Sid Roth - This Vision Left Me In Tears
Sid Roth: Welcome. Welcome, Holy Spirit. Go and flow. My guest, Keith Collins, was raised in a family full of drug addiction and perversion. At age 8, Keith was smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. His father left the family when he was just three, but was still influencing Keith. For instance, he got into his father's pornographic magazines. Then, at 16, unbelievable what happened to you. Tell me about it.
Keith Collins: Yeah, it was, "supernatural" is really the only way to describe it, Sid. You know, my early childhood, I mean, I had a great mother and my stepfather protected us and stuff. But we spent a lot of time with our biological father, my two brothers and I. And he opened really a Pandora's box of drugs, perversion. Unfortunately, he died at age 51 after abusing his body for so many years, but it kind of set me on a path of destruction.
Sid Roth: It's kind of like it's generational, alcoholic...
Keith Collins: It really is. It really is. And it was, I tell people, you know, it was almost like claws were cut into me. And I felt the need for drugs, for another high, for another sexual experience, which is really a picture of addiction. At the age of 16 years old, my life was so radically changed. It happened that I was in a first period class in high school with a young boy who began to tell me about Jesus. I thought he was crazy. I would kind of make fun of him behind his back. He invited me to a "Revival service," he called it; I didn't really know what that was, per se, and kind of really challenged me, dared me to come. So one night a friend of mine and I left a little town near Tallahassee, Florida, on the way to a beach, we were going to go to a party. Friday night, it was January the 24th, 1985, I'll never forget it. On the way to the party, I told my friend, I said, "Hey, listen, Joey dared me to come to this meeting tonight. I'm going to stop in there and see him and wave at him, and then leave". Now from the time I left the house that I was at and went to the church, I was drinking alcohol, my friend and I were smoking marijuana. Actually, I started drinking before we left his house. But...
Sid Roth: So you were already high.
Keith Collins: I was inebriated, I was high. I was, as we called it, "buzzing" pretty severely. I got into the church, Sid, and to be honest with you, I didn't want to be there. I was there to wave to Joey, and I was heading to a party. We were meeting girls at the beach that night, late into the night. When I got into that little church, I never seen anything like this. People were clapping their hands, people raising their hands. They had a set of drums on the platform. I mean, my experience, my father was Roman Catholic, so I understood mass, I'd been to Baptist churches before. This was unusually unique to me. I was intrigued, and it was kind of amusing at the same time. You have to remember, I'm high and I'm drunk. I'm literally on the back of the wall, waiting for this young boy, I saw him at the front, to turn around and look at me. And my first encounter with the tangible presence of God took place that forever changed my life. Immediately, I became as sober as a judge, I'll say it that way.
Sid Roth: Really?
Keith Collins: I mean, so...
Sid Roth: But that's not possible and natural.
Keith Collins: I'll tell you what, it was so strange to me, that I literally put my face in my hands because I knew how much I had drank and smoked. I was completely sober. It freaked me out. I told my friend what had happened, or tried to tell him, and he just simply said, "Hey, I'm going to the party". And I literally told him, "Go ahead, I'll get a ride to the party later". Cannot even believe it. I couldn't believe what I was saying, but I knew something had happened. The music stopped, my friend left. I sat in a little folding metal chair on the very back wall of this little country church. And a man by the name of Mike Shreve from Cleveland, Tennessee, I know you know Mike...
Sid Roth: He's been right in your chair.
Keith Collins: Yes. Yeah, Mike was a dear influence in my life. And Mike got up, and I'll tell you, Sid. It literally felt like Mike and I were the only ones, there was probably 100, 110 people, I felt like he and I were the only ones there. And he began to share and minister. I'd never been to anything like this. This guy knows everything about me, it's almost like there is a sermon that was tailored for me that's coming out of his mouth. The next thing that happened embarrassed me, I'm sitting in the back row, and I began to cry. I mean, like shaking, like crying. I mean, I could not compose myself, you know, 16-year-old boy and embarrassed, there's people there that are seeing this. And to this day, Sid, and I've asked people how this happened. I don't remember, like, I know what an altar call would be now, calling people to Jesus, like a Billy Graham type thing. I don't remember Mike Shreve doing that, but somehow I got from the back of this church to the front, and I'm literally laying on the floor, and my body is literally shaking violently like a person in detox. And it's in that moment that I beheld something that forever branded my life. Now I think it was an open vision, I would call it that now, but the Lord allowed me to see the horror and the beauty of the Cross of Calvary. And it became so real, it was literally like I was there.
Sid Roth: Hmm!
Keith Collins: And I beheld the horror, however, the glory and the beauty of this young Jewish man, Yeshua, that was willing to lay His life down. That became real. I tell people I didn't get saved because I was afraid of hell, as a matter of fact, I didn't come to the church feeling like I needed to be saved. I was in love with sin. The Bible said, "There's pleasure in sin for a season", I wasn't at that age yet to where I understood, hey, my life's over. I was enjoying sin, but the Lord radically interrupted my life at night. And I've never been the same, Sid, never.
Sid Roth: Now, as I understand this, there were waves of God's love and glory.
Keith Collins: Yes.
Sid Roth: How long did this last?
Keith Collins: Over three hours.
Sid Roth: You were laying on the floor?
Keith Collins: Literally laying on my back, unable to get up. This is something I had never been around, never been a part of. I mean, just this encounter with the glory, and I would say the love of Jesus. It's almost like, I explained it like a funnel was put into my heart from heaven or from glory, and all the perversion and all the garbage was being washed out, and I was experiencing the reality of who Jesus Christ really is.
Sid Roth: What happened with your addiction?
Keith Collins: I never had a problem with it every again. I was also addicted to tobacco, I used it daily. I had a very strong desire for drugs and alcohol, and even sexual perversion. And literally, I became so in love with Jesus that my passions for Him so usurped everything that I'd ever had before that I know that I was radically delivered that night. I know that doesn't happen with everybody, but that's the way that it happened in my life, and I've never been the same.
Sid Roth: And the next day, you get filled with the Holy Spirit.
Keith Collins: Yes. Didn't even know what that was, really, at all. And literally, I'm in a worship service, worshiping the Lord. The next night is a Saturday night, the 25th, and I'm worshiping, and I literally began to worship in a language that I'd never heard before. And it was so real, that I couldn't even stop using that language; tongues began to come out of me. And I was filled with the power of God. My life was forever branded, and again, I've never been the same again. This was over 39 years ago now.
Sid Roth: And you started speaking.
Keith Collins: Yes.
Sid Roth: You started witnessing amazing supernatural phenomena.
Keith Collins: Yeah.
Sid Roth: I have heard of this before, but many of you have probably never heard of it. If you're ever inside, like say, in this studio right now, and rain would come. And it wasn't the sprinkler system.
Keith Collins: Right.
Sid Roth: It was like in a church. And there was no sprinkler system.
Keith Collins: Right.
Sid Roth: And people would feel rain coming on them?
Keith Collins: Yeah. Actually the first time that happened, that experience, myself and some young men, we had asked our pastor if we could pray all night in the church. And we were in a little Sunday School room, and we would pray all night. We'd usually start around 10:00, pray to 7:00 in the morning, then we'd sleep awhile, go to Florida State University and minister to the college students in Tallahassee. But when this first happened, literally as we're praying, it began to misty-rain. And it was so real, I remember, Sid, pushing water off my arm in a Sunday School room. There's no rain outside, there's no leaking in this building. But the glory of heaven manifested to a 16-year-old boy in a way that I could have not even fathomed.
Sid Roth: Now briefly, you would think that that would be enough. But he's hungry for more. So he goes to the great Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida. And briefly, what happened there? What would change?
Keith Collins: Yeah, I was invited to the Pensacola revival from a pastor friend of mine, and Pensacola was my home town, so I was intrigued with it already. I went there, and my first time that I was there, the Glory of God met me on the sidewalk. If you remember, people would line up outside hours and hours before the doors would open at 6:00 p.m. And I encountered the Glory of God there. But then when I got inside, literally when Lindell Cooley, the worship leader, hit the first note, or the first chord, on the keyboard, the Glory of God was so tangible. It's like I was walking in fig Jello. I mean, just the weightiness of God's presence, Steve Hill got up with his John the Baptist anointing, and began to preach the gospel. I was already saved, but man, I felt like I needed to go to the altar. I went to the altar and just laid everything down fresh and to the Lord. Then after the service, they would go around praying for people. Steve Hill came by me, and he said "Brother," he said, "I see you in a river of fire". And he put his hand on my head, Sid. And literally, I went completely out. I mean, I had no strength in my legs. I was under, like, the front pew in the front of the church. And for several minutes, close to an hour probably, just experiencing thus burning sensation of the Glory of God. Somebody has asked me, "What happened when you got up"? I was more hungry for intimacy with Jesus. My prayer life changed. My hunger to reach the loss changed. I mean, it was such a divine marker moment. Again, I was on fire for God before that, but God just turned up the heat to the Brownsville Revival. And I was blessed to be a part of that, became one of the leaders there for multiple years.
Sid Roth: Tell you what. When we return, Keith will tell us how to recognize the signs of losing your first love, and pray for those who feel like they've lost some of their original fire, or never really had it. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Keith Collins literally was branded in Wales. Now I watch Westerns and I know what branding is on a cow. But tell me about this.
Keith Collins: Yeah, this was in...
Sid Roth: How did you even get to Wales?
Keith Collins: Well, I was actually there with a group of students from the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry, as well as with a couple of leaders. We were actually on a ministry type trip, and it was, I think, the last day before we flew home, Sid. And we were in Moriah Chapel in Loughor, Wales, where the Welsh revival broke out in 1904 as Evan Roberts and a group of young people were praying. We were in that very room, and I was in there. We were literally praying for revival in the United Kingdom, that God would do again what He's done before in Wales and throughout that region of the world. And I went up onto the platform. There was an old podium, an old wooden podium there, and I literally just leaned against that platform. And as I did that, just crying out to God, it literally felt like a gas settling welding torch was stuck in my mouth. I remember it was so dramatic and so shocking, that I was wondering, are people seeing what's taking place?
Sid Roth: Were you a little afraid? Or it all...
Keith Collins: I was scared to death!
Sid Roth: That's what I thought. I would be.
Keith Collins: It was, and not only that, but I'll be honest with you, and this might challenge some people, it was painful, so painful that I literally opened my mouth as wide as I could so that I could breathe effectively. As this continued for some time, you know, several seconds, and then into a few minutes, I realized something Supernatural was happening, I couldn't explain it totally. But I knew that God was doing something. That lasted for several minutes. When I was released from that experienced and I pushed up off the old podium, I remember looking around at the students that were with me and the others, wondered if they had seen what I had seen. And to be honest with you, I began to weep. I began to feel something that has forever branded my heart. This is what I believe, and this might stretch some people, I really believe, Sid, that somehow in God's sovereignty, He allowed me to experience at least a portion of the burden that Evan Robert carried for the nation of Wales, from the time he was 12 year old when he began to pray for revival, because he knew that Wales had had revival before that. And until the time he was 26, whenever God moved in power in 1904, we know the history of that movement. Somehow God allowed me, I believe, in that moment, in that season, to experience His burden. And the next day, or the day or the day after, I can't remember exactly, but we flew back to Atlanta, Georgia from London. And I remember it was almost like, I could show you these notes today, it was almost like the Holy Spirit took over my hand, as I began to write about what it means to have the burden of the Lord. I thought about Jeremiah where it says, "My agony, my agony. I writhe in pain," where he says, "I would that my eyes were like a river of tears". I said, "I would weep in secret," and here's a man that is not just explaining human pity, but he's literally feeling the heart of Yahweh, God himself. And I believe that the Lord had allowed me to experience something like that. And I will tell you this, my preaching has never been the same, my passion has never been the same. It awakened something within me for the genuine, authentic move of God. And I know that God,
Sid Roth: What is your greatest passion? Your greatest passion?
Keith Collins: My greatest passion is to see the church in glory. What I mean by that, that the presence of the Lord would reside upon the church.
Sid Roth: So we would be walking fires of God all over the world.
Keith Collins: Yeah. Whenever-there's a story where Charles Finney, back in the second great awakening, walks into a plant. He walks into the plant, and immediately people are convicted because of the glory that is emanating from His life. We've got so much history of how God has moved historically; not just in the Bible, but after those days. I mean, in the last recent decades and centuries of the history of the church...
Sid Roth: What would happen if a million people would be walking around like Charles Finney?
Keith Collins: As you said earlier, the world would be turned upside down for Jesus Christ. We would never be the same again. But I'll tell you the challenge, I believe, Sid, we've learned to do church so good, I mean Christianity so good, we've become professional performers. We are production-driven, and not prayer-driven. I believe in excellence, I love that, but it can never take the place of the Glory of God. It can never take the place of our need for the power of the Holy Spirit to move among His people. We've got a world that is dying and, forgive me, freefalling into hell. We have...
Sid Roth: But we have so many churches.
Keith Collins: We've got so many churches, we can fill stadiums with worship teams and worship groups, however, our nation is still in need of an encounter with the living God. And I believe that God wants to baptize us afresh in fire. I love what the Bible says, says that, "The apostles were continuously filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit". It wasn't just a one-time event. And I believe that we're coming to a time, we are in a time, where the church has to have the Glory of God again. It's not just something to think about, or look at what God did in Brownsville, look at what God did in the Hebrides Islands... no, this is a time that we've got to walk in that power and release that to a world that's in need of help and hope and salvation.
Sid Roth: Would you release that power right now, look in the camara and release that power?
Keith Collins: Yes. Yes, amen. Father, in the Name of Jesus, I thank You that Your glory is real. I pray for everyone that is watching this right now. Fill them with Your fire. May the power of Your Holy Spirit overtake them. May they never be the same again. Father, burn away the dullness and the apathy that so many people have ascribed to, awaken their hearts for deeper places in You. Take them where they've never been, show them what they've never seen, in Jesus' Name. Fresh fire in Jesus' Name, amen.
Sid Roth: You've written about and spoken about signs of... to let someone know, because there's something called "deception," let someone know they've lost their first love.
Keith Collins: Yeah.
Sid Roth: What should we look for?
Keith Collins: Revelation's very clear that the Church of Ephesus, they were lauded, they were praised for their good deeds, for their ascription to proper doctrine. But the Lord said that, "You've left your first love. Repent, do your first works over". Listen, the charge has gotten so good, so professional, so production-oriented. But we've lost the thing that matters. We're busy, we're distracted. We have mixture in our lives. We allow the spirit of the world to entertain us the way it entertains the world. We invite perversion into our homes through TV, through music, and then we want a move of God. It doesn't work that way. We've got to be branded by the fire of God, not for some legalistic do and don't, but so that we can walk in intimacy with Jesus. Listen, you can't be in the presence of the Lord and not make a difference in your culture. Whenever we are consumed with His glory and His love resonates and emanates from our lives, a world that's lost, even a religious world that I will say is lost, they're going to recognize the difference, Sid. And this is that time. This is that hour, I believe, with all my heart.
Sid Roth: How about you? Have you lost your first love? Do you remember the way it was when you became a believer? I remember the way it was when I became a believer. I was telling everyone everywhere about Jesus, I still do. But not with the zeal I had when I was a brand new believer, to be totally transparent. Pray for me to go back to my first love and everyone viewing. Look in the camera, do that right now.
Keith Collins: Father, in the Name of Jesus we thank You that You have never left us, you've never forsaken us. But I pray for those that have been distracted, for those who have allowed lesser lovers to occupy their passions, their desires, their hunger and their thirst. I pray right now, Lord, make Yourself real. May the beauty of Your holiness, may the beauty of Your mercy, may the beauty of the cross, may the beauty of Your glory overwhelm those listening and watching today. May we never be the same again. Awaken hunger and thirst within us. Let passion be ignited in our hearts today. Fresh glory that reveals how beautiful You are, to where nothing else would ever distract us again, in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Sid Roth: Let this moment be a turning point in your life. Rededicate your life with me right now, to God, wherever you're at. Repeat this prayer out loud, and mean it to the best of your ability. Out loud: Dear God, I believe that Jesus died for my sins. And by His blood I'm washed clean. And now that I'm clean, Jesus, come and live inside of me. I don't want to be like everyone else. I want You to say to me when I see You in heaven "Well done, good and faithful servant". I need to be branded. I need Your fire. I need greater intimacy with You than I've ever had before. I need more hunger. I need to not be afraid of man, but have a healthy fear of the living God. I seal this in Yeshua's Name. Amen.