Sid Roth - Greatest Miracle Since Pentecost
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. I just got back from Jerusalem, Israel and I was right in the center of the greatest miracle that has happened since Pentecost. Why is it so important? Not even the miracle I'm going to tell you about. It is because it is shouting the Messiah is coming back soon. Hello. Sid Roth here with Israel Pochtar. And Israel was in Israel when I was in Israel, and we witnessed one of the, not one of the, THE most outstanding miracle that has happened since Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost? Well Peter a fisherman gives a simple little message and 3000 Jewish people come to know the Messiah. Well we had an auditorium jammed pack, something like 650. Now this is not backsliders, this is 650 Jewish people that had never heard the Gospel, standing room only. And all of a sudden, I had words of knowledge. Now what's going to happen when unsaved Jewish people hear words of knowledge? So many people raised their hand. Israel, I mean, I'm overwhelmed with how many people got instantly healed just as the meeting was started.
Israel Pochtar: Yes. I can tell you, Sid, when you were there, the Holy Spirit just came and your talk was very convincing. Because I remember watching the faces of people, and you know, with the spirit of faith, people just believed it. They came, many of them, they came as skeptics and non-believers and just one meeting changed their life, and it's incredible. It's a miracle.
Sid Roth: Would you like to see a clip of all these unsaved Jewish people getting physically healed? Let's look.
If you have faith that you are having a miracle right now, I would like you to stand up if you want to have a miracle, or don't have a miracle, don't stand up. It's up to you. Now I'm going to count to five and when I say five, test your body and see if the pain is gone. Is that fair? Is that fair? Okay. At five. One, two, three, four, five. If you had a pain when you came in and the pain is gone, I want you to raise your hand high so I can see it. Would you do that right now? Keep your hands up so I can see them. Keep them up. People in the front, turn around and look at all the hands that are up. Look. Okay, there's more hand. No, you put them down. Put them up. They haven't all seen them. Please, the ones that have, way back, way back. I'll wave at you if you wave at me. Is that a miracle? Have you ever seen so many miracles before?
Sid Roth: Israel, I am so fascinated with your life. You were born in Crimea, which is the country that's been under siege for quite a while now and all sorts of problems going on there. And of course, you're Jewish and there's no synagogues, there's no churches. But you had a grandmother that told you about God. Do you remember what she told you?
Israel Pochtar: Yeah. First of all, she said God exists and is watching you. He knows your every move. He sees you every day. So be careful.
Sid Roth: But that put a spark within Israel until he went to school. How old are you, maybe seven years old, the teacher comes in and what does the teacher say to you?
Israel Pochtar: At this age, for at least in our culture, the teacher was a god, a very important person, big, you know, educated. And she made the class quiet an she said, "I want to announce a very important statement, God does not exist. There is no God". And she said, and they checked it out. There is no God. And she added to it, it was quiet, and she added to it, "Only stupid people believe in God".
Sid Roth: You still prayed to God despite that because of the seed that your grandmother put within you and he could literally feel the presence of God. Then when he was 18, a brand new gentile believer approached you. What happened?
Israel Pochtar: He spoke at me about Yeshua, Jesus, and all the Jewishness and all the obstacles I ever heard just rise in me and I said, "Traditionally, it's not for Jewish people, Jesus is not for us". But he was smart enough to explain the Jewishness of the Bible. I don't know how he knew that. I believe it's God, just Holy Spirit moved him. But he said, "Jesus, he was a Jew, a hundred percent Jew. He preached in synagogues and he lived Israel. He never left the territory of Israel". He said, "The apostles, the holy ones and their pictures in the traditional churches, they all were Jewish". And he said, "The Bible and New Testament was written by Jews". Then I said, "Well, keep talking". He convinced me. And then just I was ready. By that time, I was ready. I prayed every day, every morning and every night just talking with Heaven, with God, and I didn't know his name, but just God. And he explained to me that his name is the God of Israel of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Jesus is his son, Yeshua.
Sid Roth: The Holy Spirit got a hold of Israel. He's on fire for God. He's healing everyone in sight. He's leading everyone he can lead to the Lord. You come home, you tell your mother the good news, you're a believer in Yeshua. She doesn't care. You know, there's no religion, God is dead. What difference does it make. But she's very sick. What was wrong?
Israel Pochtar: Yeah. She was lying in the bed for a month with kidneys. She couldn't move. That's why she actually, she really cared. She was very sick. And as I had been told in the little group I joined, that God can heal everybody. And they said to me that I can pray for everybody and lay hands. Now I haven't seen anybody praying, but I just heard their stories, and I just believed. So I went home and said, Mom, you know, I just found Messiah and became a believer as you told me. And I asked mom, "I would love to pray for you. Is it okay"? She said, yes. "Please close your eyes, don't watch me". My mom, I am her son and I prayed.
Sid Roth: Did you hear what he just said? He said, "Mom, you close your eyes, don't look at me". Because he knew he didn't know what to do. Okay.
Israel Pochtar: And I laid my hands like I had been told, short prayer, the simplest prayer you can get and asked, "What happened"? "Nothing". I said, "Well I know God is going to heal you so good-bye". I left the house. The same evening I came back and she opened the door and told me, and she said, "You left and in three hours I totally got healed and I'm well". Praise God.
Sid Roth: That's our God. That's our God. Well okay, so Israel, you realized you don't know anything. You go to Bible school in Estonia. You meet your wife. You start hearing about Bible prophecies, about the Jews returning to Israel, Israel being a nation in a day. You're fascinated to discuss it with your wife, and you're thinking, someday you're going to go to Israel. But all of a sudden, you hear an audible voice. What did you hear? Who was it that talked to you?
Israel Pochtar: God was speaking to me. It was obvious God's strong presence came. And he said to me, "Go to your homeland, go home. You don't belong here". And it was surprising, because at that time we had a revival in Crimea and we preached the Gospel everywhere. People were seeing Jesus every day. And I thought, I'm going to the country Israel, I'm going to go to my homeland. When I retire, I will do my job and I will go home.
Sid Roth: You know, a lot of American Jews that are believers in the Messiah and non-believers in the Messiah are kind of thinking that. Wrong. I just had to put a commercial in for God, that's all.
Israel Pochtar: So I came home and my wife, she received the same word. All my life changed. Our plans changed. It's now.
Sid Roth: So he goes to Israel with a wife and one small child.
Israel Pochtar: Just born, yeah.
Sid Roth: Small child and how much money did you have in your pocket?
Israel Pochtar: Oh I was rich. I had ten bucks.
Sid Roth: Can you imagine going to Israel? He doesn't speak Hebrew, he's got $10, he's going with his wife and a small child, but God has his hand on this young man. And God raised him up as a top evangelist in, I believe, in the Tel Aviv area. And then one day, he's visiting some people in a small city in Israel. It's Ashdod, I believe, and all of a sudden, God shows up. What happened? Excuse me, God has a commercial. If you have a pain in your neck and in your back, you are healed in Jesus' name. Go ahead, Israel.
Israel Pochtar: So I was driving to the city just praying, relaxing and enjoying, and I hear the crowd, literally. I went to my car to a cloud of glory. Now I assume it took maybe a few seconds, but it was like time had stopped and I had been in a different dimension. So I saw the future of Ashdod and I saw thousands of Messianic believers, Israelis and different nationalities together in one place worshiping Yeshua, in Ashdod. And there is many people, international flags and visitors, and people coming for revival meetings. And I heard the voice of God very clear, "Leave everything behind and move to Ashdod and start a Hebrew-speaking congregation".
Sid Roth: But wait a second. You left everything behind and you came to Tel Aviv, and you're doing very well now. So when you went home to your wife, what did you say to her and what did she say to you?
Israel Pochtar: Now I came home. God just spoke to me, excited for joy. I came to my wife and I said, "God spoke to me. We live in Tel Aviv and we're going to Ashdod". And her reaction was, Hallelujah! No.
Sid Roth: You wish.
Israel Pochtar: She cried, just cried. Yeah but, she's a woman of God and she took a few days of prayer, and she back crying again, and she said, "We're moving to Ashdod. I know it's our destiny".
Sid Roth: I have to tell you, what this young man did in Ashdod very few people could have done. What this man went through in Ashdod, no one should have to do. But God was with him. His grace, his enabling power is sufficient. And when you hear this, you'll understand how outrageous what he went through and what God did for him. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: So Israel Pochtar moves with his wife, who did not say, Hallelujah to Ashdod, moving from a fun city, Tel Aviv to Ashdod. So they move there and everything is going okay, and they're getting established. And all of a sudden, 1000 very religious Jews, you know the black hat and the high hats and the black outfits show up at your congregation. Why did they come?
Israel Pochtar: You know, they didn't like to see Israelis coming to the Lord, especially in the cities in the Judah. They had been emphasizing that. And we were the first congregation in the history of our city, and the city is pretty big today, 250,000 people, and it's only two congregations, one Russian, one Hebrew. There is no traditional churches, no Baptist, Pentecost or whatever you name it, only us. So they just decided to close us down because we were preaching the Gospel daily and attitudes started to change, and people knew about us.
Sid Roth: They actually began cursing you on the main TV station there.
Israel Pochtar: Yeah. Their protests, demonstrations were all over TV, radio, newspapers and it gets ugly and unfair many times, putting Nazi crosses by my name and all kind of stuff. You know, they didn't know to address Jewish people. They didn't know what can touch their hearts. So it was tough. It was a tough experience.
Sid Roth: Now they actually came to your house.
Israel Pochtar: And they actually, not only my house. First of all, they started to come to every meeting we had, the group of people protesting, cursing, praying against, spitting. And if you would come to my congregation, anybody would come to my congregation, back then, they would come, shout loud crowd of orthodox protestors and they need to hear why they're not supposed to come to the congregation. Now they started to follow our cars, our people, trying to figure out when we leave and the come to visit, not only my neighbors, every congregational member got visitors, and they visited not only us, but also our neighbors to tell them how bad we are and what's wrong we do. And of course, that's illegal, but you know, we cannot stop it. Also, they posted my pictures, my wife's pictures with my home address saying, "Dangerous, Careful. Israel and Victoria Pochtar" and my address.
Sid Roth: I have to ask you this, Israel. I don't know how you did it, but I don't know how you did it with a wife and children, and that type of persecution. How did you stand? How did you really do it?
Israel Pochtar: You know what I see, you can never be ready for persecutions. And actually, you know, the Holy Spirit talked to me before and I knew it's going to come, but it caught us by surprise anyway.
Sid Roth: Why didn't you leave? Why didn't you just give up? Most people would have.
Israel Pochtar: Yeah, but we just know. We were called to the city. We had word from God and he promised us, and we knew one who isn't us is stronger.
Sid Roth: According to the scripture, "Without a vision, my people perish". This man had a vision from God. And then today, you come to my meeting in Jerusalem. You see 650 Jewish people of which 98 percent stand up and make professions of faith. You've got, you see all the healings that are going on. You told me a phrase. You told me it was a new day for Israel. What did you mean?
Israel Pochtar: Yes and it's a new day for Israel because Israel is changing. And many people cannot imagine that, but God opening hearts of people like ever before and it's not a major revival yet. But at the same time, you've been there and you've seen a number of people who could never have together as non-believers and one place and hearing the Gospel, and respond to the Gospel. It's a new day for Israel and atmosphere in Israel is changing. I know many of that, it's connected to the prayers of Christians, of people from all over the world who pray for Israel faithfully, for some a lifetime.
Sid Roth: I'll tell you what, I want you to see right now the almost 650 Jewish people standing up and publically proclaiming, in Jerusalem, Israel, that Yeshua is my Messiah and Lord.
I want you to experience the peace of God. I want you to know the Moshiach of Israel. I want everyone that wants that same peace to stand up right now and let me pray a supernatural prayer over you. If you want that peace, stand up. If you don't want them to know the Messiah then don't. You want the Shalom of God, stand up God. If you like life the way it is, sit down. If you think there must be something more, stand up. You've seen miracles tonight. You're about ready to be a miracle. You are about ready to be a miracle. Say out loud, Dear God, I've made many mistakes in my life for which I'm so sorry. I want to know you. I want Yeshua to be my Lord. Lord Yeshua, give me that new heart. Come inside of me. Take over my life. Amen.
Sid Roth: This is the set time to favor Zion. Israel, do you have a couple of words of knowledge, real quick? What is God telling you who is being healed?
Israel Pochtar: Yeah. There is people with problems in their wrists and joints, and the Holy Spirit is touching them, touching you right now. Receive your healing. I feel the flow of the Holy Spirit.
Sid Roth: Me, too.
Israel Pochtar: It's really touching people, touching their backs, touching their bodies.
Sid Roth: I'm going to tell you something. There is a flow of the Living Spirit of God right now. Whatever you need, take it. Whatever you need, take it. The Messiah paid the price for you for every pain and every disease. According to Psalm 103, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, forget not all his benefits". He's forgiven all of my sins. He's healed all, all, all of your diseases. By faith, take it right now. Do something you couldn't do because healing is yours. Jesus gave you that.