On a Sunday morning at Igreja Batista Jeová Shammah (Jehovah Shammah Baptist Church) in the city of Campos in Brazil’s state of Rio, we introduced The Elijah Challenge. In Luke 9 & 10 Jesus had given his disciples power and authority over infirmities and demons and had sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God to the lost. They were to heal the sick miraculously as evidence to the lost that the kingdom of God was near.
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Luke 10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. …9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
After this introduction, we announced that we would demonstrate the use of this power and authority by ministering healing to the sick before the Sunday crowd. After we asked if there was anyone who had a heart condition, an elderly gentleman in his eighties sitting near the front stood up. We approached him and inquired about his condition. Because of his heart, he had pain radiating to his left side down his arm. He had little breath or strength. According to his cardiologist his arteries were clogged to the point where treatment would be hopeless.
He then made his way to the front of the sanctuary where we laid hands on him (cf. Luke 4:40, John 14:12) in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Afterwards we asked him how he felt. With a wide grin he replied that he felt fine. The radiating pain was gone and he no longer felt weak.
In the name of Jesus we told him to walk. He took off briskly up the aisle and without difficulty walked to the back of the sanctuary. He turned around to return to us at the front with arms lifted up in thanksgiving to our Lord who had just touched him so dramatically. It was an amazing miraculous transformation from an elderly man who just minutes earlier had tottered to the front with no hope from modern medicine.
“Walk in Jesus’ name!”
Back in the front he testified about what the Lord had just done for him—no more pain, weakness, or shortness of breath!
The crowd was amazed to witness the Lord’s mighty works
During this time a second man had also come forward with a heart condition. We ministered to him as well. Afterwards he testified that his symptoms had disappeared.
The two reports above are among the many which testify how people are being touched and healed from physical heart disease by the Lord during these last days. He is doing this to prepare the hearts of His people, making ready a bride—with spot or wrinkle—prepared for the Second Coming of her Messiah Jesus Christ.