Sid Roth - Lightning Struck Me! Then a Strange Thing Happened...
He was struck with 125 million volts of electricity when lightning hit him. When he prays, even the dead come back to life. Next on this edition of "It's Supernatural"!
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Ira Kellman. Ira, what is it like to be struck with lightning?
Ira Kellman: Well to say the least, it was an electrifying experience.
Sid Roth: Oh come on. Seriously, was it painful?
Ira Kellman: It wasn't painful. It was just like you can't believe it even happened to you, because when I was struck, I'm talking in a church. I'm speaking to people, and in my mind I'm saying, "Oh my God, I got hit by lightning, and I'm still alive. You know, you get caught-up in another zone of like, being not out of your body, but it's like a numb feeling, and you just can't believe what was happening. My heart was pounding for an hour-and-a-half, you know, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, but nothing happened to me physically. Physically, there was no damage.
Sid Roth: Isn't this unusual, to be hit by 125 million volts of electricity and have nothing happen to you physically?
Ira Kellman: Very unusual. But I think the thing that preserved me, I know the situation that preserved me was, I prayed before it happened, and I prayed in the hotel on the way to the meeting before it happened, and I think it was God's grace; God's hand on me that supernaturally protected me.
Sid Roth: It was obviously that. But I'll tell you the thing that crossed my mind is I was reading about this, and that is you were speaking from the 91st Psalm. Do you remember what you said?
Ira Kellman: "No evil shall befall me, nor plague shall come near thy dwelling". And I prayed for protection for - upon the building and everything around in the vicinity, and that's a powerful prayer of Moses there. and God oversaw it and God did it all.
Sid Roth: When lightning hit you, at what point did it hit you? What were you saying when it hit you? I mean, that's kind of embarrassing, speaking in a church and getting hit by lightning.
Ira Kellman: Well we know God only does good things, and so it was the evil forces that tried to hurt me and the congregation.
Sid Roth: But what you were saying? Do you remember?
Ira Kellman: The last word I got out of my mouth was, "I bind you in the name of Jesus". And then the lightning hit.
Sid Roth: You know what? We have this on tape, the actual experience. It's not on audio, unfortunately, but it's - it's not on video, unfortunately - but it is on audio. I want to hear that right now.
Ira Kellman: People dwell in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus we speak protection, protection, protection. The blood of Jesus upon all our possessions, upon our home, upon the cars, upon the property, upon the church, upon swimming pools, upon everything around here, upon all the land. We bind the destruction of tornadoes, too, in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, we bind them.
Sid Roth: My goodness! When you hear that, when you hear that, I mean, what goes inside of you when you hear that again? Do you get a little fear come on you?
Ira Kellman: No. Now when I hear it I just laugh. But before, I was just stunned, you know, and I couldn't even, you know, I was talking on things, and I couldn't say things the right way, you know. It's like I tried to say, when the lightning hit, it hit the thing. I couldn't even say "microphone", because I had a lapel microphone on and I was jacked into the wall. The lightning hit the roof, went down the wall and went through the electrical system, and blasted me, you know, just like you see in cartoons, you know. It's like when lightning hits a golf course, the lightning travels down and it hits the cleats if somebody who has cleats on. But now when I hear it I just laugh, you know, because it's really funny now. No, I'm not afraid of it, because of the situations I've been, in and it just - when it first happened, I was just a little bit delirious.
Sid Roth: Now what is a nice Jewish boy speaking about Jesus in a church? That's got to be a story. Tell me how that happened.
Ira Kellman: Well we have to go back some years here, and the nice Jewish boy grew up without any knowledge of Yeshua. He grew up in a Jewish Catholic neighborhood, and he didn't know anything, so-to-say, spiritually about New Testament stuff. I grew up in a Jewish Catholic neighborhood. I had a lot of Catholic friends; I heard about Mary from my friends. All I had was, per se, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets. I didn't have any up-to-date information the way a lot of people do today about situations, about, you know, Jesus and other facts. And I was a "wandering Jew". I was ignorant.
Sid Roth: What were you doing for a living at that point?
Ira Kellman: At that time I was working - some years later I was working for MGM movies, and I was going to school. I wanted to be a filmmaker. And so - and I was also taking drugs, and drinking, and marijuana, and pills, and LSD, and running around with women, running around with rock stars.
Sid Roth: Ira, were you happy?
Ira Kellman: No!
Sid Roth: How could you not be happy with all of that?
Ira Kellman: Well you think you're happy, but it's a delusion, you know, because people do all that and they think they're happy for the moment, and the next day or a couple of hours later, you know, you have those feelings of depression and delusion, and just, you just feel unfulfilled. But that's the only thing you know to do, because everybody else is doing it.
Sid Roth: So you're watching one night, of all things, "Samson and Delilah", the Bible story. What happened?
Ira Kellman: I was watching the story. And Samson was tied up by the Philistines; the Philistines were taking him to their city to, you know, mock him and scourge him, and kill the great hero of Israel. And all of a sudden, I started remembering the Bible stories that the rabbis told me. I never thought about those stories when I was on drugs, when I was running around the discos. But it just started coming out of my heart. And when Samson prayed - you know, Cecil B. DeMille's special effects, when it had the clouds go grey and everything and the cords broke off him - well when that happened, this power, this presence, came into my bedroom. I didn't understand what it was, but I knew there was a power. I knew there was a presence in my bedroom. And I went upstairs to my mother and I said, "Ma, where's my Bible"? She says, "Bible? What do you want your Bible for"? I says, "Never mind. Just give me my Bible".
Sid Roth: Had you read the Bible in years?
Ira Kellman: Not in years.
Sid Roth: Why would you want the Bible?
Ira Kellman: It just came out of my heart, "Just go read the Bible". Sometimes you do things you don't know why you're doing it. You just have that feeling, that urge, that impression, that leading to do it, and this was one of those times I had the feeling - the urge to do that - and so I get the Bible. I come downstairs and I says, "God, I don't know if You are, but if You are, I'm going to find You". I don't know anything, so I started reading, you know, the Old Testament. I started reading the Psalms, the Psalms of David, started reading other stories. And after many, many months I came to the place that I believed that there is a "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob". I really believe He does exist.
Sid Roth: And so you start listening. now no one is telling you about God, though. But you start listening to the radio, and you learn about Jesus. What did you think about Him?
Ira Kellman: Well I didn't know what to think. I was about to put the radio off because I never heard about Him. Nice Jewish boys don't hear about Jesus. And I heard this voice in my heart say, "No, listen". So I started listening, day-in and day-out, you know, different stories about Jesus from different people on the radio. I didn't even know who they are. And I said to God one day, "God, I don't know what these people are talking about, but if what they're talking about is true, I want to know. So I have a question for You, God. My mother knows me as her son, and I know You, God; and if Jesus is Your Son, You're going to know Your Son. So give me this understanding of what these people are talking about, because I want to know, and I want to know if Jesus is real; because if He's real, I want to embrace Him".
Sid Roth: Hold that question. Hold that thought. Don't you dare go away. We'll be right back after this word.
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Ira Kellman. What's a nice Jewish boy doing in a church, saying that God is going to take care of every one of your problems, quoting from the 91st Psalm, and all of a sudden, BOOM, 125 million volts of electricity hits him. Lightning actually hit him while he was preaching in this church. And so I asked him, "Ira, how come as a Jewish man like you believed in Jesus"? And he told me he watched a video - a movie - it was "Samson and Delilah". And all of a sudden a presence - a supernatural presence of God - came into the room. He wasn't thinking about God - he was into drugs, he was into the jet set type of life - but God came in, and he can't even explain why. He said, "I want to read my own scriptures". So he said, "Ma, where's my bar mitzvah Bible"? And his mother grabs out the Bible. He starts reading and reading it. Then he starts listening to a radio program about Jesus, and he says, "God, I want to know if Jesus is the Messiah". And so how did God answer that prayer?
Ira Kellman: I was listening to another radio show, between 12 and 12:30 at night. It was a couple of days later, and the man is talking about, you know, New Testament teaching, and he starts talking about Jesus. And I had my Bible open, reading in the Old Testament because I still don't have a New Testament yet, and I was reading that. But then I started listening to him, and all of a sudden, a couple minutes later I'm just really listening intently, and I go, "Oh my God! Jesus is the Messiah"! This light, this revelation, this understanding came into me, and I just knew that I knew.
Sid Roth: You know, as you're saying that, Ira, I can feel the presence of God. It's - I mean, it's just getting stronger and stronger. And then a few weeks later, what happened?
Ira Kellman: A few weeks later, I'm praying, and you have to realize, I don't know New Testament terminology, and I'm praying. God - Jehovah God - appears to me in a vision, and God is glory. God is like a cloud of glory. And God spoke to my heart - not in an audible voice - but spoke to my heart, and said, "I've called you to be a prophet evangelist. I am going to send you around the world; and everywhere you go in the world, there's going to be healings and miracles". And He told me some other things. And I said, "God, I know you're talking to me. But God, what's an evangelist"?
Sid Roth: You didn't know what an evangelist was?
Ira Kellman: I didn't know what an evangelist was. I never heard the terminology. I said, "God, what's a healing? What's a miracle"? I said, "God, I don't know, but I do know You're talking to me. Lord, I ask You to lead me, teach me, show me, guide me. I want to do what You want me to do; but I don't understand anything. But I want You to show me and guide me into it".
Sid Roth: Out of curiosity, from the time you said that prayer to make Jesus your Messiah and Lord, what happened with your drugs and your jet-set life?
Ira Kellman: Poof!
Sid Roth: Poof!
Ira Kellman: Everything went out of me. Every desire, whatever kind of negative effect from all the LSD and pills, everything was totally healed. Nobody ever prayed over me. I still don't even know what a Christian - I don't even know any Christians yet. I don't even have a New Testament. God, by His hand just totally took it out of me. Poof. Everything went out of me. Totally healed me.
Sid Roth: Did He tell you what an evangelist was, and what healing was?
Ira Kellman: Well yeah. I had to start reading. I finally got a New Testament, and I started leaning what an evangelist was, and a proclaimer, and...
Sid Roth: I want you to proclaim right now. You told me someone was healed just before the show started. What happened?
Ira Kellman: Well number one, the first one on the side here, for those who need healing, any kind of problem on your side right now, in the name of Jesus, be healed. Any kind of problem - if you need God to heal you right now, and any kind of problem in your hand, arthritis, rheumatism, skin problem - be healed. In your hand right now, in the name of Jesus.
Sid Roth: I understand that someone handed a dead baby to you; literally handed a dead baby to you. Did you know the baby was dead?
Ira Kellman: I didn't know the baby was dead. It was during a meeting; and people were making noise, and they were thanking God, and dancing, and praising God, because a lot of healings were going on, and I didn't hear. And she gave me the baby, and I just started praying over the baby, and you know, thank God that our spirit prays what people need. And I gave her back the baby, and all of a sudden she started yelling and screaming, "My baby is alive! My baby is alive"! And I go, "What do you mean your baby is alive"? Then she started explaining to me that the baby was dead, and just died a couple of hours before from suffocation, and God did a miracle. There was nothing - no pulse, no nothing - from the baby, and then God did a miracle.
Sid Roth: I've got to ask you a question. What about your Jewish mother that gets your Bible? I mean, she must have thought you were "a bissel meshuga", "a little crazy" to want your Bible back then.
Ira Kellman: Well she thought I wanted - she thought I was crazy then. And then I come home after being away for a year, and I start telling her that Jesus is the Messiah. She went crazier, poking knives and forks at me, pulling my hair.
Sid Roth: Seriously?
Ira Kellman: Seriously. Throwing meatballs and spaghetti at me, and everything.
Sid Roth: I thought she was Jewish; that's the Italian side.
Ira Kellman: We grew up in a Jewish Italian neighborhood. She went wild on me because she didn't...
Sid Roth: So what did she think of her son the evangelist?
Ira Kellman: Let's flash forward some years in the future. I wrote a book, and I dedicated it to my mother, and she came to believe in Jesus. She embraced her faith in Jesus.
Sid Roth: How about your dad?
Ira Kellman: My dad is with the Lord, so he got saved. I told him how I got, you know, to believe in the Lord, so he did the same thing, too, and he's with the Lord.
Sid Roth: What is going to happen in this last segment that's coming up of "It's Supernatural"! television? What's going to happen, Ira?
Ira Kellman: Well people are going to get healed. We're going to talk about some amazing miracles that happened under my ministry.
Sid Roth: Now someone - a dead baby coming back to life - is an amazing miracle.
Ira Kellman: Amazing miracle.
Sid Roth: What about things - that don't exist - being created? Have you seen creative miracles?
Ira Kellman: I've seen that, and I've gotten reports from people who have been in my meetings. You know, I don't do anything. God does it; I’m the mouthpiece.
Sid Roth: One quick creative miracle. Tell me about it.
Ira Kellman: I have right here, a letter right here from a grandmother. This baby only had a brainstem; no brain. And I prayed for this baby last year in Arizona, and the baby has a half a brain. The baby's brain is still growing. The baby is singing, talking, moving, eye contact. Never had - did anything before like that. Grandma.
Sid Roth: What do you need? I said what do you need? Listen, the power of God is in this show. The power of God is going right through your television set right now. What do you need? When I come back, God is going to meet your needs. Why? Because He loves you.
Ira Kellman: That's right.
Sid Roth: That's why. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Ira Kellman. Before we go back to Ira, I want to talk to Janie in the control room. Janie, can you imagine being hit with 125 million volts of electricity, lightning hitting you? Can you imagine that happening to someone?
Janie Duvall: I can't imagine it at all because I know I've touched electricity just for a second and it really hurts. So, you know, that's a total miracle to be alive.
Sid Roth: Do you remember the first television show that we did in Orlando, Florida? We were interviewing a woman that had been involved in the new age and she just said the address of the man she was going to. What was, what happened? You take it.
Janie Duvall: She was talking about the address. She was in Hollywood and she had actually demonic favor and she was at this address, which was 666. The moment she said 666, all of a sudden lightning struck and all the lights went out here in the studio.
Sid Roth: I couldn't help but think about that when I was interviewing Ira. Who's on next week?
Janie Duvall: A young guy named Todd Bentley and he was into Satanic worship. But he had a dramatic experience with God. And when he did a man tried to kill him, and an angel stepped in and stopped the man from killing him.
Sid Roth: Sounds like my kind of story. Thank you, Janie. Ira, I don't know this, but have you ever seen an angel?
Ira Kellman: I've seen his garment. I've sensed his presence, because they've been in my meetings a lot. And when they manifest their presence, this light and this power comes even stronger into the meeting, and you know that there's angelic forces there.
Sid Roth: Take me into one of your meetings. Tell me what goes on.
Ira Kellman: Well I give my testimony or I teach, and I pray for people, and God comes down very strong by the Holy Spirit, by His presence, by His power, and people get healed: arthritis, rheumatism, broken bones, cancer, heart problems, just whatever.
Sid Roth: Out of curiosity, have you seen any - I'm being very serious now.
Ira Kellman: Okay.
Sid Roth: Have you seen an increase in the intensity of power since you've been struck with lightning? I'm just curious.
Ira Kellman: Yes I have.
Sid Roth: Really?
Ira Kellman: Ever since that happened, it just magnified even to greater, greater, greater degrees.
Sid Roth: But did you know as much power as 125 million volts of electricity - and that's a lot of power...
Ira Kellman: That's a lot.
Sid Roth: As Janie said, you get a little shock and it bothers you.
Ira Kellman: Yeah.
Sid Roth: But as much power as that is, tell me about a greater power.
Ira Kellman: The greater power is the greater power of God's love, of God's saving grace.
Sid Roth: What happened? Tell me about a person that experienced a miracle under God when you were speaking.
Ira Kellman: Well people have been healed of cancers. I mean, one man I prayed for, his whole stomach was filled up with cancer; going to the doctor the next day. Went to the doctor the next day, no cancer. And they wanted to operate, and they didn't think he was going to live. People have had broken bones, blind eyes, deaf ears, fingers have grown, rare blood diseases. I prayed for a couple people with AIDS and they've been healed, and you know.
Sid Roth: There's not a cure.
Ira Kellman: There's no cure. But the situation, I want to mention, is that I don't do anything - God does it by His power, by His love to people - but I've seen almost everything healed. I've seen people come in with crutches and stretchers, people with twisted, contorted bodies, you know, we've seen, and God straightened out their bodies. I mean, that's a creative miracle.
Sid Roth: When did you realize this was happening?
Ira Kellman: Well I started growing into it. You know, from the very beginning I started praying for people. They started getting healed, and then all of a sudden, some years later, about three years after I got saved, the power started happening, and people just started - massive power just go into their bodies and into whole congregations, and these miracles started happening and, you know, in greater dimensions and greater capacities.
Sid Roth: Now you have actually seen people that had stubs for fingers and the fingers grow out?
Ira Kellman: Grow out.
Sid Roth: Tell me about that.
Ira Kellman: Well you know, sometimes somebody has an accident, etc., etc.
Sid Roth: Yes.
Ira Kellman: And I just prayed over them. I commanded it to grow, just like I command the people's legs to grow out, and people's legs to grow out, and the finger grew out.
Sid Roth: Did you watch this?
Ira Kellman: I watched it.
Sid Roth: Was it gradual?
Ira Kellman: Oh it was a gradual thing, but it came out, yeah.
Sid Roth: How long did it take?
Ira Kellman: It probably took about five minutes.
Sid Roth: That's not gradual. That's instant.
Ira Kellman: Okay.
Sid Roth: Listen, we've got a lot of people that are desperate for a miracle. Will you pray for them right now?
Ira Kellman: I would love to pray for them.
Sid Roth: Right now.
Ira Kellman: Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you, Lord. And you see everybody; You're everywhere; Your spirit is everywhere. And Lord, I ask you to manifest Your spirit of healing right now, of miracles. The presence of God that came into my bedroom, the presence of God that comes into the meetings, the presence of God that's right here, right now, to go into all these homes right now, and bring healing and peace, and revelation, and strength, and hope, and love, and joy, and freedom. Lord, Your anointing to destroy all yokes of sickness and disease from hearts, from minds, from bodies, from people's skin. That shoulder to be healed right now, too, arthritis, and bursitis to be totally healed right now, too, in Jesus' name. Lord, total massive healings. Your presence can be so strong that these people know that God has visited them, and God is blessing them right now, Father, in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord. It's "Not by might it’s not by power, but it’s by Your spirit". Amen.
Sid Roth: There is someone with a headache. And yes, God is even interested in a headache, and it's gone. And there's someone with a tumor; it is gone in Jesus' name. That's good news. But I have even better news for you, and that is your sins have been washed away; it’s as if you've never sinned before if you believe that Jesus died for your sins, and ask God to forgive you. You say you haven't sinned? You lied? Cheated? Stole? What have you done? Sex outside of marriage, New Age, occult - confess your sins; believe that Jesus' blood washed them away. Make Jesus your Messiah and Lord. Spirit of the Living God, I pray that they sense Your presence right now. Just as I sense it, and Ira senses it, right now, right through the television, let them, it's coming right now. That's the presence of the Living God coming right through your set. You will never be the same. There's so much healing right now.
Ira Kellman: That's right.
Sid Roth: As a point of contact, just as a point right now, touch that set. Be healed, in Jesus' name. Ira, can you feel the healing that is going on right now?
Ira Kellman: I can feel it. And somebody's right ear to be opened, deafness and any kind of ear problem in your right ear, to open right now in Jesus' name.
Sid Roth: Someone's back has been healed, and your neck, your spine is being healed right now. I mean, move your arms. Move the part of your body that needs the healing and you'll see. You'll see. You are whole in Jesus' name. But O God, there are people that need to experience Your love. I pray that You would embrace them right now with Your love. Pour out Your love to them right now. Pour out Your shalom, Your peace right now. Someone has difficulty breathing. You have no difficulty anymore. You're whole; you're whole. Spirit, soul, and body, you're whole, in Yeshua's name. Shalom. Shalom.