On Friday and Saturday last week (29th and 30th Oct. 2010), I attended The Elijah Challenge at Bethesda (Bedok-Tampines) Church in Singapore. Before the course, I was a bit familiar with it, having gone through some (not all) of their materials, which can be downloaded here (videos and manual). The Elijah Challenge is all about equipping ordinary believers to heal the sick for primarily evangelistic purposes and it has had some impact throughout the world.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty good course. While I wouldn’t agree with everything taught, and there are some things I’m still reflecting upon, I think there’s a lot of good there. The teachings are quite (not totally) similar to Curry Blake and Andrew Wommack in terms of focusing strongly on the authority and faith of the believer. For me, I’d like to complement this perspective (on authority and faith) with the teachings of people like Bill Johnson, Joseph Prince, Roger Sapp and Mike Endicott.
It’s a pretty short course (perhaps about 4 hours teaching in total) and so it can’t go into everything related to healing. But the purpose of setting a foundation of equipping believers to heal the sick was, I think, definitely achieved.
Two strong points stood out for me in The Elijah Challenge. Firstly, the presentation is extremely organized and clear. Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician (DHT) course is awesome and more comprehensive but it tends to lack organization (especially his manual!). I’ve always felt the main points of Curry’s DHT can be condensed into 10 hours or less (instead of about 18 hours) of teaching. If you’re passionate about healing, Curry’s DHT would blow you away and you’ll learn tons. But if you’re not committed to last through 18 hours of teaching, The Elijah Challenge gives a good short foundation for those new to healing that will make you yearn for more (then you can go to Curry and others).
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, was the practical demonstrations of healing that actually involved audience praying (or commanding healing). This is simply priceless and I can’t speak too highly of it. There were about maybe 700 to 1,000 people attending the course. As far as I know and can tell, the church is not charismatic. The people were probably not accustomed to seeing a lot of healing. (By the way, this is another good point of The Elijah Challenge – it is able to reach out to non-charismatic churches too). So I don’t think these were people who were passionate about healing and the miraculous. Throughout the course (after about an hour of teaching or so), William Lau (the founder of The Elijah Challenge and the teacher on this occasion) called for a demonstration of healing. He did this about 5 different times throughout. He first called people who were sick to the front, then he called for people to come and pray for them. He never prayed for the sick but got others in the audience to do so – led by him speaking out the words. There were probably hundreds of people who participated in healing the sick.
The course culminated in a healing rally on Saturday night. William preached the gospel, linking it to healing. Basically, he told the unbelievers that Jesus can forgive their sins and the proof of it is the fact that He can heal the sick and they are going to see the sick being healed. After the gospel was preached, the sick was called to the front to be prayed for by specially trained counselors. When people were healed, they went on stage to testify of their healing. There were probably dozens of people coming to testify of their healing. Not a lot of “big” healings – mostly pain and the like going away.
It was really awesome to see hundreds of people seeing real life demonstrations of people being healed before their eyes. And also to see many people actually participating in healing the sick probably for the first time. I would think that what they’ve gone through would make at least some more open to pursue healing and moving more in the healing power of God. One can only imagine what could happen if the church adopts fully what they’ve learned and continues on pursuing more.
P.S.: Those who attended The Elijah Challenge (and also those who didn’t) who want to get to know a group of Christians who desire to learn and move more in the healing power of God, come and participate in Singapore Healing Forum and join us for one of our weekly meetings where we study and practice healing.
P.P.S.: Elijah Challenge Asia’s official report of the event can be found here.
Now go do some real healing if you trully believe you can heal like Jesus. I challenge all of your pastors and prophets. Gather them all into a single place where sick people are – the hospital. We shall choose 5 terminally sick persons at random for the real Elijah challenge – not those ambiguous cases which congregate . At an appointed day,time and place, your most anointed will pray for “fire to come down from heaven” to heal these sick persons. This healing session will be done under close srutiny by an independent body – not faith charged people who cant be objective – which comprises of staff from the medical department, media industry and political office.
And I will say this to you, as a challenge, your God will not show up and hence, none will be healed.
Dare you to take the…real Elijah challenge?
Hi The other Elijah,
I think we should be healing like Jesus, but no one is at that level yet. But I do believe that it won’t be that long before the Church moves in great power. Anyway, I never really liked the name Elijah Challenge because Jesus healed not only for evangelistic purposes – but that’s the name of the organization/course. Regarding what you suggested, if you read about John G. Lake’s life, he did something not too different from what you said. Cheers!
P.S.: If you keep being intentionally provocative (as in this and your subsequent posts which I won’t approve) rather than providing constructive criticisms, don’t bother commenting because they won’t be approved.
Thanks for the report Jonathan. I think you are really learning a lot and putting a lot of what you’ve learned into practice. Keep at it and I’m sure God will increase you and work mighty miracles through you. I just have one comment: When we study so much, is there a danger of it becoming ‘academic’ where we seek knowledge rather than relationship? Anyway, look forward to hearing more reports and testimonies from you. :)
Hi SHF and Andrew,
I think Knowledge is necessary, but it should not be a means to an end. Both relationship and knowledge is needed in growing deeper in the things of God. I like what SHF shared about the INDICATIVE AND THE IMPERATIVE paradigm with regards to the outworking of our discipleship. And I think that this paradigm is also critical in doing the works of Jesus.
We need to know the INDICATIVES and to grow deep in them. Meaning: Abiding and embracing our identity, authority and inheritance that is IN CHRIST. It is a deeper abiding faith in the Indicatives that we can move into the Imperatives. This is where works and faith come together in agreement .
The power to heal through an intimate knowledge of God is perhaps a critical key in the area of healing and the miraculous. My problem is knowing(as in cognitive knowledge) too much and knowing(as in intimately knowing God)too little.
Some thoughts: Even as we speak about Authority given to all of us as believers, could our grasp on Authority be better if we have a deeper abiding faith in the INDICATIVES?
Lastly, I have also been thinking about ‘motives’. Could our ability to heal be also tied to our motives? The bible did say that when we ask and do not receive, it is because we ask from a wrong motive. Something to think about.
Hi SHF and Andrew,
Thought I correct my first statement. I think Knowledge is not an end in it self. Knowledge should not be just ‘Informational’ or just to know some thing for the sake of being ‘educated’. All the bible studying, seminar etc should translate to a deeper intimacy with the Lord which brings about a life of Love and Power. Deepening our trust in the Indicatives(Authority,Sonship, Inheritence etc) should move us into the Imperatives(signs and wonders,overcoming temptations, service etc).Hope it clarifies. Lets continue to learn, to be educated, to be informed….only because we want to love like Jesus and do what He does.
Hi Andrew,
Yes, there’s definitely a danger in seeking mere academic knowledge. However, I do think having correct beliefs (good theology) is very important. We are after all to worship God with our minds also and thinking is important. And believing wrongly can actually have a negative effect on our living. Before listening to Curry, I didn’t dare step out to pray for the sick.
Because of my strong background in non-charismatic churches, I appreciate good teachings and good theology. I see having knowledge as essential to having relationship. It’s not the only component, but definitely one can’t have a relationship or experience without knowledge.
I love to read books about healing and the Bible, but I also seek to go beyond that knowledge to other ways to build my relationship with God – e.g. through communing with Him in a known and unknown tongue. I think knowledge and theology is good but not good enough. I also seek to meditate (speaking, imagination, etc.) on the Word of God and get it in me.
At this point of my own journey into healing, I find that Curry emphasizes the importance of right knowledge (renewal of mind), while Bill Johnson emphasizes the relationship aspect. I think both complement each other and both are needed.
Wee, thanks for your helpful thoughts relating the indicatives and imperatives to healing. Regarding motives, my personal view is that I don’t worry too much about that. Not because it’s not important. But I do believe we have the mind (and even heart?) of Christ and that most of us do desire to heal the sick because of God’s compassion in us. I’m sure when we get more advanced in this ministry, there would be a temptation to err in our motives and seek our own glory. But what I believe is that at this stage, there isn’t that great need to check our motives. Because most people who do so will most probably just disqualify themselves because seriously we all have impure motives (we’re not perfect). So I feel that if we focus on motives too much, we all end up disqualifying ourselves and doing nothing instead. The problem I think for most people is that they think God can’t use them because they are not good enough! And getting them to search their motives may strengthen that view in them which doesn’t help them to step out.