How To Fulfil the Great Commission When Demons Terrify You?

At a restaurant in Kota Damansara, Malaysia, a restaurant owner was suffering from pain in her leg. Grace and I knew this woman and upon seeing her painful condition, we offered to heal her in the name of Jesus. To our amazement, this Buddhist woman accepted our request because she somehow believed that such supernatural healing could happen. We promptly healed her with the authority and power given by our Lord Jesus Christ. After approximately more than a month, we visited her restaurant again and asked about her condition. She said ever since that day she had no more pain in her leg. This healing has made it easier for us to share with her about Jesus Christ and the salvation provided by the Lord. This is the “Two-hand Punch” of the Elijah Challenge Ministry – heal the sick and preach the Word.

THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Today, most believers are aware of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The time for obedience is even more critical because there is still much work to be done. Jesus is very concerned about our obedience: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Doing what Jesus instructed is crucial to our spiritual growth. We cannot choose to obey only portions of His instruction. Servants must submit to the Master and do what the Master desires. To obey only when it is convenient is not the correct attitude of a faithful servant.

Sadly, many Christians, who have said the sinner’s prayer, but have no idea what power evangelism is all about. They have been taught the doctrines, gone through water baptism, and even attended cell meetings week after week. They were taught about bearing fruits so that there is a transformation in their character, and they were even trained to share the Gospel with the unchurched. However, to those who are diligently sharing the Gospel, they soon discover another area that they have not received training in – healing the sick and casting out demons. The lack of knowledge in this area has caused the Church in general to avoid the works and activities of the demonic world.

One believer told me that she would not touch the demons with a ten-foot pole because she was afraid of them. Another said that she would not lay hands on the sick and command healing because their diseases might jump into her. A brother believes that in this day and age, one does not really need to cast out demons or heal the sick so as to share the Gospel. A theological student pointed to the fact that no demons were being cast out in the Old Testament and therefore all these demonic kinds of stuff must be created during the second temple period and adopted by the New Testament. Some believe that demons are not fallen angels but just the “ghosts” of those of dead Nephilim and their giant-clan descendants and so they are quite harmless. Some even challenge the idea of Satan as a fallen angel and whether he is just a myth created by the imagination of man.

THE POWER TRANSFORMATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?
Before we talk about power evangelism, we need to talk about power transformation. This is the “journey inward” so that we would be transformed internally to become more and more like Christ. This is crucial in that this “journey inward” would affect our “journey outward” and that is facing the world and confronting the enemy.

This is not a journey to become “spiritual” but allowing the spirituality of Christ in the “Born-again” you to flow out. It is like a marriage – you do not work out so hard to be “married” if you are already married. What you are doing as a married person is to work out your married commitment of love, care, and attention to your spouse. You allow that love for your spouse to become tangible actions and events in your marriage. Have you ever noticed that most older loving couples actually look alike in their mannerism and even in their look? That is the result of years of dedication and commitment to each other.

Similarly to become more like Jesus, we need to acknowledge His holiness and Agape love. The Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in us is vital to remind and enable us to allow that holiness and Agape love of Christ to flow through us. We are able to do this because we have been Born Again and have the spirituality of Christ in us. We just need to give the Holy Spirit the liberty to flow like “rivers of living water”. The disciples who walk closely with Christ will soon, just like those loving old couples, behave and look like Christ.

ARE THE MODERN DISCIPLES REALLY HELPLESS?
Some churches have taught that believers are helpless but they have forgotten that believers are empowered by Christ in all things. An important aspect of the Christian life is to fulfill the Great Commission to disciple all nations. Once again, the Lord does not leave this major task to the disciples without the accompanying power and authority.

In Luke 9 and 10, Jesus commanded His disciples to preach that the “Kingdom of God is near.” Accompanying this message, Jesus also gave the authority and power “to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” We can see that whether it is in the area of sanctification or fulfilling the Great Commission, the Lord has made sure that His disciples have the capacity to achieve them.

The Great Commission has to do with a strong message of repentance and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as personal Saviour. Just like the time of Elijah, the Lord is now challenging the Church to return to Him in all aspects of obedience and ministry. The spirit of Elijah was that of courage and confidence in God’s manifested power. The fire came down, and the half-hearted non-committed people turned to the Lord.

In the same manner, when believers preach repentance with manifest healing miracles, many believers and pre-believers will respond positively to the Lord.
The objectives of the believers in the End Times is three-fold:

1. To fulfil the Great Commission by sharing the Gospel with power.
2. To challenge the backslidden believers to return to the Lord.
3. To empower the restored believers so that they can in turn fulfil the Great Commission.

To reject the supernatural does not make the evil spirits go away. Western missionaries who come from secular societies have a rude awakening when they come to the Far East and Third-World countries. They expect to teach the Christians in those countries but instead, they have to learn about real demons and spiritual warfare from their “less-sophisticated counterparts”. Soon they realize that the Gospel is not merely about teaching good Christian values and behaviors, but real spiritual warfare against principalities and powers of darkness.

The evil that many in the Third-World encounter is not mere human weakness but actual demonic power. Unbelief is a dangerous thing. Like the Pharisees of old, the modern preachers and theologians from the West are seldom trained to deal with actual demons and diseases. Everything is reduced to the natural realms and many of these ministers do not even believe in the existence of the supernatural. Their ministries are utterly ineffective in the frontline of spiritual warfare.

In one evangelistic meeting, a girl who was only 16 years old who had black lipstick, black painted fingernails, black clothes with black shoes, suddenly manifested demons. As I rushed forward to confront the “enemy” and cast it out, the American pastor who was me, ran to the back of the sanctuary and hid there. After the event, I confronted him, asking why didn’t he come to help me. He said haltingly that he was afraid. He had never encountered a demonic case in his life and that first encounter threw him into a panic. He did not realize that the demons would be so ferocious and he was absolutely terrified to the point of being paralyzed. That was when it dawned on me why the Great Commission is slow to be fulfilled. All these preachers and teachers may teach and expound the Bible with intricate theological expositions but they lack the frontline experience. It is like a man who writes and gives talks about fishing but has never fished once in his life.

How to fulfill the Great Commission when demons terrify the believers? What is the use of theological prowess when theologians are powerless in spiritual warfare?

Please do not get me wrong here – I am not against theological training and good Bible exposition. (I am a postgraduate from a Bible Seminary and I fully encourage every full-time minister to get a Bible School education). It is a “both-and” rather than an “either-or” approach that we have adopted. We believe that every practitioner should have a sound biblical and theological foundation along with his or her faith to utilize the authority and power to heal the infirm and cast out demons in the name of Jesus.

Here is the link to The Elijah Challenge website where you can receive teaching on healing and casting our demons. Everything is free there. You can also learn directly from the free training videos produced by my mentor, Rev William Lau, the founder, and director of The Elijah Challenge.

https://theelijahchallenge.org/

Here is a video that gives you an idea of what the “Two-hand Punch” ministry of “sharing the Gospel and healing the sick” is all about.