Sid Roth - She Believed She Was Wonder Woman
Can someone that is mentally ill, I mean for 18 years, doctors have totally written them off, no hope of recovery, suddenly become normal? Next on this edition of It's Supernatural.
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Chris and Christine Spanbauer. I mean, this is unbelievable. They're not religious or anything like that. They like music. So they go out to a Christian concert. According to my notes, my notes say angels lifted you two feet off the ground. Oh give me a break. Really?
Christine Spanbauer: Yes. First I got saved. I had two people that said, isn't it about time you top struggling and fighting, and accept Jesus as your Savior. And I said, yes, it's time I quit fighting. So when I did, he scrubbed me inside and out. I asked Jesus into my heart and he just scrubbed me, and all the angels came. And I saw them just like lightbulbs going off, and it says in heaven that they all rejoice when just one person comes to know him.
Sid Roth: But you were like, what do you mean you were off the ground? Were they lifting you?
Christine Spanbauer: Yes. They lifted me up after I accepted the Lord because I was going back to my tent to see my husband.
Sid Roth: Okay. When you got back to the tent, what was going on with you?
Chris Spanbauer: Well I was, I heard the noise of the music stopping and lot of people leaving the area. And when she came around the side of the tent I saw two people with her that were laughing with her and she was sobbing at the time, and she fell into my arms crying.
Sid Roth: Did you see her off the ground?
Chris Spanbauer: I did.
Sid Roth: You really did.
Chris Spanbauer: I really did.
Sid Roth: What did it look like?
Chris Spanbauer: Well she wasn't walking. She was floating and she was glowing.
Sid Roth: This is weird.
Chris Spanbauer: She was glowing like a gold fluorescent lamp, and it was 11:00 at night when I saw her.
Sid Roth: Did it scare you? Did it intrigue you?
Chris Spanbauer: I knew something wonderful had happened for my wife, but I didn't understand what it was. I wasn't saved. I didn't understand what Christ had done for her.
Sid Roth: So what affect did this being saved have on you?
Christine Spanbauer: Oh my gosh, I did not sleep at night. I took up to four sleeping pills and drank a gallon of wine sometimes just to get to sleep, because I had no peace in my life. And when I got saved, God saved me like that so wonderfully, I slept every night. It was awesome.
Sid Roth: This might have had, it must have had quite an impact on you, Chris.
Chris Spanbauer: It had a tremendous impact on me. I was happy for her, but angry at the circumstances. The Lord dealt with me quite a bit that evening. And even though there were 4000 people at this concert I felt all alone and it was the next night that I asked Christ in my life.
Sid Roth: And your life, you had a good marriage. You had five children and when you had the fifth child, when did you realize there was something wrong with Christine?
Chris Spanbauer: It was about eight weeks after the fifth child was born. She began to experience a lot of depression and we went right to her obstetrician and let him know about it. And he put her on some valium-like medications, but it didn't seem to help her too much. She went in to deeper and deeper realms of depression.
Sid Roth: Tell me, it was depression, but then the behavior started getting very bizarre. Like what?
Chris Spanbauer: She sort of seasonally would get better for just a few months, and then she would get much worse and her behavior became more psychotic in nature. She began to do a lot of irrational things.
Sid Roth: Like what?
Chris Spanbauer: She would run to the windows and open the windows, and think it was gas in the house or that someone was after her, things like that.
Sid Roth: Like paranoid. She would like grab the steering wheel in your car?
Chris Spanbauer: That's right.
Sid Roth: And would she actually run after cars?
Chris Spanbauer: She did in fact run after cars.
Sid Roth: Now were you in a small town or a big city?
Chris Spanbauer: Well we actually lived in a couple of different cities, so we had to deal with cars in different cities.
Sid Roth: And when this was going on, did you have any understanding you were doing something bizarre?
Christine Spanbauer: It was something that would just come over me and I had no control of it, really. I felt that I was hopeless and I knew I was doing it, but I had no control over it, and I wanted to quit. And I would always ask him to pray for me that it would stop.
Sid Roth: But we're not talking about eight days. We're not talking about a year. We're not talking about ten years. We're talking about 18 years. Could the doctors help her any, Chris?
Chris Spanbauer: The doctors did their best to help Christine. We had 19 different doctors in 18 years and i, it was frustrating to see that their abilities to help her were not enough ability to help her, and very frustrating. Most of the physicians that I dealt with and Christine received therapy from did not really want to listen to what I had to say. They were trying to deal out of the medical textbook with the prescribed medication protocol.
Sid Roth: But would the medication make her normal?
Chris Spanbauer: The medication never did make her normal.
Sid Roth: And would she, did they say that she eventually would get okay after ten years and 15 years? What was the prognosis?
Chris Spanbauer: The prognosis was she would never get better. She would always be on medication.
Sid Roth: And how was she, was she able at all to take care of the five children?
Chris Spanbauer: There would be times that she was less depressed, less psychotic and occasionally with medications, probably 50 percent of the time would give her some level of ability to help in the home. But at other times, it seemed to almost work against her.
Sid Roth: I have to ask the hard question. Why didn't you leave her? Why didn't you throw in the towel?
Chris Spanbauer: Several reasons. Number one.
Sid Roth: I'll tell you what. Hold that thought. Eighteen years that type of bizarre behavior, running after cars, trying to cause a wreck. She couldn't go into stores. Just depressed all the time. I don't know how Chris held on or do i? We're going to find out in a moment. Very supernatural. Don't go away.
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Chris and Christine Spanbauer. I don't know how Chris did it. For 18 years, his wife, she would shake, she was suicidal. She would run after cars, all sorts of bizarre behavior. Mental illness, doctors offered no hope. They would drug her, but it worked a little bit and not work. So how did you hang in there? Why did you hang there? I have to ask this hard question. I mean, come on now, most people would have left their wife under those circumstances.
Chris Spanbauer: Well we had a wonderful marriage before she got sick and we had five children we were supporting then.
Sid Roth: Yeah, but that's 18 years.
Chris Spanbauer: I know.
Sid Roth: That's a long time.
Chris Spanbauer: Yes it was. I had to develop a prayer life that was consistent and would believe God's promises beyond what I saw with my own eyes.
Sid Roth: But still, that's a long period of time. Did he ever speak to you?
Chris Spanbauer: He spoke to me fairly often.
Sid Roth: And what did he tell you about your wife?
Chris Spanbauer: He told me he was going to completely heal her.
Sid Roth: Did you, after 18 years of this, did you think that maybe it was your mind playing tricks?
Chris Spanbauer: No, I knew it was the Lord, but of course, it's one thing to hear the Lord speak that, it's another thing to see it come to pass.
Sid Roth: So tell me what you would, how would you pray? I mean, according to my notes, you would pray at certain points for God to take your life. Why?
Chris Spanbauer: I reached times of frustration. I had asked the Lord to take me home several times during her sickness. I just thought it would be easier for everybody. I knew that she could be institutionalized and she'd be taken care of, but the Lord told me to stop praying that way.
Sid Roth: Christine, you are, you're in and out of sanity, let's say. When you're kind of in at times from the medication, you see what's going on with Chris. What's going on inside of the mind of someone that is mentally ill?
Christine Spanbauer: Oh my gosh. Well you have a dark, you're like in a dark hole. You try to get up out of that hole, but you can't. You can't dig your way out. You know the only way out for me was the Lord.
Sid Roth: Now you had had an experience with God, but over 18 years, what was your thinking about God at this point?
Christine Spanbauer: Well toward the end I did not believe too much and I had a hard time. I was losing hope. But through most of it, I believed in God and was used even. I would pray for people, pray for people to be healed.
Sid Roth: Now at the end of 18 years of this, you're not going to be able to answer this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. What if a miracle hadn't happened after 18 years, would you have hung in there?
Chris Spanbauer: I believe I would have.
Sid Roth: Now you prayed in a very unusual fashion. You prayed a great deal of time in unknown tongues. Explain that to me.
Chris Spanbauer: I had had an early experience in my Christian walk of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and I had been encouraged and discipled to pray in the Holy Ghost, pray in tongues, and I had set a discipline in my life to do that early on in my Christian walk and had done that all my life.
Sid Roth: How many hours a day might you do this?
Chris Spanbauer: It depended on how bad she was and sometimes on how bad I was. But I'd pray four and five hours a day in the Holy Ghost.
Sid Roth: On a pretty regular basis?
Chris Spanbauer: That's correct.
Sid Roth: You probably can't answer this, but I'm going to have to ask you anyway. If you had not prayed in unknown tongues, do you think the miracle would have happened?
Chris Spanbauer: I don't see how it could have. I just don't see how it could have.
Sid Roth: What in your opinion is going on when you're praying this supernatural language from the inside that God has given you? What's going on?
Chris Spanbauer: Well the Bible teaches us that it builds us up on the inside. It edifies, builds us up. I believe that praying in an unknown tongue accomplishes things that we could never imagine or think of to pray for.
Sid Roth: Well I know you can't wait to find out what happened and I'm going to tell you something. It is so wonderful after 18 years. But I have a good friend by the name of Dave roberson and he found out about the supernatural languages in which you pray right out of your own spirit supernatural mysteries to God. They're known as perfect prayers because your intellect doesn't get in the way. And so he found out about this, and like Chris, he started praying eight hours a day. I mean, he wasn't working and he just would go in. He'd hear the factory horn go off. He would got into his prayer closet and pray then lunch break, he'd take his lunch pail and eat lunch. Then he'd hear factory whistle go again, and he'd go back into the prayer closet, eight hours a day for days and weeks, and months. And all of a sudden a miracle happened in his life. He went to church and he looked at the lady next to him, and he knew what was wrong with her, and he prayed for her, and she got healed, we'll be right back after this message
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Chris and Christine Spanbauer. For 18 years, Christine had mental illness, no hope medically. Her husband supernaturally held up, how many times did God speak to you when you know that it was his voice and said your wife will be healed?
Chris Spanbauer: Three different times specifically.
Sid Roth: How important was that that he spoke to you?
Chris Spanbauer: It was vital. It was absolutely vital. It gave me hope.
Sid Roth: Now your wife would be involved in such bizarre like she would actually dress as wonder woman.
Chris Spanbauer: Yes.
Sid Roth: And according to my notes you would have, what you gained a lot of weight then you'd become anorexic.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes, I was hospitalized for anorexia.
Sid Roth: When you were hospitalized in a mental institution, did it do you any good?
Christine Spanbauer: Actually, the Lord used me there and five people were saved and I got pray for my roommate who hadn't spoken in 17 years and she got saved, and she was trying to kill me. But God said, 'I'm going to protect you. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to give you charge over the angels. The angels will be there protecting you,' because she would try to strangle me every night. And I said, 'why can't you get her out of room? I mean, why do I have to stay with her'? But the Lord spoke to me and said, 'no, I want her to be saved'. She got saved and starting talking. She put her arm around all the time. She just stayed with me everywhere we went in that hospital.
Sid Roth: I'm going to take you to that famous hammock.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes.
Sid Roth: Where was it located?
Christine Spanbauer: It was the backyard by where the horses were and it was in front of the fence where the horses were.
Sid Roth: And so you were just laying in it.
Christine Spanbauer: Relaxing.
Sid Roth: And you probably did that often.
Christine Spanbauer: I did that often.
Sid Roth: And you're relaxing in this hammock, 18 years of mental illness. Yes, God is using you but you lost 18 years of your life.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes.
Sid Roth: You lost the time that you could have spent with your family. You're laying in that hammock. What happens?
Christine Spanbauer: I'm sitting there and I go, 'Lord, when are you going to heal me? I just need to be healed now. I just want to be healed so bad'. And the Lord said, 'I'm going to heal you right now, Christine'. And as he healed me all the darkness left and angels came all around me. I could feel the presence of angels and it stayed like that a long time. I had the presence and the peace.
Sid Roth: As you're sharing that right now, I can feel. Can't you?
Christine Spanbauer: Yes.
Sid Roth: I can feel the presence of God.
Christine Spanbauer: The presence of God is very strong.
Sid Roth: Did you see anything happen like when that darkness lifted? Could you see it or you just felt it?
Christine Spanbauer: I saw it leave. God just started to lift like this, like a cloud.
Sid Roth: So it was like a spirit.
Christine Spanbauer: It was a spirit, yes. It was definitely a pressure and demonic spirits.
Sid Roth: Okay. It left you.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes.
Sid Roth: What was the first thing you did when you realized it? Of course, you just experienced the most wonderful presence of God. But what's the first thing you did?
Christine Spanbauer: I walked into the house and I wanted my children to know and my husband, so I told my husband first.
Sid Roth: Chris, did you believe her or did you think it was just another thing?
Chris Spanbauer: No, there was no hiding what had happened. I could see it in her face. Her peace had returned. Her joy had returned. The horror had left.
Sid Roth: Now wait a second. You could not go into stores, you were so paranoid.
Christine Spanbauer: No, I couldn't.
Sid Roth: So what happened with going into stores?
Christine Spanbauer: When I would go into stores, people would say, 'what happened to you'? And they weren't, they're not Christians. They would say, what happened and I got to share with them miracle that God had done for me. And they said, 'you used to be crazy. How could you not be crazy'? I said, 'God heals'.
Sid Roth: Now how long has this been.
Christine Spanbauer: This has been almost three years that I've been healed.
Sid Roth: You must have a great deal of compassion for people that have mental illness.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes, I do.
Sid Roth: Would you look in the, you know, I believe that there are people that are suffering just as Christine was suffering. I believe that when someone overcomes these spirits they have authority in that realm. And when two or more agree in the name of Jesus it's even a greater authority. Would you look in the camera and pray for people with mental illness to be, for that evil oppression that left you, pray for it to leave them.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes. Lord, I just pray right now that you would set these people free of the suppression that it would leave in the name of Jesus, and Lord, that you would just set them free and give them your peace and come into their lives, and let them surrender their lives to you and live for him in Jesus' name. Amen.
Sid Roth: Now speaking of compassion, Chris, you got to have a lot of compassion. You got to be really proud of this woman.
Chris Spanbauer: I am.
Sid Roth: I mean, she loves you for what your stand was, but you've got to be proud of her. How about the children? You have grandchildren now.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes.
Sid Roth: Will your children allow you at this point to be with the grandchildren with all that bizarre 18-year history of bizarre behavior?
Christine Spanbauer: No, she was pregnant and she would never let me watch her newborn. But when she saw me healed she said, 'i have my mom back' and I've been watching the baby ever since. She's two now.
Sid Roth: Well that's the acid test.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes.
Sid Roth: What about, you have a son that prays for people with mental illness.
Christine Spanbauer: Yes he does.
Sid Roth: Tell me about one case.
Christine Spanbauer: Okay. There was, he lived in Arizona then and he a bitterness in his heart. But when I got healed he let go of that bitterness and the Lord has been using him for people that have, has compassion for that have mental illness. And this man was Spanish and he said, 'right now you can accept Jesus as your Lord and you could be healed, too, of this illness, because my mom was set free'. And he kneeled in a field and he accepted all of the Lord and then he was healed.
Sid Roth: Chris, there are some spouses going through exactly what you went through. They love God. Would you look in the camera and give them some advice.
Chris Spanbauer: There are many people I know that are standing for their spouse, whether it's husband, wife. You need to know that you cannot lose hope. You need to speak hope to that individual that's sick and you need to believe God's promises. And I would suggest highly that if you are part of a church that does not believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, find one who does believe in it. Begin to learn to speak in tongues and do it disciplined and daily, and watch the healing come.
Sid Roth: There are people that are watching right now. In order to be so filled with the Holy Spirit you have to get rid of sin. The only way to get rid of sin is to tell God you're sorry and to ask that the blood of Jesus washes away your sins, and then with your mouth proclaim that Jesus is your Messiah and Lord. If you have done this you're a candidate to receive more of the Spirit of God that even drew you to him in the first place. And if you will say, say it with me right now, Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Right now, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Feel that peace? That's the Spirit of God that's coming in. Say out loud in Jesus' name, thank you for filling me with your spirit. And you may say, I don't know what to say to speak for my spirit, but that's right because it's not coming from your mind. If you'll be like a little child and just speak out loud by faith, I don't know what to say, perfect. Just start saying syllables and make them longer. Oh some of you are starting and others are just waiting for something to take over your tongue. It will never happen. It will only happen if you by faith like a little child, if your father said, make up a language, it won't be made up. But the mechanics for the supernatural to come out of you are just like making up a language. Raise your hands up to God right now. That's a form of surrender. Say, thank you, Father God, for filling me with your spirit. Begin to praise him. Let's all three of us join hands and praise him in an unknown language. All curses, loose them and let them go. Cancer, all infections, all addictions, all injuries, aids, sexually transmitted disease, pneumonia, cirrhosis, bacterial meningitis, muscular dystrophy, blindness and eye disease,