At Kadesh Barnea, where Israel's spies returned from their mission in unbelief, judgment came on the whole nation. They turned back. sickness broke out, fiery serpents came into the camp, and God sent down the gift of healing for the children of Israel: a brazen serpent. Maybe He couldn't find a man He could trust to anoint, so He put it on a serpent, a piece of brass on a pole.
The same thing happened at the end of the Laodicean or Pentecostal Age. The church was enlightened and tasted of the heavenly Gift or new birth, and made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, when God restored healing, and the Gifts of the Spirit. But they split His Word into hundreds of different organizations and denominations, all fussing among themselves. And today there's more sickness than ever. That great plague of cancer is sweeping the nations, and Christians are dying by the thousands.
I feel inspired to say that, "Some glorious day, all the gifts in the Church will be put to one side. And the Holy Spirit Himself will take the Church under such control of Divine love, until the sick will be healed, the blind will see, the lame will walk. It'll just be one great unity."
This will be after the close of the Gentile dispensation, when the saints are in the unity of the faith, at the manifestation of the Sons of God. It'll be to build faith for rapturing grace, and will not be a public show. We've got to have something to change these vile bodies to glorified flesh. What little faith we've got now is hardly enough to pray for the sick.
-oOo-
After the death of Joseph, it's said that Jesus went to live with his friends, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Lazarus was learning to be a scribe. Martha and Mary did needlework for the temple. Ingram's "Prince of the House of David", says that Jesus came to live with them before He was revealed as the Messiah.
Lazarus had been down to the river to hear the preaching of John. So he come back and told them that a great prophet had come out of the wilderness, and was proclaiming that the Coming of Messiah was at hand. Little did Lazarus know that the very One he was speaking to was Messiah Himself. One day he persuaded Jesus to go with him, to hear this prophet preach.
John wasn't dressed like the high priests, He was just an ordinary common man. God doesn't dwell in the way we dress. He doesn't care too much so long as we're dressed modestly. You don't need to have your collar turned around or wear a turban on your head. God wants a humble, submissive heart. That's what He looks for.
As he saw Jesus coming, John turned and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world."
And they say that after His baptism, Jesus returned to the home of Lazarus and Martha. But one day God spoke to Him and said, "I want You to leave this place."
In John 5:19, Jesus said, "I do nothing except the Father shows Me what to do first." God had to show Him what to do, or He'd never have left Bethany. He went about a day or two's journey. By and by, Lazarus became sick. They sent for Jesus. But instead of coming, Jesus ignored the call.
Now, wouldn't it make you feel strange if the pastor did that? It would make you feel as if, "He doesn't care about us." But if you stop to remember, "That all things work together for good to them who love God, and are called according to His purpose." You'll know that nothing in the world CAN go wrong - so long as you're IN the will of God. "The footsteps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord."
They again sent for Jesus. And He seemingly ignored their call. After four days passed, He said, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps. And for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there." If He'd have been there, they'd have been trying to get Him to do something that wasn't the will of God.
Oh, how many times people with good intentions try to call others out of the will of God. A man must absolutely know his calling. We should know what we're doing in a definite way, and not let money or popularity change our mind. No matter how popular or how rich we are, we should always seek God to know His plan and His will.
It seems strange that He should not go back when Lazarus was sick. But Jesus said, "I'm glad I wasn't there." Because they'd have been persuading Him, saying, "Now, why don't You come on over here? Won't You do this." "Why don't You raise him up? You raised others."
But Jesus knew better. Jesus knew what the Father's will was. And what a blessed privilege it is that we can know the Father's will. If we'll seek God, God will make known His will. If I never spoke to another person, I'd rather know I was in the will of God than preach to ten thousand people every night, out of the will of God.
David said, "I'd rather be a doormat at the house of My Lord, than to dwell in the tents of the wicked." What a privilege to find our place and there abide. No matter how the devil shakes, what he says, or how he scoffs, stay right in the will of God.
When Jesus said, "He's dead." They thought he was asleep. He said, "He's dead, and for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there. But I go wake him."
Not, "I'll go and see if I can; or I'll go try," but, "I'll go and wake him." For he knew. God had shown him by vision that Lazarus was going to come forth from that grave. It wasn't guess work. Any time God shows a vision of what's going to happen, it's going to be exactly that way, IF the vision's from God, it just has to be.
No one knows what sickness is until its in their own home. And I'm sure every one of us can sympathize with Martha and Mary. The only bread-winner, their brother, lay sick in bed. Perhaps the doctors had given-up. Then Jesus failed to come to His friend, and he died in that condition.
Could you imagine those two young ladies sending for Jesus to come and He refused? They'd come out of their denomination, and denied the old orthodox religion, separated themselves from their worldly associates, and put their whole trust in this Man Jesus, Whom they believed to be the Messiah, Christ. Then He let them down?
Oh, we all have those kinds of experiences. I remember when I was first converted, people thought I'd lost my mind. You've had the same thing, people making fun of you, and your associates saying that you'd gone off at the deep end. But as long as your faith is in Christ, everything will come out all right. Don't ever worry about that.
I didn't care. I knew that something had happened. And in my heart I believed it to be the real genuine Holy Spirit. Twenty years have passed, and it's just as anchored there tonight. I have the same determination to serve Him as I did the first night I promised Him.
It must have been a dark time when their doctor had failed them, when their friend had failed them. Lazarus was now dying. And the fourth day came: He hemorrhaged for the last time, and went to be with God. They took him out, drew the blood from his body, put spices and spikenard into his veins, wrapped him in cloth, and laid him in the grave. And he lay there for four days, dead. His body was smelling.
Anyone knows that decay sets into the human body in about seventy-two hours. Eight hundred years before Christ was born, David said under the inspiration, "I'll not let My holy One see corruption, neither will I leave His soul in hell." That's why Jesus said, "Destroy this body and I'll raise it up within three days." He knew no corruption would set in. So He died on Friday afternoon and rose up again on Sunday morning. He knew not one cell of that blessed body would corrupt. Because God's Word is infallible. Oh, my! He keeps His Word to the letter.
People question and say, "Three days and three nights." But it was within three days and nights. He knew it couldn't be fully three days and nights, because corruption would set in.
Here's Lazarus; four days have passed. His nose had collapsed. The fingers had already turned. The skin worms had begun to crawl into his body and eat his flesh. It must've been the darkest hour that little family had ever seen, their brother was dead, their Friend was away, they were excommunicated by the church, and people were scoffing and laughing at them, as those two girls sat together in the home with black veils over their faces, as the oriental custom is, with weeping, mourning the passing of their brother.
It was the darkest hour that family had ever seen. And about that time Jesus came on the scene. That's usually the way He does it. It's the darkest hour, and then Jesus comes on the scene.
There's always a testing time. Every son who comes to God must first be tested, tried. I don't call for it, but after it's past, it yields beautiful fruits of meekness. The testing time, when the fire is hot! Every Christian throughout the ages went through that testing time.
The Bible says those who can't stand the testing, are illegitimate children and not the children of God. A real child, in the testing time does not walk by sight; their physical eyes are closed to the things around them. They only walk by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to His Word, and believing He'll keep every Word exactly the way it's written.
Down in Babylon one morning, many years ago, were three Hebrew children who'd been taken there captive from their homeland. They were sad, because they were captives, and away from the Temple in Jerusalem where the blood was. But they still lived true to God. And a bunch of deceivers passed a proclamation, that whoever would not bow to an image, which was contrary to their faith, would be cast into the fiery furnace.
Now, there was a testing time. And when this trying time came to these three Hebrew children, they proved faithful. They said, "We will not bow down to that image."
Oh, my, the great proclamation had been signed. They were arrested and their hands tied behind them, and walked up a great plank that dropped into a furnace that literally turned the skies red. It was heated seven times hotter than ever before. A perfect type of this day in which we live, where the religious demons of all seven Church Ages are against Christ's true Church. And while they were walking up this plank, it was the darkest hour they'd ever seen. They had no home on earth; they were captives. They were just like slaves. They'd been brought from their homeland; they couldn't attend public worship. People worshipped idols in that country, it must have been a little like Australia, and they could not go into idolatry. But you can't bind a believer from his God.
That morning as they walked up there, they stood alone with God, and the heat of the furnace began to blaze in their faces. But as they made their last step to the world below in the fiery furnace, Jesus came along. He went into that fiery furnace, and fanned the fire away from them. After a while, the king became worried, and said, "Open up, and let's see what's happened."
And when they pulled down the great lid of the furnace, the king looked and said, "How many did we put in there?"
He said, "We put in three."
He said, "There are four in there, and One of them looks like the Son of God."
We might encounter dark heated times. Testing times may come. But Jesus is always on the scene, if we'll just be true and faithful to His Word.
-oOo-
One time, a little woman had spent all of her savings on doctors. She'd sold the farm and the ox-team. All that she had, she'd sold and given to doctors to try to get healed. But none of them could do her any good.
She sat alone. Her little body was frail because she'd been losing blood for many years. Nothing seemed to help her. "Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word." And she'd heard, that way over on the other side of Galilee, was a Prophet who was healing the sick. But she didn't have the money to cross the lake. She couldn't row the boat herself; she was too frail. And she didn't have any money to pay somebody else. She'd spent all she had on the doctors, and was as bad as ever she was.
One morning, sitting on the porch, trying to do some crocheting or knitting, with her little trembling fingers: she looked. There was some noise by the seaside. A small boat pushed into the willows. And she was thinking, "All of my money's gone, what'll I do? Next week I'll probably be put out of the home. The mortgage is behind. We don't even have food to eat. And there's no widow's pension."
It was the darkest hour she'd ever seen. About that time the small boat pushed in, and Jesus came along. remember, when Jesus comes, every devil in hell will try to keep you from Him. That's right. You might hear the Message, but the Devil will sit right on your shoulder and say, "Don't you listen; Don't you listen; Don't you listen."
But Don't you believe him. Jesus said, "Whosoever will, can come and drink from the waters of Life freely." Don't listen to Him, for he's a devil.
And the woman with her little trembling body went down to the water where Jesus was. People were rallying around, the poor, and so forth. And there stood the priests and all the great leaders of her religion. They were making fun of Him and saying, "Hey, you're the one Who heals the sick, are You? We've got plenty of sick; let's see You heal them. You're the one who raises the dead, are you? We have a graveyard full of them; let's see You raise them."
He never paid a bit attention to them. He just walked on. He had one thing to do. That was the one thing that God had shown Him to do, nothing less and nothing more.
When the Christian gets to the place where he won't listen to all the scandal and stuff that's spoken, and have one motive - to do what God sent him to do, there'll be a different day and a different church.
She came to the crowd. Jesus was walking along in His slow steady walk. People were running to Him and asking, "Are you the prophet? Are you this? Are you that? Say, come over here and do something for me? Let me see you do a miracle. We'd love to see you turn the water into wine. Here's a jug full; I'd like to have some. They said it was good wine. Make this wine; let me see how it tastes."
He never even raised His head; He just kept walking. That makes me love Him. You know, its petty people who fuss and argue. A big man never pays attention to anything like that. Christians don't notice what the world says. They're too big to notice those little things. They just keep moving on.
The woman thought, "Now, this is the only time I'll ever see Him, my last opportunity. The only opportunity that I'll ever have, and I truly believe if I could only touch the garment of that Man, I'd be made well." What a faith, what a time.
She got down on her knees, and crawled through the crowd until she touched His garment. Then she walked back and stood in the crowd. Jesus turned and said, "Who touched Me?"
The crowd said, "No-one's touched You." And every one denied it.
Peter rebuked Jesus, and said, "Lord, everybody's been brushing against You."
Jesus said, "But I perceive that virtue has gone from Me." And He looked around until He found her, and said, "Your faith has saved you." And the Bible says that she felt within herself that her blood issue had stopped.
-oOo-
The homosexual community claim that homosexuality is passed on "in the genes", and therefore hereditary. Were this so, its existence would be dependent upon people who can't have children, and homosexuality would die-out. The reality, is that homosexuals are educated into their condition, and for them to have "new stock", they must educate our children, that this permissive lifestyle is socially acceptable.
-oOo-
By the year 2003, one-million-and-forty-thousand Australians will have been legally aborted under government legislation.
-oOo-
According to Reserve Bank figures, the assets of Australian banks went from $87,848 billion to $382,848 billion in ten years from deregulation in 1984. That was $84,000 per income-earning family in Australia. That's our national debt twice over. Where did this money come from? The answer is from your pocket, and the sale of the farms of the embattled rural poor. Deregulation with the active assistance of the banks is destroying Australia, and assisting in the Australian sell-off of assets.
To understand banking, you must understand the creation of money. John Kenneth Galbraith stated that, "the process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. where something so important is involved, a deeper mystery seems only decent". Money can only be created at three points - government mints, finance ministries, and banks. There is, however, a major difference. Banks are uncontrolled by the people and definitely not part of the formal government.
Private banks now own the prime function of government. i.e. the creation of money. Its analogous to subcontracting out the defence of Australia to Russia and expecting the country will actually be protected. Good management practice would see the control of this vital function in the hands of government. This is a situation we had when the commonwealth bank was created in the nationalistic environment of Australia after Federation.
The Commonwealth Bank's original charter allowed total regulation of banking, and government control of the economy: not the current situation of deregulation that effectively allows control by the foreign "standing armies" of International Bankers.
Dr. Arthur Peel of the consumer economic group, Economic Reform Australia, believes that "the Reserve Rank is a banker's bank. Its function is to shield Parliament from responsibility for allowing banks to create credit - a very dubious activity - like printing notes. Money - above all and most strictly - should be the subject of government provision and control". Banks issue their own counterfeit money as credit under the fractional reserve banking scheme. This means that a Political Elite has allowed their ranking friends to ignore Section 115 of the Australian Constitution. "A state shall not coin money, nor make anything but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts".
Why have both political parties allowed this to happen? they can't serve their electors and mammon. and as both parties do this, they must both be controlled by the same foreign master.
-oOo-
Did the bible predict our present circumstances and foolishness as Australia sells her wood to the Japanese, and buys bottled water from international consortia? "Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We've drunk our water for money; our wood is sold to us. We've given our land to foreigners, to be satisfied by bread. Servants have ruled over us; there is none that does deliver us out of their hand" (Lamentations 5:2-8). Sure sounds like Australia.
-oOo-
Under the freedom of information act, information from the Australian Electoral Commission shows that in 1994/95, the Liberal Party owed over $10 million dollars - mainly to the National Australia Bank. And that the Labor Party was $37 million in debt.
The question is: Who do they owe it to? and what is the real price of interest?
-oOo-
It was reported in the Sunday Telegraph (22/12/96) that projections by Norwich Financial Services Group show our foreign debt will reach $300 billion by the year 2000. This is $75,000 for every family in Australia. radio100.htm