Sid Roth - Wanted A Friend for God
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. My guest so provokes me to jealousy. He had a season with Jesus in which he could ask any question he wanted. How would you like to do that and get answers? Then he goes to Heaven for eight hours and comes back with a message from Heaven that I tell you is going to change your destiny forever. You know Rick, this is such a beautiful garden. It's like Heaven, except you've been there. I haven't. What's the difference?
Rick Joyner: It's very beautiful, I agree, but it's not Heaven. Heaven, there is no comparison. I mean, this is a reflection. The whole physical universe is but a shadow compared to Heaven. But this gives us a little fore taste.
Sid Roth: I feel something when I'm in such a beautiful environment. I can only imagine what Heaven would be like. Now you went on a 900-mile motorcycle ride for a family vacation and to write a book. What was that like?
Rick Joyner: Well I had never ridden a motorcycle more than 300 miles in a day, and that was when I was younger. I heard a clear word from the Lord to do it. I would have never considered such a thing. So I'm thinking I'm going to take a week to get down there and my knees were bad, my, there were storms on the route, and but I heard him say go. So I'm determined to be obedient. And he healed my knees. The storms were wonderful. It was like it was much better than that Florida heat. I started looking for storms to go through. They were so refreshing.
Sid Roth: You were telling me that you felt the presence of God right behind you on the motorcycle. I might even get on a motorcycle if I can do that.
Rick Joyner: It was, you know, I love motorcycles and riding. This was the best ride of my life because of the Lord, the presence of the Lord. But I had never had an encounter with Him quite like this one, so personal, so him wanting to talk about the things he wanted to talk with me about. And it was whole new open door into a whole new relationship with the Lord, and that's why he wanted me on that motorcycle. No cell phones, nothing else can disturb me.
Sid Roth: You were going to write a book for God. What did he tell you?
Rick Joyner: Well he said labor is cheap, you can get anybody to write books. He said, "But friends are expensive". He wanted friendship.
Sid Roth: You know, did you hear that? God wants friendship. God wants your friendship. So how do you relate to God being from a servant to a friend? That's a big jump, Rick.
Rick Joyner: It's a huge jump and I confess to being as awkward as I possibly could imagine. And you know, my whole approach to God had been one as a servant, give me orders, tell me what to do, I want to obey. And all this is good, but he wanted a friend he could converse with, discuss things with. And he wanted me to share my concerns, he wanted me to share my questions, he wanted me, he wanted interchange. And you know, this is really what he created man for. He wanted fellowship.
Sid Roth: And yet, you told me you felt extremely awkward. Why?
Rick Joyner: Unbelievable. Because I only related to Him as the king, give me orders as your servant or as a good solider, tell me what to do and I'll do it, and that ended my whole approach to him. And I believe what led to this was months ago, getting to pray, my relationship to him I felt was becoming dry and, you know, mechanical, and I asked him to help me. I said, "Lord, I want you to be my first love, I want you to be my first thought". This is when this whole encounter began. And but he said I could never have been his friend if I hadn't learned to be his servant. And he said he was going to have to deliver me from my slave mentality to be a friend, but he said, "You couldn't have gotten here without that slave mentality". It's like I wonder if that's why Israel had to become slaves before they could become his friends. I think there is a sense where we really have to know him as almighty God, as the awesome Creator, you know, as the foundation of our relationship to him. And yet, he's looking for friends, and even more than that, he's looking for sons and daughters.
Sid Roth: But you know, it blows my mind. I can see us humans looking for friends. It's hard for me to fathom. God, would you say he's desperate with this friendship?
Rick Joyner: He said he didn't have many friends, and that's what shocked me.
Sid Roth: Okay. I understand why you're a friend. You paid the price. You did all those things. You had the servant mentality, you get promoted. But what about every believer? I mean, are we Swiss cheese?
Rick Joyner: No, no. Of course, and I don't know why he said that, you know, to his disciples there is a point where he says, "I no longer call you servants, but now I call you friends". There was something, a promotion. By the way, they got that promotion much faster than I did. I have been a servant for 40 years and I don't even think a very good one. I would say, you know, I'm trying that best, but this isn't that great. And but he grades on a curve, thank the Lord, you know.
Sid Roth: So you're saying anyone can be where you're at and go further. Are you, is that what you're saying?
Rick Joyner: Yeah, I think he can do it much faster, much better. I don't want him to. I want to be the best friend God has ever had, you know. But I say I don't want him to. He deserves the best we could have. I want him to have great friends.
Sid Roth: Okay. So what is a friend? What is being a friend to God? I mean, I know what a friend is. I can be your friend. I understand that. How do you become God's friend?
Rick Joyner: Well I've got a lot of employees, as you do. But there are some that make that jump and they become your friend. You go out to lunch with them. You go to the beach with them or families. There's a whole different, and you relate to your friends differently than you do just employees. And I think there's something of that intimacy where we really love the same things, we do the same things. You just want to be together. This isn't about being on the job and getting a paycheck. You just want to be together and have that fellowship. And you know, I sometimes struggle. I consider myself a very baby friend right now. I'm just starting this new journey of understanding of how to be a friend with the Lord.
Sid Roth: Well I want you to come with this on this adventure. I'm coming on this adventure, and if I'm coming, you're coming. We're going to get God so many friends, but it starts with you, it starts with me, it starts with Rick. When we come back, I want to find how you go swimming with Jesus.
Sid Roth: Now Rick, as I said, is provoking me to jealousy. He's on this motorcycle going 900, traveling 900 miles and God speaks to him. How clear did God speak to you?
Rick Joyner: Well it was as loud and clear, every, I mean, I could fully hear and understand every word.
Sid Roth: Was it like, I'm speaking to you right now?
Rick Joyner: It wasn't outside audible, it was inside audible. That's the only way I can describe it.
Sid Roth: What does inside audible mean?
Rick Joyner: As clear as you're talking now, I could understand him.
Sid Roth: And you know what Rick said to me, you know, when it happened, I couldn't even come up with questions. I was in such a state of shock. But now I have a ton of questions I wish I would have asked. But tell me one question you asked.
Rick Joyner: Well I asked stupid questions like, "Lord, what do you think of sports? Do you care about us"?
Sid Roth: That is a stupid question. I would like to know some other things.
Rick Joyner: I would, too. And now I'm just trying to do this. But I did, you know.
Sid Roth: So what does he think of sports? It's not that stupid.
Rick Joyner: Well a lot of his answers weren't direct answers. He said, "I love the things that you love". He said, "I only wish that you would do them with me instead of apart with me". It's like doing things with the Lord, you know, just being cognizant of his presence of him being there and in fellowship with him. And that's what I felt. But he seemed to be fine with sports, you know.
Sid Roth: And then you told me you go swimming with him. What does that mean to you?
Rick Joyner: Well every day when I'm on a vacation I try to swim an hour or two. A lot of times I'm out there, the porpoises are around, I'll swim out to the porpoises or, you know, do different things. But I went out there and I can tell the Lord, his presence was so real, I just couldn't stop focusing on him and talking to him. And that's what he said. That's what this whole vacation was about. I was planning to write a book. He said, "Forget the book. I can get anybody to write books". He's looking for friends. He wanted to be with me.
Sid Roth: But when you say you were conversing with him, do you see him?
Rick Joyner: No, not with these eyes, but with the eyes of the heart. I don't know if was in the water swimming with me or if he was walking on the water next to me. I don't know. But his presence was so real.
Sid Roth: But you know, there was a Brother Lawrence and he was a monk in a monastery. His job, dishwasher. But he had what Rick is describing, I know he did, and people of the highest levels of government and authority would make appointments to see him because the presence of God wasn't just in him, it radiated out of him. I mean, this is a dishwasher and everyone wanted to talk to this man. Did you ask God about Brother Lawrence?
Rick Joyner: I did.
Sid Roth: That was a good one.
Rick Joyner: That was a good one. He said he loved washing dishes with Brother Lawrence. They had, must have had a really special relationship.
Sid Roth: Okay. Help me out. You're Brother Lawrence. You're washing the dishes. Tell me what you think Brother Lawrence was doing in his relationship with Jesus.
Rick Joyner: I think, you know, washing dishes is a pretty nominal, medial task. You could probably think about, you know, anything, world events, whatever. Maybe he was conversing about those, you know. I think one he did, he washed the dishes as if Jesus was going to eat off of them. Because he said, "As you do unto the least of his little ones, you've done it to him". And I think he may have been praying for the people who would eat off them. They had been talking to the Lord about those people, just, you know. But it was, he did everything, I believe, with the Lord, or tried to, you know, cognizant of his presence here. He's with us all the time.
Sid Roth: I've been trying to do this and I'm ashamed to say, I forget. Does that happen to you?
Rick Joyner: All the time. Today I'm constantly, I mean, I felt like this summer I had the closest relationship to the Lord I have ever had, by far, never anything like this, as far as an intimate, personal relationship. And can come, and to this day, you know, to now, still go half a day sometimes without thinking, I'm so busy and doing stuff, and I'm working. This is a process. And I want to do that. I want to get to that place, but I'm just starting.
Sid Roth: Well you and I had lunch the other day. You said, "Sid, I'd like to have competition". I have an idea you're a very competitive guy.
Rick Joyner: I am. It helps drive me.
Sid Roth: And I think that's, there's something good about that. I think you have to find a friend that wants, has a hunger to be God's friend as much as you do, and challenge each other. Because as far as I'm concerned, I don't know at this moment in my life a higher goal than to be a friend to God right now. But you even said that once you become a friend, you can go even higher.
Rick Joyner: That's what he said. He said, "Friends are expensive. You've got to invest in the friendship. You've really got to give yourself to it". But he said, "Sons are priceless". I knew I felt this is what Paul the Apostle was talking about in Philippines 3, when near the end of his life, he's writing this letter and he says, "I don't think I've yet obtained". He wasn't talking about salvation or eternal life. He at that day believed in the atonement, of the cross. He talks about the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Near the end of his life, maybe I consider certainly one of the greatest men of God of all time. He's saying, "I don't consider I've yet obtained this, but I'm pressing on towards this mark of the high calling of God".
Sid Roth: Okay. If Rick provoked me to jealousy on this conversation he had with God, how much more when after that, he went to Heaven for eight hours. I want to find out what he saw, what he heard, what he learned. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: Rick was in Heaven for eight hours. And I recently asked him, what were the two most profound things from this trip to Heaven that you were told. Tell me about when he, when the Lord said to you, you had the key of joy. What did that mean?
Rick Joyner: Well he said that I had used the key to eternal joy to have that experience.
Sid Roth: And so what is it?
Rick Joyner: That's what I said. I said, "Lord, what did I do? What key"? Yeah. He said, when I set my heart to do the things that would bring him joy, that brought him pleasure instead of just seeking my own pleasure, my own joy, he said, that is the key to eternal joy, because it is the joy of the Lord, not our joy, that is our strength.
Sid Roth: And so the paradigm is all wrong for most believers. Most believers are after their joy and it's a paradox when you go, if I'm understanding you right, Rick, when you go after God's joy, what is going to make him joyful, you end up with more joy than if you were going after your joy. Is that what you're saying?
Rick Joyner: He says we were created for his pleasure. So I did a, I did study, research, what are the things that bring God joy? And I set my heart to do these things every day. As much as I can, I'm going to, today I'm going to bring the Lord joy. And when I set about to do that, that somehow that was the key. But he said it was a key every believer has and we can use it every day. But it's mostly focusing on him, bringing him pleasure, bringing him joy. It is the joy of the Lord that is our strength.
Sid Roth: Give me two practical things that you might do to bring him joy.
Rick Joyner: Well it says, the prayer of the upright is his delight. So I try to fulfill or obey, take every thought captive, turn my vain imaginations into intercession, to prayer, use my mind for him and my thoughts for him, and to pray continually is what, and I set about to do that. I'm a long ways from getting that done. But and then it talks about, you know, when one sinner repents it brings joy to all of Heaven. And I think, you know, to lead people to the Lord, this is something, you know, we have got to be fundamentally devoted.
Sid Roth: You had another profound experience in Heaven, which is almost unbelievable to me. Tell me about that.
Rick Joyner: I've had experiences in Heaven before, but this one was much greater even then I've had before, a better place. And then he let me experience it alone, and it was it's like, this didn't happen anymore. It's not even fun, you know. And Heaven, I think a profound part of this whole revelation was how important kenaniah fellowship is, that we've got to have with God and with one another that without this even Heaven wouldn't be Heaven without him and without one another. I believe God created Adam to need him more than anything else, but to need other people, too. We need, we have to have this kenaniah fellowship that we're called to, which is supposed to be the foundation of church. Our basic job description as a human being is to love God. I think if we set our heart, this can be the main thing I'm going to do with my life. This is going to be the main thing that determines whether we're successful or not. How much do we love God. And then love one another. And the manifestation of these two things, I think, is, you know, is going to bring Heaven to Earth, and that's what he showed me at the end of this whole experience.
Sid Roth: So you got to bring Heaven to Earth.
Rick Joyner: I think that's our basic calling.
Sid Roth: But you know what? I'm reminded the Messiah said that if you do these two things, you fulfill all of the Law. And what were the two things? Love God with all of your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. It's so simple. You need to help confused, Rick.
Rick Joyner: It is. We're told not to be beguiled from the simplicity of devotion to Christ.
Sid Roth: I'll tell you what. I want you to pray whatever God shows you for a Heaven impartation to jumpstart our friendship with God and our walking the love walk. Would you pray that right now?
Rick Joyner: Lord, I pray for everyone watching, everyone who hears this. Lord, I ask that the greatest devotion, the greatest accomplishment we could ever have would be what we fasten our attention, our focus and our life on, that is loving you above all things, that we could then love one another the way we're supposed to. And Lord, I ask you to make us contagious with that. I ask you to make us so contagious with the love of God that everyone we come in contact with would catch it, and they could never be cured. In Jesus' name, I pray this prayer. Amen.
Sid Roth: When you walk in God's love, according to the New Testament, you're walking in God. When you're dwelling in his love, you're dwelling in God. So I challenge you. I challenge myself. Become a friend of God. The first step to be a friend is to get rid of anything separating you from him. That's called sin. Believe that Jesus died in your place, and he remembers your sin no more when you repent of them. And then ask him to dwell inside of you and be your Lord. Welcome to the family.