Delivered from a life of anger and drug addiction, Todd White has been used mightily to impact people’s lives all around the globe. Known for his bold approach to street evangelism and prayer, he’s become an inspiration to Christians everywhere. So we got together with Todd to find out more about what drives him and how he’s encouraging others to not simply have faith but to live it out:
Q: So Todd, how did you come to be in ministry?
A: Well, I went to work and got a job. My job was my ministry. So I never had a mindset that I needed to be in ministry. Every believer is drafted into ministry. I just did my job as unto the Lord. I didn’t ever ask to speak. I worked for an ice company, and I delivered ice to people, often of various different religions. And I would see between 10 and 30 people healed and come to Jesus every day of my life at my job. So when I was driving my ice truck, people would come up to my ice truck because they knew that I would pray for people. And I had to make sure I did my job as unto the Lord, so I had to produce and keep up with everybody else I worked with. I wanted to be outstanding in my job.
See there was never a separation for me between ministering to people and working. Later, I went and got my real estate license, and I got the opportunity to work for a Christian real estate person. The weekend before I was going to start my job I went to a conference where there was a lady that was speaking named Patricia King. I went up there and she prophesied a word over me. And the word actually leveled me unconscious where I was from this word that came. When I came to, there was all this money lying on my chest, and I had no idea where it came from, but it was the amount needed to pay off the last of my drug life debt that I had gotten my family in.
Later the lady came and asked if I would come and work with her down in Phoenix, and I said, “Well I start in real estate on Monday.” I showed her my card, and she said, “Todd, you’re not supposed to be in real estate. You are to equip the body of Christ.” So I said that I felt that I was equipping people to live a normal Christian life because I believe everybody’s called to do that, and she said, “No you need to help me equip people from a pulpit.” So I called my real estate company, and told them that I needed to go and see if this was God. And they said, “You’re job will be here. It’s a commission job anyway.”
So I went down to Phoenix for a couple of days and spent some time with the ministry. Then I returned home. I needed to seek God about this, because everything in the natural looked like this was an amazing thing and that God was opening a door for me. So I spent two months seeking God about it, and God told me, “You’re not to move down to Phoenix. You need to stay here.” I called that lady and told her I couldn’t come and work for her. The pastor that I had been working with at that time said, “Todd, I think it’s time we bring you on as an employee – we can provide for you.” And that’s how I started with Dan Mohler and Neck Ministries.
Q: What does a regular day in the life of Todd White look like?
A: I get up and spend time with the Lord. Before I even get out of bed, I’m in a state of thankfulness. I thank God for who He is in my life. I thank God for what He says about me. I thank Him for another day of being able to manifest him to a lost and dying world.
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I fast. So I live a fasted life. So on those days it’s a constant state of prayer. It is anyway, but it’s just different on the days you fast. Wherever I go, I approach people. To me, this is not ministry. Jesus started me in a place where I didn’t separate God, then family, then ministry, then work. No one ever taught me that. Colossians 3:17 says whatever I do, I’m to do it as unto the Lord and not for men. This means that everywhere I go I’m to live my life for God. That means if I see a person hurting, I’m going to pray for them. If God gives me a word about somebody, then I’ll give them that word. If I don’t have a specific word and don’t see anything, I always have a word that God loves them and cares for them. My children tell people about Jesus, my wife tells people about Jesus. So everybody is a candidate for receiving the love of God.
Q: Who is someone that’s been a role model in your life?
A: When I got saved, I told Pastor Dan Mohler that he was going to be my spiritual father. And he said, “It sounds great and it sounds right what you’re saying, but let me tell you what that will do to you.” There was a lot of talk about spiritual fathers at the time I got saved, and he said, “Todd, you can glean from me, and I can be your friend. But if you’re not with me and you call and I don’t answer, you’ll think that you’re an orphan. And if God doesn’t establish Himself as your spiritual father and your heavenly father in your life, then all of a sudden when the man you call your spiritual father isn’t there, you won’t make it.”
So then I said, “You’ve got to be my mentor then.” And he said, “The world says call no one on Earth your father because you have one father who’s in heaven, and call no one on Earth your teacher for you have one teacher, the Christ.” And I said, “Well, the Bible says you have many teachers but few fathers.” And he said, “That’s right. A true spiritual father would point you to your heavenly father because God’s always there to answer you.”
He went on to tell me that my mentor needed to be the Holy Spirit, and so what he did was point me to my secret place where I can talk to God when no one is looking. Now Dan was always there for me to glean from, but as far as people I’ve looked up to, honestly, I believe that every mother and father that has pressed in to the Body of Christ, every person who has gone before us, we should honor and respect them – so many like Heidi Baker, Kenneth Copeland, Reinhard Bonnke, Bill Johnson. All of these people are just phenomenal. So I just thank God for the people who have gone before us. I have so many heroes – I couldn’t name them all. I just love everybody.
Q: What would you say to someone who is struggling to step out and boldly share their faith?
A: Well, Romans 1:16 says, “I’m unashamed of the Gospel, for it’s the power of God unto salvation to them that believe: first for the Jew, then for the Greek.” The power of it is in the righteousness. For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So it all boils down to understanding that you have right standing with God, the one that created you. God’s not mad at you. He’s not ashamed of you. He’s actually thrilled that you believe that He loves you like He says He does. So this thing all comes down to knowing that God loves you.
People always ask me how I step out in faith. I say believe that you are who God says you are. I travel the world and preach the Gospel, but I talk to people individually everywhere I go. And there are not a lot of people who really get “who they are” from the Word of God. They get who they are from books about the Word of God, or from a person that tells them they’re this or that. And we’re used to living by the opinions of people instead of the truth of who our father says we are.
So how do you get bold? Find out that you’re right with God. Jesus made it easy. He gave two commandments:
- Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, strength and mind.
- Love your neighbor as yourself.
So I can’t step out and love my neighbor unless I realize what God thinks about me. People are going out and trying to “do” witness, and that’s a struggle. Jesus said I want you to go out and “be” my witness. When you know who you are, you definitely know the person standing in front of you and who God created them to be. When you step into this place, what happens is you can’t be rejected by a person because you know you’ve been accepted by your heavenly father.
Q: How would you encourage people who are praying for the sick and not seeing healing?
A: In Mark 16 it says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe…they’ll lay hands on the sick, and the sick shall recover.” Jesus said in John 14 that these same things He did, those that believe will do because He was going to go be with God the Father. And so Jesus defines this when He said, “Anything you ask in prayer in my name, it will be given to you.” And in John 5:19 Jesus said, “The son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the father do; for whatever He does, the son also does in like manner.”
He went on to say in John 10, “If you don’t believe in me through the things that I say, at least believe in me through the works that I do. For it’s the Father that dwells in me who does the works.” So how did the Father dwell in Jesus – through the Holy Spirit. But on the day of Pentecost, that same Holy Spirit that Jesus said was going to come empowered them to “be” a witness because up until that point the disciples were already “doing” witnessing.
So when the Holy Spirit came, the disciples who were operating in power as orphans we going to operate in power as sons because the spirit of son-ship, the spirit of Abba Father, had come to rest inside of them and upon them. And that’s where everything broke forth from these guys. And so every believer that has the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, can go out there and lay hands on the sick, and the sick can recover.
Q: Share with us about one of the healings that you have witnessed?
A: On an average day, we could see 20 or more people touched. Honestly, the greatest miracle to me is a life that is completely transformed that doesn’t look anything like it did before. That to me is the greatest miracle ever. Jesus didn’t just come to get us to heaven. He came to get heaven into us, and when heaven gets into us, we get to destroy hell for a living. 1 John 3:8 says, “For this reason the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” So that’s always my number one priority.
As far as miracles go, we’ve seen the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the poor have the Gospel preached to them. We’ve seen Hepatitis and AIDS completely crushed! We’ve just seen amazing things.
I do have one particular testimony that comes to mind. Just a few weeks ago I was down in Florida, and I was doing a youth conference. And I shared about people that had put scars or marks on their body and that if you repent, that God doesn’t just forgive you. He wants to remove that stain from your body that’s from a life that you wished you had never lived; because that’s not the person you are anymore. God doesn’t want you to carry that around, because it’s a reminder of the life that you use to live. Some people say well that stain is to keep you humble, but what humbles you is Him removing it as though you never committed that act.
So one girl, probably 14 years old, was there, and she had repented. And I didn’t know it, but her arms are filled with cuts and scars because she’s a cutter. So she comes up, and when I go down to pray with her, she’s manifesting a devil. Her eyes are rolling back in her head, and she’s growling. It’s just not a good thing. And so we’re praying for her, because she wants to be free. She came forward, and she fought this demonic thing. We start praying for her, and then all of a sudden, she breaks into a smile. She takes her coat off and looks at her arms, and Jesus had healed every cut on her arms. Her friends look, and they all start crying because her scars are gone. So then I asked her to come up on stage and share what God just did. And when she gets up and shares it, six other kids’ scars disappear all at the same time. They all just started crying. And so, we’ve seen that multiple times. It’s just so powerful.
Todd White was a drug addict for 22 years and an atheist for 34 years when in 2004 He was radically set free. Redemption and righteousness are the foundation and the keys to the new creation reality that we are to live in and from. God has simply opened Todd’s eyes to this truth and that Holy Spirit wants to flow through every believer everywhere we go, at work, school, grocery stores, malls, gas stations, everywhere. His true joy is being able to reproduce in people the simplicity of this reality, in a 24/7 kingdom lifestyle. This is for every believer! His heart is activating people into the simplicity of who they really are and destroying lies that hold people back from being who God created them to be.
Click here to learn more about Todd White and watch his recent appearances on Daystar Television!