SPKM JOHNNY JOHNSON You have no choice.  You can forgive them providing that you recognize the fact that as long as you do not forgive them, you have just tied yourself to that person that you don’t like for the rest of your life and that meant, of course, that that person controls your life from now on out.  You get ready to buy a suit of clothes and if you think about that person who is going to criticize your suit, you won’t buy the clothes. If you’re a lady and you want to fix your hair a certain way and you know that person is going to be critical of that, you won’t fix your hair that way even though you like it that way.  So that person from that point on begins to control your life.  And whatever happens to that person happens to you.  If that person goes to hell, you’re going along with them.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS But, Johnny, I’ve been discriminated against all my life.  Everyone has called me names all my life and there’s no way for me to get out of this little one-room room that I’m living in.  My children are on dope and they’re out on the streets and I can’t control them and everything has gone wrong, and this is supposed to be a great country but here I am and what can I do about it?

SPKM JOHNNY JOHNSON I’ll tell you what you can do about it.  I always carry a pencil with me and if you take a look at this pencil, you’ll notice there’s something very different about this.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS It has two erasers.

SPKM JOHNNY JOHNSON Two erasers, okay.  So if it has two erasers that means that the life of a person that says, “I can’t do anything,” all these things then his life is like this pencil.  There is no point to it.  (APPLAUSE)  And it says here, life without Jesus Christ is like this pencil; there is no point to it.  So that person needs to know Jesus Christ immediately and they will have a point to their life, that he can always come back to that.  And Jesus Christ is love. And if that person cannot find love in his heart for everyone, then he cannot accept himself because most people dislike themselves and they have a guilt feeling over that.  Someone will always say, “Gee, I don’t like the way that I look.”  That’s because of the fact that he’s not accepted what God has given that person.  Always use all the available resources that God has given you and you will have a point in your life if you accept Jesus Christ.  But it doesn’t matter… see, discrimination is not that person discriminate; you discriminate yourself.  If you will say, “I know that person is going to discriminate against me cause I’m black,” you’ve chosen to be discriminated against.  But supposing you say, “I know that that person is not going to discriminate against me cause I’m black and beautiful,” so that person can’t discriminate against you.  I’m too pretty.  (APPLAUSE)  And if you say that to yourself, you’ll believe that and nobody is going to make you feel bad about it because of th fact that someone called you a name or called you black or whatever they may call you. You will look at them and say, “Thanks for the compliment.  I didn’t think you would ever notice.”  And so you’ve moved on from one to the other.  It’s the most beautiful life I’ve ever had in my life.  I even had that when I was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. There was an admiral and he didn’t know that I was black and all of a sudden we landed in my big aircraft and I had four stars on that and always the senior person steps off first.  So I stepped off first and all of these Navy admirals were standing there waiting when I stepped off and they just looked past me.  I said, “Hi,” and they said, “Hi,” and I walked on and I stood over there by myself.  And the next person came off and they kept looking and finally my aide, who was white, he walked off.  So when he walked off of there they said, “I thought the Secretary of the Navy was coming.”  So he said, “He is here.”  And he said, “Well, where is he?  Is he still on the plane?”  He said, “No, that’s the one standing way over there.”  And he looked over and he saw me and he came over and he said, “Sir, I sure don’t want to see my fitness report when you get back to Washington, D.C.”  And I said, “No, I forgive you for just what you’ve done.”  He said, “Can you please forgive me?”  I said, “I forgave you when you did that because, you see, if you had only looked at my spirit and the love that I gave in a handshake, then it wouldn’t have mattered whether I was Assistant Secretary of the Navy or not. You would have greeted me.  So I want to tell you that I forgive you and love you.”  And you know, this guy stood there with tears running down his cheek and said, “What manner of man are you?” (APPLAUSE) And I said, “I love Jesus.”  And he says to me….. so, you see, I could have chosen to be angry.  I could have chosen that and that guy did everything that he possibly could….  that was on Guam at the time…. he had everything laid out for me and he came back to my quarters every hour:  “Is there anything else, Mr.  Secretary? Anything.  Whatever it is..” And then my aide looked at him and said, “Sir, I’d sure hate to be in your shoes.”  He said, “I sure hate to be in my own shoes right now.”  It’s all because of the fact that I treated him that way.  When I got ready to leave, he was the man to stand in front and I got the highest commendation from the United States Navy that has ever been given to a civilian high executive person, and he said, “I want to be the one to present it to him because he’s one of the greatest men that I’ve ever seen.  He really practices the love that he talks about.”  (APPLAUSE)

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS That’s what the world will say.

SPKM DON STANLEY I was witnessing — some called me crazy, some called me fanatic, but when Jesus calls me they can call me gone. I know I’m going to heaven.  Glory to God.  They took me out of that cell.  They sent me to another prison…medical ward.  A Christian psychologist — happened to be a Christian — the lady examined me, she walked back out to the ward and said, “Don Stanley hasn’t gone crazy, he’s just been filled with the unspeakable joy of the Lord.  You can turn him loose on the compound now.”  That night they gave me a bed among 1,000 inmates that were lost and on their way to hell without Jesus.  And I said, “God, if you’ll send me a Bible I’ll be your witness, I’ll share Jesus with other people.”  He had called me at 12 to be a missionary, and I wouldn’t go.  I ran from him — 22 years — like Jonah did.  I said, “I’m in love with Jesus and I want to win souls with Jesus Christ.”  And I said, “Lord, give me a Bible and I will study it this time to show myself approved.”  I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, the presence of Jesus all over me.

Poems were flowing out of my system, and I’ve written 33 poems, but I started back towards the bathroom and there was a 55 gallon trash can there, Richard, and we don’t where those Bible that you take into Africa and Ethiopia ever go, but we know that God is faithful and true, and when he plants his Word it’s the most powerful word under heaven and earth.  And it will never pass away.  But there in a 55 gallon trash can there was a little light shining out.

And I looked in, a prisoner walking in darkness that night without the help of God’s Word.  And I tell people in America the light that was shining out was much brighter. This little Gideon New Testament Bible was laying in the top of that trash can, open to the third chapter of John. And I picked it up. And it said — thank you Jesus for your precious word, it is a lamp unto our feet, the light unto our path.  It is the bread of life to he who believes.  I went in and sat down in that bathroom that night and read John 3:16, — for God so loved the world — an old sinner like me who had a wicked heart, on cocaine, drugs and alcohol — that he gave his only begotten Son Jesus, that if I would believe in him I wouldn’t perish but have everlasting life.

I got down and reaffirmed that salvation that night and asked God to fill me with his Spirit — started going to a little Methodist chapel in the prison, 6 nights a week, and there had communion with the Lord. Jesus was a friend who would stick with me closer than a brother. (APPLAUSE) Seven months later they called me up to the warden’s office and said, “Don, you’re getting ready to go home, you’ve received a pardon.”  I said, “Sir, I was pardoned on May 12, 1983, when the blood of Jesus washed me clean.”  He said, “Yes, but you’re going home.”  He said, “You take Jesus with you, he’ll never be back in a prison like this.”  And I ask you in America today, come back to Jesus, come back to the Word of God.  They took me that day and they were — I was singing, “I’ll Fly Away, Oh, Glory, I’ll Fly Away, like a prison bird from a cage, I’ll fly away.”

SPKM ORU SINGERS  SONG Turn_it_around

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS No matter what it looks like God can take the situation and he can turn it around for you.  And I am glad that you turned on your television today, you turned to this channel and said, “I’m going to watch Richard Roberts Live.”  Now you may say, “I didn’t say that.  I was just flipping my channels and there you were.”  Well, stay tuned. Don’t miss these next 60 minutes.  I am expecting something good, good, to happen to you. (APPLAUSE)

And I want to say a very special word right now.  You know, we are just a few days away, just a few days away from our college weekend seminar, April 17, 18 and 19 is the college weekend seminar.  And I want to say a word to any high school juniors or seniors, of if you are in junior college and want to transfer to ORU, or if you are in a four-year institution and you want to transfer to ORU, or if you are interested in graduate school, medicine or medical school, or our nursing school, or our seminary, or our business school, or all of our graduate schools here at ORU, then this word is for you.  April 17, 18 and 19 is our second college weekend seminar of this academic year. Each Thanksgiving and Easter weekend we have three days of intense study and preparation and getting to know ORU and seeing if that is the place for you.  So mark down those dates on the calendar, April 17, 18 and 19, just a few days from now.

If you will let us know right now, in fact, I’m going to have them put a toll free number up.  Is it on the screen right now.  yes, there it is.  It’s a toll free number.  What is the number?  1 800 331-5568.  1 800 331-5568.  If you will call — now that is not the Abundant Life Prayer Group, that is the director of admissions.  If you will call and let us know that you want to be involved in this college weekend seminar, then you can make your reservation and we will save space for you for this college weekend seminar.  Come decide for yourself if ORU is the place for you to get your education.  Also to learn how to hear God’s voice.  (APPLAUSE)  I will be speaking on the Friday night.  The ORU Singers will be with me, which night? Friday night, Saturday night.  Friday night.  (LAUGHTER)

I don’t know, they are going to be with me one of the nights.  I’ll be there both nights.  And it goes on from Friday night to Sunday noon on Easter Sunday. And you’ll get the meet the students and the faculty and I’ll be there.  And, oh, I’m expecting great things to happen during that college weekend seminar.  We’re expecting a tremendous crowd of young people.  And if you are interested, pick up your phone and call 1 800 331-5568.  Is that right?  That’s 1 800 — that’s a free call — 1 800 331-5568.  April 17, 18 and 19.  The college weekend seminar.  And when you get on this campus, (APPLAUSE) when you get on this campus it will be just like this song that the ORU Singers and Orchestra and I want to sing for you right now, “You Are Walking On The Edge Of A Miracle.”  Praise God.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS

SPKM ORU SINGERS  SONG You_are_walking_on_the_edge (APPLAUSE)

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Don’t change the channel.  Stay tuned, here is a message just for you. (APPLAUSE)   AD02 Cheryl Prewitt Salem’s Take Charge of Your Life VHS aerobic video for a gift of $25  (APPLAUSE)

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS I’ll tell you, Cheryl can talk.  She can explain this better than I can.  Except I want to tell you that this has been a tremendous blessing to me.  And even our little Jordan likes to get down on the floor and do these exercises. It’s more than an aerobics tape, as Cheryl just said.  It’s filled with the Holy Spirit.  I have never heard of anybody doing a Holy Spirit filled aerobics workout for people across this nation.  If you would like to have it all you have to do is sow a seed of $25 or more, and be one of the thousands, I mean thousands who already have this tape.  You can write me, Richard Roberts, Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Or you can pick up your telephone right now and call the (Abundant Life Prayer Group) at area code 918 495-7777, and sow a seed on your Mastercard, your Visa, your American Express, your Discover card, of $25 or more, and let me know that you want “Take Charge Of Your Life” with Cheryl and friends.  A woman said to me the other day, “Richard, if I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.”  Well, you can take care of yourself, of your physical body, and allow all of Jesus that is in you to come out. And this tape can be a blessing to you.  (APPLAUSE)

So many people have video cassette recorders and are calling now and saying, “Please send it to me.”  So sow a seed of $25 or more and let me know that you want it.  And you can be one of the thousands who have already received this beautiful aerobics tape. Here is a call from Newton, North Carolina, “I called for prayer because I had a lump on my breast the size of an egg.  Two doctors confirmed this and sent me to a surgeon to have it removed.”  Now listen to this.  I called the (Abundant Life Prayer Group) and the prayer partner and I agreed that the surgeon would not find the lump when he got in there.”  Now you know, the world would tell you you are crazy, but I want you to know I believe in the good work of prayer, and I believe in the good work of the doctors working together.  “On the way to the doctors I could still feel the lump in my breast.  And while I was sitting in the office of the surgeon, waiting for him to examine me, I suddenly felt the presence of God’s healing power all over my body.  Then the surgeon came in and took me into the examination room and examined me.  And the lump that I had just felt was gone.”  (APPLAUSE)

Now listen to this.  This is real. “The surgeon looked at me and read the confirmation by the other two physicians and said, ‘Whatever was there before is now gone. You need no surgery.’  And I want to praise God for the healing.

What do you do when the attacks of life come?  Do you get into despair?  Do you focus on your inability to solve your problems, or do you focus on God‘s ability and His faithfulness to bring you through?

Don’t Discount a Miracle

In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9,  the apostle Paul speaks personally and gives us a picture of the dreadful problems he was going through when he said, We are troubled on every side, yet we’re not distressed; we’re perplexed, but we’re not in despair; we’re persecuted, but we are not forsaken; we’re cast down, but we’re not destroyed.

In other words, Paul was saying, “The attacks of life come to all of us.  But when you’re hit, don’t give up and don’t get into fear.  No matter how big or how bad the problem is, God is bigger!  Stand strong in your faith and declare, ‘My God will deliver me!’”

Isn’t that what Moses said when he stood at the edge of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s armies chasing him from behind?  He said, Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord (Exodus 14:13).

Moses and the Israelites were surrounded by trouble on every side.  There was a roaring sea in front of them and a whole army of Egyptians thundering down on them from behind.

It seemed as if there was no way out, but God brought a great miracle.  He divided the waters of the sea so the people could walk across on dry land!

And in the midst of whatever problem you’re facing, God can do the same for you!

It’s Time To Wake Up

Richard:  Then God began speaking to my dad about the judgment that’s coming to those who will refuse to see the signs and turn away from their sins.  So make no mistake—that judgment is coming for America and for the nations of the world.

But judgment doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  It can be a good thing.  We can examine our own hearts and judge our own sins so that God doesn’t have to. 

God wants to wake us up so we can get things right in our own lives, and then share the message of His love with those who have never heard it.

I’m excited!  Jesus’ coming is good news to all those who believe and trust in Him…those who will be caught up with Him in the air, to reign with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 paraphrased).

So look for the signs!  Wake up and get prepared!  Examine your heart and ask God to help you get rid of anything in your life that is unlike Him.  Then share the salvation message with those around you.

And here’s something very important to remember…God specifically told my dad that we are not to get into fear over what’s coming.  We are to trust Him, be prepared for Jesus’ return to the earth, and share the good news that Jesus is coming soon.

Spreading God’s Message

I recently conducted a Healing Rally in England, where only a tiny percentage of the population attends a church of any kind.  Other rallies are in the planning stages, and God is speaking to me about other nations where we must go and take the message of Jesus’ soon return to the earth.

On Thursday, October 7, we began airing The Place for Miracles, a weekly 30-minute program on ABC Family network (6:30 a.m. Eastern and Pacific times).  With the help of our friends and Partners, every week we now have the opportunity to reach a potential 81 million households with the life-changing message of the Gospel!

We are also in the process of expanding the Abundant Life Prayer Group’s ability to answer more telephone calls that ever before.  Every day we receive more than 2,000 urgent calls for prayer.  That number is increasing ever day.  And with our current outdated phone system, we are missing many of those important calls from people who desperately need someone to agree with them in prayer for a miracle.  We have to do better and we know it. 

We are working in every way we know how to take God’s saving, healing, delivering message of the Gospel to the nations…because we’re gearing up for the great harvest of souls that will come to know Jesus in these last days.

I believe the time is short, and compared to the numbers of people still to be reached with the Gospel, the laborers are very few.

You Can Play a Part in the

End-Time Harvest of Souls.

I encourage you to plant your seed of faith today and request a copy of Wake Up! Jesus Is Coming Sooner Than You Think, which includes my dad’s vision, along with a prophetic word of confirmation and interpretation from evangelist Kenneth Copeland. You may want to order copies for your friends and family as well.

When you plant your seed, not only will you be helping us reap a harvest of souls for eternity, but I believe God can bring the harvest of miracles you need in your own life and the lives of your loved ones!