Sid Roth - It's Around the Corner, You're Not Ready
My guest says, this is your moment to have a life-changing encounter with the Fire of God and be launched into your destiny, unlike anyone else. It's your destiny. Don't miss it.
Sid Roth: Dr. Jennifer Miskov has a PhD in revival history from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. When she tells the stories of past revivals, the same signs and wonders that happened then happen to her audience now. Dr. Jennifer, tell me what happens at your meetings?
Jennifer Miskov: Oh, it's incredible, Sid. When I share about Carrie Judd Montgomery who pioneered the earliest healing homes and had amazing healing history,
Sid Roth: All right. For those who don't know, what was a healing home?
Jennifer Miskov: So that was a place in the 1800's because healing wasn't, you weren't allow to preach that at church back then. So they would come into a home, and they would teach and pray for healing, and so she pioneered the earliest healing homes. And so whenever I tell her story, literally people will either get healed or baptized in the Holy Spirit almost every time. When I share about the lost revival, people will be delivered. The Kabod glory will come, but I've got to tell you about Azusa Street revival because that's one of my favorite revivals, and I've seen some wild things happen with that. I remember I shared it at a ministry school in Northern California. About 1,000 students were there, and I started sharing the story. After 10 minutes, the Holy Spirit apprehended the whole group, and I got on my knees. I couldn't keep talking. People started coming up to the front, laying on the ground. You could just hear people screaming, calling out for more of the Lord. And I got a testimony from someone later that says he was there and he said when that was happening and the presence and Glory of God was coming, he felt a freezing cold, like freezing cold water in his right arm go into his chest, into his throat, and then he felt this freedom he'd never felt before. He starts worshipping. The Presence of God increases. He falls out. He's hanging on to the chair in front of him, and then because I couldn't finish talking about Azusa Street because God came in, they invited me back later to continue. And I told the story again more in-depth, and then he shared the testimony of what happened the second time he was there. He'd never, ever heard the audible Voice of God, never encountered the Holy Spirit before that. As he's hearing these stories, he actually hears the audible Voice of God, calling and commissioning him to be a revivalist. He said it was a life-changing moment, and he's never been the same.
Sid Roth: Oh, I believe that many of our audience are going to have some life-changing moments but you really caught my eye on something. I want to hear about the one-eyed African-American pastor that sat in the pulpit with a cardboard box over his head until the Glory of God showed up. And he could be, with the whole congregation there for hours, sometimes 3 hours, with this box over his head. He said, "I'm not taking it off until the Presence of God shows up". This was called the Azusa Street revival that Jennifer mentioned earlier, that took place in 1906. I interviewed a man that lived with a group of elderly women as a young person that were in that revival. He described that the glory cloud was so thick in the meeting, the children literally played hide-and-seek in it. Jennifer, explain some of the things you have studied and heard and I expect a demonstration as you listen of some of the things she saw and heard happening to you at Azusa Street.
Jennifer Miskov: Amen. Oh, yeah. Azusa Street is one of my most favorite revivals. It happened when a handful, maybe 15 African-Americans, were hungry for more of God. And so they decided to pray and fast but they would read Acts chapter 2 every night. They went to this little home on Bonnie Brae Street in Los Angeles, and they were just going to go after more of the Holy Spirit. They wanted a baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they weren't going to stop until God crashed in. And so April 9th, 1906, William J. Seymour, that's the African-American, blind in one eye, man of prayer who hid under the box. He was preaching on Acts chapter 2 before he'd even had his own baptism of the Holy Spirit encounter. He's preaching about it because the Word of God says so. As he's preaching, this woman named Jennie Evans Moore, falls to the ground in the Spirit, starts speaking in tongues. She gets up, out of her seat, goes over to the piano, sits and plays in the anointing. Never played the piano in her life, and that was the catalyst of what later was known as the Azusa Street revival.
Sid Roth: And this effected the whole world, and I'm told that it didn't remain just Black. It was probably the first Black-White congregation in America, where the racial divide,
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Not only could people play their piano in the glory, not only could children play hide-and-seek because the glory was visible to the eye and they would just disappear in these clouds, but people would get their destiny there and go to the four corners of the Earth.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Tell me some of the stories you've heard about that revival.
Jennifer Miskov: Oh, yeah. People would from around the world to Azusa Street, which is the place they moved into in Los Angeles, a week after that because the front porch fell through because too many people came. But they came from around the world, not necessarily to see a famous preacher or to hear an amazing worship band, but they wanted an all-consuming encounter with God. And they would wait and tarry in that place until they had this experience at that time known as a baptism in the Holy Spirit. The gift of tongues was connected to that at the time, and then as soon as they would get this encounter, they would go off to another nation as a missionary carrying that same fire, and literally global Pentecostalism was birthed, and that is one of the fastest parts of Christianity where it spread the Holy Spirit around the globe. To this day, 100 years later there are so many people have been touched by the Holy Spirit. People were healed. They had crutches hung up in their church where people would come and get healed. They had so many people from around the world come and encounter God.
Sid Roth: Tell me some of the things that happened to people. And you see, in this glory it's not so much one man or woman prays for you, but you can't be in the Presence of God without a change occurring in your life.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah. There was people healed of cancer, of rheumatism. People's debts were forgiven and paid off. People, I think one of the most profound parts of this was this thing called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. These people who had, were Christians their whole life didn't realize there was more. And then when they realized there's more than just a one-way ticket to heaven, we can encounter the Holy Spirit in a powerful way. They began to pray for the sick, see people healed. They began to move in signs and miracles that they never even knew were accessible after having this all-consuming encounter with the Holy Spirit.
Sid Roth: Now you say, that things today are similar to the way it was back in the early 1900s at the Azusa Street revival. What do you mean by that?
Jennifer Miskov: Well, Frank Bartleman, he was an intercessor during the revival. He has a quote in the 1900s. He says, "Pentecost is knocking at the door. The revival of our lifetime is around the corner. Heroes will arise from the dust of obscure and despised circumstances, whose names will be emblazoned on heaven's eternal page of fame". And he talks about this massive move of God coming, and as I'm hearing that, what he was prophesying right before Azusa Street revivals were, it feels like the same things today. Doesn't it, Sid? Post 2020, doesn't it feel like Pentecost is knocking at our doors once again?
Sid Roth: I've been saying this now for 10 years, that something so wonderful is coming and it's beginning to break out all over.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah, yeah.
Sid Roth: But you talked about, even at that time, there was a lot of lawlessness. Comment on that.
Jennifer Miskov: It seems like, just like today, if you look at where the world was back then, they were in need of a move of God. And today, don't we need a move of God more than ever? I think revival is the only answer that we have. The only hope that we have is God coming and doing a fresh work in our hearts and reviving and refreshing and awakening us again so that we're burning for Him.
Sid Roth: Find one more move-of-God revival that's one of your favorites.
Jennifer Miskov: Okay.
Sid Roth: And just tell me a couple minutes about it.
Jennifer Miskov: Oh. One 16-year-old girl, 1903, she says, "I love Jesus Christ with all my heart," Florrie Evans in Wales, and that one act of radical love was the catalyst that would later impact a man name Evan Roberts, which would later impact the Welsh revival, 100,000 people saved in less than 6 months. It was revival marked by prayer, testimony, worship, where they made space for the Holy Spirit and they just flowed with whatever the Holy Spirit doing. Social transformation, Bibles flew off the shelf. The donkeys couldn't even do their work because the miners would cuss and kick them when they weren't saved. They'd get saved and now they're gentle and nice. It was actually amazing what God did, and that influenced and helped catalyze the Azusa Street revival.
Sid Roth: I can't wait until what's going to happen a little more in this program because we just had a guest. The Presence of God has just increased. Jennifer's passion is to launch people, just like you, into their destiny in the supernatural. And she has discovered the number one key in almost every revival in history is hunger for God. And cultivating hunger for God through fasting catapults you into revival. The least understood type of fasting and most powerful, and you have probably never even heard of it, is the fire fast. I can't wait for you to hear what's going to happen to you in the fire. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Jennifer, one more quick story about Azusa Street, I can't hear enough about what God did in that. It started with a one-eyed African-American pastor and a few African-Americans and spread worldwide. Tell me one more quick story.
Jennifer Miskov: So I was just doing some tent meetings in Kentucky a few months ago in a place where the Cane Ridge revival and the Great Awakening was birthed, and I'm sharing about the revival history of Kentucky. And then I decided to add the story of Azusa Street on top of those stories, and as soon as I did that, a guy watching starts to shake like he's getting electrocuted. People start coming to the front, not even being invited, lay down prostrate and there's mud, they're literally on their knees and on their face,
Sid Roth: I heard it was raining there.
Jennifer Miskov: In the mud because they wanted more of God, and these are Christians, who are like, "I'm all in," consecrating themselves. I've never seen that. I was marked and moved, and it inspired even me just to see their hunger. It was incredible.
Sid Roth: How important is fasting in most of the great moves of God in the history of the world? How important?
Jennifer Miskov: Well, I don't know if you knew this, but Azusa Street revival was birthed when William J. Seymour and a few of his friends were on a 10-day fast. And that is crazy because a century later, we are still living in the momentum of a 10-day fast that a small group of people went on. That's incredible.
Sid Roth: Tell me some others that you know about.
Jennifer Miskov: Most revivals have been marked by hunger, and the way you get hungry is you fast, and so I'm sure you can probably trace most any revival, Evan Roberts would pray and fast for 13 years for a move of God until he finally saw a move of God in 1904, and he realized what he was praying his whole life for had finally come when I think a handful of people got saved.
Sid Roth: I understand one of the people that mentored you, one of the true heroes in the faith, Heidi Baker. What happened when she fasted?
Jennifer Miskov: Oh, she was on, I believe, a 5-day fast. As a teenager, when God called her to Africa, England and Asia, she got her life-defining call on a fast early in her life and she's since, we know, the nation of Mozambique has absolutely changed because she's given her life to that, and that came from being on a fast.
Sid Roth: Fasting is so misunderstood.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah, yeah.
Sid Roth: Jennifer, I was telling you that as a young believer I fasted. I wanted more of God. And I expected thunder, lightning, rain, at least an audible voice, "Sid, Sid"! Nothing! Was my expectation wrong? What happened?
Jennifer Miskov: It's funny, even Heidi, she'll share in the book, she doesn't really experience much in her fasting. It's usually before or after. I personally don't experience these crazy things either, but the momentum and what I experience after a fast is life-changing. I'm literally riding in the momentum today of what I did on a fast a decade ago, and it's still fruit. Ministries were born and birthed from following the fast, so I think anytime you fast, God is always doing something if you do it with the right motives. And the results, it could be a long time before we even step into the rewards, but something is always happening.
Sid Roth: There are different types of fasts.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah.
Sid Roth: It's not just food.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Give me some examples of fasting that people do, that God honors.
Jennifer Miskov: I think anytime you have a pure heart and the right motivations, God will honor anything He leads you to do. But there are whole food fasts where you decide, "I'm only going to drink water". You can fast, do a Daniel fast, only eat certain foods. You can fast social media. you can fast coffee. Literally, it's the relationship with the Lord and asking him what He wants you to give up so you can gain more of Him. Obviously, Jesus fasted, and so I think those are good footsteps to walk into, but there's so much grace in this process.
Sid Roth: I hear of people that fast sports for a week. I hear of people that you've talked about fast one meal. You have to start somewhere. People that fast watching entertainment on TV. Not our show, though. Don't stop that. That'll help you in the fast. But, Jennifer, fire fast, what is a fire fast? You talk about three different ones in the book.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah. Fire fast is kind of a new revolutionary perspective on fasting. So many people have a negative connotation of fasting. They have these religious mindsets. It's a religious box to check off, or you're punished if you don't do it, and there's condemnation. But the fire fast is just a reintroduction to, fasting is an invitation to greater intimacy with Jesus. It's focusing our attention and affection upon loving Jesus, encountering Him, worshipping Him. It's not necessarily fasting to gain something or gain a breakthrough. It's fasting to gain Jesus, and the three different types of fire fasts I go over in the book is the fire fast of intimacy, I think the most important one, where we fast solely to feast upon the Lord and grow closer. The second one is the fire fast of consecration, which you really need to have a good relationship with God the Father to do because He might burn away things that are holding you back from all He has and sometimes that's painful, and if you don't understand the Father loves you, that could be hard, but it's for your good. He prunes us to make us more fruitful. And the third one is the fire fast of revival. Now we're praying and fasting like William J. Seymour did to see a move of God in our day.
Sid Roth: Jennifer, you say, "It's not what we're giving up. It's what we're getting". You say, "Fasting is feasting on God". Comment on that.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah. Fasting is one of the most powerful ways to see Jesus without all the clutter. Psalm 27, King David said, "Though an army besiege me, though war breakout against me, one thing I seek, one thing I ask, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life". And there's something about fasting that helps us focus our affection and attention upon Jesus. The word focus, actually if you look at the root word of it, it has to do with fire. And there's something about living in the fire that fasting does that helps us focus our affection and attention upon the Lord. There's actually a quote in Azusa Street Revival that says, "We didn't have a thousand other things we wanted before the Lord. We just wanted Jesus". And I feel like there's something in the gift of fasting that helps us only want Jesus, and we gain Him. We gain a closer relationship with Jesus. We gain a fresh anointing, fresh fire, alignment. There's so many great benefits but more than anything, we gain Jesus and it's not what we give up as much as what we get. It impacts not only us but generations to come. That's a powerful investment, just by setting aside a few days to not eat.
Sid Roth: Most important thing, I never understood it as a new believer: You must have your own experiential knowledge. Not just head knowledge, that's the beginning, but your own experiential knowledge with God. It starts by asking Him. It starts by knowing it's available. It starts by saying this prayer out loud and meaning it to the best of your ability. Repeat out loud after me and believe it to the best of your knowledge. "Dear God," out loud. "Dear God, I've made many mistakes for which I'm truly sorry. Thank you, Jesus, that You died in my place for every one of my mistakes and that in Your books in heaven, they're all washed clean and I have a new, fresh start in life. I want to use my life for Your Kingdom. I ask You to now come and live inside of me. I make you not just my Savior from sins, but my Lord. I want my own experience with you. Amen". Now, Jennifer, just briefly, explain passion and hunger for God and then please pray for us.
Jennifer Miskov: Yeah, absolutely. Jesus is worth everything, He gave His entire life for us. There's no other hope we have in this world other than relationship with Him, and we get inheritance with Him, and so I just want to pray for you, that you would have a deeper relationship with Jesus and that you would be baptized with a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit, with a fresh baptism of fire, with a fresh baptism of peace that passes understanding, that you would know that Jesus is more than enough and He's been pursuing your heart no matter where you're at right now. He's been pursuing your heart since before time began because you are important to Him, and so I bless you with a greater hunger and a greater passion to know Jesus more intimately than ever before. In Jesus' name, amen.
Sid Roth: If you have your own experiential knowledge with God, you have everything. And if you don't, all you've got is religion.