Sid: Sid Roth here with Rick Renner and I know that you can’t wait for him to start teaching on end times but we were distinguishing Rick and most Christians don’t understand this the difference between the last days and the last of the last days. As I had said in the previous segment I read the book of Hebrews it starts out “In these last days” so obviously they thought when the book of Hebrews was written it was the last days. So I can see where people could get cynical because they don’t know the difference between the last days and last and the last of the last days explain that.
Rick: Well the last days is a time period which began in a time period which began on the day of Pentecost. And the Bible is so specific it even tells us it began at 9:00 in the morning when Peter stood up and said “these men are not drunken as you suppose seeing that it isn’t but the 9th hour of the day.” At that moment he said that God in the last days had started that God had poured His Spirit upon all flesh and the last days.” And that started a time segment or an era which the Bible technically calls the last day. Some people call it “The Church Age,” some people call it “The Age of Grace.” And those are called theological and theologians attempts to try to describe this time period but the Bible calls it “The last days.” And it’s lasted for 2000 years but when you come to 2nd Timothy 3 and verse 1 it says “This know also in the last days” and this is very different it’s the Greek word eschatos and the word eschatos doesn’t say the last time it says “The last days,” it’s talking about the very wrap up of this time period. The word eschatos, which is the word last, describes the farthest, farthest, farthest, farthest you can go and when you come to eschatos you can’t go any further. You’re literally butting right up against the very end of that age. It was used in nautical terms to describe the very last port. If you’ve reached that port you can go no further it’s as far as you can possible go. The word eschatos was used to describe the furthest ends of the world. And so when the Holy Spirit talks about the last days and combines the word eschatos which describes the very very very very ultimate end, and then he puts it together with the word days which is the Greek word hemera He’s not just describing an age he’s talking about the final days you can’t go any further you’ve come right to the last port this is as far as you can go.
Sid: So what makes you believe we are at that last port as far as you can go now?
Rick: Well I believe based on what we see and based on what we read in 2nd Timothy chapter 3. Your know your ministry is very much to the Jewish people but if you just read the words of 2nd Timothy chapter 3 it becomes obvious that we are living in the last days of society. And the Bible tells us very interesting to me it says “This know also” the word know ginosko de it means no this emphatically know this don’t miss this that in the last times, when you come to the very end the ultimate port when you can’t go any further the end of the age, perilous times shall come. And Sid that word perilous is the Greek word kalepos and it’s only used one other place in the whole New Testament and that is in Matthew chapter 8 verse 28 where it talks about the demoniacs of Gadara. He said, “The demoniacs of Gadara were so dangerous that they were exceedingly fierce.” That’s the same word perilous, the Greek word kalepos. It describes something that is high risk, something that’s filled with danger and in fact where those demoniacs were was so dangerous that the end of verse 28 it says “No one was able to pass by that way.” So it became something that was impassible. Now the Holy Spirit reaches and grabs that same word and describes the end of the last days as a time period that is going to be kalepos. It’s going to be filled with danger, risk, it’s going to be hard to bare and it’s impassible. We’re not going to avoid this this is something that no one’s going to be able to sidetrack. It’s very important what the Holy Spirit says.
Sid: Tell me some reasons why you believe that we’re at the last of port possible before the return of the Messiah.
Rick: Well there are different signs of course Israel is a major sign maybe you can’t avoid the very fact that Israel is one of the greatest shouting marks that we’ve entered the last of the last days. When you read Matthew chapter 24 Jesus talks about birth pains that these are just the beginning of sorrows and that the earth is going to go into a period like a woman in travail; at first the birth pains will be intermittent but the closer we come to the transition into that new age those birth pains will come closer and closer and closer and closer. And then it gives birth to a new age and Sid if you look at the dealings of God in the history of man every age as it closed, and it started a new age, they’ve all ended in pain before they gave birth to a new age. And so this is very much in line with how God has dealt throughout human history. It’s wonderful you know those teaches that you’re offering on the prophetic alert about these last days that is an amazing teaching.
Sid: Okay I would like you tell me when you believe the last of the last days started.
Rick: I believe the last of the last days started about the mid 1850’s. You know Peter says that you that “In the last days scoffers will come saying “Oh nothing’s changed everything’s been the same from the very beginning.” And about the mid-1850’s there was a great geological find just in Britain who proposed the doctrine that “Everything is same as it was from the beginning.” It’s almost a direct quote from scripture. He denied the flood, he denied creation. He didn’t actually deny them he just said they all have scientific reasons that the earth is a place that is in movement none of these have anything to do with divine intervention; nothing divine whatsoever. And he had a great influence of a young man who was on a ship who was on the way to South America and that was Charles Darwin. And Charles Darwin read those volumes and it formed the thinking of Charles Darwin and really set him in a position to believe in the evolutionary theory. It’s amazing how one person can influence another person’s life. And then at that time skeptics began to challenge the Bible and say “Where is the promise of His coming; this is just a charade, this is something people have been saying forever, they’ve been saying this for 2000 years.” Not understanding of course so they were correct it has been about 2000 years since the last days began. And they began to challenge the authority of the Bible and I believe the mid 1850’s is about the time that the last days officially triggered.
Sid: And of course it made a lot of people atheist and agnostics and (laughing) and you were telling me before we went on the air a Greek word for agnostic what does it mean?
Rick: It’s a Greek word agnosis what does it mean? It’s from the word gnosis which is knowledge but if you put an “A” on the front of it cancels it. So it’s no longer somebody who has knowledge it’s someone that’s ignorant or someone who is stupid. One day I was on an airplane and a man sitting next to me I said to him what do you believe. And he said “I’m an agnostic.” I said “Really you better think about that.” He said “Well why?” I said “Because the Greek word agnostic means one who is ignorant or one who is stupid. And he said “Are you kidding me?”
Sid: (Laughing)
Rick: You just sat here and told me you were stupid.
Sid: I just got a great post for my Facebook (Laughing) a definition of agnostic from the Greek “Stupid.” Tell me some of the signs of the Second Coming.
Rick: Well of course I would say “The signs of the rapture” how’s that?
Sid: Okay.
Rick: Because the Second Coming is really a different event.
Sid: Correct.
Rick: We have the second…we have the rapture which occurs first when Jesus will come and we will meet Him in the air. And the Bible tells us that we will go to heaven and we will be with the Lord and then He will return at the end of 7 years. And it says in the book of Jude that He will come with 10,000’s and 1000’s of his saints. Enoch was the 7th from Adam and he is the one who prophesied the Second Coming so this is not new information. God has been speaking about the Second Coming the grand arrival of Jesus ever since the very beginning of time. But if you study Matthew 24 where Jesus talks about wars and rumors of wars Jesus pretty much lays it out and says “As we get closer closer to the end things are going to intensify. And then when you read 2nd Timothy chapter 3 where Paul describes how society is going to change my goodness it’s very clear to see that we’re living in an end-time society.
Sid: What does he say? How will society change?
Rick: Well he says “Well men shall be lovers or their own selves he goes through this whole list and actually gives 19 different points of things that are going to happen in society in the last days. And you know I find it interesting that right in the very middle of it he says “False accusers” which is the Greek word diaboloi, it really is the word devils. It’s almost like Paul says “Ah! The devil is in the midst.” He’s given this list the scenario of everything that’s going to take place in the last days and takes a breather himself and says “The devil is right in the middle of all of it.” And you know Sid it’s so important that we understand the scripture. Somebody might say “Why do we need to understand these verses on the last days?” Well it begins by saying “This know (this is something the Holy Spirit wants us to know). Because He wants to prepare us He didn’t say these things to scare us scaring us wouldn’t help us or anyone else. But the Holy Spirit wants us to be prepared so that we could insulate ourselves and the things which happen in society in the last days don’t happen inside our homes. We don’t have to sink with rest of the ship. I mean the rest of the ship can be sinking and we can float on the same waters that our destruction to everyone else. And that’s why I believe that it’s so very important that understand the times in which we live.
Sid: But wait a second whether someone believes in the pre-trib rapture or not we know that even though the pre-trib rapture is correct there’s going to be some very destructive times on planet earth. We’re not getting out of here before things get bad. Even in the pre-trib rapture so why do you say that people shouldn’t be fearful?
Rick: We’re anointed for this. We were not born in this generation by accident. God anointed us for these times and we have the whole armor of God, we are equipped for these times we’re chosen. Just think Sid about the things which…I mean when I think about the things that I’ve experienced in my life living in the Soviet Union I have seen history change. There are prophets who prophesied the times which we’re living in they would have loved to live in these moments. And even though these are great moments of change in the earth and there’s wars and rumors of wars we have the protection of God. And we can walk in the whole armor of God and we can walk through these times and be unaffected.
Sid: You know I love the title of the book we’re making available “You Don’t Have to Take it Anymore Because You Are Dressed to Kill.” And then you have a Roman soldier who was trained to be a professional killer but that was what the illustration Paul used. These graphics you have in full color of what each part of the armor is. I can just picture Paul in prison looking at each piece of armor and recognizing it’s supernatural. And when you are dressed to kill just as the Roman was dressed to be a killer devil watch out! That’s why you have this subtitle “You Don’t Have to take it Anymore!” Because you are dressed to kill.
Rick: You know this book these illustrations are worth the whole book, they really cause the weapons of warfare to come alive.
Sid: And you said on the last show that Kenneth Hagen read this for his students word for word, I mean because you’re such a brilliant Bible teacher. But I believe that #1 as you stated “We are anointed and chosen and called to be alive at this moment. And #2 we don’t have to get knocked down every few months by the devil there’s something better there’s a better way to live. And I can’t imagine any believer on the earth not devouring this book reading it word by word by word not skipping through it. Because this will equip you to fulfill the destiny that God’s called you to…. Rick you had two visitations from Jesus that were pretty monumental. The first visitation you had was in 1985 tell me about it.
Rick: Well in 1985 my wife and I were traveling across the United States and we were staying in a person’s home in between meetings. And we went to bed and about 2:00 in the morning I couldn’t sleep and I kept trying to go to sleep and I rebuked the devil and though “What is this disturbing me so much I can’t sleep it just.” I just could not go to sleep. So I thought “I’m getting to get up and go pray” and so I went to the backroom of that house and I began to pray and I began to pray in tongues. And I began to pray deeply in tongues I’m sure you had those experiences where you prayed so deep in the Spirit it’s like you almost became lost in another realm. Well I found myself almost lost in tongues I was praying so deeply in other tongues. And I was walking back and forth in that room with my eyes closed and got on my knees and began to worship in the spirit and when I opened my eyes I was no longer in that room I was standing in I want to call it a dark place but it wasn’t a scary place. And I understood that I was in the spirit realm, and Sid I looked and in the distance I saw a light and the light got brighter and brighter as it approached me and soon it manifested in front of me and it was Jesus who was sitting in a chair and Jesus began to talk to me about my ministry. Now He had already you know this angel had appeared to me earlier but this was the first time that I had ever seen Jesus. And Jesus reached out and took my hands and He took them one at a time and I say the he sandwiched my hands. He put one hand under my hand another hand on top of my hand and he held my hand in between my hands. And He did it to one hand and then He did it to the other hand and He did it to the other hand and He said “See today I’m giving you an anointing of love mixed with hate.” And I said “Well what is that?” He said “That is what compassion is it is love for the person and hatred for what the devil has done in their life and when love and divine hate are mixed together it creates a supernatural flow of compassion.” Then suddenly I saw myself walking through what looked like a hospital corridor and doctors and nurses dressed in very different kinds of outfits like I had never seen before. Well I know today that this is exactly the way that it looks if you’re in a Russian hospital. And as I walked through that corridor ministering to people that compassion of God and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “I’m going to be sending to you a people that are very wounded.” Well this was very compatible with what I had already seen when the angel had appeared to me and told me I was going to be sent to a people who had suffered. And you know Sid then the Lord said to me “See today I place before you finances on a wealth that are amassing more finances even now. And I felt almost as though that word entered into me and I felt myself filled with faith for finances and that God would supernaturally provide everything we need for what He was calling us to do. And then when it was over Jesus stood up turned around and walked right back to where that light had come from. And when I opened my eyes after praying for a few moments I found myself on my knees in that room I was no longer in the spirit realm but I was in that room. And this is one reason why I love to read John’s words in John chapter 1 verse 9 when he said “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. (Revelation 1:10). That word “was” is the Greek word ginomai, it describes an event which takes you off guard and by surprise, you can never anticipate it, you can never replicate it. When John says “I was in the Spirit” there’s no definite article he literally says “I came to find myself in Spirit.” You can translate it “I came to find myself in another dimension.” And that is exactly what happened to me that night when Jesus laid His hands on me, talked to me about the compassion anointing which He was giving to my life and how He was sending me to minister to a people that had been wounded.
Sid: And then you had a second visitation in 1987 from Jesus what happened then?
Rick: I was in Canada and I was in a hotel room and I woke up in the morning. When I woke up Jesus was standing at the foot of my bed just as real as if my wife had been standing at the foot of my bed. I set straight up in my bed and looked at Jesus and this was open vision my eyes were wide open I was not sleeping and Jesus was standing at the foot of my bed and just looked at me and I don’t want to say…oh the look on His face was like I have something to tell you and something to show you. And I had been very worried at that moment about our children you know our sons and I was gone so much and the demands of the ministry were requiring so much of me to be away and all of a sudden I saw my son Paul my oldest our oldest son jump into the arms of Jesus. And Jesus held him and looked at me and said “You don’t need to worry about you sons I’ve got control on your sons.” And you know Sid our sons all 3 of them work with us in the ministry, they are our partners in what we do. And then I heard the sound of an airplane engine, I mean just the roars of an engine and it’s sometimes hard to describe things which happen in the spiritual dimension, but I felt like a lift off and I could feel myself lifting off and Jesus said “See I’m sending you into the world.” And then it was over, Jesus was gone and I was sitting upright in my bed. Well years later whenever my wife and I got on the airplane with our family the first airplane that was carrying us to the Soviet Union when that plane took off down that runway and that lift off took place I had a flashback to that moment when I had heard those airplane engines. And I heard Jesus say when the airplane took off “See I’m sending you into the world.” And Sid the world has been our home ever since. We come to the United States as visitors very often shocked by what we see in the United States and the world has become our home.
Sid: Tell me why you wrote the book “Dressed to Kill?”
Rick: Ah I wrote the book “Dressed to Kill” first of all because at that particular time there was so much crazy teaching about spiritual warfare. You know if you have wrong view of the devil and a wrong view of spiritual warfare it can really mess you up. And I saw people who were doing things trying to take control of the devil which were just silly. And so I dove into the Bible to see what the Bible really has to say about the subject of spiritual warfare. And I wrote this book to be a balance and that’s why part of the subject says “A Biblical Approach to Spiritual Warfare and Armor.” You don’t have to just hope that you’re doing it right the Bible tells us very pacifically how to resist the devil and this book tells you how to do it.
Sid: Should anyone be fearful if they understand from the Bible how to be as you put it dressed to kill.
Rick: Well if you’re walking in the whole armor of God and you’re walking in the shadow of the Almighty you have no reason to be afraid. You Psalm 91 talks about “He that dwells in the secret place of the most high” if you’re dwelling in the secret place of the most high in the shadow of the Almighty you’re living in His protective care. And when you read Psalm chapter 91 the whole chapter is about the promises that belong to those who are walking closely to the Lord. And you know Sid I would say that if you’re walking with the Lord and if you’re putting on the whole armor of God and you’re renewing your mind with the word of God and doing your very best that won’t spare you from an attack you regardless. The Apostle Paul was very clear that there were places that he wanted to go and things that he want to do but Satan hindered him. But Satan was never able to knock him out of the race. Satan was never able to keep him down because he was dressed in the whole armor of God.
Sid: It’s mandatory and as a matter of fact when we come back I’d like you to explain to us how we put on the armor do we physically pretend to put it on or how does this work? But in the mean time this book is rich from Rick’s unusual gift of teaching plus him being equipped and knowing the Greek. In fact I said to him after reading this book “I want you to produce a New Testament with the understanding of Greek that you have” and he said “I’ve already started on it.” But you won’t want to put this book down, you’ll ponder over just one line of scripture when he breaks it down in the Greek language. I mean the Greek language is so much more picturesque then our English language. But more important than that we are in the last of the last days you’ve got to be equipped from a balanced Bible perspective.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth