Our Guest Jim Barbarossa

Sid: You know what I found out in scripture how this is possible and so few people who call themselves Bible believers understand how it’s possible. You see God has a purpose for the church, in the book of Ephesians he said “It’s the glorious church.” What makes it the glorious church? It’s filled with the glory of God, but there is a purpose for the church. The purpose of the church is found in Roman’s 11:11 “Salvation has come to the Gentile to provoke the Jew to jealousy.” Well when is this going to happen well hey it’s been 2000 years. Well Paul also tells us in Roman’s 11 he says “Partial blindness has happened to Israel,” in other words there’s only a few people are able to see the Messiah that are Jewish, until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. Now the word for fullness in the Greek could also be translated maturity. So partial blindness has happened to Israel until the Gentile Church get’s mature; when the Gentile Church gets mature we are told there will be the formation of the reason Jesus came to earth. Do you know why Jesus came to earth? Ephesians the 2^nd chapter he says “That Jesus came (Paul says) Jesus came to break down the middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile to form One New Man.” That’s the whole purpose you see you can’t have One New Man if you just have a Jew. You can’t have One New Man unless you have a Jew and a Gentile, the Jew needs the Gentile, the Gentile believer needs the Jew, but the two together creates something bigger than the 2 separate. And that’s why the devil has tried so hard to separate Jews and Christians. But we’re coming into a time in history in which the church is going to get mature to the word of God to reach the Jew, the form the One New Man, to reach the world you need help to get confused. But there have been so much garbage over 2000 years of garbage between… that the devil has caused between the Christians and Jews that through apologetics, through using the intellect it’s very difficult to reach Jewish people with the gospel. But I tell you “It’s not by man’s might and it’s not by man’s power but it’s by My Spirit saith the Lord.” And I believe that it will be by the supernatural. It’ll be signs and wonders, and I have a man that is a sign and a wonder on the telephone and I’m so looking forward to talking to him his name is Jim Barbarossa. And I’m speaking to him at his home in Valparaiso, Indiana. And Jim before we get to this amazing and I tell you Mishpochah it is so amazing hold on to your seatbelt. This amazing sign and wonder that he has; you were raised Catholic about 16 I understand you just rebelled against religion went your own way. So how did you happen to marry a woman who was a believer Carla?

Jim: Well I met Carla when I was 16 and she was 14 or 13 and a few years later we were married at 19 and I think 17. She was raised in the church she was a believer and I had rebelled against God and didn’t want anything to do with it. I got married and started to raise a family.

Sid: And you’re going to live happily ever after however in 1990 you were diagnosed with a rare blood disorder.

Jim: I had a blood disease called Mastocytosis.

Sid: It sounds awful.

Jim: It was and basically the doctors…

Sid: And by the way Mishpochah this is not the sign and wonder although this is a sign and wonder go ahead Jim.

Jim: I was diagnosed with that disease in 1990 and I was pensioned out of a job I worked for 20 years in 1991, and came to know the Lord as Savior in 1993 and basically was retired and sent home to die…

Sid: How much time did they say you had to live?

Jim: Well they didn’t say it was one of those things they call it an early form of Leukemia but basically had very little to relate it to as far as how long it could be and this and that. But this much I know when they retire you from a business they don’t plan on paying you for the next 50 years as you retire. It was a serious thing and…

Sid: Well you know they say there’s no atheist in a foxhole so did you immediately start crying out to God?

Jim: No, you know that was not the case what had happened for about 2 years after I had had the disease I laid around the house I wrote out my will. I thought I was dying and I pretty much threw in the towel and one night we received a phone call about 3 in the morning.

Sid: That’s not my kind of phone call 3:00 AM go ahead.

Jim: Three o’clock in the morning we got this phone call and the people from my wife’s church said “Would you please come and watch our kids we have somebody in the hospital that had a heart attack and we need you to come.” And she went and as I laid in the bed I said “God this is the kind of man that can help somebody like me God save this man.” I wasn’t saved at the time.

Sid: So why did you say that?

Jim: You know I believe it was the Holy Spirit, I believe the Spirit of the Lord touched me and provoked me to pray that way. Because in logic I had no reason to pray that way.

Sid: Okay, the next Sunday comes did you back out or did you go to church.

Jim: Well Friday night I told my wife “Don’t make any plans because we have something to do on Sunday.” And she didn’t know what was up my sleeve because I always have some hot idea cooking. And so I said “We’re going to church Sunday night.” And we went to church and I sat in the back pew close to the front… far away from the front that you could get and close to the door in case the roof came down. And as I sat there I felt like I did not want to leave, I was in a place that I felt so comfortable and I saw something on the people that I never saw anywhere else. And it was like a genuine concern for me. And it was just God’s love.

Sid: Well say the next Sunday did you want to go back?

Jim: Absolutely went back, in fact I told Carla when we left I said “I want to go back again.” And that following Sunday we went back still sitting in that last pew and there was an altar call given and for anybody that wanted to receive Jesus as Savior. As I sat there I wanted to get up and I couldn’t I felt like somebody glued by seat and my paints to the pew. And I said this I said “God if you want me you’re going to have to send somebody to get me.” And that was probably the first miracle I ever saw because the lady in front of me instantly turned around and said “Can I pray for you?” And it shocked both of us when I said “Yes.” And she prayed with me and the next thing I know I went up to the front and just threw my hands up and I said “God I cannot live without You anymore” and I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and my life was just totally transformed that day.

Sid: And this was 1993 however you still had this rare blood disorder type of Leukemia and now it’s February 1994, between ’93 and ’94, and you’re really devouring the Bible which I understand was not the type of thing that you would do. You wouldn’t even read books let books let alone the Bible.

Jim: I despised reading, I didn’t like it it was a chore for me and I went to a good friend and I said “I know you say you need to read to grow and I just don’t like to read.” And the friend said “You know the same God that healed you or the same God that saved you will help you to read.” And he prayed for me and I devoured the Bible over the next 3 months. Read it from front page to the back and it was the Living Bible that version that has also the meanings on the bottoms so it was almost like reading the Bible two times. But in the 3 months period I totally devoured the word and I believe that set the stage for what was to take place. And then in January of 1994 I was kneeling at a communion service in the same church and as I knelt there I heard these words as clearly as could be it wasn’t audible but it was so clear and it was “My son this night as you confess your sins I am washing away with the blood that Jesus shed for you on the cross with that same blood I am now cleansing your diseased blood go back to the doctor I have healed you.”

Sid: Well what kind of doctor did you go back to.

Jim: Well I had been seeing an internalis, an internal medicine doctor who was also a cancer specialist. And it was by his recommendations I had originally gone to Mayo Clinic where they had diagnosed that I had this disease. So I went back and I said “Doc I want you to rerun the test God has healed me.” And he told me in so many words I was wasting my time and I insisted and he reran the tests and sent them to Mayo Clinic and when the results came back my blood was cleansed by the blood of the Lamb completely normal.

Sid: Now Jim, God has given you a unusual sign and wonder it’s something you never thought of in a million years, but when you do this which God actually showed your wife in a dream that you’re supposed to do this and when you do this thing what are some of the things that happen to people?

Jim: Well I’ve had people that have told me that they were in pain and as I would be obedient and do what God instructed me to do pain would immediately leave their body.

Sid: What about something like an emotion like fear?

Jim: I’ve had others that have been what I would call bound in fear. And one comes to mind was a lady who was bound in fear and she had fear so bad that she told me that “In 15 years she was not able to sleep at night.” And I started to pray for her in what would be more in the traditional way of laying hands on her or anointing her with oil. And as I went to do that the Spirit of the Lord stopped me and told me to do it in a different way.

Sid: And when you did it in this different way what happened?

Jim: Well we didn’t see anything immediately and the service ended that night which was a Saturday night but on Sunday morning when the pastor said “Anybody have a testimony they would like to share?” This lady went up and said that “This brother in the Lord did not know this but I have a Jewish heritage and what he did and the way he did it meant more to me than anything that he could have done. I want you to know that last night was the first time in 15 years that I was able to sleep all the way through the night without fear.”

Sid: Whoa! We’re out of time this is such a genuine sign and wonder I know you’ll be back tomorrow get ready for a miracle.