June/July 2008
Dear Partners in the Lord's Service,
In morning devotions recently, I read Psalm 96. Verse 13 is translated in the ArtScrolls like this:
…for He arrives, for He arrives to judge the earth. He will judge the world
with righteousness, and nations with His faithful truth.
A commentary by Arugos Habosem, a Hebrew sage, said, "In the future, all the predictions of the prophets will be fulfilled. Their prophecies concerning the redemption of Israel, and the doom of the nations will prove to be faithful and accurate." (This is a quotation. However, I think the word judgment rings truer than the word doom. For indeed, some nations will survive as sheep nations.)
Thoughts of prophetic Scriptures I've studied for years sprang forth within my mind. Joining them were prophecies I've personally heard from the lips of proven prophets. These certain-to-be-fulfilled words command my attention, especially in the light of where I've been and what I've witnessed in the past two months.
Watching the Fig Tree
On March 27 I left home for Israel to lead a two-bus seminar tour. I arrived a few days early to rest and prepare.
Condoleezza Rice arrived in the Land just about the time Shelli and I did. If you read my blogs, and they are posted on our web page, you can see how distressing it was to watch her wield a heavy hand over God's prophetic nation in the name of my own dear nation. The U.S. State Department demanded new maps be drawn of Israel's borders. These maps were to include giving the major portion of the West Bank to the Palestinians. Jerusalem was to be divided. The documents were to be known as "shelf documents" to be taken off the shelf when the U.S. decided it was politically advantageous to do so.
Of course, I thought of all the prophecies concerning nations that heavy-hand Israel, and particularly Joel 3:1, 2. Here is how the passage reads in The Holy Scriptures, The Jerusalem Bible, Koren Publishers Jerusalem.
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Yehuda and Yerushalayim. I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Yehoshafat (Jehovah shall judge), and will enter into judgment with them there for My people and for My heritage Yisra'el, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have divided up My land.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with PA head Mahmoud Abbas to draw up new borders. Olmert also secretly negotiated with Syria's Assad to give away the Golan.
When it looked like Israel's unpopular PM could not be unseated despite a public outcry, something happened. I believe it was the Lord's doing. It came out just at the 60th anniversary of the rebirth of the State of Israel. Israel's top courts issued a gag order so newspaper headlines would not carry the story during celebrations. But the story soon broke. Olmert, it is believed, cannot survive allocations of corruption against him. It looks to me like God has saved the nation again. This time from its political leader and the plans of powerful nations who so ignorantly and ill advisedly "help?" Israel.
We Marched to Bless Israel
On April 7 we joined Christians United For Israel to march 1000 strong down Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem. We got to proclaim our support for the Jews and their Land from a platform in the Holy City. (You can watch the march on our website.) Exhilarated marchers waved banners from individual States of the Union, as well as Old Glory and the Flag of Israel.
Among the marchers was a couple from Australia. They'd seen the announcement of the first Night to Honor Israel in Jerusalem on our web site and were led of the Lord to join us. The Lord impressed the husband to wear the slouch hat that the ANZAC soldiers wore. (The Australian New Zealand Army Corps was significantly used by God in the liberation of Jerusalem in 1917.) Charlie was reluctant to obey, as he doesn't like to stand out in a crowd. But the leading would not go away. He didn't own such a hat and had to acquire one with its distinguishing emu feather.
Col Stringer presents an ANZAC slouch hat to Billye Brim.
People along the route cheered and even wept as we marched by. They held up signs thanking us. One elderly gentleman came up to our Australian and said, with tears running down his cheeks, "I haven't seen that hat in 67 years. Are you Aussies still with us?" Now Charlie knew why he had to wear that hat.
Standing with Israel is so important. Especially now. Perhaps we can somehow offset the damage done in the name of the USA. Perhaps you can join us in Washington D.C. July 21-24 when we visit members of Congress with the message that we want America to stand with Israel. Go to www.billyebrim.org or to www.cufi.org to see how to do so. We need to make a statement, and it takes our going in numbers to do it.
The Uttermost Part of the Earth
Yes, every word of God will know perfect fulfillment. The exact fulfillment of these words of Jesus has been quickened to me, "You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
The people who heard Him speak those words knew only the first three place names. They had not been outside the Land of Israel. Yet He did not use just a figure of speech when He mentioned "the uttermost part of the earth." He knew there was an uttermost part of the earth, and exactly what lands were there.
Australia, New Zealand, and other Islands literally fit that description—the uttermost part of the earth from Jerusalem.
The physical ears His words fell upon never reached those far-flung places. But His words did. I am a witness to it. For after spending five weeks in Israel watching the Fig Tree, I came home for one week and then left for three weeks in Australia.
Just think. It took centuries for His witness to reach the uttermost part of the earth. But in one trip I was able to witness the Lord in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and in the uttermost part of the earth. This demonstrates prophecy fulfilled and reveals the time in which we live, "O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4).
Until the Times of the Gentiles Be Fulfilled
Jesus prophesied the destruction of the Second Temple 40 years before it happened. He prophesied the Jews would be carried into captivity and Jerusalem would be trodden down of the Nations (the Gentiles), "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). From the time of His prophesy, Gentile rule over Jerusalem lasted almost 2000 years. Until! The last to hold it was the Ottoman Turkish Empire. For 400 years many unsuccessfully tried to wrest it from their hands. But when the time came for Gentile rule to begin to be over, the Lord reached to the prophetic uttermost parts of the earth and the ANZACS for what proved to be the last great cavalry charge in history. The story is so thrilling, and I do not have space to tell it. But we are making available Col Stringer's book 800 Horsemen that dramatically tells the account and God's hand in it.
Something I learned in Brisbane touched me deeply. Col invited me to speak at the ICFM Convention. And he arranged for me to speak at the church he attends, led by Pastor Phil Reuben. Pastor Reuben and many people in the Impact Church's congregation are Mauris. The Mauris are a tribal people from New Zealand. Their traditional haka war dance, Christianized to a spiritual victory dance, performed at ICFM was captivating.
Something within me would not be satisfied until I knew how this Mauri pastor got the name of Reuben. I asked him repeatedly to tell me. At a noon meal he told me the story. First, his wife told how they'd been saved after living in her words "a bad life." They watched her sister's life change radically after she'd been born again, and they wanted the same. They too were soon born again. Then, something particularly thrilling to me happened. Phil's brother ran a rubbish collection company. They would go through the clean rubbish to see if there was something to sell, etc. One day they found a box of books. The box looked new. It contained an assortment of books by Kenneth E. Hagin. Those books became their Bible School. They studied them intently.
After they were born again, Phil's father said, "Did you know Reuben was not our original family name? It was Ripoli." He went on to explain that when his father was an ANZAC soldier in Egypt they saw how Jews who'd been kicked out of Palestine were so mistreated. He said his New Zealand troop, predominantly Mauri, felt so sorry for them, but they had so little, they thought, they could do.
"So," he told his son, "we decided we could bear their name. We exchanged our name Ripoli for the name of their tribe of Reuben." This covenant act was an act of standing with Israel and God's prophetic Word. When I had Phil tell the story to the ministers at ICFM, a tear ran down his cheek.
The Uttermost Part of the World and the Last Great
Outpouring
In 1976 or so, I was sitting across a dinner table from Kenneth E. Hagin. He asked me how first year Rhema graduate Rick McKnight was doing. Rick attended our church.
"Fine." I answered. "Rick is on his way to minister in Australia." Brother Hagin's spirit literally, visibly jumped within him. Then he summed up Wigglesworth's prophesy about the last great move of the Spirit and how its manifestation in "the uttermost parts of the earth" would be a sign of the Lord's return.
"I want to be a part of it," he said. "Does Rick have his ticket yet?"
When I told him that he did, he said that he wanted to pay Rick's wife's way. And he gave a check to our church to buy Bonnie's ticket. In 1983 or 1984, I was invited to take part in a conference near Washington D.C. for prayer leaders. For reasons I won't go into here, I decided to attend only the first session each day. The one taught by David DuPlessis. The first day, after DuPlessis spoke, I escaped to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee. There in the cafeteria, however, I found about six other escapees and David DuPlessis himself.
For the three days of the conference we followed the same pattern. After he spoke in his assigned session, David DuPlessis spent almost the rest of the day teaching and sharing with our small band in the cafeteria. It was in these special days that he demonstrated how Wigglesworth took him by the collar and pinned him to the wall and prophesied that last great move and David's part in it.
I am more amazed than anyone as to how or why God causes me to hear firsthand these great things through His prophets. Yet I believe it is part of my call as a "witness."
We are making available a book, The Smith Wigglesworth Prophecy and the Greatest Revival of All Time. Someone gathered information concerning Wigglesworth, DuPlessis, Tommy Hicks and their prophecies of a last great move. It does not go into detail about Australia and New Zealand's part, except on pages 31 and 87. But it does say it is hard to nail down because the prophecy was not recorded, nor written.
I wanted to be a part of what would happen in Australia when I heard about it from Brother Hagin. My desire grew when I spent those days at Dr. DuPlessis' feet. Seven years in a row I went to Australia. My last trip was 2003. Now having gone back five years later, I see the move is beginning. It will soon break out on every hand. There was such Presence. Angels. Glory. Healings. Miracles. And in Dr. Margaret Court's church in Perth, I knew that if we'd stayed with it a few more days we would have seen a down pour.
This is the end of page four. And I'm supposed to quit here. But I'm not through giving you the witness. So, we'll just have to add two pages. I trust you'll stay with me.
Supernatural Connections
The Lord told me that in the Glorious Church there were "glorious connections." It was so real to me that we called our first newsletters "Glorious Connections."
He said to me, "Some of those connections are from the past."
This was demonstrated in Australia. For instance, I believe that Pastor Phil Reuben knows such blessing today because his grandfather blessed Israel. And then, during my preaching at several places, I read aloud from the recently published book, They Told Me Their Stories. This book gives amazing accounts of saints who were children during the Azusa Revival from 1906 to 1910. Jean Darnell was one of those children. It was she who prophesied that this book would one day be written.
I told Col and Jan Stringer about Sister Jean Darnell's account of how as a young child she'd sleep under the seats, and when she'd awaken she'd play in the Shechinah glory cloud. She would try to catch it. Sister Darnell grew up to take Aimee Semple McPherson's place as pastor at Angelus Temple. Col and Jan said they knew her and that she came often to Australia.
In Melbourne at John and Eileen Brown's church when I read about Jean, a lady in the congregation exclaimed, "I knew her. She prayed for my 22-month-old son who'd been given up to die and he was healed."
When I asked how old he was now, she pointed and said, "There he sits." A grown man sitting with his family waved and attested that it was so.
At ICFM when I told about Jean, several ministers in the congregation said they knew her and told stories about her.
"Well," exclaimed former world champion tennis player and now pastor Margaret Smith Court, "she laid hands on me when I was first born again and Spirit filled. But I didn't know who she was."
Later in Margaret's church at Perth, a woman minister over the Seniors Ministry brought pictures of the large and spiritually powerful church Jean Darnell built at Perth. Some of Margaret's closest associates had been associated with Pastor Darnell. I believe the anointing in Jean Darnell and even the glory she experienced at Azusa came into Margaret for her great work and its congregation of thousands with their work in Perth, across Australia, and into many other nations. (Deuteronomy 34:9; 1 Timothy 4:14.)
Weather: A Prophesied Sign of the Times
While I was gone, back at home my area received record rains. The access road to my house became part of Table Rock Lake. I had already moved out to Prayer Mountain. My house did not flood. It sits atop a high hill. But the road to it disappeared.
This was nothing in comparison to the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China. In a round about way I received a witness to both.
First, Pastor John Brown in Melbourne has long ministered in Burma. They helped establish a church and a Bible school there. He was eventually able to reach his people. They were not directly hit. However, the extreme need for food and water affected the whole country. Through the marvels of technology, I did two interviews with Pastor Brown for my radio broadcast. You can listen to them on the webpage.
(I also spent several days with Tony and Patsy Camaneti and their lovely daughters. Patsy and I did a week of radio broadcasts on our memories of Kenneth E. Hagin. You can hear these on the webpage as well.)
Back to the weather. Our travel agent found we could save lots of money if I would leave Perth, fly to Hong Kong and overnight there on my way home.
There in my hotel room I watched TV China's documentary on the earthquake. The devastation shown on this in-depth report was unimaginable. I was impressed with the Chinese rescuers' evident respect of life.
Watching this I could not help but consider the prophetic utterance in the form of a song sung by heavenly voices. You can get this word by going to www.choicesforliving.com/spirit/angels/angels.htm.
An Evening in Hong Kong
TV China also did a documentary on the life of the man responsible for the development of China's nuclear weapons. He was educated at Cornell in the U.S. It was surreal to watch this documentary in which the U.S. was the villain.
Then I switched to BBC. Uzi Landau, our friend, who was head of what we would call Homeland Security in Israel, was being attacked in an interview on a BBC program called Hardline, or something like that. I had just sat with Mr. Landau on a platform in Jerusalem. He had contacted Rani Levy and told him he'd like to help with our tours. So! Even if Netanyahu is Prime Minister by then, and Uzi Landau has an important government position, he will help us with our next tour. In June 2009 we will take that next tour.
And this distinguished Israeli who spoke at our Prayer Mountain meeting a few years ago, when he was candidate for head of the Likkud party with a view to being Prime Minister, will help us lead it. You can start saving now to go. Also, we're taking one youth bus. Perhaps your church would want to send some youth. And how about sending your pastor!
Prayer Mountain Prayer Meeting
October 23, AM thru the morning of October 27
Please don't miss being here in Branson with us at such a momentous time to pray in unity with so many others about God's plans and purposes. Our venue has changed to the new Hilton Hotel and Conference Center at the Branson Landing. What a place to pray! And what an hour to pray! I sense there may be something monumental in our near future. We can pray about it now in the Spirit, and then together in October.
Love in Him,
A Voice of One Witness,
