Sid Roth - Esther's SECRET to Finding FAVOR with the King
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Tommy Tenney and I have to tell you last week something happened to me in a very supernatural fashion. You see, God began to tell me there were people that were watching that had separation between him and them. And that God wanted in the worst way to have intimacy with them. He wants you to know him. He wants you to experience his love, and I believe those same people are watching right now and I have a guest, Tommy Tenney, who was my guest last week and I said to Tommy, I have to have you this week because there was a special presence of God for certain people. This is an inter-active show, what I mean by inter-active is that you are not just going to sit back and be entertained, you are going to experience the supernatural hand of God. Tommy, we were talking last week about the book of Esther and, you know, when you say this it inspires me so much. When you talk about the title of your motion picture, one night with the king, tell us what one night with the king could do for an individual watching us right now.
Tommy Tenney: Like we were talking last week, favor is the key word in the book of Esther. It is virtually in every chapter that Esther found favor. And its about finding favor, not with just anybody, you don't need everybody to like you, just the right one. But how do you, how do you get God to like you? Some people feel like that's impossible, its really not. And Esther learned the secrets, and we've been talking about what we called the protocols of the palace. Picture this young Jewish peasant girl, picked up, deposited in the palace. She has to learn where to walk, where not to walk, what to say. She learns the protocol. And in terms of our heavenly king worship is the protocol, it's how you act in God's presence. What made the king notice Esther? And I'm going to make what could be a humorous comment but, Sid, I don't really think that Esther walked into the king's presence with an old dirty tee-shirt on, white fluffy bunny slippers with the back mashed out, and said, hey, big boy, we've got to talk. I don't think it happened that way. I think that...
Sid Roth: How many women were going after this position, would you say?
Tommy Tenney: Well, somewhere between 400 and 1400. Some of them volunteered, some of them their parents sent them there to try to gain political positions. Some were just carried captive there.
Sid Roth: And many of them had pedigrees, not like Esther.
Tommy Tenney: That's right. It was unprecedented for a Persian king to not marry somebody from their lineage. And its an incredible story that God picked Esther, but Esther submitted herself to that protocol. She said, okay, to one of the kings chamberlain, we know his name in the Bible, Haggai, she said, you tell me how to act, you tell me what to do, tell me what to wear, and she did that. And there are people who dishonor the king by refusing to learn how to act in his presence. My mission in life, I'm not the king, I'm a chamberlain, I'm a guy that's been in the presence of the king and my goal is to tell people how to act in his presence. I talk to people about worship: I can tell you what the kings favorite dress is. He said, put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Praise is God's favorite dress. And some people say, well, you know, that's just not my personality. Yet they want favor. But they say, it's not my personality to do that. Then don't blame me if God doesn't nod as we talked about...
Sid Roth: Are you trying to tell me, Tommy, it's not my kingdom, but his kingdom, it's not my will, but his will, but would you...
Tommy Tenney: God has this incredible idea, Sid. He thinks church and the world is all about him.
Sid Roth: It's not about the pastor who has to give his message, or he'll bust? I don't believe I said that.
Tommy Tenney: And neither is it about the banker that has to pursue his career or he'll bust. It's all about God. It's about, we were created for a purpose, and you will all be frustrated, we will all be frustrated, if we don't fulfill our ultimate purpose. And the ultimate purpose of man is to worship God.
Sid Roth: So many people go to church and they think the worship is the preliminary.
Tommy Tenney: Worship is the only part of our services that God gets any thing out of.
Sid Roth: I would like you to say that again.
Tommy Tenney: Worship, I didn't say worship was the only good part.
Sid Roth: Right.
Tommy Tenney: I said worship is the only part of our services that God gets anything out of. God doesn't get anything out of my preaching, your teaching. Can you see God sitting on the throne of heaven listening to what we have to say and nudging Michael or Gabriel and saying, "Here, hand me a pen, I want to write that down, I didn't know that". No. My preaching, my teaching doesn't teach God anything. The purpose of preaching and teaching is to raise up worshippers. So, there's an attitude that comes with the denigrating of worship. People say, you know, I'll be late for church and I'll miss the wo4rship but I'll get there for the word. And they are proud of that fact. What they are saying is, saying to God, I'm going to miss your part. I want to get there for my part. And it doesn't work.
Sid Roth: You know, in your book you talk about Esther's preparation. Especially soaking for a year. We're going to take a break and when we come back we're going to learn...
Tommy Tenney: Can you imagine what she smelled like?
Sid Roth: I'm going to tell you something I think she smelled more like that perfume than she smelled like a human. We'll be back in just a moment. Don't go away. Someone's neck has just been healed, someone's back is just straightening out, and your hip the pain is gone, in Jesus name. This is inter-active, two-way television, and some of you are about ready to have that encounter that your heart has wanted. Your mind just hasn't quite figured it out yet, but it will. Don't go away, we'll be right back.
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Tommy Tenney. There's a part of his book, on the book of Esther that I have to tell you is one of my favorite parts. At least that's where God has me right now. Some people refer to this as soaking. Tommy has other descriptions for it. Tommy, tell me about Esther's preparation with that oil of myrrh and perfume.
Tommy Tenney: Esther, when she was brought into the palace, it's not like they said, okay, take a shower, and tomorrow you see the king. There was twelve months of preparation. The first six months the Bible says that they soaked in oil of myrrh. That's a very fragrant, aromatic perfume, and six months in oil of myrrh. The king must have really liked myrrh. And then six months with other spices until by the end of that process I think you could probably smell Esther before you could see Esther. They would say, here comes Esther. But I don't see her. No, but she carried her own cloud with her. And that was the anointing. And the real purpose of that anointing, now think about this Sid, she walks through the palace. Every young man in the palace wants to say, hey Esther, let's talk. To which Esther's only legitimate response is, sorry, I can't talk to you. But why, Esther? You smell good, you look good, you're walking good, beautiful dress. Esther would have to say, I'm sorry I can't talk to you. Why? It's not your oil. Sometimes Sid, we prostitute the anointing to gain favor with anybody else in the palace. And one of the lessons I learned from Esther is, don't flirt with lower lovers. Save yourself for the king. And that process of preparing, it was all about, the purpose of the anointing, the real purpose of the anointing, is to camouflage the stench of human flesh so the king can stand to be in the same room with you.
Sid Roth: If someone says, I'm going to, as we do here in the west, segment their life, and say, this part is for God, this part is for me. What's wrong with that thinking?
Tommy Tenney: Well, it all belongs to God. It would have been a travesty for a young lady to walk in and think that the palace was about her. It would have been a prostitution of the process to say this is all about me. In order to find favor with the king, you had to realize, think about these young girls, sid. They come into this palace: they had never seen a palace like this. It would have been real easy, I'm going to tweak some religious spirits, can you handle it?
Sid Roth: I can handle it, the question is can you handle it?
Tommy Tenney: They walk into this palace and it's beautiful and it would have been real easy for these young peasant girls to fall in love with the palace. Esther's secret was, she didn't fall in love with the palace, she fell in love with the presence. She realized that the palace was just a big empty house without the king. Sometimes people fall in love with, church. And what they need to do is fall in love with the king.
Sid Roth: Tommy, I have a question. You've got this Hollywood motion picture, you've got book after book after book that's bestseller. How do you, as my wife likes to say, how do you handle the "P" word? Pride?
Tommy Tenney: Oh.
Sid Roth: That's a toughie though.
Tommy Tenney: You know it may be. But I know Tommy Tenney. He's not capable of doing any of that. I couldn't do it without him. It's not about me.
Sid Roth: What is your personal worship like, life like?
Tommy Tenney: Very contemplative. I, most of my prayer time is spend listening instead of talking. I do have a few outbursts every now and then tell him how I feel. But I've found that a good listener is more powerful than a good talker. And it works with my wife: works with people, and about the only time I'm really comfortable talking is when I'm up speaking. The rest of the time I would prefer to fade into the background somewhere.
Sid Roth: Just out of curiosity, are you more of an introverted type of person if you really could do what you wanted to do?
Tommy Tenney: If I could do what I wanted to do, I'd live on an island, my wife, my family, my kids, write books and be in the presence of God. Quite honestly, sid, I don't get my kicks out of preaching. Preaching is my assignment: it's what I'm supposed to do. Writing is my assignment. Where I get my life from, where energy flows into me is from worship. And there is nothing better that I like than to be in God's presence. Not somebody saying he's there, but him really being there.
Sid Roth: For those that really don't understand what we're talking about, what does it mean, really, in words people can understand, to be in the presence of God?
Tommy Tenney: I've been in the presence of presidents, powerful people, in making this movie, had many, many nights of dinner with people like Omar Sharif, famous actors, and they are all interesting people, but there is nothing like being in the presence of God, your past and your future all rolled into one. Suddenly you see, and you don't only see, you understand what you see. When I'm in God's presence, I understand things, I know how things work, I don't have to try to figure things out, you walk out, have you ever walked into a worship service and circumstances in life have you down, but you worship. You don't just sing a song, you don't go through a ritual, you somehow get into God's presence, then when you leave that service, the circumstances that existed before you walked in are still there, but they don't affect you anymore. Because of the divine perspective, you saw how it works.
Sid Roth: With what's going on in the world today, how would you like to walk in that type of supernatural peace?
Tommy Tenney: Favor.
Sid Roth: The whole thing that Tommy is saying is, he's not special. What God has done for him, he wants to, I believe God has a greater desire for you to enter this arena, than you do. I think it's time for it to be reversed. I think you should have a greater desire to enter it than God. But it's actually the opposite. We'll be right back, if that hasn't confused you, come on back and I'll confuse you a little more. Don't go away.
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter. I'm so glad that this isn't the same old, same old type of TV where you sit back, and you just relax and you say entertain me. No, no, no this is inter-active. You are about ready to experience the power of God. You see, Tommy Tenney, has intimacy with God and from this intimacy he walks in divine favor and he tells me his favorite thing is to just relax in his chair and contemplate things, and he hears expressions and words from God. And Tommy, I have to believe some of those nuggets in your book came from those times.
Tommy Tenney: Oh, absolutely.
Sid Roth: Tell us just a few of them.
Tommy Tenney: Well, it's about favor. We were chatting. We have actually had about as much fun off the air as we have on the air.
Sid Roth: Well it had better be that way, otherwise forget it all.
Tommy Tenney: That's right. We were talking and this is one of the things that impacted me is that one day of favor can be worth more than a lifetime of labor. You can work your whole life and it not put you where one day of favor can place you.
Sid Roth: So profound.
Tommy Tenney: You don't need everybody to like you Sid: you just need the right one.
Sid Roth: And we work our whole life to get everyone else to like us and we don't even think in terms of the only one that counts.
Tommy Tenney: Favor can restore in a day what was stolen over a lifetime. Everything can be compacted into one moment. And for some people, it's their moment.
Sid Roth: And not only that, for some of you, you say, well I missed my chance. Tommy, what would you say?
Tommy Tenney: Favor can restore in a day what was stolen over a lifetime. Satan cannot steal your destiny. The king can restore anything that was stolen. The Bible is full of examples, where people like: in the story of Esther they are a disenfranchised people, carried captive. They were not only carried captive by the Persians, by the Babylonians, and then they got traded off like a used car, to the Persians. Secondhand captives. But somehow through favor Esther became queen of Persia. Her adopted father became prime minister, and carried the seal of the king's reign and authority. God wants to give people authority in their life. He wants to empower them, but you can't do it - don't flirt with everybody else in the palace. Don't worry about man's opinion. Man is fickle. They will love you today and hate you tomorrow. It's favor with the king that you really want.
Sid Roth: I understand this favor. But I'm beginning to understand it even more, Tommy, as I take some of these protocols as you call them in your book. The favor in my life is visibly increasing: it has to do with only one thing. It took me a long time to figure it out. You figured it out sooner than I did, but what's more important is to figure it out.
Tommy Tenney: That's right.
Sid Roth: Not when you figure it out, but if you figure it out. I am putting, carving out time for God like I've never done before. Quality time, quiet time, as you put it, contemplative time, and I'm seeing it. I know you don't like to say an equation, but it is, God says, I believe, that if I will spend time putting him first...
Tommy Tenney: That's right.
Sid Roth: He is going to shine on me. And the thing that is so exciting is he is enough sunlight to shine on everyone.
Tommy Tenney: If the king likes you, it doesn't matter who dislikes you. If you don't spend time with the king - Esther prepared, that was not time wasted. Some people feel like I'm stuck, I'm in a rut. Time spent preparing is never time wasted when it's your day, if you want it to be your moment, your time, your opportunity. The little woman that touched the hem of Jesus garment, she had been sick for twelve years. What if she had, and that would have been a good excuse for her to say, I don't think I going to go out into the crowd today.
Sid Roth: But worse than that, an unclean woman wasn't allowed to touch a Jewish rabbi.
Tommy Tenney: That's right. But something inside of her said I'm not going to miss my moment. I refuse to miss my destiny. And she elbowed her way past the opinions of others to get to the feet of Jesus basically. Now my Bible tells me, as best I am able to understand it, that Jesus never passed through that village again. What if she had said, I'll wait until next Sunday. I'll wait till the next program. But she said no, it's my turn. I love this little verse, Esther, chapter two, verse fifteen, it says, "Now when the turn of Esther was come". I came to tell some of you, it's your turn. It's your time.
Sid Roth: Did you hear that? It is your turn. I can tell you what happened to me. Coming from a traditional Jewish background. Being involved in the new age, not knowing the difference between my left hand and my right hand, about ready to be destroyed, about ready for my marriage to be destroyed, I can tell you that when I had no hope, it was my turn because someone cared enough about me to tell me that there is a stronger power than the new age power that was tearing me apart from the inside out and that power was in the name of Jesus, and all I can tell you is I didn't understand who he was, I didn't understand what he did, I couldn't tell you a theological message from beans, I couldn't tell you anything. All I could tell you I was going down for the third time, and I was gasping for air, and I cried out a one word prayer, no it was two words. Jesus help. And when I woke up, Tommy, from the worst night of my life, I was surrounded with supernatural peace like I had never experienced in the new age, or in the occult, and when I experienced that peace, it was the first time in a year, in a lifetime, not a year, in a lifetime I experienced that peace. And this is my story, and it's a true story. God restored my mind, he restored my peace. Get this, my wife and I just celebrated our 43rd anniversary. Only God could do this. Only God can restore. And you know something, what Tommy said, one night with the king, one night...
Tommy Tenney: Changes everything.
Sid Roth: Thirty seconds, look into the camera and say something, one night.
Tommy Tenney: One night with the king can change everything. And I think it is your turn for you to have that encounter. Remember: never underestimate the potential of one encounter. One night with the king, turned a peasant into a queen. Never underestimate the potential of one prayer. Pray that prayer now, and see what God can do. It's your turn.
Sid Roth: Simple prayer. Jesus, help. That's it, Tommy, you know. Hey you think I'm a little fanatic? You should see how fanatic people are for demonic. It's about time some of God's children got fanatic for him. He is worth it. Nothing else is worth it. God is worth it. I'm so glad you watched today. Bet you are too.