Sid Roth - We Took Jesus to Burning Man
God told my guest, "I'm too big to fit into your head". God has new ideas, new thoughts, that you've never even thought of before, new assignments for you, for you because of the golden global sunflower glory.
Sid Roth: Miracles erupt when my guest welcomes one of her best friends. His name is the Holy Spirit. Would you welcome the Holy Spirit right now?
Cindy McGill: Yes. Holy Spirit, we welcome You. We say You are welcome in this place. Do whatever You want to do, and we just thank Jesus for being here.
Sid Roth: I don't know if you caught that. She said to the Holy Spirit, "Do whatever You want to do". I think He's just waiting to be free. What do you think?
Cindy McGill: I think so.
Sid Roth: Well, one of your favorite scriptures is Habakkuk Chapter One, Verse Five. What does that say?
Cindy McGill: It says, "Look among the nations. I'm going to do something in your day that even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it".
Sid Roth: All right. I'm going to demonstrate that right now. You were in India. Now, I have heard the most amazing miracles, probably more than any man on earth. This I never heard of before, Cindy. Never. Let's stretch them.
Cindy McGill: Okay. When we were in India we happened to run into a woman who had been born again supernaturally. Her husband was a satanist, and her father was a Hindu priest, and she just got born again probably through a dream, but when she did get born again and receive Jesus she also received the gift of faith. And when there's a gift of faith nothing is impossible. We had gone for dinner at her house, and when someone dies in India they have to cremate them right away because of disease. And she had told us that they went to cremate one person in the village, and she ran out and said, "Wait, don't burn them up yet. They're easier to raise from the dead when they're not in ashes".
Sid Roth: Did you get that? Easier. But that is wild, Cindy. But, you know what, why not?
Cindy McGill: Why not?
Sid Roth: God says, "Nothing is impossible for Me".
Cindy McGill: That's right.
Sid Roth: So that's included. Nothing is impossible for God. Cindy, you were a heathen, a non-believer. Somehow you wandered in a church, and someone invited you to a Andraé Crouch concert. Why would you even go to a concert like that?
Cindy McGill: Well, I didn't know it was a concert. I thought it was a Chinese restaurant. So I wasn't sure what was happening, and so I went to this place, and I kept circling around and around Will Rogers Auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas, and then I saw the marquee that said, "Andraé Crouch in concert tonight," and the power of God was so strong. I honestly didn't know if I believed in God, but I felt the difference. I felt that God was there, and then he said a statement. He said, "If you have questions in the corners of your mind or places of discouragement and peace you can't find, reach out and touch the Lord because He's walking up and down these aisles," and that's exactly what I did. I literally reached out, and when I did I felt the power and the presence of God. I knew He was there. I felt like my lungs opened up. I felt like this fog cleared up over my mind. I thought there was 500 pounds that went off of my back, and I thought, "This is a... I'm new. I'm completely brand-new. I feel different than when I came in here".
Sid Roth: In 1992, you and your husband started something called PUSH. What's PUSH?
Cindy McGill: We were in a real dry season, it seemed like spiritually. We'd pastored for a number of years, and we were just in a very dry season, and we just thought, "We've got to have more". At that time my husband had been praying, and he said to God, "People don't like the church". And God spoke back to him and said, "They've never seen the church".
Sid Roth: Hmm.
Cindy McGill: And then he said, "They don't like Christianity," and He said, "They don't like powerless Christianity". And so we started this thing called PUSH that was pray until something happens.
Sid Roth: I like that.
Cindy McGill: Yes. And that's exactly what we did, and it was interesting. We started with around 10 people in a very small town, and it dwindled down to about four.
Sid Roth: So you had what's called a membership drive. You drove them out.
Cindy McGill: A Gideon revival, right. It was an exodus. And it only took four of us really to begin to pray, and we prayed so specifically, and we asked God to just show up, just do, take over, and all of a sudden really from one Sunday to the next probably within a 3-month span, our services went from dull, boring, everyone sitting in the same seat every Sunday, whatever, to everyone was on the floor. Everyone was laughing. People were getting all kinds of revelation. The prophetic began to kick in. The Holy Spirit was filling our church with His presence, and people were coming from the city. Now, we're in a small town, so in a small town people know what you do, right?
Sid Roth: Of course.
Cindy McGill: And we even knew what our kids did before they got home because somebody had heard about it, right, so, but, when this began to break out people began to get healed of everything. These were people that were heavily addicted to meth. They were meth dealers, and they were creating meth in their homes. They heard about it. They came in. They got completely healed. We had a woman who was very strung out on drugs, and she pulled into the parking lot. It was very interesting. I had had a dream the night before, and in the dream I was driving a Ford Explorer, which I didn't have. I didn't have a Ford Explorer, so I knew it had symbology, right? And I was passing waterways, and I was watching fish jump in these waterways, and I had a fishing pole in my Ford Explorer in my dream. And I pulled over to the side, and I thought, "I'm going to put my line in the water and see if I can catch a fish," and when I put my line in I pulled up a huge bottom fish. And while I was telling this to my husband a woman literally in that moment pulled in, in real life, into the parking lot, and she said, "I've hit bottom".
Sid Roth: That was your bottom fish.
Cindy McGill: That was my bottom fish. And she said, "I've been clean and sober for about a week, and I want to know if anything is here for me," and she was connected to several other people in the town. Her brother was actually diagnosed with liver disease from drinking. He came in, got healed, completely healed, became our drummer. Her mother owned a bar in the town, and she didn't believe in God or didn't know anything. She said, "I can't deny the change in my kids". So she came in, and she said, "I want to be filled with renewal". That's what she said. She didn't know the language, and we put our hands on her. She had leukemia. She had diabetes, so she was very ill. And she said, "I want to be prayed for," and we got behind her and prayed. Our hands heated up, and she said, "I'm on fire". And when we looked around her glasses were steamed up. And she went back to the doctor, and the doctor said, "I don't know what happened to you, but you don't need me anymore". And she said, "Do you mean I'm healed"? and he said, "I can't say that". They always say that, right? "I can't say that". And then she began to be the woman at the well. So when people would come in from logging all day and they would begin to sit down at her bar, before they got drunk she had her daughter who had pulled into our parking lot, put them in her car and bring them to the church.
Sid Roth: Well, that was good for your business, but it wasn't good for her business.
Cindy McGill: She didn't care at that time. She was so excited about what had happened and how many wonderful things and restoration and healing and wholeness was coming to her family.
Sid Roth: But it wasn't just them.
Cindy McGill: No.
Sid Roth: This went on for 2 1/2 years.
Cindy McGill: Yes.
Sid Roth: They saw everything of God happen in that church. You make a statement. You say, "We are living in a post-Christian era". What do you mean by that?
Cindy McGill: Well, in the last few years I begin to notice that more and more and more people were not church-friendly. People aren't God-friendly. They don't want to hear about God. They've been hurt in church, or they don't believe he's there, just like I was.
Sid Roth: Or the counterculture, the cancel culture, the woke culture.
Cindy McGill: The counter culture, cancel culture, and woke culture. They're being fed lies. They're being fed things that aren't true. And so they've walled us up, us meaning those of us who want to reach them and tell them about Jesus and the good news of God. And you really have to earn the right to talk to people anymore. So the way that we do that is either dream interpretation because everyone's dreaming, and that seems to get us in the door. Or we just begin to say, "I see something about you. Would you mind if I tell you what I see"? And we give them a word of knowledge, but we use language that would not wall them up. We use language that's new. It's very fun actually. We've been interpreting dreams for a number of years, and I think just through practice and through just going out and our main goal is to get out on the streets and find out what people that don't go to church are dreaming because God's talking to them.
Sid Roth: And God told you he's giving people new strategies new ideas.
Cindy McGill: Yes.
Sid Roth: Talk on that.
Cindy McGill: He's giving us new bold strategies to be able to reach people who would never listen. He's teaching us language that we need in order for us to communicate with them. It's not Christianese. It doesn't have anything to do, because they don't understand that language, so we need to come up with... we just need to paraphrase it. We need to bring it into their realm.
Sid Roth: More than one example.
Cindy McGill: Jeremiah 29:11. There are thoughts about you from the Creator that are not for your destruction but to give you a destiny, to give you a future, to give you something to hold onto, something to grasp onto.
Sid Roth: What happened at the Burning Man festivals? What happened at the pornographic conventions? Yes, you heard me right, adult pornographic conventions. It's going to amaze you. This woman goes to them. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Cindy, how does this work? How does it work that you know the rest of someone's dream? Just tell me how this started.
Cindy McGill: It started about 3 years ago actually. I just would see someone. We'd be on the street. I do a lot of street ministry. I like to go out and see what the world is dreaming, and I would notice someone. They would be highlighted, or they would look very... stand out, and I'd walk up to them, and while I'm walking up to them I could hear that they had a dream and basically the context of the dream. But as they started telling me their dream, I would dream it with them, and I could finish the rest of their dream.
Sid Roth: But the thing that amazes me is you started going, these are not religious things to do. In fact, religion goes a little berserk over it, but she literally went to what was known as the Burning Man festivals in the desert, I think near Las Vegas, and that started in 2003. And at one meeting there were 85,000, listen to this, lawless young people, 85,000. So what does Cindy do? She starts a booth of dream interpretation and other things of, tell me about what you would do in these tents.
Cindy McGill: Well, the whole city comes up overnight it seems like, and it's for a 10-day experience of free-expression lifestyle. And so there's a lot of artists, and there are a lot of people out there that actually used to be in church but they didn't fit. They were the creatives. So the whole city is made up of theme camps. So we created our own theme camp called the "Freedom Lounge" because he who the son sets free is free indeed. And we wanted the Spirit of the Lord to be very, very present. We told the Holy Spirit, "You can do anything You want to do that You can't do in church". And so we invited people to come with a menu board. And our first menu item was: "Organic restart: Welcome to your new life".
Sid Roth: So, you're speaking their language but our meaning.
Cindy McGill: That's right. And we have the real deal. We have the Creator, the one...
Sid Roth: But I have to tell you, you're just one person. How do you get so many people that can do these things, can read people's mail, can do dream interpretations? All of these are gifts you can teach them.
Cindy McGill: Oh, yes. Well, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, so He's resident on the inside of us, and we need to earnestly desire the best gifts especially that we would prophesy. So this is just one of the prophetic gifts is that operates through the prophetic realm where we can give them a word of knowledge. We do a thing called organic root recovery, original root recovery.
Sid Roth: What's that?
Cindy McGill: It's identity recovery. We tell them who God made them to be before they went all these other directions.
Sid Roth: Oh, that is so wonderful.
Cindy McGill: And God would show us what he made them to be.
Sid Roth: Tell me one person that comes to mind that you shared with.
Cindy McGill: A man came in who was Iranian, and he told us that his family was in government, so we knew that he was Muslim. And we don't have anything on our tent around about God or Jesus or anything because we don't want to wall them up. We just want the language. God told us "Identify Me by My attributes instead of by My name". So we said, "Come and get the Shame Taker, Mercy, Truth, Ancient One," all these things. And he came in. He wanted a spiritual reading. And we said, "Well, sit down in the chair, and you ask the Spirit of Truth to come".
Sid Roth: Rather than Holy Spirit you say Spirit of Truth.
Cindy McGill: Spirit of Truth.
Sid Roth: That's another name for the Holy Spirit.
Cindy McGill: That's right. And he did. He, by invitation, said, "Spirit of Truth, come". Then, he went into a trance. That began to bother me a little bit because I was like, "I'm not sure about this," so I got behind him and began to pray in the Spirit. And he began to shake and cry, and I said, "What do you see"? And he said, "I see light". And then he began to weep, sobbing, weep. And I said, "What do you see"? And he said, "I see Jesus". And we said, "Embrace the one who's revealing himself to you". And he got born again that moment, and it reminded me of how many Muslims, how many people are coming to the Lord through their dreams. That Jesus is showing up in their dreams.
Sid Roth: And you can teach people how to understand the language of dreams?
Cindy McGill: Yes. Mm-hmm.
Sid Roth: And tell me real quick, one quick story, how about the woman with the scars?
Cindy McGill: Yes, she was a cutter. A woman came into our camp. She was from a different country, and at Burning Man they come from all over the world, and she had scars all up and down her arms. And we found out that she had been abused since she was 3 and by her family members, by other people around her. And she had so much pain she just would cut, and we find this to be true a lot, and so we asked her, "Would you like to have a brand-new start? Would you like an organic restart? Welcome to your new life". She said, "Yes". And so the person working with her took oil and rubbed it on her skin and asked for the Spirit of Truth and the Creator and the Healer to heal her and to cause her to understand the power of God. And she went to the bathroom. She came back about 30 minutes later, and all of her scars were gone, every one of them. She was hysterical. She was crying and laughing at the same time. She'd never seen anything like that, and we said, "This is Jesus. This is Jesus. He is the Healer".
Sid Roth: That's outrageous she went to these Burning Man. Then she goes to these adult pornographic conventions. Tell me about the pastor's daughter that walked up to you when you had a booth there.
Cindy McGill: Yes, we... the Lord had said, "If you put your finger on the pulse of culture, I will bring you the encounters". And he also... I didn't want to go. You need to know I didn't want to go into the adult...
Sid Roth: I can understand.
Cindy McGill: I didn't want to go in there. But God said, "There's people that are praying for these people, some of the people, and I need a volunteer". And I said, "Well, this is upsetting. I've never been in anything like this before". And God said, "I've seen it. I've already seen it". He said, "You're seated with me in Heavenly places, so just look at what I tell you to look at. Look at the person. Look at the heart, and I'll give you the words to say," and we ran into, again, we were directed by God at that time, and we ran into a girl, and she was highlighted to me once again. And I said, "Have you had a dream"? and she told us her dream, and then she volunteered the information. She said, "I'm a pastor's daughter," and I said, "Oh, you're a PK". And then it hit her. And I said, "The unconditional love doesn't fail. God's not left you. He's never going to leave you. He's never going to forsake you. He loves you right where you are, but you are not called for this. You are not meant to be here. This is not your destiny. It's not your future," and she started crying. And she was undone. And then one of the people with me saw her eating a pickle, and I thought, "Well, go ahead and give the word of knowledge," and she started crying even more when that word was given. She pulled out a picture of her wallet and there was her father, the pastor, and her eating pickles. And she said, "That's our connection".
Sid Roth: People who are watching. They'll say, "That's not me. I can't do what she's doing". Well, you're not supposed to do it, but God has something new. Tell them about it.
Cindy McGill: Yes, God's giving us new supernatural boldness. We're going to recognize our authority that Jesus gave us...
Sid Roth: And it may not be what you're doing.
Cindy McGill: No.
Sid Roth: But it will be what they're created to do.
Cindy McGill: It's what you're created to do. Every one of us have a different assignment, and so we're now moving into these assignments and what God is opening up for us, and the main thing that will keep us back is fear. But perfect love casts out fear. And then we can go, and we can fulfill the Great Commission into all the world and see people come in and get born again and get saved and rescued.
Sid Roth: Cindy, pray for people to feel God, experience God and be healed in 1 minute.
Cindy McGill: Okay. Father, I just want to thank You right now that Your presence is going into every home and everyone that's listening right now. I thank You, Jesus, that You are the restorer of all things. I thank You, God, that You're always working all things together for good, that You are behind the scenes working, and I thank You, Jesus, right now for the Holy Spirit filling every home. Dreams begin to activate in your life and in your children and in your family's lives that you're going to begin to experience God at a new level. You're going to see Him for yourself. You're going to surrender your old life for a brand-new one and God's going to wipe away the slate, giving you a completely total new start. I thank you for the restoration that is happening right now with your kids. With your children, I see children coming back. I see them saying, "I'm sorry," and coming back and running back to your home. So I just thank You, Jesus, for doing that right now.