SID: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Sandy Teplinsky. Before we go back with Sandy, one of the things I see beyond reading the words of Jesus, and I don’t see how anyone could read the words of Jesus, Jewish person, Muslim person, anyone could read His words, without having their heart pierced with this amazing, and that’s the only word I can come up with, amazing love. But the major way that Jewish people are coming to know the Messiah of Israel is through the supernatural. I want you to look at a video clip of Gari Goldburg DiStephano who is a Jewish woman that certainly did not believe in Jesus; that was healed of over 30 incurable diseases. Let’s take a look now.
Gari: My name is Gari Goldburg DiStephano, I grew up in Long Island New York, and I led a pretty active life involving a lot of sports. In July of 1983 I survived a horrific car crash. I was broken in half from my neck down; the entire right side of my body broke over the steering wheel, I lost all the cartilage in both knees and was horizontal for the next two years. When the car stopped, I was trapped inside the car which was on fire and I have no explanation except for God and adrenaline for how I got out of the car. I spent the next two years trying to get vertical, moved down to Florida where I thought heat would be better for me. Of course humidity was quite painful. And God kept sending people into my path to talk to me about this Jewish guy named Jesus. And I really didn’t want to have anything to do with this guy. I’m Jewish, I’m from New York, I was in a lot of pain, and I kept telling him I have a weapon and I’ll hurt them if they don’t stop talking to me. They did not stop talking to me but it really wasn’t doing anything for my pain. Two men in particular, one Greek and one half Jewish, half Italian named Peter, gave me a Bible which I read. And again, nothing was helping my pain. 8 and 1/2 years after the accident I herniated a disc which paralyzed the left side of my body and basically I was out of luck. My plan was to end my life and I looked at my gun and I realized I am such a klutz. If I shoot myself I’ll still be here and in worse shape than I already was. And so I decided to pray. And these people had been trying to get me to say a prayer that basically said that Jesus died for me, rose again, and was living. And this concept of a living God was very alien to my Jewish heart. I knew there was a God, Jehovah God, the big God, and He lived in the temple. And if you didn’t go to that building, you didn’t really have to deal with Him. So it was hard for me to agree to say that particular prayer because it would have been a lie and if he really was God, that would not be a good way to curry favor. So this is the prayer I said: I said “Jesus, if you are really God like they tell me, then you know what I’m going to do.” “So instead of me doing it, you do it. I give my life to you, do with it what you will. Amen” As soon as I said amen, a hand took my shoulder, lifted me straight up off the floor, a surge of energy came through me, a sack filled with demons came out of my neck, disappeared into the air, and hallelujah, 39 things God healed in an instant.
SID: You know, a new phenomenon is going on. What happened to Gari is happening to people all over the world. Not just Jewish people. In fact I have good news for you: you don’t have to be Jewish to believe in Jesus. God so loves the whole world. But I believe that many of you have had miracles, and you certainly have a little video camera at home. Why not talk just like Gari did right now of what God did, what miracle He did, two, three minutes. Send it to us, we’ll check it out, and if it’s legitimate we’ll put it on the air. And I want to prove a point: that God is working throughout the entire earth right now. Not in superstars but through the superstar. The superstar is Jesus. The superstar is Jesus. I have Sandy Teplinsky here right now and I am overwhelmed with that testimony that we just saw. But I’m also overwhelmed with an experience that you had involving Israel. Tell me about that time that you felt what God feels about the nation Israel.
SANDY: This was about, oh almost 25 years ago, and it was long before I was acquainted with supernatural phenomena. And I was just merely going about my business, cleaning my house, worshipping God, singing, cleaning my house. And suddenly a great sense of anguish enveloped me like I’d never experienced before. When I think of it, the best way that I could describe it would be to call it very sad garbage. And it was if it enveloped me and broke my heart. Now I am a former attorney so while this was happening I was analyzing this and I was thinking perhaps I am having a nervous breakdown. This is something I have no grid for. But within seconds the Lord’s presence overshadowed all that and He spoke very clearly to my heart and said “This is how I feel about My people Israel.” And what I experienced was the Lord’s heart ache and heartbreak and His grieving and His beholding of our sin, and yet the everlasting love of a Father, who’s arms nonetheless uphold His errant children, but who grieves and who pants for the return of those children. And so I fell to the floor under the weight of it and started wailing. Now at this point I really thought I might be having a nervous breakdown and I remember stuffing a pillow into my mouth because of the wails…
SID: Oh wow.
SANDY: …thinking that my neighbors could well call the police. I did not understand then what many of us know now, is that the Holy Spirit can deposit a supernatural intercessory burden like that so that we can stand in the gap. The scriptures say that God looks for someone to stand in the gap, to pray on behalf of Israel, or the nations, or both; to mediate God’s mercy. And so that was really the beginning of a change in me that resulted, I believe, from a deposit of God’s heart. And of course over the years the Lord has added to that and brought revelation and so on.
SID: The bottom line, Sandy, is you wrote a book called “Why Care About Israel?” and that’s a passion for you.
SANDY: It is.
SID: Why care about Israel?
SANDY: It’s a passion for me Sid because, bottom line, it’s a passion for God. I have a passion for God. We’ve known each other for years and our paths have crossed in our mutual pursuit of God. God is passionate for Israel. He makes it very clear in the Word that that passion is everlasting. Beginning with Genesis 12:3 He says that He will bless those who bless Israel, meaning the lineal, physical descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He will curse those who curse them, and of course we go into much more detail on that in the book. And so the lives of believers today, I’m not just speaking to Jews but to gentile believers, are effected to the extent that they choose to bless or curse Israel. Now that principle, that Biblical principle, is not passé. What we need to understand, what the church needs to understand in this hour, is that those same principles apply to us today, and even increasingly more so as we find ourselves at odds with a global mounting anti-Semitism.
SID: Hold that thought. Let me tell you something: there’s a new type of anti-Semitism on the scene. You must understand. We’ll be right back after this word.
