Sid Roth - How To Survive the Last Days
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. My guest says, you do not have to take it any more from the devil when you realize, when you come to your senses that you are dressed to kill. Now we Jewish people have a word. It's called meshuga and it means crazy. My guest Rick Renner takes three small sons and a wife and goes to the former Soviet Union before it was the former Soviet Union. I've been there, Rick. How could you do that?
Rick Renner: You know, it was just, God invited me to go on a trip. And when I was there, I stood in front of this Bible school where we were speaking, and when I opened my Bible to speak for the very first time, I heard the Spirit of God say, "Welcome to your new home". And the whole rest of the time I taught that class, I kept hearing the Holy Spirit saying, "Welcome to your new home". And I understood that God was calling my family to relocate to the Soviet Union, and it was still the Soviet Union at that time, not the most desirous place to move your family.
Sid Roth: As we were checking notes, I went to the former Soviet Union, involved in an outreach at about the same as Rick. And we were in a hotel room, and in the hotel room the bugs were so bad in the room that many had to take their bed and move it into the hallway. If you have never seen a Soviet hotel from back then, you don't know what living is. I can't imagine your family going to that place.
Rick Renner: Sid, it was supernatural. I fell in love with the Soviet people. In one week, it's like they entered into my heart. And when I went back to the United States after that short trip, everything in me just beat with the desire to gather my family together and move back to the Soviet Union. And the Lord spoke to me very clearly, and I said, "Why? Why are you calling my family to move to the Soviet Union"? And he said, "Because there's going to be a revival here that's going to need great Bible teachers and you're going to be more needed here than you are in the United States".
Sid Roth: And you know what, I see why he did that with Rick, because you started the first Christian television station there. You have a TV network today. You have an apostolic network, over 400 congregations. You have a brand new church building in Moscow, what, 3700 members. And I think you haven't even touched what God has you for there. Now in 1980, you had a visitation of an angel.
Rick Renner: Yes I did.
Sid Roth: Now I have seen angels, but I have, you're provoking me to jealousy.
Rick Renner: I was in my apartment and I had laid down on the couch to take a nap, and suddenly I felt a presence, and sat straight up on that couch. And it was one of those moments when you feel someone's presence, but you don't see anyone. And in just a few moments, just about as far as you are from me, a man materialized, and he began speaking to me, but he never opened his mouth. It was non-verbal communication. And he said, "I am a man from the presence of the Lord".
Sid Roth: It was going from spirit to spirit.
Rick Renner: Whether it was spirit-to-spirit or mind to mind, I really don't know. He thought a thought and I received the thought. And he began to speak to me about my ministry, and that my ministry would be a sojourning ministry, and that particularly, I would be sent to a people who had suffered. Now at this particular time, Denise and I were not married. In fact, Denise was not even in the picture yet. And so my life was young and I certainly had no thoughts of moving to the Soviet Union. And suddenly, a map came in front of me that filled the whole room, and the whole map began to violently shake. And this angel began to communicate with me that my ministry would be located in the part of the world where there would be violent shaking and many, many changes, and an in-time ministry. And certainly, that is what we have.
Sid Roth: 1985, another visitation.
Rick Renner: Yes.
Sid Roth: But this time from Jesus.
Rick Renner: Yes.
Sid Roth: What happened?
Rick Renner: I was awakened in the middle of the night and I went to the back room of the house, and began to pray in tongues, and I began to pray very deeply in tongues. And I closed my eyes as I walked back and forth in that room, and when I opened my eyes, the room was gone, and I was standing in the spirit realm. Now the spirit realm has substance. I was, it was a dark place, but yet it was not a scary place, but it was the spirit realm. And far in the distance, I saw a light and the light got brighter and brighter, and brighter until finally it manifested in front of me, and it was a throne, it was a chair. I can even draw a picture of the chair. It's that real to me. And seated in that chair was Jesus, and Jesus began to speak to me about my ministry. I was on my knees because I had already gone to my knees in prayer. And the Lord reached out and took my hands, and he took one hand at a time, and I say that he sandwiched my hands. He put one hand on top, he put another hand underneath, and he said, "See today, I give to you an anointing of love mixed with hate". And I said, "Well what is that"? And then he did it to the other hand. And I said, "Lord, what is love mixed with hate"? And he said, "That is an anointing of compassion". When the love of God is so strong and yet the hate for the work of the enemy is equally as strong as they float together, and when they float together they create compassion. And suddenly, I saw myself in the spirit walking through a hospital ward of people very different. And I know today, it was a Russian hospital ward.
Sid Roth: But at that time, you just knew it was a hospital.
Rick Renner: I just knew it was a hospital and it was different, and it was dilapidated. And the Lord began to speak to me again about the fact that he was going to send me to a people who had suffered great lack and great hardship. And then the most amazing thing happened. The Lord held his hands out to me like this and he said, "See today I place before you finances on a realm that are already amassing more finances". And Sid, it felt like those finances entered into me, greatness of finances, and I understood that God was going to supernaturally provide for whatever it was he was calling us to do on the other side of the world. And God has been absolutely faithful for everything that we have done. And now 24 years later, we're still there.
Sid Roth: And you know what's so amazing? I mean, God, our God is so brilliant. Do you know that? What is so amazing, Rick is a world class Bible teacher in a realm way beyond anything I'm familiar with. He'll take one Greek word, because he's a Greek scholar, and for instance, on the End Times, he has teaching you've never heard before. Have you ever read in the Book of Hebrews, it begins, "In these last days..". and some skeptics say, well back then they thought it was the last days and look, they don't, we don't even know when the last... But you don't even understand from the Greek, there is a difference between the last days and the last of the last days. But if you don't know the Greek, you don't know it. I want Rick to teach on that when we come back.
Sid Roth: So as I was saying before we went into the break, there's the last days, but Rick, there is, when did the last days start?
Rick Renner: The last days started on the day of Pentecost.
Sid Roth: That's a long time.
Rick Renner: Yes.
Sid Roth: So where do you get the last of the last days? Isn't that all the same?
Rick Renner: Well first of all, for people that are skeptics who say, oh, they've been talking about the last days for 2000 years, they are absolutely correct, because the last days began in Acts, Chapter 2, whenever Peter said that God would pour his spirit in the last days. And that initiated a period which some people call the Church Age. Some people call it the Age of Grace, but the Bible calls it the Last Days. But when you come to Second Timothy, Chapter 3, Verse 1, Paul writes, "This know also, that in the last days, perilous times shall come". And the word "last", which Paul uses is the Greek word, "eschatos", and it's where we get the word for eschatology. And the word "eschatos" describes the very, very, very, very end of a thing. For example, if you were describing the last week of the year, you would use the word "eschatos". You can't go any further. You've come all the way to the end. The word "eschatos" was used to describe the final port for a ship. The ship couldn't go any further than that.
Sid Roth: So you say that there were 18 characteristics. Tell me some of these characteristics that caused you to believe we are at the final port, so to speak.
Rick Renner: Well the first characteristic is in Verse 1 and it says, "This know also that in the last days," notice it doesn't say in the last period, but "in the last days", the Greek word, "humitas" which describes really the final countdown. It says, "Perilous times shall come". And that word "perilous" is the Greek word "calipas", and the word calipas is only used one other time in the New Testament, and it's found in Matthew, Chapter 8, Verse 28, where it used to describe the two demoniacs of Gadara. And when you read that verse in Greek, it says that those two men were calipas, or they were exceeding fierce, hard to bear with. If you went near those two demoniacs of Gadara, you were entering into dangerous territory. In fact, the verse says, "So that no man could pass by that way". So in Second Timothy, Chapter 3, Verse 1, when Paul says, "This know also, that in the last days," or in the end of days, "perilous times will come". He's actually saying, exceedingly fierce times will come, times hard to deal with. And in fact, it will be an impasse, it will be difficult for people to get passed those days.
Sid Roth: Could it have, I mean, what I'm reading in the newspaper of in Africa, they're running into girls' schools and they're kidnapping these girls, and they're selling them into sexual slavery. I mean, they're cutting people's heads off and making videos of it. It couldn't get much worse than that.
Rick Renner: Well you know what, when you continue to read Second Timothy, Chapter 3, Verses 2 to 5, Paul gives those 18 characteristics of things which will happen to society in the last days. And one of them is brutality. It's savageness, which will come forth in society, a violence. And in fact, it's the same word, "violence", which was used to describe the violent games in the Coliseum, the violence of entertainment. And if you think about it, Sid, people enjoy violence today. We may not go to an actual Coliseum where we see bloodshed, but our computer games and our movies, our entertainment is absolutely filled with violence.
Sid Roth: It's breeding that to be within the brain of our young generation.
Rick Renner: And that is one of the signs of a last days society.
Sid Roth: Well tell me some other signs.
Rick Renner: Well the very first sign that is listed is, lovers of own self.
Sid Roth: You can't get, I mean, let's face it, this is what America and most of the world is right now.
Rick Renner: It's the Greek word "filatos" and the word "fileo" means to love. It's the same word that is used in John, Chapter 18, when the Bible says that Judas Iscariot gave Jesus a kiss. It's the Greek word, "fileo". And it's usually a word that you would use to describe what you feel for someone else. But when you compound it together with the word "autos", which is where you get the word for autobiography, it describes self, it is self-love, and really it is the picture of self-kissing, people so in love with themselves that they are making sacrifices for themselves that they make for no one else. It's misdirected love. And out of that misdirected love comes all the other flaws, which we see in a last days society.
Sid Roth: How much worse can it get?
Rick Renner: Well it's going to be pretty dark. Actually, the Bible says, Paul speaking to Timothy about this, says, "Deceivers and sorcerers are going to wax worse and worse". And the good news is we're anointed for this time.
Sid Roth: That was what I was going to ask you. I mean, reading this in the Bible, especially in the Greek, you can get pretty fearful. So what would you say to someone that's fearful of living in the, at the last port, the last days?
Rick Renner: I would say these scriptures were not written to scare us. They were written to prepare us. These verses were written so that we could insulate ourself against what is happening in society. For example, if we know that self-love is going to be a primary characteristic of the last days, then we need to work on loving others and loving God. If we know that greed is going to be a major sign of society in the last days, then we need to work on giving. We need to flip those verses and around, and we need to work on the opposite of those things.
Sid Roth: But you know the most important thing you said? He said that we were created to live at this time. It's in our spiritual DNA and God trusts us with this. I'm going to tell you one other thing. When you find out Rick's revelation from the Word about Paul the Apostle, who spent a lot of time in prison and observed the Romans, guards in their uniforms, and then wrote in the Book of Ephesians what they meant, and once you comprehend all of this, you're dressed to kill.
Sid Roth: So I'm here with Rick Renner. Rick says we are dressed to kill. We're believers by our love. What do mean we're dressed to kill?
Rick Renner: Well I'm talking about spiritual armor.
Sid Roth: Explain.
Rick Renner: Spiritual weaponry. In Ephesians 6, Verse 12, Paul says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness, against spiritual wickedness in high places". And Sid, in that verse, it's almost like the Apostle Paul had a revelation, and suddenly the spirit realm was parted and he was able to see into the spirit realm of how Satan's kingdom is aligned militarily. And he saw at the top of Satan's kingdom there were principalities then there were powers, then were rulers of the darkness of this world, and then there were low-level demons, which are powers in the heavenlies, which are dispatched into our atmosphere. And the only way that we can resist those low-level demons, which are dispatched into our atmosphere is if we carry and walk in the full armor of God. In fact, Paul says, "Therefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil".
Sid Roth: Now I've heard a lot of believers take that literally. And every morning they get up and I put the helmet of salvation on, I put on the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and they say that, but it's almost become a religious banter rather than what you teach.
Rick Renner: Well I think that it's very sincere when people do that. But if I sat on the edge of my bed and said, I'm going to put on my helmet, that is not putting on my helmet. The Bible very clearly says, "This is the whole armor of God" and "of God" in Greek means it's the armor which comes out of God. And the only that you're going to be able to habitually walk in the armor of God is if you're walking with God, because it comes out of him. It's a result of your relationship with God.
Sid Roth: When I heard you teach about the various parts of armor, when a Roman soldier was actually prepared to kill and when we have our armor we're no longer defenseless against the devil. Tell, take one piece of armor and tell me what that means and what it was in the natural, what it is in the spirit.
Rick Renner: Well we have what's called the shield of faith. And Paul is referring the shield of a Roman soldier, and there were two kinds of shields. There were small, round, decorative shields, which you would carry in a parade, but you would never use that to defend yourself. It was just a decorative shield. But the shield which a Roman soldier used when he was in battle is from the Greek word, "thureon", which is the same word for an oblong door. If I were to pick out any door in this building, it would be the word "thureon" and that's the same word for a Roman shield. And what happened, Sid, is when a Roman soldier would come into the infantry, they would measure him. Now this is very important because Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 3 says, "God is given to every man the measure of faith". Well what is "the measure"? Well they measured a Roman soldier from side to side and from top to bottom, and they would make a sword just for his size so that he was covered from side to side, and he was covered from top to bottom. If you had a shield, you were completely covered.
Sid Roth: So each one had it tailor made for their needs.
Rick Renner: Tailor made. And they were made out of wood and leather. And they would take the leather and they would dip it into the water, and they would saturate so that whenever flames would hit it, it would put out the fire. And likewise, our faith has to be saturated in the Word of God. And when our faith is saturated in the Word of God, it becomes a force that the enemy cannot penetrate.
Sid Roth: You know Rick, I'd like to spend the whole time, if we had it, the whole day, talking about this armor because, you see, when you understand, really understand what Paul was talking about, you realize how much protection God has given us. You realize that you're literally dressed to kill. You said the mind is so important. Would you pray for people that their mind renewed to the Word of God right now.
Rick Renner: I will because the mind is where the main attack takes place. And so Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray, Lord, right now for people whose mind is under assault, the enemy is trying to pave a road into their mind and to bombard them with lies about their self-image, about their health, about their marriage. And Father, I pray that they would listen to the Word of God and that every one of those lies would be uprooted and removed from their minds in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Sid Roth: The devil comes at you like a roaring lion, like, like a roaring lion. But you have that shield of faith. You have the sword of the Spirit. You are dressed to kill. You are more than a conqueror.