SID: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Rafaela Silveira. Now, Rafaela is a young woman that has a hunger for God and she went to Ghana with the Gary Oates ministry. She had been fasting for forty days, and all of a sudden the presence of God came upon her and, what happened next?
RAFAELA: Well I was telling you, I felt like this pressure coming on me, and I fell in the floor, and that was the first time that I was touched by God that way. Because I was shaking violently, and I never thought that God would touch somebody, you know, like that kind of violent way. But I was putting; really I was putting God into a box. I was telling Him, “Okay Lord, you deal this way with me, don’t deal with me.” But I was glad God did that way, because
SID: Who are we to put God into a box?
RAFAELA: I know! I know!
SID: We’re really a prideful group called humans, aren’t we?
RAFAELA: I was so glad God did that to me, because I needed to be set free from that. So I was on the floor, and I started to shake violently and I heard like a storm was going on, but I knew we were in such a warm place, that there was no storm happening, but I heard like a thunder noise, and lightening, for the first time I was conscious, and for the second time, I was still conscious, when I heard it the third time, I felt literally like my spirit was leaving my body and the only thing I saw was like gates opening in front of me, huge gates, and I went to this place where there was so much lightening, noise and thunder, and there was an angelic being on my right, but I couldn’t see his face, because I didn’t look. The only place I could look was just to the throne of God, and I saw the throne of God in front of me and I saw God, but I couldn’t see His face, and He was kind of far away from me. Somehow we were talking, it was just thoughts, like I was not opening my mouth or saying any words they were just thoughts. And God was saying to me, “Come,” and I was telling Him “I want to get there Lord, but I can’t,” because there was such a pressure, there was so much, I don’t know, it was so heavy, you know, the place was just, I don’t know, we don’t see this here, it is just hard to explain. And I wanted to get closer to God, but I couldn’t. You know, I was afraid of the supernatural. And that was such a short period of time that I was there but the people that were in the church they say that it was for hours, because they carried me out of the meeting to the bus, out of the bus into my hotel
SID: Did you know you were being carried out?
RAFAELA: No, because like I told you, after the third like thunder noise, I was gone, I was out of my body. And after several hours I came to my body and I talked to Gary, I said, “Gary, I think I failed because I was close to the throne of God and I couldn’t get closer, because I was afraid of the supernatural.” So Gary said, ” Rafaela, I think you should pray and tell the Lord that you are repenting of that and tell God that you want to see him, that you are don’t want to be scared of the supernatural.” So I prayed again, and the next day you know, it was “Oh Lord, please, you know how hungry I am for You. I was fasting, and I want more of You. I’m sorry, Lord, that I was afraid, please give me another chance.” So the next day and angel came, you know, to my room; and he came on my right side. And as soon as he came I felt this tingling feeling on my right arm, and I felt like as you pick a tissue, like he was pulling my spirit out of my body like this, and I started to go up, and as I started to go up I was scared again, believe it or not.
SID: I believe it!
RAFAELA: And I said, “No, God, I’m not ready, you know, and I went back into my body again. And then I repented again that day. It is a long story, but making it short, I had several encounters with God where you know like I was going up, and I felt scary, and I came back, to the point that I wasn’t scared of the supernatural anymore and I was able to see God and also not only go there but having God come to me, you know here in earth, because I believe we were created to have fellowship with God, so we are created to be able to go there and also to have His visitation here
SID: You know what the bottom line is, anyone can have an experience but I want to know, what was the fruit of that experience? Afterward you started praying for people, what did you see?
RAFAELA: Well, right after that first experience where I said I was shaking violently the next day we were in a kind of outreach meeting and there were a couple, there is a lot of children there in Ghana, Africa, and they were deaf. The reason why they were deaf was because of malaria. And I had a lot of love and compassion for them, I really felt a lot compassion for those kids, and I was like, “Oh Lord, help me, help me to have enough faith to pray for them and use me to do something, Lord.” But as a result of that experience the power of God was so strong in my life that the only thing I had to do with three kids that night was just to place my fingers inside their ears and I said, “Be healed, in Jesus name,” and three kids were healed of deafness that night.
SID: What did that do for you? I know what it did for them!
RAFAELA: Oh, my God. It changed my life because it was the first time I prayed for somebody that was deaf and that person was healed.
SID: We have a short of time. You went to a friend of mine in Mozambique and you prayed for, I believe it was, a man. Tell me about him, and how many people came to the Lord.
RAFAELA: Yes. Well, first I saw Heidi preaching there and the way Heidi preaches is, she goes, “Okay, do you guys want to see the power of God? Is anybody here deaf or blind? Come here because we will pray for you and you will be healed and everybody else will see that Jesus is the Messiah; that Jesus heals. So as she preaches she does that, I mean I have seen her do that. So the next day I was supposed to preach, we were doing outreach and there was about 1500 to 2000 people there that had never heard about the name of Jesus. So we played “The Passion of Christ” movie and after that I got the mike and I started to preach and I thought, “Okay, I can go bold and do the same thing that Heidi did, but Lord, I need you to back me up and show Your power to these people.” And I really felt, you know God you know told me to do it, you know, test me. So I was like, “Is anybody deaf here? I want you to step forward, you know come to the front. So this guy, this man which was about forty years old came to the front and he was deaf in both ears, he was deaf from birth, he came from the front, and I just did the same thing, I just went like, “Lord Jesus, show Your power, show to the people that you are the Messiah, that You are Jesus the healer, the Son of God.” And I said to that man, “Be healed, in Jesus name.” And he started, I had an interpreter, even though they speak Portuguese, but they also speak Macua, the tribal language. So the interpreter was interviewing him, and he was like, he could hear. And afterward I asked who wanted to give their life to Jesus, and I believe if it was not 100% it was at least 90% that raised their hand and gave their life to Jesus.
SID: About how many people would you say?
RAFAELA: 1500 to 2000 people
SID: Did you hear this? She gave up a wonderful career in business. But 1500 to 2000 people because of one miracle turned their life over to God. This sounds abnormal to you, but I tell you this is normal, and it is going to be getting more normal the more you watch this program you will become normal. You are abnormal right now, but you are going to receive such an endowment of power by the Holy Spirit your faith is going to zoom just as Rafaela ‘s has. All you have to do is surrender to God, repent of your sins, tell God you’re sorry for your sins, believe the blood of Jesus has washed them clean, and then ask God, in the name of Jesus, to live inside of you, become your Lord. Surrender to Him; make your life count. You have one life and then comes the judgment. It’s not a fear; it’s a want to. Rafaela, there is nothing to compare to the love of God. Experience it yourself. It is not a platitude, there is nothing to compare to experiencing God’s love yourself. Do it now.