God Is Still in the Miracle Business | Mark Brazee| World Outreach Church

Well,

if you got your Bibles with you, let's

open them up to Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

And we'll uh

we'll head in there for a little while.

Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

And uh we'll start right at verse 1.

Got a few things we'll cover here.

Hebrews chapter 2. Good to see everybody

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

this morning. Good to be in church. It's

been a wild week.

Lots of rain. Storms. Hallelujah. All is

well.

Grass is growing.

Weeds are growing. My wife's planting

flowers.

Time for me to get out of town. She's

getting the flowers planted.

Yeah. Room.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God. All right.

But we'll just start out here and see

where we go with this. If we start in in

uh Hebrews. Now, this is of course

the book of Hebrews is being written to

the Hebrew believers, Hebrew Christians.

And he goes on in here, Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 2:1

2, verse 1.

And uh

um

Actually, I want to talk about where I'm

going to get there, I think. Uh I want

to talk about um

um miracles.

Okay?

It's been stirring for a long time. And

some things it just takes a little while

to get there.

But really, miracles, if you go back

through one one translation, one um

commentary words it this way, miracles

are extra uh extraordinary events

manifesting divine intervention in human

affairs.

Miracle is just when God God gets

involved in our stuff.

Miracle is is divine intervention

into the ordinary course of nature.

Okay. Now, you know, we we use that term

loosely, we humans. Well, you go you

know, you see a nice sunset, oh, that's

just a miracle. No, that's the sunset.

Okay? We see a lot of things on planet

Earth, we see a lot of things in

humanity, and we say, well, that's a

miracle. That's We use the terminology.

But a miracle isn't when something good

happens, nice happens, something

beautiful thing hap- That's okay.

Nothing use- wrong with using the

terminology. But if we go back through

technically, when you start seeing this

terminology in the Bible, uh and God is

a God of

miracles.

Okay? And he said, "I'm the Lord, I

change not. With him there is no

variableness, neither shadow of

turning." And so, when we talk I start

talking about miracles, and I'm going to

swing back around to that. I got ahead

of myself for a minute here. But if you

go back through um miracles are when uh

when God does something that wouldn't

get done if God didn't do it.

Maybe that's the easiest way to explain

it. Okay? I don't know about you. I'm

guessing there's probably a lot of

people in here that have have gotten

some kind of a miracle from the throne

of God. Something has taken place in

your life that probably saved your life,

changed your life, was something that

wouldn't have happened if God would not

have done it. Okay?

And sometimes we don't even take time to

give him the real credit for it. And but

he he does those things. But I've I've

had this stirring, and I'm I'm not sure

where it's going to go in the days to

come.

But uh

you know, we're we're in a

goodness, we're in a situation right

now. We're in a situation on planet

Earth we've never been in before.

You know, I mean, you can go back

through and and uh you know, when we saw

uh

Putin, Russia come down and attack

Ukraine. Um we've had friends that are

over in uh in Europe, and they said that

uh their family hadn't seen anything

like that since Hitler came rolling down

uh to try to take over uh Europe back

for World War II. Um

you know, there's there's that, and then

of course, you know, the 7th 7th of

October when there was a um Hamas came

over and attacked uh Israel, killed what

was it, 1,500 people, I think it was,

something like that. Um and we're we're

in a time today now when we've got the

Straits of Hormuz over there. We've got

uh things that are shut off, things that

are opened up. We got people that are at

each other's throats. We've got missiles

and bombs going off. Uh

uh Chuck over here, I don't know if

you're still getting word from

from uh Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. They're

still getting Everything looks like

there's a ceasefire going on until all

the missiles and bombs start coming

through, and then the sirens go off.

And uh

uh we're we're living in a real unusual

time right now. You know, if any of you

keep track of Joe Morris with his EDU,

his end of days update,

uh he keeps a good close track of what's

in the you know, in in the Middle Middle

East, over there in in the area,

particularly around Israel and the

nations around there.

And really, if you go back through and

listen to that, uh we're at the edge of

some things.

You know, you stop and think about it.

We we know we've got a lot of signs of

when Jesus is coming back. We've got a

lot of signs, a lot of

we we've got a lot that we're told to

watch for, okay?

And and that's fine. And and that's real

clear to us. And we don't really know

exactly when the

the rapture of the church, we don't know

exactly when that's going to take place.

All we know is it's going to be 7 years

earlier.

So, whenever we look at this and say,

"Oh, Jesus is coming back soon." Well,

that's great. Back it up 7 years and

find out when we're leaving. Okay? And I

know people have different opinions, but

I've got the inside truth. Anyway,

and I'm going to leave that one totally

alone. But uh anyway, what we want to

get to here is is uh starting in Hebrews

Hebrews 2:1

chapter 2, verse 1, we've got this uh we

are going to head into the the really

discussing some things about

uh miracles, but we'll get to that in a

few minutes.

But if you look in here, chapter 2,

verse 1, where the author says,

"Therefore, we ought to give the more

earnest heed to the things which we have

heard, lest at any time we should let

them slip."

One translation seems to say let it lest

they run out like a leaking vessel.

See, it's really important that we take

the wonderful truths God has

has uh

imparted to us.

Uh

Pastor Janet and I were talking actually

in the last few weeks. We've talked to

some friends from different parts of the

nation, different parts of the country.

And uh um

for a lot of us, uh I'll put it this

way. For a lot of us, we we we came into

the things of God roughly 1974,

got things right with God, got into the

things of God. And and all of a sudden

there was a and this wonderful flow of

truths out of the word of God.

God raised up teachers, raised up

ministers, raised up pastors, raised up

prophets, raised up people that brought

wonderful truths. Brother Hagin's book

on I Believe in Visions. I don't know

about you, that little book changed my

life. Okay? There was a book by uh

uh

goodness.

I've got the guy's name again. Um Bob

Buess. Uh on The Pendulum Swings. I got

that 1974.

There was a lot of extreme excess and

error that was swinging through the body

of Christ. There was a lot of extreme on

deliverance, there was a lot of extreme

on discipleship, there was a lot of

extreme on submission. If there was

anything you could get extreme, we had

it.

In fact, I thought that was my call.

I was supposed to run with some of those

extremes. Thank God for the Bible.

But anyway, uh you go back through and

and uh

you go back to where we have been. But

look at where we are right now. We're at

a very interesting place in the in the

world system today.

And um

some things I don't know. I I I know,

and I can we could spend a lot of time

with this, we won't. But I know a number

of years ago, uh spirit of God began to

just

randomly I'd get into a place of prayer

and see I saw two clouds coming.

Some of you remember me talking about

that. I saw two two giant clouds way off

in the distance coming toward us. One

was a bright cloud, one was a dark

cloud. Well, you kind of know what that

is. Bright cloud's going to be the

things of God, the glory of God, the

presence of God. Dark clouds are going

to be difficult times. But we'd see both

of them coming at the same time. Well,

that went on for a number of years until

it just a while back, uh same thing, but

those two clouds were almost on us.

And so, there's two clouds that are out

there working. There's the bright cloud,

which is the manifested presence of God,

the glory of God,

uh the will and plan of God. Then

there's a dark cloud that's going to be

uh a lot of stuff in the world system

trying to mess up the will and plan of

God to bring in a harvest of souls.

Okay? And those are the days we're

living in. Okay? So, don't be surprised

if things get a little ugly now and then

out there, because if they get a little

ugly, then our team's going to get a lot

brighter.

All right? And so, going back through

there,

uh we we've got this statement, chapter

2, verse 1, "Therefore, we ought to give

the more earnest heed to the things

which we have heard, lest at any time we

should let them slip." Where we are, we

got to make sure we don't take these

wonderful truths. Where I was headed

with that statement was

uh for Pastor Janet and I we we've

talked to some friends recently, and

we're just talking about the fact that

there's some things that we

had the

wonderful opportunity to hear really

back in the uh mid-70s, mid-to-late 70s,

some wonderful truths from the word of

God that changed our lives.

And the the the the the wild thing is

that now you have to dig and scratch to

find those. We have let those slip. We,

the church world. I don't mean we we us,

but I mean the church world. We've let

these things slip and replaced them with

things that that's the way it was before

we got these truths.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Anybody hearing things and you're going,

"I can't believe people are back to

that. I thought we got past that years

ago." Well, we did get past it years

ago, but we rebounded and came back, and

there's some things out there that just

ain't

scriptural.

Okay? But we've lost a lot of a lot of

truth in there. Uh

my terminology would be we let them

slip.

We let some things run out as a leaking

vessel. We've still got some great

voices out there that are feeding us the

word of God, but there's some stuff out

there that just isn't scriptural.

And it's you know, if it's not

scriptural, it's not going to help us.

So anyway, I'll keep moving. That's not

my message for this morning. Just we'll

start there. Therefore, we ought to give

the more earnest heed to the things

which we have heard, lest at any time we

should let them slip. Verse two, for for

if the word spoken by angels was

steadfast and every transgression and

disobedience received a just recompense

of reward. In other words, in other

words,

we got to make sure things don't slip.

There were there was the the the Old

Testament, the law of the old covenant

came through the voice of of angels. And

we had they had to make sure they didn't

let that slip because if it did, if they

didn't walk in that, there was um

there was every transgression and

disobedience received a just recompense.

There was it there was a price to pay.

Then he goes on and says, "How shall we

escape?" Now, that was the law, the Old

Testament, the old covenant. Then he

says in verse three, "How shall we

escape if we neglect so great

salvation?"

Let's bring this up to today. Let's

bring this up to the church age. How

shall we escape if we neglect so great

salvation, which at the first began to

be spoken by the Lord

and was confirmed unto us by them that

heard him. So in other words, they had

the law, the Old Testament prophets,

they had what came through the voice of

angels, and they had to listen to that.

If they didn't, it was going to cost

them.

Then we come up here and we've got what

Jesus brought. So is now what he said?

How could how shall we escape if we

neglect so great salvation, which at the

first began to be spoken by the Lord and

was confirmed unto us by them that heard

him. Now, we're in a new and better

covenant established upon better

promises. Jesus brought this. He passed

this gospel, wonderful gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ, passed it on to

the New Testament saints, the New

Testament believers.

And it was confirmed unto us by them

that heard him.

So thank God thank God for the Paul's

Paul's revelations. Thank God for the

the gospels. So we had all these

wonderful truths. They had these Old

Testament truths

that they had you know, the Old

Testament, old covenant. And then we

come into where we are today. Jesus came

and brought good news to us, brought

gospel to us, passed it on to his

disciples, they passed it on to us.

We've been living and walking in that

for 2,000 years now.

But the part we want to get to is here,

verse four.

Says here,

"God also" this is the part we want to

get to for this morning. "God also

bearing them witness." Them who? Them

people that brought the good news.

The people that Jesus conveyed this the

the gospel to.

This gospel, the gospel of the Lord

Jesus Christ. "God also bearing them

witness."

Now, with what? With sign

with what? Signs and wonders.

"And with divers miracles

and with gifts of the Holy Ghost

according to his own will." Well, we're

just going to kind of squeeze this down

into that fourth verse where he says,

"God also"

We've gotten word from the law and the

prophets, Old Testament. We've gotten

word from the Lord Jesus himself and

those that he he passed that on to that

passed it on to us. So we have gospels,

we have epistles, we have truth.

And we've got this, but he says now

here,

"God also" doing what? We've got all

these wonderful truths and we want to

make sure we don't leave these things

beside. We don't want to let those run

out as a leaking vessel. And he says,

"God also

bearing them witness."

See, God's always If you go back

through, we've got 4,000 years of Old

Testament, we've got 2,000 years of New

Testament, and God is always

God is always You go back to from

Genesis 1:1. God is always confirmed his

Genesis 1:1

word with signs following.

So we do all the the work of

declaring the gospel, preaching and

teaching the gospel, but in the middle

of all this, God is always at work

confirming his word with signs

following.

And so this is the part we want to look

at a little bit this morning. "God also"

See, we've got word, but it says, "God

also bearing them witness."

God will back this up. God's looking for

opportunities. There's an explosion of

the Holy Ghost coming on the body of

Christ. There's an outpouring of the

presence of God that's going to shake

the church world up. We don't have all

the answers, but we've got the Holy

Ghost. We've got the word of God. We've

got the Old Testament, but we've got a

new and better testament. Declared, you

know, better promises. And he says here,

"God also bearing them witness." Now,

this is what we want to take time few

minutes. We'll we'll pick up on this

probably at a later time.

Says "But God also bearing them witness

both with signs and wonders." God's

always done signs and wonders.

Signs are things God does to get

everybody's attention.

Okay?

I mean, you can drive down the road

during the summer, hot weather, you can

you can find Brahm's signs.

>> [laughter]

>> They'll give you a location.

Take the next exit, turn right, go one

mile They I mean, it's a sign. God does

signs. He does things to get people's

attention and bring direction.

"God also bearing them witness both with

signs" and he does wonders.

Somebody goes, "What's a wonder?" Well,

makes you wonder.

That's a plain one. God will do things.

He does signs to get our attention and

give us direction, but God will also do

wonders that just get our attention.

He does all that. Then he goes on from

there. "God also bearing them witness

both with signs and wonders." Now, this

is the part we want to get to.

This has been stirring to me for a long

time now because he does he God also

bearing them witness both with signs and

wonders. And now, my Bible said divers,

different miracles.

See, we a lot of times we get over and

we think, "Well, God does miracles."

Yeah, but he didn't just call it

miracles. He said, "God also bearing

them witness both with signs and wonders

and divers miracles and gifts" or one

translation says, "distributions of the

Holy Ghost." God takes the Holy Ghost

that he

he divides the manifestations of the

Holy Ghost up amongst the church world.

But that part in the middle

with when he says he God also bearing

them witness both with signs and wonders

and and divers or we'd say different

miracles. Different I don't know about

you. If there's different miracles, I

want to know what different miracles

there are. And if they're there, then

God doesn't have those and keep them for

safekeeping. He doesn't keep them

involved in heaven. There's different

kinds of miracles.

And we've

A lot of times we have kind of narrowed

these down to a couple things that fit

in our in our

in our mind. Different miracles. Well,

for like first of all,

um some God will do some miracles.

He'll just do some things to advertise

his existence.

There's some things God will do. He

doesn't have to get the church's

permission.

There's some things he'll do just to

advertise his existence and you know,

for instance, you go back to the

38th chapter of the book of

Isaiah.

Hezekiah was sick nigh unto death. God

sent the prophet in there, Isaiah

Isaiah 38 · chapter mention

chapter 38 starting around verse one.

God sent the prophet in there said, "Go

tell Hezekiah to set his house in order.

He's not going to live. He's going to

die."

Well, that's not the

not what you're looking to hear.

Okay? He said, "Tell him to set his

house in order." So the prophet went in

there said, "Set your house in order.

Thus thus saith the Holy Ghost. You're

not going to live. You're going to die."

And he turns and walks out. Well, about

that time, Hezekiah, king, he turns

around, he turns his face to the wall

and he begins to cry out to God.

You know, he didn't say, "Well, I guess

it is what it is." He begins to cry out

to God.

And he's doing that as he's crying out

to God, the prophet's going through the

courtyard and he's partway through the

courtyard and the Holy Ghost says,

"Stop. Go back. You tell Hezekiah I have

seen his tears. I've heard his cries.

Tell him I'm going to give him 15 more

years."

Why'd that happen?

Because he asked?

Because he asked? Well, sometimes God

wants to, sometimes he doesn't. No, he

always wants to heal. He always wants to

meet needs. He always wants to heal

bodies. God's not looking for ways to do

it or not to do it. Hezekiah, he just

cried out to God and within a before the

prophet could get out of the courtyard,

God speaks to him says, "Go back there

and tell him I've seen his his tears.

I've heard his cries and I'm going to

give him 15 more years." Well, that's

good news.

He goes back there and tells him that.

And I I love this. Hezekiah says,

"That's great,

but how do I know that's true?"

Well, I would think probably if the

prophet came from the courtyard, came

back in. I don't know. I wasn't there.

But he said, "How do I know that's true?

I I need a sign on this. I need I need

some information on this." He said,

"Okay, I'll tell you what. I'll make you

a deal.

God's going to give you an opportunity

to choose which one you wanted to work

with." He said, "Just so you'll know the

Holy Ghost is doing this." He said,

"We're going to have

God's going to cause the sun to either

go down 10° on the at the sundial, go

down 10° or back up 10°."

Now, I haven't had God ask me things

like that, you know, "Which way do you

want the clock to go?"

It's not daylight savings. He said, "You

want it to go down 10°. You want it to

go back 10°." My interpretation on this

is Hezekiah says, "Well, anybody can

make it go down 10. I want it to go back

10." Do you know what it would take to

back the sundial up 10°?

I'm not a scientist, but it would take a

lot of work to stop the earth on its

rotation, back it up 10°, and then jump

start it again. He says, "Let's back it

up 10°." So that's what God did. Just to

show his existence, his power, his

presence, he backed the he backed the

sundial up 10°. So God will do some

miracles

just to show his power and his

existence. He'll do that. Remember back

there in uh

the book of Joshua.

Back there, they were in Israel was in

battle and they were they they the the

battle swung around and they were

they're winning.

And as long as the as long as they could

keep the battle going, they're driving

the enemy out. But it's starting to get

dark.

And if it gets dark, they got to stop

the battle. And if they stop the battle,

they're going to lose the battle. So

Joshua prays and um

God said told him said I'll tell you

what I'm going to do. You just keep

fighting there. I'm going to cause the

sun and the moon to stand still. And

God's never done that before or since

that time with Joshua. Think about that.

He stopped

Do you know what to stop the sun, the

moon and all the start to stop all that

until somebody says, "Okay, the battle's

over. I quit."

For some for God to do that, do you know

what that takes to stop the rotation of

the of the earth and etc.?

And so so anyway, there there are times

when God does that, but

he said all kinds of miracles.

God also bearing them witness both with

signs and wonders and diverse miracles,

different miracles.

You know, as I said, some of them are

just God

advertising his presence.

Um oh, I could go into a number of

those. I know some things that happened

over in

actually over in northern Europe number

of years ago. Really unusual things.

Reached a whole community. They looked

up and saw handwriting in the sky up

there. Looked like a jet had gone by and

wrote the gospel in clouds in the sky. I

heard about that. Told a friend of mine

over there. I said, "I heard somebody

said I don't know if I believe it or

not." He said, "You might as well

believe it." I said, "Why?" He said, "I

was there. I saw it."

I saw it. He said, "The gospel's written

in the sky and people getting saved all

over that community."

So God'll do some things. He's in the

miracle business.

But you can go back through how

God also bearing them witness both with

signs and wonders

and different diverse or different

miracles. Well, we're kind of used to

the what we call the physical miracles.

You know, healing in the body, people,

you know, come blind eyes open, deaf

ears open. God's always done that. We've

got about 6,000 years of God doing

physical miracles.

Well,

and we're going to have a whole lot more

of that.

Get if if we just had time to go into a

lot of it.

Smith Wigglesworth

was doing a meeting one time

and he's a real

gruff bold guy, okay? But he's doing a

meeting and

they brought a lady up on the platform.

And she her her abdomen was swollen with

a huge tumor. She couldn't she could

barely walk. They're having to two guys

having to, you know, prop her up and

carry her. They got her up on the

platform. And she she's standing there.

She can't stand up. She's got a giant

tumor on the inside of her. She's

basically she's got a death sentence.

Medical science can't help her. There's

nothing they can do about it.

And um

Wigglesworth looked over at her and and

he just the Holy Ghost showed up. God's

in the miracle business.

And Wigglesworth said told the two guys

that had hold of her, you know, they

they had her by the elbows. He said,

"Let go of her."

And they said they they let go of her

and she dropped on the the platform. He

said, "Pick her up."

They picked her up. He said, "Let go of

her."

They let go and she hit the platform

again.

He said, "Pick her back up."

Well, you didn't want to argue with him.

He said, "Pick her back up." They picked

her back up. He said, "Let go of her."

So they let go of her and she dropped on

the platform again. Some guy hollers out

from the crowd called him a couple

names.

He said, "I'll tell you what. You take

care of your business. I'll take care of

mine."

He said, "Now pick her back up." They

picked her up one more time. When they

did, they looked and her dress came down

flat in front of her. The the tumor was

instantly gone, went away. It didn't

show up. Didn't just stand on the

platform. It was totally gone. Instantly

healed by the power of God.

He had somebody he was ministering to.

He stayed at their home. The man

actually was born with uh

he he didn't have feet on either leg.

And a guy was

Wigglesworth stayed in their home and um

one night he told the guy or one excuse

me one morning told told the man he

said, "Go down to the store and buy

yourself some shoes."

He didn't have any feet.

Go and buy yourself some shoes. Well,

the guy knew Wigglesworth, so he did.

He a man that knew God.

He went and went to the shoe store and

you know, how how do you know what size

to ask for? I don't know, but

but he goes in there and he said, "Need

a pair of shoes."

Well, the guy brings out a pair of

shoes, put one shoe on. He picked his

leg up, stomped it back down and a foot

instantly formed inside the shoe.

So he put the other shoe on, picked his

leg up, stomped it down. Foot formed in

the other shoe. Paid the bill, left the

crutches and headed home a totally whole

man.

God's in the miracle business.

He's in the miracle business and a lot

of them are physical miracles.

Okay? And we're going to see a whole lot

more of that in the days to come.

That's one way God advertises. That's

one way he demonstrates things is in

healing people's bodies.

We could go on and on.

I've seen so many things. I had a number

of years to work for Brother Hagin and

and worked on his

ministry team.

And was a catcher in the prayer lines.

Saw people healed. He he brought a they

brought a man up to him one time that

was totally deaf in one ear.

And Brother Hagin didn't usually do

those things like that, but he he backed

up and guys just standing there. He

backed up, took one hand and hit the guy

so hard that you could hear the pop all

over the auditorium.

I mean, something happened.

And looked up and he said, "What can you

what do you hear?" Guy said, "I hear

everything perfectly normal."

That whatever that was disappeared.

Well, we there were miracles. There were

healings. Things took place all the

time.

See, God

different kinds of miracles. Some just

showed his

existence.

Some showed his mercy to heal.

Some showed his mercy upon folks that

were sick and diseased in their bodies.

Okay? But you can go a little further.

God did some uh

he did some what we'd call provisional

miracles.

I expect to see a lot of these in the

days to come.

Provisional miracles. In other words,

when he met people's needs.

God did provisional miracles. Okay?

Um

you could go back through. Oh my

goodness.

I remember oh, Pastor Jan and I, we're

in uh

Philippine Islands. We're in Manila for

where was 1981, I believe it was. We're

in the Philippines for 4 months. We're

over there and um

learning our way through things. And

we're over there. We went over we went

over on a 4-month trip into Manila and

then of course the rest of the

Philippines, more the south area.

And as we're ministering over there,

we're praying one day. Some friends of

ours let us use they they had an extra

room in their apartment, their flat. And

they let us stay there as long as

anytime we were in Manila.

And so we're up there. We're praying and

uh

one afternoon the Holy Ghost spoke to us

and said we we'd been in 1979. We'd been

to

Australia. We're in South Africa for 7

weeks, Australia for 5 weeks.

And really didn't think much more, but

we tried to move there and God wouldn't

let us. We were getting all packed up to

have our stuff shipped. We're going to

move to the to Australia. Loved it

there.

But here we are now. That was '79, so

this is like '81. And we're praying one

afternoon and the Holy Ghost spoke to us

and said, "Go back to Australia. This

time don't go to to Brisbane. Don't go

to to Sydney. This time just

don't don't go to excuse me to Sydney or

to

Melbourne. This time just go to

Brisbane."

And we'd been there. We spent some time

there. Loved it loved the area. Had some

friends that were there that could kind

of set everything up for us.

And so, you know, we contacted them,

sent a letter to them and said, you

know, we'd like to come back to Brisbane

and just stay there. And he spoke to us

and said, "Go back there. Stay in the

Brisbane area for a month." So we're

4 months in the Philippines. We're going

to take a month of that. We're going to

go back to Brisbane.

The only problem is we don't have any

money.

We went over there with I think we I

think you know,

don't look at me. You probably would

have done the same thing. I think we

went over there with $250.

I didn't know what kind of currency

people used. We hadn't been there before

in the Philippines. We're over there

with about $250 and that was going fast.

Now we'd go do some small meetings in

some small churches. They'd give us

Philippine pesos, you know, give us a

little bit of cash that helped us to get

by.

And but we're over there. So now so the

Holy Ghost says, "Go back to Brisbane.

Stay there for a month."

Just do meetings for a month in the

Brisbane area.

We said, "Okay."

And so we thought, "Okay. Well, we'll do

what we'll do is we'll go to a travel

agency." There was one not too far from

where we were staying.

Went to a travel agency and and went in

there and talked to the travel agent.

Said, "We we want to get two round trip

tickets from Manila to to Brisbane."

And they said, you know, figured out.

Said, "Well, that's going to cost you

about $1,500."

Said, "Well, 1,500, 15,000, 15 million,

doesn't make any difference."

And said, "Good. Good. Good. So $1,500."

He said, "But

said you're working from a US passport

and you can't get it in Philippine

pesos. You're going to have to get it in

US dollars." We said, "Where where where

we going to get $1,500

in the middle of the Philippines?" And

he kind of said, "Uh that's not my

department." And so we didn't know what

we're going to do. God spoke to us to go

back to to Australia, to go to Brisbane.

We don't have any money.

I mean, you know, maybe a couple hundred

dollars, enough to to get us by for a

week or two, whatever. But we don't have

any money to do this. And so, you know,

we just said just nicely said, "Lord,

tell you what. Make you a deal. If you

want us to go to Australia, you're going

to have to bring the money in. We got

places to go, we just don't have a way

to get there. We need 1,500 we need US

dollars. It's got to be in Philippine

pesos.

Um

I'm sorry, it's got to be in US dollars

because they won't take Philippine pesos

from us. We're we're foreigners.

So we uh

So we went on from there. Went and did

some other meetings. Well, it wasn't

long after that and I just forgot about

it. I thought not my department. If God

wants us there, he's going to have to

pay the bills.

Man's gift makes room for him. We'll

find out if there's a gift.

And so we're

we're uh

doing some meetings and about that

[snorts] time

uh

Dr. Sumrall

came back to the Philippines. You know,

of course he he pioneered the work

there. He he established Manila Bethel

Temple

where his nephew was pastoring at the

time David Sumrall. That's the the guy

he and his wife were the ones we stayed

with there.

And uh Dr. Sumrall came back, brought

Kenneth Copeland with him and couple

couple

big flights. I mean big 747s filled with

people over there. Going to have this

big big basic big meeting over there in

the Araneta Coliseum in Manila.

Well, we you know, we we

actually at that time we didn't have

anything else to do. We found a real

cheap place to stay and we could get

even cheaper food.

Something like beef.

>> [laughter]

>> We think.

We asked and they wouldn't tell us, but

anyway,

uh we were living cheap.

Anyway.

And so we're we're taking the week off

to go to this meeting there at uh

the Araneta Coliseum, big Coliseum in

Manila.

And um

we could ride Jeepneys. That's a blast.

Back and forth to get places.

And uh so we went to these meetings and

and we're in there having a wonderful

time. We met Sam Carr there. We met I

think goodness, who else was there? We

Paul Chase, Paul Shawty Chase. We met a

lot of eternal friends that were in that

meeting. Well,

we're we're in this meeting and and

that's fine. We got just enough enough

money to get there and get back. Place

to stay, cheap place to stay and cheap

cheaper food uh for a week and um

we're we're enjoying the meeting. You

know, Dr. Sumrall's ministering and he's

kind of getting Kenneth Copeland

adjusted to being on the foreign field

in meetings like that.

And um about that time

uh these these two ladies came walking

up after service and said, "You don't

know us,

but we we saw you in a meeting in

Colorado a few years ago.

We're we're we're on this airlift here

from the states and uh gave us their

names and didn't recognize them, you

know. I said, "Well, it's nice to meet

you. It's good to have you here." And it

was two sisters.

They said, "We we're over here in this

meeting and we've come to get in the

middle of these meetings over here. We

wanted to see Dr. Sumrall ministering

over here on the foreign field and so

on. And uh before they left, they turned

around and said, "What are you guys

doing over here?" Now, I wanted to say,

"Well, not a lot right now

right now." But I said, "You know, we're

we're just ministering in churches

primarily."

And they said, "Well, we want to help

you."

And so they pulled out um

500 US dollars.

I thought, "Woo! This is a place to stay

and food to eat. This is wonderful. We

got And this is this is US dollars. You

know, that's really good. So now we've

got what? $200, you know, that we

haven't cashed yet. It's in in

traveler's checks.

And we've got this $500. I thought, "Oh,

this is going to work great. $500, you

know, we'll go put that in with our

stuff back in the room we're staying

in."

And

a couple days later there was a

businessman there. We didn't know him

well, but we we knew him. We'd met him.

And he said, "What are you guys doing

here?" We said, "Well, you know, we're

ministering."

And he said, "My father had a real heart

for this nation." And he said, "I'm I'd

like to get involved with anything

that's touching this nation. Uh let me

can I take you to lunch?" I thought,

>> [laughter]

>> "Yes."

You know, where I there's some places

that were a little bit like Kentucky

Fried somewhat like Kentucky Fried.

>> [laughter]

>> And I said, "Let let me take you to

lunch at the

uh goodness, what was it? The Manila

Hilton?"

It was the Manila Hilton Hotel over on

the bay over there. And I thought, "Oh,

we're going to sit outside under an

umbrella. We're going to have This is

wonderful. God's so good." So we went

with him and he got us a nice lunch. And

then he reaches in his pocket and he

pulls out a book of traveler's checks

and he says, "I just want to help you

guys." And he signs something, tears it

off and gives it to us. And it's a check

US check for a thousand dollars.

And I thought, "Oh, this is not the

Philippine pesos. This is US So in a few

days time we've gone from having nothing

to having $500 and then $1,000." And I

thought, "This is wonderful, man. We are

going to eat and live good for the next

month." And all of a sudden we thought,

"$1,500. We've had that number before

somewhere."

So we went back to the travel agency and

we got it said, "We've got 1,500. We've

got US passports. We've got 1,500 US

dollars. We're heading for Brisbane."

And we got tickets and went to Brisbane

and we started doing meetings. We did I

think five meetings

a week for the next four weeks in the

region right outside Brisbane. And

within a couple weeks time there were

about 120 people who were coming from

all over that region. Uh we almost

stopped and started a church right

there. Some folks wanted us to do it. So

we said, "Okay, we'll do it." And we

were great until we prayed.

And the Holy Ghost said, "No, that's not

what I called you here for." And

somebody after we left, somebody else

did start a church there. But um anyway,

but all of a sudden, you know, God does

financial miracles. We call them

provisional miracles. You can go back

there goodness all the way through the

scriptures. You You know, remember Jesus

back there. He's got all of his

disciples. He's got a crowd of people.

Said, "Let's give them something to

eat." They said, "We don't have

anything." He said, "Check and see what

you got." Well, we got one little guy

here with a boy's lunch, five loaves and

two fishes. He said, "Well, bring it."

So he took the five loaves and two

fishes. He prayed over it and divided it

up and they fed the multitude. Was it

5,000 people?

Fed the multitude and they got 12

baskets left at the end. We don't know,

but I figured they gave it back to that

boy to take home to his family. But they

went from having nothing and fed an

entire multitude. God's always He gave a

manna from heaven

when they walked through the wilderness.

He gave water out of a rock. God's

always done provisional miracles.

And we're going to see a lot more of

those.

A lot more things coming up. God's

opening up the nations. If he's going to

open them up, he's going to pay the

bills for them.

God's amazingly blessed this church.

Hallelujah. As of this last summer, we

are totally paid for, paid in full, no

debt. Hallelujah.

That was a trust me, that was a miracle.

But anyway, I got to get going. We're

going to we're running out of time. But

God God's always done provisional

miracles. God will take care of us.

I'm expecting to see a lot of things God

does in the natural realm of meeting the

needs of the body of Christ. You know,

if if God's going to send you like

Talat. I don't know how he gets to all

these places he goes to, but he keeps

going.

Okay, where the money comes from I don't

know, but I know he gets it honestly.

But God will he'll meet the needs. He'll

pay the bills. He'll take care of the

expenses. God will always do that. If

we'll if God can trust us with finances,

he'll give us plenty of finances to

trust him with.

He'll do that. Always has, always will.

He takes care of people. He works

physical miracles. People's healings in

their bodies. We're expecting a lot of

that in the days to come. Cancers

dissolving. Pastor Janet and I were

talking about a situation a couple days

ago where there's a situation somebody

needs they need a miracle. They really

need a miracle. Well, we haven't seen

anybody with that kind of a miracle, but

that doesn't mean it's not going to take

place.

All things are

possible to him that believeth. So we've

got physical miracles. We've got

provisional miracles. We got

protectional miracles.

God will do things to protect us.

You've heard me tell about being dropped

off in the middle of nowhere in Kenya.

Um

Some guy walks out of the woods speaking

perfect English says, "May I help you?"

Probably.

We didn't even know what country we were

in. We're in the middle of nowhere on a

cow path out there and he got us a ride

to the city and they got us a ride to

the city we're going to. God took care

of us. In the middle of nowhere. We were

told later on, "That's a very dangerous

place over there. God must have

protected you." Well, he must have. And

he did.

But good we could go on and on. God does

protection. I mean, think about that.

You've got the three Hebrew boys.

Okay? If you don't fall down and worship

me, king said, "You worship me. You you

know, if you if you don't if you don't

stop all this this other stuff, uh we're

going to throw you in the fiery

furnace." They said, "Go ahead."

Doesn't make any difference. Throw us

in. If you throw us in,

no no big deal. If you don't throw us

in, we're still not going to serve you.

We're still not going to obey you. We're

still not going to do what you tell us

to do. We've got a God to serve and

we're going to serve him whether you

like it or not. Made him so mad they

fired the furnace up was it seven times

hotter?

Said, "Throw them in there. Shadrach,

Meshach, and Abednego." Threw these

three Threw them in there in a fiery

furnace. And they but the

the king comes and he looks in there and

he says, "Didn't we throw three in?

How come there's four in there?"

And the fourth one looks like the son of

God. Well, it was.

But isn't it interesting? They brought

them back out and they came out of the

fiery furnace and there wasn't even a

smell of smoke on them. Didn't burn the

clothes. Didn't burn the hair. Didn't

burn the shoes. God protected them in

the middle of that. We might as well

figure it wherever God sends us to go,

he'll take care of us.

My goodness, we look at the Fishers

with their seven?

Thank you. Seven.

And trust me, I haven't seen anybody any

less concerned about God taking care of

their families than with those kids. I

mean, he'll take he'll put them on a

plane with them and go who knows where

to another part of the country.

But they know that if God sent them

there, he'll take care of them there.

Has, will, always has, always does,

always will.

God will take There's there's uh

protectional things. How about Daniel in

the lion's den?

Threw him in there.

You know, I can just see him with his

feet up on the head of one, the feet his

feet up on this the backside of another,

and sleeping through the night.

King came and said, "You still in

there?" Oh, yeah, God's pretty He's He's

stilled the mouth of the lions. Brought

him out, threw in the guys that put him

in there, and they got eaten up before

they hit the ground. So, it wasn't that

they weren't hungry.

We can go back through and you we can

find provisional miracles, protectional

miracles, physical miracles. Sometimes

God just wants to to uh show his

existence and his power.

But he said, "Divers kinds of miracles."

I don't I can't explain a whole lot

better than that. We may get get into

this in in the the the near future.

But uh God's in the miracle business.

Divine intervention into the ordinary

course of nature.

We might as well get to where that's a a

common part of our church is to get

reports of people that have seen

miracles. There was an accident took

place in traffic, but it went around me.

I had a couple of those when I first

started walking with God. Had a couple

of them that were real close, close, but

close only counts in horseshoes.

Real close, but it went around me. You

know, it's like I I can't explain it. I

don't even know where it came from, but

somehow, when I started walking with

God, there was something in my thought

processes that knew that God has angels

that'll take care of you.

Has, will, always does.

And so, he's getting the church ready.

He's getting us ready.

He's getting up No use just wandering

around in a bubble hoping we can hold

out till the end. God wants the church

to rise up and be a mighty force on

planet Earth. And be protected, be

blessed, be healthy, and let God do all

this.

And be a real witness to the nations.

Not only a witness to the nations, but

go out and deliver this to the people

that are out there. We ought to be

laying hands on the sick.

If we're believers, we ought to be

laying hands on the sick.

If we're believers, we ought to be

seeing God take care of us and meet all

of our needs. Well, God, he's

Does he have a problem with that? No,

the earth is the Lord's and the fullness

thereof. So, anyway, praise God. Uh

let's stand to our feet.