How are you, sir? We'd just like to ask you about why you don't want to fly commercial.
Why have you said that you won't fly commercial? You said that it's like getting into a tube with
a bunch of demons. Why do you think that? No, listen to me just a second. Not the people.
The main reason is because of the need. If I flew commercial, I'd have to stop 65% of what I'm doing.
That's really the main reason. Isn't it true that you want to fly commercial so that you can fly
in luxury? How much money did you pay for Tyler Perry's Gulfstream jet, for example?
Well, for example, that's really none of your business. But isn't it the business of your donors?
Listen, I paid. You kind of caught me off guard here, okay? Certainly. Well,
if you like to come out here, I'd like to give you a chance to catch your breath and
have a conversation. We don't want to catch you off guard. I love Inside Edition. You got to get
this now. Hey, you listening to me? My wife thinks Inside Edition is, oh, yeah. Now, thank you,
Lord. Let me pray. Well, let me just ask you a really simple question. A lot of people think
it's unbecoming for a preacher to live a life of luxury and to fly around in private jets.
What's your response to that? Very simple. It takes a lot of money to do what we do.
We have brought over 100, let's see, the latest figures just came out,
122 million people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me give you another example. Last May,
I was scheduled for Lagos, Nigeria. That's a long ways. I had a week off and I was scheduled
for Peru. And I prayed about it and I thought, I'm not missing that dedication in Jerusalem
without the airplane that we have that I bought from Tyler Perry. And I didn't pay anywhere.
Tyler's one of the greatest guys. He made that airplane so cheap for me. I couldn't help but
buy it. Well, my question then, okay. All right. But I want to get to the demons because people
are very concerned about that comment. Here's what happened. We flew in 21 days,
70 hours, 40,000 miles, touched five continents and preached face to face personally.
With 125,000 people. Do you ever,
do you ever use your private jets to go visit your vacation homes, for example?
Yes, I do. Okay. Again, getting back to the comment, you said that you don't like to fly
commercial because you don't want to get into a tube with a bunch of demons. Do you really
believe that human beings are demons? No, I do not. And don't you ever say I did.
We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. Can you explain
what you meant by that, that by that term then just, just explain. Cause it's really simple.
You said you didn't want to get into a tube with a bunch of demons. What did you mean?
The, well, let me ask you, do you think that people that fly commercial are demons? Give me
a chance to talk, sweetheart. I'll explain this to you. But it's a biblical thing. It's a spiritual
thing. It doesn't have anything to do with people. People. I love people. Jesus loves people,
but people get pushed in alcohol. Do you think that's a good place for a preacher to be and
prepare to go preach to a lot of people when somebody in there is dragging some woman down
an aisle? It made me so mad to see that on television. I wanted to punch the guy out
myself. I can't be doing that while I'm getting ready to preach. So you just don't like to be
around the sinful people or the hurtful people. Is that what you're saying? Not the people,
baby, not the people. Back during the days that we couldn't do anything else. We had to travel
commercial. I've, when I went to Oral Roberts university, I flew for Oral Roberts. I'm the
commercial pilot. So I spent a lot of time in airplane. You have how many planes? We have the
Gulfstream and we still have our Citation 10. And then we have a little small airplane, but those
are the two ones that we use and we use them all the time. And other people use them too. We have
other ministries that use these. In the book of Ephesians. Oh God, I love this. We wrestle not
with people, but with principalities and powers, unseen things, rulers of the darkness of this
world. Talking about the devil. He's a very real devil. Just the same as Jesus is a very real
Lord. And, and I spent a lot of time on airlines, but the main thing that happened was not,
that wasn't the main reason. The main reason was I could no longer do what I called to do
and be on the airlines. Besides that, I need my clothes when I get there.
And you have some fancy clothes. I mean, for a pastor, you are living a life of luxury.
You've got great homes. You've got great planes. You do drive in limos. You're a very wealthy man.
Yeah. And some people would say that is it, is it appreciated? May I add something to that?
My wealth doesn't come from offerings alone. Because you sell things, books and DVDs.
And I have a lot of natural gas on our property.
Didn't know that, did you babe? Now I do. Yeah, you do. Isn't that wonderful?
Well, I guess. It's wonderful for you. Back when, and I might add another thing too. We invest from,
let's see, I don't know the exact number on last year yet, but it will run something in
the neighborhood of 20, 25 million in the poor. Can't do that and be broke.
So final question is, a lot of people maybe have a misunderstanding then about what you do
in prosperity preaching. So the final question is this, to those critics that say that a preacher
should not be living a life of luxury, what is your response to that? They're wrong.
That's it? That it's a misunderstanding of the Bible.
That if you go into the old covenant, do you think the Jewish people believe you should be broke?
Are you saying that Jewish people appreciate money more than real? They believe in wealth.
Some people would find that offensive. Wait a minute now. I'm not talking about some people,
I'm talking about the Bible. The blessing of Abraham. Abraham was extremely wealthy
and he had a covenant with God. It's not the Jewish blessing, it's the Abrahamic blessing.
God, I get excited talking about it because I love it. And I started out
deep in debt with nothing, which is another story. But anyway.
So you say that it's biblical and that there's a foundation in the Bible for this.
Let me close it with this. I had to learn this, like I said, from the Bible and from my spiritual
mentor, Oral Roberts. And I learned it from him, working with him. And then we became,
he was close friends until he died. And he took the same heat for believing God would prosper you
that I've taken over the years. And Abraham was very, very wealthy man.
Galatians chapter three. If you belong to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according
to his promise. And his promise was great wealth. The Bible also says that it's more difficult for
a rich man to get into heaven than it is for a camel to get through the eye of a needle.
Correct? The rest of the scripture. But he said, all things are possible with God.
And he said, if you study the Greek behind that, it's trusting in wealth. When he said that,
his disciples said they were astonished out of measure because they were wealthy men.
They were astonished out of measure saying, how can anyone be saved? He said, all things are possible
with God. Both of my grandfathers were preachers. They were both very poor. They lived simple,
modest lives. They were extremely offended by men that made money like you do, preaching like you
do. What would your response be to people that think that preachers shouldn't live this kind of
a lifestyle? Looks like my, both my grandfathers. And I understand that. And I love them with all
my heart is it's your grandfathers that we're standing on their shoulders. They held up and
they stood for it. Glory to God. But when you go back to the Bible, it's full of wealth
and it's full of miracles and signs and wonders and it's full of goodness and it's full of meanness.
It's just full of hell on earth. Those are the demons, not the people. I love the people.
Again, getting back to the, sir, thank you so much for your time today. Lisa Guerrero.
Lisa, God bless. Father bless Lisa today. Thank you for her grandparents.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to know her and to her team. And I pray
and I believe her peace will be successful. I love Inside Edition. I love the people on it.
It thrills me to get a chance to have my face on Inside Edition.
Thank you very much, Reverend. You have a nice day. Thank you very much for your patience.