Sid Roth - He Sees Earth, Wind, Fire and Water Appear at His Meetings
My guest was minding his own business, just watching TV at home. Suddenly, flames of fire burst through both openings of his study, wrapped around the entryway and exploded into lightning. That's in his home, inside! He asked the same question you would: What just happened?
Sid Roth: My guest, David Edwards, wants to invite you, I mean, that means you, you that are watching me right now, to experience the presence of God in the elements of creation. He's talking about natural elements being supernaturally effected by the Spirit of God. David, what do you mean by natural elements? What kinds?
David Edwards: We've seen the four elements of creation, earth, wind, fire and water. We had the Fire of God appear. We had lightning strike inside of a building. At one meeting, we even felt what was like raindrops or mist coming down, and so, all of these elements have combined to reveal something new that God is speaking today.
Sid Roth: Now, in 2016, you first were aware of what God was doing. What happened?
David Edwards: So, me and my wife Felicia, were sent out on a ministry trip by our Spiritual Father, and as we went out, it's the first time we were sent out as a family, and going to a church, we had had some of these encounters happen in our private life, where it was the first time we felt like the Lord wanted us to share these encounters with some other people. So, we're in the middle of the meeting, and I began to share about the Wind of God that we'd experienced blowing through the room, and I had everyone put their hands out in front of them to look for the Wind of God to blow, and a gust of wind rushed in. Some people's hair fluttered. Some of the notes that people were taking, the pages flipped over. One of the pages even fell out.
Sid Roth: How does a wind go inside of a building?
David Edwards: That's a great question. God is in control. You know, in these encounters, I wanted to make sure it wasn't the air conditioner, so, I was aware of what was happening in the room, and the Spirit of God really came in there.
Sid Roth: Give me an example of the demonstration of God's presence in your own home.
David Edwards: So, one day I was praying, and it was one of those prayer times when I wasn't really feeling much, and I had to discipline myself to stay in His Presence. I was coaching myself. "Just hang out. You don't need to go get some coffee". And I thought, "You know, what would happen if I just stayed here in His Presence"? And I did it just for Him, not comes with Him, but just for Him alone. And as I thought those thoughts, all of a sudden, I heard, "Bang, bang, bang". It sounded like somebody ran up on my front porch, but by the Spirit, I knew it wasn't the UPS man. I knew a friend wasn't stopping by to visit. Somehow, I knew it was an Angel of the Lord. In the next instant, my entire house began to shake and vibrate in the Presence of the Lord. Now, I've been in a couple of small earthquakes, and this was different. This was like a fine buzzing or a fine vibrating. It was almost as if the drywall, the studs, the foundation and the beams all began to praise God by the fact that the Presence of God was in the room.
Sid Roth: Well, you know, I understand from friends of mine that have died and gone to heaven and been sent back that in heaven, everything is alive. It's almost like heaven invades Earth in these instances. That's what it sounds like to me.
David Edwards: Absolutely. One of our favorite verses is Roman 8:19, and it says, "All creation groans for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed". It even says they're almost like they're standing on tiptoe, like, "Where are the sons? Where is the Family of God"? And the thing with the Family of God, because God is supernatural, and for His Sons and Daughters, we are, by nature, supernatural beings. It says that we're new creations or "Kainos". So, when we show up, the creation itself responds to heavenly family.
Sid Roth: Now, in the resources we're making available, you teach on how to steward these encounters. Explain that.
David Edwards: So, I think there's a heart of expectation. There's so much power in the word expectation because we wake up in the morning believing that God is going to move. I don't plan what to change if God shows up. I plan to God to show up, and then we can make the adjustments there because we want to give Him preeminence. We want to give Him first place in everything that we're doing. God is always moving. It's by His nature He's moving. He's doing things on our Earth, and if we have eyes to see what He is doing and take our eyes off what He isn't doing, then I think that'll create an excellent spirit of expectation.
Sid Roth: You also talk about revisiting these moments.
David Edwards: So, an encounter, I think anything given from heaven to Earth is eternal because it came from eternity. Now, some of the times when heaven touches us, our spirits can absorb, like a sponge, a lot more than our minds can at the moment, and so on some of my encounters, I've revisited them. I would pray and meditate and go back into the encounter. I would revisit that encounter and then realize, "Oh, my gosh. God did so much more in that moment than I realized my first time through". God is so good, so glorious, and just a moment in His Presence energizes us. It transforms us. I got delivery from things I didn't even know I struggled with in God's Presence because it sticks with you. It energizes you, and it fuels you for the future.
Sid Roth: In this stewarding, you seem to be very careful that it's not a natural thing, and you don't attribute a natural event to God Himself.
David Edwards: We want to protect the integrity of the encounter. Whenever we go into an environment, we observe what's happening in the natural. We felt the Wind of God blow through many, many times, but I'm also making sure I don't attribute the Wind of God to the fan that's sitting right next to me or to the air conditioner. One time, the Wind of God came into a group of youth students that we were ministering to. Now, it's one thing to feel the Wind of God by yourself or to pray for someone in a prayer line, but the Wind of God isn't something you can fake for a room full of teenagers. And so that was challenging because I knew the Lord wanted me to share this encounter with them, and it was a talk about purity, and, "Wow. What if we highlight purity with an extravagant touch of God's presence"? And so, after the talk on purity, I said, "I think God really wants to touch you guys. I feel like the Wind of God is going to blow through the room". Like, I thought I was going to have to pray to coach them into it. Before I could even open my mouth, the Wind of God blew through the room. The teenagers' eyes went wide open. Their mouths dropped.
Sid Roth: Talking about grabbing a teenager's attention, when a wind blows in a room, if that doesn't know it, I don't know what will.
David Edwards: One young man began jumping up and down going, "I've never seen anything like this before! I've never seen anything like this before"! When you have His Presence, He authenticates His Presence. You don't have to fake the encounter. You don't have to manufacture something because people know when you're being genuine. They know when you're being sincere, but I want to make sure that I've measured the environment so that our testimony is true when people hear it.
Sid Roth: You know, some people are wondering right now, "Well, that's interesting what he's saying, but what good comes from it? What fruit comes from it"? Do you know people, when they experience the wind as an example, their faith is elevated and they get healed? Tell me one person that got healed.
David Edwards: One time my wife and I were shopping, and I like to shop, but maybe not as much as she does, and we were in the store, and I finally said, "You know, honey, I think I'm going to go sit in the car". I had put my grumpy pants on that day, and as I was pouting and walking out of the store, I turned around the clothing rack, and I saw down the end of an aisle. There was a lady there, and she had a pink cast on her foot. Holy Spirit, even though I was grumpy, wasn't bothered at all. Whispers to me and says, "Her". I said, "Really, Lord? Can't you see I'm grumpy"? But I knew that heaven wanted to touch her that day. I wasn't quite prepared for how extravagant it would be, so, I walk up politely and say, "Hey. How's it going? Oh, my gosh. What happened to your foot"? She said, "I severely sprained it, and I just got out of the hospital". "Oh"! I said, "Do you mind if I pray for your foot"? So, I leaned down in the middle of the department store to put my hand right over her foot, and as I did, it felt like there was a stream of water blowing across the bottom of the store, and I was shocked. I looked up at her, and I said, "Do you feel that"? And she went, "Uh-huh"! I said, "How is your pain level"? She said, "It's gone". She even felt the wind through her cast.
Sid Roth: So, what happened?
David Edwards: Completely healed.
Sid Roth: Oh, you're home with your wife. You're watching TV. Tell me what happened to you, that if that didn't elevate your faith, nothing would.
David Edwards: Even the things like watching TV, where we're just getting some natural rest, we never try to divorce ourselves from the Awareness of God and what He's doing, even when we're home. But we were. We were just hanging out, and then all of the sudden, an explosion of fire wrapped around entryways to my study. My kitchen is here. My entryway is here. It came out of the study, wrapped around, turns into lightning. It flies out of our living room through the fireplace, and I'm sitting there like, "Well, that wasn't on TV".
Sid Roth: Now, did your wife see that, too?
David Edwards: She saw it, too. Yes, and we looked at each other, and I, naturally, I jumped up really quick to make sure the house wasn't actually on fire.
Sid Roth: Hit by lightning.
David Edwards: Yes, and we went in there, and we looked at each other, and we're like, "The Fire of God". You know, that happened in Pentecost. Even at the Azusa Street Revival, the fire brigade was called several times because they saw flames coming out of the top of the building, and so, we sat there in awe and wonder. "Wow, Lord. The Fire of God is present even in our home".
Sid Roth: Well, there are such things as counterfeit signs and wonders. How do you know it's not counterfeit?
David Edwards: Is the encounter leading me to Jesus? The devil doesn't want to lead anyone to Jesus.
Sid Roth: Of course.
David Edwards: Does the encounter lead me to Jesus? Because the point isn't the encounter itself. The point of the encounter is to lead me to more and more of Jesus. You know, when Elijah was on Mount Sinai, he had a similar encounter with the elements, the wind blew and crushed the rocks. The fire came, but that wasn't the end of what God was doing. What God was doing was speaking something fresh and speaking something new to Elijah, and when we have these types of encounters, I believe God is on the move. He's doing something fresh. Revival: I think we're right on the precipice of the greatest revival in history, and when the Children of God grab hold of their identity, they know who they are, they know that just like the sons of Issachar, they know what the Plan of God is and what they should do. I think we're in the season that's ready for abundant harvest.
Sid Roth: Speaking about the Move of God that is coming, as he is talking, the water level or the Move of God is getting higher and higher. What if you're inside a large tent with a thick canvas covering and suddenly the canvas sealing disappears revealing the heavens? Impossible? Here comes the proof! Be right back.
Sid Roth: David, you have a brand-new book on everything that we've been talking about. It's called "Mystify: Mystify: Operating in the Mystery of GodOperating in the Mystery of God". Why did you write this book?
David Edwards: When I open the Bible, for me, it's a story of supernatural encounters of people who have gone before us, and it says that the Bible, that the great cloud of witnesses surrounds us, and I believe that they're handing us the baton to take the Move of God into the new generation. So, when I read those stories, it was an invitation for me to put myself in the story. I wanted to experience God the same way our heroes of the faith experienced God, and so, when I began to have my own encounters that are similar to encounters in the Word, I also, wanted to share that with the world so they could know that they're Sons and Daughters of God, that He's a good, good papa and His desire is for us to experience Him in all the ways that He's made himself available.
Sid Roth: Would it work for anyone? Would God demonstrate Himself that strongly for anyone?
David Edwards: We're all his kids. He loves to give good gifts to His children, and He doesn't withhold anything from us, so He's making himself available through these extraordinary ways. I think that's why the stories are in the Bible. It was to let us know, "This is who God is. This is what He's doing, and this is what He does for us, to us and what He does through us".
Sid Roth: Okay. You're at a tent meeting, and a very supernatural sign occurs. In fact, I've never heard of this happening before. Tell me what happened.
David Edwards: So, we're at the tent meeting with Leif Hetland and Katherine Ruonala, and we're standing up front, and worship is going. Now, this was amazing set of days. There were many people saved and many, many people healed during these meetings, and we're sitting there in worship, and a young lady runs up to me. She said, "Can I show you a picture I just took with my cell phone only a couple of seconds ago"? I said, "Okay, sure. I would love to see it". Now, when she put the phone in front of me, I promise you, I was not prepared for what I was about to see. As I looked down at the picture, it showed the aisle of her friends, and the picture angle was kind of looking back up towards the ceiling of the tent that we were under. Only when I looked at where the tent should have been, it faded out into the cosmos as if you saw a picture of heaven touching Earth inside the photograph. Even the poles, whoa, that were holding the tent up, the stars began to shine through the poles. Now, there was no time for this to have been Photoshopped. I had seen this young lady at a few meetings prior, and I knew that she loved the Lord, and she was just as much in shock and awe as we were to see the picture like that.
Sid Roth: So, this particular woman's expectation was sky-high. That's the purpose of these signs and wonders. So, what happened the next day?
David Edwards: The thing about encounters is that they always lead to more encounters and more of Jesus. I might know Him like this one day, but that spirals upwards. It expands so, I can know Him even more that day, and after the meeting, the young lady's heart began to burn. She was looking at the picture that night. So, the next day, she came to the meeting not only ready to take pictures and create memory stones of the tent revival. She came expecting to see God do something else in the supernatural. And we weren't too far in the meeting when I look over, and I lock eyes with her, and I see her coming my way, and I started getting goosebumps. I knew! I knew that she had something because her heart was so full of expectation to see God move. And so, before the meeting began, she had come around the tent and looked in different places and was just taking pictures, and in one of the pictures, the one that she showed me, the cosmos, the stars, the heavenly glory had replaced the tent canopy. Now, this was a large wedding tent, and it went up to the center into a point. It dips down again, and went up, whoa, to the point and dips down again. And what you should have seen in the picture was a very faded white tent canopy because the lights were on underneath it with worship going, but that's not what you saw. When you looked at the picture, you saw the cosmos shining out of the tent canopy. Now, normally that would have been up in the sky, behind the tent, but what she captured was a prophetic glimpse of everything that was happening in the spirit. She was able to capture in the spirit with the glory in the heavenlies shining right through on the photograph.
Sid Roth: You make it clear that signs and wonders and experiences are not, get this, not our destiny.
David Edwards: Our destiny is Jesus. If it's from Him, it's always going to lead back to Him. A genuine encounter is an encounter in His Presence. His Presence meaning His Face. I never leave an encounter like this wanting to do something other than fall on my knees and thank Jesus for touching me in such a beautiful and amazing way. You know, the Bible says if we go into our inner room and pray, what we experience in private, God will show in public, but there's a flip side to that, I believe. When we get to experience God in public, that becomes a bottle of alabaster that we get to take from that experience, and then when no one else is looking, we get to go back. We get to lay at His feet to our out that experience on His Feet and just say, "Jesus, I worship You. I love You. I adore You. Thank You that we're able to experience You in such an incredible way".
Sid Roth: Very important before David prays for you right now, repeat this prayer after me. Mean it to the best of your ability out loud. "Dear Jesus, I've committed many sins. I believe You died for my sins, and by Your Blood, by Your Stripes, I was totally forgiven. Now that I'm forgiven, in Jesus' Name, I ask You to by my savior and Lord". David, pray.
David Edwards: What if you thought, "Lord, I'm going to put my hands out there, and I am going to reach for the more of You that's available right here right now today"? I believe that some of you that are watching, you've been waiting for a season where God is breaking through. Well, I think that season and that moment is right now. God is breaking through. Heaven is invading your life. Begin to look for Him. If you have financial needs, look for Him as the answer to your finances. You have physical needs, look for Him as the answer to your physical needs, but most of all, I believe that some of these amazing encounters are love letters to you from a good, good papa. He wants to know that He adores you and that He loves you, and I believe that you're going to experience, because this isn't just for me. This isn't just for people in church history or even in the Bible. God is making Himself available in a brand-new glorious and powerful way. So, Jesus, touch Your People with Your Encounters and with Your Glory that they may know You more, in Jesus' name.
Sid Roth: And that's the purpose of my life. That's the purpose of your life: to know Jesus more.