SID: Hello. Sid Roth here with Billy Joe Daugherty. And Billy Joe, once you were telling me about a prophetess you had in your congregation that started talking to you about the former Soviet Union.
BILLY JOE: 1980, Jeannie Wilkerson prophesied the door of Russia would open suddenly, and all across Russia there will be people who will sweep across and reap the End Time harvest. Millions of people will be saved. I was sitting on the platform and the Lord said, “You’re going to be one of those people. Well she whirled around and said, “And your pastor will be one of those.” And so I knew it. And she said, “The door will close as suddenly as it opens.” We prayed through the years. Eleven years passed. 1991, in March, the Lord said, “Print a million “This New Life” books, which is a follow-up book to help people after they get saved. Print them in Russian. And we didn’t know who or where, but Gilbert Lindsay had just bought a printing press, Russian-speaking printing, in Minsk, Russia. And we were able to print those million books. Didn’t know where we would distribute them or who would take them, or how they would get out. But shortly after that, Lester Summerall talked with us about going with him to St. Petersburg in August ’91. We were there. Rod Parsley, Ulf Ekman, and Dr. Summerall, and myself. And we all preached in the [unintelligible] a huge indoor stadium there in St. Petersburg. And that was the time that Gorbachev was taken into custody and the whole Russian empire collapsed, as where it had been the Soviet Union.
SID: You just happened to be there. You just happened to have a million books. They just happened to be in Russia.
BILLY JOE: That’s right.
SID: I mean, and it was prophesied that you were one of the men.
BILLY JOE: That’s right. That eleven years before that we would be there. It was God’s timing.
SID: What did you see with your eyes at that time? Here is a group of people that they’re 70-plus years are in atheism. There is no God. And you’re telling them about the living God that loves them. What did you say?
BILLY JOE: They were wide open. They were receptive to God. And yet at the time in August of ’91, there was terrific fear in their lives because they didn’t know what was happening. Every radio and television station went blank and they simply played classical music. So it was a very unusual time. And that’s when God said to us, “Go back because this door is now open.” We went back in November and over 25,000 people may recorded decisions for Christ. And the Lord said, “Go on.” Eighteen months in a row.
SID: Describe what it was like. Paint me a picture of what it was like when you were given invitation for someone to know the Messiah.
BILLY JOE: Well imagine being in something like the Astrodome or Superdome, a little smaller there in St. Petersburg, but they were sitting. And the moment we gave the altar call, they would come running. And the Lord told me, “Preach very simply. You’ve got to tell them who God is, when you’ve lived 70 years in a nation that says there is no God.” So they were ready. They were desperate. Everything that lady had prophesized came to be pass. It was like a giant harvesting combine. And one of the miracles was one of our friends had been there. He was playing the role of Jesus years before in a traveling drama team, and the number one rock star in the Soviet Union, Stas Namin, saw him in a restaurant and thought he was another rock star. Went to talk to him. They made contact and found out, you know, he was a Jesus person, which was two opposite worlds. But they became friends. When we went to Russia, my friend contacted Stas Namin, and Stas had a rock station, several, in St. Petersburg. So he said, “I’ll advertise for you.” And we had all the rockers there. I mean, it was packed with kids. And they were, you know, in awe of the Gospel being preached openly in their nation. This was the first time. And at that moment, there was nobody else there preaching.
SID: Now you were one of the pioneers to that. What type of miracles did you see?
BILLY JOE: Well I remember one of the situations that happened was a person who came with rheumatoid arthritis, all crippled up, and coming walking out of that chair and pushing that chair down through that aisle, and across that stage. I remember a little girl, Katia, we say Kathy, and never walked. But she was up, able to walk at that age. And the first time she walked, and the glory on her face as she could walk across that stage. I remember a lady who had a huge growth on her head. And her for some reason, she came back from miles away, month after month, and she would have me lay hands on her. The first time, that was huge. And then the next time it was smaller, and after two or three times it was gone. And it was amazing thing to us watching their simplicity of faith. They were just wide open to the Gospel.
SID: Well we’ve examined the footage. And Billy Joe, I didn’t know you had been an active participant in so many miracles all over the world. But even in the United States we’re seeing miracles. For instance, at your church, there was a woman, her name I believe was Grace, who had rheumatoid arthritis. Tell me about her.
BILLY JOE: You know, the most important thing, Sid, is there is no difference where we are. In whatever nation and whatever place, simple faith is the same type of thing.
SID: But this is so simple, your book on healing. It’s not a complex book.
BILLY JOE: Well healing is for everyone. And that’s what’s so exciting, is that any person, no matter how much knowledge, like you take it to Russia, and they didn’t have Bibles. They weren’t going to church. They didn’t know the things that so many people had heard in their background. But when they heard that Jesus loved them and he could heal them, they accepted. And it’s the same way here. This lady just simply accepted that, took hold of it, and healing in her body.
SID: Well let’s take a look at her right now.
[Video Clip]
GRACE: Okay. My name is Grace Esposito and I’m from New Jersey. I am here visiting. I am a criminal trial attorney in New Jersey. And my sister who is with my mother said, “Well come to my church.” The reason she wanted me to come to the church is because I have, had rheumatoid arthritis. I have to get use that. Because I was always so down. And my sister said, “Well Grace, you have to believe because the Lord can heal you.” And I’m saying, “Oh she’s so full of baloney, you know.” I just said, “She’s so crazy.” So, you know, I’m getting use to all this business because it’s only four months that I’ve been, you know, in the church, so to speak.
BILLY JOE: So you just accepted Christ four months ago.
GRACE: Four months ago, yes, yes. When they prayed for me, I felt like this electricity through my fingers. And look at my fingers, like I can move them. I can bend them. And then I said–
BILLY JOE: You couldn’t do that before?
GRACE: I couldn’t, I couldn’t. It would hurt me so bad. When I came in here I had such pain and my fingers were hurting so bad. And then I says, wait a minute, I gotta make sure that I’m healed ‘cause I’m not gonna make a fool out of myself. So I went to the ladies room, and then my ankle, it just feels great now. So I know that I’m healed. I don’t doubt any more. And I can move my fingers! Look! My fingers! I can move them! [cheers] I’m so happy! My fingers, look. I couldn’t bend them like that. I can bend my fingers and I can walk. My ankle is great now. So I’m sure now, and I’m so happy I’m healed!
BILLY JOE: Why don’t you run a little bit. Let’s just see what’s happened.