Sid Roth - How to Make the Right Decision Every Time
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. How would you like to make right decisions every time? My guest says it's simple. Would you like to learn? You know, my guest was an instructor at Rhema Bible College and I am told by friends that graduated the best course at Rhema was what she taught, "The Blood Covenant". Give me one nugget, Karen.
Karen Jensen: Well I think probably, you know, it's an amazing covenant and if I had to give one it would probably be the fact that the blood of Jesus brought back for us everything that Adam lost. You know, the life is in the blood and it was the blood of Jesus that brought back for us. And now we're in the same position with God that Adam was because Jesus tore down the veil between man and God, eradicated our sin and let us just walk in to his throne room
Sid Roth: You know, you like to teach the way Jesus taught. Give me a couple of things Jesus taught in reference to prayer.
Karen Jensen: Well one of the things he prayed, of course, was the Prayer of Consecration. When Jesus faced the toughest decision of his life he had to pray, "Father, not my will, but your will be done". So if we're trying to make a decision we want to pray that way, too, Father, let your will be done in my life. But that's not to be confused with the Prayer of Faith, which is something that, the Prayer of Faith changes things. And so we don't pray if it be thy will concerning my healing, for example, because we know it's God's will to heal us.
Sid Roth: You found that when you pray the way Jesus taught to pray you get supernatural results. Tell me about that relative of yours with the awful condition in her hand.
Karen Jensen: So I was just talking with this person and all of a sudden I noticed on her hands that she had this kind of rash that they looked all red. And she told me it was all over her body. She had never had anything like that happen before, but it was making her miserable. You know, she couldn't sleep, she couldn't, you know, rest, and it was itchy and everything. And I said, you don't have to have that. So I took Jesus at his word, laid hands on her and when we parted ways she didn't look any different. But she contacted me the next day and said, "Thank you, I've been healed all over my body. There's no more rash".
Sid Roth: You know, there is a quote I have for you, Karen, "God has plans for you. He's not keeping from you, but for you".
Karen Jensen: Isn't that good news.
Sid Roth: It is.
Karen Jensen: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Explain it to me a little.
Karen Jensen: Well you know, Jeremiah 29:11 says, "I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not for evil that you can have hope and an expected end". I love that verse. First of all it tells you, A, there is a plan, thank God, and B, somebody knows what it is, you know. Many of us are seeking around for God's plan wondering his direction for our life. But he has a plan. Ephesians 2 says, "He had it before you were born. He created you for good works that you should walk in them". And so when we seek him we can get into the plan and that's how we follow it out and be in his perfect will for our lives.
Sid Roth: You say we can make decisions from God, which will be perfect decisions. We can know what he wants us to do every single time. And you say we have a helper.
Karen Jensen: We have what I like to call a guide on the inside. The Holy Spirit is in there to lead and guide us, and help us every step of the way.
Sid Roth: You teach that we really can get God's input in decisions every single time. What types of decisions, just the life-changing ones or little day-to-day?
Karen Jensen: I'd say both. You know, obviously we need to hear for major things, you know, should I marry this person, should I move to that city, should I take this job, you know, big decisions, but then also tiny little ones. And really, we should practice with the everyday decisions. You know, Lord, should I turn left or right here, should I talk to this person or not. You know, and the Holy Spirit will give you promptings and say, go over there, do that. And if you practice listening to the Spirit, he'll lead and guide you in those small things so that you're ready to hear him in the big things, and you can make those right decisions.
Sid Roth: I know people whose very advise were dependent on hearing God and doing what he had to say. When we come back, I want to get more of these nuggets on how we can make right decisions every time and as simple. Be right back.
Sid Roth: You talk about keys so that we can really understand.
Karen Jensen: Yes.
Sid Roth: What God's will is. I mean, so many people are almost paralyzed.
Karen Jensen: Yes.
Sid Roth: For fear they're going to do something wrong, so they don't do anything.
Karen Jensen: Yes.
Sid Roth: And then they go their whole life doing nothing, and they had a whole destiny ahead of themselves. One of your keys that you talk about is determine that you're going to be led by God and nothing else.
Karen Jensen: Everybody that I know wants to be led by God. They want to hear his plan. They want to obey him and move, but they don't necessarily know the track to take. But when we determine that we're going to be led by him, in other words, Father I'm not going to do anything until I hear from you, that requires several things from us. We first have to seek him. Right. And so if you're facing a major decision or you're looking for God's direction in life, you have to decide, first of all, most important, I'm going to see God about this and nothing else. We make decisions based on money. We make decisions based on lack of money. We make decisions based on circumstances or feelings, or opinions of other people, or we make our own pro-con list, you know, and we have to remember that, like Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean to your understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight". Our understanding is one thing, but we understand in a very limited way, don't we?
Sid Roth: So give me an example like tragedy hits your whole family. How did this play out?
Karen Jensen: Yes. Well you know, when I was 37 years old and my first husband was 37 years old, he died. We were pastoring a church. He just was sick, suddenly, just went home to be with the Lord. My sons were 12 and 13 years old. And so you can imagine I just had major decisions to make every day, all day instead of taking advice from other people, which is important and good, but you need to weigh everything by what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. And so I had to spend extra, extra time in the Word of God. You know, the Bible is God talking to us and it's how I walked out this whole, I had to take over pastoring our church and raising teenage sons, and I really needed the Word of the Lord in my life more than anything. And it probably, you know, grounded me inside of me.
Sid Roth: Not to mention, even though you sorted it out, you had to, coming from your husband was a graduate of Rhema, too.
Karen Jensen: Yes.
Sid Roth: And coming from that background, when something like that happens, it's just not supposed to happen.
Karen Jensen: Right.
Sid Roth: And in addition, having sorting out why your husband died suddenly and having two children to raise, and pastoring a church.
Karen Jensen: Yes. And so I spent that time pressing into his Word. And by that I mean I read it a lot. I meditated on it. I, you know, there's a scripture in Psalm 119 that says, "Lord not for your Word I would have perished in my affliction". And that was me. I read it like a five-year-old learning to read, ran my hand down the page because the Bible is God talking to us, and that's how we learn to recognize his voice.
Sid Roth: Tell me a little bit more about that because that is key to recognize God's voice. You said practice, but tell me a little more about that.
Karen Jensen: Well think about it. If the Bible is God talking to us then we need to hear him talking to us. And if we familiarize ourself with the Bible, we read it a lot, we'll find out how he leads people, how he guides people, what he sounds like, you know. And I use this analogy, because I heard one time that the U.S. Treasury Department trains their agents to recognize a counterfeit bill by giving them the real bills. And they touch them, and they smell them, and they put them under a microscope, and they look at them a long time so that they're so familiar with the real that if a counterfeit comes along they notice it right away. And what if we as Christians, as believers, as people who love God get into the Word of God so much we understand the real that if a counterfeit idea, you know, the devil comes along or our own voice comes along, we recognize it right away.
Sid Roth: Now you were trying to decide something. What was God telling you to do?
Karen Jensen: When I was pastoring our church after my husband passed away and God started talking to me about moving to Tulsa, and I didn't want to because I loved the Northwest and my family and friends were there, and Tulsa is in the Midwest. And you know, and so I made my own pro-con list, and under pro it said, "Because God said so". And under con it said, "Because I don't want to move there and my friends and family are here". And the con list was about ten things long, and the pro list was about one. And if I had gone by a pro-con list, I would have voted con and stayed there, and been out of God's will. So we can't go necessarily by our own idea of a pro-con list.
Sid Roth: How did it turn out?
Karen Jensen: It turned out good. I moved to Tulsa and I ended up, you know, got to teach at Rhema and really travel the world, and preach. And so who know where I would be if I hadn't obeyed God.
Sid Roth: If she wasn't determined to follow God and no one else. Now what is the difference between hearing his audible voice or promptings? Everyone is looking for his audible voice.
Karen Jensen: Yeah. And really most of us are to be led by the inward witness. You know, the Bible teaches us that we are a threefold being. You know, we live in a body. We have a soul, but we are a spirit and the part of us that's a spirit, the born again part, is just like Jesus. It's just like God. And so then we are meant to hear his voice. He said in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice and they follow me". And so we are meant to recognize his voice, but we hear it as a prompting from the inward man, from the Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaking to us. I like to call it a knowing in your knower.
Sid Roth: Okay. Give me an example of a prompting when you were driving late at night.
Karen Jensen: Yeah. One time I was on I-5 driving, you know. And in my family, if you get tired while you're driving, I was all by myself, we just pull over to the side of the road and take a nap. And so I was tired, I pulled over, I leaned the seat back and I went to sleep. And I don't know how long I had been sleeping, but all of a sudden, the Lord just prompted me. I got this inward witness that just woke me up, and I sat bolt upright, and I felt the Holy Spirit say, "Move now". And so I put the seat up, I started the car, and I moved. And really, that's the end of the story, which it turned out good because nothing bad happened. Who knows, maybe a, you know, trucker was sleepy and he would have veered off the road right then and squashed my little Honda like a bug. And so, you know, I listened to the Holy Spirit and he gave me that inward witness, and I obeyed him.
Sid Roth: Tell me about your son's experience where you learned how important it is, and listen to this, watch your mouth.
Karen Jensen: Yes. That's one of the voice to hearing the voice of God because we need to be sure our words agree with the Bible, you know, because the Bible is what we're following. It's our roadmap for our destiny. And if we talk opposite of it, say somebody goes in their prayer closet and they say, "Lord, please help me, direct me, guide me, let me know your direction for my life", and then they come out of their prayer closet and you ask them, "So what are you going to do"? And they go, "I don't know, I can't hear from God". They just said the opposite of what they prayed.
Sid Roth: And they got the opposite.
Karen Jensen: Yeah, exactly. And so my son, you know, he was facing graduation. He was an ORU senior and everybody asked him, like you ask all graduates, you know, what are you going to do when you graduate, and he didn't know. And he hated to have to keep saying, I don't know, because he's been praying to know. And so finally one day he said to me, "Mom, I've come up with the answer. When people ask me, what are you going to do after graduation, I'm going to say, I'll know when the time comes".
Sid Roth: Much better.
Karen Jensen: That way he keeps his word in agreement with the Word.
Sid Roth: I like that.
Karen Jensen: Yeah.
Sid Roth: Okay. When we come back you're going to find out one of the most important keys. And I mean, it's been deemphasized in our society and shame on you that are deemphasizing this. It's called tongues, supernatural languages.
Karen Jensen: Yes.
Sid Roth: This is where the power is. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: Now another key for making right decisions every time simply is praying in a supernatural language. The Bible refers to it as unknown tongues. Tell me why that's so important.
Karen Jensen: Well it's your spirit praying directly to God. You know, when the Bible says when we pray in tongues we don't have an understanding in our minds, and so there's so many benefits to praying in tongues. First of all, it makes you bold. Second of all, it gives you, it helps you pray out the mysteries of the future. You know, he who prays in tongues is praying directly to God for his mysteries. And you know, the future is a mystery to us. Right. And so if you're seeking God's direction or asking him for right decisions, when you pray in the Spirit or pray in other tongues, you're praying out things in your future, like when you get there, it's ready for you already set up by God. And another, in you know, Romans 8:26 it says that, "The Spirit helps us pray when we don't know what to pray for as we ought". I don't know about you, but there's lots of times I run into things when I know somebody should pray, but I don't know what to pray for.
Sid Roth: You know the symptoms, but you don't know the causes. Wouldn't it be great to be able to pray precise prayers.
Karen Jensen: Yes.
Sid Roth: From the Spirit of the Living God to change the circumstance in your life or a loved one's life.
Karen Jensen: You know, I think about Peter on the day of Pentecost. This is a guy who denied the Lord three times and was probably feeling guilty, and was feeling weak. But he went to the upper room with the disciples. When the Holy Spirit fell they all spoke in other tongues and then Peter preached, and won 3000 people to the Lord that day.
Sid Roth: Well my message to you is start praying in tongues.
Karen Jensen: Yes, absolutely.
Sid Roth: But you tell people, and I think this is phenomenal, when they go to sleep, go to sleep praying in tongues. Explain a little bit.
Karen Jensen: I was in children's ministry for like 21 years and so I got lots of kids filled with the Spirit praying in other tongues, which is so exciting. I used to tell them, guys, you got to practice and so I gave them a practice time. Every night when you lay your head down on the pillow just pray in tongues. And then adults heard me teaching kids that, and they would come back to me and say, you know, I go to sleep praying in tongues and I wake up knowing stuff.
Sid Roth: The Bible says you have to become like a little child.
Karen Jensen: It's true.
Sid Roth: Pray for people right now that are born from above, because that's the only requirement, born again. You believe Jesus died for your sins, his blood washed them away, you've repented and you asked Jesus to be your Lord. If that's you, pray for them to receive filling the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. And by the way, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit without speaking in tongues, but you could speak in tongues if you're filled with the Holy Spirit.
Karen Jensen: Yes. And it's easy. You know, this is a gift from God. When somebody wants to give you a gift and they're holding it out like this, what do you do? You just take it. You don't have to qualify for it. You don't have to earn or deserve it. It's just something given to you by God. And God has put his Holy Spirit on the earth ever since, Acts, Chapter 2, Verse 4, ever since the day of Pentecost, for us, for a gift, and it's not hard to receive it. In fact, all you have to do is just pray this prayer with me. Father God.
Sid Roth: Father God.
Karen Jensen: I ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Sid Roth: I ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Karen Jensen: Fill me with your spirit.
Sid Roth: Fill me with your spirit.
Karen Jensen: With the evidence of speaking in tongues.
Sid Roth: With the evidence of speaking in tongues.
Karen Jensen: I receive it now.
Sid Roth: I receive it now.
Karen Jensen: In Jesus' name.
Sid Roth: In Jesus' name.
Karen Jensen: It's that easy.
Sid Roth: Now you can't talk English without cooperating with your mouth and your lips. Right? You can't speak from, it's not coming from here any more and this will rebel, it's coming from here, your belly. Therefore, you'll not hear it until you do your part, God will do his. You can't speak in English unless you articulate the words coming from your brain. You can't speak, I don't know how, perfect, it's unknown. You start speaking as quickly as you can, a language you haven't been instructed, like a little child, right now. Now if you don't start speaking, no one else will do it. Someone's ear was just opened in Jesus' name. Hey, this really is supernatural, Karen. Now what if someone has missed it? They know they've missed it. Are they finished?
Karen Jensen: No.
Sid Roth: Good.
Karen Jensen: Haven't we all.
Sid Roth: Of course.
Karen Jensen: You know, I think nobody has done everything perfectly. And the devil would love you to believe that now you're disqualified, you know, or that was your only chance and it's over for you. But he's a liar, you know. If the Bible shows us anything, it shows us people who got another chance, you know. Look at Moses. He killed an Egyptian and he thought his time for being a deliverer was over, but no, God's plan for him was go, he kept going.
Sid Roth: Look at David.
Karen Jensen: Look at David. We're talking about, you know, sleeping with somebody else's wife, getting her pregnant and killing her husband. I mean.
Sid Roth: You think you did bad.
Karen Jensen: Exactly. And yet even the New Testament still calls him a man after God's own heart. He repented, you know. And so if you've missed it, if you feel like you've gotten off track, I'm telling you, God is big enough to get you back on track.
Sid Roth: Well I want you to pray right now for people, right now.
Karen Jensen: Okay. Father, we just come to you, I come to you on behalf of those who have maybe missed it, maybe gone off track, maybe gotten in the wrong direction. And Father, if I just pray that you give them Divine impartations and truth, and revelation that they can ask you for forgiveness and they can go on that your plan for their life is still coming to pass, that what you created them for will, is still your plan for their lives. I pray over those people. I pray that you are able to just receive God's forgiveness and keep on going because he knows how to get you right back on track in Jesus' name.
Sid Roth: And my way of saying the same thing is just throw off the dust and the horrible things and say, thank you for your blood. I repent, Jesus. Now you have to repent. Don't get me wrong, that means a change of action, you're sorry. You repent and I'm going to tell you, you will not miss a step of what God has for you in your life.
Karen Jensen: Yes.
Sid Roth: You are ready to walk into your destiny. And God told me tell you that right now. That's his message for you.