It's Supernatural!

Sid Roth: Welcome, Holy Spirit. Go and flow. For the next few weeks, we're doing something very, very special: The Trilogy. It's the story of how one Jewish man's encounter with God became a worldwide move of the Spirit. Today, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn flips the script and interviews me. This is where it all began.

Jonathan Cahn: Shalom. This is Jonathan Cahn, and I am usually interviewed by Sid Roth. But today, I'm going to interview Sid. We've known each other for ages. Take us to the beginning. How did this all begin?

Sid Roth: My father was born in Poland. My mother was born in Rochester, New York. Both were very, very Jewish. My mother's father, or my grandfather, was born in Belarus, the former Soviet Union. My father, of course, was born in Poland, and had he not got out just in time, he would have been a statistic, which is probably true about your background, too.

A lot of people don't know this, Jonathan, but my parents were athletes. Jewish athletes. Their sport of choice: poker. I was home alone even before the movie. I remember as a young child, maybe five or six, just saying over and over again, "I wish they'd come home. I wish they'd come home. I wish they'd come home," as if a little child believes if I say it, it'll happen.

Well, it didn't seem to happen. And then a question popped into my head. It's not a question a young Jewish boy asks. We don't discuss death with children. It's "L'chaim"—to life. But a question popped into my mind, totally illogical. The question was, "What happens when you die?"

I thought and thought, and I had no grounding in this. I didn't know what happens when you die. So I did the only intelligent thing I could do, and it was very intelligent: I blocked it from my mind until many years later. Because if I really, even as a young child, was to carry out the conclusion of what happens when you die, I'd cease to exist.

By the way, try to imagine how this world can get along if you cease to exist. It's a heavy load for a young kid, so I just blocked it. I actually was injured as a child. I had what's called Perthes leg disease, and my right hip was replaced. It was supposed to last about 10 to 12 years. Well, it's been 30 years and it's doing just fine. Maybe God gave me a new hip. I don't know.

As a result, my education was very faulty. I went to what was called a health school for kids that had disabilities. They brought it down a notch as far as what was going on in public schools so that everyone could stay with the program. I always thought I wasn't too intelligent as a result of all those experiences.

But when I got to high school, I thought, "I'm going to apply myself." Then when I got to college, I made all A's and B's. Why? Because if you do the work, you get the results. I learned that, and I might add, Jonathan, I believe one of the things God has used in my life for success is I never give up. I do work hard. I'm not complaining because I love what I'm doing, but it comes from hard work.

In college, I wrote a song, and I would think every Muslim and every Jewish person in the world could relate to this. The name of the song was, "There Must Be Something More." That's what my heart was crying out. My mind didn't know this, but my heart was crying out. Even that question as a child was too profound a question for a child to get.

Jonathan Cahn: They're transcendent because one is what's going to happen if I'm not here beyond, and then there's got to be something beyond this world.

Sid Roth: "There must be something more." The words went like this: "Because I work, eat, sleep, and that's the way it goes. Because I work, eat, sleep, and that's the way it goes. There must," and if I was to have all my emotions in it, "There's got to be something more than this, just survival."

So I graduated college with honors and I got a job with one of the best companies in the world at that time. It was the largest stock brokerage firm in the world. It was called Merrill Lynch. I was discipled, even as a Jew that did not know anything about Jesus. I was discipled by a one-eyed monster called television.

I was discipled that if I'd become a millionaire by 30, I would be the happiest man on earth. Well, you and I have passed 30 and you and I know that money cannot buy happiness. But I didn't realize it. I got married, I had a daughter, I had a fabulous job, but I wasn't happy.

I did something I'm not proud of. I did not divorce my wife, I'm glad for that. I separated from my wife. I figured I got married early, I didn't do the bar scene, maybe that's where it all is.

Jonathan Cahn: You're having a midlife crisis early on in your life.

Sid Roth: That's what it was, an early midlife crisis. So I went to bars, and one day I went into the same bar in the daytime that I'd go to at night. At night, it looked wonderful. It looked like Hollywood. During the day, it was the filthiest place I ever saw in my life.

I thought, "This isn't the answer." But I had this early midlife crisis. I started an insurance agency. One day, one of my agents comes in and tells me a story. "I have a relative that went to a meditation course, and as a result, they open themselves to a spirit that answers every question they have."

Jonathan, I'm a stockbroker. You tell me what's going to happen in the future, I can make any amount of money for myself and you. So I naturally gravitated towards it. They taught me how to lower my consciousness and invite an imaginary friend into me. At the time I didn't know it, but the Bible calls this a familiar spirit.

They were nice people. They weren't trying to deceive me; they thought they were helping people. So I took this course. I decided I want to go into business for myself. I had a name for this spirit, and I said to this spirit, "Find me something." Out of the blue, a Gentile Christian I met just casually said, "Sid, if you ever want to go into business yourself, I'll give you a free secretary, free rent, free telephone." I said, "Where do I sign?"

I went into his office. What I didn't know is I was hearing from evil, but they were hearing from good. They were strong Christians, and God spoke to this businessman and said, "You see that guy? He is so lost, he needs help." So they invited me to this free setup. I thought it was my power; it was a much greater power, the power of God that set that up. They used to have Bible studies every day.

I used to go there. I knew nothing about Jesus, even though I have a good traditional background. I studied everything in Hebrew. You know how many words of Hebrew I know? "Shalom"—hello, "Shalom"—goodbye. It's not a big vocabulary. I read it perfectly, but I don't understand what I'm reading unless there's a translation.

Jonathan Cahn: I'm thinking about this when you're saying this. I think of the Magi who were seeking, but they were involved in the occult. This was occultic stuff. And yet God led them because their hearts were seeking, their hearts were right. God led you. I know believers who actually went to Ouija boards, and in that, God intervened and said you have to get saved through that. God in his mercy and grace did it with you.

Sid Roth: Me! I'm going to tell you that next. I used to be able, before I was a believer, to point at a word in the dictionary and it would be a specific answer to a question. One day I didn't have a question. So I took the dictionary, I pointed at about five different words, I strung them together, and it was a sentence. This is what it said to me: "Refrain from using this sinful book."

Jonathan Cahn: Wait. So the book that you're using to get revelation says, "Stop using this book," because God intervened. How cool of God.

Sid Roth: You got it. So I'm getting really nervous at this point. I also learned a little bit about astral projection in this meditation course where your spirit leaves your body. People think you're wacky if you believe in it, but there are many fine universities that teach astral projection all over the world right now.

I was afraid to go to sleep at night because I was told once you break into astral projection, your spirit leaves your body and it may not make it back in time. So I wasn't going to sleep. You might say I was sleep-deprived, separated from my family, a first-class mess. I reached the end of the line. Everyone has a breaking point.

I was afraid to go to sleep for fear my spirit would leave my body. So I went to sleep, not that I wanted to sleep, but out of pure exhaustion. That's why I went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, something happened. The atmosphere from depression, hurt, and disappointment was thick with the greatest feeling I had ever felt.

I've never been a drug addict or an alcoholic. But if I had been, you can't match that with what I was feeling. I know that. It was such a wonderful feeling. I didn't realize it, but it was the presence of God that was in there. It was so stark from where I was when I went to sleep hopeless, and the presence was so strong. I felt good.

Then I heard for the first time in my life, and I knew it was the voice of God. This is what he said. He quoted the Jewish prophet Malachi. Now, I'm Jewish, but I didn't know what Malachi said. I was told a command: "I hate divorce." That's what God said to me. "I hate divorce. Return to your wife and daughter."

It was a commandment, and I knew it was God. I was pretty stupid back then, but I wasn't that stupid. I said, "Yes, sir." This is what I can tell you, Jonathan: My marriage was restored. I was restored with my daughter. The presence of God I was feeling almost every day.

Then I went to a group called Full Gospel Business Men, and I was speaking all over the world because at that time they had chapters all over the world. I was speaking as a voice of authority warning that Deuteronomy 18 says it's awful to be involved with psychics, witchcraft, and fortune-telling—all of these things that everyone I knew was doing.

I realized it was sin, so I repented of it. I got so free that before I had even read the entire New Testament, there was a front-page article in a major newspaper in Washington, D.C. I was on the cover, and it was called "White Collar Jesus Freaks." I remember my uncle calling me on the phone and saying, "How could you do that to your father?"

It was a tough situation. My father didn't ask me about it, but he knew. He really was upset with me and hurt and ashamed in his Jewish community. All of the men he'd go to traditional synagogue with would listen to me on the radio. I had a radio show at that time, by the way, and hadn't even read the whole New Testament.

Then, from this article on the front page, Kathryn Kuhlman invited me to be a guest on her show.

Kathryn Kuhlman: You've been in this business for how many years?

Sid Roth: Well, I'm 31 years old and I've been in the stock business about eight years, and I've been in the business of Jesus Christ about one year. I am one of the few, and I do say this, that survived notoriety. I should have fallen because human flesh can't take that. But through the grace of God, I didn't fall all of these years. Joyce and I have been married now 60 years. The same woman that I was separated from.

Jonathan Cahn: But you knew because you experienced God. You knew it, just like the Apostle Paul. He knew it. It didn't matter what was going to happen; it was going to hold you because you knew the reality of God. Arguments weren't going to do it and pressure wasn't going to do it because you knew what changed your life and that was real.

Sid Roth: I remember trying to witness to my father and my mother, who was the protector in the family. She was trying to help me. She wasn't a believer yet, and she said, "Don't talk to your father about Jesus. He will never believe." I remember anger rearing up within me and I said, "He will believe."

I don't even know how I said that, but I did. Because if you knew my father, you would think he would not believe. One day I read the first few verses of Isaiah 53, written 800 years before Jesus even came to earth. In the Jewish Scriptures, the Jewish Bible says this, the Christian Bible says it, there's no difference.

What I'd like to do is read this Isaiah 53 that I was able to read to my father. Although he reacted badly, although he cut me off, this is what he heard before he cut me off. If you've never read Isaiah 53, you've got a Bible—blow the dust off and start reading it. I'm going to help you out by reading the first five verses.

"Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord," that's another name for the Messiah, "been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant." But an unusual plant, listen to this: "as a root out of dry ground." Perhaps that's alluding to his miraculous birth.

"He had no form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we," that's the Jewish people, "hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him."

"Surely he has borne or carried our grief and carried our sorrows." Do you know in the Hebrew that means pains and sickness? He carried our pains and sickness. "Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement or the punishment that we deserved of our peace, it was upon him."

He took the punishment. "And by his stripes," what happens when you're wounded? Blood flows. "By his blood, we are healed." It goes on to say, "All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone to his own way, but the Lord has put upon him" every sickness you have, every hurt you have, every disappointment you have, every disease you have.

This is what the Jewish Bible says: "By his stripes you were," not will be, "you were healed." What I have learned is without faith—faith in what? God's word—without faith, you cannot please God. Therefore, if Jesus did this 2,000 years ago, he took my pain, he took my illnesses, he took my diseases, he took my hurts, he took my disappointments for me.

By faith, I can believe that right now. I'm going to tell you something else. It may not happen this second. It may happen an hour from now. It may happen tomorrow morning. But without faith, you can't please God. I know through faith and patience you will—that's what it says—you will inherit the promise. Not you might, not I hope; you will have that healing.

Think about something you want changed in your life. Yes, it can be more than one thing. It can be a physical problem, a parent problem, a child problem, whatever you want changed in your life. It's something that God would like to, too. It's good. God loves family.

I'm going to pray for you right now, and I believe by his stripes you were healed. Father, in Yeshua's name, you see these problems. I pray in Yeshua's name. I'm hearing even some of you are being healed right now. Backs are being healed. You know what I would do if I had a backache? I'd stand up right now and I'd bend over and I'd thank the Lord for having taken your pain away.

If it didn't go, you thank him even more because it must go. It must. But not just back. When I hear that, it says pain of wrists, pain in any area of your life is being healed. Any area.

When I read that chapter of Isaiah 53 to my dad, he gave me no satisfaction. But the word is living. It's living. It went into him, and on his deathbed in the hospital, I and my sister, who is also a believer, heard him say with his mouth, "I make Jesus"—I really thought he'd never say that. I didn't tell my mom, to give her that satisfaction that I thought she was right, but I really did think that.

I heard he said, "I make Jesus my Messiah and Lord." And then absent from the body is present with the Lord. That's where he went. I pray in Yeshua's name that Jonathan has the words right now to seal this and take it home in a prayer.

Jonathan Cahn: Lord, I will live as your disciple and walk in your Spirit, and walk in your glory, and walk in your victory from this moment on. I praise you, Lord. Open new doors, Lord. Father, I ask you, bring new impartations, new blessings, Lord, new provisions. Take care of everything, for I am going all for you.

I praise you. I praise you for all this, all your love and my salvation, and all you have ahead of me in the name above every name: the name of Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah, Or HaOlam, the Light of the World, Kavod Yisrael, the Glory of Israel, and Ari Yehudah, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Amen and amen.

Sid Roth: Jonathan, there's a video I'd like you to watch. Jesus wept over Jerusalem and the Jewish people. Why? Few have ever heard that the Messiah has ransomed us from the eternal penalty of sin. With anti-Jewish violence and sentiment soaring to historic heights worldwide, many that are anti-Semitic are at risk of becoming enemies of God.

The greatest gift that you could ever give a Jewish person is Messiah Jesus. I must be part of that plan. How about you? Well, I could feel God in that. How about you?

Jonathan Cahn: Powerful. Powerful.

Sid Roth: That's the history of our people. Here's the sad thing: there were spiritual scales over our eyes. But I know that if a proper presentation is given to a Jewish person, this is the set time to favor Zion. This really is the set time.

Jonathan Cahn: People don't realize, and Christians who read of this, it says Jesus wept. He wept for all this. He saw what was going to happen. This is the heart of Messiah, and if you have him in you, you have to have that same heart, that same burden for this salvation. What did Paul say? "I wish I could almost wish I could be accursed that my people could come." And what will it be when they come? It will be life from the dead. It will be resurrection. It will be redemption for the world. That's how big this is. That's why the fight is so big. That's why there's so much trying to stop it, just to stop the Jewish people. The enemy knows what God has, and we are living in the days where we've seen the redemption of Israel. These are prophetic times and we have to pray for the fullness of what God has.

Sid Roth: When the Holocaust occurred, our people said, "Never again." But look what's happened to the world. I believe, and I know Jonathan believes, the greatest move of God's Spirit is going to hit the world any second now. What's its name? The Greater Glory. And in this Greater Glory, you and I and anyone that has made the Messiah Jesus their Lord will walk in greater power than anyone you've ever read about in the Bible. And then it'll be that devil's worst nightmare.

One of the things I'm so grateful to God for is he has given me a creative mind to reach Jewish people. We have pioneered mass Jewish evangelism way beyond my wildest imagination. Reaching 85 years, still in full-time active ministry, my heart's desire is all Israel shall be saved. I know some of the greatest things I've ever done are ahead of me. Guess how old Caleb was when God called him to conquer Israel? 85. I've got the spirit of Caleb inside of me. I'm not going to be satisfied till all Israel is saved. Will you help me? Go to sidroth.org/give.