SID: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. My guest has had meetings all over the world where a hundred percent of the people in attendance get physically healed. But what happens when an incurable disease goes into his home? Many people suffer needlessly. My guest says no more! So you go to spirit-filled churches. They believe in healing, Pentecostal churches. You see a little bit and then you get hit with really a chronic back condition. And so what was your first thought when you found out what was wrong with you?
ART: Well I believed God could heal. I just didn’t know if he would. And you know, the doctor told me I was going to have surgery. I was going to have to go through all these things. So I just went along with it, took the pain medication I was supposed to take. He said, “You’re a little young for the surgery.” But I didn’t have a lot of hope that I would definitely be healed until the Lord started teaching me about healing ministry and I realized what was available.
SID: What was wrong with your back?
ART: I had degenerative disk disease.
SID: That sounds bad.
ART: Yes. I wasn’t allowed to lift more than 30 pounds. My back would go out two to four times a year. I’d be on strict bed rest two weeks at a time and I was miserable all the time, constant chronic pain. But the healing happened in April 2011. I started healing ministry, however, in August 2009. So for a year and a half I watched other people’s backs get healed and watched them receive the miracle that I knew Jesus paid for, for me, and just had to persevere through that and hold fast to the truth that Jesus wanted it.
SID: But a major, major key happened in your life when you went to Heaven. Tell me about it.
ART: Yes. I had this one experience where I fell on my face. In my vision I saw Heaven. I fell on my face and I was on this road that was just like reflective, really. And I saw my reflection, and I was so overwhelmed with the experience I just looked at this reflection. I said, “Jesus, I’m tired of seeing myself. I want to see you.” And in that moment my reflection spoke back and he said, “You do see me.” And that’s when I realized the reality of Galatians 2:20, that I was crucified with Christ. I no longer live. Christ lives in me. He’s there. He’s here. He’s in all of us. So Paul said to the Corinthian Church, in Chapter 11, First Corinthians, he said that, “One of the reasons that there are weak and sick, and even dead people among you is because you failed to discern the Lord’s body.” Now he says this in the context on the teaching of communion. So we easily go to the bread, somehow we’re supposed to discern Jesus in there. But the context of First Corinthians, even that whole area, is we the people are the body of Christ and we have to be walking in fellowship with each other. One of the problems we run into is, you know, people will drive for hours and hours to get to one of my meetings, but I’m like, I feel bad because I want to let them know, you know, you could have just reached out touched the person who sits next to you in church every week. That’s just as much the body of Jesus as anyone. First Corinthians 6 says that our bodies are members of Christ himself. Our bodies are members of Christ himself. That means I am a physical extension of Jesus and so is every believer who the Spirit of God dwells inside of.
SID: At your meetings, why do you tell one person to pray for another?
ART: So when I got into healing ministry I started studying the scriptures and I saw Jesus say things, like in John 14:12, he said, “Everyone who believes in me will do the same things I’ve been doing.” You know, “These signs accompany those who believe.” So I realized this was for everyone. In Acts, Chapter 5, all the believers were gathering together in Solomon’s collonade and it says just a couple of verses later that the people brought all the sick and demon-possessed, and all of them were healed. So there is a biblical precedent, post-Jesus for 100 percent results and it was happening as all the believers gathered and ministered to each other. So I just teach people how to do this, which really is just put your hand there and let Jesus do the heavy lifting, and then we turn them loose on each other and we watch what God does. I’m an ordinary believer just like anybody.
SID: You’re telling me anyone that’s an ordinary believer can do what you as an ordinary believer do.
ART: Absolutely. In fact, the first 25 years of my life, no miracles, and I prayed for lots of people to be healed. And all of a sudden when I realized Jesus wants it, he paid for it, he wouldn’t pay for something he didn’t want, that it’s something that’s available in the scriptures, and that it’s for all believers to do, I was like, oh, I’m out of excuses. There is nothing that I have to hold onto to say, well I can disqualify myself. If you believe, you fit the qualifications. If anyone says, I feel unworthy, they’re right. There is no such thing as being worthy to minister miracles. There is no such thing as being worthy of anything in the Christian life. It’s all about Jesus being worthy.
SID: You see tens of thousands of miracles. So what happens to Art when he develops Crohn’s disease?
ART: Actually, it’s interesting, the last time I was on your show I was up the night before with cramping in my stomach, wondering, God, what is going on? How do I survive this thing? And I was struggling. I had come back from Africa and had some bleeding issues, and I was afraid, did I get a parasite or what? Well it turns out I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease about a year later. And several months after that I wrote a blog post on my website and told my readers, you know, “The only common denominator of all the miracles in the Gospels was somebody who made contact with Jesus.” And I said, “You, if you’re seeking a miracle, you need to make contact with Jesus and here’s the good news, just as we were talking, we’re the body of Christ, grab the shirtsleeve of the person next to you at church this Sunday.” And so I also said, “Now I want you to know I’m not speaking from some ivory tower telling you something that I don’t understand. I’m in this with you. I’ve got Crohn’s disease right now and I’m struggling with the pain of it. Sometimes I’m laying hands on other people with my stomach twisted in knots.” I said, “But I’m going after this thing because Jesus deserves what he paid for.” People hit “Reply” on that email list.
SID: Not you deserve, Jesus deserves.
ART: Oh come on, he deserves it.
SID: Do you get that?
ART: Yes.
SID: Big distinction.
ART: People hit “Reply” on that email list and they were writing me saying the things that I had been teaching them to do. They’re typing in there, “Crohn’s disease, leave in Jesus’ name. Be healed in Jesus’ name.” I’m reading these emails and I’m thinking to myself, this is the moment for me to take my own advice. These are ordinary people. Nobody has a clue who they are. I don’t know who they are, but that’s the body of Jesus speaking to me right now. And I said, “Jesus, I thank you for ministering to me right now.” The very next day, 80 percent of the symptoms were gone and by the end of the month, completely healed. And now it’s been over a y year.
SID: Now you say, okay, but Art knows a lot. Do you know what he told me? His two-year-old son can do it. If his two-year-old son can do it, so can you. We’ll be right back.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth