Sid Roth - Homeless Man Gives Last $4 to God. Then This Happens
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world, where it's naturally supernatural. It's hard for me to believe: I look at my guest, Steven Brooks. I've met your wife, I've met your daughter: you have a worldwide ministry, signs and wonders: you prophesy, the prophecies come to pass: you've prophesied over me, and it's come to pass: and so I know you heard from God. But it's hard to believe, Steven, that 20 years ago, it's hard for me to believe when I look at Steven now, 20 years ago, he was single, he lost his job, and you couldn't go to your parents.
Steven Brooks: Right.
Sid Roth: Why?
Steven Brooks: Well such, Sid, it was a tough situation all around. I had just recently received the baptism in the Holy Spirit at that time in my life. I began to speak in tongues. I was introduced to a church that believed in these types of things. I was totally unaware of it before, so it was all brand-new to me. And I went back and I told the old denomination that I came out of that miracles are still happening. God still is doing miracles today: these things are real. And when I joined the church, they gave me the right hand of fellowship: but when I told them that, they gave me the left foot of fellowship: I was on the way out. My family didn't understand me: they had been raised in this certain denomination all their life that did not believe in miracles. And so when these things happened to me, a lot of my family and close friends did not understand what I was going through. So when I was in a time of great need, they did not want to help me: they thought it was some type of judgment upon my life.
Sid Roth: And so you got 2 months behind in rent, and he does the honorable thing: he says "I'm not going to get into debt anymore". He doesn't have a job: he looks for a job: he can't get a job, and so he gets in his car, h-he's driving out of town, and he sees a cardboard box. Why would you grab that cardboard box? What did it look like by the way?
Steven Brooks: Well, it was a large cardboard box, sid: not your normal cardboard box. It looked like somebody had taken a refrigerator out of it, unpacked it, and just threw the box aside: and something told me that I was going to need that. And so I stopped my car, popped the trunk, and folded that big box up and shoved it in the back of the trunk, because I didn't know where I was going to live at. And I drove about 12 miles out of the town, and found a place off to the side of the road that I just pulled off to the side. And literally took that box out of the trunk of my car, set it up, and I thought I'll only be here a few days: it probably won't be too long. And I began to live out of that box.
Sid Roth: Did you ever in your wildest imagination think that you would live in a cardboard box?
Steven Brooks: No. The whole time this was going on...
Steven Brooks: I kept thinking, "Why is this happening to me"? I was crying out for help. I actually went by a church that I was belonging to at that time, and I asked them for help. And I explained my situation, and they basically replied and said, "You're going through some type of job experience: you need to just go ahead and go through it". And I didn't understand really it was the enemy trying to destroy my life, and so every time I tried to get help, it seemed like it just reinforced the difficult situation I was already in.
Sid Roth: Okay. And your car stopped working, so you couldn't go in your car at night and warm up...
Steven Brooks: Right.
Sid Roth: ...With the heater. You didn't have money for gas.
Steven Brooks: Right.
Sid Roth: How cold did it get?
Steven Brooks: It got real cold. You know, Sid, when I parked that car, I thought I'll just, I'll be leaving in a few days, and I'll get out of this mess. But the car stopped working and before I knew it, I rolled into the wintertime. And the temperatures began to drop, and one night it got down to 18 degrees, which is considerably below freezing: and that was one of the toughest nights I had.
Sid Roth: Now I'm reminded of the time that you said, "Lord, it can't get any worse", and then what happened?
Steven Brooks: Well I was laying in that cardboard box and I was hungry: had not eaten in 4 days, and and things were just difficult. There was stress and pressure, and but I said, "Lord", one night while I was laying in the cardboard box trying to keep from freezing, I said, "Lord, it just cannot get any worse than this". And when I said that, Sid, I literally felt something wet begin to fall on my face, and it started to sprinkle. It started raining, and I said, "Lord, it did get worse". And so, I hit the rock-bottom that night.
Sid Roth: Well, well there was something that happened though! He had a post office box, and he got an unexpected check for $400! Had you been eating much?
Steven Brooks: No: hardly eating anything. It was dependent upon...
Sid Roth: Well where did you get food?
Steven Brooks: Well it was depending on what was available in the trash cans.
Sid Roth: Oh!
Steven Brooks: I found out that some of the local pizza companies, if they didn't sell all their pizzas at night, they would just throw them away. So if there was something in the dumpers, I ate: if there was not, then it was another night of prayer and fasting.
Sid Roth: What did you do with that $400 that came in unexpectedly?
Steven Brooks: Well it was a shock: it did come in unexpectedly. But I remembered that I had that friend that I had never paid the back rent on, so I went back and I said, "Listen, I know your dad's the landLord. I want to give you that money so you can take it to him", and I gave him the money.
Sid Roth: Why did you do that? I mean it's the right thing to do, but here it's 18 degrees, it's raining on you, the cardboard is soggy: your car isn't working, you're eating out of trashcans.
Steven Brooks: Right.
Sid Roth: $400 Steven:
Steven Brooks: Right.
Sid Roth: How could you do that?
Steven Brooks: Well I really wanted to go to the grocery store, but I knew enough, having been brought up in a Christian home, that there are certain things you need to do in life that are the right things to do. So I took that check and I cashed it at one of these check cashing places, and I took the money over to my friend. He took it to his father, and his father was absolutely shocked that somebody would do that. It was to, just wanted to honor the Lord.
Sid Roth: You did have a few dollars cash that you kept: how much?
Steven Brooks: I kept 4 $1 bills that I never spent.
Sid Roth: Okay, get this: he remembers a Bible study that he went to a couple of times, so he goes to that Bible study, and they take up an offering. This is a guy that only eats out of trash cans, and does a lot of prayer and fasting because he doesn't have any food, and he puts the $4 in the offering! How could you do that, Steven?
Steven Brooks: Well, there was a guest minister that night. He said, "I'm going to travel down to South America: I want to take medical supplies. I'm going to receive an offering", so they began to pass that offering basket around the room. And I'm sitting there in that room, Sid, and I literally, a conversation began to go on on each side of my shoulder. It felt like an angel was sitting here, and an evil spirit was sitting over here.
Steven Brooks: And I heard, God just so strongly prompted me, and said, "Give your last $4". And I thought "Lord, I'm going to starve", and I heard a voice on this side say, "If you give that, you will starve". And I thought just for a moment, and the whole time the basket's getting closer to me. And I thought, "You know, I'm already starving. I might as well just give it and obey the Lord". And right when I decided to do it, I pulled the money out and the basket showed up: I just threw those 4 ones into the offering plate, and it went around and vanished, and the meeting was over.
Sid Roth: And so you went back to your box, and your no food, and your horrible weather.
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: You think it's gonna get any worse? Wait till you hear what happens next week. Be right back after this word.
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth here with Steven Brooks. Steven is living in a cardboard box, his car isn't working: he's got no money: his last few dollars away in an offering. It's as cold as 18 degrees.
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: You're living off of food in trash cans.
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: It can't get much worse, and it does: it rains, and you know, he's got a cardboard box he's living, you must have been cold!
Steven Brooks: I did: and also I had the budget cardboard box. It was the one that didn't have a roof on top: just had 4 walls and a bottom, so I got rained on, I was freezing. And but you know I gave that $4 offering, Sid, and before I knew it, a whole week had gone by: and it rolled back around to that mid-week service, and the Holy Spirit prompted me, again, to get ready and go to that meeting.
Sid Roth: But your car isn't working.
Steven Brooks: I explained that to the Lord. He said, "You get ready: I'll take care of the car", and I said okay. And so again, the car would not start. I tried to start it during the week: it would not start.
Sid Roth: That same thing happened to you the first time you went: it didn't start.
Steven Brooks: Exactly: but...
Sid Roth: But it started! So you went the first time.
Steven Brooks: That is correct. So right before that meeting I tried to start the car up, and it started up! And so I drove to the meeting as fast as I could: definitely didn't want to stop: and so I got to the meeting. And so I got to the meeting: went inside: sat down. But Sid, I'd been going through this for quite some time now. I felt like a rubber band, mentally, had been stretched, and I felt like I was about to snap. I felt I could not take, I felt like I'd fallen off the side of the world, and nobody had known about me. And so when I went to that meeting...
Sid Roth: And nobody cared.
Steven Brooks: That's what I felt like, and the enemy was trying to really enforce that. And so there was despair: there was hopelessness. So I sat down that night: and that minister came out that evening, and just put his hand on my shoulder. And I felt the heat go all through my body. I grabbed him: I said, "I need to talk to you". He said, "Come to the back room". We went to a back room, and I just began to weep and cry. I told him everything I'd been going through, and he said, "Steven, if you'll go out here and tell the people what you've just shared with me", he said, "I believe God will do a miracle for you". And I said, "Okay I'll do it. Will you stand with me"? He said, "Yes". And so we walked back out to that room, and he told everybody, "Steven has something he would like to say". And I just looked at the people, and Sid, I told them, I said, "I've been eating out of a cardboard box: I've been eating out of trashcans". I just broke with great weeping and bawling and crying: and a young woman in the group that night, she just popped up. She said, "Why don't we receive an offering for Steven"? And everybody said "Yes", and they all just joined in, and they put me in the middle and began to toss money at me and financial gifts. And after it was all over, we all, me and that guest, that minister, we gathered it up: went in the back room and began to count it! We poured all the money out on the bed: we started counting: $20, $60, $80, $200. He stopped and said, "This is a pretty good offering for a small group". But we kept on counting: $300, $320, $360, $380, $400. We stopped counting at $418: and he got very serious, Sid. He looked at me: he said, "I want to ask you a question, and you tell me the truth": I said, "Okay". He said, "Did you give 4 $1 bills in the offering last week"? I said, "I did, but I didn't think anybody saw". He said, "Well my wife saw you do that".
Sid Roth: Mm.
Steven Brooks: He said, "Do you know what this is"?: I said, "No". He said, "This is the 100-fold return", and Sid, it was. That night I had literally 100 times given back.
Sid Roth: But Steven, it was better than a 100-fold return...
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: Because someone gave him a room to sleep in...
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: Someone gave him a bed, someone gave him a job. And now, as I said at the beginning of the telecast, he is married, has a daughter: the family travels the world telling people about the goodness of God. But I have to believe, it was in those times of nothing to do but pray and read the Bible, that it made you who you are today. Something amazing is happening with him! When he speaks, oftentimes there are supernatural fragrances. Not just one person smells it: many people smell it. And one of the more familiar, smells is antiseptic.
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: Explain that.
Steven Brooks: Sid, many times when I minister, in the meetings there are people with infections or with diseases: infections in the natural that even natural antibiotics can't knock out. And so often when I begin to minister, the fragrance of the Lord will come into the meeting, and it's a fragrance that's known in the Bible as onycha: onycha was one of the key ingredients that was used in the holy incense that we read about in Exodus chapter 30. And many times this fragrance of onycha will begin to manifest in the meetings. And in the natural, onycha is a very powerful antiseptic: it's very expensive: very hard to find. But that same fragrance, which is an attribute of the Lord Jesus, begins to manifest in the meetings: and people with some of the most horrendous infections and skin diseases were...
Sid Roth: Give me one specific one. And I know it happens often, but give me one specific one.
Steven Brooks: We have it happen in America often, but just recently when I was in India, a lady with a tremendous sinus infection, with uncontrollable drainage, severe pain. She was completely healed in the meeting when that beautiful fragrance of the Lord began to go across the room: hundreds of people smelled it. And her sinuses in her nose was instantly, absolutely, totally healed. She was overwhelmed with joy: the pain was all gone: all the drainage was gone. We see this often in the meetings.
Sid Roth: Well the thing that's even more overwhelming to me is that it not only happens in the meetings, but you were I believe in Israel, and they were teLevising it: and someone in I believe it was China...
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: Tell me about that.
Steven Brooks: Well we were doing a conference on the top of the Mount of Olives, and Sid as I was ministering, the beautiful fragrance of the Lord came in so strong, you literally would have thought somebody took gallons of perfume, broke bottles, and just threw it all over the room: hundreds of people smelled it. It was waves of God's glory going back and forth through the meeting: God began to heal people. Also, people that we were watching by live-streaming and by satellite broadcast began to shoot in emails, and they were saying they were also smelling the fragrance there in their rooms. And this was people in China, people in Indonesia, people from all over the world that were smelling it there in their room, and also experiencing God's healing power.
Sid Roth: We'll be back right after this word. And I want to hear about the golden rain that came down in the Himalayas. Be back right after this word.
Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth here with Steven Brooks. And Steven, you like to teach on the anointing.
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: What is "The anointing"?
Steven Brooks: Sid, "The anointing" is the power of God's Holy Spirit to remove burdens, destroy yokes, and do it in a way that seems easy. "The anointing", when we think of "Anointing" we often think of oil, of somebody being anointed with oil, but that oil is slippery. And God can do things that we could never do: we might struggle to get it done, but God can come, in a second, with that anointing. It's so slippery, so fast, so easy, oftentimes the miracle's done, and we're puzzled just trying to figure it out because it happened so easy. Many times it just flows, just like oil does.
Sid Roth: Well, what happens when you teach on it? Give me a specific.
Steven Brooks: What happens is is those burdens, many times the burdens rest on a person's shoulder, tries to weigh a person down: the burdens begin to get lifted, and...
Sid Roth: It's almost like the oil causes it to slip off!
Steven Brooks: It slips off, and then there's the yoke: the yoke goes around the neck. The yoke is that last thing that the enemy tries to have on a person to hold them down, but that anointing snaps that yoke. That yoke is not only broken: it's absolutely destroyed. And that's why when a person receives God's healing power or that anointing of the spirit, they can stay healed. That thing can be destroyed and gone from their life forever.
Sid Roth: Tell me about that person with the spine that was bad.
Steven Brooks: Well I was ministering down a healing line Sid, and just ministering in that healing anointing. And an anointing makes it easy for me to minister: there's no strain. And so oftentimes I don't' have to just really hit somebody or lay hands on them strongly. I always try to use gentleness, but oftentimes I just gently touch a person. And recently I just gently touched a lady, and she was absolutely healed of a major degenerative spine problem. Just instantly healed, just by a very simple touch. That's how powerful the anointing is.
Sid Roth: Well I've got to hear about when he is speaking about the anointing, in the Himalayas, and the golden rain came down. Tell me what happened.
Steven Brooks: Sid, that was a powerful meeting at the up in the Himalayan mountain region. We had about 400 young people in the meeting: most in their late teens, some in their 20s, up to the age of 29. And the anointing was so strong in the meetings: first of all the fragrance of the Lord just blew through the room, and yokes began to be absolutely destroyed off of people's life. And some of these young people, Sid, had heavy addictions with backgrounds in drug usage, or tremendous sexual abuse or sexual immorality. And just tremendous freedom began to come to the place, and God began to deliver the young people. And it looked like if you would have just walked into the meeting, you would have thought a bomb went off. It was one of the most drunken services I had ever seen in my life. Even some of the grown adults, spirit-filled believers for years who were there as assistants, were wiped-out by the spirit. One man that weighed over 200 pounds, very dedicated worker in the Lord's ministry, had to be carried out of the meeting: and he had to be carried one mile back to the lodge where he was staying at: just powerful outpouring.
Sid Roth: Just overcome with the presence of God!
Steven Brooks: Just tremendous overcome. And overcome not for 20 minutes: all night long for 6- or 8- or even 10-hours: just absolutely people can't move.
Sid Roth: Why does God do this when you teach on the anointing?
Steven Brooks: Well it's the teaching of the anointing, mixed with the hunger: those two things come together, there's a catalyst of people wanting to be set free. The Lord wants them to be set free, and so that anointing hits their faith, and it causes a chain reaction in the spirit realm.
Sid Roth: Tell me in India about the person with the chunks of flesh.
Steven Brooks: I was ministering in India last year, Sid, and when I went to the meeting to minister, there were no easy cases: it was all hard cases. There were no headaches, or no little arthritis in the elbow: it was major diseases. Either it was leprosy, people with body parts missing, people with chunks of flesh falling off: tremendously hard cases. And I began to pray for some of the Christians first: God began to heal them. The Hindus saw that: the Hindus came to the meeting, with no faith in Jesus as Messiah, but they saw the miracles. And they came in: when they saw what God was doing, they jumped up in the healing line. God began to heal the Hindus. Many of them, many of them just gave their hearts to the Lord, right there on the spot. But Sid, even as I was ministering, there was a young woman, in her early twenties. I could see her: she was laid out on the front row. They brought her to the meeting: they literally carried her into the meeting. She was blind, paralyzed, and demon-possessed: God did an incredible miracle with her. They carried her up into the line, and I laid hands on her. I knew the anointing of Jesus went into her body, but they carried her off. When they carried her off, she looked almost exactly the same as she did before I prayed for her. But the next morning, the crowds had got, had swollen: we were well into several thousand people in the meting now. At the height of the praise and worship, when everybody had their hands raised, worshipping Jesus, in walked that young woman, absolutely totally healed. All the paralysis gone, her eyesight restored, and she had given her heart to Jesus. And rays of light were literally streaming out of her face: everybody saw it. The church almost fell out: it absolutely shook the church: it shook the community. I just returned from India: she's still saved today. She was a muslim: she gave her heart to the Lord, and she's saved today.
Sid Roth: Now, when you speak, all sorts of supernatural things occur, especially when he teaches on the anointing. And we were talking about the effect of this golden rain in the himalayas.
Steven Brooks: Yes.
Sid Roth: What did it look like?
Steven Brooks: Sid, you could literally look up, lift your face up and look up, and you could literally feel liquid drops of rain falling on your face. It felt like rain in the natural, but it was golden. And it would just splash all over your face, and give you and give you the most uncontrollable laughter! You've you would just laugh and laugh. It doesn't matter how difficult life was, or what kind of discouraging experiences you may had: when that golden glory hits you and that rain just went all over you, you just would laugh uncontrollably. I was laughing uncontrollably! I was just so full of the joy of God, that it just makes it all worth it.
Sid Roth: Steven, I feel the rain! I feel...
Steven Brooks: Me too: I do.
Sid Roth: The presence! Will you pray for those that are watching right now?
Steven Brooks: You know, some of you a-are watching me, you're discouraged. You're discouraged about your finances, you're discouraged about your body, you're discouraged that your children are not serving the Lord: just let God refresh you right now. Come on: just look up to the Lord, raise your hands. Father, I pray that you rain, refresh, and bless your people, right now, because God says it's going to be alright. God wants to wipe away your tears right now, and it's time for you to smile. You've come through your season of the storm: now the clouds are parting, now the sun is shining, and now God is wanting to bless you because you've honored him through this whole thing. You've praised him, and now it's time for your reward: so lift your eyes up, and look unto the Lord Jesus Christ, for your faith shall now become sight, and you will see the blessings of God overtake your life, glory to Jesus. Just receive his golden rain now.
Sid Roth: Hm. I'm receiving it. Briefly, tell me about this dream you've had: for 20 years keeps reoccurring.
Steven Brooks: Sid I've had this dream, over 100 times, of a gigantic tidal wave. When I began to have this dream about 20 years back, I didn't understand it: it would almost terrify me. But a gigantic wave breaking over America, breaking over the nations of the earth. And what I've come to understand that this is is a great end-time outpouring of God's spirit that's going to break over the church: and God's going to beautify his church, and we're going to see the glory poured out upon his people like we've never seen before. The greatest miracles we've ever seen are still yet to come. We're going to taste them, we're going to experience it, we're going to walk in it, and live in God's glory.
Sid Roth: Did you get that? "A tidal wave is coming". You don't' want to be in the sidelines when this happens! You want to be a participant! There is no close second to the excitement of having intimacy with God, knowing that God loves you, knowing that you weren't an accident, knowing there is a destiny for our life, knowing that "If God is for you, who can be against you"? The only way you can know this, is not through religion, not through tradition: but by knowing God for yourself.