Did Jesus Know What He Was Talking about?

Written by Russell Bayliss, an apostle of Christ Jesus.

A few weeks ago, on a walk to Sarlat train station in The Dordogne region of France, a Brother in the LORD who I recognise as an apostle of the LORD Jesus Christ, began to ask me a question. 

In 1996 I received the longest prophecy I have ever been given. 

It was given by a Prophet, Bryn Franklin, in the home of a Brother who had served at the highest levels in the American Embassy in the UK. 

The prophecy was given to me as part of Priming Potential, a wonderful time of Fellowship and Fun organised by another Brother in the LORD, for members of the Body He had recognised to have leadership potential. 

The prophecy was startlingly accurate and part of the prophecy I received was "Russell, you are a Timothy and you need to find a Paul." I knew these words were true. 

And so for more than 25 years or so, I tried to find my Paul.  

I really tried. 

REALLY, REALLY tried. 

The LORD worked in my efforts - revealing my own deep human Father wounds and those of those I was trying to relate to in Timothy like fashion. 

At times it was horrendous. 

But God was working together in all things for my good and those I was looking to as potential Pauls. 

Because that's what He does. 

For All of Us. 

In All Things at All Times. 

Around 4 years ago, I decided there wasn't any human being on the earth that I could relate to as a Timothy. 

I therefore told God, The God and Father of Our LORD Jesus Christ, the God who had revealed Himself and His Son to Me in a vision at the age of four and a half, that Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, would be my Paul and I would be discipled by him, directly, through the pages of Scripture by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Truth is, that had been going on for decades and had borne much fruit, to the glory of God, and so I was happy. 

By the grace of God, I am generally happy. 

The joy of the LORD is my strength, even when I'm feeling sad. 

When a Brother who was used to recognise the Call of God on my Life for Ministry when I was 16 years old, asked me about 3 years ago "Russell, if you found a Paul, would you relate to them appropriately?", I said "Yes, of course, but I haven't found anybody." 

And so on I walked; me, the Holy Spirit and the spirit of Paul the apostle revealed to my spirit by God's spirit through the pages of His Written  Word. 

On Monday, 2nd June this year, I collected a Friend and Brother in Christ called Luke from Taunton train station en route to Pontlyfni for a stay in North Wales.. 

After Luke and I had greeted each other (it had been a little while since we had last been together), Luke made a request. 

He wanted to visit a café in Bangor because a Brother called Paul was volunteering there and Luke hadn't seen him for a while. 

On the Wednesday of mine and Luke's stay in North Wales, Luke went into the café and saw Paul. 

It transpired that by His Spirit, God had made it clear to Paul about 15 minutes before Luke had entered the café, that it was time for him to be moving on and his last day was to be the following day, the Thursday. 

Paul explained that he wasn't sure where the LORD was going to be leading him on to after the café and during the conversation asked Luke what he and I were up to. 

(Luke had shared a little bit about me and said he thought it would be good for Paul and I to meet.) 

Luke explained that he and I were planning to attend a bible Study Meeting that evening on Anglesey (https://www.barnchurch.co.uk/). 

Paul explained that he was also attending a meeting on Anglesey that evening as a Brother called Alex had come into the café that morning and invited him. 

You might already be there......the three of us were going to the same meeting....four if  you include Alex.  

I am 🙂 

The moment I met Paul in Rhosybol on the Isle of Anglesey I knew I had met a fellow Brother in Christ and Minister in Christ. 

Within about eighteen hours (by this time we were at Operation Mobilisations's headquarters in Shropshire for a stay I had already arranged), I knew he was the Paul that had been prophesied by Bryn Franklin in 1996. 

Since then, by the grace of God and for His Glory, I have been relating accordingly to Paul. By God's grace I have known that I have carried the Fire of God. 

It was this that led me to preach my first sermon at the age of 17 at Thundersley Congregational Church in Essex on the "contest" between the Prophet Elijah and the "prophets" of baal. 

Since having Paul accompany me on my journeying since we met (journeying which I had planned before I met him), I have experienced what it is accurate to describe as the equivalent, in terms of the Fire in my spirit, of petrol being poured on a physical fire. 

And so back to our conversation en route to the train station in Sarlat, France. 

One of the things that I am learning about Paul is that he has an incredibly open, loving and sincere heart and the last thing he wants to do is risk a relationship having to end because of a disagreement that one of the parties cannot resolve. 

When Paul, therefore, began to approach a topic he wanted to bring into the light in our walk, I knew he was reticent because, based on experiences he had had during the last few years of ministry, he had suffered the pain of being misunderstood, misrepresented and rejected by several Members of the Body of Christ and told that they no longer wanted to walk with him. 

I know that pain. 

Sensing this understandable caution, I did one of the things that God has gifted me with and cut to the quick. 

"Would I see it as an issue if I knew he believed the earth was flat?" was the essence of his question. 

I was quick in my answer. 

"No." 

Because I didn't care if the earth is flat or a globe. 

I had always been surprised by my position on this topic. 

I am someone who (as some of you may know) loves to know the truth and when I find it, I love sharing it with others. 

I am a firm believer in the reality that on certain doctrines there can only be one truth. 

Does God send people to a place of eternal conscious torment if they don't joyfully bow their knee and exclaim Christ is LORD before they die or does He cause them to cease to exist or through the cross and blood of His Only Begotten Son, is He reconciling All Things to Himself as Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) laid out in his letter to the Believers at Colosse? 

Only one of these options can be true. 

Is there One God, Father who is Spirit, Who has, by His Spirit, eternally begotten (brought forth from Himself) His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, through Whom All Things Were Created, All Things Hold Together and All Things Are Being Reconciled Back To Him By Means Of The Same Spirit or are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit three separate, co- eternal, co-existent persons like the shell, albumen and white of a chicken egg or the three leaves on a three leaved clover? 

They can't both be true. 

Is the nation state of Israel that exists today fulfilment of Scripture prophecy on the subject of God gathering His people back to the land He gave them or is it a God ordained satanic counterfeit? 

It's one or the other. 

It can't be both. 

Is it possible for us to be of one mind and accord in Christ on matters of faith on which there can only be one truth as Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) wrote in his letter to the Philippians? 

Is it possible for us all to agree, with no divisions among us, united in the same mind and opinion as he wrote in his first letter to the Corinthian Believers? 

If it wasn't, why would he have written something which would otherwise be completely preposterous? 

So, returning to my position on the subject being discussed at Sarlat train station in France, I was surprised that I couldn't give a monkey's about whether or not the earth was flat or a globe. 

Beginning of the age of around 4, the Holy Spirit has been progressively opening my eyes to the reality of the God ordained kingdom of darkness and the ways of its working - the illuminati, freemasons, jesuits, the new world order, bilderberg group, davos, bohemian grove, united nations, state of israel, prophecies uttered by Albert Pyke in the late 1800's that predicted the first and second world wars with chilling accuracy (the third is yet to be outworked), the lucis trust, the roman catholic church system, masses in the vatican in latin praising satan as God, the large telescope now standing on a mountain in Arizona that was stolen from the native americans who had dwelt there for a long time which has been built by the roman catholic church and is called lucifer, the department in the vatican that is working on how to respond when "extra terrestrials" arrive with a different gospel, the link between the roman catholic church system and the alpha course, the watchers and the nephilim, Helena Blavatsky..... 

I've made the list deliberately long. 

(Apart from the mis-naming of the spirit of witchcraft as the spirit of jezebel, for the best, scripturally based teaching on these subjects I heartily recommend the 80 part video series created by The Fuel Project, a Ministry overseen by a Scottish Brother, called Know Your Enemy. The first video in the series can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDDGl79x4PcClist=PLCED9C361662866BD.) 

I did take the odd foray into the shape of the earth debate during this time. 

But I couldn't see the relevance to my everyday life, so I didn't, as far as I could see it at the time, waste time there. 

It was a bit of a surprise to me that I didn't care because here is a clear "there can only be one answer" kind of question. 

What is the shape of the earth? 

It can't be a globe and flat. 

It's one or the other. 

But I genuinely didn't care less. 

For years. 

As I explained to Paul, the fact that he believed the earth was fixed, immovable and a flat plain as opposed to a suspended globe was not an issue for me. 

I had no strong thoughts or feelings on the matter. 

I had come across evidence to support both views and although I was perhaps 49% fixed, immovable, flat earth, being 51% globe put me in that camp. 

Back in the UK, on separate sofas in the living room of a Dear Brother in Christ, I reiterated my opinion that any difference in opinion on the shape and structure of the earth really didn't matter. 

As I pointed out, having just returned on a plane from Bergerac in France, in Paul's view we had crossed a flat plain and in mine, it was more likely to be a curved part of a globe. 

And both of us had arrived at the same place at the same time. 

So what did it matter? 

Then I heard these words, "Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high- sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ." 

I was stopped in my proverbial tracks. 

Why would I want to let any words about God's creation come out of my mouth that weren't in line with His own? 

Why would I want to give any credence to the "powers " of darkness, "powers" that had attempted to ravage my life for over 45 years? 

I didn't. 

And so I settled it there and then. 

I would view the earth as described in Scripture. 

Fixed, flat, immovable, covered by a firmament. 

And I revisited one of my favourite Old Testament accounts. 

No longer would I complete the mental gymnastics necessary to explain the miraculous stopping of the sun in order for Joshua to complete his annihilation of the Amorites at Gibeon. 

It was no longer necessary for me to try and explain what was going on in physics during that miracle by imagining that God did something like stop the earth spinning (but only gave those involved in the battle that experience; everyone else living on the earth at that time had no idea) and contain the huge centrifugal forces that would have been at play to ensure no human, animal, vegetable or mineral was launched from the face of the earth until the last Amorite warrior fell and then seamlessly start up the celestial roundabout again and no one was any the wiser. 

Now I can read the account as it really is - clearly stated. 

God stopped the sun and moon in their daily course of travel until the last Amorite warrior had fallen and then He bid them on their way again. 

And we can all be the wiser because it's recorded plainly for us in the Book of Joshua. 

Praise the LORD!!! 

A few days ago I was making my way to the account recorded by John the apostle on the Isle of Patmos of the revelation given to him by Jeus Christ regarding the end of His 1000 year reign when He and His Followers on earth at that time will be surrounded in Jerusalem by satan (recently released from the bottomless pit). 

On my way to this account, I was arrested by two phrases used by John, recording what was being revealed by Jesus Himself - "four quarters of the earth" (Revelation 20:8) and "the breadth of the earth" (Revelation 20:9). 

The first phrase reminded me of phrases I had heard from other parts of Scripture, namely "four corners" of the earth. 

The second intrigued me. 

Breadth. 

In my understanding of three dimensional shapes, a flat surface has breadth, a global shape has a circumference. 

I reached for my Strongs concordance. 

Praise the LORD for James Strong!!! 

Here's what I discovered: 

Breadth. 

Revelation 20:9. 

Strongs number 4114. 

platõs 

"width, breadth" 

From Strongs number 4116. 

platus 

spread out, "flat" ("plot"), ie. broad, wide 

From Strongs number 4111. 

plassõ 

prim. (primary) verb - to mould, ie. shape or fabricate. 

Did John the apostle and Jesus know what they were talking about?