[13] Good News, vol. 18, no. 6, June 1927

A Little Love Letter.

West Australia, 18/4/27.

Dear "Good News,"—

I see in your fair pages many testimonies to the mighty power of our God—they come from all over— yet I have seen but little from Western Australia, and so it may be that your readers would like me just to tell the story from my point of view of what God has done, and is doing, in the West, because our wonderworking God has not left Himself without a witness even here. Since He sent His messengers over some six years ago, they have faithfully witnessed for Him, worked for Him, lived for Him; and He has used them to convert the sinner, lead the children of God into more of what God has for all His children, healed the sick through them and in many ways glorified Himself here in W.A.

The first news I got of these evangelists was that they preached the baptism of the Holy Ghost as at Pentecost, and when I came into personal contact with them they duly taught me not only about God's outpoured Holy Spirit, but about the second coming of Jesus, which I knew in part though I had never heard of the Parousia (Rapture), and from hearing I began seeking, and later God baptised even me according to Acts 2: 4, than which there is no greater miracle. That God, being Who He is, should fill such an one as I with the Spirit of Himself not for a moment or an hour, day, week, or month; but forever—and should so prove His arrival as to take my tongue and make it speak a language I had never heard before—is indeed a great supernatural work, a miracle, and Jesus said this would be one of the signs that should follow the preaching of His Word. "They shall speak with new tongues" (languages) and some two dozen or more children of God have been thus filled in W.A. Glory to God! This is indeed the working of God through His servants. One of the first miracles I heard of God working here was the healing of an aged saint who lay in a semi-conscious state, stricken down by a stroke; who, upon being prayed for by our Sisters Edie and Ruby, was instantly raised up and restored to her dear ones; truly God brought her from the gates of death. This was a mighty work, and when told in detail makes a thrilling and God-glorifying story. Gradually, as our sisters taught the truth in love and ministered to the need of all as they had opportunity, whether for body or spiritually, a tiny band began to worship and fellowship together in spirit and in truth. We were taught to pray for the sick and have seen a few healings. I was healed of boils, and a dreadful cough I used to have every winter. I longed for the Lord to use me to heal others, and prayed for my children, the Lord hearing and answering for childish ailments. Praise Him! Then a sister suffered from gallstones, and asked me to pray for her, and God healed her there and then; she has now been rid of that work of the devil for some years. Another time this sister felt a big lump coming inside her; it used to get in the way; again God worked and the lump disappeared. Yet again our Father heard prayer for our sister, delivering her from a severe and oft-recurring internal pain. Does He not work in W.A.? One of our evangelistic sisters was suffering from granulated eyelids, and one whom God had saved by grace and miraculously filled with the Holy Spirit laid her hands on and prayed and our sister was instantly delivered. "Heal the sick," commanded Jesus; and it is done right here. Praise God! Again, through the hands of different brethren God has delivered from neuralgia, indigestion, influenza, fits, and an affliction of the face that greatly disfigured, and many other ailments. And of late our beloved Sister Edie has been delivered from rheumatoid arthritis after being held by this dread disease for twelve months, though the doctors said it was impossible; that there was no hope of her being healed. God has done it; the signs do follow!

One day a sister was suffering from sores that would not depart, and she was telling another sister about it. The second sister felt she must pray and rebuke the enemy, and as this was being done the blessed Spirit rebuked, not the sores, but the spirit of fear, and this brought deliverance from the sores. A sore leg has been prayed for and healed, and, indeed, God has worked marvellously here; but it seems to have been done in so quiet a manner that hardly anyone knows of it, and great praise is due to God for it all. You know, dear printed friend, God's Word declares that in the last days, when His Holy Spirit is poured out, the recipients of it will dream and see visions. Well, He has fulfilled that word right here; some wonderful visions and dreams have been given, and fulfilled—they, many of them, being in the way of prophecy. Such a lot of people in ones, and twos, and threes, have had God's Word preached to them on certain truths in such a way under the power of God's Spirit that they have been led to accept those truths and walk in them. This wonderful truth of the actual incoming of the very Spirit of the living God to abide for ever; the truth about the coming of the Son of God to claim His Bride prior to His coming to reign on the throne of His father, David; the truth of Divine Healing being included in the finished work of God in Christ. These and other precious truths have been faithfully and persistently propagated by the Spirit of God here through His anointed ones, and are not the least of God's works here in the West.

Then, again, God, by His Holy Spirit, has done a beautiful, gracious, deep, spiritual work in the hearts of the little band of Spirit-filled workshippers who meet week by week in the various homes and rooms, and there are yet others enquiring and seeking; believe me, God is working. These things that I have written are not all; there is a great deal I know nothing of, because I am not out in the Lord's work. I'm only a woman at home, and can see just one little corner of the great work, one aspect of my Father's dealings with His people here; but I long for all to know that God is faithful and He has not failed here, that He is here now, and has been here all the while, and working! My poor words can never do justice to it all; God has been and is so wonderful and beautiful; so gracious. Persecution has been the lot of many who have received the truth, but God's comforting' Spirit has sustained, strengthened, and comforted according to promise.

You, too, sweet messenger of the Divine truth, are being used of God here. A sister had a bad ear very bad, and sent for someone to pray for her healing; she was sure she had cancer, her husband having died from that terrible complaint. Her ear difficulty did not instantly disappear; the pain lingered; she remembered having heard that the "Good News" were prayed over and hands laid on them before they were sent out. So, taking up her copy of yourself, she laid it on the side of her head and ear that were so bad, and the pain departed and the healing was manifested. And you must know that you are posted all over W.A. Your pages, by the blessing of God, feed many, refreshing and building-up and spreading the truth to the glory of God. So now, having eased my mind a little in this matter of showing and testifying that God is here and working1, and will work more mightily if we have faith, I will wish you God's continued blessing, and close. There is much I would like to say, but I don't know how. It seems as if God has appeared Himself to me since I received His Spirit. Can you form any idea of what that means? Can any human words make it known? God revealed Christ to Paul in such a way that he could preach Him. I wish He would do the same for me by His Spirit. He has revealed much to me, taught me much, but like Paul again I am driven to cry to Him for a "mouth and utterance," that I might speak as I ought. Good-night! God bless you!—Your fond reader,

A. R. L.

 

© Southern Cross College, 2004