How The Elijah Challenge Seminar Changed Our Lives

The launching of Elijah Challenge Asia in 2007. Pastor William and Pastor Lucille are 2nd and 3rd from the left. Dr. Thiagan is 4th from the right.

A ministry with signs and wonders was the farthest from our minds until we met Pastor William Lau and his wife, Pastor Lucille, the founders of The Elijah Challenge. That crucial day was 8th December 2005, my wife, Grace and I would have our lives and ministry completely transformed. From 20-plus years of “powerless” pastoral ministry with less than ten people healed through my prayer, my wife and I now have more than 10,000 healing miracles through our ministry since that day in 2005.

God’s Special Plan
It was our dentist, Dr. Thiagan Sinnadurai, a dedicated servant of God who challenged Grace and me to attend a healing seminar organised by his house church. I was not keen to attend because I knew that I did not have the gift of healing. For over 20 years of my ministry, I did not see many successful healing miracles after my prayers. In fact, a few people died after I prayed.

On that warm day of 8th December 2005, Grace drove me to the healing seminar. I was not in the most amiable mood. I had work to do and the chronic pain condition in my back was also not accommodating. When we could not find a parking space, I was elated. Now, I could miss the seminar and give a great excuse to Dr. Thiagan why we were not able to attend his meeting. However, God had other plan and He opened up a nice parking space for us. Still unhappy and mumbling under my breath, with Grace helping me, I walked slowly to the training location at Bangsar.

God’s Healing Approach
That day was to become a defining moment of our lives and ministry. Pastor William Lau, an American-Chinese, with a gentle Christ-like spirit, was systematic in his teaching. As a pastor, I was very attentive to catch any theological deviations or wrong doctrines. To my pleasant surprise, there were no strange doctrines, subjective visions or scary testimonies of being caught to heaven. Pastor William was not there to impress us with his profound theology because all he did was to read from the scriptures. Then he allowed those scriptural verses to speak for themselves.

Verse upon verse, precept upon precept, line upon line, my eyes were opened. Suddenly, everything about the power and authority to heal in light of sharing the Gospel began to make sense. Nowadays, I call this approach the “Two-hand Punch” – one hand is to minister in signs and wonders and the other hand is to share the Gospel. I remember, while Pastor William was teaching, I was thinking to myself why didn’t they teach me this Elijah Challenge’s approach in the Bible seminary? Even after earning a Master of Divinity, this truth in the Bible had completely eluded me. Why was I not told that there is a difference between the gift of healing and the authority to heal? Why didn’t the professors teach us how to use the kingly authority to do spiritual warfare and heal the sick in the context of preaching the Gospel?

Then came the most fascinating part and that was when Pastor William said that he would demonstrate this God-given power and authority by healing some of the participants in the name of Jesus. We noticed that he did not pray to Jesus to heal the infirm but rather he firmly commanded the infirmities and pain to leave the “patients”. He did exactly that to a couple of participants and they were healed of the back pain, leg pain and other infirmities.

Then he invited some of us to try. I was really interested and volunteered myself. I remember feeling the nagging pain in my own back while facing a participant who claimed to have three numb toes. With a fellow participant, I laid my hand on those numb toes. Pastor William specifically instructed us not to pray but command the infirmity to leave. And so that was what I did – I commanded for the feeling to return to those numb toes in the mighty name of Jesus. To my great surprise, the participant claimed that sensation had returned to his toes and he quickly testified to Pastor William. I was more shocked than happy. I did not believe that this brother’s toes were healed by me who simply spoke to them. That was my first experience in having immediate healing result after ministering.

The Elijah Challenge
Grace and I were to attend the same Elijah Challenge seminar another three more times and later took an advanced training course with Pastor William. Since then, our ministry has been completely transformed. It is filled with signs and wonders which is line with what the Bible says about the kingdom of God as not being a matter of talk but of power (1 Corinthians 4:20).

We have personally ministered healing to more than 10,000 people and witnessed them being healed in the name of Jesus. Since December 2005, we have also trained thousands of believers from both the mainline and Pentecostal/Charismatic churches through the Elijah Challenge training sessions and also the Healing Encounter Ministry. We have the joy of seeing our own trainees healing the infirm in the name of Jesus and casting out demons too. We trust that more and more believers will be encouraged to use the “two-hand punch” and touch many for Christ.

HOW YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN HEALING MINISTRY
If you are interested in having your life and ministry being transformed into a “two-hand punch” power-packed encounter, please visit the Elijah Challenge website at theelijahchallenge.org
Everything is free in the website and you can also take a video-training course offered by Pastor William Lau.
Kindly read the following articles to get some basic understanding of how you can have your own healing ministry. Do contact us through this blog if you need further clarification. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

The Confused Helper

Are Signs and Wonders for Today?

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Are Signs and Wonders for Today?

Albert Kang

A Lutheran missionary to Cambodia visited me while I was working in Phnom Penh to ask for some advice on casting out demons. He did not know what to do with a demon-possessed person in his congregation at Siem Reap. He said he was never taught how to cast out demons during his seminary training. In fact, he was taught that all signs and wonders have ceased.

After showing this missionary how to use his God-given authority and power to cast out evil spirits, he went back to do so by faith. After a week or so, he returned and happily informed me that he had successfully cast out the evil spirits from the afflicted person.

Through The Elijah Challenge and Healing Encounter Ministry, we train believers to exercise their faith in healing the infirm. Here, in Gujarat, a deaf and dumb man was healed. He could hear and speak after the healing command.

Are The Modern Miracles Lying Wonders?
Today, there are Christians who believe that signs and wonders have ceased in spite of many evidences and testimonies of unexplained instant healing cases reported in news portals and various social media channels. These “anti-miracles” Christians explain all these signs and wonders away by calling them “lying wonders.”

They base their understanding on 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12.  This portion says that Satan will deceive people who do not love the truth by using signs and lying wonders. They also refer to Revelation 13:13 that describes the false prophet as having the ability to produce signs and wonders such as causing fire to come down from heaven. Then they invoke the serious warning by Jesus found in Matthew 7:21-22, misquoting this portion to associate those who are still doing signs and wonders to be false prophets.

However, a closer examination of the scriptural context reveals that the Lord had already identified the false prophets in Matthew 7:15-20. And he had indicated that the way to recognise true or false prophets is by identifying their fruits. From Matthew 7:21 to 23, Jesus was talking about obedient and disobedient disciples. He had given all of them authority and power to prophesy, heal the infirm and cast out demons in His name. The undeniable credential of a true disciple is his obedience – he is most willing to do the will of the Father. A disobedient disciple is not a true believer.

According to Luke 9, Judas was an Apostle and Peter declared in Acts 1:17 that “He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.” Being among the Twelve, Judas also received the authority and power from the Lord to do miracles. However, due to his disobedience and self-will, he was ultimately denied of his place in the Kingdom of God. Therefore, Matthew 7:22 is not for the purpose of rejecting people who exercise their God-given authority and power to heal the sick and cast out demons. It is a warning for people who are disobedient and do not do the will of the Lord.

These ladies were from a local tribe and they suffered from chronic backpain because of the hard labours they had to do every day. Many were too poor to see doctors and that day, we brought the healing miracles of the Lord Jesus to these ladies. All of them were healed in the mighty name of Jesus.

Signs And Wonders Ceased After The Bible Was Completed?
Another reason that some believers give as to why God performed miracles and healed people only in the past is that those incidents were primarily for the purpose of writing the New Testament. Since that task has already been completed, all miraculous powers have also ceased. For the same reason, not only miracles have ceased but the spiritual gifts, particularly speaking in tongues and prophesying, have also ceased. Their favourite supporting verses are found in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.

Let us read verse 10: “But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.” (NKJV) or in the NIV translation: “But when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.”

They have taken the Greek word, “tevleio” which means “completion” to refer to the “Completion of the Bible” as written words of God rather than the “Completion of the Age.” Did Paul actually write about the completion of the Bible or was he referring to something else?

The context of this scriptural portion has no indication that Paul even had the “Completion of the Bible” in mind when he wrote to the Corinthian Christians.  In fact, Paul did not even realize that God would use his epistles to become an integral part of the New Testament. How could he write something that he had no idea at all? How could he add an idea that was outside the context of his explanation?

A good basic rule that governs biblical interpretation is that the Bible should never be interpreted to say what it never did say. Why then is this traditional argument that depicts the “Completion of the Bible” as the reason to reject all signs and wonders? Could it be due to the lack of miracles in these churches that has forced them to find an excuse?

It seems that once a certain theory is repeated long enough, it is then believed to become synonymous to Biblical Truth. People tend to equate their own subjective experiences with objective truth. To begin with, they already have no faith to trust God for any healing miracles and therefore, no miracle happens in their ministries. How to explain to their flock about this lack of signs and wonders? They conveniently declare that signs and wonders have ceased.

In Elijah Challenge and Healing Encounter Ministry, we believe that as long as you are a true disciple of Christ, you can heal the sick and cast out demons in the mighty name of Jesus. With more than 10,000 healing miracles since 2005, we can safely share that “all things are possible to those who believe” (Mark 9:23). If you have read up to here, you must be ready to put your faith on the line. I did that in 2005 and it totally changed my life and ministry.

Way back in 2006, when Elijah Challenge took root in Malaysia. From left, Rev William Lau, Rev Lucille Lau (Founders of The Elijah Challenge) Rev Albert Kang, Rev Grace Kang-Ong (Founders of Healing Encounter Ministry and Coordinators of Elijah Challenge Asia).

I will explain further in future blogs why you can actually obey the Word of God and that signs and wonders can be an integral part of your life and ministry.

This article is adapted from the book, Three Authorities of the Church written by Albert Kang

“The Three Authorities of the Church” is available in Canaanland Bookstore in Kuala Lumpur. You can also purchase it for RM30 each right here through this blog. Just write to me.

For further understanding about why signs and wonders are still available today and also applicable in your life and ministry, please check out the following video teaching.

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