Missionary-evangelist Art Thomas teaches you practical principles for overcoming the challenges of ministering healing to the people you love. You’ll learn to overcome unhealthy motivations and emotions while being the best representative of Jesus you can be. You also learn how to seek God for a miracle without wearing yourself out.
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!
[Applause]
Sid: Hello.
Sid Roth here.
Welcome to my world where
it’s naturally supernatural.
My guest has had meetings all
over the world where a hundred
percent of the people in
attendance get
physically healed.
But what happens when an
incurable disease goes into
his home?
Many people suffer needlessly.
My guest says no more!
[Applause]
So you go to
spirit-filled churches.
They believe in
healing, Pentecostal churches.
You see a little bit and
then you get hit with really a
chronic back condition.
And so what was your first
thought when you found out what
was wrong with you?
Art Thomas: Well I
believe God could heal.
I just didn’t know if he would.
And you know, the doctor told
me I was going to have surgery.
I was going to have to go
through all these things.
So I just went along with it,
took the pain medication I was
supposed to take.
He said, “You’re a little
young for the surgery.”
But I didn’t have a lot of
hope that I would definitely be
healed until the Lord started
teaching me about healing
ministry and I
realized what was available.
Sid: What was
wrong with your back?
Art Thomas: I had
degenerative disk disease.
Sid: That sounds bad.
Art Thomas: Yes.
I wasn’t allowed to
lift more than 30 pounds.
My back would go out
two to four times a year.
I’d be on strict bed rest
two weeks at a time and I was
miserable all the time,
constant chronic pain.
But the healing
happened in April 2011.
I started healing
ministry, however,
in August 2009.
So for a year and a half I
watched other people’s backs get
healed and watched them receive
the miracle that I knew Jesus
paid for, for me, and just had
to persevere through that and
hold fast to the truth
that Jesus wanted it.
Sid: But a major, major key
happened in your life when you
went to Heaven.
Tell me about it.
Art Thomas: Yes.
I had this one experience
where I fell on my face.
In my vision I saw Heaven.
I fall on my face and I was on
this road that was just like
reflective, really.
And I saw my reflection, and
I was so overwhelmed with the
experience I just
looked at this reflection.
I said, “Jesus, I’m
tired of seeing myself.
I want to see you.”
And in that moment my reflection
spoke back and he said,
“You do see me.”
And that’s when I realized
the reality of Galatians 2:20,
that I was
crucified with Christ.
I no longer live.
Christ lives in me.
He’s there.
He’s here.
He’s in all of us.
So Paul said to the
Corinthian Church,
in Chapter 11,
First Corinthians,
he said that, “One of the
reasons that there are weak and
sick, and even dead people among
you is because you failed to
discern the Lord’s body.”
Now he says this in the context
on the teaching of communion.
So we easily go to the
bread, somehow we’re supposed to
discern Jesus in there.
But the context of
First Corinthians,
even that whole area, is we the
people are the body of Christ
and we have to be walking in
fellowship with each other.
One of the
problems we run into is,
you know, people will drive for
hours and hours to get to one of
my meetings, but I’m like, I
feel bad because I want to let
them know, you know, you could
have just reached out touched
the person who sits next to
you in church every week.
That’s just as much the
body of Jesus as anyone.
First Corinthians 6 says that
our bodies are members
of Christ himself.
Our bodies are
members of Christ himself.
That means I am a physical
extension of Jesus and so is
every believer who the
Spirit of God dwells inside of.
Sid: At your meetings, why do
you tell one person to
pray for another?
Art Thomas: So when I got
into healing ministry I started
studying the scriptures
and I saw Jesus say things,
like in John 14:12, he said,
“Everyone who believes in me
will do the same
things I’ve been doing.”
You know, “These signs
accompany those who believe.”
So I realized this
was for everyone.
In Acts, Chapter 5, all
the believers were gathering
together in Solomon’s colony and
it says just a couple of verses
later that the people
brought all the sick and
demon-possessed, and
all of them were healed.
So there is a
biblical precedent,
post-Jesus for 100 percent
results and it was happening as
all the believers gathered
and ministered to each other.
So I just teach
people how to do this,
which really is just put your
hand there and let Jesus do the
heavy lifting, and then we turn
them loose on each other and we
watch what God does.
I’m an ordinary
believer just like anybody.
Sid: You’re telling me anyone
that’s an ordinary believer can
do what you as an
ordinary believer do.
Art Thomas: Absolutely.
In fact, the first
25 years of my life,
no miracles, and I prayed for
lots of people to be healed.
And all of a sudden when I
realized Jesus wants it,
he paid for it, he wouldn’t pay
for something he didn’t want,
that it’s something that’s
available in the scriptures,
and that it’s for
all believers to do,
I was like, oh,
I’m out of excuses.
There is nothing that I
have to hold onto to say,
well I can disqualify myself.
If you believe you
fit the qualifications.
If anyone says, I feel
unworthy, they’re right.
There is no such thing as being
worthy to ministry miracles.
There is no such thing as
being worthy of anything in the
Christian life.
It’s all about
Jesus being worthy.
Sid: You see tens of
thousands of miracles.
So what happens to Art when
he develops Crohn’s disease?
Art Thomas:
Actually, it’s interesting,
the last time I was on your show
I was up the night before with
cramping in my
stomach, wondering,
God, what is going on?
How do I survive this thing?
And I was struggling.
I had come back from Africa
and had some bleeding issues,
and I was afraid, did I
get a parasite or what?
Well it turns out I was
diagnosed with Crohn’s disease
about a year later.
And several months after that I
wrote a blog post on my website
and told my readers, you know,
“The only common denominator of
all the miracles in the Gospels
was somebody who made contact
with Jesus.”
And I said, “You, if
you’re seeking a miracle,
you need to make contact with
Jesus and here’s the good news,
just as we were talking,
we’re the body of Christ.
Grab the shirtsleeve of the
person next to you at church
this Sunday.”
And so I also said, “Now I want
you to know I’m not speaking
from some ivory tower telling
you something that I don’t
understand.
I’m in this with you.
I’ve got Crohn’s disease right
now and I’m struggling with the
pain of it.
Sometimes I’m laying hands on
other people with my stomach
twisted in knots.”
I said, “But I’m going
after this thing because Jesus
deserves what he paid for.”
People hit “Reply”
on that email list.
Sid: Not you
deserve, Jesus deserves.
Art Thomas: Oh come
on, he deserves it.
Sid: Do you get that?
Art Thomas: Yes.
Sid: Big distinction.
Art Thomas: People hit “Reply”
on that email list and they were
writing me saying the things
that I had been
teaching them to do.
They’re typing in
there, “Crohn’s disease,
leave in Jesus’ name.
Be healed in Jesus’ name.”
I’m reading these emails
and I’m thinking to myself,
this is the moment for
me to take my own advice.
These are ordinary people.
Nobody has a clue who they are.
I don’t know who they are,
but that’s the body of Jesus
speaking to me right now.
And I said, “Jesus, I thank
you for ministering
to me right now.”
The very next day, 80 percent
of the symptoms were gone and by
the end of the
month, completely healed.
And now it’s been over a year.
[Applause]
Sid: Now you say,
okay, but Art knows a lot.
Do you know what he told me?
His two-year-old son can do it.
If his
two-year-old son can do it,
so can you.
We’ll be right back.
[Applause]
We’ll be right back
to It’s Supernatural!
We now return to
It’s Supernatural!
[Applause]
Sid: You know, I was fascinated,
and you know the one thing you
said that really hit
me like a two-by-four,
is I would put my hand on
someone and pray for them,
and kind of get the Holy Spirit
to go through my hand into them.
But you said
something different.
Art Thomas: Yes.
I was always
raised with this idea.
I don’t think anyone
ever taught it to me.
But I thought that healing was
something you learned yourself
into, that you had to like learn
techniques and figure out how to
push power out your
arm, and all that.
I discovered it is none of that.
It’s just my job is to do
my part and only my part to
completely trust
Jesus to do the rest.
I don’t have to
think the right thought,
feel the right
feelings, say the right words,
quote the right scriptures,
claim the right promises,
any of that.
It’s just take
Jesus at his word.
He said, “Lay your hands on
the sick and they’ll recover.”
Sid: Tell me about
your two-year-old son.
Again, there’s
hope for me and you.
Even a two-year-old can do it.
Art Thomas: My wife was playing
in the living room with our two
boys and my four-year-old was
right between her knees on the
floor, and she had her
elbows on her knees,
leaning forward, and that
four-year-old Joey popped up and
hit her right in the nose.
And I’m sitting in the dining
room and I heard this loud pop.
She reaches up and she’s got
blood coming down her hands,
and J.J., the
two-year-old, he hops up,
runs over before I
could get there and says,
“Mommy, you okay?”
Touches her nose
with his hand and said,
“Nose be healed Jesus’ name.”
The bleeding stops.
The pain stops.
She goes and
looks in the mirror.
There’s no sign
of a broken nose.
All she had to do was clean the
blood off her hands and she was
totally fine.
Still to this day, no
sign of a broken nose.
[Applause]
Sid: What a
wonderful way to be raised.
But something really
beyond broken nose happened.
Your wife goes
into labor, 24 weeks,
and you know that’s not
a cool thing to happen.
What occurred?
Art Thomas: Yes.
That’s when she was in
labor with Jeremiah,
J.J., the youngest.
I was at the store and she
had had pre-term labor with our
first, and so we were kind
of expecting to be careful.
But she knew what
labor felt like.
And I’m at the grocery store,
and she called me and said,
“I’m in labor.”
And I said, “Are you serious?
It hasn’t been long.”
She said, “Yeah, I know and the
contractions are
five minutes apart.”
I left my shopping
cart there in the aisle,
took off running for the car,
drove as fast as I could
to get home.
Don’t tell the police.
But as I’m driving I’m
crying, sobbing in prayer.
And I just said to
the Lord out loud,
I said, “God, I can’t do this.
I’m not strong enough for this.”
And he spoke back to my
spirit right in that moment,
and he said, “This is
what I meant when I said,
‘My power is made perfect in
your weakness.'”
This peace hit me.
I realized I never
was strong enough.
It was never about that.
I drive home the rest of the way
in peace still knowing it’s a
serious issue, and I
hurried into the house.
My wife is standing there in the
kitchen with her hands backwards
on the counter having
another contraction.
And I knelt down on the floor,
laid my hands on her stomach and
said, “In Jesus’ name,
contractions stop now.”
That one stopped instantly.
We grabbed the overnight
bag, jumped in the car,
drove a half-hour
to the hospital.
She had two or three more
contractions on the way further
and further apart.
By the time we arrived
the contractions were done.
They ran a bunch of tests.
They said, “We can’t find
anything wrong with you.
We don’t know what happened.”
[Applause]
Sid: Why is it
harder for even, say,
a healing evangelist when
they get hit with an incurable
disease in their own home?
I mean, that should
be the easiest place.
Why is it harder?
Art Thomas: Really, honestly,
the only blocks exist between
our own ears.
So we had these problems with
how much we love our family
member.
And so we have these
expectations like,
uh-oh, I hope this works,
because if it doesn’t I have to
go to bed with this person
tonight or I have to see them in
the morning, you know.
And we wonder, is it
going to happen this time?
We’ve been
pursuing it for so long.
Like Proverbs 13 says that,
“Hope deferred makes
the heart sick.”
This thing you’ve been
believing for and pushing for,
for so long, gets
put off and put off.
Your heart can get sick
and you start to expect,
well it didn’t happen the
last 37 times I laid hands on my
spouse or my kid, or whatever.
Maybe it will happen this time.
Probably not.
I’ll just expect
it in the future.
And it’s hard to talk about
how to persevere without setting
people up with an expectation
that they’ll have to persevere.
And so we end up trying.
We see nothing.
We don’t know what
to do after that.
It is possible to persevere, but
it’s also possible to expect it
right here, right now, and
that’s what we have to expect
every single time we
minister to our family.
Sid: Okay.
I heard what you said.
But I want you to talk to
someone that for 20 years has
been dealing with a chronic
problem and I don’t know even
know if they believe anymore.
Art Thomas: Right.
Sid: Talk to them.
Art Thomas: First thing’s first,
you’re doing everything right.
You’re doing everything right.
The only, this is the
thing, people ask me,
is it okay if I
minister healing to myself?
I say absolutely.
Sid: [unintelligible].
Art Thomas: Yes.
There’s nothing in Scripture
that tell you that you can’t
minister healing to yourself.
Okay.
However, there’s also not a
prescription that says
you have to.
In other words, if you’re trying
and you’re seeing results,
don’t feel bad.
It wasn’t, the weight of
responsibility wasn’t on your
shoulders to begin with.
So the only prescription for a
sick believer is found in
James 5, which is to go to other
mature believers and have them
minister to you.
So my job as a believer, my job
as a sick person is really to
contend as much as I can to do
whatever it is I know I can do,
but remember, I
can’t earn a healing.
There’s nothing I can do that’s
going to accomplish more than
what Jesus already did.
He did all the work.
It is finished.
That’s the truth.
So I have to bank on that.
I have to hold onto that
truth and just keep persevering.
Jesus said everyone
who seeks, finds.
Everyone who
knocks, the door is open.
The only way that that doesn’t
happen is if I stop knocking,
I stop seeking, I stop asking,
there has to be perseverance.
Now beyond all that, I
would encourage you,
when you’re seeking healing,
you’re seeking for Jesus to
receive what he paid for.
That means that seeking
healing is an act of worship,
whether you’re seeking your
own healing or seeking someone
else’s healing.
And it’s a form of worship
that only exists in this world.
You’re not going to have that
on the other side of eternity
because you’re going to be well.
Everybody is fine there.
But right now you have a very
valuable form of worship that is
meaningful to the Lord.
It’s dear to his heart.
You know, Matthew 25, Jesus
talks about this parable of
separating sheep from goats,
and he’s talking about the final
judgment.
And he says to the sheep, “I
was sick and you cared for me,
or you looked after me.
He didn’t say, “I was
sick and you healed me.”
See, when I stand before the
Lord at the end of time I’m not
going to have to answer for
whether or not I ever worked a
miracle.
In fact, the people who pointed
at their miracles for their
justification, he
says, “I never knew you.”
What I will have to answer
for is whether or not I loved.
And so people who have someone
who is in a chronic condition
and they’re not healed yet,
know that the greatest and most
important thing to the Lord’s
heart is the fact that you are
loving and you’re caring, and
you’re going out of your way to
take care of that person.
[Applause]
Sid: I want Art to
pray when we come back.
Number one, I believe God is
going to operate through words
of knowledge for your healing.
I mean, he’s had many, many
meetings where a hundred percent
have been healed.
But I also want him to pray that
you have all these barriers come
off and you start fresh for the
greatest move of God’s
spirit in history.
God thinks enough about you.
He had you born for this big
wrap-up move of his Spirit.
Be right back.
[Applause]
We’ll be right back
to It’s Supernatural!
We now return to
It’s Supernatural!
[Applause]
Sid: Art, you talk about a
lot about mental barriers.
Give us some examples.
Art Thomas: Yes.
I mean, we already talked about
the hope deferred thing that
happens to so many of us.
Another one is judging
people based on their merit,
and that could be in the
positive or the negative,
you know.
Sometimes we come
at this saying,
you know, Lord, this
person has been so faithful.
They’ve loved you so many years.
There’s such a
faithful minister,
whatever.
What we’re really
doing is saying,
God, don’t you see all the
wonderful things they did to
earn their healing?
And our emphasis is all on their
action and not Jesus’s action.
It also works in the negative.
It’s like with your
family, it’s a lot harder.
Sid: You know
they’re backslidden.
So you say, you’ve
never healed them.
Art Thomas: Yes.
If I’m on the street
and someone says to me,
I got diabetes,
I’m like, come on,
diabetes, get out,
pancreas, function well,
right.
When your loved one that
you know and you know their
lifestyle says I got
diabetes, you’re thinking,
lay off the Twinkies,
man, it’s your own fault.
Right?
Yeah.
Sid: So what
should I, all right,
you know that let’s suppose
you know someone’s even in sin.
You know that.
How does it affect you pray?
Art Thomas: Well
it’s not about me.
It’s not about them.
See, James 5 says that, “The
prayer offered in faith will
make the sick person well.
The Lord will raise him up.
If he sinned he’ll be forgiven.”
So there’s a provision there.
If their sickness
came as a result of sin,
the forgiveness is automatic.
It happens right away.
Sid: Now many people say it’s
a lack of faith if you
go to a doctor.
It’s a lack of faith
if you take medicine.
What do you say?
Art Thomas: Well first of all,
the irony is if I don’t believe
it’s God’s will to heal, then
why am I going to the doctor?
That’s fighting
against God’s will.
So medicine is only going to
work with a theology that says
God wants me well.
Sid: What do I say to the
people that write me often,
maybe it’s you, okay,
you believe in healing,
Sid.
Why do you wear glasses?
Art Thomas: You know, my
experience should not trump what
the scripture says.
So you know, we can make a
theology out of the things we
haven’t seen or we can make
a theology out of Jesus who
perfectly revealed the Father.
And I think that
makes a lot more sense.
So like I said, I was struggling
with degenerative disk disease
for a year and a half watching
other people get healed until I
had my own miracle.
What I say is, listen,
what I’m telling you,
what I’m believing, what I’m
preaching is what the Word of
God says regardless
of my experience.
I refuse to be a disciple of
disappointment because then I
can only
reproduce disappointment.
I have to be a disciple of Jesus
so that I can reproduce Jesus.
Sid: I want you to reach deep
and pray whatever the Spirit of
God tells you.
Art Thomas: Right now I’m
seeing a picture of a right arm,
and I’m actually, there’s
a green sleeve around it.
I’m not sure if that means
anything to someone who’s
watching right now.
But whatever it is that’s
going on with your right arm,
I speak life and wholeness to
it right now in Jesus’ name.
And just try to move that,
see if anything’s changed.
Yes, I’m also
hearing, hearing loss,
specifically left
ear, but really,
Jesus paid the
price for both ears.
So if you’ve got hearing loss
of any kind I tell those ears to
open up right now
in Jesus’ name.
Throat conditions, in fact,
there’s like a throat cancer,
throat, some sort of
laryngitis or something,
things that are
going on in the throat.
We tell those things to stop.
Thyroid, there’s like a nodule
on someone’s thyroid that’s been
swollen up and we tell
that to shrivel up right now.
Peace to you in Jesus’ name.
If anyone has Crohn’s
disease like I used to have,
we tell Crohn’s to get
out and never come back.
I speak peace to your
digestive system right now.
Every sickness, every disease,
every spirit of infirmity,
I tell you to leave and never
come back in the name of Jesus.
Now if you can safely do it,
test out those conditions.
Try to do something you couldn’t
do and let us know what happens.
Sid: Well I’m going to tell
you what’s going to happen.
You are going to not
look back anymore.
I can tell you that it’s
a new beginning for you.
God is pure love and he
wants you to know him,
know him, and have Jesus come
inside of you and be your Lord,
and say, Lord, I want to have
experiential knowledge of you in
Jesus’ name.
Amen.
[Applause]
Sid: Next week on
It’s Supernatural!
Rod Parsley: Hello.
I’m Pastor Rod Parsley and I’ll
be sharing the most important
message I’ve ever
delivered on the End Times,
right here on It’s
Supernatural with Sid Roth.
Join us.
♪♪♪