Do All Get Healed After We Ministered?

At Elijah Challenge, we have frequently been asked whether do all people get healed after we have ministered. The answer is 'no'. Even though high percentage got healed, but there are some who are not healed. We do not know the reason but we continue to minister healing. 

Sadly, some use these negative results as a reason to disbelieve in divine healing or avoid ministering healing. 

Now, take this comparison between healing the infirm and sharing the Gospel - do all people get saved when we share the Gospel? If not, then why are we still sharing the Gospel?

Four churches planted in unreached Philippine areas after Basic Training in Nov 2010

Friday, May 13, 2011

Dear Partners in the Great Commission,

We'd like to share with you a wonderful report from Jim Hathaway, a Canadian disciple who attended Basic Training II with us in February 2008.

Late last year (2010) in November Jim went on his third mission trip to the Philippines, where he taught The Elijah Challenge Basic Training to pastors in a Bible School and held evangelistic outreaches. His host was Pastor Tito Cagang, Sr. of Christ Ministries Samaritan of Sarangani Province.

With regard to that mission trip Jim wrote, “I challenged each pastor to hold a crusade/outreach within three months of my leaving the Philippines and then to think about and plant a church in an area where there are no churches within the next two years. Most of the pastors had traveled many days for the training. Seems they are more aggressive than what I had planned! [Read the report below.] I am hoping to continue to train more as the word is spread about The Elijah Challenge Training.”

Here is the report which Pastor Tito just sent to Jim:

“Greetings in Jesus name!! This is good news for you because our ministry here has grown successfully. There have been four churches added to the CHRIST MINISTRIES SAMARITAN OF SARANGANI PROVINCE, INC. (The first one is in Brgy. Lamblete, the second one is in Brgy. Basag T'boli, the third one is in Brgy. Lago, and the last one is in Brgy. Poblacion Glan in Sarangani Province.) These are the results of the teaching you gave to the pastors last year here in the Bible School. This is very wonderful. And you will see it personally when you come here next year.”

Praise the Lord for using the Basic Training to produce this kind of fruit for the kingdom of God. We are so thankful to the Lord to be entrusted with this kind of teaching to give away to the body of Christ---we are simply unworthy servants who are doing what He told us to do.

Dear prayer partners, please pray that the Lord will open more doors for us to train His disciples and Church around the world. 

In nine days we will be leaving on a six-week mission trip which will take us to Qatar (in the Middle East), Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

Pastor William and Pastor Lucille

Healing Miracles @ Harvest Haven

The participants getting ready to exercise their faith to heal the infirm

On 17 April 2011, after the evening service at the Church Camp organized by Full Gospel Church of Ipoh, Malaysia, we held a healing session for those who needed healing. Eight people received instant healing. 

A sister had injured her hip and leg during a basketball game. She had to drag herself to the chair to receive ministry. We did not PRAY for her but COMMAND the pain to go IN THE NAME OF JESUS. The miracle happened and she got up to walk. She even walked up the podium to testify. Her pain had left her. Praise the Lord.

A couple of campers testified that their back pain had left them after they received ministries. A lady with pain in her arm was also healed. She said that upon the third round of commanding, the pain was gone. A pregnant sister also received healing for her right hip. After the commands, the pain left her.

An elderly lady was suffering from arthritic knee pain. She was healed and could bend her knees without pain. A lady testified that her chest pain was gone after the other members of the church commanded. The lady pastor who was interpreting for me was also healed of her back pain even as she ministered to others.

By following the Scripture closely, my fellow ministers and I train nameless disciples how to use authority to heal the sick as Jesus taught. Jesus did not ask His disciples to pray but commanded them in Luke 10:9 to "Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you."

We have a great and wonderful God. He is alive and well. Healing many in the mighty name of Jesus.

Rev Albert Kang

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elijah Challenge Coordinators Are Unpaid Volunteers

Conducting Elijah Challenge Seminar in the Philippine

There have been some questions about the Elijah Challenge coordinators making money out of the Elijah Challenge seminars. As the Coordinator of Elijah Challenge Asia, I do not draw a salary or receive any financial remunerations. My church also does not give me money to do this ministry. This is strictly a personal and voluntary commitment.

I have just returned from conducting EC Seminars in the Philippines. I have to pay for my own airfares and hotel bills. There is no strict demand or requirement on the churches to give me any monetary offerings for me to do what I am doing. All of us who conduct such seminars do hope that churches will help us so that we can continue our ministry without additional stress on our own livelihood.

In short, all Elijah Challenge Coordinators of different countries are unpaid volunteers who sense the urgency of the Time. We just like every God-fearing church to win many souls by sharing the Gospel with power and authority. 

That is the primary reason why we are busy conducting seminars in different churches. All these seminars are NOT centrally coordinated. individual Coordinators or ministers receive invitations and we arrange our schedules to minister as best as we can. 

Those who suggest that Pastor William is no different from other ‘superstar’ evangelists are mistaken. Pastor William is not the only one conducting the EC seminars. Anyone who has gone through the second training can conduct his or her own EC seminar. And there are literally hundreds who have gone through this training.

Many have checked our website and found that everything is free for them to download. There are no costs or hidden charges. Can anyone learn directly from the website? Obviously! It’s just like anyone can learn from the Bible without learning from a pastor or a bible teacher. Yes, some churches need explanations and also actual demonstration of healing. That is why they invite us to conduct Elijah Challenge seminars at their churches. We encourage everybody to take a look at our website. In whatever ways, he or she can learn to evangelize with power, we encourage everybody to do so.

Let’s win as many souls as possible while it is still day for when the night comes, no man can work.
God bless!

Pastor Albert Kang
Coordinator, Elijah Challenge Asia

The Elijah Challenge Basic Training & Evangelistic Rally Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church, Singapore | October 2010

An intentional disciple-making Brethren Church 

The Elijah Challenge Basic Training - English Section

We were impressed to see a total of about 800 disciples of the Lord gather at Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church (BBTC) for the Basic Training in separate English and Mandarin Chinese sessions. The great majority of them were members of the Church. Never in our ten years of teaching The Elijah Challenge have we seen so many from a single church come together for the Training. BBTC is indeed a radical disciple-making church which seeks to obey the commands of the Lord, especially the Great Commission.

"Hands-on" training: disciples come forward to lay hands on the infirm

We coach the disciples to heal infirmities in Jesus' name

The laying on of hands

Exercising authority in Jesus' name

Sister testifies she is healed as the disciples minister to her...

Healed in Jesus' name...

Restored in Jesus' name...

One of several testimonies of healing during the Training...

Senior Pastor Daniel Foo encourages the disciples

The Elijah Challenge Basic Training - Mandarin Chinese Section

The Climactic Evangelistic Healing Service

At the Evangelistic Healing Rally climaxing the Basic Training, the miracles were unusually many and powerful. The church was packed to the balcony. 

The trained disciples were ready to engage the enemy. The gospel was preached from Mark 2, where Jesus' authority to forgive sin and save from eternal punishment in the lake of fire were demonstrated by his power to heal a paralyzed man. We would ask the Lord to perform similar miracles right then and there to prove that He could forgive our sins and grant us eternal life through His death on the cross. Below are a few photos of the trained disciples ministering healing to the infirm.

Infirm people thronged to the front where the many trained disciples ministered to them in the name of Jesus Christ. Many people---we would estimate roughly 50---came up to the stage to testify that the Lord had healed them and thanked Him publicly. 

There were some who were healed but who did not testify. A spastic young boy unable to walk since birth had been carried by his mother to the meeting. We saw him walking on the platform on his tiptoes.

Above & below: many---about 50 in all---come up to the stage to testify that the Lord had healed them

Trained counselors minister and lead people to the Lord after they are healed

An elderly man came suffering from Parkinson's Disease so severe that he was in a wheelchair. The disciples spent much time ministering to him, but all he could do was shuffle forward inch by inch. After the meeting, two of the brothers drove him back to his apartment, still not healed. Upon arriving at his home, the brothers realized that it would take them half an hour just to get him up the stairs into his apartment from the car. And so by faith they took away the man's walker, and commanded him to walk in Jesus' name. The man promptly took off and walked briskly on ahead of the brothers up to his apartment!

As a result, fourteen people accepted Christ for the first time and thirteen rededicated themselves to the Lord. Seven people wanted to know more about Jesus Christ.

It was unusual to see such miracles taking place in a beautiful sanctuary in modern and prosperous Singapore. How can we explain it? We believe it is because of the emphasis of the Bethesda church on making disciples for the Lord and not simply drawing crowds with ear-tickling messages as is done in not a few churches today. BBTC is intent on obeying the Lord's command to fulfill the Great Commission with the mobilization of the entire body. We believe that the Lord is pleased with this church and showed it.

Luke 10:9 "Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.’" 

Why So Few Miracles In Today's Churches?

A Lutheran missionary to Cambodia visited me in Phnom Penh to ask for some advice about casting out demons. He did not know what to do with a demon-possessed person in his congregation at Siem Reap. He said that in his denomination and Bible College, he was never taught how to cast out demons. After showing him how to use his God-given authority to cast out evil spirits, he was able to return later to tell me that he had successfully cast out the evil spirits from the afflicted person.

For many Evangelical denominations, miracles do not exist at all because according to their leaders, the Bible teaches that all miracles have ceased. They based upon the assumption that God did miracles in the past only for the reason of confirming God's word. To them, not only miracles have ceased but the spiritual gifts particularly tongues and prophecy have also ceased.

Taking 1 Corinthians 13:10, they interpret the Greek word, 'tevleio' which means 'completion' to mean the 'completion' in writing the Bible rather than the completion of the Age. The context of this verse has no indication that Paul even had this in mind when he wrote to the Corinthian Christians.

The basic rule of interpretation is always the Bible never says what it never did say. However, this traditional argument depicts the 'completion of the Bible' has been accepted by most Evangelical mainline churches to such an extent that it has become almost synonymous to biblical truth.

What Does "Perfection" Of 1 Corinthians 13 Mean?

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. (1 Corinthians 13:8-10 - NKJV)

Paul was referring to the gifts of prophecy, tongues and knowledge as 'that which is in part'. Unlike love, these sign gifts will cease when the 'perfect has come'. Paul had in mind something better would come to replace the temporal gifts of prophecy, tongues and knowledge.

The interpretive difficulty is around the word, 'tevleio' in 13:10.

One interpretation leans heavily on the following verse 11 which was Paul encouraging the Corinthian Christians to mature by using the imagery of a child and an adult. Such interpretation claims that 'tevleio' is used to indicate the distinction between immaturity and maturity.

This interpretation cannot stand because firstly, the distinction made by Paul was that the gifts were partial and not the people. Therefore when the 'perfection' comes, the temporal gifts will be done away with and not the people.

Secondly, the Bible is clear that spiritual maturity will never be able to achieve what Paul had said in verse 12, "Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." To attain the kind of knowing and being fully known, it has to be something more than just spiritual maturity.

What would allow the Corinthian Christians to see "face to face" and to have perfect knowledge? The common cessationist interpretation states that this will happen when the Bible is completed and canonized. However, the Bible does not allow us to see "face to face" or to acquire perfect knowledge.

Another evidence that this interpretation is flawed is that Paul and his audience had no idea about the canonization of the Scripture. Moreover, the Bible mentions that knowledge and prophecy continue to be in operation beyond the present modern age.

And it shall come to pass afterwardThat I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28)

In the Acts of the Apostles, the prophecy was claimed to be fulfilled. Literally, people of very low status in society were being filled with the Holy Spirit. Unlike in the Old Testament, where only the leaders and prophets were sporadically filled with the Holy Spirit, God now gives His Holy Spirit to the whole Church.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)

To deny that the power and gifts of God continue to this day, is to allow our prejudices to limit not only our ministry but the working of the Lord in our churches. That is the reason why today, Western churches are on the decline because they do not encounter the reality of the power and presence of God. The Western churches have taught that God's miracles and spiritual gifts are no longer in operation and thus cause their church members to be deprived of very authentic spiritual experience endorsed by the Bible.

The only way to rectify this is for the church leadership to sincerely read the bible again without the artificial restrictive categories developed by man. Let the bible speak and do not keep saying, this miracle or that sign will never happen today. Try to heal someone in the name of Jesus and once there is good result, you will stop justifying or explaining why miracles cannot happen today.

Healing Miracles at AGSOM, Cainta Campus

September 22, 2010 

Healing Miracles at AGSOM, Cainta Campus

Our final day of ministry was at the main campus of AGSOM at Cainta. Apart from Filipino students, there were four students from China. In a simple session, I shared about how ordinary faceless and nameless believers have been given the authority and power to heal in the context of evangelism. 

Once again, God confirmed His words through signs and wonders. About ten students and faculty members sat on the ‘healing chairs’ to receive healing. The rest of the student body and faculty were briefly taught how they could lay hands upon the infirm and heal them with the authority and power of Jesus. 

One by one, the infirm were healed by the evidenced power of God. Pastora Mercy Esguerra Peregrina, the Academic Dean of the AGSOM, received healing for her left knee. A sister with ailment in her eye was also healed. Once again, there were quite a few who were instantly healed of back pain.

 

This Chinese student was healed in the name of Jesus

One of the Chinese students was greatly disappointed because after most people were healed, her back pain persisted. From the scale of 0 to 10, her pain had remained at 10. When Grace laid hand on her, the pain dropped to the level of 9 and then later 7. However, to activate mountain-moving faith, we needed to be persistent. With another moment of laying of hands and rebuking, the pain left the Chinese student completely. 

Praise the Lord. We trust that the Filipino and Chinese students will continue to use their God-given authority and power to heal the infirm whenever they share the Gospel.

Healing Miracles at AGSOM, Bulacan Campus

Septembe 21 2010

Healing Miracles at AGSOM, Bulacan Campus

On September 19, my wife Grace was grounded by the airline in Manila because she had contracted conjunctivitis. She was not allowed to board the plane for fear of infecting other passengers. Grace’s father, Bro Ong had to travel alone back to Malaysia while I accompanied my wife in Manila until her eyes clear up.

The strangest thing was that no matter how I rebuked, her sore eyes refused to clear up. This was a little beyond me because we had, through the authority and power given by Jesus Christ, healed some with conjunctivitis while at Mindanao. Pastor Rick Alay was also one of those who were healed of conjunctivitis after we laid hands on his eyes when we were in transit via Manila to Cebu on September 10. Grace and I felt that there must be certain unfinished tasks that God wanted us to do in Manila.

Just as we expected, God did tremendous healing miracles at the Assemblies of God School of Ministry (AGSOM). Pastor Rick who is the President of AGSOM had invited us to minister at his Bulacan Campus. Pastora Flordeliza R. Samson who came along with us was limping because the articular cartilage that helped lubricate and cushion the surfaces of her knee joints was damaged. The reduced lubrication and cushioning had caused pain in her knees. When we reached the campus which was actually a church, Grace and I laid hands on her knees and commanded the pain to go. After a few times, Pastora Flordeliza said that the pain had left her knees and she began to walk. Later she testified before the student body about what God had done for her.

After sharing from the Word of God about the difference between the authority to heal and gift of healing, I encouraged the students who needed healing to come forth. There was a slight hesitation because they did not expect an instantaneous demonstration of God’s power to heal. With some encouragements, almost twenty students came forth to be healed. 

They were expected to be prayed for but instead I asked them to heal each other by commanding the pain and infirmities to go in the name of Jesus. After the first command, there were five students who were instantly healed. One female student was healed of shoulder pain. Another shared about the leg being healed. Yet another, the headache had left immediately even though in the morning, she had felt so terrible. More commands by faith and more students were healed. After all the students were healed by the power and authority of the Lord, they were like still in a daze. 

Many shook our hands and apparently still in the twilight zone, they said that they had never experienced anything like that before. They could not believe that they had actually healed the infirm by their own faith. Many felt that from then they should be able to heal the sick every time they evangelize.

Sharing ‘The Elijah Challenge’ BECMA Joint Worship Service in Mindanao

19 September 2010 – Sharing ‘The Elijah Challenge’ BECMA Joint Worship Service in Mindanao

Once every quarter, churches from the Buenavista region gather as one congregation to celebrate and worship God. On 19 September 2010, the churches worshipped together at a local basketball stadium. There were over one thousand participants and the atmosphere was energized by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

Pastor Butch Nacua and I shared the pulpit on that day. The reason was because our mission team had to rush to the airport by 10.30 AM. We had to fly to Manila for the connecting flight home. 

After sharing about the power and authority of God to heal, I challenged those present to have faith in healing the infirm whenever they share the Gospel. Then as a demonstration of God’s power, I told them that they would be healed in His name. As there was a large crowd, I asked those who were suffering from pains and infirmities to lay hands on themselves. After commanding all the pain and infirmities to go in the name of Jesus, there were some who were healed. 

By that time, we had to rush to the airport. We received report from Pastor Butch that after he took over to preach, there were indeed people miraculously healed during the ‘mass’ distanced healing.