By an Elijah Challenge Coordinator ministering in a very large city
May 2013
Persecution against the Church
“In many parts of this country, the underground churches are under persecution. Therefore we have to be very careful. Many years ago, a lady pastor went to prison for 12 years because her church was visited by a foreign mission team. And that team was led by me.
I know there are many Christians who want to bless the underground churches but sometimes it is just too risky – not for us but for them.
Anyway, the underground churches are better known as “home groups” in this country. In some places, the police are not so strict. They do not arrest as long as nobody complains. So these home groups meet quite openly in thousands of homes.
Our ministry in this city
Here is a report of what happened when we were in this particular city. Our ministry in this city was very exciting and busy. Every day, from 10 AM to 4 plus PM, and from 7 PM to whatever time, the eager local believers studied the Word with us and consumed every spiritual morsel hungrily. The small room that could accommodate 20 people was packed with more than 70 disciples. Many had to sit on little short plastic stools or the floor. They sat right up to my feet.
They applied what they had learned and healed the sick in small groups of two or three. Then when someone was healed, they clapped vigorously and shouted, “zero!” That was an indication that the person had been completely healed. Basing on the numerical system that we used to evaluate pain level. ‘Zero’ means no more pain and ‘ten’ means still having the original pain. This means that a ‘five’ will indicate that the pain has been reduced by half.
Unforgiveness in the Church
There were countless testimonies of various healing miracles. Many had chronic headaches and we suspected that these were caused by stress and unforgiveness. Bitterness and unforgiveness are quite common in this culture as people tend to take criticisms to the heart. The Lord impressed upon my heart to address repeatedly, in all the sessions, this aspect of spiritual bondage – Christians who still continued to hate and hurt each other severely.
We ministered to a young girl who was in her early twenties. Her headache was healed but she said there was a heaviness in her chest that refused to go away. After rebuking the discomfort for a while, The Lord said to ask her about her bitterness toward someone. She admitted that she had that problem. We encouraged her to repent and commit her problem to the Lord. She prayed a very long prayer and when she stopped, we did not command for her. We just asked how she felt and with a shy smile, she said, the heaviness had lifted. She was healed without additional commands.
Deaf ear with “no bones” can hear
Healing of pain in the neck, shoulders, back, waist and limbs were common. Hard and heavy work had taken its toll upon many of these believers. A middle-aged lady who said that she had no “bones” in one of her ears and therefore was deaf in that ear, came for healing. She told us that her inner ear was completely damaged and her doctor said that she would never hear from that ear again. When we commanded healing in the name of Jesus, amazingly, she could hear from that ear. Many excited sisters double checked by covering her good ear tight. They really wanted to make sure that she could hear from the damaged ear. One sister said that she knew this lady well. Every time when she spoke to the lady, the latter had to turn her head so that she could hear from the good ear. Everybody was thrilled that she could hear with the supposedly “boneless” ear. There was a loud applause as all who witnessed this, gave thanks to the Lord
On Saturday night, we ministered at a partly demolished area of town. It was like a village church. We were surprised at how public the place was. The Elder told us that in that part of town, the police seldom bother this congregation. We really enjoyed the loud boisterous singing during worship time. I shared the Word. There were a couple of infirm that needed healing. As we were leaving the place, the trained disciples were ministering healing to these infirm.
Unscriptural teachings rampant
Erroneous teachings from the USA are rampant. The health and wealth gospel; Peter Wagner’s prayer walking; Cindy Jacob’s prophecies and many others. One of the worst spiritual attacks on the church comes from a cult known as ‘Eastern Lightning’. A woman claims that she is the new Messiah and many believers are being trapped in this cult. So, I had to address all these issues alongside with teaching “Elijah Challenge”.
The Pentecostal movement is strong and well in this metropolitan city. The majority of the believers exercise various gifts of the Spirit. We taught them to follow the biblical examples of exercising their God-given authority and power to heal the infirm in the name of Jesus. God is definitely moving mightily in this place. We learned that in many other parts of this country the same thing is happening. This is the result of the prayers of many Christians from all around the world. All glory to God. We are looking forward to sharing the Elijah Challenge in other parts of this country.”
An Elijah Challenge Coordinator for this city
“The Elder of the church wants to send the disciples two by two to the different homes in the city to share the Gospel and heal the sick. Praise The Lord. …He is going to be our Elijah Challenge Coordinator for this city.”
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