Sid Roth - I Cried 'God Where Are You'. His Response Floored Me
My guest says the measure of God's presence is the only thing that can penetrate the dense darkness that has gripped the world and even some of your loved ones. Want more of God's presence? I know I do.
Sid Roth: You know, in 1997, Kim, you moved to the Phoenix area. A church that was going to be a revival church with your husband, both of you were going to pastor it. How did you even get to that point?
Kim Owens: You know, we had been in ministry for a number of years doing youth pastor work, Sid, and associate pastorate, and we felt God stirring something on the inside of us to move onto more, I guess you would say, in ministry, and through a series of circumstances and events, the founding pastors of the church that we went to in Phoenix resigned, retired, resigned and called my husband and I to come and be a part of it, and it was very much a God-ordained moment. We realize that now more than we even did in that time, but God was setting us up for something very powerful. It took us a number of years to realize the whole scope of the story, but He was really setting us up for something, but just the tug and that call of God to move forward in the ministry, and that's how we got to Phoenix. I had a very remarkable marking moment in my life spiritually, and I had actually just read Tommy Tenney's book "The God Chasers," and it was right after that, I was actually in the sanctuary of our church alone, and I was at the altar in a certain place. I will never forget that place, and was just seeking and crying out to God. I had very fresh in my spirit what I had been reading in the book of how you can draw closer to God and get more from God and not have to settle in your life, and in that moment at the altar, the Holy Spirit just came and just marked me, and it's obviously very difficult to articulate, but it was such an overwhelming sense of God's presence. I knew He had touched me. I had been touched many times in my life before that. I grew up in church, but I knew this was a marking moment, and marking moments are so pivotal in our lives and in our ministries. And as I sat there at the altar allowing the Holy Spirit just to touch me and to minister to me, obviously I had to get up at some point, but what I like to say is, "You can leave that place, but that place goes with you". That marking moment goes with you, and I just remember having moments of weeping and moments of just being overwhelmed with God's presence. When you're in His presence, and it marks you like that, and you come out of that, everything is different. Everything looks different and seems different and sounds different, and it was a watershed moment for me personally. I know now what God was working in me, but at that moment, I didn't understand the scope of it, but God was doing a pivotal thing on the inside of me to contend for more of Him. First few years was not so bad, Sid, there, but after about 5 or so years, we began to experience just a real pushback of the enemy. We began to just walk through personal, spiritual barrenness, struggles in our church, in our congregation, physical attacks. My husband experienced a very traumatic motorcycle accident that injured him, and mental attacks.
Sid Roth: That wasn't the picture that you had...
Kim Owens: Not at all.
Sid Roth: ...created in your imagination as to what was going to happen.
Kim Owens: Not at all. Not at all. And when you're in that moment, you don't realize that the pain is not about the moment that you're in. The pain is about the potential that God is trying to move you into. And I'm not trying to say that God causes all of that. I'm saying we're learning in those moments what God is preparing us for. What we couldn't see at that moment through all of the spiritual warfare and what seemed like just unrelenting attacks on us was that God was preparing us to wear a mantle, a mantle of revival.
Sid Roth: But it's almost as though you were being pushed to give up.
Kim Owens: Yeah.
Sid Roth: But it worked in reverse for you.
Kim Owens: Yes.
Sid Roth: Tell me about the God hunger. I like those words.
Kim Owens: Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We were being pushed to give up and got to that point almost, but we had some really amazing people that began to speak into our life to turn us, encourage us and turn us into destiny and purpose which I fully believe that those years put within us a cry and a hunger and a desperation to not settle for less than what God has for us personally, of course, in our corporate church body, and it was just a desperation that was being birthed in us for more of God and to see revival break out.
Sid Roth: So, what would you say to the people watching this right now that are going through the desert as you went through, the desperation as you went through close to giving up? Tell them what's just waiting around the corner.
Kim Owens: You know what I would say, Sid, is I would say to you today, don't give up. Don't quit. Keep pressing in. As I said a moment ago, your pain is not about the moment that you're in right now. It's about the purpose that God is trying to move you into and keep crossing those critical thresholds. Keep moving into the greater. Read the Word. Get in God's presence, and you can make it. Just don't quit because God always has a bright future ahead of you. I just say don't quit, and we didn't quit, and we're very, very thankful that we didn't.
Sid Roth: And the Holy Spirit said to you something you didn't expect. You're saying, "God, where are you"? And the Holy Spirit says, "Where are you"?
Kim Owens: Yeah.
Sid Roth: You are responsible for revival.
Kim Owens: Yes, yes. The Holy Spirit spoke that to me, Sid, when I was in the altar in one of our revival meetings early in the revival, and he said, "You are responsible for revival". I took that personally, but I also took it for our corporate body as well meaning that you're to steward this. Not disrespectfully, but you're to manage this. You are to carry this. You are to pull this. You are to literally bear up underneath of this. You're responsible for this. When you're responsible for something, that's pretty serious. So, I took it very seriously, and what I didn't realize at that particular moment was that it was going to be extended years that we have now of literally bearing up underneath of sustained revival. But it is such a joy, and it's very rewarding as you see the changed lives and the presence of God manifesting.
Sid Roth: One thing that God chose you to do, to prepare the way so to speak, was declarations in 2015.
Kim Owens: Yes, yes. Yes, and we've had many declarations over the last 6 years. Two very significant ones, Sid, was right before revival broke out, we made what I call a desperation declaration. And if we give God a declaration, a desperation declaration, we give Him something to work with.
Sid Roth: Now, what is a declaration?
Kim Owens: A declaration is a decreeing, a decreeing to see something established as the Word says. And so, the first declaration that we had was this day, we're going to fight for what we're mantled to be. Revival is our inheritance. Revival is our... He's promised that He would pour out His Spirit upon us. He's promised that His spirit is for us and for our children and our children's children. It's our inheritance, and the declaration was, "We're going to fight for what we're mantled to be". We're mantled to be able to have a continual move of God. That was our first declaration. Our second declaration that came along a little later after revival had broke out is, "We will not settle". We're not going to settle, and we take this into, I call it our fight song. I call it our war cry. We're not going to settle for anything less than the fullness of the presence of God in our lives, in our homes, in our church atmospheres. We're not going to settle for anything less than His glory. We're not going to settle for anything less than His power, than His fullness, then all that. Jesus paid the price that we can experience all that he has for us, and so, whether it's coming together corporately or whether it's in our home atmospheres, we make the decree. We're not going to settle.
Sid Roth: And based on those decrees, God showed up big.
Kim Owens: Yes, yes.
Sid Roth: Tell me about that.
Kim Owens: Yes, God did show up big. Initially, the outbreak of revival or the eruption of revival was in August of 2015. It was actually in a youth and young adult conference and is very exciting. Now, there were other adults present as well, but primarily young adults. The power of God was so strong. Altars were filled, wall to wall, people crying out to God, touching God and God touching them, and it was just an explosive atmosphere in August in Phoenix, Arizona. The air conditioners went out in the natural, and it was extremely hot in the building, but also the fire of God was in the building, and it was just consuming all of us, and it overtook us so much that we decided, we're going to continue these meetings, and here we are 6 years later.
Sid Roth: I haven't been to your congregation, but I'm told when you walk into your congregation, there's an immediate explosion of the presence of God, the glory of God.
Kim Owens: That's really what our heart cry is, is that when people come to our church, when they leave our church, they will say, "God was in that place. The Holy Spirit was in that place today," not, "Pastor Kim preached," or, "This one or that one," or, "This song, or that singer," but, "The Holy Spirit was present".
Sid Roth: Now you've been in this move of God so far 6 years, and you're stewarding it, and you're believe it's going to last until Jesus returns. However, people, when they walk into the presence of God, things happen.
Kim Owens: Yes.
Sid Roth: For instance, what happens to gays?
Kim Owens: Yes, we have seen a number of homosexuals and lesbians come and be invited to the meetings and get touched by the power of God and give their life to Jesus and surrender their heart to the Lord and have totally, totally done a turnaround in their lifestyles. Some of them are married with children today, their spouse, husband and wife married with children today serving in our church, serving in ushering and media work and things like that. It's been amazing to see those transformational moments in the altars.
Sid Roth: And a lot of prisoners come to your church, hardened prisoners.
Kim Owens: We have.
Sid Roth: What happens when a hardened prisoner comes into the manifest glory, presence, goodness of God?
Kim Owens: You know what we've seen, Sid, is we have seen how radical they were in the world, they become that radical for Jesus. It is absolutely encouraging. It's just a joy to watch them worship and praise. They are uninhibited. They are off-the-charts radical for Jesus.
Sid Roth: And sickness has to go when someone walks into your church.
Kim Owens: Yes, yes.
Sid Roth: Tell me about the people in wheelchairs, even.
Kim Owens: Yes, we've had one young man get up out of a wheelchair. His body was attacked with an infection that attacked all of his organs. He was put into a medial coma. He came out of that through much prayer and intersession. He attended one of the meetings over the last few years in the altar time, hands laid on him, prayed for him, stood up out of the wheelchair and began to walk, and he's serving in our congregation today and in media ministry.
Sid Roth: But you know where the rubber meets the road. Something that excites me no end is what happens when children and young teenagers get into the glory. Could you imagine if you as a child, if you as a young teenager had been living in a congregation filled with the manifest presence of God? What's going on with the children?
Kim Owens: The children are being saved. They're being baptized in the Holy Spirit. They're being taught how to be intercessors. They're being raised up in understanding how to preach the Word of God, how to teach the Word of God, how to lay hands on for healing and for impartation. They are growing by leaps and bounds in faith.
Sid Roth: You know one thing you said: They know all about how to find the secret place to hear from God.
Kim Owens: Yes, yes. Yes, they do, and I credit our childrens' leaders for teaching them that, but they have been very consistent in inputting and imparting revival culture and atmosphere into the hearts of the children, and the primary place that that is birthed is in the secret place, so the children and teenagers and young adults are being taught to cultivate, deeply cultivate, their personal time with the Lord, and the parents are taking it home to their homes and having prayer and revival in their homes and shifting atmosphere in their homes, seeing healings and their children praying and laying on the floors under the power of the Spirit at home, I'm talking about, so.
Sid Roth: What a difference! The average teenager, the last thing they'd be doing is worshipping God in the living room on the floor with their face to the floor. Kim says, you don't have to tolerate a dry day in your life. You don't have to tolerate it. No more. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Now Pastor Kim Owens says, "No more dry days". Comment on that.
Kim Owens: Yes. I believe, Sid, that we can live in the refreshing of the Holy Spirit every day of our life. We can live in revival, that sustained presence and power of God that results in inward transformation. We don't have to tolerate dry seasons. We don't have to tolerate dry moments and barrenness in our lives. The story in the scriptures come to mind where Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, "Give me a drink," and then He went on throughout the story and He told her, He said, "If you drink of this water that I give you, you will never thirst again". Just think about that, will never thirst again. We don't have to tolerate the dry seasons and the dryness of religion or feeling like we're far from the Lord. And I'm reminded also of Isaiah 44 and the two elderly women who were of the Hebrides revival who were crying out for God to touch their region and their city where He said, "I will pour water on the dry land, water to the thirsty," and they were just praying that prayer. I've read that they were just praying that prayer to the Lord. "Lord, you said, and you promised," and God came in an outpouring into Hebrides there. God can do the same for us today. We don't have to live in dry barrenness in our spiritual walk with the Lord, so I encourage everyone today, cry out to God. Cry out to God. Cry out to Jesus for that living water. You'll never thirst Again. have revival right now in your home. Have revival with your family, Jesus is faithful to meet you where you are.
Sid Roth: You consider yourself a Holy Spirit cheerleader for the glory.
Kim Owens: Yes.
Sid Roth: What does that mean to you?
Kim Owens: Well, I kind of go back to what we said earlier about our declaration of, we won't settle. We're not going to settle for anything less. We want the glory. We want the glory, and whatever we have to do to provoke or to insight or to cultivate to contend to get the glory and to keep the glory, that's what we do. It's pressing in prayer. It's pressing in fasting. It's pressing in the Spirit and spiritual pursuit, doing the things that we know to do and just knowing that the Lord is faithful to pour out His spirit. But, yes, a cheerleader for His glory. We're not going to settle for anything less than the glory of the Lord.
Sid Roth: Okay. There are people watching this. They can't go to your church. They don't even live in Arizona, and they want to have that same glory in their house just with themselves, their spouses, their children. Can they?
Kim Owens: Absolutely, absolutely. It's just a simple cry. It's just a simple cry, crying out to the Lord. "God, I want more. God, I want more". That's what I did when God marked me all of those years ago. There's got to be more. God, I want more. I want more of You. I want more of your presence. I want you to manifest. I want you to manifest. So much of spiritual lives today, Sid, has just become very robotic. It's just become very predictable, but God has realms of glory and realms of revelation, realms of himself that he wants to open up to us and pour out in our lives, but we must cry out for it, and I just say, keep pursuing God. Be intentional about your spiritual pursuit. Don't give up. Don't back away, and God will break upon the Heavens. The Heavens will break open. For a long time in our area there, we didn't think the Heavens were ever going to open, but they did. It'll open over regions. It'll open over our personal lives and our homes.
Sid Roth: I want you to fight in just a minute for those that are viewing to fight for them to be hungry for God.
Kim Owens: Amen.
Sid Roth: Fight for them to want what all those people are getting that are going to your church. The presence of God that is on this woman right now, if that's what's available, you want it. But first, say a quick prayer with me, but it'll count for eternity, out loud. Dear God. Repeat after me. Dear God, I'm a sinner. I'm so, so sorry. I believe, Jesus, you died for me, for my sins, and my sins are wiped away. This is the first day of the rest of my life, my new beginning. And now that I am clean, Jesus, come inside of me. I make you my Savior and Lord. Amen. Kim, pray.
Kim Owens: Father, in the Name of Jesus, Lord, I pray for those watching today. Holy Spirit, I pray that You break into their atmosphere right now. Glory of God, let your light break into their atmosphere. Shift it now, Lord, I pray. May they feel the weighty presence of the Holy Ghost all around them. Lord, in the Name of Jesus, I pray, Lord, that You would touch them in their spirit, Lord. Put a hunger and a desperation to push past, Lord, their last level of encounter with You, to push past their last experience with You to greater realms of glory. God, I pray that You shift, shift the atmosphere now, Lord God. Put that seed within them now, God, that they will not settle, and they will not relent, oh, Lord, until they move into the more, until they walk through that door, Lord God, of more, more of Your presence, more of Your fullness, more of Your glory, more of Your power, more of who You are. Lord, you did it for me. I know You can do it for them. I've seen You do it for countless families. Do it for these families today. Break in, Holy Ghost. In Jesus' Name, Amen.