October 5-8, 2005
The Elijah Challenge in North America
Over a period of four days, we held the training with host Pastors Kenneth and Charmayne Dentley of Victorious Living Word & Worship Center in Pampano Beach. On Saturday evening the final day we held our evangelistic healing Crusade, but there were few visitors who came. The people in this area have been overexposed to frequent public meetings in which “prophets” try to outdo one another, and so show scant interest in a Crusade (according to Pastor Kenneth, however, a meeting featuring “prosperity teaching” would draw many more people). But last night I preached the gospel of Jesus Christ according to John 14, and we asked the Lord to prove through miraculous healings that God does exist and that Jesus is indeed the only way to Him.
As the trained believers exercised their authority over disease in the name of Jesus, the Lord moved with power. A sister came forward and testified that her goiter had shrunken and she could hardly feel it. A young man came forward and said that the pain in his leg from a football injury had disappeared and that a kind of darkness/heaviness had lifted from him, leaving him feeling light. He was still shaking from God’s power as he testified. There were other testimonies as well.
Through the preaching of the gospel and the healing of the sick, the Father glorified His Son before His people. He had revealed to them a very scriptural and powerful way to proclaim the Kingdom of God. It was not the commonly heard message here of “receive Jesus and He will give you a new Jeep” but Jesus Christ and Him crucified preached with a visible demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Under Pastor Kenneth here the trained saints are eagerly anticipating taking the power of God out from within the four walls of the church into the community where the sinners are. One possibility is that Pastor Kenneth’s son Khristian will use his vocal talents in the open air to draw people to come and listen to his singing. Then he will preach the gospel to them and the trained believers will heal the sick present to prove that Jesus is the only way to the Father. After the proof consisting of testimonies of miraculous healings, souls will respond to the altar call for salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.
On Sunday morning I went to minister at Pastor Rick Bethel’s Compassion Christian Center in Belle Glade, a community 70 miles from Fort Lauderdale. There I introduced the teaching to the believers. At the demonstration following the teaching, the Lord’s power to heal was especially evident. From what I could see and hear, everyone who was ministered to was healed as the believers exercised their authority over disease and demons. A young boy about 8 years old ministered to a woman who was very hard of hearing. She had not been able to hear anything out of one ear without her hearing aid. Afterwards she was able to hear sound through that ear. Tears flowed down her face as the boy ministered to her.
Another sister named Tammy came in to the service near the very end. That morning she had suffered from a terrible migraine on the left side of her face and had run to the hospital for help. The service was nearly over when she finally got to church, still in pain. I laid my hand on her face as the whole congregation rebuked the pain and infirmity in the name of Jesus Christ. Tears streamed down from her eyes as the pain completely subsided in the wonderful name of Jesus.
Pastor Rick has asked us to return to Florida for a Seminar & Crusade next year. Pastor Chris Ogali of the Miami Parish of The Redeemed Christian Church of God—the largest Nigerian church denomination around the world—has also invited me for meetings next January.
Please continue to pray for the churches in South Florida. The environment in this earthly “paradise” is one of much wealth, material indulgence and the spiritual complacency that usually accompanies it. May the Lord use Pastors Kenneth and Charmayne to lead the churches away from their current focus on prosperity and back to the Lord’s vision of proclaiming the Kingdom of God and the fulfillment of the Great Commission.