Sid Roth - God Told Me, "I'm NOT Pleased With You!" Here's Why
Sid Roth: Welcome, Holy Spirit. You're our most important guest. Go and flow. Now, my guest, Dr. Norman Benz, was raised in a Pentecostal home. He had a great hunger for more of God's presence. Tell me about it.
Dr. Norman Benz: I found one of the greatest things that happened to me was, I didn't experience drugs and alcohol. I got saved at an early age, I was five years old. But inherent in that upbringing by my parents, I always wanted more of God. Now I wasn't perfect, but I had a desire on the inside of me for more of God.
Sid Roth: Well, okay. So from time to time, you would have experiences with God. But you wanted it to be ongoing.
Dr. Norman Benz: I couldn't, people talk about a visitation. I didn't want just a visitation, because visitations means God comes and goes. I knew that He was with me. And I knew that because of my upbringing and training, but I also knew there was a manifest presence of God. There was a perfection of His presence that I wanted to be with, and I wanted that to be sustained in my life. And so knowing all that, this is where I've come, and where I've come from. And I'm excited to be able to share that kind of passion, that when you ask for a passion, when you want the zeal of the Lord, like David says, "The zeal of Thine house has eaten me up," I want that kind of zeal and I want that kind of passion with the Lord. And I want it to be ongoing, yes.
Sid Roth: I do, too. And you do, too. But let me take you back a little so we'll get to know you better.
Dr. Norman Benz: Okay.
Sid Roth: Tell me about your life at 17.
Dr. Norman Benz: When I was 17 years old, I was a senior in high school. I remember this to be November, and I won't tell you the year, but I remember it was a November. And I had been dealing with a lot of external pressures about the call of God on my life. And people would ask me, because my brother was a pastor, my dad was a pastor, and I had people all the time asking me, "Are you going to be a pastor also"? I would always say, "No, I'm going to be a schoolteacher". And I said that for years. And I even went into training to be a schoolteacher. But when I was 17 years old, Holy Spirit came in. It was a Sunday night. And on that Sunday night, I talk about this, I was the featured pianist and the featured soloist, because I was the only pianist and I was the only soloist. And my dad began to preach. And I was sitting in the background on the platform, and Holy Spirit came in. And when He came in, like He is now, when He came in, things changed. Holy Spirit, many people say is a gentleman. That night, because my will had not lined up with His, He was not necessarily a gentleman. And He came convincingly to me. And I was speaking with tongues on the corner, and my dad was preaching. And I guess I became an interruption. And he turned around and he said to me, "What's wrong with you"? And I said, and I began to weep and cry. "Holy Spirit has called me, and I have said yes". And what was so wonderful about that, my mother, he called me down front so that the church could pray for me. He called me down front, my mother was weeping, I mean, this was a wonderful time with Holy Spirit...
Sid Roth: I feel it. It's just as you're sharing this, it's almost like the same Holy Spirit that came on you then...
Dr. Norman Benz: Oh...
Sid Roth: ...that's being radiated right now.
Dr. Norman Benz: Right now. I sense the Spirit moving among us. And perhaps there's someone who's been struggling with the call. And you've denied the call of God, but I would say right now, Holy Spirit is calling you and is wooing you into His presence to fulfill His will for your life. And so what was so impactful at that time that got my attention, we had a little lady in our congregation, and she knelt down on the side, and she began to pray. And when she began to pray, it's almost like I'm there again. She began to prophecy, and I knew it was God. And I've taken that prophesy with me even to this day, and where we are right now, that God's promise in His Covenant to me is not fulfilled, it is being fulfilled, and we're in the process of it. And I believe that even being with you today, and with our people that are viewing, that God has a Covenant for each of us that He wants us to affirm. And He will continue to fulfill that Covenant in our lives.
Sid Roth: Then in the 1970s, God really started moving in your life. What happened?
Dr. Norman Benz: In 1974, we received a call to pastor a church in Franklin, Indiana. At that time, Franklin was about 10,000 people. And as Judy and I were moving in, and we were living in what was called a parsonage there, I needed to go to the grocery store. And when I went to the grocery store, I had this surging passion and ownership of the call of God, and I knew God had called me there to win to Him 10,000 people who resided in that little city. And I sensed that, and I drove around the square...
Sid Roth: You're talking about the whole city?
Dr. Norman Benz: Oh, I'm talking about the whole city, yes.
Sid Roth: That's what I thought.
Dr. Norman Benz: Ten thousand people. And I felt, God has given them to me. These, this store is mine. This town is mine. I took ownership of the call of God to be activated right there in Franklin, Indiana. It was a wonderful time. And this was October. And we began to experience immediately a tremendous move of God in our church services. And He came in mightily. It was a tremendous time, when God was adding to us many, many people. I remember one of the businessmen in the little city came to me and says, "What are you doing up there"? I mean, people were parking everywhere, the place was filled. People were hungry for God. And this move of God was so great...
Sid Roth: When you say a "move of God," would you give us an example, or paint a word picture of what is a move of God.
Dr. Norman Benz: The move of God is when we have opened ourselves up to Him, and we're saying, "What You want is more important than what I want". And Holy Spirit comes in, He comes in, in His manifest presence. It's not church as usual anymore. Church is highly effected and accentuated because of the work of the Holy Spirit. People were getting saved. People were being touched by Him, and families were being very moved by Him also. It was, in fact, the whole town, from what I was told, they took notice of what God was doing at this little church building that the Lord gave us to meet in. And it lasted for probably eight, nine, ten months.
Sid Roth: Why did it stop?
Dr. Norman Benz: Well, I've asked that question often. It did begin to diminish, and I was disappointed, because I wanted Him more. But what I realized years later, I had no mentor, I had no one to teach me how to pastor or steward a move of the Holy Spirit.
Sid Roth: You bumped into this healthy fear of the awesomeness and the magnitude and the majesty of our God in Argentina. What happened?
Dr. Norman Benz: Well, I was invited to go to Rosario, Argentina, Pastor Noberto Carlini. And on that Sunday night, he invited me to speak to his congregation, and there were probably about 2,000 people in the congregation. And after I spoke, he said, "Now go pray for the people". I had heard of the Argentine fire, but I'd never experienced it. But on that Sunday night, I began to minister to people. I was laying hands on people. I was doing what I know and what I have seen before. And as I was laying hands on people, people were receiving Holy Spirit. They were falling in the Spirit, they were miraculously touched by God, and I was in the middle of that. And all of a sudden, the reverential fear of God came upon me, because His presence was so tangible and so real. I said, "God, I think I'm going to die". That's how evident His Spirit was to me. I said, "I'm not laying hands on another person". And as I said that, I said, "I'm not praying for anyone else". And yet God kept showing up in the lives of people, and I learned a very, very important principle at that point, and that is to honor and to have a reverential fear of God. Not that I'm scared of God, I have deep respect and love for Him.
Sid Roth: That's why I said a "healthy fear of God".
Dr. Norman Benz: Yes. Healthy fear of God.
Sid Roth: The unhealthy is, I don't even want to get close to God, because He'll see who I am. The healthy fear of God. When we return, Norman wants to pray that same power of God that he personally experienced in Argentina will come upon you. Be right back.
Sid Roth: What is it about Father's Day? It's seems some great revivals and moves of God have happened on Father's Day. I'm wondering if God's not making an announcement. You want a perfect Father? You want a Father that'll love you no matter what? Do you want a Father that is just but filled with compassion and mercy? Then why don't you look at the Father, Father God. Tell me about the move of God in your life on Father's Day, 1997.
Dr. Norman Benz: Nineteen ninety-seven, that was about three, four years beyond my Argentine experience with the revival fire of Holy Spirit. I didn't know this, but on June 7th, and I'm leading up to June 15th, which was Father's Day in 1997, I went out on a Saturday night, and I was walking my dog, and great things happen when you walk your dog at night.
Sid Roth: I wouldn't know, I don't have a dog.
Dr. Norman Benz: And I looked up into the heavens, and I said, "God", because this was 1997, we were coming to the year 2000. And I said, "Would you make the next two and a half years exceed the sum cumulative total of my first 50 years"?
Sid Roth: That's an interesting challenge.
Dr. Norman Benz: Oh. And He took me up on it. I didn't realize it at the time. But then eight days later, on Father's Day, we were worshipping. We were a good church. We were a Spirit-filled church. But we weren't good enough. And Holy Spirit had other plans. In the middle of worship, we are worshipping the Lord, and our oldest son is on the platform with the worship team. And something happened that we had not experienced at Covenant before. He fell to the floor and he began to vibrate. And he was vibrating on a wooden platform. You could not miss it. But we knew it was Holy Spirit that came in. In fact, to tell you how bad it was, Judy, my wife, said, "If it hadn't have been my son, I would have called for the ushers to come up and remove him"! But we were experiencing on that day a tremendous outpouring of Holy Spirit. And we didn't leave that day until about 2:00 in the afternoon, when we finally were able to leave, because you know, and you said it before, Holy Spirit is God. And He's huge, He's mighty. When He comes in, I mean, you know it. It's unmistakable. And on that day, He came in. And it was about 2:00 in the afternoon when we got to go home. And I began to practice a principle that I didn't know about then. Some of the intercessors came and said, "Can we come back tomorrow night, Monday night to pray"? I said, "Why, sure"! We came back and there was another tremendous move of Holy Spirit. He came down among us. I know He's here, and I know He's here today, His manifest presence is here today. But He came on that Monday night again, it was, "Oh, this is God". It was breathtaking. It was God. And then they said, "Can we come back tomorrow night, on Tuesday night, and pray again"? I said, "Why, sure"! and on Wednesday night, we came back for our regular Bible study, and I asked the Lord, "Lord, if this is really a move of You, on this Bible study night, would You come in again mightily"? And He did. There was a principle that I didn't understand that I understand now, and it was one that many of us have talked about. But we made room for God to come in. And that's what we did on Monday night. "God, would You come in again"? Then we said on Tuesday, "God, would You come in again"? And He kept on coming. This lasted for several years. It was such an outpouring. We had people, and people still say this about us, and maybe there's a little truth in it, but they said, "You're out of your mind"! And I said, "Yes, I am! I'm guilty". I found the mind of God, and I found the experience of God, and it was transforming me. And all the people around us who were experiencing it.
Sid Roth: Now, this was a continue outpouring of the Holy Spirit...
Dr. Norman Benz: Oh, yes.
Sid Roth: ...for several years. And God made a statement to you. I'm going to quote you. God said, I'm quoting God, "Do not allow the fire to go out".
Dr. Norman Benz: What He said on that afternoon, because our services usually didn't end, our Sunday morning services did not end until about 2:00. And when I would leave on that afternoon, and on most afternoons, I would say, "Father, are You pleased with today"? And He says, "Yes, but not with you".
Sid Roth: Hmm.
Dr. Norman Benz: That got my attention. I said, "Uh-oh, I'm in big trouble here, God". And He told me, "I did not call you to be a superstar quarterback in this move that we're doing right now". He said, "I didn't call you to be a super anointed MVP pastor". He said, "I called you to lead what I'm doing, and I've called you to put a guard around what the Spirit's fire is doing". And then He brought me to First Thessalonians, Chapter 5, Verse 19, and we say it like this: "Quench not the Spirit". But another interpretation of that is, "Do not allow the Spirit's fire to go out". And He made such an impression on me. I still operate, I put a guard around what Holy Spirit is doing, even today. Even in this house right here, I put a guard around what Holy Spirit is doing. I say, "I'm not afraid of wildfire, but we will not permit strange fire". And taking that attitude has kept me flexible before God. It's kept me where God can, I'm pliable before God, that He can do what He wants to, and I do my best to follow that. And we've got a great team of leadership that does that also. God has been so great to us.
Sid Roth: What about you? Has God been great to you? Have you made Him your Savior, to save you from your sins? There's no human thing you can do to get rid of your own sins. You're stuck with them throughout all of eternity, unless you know the Blood of Jesus has washed them away to the point that every bad thing you've ever done is erased from your book of life. There's a person book of life with your name on it. And it's being erased if you say, "I repent to my sins". But the next step is, you make Him your Savior and your Lord.
Dr. Norman Benz: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Without being Lord of all, you don't know God, this side of heaven. It's time to make Him your Savior and Lord. Repeat this prayer out loud, mean it to the best of your ability, out loud. Even if you've said it before. Let today be a fresh, new beginning for you. Repeat after me: "Dear God, I've made many mistakes. I'm so sorry. I believe Your blood washes away my sins. Thank you so much, Jesus for dying for me. And I am clean. And now that I'm clean, thank you for saving me from my sins. I make you my Lord. Lord, Jesus come and live inside of me. Amen".
Sid Roth: Okay. Argentinian revival, you pray, and I'm getting in on this one. But look in the camera and pray for everyone to get the... hey, studio audience, this is for you. It's not just looking at what we're saying, it's receiving. You want the Argentinian revival? I thought so. I know that you do.
Dr. Norman Benz: Great God Almighty, Creator of this universe, and yet You know each one of us individually. You know us. And I say today, Lord, that which You have poured out upon us in times past, do not let it be an experience that we talk about. Let it not be a historical and something that's in our history that we talk about. But come in today, baptize us afresh and anew, with a Holy Ghost and fire. God, would You come in on all the people who are watching and listening and participating today, and Holy Spirit, would you bring revival fire into our lives that captivates us, that transforms us, that causes everything around us to become new again. God, we trust You. Holy Spirit, come in. Jesus, baptize us afresh in the Holy Ghost and fire. This moment, Father, You said you would send the power. That's the gift of the Holy Spirit. Send Your power today. Holy Spirit, do not let us remain like we are, but change us according to Your purposes so that the Kingdom of God advances and advances mightily. We partner with You and we say, come in and do what You want to. Come in and do what You want to in my life, come in and do what You want to with all those who are watching today. Transform us again. Keep on coming. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Oh! In fact, I would encourage you, if you're, where you can, just raise your hands in expectancy, in faith of what Holy Spirit is doing now. You've been wanting the miraculous touch of God. You've been wanting the Father's heart. You've been wanting His love in your life. This is the day that He has made for you. This is your day that you can experience the power and the might and the revival Spirit of God into your life. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit.