Sid: I believe that we’re coming into a strategic time in history where it’s not going to be a few superstars; it’s going to be the Super Star working through you. I believe that the average layman will be just like the average layman in the first church. And you know that the least believer in the Messiah walked in the supernatural. And that’s the way that it’s always supposed to be; but somehow it got perverted. But just before the Messiah returns we’re going to have that glorious One New Man Congregation where everyone is going to go out into the highways and byways and move in such extraordinary prophecy and miracles and words of knowledge and words of wisdom. People will just say “Ah, God has just invaded my midst; what should I do to be saved?” And that’s the norm not the exception and may that day come quickly. I have a man in my studio his name is Jeff Burke; he’s from Cartersville, Georgia. Jeff moves in such extraordinary signs and wonders that I fancy myself if you will as your mentor of the supernatural. So I want to learn something from Jeff and I want you to learn something from Jeff. Now Jeff at age 21 you were pasturing a Baptist Church; your father was a Baptist Pastor. You were not Spirit Filled at all but you heard a voice from God that told you to go into ministry; tell me about that.
Jeff: We had a very good friend in our family named Milton Rexroad in Pine Mountain, Georgia. When he went home to be with the Lord we’d gone to his funeral, and our family loved him very much. And I was standing there I felt like I heard a voice say and the voice said “I’ve called one home but you’re to be in his stead; so I’m calling you and I’m calling you into the ministry.” And of course at the time I didn’t… the only thing that I knew to do was walk down the aisle and say “I want to be a preacher.” (Laughing)
Sid: And I’m sure your father was very grateful when you said that. Your father, although he wasn’t Spirit-Filled he would move in words of wisdom and words of knowledge. Do you remember one time that happened and tell me about it?
Jeff: Yes, I remember on occasion he was really seeking the Lord and knew that there was more than what he’d been experiencing and so he felt like God had spoken to him one day and just he heard… He spoke to a lady about he said “Look, God’s going to heal you from that time that the kids walked around you saying “You’re an ugly horse; an ugly horse.”
Sid: Now that takes courage to even say that to a person. You’re dad must have really been kind of courageous to do this.
Jeff: (Laughing)
Sid: I mean I can’t… it’s difficult to see me walking to a woman and saying “Remember the time kids circled around you and said “You’re an ugly horse.” But go ahead.
Jeff: So he spoke that to her; and amazing thing about it she was a very attractive beautiful lady. And so her husband even came to my dad, and said “Look she’s very attractive how could anybody ever say that?” And then she responded and said “No, she said, “When I was about 10 years old she said many people said I had the features of a horse and the kids were dancing around me just saying “You ugly horse; you ugly horse.” and so what it did it just set her free and emotionally was a blessing for her to be able to go on and have some confidence in some things.
Sid: And the amazing this is this is even before as you said you father was Spirit-Filled. But some things happened along the way that were not according to the script of the Baptist church.
Jeff: (Laughing)
Sid: You told me about a time that you were singing the song “Victory in Jesus” and you’ve had a whole string of thoughts… just all your frustration came out; tell me about that.
Jeff: Well, as I was singing that song I began to realize I was going “Well, what victory do we really have?” And so I went to my father and I said “Daddy, I want to ask you a question.” I said “We stand every Sunday and then we’ll speak and we’ll preach and we’ll teach and then we’ll say ‘We have victory in Jesus.’ ” But then I said “We turn around and say even though we have victory in Jesus but God don’t do anything more.” And then we turn around and say “But Satan still does stuff,” I said “I really don’t understand the victory in that; how can that be victory if God doesn’t do anything but Satan still does?” I said “I just don’t understand how that’s victory.” So he responded to me and he said “Well son there are people and they seem to get their prayers answered better than we do and some are called Pentecostal, Spirit-Filled, charismatic.” And he said “They really do get their prayers answered but you know of course they speak in tongues so that’s from the devil so I don’t see how that’s from God.” And that’s just the way we were taught and so I began seeking. And even other things and we had already began to see about the reality of demonic things. And even some of our own literature that was being given to us that there was a reality of manifestations of demonic things. And so I began to study and as I began to study our literature it became… it just wasn’t satisfying to me. Because it would go to the point but I still couldn’t see any of the victory in it. And they talked about people that did deliverance did these things. And I began to seek other things; I really began to go and study things other than Christian literature which really began to get me in some trouble. And I looked at something and I looked at something in the library called the 5th Book of Moses.
Sid: Well, you know it says in the Bible a little bit of leaven will leaven the whole loaf. Now the leaven in many instances represents sin, but whatever you take in you get more than you bargained for. If you take something good in you get more than you bargain for of good. If you take something bad in and I’m so concerned about all of the books and movies and television programs that are out now that have this leaven of New Age. And Mishpochah his father said “Let’s not have anything to do with the Charismatic’s because they speak in tongues.” And Jeff had that door closed to him and the only supernatural door that was available was the demonic; that’s pretty much what happened to you.
Jeff: Yes, actually in my own family study I found that I had an Aunt that was doing Tarot Card reading. Found another Aunt that in the south we called “Have born with a veil over her face.” And my grand daddy did something called “Speaking Fire.” And so there was supernatural things happening in our family but they all came from something other than the Lord as I began to study.
Sid: But as you got deeper into these things; I guess you must have left the ministry because you got very successful in business.
Jeff: Yes, this is under the blood of Jesus but praise the Lord I went out one day and I looked up at the heavens and said “God I’ve always believed that you Your a sovereign God but You’ll have to prove it to me because I’m going to go raise something other than heaven.” And actually began to use the incantations, the chants, the prayers that I learned that was not of God. And began to use it to begin to get promotions. And I went into secular work and I began to get those promotions. And even reached a place and a time where I was one place above getting as high as I could go in the company; and I seemed to have tremendous favor there. At the same time drugs were getting a hold of me; I was… because of a stress of a million dollar business I was smoking about 4 packs of cigarettes a day.
Sid: So you were very successful? Did you attribute your involvement in witchcraft to your success? Did you correlate the two?
Jeff: I would like to say that I understood more than I did; but to me it just seemed to be a coincidence of both of them. But I’m going as long as it’s working I’ll keep trying this. And it was very difficult; my health began to go down.
Sid: That devil doesn’t play fair does he?
Jeff: He sure doesn’t.
Sid: But there was something else going on simultaneous with your parents.
Jeff: Yes, praise the Lord they had been… they’d got to seeking; my dad really got to seeking himself. And when he did he came to a place; had actually reached his goal of pasturing the highest church that he could pasture. And wound up saying that… I don’t know if I can say this on radio or not but in the worst hell that he could be in. And so he left; went to a little cabin he and my mom just began to pray. Told the Lord “I’ll go though whatever door you open up.” And so he wound up pasturing in a small country church; but being very content in seeking after God. And during that time he invited a man that had been the pastor of the church that had been his friend. And when he did that the man had been filled with the Holy Spirit.
Sid: Oh, hold that thought we’ll pick up here tomorrow Mishpochah.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth