Sid: And this is going to happen so fantastically because we’re going to be under an open heaven. And that’s why I love what my new guest has written in his book. The title is, “Supernatural Living under an Open Heaven.” How would you like to live 24-7 with an open heaven? That means you’re not struggling in prayer; that means you’re moving as Jesus moved. My guest Eddie Rogers, I’m in interviewing him this week on this book. And Eddie, as I have found many people that are being used by God it’s almost like the devil had insight and tried to snuff their life out. There were at least two major attempts on your life; tell me about one of them.
Eddie: One of them that I remember even as a child ironically people say, “You can’t remember at this age,” but my mother tells me I was no more than eighteen months old and I remember climbing up into a cabinet and eating a bottle of baby aspirin. And I don’t remember what transpired after that but that was one attack. And a second one on the heels of that was about when I was four falling into a drainage ditch and the water was over my head and you know it’s kind of humorous because I could see under water and the thoughts that were going through my head was, wow I could see under water. I have no recollection of how I got out of it but I got out of it. So that was just two attacks.
Sid: Well, do you think that your nightmares were connected with what happened to you?
Eddie: I believe so, you know Sid, I believe that the enemy could obvious recognize potential in people. He may not know everything about a person’s destiny but he certainly has the ability to recognize potential in people or callings on people. And I believe that is one thing that happened to me because I had just been rattled with nightmares up until about the age of four. Until one night this same repetitive nightmare that was always of a black cloud outside my bedroom window that was trying to get in. And I would just be literally frozen in fear and about the age of four there was bright light that came into my room. I can’t say that it was Jesus and I can’t say that it was an angel, because I don’t know; I just know that someone come and stood in the doorway and the light was so bright that it was like headlights you know shining into the room and I was just literally terrified. But from that point on the nightmares went away and I never had another one.
Sid: And what did you figure the bright light was?
Eddie: You know at four years of age I really didn’t recall and I thought that when I woke up the next morning, it was probably just a part of a dream. And as I grew up I literally forgot about it until 1997 we were in a meeting in Detroit, Michigan and Kim Clement was doing the ministry. And he called us out and he said, “That there had been a threat on my life something along those lines all of my life.” He said, “But the Lord said that I came and visited you when you were four years of age.” And when he said that, immediately I was just flooded with those thoughts of that person or that light standing in the doorway, that’s what it reminded me of immediately.
Sid: And but the amazing thing is that those nightmares stopped after you had that visitation.
Eddie: Absolutely, never had another one again.
Sid: Okay, so you’re a nice Baptist Pastor and in 1994 you go to a Baptist Revival Meeting but it wasn’t like any Baptist Revival Meeting you’d ever been to. Tell me about that.
Eddie: I think that you are referring to the Jekyll Island Meetings that we were at with a fellowship of Christian ministers and Associates. And in this particular meeting this was about the time that many people had been visited with South African Evangelist that we all know and the joy was breaking out. And Dan Duke who is my spiritual father was doing that particular meeting. I did not know Dan, I had never met him before, but at that this particular meeting, when he came by…
Sid: And by the way, I was at that meeting, now that you are telling me about it.
Eddie: Okay, it was on a Saturday afternoon at that Jekyll Convention Center when Dan came by and prayed for me the power of God absolutely overwhelmed me and I you know I fell to the floor and I began weeping. And the Lord just began cleaning me out of hurts and offenses that I had received in ministry prior to that time that I thought I was over, but I didn’t realize that I had merely buried it. I was just layer upon layer of hurts that were hidden deep within me and I just felt the Lord just reaching in where the hand of a man could not go and removing one at a time these hurts. And for twenty minutes I lay on the floor and I wept until literally pools of tears were filling up my ears and I had to turn my head to the left and to the right to get the tears out of my ears. And about that time I had my first encounter with an angel and I told the person next to me, I said, “There’s an angel standing at my head,” and he had a pitcher in his hand.
Sid: Now just let’s just slow down a little it’s too good. What did the angel look like? What does an angel look like?
Eddie: This particular angel had on like a long flowing garment with a kind of a sandy brown shoulder length hair and he had a pitcher like a water pitcher or something along that type of vessel in his hands. And when I looked up and made eye contact with him he took the vessel and he began to tilt it was as though he was pouring something out. And laying on the floor looking up I saw a golden liquid coming out of the vessel and I literally watched it as it left the vessel and headed directed to my forehead. And when it hit me I instantly broke out in joy, hilariously, I could not stop laughing for another twenty – twenty-five minutes. Sid I was, I was in pain it was hurting so bad…
Sid: Out of curiosity, did you try to stop laughing?
Eddie: I tried, I could not stop, it was hurting, in fact I would say, “Lord, make it stop, make it stop, ha.
Sid: Now there are people listening right now and they are saying “That’s not God, why would God do that?” What would you say to them?
Eddie: Well, I would say that God is good, and He certainly knew that the cleansing that I had just went through and the weeping, it was a healing process. You know “Joy comes in the morning, weeping endures for a night.” And I had been through a long night or season of weeping and this was a joy of refreshing, it was a joy of energy; it restored me to my first love.
Sid: What difference did you see in you, the last word was the operative word, it restored, if it just did that, restored you to first love. But did you see any increase in the power gifts of the Spirit in your life as a result of that?
Eddie: Yes, we did we began to see increase in words of knowledge; we begin to see a measure of increase at that time in healings and miracles. We’ve seen more since that particular time. But you know understanding that I was just a Baptist you know boy starting my first church this was all knew to me. And any kind of healing to me was just absolutely incredible and we rejoiced over headaches going, as a matter of fact we still do. But one of the ironic things is that when we returned to our church that was still a Southern Baptist Church plant at that time, other people began the very first time Sunday I came back and began to see the angel in the pulpit with me. Now whether it was the same one I don’t know, I didn’t seem him, but others would describe him to me and their description to him was what I had seen laying in the floor there in Jekyll.
Sid: Well, you didn’t see the angel again, other’s reported seeing the angel, but out of curiosity did you feel the angel’s presence?
Eddie: I do indeed feel the angel’s presence; as a matter of fact I feel more than one presence right now even as we’re speaking…
Sid: Now this is, now I know what it feels like to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, but is it a different feeling than when there’s an angel’s presence?
Eddie: You know to me, it feels this way. When it’s the Holy Spirit I feel overwhelmed, I feel as though there’s somebody has wrapped me in a blanket, that the anointing when it comes upon you. In the presence of an angel I feel the nearness of them, I feel a tangible presence, it’s more like they’re beside me or close to me rather than upon me; that’s how I would describe it.
Sid: Well, as a result of the experiences we are about ready to share and there’s one that I believe is going to change people’s lives when they hear the rest of this interview….Your book, it’s called “Supernatural” I love the title, and I wonder why? Ha-ha. Supernatural and the sub title is “Living Under and Open Heaven.” Now is it possible for everyone that’s listening to us to live under an open heaven?
Eddie: I believe it is, I believe that it not only is possible, I believe that it is a greater desire of the Lord that we live under an open heaven.
Sid: What would you say to someone that loves the Lord, but they know in their heart there just standing still spiritually, they’re not moving forward, they’re not moving backwards, what would you say to them?
Eddie: I would tell them to get hungry, get thirsty for the Lord, if you feel no passion for Him, you know He said to ask and He would give. And I literally, I pray on a daily basis, I even ask the Lord today, “Make me more hungry than I have ever been before. Because it is that drive that innate ability inside of us through the Holy Spirit that keeps us hungering for more of his presence. He said, “That He would give us the desires of our heart.” And His desire is that for us to be with Him and my desire is to be with Him; so it’s a win, win situation. If someone is in a position that they feel that they’re just going through the motions, the church or religion has just become a statist quo for them, it’s just a mundane routine I think the most dangerous prayer you could pray and I say this respectfully so some don’t take it wrong. The most dangerous prayer that you can pray is “Lord hit me with Your best shot.” I’ve prayed that prayer before, “Lord hit me with your best shot.” I want You more than life itself.
Sid Roth: I tell you what, why don’t you lead us in that prayer very quickly.
Eddie: Father, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I pray not only would You touch and You increase the appetite and the hunger in myself and Sid, but for every person that is listening. I pray right now for that person that is leaning over, to turn up their car radio to hear this prayer. I pray Lord that You would overwhelm them. I pray for that Pastor that is going through the struggles right now, I pray Lord that You would increase His hunger, make Yourself real to them Jesus, hit us with Your best shot, hit us oh Lord with a new thirst and desire that we’ve never had before. Increase it, in Jesus name.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth