Carl trained with The Elijah Challenge in 2006, and served as a missionary and Senior Pastor of Baguio International Church in the Philippines until 2011.
November 23, 2008
…Sometimes when we are going to heal people I know before hand which people will heal quickly and easily and which are the few who will not be healed.
I don’t know how I know this; whether it is a word from the Lord or what, but sometimes even before a person tells us what their injury or ailment is, I know they will be healed very easily. Other times I almost dread the process because I know certain people will not be healed. I don’t know how I know this but I do know it! Not always but fairly often. I get a very strong impression and I am rarely wrong.
Perhaps it is like the Apostle Paul in Lystra where Acts 14:8-10, In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
Perhaps somehow their spirit or faith testifies to mine (somehow), either way, like the Apostle Paul, I can see they “have faith” or will heal quickly. I don’t claim I understand this but it happens enough that I sometimes know it before it occurs. It happens enough that I can often pick those who are going to be healed easily and I always heal them first (if I can organize the way they are coming to us, etc.) Perhaps it is something I have learned from experience,… I don’t know…? This happened in Thailand you can read the report on the website (www.m-o-r.net). Sometimes I have no impression at all but others times I am absolutely sure.
One time a new woman came to one of our Seed Churches and somehow I knew she needed to be healed and would be healed that night. I could not see anything that was wrong with her. In fact, she set next to me around a table and I looked for symptoms and except that she moved a little slow, I could not see that anything that was wrong with her. Later at prayer time, she asked for prayer about nerve damage which has caused her continuous and severe pain in her shoulders, arms and hands for the previous 3 years. After we prayed for all the prayer needs of the group; I told her “the Lord wants to heal you right now.” I asked “could we call out to God for you and lay hands on you.” She agreed and somehow I already knew the source of the pain was her neck and back not the hands or arms where she was experiencing the painful symptoms. She was instantly healed in Jesus name. My wife, another woman, and the woman who was healed all felt the joints and vertebrae in her neck and back moving as we took authority. They said “they felt movement and heard cracking sounds.” The woman broke into tears of joy over her healing, rejoiced and gave God the glory! It was amazing! The point is I knew all this without her telling us or describing the problem which was from a car wreck three years before. I don’t know how to explain this other than it was from GOD.
On another occasion I was so sure a woman was going to be healed I told one of our Filipino evangelist to “Go heal that woman!” (she had a broken scapula – shoulder blade). He walked through the crowd and I indicated to him which woman I meant. He pointed to her and I commanded him “heal her!” He put his hand on her shoulder and tentatively said “in Jesus name be healed.” Then he jumped back when he felt something moving under her skin and her head jerked forward a few inches and she began to rejoice weep for joy at her healing. She raised her arms and showed how she was healed and had ful mobility back again. On this occasion, out of a whole crowd I just felt drawn to pick her out for healing, because I knew she would be healed easily and quickly. That night a total of 34 people were healed but she was one of the first.
In fact some keep saying our ministry has turned into an “apostolic ministry” or has an “apostolic anointing” because of all the healings and churches being planted with over 50 new churches in 5 months.However, we believe we are merely obeying Jesus by healing the sick (with The Elijah Challenge), calling sinners to repentances (with Way of the Master), and planting churches according to the New Testament model, which we observe in the Gospels (especially Luke 9 and 10) and the book of Acts.
I have discussed this with William before but we have not had time to reach a conclusion or he has not had time to share his thoughts with me yet.
Let me tell you the worst part about healing with The Elijah Challenge (TEC). The one or two people out of every ten who do not get healed…sometimes I can’t sleep over this,… because I remember that Jesus held the Apostles accountable for not healing,.. and told them it was there fault “because of their lack of faith.”
As it says in Mat. 17:16-17, 19-20 , I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” 17 “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
I have come to realize that if my faith is strong, my life is clean, and I am walking in repentance then it is the sovereignty of God at work. We have also been pleasantly surprised to find the people we thought were not healed were partially healed or became progressively healed over the next few days, weeks or months. They still pointed to our healing them as the sources and they still gave God the glory.
For instance, I just heard another report tonight from one of our Filipino missionary/evangelist, about a 19 yr. old girl who had bad epileptic seizures from a head injury as a child. She used to have three or more seizures a week some lasting for more than an hour. After we took authority (with TEC) it dropped down to one seizure a week for the next month, and now she has had only one seizure a month for the last three months and is expecting them all to go away as she continues to serve God. She wants to be an evangelist now. When she had her first seizure after our healing her, I felt terrible. Yet, she is giving God the glory and telling everyone what God has done for her. She has not been in the hospital for over three months. She is still having one small (2-4 minute) seizure a month instead of the hour long seizures she had before, which left her too exhausted to walk, sit up, or feed herself. What I saw as a failure she sees as a miracle. Praise the Lord!
This has happened with some blind people also,.. sometimes they go from only seeing gray shadows or nothing at all, to seeing color, movement, shapes and can identify people but never get their full vision back. To me it is a failure; to them it is a huge success. I don’t understand why this happens or how but I trust the sovereignty of God even when I don’t understand. We assume for some reason which only God knows, that He does not want the person completely healed, etc…
I have shared the amazing good of The Elijah Challenge, now you can hear the other aspects of it. I can’t remember every person healed (we are well into the hundreds now) but I can remember nearly all of those who were not healed (not just because their numbers are so much smaller) but because of the impact it has made on me. I have learned the secret is to stay focused on Christ or it could become a stumbling block to me. You can expect 8 or 9 out of every 10 people to be healed using The Elijah Challenge (TEC). If they have faith in God the number could go higher! We have had occasions when we went for weeks with everyone being healed.
Well enough of this for now. I will obey Christ no matter the cost! Remember we obey Him because He is worthy not because we are entitled to see the results. That goes for people repenting, being healed, or delivered from demons.
Changing the subject, we had 170 people at our WOTM seminar yesterday! Praise the Lord!
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!
November 20, 2008
Concerning miracles, we do not have sinners heal the sick but we make sure lots of sinners are present to see it occur because it is the power of God that converts sinners. Conversion is not a knowledge based process it is a revelation of God after the preaching of the gospel.
As the Apostle Paul said, 1 Cor. 2:4-5, “4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
When sinners see the sick, lame, deaf and dumb, crippled, and those suffering from deadly Malaria and Dengue fever healed, it opens their eyes to the fact Jesus is real. I tell them “you may not be converted but you can never walk away and say that Jesus is not real.” Those who come to faith because they have seen the power of God in Jesus name heal the sick and cast out the demons are strong believers from the first day. We want people’s faith to rest in God’s power not in the wisdom of men or my ability to dazzle them with doctrine.
People who are studying with us in our Seed Churches and are probably not converted, also come with us and watch us do the WOTM (they also have been required to memorize it) and they see the sick healed. Sometimes they take us to sick family members and whole families (households) are converted when they see the power of God working through us in Jesus name. If they are converts or become converts then they have to obey Jesus, who said “preach repentance, heal the sick and cast out the demons.”
As it says in Luke 9: 2,6 “and he (Jesus) sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.”
Luke 10:8-9, “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’
Our new converts are taught to do this and they have no trouble at all believing God will heal because they have seen family members sick for weeks and near death healed in Jesus name. Not every time but about 9 out of 10 times people are healed.
We had one 86 year old unbelieving woman with breast cancer and no way to treat it (she had no money for medical treatment). When we took authority over the huge breast tumor it softened, in Jesus name and stopped hurting, we took authority again and the cancer dissolved which was confirmed with several pastors’ wives checking before and during the process. The old woman wept for joy and repented, put her faith and trust in Jesus and confessed His name as Lord. Her whole countance changed and she looked 10 years younger. She was an obedient disciple and the next day God used her to heal two other people who were brought to us so we could preach the law, repentance, and grace too them. Both repented and are still serving Christ one year later.
My question to believers is, … when will they obey Jesus, and heal the sick, cast out the demons, and preach repentance and the Kingdom of God to the lost?
In fact, when will we Christians begin to obey Jesus’ commands and expectations?
Mark 16:16-18 ” 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;…18 they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
Our new believers believe in the power of God to heal the sick and that Jesus has given them the victory over sin and death. It does not take great knowledge to believe and obey Jesus…. just faith! We need to be those who believe and obey Mark 16…
Pastor Carl Henderson
Missionary to the Philippines