Sid: Hello, Sid Roth here with Paul Hegstrom and this is so phenomenal, but what happens when you are having surgery and you end up,
did you actually die on the operating table?

Paul: I had no white light experience or anything like that but yes, they did three bypasses on me, sewed me up and put me in ICU and then the heart stopped and they had to rip me open and pump the heart with a rubber glove to get me back on again and the machine…

Sid: What happened to your brain?

Paul: The brain, after they salvaged my life I was out doing seminars and I could see what I wanted to say in my head but I couldn’t say it. I went to the doctor and the doctor says well we were afraid that might happen, you were off, without oxygen for a period of time and you have lost 40% of our brain cells. And I said…

Sid: Your brain cells, they do not regenerate do they?

Paul: They do not regenerate, they will wire around the damage but they will not regenerate so I ended up going into intense research to see how to wire around quickly the damage, and out of that research I came up with things that, scripturally, and in the neurobiological standpoints of study that were just phenomenal, I learned things that are out of the box…

Sid: You learned how to rewire the brain.

Paul: To rewire the brain, and see that’s why when we have been wounded in childhood and we are struggling with, let’s say the DSM-4, the diagnostic standard used for mental health that we medicate and manage emotions but we don’t see rewiring of the brain.

Sid: Now your brain is obviously rewired by just hearing you talk to me right now.

Paul: Yeah, and I can even talk faster.

Sid: Praise God, you’re going just as fast as I love.

Paul: But I started to see how to rewire the brain to the point that I actually have pictures on my power point when I do seminars that show new axons coming out of the neuronal structure and developing and moving in and then attaching the synapse to the dendrites and how that works and you could actually see that as we fast forward the slides and so what I found out in research was that for lack of knowledge my people perish, Hosea 4:6, and so the program is set up so that it challenges the brain, we are having stroke victims that are responding, because if you will challenge the brain the brain will literally start it’s rewiring process and will wire around the damage and so it took me about three years and I had rewired totally around a  40% loss in the way the brain thinks and here we are having the time of our life to the point that we have major universities that are studying how we rewired according to the word of God, and see the thing that is so exciting about it, the renewal of the mind, it’s in the scripture.

Sid: But you told me something at dinner last night that I knew, but I needed to be reminded how important it is to not read the Bible, yes you heard me correct, not read the Bible, but meditate on the Bible, what does that mean? In the Hebrew the word meditate means to mumble, or say it out loud, why is it important to say the Bible words out loud?

Paul: Well I could do a whole show just on the thalamus, but that happens is the limbic system is where the software for what we need from our Creator to be whole, that’s where it lies, and anytime you think something, internally it is an option, you only move it from an option to a decision by speaking the word, because your thalamus will not obey anybody else, it will only obey your voice, and that is why there is scripture in Revelation that says we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, so I have challenged people in the last two or three years if you are reading the scripture don’t read it internally to yourself, read it out loud because what is happening as you read scripture it is coming out of your mouth, you are the authority over your body, bringing down the strongholds, bringing into captivity the imagination and choosing upon what you think, and that is Paul’s writings, when you speak it your thalamus comes into submission to it and it will change, and when we speak our decisions and we read the word it rewires the brain.

Sid: Tell me how the brain responds to truth, or as Pontius Pilate said, “What is truth?”

Paul: You see the fun thing of it is that everybody that is watching, if they have a computer, they have spell check, that’s just kind of a natural thing, but God put in our brain a truth checker, and He says to know the truth, and truth will set you free. And the problem with even the body of Christ right now is they are not given the basic truth that people need to understand to be set free, yet when you hear something, I went to counseling and I knew that certain types of therapy were absolutely wrong, I mean it was just totally wrong, I knew it, but they were forcing me into trying this to manage my emotions, but when God started dealing with me I knew truth, and as we talked last night and there were several people around, I would say something and they, instantly they knew it was true, it just made sense, it all fit, and see one of the reasons we struggle so hard…

Sid: Listen one of my staff members read your book, Broken Children, Grown Up Pain, and she said a light bulb went on and literally she started changing once she saw truth.

Paul: Absolutely, and see that is why we wrote the book because the things we wrote in the Broken Children book are things that have never been written in mental health, and yet it is based on the word of God, God gave us the process, He never meant for us to be struggling, He never meant for us to lay on a psychiatrists couch for 14, 15 years, he never meant that, He meant for us to beable to understand what was going on and start a healing process which I call the process of sanctification, or growing up basically, and then we become effective in our process, and it becomes like somebody is hurting worse than me and I’ve been there so I grab their hand and pull them through and they start getting better and they grab somebody we are walking together.

Sid: What happens with someone that perhaps has problems with pornography, problems with perhaps wanting the wrong sex for a wife or for a husband, problems in these deep things, problems with attention deficit disorder, things like that, what happens when their brain gets rewired?

Paul: What happens is they start going through the program that our Creator put in there and so much of the time with what we do with life skills is we don’t even know that we are dealing with couples that are gravitating toward the same sex, we don’t know they have ADD, we don’t know some of these things, but as the program works and they allow the information to go into the software, and into the hard drive, the thalamus, the limbic system it starts that maturing process, it talks about growing up, and that is what Paul said in Ephesians four, we have been babies long enough, and he is talking to the adult church, we have been like ships without a rudder falling for everything, standing for nothing, we need to come to full stature, all it is, is a growing up process, and we have got to understand what it takes in the software to help us start the maturing process, and it is all in the word of God and …

Sid: And you know what is amazing to me Paul, is what you are telling me is that science is catching up with what we have in the Bible that Jesus said two thousand years ago.

Paul: Yes.

Sid: Science is just beginning to understand this.

Paul: That’s true, and we have, I don’t want to name it right now but we have a major university that got a huge grant to study what we do because they are doing brain scans on our people, the court ordered men who are arrested for domestic violence, they are doing brain scans on these men at the intake and then they go through Life Skills, they do a brain scan on the outside, a post brain scan and the brain has changed so drastically they can’t believe it, they say Hegstrom you are out of the box, you don’t think like we think. No, because I try to think like God thinks. And I don’t know how God thinks but He is showing me just little nuggets that are bringing healing to people beyond your wildest imaginations, I’m so excited, I have been in this 25 years and I can’t sit still.

Sid: I am excited oh what happened to that woman you divorced, what is going on now?

Paul: We remarried 23 years ago the first of December and we have not had any incidences of domestic violence in any way.

Sid: Listen, Paul tried to reenact what he is telling us right now for documentary of it, he couldn’t even act out an abusive husband, he wasn’t able to do it, his brain is rewired, or as God says, renewed. Get the Bible, it’s called the truth book, you are going to know the truth and the truth is going to set you free. This is your moment to make Jesus your Lord, go for the gold.

SID: Hello, Sid Roth here with Karen Mayer Cunningham, we’re discussing her son James, who your doctor, who is no longer with us, but we have a videotape of what he had to say about James, actually called him a miracle. Tell me about James today.

KAREN: Oh, James is wonderful, he is fourteen years old, he is six foot tall, he is an athlete, he bowls in league, this year he played football, basketball, he is now throwing the discus, he just plays at a track meet, and he is just a wonderful young boy now.

SID: Even the newspapers are writing him up as an athlete.

KAREN: Yes, lead scorer of his section of the “C” team so he is doing phenomenal, you know academically he is still behind a few years, he lost five years of his life, he is about on a fifth grade level, but he is in eighth grade and he is in three resource classes but all the other classes he goes to regular classes with inclusion help, and so you know God continues to make up for that time the enemy stole from us.

SID: I understand that he can even move in the gift of prophecy now, someone that was non-verbal; that used to chew the plaster boards, I mean he would knock his head against the board, and then he would eat it, which I have the bills for.

KAREN: Yes, he was eating our house.

SID: I mean when you were drinking and desperate and realizing that you were going to lose your son to an institution, I mean you must have been as hopeless as a human could be.

KAREN: I didn’t, I didn’t know there could be anything worse, I didn’t think you could be worse and be alive and not literally in prison, and you know God has turned all of that around. A couple of years ago we were at church and his Sunday School teacher came up to me and she had tears flowing down her face and she said, “I just talked to James and he gave me a prophetic word about the sixties and just very gently told her that God wanted her to forgive this person she had kept bitterness for and then just went back to playing or whatever they were doing, and that, you know he has a call on his life just like all of us do. Not to eat the sheetrock, that is not God’s purpose for his life, God wasn’t trying to punish me or teach me something, but he has destiny on his life and we have to stand and believe for our kids, our family, our loved ones to have everything that God has ever planned for them.

SID: Let’s take a look at the doctor actually, it is a Jewish doctor, actually calling this a miracle.

DOCTOR: From the reports I see now it is nothing short of a miracle, I mean this young boy is now vocal, verbal, appropriate, responsive, eating nicely, healthy, so you know it is just one of those situations you have to chalk up to something maybe higher than what we have in the medical field.

SID: that’s pretty good for a Jewish doctor that doesn’t know the Messiah to say that about James.

SID: Well tell me a bit about James today, in fact, I’ll tell you what, better than you telling me a bit about James today, you’ve already done that, let’s have James talk about James today.

MUSIC: From the very start the enemy You tried and tried and tried and tried To steal the very gift God has given to you, so the world can die You cannot be silent no You cannot be quiet no You are healed You’ve got the word that the world needs to hear You are healed You were made to shine

SID: Well Karen, are you pretty proud of your son James?

KAREN: He is the light of my life I am absolutely so proud of him.

SID: And what I understand is when people hear your story, how many people have been healed of autism just by listening to your story?

KAREN: We know of seven families.

SID: But what are people saying when they read your book, it is not just for people that have children that have autism.

KAREN: No, absolutely not, it is about bringing hope to people that have lost hope, they have no more faith and they believe that they are stuck in this situation and the word from their doctor or from their situation or from their finances or from their relationships, and Jesus said that ‘by his striped we were healed’, thirty-nine stripes for thirty nine strains of diseases, every disease disorder and situation comes from thirty nine groups, and we can be healed from all that, we have to stand and believe and receive. And so that is what this is, for people to know they can be healed from anything, whatever it is, broken physically, emotionally, spiritually.

SID: What I was told by my staff is they wanted their children to even read this more than one time. Why would someone want to read this more than one time?

KAREN: I think because it really touches on different areas of your life, you know initially I thought it would help people with Special-Ed kids, but thee are so many parts in our lives that are broken, that aren’t whole or well, and that God wants to get in and heal every single part of them.

SID: You know what I was thinking; now you know James today, we know James a little bit today from what we have seen, but it would have been so easy if you had known what was wrong with him to abort him.

KAREN: You know I would have never done that, you know when you walk out what God gives you he gives you the strength to walk it out, and the reason you walk stuff out is so somebody behind you can go, “Oh Sid walked that out, Karen walked that out, I can walk that out too.” And there is a purpose in it.

SID: Well thee are some people that want to do more than walk it out with a purpose, they want to walk out of it, would you look at them and talk to them and pray for them?

KAREN: Yes, yes, I just want you to know whatever situation you are in and whatever, or however you come in today, whether hopelessness or despair, God is ready to meet you wherever your need is. His hand is not shortened because of your condition, disease or disorder or situation, and don’t stand and believe the report of the doctor but stand and believe the report of the Lord, because that is what we are supposed to stand upon, and if I can just pray for you. Father we just thank you, we thank you for your healing powers, we thank you that your name is Jehovah Rapha, that you are the God that heals, that if it is in your name and in your will, and Father we just thank you ahead of time for open doors , open eyes, open minds, to show each and every family whatever their situation is how to walk it out and to walk into their destiny with freedom and wholeness and healthiness and to be a light to this world to know that God is the God who delivers us from all of our oppressions, obsessions, and possessions Father, we just thank you ahead of time for these good reports that are going to come in, whole children, well children, purpose lives, full lives, we thank you ahead of time in Jesus Name.

SID: Now one of the things that you said to me is that even before your son had his deliverance you played praise music and you could actually see improvement in him.

KAREN: Yes, yes, praise music is so important, you know worship is ushering in the presence of God and so as they sleep as it is in the room that brings in the presence of God and when you have that there the enemy must flee, he must flee and as adults we have to stand in the gaps spiritually for our children that are under eighteen years of age, we have to do that, we have to know that whatever comes into their ear or eye gate is permeating their spirit and we have to be responsible for that.

SID: what other things did you do practically beyond the praise music in this process, in the healing of James?

KAREN: We had to not give in to James, James behavior had run our lives for so many years we had to stop, you know, pandering to him, we had become the child and he had become the parent, and so the enemy had to flip the script on us and we had to go back into our correct roles, that we were the parents and he was the child and when we said something it stood and when we said thee would be discipline if this happened, then it stood, not just always giving in to him because of his situation or his condition, and that set up a system of structure and discipline and order, and we serve a God of order. And our house was out of order.

SID: I’m reminded of the words that Karen was told, “it is time,” that’s pretty profound words, first you had a concern, a worry about how could deliverance help your son, but you know something, it is time, heaven is drawing so close to planet earth, things that you have been believing God for in the past, that you have been standing and standing and standing, well I have a word for you. It is time. It is your time, it is time. Forget what happened in the past, a brand new beginning, it is time for you to know God, it is time for you to have the joy, it is time for – it is plain time for you to have peace, there is a Hebrew word for peace, it is shalom, shalom radiating out of every fiber of your being, not fearful of anything, not fearful of sickness, not fearful of death, I mean if you are not fearful of sickness, if you are not fearful of death, not fearful of financial problems, you would be at peace. Not fearful of relationships because you know God. You have such intimacy with God. God is telling me that people’s backs are being healed right now, and necks, pain of all kind is just lifting off of you, but I want the biggest pain to lift off of you, the pain of carrying the sins of the wrong things that you have done, if you believe that the blood of Jesus washed away these sins it is time for you to take those sins off of you and say, I believe the blood of Jesus has washed me clean, it is not something you do, it is what he has done. You just receive what he has done and if you will say out loud, I make Jesus my Messiah and Lord, do it right now, it may seem insignificant, but my whole life was transformed when I did it, so will yours, do it now.

SID: Hello, Sid Roth here with Karen Mayer Cunningham and you son James had autism and it was, tell me how bad it was. Some of the worst things you remember.

KAREN: I remember some of the worst things were the words other people used, I remember his Special Ed teacher who was wonderful, but she said he was a monster, he was so bad he had to have his own aid just for him in class, we had “Any Baby Can” took him for a day a month, MHMR in Texas, we had twenty hours of straight rest, but he was out of control, he would make himself vomit up to fifty times a day.

SID: Was he verbal, did he speak much?

KAREN: No, probably twenty words, mostly pointing, cup, hot, no, like a little, like you know, a two-year-old. He was stuck here.

SID: He had tantrums?

KAREN: Oh he had tantrums all the time. He was inconsolable, insoothable, there were never beginnings or endings to his tantrums, and you never knew what would cause them and so we did everything to pander to him to keep him calm, to keep him happy. We would play video tapes non-stop an hour, and he would eat, he was eating our house, he pulled up the carpet, he would eat the foam under it, he pulled the wallpaper off the bathrooms and ate that, and you know you begin to live in this bubble that becomes your truth, and becomes this little war zone and you want to protect it because it is your family but it was unbearable.

SID: Well let’s take a look at what his doctor had to say about it.

DOCTOR: I saw James the first time a few years ago, about three years ago, where he was about three and a half years old, I got to tell you it was a little shocking to me, I’ve seen a lot of various diseases, conditions, behaviors, but little James, I have got to tell you took the cake on this one. He was exhibiting erratic behaviors, uncontrollable, inconsolable, frantic attacks, tantrums; he was quite pale, non-verbal, gruntings, noises, total lack of attention. I always like to believe that I feel there is unlimited hope for people and their conditions, but with James the severity of his condition the bizarre behavior, I mean, I couldn’t help it, I thought this guy is going to be institutionalized for life, nothing can be done for him. Of course then I thought, well maybe some test hadn’t been done, maybe he has got an electrolyte imbalance, maybe there is a tumor in his head, something that could account for these unusual conditions. I got to tell you at the onset I thought there is no hope for this guy.

SID: Sid Roth here with Karen Mayer Cunningham and we are discussing your son James, and a group of people that pray for spirits to come out of people, demons to come out of people said to you, it is time. What did you do about that?

KAREN: Well I moved on that, they are a group that has a specific gifting and I believed them, I believed in their anointing from God and so we took him in February 17th, 2000, it was a Thursday at four o’clock at our church and we were just in one of the Sunday School rooms and James sat on the floor and began to rock, and he wanted to go, go, go, go, get in front of the door and so the team had my husband pick him up and hold him and they just laid their hands on his back and prayed that the first demonic curse would go, and in Jesus Name that the dry places never to be here again, and my son reached his hand back and screamed, come back, come back, come back, come back, come back.

SID: When you were watching that what did you think?

KAREN: I thought I cannot believe this, I cannot believe this just happened, it was so real, he had never said the word come or back, and he was screaming out.

SID: That’s right, he wasn’t verbal.

KAREN: No he was screaming out for the thing, begging for that thing that was leaving him to come back and at that moment we were all changed. The manifest presence of God was so heavy and so humbling and I believe God did that because he had every intention of healing him and he is completely healed.

SID: Now immediately, I know there were gradual things that occurred, but immediately could you tell a difference and what was it?

KAREN: He was a marked difference, and the first thing he was, was peaceful, which is part of the kingdom of heaven, and thee was a calmness about him and you know that is the child that God purposed for my life, not an out of control, rabid animal in my house. And from that day he got better and better and better and God has continued to restore his mind daily.

SID: Well how would you like to see James

SID: Hello, Sid Roth here, welcome to my world where it is naturally supernatural. I don’t know about you but I have been breathing the air of heaven and I love that atmosphere. What happens when a Jewish doctor has an incurable illness staring him in the face and the mother comes in and says, “A miracle happened, my son is healed.” And this Jewish doctor says, yet with his own words, we have it on tape we will let you view it in just a couple of minutes, he says, “This is a miracle.” Karen, when you had James he was a healthy little boy the first fifteen months or so, tell me about him.

KAREN: Oh he was wonderful; he was born right on time, happy and healthy, he was one of those children you could just pass to anybody, very calm, everything was perfect, he was right on track.

SID: But at eighteen months something very weird started happening.

KAREN: I mean very weird happened, we had taken him for his well check and literally he started running to the same place in the hall and he would stand backwards against the wall and slam his head back and forth into the sheetrock and I thought I don’t know, maybe this is what little boys do, maybe this is the beginning of the terrible twos but after about a month he literally with his head broke the sheetrock open, there was a hole in the sheetrock.

SID: But then he started doing things even worse bizarre such as eating the sheetrock.

KAREN: Absolutely, he would start picking away the sheetrock, he started eating the rubber backing off of our bathroom rugs, he ate the rubber lining out of the door of our cars.

SID: Now she is not just talking about something, I have got the bills here; there is an eighteen hundred and fifty dollar bill for sheetrock repair.

KAREN: Right.

SID: He would just bash his head in the wall?

KAREN: Yes.

SID: To get the sheetrock to eat it?

KAREN: Yes, he was obsessed with putting things in his mouth and chewing, he would eat a flip-flop off your shoe, he was eating bark off of a tree, and he was just obsessed with putting stuff in his mouth and eating it, things that weren’t food.

SID: The doctors finally diagnosed his condition, what was it?

KAREN: It was classically autistic, there are sixteen markers that make you autistic and he had
all but one of them.

SID: What is the cure rate for autism?

KAREN: Oh there is no cure, it is incurable, there is no treatment and there is no hope and you have it forever.

SID: And how prevalent is it in society?

KAREN: It is what I would call pandemic, it is one in a hundred and fifty births.

SID: On and hundred and fifty births?

KAREN: One in one fifty, in some cities it is as high as one in ninety-eight births.

SID: So how did you cope with this situation?

KAREN: I coped in every way wrong, I coped with drinking and eating and overworking, I couldn’t believe I was in this long nightmare, this was not what I prayed for, this is not what I wanted, I wanted a little boy to be the captain of the football team and a daughter that would be the cheerleader, I didn’t want this rabid child in my house with no way to control him and any professional that we went to doctors, specialists, they all said the same thing, this is what he has, there is no treatment, there is no cure, he will always be like this and at one point you will have to put him in a home.

SID: Now something good came into your life, I mean the way it was headed was pretty bad, I mean did you really face the fact that you would have to intuitionalism your son someday?

KAREN: It took me a long time to come to terms with that but I think women instinctively know that things are getting better or worse and because he was so big for his age I knew that I couldn’t handle him because when he got upset his rage was off the charts, he could not be controlled. When he was little you could give him a toy or redirect, but as he got to be four and five, he was much older and we had another child and he was beginning to be of a danger to her and so I knew that my options were limited and it was where I couldn’t keep him, I loved my child, I adored him but I had no idea what to do with him and I knew that we would have to put him in a home.

SID: So you were desperately.

KAREN: Absolutely.

SID: You turned to drink. You were so desperate you even went to a prayer group that helped you a little bit, what did they do for you?

KAREN: Yes, we were directed by a friend of ours to a deliverance team called Gospel Revelation Ministries and I signed up for personal deliverance, I didn’t know what that was, I grew up in a denominational church, but I knew that I needed to do what ever I needed to do to get to be the person that God wanted me to be so I could raise this handicapped child, so I thought this is what God wants me to do, he wants me to be this great handicapped mother and I am going to raise this child, then that’s what I will do. So I went through deliverance where it identifies what is operational in you life, where there had been some curses, things that happened to me, by other people, by my own actions and words and I just, God set me free from all the things that were binding me up and I was going to be able now to raise this child that God had given me.

SID: Now he also gave you direction on some things to do at home to benefit your son.

KAREN: Absolutely, in the beginning it wasn’t time for, God didn’t say it was time to take James through deliverance initially, but they did tell us to always play praise music in his room continually, praise music is something the enemy cannot stay in the presence of, and that immediately changed his temperaments, I believe our children are tortured the most at night when they sleep, and also to anoint him with oil and pray over him and seal this vessel that nothing could attack him or torture him while he slept, and that initially really changed him.

SID: And then one day they said something that staggered you about James your son.

KAREN: Yes, they said they believed they could take James through deliverance for autism. And I said, “Oh, that’s not possible, if that was possible it would be on national TV shows, it would be on the news, nobody is ever healed of autism.” And they said that is what the Lord said. So who am I to argue with the Lord? And so in January of 2000, they called and they said God said it is time now. And I said time for what? And they said to take James through deliverance for autism so he could be completely healed.

SID: Now was you faith level that something good was going to happen or were you still pretty skeptical?

KAREN: My faith level was that of my experiences, my experiences were, I had been in churches, we had been on staff at churches, my experiences were that most of the Christians I knew were sad, unwell and disappointed in their whole life, I didn’t know Christians that walked in freedom, wholeness and wellness, but I had a little tiny glimmer of hope that just maybe, not for me, but maybe for this boy, that God would show up and do what he said he would do.

SID: Okay let’s find out what happens when they drag James for a deliverance session and I mean, this really should be a movie Karen, you know

SID: Hello, Sid Roth here with Mindy Seta, you just saw a part of that special DVD, you are going to see a little bit more, Mindy, why should people want to dance Jewish dances?

MINDY: Well one of the commandments is that we should worship the Lord with our hearts, soul and strength. In Deuteronomy 6:4 through 9 it talks about this, and this is the only way that I know of just encompassing your whole being unto him.

SID: You know the other thing is that God is knitting Jews and Christians together and I can’t think of a better way of knitting Jews and Christians together where your spirit, soul and body, every fiber of your being is worshipping God, picture a Jewish person and a non-Jewish, oh that
reminds me, you had a second blessing on Rosh Hashanah.

MINDY: Yes, the Lord brought me the most wonderful husband Ralph, and it was a very difficult time for all those years before, my husband left, my first husband left me and the Lord brought Ralph, and Ralph, you know that was what we were married, we were married with Yeshua as our center, the scripture from Ephesians that we would be One New Man together in him, what was our marriage.

SID: Ralph is a dancer also.

MINDY: Yes.

SID: And a lot of people think in terms of female dancers, but you know one of the things about Jewish dance, it breaks down, there is no Jew, there’s no Gentile, there is no male, there is no female, yes in the natural there is, but in the Spirit we are, as Mindy said, one new humanity. One New Man. Now what supernatural thing happened that you knew you were to marry Ralph?

MINDY: Well we went out for coffee when it was okay to do that, we went out for coffee the very first time and we were driving in the car to go have a cup of coffee and Ralph was speaking with me, and the Ruach, the Holy Spirit, this wind was rushing as he spoke, it was tremendous, and he was speaking words but I heard the rushing, the rushing of God’s Spirit coming forth, and as he was talking I knew that we were going to get married. And then we had dinner and we were going to get married. Right away almost.

SID: Mindy, I want them to see something from your DVD in which you teach anyone, you know people by themselves can do this because you need healing too, you need worship too, dancing these Jewish dances and we are going to have a song called “Morning.” What is this about?

MINDY: This is about waking up and coming close to the Lord, through his word, tasting the word, experiencing him, offering ourselves to him for the day that he could do with us as he would like.

SID: Okay the first excerpt is going to be how to do it, the next excerpt that you are going to see, you will see people actually worshipping God in the dance. Let’s go to the “Morning.”

MINDY: So we are going to start off holding hands and we will go counter clockwise. Our first step we are going to start off with walks, we are going to walk right, left, right together, right. And then we are going to continue along the line of the dance with a left, right, left together, left. Very easy, let’s do that again. Walk, walk, right, left, right, and left, right, left together left.

SID: Okay I hope you don’t have two left feet or two right – can anyone do this Mindy?

MINDY: Anyone can do this; if you have a heart to worship the Lord then you can dance.
And we encourage people who have never danced to dance, to try it, and just to enter in.

SID: Is it simple enough for people like me?

MINDY: Yes it is.

SID: That have two left feet?

MINDY: Yes and because you are a man Sid, it is even better, sweeter, it’s wonderful.

SID : Okay, now let’s see what this looks like when you are not just being taught but actually a demonstration of the dance; let’s go to Morning again.

§ music §

SID: I’ll tell you Mindy, you look like you are having fun at dancing.

MINDY: Yeah, it is the best. It is the best to rejoice before the Lord and praise him.

SID: But you know what is even more amazing to me is that scripture that were talking about before we just went on the air of Zephaniah 3:17.

MINDY: Yes, he will rejoice over you with gladness. But what struck me that was so wonderful is the Hebrew root for rejoice, means to whirl around, and so I always dance as though he is dancing with me, he is rejoicing over me as well.

SID: So as you are dancing in the circle he is dancing around you whirling around you, but guess what, there is another part to that verse in Zephaniah 3:17. It says:

And one translation I read said “He will smother you with his kisses.” Can you picture that? Can you picture being lonely when God the Creator of the universe is whirling around you and smothering you with his love? You know Mindy said Isaiah 53 was so important. You know that was written 800 years before Jesus came to earth? I read that to my Orthodox Jewish father, he said “Stop, you are reading about Jesus.” I said, “Dad, stop, this is from the Jewish Tanakh, the Jewish prophet Isaiah.” It sounds exactly like Jesus. If it sounds exactly like Jesus, guess what? It is Jesus. Jesus is the King of the Jews. And he wants you to worship him in the dance, he wants you to worship him in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, it is not just on Saturday, not just on Friday night, not just on Sunday, no, no, no. It is 24/7, it is the whole purpose of life, it is the whole purpose of your being, what are you waiting for? The water is so cool and gentle. Jump in, say “Jesus I make you my Lord and Savior.”