Sid Roth - Taking Jesus to Walmart with Brian Blount
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world, where it's naturally supernatural. My guest prayed for a woman with no left kidney and the right one, working only 2%. Doctors verified she now has brand new kidneys. Brian Blount operates in words of knowledge, but he can teach anyone to pray for the sick, without words of knowledge, and get the same results! Would you like to learn?
Sid Roth: Now, this is so phenomenal! Tell me about the kidneys.
Brian Blount: Sid, this is an amazing story. So I was in South Africa in a very small prayer meeting, about 16 people, and the Lord gave me a word of knowledge about there was a woman here that has a kidney issue. And all of a sudden this lady stands up and comes toward me, and her name is Jessie, and she begins to describe what had happened to her. When she was 16 years old, her left kidney was removed because of an abusive thing that happened to her, and her right kidney was damaged to working about 2%. We prayed for her; she felt like a fire come through her body is how she described it. Well she had a routine visit to the doctor about 2 days later. What they found was the size of a mustard seed growth on the right side. Now hear that again; the size of a mustard seed growth, that they thought at first was a cancer. But can you imagine? This is what Jesus says: if we just "have faith as the size of a mustard seed", and this mustard seed grew into a brand new fully functioning kidney! Absolutely amazing. And her right side, now working at 100% level. And so Jesus just came in that moment with a creative miracle. And here's the thing that Jessie said to me. She said, "I have waited 32 years for this miracle". Can you believe that. Just "a mustard seed".
Sid Roth: Are you someone special?
Brian Blount: No, I'm not all! I'm just a skinny man trapped in a fat man's body, trying to follow Jesus, if I'm going to be honest!
Sid Roth: Brian, when you were a Believer, you wandered into a church called Vineyard Church, and you saw miracles happening, for the first time, in those 4 walls! And there was something rising up within you, you told me. How can I take these miracles most people don't even see miracles; you at least saw that miracles are possible today, how can I take it, when I leave these 4 walls? I want a dying world to see these miracles, and you didn't know how! And then you heard about a man by the name of Blaine Cook, that was having a meeting; it was pretty far away. You jump in your car with your buddy. How far did you drive?
Brian Blount: It was a 15-hour drive, and all along the way I am praying, asking God to pour out His Spirit upon me. I said, "Lord, if what You put on Blaine, put on me. What you put on John Wimber, put on me. I'm hungry; I want to see the Kingdom of God come outside the 4 walls of the Church". It's amazing to see it inside the 4 walls of the church...
Sid Roth: It is.
Brian Blount: ...but how much more should it be outside! It should be greater! And so I get to this meeting, and you know, Blaine had been kind of like a hero. I'd watched him, because he was just a business guy, and he had pressed into things, and he was seeing hundreds of people come to Jesus, on his work, on his job, during lunch. And so I thought gosh, if I could just get around somebody, what could happen! Anyway, to my amazement, we're there in the meeting, and it's electrifying with the presence of God, I'm just so hungry. And Sid, all of a sudden Blaine stops, and he looks at me and says, "Young man, God's power is all on you for power evangelism", and the power of God hit me so strong, that I literally just flew back out of my chair, and started shaking under the power of God so violently. But it didn't hurt; but it was just raw power of God coming through me. In that moment I was going, "God, thank You for touching me! Thank You for touching now give me an opportunity to see Your Kingdom come, outside the 4 walls of the Church"! That was the encounter that I had.
Sid Roth: Okay. So he has a lunch break; now is his big chance! What happened?
Brian Blount: Well, like you said, I I asked for it, you know, an encounter, and God gave that to me. I had to go to Popeye's Chicken for lunch, and I walked in. As I walked into Popeye's Chicken, I see this lady in line, and her arm was hurting, or this was the impression that the Lord gave me: "There's something wrong with her right arm, and I want you to pray for her". Now Sid, I had gotten words of knowledge inside the church, but never outside the church! And so, when I heard that, He said, "If you go pray for her, I will heal her", and I went, "No way"! Here I'd just had this crazy encounter...
Sid Roth: Why? Why did you say "No way"!?
Brian Blount: Because Sid, I got scared! I had let fear hit me, and I thought, "What if nothing happens"? Well my friend is standing next to me, named Greg, and he's like, "Brian, what's going on"?, because he could see me looking at this lady, and what's going on. I said, "I think the Lord might be", now "might be saying something to me about this lady"!
Sid Roth: You're really hedging.
Brian Blount: Yes! And he said, "Brian! I was in the car with you for 15 hours, and you were praying all the time, 'God, touch me', 'put Your Spirit upon me', and then Blaine calls you out, the power of God comes on you, and I know you've been waiting for an opportunity like this. Just go pray for her"! And I went, "No"! Sid, I was the biggest chicken in Popeye's Chicken that day.
Sid Roth: Oh okay. So then, a few weeks later, you're at Walmart, and you see your first miracle outside the 4 walls of the church.
Brian Blount: Absolutely. Thank God He's so gracious with us, right? And so I was going through Walmart with a buddy of mine, and we're looking for fishing equipment. And this employee comes up, and he's asking us some "Hey, can I help you"?, and I'm like, "No, no it's okay"! The Holy Spirit speaks to me and said "There's something wrong with his eyes. He's had burning for 2 weeks; I want to pray for him". So, you know, I thought about that situation at Popeye's Chicken, and I didn't want to be a chicken again, right? But here's the truth: There were still some feathers that needed to be plucked. And so now, this guy is standing over this with and some other Walmart employee, so I have to humble myself and walk over to them. And so I just said, "Hey listen, God loves you so much that He would tell me something about you. You've been having this burning sensation in your eyes for 2 weeks. If you let me pray for you right now, God will heal you on the spot". And then I was like oh my gosh, what did I just say? You know, now I'm in it! And he said, "I've had this burning sensation in my eyes for the last 2 weeks, and yes you can pray for me". Now, Sid, this is what I said: "Can we go down another aisle, where no one can see us"? Because I really was in this place I didn't know how to do this! Now, remind you, I've never prayed for anybody outside the 4 walls of the Church. So this is why I brought him down the aisle, and I just said this: "Alright, close your eyes and assume the position", because I didn't know how to pray for him! You know, "Hold out your hands", and I began to pray, mind you, for his eyes. I said, "Holy Spirit, will You come and touch his eyes", and this is the response that I got: Like you're looking at me weird!
Sid Roth: Wow!
Brian Blount: Yes!
Sid Roth: Yeah!
Brian Blount: Yes, I was looking at him weird! I'm like what is going on, you know! And so I just simply asked him a question! I said, "What is going on"? He said, "I can breathe! I can breathe"! I said, "That's great you can breathe! I think the whole store knows you can breathe by now! But I was praying for your eyes"! He said, "No, no, no; you don't understand. I had this breathing condition; I couldn't breathe for the last 2 months, and I'm breathing". I said, "Well what about your eyes"? He said, "They're healed too".
Sid Roth: But whatever happened to that lady in Popeye's?
Brian Blount: Oh the lady in Popeye's. She gets healed because my friend walks over to her, and says, "Ma'am", and remember, he didn't get a word; he didn't have the encounter. He just taps her on the shoulder and says, "You have a problem with your", "your arm. If I pray for you right now, God will heal you on the spot", and God completely heals her. And she goes, "How did you know that"?, and he said, "See that guy over there"? And I learned a valuable lesson that day: That God and good friends never let you get away with anything.
Sid Roth: Now, I've got a question for you: We are commanded, in in the Gospels, to "proclaim the Kingdom of God"; but what is "the Kingdom of God", that we are commanded to proclaim? Be right back.
Sid Roth: Brian, we're told to "proclaim the Kingdom of God" mandate. What is "the Kingdom of God"?
Brian Blount: Well "the Kingdom of God" is doing what Jesus did. It's the rule and reign of God coming on Earth. And just what Jesus did as He healed the sick, He cast out demons, He raised the dead He brought the present the future into the present, right now. It's the tangible; it's the tangible presence of God, and that everybody can walk in it. And what I love about Jesus is that He could have done this ministry all by Himself, but what did He do? He took 12 guys, put His Spirit upon them, sent them out, and they began to proclaim the Kingdom, just as He did. Now not only did He do it with 12, He did it with 72 other nameless, faceless disciples! This was probably men, women, children, and they were doing the same thing that Jesus was doing; they were bringing the Kingdom, with demonstration, not just proclamation.
Sid Roth: And speaking you know, and speaking about going, we were told to go!
Brian Blount: That's right! Matthew 10, "As you go, preach this Gospel.... heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead. Freely you receive, freely give". And I love that first part; it says, "As you go"; that means, "As you go" on your journey. So I don't know where you go, but I go to Walmart, I go to the movies, I go to Wendy's you know! I go all these normal places business meetings, soccer games and in every one of those mundane places we go, that's the mission of the Kingdom right there! So it's the body being Jesus with skin on.
Sid Roth: But wait. You had that great lightning of God hit you, when Blaine Cook prayed for you. You're just someone special.
Brian Blount: Sid, it's just not true. I'm just I'm a graphic designer. I'm just a guy who's just trying to love Jesus. My heart is just to take people along the way, and equip them to do exactly what Jesus told us to do. And it's really not that hard; it's simple. But you know, it's taking that step of faith, or, you know, we spell it R I S K, right?
Sid Roth: Right.
Brian Blount: And what I've understood is that risk opens the door to the impossible.
Sid Roth: You had a recent trip to South Africa. tell me about the IT person.
Brian Blount: Oh!
Sid Roth: Um, Carrie.
Brian Blount: Sid, I love this story because this shows about the ordinary everyday person. Carrie came on with me with a team of about 30 people, and she's an IT specialist. And she'd been in the meetings doing stuff, and this is the first time that she's done this stuff. Well, we had a break one day, so she was going to the Pick n Pay which is like a Walmart. She was just going through the line, and she sees the lady at the cash register, and she goes, "Hey! Can I pray for you for anything? Do you have any pain"? The lady bust out crying, and starts, "Yes! You I need healing"! Carrie prays for her right on the spot. She gets completely healed, and then, guess what happens? The lady says, "Can you pray for some more people"?, so they okay! So this lady took her around to the back and gave them a room, put 4 people in there, and she's praying for these 4 people! Well, she's amazed by that because all 4 of them get healed! Now what happens next is pretty interesting. So she opens the door, thinking that she's through, and she looks down the line, and there's a queue of 20 women waiting for her to pray! Sid, that day all 20 of those women were completely healed, and she was equipping them as she had just been equipped.
Sid Roth: Do you believe you can equip any Believer to walk in the supernatural, have miracles wherever they go, and then, lead the people to the Lord? That's to me, that's the purpose of a miracle; you demonstrate the Kingdom, then you've earned the right to present the King! Ordinary people, with an extraordinary God, doing the same works that Jesus did. And by the way, the Bible says " you will even do greater"! Now when we come back, I need you to explain the thing that revolutionized your ministry: When you came to the realization well, you'll explain it when we come right back.
Sid Roth: Okay. Brian, you came to a revelation, and it totally revolutionized everything you do! Tell me about that.
Brian Blount: Not only everything I do, but everything I think people that I equip do now, too. It's you know I first started out in words of knowledge, and words of knowledge are amazing; I love them. But then I began to discover that you can do the same thing without a word of knowledge. And the reason why I think I went down that path, is because when I would teach people, they'd say, "Brian, we don't get words of knowledge like you"; "we can't do this". And so literally I just asked the Lord, "Can I do this without a word of knowledge"?, and He said, "Matthew 10, 'As you go....'" And so I started stepping out, and I've seen just as many miracles, or healings. In fact, with the deaf ears opening; that wasn't a word of knowledge. You know so I and I've seen more and more people enter into things, and be able to do healing because of that; they're not getting tripped up. Listen, the gift is the Holy Spirit, and that's what we've been given; and the commissioning of Jesus, that's all we need. And then He will give us the gift in the moment that we need, but we just need to take that step, and just step out, in simple obedience; that's all that Jesus is asking. He's asking for a yes in your heart, and yes in your feet. That means you're going to take the step to do it.
Sid Roth: God spoke to you 3 words that are so important. What were they?
Brian Blount: He told me, "Brian, all I want you to do is learn to look, listen, and respond".
Sid Roth: Explain what that meant to you.
Brian Blount: What that meant to me is that if I could begin just to look for His presence, I can begin to see His activity come the power come. If I could just hear His voice, and stop in that moment, that the Kingdom would come. But then I had to take that other step of, you know, the risk step of responding to what I just saw, and what I just heard. Now I interpreted that for the longest time, like I said, in the word of knowledge. But then the Lord began to show me; I would just notice somebody, and I felt like the Lord said, "Brian, that's just like a word of knowledge; just take it". I began to hear conversations, and I began just to take that I'm hearing from the Lord.
Sid Roth: These were natural conversations.
Brian Blount: Natural conversations! And that's what partly revolutionized things for me, is that I could just see a need, and I felt like God was highlighting that person to me. I could hear a conversation someone talking about problems and I thought well maybe that's my opportunity; maybe that's God inviting me into that situation. And that's where I began to see even more things take place.
Sid Roth: And it got even easier when God gave you 3 insights!
Brian Blount: Yes! So the first insight was that God is always at work; He's always working. And here's the great news about that: So if He's always working, He's inviting us into His ministry, so the pressure's off, you know! So, and if I can cultivate that in my heart, that God is always at work, then that's really the thing that began to change everything for me. The second thing was the Matthew 10 commissioning, "As you go", and because that was the thing that I could do this anywhere, anyplace; that the Kingdom of God was at hand, present, in any moment. And then the third thing was this insight that He's already "prepared good works for us to do", so I get up and say, "Lord, what are the good works You've prepared for me to do"? "Lord, I want to learn", "I want to look, listen, and respond today". "God, I know that You are at work; I want to join You in this work".
Sid Roth: but Brian, I repeat: You're an Evangelist! You're a pro at this! what about the person who says, "I'm not an Evangelist! I can't heal the sick"! I want you to talk to them right now.
Brian Blount: Well I'm, honestly I don't know if I'm an Evangelist or not either; I just have a heart for Jesus. I feel believe I'm just an ordinary, everyday disciple; that I'm just trying to believe what Jesus said. And I have taken my kids at 5 years old, to people at 85 years old, and all in between and said let's just step out in the what Matthew 10 has said. And that's all we have to do, is just that simple place of obedience. And honestly, being an Evangelist is just telling the Good News! And we tell the Good News all the time. If you go to a restaurant, you go to a movie, what better news is the Kingdom of God? What better news is that Jesus came, and opened up His arms, and said, "Come in"; and He died on the cross. There's no better news than those things. So if we can just begin to talk about Jesus, that's all that we need to do! And then He comes, in those moments. And we learn to look, listen, and respond, and we'll see the Kingdom come.
Sid Roth: I believe you could pray right now. You could pray for people that are sick, and then I "Freely you have received, freely give" an impartation for talking about the goodness of God what He did for you, and the impartation of miracles.
Brian Blount: Okay I can do that. Great. So many of you are out there, and you've been waiting and saying maybe it's been years that you've been suffering in pain. Let me tell you, don't give up. I believe that God is releasing these unusual, creative miracles. And what you've heard about the kidney, what you heard about the deaf ears, I want to release, right now to you, the healing presence to come. Holy Spirit, would You come right now, and would You begin to minister Your presence. You're going to begin to feel the power of God come upon you right now. It's coming right now! You're going to begin to feel it. It's like a thick, heavy weight of His presence that's coming.
Sid Roth: I feel it!
Brian Blount: Now begin to move your body, and you're going to begin to see that God is healing you right now. But not only is He healing you, I believe that He's releasing an impartation at the same time, because God takes wounded healers and sends them out into the marketplace. So I just release right now, everything, Father, that You have given to me. As freely as I received it, I freely give it away. Come, Holy Spirit, and empower your Church, Lord, with compassion. And compassion leads us to action, so in the name of Jesus, go, and do the Kingdom, in Jesus' name!
Sid Roth: I want you to pray a simple prayer, right this moment, that you would pray with someone, to come to know the Lord, after they've seen a miracle. And I want you to repeat this, after Brian.
Brian Blount: Okay. What I often do is when someone has experienced the presence of God, and this is really my biggest thing is it's not even the healing. I really believe one of the things that we need to do as the Church, is release the manifest presence of God. And so when they feel God, I begin to explain to them what just happened to them. I say, "This is like Jesus, and He's knocking at the door of your heart. Do you want to ignore that knock, or do you want to invite Him in"? And most of the time, when they've felt this power and presence, they're like, "Well why wouldn't I want to let Him in?"! And so I just simply walk them through this prayer, and I say: Listen, Jesus is reaching out to you. He's knocking; you just open up the door of your heart, and say, "Jesus, would You just come in? Would you be the Lord and Savior of my life? Would you forgive me of all my sins? And would you fill me with Your love? And would You empower me with the Holy Spirit? I want to be sent, and go and do, just what was done to me. Amen".