Pastor
Albert Kang, Malaysia
Coordinator for Elijah Challenge Asia
Elijah
Challenge Healing Rally
Organized by Grace Charismatic Centre
Kuantan, Pahang,
Malaysia
27 October 2007Saturday – 8.00 PM
Elijah Challenge Healing Rally
Held At Kuantan Baptist Church
Organized by Grace Charismatic Centre
Kuantan, Pahang, MalaysiaThe elders at Kuantan Baptist Church had allowed us to use their sanctuary for this healing rally. This was the type of rally which I mentioned in the last report – it was relatively small scale and easy to organize. In this instance this rally was miniature in relation to some of our other "small" healing rallies. Close to 200 people began filing in around 8.20 PM as worship songs in both Chinese and English filled the sanctuary. When it was time to preach the Word, the air was tense with anticipation. There were evidently people in the audience who were unwell and had come for healing.
Pastor Richard served as my Mandarin interpreter as the rally had many who could only understand Chinese. I shared an evangelistic message about the Creator God who loves us. Since there were people from other religions, I explained that all man-made religions are generally "good" but there is a hiatus, like a "gulf of fire", between heaven and earth where no one can cross. Man-made religions are like frail wooden bridges that cannot withstand the fire. No matter how sturdy they look at first, they would all burn up in the end. What if God were to build a bridge from heaven to earth – what if He would become a man and live among us? With many other narratives and illustrations, I tried to persuade those who had yet to accept the salvation of the Lord that Jesus is the only way.
Then I shared about the God who would heal them of their physical infirmities. The trained disciples had joined me in the front for a special distance-healing session commonly known to Elijah Challengers as "mass healing". To my horror, the sanctuary looked half-empty. This was one of those situations when we had almost the same number of Elijah Challengers as those who needed to be healed. I asked the infirm to lay hands on their affected areas while I took loud authority against all the diseases and pain. A man stood up and testified that he was healed of a shoulder pain.
As this special distance-healing would be best used for massive crowd, I decided to ask our Elijah Challengers, who were trained believers, to lay hands upon the infirm. For cultural reason, they had already formed into two groups – male on my left and female on my right. They had been trained to lay hands on only affected but "appropriate" parts of the body without embarrassing the "patients." They were also told to lay hands only "near" to extremely sensitive or private parts. I have no problem having men laying hands on ladies or vice versa but that have to be done carefully and discreetly.
As this was the first time that these new Elijah Challengers were asked to take authority to heal the sick, many reverted back to their old ways of praying for the sick. I kept asking them to open their eyes, look at the affected areas and command the pain and disease to go in the name of Jesus. Some of them were speaking in tongues but after a few times of admonition, they no longer reverted back to "priestly action" of speaking in tongues. I was very glad that majority of these trained believers caught the idea of using the "kingly authority" to command the diseases and pain to go in the name of Jesus.
Throughout the whole healing session, I rarely laid my hands on anyone. The purpose was to allow the trained believers to exercise and practise their faith to heal without depending on me. During one of the training seminars, a trainee questioned why didn't I just heal a sick lady since I obviously had more faith than they. She saw the point when I told her that if I were to do so, then the trainees would not be exercising their faith at all. They would be depending on my faith. I had come to teach them how to fish and not just to give them fishes. When I left, these trainees should still be healing the sick and winning souls… without me.
The Elijah Challengers went through the process of interviewing their "patients" first and then discreetly lay hands on the affected areas. They were told not to massage or put undue pressure on those parts. With the help of the microphone, I took authority and verbally commanded all the diseases and pain to leave while the Elijah Challengers laid their hands on the infirm.
I couldn't help but thank God for these trained believers standing in front of me. They were displaying so much more faith than I first met them during the first day of training. In fact, one of the young ladies, who was skeptical of healing, had become an ardent Elijah Challenger. On the first day of the training seminar, during the demonstration, she was one of those who came up for healing. When she was not healed at the first command, she responded with a loud "nope!" That shook me up a little but thankfully she was subsequently healed of her shoulder pain. Now with renewed faith, she was ready to heal others in the name of Jesus. Brother Alvin Chong and his wife, Sister Maggie were also a great help during the rally. They guided the new Elijah Challengers and showed some how to command and take authority by their own example. My wife, Grace, was taking pictures and from time to time, paused to give instructions or lay hands on difficult cases.
People began to receive miraculous healing. After the third time of concerted authority, I told the Elijah Challengers to appoint someone in the team to give the command while all the other team members repeat that command. In my experience, this "united front" works better in driving out the diseases than just a "free-for-all" way of taking authority. They were also told that after the healing, every healed person should come onstage and testify of their healing. All in all, there were 22 public testimonies of divine healing. I noticed some non-believers slipped out after being healed. Our Elijah Challengers had not been insistent enough to ask them to publicly testify to the glory of God.
Among those healed were people suffering from arthritis, back injury, migraine headache and stomach disorders. A stroke patient was able to raise his arm because the pain had totally left him. A young man, whose fingers could not bend without pain, received healing. As he testified and to prove his healing, he kept bending all his healed fingers.
A middle-aged lady was healed of headache and shoulder pain. However, the left side of body was still in extreme pain. Her two adult daughters who were not trained in Elijah Challenge had joined the trained believers to take authority over their mother's pain. Loud commands of authority rang out repeatedly. When I went to check, the lady was still in pain. I added my faith to that of the Elijah Challengers and commanded the pain to go. The infirmity did not budge. I encouraged the trained believers to continue their effort while I checked on other teams. They did and the miracle happened – the pain disappeared completely. The middle-aged lady smiled in relief and her two daughters wept in joy. Everybody clapped and gave glory to God.
Alex, one of our newly trained Elijah Challengers, while laying one hand on a patient; had his other hand on his own right shoulder. The patient was healed but Alex was not. Later, at the end of the service, he reluctantly asked the other Elijah Challengers to command his shoulder pain to leave – immediately the pain left him and he rejoiced in his own miraculously healing.
I noticed a group of ladies laying hands on an elderly woman. Apparently she had been healed of knee pain but her back was still painful. After several times of taking authority, she felt better. However, the shadow of pain was still lingering and she decided to give up. When I checked with her, she said that her back was so much better than before and that she could tolerate the little pain. She also felt bad that she was giving the Elijah Challengers "much trouble". However I saw the faith of those who were ministering to her and I encouraged the lady to continue believing. After a few more attempts, this elderly lady was elated that her back pain was completely gone. She believed and received by faith and she was completely healed.
A man was partially healed of an eye injury suffered during an accident years ago. After the Elijah Challengers had taken authority over his injury numerous times, he was amazed that his eye could focus and his vision had improved by "fifty percent". I told him to come back the following night for more healing.
A lady, named Alice, whose fingers were partially healed previously when I ministered in Kerteh, attended the rally. She wanted to be totally healed. However, all her fingers were healed except for the thumb. She left with much improvement in the movement of that thumb but she was not completely healed. This reminded me of my July training seminar in Bacoor, Cavite in the Philippines; a lady pastor whose fingers were all healed except for one finger. She was so frustrated until she wept. However, the following day, the lady pastor was completely healed. This may happen to Alice too.
I do not know why certain infirmities need several attempts or days before they would leave. It may be due to our weak faith or some other reasons. I believe that divine healing, whether it is through the "authority to heal" or "gift of healing", it is still very much in the domain of God's absolute sovereignty. However, that does not mean that we can shirk our responsibilities. What God will do, He will do and what we must do, we must do! We ultimately have to learn how to exercise our faith in taking authority over the diseases and demons because God has already given us the authority to do so.
The first healing rally in Kuantan was most rewarding. After the session, Grace and I were tired but very happy that the newly trained Elijah Challengers had made their mark this night. Many of those who began with little faith were there healing the sick without any reservation. Like an adoring parents, Grace and I looked forward to seeing these trained believers achieving more victories in the next healing rally.
Reported by
Rev Albert Kang
Coordinator
Luke 10:9 "Heal the sick who are there and tell them,
'The kingdom of God is near you.’"
