Note: This testimony was originally posted on www.sidroth.us – I found it so compelling that I wanted to share it again here.
Sid Roth was a man that seemed to have it all; Fame, fortune, fun. Then one day he discovered the dark side of the New Age that nearly ended his life.
JANIE: Hello. I’m Janie Duvall. I’m the co-producer of It’s Supernatural and the tables have turned today. Sid is our guest. We will be finding out how a successful Jewish businessman had absolutely no choice. He was pressed against the wall. He had to investigate the supernatural. How does it feel to sit in that chair?
SID: Strange. But you know what? The presence of God is here and it doesn’t matter where I am as long as I’m where the presence of God is.
JANIE: And that’s what makes it so fun. Sid, you came from a traditional Jewish background and both your parents were Jewish.
SID: Yes.
JANIE: And when you were a little boy you had this feeling or these words that kept on coming into your head that kept on bothering you. What happened?
SID: Yeah well what happened was my parents had a hobby called playing poker. They were gamblers. And they went away every night and left me alone. I remember as a little boy just saying, I wish my parents would come back. Somehow I thought if I kept saying that they would come back. I hated being alone at night. And then a thought, I don’t know where it came from. I know today where it came from, but I didn’t know then where it came from, and the thought was, what happens when you die? And of course, coming from a Jewish background, l’chiam, (life) Janie, we don’t talk about death. So I figured that even though Judaism believes in life after death, I’d see that it exists.
JANIE: That’s scary.
SID: As a little six-year-old, my imagination, I wanted to, I tried to think what would life be like if I didn’t exist. And it got so objectionable. Whatever was me, the real me, I wanted it to continue. I didn’t want it to stop. And so the thoughts were so horrible that I just blocked it from my mind until many years later. As you know, well blinked my eyes a few times. I found myself in college. I used to write songs in college.
JANIE: Right. And you wrote a song that, “There must be something more.” [singing] “And because I work, sleep and that’s the way it goes.” There it is.
SID: Okay. You’ve got it. You’ve got it. But that was the passion in my heart. I didn’t know there was something. But my heart was saying there’s got to be something more to life. There must be something more. And so I did something. I got a wonderful job at Merrill Lynch.
JANIE: You were very successful.
SID: A college degree, married, everything. But there’s got to be, the song was still going on inside of me. There must be something more. And so I did something I’m not proud of. I left my wife and daughter, and I went searching for that something more.
JANIE: What did you think the something more was?
SID: I didn’t know. That was the problem.
JANIE: Did you think about God at all?
SID: No, no, no. We Jews have it covered. I didn’t have to think about God. I mean, actually that was the only area I didn’t look.
JANIE: Very interesting.
SID: But I got into Silva Mind Control, a new age.
JANIE: What is that?
SID: That’s like a meditation course where you lower your brain waves through mental exercise and you ask a counselor to come inside of you.
JANIE: Like a spirit guide.
SID: Yeah, like a spirit guide. And this counselor would answer your questions. And the course worked. I was very excited about it.
JANIE: Now when you said it worked, what happened that it worked?
SID: Well they would give me the name of someone and I would tell them what was wrong with that person. And I mean, it was amazing. This counselor was telling me things that I had no way of knowing.
JANIE: So did it help you in your everyday life? What did you feel when that was going on?
SID: Excited.
JANIE: Wow.
SID: Because remember, there must be something more. I thought that was something more.
JANIE: So what was that something more gonna give you, that spirit guide?
SID: I don’t know. I mean, but I was excited because the fact that my goal in life was to become a millionaire by age 30. So somehow that information might make me happy.
JANIE: Ah, give you inside information.
SID: Yeah.
JANIE: So but then you started having some believers who believed in Jesus say to you–
SID: You know what was so amazing? God spoke to them and told them to approach me, and they said that what I was involved in God called an abomination.
JANIE: Did that make you mad at them?
SID: Well they said look in your own Jewish Bible. And that’s what I did, Janie. I looked in Deuteronomy, the eighteenth chapter, and this is what I found. “There shall not be found among thee anyone who causes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire.” That’s abortion. “One who uses divination.” That’s fortune telling. “One who’s an observer of the tides.” That’s astrology. “Or any enchanter.” That’s sorcery or omens. “Or a conjurer.” That’s a hypnotist or a witch. “Or a charmer.” That’s some that casts a magical spell. “Or consult with familiar spirits.” That’s a medium or someone using channeling, or Ouija boards. “Or a wizard.” That’s a spiritist or TM, or Silva Mind Control, Edgar Cayce. Things like that. “Or one who inquires the dead.” That’s séances and channeling. “For an abomination unto the Lord are all that do these things.” So God was saying, in the Torah, if it was from God–
JANIE: Right. I mean, why would you even believe that?
SID: Well it scared me a little bit.
JANIE: Wow.
SID: And so I thought, well maybe I’ll just start reading the scriptures a little bit. And they also gave me a little booklet that I read. It’s called, “The Four Spiritual Laws.” And when I read this–
JANIE: Did you feel anything?
SID: No, nothing. So I figured it didn’t work, ‘cause I felt all sorts of things in the New Age, and so I just figured it didn’t work. And I went exploring further in the New Age, and as I explored I was getting deeper and deeper into it. I got into something called astral projection. That’s where your spirit leaves your body.
JANIE: Wow. Now did you ever go far away from your body?
SID: I was just breaking into it when someone else said to me, “You know, once you break into astral projection, every time you go to sleep at night your spirit leaves your body.”
JANIE: Uh-oh.
SID: And I had the most horrible thoughts that, could you picture being your spirit goes away, doesn’t get back.
JANIE: No that would be scary.
SID: You’re right. I had something that Rod Sterling could never have created.
JANIE: Wow. So but when you kept on hearing that your spirit would leave your body, did it keep on bothering you, or did you just say, oh forget about it?
SID: Well it bothered me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. So then I got a hold of a book called, “The Jew, the Bible and the Supernatural.” And this book had a different spin than these Christians had. What this book said it’s an abomination for anyone to be involved in these New Age areas. However, it’s worse for a Jew. And then it listed famous Jewish people. There was Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles. All the Beatles went to the Himalayas and went to gurus. But at that time, only one guy, the Jew, Brian Epstein, it was one Jew after another, that were doing the things I just read about, that I was doing. Talk about fear. It was so tangible. I was afraid to go to sleep at night for fear the spirit would leave my body. As a matter of fact, Janie, death for the first time in my life looked better than life. Life was just too hard.
JANIE: You went to sleep full of fear. Did your astral projection help you at all with that? Did your spirit guide help you with the fear?
SID: Let me tell you something. I was convinced the spirit guide was a demon. But what does a Jewish person do? I mean, I knew it was evil. I wanted out. But I didn’t know how to get out. And so I remember I called my wife who was raised Baptist, and when she got to college she became an agnostic, and when we got married she converted to orthodox Judaism. So you might say she was a Baptist, agnostic, orthodox Jew. And we were separated, and I called her on the phone. How can I explain it? “Joy, I have a demon inside of me. I don’t want to live.”
JANIE: She must have thought you were crazy.
SID: There’s no way she could relate to that. So I said, “Joy, pray.” And even though she really was an agnostic at that time, she prayed. And I just gave in the towel. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced fear like that before. But the fear was so strong I didn’t want to live. And I prayed a desperation prayer. Jesus, help. That was my prayer. And I went to bed and I didn’t care whether I lived or died. And Janie, when I woke up the whole room, the atmosphere in the room was just filled with the presence of God. I’ve never, in the New Age, I never experienced anything remotely close to that. And it was, I’ve never, if I wanted to worry I couldn’t worry. I had never experienced such peace in my life. And then I heard the audible voice of God for the first time in my life. And this is what he said: “Return to your wife and daughter. I hate divorce.” And I was so grateful to God. I would have done anything for Him. And so God restored my marriage. I’ve now been married for 43 years. Joyce and I have just celebrated our 43rd anniversary. I can tell you this, the presence of God has never left me. It’s not always that tangible. But it’s tangible right now. And so God restored everything.
JANIE: You know, it’s really amazing. Just two words, you said, “Jesus, help.” But the power in that, before when you were in the New Age, you had to lower your brain waves, do all these things, and “Jesus, help,” that’s how powerful he is.
SID: If you invite Him into your heart He’s on the outside. It sort of like you’re driving an automobile, you know, and He has a difficult time driving your car from the outside. But He can do it because He’s God. Look what he did to my life. But you know, when you invite Him inside that automobile, you know what happens? It’s a heck of a lot easier for Him, and that’s where He wants to go. And boy, I’m just so grateful to Him, and I feel like I can’t do Him enough justice for what He’s done for me. Every single day he influences my life. Just a couple days ago I was giving a talk at a junior college for mutual funds. This was an adult education class. And the professor was a client of mine, and he said, “Sid, I know where you stand with God. Don’t give anything about God during this talk because it’s a school, you know.” And I said, “Okay. These are the ground rules. Fine.” But I wore a little pin that said “PTL.” And the very last question from the students was, “What does PTL stand for?” Praise God, you know. He planted that question. And I said, “Well the professor has said that I cannot comment on this until after class. So anyone that’s interested in staying, I’m gonna tell you about the most important thing in my life.” And ten students stayed, and I talked for about an hour about PTL, which is praise the Lord, and two people accepted Jesus Christ. One was Jewish. My wife says, “You’re not the man that I married.” I’m a completely new person and I praise God for it, because I didn’t care for the old Sid Roth.
JANIE: You were so radically changed by the power of God. But that’s what God wants for everybody, to be radically changed, every situation, because it looked impossible for you and the situation was radically changed.
SID: But you know what’s even more important than anything we’re talking about right now is my Jewish family, my entire orthodox Jewish family has come to know Jesus as the Messiah. And I believe it’s God’s will that everyone’s family, your entire family come to know Jesus. And what’s so amazing was my father. He was the toughest one. He was born in Poland and he could not understand how his son could believe in Jesus. And I used reason with him, logic. I got nowhere. But the presence of God that came into my room when I became a believer in Jesus was all over me, 24/7.
JANIE: What did it feel like?
SID: It felt like it’s impossible to worry. Tthat same presence of God came into a hospital room where my father was dying, and I heard my father say with his mouth, when he was so, his body was so deteriorated he couldn’t even speak, “I make Jesus my Messiah and Lord.”
JANIE: That’s amazing.
SID: Only God can do that.
JANIE: He was such a skeptic. So nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God. But see, nothing’s impossible with God. If it’s something that concerns you it concerns Him. So why did you get so interested in the supernatural?
SID: Well, you know, I was interested in the counterfeit for many, many years. And then once I saw the authentic, who would want to fool with that low level stuff when you can tap into GodHimself through the Messiah Jesus? And I find that this is God’s moment for the church to be equipped for signs and wonders, to move in the supernatural. And the purpose is the scriptures say, in Corinthians, the Jew requires a sign.
JANIE: Buy why now more than ever?
SID: Because this is the wrap-up, and this is the moment that Jewish people are open to Messiah like never before. And so when the church is equipped to move in the supernatural, then the Jewish people will be reached. When the Jewish people are reached they’re gonna come into the church to form the one new man. The ancient spiritual DNA on Jewish people will merge with the new covenant Gentile Christian DNA to form what Paul calls the One New Man. And the greatest revival the world has ever seen is about to happen. This is God’s moment for Jewish people to come to know Him.
JANIE: I love how you explain it. That when Jew and Gentile come together, which now is the time, miracles happen, including life from the dead. And I have to tell you this. I started reading your book, “There Must Be Something More.” Now I had read it a little bit years ago, but I have to tell you, I could not put it down. It increased my faith because it showed processes of why Jesus is the Messiah, but also, it gave me faith to believe for anything because it was a child like faith you had. Then I had a test. I had my 18-year-old son start to read it just to see what he thought. He couldn’t put the book down. It builds your faith to believe for anything.
SID: And you know what someone said to me, that is a leader in the Messianic Jewish movement? He says, “Sid,” to me, “you know what’s so wonderful about your book? You make Jesus the hero, not you.” And another one said, “Sid, I can’t believe coming from such a dysfunctional background, and it couldn’t have been more dysfunctional, you have a worldwide ministry today.” Unbelievable. Well I can tell you that God gets all the credit. I mean, I’m just along for the ride, and I love the ride. You know, Janie, I had explained that I read this little booklet called, “The Four Spiritual Laws” and when I read this book it said that I was separated from God because of sin, and as a result, God loved me, but I couldn’t have this experience, this encounter with Him. And so I said a prayer in this little booklet, and I didn’t feel a thing. But I believe my life with God started the moment I said that prayer because God heard it. So whether you experience something or whether you feel nothing, you’re dealing with the Creator of the universe whose pure love is literally calling you by name. He has every hair on your head numbered. And if you will do what I did, if you will repeat this prayer after me, God will come inside of you. God will wipe away your sins. Say this out loud:
“Dear God, I’m a sinner. Against you and you alone have I sinned and I’m so sorry. I believe the blood of Yeshua washes away my sins and I’m clean. And now that I’m cleanI am boldly proclaiming Yeshua, you are my Messiah and Lord. Live inside of me. Become real to me. Take over my life. I’m tired of running it myself. I know there must be something more and I’m about ready to embark on the greatest adventure of my life. In Yeshua’s name I pray.Amen.”
For more information and supernatural testimonies go to: http://www.sidroth.org/site/PageServer