Sid Roth - Reckless Devotion
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. I mean, just breathe in the air from Heaven. My guest, in my opinion and many others, is a modern day spirit-filled evangelical Mother Teresa. I mean, she has seen miracles like we just read about in the Bible. She's seen the dead raised. She's seen people that are blind, no pupils, just white, and before her eyes, she can see the eye shape and they can see natural. The deaf hear, food might multiply and she's told me her secret, and you're about ready to receive it. Her secret is lavish love. So Heidi is coming from a non-church-going, but a non-born again home. And at 16, she has a radical encounter with God. Describe it in a couple of sentences.
Heidi Baker: Well I was on an Indian reservation and I met the Lord Jesus as my personal savoir. The next night, I went to a little Pentecostal church. It was like being on the moon for me. I had never seen anything like it. I was filled with the Holy Spirit and they taught me how to fast and pray. So in May, I was on a five-day fast. It was the fifth day and they were playing loud in this tiny church, loud pianos were going, and I just lifted my hands, and I was just worshiping. And suddenly, I couldn't hear the preacher, I couldn't hear the pianos. I was just covered in this light and this glory light, and I heard, the only time in my entire life, I heard the external audible voice of God. He said you're called to be a minister and a missionary to go to Africa, Asia and England.
Sid Roth: Wait a second. Her parents are not believer. Tell me, between you and me, did they think you were a little meshuga, nuts?
Heidi Baker: Totally.
Sid Roth: Totally.
Heidi Baker: They tried to get help with a psychiatrist. They said they would get me to a program.
Sid Roth: The reason, do you know what Heidi was doing? As a 16-year-old, then a woman, she couldn't go to church to preach and God has just called her to preach. So she preaches to Alzheimer's patients, she preaches to drug addicts. She preaches to anyone breathing. But then another major event in your life, you went to Vanguard University at 18 and you had an open vision. What happened?
Heidi Baker: Well there was a man preaching and I thought he was a bit arrogant because he was saying God had given him a city, and I didn't believe God did that. I didn't think God gave people cities. And as I was really judging him, and I was in charge of ministry so I had to take him out to lunch, and I was judging him, but I was kind of smiling like, you know. But I was thinking, this guy, he's not really there. And suddenly I saw an angel on the right, an angel on the left and Jesus stood behind him, and pointed to me, "This man is telling the truth. Listen to him". And I fell down and started weeping. I never got to my classes that day. I crawled to the back of the chapel to the prayer room and I just worshiped and worshiped just with all that is within me, and I said, "God, if you're giving someone a city I want a nation. I want a nation".
Sid Roth: Now Heidi, you didn't even realize what you were praying right there. Because Heidi, a few months later finds herself married, finds herself jumping on a plane, finds herself with $30 trying to follow the call that God had for her. She ends up in Mozambique, Africa and is serving God with the best of her ability for, what 30 years?
Heidi Baker: Almost 20. We started in Asia.
Sid Roth: All right. Okay, almost 20 years. She's burned out, sick. Her and her husband are coming back and they hear about a meeting in Toronto, Canada. They go to the congregation there, the Airport Church it was called at that time. And it cost them, they call it a million-dollar meeting because someone, a man that was supporting them to the tune of a million dollars a year said, "You go to that meeting, I won't give you money for your orphans". But they went because they were so desperately hungry. Randy Clark was speaking. What happened?
Heidi Baker: Well he, I heard him speaking about spending a life and being spent like change, and just giving everything to God, and just determined to spend yourself on Jesus. And he was speaking about this, and I was in the very back, very, very back middle of the church, and I couldn't stand it. I couldn't wait for an altar call. I was very, you know, embarrassed about what I did in the natural, but I pushed my way out of the crowd and I ran to the front right in the middle.
Sid Roth: I heard about a woman with an issue of blood that did the same thing.
Heidi Baker: I was like desperate. I was desperate. I had to have more of God and I wanted God to use me, and I wanted to see what this man was preaching about happening in my life. And so I just ran to the front of the meeting. I ran to the altar and I just lifted my hands up, and I probably was disturbing, and that's embarrassing for me. But he just laid hands on me and he said, "God wants to know, do you want the nation Mozambique"? And then he said, "The blind will see, the crippled will walk, the deaf will hear and the poor will hear the Good News. God wants to know, do you want the nation Mozambique"? And I still remember it right now. I didn't think, if I had thought about it I would have screamed no.
Sid Roth: You have to understand, Heidi and her husband have PhDs. She comes from a very well-to-do type of family in California. Mozambique is not quite like your background, is it?
Heidi Baker: No. We had already been there a year. We had 320 children. We were hungry most of the time. We were being shot at. It was very hard. I thought Africa, Asia and England, we did Asia 12 years, England 3 years, we had been in Africa one. Maybe that's enough. Maybe that's the vision fulfilled. I want to work at K-Mart. That's what I was thinking. Seriously, no one is going to shoot at me. Blue light, blue light, that was it.
Sid Roth: Seven, listen to this, seven days and seven nights the Glory of God is on her to the point that from what I understand, you couldn't walk, you couldn't go to the restroom. You were totally the fire of God was on you. Explain.
Heidi Baker: I was totally completely incapacitated. I love to go fast. I like speed. I like running. I like pushing. You know, I like fast. And God literally stuck me to the ground. I couldn't move. I couldn't move my head. Some people laughed. They thought it was a little funny. It wasn't funny at all for me. I didn't know if I would ever walk again. But I was so undone just by the love of Jesus, just by his passion.
Sid Roth: Your eyes are tearing up. Why are they tearing up right now?
Heidi Baker: Because when I'm speaking of this time I'm putting myself in that place and I'm remembering just that heavy weighty glory of God. It changed my life. At first I was burned. I felt like I was going to die. I was burning. I was screaming. I'm sure I was getting delivered of things I didn't even know I needed to be set free from. But I was burning at first and I was thinking I'm going to die. And I cried out to God, "I'm going to die". And he said, "Good, I want you dead".
Sid Roth: Good, I want you dead.
Heidi Baker: I want you dead.
Sid Roth: Let me ask you something. So Heidi has this prophetic call, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will be raised. She gets back to Mozambique and she prays for everyone living, everyone that crosses her path. And guess how many blind people got healed after the first year? Zero. We'll come right back. We're going to find out what happened.
Sid Roth: So for a year, if you had had that word and nothing, nothing happens for a year, most people would have given up, but not Heidi. A year later, she finds a woman. Her name just happens to be in Portuguese, Heidi. She prays for this woman, she gets her sight back. Next day she finds another blind woman. Her name just happens to be in Portuguese, Heidi. She prays for that woman, she gets her sight back. The third day she prays for another blind person. Her name just happens in Portuguese. Audience: Heidi!
Sid Roth: You're getting it. And she gets her sight back. But I want you to tell me about no name.
Heidi Baker: That's a beautiful story. I was just visiting every Monday, in Mozambique, I visit my village. It's just my local village. I like to keep it real. We have 3500 kids in our school from there so I like to see their families. They're living in really squalor. And I just sit and hold the poor, and just spend time loving on people just really simply. I go low and slow, and spend time. And on my way back from visiting a mama named Tina, I saw this little old woman and she was really poor. You know, her clothes were shredded and she's sitting, a strange thing, she's sitting in the sun. And I'm thinking, why is anyone sitting in the sun in Mozambique. It's hot. Why, you know, at least she should be in the shade. And I said, what's your name in our local dialect. And she answered me back, and she said, "I have no name". And I was undone by that. I thought, how can anyone on Earth not be given a name. And I saw a woman sitting about the edge of the table away from her, and I said, "What is her name"? And she said, "She has no name. She's blind and she has no name". And I've often thought about how the believers say people are nameless and faceless, but Daddy God always gives people a name. Daddy God would never say you're nameless or you're faceless, or you're blind, you don't matter, you're poor, you don't matter. God sees each one of us and he knows all the hairs on our head. And so before I shared the beauty of Yeshua, the beauty of his love, I said, "Sweetheart, I would like to give you a name. And the name I want to give you is Utliah, which is joy and you exist. Joy and you exist.
Sid Roth: I like that.
Heidi Baker: It was beautiful. Utaliah and Makua. And she opens her mouth like, and she has like four teeth. They're just dangling down. She doesn't, she's very old and her teeth are just dangling, but she's laughing with joy. And I asked the woman down a ways from her to call her by name, and she calls here Utaliah, and she's so happy. And then I just said, "I believe that Jesus wants to just heal your eyes". And there's cameras, there's no razzmatazz, there's no lights, there's no flyers. There's just the poor and the love of God are just sitting there. And I just hugged her and the mercy of God hit this woman, and her eyes turned brown. Just, it was so beautiful. It was just so low and slow, the beauty of Jesus, just what he does.
Sid Roth: Were you watching it, her eyes turn brown?
Heidi Baker: Yes. Just her, they go white, grey, brown. And she's opening her eyes, and she's looking around. She can see. Now this lady can see. She can see and we're just in this heat in the very extraordinarily poor area. And the joy of the Lord hits her.. And then I tell her about what Jesus did for her and how Daddy God loves her, and would give her a name, and how beautiful she is. And of course, she met Jesus. I mean, how could she not?
Sid Roth: That lavish love is really, nothing can deal against it.
Heidi Baker: It is.
Sid Roth: But I have to ask you this. Heidi is willing to be child-like in her faith. She goes to a meeting. God tells her to stand on her head. Then a man comes and says, "God is telling me to pour water all over your head". She's standing on her head and water is being poured all over her head. She goes back to Mozambique and finds out that's a prophetic sign. The floods came, but the floods are not just water. What happened?
Heidi Baker: Well first of all, I can't stand on my head. So I didn't just stand on my head. I was knocked onto my head like by the power of the Holy Spirit. I am seriously, the first thing I thought, thank you, Jesus, I have trousers on. Seriously, because can you imagine I did not want to, I wouldn't stand on my head anywhere.
Sid Roth: I will tell you, she has a PhD.
Heidi Baker: No, I can't stand on my head. I was knocked on to my head and the Lord showed me two things. First of all, the man speaking was speaking about apostolic anointing and I was agitated because I've seen a lot of arrogance around the Word, extraordinary arrogance, and I'm thinking, do I need to curtsy or what, when they hand you the card, you know, I'm Apostle this or that. I'm just being honest with you. And as he's speaking about apostolic anointing, the Lord lifts me up onto my head and he's sharing with me apostolics, the lowest place. It's the lowest place. You go the lowest. You're the slowest and the lowest. And then this man came up to me and said, "Could I pour down your feet"? I thought, why do you have to be polite right now? You know I'm on my head. I can't, I mean, whatever. I think I said to him, "Whatever".
Sid Roth: She can't make this up. Am I right?
Heidi Baker: I can't, no. And it's embarrassing. I think they have cameras around and I'm seriously, "Thank you Jesus, I have trousers. Now I'm going to be sopping wet and I'm on my head. And yeah, I'm thinking, maybe they'll take away my PhD. if they caught in on video. Like this is serious. And the guy just doesn't have a nice little gentle small bottle of water. No, he has a huge bottle of water and he just pours this all down on top of me. And now I'm sobbing. I'm sobbing. I am being hit up and crashed down. And I wrote this song, "Lord, take me and use me. Bruise me if need be. White fields of harvest. Children are crying, people are dying". I had written this song years ago and I was bruised from my head to my toes after this powerful event where I was up on my head, down to my feet, up on my head, down to my feet. It lasted over 20 minutes. And the Lord really showed me, it's a cup of suffering, it's a cup of joy. It's the lowest place. And then these crazy floods came. No joke.
Sid Roth: I'll tell you what. Hold that because literally whole cities got saved. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: So Heidi returns after that prophetic experience with water being poured on her. And she comes back to the nation of Mozambique, and in the north there had never been flooding in the natural, and there was devastating flooding. But there was also flooding of the Spirit of God. What happened, Heidi?
Heidi Baker: Well the first flood happened in the south in Maputo and it went all the way into Gaza, and it actually rained for 40 days and 40 nights. It was in the papers. It was crazy. Children were being born in trees. The roads were all completely gone and whole cities, whole villages were covered with water. And what used to take us months and weeks, you know, to get to a huge amount of people, suddenly the U.N. was saying, they would call me Mama. They'd say, "Mama, how many helicopters do you need today"? And I would say three or I would say four. One day I said seven. And they would let us fill these helicopters with medical people, with preachers, ministers of the Gospel. We would get to take Bibles. We would get to take food, supplies and we would be dropped down into the middle of these huge refugee camps. And the people were so hungry for God. They wanted to receive Bibles. They wanted to receive ministry before food. And instead of us planting like three, four churches a year, it went to a few hundred churches were planted in a year, just huge massive move of the spirit. It was really powerful. So the water, being wet, being sopped in a church and on my head is totally worth it for tens of thousands of people who came to Jesus.
Sid Roth: I would say, now tell me, there's a term you use. You say this is the secret, if you will to how God used you, and the term you used is "lavish love". What does the word lavish mean?
Heidi Baker: Extraordinary, abundant, beyond, in Cantonese, like beyond, beyond. It's lavish. It comes from the Father.
Sid Roth: Would you talk to the camera for a couple of minutes.
Heidi Baker: Yes.
Sid Roth: And tell them about this lavish love and how they can have it.
Heidi Baker: Yes.
Sid Roth: I want to get in on it, too.
Heidi Baker: The lavish of God, if you would just spend some time just in the secret place, listen to the Father, listen to Daddy God. He wants to say your name. No one is nameless and no one is faceless. We're all called to come and live in the Father's house. So I just pray that you would feel the very presence, totally presence of your father who calls you by name, who speaks to your name and fills you with radical love and lets you know that he loves you, and that he'll never, ever, ever let you go. Thank you, Daddy. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you God.
Sid Roth: Such an awesome presence of God here right now. I believe anything is possible. I heard people with arthritis pain in their hands and wrists you're being healed, and back, right now in Jesus' name.
Heidi Baker: Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Wow. Thank you, Jesus.
Sid Roth: Jesus said, "This is eternal life that you might have experiential knowledge of me". And anything short of that is not your inheritance because you are lavishly loved. Make Jesus your Messiah and Lord. Believe he died for your sins. Believe that when you repent he wipes them away as if they never existed before. Believe that he's your Lord. Believe that he lives inside of you and say it out loud right now.
Heidi Baker: Yes, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.