December 2001: Kerala-Tamil Nadu, India
The report from the open-air meetings near Trivandrum (Kerala State, India) were glorious. Pastor R. J. Justin Albin, local Coordinator of the Seminar and Crusade working under Pastor Moses Paulose, is eager to hold a much larger Crusade on my next trip to the area. Thousands in that partly idol-worshipping community heard the gospel preached during the four-night Crusade. They saw the great miracles that the Lord did to confirm that Jesus is the Son of the only true God.One evening I preached from 2 Kings 18 about how the Lord showed the thousands gathered on Mt. Carmel through the prophet Elijah that He was the true God, and not Baal. Like Elijah I was given the boldness to ask the Lord to send "fire from heaven" to show the people that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God, and not the false gods they worship. The Lord then SENT THE FIRE---a young man with a severe heart valve condition had come to the meeting. Witnesses saw him walk to the meeting ten feet and then stop to catch his breath, struggle another ten feet, and then stop again to rest, and so forth. A believer laid hands on him at the front as I asked the Lord to send the "fire from heaven," and the Lord answered. The young man climbed up to the platform to testify that the Lord had healed his heart, and demonstrated it by running on the stage! The crowd erupted in applause; pastors and other servants of God rejoiced and received much, much encouragement seeing how the Lord had glorified His name before the unbelievers. During the four evenings, the Lord did many other miracles through the ministry of the believers as well, including a healing a woman from cancer in her womb, setting free another woman who had been tormented by demons of severe epilepsy, and healing the mind of a man who came to the meeting dressed in dirty clothes suffering from a mental problem that rendered him unable to think or speak normally. My heart rejoiced when I heard the greatful testimonies of others who had been delivered of the pain they had suffered for years when believers laid hands on them. This community has been impacted by the power of the Lord.
Blind & deaf woman healedAs about one hundred people came forward for healing prayer for back problems at our Seminar near Pondichery, South India, a woman also stepped forward. Approaching me she had a most desperately pleading look on her face, all the while pointing at her eye and her ear. I understood she was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear, and want to be healed in Jesus' name. But the prayer was for those with back problems, and she stood by patiently as one hundred more believers came forward to lay their hands on those with back infirmities. When I asked who had been healed through the prayer, the great majority of the hundred people raised their hands. I asked for testimonies, and many testified how their backs had been healed, some having suffered for years with pain. When I told everyone to return to their seats, the woman also went back, still blind and deaf.
Looking at her I felt compassion for her and the gift of faith welling up within my spirit. I motioned her to come back up. We were going to minister healing to her in Jesus' name. She approached the stage.
"Who's going to minister healing to her?" I asked the crowd of between four and five hundred believers who were attending the three-day Seminar on Signs and Wonders. A middle-aged sister who was a leader in a local church came forward.
"Now, sister, we're going to minister healing to her just as Jesus would," I said to her matter-of-factly. "Jesus opened the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind by putting his fingers in deaf ears or touching blind eyes, and commanding healing with authority. We're going to do it the same way right now. Put your finger into her deaf ear." She did as I instructed.
"Now with authority say 'in the name of Jesus, spirit of deafness, come out. Ear, be open in Jesus' name.'" After she repeated the command after me, I said, "Now let's test her hearing."
The woman said that she could hear again---faith in the name of Jesus had opened up her deaf ear. The Seminar hall erupted in praise to the Lord Jesus.
"Now let's minister healing to her blind eye in Jesus' name. Sister, lay your hand on her blind eye, and command it to be restored in Jesus' name." Afterwards she covered up her good eye to test the other eye, but she saw nothing but darkness. "Let's minister to her again," I said.
Once again the sister spoke over the blind eye, but still there was no restoring of the sight. I could feel the tension in the auditorium. Remembering that the apostle Paul had prayed three times before he accepted that it was not God's will to remove the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor 12.7-9), I instructed the sister to minister a third time.
This time with her blind eye she could make out the three of us standing in front of her as well as the color of the sister's pink dress. Once again the sister ministered to her, and now she could see more clearly with the eye. (See Mark 8.22-25 for a similar incident in the ministry of Jesus Christ.)
Cancer disappearsWe taught a Workshop for pastors and believers near Pondichery, in the state of Tami Nadu, South India. About four hundred people came to receive teaching and impartation to minister supernatural healing to the sick for winning souls. After each session, scores of people would come forward to receive healing in Jesus' name from those who had been trained. Among these was a very frail young woman who according to her doctor was suffering from cancer. As a sister in Christ laid hands on her and rebuked the cancer in the name of Jesus, she felt the healing virtue of the Lord Jesus enter her body. She felt the cancer disappear! Afterwards she came forward and testified of her healing before the assembled believers.
Luke 10:9 "Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.’"
