Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

king an amazing sign of his healing by allowing the sundial to go backward ten degrees (v. 8). On one occasion Christ spat on the ground and put mud over the eyes of a blind man, and he was cured (John 9:6–7). Why was it necessary for there to be a rod, a brass snake, a slingshot, trumpets, a jawbone, an ox goad, figs, and mud used to assist in the miracles of the Bible? Jesus healed other blind men without using mud (Matt. 9:28–29). After Goliath was slain, years later four other giants were slain without anyone using a slingshot (2 Sam. 21:15–22). The brass serpent was preserved in the tabernacle of Moses, and later the temple, for almost nine hundred years and never cured anyone again. It was destroyed by King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4). God has allowed men to use things as faith tools to hold in the hand or to display in public view as the object God would use to demonstrate the person’s gifting, power, or ability. In some instances the object was a type or symbol of the coming Messiah—such as the rod or the brass serpent (John 3:14). However, the Almighty also ensures that once He used an object for a major miracle, that others following do not take the same object and think they can repeat the exact miracle from generation to generation, as this would lead to idolatry. The brass serpent healed Israel in the wilderness (Num. 21), but it never healed anyone after the major healing crusade in the wilderness. Yet Israel preserved the brass snake, placing it in the temple of Solomon and burning incense to it as a