SID: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. As a young Jewish believer in the Messiah, I came to know a woman that walked in one of the greatest miracle ministries I ever saw. Her name, Kathryn Kuhlman and she used to say, “Please don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. He’s all that I have.” My next guest started a genuine friendship with the Holy Spirit at 13. He’s 27 now and he says the most important thing of the hour is for you to have a friendship with the Spirit of the Living God and he would like to help you develop this. I want this. Do you? Now I’ve been really looking forward to interviewing my guest David Hernandez because of the relationship he has with the Holy Spirit and everyone is supposed to have this type of a relationship. But your family was sabotaged generations ago with the occult and how did they get free?
DAVID: Well they got free when my grandparents were filled with the Holy Spirit. And my grandparents actually attended a church that looked down upon people who had the infilling of the Holy Spirit. So they get kicked out of their church and they go find a church plant locally that was actually enabling them to move in those gifts, but it was since that moment that they were filled with the Holy Spirit that the things that the enemy had tried to do, because you know, even if you break something he tries to get back in. The scripture talks about how demons return. And so in my family those things that tried to come back in even all the way down to me, on the other flip side of that is when my family is filled with the Holy Spirit, as is true of any believer, we experienced the supernatural in our lives.
SID: And at 11, you got born again and you had an encounter in which the Lord showed you your future. Tell me about that.
DAVID: Well when I was 11 years old, that’s when I gave my heart to Jesus and when I say I gave it to him, I truly do mean that I understood the ramifications of that commitment and whole heartedly I said, “Lord, I am in and I just want you.” And when I did that the Lord showed me that he would use me in ministry he showed me not just the ministry, the type of ministry I would be in, but the Lord also showed me which, funny enough, the administrative, the back end, the different steps it would take logistically and practically, and that happened after I prayed, Lord, I read it in James here, where it says, “If any of you lack wisdom.” I was 11, so I needed some wisdom if I was going to do anything.
SID: Well as a 75-year-old, I know I need some wisdom.
DAVID: So at 11 years old, I said, “Lord, I’m going to stand on this with childlike faith.” I said, “Lord, I believe that I can have that.” And it was almost like I just knew the information, just a download. And even to this day, now I’m 27, been in the ministry officially since 13, but even to this day we’re still living out that plan that I received when I was 11. So I said, “Okay Lord, after these next couple of steps you’re going to have to show me another download because we need to know the next step of the way.
SID: Well you know, at age 13, he starts preaching the Gospel. He has such a close intimacy with God, such a close intimacy with the Spirit of the Living God. But then panic set in. Guess what happened? All of a sudden that presence lifted. What did you think?
DAVID: At first I thought, Lord, did I do something to offend you? Did I say something? Was I preaching something that wasn’t necessarily scriptural? And so as you can imagine, I became very fearful. I started panicking, like you said. I said, “Lord, I was enjoying just this beautiful fellowship with you.” And I felt there was this flow spiritually and something just blocked it and disrupted that flow.” And so I said, “Lord, I have to understand what’s happening here.” And so I just pressed in further and I determined within me and I said, “There’s got to be more.” Because I know that I’ve walked with Jesus, but I feel as though I’m missing something. And I’m looking back now. The Lord had withdrawn not because of anything that I had done, and when I say he withdrew, he didn’t do so literally, he did so in relation to my emotions. I learned that when God seemingly withdraws he’s not doing it to push you away. He’s doing it to draw you closer.
SID: Now did you literally lock yourself in the room and say, “God, if you don’t come here I’m not going out.” Did you really?
DAVID: I went in and I made that ultimatum and I said “Lord, until I receive something fresh from Heaven, I’m not leaving here. You need to touch me.” And so I remember [being] on, my face was pressed into the carpet, the carpet became tear-drenched. I was praying with so much passion that I remember even tensing my whole body and everything in me just hungered for the presence of Jesus. And I said, “Lord, I can’t leave this place until you touch me. I’m not leaving this place until something from Heaven comes in here.” And I remember I was just praying for several hours, about four hours in that moment, and then something amazing happened. And what had happened in that moment was looking back now what is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I didn’t speak in tongues at that point, but I received what I call a flood from within. You see, at salvation you receive the Holy Spirit, but at baptism you release him. You receive him into the rest of your being. Jesus said, “Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.” So the scripture talks about that river being deep within. That flood touches from the spirit and it goes from the inside out so that the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you can receive him, even though, people ask, well I already have the Holy Spirit. How do I receive him a second time? You received him in your spirit the first time when you got saved, but he overflows the rest of your being at baptism. They say, Lord, I want more of your presence. That’s not the point. The point of baptism is not you getting more of God, it’s him getting more of you. And when he is released from deep within he begins to overflow and that’s what happened to me. I felt just this, I felt like I was living in a little piece of Heaven on Earth in my room. The ordinary plain surroundings of my room changed dramatically, not visually, but the sense of his presence was so strong I remember I felt like this heat descend on my body, like currents of electricity moving up and down. I’m crying, I’m praying, I’m worshiping, and I close my eyes. My eyes were closed at that time and I said, I remember Jesus had become so real, the Holy Spirit had revealed him with such intensity that I felt if I move my hand I might feel it brush up against his robe. I was frozen. I didn’t want to move because I didn’t want to disrupt what was happening and that real experience was the well I still draw from today.
SID: But that sparked you to even more passionately have intimacy with God. You would spend hours and hours seeking God. Tell me about that.
DAVID: Well I mean, even seeking out mentors and even seeking, I would go to the conferences, I would read the books and I would spend my time in prayer, spend my time in the Word, so much so that when I would read the Word my Bible started falling apart. I heard this old quote that says, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to a believer who isn’t.” And so I’m looking at this and I remember just reading it, and when I read it I wasn’t, I’m younger, so it wasn’t in my mind I want to preach a sermon or I want to get a revelation. It was simply, Jesus, I want to see another facet of who you are. And seeking the Word who is Jesus, as I read it from Scripture, the Holy Spirit would take that Word and bring it to life. And I sensed the drawing, I sensed the closeness. The more time I spent, the scripture describes that “we’re changed as we behold him.” You know, there’s not too much work to it, but we do work toward holiness and we do enact disciplines that cause us to walk the way God wants us to walk. The truth is that there’s not much you can do to transform yourself. But it was in the presence of Jesus that I received the transformation. Acts, Chapter 4 talks about how the Pharisees and the Sadducees knew the disciples had been with Jesus because of the time they spent with him. And so the presence of God will transform you. And as you spend time looking and gazing into the lovely countenance of Christ, the majestic, beautiful countenance of the Son of the Living God, you’re looking in the scripture and you’re being transformed as you’re looking into the Word. You’re being changed into his image. You’re becoming more like Jesus. For every moment you spend in his presence, you’re becoming more like him. You’re being transformed to be more like Jesus.
SID: Now speaking about being more like him, he starts going to school and this fountain of God’s presence starts coming out of him on all of the students. When we come back I want to find out what happened at school.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth