Sid Roth - Heaven's Secret Weapon
Sid Roth: Now, my guest, Roland Worton, was always aware of the supernatural, but not knowing Jesus, it seemed so dark, even fearful. He wanted to be a professional musician, but at 17, after a failed recording contract, he decided, "I'll go to college," and the supernatural become natural. So, Roland, let me you back to those college days. What caused you to turn around like that?
Roland Worton: Yeah. Sid, I bumped into our supernatural God, or should I say He ran into me? It was a transformative time. As you said, I was at rock bottom. I had won a single songwriting competition that was national. It was on television. A record deal came out of that at 17 years old, but it all crashed, and I found myself living in the most difficult time of my life at 17, and God sent somebody to find me and to tell me about the supernatural. I was radically saved at college in the first month, so those of you that have kids that are going off to college, God can meet them right where they are, and it was a wonderful time of being mentored in the supernatural. My first pastor was Jean Darnall. She was one of the original disciples of Aimee Semple McPherson.
Sid Roth: For those not familiar with Amy, who was she?
Roland Worton: Yeah. Aimee Semple McPherson was an incredible female minister of the Gospel in the 1920s and '30s in LA.
Sid Roth: Which was unusual at that time.
Roland Worton: Which was very unusual, was on television and radio, and saw miracles, signs and wonders in her ministry in a powerful way. And Jean, my first pastor, was one of her small group, her original group back in the '30s.
Sid Roth: But things really changed when you got baptized in the Holy Spirit. What happened?
Roland Worton: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in my room at college, in my college dorm, and I started speaking in tongues and actually didn't know what it was. I went to one of my friends, and I said, "Hey. This has happened to me. Tell me what it is," and I just began speaking in my prayer language. And they said, "Oh, we know exactly what that is". But yeah, things really changed, and the visionary, seer, prophetic realm was really open to me at that time pretty early on, a lot of dreams and visions and supernatural.
Sid Roth: Do you know that thing that got me so excited and is going to get you excited? If I understood you right, here, you know nothing. Nothing! And you look at people's heads, and you see words above them. What kind of words would you see?
Roland Worton: Yeah, yeah. I was walking in the London business district in the middle of lunch, and London is one of the greatest financial capitals of the world. Lots of people. And suddenly, Sid, my eyes were open. I began to see words written across people's forehead in the Spirit, and at the same time, also had a sense of the weight that those words carried. Some said, "Shame". Some said, "Difficulty". Some said, "Strife". Some said, "Depression".
Sid Roth: But how would you even know what to do with those words?
Roland Worton: At that moment, I didn't. I was as shocked as them. I wasn't sure, really, what to do. It was an invitation from the Lord into a moment. I think He was actually putting me through sort of spiritual paces for what would come. And actually, this wasn't an exercise in doing something with that. It was an exercise in knowing, and it was an exercise in discerning, and it was an exercise into leaning in and saying, "Yes," to what the Father was opening my eyes to.
Sid Roth: But another thing that fascinates me about Roland is his work with the underground church and the miracles and the people coming to know Messiah. Tell me a few of those miracles.
Roland Worton: Yeah. Yeah, there's a massive move of God going on in the Middle East, in the country that we work in, Iran, particularly.
Sid Roth: Here is what I've been told by experts, that outside of China, the fastest growing church in the world, the last place you and I would think, Iran.
Roland Worton: That's exactly right. It's one of the fastest growing churches in the world, and it's a movement of signs and wonders. It's a movement of miracles, lots of visions and visitations. One testimony from one of the networks that we work with, they were called into a meeting with quite an important person, thought they were in trouble, and actually in a closed meeting were told, "The reason why we brought you here was our son was terminally ill. He was watching Christian television upstairs, and he was touched by Jesus, walked down the stairs, which he wasn't able to do, into our living room. What do we do about this person of Jesus? What do we do with this"? Miraculous.
Sid Roth: Yeah, beautiful.
Roland Worton: Eight out of 10 people that we know that have come to Christ from Iran, it's either through visions, dreams or direct visitations from Jesus.
Sid Roth: Tell me some, another person.
Roland Worton: Yeah. This was here in Texas, where I'm from. It was a lady with a blind eye in the middle of worship. We began to release healing in the room, and her eye popped open supernaturally, medically blind. We have it verified, and screamed as you would if your eye suddenly opened. It wasn't a reserve thing. She just began to explode, and her blind eye was open and healed in the presence of God.
Sid Roth: It the atmosphere of God, all things,
Roland Worton: Yes, in the atmosphere of God.
Sid Roth: All things are possible. Now, 15 years ago, I managed to pry this out of him. He doesn't share this too much. But 15 years ago, you had a new experience, and you were called up to Heaven. Tell me about it.
Roland Worton: Yeah. I don't talk about this a lot, but yeah. Fifteen years ago was an introduction, and it was a supernatural invitation and calling into rooms in Heaven. One particular place that I visited several times, it became known to me aware that it was a nation strategy room.
Sid Roth: What does that mean, for all nations?
Roland Worton: Yeah. I believe so. It's a room where strategies over nations are debated, are talked about, are released. There's a council table there, of which leaders, various leaders gather around. There's conversations with the Lord. There are those waiting at that table. There's angelic activity, things that,
Sid Roth: Did you, by any chance, see who those leaders were around the table?
Roland Worton: Some of them. Some of them, yes. I'm aware of who they are, and there's councils that happen there. I'm aware of some of those leaders. Some have passed on now and are there in Heaven, part of that great clan of witnesses, and there are certain councils that gather together and over the strategies and what Jesus is doing. Yeah. It's very powerful.
Sid Roth: Does this happen often, that you're called up to these rooms in Heaven?
Roland Worton: It's reasonably regular. I really don't talk about this a lot because I don't want it to be a flippant. I mean, it's a very Holy thing.
Sid Roth: But why is God doing this with you?
Roland Worton: Why is God doing this? I don't know.
Sid Roth: That's what I figured you'd say.
Roland Worton: Because He's really good, and He loves to show us things. I want to be someone that God can trust, Sid. That's my biggest honor, and I think for the Body of Christ here, I think God's looking for friends He can trust. And I really, that's the cry in my heart. It's been the cry of my heart for a long time, that I'd be someone that God can trust.
Sid Roth: Now, God revealed to you a powerful surprise weapon.
Roland Worton: Yes.
Sid Roth: What is that?
Roland Worton: Yeah. It's a supernatural weapon that lives on the inside of every believer, and it's the supernatural power of joy.
Sid Roth: And you just came out with a book called "Surprising Power of Joy".
Roland Worton: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Why did you do this book at this time?
Roland Worton: Yeah. I think the waves of joy have been released across the Body of Christ for the last 2,000 years. I think there's some we don't know about and there's some we do. And before COVID, began to seek the Lord, and I felt that He was going to release a new wave of the power of His joy, not just for personal fulfillment for the Body of Christ, but actually as a powerful weapon that would be released through us for the days to come. So this was pre-COVID. I have no idea this was happening, and when I spoke to the publishers, I pitched that idea to them, and they said, "Let's do it," and it was released. The book was released right in the middle of lockdown last year, so very interesting timing.
Sid Roth: So it was a real, we Jewish people say, "It's bashert". It's meant to be.
Roland Worton: Yes.
Sid Roth: It was a meant-to-be moment.
Roland Worton: Absolutely.
Sid Roth: But you have another gift. You can talk before a group, lay hands on people and just speak, and this supernatural joy is released. Tell me about that.
Roland Worton: Yeah. First of all,
Sid Roth: I think you're joyful right now.
Roland Worton: I think I am, and our audience with us, just lean in and receive this. It's ready for you and available to you right now as we speak. Just cultivating joy in my own life, Sid, but then realizing that God wants us to leak. The atmosphere that we're most aware of on the inside will be released around us, and the Holy Spirit is a Holy Spirit of Peace, a Holy Spirit of Love, but also of Joy, and I love to see God's Joy break out wherever I go.
Sid Roth: Well, in your book, this is what I really love about. The Kingdom of God is not food or drink, but it's righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Roland Worton: Yes.
Sid Roth: One third of our job description is joy.
Roland Worton: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Can we operate in supernatural joy? By the way, you at home, there's no reason why you can't bust through, too.
Roland Worton: That's right.
Sid Roth: If we can operate in supernatural joy, it doesn't matter where we are in the Book of Revelations or end times.
Roland Worton: Yes.
Sid Roth: It flat doesn't matter because your kingdom that you are representing is joy. We all need more joy. It will be released when we return. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Roland has been telling me that he works a great deal with the persecuted church throughout the world. And if people in a persecuted church, we have nothing compared to what they have as far as persecution here in the United States. But if people in that persecuted church, even in prisons, can operate in supernatural joy, how much more should we be able to? Tell me about the young pastor that was sent to 5 years of prison in Iran.
Roland Worton: Yeah, yeah. One of our friends, a young 30-year-old pastor who was leading a network, was arrested. A hundred and twenty people were arrested at that time. And yeah, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. We monitored him, watched and prayed during that time.
Sid Roth: And what's the difference between, say, prisons in a country, third-world country like that, and prisons in, say, the United States?
Roland Worton: Yeah. He was in solitary confinement for a year, and then in prison, a famous prison there that's not fun, yeah, for a year. Those of you that are watching at home, we have friends that are martyred, that are in prison for long stretches of time. There are really, really difficult things that they walk through just to say that they are believers in Christ, and we've all been through pressure the last year, and I want to way to you that there's this supernatural joy. We're going to talk more about it, but it's really available to you right now, where you are, really available in ways that you've not seen it before. And, Sid, when that pastor came out of prison, I had the privilege to go to be with him. There was a large group of us around food, which usually happens in the Middle East. It was a feast. It was a celebration. I just want you to imagine friends being reconciled together, that have walked that closely together after 5 years of someone being in prison. That was a celebration. I didn't know what I was going to find. Would he be crushed? Would he be defeated? Would he be aged? Would he be depleted? And he was the most joy-filled, overcoming person to be around that I'd seen in a long time. It was incredible. God can keep someone in prison for 5 years like that. He can move through us.
Sid Roth: I think that's a word for you. It's time for you to operate in supernatural joy, which begs the question, "How do we get it"?
Roland Worton: Yeah. Joy is found in the Father. It's inherent in the Father Himself. We wouldn't experience joy in our world if it wasn't inherent in the Father Himself, and we know that Jesus was the ultimate joy giver. We know that Jesus released the power of joy through everything that he did. And we know that now, the Holy Spirit has been given to us, to you and I, without measure. I believe that we are going to be saturated and filled with the Power of the Holy Spirit in ways that we have never seen, so this power of joy goes with that. As we said, it's a third of the Kingdom, righteousness, peace and joy. And if the Bible says that the Kingdom, a third of the Kingdom is joy, we might want to lean into it, apprehend it and walk in it in a new, powerful way.
Sid Roth: Now, when you're saying joy, it could be what we've seen in actually past generations laughing in the Holy Spirit, but it's even more powerful than that. What is joy used for?
Roland Worton: Yeah, absolutely. Sid, I believe that the Body of Christ, there are going to be changing atmospheres wherever they go. We have spheres of influence, and you have spheres of influence God has given you, being that your school, your college, your workplace, the business that you own. Everywhere that you have been given a sphere of authority, I believe that joy is to come, enough for you and enough to give away, actually strategies to infuse into your sphere of influence to make a difference. Joy is a powerful weapon. It's an overcoming weapon, and joy is to be our strength. "The Joy of the Lord is our strength". We might want to lean in, grasp, take hold, allow that joy to permeate us and to be released through us to change our world.
Sid Roth: You use a term. "We are called by God to be brokers of joy".
Roland Worton: Yeah.
Sid Roth: What does that mean?
Roland Worton: That's right. In Isaiah 61, it says a very interesting thing. It says that we are receivers of joy, the oil of joy for gladness. It's a powerful transition. It's a powerful transformation that happens personally. Then it goes to say, "We are going to be oaks of righteousness that are planted by the Lord". But then it says even more than that in 61:4. It says that we are to rebuild, renew and restore. That sounds like a mandate of transformation to me. So we are to go from those just receiving joy to those that are powerful distributors of it, those that will rebuild ruined cities, renew places long devastated, it says. So yeah, so much more powerful. It's going to include joy for us, but it's going to include joy for us to give away that changes and transforms culture.
Sid Roth: So I could be operating in supernatural joy. That doesn't mean I'm just giggling at a table. That means I'm releasing the atmosphere of Heaven.
Roland Worton: Yes.
Sid Roth: So I could be in a prison and release the atmosphere of Heaven.
Roland Worton: Yes.
Sid Roth: I could be in a restaurant and release the atmosphere of Heaven. I could be in my family and release the atmosphere of Heaven. And what happens in the atmosphere of Heaven?
Roland Worton: Anything can happen in the atmosphere of Heaven, Sid.
Sid Roth: You use the term invincible joy.
Roland Worton: Yes. Invincible joy, let's talk about that. As I said, the Joy of the Lord is our strength, and invincible joy is what God wants to give us. Psalm 2 is a very interesting Psalm for me. It's one of my favorites. It's a Psalm that doesn't any way speak to God. It speaks from God. What does it start with? "Why do the nations rage"? This is something that we're still asking today. The nations are raging. They're in chaos. They're in turmoil.
Sid Roth: Right now.
Roland Worton: This invincible joy. Right now. This invincible joy, this overcoming joy, this joy with authority is supposed to rest on us. Here, when I saw this, it really transformed things for me. God says, "The nations rage, and He has set His King in place". We know who that is, Jesus, the Messiah. But it goes on to say this, "The One enthroned in Heaven laughs". "The One enthroned in Heaven," the nations rage, but God laughs. And it's not a callous, mocking laugh. It is an overcoming, "It is finished," glorious, transformational laugh. We get to live underneath the Laugh of God. Everything changes underneath the Laugh of God. I don't know if you've ever thought about that before, but the nations rage and God laughs. Even in the midst of everything that's happening, God is laughing over the plans of man.
Sid Roth: Now, the supernatural power of joy works for nations and works for individuals.
Roland Worton: Yes.
Sid Roth: Give me some examples.
Roland Worton: Yeah. It's very, very available for us as individuals. I remember praying over a group of people in a night of worship and encounter that was very powerful. God was moving, and as I began to pray for people, joy was being released in a profound way. It was really wonderful. People were laid out laughing. People were receiving joy. People were receiving an encounter with Jesus. And one lady, God instructed me to put hands on her, and just probably laid hands on her for 20 minutes and released the power of joy. She was overtaken with the power of joy. She wrote to us and said that clinical depression that had been in her life for 3 years was broken that night and had not returned. She was set free from clinical depression by sitting under the atmosphere of Heaven and the atmosphere of joy.
Sid Roth: In a moment, I'm going to ask you to go back to the piano and release over those watching us on television and our studio audience the supernatural, surprising power of joy. But it's not going to help you one bit unless you know that you know that you know Jesus is your Messiah and Lord. I want you to say this prayer out loud with me. "Dear God". Repeat after me. "Dear God. I'm a sinner, and I'm so sorry. I believe the Blood of Jesus washes away all of my sins, and I am clean. And now that I am clean, Jesus, come and live inside of me. I make you my Lord and Savior. I love you, Lord. Amen". Roland, I would love you to lead us in the atmosphere of joy and release it.
Roland Worton: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh Oh, there's nothing better than You There's nothing better than You There's nothing Nothing is better than You Lord, we thank You for Your joy now. We thank You for the power of Your strength, for the power of fresh places of joy, for the power of life, resurrection, life that's dispelling all doubt, fear and intimidation. Lord, we loose the refreshing places of Your joy and Your goodness. Yeah, there's no one better than You There's no one better than You There's nothing No one is better than You There are places, oh Whose presence we've never seen There's nothing better than You There's nothing better than You There's nothing Nothing is better than You Thank you, God".