Carried by God

In this 28-minute video, Life Outreach International Founder James Robison shares the unconventional way in which he came to know the Lord, how he was called to a life of full-time ministry, and how God has used his tumultuous childhood to fuel the compassion that reaches hurting children around the world.

There are no impossible circumstances that God’s power can’t overcome, no situations that He can’t turn around and use for His own glory — and Robison’s testimony is a prime example.

James Robison is founder and publisher of The Stream, as well as founder of LIFE Outreach International and cohost of LIFE Today.

Editor’s Note: The transcript that follows was automatically generated and lightly edited, so please be aware there could be typos or other small errors. The Stream is working toward a transcription service that does fast, accurate, and reliable work; thank you in advance for your patience!

00:00:00:26 – 00:00:14:09
The following program is sponsored by Friends of Life Outreach International. Coming up on Life Today. James and Betty describe the radical transformation they saw early in their journey with God.

00:00:14:11 – 00:00:53:23
I was very shy. How was I, said, the shy person on the planet? And I think I agree. And when God called me to preach and I asked some of the men in the church if I thought God could use me, they said an absolute no. There was no way anybody size me to be used. But God totally changed me instantly and filled me with a holy boldness, had nothing to slow down.

00:00:53:25 – 00:01:16:03
Welcome to life today. I’m James Robinson, and I welcome you. I never dreamed that at age 81, I would be saying to you. Here, watch this. And whatever you do, don’t you miss the show? Don’t you miss anything this week? I hope you don’t miss anything from that home. But I actually believe that God is about to move us in the most effective time in our lives.

00:01:16:07 – 00:01:46:16
Think about this. We’ve been married 52 years. Hard to believe. And though you don’t even look close to that. Okay. Wow. But here’s the thing. I mean, we are really in love with one another. More deeply every day in. And really, our love for God seems to be. And we’ve had a pretty incredible walk with God. And I’m going to be talking to you about how my journey started, but how the journey went in ministry.

00:01:46:19 – 00:02:09:07
And I just pray that then you will see the miracle of what God has done with what appeared to be a totally impossible situation. And you may feel like you have an impossible situation, or at least a very difficult one. Are you have family or friends or neighbors, or someone you care about or somebody that’s come to you for help and that you are concerned about?

00:02:09:09 – 00:02:30:28
And I’m going to be for the rest of my life, Betty. The two of us together and all of our gifts. We’re going to be seeking to download the healing message, the message of transforming truth to you every day and to the people you care about. And I believe God has shown me that this message is going to go to the ends of the earth.

00:02:31:00 – 00:02:59:18
So I’m actually going to be asking you to join us raising funds is always a big challenge, but doing it overseas for the poor and the overlooked and and those who are truly the least of these, it just took a miracle move of God on people’s hearts, which he did. And people have helped us, literally saved tens of millions of lives from physical death and then lead tens of millions of people to Christ, where we had reached out and put the loving arms of God around people who are in desperate need.

00:02:59:24 – 00:03:23:17
And you, the viewers of life today, made it happen. And those of you who have never been involved, I believe with you here what I’m sharing with you today and the next days. You’re going to spend the rest of your life helping us share his life and his love and his transforming truth with the whole world. And I believe the gospel of the Kingdom is going to be preached in every nation, which he says will happen before he comes.

00:03:23:20 – 00:03:43:29
The gospel of the kingdom, not just a gospel. The gospel of the kingdom, the will of God being done on earth through his family, through the body of Christ, the church before he comes. That means I believe we are going to be moving together to impact the whole world with the power of the gospel of the Kingdom. So you don’t want to miss these messages.

00:03:44:01 – 00:04:04:25
I bet you know, many people don’t know that, I lived with the pastor that was your pastor until I was five years old. My mother was raped when she was 40 years old. As a home nurse. She had never had a baby. She had been married. I think she married very young because her parents died when she was very young.

00:04:04:27 – 00:04:25:19
And I have an idea. She married in about 15, probably that marriage lasted maybe five, six, seven years. And she adopted a son, but she never had a baby. She wouldn’t be able to have one. And she was in his home taking care of an elderly man and the alcoholic son right there. And she conceived and she was pregnant.

00:04:25:22 – 00:04:55:12
Now that’s a a mess. A woman is nothing more. Most of them don’t know how to deal with it, with abortion seemed to be the best way out. So she went to a doctor to have me aborted because I was the baby. And the doctor said, I will not abort that baby and it’s thunder. But somehow, in the state of shock, she went home and she said, I went back to the house where I was taking care of the elderly man, sat down on the screened porch and began to pray.

00:04:55:18 – 00:05:19:29
And God said, you have this baby and this. Maybe I’ll bring joy to the world. So when she heard that, have the baby, the baby bring joy to the world. She just knew, I want to have a little girl. I named her Joy, which she did. She named the baby Joy. She changed it when she realized I was a boy and the way she changed it, she said I was praying and I thought of the disciples Peter, James and John.

00:05:20:01 – 00:05:49:03
And I just like James. And I named you James. Well, she couldn’t take care of me very well, but she did her best. Reverend Mrs. Hale were crushed, and I was taken from them. And they did the way I was taken from them. As my mother showed up, she would come and take me sometimes, and we would go and I would stay with her, and she would invariably take me and leave me with somebody I didn’t even know while she went through her day.

00:05:49:06 – 00:06:12:26
And I can remember so many times going over and just putting my little face up against the window, and I would stand there for hours wondering if my mother was coming back to get me. Mary, I think that was one of the highest impact points in my life that has helped lead me to the children that have been left and abandoned by their families, and they don’t have anybody looking after them, and they’ll say, we don’t think anybody’s coming back.

00:06:12:28 – 00:06:33:26
Well, I knew what that felt. I meant so many people are torn by that and we become the ones that go in there. Well, I’m telling you, I didn’t think she was coming back, but she did. But one day, she came to Reverend Mrs. Hale’s home, and she said, I’m taking you with me now. We’re going to do we’re going to we’re going to go to Houston.

00:06:33:28 – 00:07:16:13
And then me from Houston to Austin, which is 175 or 80 miles. And, she dragged me out from under the bed and we left and bury. My mother had no money. She wouldn’t take any help. And we hitchhiked 175 miles from Houston to Austin. I want you to see this. This is what I carried. This is the suitcase that I carried all my belongings, everything I had that I could tell you there was in this little suitcase.

00:07:16:15 – 00:07:41:13
I’ve kept it in my office many times. People come in there and stare at it and say, what in the world is that? And I’ll explain to them, that was the suitcase that I hitchhiked and had it at my side on that entire journey. Maybe we rode in all different kinds of cars and we rode in a cattle truck, sound the seed bags, and we got into town and it was an illegal hitchhike.

00:07:41:16 – 00:08:06:16
And somebody gave us a mail call, a U.S. mail truck picked us up, and we sat in the back with the mail. Well, he took us in the Austin. So that was my journey for the next ten years. I didn’t have a home, that place to street. Maybe. I think you saw 1 or 2 of the places I told you, when I knew I was never going to go back and stay back.

00:08:06:18 – 00:08:29:00
Went home to get some more clothes. It was very sad. But anyway, I was, away from that home with a broken heart. Because I loved my mother. She loved me, but she didn’t leave as well as I needed to be led. Lady, I never dreamed that when I met you. And I remembered so well. I remember the first time that I.

00:08:29:03 – 00:08:55:21
I saw you. I am. I just thought you were so sweet. And I saw you that night. And you were dressed up with a real nice string skirt up in front of me. A dress. And I thought, boy, that girl is really kind. A beautiful thing. And then you turned around and you gave me this smile. And I know you’ve seen.

00:08:55:24 – 00:09:20:05
I had no idea I would use you to change my life like you have. You sweetness. You love your purity. Your innocence totally changed me. And I know God used me to encourage you. I think God could use you. So would you say that coming together of James and Betty is nothing short of a miracle?

00:09:20:07 – 00:09:44:21
He was truly ordained by God because I had no idea of the background you had had till after we started dating. And I heard of it. I had heard the pastor mention you ever once in a while. Just pray for James. And I just didn’t have any idea of your story because even though we didn’t have a whole lot, I had a mom and a dad and siblings that we were together.

00:09:44:21 – 00:10:11:08
I knew my mom and dad would be there at night. You never knew that. And so I had a stability that James didn’t have. But when I met him, God was so. We had so planned out for our lives to to meet and to become one. James, through marriage. And you were instrumental in leading me to the Lord, somebody that grew up in church all her life.

00:10:11:08 – 00:10:32:21
You’ve heard me tell this story before, but that’s how I came to know Jesus was watching him in his relationship with Jesus. And I thought of never seen anyone have a close to God like he did. And so it just blessed me so much. And it brought me damn James. So thank you.

00:10:32:23 – 00:10:50:09
Who I want to thank Mary and thank God. But I also want to thank all of you who’ve watched me and Mary and all of our guests on television, and the journey that we’ve been on is nothing short of miraculous, because Mary was very shy and I was very shy. I was, I said, the shy person on the planet.

00:10:50:09 – 00:11:20:23
And I thank God very. And when God called me to preach and I asked some of the men in the church if they thought God could use me, they said an absolute no. There was no way anybody who chose me could be used. But God totally changed me instantly and filled me with a holy boldness, had nothing to slow down, and he gave me an ability to think clearly and to absorb the word, and to release it in such clear fashion that it impacted and transformed the people who were listening, which they began to listen by the millions.

00:11:20:25 – 00:11:43:02
So Betty and I were married. I was in ministry because you were the one that God used to get me, where I had to sit on the platform during a youth revival and listen to the 16 year old preacher, Daniel Webster, preach every night. And I realized that he had memorized entire chapters in the Bible. I had a few verses memorized, but I started memorizing scripture that week.

00:11:43:02 – 00:12:02:25
By the end of the week, on Friday night, God on the verge. And that was the thing that shocked everybody. And then what really shocked everybody is the way I preached the first time I’m preached. And from then on, it was just nothing but the flow of God. And Billy Graham found me by the time I was 19 and told me I was the most effective I’d ever heard, and he encouraged me to do citizens Everywhere.

00:12:02:25 – 00:12:29:23
We did 600 citywide crusades, and I was gone from my family way too much. But here’s what began to happen later in life. After 600 cities, 600 citywide crusades, millions of people coming to Christ God led me to suddenly look over Billy and say the least of these to see the overlooked. And he led me to say, Billy, I’ve got to go to the Third World.

00:12:29:25 – 00:12:56:03
And we did. I left, I went to South Africa, and I went with his mandate. When I went get him to stand against apartheid, get them to stop attacking Mandela. He is a friend. He is a great man. Something has happened while you’ve had him in that prison. And it was a miracle because I was preaching to South Africa and it had an impact.

00:12:56:05 – 00:13:20:28
The Zulu chief said he was going to kill 5 to 7 million people if the new powers came in place. And, God allowed me, with a man in the, near Australia to pray and to send a message to him, the great Christian man wrote one of the greatest, letters I’ve ever read in my life. And it changed my life, seeing where he didn’t attack at all.

00:13:20:28 – 00:13:46:09
And millions were saved and something began to happen. They let Mandela out. They saw that he had a forgiving spirit, something positive beginning to take place. But many have to go to South Africa. That’s when it just opened the doors for us to go all over the world, because he was there, that I met a missionary, Peter, for tours that showed me the starving, and he said, you’re seeing the starving, but you haven’t seen anything yet.

00:13:46:11 – 00:13:58:22
I want you to go into Mozambique and third world countries, and I want you to see what we’re dealing with. And we did, and better. You remember the first time you went with me, or you scared.

00:13:58:24 – 00:14:03:12
Just a little bit. I come to you real closely.

00:14:03:15 – 00:14:06:26
You did it. Do you remember sitting up on a pile of dirt?

00:14:07:01 – 00:14:07:09
Yeah.

00:14:07:09 – 00:14:14:26
Something for children. We’re just by the thousands. And they were dying, starving. We were sitting on a dung.

00:14:14:28 – 00:14:15:14
Yeah. I think to.

00:14:15:14 – 00:14:35:10
Say it was North. You know, everything smell bad. You can tell the pile of them packed it. But here was this little boy down in front of me, and he had a come, and we’d been giving him soup. Yeah. Nourishing soup. And I started talking to the little guy, and I ask him, like it? And you somehow could tell what’s going on.

00:14:35:10 – 00:15:01:18
He said, yeah, yeah. And that little buddy became my little buddy. And somehow we connected with him and we began to connect with children all over the Third World who were starving. And we began to ask our viewers if they would help us. And then they did, and we did that and continue to do it. But we started and we went for over 20 years steady.

00:15:01:21 – 00:15:29:19
Still going. I just saw my mission director just before I came in here. He’d just come back from Africa and other third world countries that were in actually in the Asian nations. And we are just putting God’s arms around so many people because of you. What if you were here, what I’m going to be saying and sharing you the next few days, we’re not only going to get the arms of God around the hungry and the thirst in third world countries.

00:15:29:21 – 00:16:06:13
We’re going to put the loving arms of God around the whole world because with your help, we’re going to preach the gospel of the kingdom for the whole world. May you know that God birthed in my heart a river flowing like a river of transforming truth, like the river of love and the river of life. And that we wanted to release life and love and truth, redemptive love, redemptive truth in a stream story that would be supported by people who knew that God has the only truth, the only answer, the only way to life.

00:16:06:16 – 00:16:36:01
And he offers it to everyone. And we are supposed to demonstrate the gospel of the Kingdom to the whole world, and the gospel. The kingdom will be preached in all nations before Jesus come. I’m praying and I’m asking every one of you watching a you may have never become a supporter of life outreach. If you are a supporter, I want you to stop it right now because we’re about to double the outreach.

00:16:36:01 – 00:16:57:14
If you’ll help us, we’re going to have to have your help for us to continue expanding the feeding and the water in the worlds, all of it right now, we believe we’re going to see the greatest move of God in the history of the world and the greatest awakening in history. Father, thank you for Betty that used to help transform my life.

00:16:57:17 – 00:17:21:02
Thank you that I was able to help her. Thank you that we’ve been able to help millions of people, but now more than ever, help people to say, we’re going to stand together with you and and deliver the gospel of the Kingdom in Jesus name. I want you to listen to tell me that you love her. I want you to look at the love you’re going to see right here.

00:17:21:04 – 00:17:40:16
And I want you to know you’re the answer to starving people. You’re the hope man. They don’t have to keep losing their children. Please watch prayerfully.

00:17:40:19 – 00:17:50:05
When I’m on a missions trip, I can’t help but feel the pain a mother has when she sees her child suffering because there’s no food for her.

00:17:50:08 – 00:18:02:08
But we will know when they see. When they want to know whether you want.

00:18:02:11 – 00:18:07:11
A you. You let them go, boss. You gotta.

00:18:07:13 – 00:18:28:22
You. This is our meta. Can you begin to imagine the crushing impact of losing your children because you could not feed them? It was devastating for Armida, but she knows she must carry on for her other children. How does she manage it? Through fervent prayer.

00:18:28:24 – 00:18:42:17
Advocacy. You. We know that you are. You don’t be the $10 you out.

00:18:42:19 – 00:19:07:14
I would love to tell you our meta story of losing her children, because a lack of food is rare, but it’s not. These women by show of hands, shared how many children they each had lost. They well know the same heartache as our meta. Magdalena lost five children.

00:19:07:16 – 00:19:13:18
Young girl, two children.

00:19:13:20 – 00:19:19:20
Margarita. One child.

00:19:19:22 – 00:19:52:23
Julia three children. One thing all these precious mothers have in common through prayer is they put their hope for tomorrow in the hands of Jesus. My heart is always moved by all the precious mothers I meet here in Africa. And I’m especially moved because I know we share the same hope in Jesus and the way he provides. Today, you and I have the opportunity to be his hands and a direct answer to these mother’s prayers.

00:19:52:26 – 00:20:07:08
God is truly on the move in Africa, and I invite you to be a part of it.

00:20:07:11 – 00:20:26:21
That is one of the most important little phrases I ever share. And if you want your prayers answered, seek to be an answer to someone’s prayer. And I watch those mothers. We know what it is to lose a child, and it was because of a disease that you would have done anything to help cure. But we are not dealing with a disease here.

00:20:26:21 – 00:20:49:14
We’re dealing with a lack of food and we have a perfect cure for it. And many we’ve done it for millions of people because our viewers have helped us see these children. And when I look at those mothers, I know how much they love their babies. Their babies are the greatest joy they have over there. They don’t have a lot of entertainment, a lot of fun stuff in the province, areas where they live and their little children are their joy, and then they lose that.

00:20:49:17 – 00:21:05:25
It’s almost more than we can bear, except that we know what love does. Love transforms everything. We can turn it all around in those villages. And Mary, I’m just praying that every single person watching us, I want to stop that, I want to I want to make the miracle that woman longs for happen.

00:21:05:28 – 00:21:38:19
When, you know, James, God opened up our hearts to go across the seas and see the needs there because we were in, so to speak, our own world, the surroundings around us. But God said, I want to show you something. And when we walked into those other countries, my heart was opened up so big and I thought, God, thank you for showing me that I can help make a difference in these little children’s lives just by giving them food.

00:21:38:21 – 00:21:57:26
That’s all they need. That’s all the mother wants is food for her babies. So I pray your heart has been opened up today. Even bigger to see that you can be a part of that. God has so much for you to do as his children, to bless other children.

00:21:57:28 – 00:22:26:04
I’m praying that you will help us feed 350,000 children that we have found, and their families that are basically facing starvation, and we have. The key is to get the food to them that we’re able to do, but we have to be able to pay for a gift of $30 will feed three children for the next month. If you will feed five, 100 will feed ten a thousand.

00:22:26:06 – 00:22:53:10
You feed a hungry kid, you feed a hundred. Maybe it’s the first time you ever help. How about helping five children or ten children or the $50 or $100 give them? I’m always going to ask you to think big. Think above what you might normally think, because we’re actually thinking about life itself, and these people will see Jesus in these missionary families.

00:22:53:13 – 00:23:13:28
These missionaries are the most beautiful example of Jesus I’ve ever seen. They move into the pit of hell to bring heaven and they do it. They bring their whole families and plant their lives there. This is the reason we know, and we start helping these people. They’re going to simply move from one area of need to the other.

00:23:14:00 – 00:23:33:03
And as long as they’ve got the food, they’re going to transform the lives of so many. Would you right now, look, get your bank card. You’d like a check. I think the biggest gift you can provide a check, make it to life. But call us and tell us what you said and done. Please give us a host of people who help us today.

00:23:33:06 – 00:23:49:04
God, we need those helpers and we thank you for in Jesus name, this is a very important day for many reasons and for many precious people. Please make the gift God puts on your heart. Thank you so much.

00:23:49:07 – 00:24:16:13
Right now across the continent of Africa, children are suffering, facing severe malnutrition and even death. With food reserves gone and many areas experiencing severe famine, we urgently need to replenish supplies to keep feeding the 350,000 children who are counting on us through life’s mission. Feeding outreach. Your gift of love can be an answer to prayer for a hurting and hungry child in their time of need.

00:24:16:15 – 00:25:00:29
Call now with your life saving gift of 30, 50, or $100 to help feed and care for three, 5 or 10 children for three four months. With your gift, we’ll send you natural remedies. This beautifully illustrated book explores ancient nutrition and the health benefits found in God’s creation. To help you live your best life with your gift of $100 or more, please request your health and Wellness bundle this three books that includes natural remedies as well as a central fasting, a simple eating strategy to accelerate weight loss, crush cravings and reverse aging, and the probiotic diet that gives effective strategies to improve digestion, boost brain health, and supercharge your immune system.

00:25:01:02 – 00:25:19:00
Finally, please consider a gift of $1,000 or more, which will help feed 100 children, and you may request our inspiring bronze sculpture, Lion of Judah. Please call right or make your gift online today.

00:25:19:02 – 00:25:47:13
Hi, I’m Jordan Rubin, and for over two decades, my wife Nikki and I have been supporting the ministries of life with any gift to mission feeding you will transform the lives of 350,000 children in Africa by giving them nutritious food and a hope for the future. With your gift, you’ll receive a powerful wellness bundle, which can bring the power of health and nutrition into your own home, transform the lives of thousands and your own family.

00:25:47:15 – 00:25:53:17
Do it today.

00:25:53:20 – 00:26:30:04
I can’t imagine having to walk two hours, but this clinic here is the place. They bring the children. They’re sick, but the mothers don’t know what to do. They have no other place to go. But because of you, we have this place, this malnutrition clinic. We need you to stand with us as mission feeding goes into areas and goes beyond just the feeding, but into the the malnutrition clinics, the care that really saves lives, stabilizes lives, stabilizes villages, regions, changes a country.

00:26:30:07 – 00:26:45:19
Of course we do it all in the name of Jesus Christ. Always go online. Make the best gift you can. Your gift right now will save lives and it is desperately needed.

00:26:45:22 – 00:27:12:03
Thank you so much. I hope many of you have joined us today on this incredible journey to put God’s arms around the least of these and very unbelieving so many who want to join us live streaming truth transforming truth to the whole world. The message of the Kingdom. Thank you so much. God bless you. He’s blessing through you when you extend his hands.

00:27:12:05 – 00:27:19:25
And you move, you.

00:27:19:27 – 00:27:25:29
You.

00:27:26:02 – 00:27:33:18
Go! Oh. Yeah.

00:27:33:20 – 00:27:44:18
Hey! Oh!

00:27:44:20 – 00:27:46:00
Really?

00:27:46:02 – 00:28:00:13
Any.

00:28:00:16 – 00:28:05:18
Maybe. I believe it is possible to bring billions of people to a personal relationship with Jesus.

00:28:05:20 – 00:28:25:27
Reaching the masses with the gospel of Jesus Christ tomorrow. Life today is made possible by the supporters of Life Outreach International. Your gift will be used exclusively for the purposes of life. The ministry features specific outreaches as examples of the programs it supports and conducts. Guests are considered to be without restriction as to use unless explicitly stipulated by the donor.

00:28:25:27 – 00:28:27:26
The ministry is a member of the SFA.