Sid: We want everyone to be red hot for Messiah; and stop buying the lie. “Yes, you have messed up, but yes God is a good God and He wants to forgive you if you repent.” Truly repent of your sins. The good news is that He doesn’t just forgive you but He washes away as if it never existed. So you haven’t missed God; you’re right on schedule don’t give up! My guest would have said amen to that if I had let her but she didn’t know if she could do it or not. Her name is Debbie Rich and she’s from Tampa, Florida but I’ve caught up with her in Toronto where she’s having…you just told me that you just had a fabulous meeting. Tell me about it.
Debbie: Yes we did; we are in our second week of revival up here in the Toronto area. And just the day before yesterday having lunch with a pastor I began to talk to him about how much I know that there is so much more available than what we’re seeing. I’ve seen great miracles; we’ve had great meetings over the years but I said “I know that there is so much more and I have never been so discontent with where we’re at.” And when I came home from that lunch I began to seek the Lord and I heard Him say “Debbie, this isn’t an outside attack that you’re under this is not something the enemy is doing; I’ve created this discontent on the inside of you.”
Sid: I thought it was just me. (Laughing)
Debbie: (Laughing) No, I was starting to think that too about myself, but He said “I am putting such a dissatisfaction in you so that you will be willing to pay the price to come into the fullness of everything that I have; there is so much more! And He just let me know that the Body of Christ is living far, far under where we should be living. And as I just cried out to the Lord that day and said “Burn everything out of me that you need to burn out of me; Lord, let there be a new intimacy between me and You; let me be so surrendered and so able to flow with whatever you’re doing.” And that night in the meeting the presence of the Holy Spirit was so heavy that somewhere in the middle of my message I was overwhelmed. I stood there weeping and shaking and could not even get out what I was trying to say. All of a sudden I heard weeping beginning all over the congregation and I looked up and saw people just being propelled out of their seats; no one laying hands on them. Everybody was going to the floor on their face and it was wailing; not just weeping but wailing. And I remember that there was sounds of people just going “Oh, oh, oh, oh” and it almost sounded like they were getting ready to erupt some of them sounded like a fire-engine and…
Sid: In your opinion what were they weeping over?
Debbie: Heaven was coming down and just kissing us and touching us. And I believe that it was a mixture of such an overwhelming presence and them knowing what I had experienced that day I didn’t even tell it. But we are living so far under where we should be living and that the harvest; it’s harvest time and we have billions of people to be reaped. And the church must get into position for that. And I believe that they were weeping for the lost with the compassion of Christ and weeping at our own neglect and our own failures and say “Lord get me there at any cost.” And just such a heavy presence we just almost couldn’t tell if we were in heaven or still on the earth.
Sid: You know you have just paraphrased what I’ve been praying to the Lord and I’ve believe many of our listeners have been praying that to the Lord. And you have just confirming; I mean I want to see what the Bible says “We’ll see the same works Jesus did and even greater.”
Debbie: Yes.
Sid: I’m not even going to look at the greater I just want to see the same works Debbie!
Debbie: Absolutely; and I’ve just had enough of the taste of those same works not on a level on what I know that we can have them or the frequency. But I’ve had enough of a taste to know we can’t live without seeing what we’re suppose to be seeing. We actually saw someone raised from the dead last fall for the first time. And I just went “Lord I know that that is available; that realm is available and we have to tap into it all the time.
Sid: Tell me just briefly that person that was raised from the dead; about them.
Debbie: Okay, she was an older lady. Her name is Sarah Shark and she was 78 years old and she’s been a Pentecostal Pioneer preaching the gospel for many, many, many years. And was involved with a charismatic move in the ’60s with Kathryn Kuhlman on the west coast. And I met up with her and another woman preacher and invited them to come to my house and come to some of my pastors meetings and they ended up staying with me for about 6 months. And I was leaving to go on one of my own crusades; hugged them and said “Goodbye.” Heard a scream; turned around to see her laying on the sidewalk in front of my own home. Ran back and I knew that she was dead; her mouth was open, her eyes were set; no breath. I’ve been trained in CPR, no pulse, no anything. Neighbors saw it; they came running from across the street and they said “This lady is dead.” One of them was a paramedic and “She’s dead.” And I said “I realize that.” But I said “I believe that she came here to Tampa to see the things fulfilled that she’s been prophesying all of her life; and it’s not time for her to go yet.” And myself and the other friend of hers who’s also a preacher Jo Durham. We began to pray for her and we heard our tongues change and go into another language with a new impetus; it was just we were flooded with a gift of faith at that moment. And she by this time she had been laying there dead for I would estimate 20 minutes. And all of a sudden her chest moved and by this time the ambulance had gotten there and they looked and said “Yes, she is alive but we believe that she’s had a major stroke and she’ll be a total vegetable.” And they put her on a gurney; took her off to the hospital; I had to leave right then or I was going to be late for my crusade. And I called back as soon as I could get a hold of someone; she was already out of the hospital, they ran all of the tests, no sign of a stroke, no sign of anything ever being wrong and she’s out preaching the gospel today at the age of 79.
Sid: Hm. Debbie, let’s talk you back now as a child. You had some experiences with God; tell me about that.
Debbie: Yes, I had old fashion Pentecostal grandparents that took me to church every time the doors were open. And when I was just 3 years old I would ask them about the things that they had seen in God. And they would tell me about the great camp meetings of Oral Roberts and William Branham and AA Allen. And I so longed to see those things again and I asked them why we weren’t seeing them today? And they said “Well, honey you’re just born in the wrong time; to bad you couldn’t have been born a few years ago.” And I thought “No, the book of Acts is still in the Bible.” I mean as a little girl and so I was just praying, I asked the Lord into my life you know when I was just 3 years old and I knew that I was called to preach from that time on. And as I would be praying the Lord would show me; many…in vision form many colors of people and nations. And I didn’t even know what the nations were yet but I would tell my grandparents that I’m going to preach all over the world, I’ve seen many colors of people; many tribes. And I would lay on that altar at church; we didn’t have quite the revelation maybe in some areas that we have today; but I was just rededicating my life constantly and Gram and Gram-pa would pull me off the altar at 1:00 AM and say “Honey you’ve got school tomorrow and your parents are never going to let you come with us again if we don’t get you home.” And they would just see me weeping on the altar. In fact I was just visiting with my grandmother a few months ago at the age of 92. She said “Honey, I remember from as long as you could talk just laying on that altar saying “Jesus I want to reach the nations.”
Sid: Question, here God gives you these experiences, give you godly grandparents; you get married at a young age 18. You’re husband is physically abusive; you’ve got 3 children and after 18 years of marriage did you think that there was any chance that what God had shown you as a child could come to pass?
Debbie: No, it was looking like there was no chance; I knew that the call was still there; I knew that the fire was still there, but in the mess that I was living in I was almost despairing of life itself.
Sid: Is that why you wrote your book “From Crushed Grapes to New Wine.”
Debbie: Absolutely.
Sid: I mean there must be so many people listening to us right now that had a vision; had a dream from God and it looks,,,; they can’t afford things, they have to have an extra job. Maybe there is a single parent and they got to work all the time and they’ve go to take care of the kids. And there is just no hope and it’s absolutely impossible; what would you say to them?
Debbie: I would say to them “All things are possible through Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday and forever.” Do not let go; God is the one who put that destiny in the inside of you and that burning desire. And He will make a way; when you come to the end of yourself in trying to figure out with your natural mind how it can be done. And when you quit saying “I’ve made too many mistakes You’re through with me Lord.” And just say “Lord forgive me; that’s what Your blood’s for.” It’s for the sinner and it’s for the Christian whose made mistakes. And Lord if there is anything that You can bring out of this this mess, it looks like a total mess right now. But You are the God who will make new wine out of crushed grapes; You will bring something beautiful; You will turn my ashes of mourning into something very beautiful. Lord I don’t know how to get there but I give it to You; come and do a work on the inside of me that heals me from this mess and then let me be able to give it to a lost and dying world. And I’m telling you He will make a way where there is no way; He is the God of second chance and the third and the fourth and He never gives up on us.
Sid: Well, we humans think that God gives up on people that have fouled up but only God knows their heart; only God knows if they repented. And if they have repented then they’re not reading the same Bible that I’m reading that says “Under the New Covenant God will remember your sins no more.”
Debbie: That’s exactly right; He so wipes it out that if you said “Lord I still feel so bad about what I did back there He’s going to say “What did you do?” I don’t even know about it and He wipes it out.
Sid: Okay, Debbie we’re out of time right now. Mishpochah I want you to learn about her experience in heaven; her experience in the miraculous; and how God is fulfilling those visions that she had as a young child against impossible odds.
