Sid roth Interview with Jim Richards

1. Sid Roth : Interview with Jim Richards sidroth.over-blog.com/2019/12/sid-roth-interview-with-jim-richards.html JIM: All right! Thank you so much! I am so grateful that you’re here. Today we’re going to be talking about something and it almost sounds like an overinflated title to what I’ve given this thing. But I think you’ll agree before it’s over with, I call this “The Most Important Factor!” You know, uh, I’ll never forget— you know when I was, you know I do a lot of business, I, I— besides— I’ve been in the ministry for over 40 years but I’ve always had businesses on the side to, to create my finances. And so I’m always involved in business things and, and it helps me reach the world and, you know, that, that sort of thing. And uh, and uh, part of what I do in business is I consult with other businesses and I go in and help’em build teams and learn how to be successful and all, all this kind of stuff. Well you know I’ll never forget hearing this phrase some years ago and it was so simple yet so, so true. And it’s, it’s, it’s this simple phrase. Uh, the most important thing is to find out what IS the most important thing! Now that sounds almost ridiculous to say something like that. But you know what? It’s true. Here’s something I’ve discovered, and, like I say over 40 years of working with— isn’t that— I got saved— I have a drug background. You know, uh, just one of these crazy, wild lives. And so when I got born again, I, I began— this was back in the Jesus Movement days— I got, I started ministering on the street. And I’m not talking about how where you stand on the corner with a Bible and scream at people. But I’m talking about just walking around parks and stuff and sitting down beside people and starting to share Jesus with’em and so, so we had— you know and then it turns into revival, you see what I mean? Before long then there’s a group of people there that you’re leading to the Lord. Then before long, you know, it’s a meeting and before long the police are coming to break it up because it’s so big. You know? But, but you’ve got to realize I, I have spent my entire ministry life dealing with people that, you know that they weren’t in pretty good shape. Well if you’re kinda like the average pastor, I’m not being critical, but if you’re kinda like the average pastor most of the people that walk through your doors they’re kinda in pretty good shape. You know what I mean? They’re, you know, they’re, you know they might be messed up but, but they’re not critically messed up. AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER) Jim: Now, so— but you got to realize most of the people that I started out dealing with in ministry and really still do a lot, you know are people who had, had, had been shooting up heroin for 20 years. People who had committed murder. Or some of’em had committed several murders. You know drug dealers of, of every kind. Criminals of every kind. So these were not people that you could just come in and, and teach’em a few little sayings and kind of like, uh, you know just say this and look to the north and eventually the spirit will move and you’ll be all right. You know? No, these were people that came in with problems. As a matter of fact, you all remember one of my very, one of my very early, early evangelistic experiences, yeah cause I’d go out on the streets. I didn’t know 1/8

2. any better. I’d put my, I’d put my phone number on here and my address. What— phew — you know crazy people would show up. I mean you know a lot like you guys. You know— AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER) JIM: Uhhh— I mean different kind of crazy! You know what I mean? You know what I mean! You know, you know people— and so people would show up at my house. I’ll never forget a guy shows up at my house in the middle of the night. He’s so big he like blocks out the moon. You know, you know what I’m saying? And he comes to my door and he says are you that guy that’s been down there talking about Jesus? And I’m like umm, uh, maybe, uh, uh, could be. And, uh, he comes in and he says, uh, and, and he shows me he’s packing heat, you know. He says, uh, well, uh, I’m getting ready to go kill my mother and kill my wife and tomorrow morning I will be on the court house square and I will kill everybody that moves and I’m going to start with killing you if you can’t get me help. Man, I got news for ya. That’s when you go what is the most important thing around here? I’m want to tell you something. We have so missed the most important aspect, two most important aspects of the gospel. And we’ve done what people do— and I see this in when I go into a consulting, you go in and, and these companies will teach people how to do stuff. Now, and, and it works for a while and when it starts not working instead of going back to what did work, then they started adding something on. And in a year or two years what they’re doing isn’t even close to what they were taught to do. That’s what we do as believers. We come to Jesus in such incredible simple faith and it works. Everybody know what I’m talking about? You, you remember. You remember how when you first got saved it’s like man, getting a prayer answered was like falling off of a slippery rock! There was nothing to it! You— I mean it just seemed like everything worked. But what happened? What happened was we started— when something would go wrong instead of going back to what was really working we started kinda adding new things onto it and it started getting more and more complex. And before long it wasn’t even about Jesus anymore. Now it’s about us and our performance and what all we do and what all we feel like what we deserve. And we’ve left behind the most important factor. Let, let me say this first. You know THE root of the gospel— your faith is all about what you believe about the death, burial and resurrection. See most of us look to the life that Jesus lived when He walked planet earth. I go okay, my faith is going to be rooted in what He did. You know I’m thankful for what He did while He was here. I mean I could spend hours talking about the value that we have by Him emptying Himself, becoming a man and, and yielding to the Holy Spirit and all of those kinds of things. But you know what? That has nothing to do with my salvation. That has nothing to do with how or why the power of God would work in my life. That has nothing to do with me experiencing this thing we call “salvation.” And you know this thing we call salvation: “Sozo” [the Greek New Testament word for salvation] —saved, healed, delivered, blessed, prospered, protected, made whole, set apart. It’s not just about getting born again. It’s about every aspect of quality of life, of dimension of life that Jesus obtained for us through His death, burial and resurrection. And so we need to know what happened while He was on the cross. What happened while He was in the grave. What happened so that He was raised 2/8

3. up. And then what happened after He was raised up. Now, I— that’s the, that’s the root of the gospel. And you know what? That’s what you hear preached less than anything else. I mean you might hear a reference to the cross, but you don’t hear people talking about all the things that the Bible says happened. Just like this concept of, of being delivered from the curse of the Law. See if you can read you go back and read Deuteronomy or anywhere, and you go okay, this is a curse, this is a curse, this is a curse and you know when that comes into my life, if I recognize it as a curse, that’s when I have said, “No! I don’t accept you. You’re not from God.” And then not only— that’s when you know guilt’s going to rise up and you say but you remember that thing that you did the other day. You’re like you know what? That’s right. As a matter of fact I’ll just deal with that right now. Father, I thank you that I’m forgiven. I don’t— you know and you know you deal with it, but still I have authority. Even though I might have failed, even though I might have problems with it I still have authority because of what Jesus did! And you got to realize. See when Jesus rose from the dead, because you died with Him then every aspect of you that opposes the ress— who, who, who Jesus is resurrected died. And you, you were raised up with Him. New creation. Now the Bible tells us that when we come to Jesus that we got to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. Now not just believe that He raised Him from the physical death. But do you know what? There had already been people raised from physical death. Jesus raised people from the dead. People were raised from the dead in the Old Testament. But do you believe God raised Jesus from the dead based on His account of what happened? And what does that have to do with you? And that’s where it starts getting interesting. Because the Bible says you got to believe that in your heart, not just your mind. See when you believe something in your mind, intellectually, when you’ve gathered the information all you have done is renewed your mind. Now there’s nothing wrong with that. You can even put some of that information you know into practice and it’ll benefit your life. But you, that doesn’t mean you’re experiencing transformation. That doesn’t mean you’re changing from the inside out. It just means you got some information that you can try really hard to put into practice. But the Bible says you got to believe this in your heart. Now the heart, and, and I, I don’t have time to go into all the dimensions of the heart. We could, honestly, I could, I could talk about the heart, its functions for a week nonstop, every day for hours. We can’t go into all that. But I want you to understand some of the basics of the heart. First and foremost, the heart is the real you. As near as I can understand from, from over 40 years of, of diving into this the heart is part spirit, part soul. Now the spirit part of your heart God has already written all of His truth on that part of you. But the soul part of your heart that’s why you got to renew your mind so that, so that they will be in harmony. So that what, so what you think and what your emotions are saying are harmonious with what God says and with the reality that God has, has established in you. Now the heart is the real you. And one of the— the two most interesting aspects of the heart are this. Number one, when you believe a truth in your heart it changes your sense of self. It changes how you see and experience who you really are. Now some of you have heard me talk at different times and teach at different times about, uh, uh, about prosperity or about success or this sort of thing. You know one, one of the reasons success works for me is this. See I can’t see myself broke! One of the reasons I get healed— You know I’ve 3/8

4. overcome several life-threatening diseases. You know I was a, I was a, uh— after I stopped being a street preacher then I started being a jungle preacher and I used to do jungle crusades in other countries. And man I’m tellin ya I was, I was in other countries sleeping in huts, eating stuff that would make a goat puke. That’s, that’s a real missionary! If you can eat something that would make a goat puke you’re a real missionary! You know what I’m saying? And so man, I’m off in the jungle doing these crusades and uh, you know, uh, every phenomenal thing— uh, I’ve seen every miracle in the Bible. I mean, uh, I mean we would see, we’d see so many blind people get healed. This would be the honest truth. They would stop taking testimonies of blind people getting healed because it was boring. Because we had we already had so many of’em. You’d see cripples just get up and run around everywhere, all these kinds of things. You know thank God for it! But you know what? There’d be lots of times I’d be back in that jungle eating what those people eat, drinking the water they drink and I’d come home nearly dead! I’d— honestly, there have been 2 or 3 times since, uh, I started doing that kind a stuff that I would come back from some country somewhere and, and they, my wife or the doctors would not think I would live past the week. And, and these truths that I’m sharing with you these are the things that I used to walk out of those life-threatening illnesses. These are the things I used to walk out of financial disasters. It’s all about what Jesus did on the cross. But it’s not just the fact that He did it. I’ve got to believe that in my heart. Not just have this mental agreement. Not like, okay, yeah, let’s me see. God give me enough information and if, if I, you know if I see that I agree with you and I think you’re smart enough then what I’m going to do is I’m going to pass a judgment about You and say yeah God, you’re smart enough. I’ll kind of go along with that. And we think that that’s believing. I say believing in your heart is when you believe something to such a degree you can’t separate who you are from this reality. Now stop and think about it. Your whole life, your, your mind is gathering behave— is gathering information. Your whole life. Parents are saying things to you. Schoolteachers are saying things to you. Uh, you’re having failures and successes, embarrassments. All of these things. Well see we think that we are the sum total of our lives’ experiences because we’re living out of this. And so your mind serves to protect your ego. So your mind is always going, I mean in a nanosecond, every time an opportunity comes to it, before you realize you thought about it your mind’s going to say “uh uh, uh uh, uh uh.” And you’re going so that’s the Holy Spirit saying no. That’s not the Holy Spirit. That’s fear! AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER) Uh huh! C’mon preach it! JIM: I mean, I mean really. I, I mean we’re just constantly intellectually trying to drive our life to protect our ego so we won’t fail again. Because our ego really is who we think we are. That’s why when we come to Jesus we’re supposed to believe about the resurrection in our heart! Because your mind protects your ego. Your heart protects your identity. And you see if I believe the truth about the resurrection— now you know, you know this. You’re— We, we are saved. We have been saved. And we’re being saved. You, you understand what I’m saying? We are born again. I mean you know that’s, that’s a done deal. But this whole salvation experience it, it progressively grows in our life. I mean spirit, our spirit man is born again and is righteousness and is as saved as we’re ever 4/8

5. going to get. It’s not that we get something new from God but to the degree that we believe these truths in our heart they begin manifesting in our, in our life. And, and the way we tell that they’re, that we’re growing in these things is not because we can quote more scripture. You know? It’s not even necessary— I mean yes, you want to live more godly but it’s not just because you live more godly, it’s because you do these things effortlessly. Because you see when I start believing in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, if it’s a heart thing then I can’t separate His resurrection from my resurrection. I can’t see myself being any different than, than He is in a certain sense. You know what I mean? And the Bible does say “as He is, so are we.” Now man it’s, it’s hard to get your head around that. In some circles if you say that, then you’re a heretic, you know you’re— there’s something wrong with you. No, but that’s what the Bible says. Because see the reality of it is Jesus was raised from the dead. And when I got born again I got baptized IN TO Him. And what should have happened is then some, somebody should have pulled us off to the side and said now we’re going to baptize you, but, but, but we want you to know that this can be something that transforms your life or it can just be getting wet. And if you’re just going to get wet, bring some soap! You know what I’m saying? But you see what they should have said to us is that: Now listen. You’re a new believer. Even though you don’t realize it, everything that you were has died and the resurrection power of Jesus is working in you. And so, when, when, when, when they dunk you down in that water, however you do it, as much as you know how, I want you to see, feel, imagine, picture, think, whatever you do bring it alive inside of you that you are buried with Jesus because you died with him. And when they snatch you back up out of that water, however you do it, I mean everybody does it different, but however you do it so that you experience it as being real, you see, feel, experience imagine, whatever, however you do it, that you are raised up in Him. Now see that should have been the way it started. And you know every time we have communion, I’ll tell you nearly everything we’re taught about communion is unscriptural. The whole purpose of communion is to keep renewing ourselves to that fact that I died with Him. You know? I’ve been washed in the blood. His body was broken for ya. I’m raised up with Him. That, that should be what communion is about. Because that word “communion” comes from an interesting word “communion,” “koinonia,” and we think about fellowship and you know if you’re been a Christian long you’re thinking about fellowship and you’re thinking about hot dogs and hamburgers you know on Friday night or something, you know, after the service, you know of course and not in the sanctuary. Uh, hahah. But that word “koinonia” literally means to share something in common. Now what is it we share in common with Jesus? If our fellowship is with Him, what is it I share in common with Jesus? Well I’ll tell you what I share in common with Him. I died with Him. I was buried with Him. And when I was raised— when He was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. And when He cast Satan out of heaven I was in Him. And when He sat down at the right hand of God and received an inheritance I am seated with Him in the heavenly places and I’m sharing in that inheritance. That’s what I share with Jesus! Now influence in our heart. You know you can go through the Bible and you can, you can see, you can see phrases like “write this on your heart.” You can see phrases like “guard your heart.” You can see phrases like “establish your heart,” “guide your heart.” All of these— and you 5/8

6. start realizing something. Other than God writing His word on that aspect of my heart— and then the Greek you know that it’s the deep part of your being. It’s, it’s just deep, and, and when it talks about even the thoughts that emerges, it’s a Greek word that means subconscious thoughts or deep thoughts. Other than God writing that word on my heart and His Spirit, you know, bringing me to life inwardly, after that I am the only person that has the capability to influence my heart. Nobody else can! God made us that way. Nobody can guard your— can influence your heart. Now you can take what other people say and think about it and ponder on it and these things. And here, here’s the way you write something on your hearts. Pretty simple but it, it comes down to this. Emotion plus information. The Hebrew word for meditate is “to mutter over and over again” or “to frame up” or even “to complain.” You know because you know what you do when you’re complaining? You’re thinking about something that’s wrong. And you’re, you start thinking about it and you start talking about it until you create those emotions again. And so now it comes back alive to ya. So Biblical meditation, which is the key, you know is the one key— Jesus even told us in— you know I call it the “heart physics parable,” Jesus, uh, uh, called it “the sower,” or, or we call it “the sower,” you know the, the whole point of that parable is there’s only one way to get the word of God to grow in your heart. The measure you meet that’s the measure that’s met unto you. In other words the degree of thought, study, meditation, considering, pondering, reflection that you give to the word of God that, and that alone, determines the amount of life that’s going to manifest in you from that word that you hear. Now so, you know, and it’s— there, there are several Hebrew words by the way for “meditate” that we don’t— that are not translated as meditate. As a matter of fact did you know that the word “sanctification” is actually a Hebrew word that has more to do with, with a meditative process? See we think about it as a ritualistic process or a getting everything right about ourselves. The word sanctification not only means to set yourself apart FROM something but to set yourself apart UNTO something. And it’s not just the fact that you do it physically, you know that you geographically remove yourself, but you internally set your heart, your mind, your thoughts apart unto the Lord. And did you know that there’s three particular Hebrew words that every time you see the words worship, praise, prayer, pray, vision, prophesy, did you know that one of those three Hebrew words is almost always going to be somewhere in that passage. And, and you know what that’s telling us? That’s telling us that the difference between singing and worshipping is whether or not I’m, I’m talking myself into this, setting my heart apart, you know directing all of this to God inwardly. The difference between praying and “jibber jabbering” is, is the heart engaged. Am I engaging myself internally? Am I, I bringing all that I am to bear to connect with God in this? Now two most important factors. One: all of our faith has to be based on what we believe about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Two: I’ve got to believe it in my heart, not just mentally. Now one of my favorite passages of scripture that changed me— I tell you when I heard this passage of scripture in 1975 I was, I was in a meeting in 1975, biggest names in the world were speaking in this meeting. And there was this one old, country redneck preacher there. He looked so out of sorts that you’re just looking at this guy thinking what in the world are you even doing here? You know? I mean he was as count— as a matter of fact he was from Walhalla South Carolina. That’s country right 6/8

7. there! You know what I’m saying? Now I’m from Alabama. I know what country is. You know I’m a recovering redneck myself. I, I, I go to the meetings and everything. You know? AUDIENCE: (LAUGHING) JIM: But, man, you’ve got the most polished speakers in the world. You’ve got this one guy up there and you’re just looking at him like “What?” Man, he walks up. And he was funny. His glasses were sliding down his nose. And he was always making all these weird faces trying to get his glasses up. And all these other guys, you know they would preach for like 90 minutes, you know? He gets up and speaks about 15, 20 minutes. I’m going to tell you something. From that day to this day I have never struggled with faith. Never! And the verse that he taught on was from the Book of Philemon, Philemon 6, where it says “That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing that’s in you in Jesus.” Now if you just took that at the King James translation that’d be enough to change your world! And that’s what he did! He— and, and he just basically said, Look, if you want the communication, the living, the sharing, the functioning of your faith to become effective, start acknowledging all the good things that are in you in Jesus. Man, that was, that was monumental in 1975! And I remember the very next day I, you know, I was, I was doing my undergraduate work in theology. Man, I’m telling you the next day we got together, we’d, we’d have a big chapel service every morning, there’d be several hundred of us get there, get together and pray. I’m walking around saying Father, I thank you that I’m the righteousness of God in Christ. I thank you that I am an overcomer. I’m more than a conqueror. I mean I’m going through this stuff. And I notice it’s getting quieter and quieter in the room and finally nobody’s praying but me! And you know I don’t care so I’m going to just keep on. Finally when I get through praying I look and the whole class had stopped praying and they were all standing on this side of the room looking at me. And basically one of the guys that had— you know, was, was, was a senior went to one of the pastors and said you need to talk with Jim. He’s got an ego problem. AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER) JIM: And they called me and they said what, what is this you’re doing in prayer? And I said I’m doing what the Bible says. I’m acknowledging the good things that are in me in Jesus. And, and I mean—. honest... They gave me the nickname “Mr. Self-Sufficient” because from their perspective you, you needed to be talking about what all was wrong with you. You need to be, you know, you know whining and crying about whatever was wrong with you. And let me tell you something. That doesn’t change anything. Now yeah, you got to own that stuff. But I, I don’t want to live in the realm of what’s wrong with me. And that’s not what I, see that’s not what I share with Jesus. I shared that with Him when we died together. But when I got raised up with Him we left that in the grave. AUDIENCE: That’s right! Whoooo! Yes, Lord! (CLAPPING) 7/8

8. JIM: And today I am a new creation. So let’s, let’s break this down. Let’s, let’s just get what this really says in the original language. You, you’ll love it. So it says that the “communication,” now that word “communication” is that Greek word “koinonia.” That, that what you share in common in your faith. How you walk out of anything is more about— you, you know what the general word of God says about integrity but you, you get yourself back to peace and then you follow God in your heart and you will always, always, always land on your feet! Thank you, guys. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it’ll be a blessing to ya! AUDIENCE: Whoooo! (APPLAUSE) SID: Well I don’t know about you guys but I sure enjoyed his teaching. Why don’t you stand up. I want to bless you. Ancient Biblical Jewish prayer that God said to Moses. If you’ll pray this prayer over the Jewish people I will seal My Name upon them forever. Except I’m going to pray this on this side of the cross. It was prayed in the Old Testament looking towards the cross. The Lord has already blessed you! The Lord has already smiled upon you, He already has! The Lord has already surrounded you with His favor and with His angels and with His peace! The Lord has already gifted you. Just start walking in it! He’s already done it! The Lord has already given you His Shalom, His completeness in your spirit, in your soul and in your body. In the name that is above every disease, in the name that is above every stress, in the name that is above every family problem, in the name that is above every financial problem, in the name that is above every job problem. Just get that into your spirit! In the name of Yeshua ha Mashiach, Tsidkenu! Jesus the Messiah, our Righteousness! And all God’s people recognized who they really are and stopped any pity party from now on till they get to heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen. This is the interview of Jim Richards taken by Sid Roth. 8/8