City of Itu, Sao Paulo, Brazil
February 2013
Reports: The Elijah Challenge in Brazil
Over two evenings we introduced The Elijah Challenge for a Church of God congregation (based in Cleveland, Tennessee), and then for an Assembly of God Church—both charismatic congregations. The Lord was very gracious to enable us to teach quite effectively, and toward the end of each evening we had the believers minister to the infirm. As far as we could tell, the Lord healed every person who came forward the past three nights—including at the Foursquare Church on the first of the three evenings. Some of the testimonies were quite striking. At the Assemblies of God Church a middle-aged woman who had chronic pain in various parts of her body for decades came forward looking very beaten down physically and emotionally after so many years of suffering.
We asked her if she believed that Jesus could heal her. She replied that “she was already healed” as charismatic believers have been taught to do according to Mark 11:24. Two sisters with no doubt in their hearts according to Mark 11:23 came forward to minister healing to her. We reviewed for them the laying on of hands and the use of authority. Then we led them in ministering healing to the woman. Afterwards we asked her how she felt. She tested her body for a few moments, and then excitedly began to testify what the Lord had done for her. Her demeanor changed from night to day within a minute. Energetically she shared on and on and on what had happened to her. Before the Lord touched her, the sleeve of her short sleeve blouse had wrapped tightly around her upper arm. But now it was clearly falling loosely around her arm.
A man had had a painful problem in his lower back, and could not bend over to touch the floor for over twenty years. After three people ministered to him (including a ten or eleven-year-old boy), he could not stop bending down effortlessly to touch the floor again and again and again in his excitement at being suddenly and completed healed of his chronic back problem.
Challenged to invade Aparecida
At the end of the evening we challenged the Assemblies of God believers to invade the nearby Aparecida—the foremost idolatrous region in the vast country of Brazil—with the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
At the Church of God (Cleveland Tennessee) meeting a man came forward with a growth at the back of his neck which caused pain. Both the growth and the pain disappeared when two brothers ministered to him. A man with a heart condition was able to run to the back and then return to the front three times, and then lift up a man bigger then himself. After all this physical effort, he said he felt fine.
As a result of what the Lord did these past three nights, four apparently wide doors have opened up for us on future trips to Brazil:
- A regional conference for Foursquare Churches to be trained with The Elijah Challenge
- A conference for the Pastors’ Association of the city of Itu along with their congregations
- A regional conference for the many G-12 churches in the area
- A Training Event at a large Church in Rio de Janeiro