Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia
November 2011
The Elijah Challenge in Malaysia
Miri is a pleasant town of about 300,000 inhabitants situated on the northern coast of the Malaysian state of Sarawak facing the South China Sea. It is just twenty minutes by car south of the border with the country of Brunei.
In Miri we conducted the Elijah Challenge Basic Training at the Miri Evangelical Church, part of a denomination called Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB), or in English Borneo Evangelical Church. This is the largest church denomination in Malaysia with over a half million members and consists largely of indigenous peoples.
The governing authorities have been actively trying to convert the indigenous Christians of SIB to the predominant national religion—the one centered in Mecca—using slick material incentives. Our job was to train the believers to minister to the sick with such manifest healing power that the Christians would be immune to the temptation of forsaking the Lord after witnessing His miracles. Moreover, trained SIB disciples would be enabled to reach villages in the interior by preaching the gospel to them and then confirming it to them by healing the sick in Jesus’ name.
We began the Basic Training with a group of roughly 150 disciples and servants of God in attendance. There were westerners sprinkled throughout the crowd as well, including a British missionary. The Lord graciously enabled Brother B to teach effectively, and after the session we received an email from a brother who had been there calling it “eye-opening.”
We made it clear from the outset that the purpose of the Training was two-fold:
- To strengthen the faith of the believers as they witness the Lord’s healing power so that they can resist the lure of the governing authorities to convert to the majority religion.
- For God’s people to take to the light to the adherents of the majority religion by healing their sick in the name of Isa Almasih (Jesus Christ in Arabic) as they preach the gospel to them.
At the demonstration of healing near the end of the session, many were healed and testified as the disciples laid hands on them and exercised their authority in Christ over infirmities and demons. Some had been delivered from pain from which they had suffered for years and years. Through the miracles the Lord graciously confirmed the teaching to His people. They had never seen anything like it before and were very encouraged. In the past they had seen miracles only when a “superstar” evangelist happened by their town.
On the second day of Training, Lucille taught the remaining sessions. During the demonstration of healing many more testified of being healed as the disciples laid hands on them. One brother had suffered from a blow to his head which had made it difficult for him to focus, even when driving. But when disciples ministered to him with authority in Jesus’ name, something lifted and he could think normally. He was very happy. A young woman who had epilepsy came forward for ministry. Something left her and afterwards she felt very light, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her.
Evening “battlefield” event
In the evening Brother B taught and preached the gospel from John 14:6.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We then asked the Lord to prove the absolute truth of this claim by performing miraculous healings in Jesus’ name through his trained disciples according to John 14:11-12.
“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…”
The Lord responded with many miraculous healings to confirm the message as the trained Malaysian disciples ministered to the infirm. Some of the disciples were even surprised when the people they ministered to were suddenly healed. One Hakka Chinese woman who did yet believe in Jesus was healed and testified. Some people testified of how they physically felt the Lord’s power heal them as hands were laid on them. The grace of God was very evident.
We see this in the Scriptures with the woman with the bleeding touching Jesus’ cloak from behind and feeling the Lord’s power in her body. Jesus himself felt the power leave him.
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” (Mark 5:25-30)
The miracles clearly proved that there is only one way to the Father—Jesus Christ, and that every other way leads to hell. We encouraged the believers never to succumb to the efforts of the government to lure them to the way of the predominant religion which will lead them to hell. The Malaysian disciples rejoiced at what the Lord had done through them. They can see the power of the weapons the Lord has entrusted to them—not only to protect their sheep, but to take the fight to the enemy offensively.
Comments from participants
- “I am a British missionary who has been in pastoral and teaching ministry in the Philippines for over twenty years and have recently been sent to Miri to strengthen one of the Filipino congregations there. It was so refreshing to be in the seminar in Miri last night. I truly praise the Lord for how He has enabled you teach and equip believers in how to move in spiritual authority.…I praise the Lord for how you demonstrated healing and rejoiced that two of the brothers with me went forward to lay hands on the sick and experienced the power of the Lord flowing through them.”
- “I am brother Andrew……the parking attendant at the Church. You made difficult teaching simple. Simple down-to-earth truth…but it has to be chewed and digested in order to retain and experience this profound truth. Hence I am so glad that you are going to give away the Powerpoint file. My daughter who is studying in Russia can receive the file so that she can witness to her friends there and perform the miracles as Jesus did. …Indeed, how true…I could not squat on both my knees because of pain, but after two times rebuking and commanding the pain to leave, I am experiencing pain-free knees.”
- “I am one of the participants who attended your training conducted in Miri over the weekend and I was really blessed by the confirmation of the teaching that you have conducted. All this while I always thought of doing what Elijah Challenge has done, BUT doubt & fear surround me. I pray that the Lord bless you and the Holy Spirit lead & guide you with His wisdom as you travel around the world to train His Church (disciples) to walk in His footsteps. As the festive season is coming we will use the teaching to demonstrate the love of God to His people.”
- “Thank you for the very encouraging and eye-opening message this evening. I can’t wait to share it with my family, especially my wife who wasn’t able to attend. Thank you for your willingness to share your notes.”
- “Thank you so much for your guidance which arrived for a time such as this—especially the way John 14:12 being explained. It’s wake up time and I believe many prodigal sons and daughters will come back to the Lord. I am refering to many believers who have been blessed in their careers with material abundance and others alike after the 70’s revival, including those who are in the comfort zone. The family altar has been neglected where they and their issues pursue the world rather than God.
It’s really sad to know that places of worship for our cousins [from the majority religion] are being built in areas which are predominantly Christian in name. We have cases where Christians are now following our cousins. In cases where parents allowed their children (those with good results) to study in West Malaysia with governmental aid – very often through their adoption program many Christian children have followed our cousins.For your information – it was announced that the authorities are sending 8,000 religious teachers to Sarawak. Our State is under serious attack, especially since we are the only Christian state left in Malaysia. We were informed that our cousins have been reaching out to our tribal people in the interior, even though those areas are considered inaccessible. These simple folks are easily won by handouts and to the faith of our cousins. The sad thing is that many of the people here are not aware of the threats which are just at our doorstep.Praise God that we now have people (though few in number) warning and creating an awareness of the strategy of the authorities intentionally and openly to convert the people through various ways – a very obvious way is through education. We do have people teaching and equipping to reach out to our cousins but it is very low key because of the law – it is illegal to proselyte our cousins. Thus your equipping and teaching on healing sees no boundaries. May we rise to the occasion and bridge ourselves to our cousins. Once again, thank you so much.”
-
“Thank you for visiting Miri City, Sarawak. I attended all your sessions both at SIB Canadian Hill Church and Airport Road Church (where my family and myself worship). I was very grateful to learn ‘How To Do Healing In The Name Of Our Lord Jesus’ and about ‘mountain moving faith’ as taught by you and your wife Lucille. I shall continue to use your teaching and the available webpage to dwell on our Lord’s words and draw out His healing power in order to be able to heal people [as commanded by Him for the sake of the gospel].”