SID: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. My guest had a revelation of the Secret Kingdom and from this understanding he developed the first Christian television network in America, a television show that has over a million viewers daily, a major university, a law school, all from the Secret Kingdom, and he says these secrets work the same for everyone. Anyone want to know these secrets? You know, Pat, we go back a long time.
PAT: We sure do.
SID: And for those that don’t recognize him, shame on you. This is Dr. Pat Robertson. And I was reminiscing a little with Pat just before we went on the air. I said, “Pat, do you remember the first time we met?” And by the way, I don’t know if anyone has done this lately, but I’m going to do it. How old are you?
PAT: Oh you’re not supposed to ask women that.
SID: I’m not asking a woman.
PAT: In about two weeks from now I’ll be 87.
SID: Eighty-seven. Okay. Now we go back to the early years of 700 Club.
PAT: Yes.
SID: And I was, I talked, I was a brand new Jewish believer in the Messiah and I talked to a nice Jewish reporter that did not know the Messiah, and I would tell him things, and I would say, “But this is off the record. It would really upset my family if this was in print.” Well everything I said that had to be off the record was in the article. And that’s the bad news. Oy vey, it was much worse. But this was a major newspaper in the Washington, D.C. area carried it and Kathryn Kuhlman’s ministry got a hold of it, and Pat Robertson’s ministry got a hold of it. And do you remember the title? “White Collar Jesus Freaks.”
PAT: “White Collar Jesus Freaks.”
SID: Forget Jesus freaks. There are a lot of things many people know about you. Many people know that you ran for President of the United States. What most people don’t know is that your dad, he was a U.S. congressman, a U.S. senator.
PAT: That’s right.
SID: You are related to two U.S. presidents. You have relatives that signed the Declaration of Independence. You’re even related to Winston Churchill.
PAT: Can you believe that?
SID: I mean, what a, you graduated Yale Law School, founded CBN, Regent University, 700 Club. You were tired.
PAT: Yes.
SID: And you wanted to retire. Why didn’t you?
PAT: When I hit 80 I had been doing a daily talk show forever. I’ve done more television telethons than anybody in history.
SID: You have my condolences.
PAT: Yeah, baby. And I was running a university and I had all these responsibilities, and I was exhausted. And I was 80 years old and I said I need to pack it in. And so I told our board, I said, “I’m going off television.” I told the university where I was involved, I said, “I’m resigning. It’s been fun.” Well the president of the university resigned, the board put me in as an interim president and all of a sudden something supernatural happened, and it really was supernatural. There was an anointing of the Holy Spirit that came on me and all of a sudden I had a new life. I had a whole new, I was rejuvenated, unbelievable. And I took over this university which was kind of failing. We just crossed, two days ago, 10,000 students.
SID: But that begs the question.
PAT: What’s that?
SID: God sabotaged your retirement. Why?
PAT: He did.
SID: Now why did he sabotage it?
PAT: Well I think there was some more for me to do.
SID: I do, too.
PAT: But I wanted out. I wanted out, but on television we have seen an explosion of anointing. We have seen the explosion of miracles, an explosion of salvations and of course this university is flourishing like you couldn’t believe. The American Center for Law and Justice, which I founded, has got a very key role to play in America. I mean, we are suing the ACLU in case after case, after case.
SID: That is wonderful. That’s music to my ears. But I want to take you back. You’re in seminary and you hear about something called the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
PAT: Yes.
SID: Speaking in tongues, supernatural language and you want it. So these were the days that you didn’t know it could be instant. For two years he’s seeking and seeking, and seeking, and seeking, and nothing is happening. But then he had a tragedy. His son, he had an illness. He was afraid he was going to be brain dead. It looked like a tragedy of tragedies. What happened?
PAT: Well this son was, had this runaway fever. He was starting convulsions and I thought, you know, he will be permanently brain dead, which is serious. So I was on my knees. He’s on the sofa in the living room. I’ve got my hands on him and I’m crying out to God, and I said, “God, please, please, please heal my boy.” And the Lord spoke to me. He said, “I love him a thousand times more than you do and you’re such an imperfect father. Don’t you know that I love him more than you?” And I said, “Yes, God, I’m a terrible father and you are a loving father.” And Sid, I literally lifted him up in prayer. I mean, literally lifted him up into the loving arms of God. And the minute I did that the power of God came on that boy, bang, the fever broke, and the next day he was completely well.
SID: You got a pleasant surprise, that thing you were after for two years.
PAT: I wanted to begin praising God. I was so thrilled. And I began to say, “O God, you are wonderful, O God, I want to thank you.” And the next thing I know there was this African dialect coming out of my voice and I began to praise God. And my wife was in the living room and she was sitting down, and she said to me, “How long has this been going on?” Just then the angels happened.
SID: I can picture that. But I have to tell you, the thing that stuck with me like oatmeal when you eat it in the morning.
PAT: Okay.
SID: Was your life story. And one day you’re reading a scripture. It’s Luke 12:33. I wish I could have observed this happening.
PAT: Well we were living in Queens, New York. I was in seminary. I left law school. I was in seminary. And my wife was in her family in Ohio and I was there by myself at a time of fasting and prayer to seek God’s direction. And as I was praying, God said, “I want you to read Luke 12:33.” So I opened the Bible and it said, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and come follow me.” And I said, “Oh, okay, God, okay. Okay God.”
SID: Did you say “Oh” or did you say yes?
PAT: I said, “Okay, God, I’ll do it.”
SID: What did your wife say about this?
PAT: Well she didn’t say anything. She didn’t know.
SID: That’s what I meant. I told you, it gets better or worse.
PAT: I contacted her and I said, “Dear, God is dealing with me over Luke 12:33. What do you think?” And she says, “Well honey, you do whatever the Lord shows you.” We had some old early American-type furniture. So I put an ad in the newspaper and I said, “For Sale: Early American Furniture.” So my apartment was besieged with buyers, sold out everything that was there. Well later on I moved to an interracial commune in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and the telephone in our apartment was disconnected. My wife called and I’d wound up in Brooklyn. She said, “What are you doing in Brooklyn?” I said, “Well I’ve sold our furniture and I’ve moved into this commune.” She said, “You’ve what?” And I said, “Well I told you the Lord was dealing with me in Luke 12:33.” She said, “Well I didn’t read that stuff.” I said, “Next time you’d better read it.”
SID: Listen to this. He’s has got $70 to his name. God tells him to move back home and buy a television station.
PAT: That’s right.
SID: Seventy dollars. We’ll talk about it when we come back.
