Sid Roth - Jesus Left a Shocking Surprise in My Prison Cell
My Jewish guest, who did not know the Messiah, served 20 years in prison, and shortly after arriving there, a tangible, visible cloud of God's glory came into his cell, that even other inmates saw.
Sid Roth: David Hairabedian's mother became a Jewish believer in the Messiah with a prophetic gifting that started with a visitation from a rabbi that disappeared before her very eyes. David, tell me about your parents and the mysterious rabbi.
David Hairabedian: My mother was about eight years old, and she would walk to school every day with a friend of hers, back in the day when you could walk to school safely. And she was in New York. So one day, instead of waiting for her friend to arrive, she felt prompted to leave early. So she walked alone. And she had her lunch money for afterwards. And as she was walking to school, a rabbi appeared under her, or came under her, and said, "Maitala, I need you to help me". And she looked at him, she says, "What do you need"? He says, "I need subway money to get across town. I'm in the wrong part of town". And she reached into her pocket and she pulled out 15 cents, and she gave it to him. She said, "If you need more, I can get it for you. I can run back to my house". He said, "No, this is the perfect amount of what I need". And he said, "I want to pray for you a blessing". So he put his hand upon my mother's head, and as he prayed for her, what happened was, the presence of God came on her, and she felt that presence of God. But Sid, what I didn't tell you was this: The minute the rabbi appeared, all of a sudden, all the traffic and everything on the street stopped instantly, and she was caught up in that moment in time. And as he released his hand from her, all of a sudden, everything started moving again. And as she turned and looked, the rabbi was gone. And she hid that in her heart. She didn't tell anybody that for years. But that's when she had first picked up the prophetic gifting of dreams and visions as an unsaved person that didn't yet know the Messiah, yet God began to visit her, her then.
Sid Roth: And then when she had a clear presentation of the gospel, she became a believer. And she passed that prophetic gift onto you by 20. You had a lifestyle of drug trafficking. And just before the big arrest, you actually had a warning from God.
David Hairabedian: I was in my bed. It was the night before I was going to go steal our second jet that month...
Sid Roth: Your second jet? You let it roll off your tongue as if it's nothing.
David Hairabedian: Well, it's interesting, you get cooked like a lobster in cold water, that's how the enemy does it, and he slowly turns up the heat, Sid. And the next thing you know, you're fully cooked. That's how the enemy gets us into sin. So it was our second jet that month. It was a Cessna Citation II jet. And it was going to come in blue and white. And in the dream, I saw an arrest scene. The plane didn't come in blue and white. It came in brown and white. It had a dent in the left wing. It wasn't at 8:00 in the morning, it was at 9:05 in the morning. And we were arrested right there. There was a Mercedes-Benz, we weren't going to have the Mercedes there. So none of this dream made sense, because nothing lined up. And I woke up. And I was heart palpitating, and the phone rings. And I was rude to my mother on the phone. And that day, she said, "God, I give him to You. Preserve his life. Don't allow him to perish. Whatever You need to do to save him, I give my son to you". Twenty-four hours later, this Mercedes-Benz shows up. The plane shows up late, instead of 8:00 in the morning, it shows up at 9:05. It's a reverse sting operation with the U.S. Custom Service, the feds. And they rented a plane the night before with a dented wing; it was brown and white instead of blue and white, 9:05 in the morning. And we end up driving this Mercedes-Benz onto the tarmac in Boca Raton, Florida. And out comes feds out of planes, trains, automobiles, into my ear, ruined my orange juice morning. I didn't pass go, I didn't collect $200. I spent the next 19 years, 6 months, a week and a day in federal prison. I woke up in Leavenworth Penitentiary, when if you're not right with God in Leavenworth, you're always just one heartbeat away from hell. But I had a praying mother.
Sid Roth: A few months after you arrived in prison, you're a non-believer. God uses you in healing. Explain.
David Hairabedian: God set me up. I think when God has a call on your life, it's really difficult to mess it up. What happened was, I was divinely positioned in a prison cell in Building 63 in Leavenworth Penitentiary, where the Bird Man of Alcatraz actually had his birds.
Sid Roth: Oh.
David Hairabedian: It wasn't in California, it was in Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas. At that time it had cockroaches, it was cement in metal. It was absolutely miserable. So I went from penthouses to the prison house in the penitentiary, in what they refer to as the shoe, the solitary housing unit. And here we were, there was a man in my cell. His name was Shane. Shane had five compression fractures and three blown discs in his back. My co-defendant, Vic, was a chiropractor, a licensed chiropractor, that used to see 100 patients a week. He couldn't help Shane because of the broken back. Every day, Shane would listen to a radio preacher, and he would pray the prayer of faith, and nothing would happen. Finally one day, Vic says to Shane, "You have the back of a decrepit 85-year-old man in bad health. Shane, you will always have back problems, regardless of medical treatment". And Shane looked back at Vic. He said, "I don't receive that. I believe God will heal me, and I'm waiting on my miracle". Thirty minutes later, the radio broadcast came on. And I looked at poor, miserable Shane, he had his headphones on. And I said, "God, if you're real, I'm not asking for myself. I'm asking for Shane, who claims to be your servant. I'm asking you to heal him right now". Sid, before my eyes, like a clear gel came down on Shane's head and begin to come down slowly over his shoulders, and I heard these sounds; pop, pop, crack. And Shane pulled his headphones off. And he said, "Vic! Dave! I'm healed! Hallelujah"! he began to speak in tongues. And I was more mystified than anybody, because the God I didn't believe in positioned me to pray a prayer for Him to answer it in front of a licensed chiropractor, who then examined Shane, and all of the bones were back in proper position, and he was completely healed.
Sid Roth: You know what that tells me? God's love. And He loved David. He loved that man in the cell. He loved that chiropractor. They all needed to see this. And then tell me about when you're in prison, Jesus appeared.
David Hairabedian: It was an amazing encounter, but I want to share this. It was the night before my sentencing, June 6th, 1990. And I was going to sentencing that next day. And I knew the Messiah now. And what happened was, I thought, I need to pray. There was no unction to pray, it was almost like rote, religious. And I got down on one knee to pray, that's how prideful I still was. And God brought me down on both knees. And I said, "God, I'm going to sentencing tomorrow". And my co-defendant and the other person in the cell joined with me in prayer out of pity for my situation. And as I got down and I prayed, it was just words. There was no power in it whatsoever. And as I got ready to get up off my knees, all of a sudden, God honored my prayer. And the presence of God became pregnant in that room, and the atmosphere changed. And all of a sudden, Jesus appeared before us with a white robe. And He stood before the shower in that 8 by 16 cell. He stood in that white robe, and then He began to raise His arms up, He didn't say anything. And then He changed to a scarlet red, and then heavenly blue, and then white again. And as this happened, I was filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues in such clear, audible tones. And I would speak in English these words that would come into my mind, that I later would find were in Vic's mind. They would come out of my mouth, I would seal them in this unknown language, and then Vic would get full interpretation of what I was saying. And he would announce back in English. And all but two of the prayers we prayed in that two-hour time-frame were answered within 48 hours, we found out. And God moved. So then He disappeared. And all of a sudden, here's what happened. I saw a cloud on the floor in the prison cell, and it was about the size of a man's hand. And the Holy Spirit said to me, "Test the spirits". And I looked down, and I said, "Do you know Jesus"? And when I said that, it sparked gold and platinum, and it filled the floor of the prison cell. And I'm the only one that's on the floor at this point, the other two people are sitting on their beds. And I stepped into this cloud of this presence, it was about 18 inches high. And as I stepped in, every time I said "Jesus," it would spark gold and platinum. "Jesus," gold and platinum. And as I would do that, it was like static electricity on my legs. And it was like a young child playing with the father, the father playing with a young child. I went from jet thief and cocaine trafficker to playing in the presence of a living God, because I had been forgiven, and become like that of a child. And what happened was this; I heard the words, "Drink from the cloud". I had sinus problems, so I reached my hands down into the cloud. And as I picked up this tangible cloud of His presence and I went to drink it, it sprang back into itself. And this happened two times. And the thought came to me, you must come to it, not it to you. So I humbled myself further, this God broke me more. And I melt into the cloud and I drank from the cloud three times. And the presence of God went down into my lungs and up into my sinuses, and I was instantly healed from sinus problems that moment.
Sid Roth: Because of God's grace in your life, you found out shortly that you had a gift of healing. We don't have the time to talk about all of the miracles that happened in the prison, but there was a place called a Death Ward. Tell me what happened there.
David Hairabedian: We were in Springfield, Missouri, the year was 1996. And there was what we refer to as a hospital unit, a medical center for federal prisoners. So there was about 850 prisoners, 450 were recovered, 400 were sick. And some were on the Death Ward, Building 3, second floor. You couldn't get up there, because prisoners that would get up there would grave rob the prisoners for their stamps and watches. So I went up on day at the unction of the Holy Spirit. And I had a person with me, a white collar criminal that was born of the Spirit. And we went up. And as we stepped off the elevator on the second floor the guard met us. "What are you doing up here"? I said, "We came to pray for the sick, sir". He says, "You're not going to pray for the sick. You're going to go to the solitary housing unit. I'm putting you in the hole". I said, "I'm fine with that. We're both fine with that, in fact, but we'd like to pray for the sick first. Would that be okay"? And he said, "Well, you're a horse of a different breed". He says, "Come in here". He said to the nurses, "What do you think I ought to do with them"? Says, "Well, if they want to pray for the sick, let them pray for the sick. You can put him in the hole afterwards". I said, "Thank you, I appreciate that. We'd be happy to go to the hole. But let us pray for the sick". So he said, "Okay," he says, "You can pray for the sick. But you've got to start in this room first". Sid, he brought us into a room where there were three men that were comatose.
Sid Roth: Hmm.
David Hairabedian: They were in comas. One had his arms tied down, and there was netting around the entire bed. He'd been beat with a metal bar on the wait pile at another facility, because he hadn't paid a drug debt. And his head had been bashed in, so he had brain damage. So as he's there, I'm thinking, man, this is a tough call, God. You sent us. There's a difference between being sent and those who just went. We were sent, so I knew He was with us. And I raised my hands up, and I began to pray. No presence. And about two minutes went by, and I felt like an abject failure. And just when I was getting ready to stop, the presence of God rolled in like it did in that cell, years earlier when I met Him, and the room became pregnant with the atmosphere of God. And this man in a coma leaned up, and that's when I saw his hands were tied. And he had torment in his eyes. And I rebuked the demon out of his eyes. And all of a sudden, peace came, and he feel back down onto the bed, and he was out again. And we prayed for the other two, asking God to heal. And we went down the hall. And a healing revival broke out on the Death Ward. As we went down the hall, a man had been shot, he had bullets in his back. We prayed for him. He got feeling back in his legs. Then we went and prayed for mafia Dons, they came off the Death Ward. One lived another 13 years, several AIDS victims that were on the Death Ward came off the Death Ward, and we saw them on the yard, and God was restoring their health. And as we were leaving, the guard said, "I'm not going to throw you in the shoe. You guys are the authentic real deal". He said, "I don't really believe in God," he says, "but I can't deny what I've seen here today". And so the nurses said, "When he takes you down on the elevator, pray for him. He needs it". So we prayed for the guard. He humbly accepted it. We didn't go to the hole that day. Instead a move of God happened. And risk is faith "R-I-S-K", you've got to step out of the boat sometimes when you've heard Him say "go," and you're sent".
Sid Roth: The presence of God, the gift of healing operates in David. But the Glory of God is also in this studio. And I see people being healed. When we come back, I'm going to turn David loose to pray for you. Be right back.
Sid Roth: David got out of prison in 20 years. Today he's married to, let me say this right, Ms. America. You have a wonderful family, you have an amazing ministry. And I've got only two words to say about that. Only God. Now this one grateful Jewish man, I want you to pray for people that are in hopeless situations, freedom from bondages, and move in words of knowledge.
David Hairabedian: Right now in the name of Yeshua, Messiah Jesus, the same One that visited me in a prison cell over 30 years ago, He's visiting you right now, because He's no respecter of persons. But right now, the Lord is setting you free. Right now, if you want freedom, just raise your hands under the Lord as an act of faith. Here it comes. In the name of Messiah, I bind and break off every chain of addiction. I cancel the assignment of torment in the night against you. I cancel and I render moot, null and void every stratagem of the enemy against you. I rewrite your timeline with the angels of God right now, and where you were derailed, I speak a re-railing, putting you back on the tracks with God in your destiny to fulfill your mission and purpose. I speak a divine apprehension back of your destiny, and I declare freedom right now. Also in a deal right now, with a thing called Hope Deferred; Hope Deferred makes the heart sick, Proverbs 13:12 says, but a desire fulfilled is like a tree of life. Many through this season have had delayed hope, deferred hope. There's been disillusionment, cynicism, bitterness. But right now, in the name of Messiah, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, I break that bondage up out of you. I command it to come out by the root. Every plant that's not been planted by my Heavenly Father should be rooted up right now, we pluck it out, and I release the in-flooding mind of the Lord to bring freedom and deliverance in every area of your life. I also want to invite you, if you've never received Messiah in your heart, I'm inviting you to do what somebody invited me to do over 30 years ago. Will you give Him your life? Will you exchange yours for His? Will you return to the penthouse, the highest place with God, by repenting? If so, pray this prayer with me. God, I come to you the best way I know how, and in my best ability I give you my life. I believe Messiah, You died for me on the tree. I believe you were hung up from my hang-ups, and I now exchange my life for Yours. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and empower me to live this life. Give me a hunger and a thirst for the Word of God. And I thank You for it right now. And Sid, I see God healing people with dental miracles right now. Put your hand on your jaw where you've had the pain. He's rooting up, He's pulling down, He's overthrowing, He's cancelling this area. Also, I encourage you to ask your body to forgive you for abusing it. This is a big key in healing. As your body, say, "Body, I have not treated you with honor and respect the way I should". I break off every suppressor spirit, I break off every hindering spirit, and I release the miracle working power of the Messiah of Nazareth into your body. I command healing to be, right now. I also see God healing sinus issues right now. What He did for me, He's doing for you. I command that to open and to remain. I cancel automatic renewal, where you've had a series where it's cyclical, no longer. We break the cycle in this moment where we'll never come back again. Nahum 1:9 says, affliction shall not rise up a second time. And the final thing that I see the Lord doing right now is, He's giving you brand new armor. There's an armor upgrade because we need it for the glory that's coming. You're about to enter Acts, Chapter 29, where there is no Acts Chapter 29 in the Book of Acts, but He's about to begin to write it through your life. Oh, and Sid, one final thing I have to share with you. On the way off the Death Ward, after that healing move happened, we stopped back by the comatose man's room. And I walked in, I raised my hands up. And instantly the presence of God came. And he came back up and he looked at me, longing to see something. And I led him in a sinner's prayer; even though he couldn't talk, he nodded. And he saw something other than me, and he had peace in his eyes. And he went back down into the bed. We found out that nine minutes later, he stepped into eternity. He got in with his shirttail a-smokin', in a prison cell. The devil couldn't kill him, for eternity.
Sid Roth: Be filled with the Glory of God.