies just recently to literally hand out to all of his management team.
Sid: Why would a businessman be so interested in a book on turning the world upside down?
Benny: Well, I thought the same thing Sid, but he looked at me and said, “Do you understand the principals that you were teaching in this book not only turned the world upside down spiritually, but if I could get somebody whose committed, whose hungering, who does pray, who loves God, who would not want to hire a person like that to work in your business because not only have person of integrity, a person that lives by guidelines bigger than themselves, a person whose concerned about other people more than themselves.” He said,” the principals that were in there were so incredible that I was giving it to people that we’re even saved that were part of my management team because I think first of all that they are going to get saved if they read this book. And secondly though the principals are from the Bible and they could be applied in various areas of our lives.”
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth