During this weekend in Houston at Encourager
Church, committed followers of Jesus Christ were trained
to do the works that He promised his disciples would do.
John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in
me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater
things than these, because I am going to the Father.
These servants of God were taught how to
use the Scripture-based approaches of 1) contextualization
and 2) healing the sick
to draw Musl__ms, Hindus, and Buddhists to Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior. Isl—m now has hopes and plans of taking
over the United States.
The
Lord is slowly waking up His people to the need of being
trained for battle. Most believers are still content
with just receiving the Lord's blessing and are not eager
to be trained to fight as soldiers of the kingdom---healing
the sick and proclaiming the kingdom of God to the lost.
This is not surprising in view of human nature which naturally
seeks comfort instead of risky challenges. In the body of
Christ today, there is much emphasis on the priestly office
for ministering to the Lord and on the prophetic office for
ministering to the Church, but little attention to the kingly
office for war against the enemies of the kingdom of God.
But we believe the Lord is beginning to restore balance to
His Church.
We must pray today just as Jesus taught His disciples to
pray two thousand years ago:
Matthew 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, "The
harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the
Lord of
the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest
field."
About twenty-five committed disciples of Christ gathered
to be trained on this October weekend. They were trained
to heal the sick and cast out demons just as Jesus taught
His disciples and then commanded them as He sent them out
to proclaim the kingdom of God. All of the Training was taken
faithfully from Scripture.
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave
them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure
diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of
God and to heal the sick.
During
the demonstration sessions, the Lord graciously confirmed
the teaching by healing some believers of their physical
infirmities. Others reported significant improvement in their
physical condition. One sister had a large lump on her back
which could not be found after believers laid hands on her
and rebuked it in Jesus' name. An elderly sister named Mary
who came to the meeting with a cane was able to walk without
the
cane afterwards. Days later she was still walking without
it. Earlier in May 2008, Mary had attended The Elijah Challenge
Basic Training held at Houston's Union Baptist Association.
At that time according to her doctor one of her eyes was
sightless. But when believers laid hands on that eye, her
sight was restored and she could see clearly. See Mary
in the photo below.

Mary
(wearing a hat) at right preparing to minister healing
at
Church Under the Bridge on Sunday
Outreach at Church Under the Bridge

Host
Pastor Nasser Queiroga
On
Sunday afternoon we gathered in the open-air at a downtown
Houston venue known as "Church Under the Bridge" for
the homeless. We carried out Jesus' commands in Luke 10:9, "heal
the sick, and tell them 'the kingdom of God is near.'"

Ministering
to the infirm & addicted in Jesus' name
We invited the infirm and addicted to come forward for healing
and deliverance through the laying on of hands and ministry
of the trained servants of God. Immediately afterwards some
of them testified that they had been set free or healed by
the Lord. In addition
to other
testimonies, two young women who were addicted to cocaine
testified that they had been miraculously set free and felt
no more urge for the drug.

Man
at right testifies he is healed
After the testimonies, we declared to the
people that "the
kingdom of God is near" as evidenced by the miracles
they had just witnessed. We challenged them to be rescued
from the dominion of darkness and to be transferred to the
kingdom of light by repenting, turning away from their sins,
and putting their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and
be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness
of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Precious souls responded and repented, becoming
disciples of Jesus Christ. God had graciously enabled His
servants
to carry out the command to "heal the sick, and tell
them 'the kingdom of God is near."
Their Training is done for the time being. May the trained
servants of God now launch out to proclaim the kingdom of
God on their own in the same way.

Servant
of God Joshua (right) from Los Angeles
Testimonies
from leaders who have been trained
Luke
10:9 "Heal the sick who are there and tell them,
'The kingdom
of God is near you.’"