Sid Roth - I Went to Hell TWICE, Then Angels Showed Up
Sid Roth: Welcome, Holy Spirit. Go and flow. My guest, Scott McNamara, was raised by a single Christian mom. At 24, Scott had a near-death experience. Tell me about it.
Scott McNamara: Yeah, so I got caught up in circles of notorious criminals; gang members, gang leaders, kind of dealing a lot of drugs. My friend from school was a drug baron, and he began to grow in the criminal underworld. And so I just found myself...
Sid Roth: Now, where was this?
Scott McNamara: This is in Liverpool, England. And it kind of culminated when a gang leader, a guy that I knew, he gave me $800 of pure, uncut cocaine. And I took these drugs, and my friend, Stephen, who was living with me, I woke him up, and we turned it into a party. Within 20 minutes, Stephen was overdosing in my arms. He was convulsing, foaming at the mouth, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head while I held him in my arms. He got taken off dead in an ambulance. And as I stood in that street watching the ambulance drive away, I saw the gates of hell appear. And I was moving at speed towards this entry point. And I knew I had about 60 seconds left to live. I could feel the fear under my skin, it was gripping me. And I knew once I crossed this line, I would never go back. And I got to the edge of the line, and all I did was pray. I said, "God, keep me alive and I'll turn to You. Keep Stephen alive, and I'll turn to You". I begged for our lives. And as I got to the precipice of eternity, one foot dangling over hell, somebody was holding me, keeping me back from crossing. And I believe that that was the Good Shepherd. My friend was resuscitated in the ambulance, and he got discharged the next day. And 23 years later, we both serve Christ internationally.
Sid Roth: Tell me about what happened at 4:00 a.m. after you (hard to believe) resumed a heathenistic lifestyle.
Scott McNamara: I found myself, 4:00 in the morning, I picked a fight with three gentlemen. I was hanging out outside of a bar in Liverpool city center, very rough place, and I picked a fight with three guys. They ended up turning on me, banging my head against metal bars. They were jumping up and down on my head, and I really thought I was going to die. I couldn't get up from the ground. But suddenly, in the moment I thought, this is the end for me, I saw two figures in a car, way, way in the distance, and a voice came from this vehicle. The voice said, "Stop! That's enough"! Now the vehicle was some distance away. I was on the floor.
Sid Roth: So how did you hear it?
Scott McNamara: I don't know. It was supernatural. But I heard this voice. He just said, "Stop! That's enough"! At least three crazy guys were pummeling me, were killing me, they were jumping up and down on me. But they even stopped immediately, and they walked away. But those voices, and I believe they were angels, saved my life that night. Eventually, I think I was humbled from that experience, two near-death experiences, did it for me. I sat in the hospital, I was coming down from cocaine and ecstasy and alcohol, I was in a very bad state. And I really felt like I was going to die as I sat in the hospital. My friend, who was my old friend, Paul, was one of my band members from my past. He picked me up, he's a non-Christian, he's an atheist. He collected me in the car. And I turned around to him, I got in the car, turned around, and said, "Paul, I'm going to go back to church". I went to this conference, and my life changed after that conference. I sat there, and in this moment, this preacher got up to speak. And as he walked up the stairs, things began to change. The atmosphere began to shift, and I realized that I saw this room last night in my dream. Everything, down to the wallpaper, down to the chairs, the people. I turned to this guy. I said, "I saw all of this in a dream, what's going on"? And he kind of smiled and he said, "It's okay". So in that moment, the gospel was about to be preached. And my body, the spirits in me didn't like it. I had to leave. I felt this tsunami of fear washing over me. So I went outside the room, and I felt like I was in a tug of war for about 10 minutes. I was being pulled into a place of complete despair, fear, death. And then I got pulled into a place of peace and light and joy. This went on for about 10 minutes, and I knew I had this revelation. God was saying, "You have to choose. I can't choose for you, you have to choose". So I began to tingle from head to toe, pins and needles, and I said, "God, everything I have, it's time. You can take it". And the rope was cut, and I was a free man. I began to weep and wail. I lifted my head weeping and wailing, and I looked up to see three men walking towards me, and they had beams of light protruding out their eyes. And I knew at that moment that I once was blind, but now I can see. I was born again in that moment.
Sid Roth: Now, you won, and this is amazing to me, I assume only one person wins this. You actually won a free trip to Israel?
Scott McNamara: To Israel. Amen. Amen. Obviously, I had never been to Israel. I was a four month old believer. I went to my church, they had, there was a conference, GOD TV were touring England. So, I mean, thousands of people, you know? They said, "Write down your name, I'm going to put it in a hat and we're going to pick one winner from every 12 cities that we tour". I wrote down my name, the Holy Spirit says, "You're going to win". Clear as day, I heard it. And I'm a brand new believer. So sure enough, they go on the stage, they pick out my name out of the hat. Now, they say, "Don't get too excited, we pick one winner from all 12 churches. You haven't won yet". I go home to my rough apartment I'm living in, and put my key in the door, the Holy Spirit says, "When you win, take Chris". Chris was my friend who discipled me. I called him, I said, "I haven't won, but this is what the Lord said". He says, "Pack your bags, baby, we're going to Israel"! So sure enough, I get the call two weeks later. They said to me, "It's clear that you were meant to be on this trip. We picked another name, but we couldn't find this person. We emailed them, we called them. We couldn't locate this individual, so we picked again, and you were the second winner". They said, "We're very clear on GOD TV that you were the guy that was meant to be on this trip". I go to Israel. I have a two-week tour, five star tour, with Rory and Wendy Alec, the founders of GOD TV. The first ever Israel tour with GOD TV, I go there, five star trip. So when I was there, the day, the kind of, it was Pentecost Sunday, a big ceremony in King David Citadel. There was worship, that was prayer, and GOD TV said, "We're going to bring you up, you're going to share your testimony live on GOD TV". So before this happened, I can only describe it as like the veil behind the supernatural was removed. I saw two archangels covering the circumference of the Citadel. As clear as I'm looking at you right now, huge, huge angels. I could see them just like I'm looking at you. And I couldn't, you know, I was just marveling at this sight, but I didn't know how to describe it. I told my friend, Chris, "There's archangels"! And he's, like, "Hey"! And he's waving at these angels, and saying...
Sid Roth: Yeah, help me, though.
Scott McNamara: Yeah?
Sid Roth: Describe them, all of them...
Scott McNamara: All I can describe, the only way I can describe them is just the size of them. They were just so huge. And then I was invited to go then, this is minutes before I gave my testimony live on GOD TV, I saw these angels. The next day, I was walking down the streets of Jerusalem, and a river began to flow out of my mouth. I've never spoken in tongues, but walking down the streets of Jerusalem, I began to pray with my friend. And as I began to pray, I can just describe it like a river began to flow out of my mouth, and I couldn't stop speaking in tongues. I just kept going and going and going. That was the moment that I received that baptism of the Spirit. After all this supernatural activity, you know, really it was enough for 100 years, for a man, I believe, what the Lord blessed me with. But even after that, due to my PTSD, I began to sink back into this dungeon of despair, into an abyss of addiction. Because of post-traumatic stress disorder, I had to self-medicate. The doctors put me on medication, I was in and out of hospital getting tests...
Sid Roth: This was really because of your two experiences of seeing hell.
Scott McNamara: Yeah, yeah, it was like a post-traumatic stress kind of disorder thing. So I didn't know how to deal with it. The doctors couldn't heal me. I had prayer, I didn't know what was going on. So I began to pick up alcohol again. That led me back into alcoholism, back into drug addiction. Now I've met this beautiful woman, she's from Ireland. I went to London Bible College. I walk in, my first day the Holy Spirit says, "That's your wife". I said, "Lord, I'm not arguing with that". She was beautiful. So I began to pursue this beautiful Irish lady. And she was kind of playing it cool. I went into the reception where we had the photographs taken for the students, and I prophesied. I looked at that picture. I said, "You will be mine". That's how much I wanted this girl. And I finally got her, and we began to date. And as we began to date, my PTSD grew, and I began to drink, kind of, like, secretly and stuff. And long story short, we got married. And after about six months of getting married, it really began to get out of control. Long story short, my child, my first child was born, and within a few months of that, my wife left me. My drinking was out of control, I broke my marriage vows. I did all the things that I couldn't believe I could go back to such a life after the grace that the Lord showed me. And it went very, very bad. I lost my beautiful dream woman, and I lost my child as well. And then after that, I thought, let's just hit the self-destruct button. I don't know how to get back from this. I was homeless. I had nowhere to live. I was back into addiction, seeped into addiction, and I didn't know how to get back from it. And then something beautiful happened. One night I was in Belfast, in Northern Ireland, I was in a nightclub, and I was always the last guy to leave. And I was in this club. I found a club that was open all night. I stood there with this guy I met and made a friendship with. And as I picked up my drink, I heard a voice. I heard a voice, but I had a revelation with that voice. The revelation was, this is the Father speaking to you. And He said, "Scott"! And as I heard Him call my name, I was moved, physically moved back. And I put down my drink and I walked out of that bar. Within a number of months I was back in the arms of Christ. And I found out that my friend Chris, who I told you about, who discipled me, he was having a prayer vigil with other people, crying out for my soul. And we timed it that it was around the same time.
Sid Roth: See? Is that amazing? The same time. Scott has won so many to the Messiah to a concept called making space for them to experience their own God encounter. Be right back for your God encounter!
Sid Roth: Scott, I am fascinated by the way God uses you to reach one-on-one unsaved people. How did the Lord download this supernatural way to you?
Scott McNamara: Yeah, it was really incredible. I didn't feel qualified to be an evangelist. I was thrust into a position with a past that He gave me a six-month trial position to stand on the street and bring one soul to Christ. I was bringing about maybe one soul every six or eight months, I didn't really know what I was doing. But I went into those streets, and the Holy Spirit began to speak to me. I would pray for the sick, and I would try and articulate the gospel, and the Lord would drop a phrase into my spirit. And as I said that phrase to this nonbeliever, the atmosphere became charged and changed. They could feel it, I could feel it. It was incredible. I wrote it in my...
Sid Roth: I feel it as you're telling me.
Scott McNamara: While I'm thinking of it, yeah.
Sid Roth: And I'm a believer!
Scott McNamara: Amen, amen. And I wrote down these phrases, and over about nine months, I ended up with what we call "Jesus at the Door". It's nine points, image-relating points that I articulate succinctly the message of the gospel. We have an image on one side of Jesus knocking on the door, and on the other side, we have the message. And it was given by the Holy Spirit, honestly. It wasn't how I thought people should hear the gospel, it was how He thought they should hear it. I didn't ask for it, I wasn't looking for it, I didn't sit around a table like this with theologically-sound scholars seeking to form evangelistic technique to win the masses. Honestly, I just said, "Lord, I don't know what I'm doing, but please help me". And in that moment, He gave me something and then said, "Now go and give it away". Now we're in 169 nations, we have individuals using our app to lead people to Christ through what we call "Jesus at the Door".
Sid Roth: You say many of us are getting in the way of the Holy Spirit because we don't give Him room. Explain.
Scott McNamara: Yeah. I think our experience can rob our encounter. So if we know what we're doing too much, then what we do is, we negate the Holy Spirit to the sidelines. We negate this power of our partnership with the Holy Spirit. Well, ah Lord, I've got it. I've done this for 15 years, I know what I'm doing. We relegate the Holy Spirit to the sidelines, not knowingly. So what we do, what "Jesus at the Door" does, it keeps you humble, you see the tip of the spear of every encounter is a moment when we pray for them to feel the Spirit. We say if Jesus were here right now, would you let Him in? And we pray. And they have their own moment. You see, if you can talk somebody into being a Christian, someone else can come along and talk them out of it. What they need is an encounter. And they can only have an encounter if you introduce them to the God of the encounter. And that is the tip of the spear of every encounter that we lead with "Jesus at the Door".
Sid Roth: You say "we". It's not just you, others do exactly what you do?
Scott McNamara: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean, we have an app with this simple presentation that's now in 169 nations being used. But not only that, the Lord began to increase this vision to us, He began to show us that actually, this really is for everybody. The great commission wasn't given to evangelists. It was given to disciples. This is a call for every single disciple.
Sid Roth: Okay. September 2022, you had an amazing vision.
Scott McNamara: I was sitting in my prayer closet one morning, and I had a vision. The presence of God fell in my prayer closet, and I saw Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah. I saw Him on a horse, on a horse in a shield. And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "I'm raising up an army for the end times to push back darkness". He said, "I want to call it the King's Army". The Holy Spirit spoke to me, He said, Revelation 19:11, I'm on the floor weeping, I'm a mess in this moment. And I crawl for my Bible. I open my Bible, I turn to Revelation 19:11 and I read about the second coming, I read about Jesus coming back strong, on a horse, just like I'd seen in my vision, coming back on a horse, strong with the armies of heaven behind Him. And He began to show me that this was the Logos confirmation, His written Word confirming what is spoken, what it confirmed in the spoken Word. I then said, "Lord, if we're going to have an army, we need a barracks. Every army has a barracks", huh?
Sid Roth: Of course.
Scott McNamara: The Holy Spirit whispered in my ear and said, "Start looking". Now I didn't have any money for a barracks, but I led a man to the Lord 10:00 p.m. in a grocery store. This man went on to buy a building that we rent off him. I baptized him and his wife, and they bought a building, purchased a building that is the King's Army headquarters in Orlando Florida.
Sid Roth: You know, you had a prophesy about that army.
Scott McNamara: Yeah, now bear in mind, I'm telling my wife, I'm telling my team. They're thinking, okay, maybe Scott's gone a little bit too far here, he's talking about armies and all this stuff. So I was carrying the vision, but they had yet to behold, they had yet to catch it. So I went to New York and a prophet came up to me, and he prayed over me. As he put his hand on me, in my heart, I said, "Confirm the army". He says, "I had a dream two years ago. I was sent behind enemy lines to retrieve the jacket of a general". He just comes out with this, and I'm, like, "Wow". He says, "On that jacket was a general's patch, and it was very significant". I woke up and researched it, and I bought that patch, and the Holy Spirit said, "Give it away when I tell you". The man walks away as I'm standing here being prayed for. He puts in my hand a general's patch from a dream two years previously. He then goes on to tell me, "What you're doing, you're going to launch in January". Now I tell my team, "We're going to launch in January". He said, "You're going to launch it in January, it's going to go international, and I see fires starting everywhere, little fires. And it's going to go around the world. And I see you sat around the round table with generals, planning world domination".
Sid Roth: When you go out, you see amazing miracles.
Scott McNamara: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Tell me a couple of them.
Scott McNamara: Yeah. I mean, we se, really, we see kind of what we call "souls to soldiers". We've seen people that we've led on the streets become soldiers of Christ and become part of the King's Army. You know, this vision is about raising everyday believers. If I can touch on a bedrock scripture of ah, Second Timothy 2:3-4, the Apostle Paul said, "Suffer as a good soldier of Christ, Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer, the One that enlisted him". And I feel that we're in this place of civilian Christianity rather than the soldier Christianity. The King's Army's means that we believe when every single person got saved, every believer got saved, they were enlisted into the King's Army. This is not my army, my name's not on the door. But when we got saved, we were enlisted by Christ to become soldiers in His army. We can live like civilians, or we can live like soldiers. And I believe that when we rise and we accept this invitation, we will begin to see the things that the Lord has placed and positioned for us in our lives.
Sid Roth: How is this connected with the Terracotta Army?
Scott McNamara: Yeah, so the Terracotta Army, the Terracotta Army really inspired me. The Lord showed me in the same day, the same vision, the Lord showed me the Terracotta Army. Terracotta Army, the first king, the first emperor of China formed 8,000 life-sized clay soldiers. And the idea, he thought that when he passed away, when he went to the afterlife, these soldiers would protect him. So he formed this army, thinking that it would cover him and protect him. The Lord spoke to me and showed me that a lot of the church are living like these soldiers. They are clay, pieces of clay that have stood still, they're stagnant, they're immovable. And they're waiting for the afterlife, so they can be reunited with their king. But you see, what we read in Isaiah 64, Verse 8, says that, "We are the clay and You are the potter. And we are the work of Your hands". And I also then saw another picture. I saw these pieces of clay come to life. I saw this army come back to life. And I saw what once was immobile and stationary and stagnant become a battle-born warrior, soldier of Christ, demon-slaying soldiers of Christ. The Lord showed me the church. He showed me the church as an army coming back to life. And I believe that is where we're at today.
Sid Roth: Tell me about Ryan Lennon.
Scott McNamara: Yeah. Yeah, Ryan was incredible. I was living in Northern Ireland, and we have a lot of paramilitary activity; so you guys know, obviously, the IRA and the nemesis of the IRAs, the UDA, the Protestant side. There's a lot of these kind of factions that are warring against each other. It's like a kind of a mafia type situation, it's gone underground. Well, in this situation, I wrote a hit list of the people that I wanted to see saved. I had a hit list of the individual gatekeepers that I knew would be mighty, mighty men of God. So I wrote them down and prayed. One of these men was a man called Ryan Lennon. Long story short, he came to my new Believer's group. He came into my home. And when he came into my home, I shared a simple gospel message, and I said, "Holy Spirit, fall in this place". And this young man, 19 years of age, with 81 convictions at the age of 19.
Sid Roth: Hmm.
Scott McNamara: A man whose father was in the paramilitaries, his mother was a heroin addict, he got raised in children's homes, into Juvie, into adult prison. He was very notorious around the whole province. He began to weep like a baby as the Spirit fell in that place. He was uncontrollably crying. I led him to the Lord right there in that moment, and then I began to disciple him. Now, Ryan was due to go to court for a crime he committed six months previous. We wrote references, and he stood before the judge. And the judge says, "Young man, Mr. Lennon, if I could step down from here and shake your hand, then I would, because seldom have I seen a transformation in a young man like I've seen in yours in these past six months". The judicial system knew all about this man. The police knew about him. The judges knew about him. And that made it into the local newspaper, which we put in our Sunday service on our screen. This man became very, very well-known. The police service in Northern Ireland approached us and said, "Can we give you a list of names, because we're hearing all about the transformation of this young man". It's incredible.
Sid Roth: Okay. I want you to look in the camera, and I want you to pray for our viewers to feel and experience the presence of God, and then tell them how to know Jesus.
Scott McNamara: Amen. Lord, I pray for that tangible breath of heaven to breathe on every individual, every prodigal, there's prodigals watching this right now. You've gone far from the Lord. Today is your day to come home. Today, He says, "Come home". You even said, "I need to feel, I need experience". Holy Spirit, I ask You, Lord, turn up the heat. Lord, let him feel it right now. Even those ones who have the walls that have been built up, rejection and abuse and pain and addiction. Those walls come tumbling down right now, in the Name of Jesus. Nothing can stand against the power of the Living God. Holy Spirit, I thank You Lord, that You are there with every individual. And Lord, let them feel the power of Your love, and not only feel, but let them know the commissioning of the King. Let them know the commissioning of King Jesus. And I pray, if you're watching this and you don't know the Lord, I believe there are some soldiers right now, you haven't even been enlisted yet. You haven't even been saved yet. But you're feeling the presence of God. And the Lord is saying, "This is what I've marked you for, to be a general in my army". So I pray right now for you all, and ask you to repeat this prayer with me. If you're willing to open that door to Christ and not just say a prayer, but say, "Here's my life. I'm willing to enlist. Here's my life to be a soldier, to serve the King". Say these words with me. Say, "Jesus, Yeshua, forgive me for my sins. I open the door of my heart. I make You Lord of my life. Fill me with Your Spirit. In Your Name I pray. Amen".