Image courtesy the Telegraph Mirror

On June 19 (before Gillard took over the lead position in Labour, ousting Rudd) I shared with those gathered in Townsville that the Lord had said, "Australia will have a Margaret Thatcher". I published this on my blog and facebook sites on July 20th and later again in the Storm Harvest List July 25th to over two thousand people.

The vast majority of other Christian prognosticators in this country want the coalition to win... against the better choices of some of my prophetic companions... it may well be that Gillard gets a go at holding the Prime Minister's position

What does the future hold? God knew this would happen, he foretold it, he declared that it would be so. So let's brace ourselves for the future...

So happens if Gillard rules?

Margaret Thatcher was dubbed the "Iron Lady" because of her strong rhetoric and stance against the USSR. Gillard would no doubt be a strong lady, and with that Rd hair, she'll earn the Australian appelation "Bluey". So how cloely would Gillard's reign resemble Thatcher's?

Thatcher emphasised deregulation of the financial sector (ours already is), withstood the union's grip on the labour market (unions are largely a thing of the past after the John Howard era), sold off state owned companies (yes there's a bit of Telstra left) and increased indirect taxes (Gillard has a Mining tax waiting). She took England through the Falklands War (1982) and we are likely to continue to be involved in the MIddle East.

The area Gillard is most likely to replicate in Thatcher's image is this: Thatcher held the reigns of the nation during its worst economic crisis. Unemployment soared, inflation soared (18%) trade slowed and Thatcher's job approval rating fell to 25% (the lowest rating ever recorded for a Prime Minister). At least Gillard starts with an approval rating of 55% (but that will sag I'm sure).

Footnotes

This is in no way a reflection of my voting preferences, nor does it constitute an endorsement of Gillard. I mean let's face it, Abbott is a conservative Christian and Gillard admits to being an atheist. However it does constitute a word from heaven about which way Australia's heart is turning. Only 9% of us go to church any given weekend (even though 85%+ of Australians say they believe in a personal God and 65%+ say they believe in Jesus Christ and called themselves Christians at the last Census). If it's an Atheist Prime Minister we want, then it's an athiest PM we will get!.

During my trip to the USA in November 1998 (which is documented on the web site in the 1998 Global overview) I prophesied that: "There are about to be released, plagues on the earth – mutations of existing and prevalent viruses, revival of those defeated and new strains. Watch for a fourth generation of HIV/AIDS and for communicable cancer. The only place of healing will be found in the church."

There is at least one form of cancer that crops up as a result of a communicable disease. Different types of HPV (the human papillomavirus) are known to infect different parts of the body. Certain strains (HPV-16, HPV-18, HPV-31 and HPV-45) are strongly associated with cancer, especially cervical and genital. These are most commonly transferred sexually. I only discovered this link as a result of a new Australia wide vaccination of high-school aged teens which started last year (2009). It came as a result of  the Australian Government funding a program (announced on 29 November 2006).

Obviously HPV and cervical cancer are treatable, so this is not the one I was speaking about, but it's close. The vaccination does not work 100%. On the AIDS front, we're now at strain #2 and substrain #7. HIV-I has four strains (O,N,M/A and M/B) and HIV-2 has three strains (A,D and E) which were medically differentiated in March 1999. There is some discussion about deliniating SIV (AGM) as HIV-3 because they all come from the common parent primate lentivirus.

Four Sundays in a row I've been travelling to Wamboin, NSW to participate in a Building Church Where You Are experiment. A few months ago the leadership team at Grace Canberra undertook to develop a four week process by which we could bring people along into the revelation of Matthew 28:18-20, namely that every believer is a missionary. Brian Medway calls this "discovering the church's primary purpose".

Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." John's version has "the disciples" waiting in a house, Thomas among them expressing doubts.

A lot of us have doubts. We wonder if we are good enough. We wonder if we're up to the task, and frankly the church has portrayed a vision of well trained and fullt-ime employed professional being up for the task instead. I recall clearly a visit to church leaders in Liberia last year that resulted in pastors, elders and others asking if they were "allowed" to baptise and teach. This was the passage we studied, and it hit them like a bomb, "Of course we are!" Go therefore! See below for a copy of the manual we're using:

Pre course notes
Week One notes
Week Two notes
Week Three notes
Week Four notes