Sid Roth - God Said TELL MY PEOPLE
Hello, Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. My guest will tell you why the first 325 years of the church had miracles, had power, had glory, and why it left. And better yet, how you can get it back.
Sid Roth: Welcome, Holy Spirit. Moses, Joshua, Caleb, and David had the shekinah glory on them. As a traditional Jewish man, that same glory rescued me and gave me something I, and most believers in the Messiah never knew was possible, experiential knowledge of God. And that same glory is in this studio right now and will give you that same experiential knowledge of God. My guest, Larry Sparks, Publisher of Destiny Image, has been traveling the world to get a pulse on the new outpouring of God's glory. Larry, I'll take you back to age 16.
Larry Sparks: Yeah.
Sid Roth: And that was your first real encounter with God.
Larry Sparks: Yes.
Sid Roth: Tell me about that.
Larry Sparks: I was not interested in God. I was brought up in a very nominal religious household, although my parents were accidentally prophetic because they put me in a religious school and it was called Holy Spirit School. And I really believed that was a prophetic decree over my life. Otherwise, though I wanted enough of God, I didn't want to go to hell. And I certainly wanted to make the rapture when Jesus came back. But that's it. I did my own thing. But at 16, like you said, I started to have my unsaved father drive me to the local Baptist church because I got sovereignly hungry for God. But then when I drove myself, I heard about this church and they had something called contemporary praise and worship where they had drums and guitars and all that. And so I went and in the middle of one of those services, Sid, I got set up. I was standing there not really engaging 'cause I thought it was kind of creepy because people were lifting their hands and clapping their hands. And it was a little bizarre to me. And I just stood there while they were singing praises to God. And I started to feel in my hands, I actually feel it right now, Sid, I felt electricity. I felt like pulsating electricity. Like I were to take my fingers and put them in a plug or into a socket. And then I felt in my chest fire like a burning, like a heat, like a warmth. And even as I say that, Sid I got to just do this. For those of you who are watching, I even see teenagers and Gen Z where you've heard a lot about God, but you've never met God. You never had experiential knowledge of God. I believe right now the glory and the fire of God is falling on you. I decree that over you. I believe God is setting you up just like he set me up, Sid. And that's what happened.
Sid Roth: Well, you had another major visitation from God in 2021.
Larry Sparks: Yes.
Sid Roth: In Arizona.
Larry Sparks: Yeah. He set me up again. I was at a church, Fresh Start Church, and the pastors called me up, prayed for me, prophesied over me. I had a very powerful touch from the Holy Spirit. And, you know, I didn't quite know what God was doing. I felt Him on me. And I said, "God, what are you doing to me"? He didn't really tell me what He was doing to me. He just made a statement. He made a statement that really defined my life. And I believe a statement that every believer, every non-believer needs to know because this is what's coming to the church. And this is the statement He made. He said, "Tell my people, I'm re-introducing them to Pentecostal fire". Tell my church, I'm reintroducing them to Pentecostal fire. That was the phrase. And I said, "All right, God, I'm going with it".
Sid Roth: Now did you have any idea what that meant?
Larry Sparks: I did. As a church historian, because I got my Master's of Divinity in Church History and Renewal. One of my advisors was, kind of, the key person who wrote about and talked about Pentecostal or spirit-filled history in the 20th century. So I knew what it meant, because a lot of people think Pentecostal is a certain denomination of church or it's a certain flavor or a style. But the Lord said it's not a church, it's not a style. It's actually what the church was born in, in Acts, chapter two. It was a demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power. And I believe that's what should be normal as you regularly say.
Sid Roth: All right. Well, this begs the question, why did the power leave the church? And even better, how do we get it back?
Larry Sparks: Well, so many people erroneously teach a doctrine called Cessationism, which basically says the Holy Spirit moved in miracle signs and wonders until the last apostle died, or until the Bible was put together, until the Bible was canonized. If somebody was put on a desert island and just given the Bible to believe and they had no other influence, they would come off that island believing God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And every miracle in the Book of Acts is available right now. But the first 300 years of church history, the whole church, I mean, everybody who claimed Jesus as Messiah, they moved in signs, wonders, and miracles. In fact, when people got water baptized or immersed, there was an expectation that when they came up out of the baptismal waters, they would speak in tongues, prophesy, get delivered from demons, and filled with the Holy Ghost. There was an expectation that the standard, the normal of the church of the believer, that first 300 years was moving in the power, the supernatural power of God but it got unplugged. And here's the deal, God never unplugged the power. Somebody needs to hear that, God never removed the Holy Spirit. He never removed that demonstration of power. What happened is the church, the structural church made certain decisions. Number one, they said, anybody can be part of the church where you had a lot of pagans, you had a lot of non-believers just become part of what was going on at the church. Because if they didn't, sadly you had Emperor Constantine. Now Emperor Constantine, it's very important people understand the history. People celebrate him because the Christian religion up to that point had been persecuted. If you believed in Jesus, you got persecuted.
Sid Roth: Of course.
Larry Sparks: You got thrown to the lions, but then came a Roman emperor, Constantine who changed everything so that was good. The problem is the standard got lower and that is a big deal because anybody could become part of the church. Anybody could become part of that, even if they didn't make a genuine profession of faith. So you had people believing all sorts of false doctrine, paganism, even people who had no knowledge whatsoever of Jesus getting baptized. And what happened is it diluted the power. So the reality is this, I believe we can plug back in to that river of God that has been flowing since the day of Pentecost. God never removed the river. God never removed the power. It was certain decisions, I believe people made that actually pulled that plug from the power of God.
Sid Roth: And that's what I love about your brand new book. You show people how to get back what was stolen from them.
Larry Sparks: Yes. Yes. We got so formalistic, we got so religious. Again, we started to emphasize things that were not necessarily bad. But the reality is, the early organic church, they met in homes, and then of course they came together in larger meetings, but everyone was encouraged to operate in all of the gifts of the spirit.
Sid Roth: Exposed, the false, the false prophet. It'll catch you by surprise. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Larry, you have identified the false prophet, explain.
Larry Sparks: You know, Jesus told me, "It's like there is a false prophet that is alive and well in the church". And I thought He was going to give me the name of a person. But then He reminded me in Matthew 24, where it says one of the key signs of the end of the age is that there would be rampant deception. So I pressed it a little bit more. I said, "God, what is the name of the false prophet"? And He told me the name of this false prophet that is deceiving millions, particularly those in the church is called progressive Christianity. Progressive Christianity.
Sid Roth: But what does that mean?
Larry Sparks: These are signs of progressive Christianity. Number one is that the Bible bends its knee to the direction of culture. In other words...
Sid Roth: It changes.
Larry Sparks: It changes. These folks will say, "The Bible is a living document," which we know the scripture is alive, but that's not what they mean. They mean if culture is going in a direction or approving of things that are sinful, and yet the Bible says, "No, that is sin," then guess what? The Bible actually has to adjust to the direction of culture. That's one symptom.
Sid Roth: Yeah. I'm reminded today we're doing it with something else besides the Bible. And that may be the reason we're trying to do it with the Constitution of the United States.
Larry Sparks: Yes. Yes.
Sid Roth: Exactly what you're saying.
Larry Sparks: The Scripture actually talks about moving the ancient boundary lines. And that's exactly what progressive Christianity does. Number two is this is, I say they teach a Doobie Brothers religion. Now the Doobie Brothers was a band back in the day. And they had a song, "Jesus is Just All Right". Well, the reality is this, they teach something that Jesus is... He's just all right with any way I want to live. He's okay with any sin that I want to approve of. He's okay with however I want to conduct my life. He's fine with that. But the reality is, there's another phrase for that. It's called hyper grace or false grace. I can do whatever I want, live however I want, because the grace of God is there. When I have a revelation of the true grace of God, it provokes me to actually want to walk in holiness, to want to walk in the fear of the Lord and to want to give my whole life to obey Him. And number three is this, I call it repackaged universalism. That basically says everybody gets to heaven. But they call it something that sounds a little more theologically lofty. They call it ultimate reconciliation, to where some of the extreme fringes of this will even teach that the devil will get a second chance somehow.
Sid Roth: Is that why the morality of say, of society in general is going down the tubes?
Larry Sparks: Yes.
Sid Roth: And people, many of them say, "I'm a Christian".
Larry Sparks: Yep. Yep.
Sid Roth: And, you know, it's so obvious that this is going on right now. In March of this year, Larry, God gave you an actual prophetic warning.
Larry Sparks: He did. He did. I was actually in Los Angeles. I went to the Bonnie Brae House. That is where the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 started, which ultimately launched what we'd call Global Pentecostalism. I didn't have a reservation to go in the house. So as a good Pentecostal myself, I just walked around and I was laying hands on it and praying in the Spirit. Because, Sid, I got to be totally honest, I was trying to make sense of the season of outpouring that we're currently living in. Because we had Asbury University where there was a wonderful visitation of God. You had all these other Christian schools. And I was starting to hear about secular universities where the Holy Spirit was falling, the Jesus Revolution movie. A lot was happening, but I've got to come clean I was getting cynical. I was like, "Lord, is this it? Is this the great end time revival? Is this it? If it is, I want to affirm it. I want to bless it". So I was processing this with the Holy Spirit. And the Lord came in and told me a few things. He said, "Number one, Larry, you’ve spent a lot of time and money getting a degree in Revival History, you should know what's happening". He said, "It's Acts two, verse one". What does Acts 2:1 one say? It says, "They gather together," I feel the Holy Ghost as I say this right now, I just want to announce even over the airwaves, we are in an Acts two, verse one moment. We need to celebrate it. And this is what the Spirit of the Lord said to me. Acts 2:1 says, "They gathered in one place and one accord". And then right after that, the Lord told me, "Larry, you should know Acts two, verse one produces the inevitability of a suddenly outpouring of the Spirit". Sid, Holy Spirit came on me. And He said this, right after He gave me that context. He said, "Larry, all of this is My Spirit. I'm stirring the people, I'm gathering the people. But tell the people, Larry, don't stop short of the Shekinah glory. Don't stop short with good music". And I love good music. Don't stop short, which is gathering together. I love gathering together and praying. And that's all I believe motivated by a spirit of revival. But He said, "Don't stop short of the visible glory, don't stop short of the weighty glory. Larry, when you got born again, when you got filled with the Spirit at 16, you felt something. There is electricity". We talked about it. There was fire. Don't stop short of contending and crying out for a manifestation of God's glory that is visible, that is weighty. And that actually comes upon entire territories, regions, and cities where people step into a certain zone and they know the glory of God is settling in that place.
Sid Roth: You know, as a Jew, when I hear about the glory...
Larry Sparks: Yeah.
Sid Roth: I think in terms of Moses, the 10 Commandments, the cloud, you could see the cloud, but it was visible.
Larry Sparks: Yeah, visible.
Sid Roth: No one will doubt it.
Larry Sparks: No.
Sid Roth: Oh, where is the news when that occurs? Look, you want to hear the news we hear today? I mean, I can't even stand it anymore. It’s about time that the world sees the good news...
Larry Sparks: Yeah.
Sid Roth: ...of the good God who loves you. Larry says, "Get ready for a collision with a greater glory that will mark you forever".
Sid Roth: Larry Sparks has been traveling the world to identify hotspots of this glory. What are you seeing?
Larry Sparks: I was in Northern Ireland and Wales, a place where they typically write off as hard, dark, secular in the UK. The hunger for God there was stronger than I'd seen in parts of the Bible Belt. We were just in Maine and we had 500, 600 people there gathered together. The glory of God was so strong. You had eight, nine year old children being marked by the presence of the Lord on the floor, shaking under the power. We've been in Dawsonville, Georgia and Peoria, Arizona, places that are hotspots where God has been moving. I'm not just talking about a few months. Peoria, Arizona, He's been moving eight years. Dawsonville, Georgia, three, four years. There is sustained habitations of the presence of God. And like I said, here's a word and I've got to release this because God's just interrupted me. Wherever you live right now on the earth, I've got to declare over you, no territory, no nation, and no country is safe from the glory of God. Places I have seen that have been written off, you've got to hear this, places that have been written off as hard, and dark, and secular, Europe, United Kingdom, New England, San Francisco. Listen, the only way a place is too dark is if we go in there with gimmicks. But if you go in there with the gospel and the glory, there is no such thing as a hard and dark place, Sid.
Sid Roth: Have you seen the visible glory cloud of God?
Larry Sparks: Twice.
Sid Roth: Tell me one quick.
Larry Sparks: Twice. In Maine, I was there this was in 2022. I was just up ministering. I was preaching on Ezekiel where it talks about getting face down in the glory. And I wasn't hyping anybody up, I was just reading from the scripture. And the Holy Spirit started to stir people's heart to come up to the altar and just literally get on their face before the Lord. I felt like the Lord was saying, "I'm instituting the day of face down glory where we are in the glory and we cannot stand up". Well, I was started to minister and flow and I opened up my eyes and it was all hazy. Now I'm very cautious about announcing something as a supernatural manifestation because I just didn't quite know. So I looked around and I said, "Okay". I didn't say anything there. People captured pictures of it and they had a before and after photo. Before, there was nothing it looked normal. And then after there was a cloud, there was something you could not manufacture with lighting or equipment. There was a cloud in that place. And I go to talk to the pastor of that church. He said, "Ever since that meeting, the Glory Cloud has been coming routinely and regularly into our gatherings".
Sid Roth: There are people watching us right now and also in the studio audience that know there's more. That their heart song is. And that used to be mine. There must be something more because I work, eat, sleep and that's the way it goes. Because at work, eat, sleep, and that's the way it goes. There must be something more. And I tell you there is, but you have to initiate it.
Larry Sparks: That's right.
Sid Roth: You have to make the first step. You have to pray this prayer with me and mean it to the best of your ability, out loud, studio audience as well as viewers. Very important. Because the Bible, the truth book says, "If you confess with your mouth, you'll believe it in your heart and you will have experiential knowledge". That's what it says in the Greek, not the English. Experiential knowledge way beyond intellectual knowledge. Most of you are operating in intellectual knowledge. You've heard about Jesus since you were that little. Now it's time for you to enter the deep water. Repeat this prayer after me out loud. "Dear God, I've made many mistakes, I'm so sorry. I believe the blood of Jesus washes away every mistake and I'm clean. And now that I'm clean, Jesus come and live inside of me. Thank you for being my Savior. My savior for my sins. My savior for my sickness. And now I make you my Lord, Amen". Quickly, Larry pray.
Larry Sparks: Yeah. "Father, I thank You right now for everyone watching. I thank You that you're intensifying the level of the glory upon them in Jesus' Name". I encourage you, number one, pray in tongues. Paul the apostle prayed in tongues more than anybody, and guess what? He was so saturated by the glory. They took pieces of clothing off of him, put it on the sick and demonized and they were healed. I believe it's possible to be that saturated in the glory. Number two, read the Word of God until your heart burns. Because that burning is an invitation of God not just to read it, but to experience the Word. And number three, take risk. Step out. Pray for people. Pray and cry out for the glory. And the last word, I have college students and high school students a revival is coming to your campus right now. I feel the Word of the Lord. There's going to be locker room revival. There's going to be lines at the lockers and lines at dorm rooms because what's going to happen, is you're going to pray for some people, they're going to get healed and they're going to have no grid to put it in. And guess what they're going to do? They're going to go tell your friends that, "Hey, I know when I go to that locker and when I go to that dorm room, there's glory there". And I see lines outside of lockers and outside of apartments and dorms in Jesus' Name.
Sid Roth: And no matter what's your age, no matter what's your occupation, no matter what your finances, what Larry just prophesied, it's for you.
Larry Sparks: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Say this out loud, it's for me.
Larry Sparks: It's for me.