Is there a supernatural dimension, a world beyond the one we know? Is there life after death? Do angels exist? Can our dreams contain messages from Heaven? Can we tap into ancient secrets of the supernatural? Are healing miracles real? Sid Roth has spent over 35 years researching the strange world of the supernatural. Join Sid for this edition of It’s Supernatural.
SID: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. Have you ever been in a hopeless situation? I’m sure you have. But this was hopeless, hopeless. My guest had a son, seven years old, the worst kind of autism, can’t read, can’t write, can’t spell. And all of a sudden he starts communicating with the most profound thoughts coming from Heaven. In fact, it then gets better. Then he begins prophesying and changing people’s lives. My guest says no one is in a hopeless situation. My guest says she knows how to grab hold of a supernatural rope of hope. My guest, Tahni, a pastor, one of many pastors at a mega church, your life is going good. You have a nice marriage. You have a beautiful baby boy and then a bombshell hits you. What was it?
TAHNI: Well yeah, everything had been going wonderful. We had our little joy, Josiah, and we named him that because it meant “fire of the Lord.” And we were excited to start our family, and we bought our house, we wanted to have 2.3 kids with a dog and picket fence, you know, the American dream.
SID: You had been watching TV.
TAHNI: Exactly. But Josiah was hitting all of his medical milestones. Everything was going really well, until about 22 months old, all of a sudden, very quickly things began to shift. And over about a three-week period of time he stopped looking at us. He stopped responding to his name. Suddenly, play skills that he had, he started losing them, and the 40 words or so that he had began to just go away, words like “mama” and “dada.” He was flipping lights on and off incessantly. And so we mobilized and we tried to figure out what was going on. After four months or so of testing we finally found ourselves sitting in a board room with doctors around the table, and they said it’s autism spectrum disorder. And I remember opening the folder and the words leapt out at me: “No known cause, no known cure, lifelong”. We were going into something that was a hopeless situation as far as that goes. And that’s really what I struggled with. God, where is hope when there is no hope?
SID: And then it got worse. At age five, he got a lifetime sentence. Explain that.
TAHNI: We mobilized. We had done everything we possibly could in the natural, you know. We absolutely got him into the best therapies. We did all sorts of alternative therapies with him. I even sat with him in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for 14 dives, they’re called. We did everything we really could. But then at five years old, we did get that addendum that we just hoped we would never get, that he was non-verbal, low functioning and severe. And so, Sid, what that meant was that he would be one of 40 percent of children with autism that they say would never speak.
SID: How did you as a mother cope with this?
TAHNI: Well that’s just it. You’re really told to learn how to cope with it. And I really struggled with that coping thought. In fact, I asked God, how am I supposed to cope with this? I wrote down ten questions for God because I said, if I’m going into this I need to know biblically what I’m supposed to do, how I’m supposed to pray, how I’m supposed to manage this life. Everything, just all your best resources burn up very quickly. Emotionally, spiritually, mentally, financially, you just burn out very quickly. And when God says I have good plans for you, I have good plans for your son, plans for hope in the future, I have to be really serious and ask God, is that for us? Do you mean that for me? I had to look at the affections of my heart and was autism the voice that I was hearing the loudest, or was what Jesus did for us what I was hearing loudest?
SID: And then at one of your lowest moments, you’re not one that would have experiences with God where God would show up. That wasn’t you. That wasn’t your paradigm. But he showed up one day. Tell me about it.
TAHNI: I felt like for the first time in my life I really needed to feel him and couldn’t. And I felt like when I prayed I was just praying into the darkness or something. Well things had been really difficult with Josiah and I put him down for a nap. And I decided I’d better catch a wink because you don’t get a lot of sleep when you’re a parent of a child with autism. And I got to lay down, and all of a sudden, about 20 minutes later, I just wake, and I smell this most amazing smell, and I can’t figure it out. I’m smelling my hair. I’m smelling the pillow. I’m trying to sniff this out like a bloodhound. What is this smell? And it smelled like vanilla and cinnamon, like crème brüleé almost. I couldn’t figure where it could have been coming from. I go out. I go out into the hall, not there. I come back into the bedroom, and I’m like, I’m just going to lay down for a second, and I just drink in. And I’m going what is this? And I remembered my mom telling me about when my father had passed away. He died at 55. She was so low and that one day she smelled a fragrance and she told me it was the fragrance of the presence of the Lord. And I went, and I looked it up on Google. I’m like vanilla, cinnamon, fragrance of the Lord. And here other people had experienced this. But Sid, what that did to me, it showed me that even though I couldn’t feel him that Jesus came and superseded that by getting to my senses to say, “I’m here. I am here.” And there was this peace that overcame because of it.
SID: And then you found something called rapid prompting method. Did you ever teach him to spell?
TAHNI: No.
SID: He starts spelling. How supernaturally, he knew words. And get this, how supernaturally, he knew amazing theological concepts that Ph.D.’s don’t know. It gets even better than that. He grabs his iPad and starts typing this. I mean, I’ve heard of miracles, but this is off the charts. Did you ask him how he learned how he spell?
TAHNI: I had been teaching him this method called the rapid prompting method. I had watched a documentary, but I saw this documentary and I decided I have to go get that for my son and figure out this particular method. So I had been doing this method for about a year. But one particular night I’m sitting at the kitchen table and we’re doing a lesson from the Children’s Bible. And so I read him a short lesson and I decided to read about when Jesus healed the blind man. So I read the lesson and then I say, “Josiah, Jesus healed the blind man. What did Jesus do? Did he H-E-A-L, heal the blind man or P-L-A-Y, play with the blind man?” You write that on a piece of paper, rip the paper in half, tap “heal” or tap “play”. He chooses heal, appropriately. I said, “Okay, let’s spell “heal”.” And I put up the iPad and there are letters in big alphabetical buttons. And so I said, “Okay, let’s spell ‘heal.'” Josiah, can you spell “heal”? He touches “G” like he’s missing it. Then he touches “O”, and I’m like “go”? He goes on to spell his first independent sentence: “God is a good gift giver.”
SID: Oh that is good! That is good. What went on inside of you at that moment? What happened?
TAHNI: I thought I was on Candid Camera or something, or I had cracked or had been punked, or something like that. But no, I was just like, what is happening right now? And I thought, I think he’s being healed right now. Like after all these years of praying and all this stuff, I think he’s being healed right now. I go back and I’m like, “Josiah, yes, that’s true. How do you know this?” And he types, “God is very capable.” And Sid, what happened from there was all of a sudden—
SID: How does a kid like that spell? I had to learn. You had to learn. You had to learn. How did he learn?
TAHNI: I asked him one day, how is this happening? How do you know how to do this? And he typed, “Jesus taught me the order of sounds.” And I’m like, Jesus gave you Hooked on Phonics or something? But for the first time we were getting to know our child, things like your favorite toy, your favorite color, what do you like to do. But not only that, he started coming out with the most profound wisdom words.
SID: Here’s what I don’t understand. He knew things from science, from history, theological concepts that I venture most of you don’t even understand. Give me an example of some of the things he taught you.
TAHNI: Well the first time I was realizing that something was way beyond of what I could even imagine was I brought him home a rubber lizard. And so I asked him, “What do you want to name the lizard?” And he writes out a name that he wants to name it, “Opiehan” or something like that, and I was like, okay. And then he starts writing about lizards have ageless tails and they don’t just have scales, they have aspiration pores, and all this stuff. And I’m like, how do you know this?
SID: How could he?
TAHNI: I know he’s not being taught that because they’re like, what’s the red circle. He wasn’t learning that from anywhere.
SID: You knew it was supernatural.
TAHNI: I did, yeah.
SID: Okay. Give me an example of an advanced, like most of you have difficulty explaining the triune nature of God. Some people call it Trinity. I like the triune nature of God. What did he say about that?
TAHNI: Well, so Sid, Josiah started coming out with these wisdom words at first, things like, “Faith is believing for kites to fly when there’s no wind in sight.” “Faith is picture it done.”
SID: Those are great definitions.
TAHNI: That’s a great definition of faith: picture it done. But then I started seeing that he was seeing glimpses of Heaven and things like that, and it just kept coming and coming. One night he wakes me up in the middle of the night and he says, I say, say, but he types that “God wants to show me about the triune God.”
SID: Because he’s not verbal yet.
TAHNI: Right. He still is not to this day. And so I’m like, okay, I wasn’t really thinking about the Trinity, but go for it. And this is what he types: “In the Trinity the Father the manager, the Son is the lover of operations, Holy Spirit is the worker. So it’s the three in one getting things done. He is Papa, he is healer, he is helper. The world was created by only three functions that went like this: Father thought it, Son loved it, Holy Spirit carried out the plan. That is how the Trinity works, Mom. So man must voice, Father what do you think? Jesus, what do you love? Holy Spirit, what should we do about it? That’s our mission.”
SID: You know, someone could take that and preach a whole sermon off of that. Now and I understand he has a guardian angel. He sees angels. Tell me about the angel that came to reveal his purpose.
TAHNI: Well the way he explains is that not only can he hear and see in the Spirit and sometimes have visions, but also at night it’s like he gets taken up into Spirit and his mind into Heaven, and actually is educated on some things. So he’s in this school type setting in Heaven and he’s at this desk and this angel named Nathan points to him. And this angel, he says, is a tall angel about 9-foot fall, and he pointed to him and said, “Boy of God’s fire, is your name Josiah? You have pages to fill and in this day you will help light God’s fire in his people again.”
SID: I’ll tell you what even intrigues me. Her son prophesies, but really, I mean really prophecies. Tell me about the lady at the mall.
TAHNI: This is one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. I took Josiah to the IMAX Theater at the zoo, and after we got done with that, I said, “Okay, where do you want to go now?” And I bring out the iPad and get him situated, and he types that, “Take me to the Mall of America and God will have a surprise for you there.”
SID: Okay.
TAHNI: Like, okay, I don’t know what that’s going to be, but let’s go to the Mall of America. So we are walking around the mall he points to my purse to get the iPad out. I go, “What’s up Josiah?” And he starts typing that, “I’m going to have to talk to a nice girl,” who is staring glances his way. And I’m like, who are you talking about? I don’t see anyone around. And I was like, “Who are you talking about?” And he goes on to type this while we’re just sitting on the bench: “Love is love. Tell her that. Take her breath away. Tell her that love is born out of choosing God, not Wicca,” which is witchcraft.
SID: Right.
TAHNI: “Hope is love, not more daddy issues. Pick a spiritual daddy. It is God. Choose him because you need me, he says.” And I’m just like sweating because I’m going, I’m going to have to tell this to somebody? Are you serious? And yet, I can’t figure out who it even is. I started looking around. I looked down the hall and there I see a girl with a black cape on. I’m like, oh that must be the witch. What happens is she and some of her 20-something friends start walking in front of our bench. I know it’s now or never. So I jump up, and I’m like, “Excuse me,” and I’m like, “are you spiritually inclined?” And she says, “Yeah, I guess.” And I explain to her about Josiah, and I say, “I think I have a word for you. Can I give it to you.” And so I read this to her, and I say, “Did that mean anything to you?” And she says, “No, not really.” My heart just sunk. We’re missing it. The girl next to her, in a really sunny yellow tank top says, “That’s not her,” takes her tank top and goes like this, revealing a five-point star tattoo. “That’s not her, but that’s me. I’m in Wicca and I have been told I have daddy issues, and I just got so hot as you were saying that.” I said to her, “Do you realize that God, the God in the Bible intercepted time and space in the biggest mall of America to somehow make me and my autistic son talk to you? Are you a little freaked out by this?” And she said, “Well I haven’t even gone to church since I was in ninth grade. I was Lutheran.”
SID: Josiah is taken up to Heaven every night and studies there, and meets people in Heaven, and sees things in Heaven. Anyone interested in knowing what he sees? Me, too. We’ll be right back.
