Sid Roth - How To Operate in Your God-Given Authority
Have you been satisfied to live without, I mean, daily miracles from your own prayers? That's not normal. Don't be so satisfied. Today, it changes.
Sid Roth: Hello. I'm here with Joe Oden, and, Joe, you're channel surfing one day. You're a drug addict. You overdosed on LSD. Why in the world would you be watching an evangelist on television?
Joe Oden: That's a great question. It wasn't set up that way. I was experiencing an OD, as you said, and I stopped, and when I did, there was a gentleman preaching, and he said these words. "There's some young people that are watching this program, and you're hooked on drugs. Not only are you hooked on drugs, you're in a deep, dark cave of drug addiction, but I have good news for you: Jesus Christ is in the cave with you. He's going to bring you out. He's going to set you free, and you're going to preach the Gospel around America". When he said that, Sid, the power of God hit me in the La-Z-Boy chair. I was instantaneously sobered off the drug, and I was called to preach the Gospel. I would love to say at this moment I gave my life to Christ, and I began to fulfill that call, but I began to do more drugs than I'd ever done before.
Sid Roth: Did you believe that was God?
Joe Oden: I knew unequivocally it was God because after that moment, I would be at a party strung out on drugs, doing cocaine. I'd get everybody's attention, and I'd prophesy. I didn't know what I was doing. I would say this. "One day real soon, I'm going to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the United States of America". Every,
Sid Roth: While you're high on this LSD?
Joe Oden: While I was high, while I was drinking. The call of God from that prophetic word got on the inside of me, and I knew it was my destiny.
Sid Roth: So, 2 years later, you're up to your old ways. You're still a drug addict.
Joe Oden: Right.
Sid Roth: And you get in trouble with the law, and the judge gives you an unusual sentence.
Joe Oden: Yes.
Sid Roth: He sentenced you to church?
Joe Oden: Right. I prayed along with the prophecy every night before I'd go to bed that God would get me in church. For 2 years I prayed that prayer. Court ordered by the law to go to church, I walked in. I picked a little Assembly of God Church in Southern Alabama. Six months into my church sentence, I walk in. I don't know Christianese. I don't know how to say, "I feel the Holy Spirit," but something was in the room. I began to have opened-eyed visions of the things of God. The preacher preaches. I run to the altar. I give my life to Christ. I stand up for the first time in my life washed in the blood of Jesus. He said, "What do you need from God"? I said, "I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit". He lays hands on me. I hit the ground under the power of God. That had never happened to me before. It didn't happen in my church, and before I left that day, I said, "God, if my friends that are hooked on drugs could feel this power that's running through my body right now, they'd get born again". I walked in bound by health, death, and the grave. I walked out telling everybody I could about Jesus.
Sid Roth: So, you're born again. You're baptized in the Holy Spirit?
Joe Oden: Yes.
Sid Roth: You're delivered from drugs?
Joe Oden: Yes.
Sid Roth: You are on fire for Jesus...
Joe Oden: Yes...
Sid Roth: ...all in one day?
Joe Oden: ...instantaneous deliverance.
Sid Roth: Now, that's the way it should be! Okay. You have an amazing witnessing style, absolutely amazing. He walks up to someone, and he says just a simple question. "Have you ever felt the power of God"? And then what?
Joe Oden: Well,
Sid Roth: Or give me an example.
Joe Oden: Yeah, one particular night in front of a bar called the Blue Planet, known for LSD and Ecstasy, I've got a friend of mine. We're out sharing the Gospel, and he's arguing with this guy about Jesus. I've never argued anybody into the Kingdom of God, so I walked over to him. I said, "Have you ever felt the power of God"? He said, "No". I said, "Would you like to"? He said, "Yes". I laid hands on him. I said, "Lord, I pray the fire of God would come right now in Jesus Name". He looked at me and said, "I want to get saved right now". I led him to Christ. I laid hands on him again. The second time I laid hands on him, he doubled over under the power of God, began to manifest demons, and started throwing up on the sidewalk. He comes back up totally set free. I laid hands on him a third time. I just said, "Fire". He doubles over, Sid, and went, comes back up. I said, "What are you doing"? He said, "I have no idea". So, I laid hands on him again. I mean, it's working. The fire is flowing. Why change it? I laid hands. We complicate it so many times. Laid hands on him again. He doubles over again, comes back up. I said, "Have you ever said that"? He said, "Never in my life". He was saved, delivered of demons, and baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues in less than 5 minutes. Why? Is it because I'm a good preacher? No. Is it because I've gone to Bible school? No. It's because I'm available, and I want to tell you, you say, "I'd like for God to use me to, like that". All you have to do is be available.
Sid Roth: I want you to look in the camera, and I want you to tell everyone watching this that they can do anything you can do, and they can do it better.
Joe Oden: Absolutely. I want to tell you, you don't have to be a pastor, someone on television. The Bible says that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in you. You don't need another service. You don't need another prayer meeting. You need to step out in faith and believe that God can use you. Lay hands on your waiter, your next-door neighbor, the flight attendant. Just step out. God is waiting for you.
Sid Roth: Tell me about the Jewish woman that just showed up at your service once.
Joe Oden: Yeah, we were in Texas, and this particular morning we preached, and powerful service. This Jewish girl was dating a young man from the church whose parents attended the church. They would not have come. The parents begged them, "Please come, please come, please come". They show up on a Sunday morning. They hear the Word of God. They receive a prophetic word personally to them, and she gives her life to Christ. That night, we were having a healing service, and she said before, she'd make statements, "I will never go to a crazy charismatic service," but she had a disease akin to leukemia. That night, she came. I preached on healing. She comes to the altar. She gets hit by the power of God, falls out unconscious, gets up totally healed. This is how she knew. She goes to the bathroom, and the disease in some form or fashion caused scales. They came off of her. She went to,
Sid Roth: Scales on her whole body?
Joe Oden: Her face, her nose.
Sid Roth: Okay.
Joe Oden: She went to the doctor, her hematologist, and she did a blood sample, and they called her back 2 days later and said, "Emma, the blood sample came back, and we've labeled the blood wrong, so we need you to come back". She goes back 2 days later. They take her blood again. The next night at 8 o'clock at night, the hematologist calls and says, "Emma, we didn't label your blood wrong. You're totally healed, and the diabetes you had is totally eradicated". She went on to do a 1-year case study in the medical field in Dallas, Texas, and they determined after 1 year, she was the first person medically documented healed long-term of the type of diabetes she had.
Sid Roth: I'm going to tell you something. I get the feeling that you believe, you absolutely believe with every fiber of your body that when you pray for someone, they're going to be healed. You absolutely believe with every fiber of your body that they are going to feel the presence of God. Am I right?
Joe Oden: Absolutely, I believe that, yes.
Sid Roth: There's not that much doubt?
Joe Oden: You know, I would say that when I pray for someone, it's not always about what you feel or sense. The Word of God trumps emotion. The Word of God trumps senses. The Word of God says in Mark 16, "If you believe," I want to say it to the audience. "If you believe, you shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover," so we don't base what we do on an emotion or a feeling, but what on God says, and that's how I try to live my life.
Sid Roth: Tell me about the Buddhist woman.
Joe Oden: Absolutely. Well, I'd finished a service one particular night, walked into a sandwich shop, and there was a Buddhist behind the counter. Now, I believe the Bible. There's one way to Heaven, and it's through Jesus. It's not Mohammad. It's not Buddha. It's not any other religion. It's Jesus Christ, and I just asked her. I didn't go through the Book of Romans. I just said, "Have you ever felt the power of God"? She said, "No". I said, "Would you like to"? She said, "Yes". I just gently put my hand on her. It's not boisterous and flamboyant. It's just a gentle touch on her shoulder, and I just said, "Lord, I pray that the fire of the Holy Spirit would fall right now in Jesus Name". Sid, you'll never guess what happened next. She gave me my sandwich, and so I'm walking out the door, and I get about a foot from the door. I'm about to put my hand on it, and I hear somebody shouting behind me. "Sir! There's something on me"! She shouted again. "Sir! There's something on me"! She said, "I don't know what it is". God as my witness, I spun around. I said the name of both Buddha, Islam, and the Devil. I said, "It's Jesus Christ". When I said the Name above every Name, I watched her double over under the power of God. She began to hyperventilate. It would be hard for a Hollywood actor to depict what was happening to her. You say, "What'd you do next"? I'm glad you asked. I jumped the counter. The sandwich-making dude was like, "You can't come back here," but he's like, "Does anybody want a ham and cheese? I'm getting out the way".
Sid Roth: I was going to pray for boldness for you, but,
Joe Oden: Yeah, yeah.
Sid Roth: No, I'm just teasing.
Joe Oden: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And so, she's hyperventilating. She's manifesting a devil. I grabbed her. We bound it. She gave her life to Christ. She took the idol off, got totally set free. Here is the cool part: 6 weeks later, she calls me, and she said, "Joe, I want you to know that I've been in America for 2 months. I'm from Asia. I've been a Buddhist my whole life," and she said, "I no longer pray to Buddha, only Jesus". She said, "Several weeks before you walked into that restaurant," she said, "I had a dream, and you were in it preaching me the Gospel". She said, "When you came in that night, I knew it was real". I hung up the phone, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and I want to tell all of our viewing audience what He said. He said, "I want you to tell every church you go to that I'm doing My job. It's time for the church to do theirs".
Sid Roth: That's exactly what I just said.
Joe Oden: Yes.
Sid Roth: You know, Joe, what's going to happen to people, you're not going to be able to lay hands on them, but you're going to pray for an impartation of the same fire that is in you on them. What's going to happen to them?
Joe Oden: They're going to get hit by the power of God on their living room sofa. If they're jogging, if they're in their bedroom, the power of God is going to fill the atmosphere they're in.
Sid Roth: What if they're watching in a bar?
Joe Oden: The power of God is going to touch them.
Sid Roth: Okay. Are you ready for the fire of God to touch you when Joe prays? I'm ready! Be right back.
Sid Roth: You've heard of the twelve-step program. Joe says there is a one-step program. What do you mean, Joe?
Joe Oden: Well, for me personally, I was in three different rehab facilities, spent tens of thousands of dollars in in-house, sitting down with PhDs, suspended from school for selling drugs, and it didn't get me freedom. It didn't get me deliverance, and when I met Jesus Christ at an altar of a church, it was one step. It was one moment to where I was completely delivered from a lifestyle of immorality and addition in a twinkling of an eye when I bowed my knee to Jesus and made Him Lord, and I was filled with the Spirit, that was the step of my life that determined everything, and I believe that God wants to do that for our audience today. Many people have received Christ in an intellectual way. They adhere to a certain belief system or to a doctrine, but Jesus is more than an intellectual system of steps that we adhere to. It is a supernatural encounter.
Sid Roth: Joe, what is your definition to be empowered by the Holy Spirit?
Joe Oden: That's a great question. The Bible says in Acts 1:8 that, "You will receive power to be a witness when the Holy Spirit comes upon you". Jesus Christ's first message according to the Book of Luke, He quotes Isaiah, and He says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He's anointed Me to preach good news to the poor, for recovery of sight to the blind, to bind up the brokenhearted and to set the oppressed free". He was saying, "The Spirit is on Me, just not for Me and My sake. It's upon Me for the sake of the world. It's upon Me to empower my proclamation and set the captive free and move in the supernatural power of God". That would be my working definition. A lot of people think the Holy Spirit is just for them to feel good, to have a good revival meeting, to help them live their life, but it is an empowerment to break the bondage of hell, death, and the grave off of humanity and an empowerment that the Gospel would go forth into people's lives.
Sid Roth: You say something else. You say that we have to change our thinking process. What do you mean by that?
Joe Oden: Yeah. When Jesus said in Matthew 4:17, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand". He is not just implying or saying, although He is, to turn from our sin. He's saying, "You need to change the way that you think". I believe that many believers need to change the way that they think, especially in the supernatural dimension because it is the will of God for people not just to live a nice Christian life and not use profanity and pay their tithes, but to move in the demonstration of the power of God. Jesus said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand". He also says to pray, "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven". So we are ambassadors of the living God as if God were making His embassy through us on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Sid Roth: There are many of you that have not had experiential knowledge of God. You've had intellectual experience of God. The Kingdom of God is in the invisible realm, and I believe that if you pray this prayer with Joe right now, you will enter the experiential spiritual realm of God, and better yet, Jesus will enter you. Would you pray?
Joe Oden: Absolutely. I want you, if you want to receive Christ right now, you must confess that Jesus is Lord. Submit your entire being to Him. Repent of your sins. Put your faith in the death and resurrection of Him. If you want to do that right now, I want you to pray: "Dear Jesus I ask You today to wash me of my sins, to cleanse me. Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord, and I give my life to You. One hundred percent. In Jesus Name. Amen".
Sid Roth: Amen. Pray the empowerment prayer. Pray the fire to hit everyone watching us right now.
Joe Oden: Absolutely.
Sid Roth: But you know what the universal sign of surrender is? David knew it in the Bible. I lift holy hands to God. If you said that prayer and meant it or you've done that previously, your hands are holy. Lift holy hands to God and follow Joe in this prayer.
Joe Oden: That's actually what I was going to say, Sid. In Jesus Name, Lord, I pray for the presence and the fire of the Holy Spirit to fall in every bedroom, barroom, living room, in every place, every individual is watching. Holy Spirit, I ask for the wind of God to blow in such a way that it will be unambiguously powerful, that there would be no question. God, move, heal, deliver, set free, let Your fire fall in the Name of Jesus. Receive it. Believe it because it's for you.
Sid Roth: And I believe that pain of all kinds in this Glory that is here is leaving right now, especially backs. If you bend over right now, if you have a back pain, you'll see that you're bending right into the Glory and coming out healed. Hip, you have a hip pain. Stand up and start walking. Move that hip. You have any pain in any joint. I'm hearing ankle, right now. In Jesus Name. Are you catching anything?
Joe Oden: Lord, I just pray for disks in backs to move right now in Jesus Name. Scoliosis, straighten. If you have asthma, gently lift your hands right now. Somebody's going to write into this show with a miracle of being healed of asthma. Right now, you're going to breathe. Breathe. Breathe right now in Jesus Name. Take a breath. Asthma goes now in Jesus Name. There's tightness that are leaving chests right now. Lungs are filling up with air right now. All over the world right now, that's happening in Jesus Name.
Sid Roth: And cancer must go. In Jesus Name, go!