Reports from Elijah Challenger Coordinator Subodh Kumar Jena
Note: In the gospels many Jews came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah after He performed powerful miraculous healings. Similarly, evangelism to gospel-resistant Hindus today is far more fruitful when God gracious to confirm the truth of the gospel with miraculous healings as was the case with Jesus himself. This is now happening in India where Jesus Christ is healing the sick miraculously in response to the earnest prayers of His servants.
“Praise the Lord for His abundant grace and mercy on our ministry. We had a good time of fellowship with pastors, evangelists, and believers in a remote village called Niswas about 225 km from our base in Bhawanipatna.
There was a small Church of North India Church where we conducted The Elijah Challenge Training. There were over seventy servants of God who trained for the first time with us. The teaching was very new to them. Many pastors and evangelists who shared with us that they had never before ministered to a sick person. They never even tried because they thought they did not have the special gift of healing from the Holy Spirit. [But I was not teaching about ministering with the gift of healing, but rather with the very different power and authority over infirmities and demons which Jesus delegated to his disciples when he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God to the lost in Luke 9:1-2.] Right there I understood that there may be thousands of pastors and evangelists who might have the same misunderstanding.
After the teaching we ministered to some sick people and the Lord graciously healed them instantly.
An elderly woman named Rebati was there. Due to some kind of disease, she had not been able to raise her hand for three years. She had done some treatment at first, but the pain did not leave and so she could not work with the hand. She went to a specialist who advised her to undergo an operation. But she was a widow and had no money for an operation. And so she suffered a great deal for the last three years. But miraculously the Lord healed her and she was able to raise her hand. (See below.)
A gentleman (below) named Ansuman was an elder of the church. He had a problem in the lower part of his stomach, and it was very painful. He was not able to do any heavy work. Even taking a single step he could experience sudden pain. For the last five years he suffered much in this way. Early in the morning he would go into the jungle to collect firewood for the church. But when the pain started he stopped going into the jungle. The Lord healed him at the meeting, and he testified that he was completely healed and had no more pain.
A woman (below) named Daitary had a throat infection which caused swelling in her neck for the past one year. Especially during the winter she would suffer much since she could not drink cold water. Last year she was bedridden for few days since she was so short of breath. But our gracious God healed her miraculously, and the swelling disappeared instantly.
A young man named Robin had a gastric problem, and most of the time he would feel nauseous. He was not able to eat properly since he would vomit, and felt very uncomfortable. He told us that he had taken quite a bit of medicine for digestion from his doctor but it had not worked. As we ministered to him he experienced the healing power of the Lord in his body. He testified that Jesus had healed him.
A sister named Nirmala had undergone much pain for the past several months. She is very poor and both she and her husband are day labourers. For one year they spent most of their money on her treatment but had difficulty managing their family since they had three kids. For three months she had to leave her work as a day labourer because she was feeling so weak in her body. Tears flowed from her eyes as she shared her testimony. The Lord had graciously healed her as we prayed over her.
An evangelist named Narendra was suffering from malarial fever, and he was not intending to attend the training. But our organizer urged him to come and take a look. During the meeting the evangelist was healed at a distance. Suddenly he began to perspire, and the fever left him completely. He testified and thanked the organizer for informing him about the program.
Thank you so much for helping us to reach unreached regions and to train the servants of God for greater tasks.”