Mike Oliver's Messages

Before my heart disease came to light I felt the Lord had said to me, "You will need to seriously consider things about your future."  Over the last week I have been in fact seriously considering my future and some of my past. The Lord lives in my heart yet at least a part of it was not totally living.  In the midst of several heart attacks I discovered I was carrying some baggage from a daughter's cancer battle.  I found myself sobbing out the pain of a traumatic event that took place seven years ago.  I couldn't help wondering if there was a connection between my emotional baggage and physical disease.  Then in the middle of this closeness with the Lord a nurse walked in and we shared our common love for the Lord and prayed together.  Following the subsequent angiogram, angioplasty and insertion of stent I can literally feel my heart again pounding out a stronger base line.  Loo...

There are three signs of mankind's judgement; death by war, starvation and disease. These three signs were all present in greatness in its worldwide effects on the early twentieth century as; the Great war, the Great Flu Epidemic and the Great Depression. The Great War took somewhere between 9-15 million lives, The Great Flu Epidemic took some 30 million lives, and in the Great Depression took some 12 million lives. These figures are hard to comprehend in that over 50 million lives were taken within a decade, much of this apparently originating out of the USA (incl. the Spanish Flu and the World Stock Market Crash) worldwide deaths amounted to the equivalent of half of the existing US population at time of the 1920 census (106M). Ez 6:11 establishes these things as the outcome of the wickedness of mankind saying,  "Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out 'Alas!' because of all the wicked and detestable practice...

There are beasts rising from the sea, a lion, a bear, a leopard and a terrible devouring kind with iron teeth, multiple heads and horns in Daniel 7. These are later explained as representing kingdoms and kings referred to as the empires which ruled over the earth in Biblical history - Daniel living in the time of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon who had won Jerusalem and taken Israel captive as prophesied by Jeremiah. These unusual beasts are rising from the sea; symbol of humanity. These animals depict the nature of the beast which gains thrones over other nations just as the royals of Great Britain utilise the lion, Russia the bear, China the dragon and USA the eagle to symbolise their nature. Interestingly in this piece the lion has removed its eagle wings (symbol of spirituality) but is given a man's heart. Nebuchadnezzar had his heart changed from that of a man and given the heart of an animal (Dan 4:16). One king of England w...

Simon Peter, praying around lunch time, finds himself in a trance, hungry and contrary to God's command saying, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." (v14). But a voice from heaven tells him, "You must not call unclean what God has cleansed" (v15). Here we have a wonderful example of what power prayer can be and what powerful things can occur while on home visiting. Here our Father in heaven is bringing elements of His realm to earth through the Holy Spirit; creating a place for His children without racial or cultural distinction. But his servant is caught up in a paradigm of Jewish exclusivity and prejudice; it being unlawful for a Jew to mix with Gentiles (v28). Cornelius is a Roman centurion in Caesarea, a God fearer, generous, praying daily, and he is also praying in a trance like vision when approached by an angel of the Lord, saying to send for Simon Peter w...

An article I came across puts faith and belief into perspective: "Believing in God is not having faith in God. The Apostle James says so in James 2:19 ,"You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe - and tremble." Believing in God is great, but it wont change your life. Believing in God is great, but it will not save your soul. There are millions upon millions of people around the world that call themselves Christians because they believe in God and Jesus Christ. Believing is good but it is only the beginning!" 1 It's only a beginning to believe; continuing is to take faith into action. An example may be Jonah's success may have been in the story of how he got to Ninivah in the first place. The Lord conceived a rather stunning way for Job to begin his mission; a whale of a ride. Jesus said the only sign he would give to the Jewish leaders was that of Jonah, i.e. his 3 days was spent in the grave. Another article ...

 Six to one you would be thinking that Paul led Barnabas into mission work but that's not exactly how it was. In fact it's Barnabas who first mentored Saul, after eight years in the shadows from "ex-persecutor of Christians," to what we know as "Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles." Originally named Joses (meaning consolation) he was renamed by the Apostles to Barnabas (son of encouragement).   Barnabas is the sort of Christian we all should be; identifying the call of God on a person, his or her gifting, and helping get them working towards building the kingdom of heaven on earth. Unloving people put others down and raise themselves up but inhibit the spread of the Gospel.  Loving people raise others up for the good of the Gospel of Christ. When Barnabas realised Paul was beginning to lead the missionary effort into the rest of the world he placed himself in a followers role where he could still encourage Paul on the difficult road to successfully lea...

Paul poses the notion of comparing spiritual things with spiritual. He's talking about the spirit of the world and the Spirit who is from God and leaves us to "compare apples with apples." Paul's world view is that all things are spiritual, i.e. is it the wisdom or foolishness of man or the wisdom or foolishness of God for the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man (1Cor 1:25). The normal Christian life is sorting out the good apples from the rotten ones as we navigate our daily journey. Those who know the scriptures will be reminded of the words relating to the disposition of our heart (Is 41:10, John 14:27) and the disposition of the mind (Rm 12:2, 2Tim 1:7). It is clear God is not the originator of fear and so our being anxious or afraid has to have come from elsewhere. Paul makes it clear that we have available to us the mind of Jesus Christ (1Cor 2:16). The issue is then not so much where is Go...