According
to our host pastor, this was the very first time the pastors
and leaders had come together
to be trained to minister
healing to the sick as confirmation that Jesus Christ is Savior
and Lord. A few years ago, an American evangelist very well known
in charismatic
churches came to Vietnam and ministered to a group of about
sixty pastors. Included in this group were pastors from the Christian & Missionary
Alliance (CM&A), a denomination in this country which traditionally
holds to
a conservative view of miraculous healing. The CM&A pastors
were unable to receive the teaching from the American evangelist,
and as
a result
decided to have nothing to do with the ministry of miraculous
healing. This helped to sustain the division
which exists between the CM&A churches, which
are
legally registered churches, and the house churches, which
are underground. Abetted by the schemes of police authorities,
there is now mutual suspicion between these two branches
of the body
of Christ. One would suspect the other of working with communist
authorities.
In
our Healing Encounter last July we presented a teaching about miraculous
healing based on over two
hundred Scripture verses
that focused on the Great Commission instead of the charismatic gifts
of the Holy Spirit. We examined the miracles done by Jesus, Peter,
Paul, and the early disciples that drew people to faith in Christ,
and discovered patterns and principles. When during the Healing Encounter
training
the pastors
applied these
principles to minister to the infirm in our midst, the Lord did miracles
of healing through
them. It did not appear to matter whether the pastors were conservative
evangelical or
charismatic.
The
conservative CM&A pastors, I was told, were able to receive the teaching
about miraculous healing at the Healing Encounter. One barrier to
reconciliation between the two parts of Christ's precious Body in
this country is
being
removed. Praise be to God!