Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
June 2011
The Elijah Challenge in Malaysia
We were in Sabah, Malaysia to conduct the Basic Training in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the state. We were there to follow up on what was done in Ranau, Sabah in November 2010 when we visited Sabah: strengthening Christians to resist the onslaught of government attempts to lure them to convert to the “M” religion. Click on Elijah Challenge sparks “Revival” in Sabah, Malaysia for the full report on that campaign. Below is a portion of that report.
“This Elijah Challenge event was held in the town of Ranau, situated in the valley at the foot of mighty Mt. Kinabalu in the state of Sabah. Our host was Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) of the state of Sabah, consisting of 100,000 indigenous Christians in over 500 churches in the state. Sidang Injil Borneo means “Gospel Assembly Borneo” in the Malaysian language. Malaysia officially espouses the “M” religion, and actively attempts to convert indigenous believers in Sabah away from Christianity to the official religion.
At the Evangelistic Healing Service on the first day following the morning and afternoon Basic Training, we witnessed more miraculous healings than we have in recent memory. The Lord used His trained disciples amazingly to heal the infirm. So many people came up to testify that even at the end of the meeting we had between 15 and 20 people still on the stage waiting their turn to testify, but we could not get their testimonies because we had simply run out of time. As far as I can recall, this has never happened before in our meetings…”
In Sabah, Malaysia the Lord’s grace was very evident. The Sabahans listened very quietly during the four Training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, and not many came forward to receive healing during the demonstrations. But at the two evangelistic evening services they stepped up to the line. Many, many people with infirmities were healed by the Lord as the trained disciples ministered to them as they had been taught to confirm the message of the gospel.
In particular, at the final evangelistic service we shared that Jesus is the only way to the Father, and that every other way leads to the lake of fire. This was particularly relevant to the Sabah Christians because the Malaysian government is actively trying to lure them away to the religion of Mohammed by offering them material incentives. In my message I asked them: how can we know that there is only one way to the Father, and not, say, two ways? One way would be Jesus Christ, and the other way would be the comfortable, rewarding way offered by the government. How can we know that both ways cannot possibly take us to the Father’s house?
We cited John 14:6, 11-12 to them.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me… Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing…”
We told the crowd that we would ask the Father to perform great works of supernatural healing as evidence that Jesus is the only way to Him. We would ask the Lord to use his trained disciples to perform the very works he did 2,000 years ago.
After prayer, we asked those with infirmities to come forward. The trained disciples stepped up to the line and got the job done. The very first person to come up to the platform to testify was a small older woman who had been deaf for many years. She was able to hear. Her daughter-in-law towered behind her and testified excitedly that it was all true. Many others followed her with various testimonies of the Lord’s healing power, some choking back tears. A man in his forties stepped up to give glory to God. He had been suffering from symptoms due to a stroke. But he was completely healed and restored, and demonstrated it by jumping up and down and jogging on the stage. He was beyond overjoyed. More testimonies followed his.
After all the testimonies, I reminded the people that the Lord had performed so many incomparable miracles to demonstrate to them that there is in fact only ONE WAY to the Father, and that way is Jesus Christ. The miracles demonstrated that the “other” way (proffered by the government) would take them to condemnation in hell. Then I asked how many of them would never, never, ever leave the Lord Jesus. As far as I could tell, every hand on the hall shot up immediately.