On The Third Day

Okay, before we run out of time, I thought I'd just share on this message I've just called on the third day. Does that mean something? So, subtitle, our purpose is to serve Yehovah's kingdom. We have a call and a purpose in Yehovah and it's all about his kingdom. Jeremiah said, for I know what I have planned for you, says Yehovah. I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.

You know that verse very well. It's used very often in lots of contexts. But Israel, of course, was in Babylon for 70 years and the time had come for them to be released from Babylonian captivity. The father was saying, I haven't forgotten you. I know I was the one that brought you into bondage and captivity because of your disobedience, but I have a future and a plan for you. I haven't forgotten you and I know that I want to prosper you.

My objective is not to harm you, but to bless you. Even though you have failed me many times, I still love you and my heartbeat is there for you. And so Yehovah was saying, it's time for your freedom, time to get back into action for me and to establish my kingdom once again, back in the land of Canaan and to rebuild the temple that's been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. So, father has plans and purposes for his people, a future and a hope.

That applies to us as well as to them. And if we're being grafted in to Israel's promises and covenants and inheritance, then what he says to them, he says to us, if we're one with them and his people and he is our God and he is our Messiah. If Yehovah has spoken covenant promises over our lives and if we are faithful and obedient to that covenant agreement, nothing in heaven or on earth can stop it from coming to pass.

If God has said something to you, if God has said something to us, if God has made covenant promises with us, if we are faithful and obedient to him and his word, nothing can prevent it from happening and coming to pass. This life is all about Yehovah establishing his kingdom on planet earth once again and our part in it. He is fully and absolutely working hard to make sure that his kingdom is established on this earth and for us to be a part of it.

And we pray the prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth just as it is in heaven. And Yeshua said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Of course, we know the context, Matthew 5, 6, 7. But the context is, if you have needs, I'll meet them. Don't worry about what the Gentiles worry about. What am I going to eat? What am I going to wear? Where am I going to live? How am I going to survive? He says, seek first my kingdom, I'll take care of the rest.

Put me first, put my kingdom purposes. I have a plan and a purpose and a future for your life. And I want you to serve and honor me according to my word. No matter what it costs you, I'll take care of you. That's the promise of God. And we stand solidly on that rock and never doubt it. As Darren shared with us earlier in our prayer time, Psalm 27, beautiful Psalm, fitted in so beautifully with this context of saying we have nothing to fear, nothing to dread.

Our God is for us. Most people, Christians, don't live for the kingdom of God. They live for themselves. I'm always pretty hard on my brothers and sisters, my family back in Victoria and lots of other people that I've been part of. But I know from experience that most people don't live for the kingdom. They live for themselves. Let me say, I've met many, many messianics who don't live for the kingdom of God. They live for themselves.

They will serve God their way. They will come and go as they please. They'll be part of what he wants if they want. It's kind of how we grew up in Christianity. We're good Christians. We go to church on Sunday. We put some money in the box. And if I don't want to go next week, I'll go to the beach. That's okay. There's something really fantastic happening down at the show grounds. I've got to be there.

You know, we don't always put the kingdom of God first. We live for ourselves too much. Why do we go from church to church and church to church? Why do people leave that one to go to that one? Because that one doesn't please them enough. The seats aren't comfortable enough. The pastor isn't nice enough. The people aren't friendly. I'll go and try another one. And it's all about what I like, what I want, what I need.

It's got nothing to do with teaching doctrine, truth, the word of God, being reconciled, harmonised, coming together, sorting out our differences and becoming one in God. Now that'd be a new thing, wouldn't it? For lots of people. But this is the truth of God's word. He wants us to be one people, united and in harmony, one with another. And when I say that, you know, most people live for their own brand of faith, kingdom, instead of truly what it says in here.

And that's because they don't understand the kingdom of God or know anything much about it or how it functions, what it means and what it looks like. But the kingdom and its rules and requirements are based on Torah and our obedience to it. And so the purpose and plan for our lives in Yeshua will always be the kingdom or kingdom related. That is where Yeshua reigns. If he reigns in our hearts, that's where his kingdom is.

And all that he is, says and does is the basis of our faith and determines our path, if any, in the kingdom of God. Yeshua said, follow me, follow me, follow me. And lots of people have lots of excuses for not following him. Yep, we'll follow you. But I've just got a farm to take care of. Yep, I'll follow you. But, you know, I've got some parents at home. I've got to look after them. And when they die, I'll come and follow you.

You know, there's lots of things in the word that Yeshua says, follow me and let the world take care of itself. Let other people and things take care of itself. I will take care of you. And it is this sense of how important is the kingdom of God? How important is our relationship with Yehovah? And he says, I am training up a people to run my kingdom. When Yeshua my son returns to establish my kingdom on the earth, I want people to run it who know me, who will be a faithful bride to me.

I know I preached all this last week, but those who will be a bride, faithful to the bridegroom, Yeshua, our Messiah, those who know to stand with him, beside him, honor him and please him in every way possible. He says, I want you to run my kingdom. I've tested you. I've tried you. I've trained you while you're here on earth. And when I come, I'm going to raise you up, give you immortality. And I'm going to use you to take my message to the ends of the earth.

Travel the nations, travel the world, take care of 10 cities, five cities, one cities, be available for me wherever I want you. Because you've been faithful to me now, I'll make you twice as abundantly fruitful and blessed in the age to come. It's all about his kingdom. He's training, preparing, planning our lives to be his bride, his people in the kingdom that is to come upon the earth. At each new step in the processes and purposes and plans of Elohim for our life, there's always going to be a testing period.

To see if we are or how faithful and true we are to the call of Elohim on our life. And I guess this is kind of where my main thinking theme and emphasis is. He tests us. There's always testing times to see if we are faithful, how faithful are we to what he has led us into and asked of us. He will test us. Why? Because he doesn't know where we're at? No, usually because we don't know where we're at.

He knows exactly where we're at, but he wants us to know what's in our hearts, what's in our lives, what's there that we're not aware of. And we don't know what's there until he tries it, until he reveals it and shows it, puts us through some hard times and all of a sudden we realise, wow, my reaction isn't what I thought it would be. So these testing periods are designed to strengthen our faith, deepen our trust, establish our call and give us a bigger God and launch us into the new or the next phase of our life.

Isn't it wonderful? We do not stagnate. We do not sit here and just decompose. God has a plan and it's always evolving to something greater, bigger and better, no matter what our age, young or old. God says, I have great things for you. I have a future and a plan for your life and it will always be evolving and changing and getting bigger, more challenging, greater and the testings of life will always bring us into a greater place with our God.

And so he is going to strengthen our faith, deepen our trust, establish our call and give us a bigger God and launch us into the next phase of our life. Whatever is ahead of us is greater than what is behind us and Father will always test our readiness for it. Genesis chapter 22, verse 1 to 8. Now it was after these things that Elohim tested Abraham. Isn't that amazing? Right there at the beginning. Elohim, God tested Abraham.

He said to him, Abraham, Hineni, or here I am, said Abraham. Then he said, take your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains about which I will tell you. So Abraham got up early in the morning, settled his donkey, took the two of his young men with him and Isaac his son. He split wood for the burnt offering and got up and went to the place about which God had told him.

On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, sit yourselves down here with the donkey. As for me and the young man, we will go over there, worship and return to you. Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on Isaac, his son, in his hand and he took the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

Then Isaac said to Abraham, his father, my father. Then he said, here I am, my son. He said, look, here's the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son. Here, Yehovah, the friend of Abraham. Wasn't too many people given that? Very, very powerful saying, Abraham is my friend. Wasn't just something like, we're good next door neighbours. No, he is my friend.

And he's testing him once again. And this testing is more than I can imagine ever having to deal with. Can you imagine the Almighty saying that to you? But for Abraham, it was do it or walk away and go back to where you came from. Because this is the test. Yehovah needed men who knew how to trust him. If he was to achieve what he had raised him up for. I have a job and a duty and a calling upon Abraham's life that the rest of the world is dependent on.

And I need a man who knows how to walk this journey with me. It will be costly. It will be challenging. It may be lonely and it may be long, but I need to know you're the right man for the job. And he tests him. Abraham had been faithfully serving and following obediently. Yehovah's call upon his life for the past 40 years. He had been there 40 years in Canaan and Isaac, the joy and the laughter of his and Sarah's life, the son of promise was now a young teenager.

But Elohim says it's time to test him again. Is he up to it? 40 years, Abraham had lived with many a drama and difficulty trial and testing throughout that 40 years. But here it is again, in a way that no one would ever have envisaged that God would test him on. And the timing, of course, is significant. Always in God, the timing is always significant. 40 is the number, as we know, which comes out of the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is Mem, M-E-M, the 13th letter of the alphabet.

And it has a number 40. And we've taught on this many times, but just highlighting this number called Mem is written with an open Mem and a closed Mem. So you have two letter Mems and one's closed and one's open. And this number 40 is used, or this number 13 is used, and the number of the letter, 13th letter and the number 40, which relates to it, speaks of the beginning of a new era or season or age or chapter in our life and the ending of one.

It tells us that something is finishing and something is beginning. And just like Israel coming out of Egypt and the 12 spies going into the land of promise for 40 days to check it out and to reaffirm its greatness as promised by Yehovah, is it really truly a land flowing with milk and honey? And they had 40 days to search it out. This was all about the ending of a slavery and bondage for 400 years and coming into the promised land, a land of milk and honey.

They were there for 40 days. It was a testing of the spies and the people and they failed the test. It cost them 40 years in the wilderness with more testing to come. And of course, this is the same as my number 26, which is two by 13. And 26 is the message of changing our clothes, taking off the old and putting on the new, getting rid of the old doctrines and traditions of Christianity and putting on the new of Torah and the Kingdom as we're led by Ruach HaKadosh.

New wine can only go into new wineskins and Yehovah has to bring us to that place where he says, I want to transform your life. I want to change your life by the power of my spirit. I want to re-clothe you, renew you. I want to take you out of the old and bring you into the new, similar to water baptism truths. But where does that fit for us? And this is kind of the objective. I'm down here from Mildura.

I get down here once every now and again. So kind of, you know, there are things upon my mind and on my heart and I know where everything is at, but to some degree with everyone and the fellowship, which I have to keep a handle on, but healing to the nations and outscribe, we as a fellowship are in that exact same position again, a testing time. And HTTN, this fellowship is in its 26th year. I established this at the beginning of 2000 and it's a men's season for us.

I preached on this a couple of Sakots back and it's interesting, Sakot talking to Vansalem Bell before and Bell asked me, have we met any South Africans in Mildura? Because there's quite a lot of them gone up there into the vineyards and working and living up there. And I haven't come across any at this point, but it's interesting that there is a couple over in Western Australia, South African couple, who saw our website and contacted us and said, can we come to Sakot with you this year? And that was last year, last Sakot, last September.

Sorry. Yeah. So they contacted me and they come across, said, look, yep, they were coming for some other business as well. So can we spend Sakot with you? So they spent the week there with us at the farm and they were telling us that none of the Messianic groups would let them fellowship with them in Perth and the area that they had said, you're not to come to our Sakot, you're not to come to our meetings.

They had a difference in disagreement on some of the things that they believed or taught or said or something, nothing of any major consequence. I had no idea. We did talk about stuff, but it was nothing. And then got an email just a couple of weeks ago saying, can we come to your Sakot again this year? Would it be okay if we came across for Sakot? So they're going to fly across from Perth to join us in Sakot again this year.

So, yeah, there's some good that comes out of South Africa. That was naughty of me. Lots of good things come out of South Africa. And Orinda in our fellowship. Yeah. Sorry. There is a family that from South Africa in Mildura and Orinda comes to our meetings. Yeah. She's South African. Yeah. I forgot about Orinda being South African. Her family doesn't come and they run a farm up there. But yes, so there you are, there is one.

But Outscribe, which is the business of Brendan and Christina's, which Annette and Darren are also managers and directors of, are finding themselves in a very difficult time or climate of change in this business world. And how long has Outscribe been going? 30 years? 20? About 22 years. Okay. Yeah. So at any rate, well established business. But Outscribe is a transcription service. And AI, of course, as we know, is challenging many small businesses with universities and law firms and others engaging in AI to do the work of people.

So they can put people off and AI can do their job. Or instead of contacting Outscribe and other transcription services, they do it in-house through AI so much. And they work with a number of universities and lawyers and stuff in transcription work, but some of them are doing more of their own work. And so it puts pressure on the business. You lose business and it's important, of course, that we find out, well, father, where is all this at? And Outscribe employ a number of people around Australia and are a big part of HTTN's financial base.

And so along with Outscribe and the business and our tithing, it keeps us functioning and afloat and we can expand and grow and do what we need to do and cover our costs and pay our bills and keep moving on in God. But then the challenge comes. Something outside of our control begins to take over. And this has happened a number of times. But each challenge gets bigger than the last one. Each testing gets more challenging than the one before.

And so, and of course, that's what we've been praying into and believing and saying, well, God, you're the one that established it. You're the one that put us here. You're the one that's enabled us to do what we're doing. We believe in you for the answers and the solutions. So it's a testing time for us all in one way or another. We all go through our testings as families, as individuals, as businesses, as fellowships, as communities.

But our God is greater than them all. They don't come our way unless he lets them come. Also the number 40, Yehovah's number for change and new beginnings and seasons plays its part in our ministry into Mildura. As you know, 40 years ago, I did a church plant in Mildura. Then out of the blue last year, Yehovah told me to go back and plant a Messianic fellowship there. That's the last thing I expected, the last thing I wanted.

I had no interest in going back to Mildura, but God had other plans and that's what I had to do. That's what we're doing, of course, as you know. And so we called it Good News Messianic Community Mildura and it's under the umbrella and the oversight of HTTN, Healing to the Nations. And so we bought a property there and called it Anathoth. This is called Shechem. That one's called Anathoth. Anathoth is the city where Jeremiah lived and it was a city that belonged to the priesthood not far out of Jerusalem.

And Anathoth means answer to prayer. And so when we purchased that property, which was impossible to do, it was answer to prayer. And we know that how God opened doors and the struggles that we had to enable that to happen. But we are re-digging the well of 40 years ago. We are going back to set right what I did wrong the first time I was there. You do what God tells you to do and you are where you are at.

And then God says, now I've taken you along the road 40 years further. You're a totally different ministry, a totally different person with totally different beliefs. And so here we are re-digging the well in Mildura. And we are being tested in our faith, our resolve, our commitment and understanding of the purposes of God for our life and our reason for being. In Hebrews chapter 11, we get a little glimpse into how Abraham's life still counted in the understanding of Paul or the writer of Hebrews.

And he says, by faith in verse 8, by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he was to receive as an inheritance. He went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he migrated to the land of promise as if it were foreign, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. For he was waiting for the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

By faith even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive when she was barren and past the age, since she considered the one who has made the promise to me ought to be faithful. So from one and him as good as dead were fathered offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as uncountable as the sand of the seashore. If he had never gone, it would never have happened. And right through this process of life, we find that Abraham is linked as a man of great faith, obedience and commitment to the call upon his life.

Faith is the name of the father's hall of fame. And here Abraham is listed in Yehovah's hall of fame. And we are being tested in our faith, all of us from time to time, more so than another. And our faith, our resolve, our commitment and our understanding of the purposes of God for our life and our reason for being are being tested. And so if you get your name on that roll, you've passed the testing of your faith by our almighty God.

And Abraham and Sarah have their name on that roll. And they never broke the chain of faith from Abel, Adam's son, to the Messiah. And when we read through Hebrews chapter 12, sorry, chapter 11, we have the listing of all those people that are listed from Abel, who life was given because of his brother Cain. And right down there, we find that here are the men of faith and the women who supported them to make sure that the message never got lost, the kingdom never got lost.

And the purposes of God were always being in put into the hands of people whom God said, I can trust. And he keeps deepening and strengthening our faith and our trust. And he wants our names to be on that list as a people of faith and trust, no matter how big the job he asks us to do. Then in verse two of Genesis 22, he said, take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there is a burnt offering on the mountain about which I will tell you.

Undoubtedly, Abraham and Sarah had gotten comfortable with their life, with Isaac and their business enterprise. They were successful and living in obedience to the initial call to leave home and land and family and go to a place that you don't know. He was obedient to that and he responded to it. But now, 40 years later, a new phase with a new challenge and opportunities was about to begin and Yehovah needed to see where Abraham was at and testing the depth of his obedience and faith.

And of course, it was also preparing young Isaac for the journey that lie ahead of him and to prepare him to follow in his father's footsteps. So for the covenant and promises belonged not only to Abraham, but to his son and his son's sons. So Abraham had to be faithful so that his sons knew how to live and to follow on the same journey for the purposes of God. And when Isaac turned 40, he faced a new challenge with the death of his mother and his future with his new wife.

And then another 40 years, Jacob was going to follow the same challenge, the same changes. So then in verses 3 and 4 of our Isaiah passage again, we find that they make the journey and Abraham wasted no time and he arose early in the morning and away he went on the journey, starting for the mountains that God was going to show him. And on the third day, he lifted his eyes and sees the mountain. I mean, that's a challenge.

You got to walk for three days just to go where God asked you to go. It's not like us jumping in our car and just heading up the road. Three days there and three days back a week later, he gets home. So he lifted his eyes on the third day and he saw the mountain. And I feel strongly that this third day is the key phrase to which Father has directed my attention. And so the third day, of course, as was mentioned before, speaks of resurrection day or new life or new beginnings, fullness of purpose revealed on the third day.

The message to Abraham and to us is that out of death comes new resurrected life and direction. And it's important that we understand something has to die in order to enter into the fullness of the greatness of the new that lies ahead of us. If we don't die to the self life and the flesh, walking in obedience to the will of the Father, then we will not see the beauty and power of the resurrected life in the Ruach now.

He wants a people that he can say have died to self, have become obedient to my will and I'm going to renew them with a new power and authority to move into what lies ahead of them. And what lies ahead of us is far greater than what was behind us. And Father is preparing us for a greater greatness in that which lies ahead. And then in verses 8 to 10, we see that the first thing there Abraham does is build an altar.

This is a third day truth of who we are as worshippers. Those who will climb the mountain into the presence of the Father, laying our all, the loves of our life on the altar, no matter what it is that Father asks of us, filling the heavens with the fruit of our lips, our praises to his love and his faithfulness. Climbing the mountain, entering into the presence of the Almighty and knowing that we have come to commune with him.

We have come to worship him. It's the honouring of his name on the mountain of righteousness and shalom. Our Jerusalem, our hearts, the place where his Ruach dwells. He wants a relationship with us. And then in verses 11 to 14, we find that Yehovah speaks with Abraham in an audible voice. And the third day means that Father will always commune with us from this place on the mountain of his presence. Never, ever doubt that Father does not want to commune with us, speak with us, talk with us, show something to us, reveal something to us, open his word to us.

If we will climb the mountain, if we will spend time in his presence, if we will lay our all on the altar, and become his worshippers and his lovers, he will always commune with us, lead us and guide us. Out of his obedience, out of Abraham's obedience, his willingness to give his all, no matter how hard it was, how costly it was, comes the voice of reassurance. He is there with his teenage son, built an altar to lay him on.

He was going to do everything God asked him to do and trust him with the outcomes. And here we find the voice of reassurance, the voice of wisdom, the voice of understanding, the voice of guidance and leading as to where this was at. And there in the bushes was his third day provision. Yehovah Father is always our benefactor and provider. If we put him and his kingdom first and we do his will, no matter what we think it's going to cost us and how it is far too great for us, he will always benefit and bless and provide and make sure we have the means to do what he asks us to do.

The name of that mountain was called, Abraham named it Yehovah Yireh. On the mountain, Yehovah will provide. On the mountain, Yehovah will provide. The mountain is the mountain of obedience. The mountain is the mountain of entering into his will. The mountain is the mountain of the place where Yehovah wants to meet with us. As we obediently follow the pathway and do what he asks of us and enter into his presence and lay it all before him, he will always be our God, our provider and the one that meets our need.

The third day means our heavenly father will provide, will meet our need, will answer our prayer. He is not an absent father. He is there for us and he will always be true to us. Verse 15 to 18, he says the third day means that out of obedience will always come blessing and reward because you obeyed my voice. So that verse 15 and I'll read these couple of verses. The angel of Yehovah, which is a manifestation of the presence of Yehovah, called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself I swear, it's a declaration of Yehovah, because you have done this thing and you did not withhold your son, your only son, I will richly bless you and bountifully multiply your seed like the stars of heaven and like the sand that is on the seashore and your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.

In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed because you obeyed my voice. Isn't it wonderful? When we honour and obey whatever it is that he asks of us, the rewards and the blessings will always accompany it. I just want to finish with Genesis chapter 26. Isaac, his past becomes his present and the future is fulfilled for his life. 26 verses 1 to 6, now there was a famine in the land, aside from the previous famine that happened in Abraham's days.

So Isaac went to King Abimelech of the Philistines to Gera, then Yehovah appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt, dwell in the land about which I tell you. Live as an outsider in this land and I will be with you and bless you. For to you and to your seed I give all these lands and I will confirm my pledge that I swore to Abraham, your father. I will multiply your seed like the stars of the sky and I will give your seed all these lands and in your seed all the nations of the earth will continually be blessed because Abraham listened to my voice, he kept my charge, my commandments, my decrees and my instructions.

So Isaac stayed in Gera. Isaac walked in his father's footsteps exactly and was given the same covenant promises and mission from Elohim. He said, this blessing is yours because your father listened to my voice. We pass on our heritage to our children and our children's children. Yehovah is looking for families whose fathers know how to walk in obedience to the will of God and show them it's always worthy of doing everything God asks of you no matter what the cost.

I will reward you. I will honour you. I will use you. My children know this because I've charted them all around the country. They have stayed faithful and true to me when they didn't need to, when I gave them a hard time and took them into the places that they never ever wanted to go. They go because I go. God says go here and do this, they have to come with me. They're just my kids. They've stayed faithful.

I know many, many families where this hasn't happened, where children have not stayed faithful to their fathers and their fathers haven't been faithful to their children. But I know the word of God is true and I know I can stand solidly upon it and I can say that if we will honour God and not deviate from the path that he asks of us, our children will know the power of the Almighty God to enable them to do the same and to achieve the objective that's in the heart of God.

God has had an objective for me from birth, the same as he has for you. We just don't know what that objective is. We're just not aware that he has an objective and a future and a plan for us. But as we obediently follow, we see the hand of God in the way in which he has led us. Because of Abraham's obedience to every command and instruction, Isaac was going to receive the same blessings, the same opportunities to bring the kingdom of heaven onto the earth through a nation that he would help raise up.

Isaac just needed to follow the faith of his father and be obedient to all that Yehovah asked of him and led him into. I guess if Abraham reneged and wasn't faithful, then neither would have Isaac. Because of this faithfulness, we know the history. 70 of Abraham's and Isaac's and Jacob's children went into Egypt and about 2 million came out. There's the results of obedience to God. And God had already told Abraham when he first called him, your seed, your children, your great children, great grandchildren will go into captivity for 400 years.

But I will bring them out prospered, blessed. 400 is 10 times 40. 10 is the number for the chosen generation. 40 is the number of new beginnings. And so, God is faithful who promised. Always remember, God is faithful who promised. I just finished with verses 17 to 25 of that chapter 26. So Isaac departed from there, camped in the valley of Gera and dwelled there. Then Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham.

The Philistines had stopped them up or filled them up after Abraham's death. He gave them the same name that his father had given them. Then Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found a well of living water there. But the shepherds of Gera quarreled with Isaac's shepherds saying the water is ours. So he named that well Quarrel because they quarreled with him. Then he dug another well and they quarreled over it too. So he named it Accusations.

And then he moved from there and dug another well and they did not quarrel over it. So he named it Wide Space. And he said because now Yehovah has created wide spaces for us and we will be fruitful in the land. And he went up from there to Beersheba and Yehovah appeared to him that night and said I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid for I am with you and I will bless you.

Multiply your seed for the sake of Abraham my servant. So he built an altar there and called on the name of Yehovah. He pitched his tent there and Isaac's servants followed him and servants hollowed out a well there. This has been Yehovah father's message to me. Way back from around 1980 mid to late 1980s when planting a church. I think it was I am not sure whether it was Echuca or Mildura church that I was planting at the time.

And a pastor that I had invited to come and share at that particular time named Tom James gave me a prophetic word from Isaiah 49. And those verses in 17 to 20 said that people will come and this place will be too small and cramped and make room for me please to settle in it the scripture says. And as he is prophesying this word to me I am thinking to myself wow that's a bit out there.

I am going to make this place bigger and wider. It's too small. People will come and say we need more space. We need a bigger place. Wow that was a long time ago 1986 or whenever it was. Then when I left Mildura and came to Adelaide and I was a pastor in coastlands with Dudley Daniel from South Africa. As I am saying good things come out of South Africa. Then Rory I am trying to think of his last name but Rory from South Africa who was part of Dudley's international team called New Covenant Ministries came over for a conference that we had at coastlands.

And he prophesied over me from this passage in Genesis 26. And he said to me you have had some very difficult years and opposition to your ministry as represented by these first two wells. But he said you are going to dig a third well which is called Riavoth which means he will make room or bring you into a wide place of blessing and growth. That was in about 1998 just before we come here to Adelaide when I left coastlands to come here a year or two later.

Never forgotten the prophecy from Rory and serving Elohim and his kingdom in itself is testing and challenging. But greater tests at specific times come as well and these testings are the same as father's disciplines upon us. And I know that Yehovah when everybody thought that I had walked out of the will of God when I left coastlands. Church of about a thousand people. And God said I want you to leave there and I want you to start another church.

The last thing Carol wanted was me to start another church. Yehovah said I want you to start another church and I did. And I called it healing to the nations and that was 26 years ago. And since then we've seen nothing but God get us through the hard times and provide for us until we are seeing wide spaces, lands that he has made available to us. 22 acres here, 150 acres at Hebron. There's another acre property in Mildura.

God has been doing things that nobody else could do but God because he knew I had no resources, we had no resources. We came out of coastlands with nobody but ourselves, not even my family, just me and Carol and another guy who said I want to come with you. Darren was working in Kangaroo Island. Brendan, Christina were living in Sydney. He'd left Mildura to go to Sydney when he was 16 and it was living in Echuca, had gone to Ballarat.

It was just me and Carol and we come to start this fellowship. And then God brought Darren back, brought Brendan back, brought Annette back and we all planted this church together like we did every other one. It was an amazing thing, amazing thing. And then Christine and Neil left coastlands to come and join us a year or two or three after we'd left, two years after we'd left and been with us ever since. Faithful and as solid as a rock.

Amazing things have happened simply because when we will walk in obedience to the will of God, no matter what it costs, he will always bring to pass what he has said he will bring to pass. He does and he has. But these testings that we go through and of course, and of course, the kids know about testing coming out of one land to another. It has been pretty traumatic at times from what I've read in their emails and been tested to the nth degree about this journey to Australia.

But testings are the same as Father's disciplines upon us. He only disciplines and tests genuine sons and daughters. And these hard times or times when Yehovah asks hard things of us, giving up things like family and possessions and the love of our lives for the sake of the kingdom of heaven are testings and or disciplines of the flesh and of matters of the heart. It brings about a reckoning between what I want and God wants, what I love and what he loves, what he wants us to let go of and what he wants to replace it with.

It's a challenge, it's a test, it's a discipline. And so yet the blessing and the peace, the victories and the joy that comes from above is without compare. When we do his will, when we see his blessing, when we see the fruit of that which he has asked of us coming to pass, there is nothing to compare with that joy, that blessing, that peace, that contentment in that which he is doing in our lives. When we go where Father wants us to go, when we do what Father wants us to do, when we obey what is written in the word, just like Abraham and Isaac, we are laying claim to the enemy's land without them knowing it.

God said to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob, you just go and stay and be here, put a plant and altar here, plant an altar there, plant an altar there, just be friendly. Do what I say and I'll give you their land. I'm taking it off them and I'm giving it to you. That's God. And when we're obedient, God will give us things that other people can't understand how you did it. I believe that we cannot fail in achieving the purposes and the plans that Elohim has set before us because he is faithful who promised.

If he promised, he'll bring it to pass. If we can walk through the test and obey what he asked of us and do and go and be what he wants of us because he said it, it cannot fail. He will bring it to pass. If what we are doing is of Elohim, the victory will always be ours. The enemy will not win. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. The God of this world is no match for the creator God of our lives.

The tougher the battle means the greater the objective and the greater the victory. And in it, all his name and his greatness will be lifted high as a banner and a signpost for all the world to see. God did this. God did this. Achieved the impossible. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the power of your word, the truth of your word. We thank you, Father, for the heroes of faith. We thank you, Father, for those that have gone before us and you have demonstrated your faithfulness, power and justice, truth and righteousness and brought to pass everything that you said to them.

So, Father, we thank you that you have brought us on this journey, that, Father, you are leading us on to greater things and we know that in you we can stand tall and strong and true in Yeshua's name. Amen.