Sid Roth - Are You Spiritually Dry?
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. Are you dry? Are you dehydrated? Have you lost your first love? My guest had an amazing experience. She heard audible thunder and then God spoke to her, and he said, "I desire for my people to have supernatural experiences with me and here's how". You ready?
Sid Roth: You know, you look at me, you look at my guest and she told me she just got back from Brazil, with some 14,000 people. She's speaking all over the world. She's an author. But it wasn't always that way. I want to take you back to your first day in the seventh grade.
Karen Schatzline: The first day in seventh grade was traumatic for me because in seventh grade I was so shy. And I remember getting off the school bus and walking into this seventh grade, what appeared to be a prison, and I went all the way to the far corner of the courtyard where we had to wait until the school bell rang. And I didn't realize that that moment was going to be a moment in my life that would change me forever. And I walked over to the concrete bench, and I sat down, and I began to look through my book bag because I didn't want to look so awkward. And I began to, I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. No one wants to be labeled the crier the first day of seventh grade. And I remember just trying to hold that in. And in that moment I felt a tap on my shoulder. And I turned around really quick because I thought I'm going to be bullied on the first day of school. I'm going to be picked on the first day of school and had all this fear built up in my life. And there was no one there. I turned around and there was no one there. And so I went back to looking through my backpack because I was fearful. And in that moment, I felt the same tap on my shoulder, and I turned around because I wanted to catch who was bullying me.
Sid Roth: Of course.
Karen Schatzline: But there was no one there. And in that moment, that very moment, I felt the amazing all-consuming presence of a loving God that I grew up in church, but I had never felt it before. And I felt as if his presence sat down right next to me on that bench, and put his arms around me. And when he did all I heard were these words, and it began a journey with God that would show me that he still speaks to us today. He still walks with us. He's still right there with us. And I heard him say to me, "Karen, I know your name. I know you. I knew you first and you're not alone. You'll never be alone". And he said, "If you allow me to, I'll walk this journey with you". And that began a transformation in my life, removing fear, anxiety, just worthlessness, and I'd love to say that it happened instantly. But it was a journey for me that no matter what I faced through school, no matter what I faced growing up, and I faced many things throughout the school, that the difference was I knew I was never alone, that he would never leave me and that he was right there.
Sid Roth: You know, the message God said to you is the same message God is saying to you. You matter. You matter. I'm going to now take you a number of years later. You're married and you're asleep, and all of a sudden, you literally hear thunder. What happened?
Karen Schatzline: Yes. And in that time, God always speaks to me. He speaks to me through dreams, through visions. And in that moment, I knew that God was birthing something inside of me, a message that he had inside of me because he had rescued me, literally rescued me from a life of fear and anxiety. And in that moment, my husband had wrote books and he had told me that God had a book inside of me. And I said, "No, I think you're the writer. I'm going to let you be the writer, and I'm going to do whatever God wants me to do". And I looked at him in that moment, and I said, "If God wants me to write a book then he will speak to me himself and tell me to write a book". That was my first mistake. And so I went to bed that night and I woke up about 2 a.m. to the sound of the loudest thunder I had ever heard, and in the midst of the thunder, I heard my name. And I thought my husband had yelled my name in the middle of the night, so I woke him and I said, "Why did you yell at me"? And so, and he said, "I didn't say anything. What is wrong"? So I laid back down and the moment I dozed back off I heard the same thunder and my name in the midst of the thunder. And I got up out of bed and ran to the window to see this, we must be having a storm, and I looked at the most beautiful night sky. I could see the stars. There was not a cloud in the sky. And in that moment, I heard that same voice that I heard at 13 years old, sitting on that bench, and I heard God say, "I've called you with a message. I rescued you at 13, took you on a journey to freedom, giving you hope, giving you a purpose in life, transforming your life, not just for you, but for those out there who are lost and hurting, and without hope and need to be resurrected as well".
Sid Roth: Now you heard a word. What was the word?
Karen Schatzline: The one word that I heard him say was "dehydrated".
Sid Roth: Now there is parallel between dehydration in the physical and dehydration in the spiritual. Explain that.
Karen Schatzline: That's right. Well there is because so many time we get so busy in life when we're doing our own thing, and we get so busy even thinking that we're doing the work of God that we forget that there is an actual relationship that he wants to have with us, an actual one-on-one relationship with us as his children. And so we get so busy that everywhere I would go, everywhere I would be speaking, everyone who would come up to me after the message would say one word to me. They would say, "I'm so dry. I'm so weary. I'm dehydrated. I'm at a loss of hope in my life". And God spoke to me, and he said, "That is the one place that the enemy is trying to keep my people is in a place of dehydration without fresh living water. But if they'll come to me I'll give them water that will sustain them that they will never thirst again". When we are physically dehydrated and we lose that sense of hydration in our bodies we become confused, we become disillusioned and frantic. We start, everything we do is irrational and everything we do becomes out of sense of survival. And that same thing happens to us when we're dehydrated spiritually. When we don't keep going to well we can't think clearly. We can't be effective in life when we're not filled up with his presence.
Sid Roth: Karen has a gift from God. She hears from God in dreams. She had a dream that no mother should ever have. She saw her son dead. We'll talk about it when I come back.
Sid Roth: Karen, you had a dream no mother should have. You saw your son dead. You knew that God speaks to you very, very clearly in dreams.
Karen Schatzline: Well actually, my husband and I both had the same dream on the same night. And we went out to a track to walk the next morning and began to share with each other the dream that we had, and both of us dreamed that our son was killed by a car accident. And at the time, he was about 17 years old and we knew he drove, and he had a sports car, and everything. And so we were immediately began to pray and begin to pray protection over him, and begin to pray that God would keep his hand on him, that he would guide him, and lead him, and prepare the path for him. But over the next two weeks, we began to realize that it was not a physical death at all, that the enemy had been attacking him, had been drawing him away into areas of life that he should not have been in. Our son actually came to us and began to tell us that he had been doing things that he shouldn't do. And in the moment that he began to share with us that, God took us back to that dream and showed us that he had been preparing us for this battle that we were about to go into, and just pushing through and bringing Nate back into a place of relationship with God. Because Nate had come to a place of dehydration in his life where he had stopped pursuing God and started being pulled away by the things of the world that the world was enticing him with. So we began to have to go in and begin to reestablish those relationships in our home, and reestablish basically re-digging the wells that had been dug for our family, and in essence, pushing through the dirt, pushing through the junk, pushing through the things that the enemy had slowly just seeped into our lives. And so spiritually in a sense, we had to grab our spiritual shovels and start digging out the garbage that had been allowed to come into our home and into our family.
Sid Roth: You know, what she's saying, she's saying to you it's time to take back what belongs to you. Now, you saw the future of your son and it didn't look good.
Karen Schatzline: That's right.
Sid Roth: What happened with him after you took him back?
Karen Schatzline: Yes, because he began to change. His life began to change. He came to us and he told us he wanted to pursue God's call in his life and he wanted to do whatever God wanted him to do. We were able, by going into the presence of God, by leading him into the presence of God, to get him back to a place where he could hear God's voice, where he could sense what God wanted to do. And now, our son is 25 years old, married out in California. He's leading an amazing youth group, leading thousands of young people into the presence of God.
Sid Roth: You know, you like to say God will not leave you. He will find you.
Karen Schatzline: That's right.
Sid Roth: Isn't that good news? He's not going to leave you where you're at.
Karen Schatzline: Yes. And that's true because no matter what you're going through, and I just want to say to whoever is watching today, no matter what you walk through, no matter what you're facing, no matter what you've done in your past, no matter what's been done to you, whether you've been hurt or whether you've been abused, it doesn't matter. God knows where you're at and he wants to meet you there in that place. The good thing about it is that when God meets you there he'll never leave you there. He takes you on a journey to freedom. Just like there was a Samaritan woman in the Bible and she went to a well, and this woman had five husbands. The Bible tells us the story of her life. And so she was living with the sixth man. But the cool thing was on this particular day, she would meet the seventh man in her life.
Sid Roth: I love that.
Karen Schatzline: And the number seven means spiritual perfection and resurrection. So while her grace had run out and she tried to do it on her own strength, she had come to the end of herself, which is where you find God, in that moment God said, "You know what, I'm going to meet you here because you're worth my time, because I care about you and I'm going to resurrect those things in your life that you thought were dead".
Sid Roth: You know, you talk about, it ain't over. Talk to someone right now and tell this person it ain't over.
Karen Schatzline: Well I just want you to know you may be at the end today. You may be in a place and you may be saying to us today, you don't know where I'm at. You don't know where I've been. You don't know what I've done in my past. But you know what the cool thing about that is, that God does know where you're at and he does know what you've walked through, and he knows what you've been through, and he knows what's been done to you. But he says to you today, it's not over. He has the final say. He has the final word. He knows the end from the beginning, and he has already won the battle. And so if you're tired and weary, and dehydrated today, I challenge you to just look up, to open your eyes, to open your arms and to receive the free gift of living water that he has, and that living water is his presence that he wants to give you in your life.
Sid Roth: Now, you talked about your son, and for the next some eight years you wanted to have another child, and you thought that part of your life, I don't know, I'm not going to have another child. And then I believe it was, was it a dream about China?
Karen Schatzline: It was a vision.
Sid Roth: A vision. Tell me.
Karen Schatzline: God gave me a vision because after eight years, after our son was born, he was just such a blessing to us. But I knew that I had this longing to have another child that God had promised me. I felt like in my spirit that he had promised me that I would have another child. And so one day I had dropped my son off at school and I was just at the end. I was done. I was discouraged. I was depressed basically and I was thinking it's all about me. And so I remember driving home from dropping him off at school, and I remember pulling into the garage, and I said, "God, I give up. I give up. I can't do this anymore. I don't know why I can't have another child. I don't know why you won't allow me to do this". And so in that moment when I said I give up, I heard his voice audibly, in the car. I had not even gotten out of the car in the garage, and all I heard him say was, "Good". And in that moment it woke me up, and he said, "Because now maybe I can do a miracle in your life". I heard him say to me, "Karen, if you were in an ocean, because right now you feel like you're sinking, you feel like you're in an abyss of despair". And he said, "If you were in the ocean and you were sinking, what would keep you alive right in this moment"? And I said, "God, I don't know if I would want to stay alive. I'm so discouraged". But then in that picture that he gave me, he showed me that my son was in the middle of the ocean with me and I said, "I would stay alive to keep him alive". And he said, "Exactly. There are times in your life where I'm going to be right there to pull you out of the sea, but there's other times in your life where you're out in the ocean and your purpose is to rescue someone else, not to think about yourself". And he said, "In your despair, rescue". And in that moment, the map of China came up in front of me, and there was a star in the middle of China, and he said, "There is your miracle. There is your daughter. Go get her and bring her home to make your family complete".
Sid Roth: When we come back I'm going to talk to you about how brave and how much courage you really have. You're just looking at it wrong. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: Someone you know, if you said, "It ain't over" and they said, "Not for me". What would you say to them?
Karen Schatzline: Well I think I would say to you today when the world looks at you and says it's over, when people say to give up on your children, when people say to give up on your marriage or on your health, when they say it's over that's when God steps in and he says, "It's not over". He's just giving you a launching pad for your destiny to launch you into a place of freedom. Because what you go through is a good indication of who you're called to. And what you may call a tombstone on Earth, God says that's not a tombstone, it's just a mile marker of where he's taking you and the destination he has for you.
Sid Roth: I like what you say about scars.
Karen Schatzline: Yes. Because I really believe that scars on Earth are testimonies in Heaven, because no matter what you go through, don't let the scars that you have keep you hidden and bound, because what we have to realize is that our scars are proof that we have survived, that we didn't die where the enemy tried to take us out. That when I look in the mirror and I see the scars that the enemy has tried to take me out with, I can say, you know what, that's where I survived. That's where God stepped in and took me out.
Sid Roth: Karen, explain true bravery to me.
Karen Schatzline: Okay. Well bravery for me was something that I thought that I could never attain. I thought it was something that was out of my reach. But true bravery, and what I had to come to realize is true bravery is not the absence of fear. That's where most people misunderstand. It's not the absence of fear. It's the realization that fear has no hold on you when you reside in the presence of the Almighty God.
Sid Roth: There are a lot of people that feel totally rejected and you like to talk about a woman that felt the same way. Tell me about her.
Karen Schatzline: Yes. Well there is the woman that I mentioned, the Samaritan woman in the Bible who every day walked this walk of shame to the well. And I find it so amazing that God met her at a well. But what I love is that she was rejected. She was rejected by her community. She was rejected by the people. She was rejected by other women. She was rejected by everyone. But here Jesus was. He showed up at the well with nothing to drink the water with because here's why. He wasn't there for himself. He purposed and set out that day to meet her at the well. He knew there would be a woman coming who was rejected by society. And so many of us, we think we have to earn our way into the presence of God. And God says I'm already there waiting for you. I'm waiting for you in that secret place to meet you. I'm waiting for you, for you just to turn around and see me. So for you that may feel rejected today, that you may feel like that the world has turned their back on you, I want you to know that God would never leave you, never forsake you, never walk out on you. And he's right there in the midst of whatever you're going with, and he will never leave you.
Sid Roth: Now, that's what God spoke to you about his desire for these intentional supernatural encounters.
Karen Schatzline: Yes, that's right.
Sid Roth: Dig deep and pray as God directs, right now.
Karen Schatzline: Lord, I just pray right now for every viewer, for every person that is watching this show, today I pray that right where they're at, right where they're sitting, if they're at work, if they're in a car line, if they're at the grocery store, no matter where they're at, Lord, I pray that you would touch their life right now. Make yourself real to them. Make yourself known to them. Let them see you. Let them hear your voice and let them feel your all-consuming power and your love surround them. Lord, I pray that right now as they're sitting there watching, Lord, that whatever they're walking through, whatever they're facing, Lord, that they will hear you call their name, that they will hear you say, I'm right here with you, and that they will take you by the hand, and they will walk out a journey to freedom as you bring healing and hope, and fulfillment back into their life.
Sid Roth: Three more words: It ain't over.