How We First Learned To Heal The Infirm In Jesus' Name!

Picture: The Elijah Challenge that changed my ministry - Left circle: Rev William and Lucille Lau; Right circle: Rev Albert and Grace Kang

It was our dentist, Dr. Thiagan Sinnadurai, a dedicated servant of God who challenged Grace and me to attend a healing seminar organised by his house church. I was not keen to attend because I knew that I did not have the gift of healing. For over 20 years of my ministry, I did not see many successful healing miracles after my prayers. In fact, a few people died after I prayed.

On that hot day of 8th December 2005, Grace drove me to the healing seminar. I was not in the most amiable mood. I had work to do and my nerve was also not accommodating. The pain caused by the disease, Ankylosing Spontylitis, had often caused chronic pain in my part and also down both my legs.

When we could not find a parking space, I was elated. Now, I could miss the seminar and give a great excuse to Dr. Thiagan. However, God had other plan and He opened up a nice parking space for us. Still mumbling under my breath, I decided not to take my walking stick with me. With Grace helping me, I walked slowly to the training location at Bangsar.

That day was to become a defining moment of my life and ministry. Pastor William Lau, an American-Chinese, with a gentle Christ-like spirit, was systematic in his teaching. In his Elijah Challenge teaching, there were no strange doctrines or scary testimonies of being caught to heaven. This founder of the Elijah Challenge was not there to impress us with his theology but simply allowing the scriptural verses to speak for themselves. 

Verse upon verse, precept upon precept, line upon line, my eyes were opened. Suddenly everything made sense. Why didn’t they teach me this in the Bible seminary? Even after earning a Master in Divinity, this truth in the Bible had completely eluded me.

Why wasn’t I told that there is a difference between the gift of healing and the authority to heal? Why didn’t the professors teach us how to use the kingly authority to do spiritual warfare and heal the sick in the context of preaching the Gospel?

The most fascinating part was when Pastor Lau said that he would demonstrate this God-given power and authority by healing some of the participants in the name of Jesus. He did exactly that. A few participants were healed of the back pain, leg pain and other infirmities.

Then he invited some of us to try. I remember feeling the pain in my own back and facing an Indian pastor who claimed to have three numb toes. With a fellow participant, I laid my hand on the toes and commanded the feeling to return in the name of Jesus. To my great surprise, the pastor claimed that feeling had returned to his toes and he quickly testified to the other participants. That was my first experience in having immediate healing result after ministering.

Grace and I were to attend the same seminar another three more times and subsequently took an advance training with Pastor Lau. Since then, our ministry has been completely transformed. It is filled with power and miracles which is line with what the Bible says about the kingdom of God as not being a matter of talk but of power (1 Corinthians 4:20).

Grace and I had personally healed many in the name of Jesus with the God-given authority and power. In the last eight years, we have trained Christians from both the mainline and Pentecostal/Charismatic churches in seminars and training sessions. We have the joy of seeing our trainees healing the infirm in the name of Jesus and literally thousands are being miraculously healed.

Rev Albert Kang

Coordinator

Elijah Challenge Asia

A Crippled Man Healed

Grace and I visited a shop in Puchong, Malaysia, to get our picture frame fixed. While the young frame-maker was cutting the glass, an elderly man shuffled into the shop. Both his knees had become deformed and curved inward towards each other. When he walked, his movement resembled that of a penguin walking. He turned out to be the young man’s uncle. As we smiled at the elderly man, the Holy Spirit prompted me to heal him. I looked at Grace and she had also received the same prompting. It is quite common for us to simultaneously receive such type of prompting from the Holy Spirit and the result is usually positive. We looked at each other for a moment and fully understood what we had to do.

As the elderly man settled himself behind a desk, we quickly struck up a conversation with him. He talked much about his involvement with a local political party. He was also quite dedicated to the work in his Taoist temple. When asked about his view on Christianity, he was very amiable. He said that he appreciated the Christians because “they are good people”. He disclosed that a church was conducting their weekly service in the shop space next to his shop. When the worshippers needed to use toilet facilities, he would gladly let them use those at his shop.

We then asked him about the condition of his legs. He revealed that he had an accident about twenty years ago and had since become crippled. Was it inconvenient and painful for him? He said it was not a problem because he had gotten used to his crippled legs. We told him about Jesus and that the Lord could heal him. The man felt that the healing would be unnecessary because after all those years, he had become used to his handicapped condition. We insisted and after some hesitations, he relented.

The man apologized as he took off his shoes. We laid our hands on the deformed knees and crooked shin bones. We did not pray for healing. We simply applied our God-given authority and commanded the legs to be healed in the name of Jesus. After that, we asked the man to walk. He smiled as he walked up and down. He said he felt so much better. For three more times, we laid hands and commanded the legs to be healed. After every command, his legs became stronger and evidently, he was walking much better than when we first saw him. After the final command, he was walking normally and by then, his nephew had stopped working on our frame. The young man was speechless as he observed his uncle walking normally. The elderly man promised to give thanks to God for healing him in the church that was situated next to his shop.

This type of supernatural evangelistic approach is to happen repeatedly in our ministry. God works His miracles when we exercise our ‘mountain-moving’ faith.  Matthew 21:21 is very clear:  "if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea', and it will be done”.

Rev Albert Kang

Have You Seen A Giant Squid Lately?

Many thousands years ago, the islanders of Lepsog islands were champion squid hunters. They harpooned these humongous sea creatures that roamed their oceans and brought prosperity to their islands. Every young man who reached 18 years of age was required to join the older men in the great sea hunt.

There were many accounts of exceptional courageous and successful hunts recorded in the ancient book known as the 'Chronicle of Sea Warriors'. Recorded in one of its illustrious chapters was a story of a Master Squid Hunter known as Nomis who with his long-time navigator, Nhoj hauled in these super seafood that fed the islanders for years.

In another account, Luap, a famous village singer, singlehandedly speared his game with his very own handmade harpoon. There were of course stories of cowards and quitters. There was a report about Kram, a young apprentice, who jumped out of Luap's boat and swam to shore even before any squids appeared. However, the legend did record that Kram overcame his fear and became a Master Hunter himself. Another islander, Samed, who served as an assistant to Luap but he quit after being bitten on his little finger by a small cuttlefish. He left the island for good because he was attracted by the lights of the mainland. No one knew whether he and his canoe ever reached the land of his dream.

The Master Hunters left behind manuscripts on how to make the right types of harpoons, appropriate baits and also techniques in catching these sea monsters. They wrote good advice on how to avoid the tentacles and if attacked, what the sea hunters should do to free themselves. For thousands of years, the manuscripts were compiled and became a treasured manual. This was a book of success as far as the hunters were concerned. Many copies were reproduced by hands and even translated into different languages and dialects.

After the first generation of hunters passed away, new hunters rose to fill their places. With the manual and the direct instructions from veteran hunters guiding them, they were just as effective as the old-timers. Many of these younger hunters pursued larger species in far deeper oceans than their predecessors had even been. Years passed, as more and more people from other islands sailed to the Lepsog island to learn how to hunt the sea giants, the people of these other islands were enjoying a very good healthy diet of quality seafood.

Fast forward to today. The Islands of Lepsog are filled with hunting schools and colleges. The students of the original schools set up similar institutions on other islands outside of Lepsog too. Squid hunting professors are very impressive. They are fantastic lecturers. To help the students, they have beautiful PowerPoint presentations and even some black-and-white film footages on how those brave hunters of antiquity brought in thousands of these deadly animals.

The libraries of these institutions are filled with countless volumes that tell and retell these old stories. Many graduates of these institutions have gone on to become the grandmasters of the Hunting League. They in turn write many books about how those ancient mariners caught their amazing giants.

There is just a slight hitch - none of these grandmasters has ever caught a giant squid before. Don't get me wrong - they are believers of the previous existence of these gigantic creatures. However, they do not believe that there are any more giant squids in the oceans. How did they know that? They had gone to the oceans to hunt for them but without much result. They have the most modern boats and ships. They have the latest hunting equipments. They have lots of money to buy anything they need for deep-sea hunting. The only problem is that they have not encountered any living giants in the deep oceans.

To pacify their disappointments and justify their lack of success, they assume that the giant squids have become extinct. Most likely, these creatures existed in the past for the purpose of testing the courage of their ancestors. More books are produced year after year about the extinction of the deadly animals in spite of many sightings reported by other hunters outside their immediate circle. These reports are from unprofessional hunters and therefore cannot be accepted. The photographs shown are most probably doctored with Photoshop or similar types of software. Life goes on even without any sightings of these elusive monsters.

The social activities of the Hunting Clubs in all the Lepsog islands are alive. They organize weekly events to celebrate the past existence of the giant squids. They also celebrate the bravery of their ancestors who risked their lives to harpoon these amazing creatures. Some islanders convert their clubs into museums and draw large crowds of tourists.

Then some younger members of the esteemed Hunting Club, claim that they have sighted a few giant squids during some of their hunting trips. Once again, the grandmaster and his committee quickly dismiss these as unsubstantiated reports and thus should be considered as mere rumours. Even though, they are shown a decomposing carcass, they conclude that "it looks like a giant squid, smells like a giant squid and feels like a giant squid but it is not a giant squid".

Those young hunters are given warnings not to spread the rumours or face severe punishment such as being expelled from the club. Without any further interruption from these ignorant youths, the Clubs continue to flourish with exciting activities. They have scholars who write articles and books. Then they exchange notes and book reviews. All the clubs are filled with published materials and they prosper and develop franchises all over the world. The Hunting clubs are now more like reading clubs. People spend more time reading about the great exploits than actually experiencing the exploits themselves.

This is what happens to our churches today. Many churches have not experienced signs and wonders for such a long time that our preachers only preach about miracles of yester-years. One of the popular sermons is about how Peter and John healed the lame beggar at the gate known as 'Beautiful' (Acts 3). We love to repeat what Peter said to the lame man, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."

What an irony! Today, we have much silver and gold but in the name of Jesus, no lame person can rise up and walk. How many scholars and professors in our theological seminaries have ever healed the sick in the name of Jesus? How many have ever cast out demons? Our seminaries become "reading clubs" rather than "hunting clubs". We spend hours talking about the devil and his demons but we have no power to cast them out. Theological understanding is only good when it can become practical in ministry.

Let's get the grandmasters back into the oceans and let's really catch some giant squids.

By Rev Albert Kang

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Albert_Kang

From Pain to Gain

Pastor Albert in wheelchair with walking stick in hand

Within the period of 10 years, my health condition worsened and slid rapidly down the steep slope of pain. The little known genetic disorder, ankylosing spondylitis, was taking over my life. This is a chronic inflammatory arthritis of the spine, also known as ‘bamboo spine’. It is an inherited autoimmune disease that causes the joints in the spine to fuse up and there is no cure. 

I did not realise the seriousness of this disabling disease even though it had caused a hairline crack in my spine when I was only 18 years old. As I grew older, I began to experience regular bouts of back pain and numbness of the limbs. 

After passing 40, the pain had increased to a point where it affected the movements of my limbs. My spine had fused up, causing my back to hunch. My health deteriorated further and pain became my regular companion. To manage the pain, I popped ibuprofen, a powerful painkiller. On bad days, I had to take up to eight pills – the maximum dosage permitted in a day.

Standing, walking or sitting, for a prolonged period, became a problem. Before too long, I sought the help of walking aids such a walking stick or cane. I had to use a wheelchair for long distance travels.

My Merciful God

There were nights when my back was so painful that sleeping became impossible. I had to lie face down like a turtle over a few stacked layers of pillows.

During every chronic pain attack, I cried to God for help. I had no strength of my own; I could only cling to Him. On many occasions, I had prayed and asked God to either heal or take me home to heaven. He didn’t. Instead, He brought the peace of heaven into my struggling soul. The throbbing pain did not stop but His presence helped me overcome many a tough night. 

Later I learned that God was not silent about my pain but set the motion of healing in process. How this happened could only be described as the mercy and grace of God in operation.

God’s Special Plan

It was our dentist, Dr. Thiagan Sinnadurai, a dedicated servant of God who challenged my wife Grace and me to attend a healing seminar organised by his house church. I was not keen to attend because I knew that I did not have the gift of healing. For over 20 years of my ministry, I did not see many successful healing miracles after my prayers. In fact, a few people died after I prayed.

On that hot day of 8 December 2005, Grace drove me to the healing seminar. I was not in the most amiable mood. I had work to do and my nerve was also not accommodating. When we could not find a parking space, I was elated. Now, I could miss the seminar and give a great excuse to Dr. Thiagan. However, God had other plan and He opened up a nice parking space for us. Still mumbling under my breath, with Grace helping me, I walked slowly to the training location at Bangsar.

God’s Healing Approach

That day was to become a defining moment of my life and ministry. Pastor William Lau, an American-Chinese, with a gentle Christ-like spirit, was systematic in his teaching. In his Elijah Challenge teaching, there were no strange doctrines or scary testimonies of being caught to heaven. This founder of the Elijah Challenge was not there to impress us with his theology but simply allowing the scriptural verses to speak for themselves. 

Verse upon verse, precept upon precept, line upon line, my eyes were opened. Suddenly everything made sense. Why didn’t they teach me this in the bible seminary? Even after earning a Master in Divinity, this truth in the Bible had completely eluded me. 

Why was I not told that there is a difference between the gift of healing and the authority to heal? Why didn’t the professors teach us how to use the kingly authority to do spiritual warfare and heal the sick in the context of preaching the Gospel? 

The most fascinating part was when Pastor Lau said that he would demonstrate this God-given power and authority by healing some of the participants in the name of Jesus. He did exactly that. A few participants were healed of the back pain, leg pain and other infirmities. 

Then he invited some of us to try. I remember feeling the pain in my own back and facing an Indian pastor who claimed to have three numb toes. With a fellow participant, I laid my hand on the toes and commanded the feeling to return in the name of Jesus. To my great surprise, the pastor claimed that feeling had returned to his toes and he quickly testified to the other participants. That was my first experience in having immediate healing result after ministering.

The Elijah Challenge

I was to attend the same seminar another three more times and then to take an advance training with Pastor Lau. Since then, my ministry has been completely transformed. It is filled with power and miracles which is line with what the bible says about the kingdom of God as not being a matter of talk but of power (1 Corinthians 4:20). 

Grace and I had personally healed many in the name of Jesus with the God-given authority and power. In the last five years, we have trained Christians from both the mainline and Pentecostal/Charismatic churches in seminars and training sessions. We have the joy of seeing our trainees healing the infirm in the name of Jesus and literally thousands are being miraculously healed.

Many Healing Miracles

This testimony from one of our many healing mission trips to the Philippines is among the more interesting ones: 

The elderly lady sat transfixed as after many years, for the first time, she could clearly hear the voice of her daughter. I had just placed my fingers into the elderly lady’s impaired ears and commanded them to be opened in the name of Jesus. Then to test whether she was really healed, the daughter went to about one metre behind her and began calling out words and phrases in a normal voice. The elderly lady repeated every word and phrase accurately – she was healed and she could hear clearly. 

Here is a testimony of distant healing: 

Our Chinese Service's pastor, Rev Edward Chiu's mother-in-law was in coma after taking the wrong medicine for her tuberculosis. She was in that situation for four days and she lived far away from our church in another state. Rev Chiu and I took authority over the coma by using the healing-at-a-distance approach. We commanded her body to respond to the healing touch of Jesus and also for her to be revived from her coma. About two hours later, the sister-in-law discovered that the mother had awakened. Praise the Lord! Now we know that healing-at-a-distance works also with us.

Some of those trained pastors have gone on to include The Elijah Challenge’s approach of healing in their ministries. Rev Timothy Lam is one of those trained and recently ministered in Guilin, China. His testimony came this way:

An elderly man who could not speak for many years, started to utter words after being ministered to. His wife wanted to hear him say, "I love you"... and he did. Slowly but surely, he said those lovely words to his wife after many years of dumbness. [In Chinese, the words would sound like "wo ai ni."]

This type of scenario is repeating in many congregations around the world. From Vietnam to Africa, Singapore to Dubai, Malaysia to United Kingdom, India to United States, thousands have been healed in the name of Jesus. What is so special about this type of healing ministries? If you like to learn more, Grace and I are most willing to share with you and your congregation. Today we serve as coordinators of the Elijah Challenge Asia and our primary task is teaching congregations how to heal in the name of Jesus within the context of evangelism.

God’s Special Touch

What happened to my own dilapidating condition? Without much fanfare, I was miraculously healed. While I was busy healing others in the name of Jesus, God was quietly healing me. One day, I got up without pain. For a short period of time, I still carried my walking stick just in case it was only a brief remission. After a while, it seemed silly to carry the walking stick when there was no pain and so I left it at home. 

There were many occasions when the pain threatened to return but my dear wife was ever ready to rebuke the pain for me. Today, after five years, the pain recurrence has reduced to almost zero. I still have to be careful not to lift heavy stuffs or jump off the stage while preaching. The Lord is merciful and Grace and I are forever grateful.

About Elijah Challenge Asia

Rev Albert and Grace Kang serve as Coordinators of the Elijah Challenge Asia which is a ministry affiliated with The Elijah Challenge International. Elijah Challenge Asia seeks to provide ministry support, training seminars, teaching events, healing and prayer opportunities for the churches in Malaysia and Asia. In keeping with the strategy of Elijah Challenge End-Time Evangelism, this ministry has the goal of training and raising Elijah Challengers who would become leaders in the ministries of praying and healing the sick for the extension of God’s kingdom.

http://www.theelijahchallenge.org/

http://elijahchallengeasia.blogspot.com/

Email:eljiahchallengeasia@gmail.com

Two Miracles and One Repentance

One of the highlights of our visit to Singapore from 26th to 30th November, 2008, was the healing of my mother. She was complaining about pain in one of her ankles. As usual, Grace and I offered to heal her in the name of Jesus. Mother was a little hesitant but we insisted. As we laid hands on the affected ankle and commanded firmly, the pain went off immediately. We then asked her to test her healed ankle. Mother walked around the living room and turned her ankle this way and that way. She smiled and said that she had no more pain. She then told us of her upcoming operation on one of her eyes. Apparently, something was wrong with her retinas or maculas. Both eyes were affected and only one could be surgically repaired. The nature of her vision problem was such that the objects seemed distorted. Straight lines appeared to be wavy or bent. It was something known as Metamorphopsia.

Once again, Grace and I offered, by the authority of Jesus Christ, to heal the eyes too. My mother was a little sceptical and wanted us to understand how complicating the problem was. This was not just a simple pain in the joint. It had to do with a long-termed damage of the eyes. However, we told her that if she would have faith, she would be healed. She relented and we tested her frail eye condition. I asked her to look at me and she confirmed that my image was wavy. She covered one eye and then the other. Both eye had the same problem – distorted vision. I had to stand very near, like about one foot from her face, for her to have a clear image. We wanted mother to remember clearly her condition before we took command for healing.

The reason we had to be so drastic was because mother had been delinquent. There were a number of occasions when the Lord had healed her but her faith was shaken by doubts. My unbelieving elder sister became the catalyst of such doubts. Richard, my younger brother revealed a more tragic offence that my mother had committed. She had followed my sister to a Chinese temple in Muar, Malaysia. There, she was encouraged to burn incense sticks to the idols. After my mother did that, some of her physical pains returned. In her heart, she knew that she had done wrong and felt very uneasy. However, she did not know how to repent and struggled with the guilt.

Grace and I did not confront mother about her sin but told her to trust Jesus as we laid hands on her eyes. We took turns to command the eyes to be healed. That was exactly what happened – instantly, my mother’s eyes could see objects without distortion. This time, we asked her to tell us whether the vision was still producing wavy images. She stared at me and then covered one eye. Then she did the same to the other. She said the wavy image had disappeared. To confirm the healing, I moved further to the end of the living room and asked her to look at me. Her vision held - my image was not wavy like that before the command of healing. Praise the Lord. In fact, during the four days that we were in Singapore, we continued to check on her vision. It had remained healed and she did not see any wavy images.

After she was thoroughly convinced that she had just experienced a miracle, we addressed the problem of her visit to the temple. She was repentant and showed great remorse. Fifteen minutes into the explanation why it was important to remain faithful to the Living God and for her to worship only one God, we asked her if she wanted to confess her sin. She was most willing and instead of leading her in prayer, we asked her to talk to God in her own way. Using our dialect which is Hainanese, my mother sought forgiveness from the Lord. She used the humblest expression in Hainanese when addressing herself before God. She called herself, “kia thun” which literally means “child and grandchild” and that implies “descendent”. In the past, she only used this term when she prayed to our deceased ancestors. As she closed her eyes and bowed her head, she told the Lord that “your descendent had done wrong because of her foolishness and ignorance”. She humbly begged ‘Tu Jay Tol’ (Lord Jesus) to forgive her for the transgression and promised that she would never do that again. She then asked the Lord to protect her from evil and also to bless her and all in our family. After that, Grace and I laid hands and prayed for her. We also gave her the assurance of God’s forgiveness from God’s Word: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

It was a good visit – two miracles and one repentance. We thank God for making our trip to Singapore a fruitful and blessed one. Please keep my mother in prayer as she lives out her faith in Christ.

Reported by
Rev Albert Kang
Coordinator
Elijah Challenge Asia