Quote from Forum Archives on July 13, 2005, 6:47 pm

Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>

NOTE: In the below article, William Lau makes the very good point
that in the New Testament the preaching of the gospel was ALWAYS
accompanied by healings and miracles. This is quite true. He also
makes the point that back then they COMMANDED people to be
healed - rather than just 'praying' for it. Again, very true. This is a
very practical article, because William actually holds meetings
teaching people to minister this way - and sees tremendous results.
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"PUBLIC HEALINGS and POWER ENCOUNTERS
-a MODEL for ALL BELIEVERS"

"The END-TIME MODEL of EVANGELISM"
-by William Lau.

A “public power encounter” is a ‘violent’ encounter (usually in public
view) between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan
involving supernatural manifestations where the power of God
overwhelms the power and destroys the work of the enemy and
God’s name is glorified. Jesus drew many souls to Himself by
performing many public power encounters---especially miraculous
healings--- and preaching the gospel.

Christ has given to believers a measure of authority over disease
and demons to confirm the gospel to unbelievers. We speak
directly to demons and disease and command them to go in the
name of Jesus. The basis for healing is the atonement... And the
purpose of that anointing is “to preach good news to the poor.” (Is. 61)

Malachi 4:5 “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great
and dreadful day of the LORD comes."

Before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Lord will send to
the Church the “spirit of Elijah,” that is, the spirit that He put within
Elijah and which empowered him to minister. I Kings 18: "At the
time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed:
“... Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know
that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts
back again.” Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the
sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up
the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell
prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!”

Only when the people saw the visible demonstration of God’s power
did they acknowledge the Lord as God. Jesus Christ used this
same approach to prove that He was Son of God and Savior.

Luke 4:32-39: "Then they were all amazed and spoke among them-
selves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power
He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And the
report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region...
Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they
asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever,
and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them."

Jesus knew what authority he had from the Father, and ministered
with confidence. He understood without a shadow of doubt the
messianic authority he had been given to destroy the works of the
devil: sin, death, disease, and bondage to demons. 1 John 3:8 "For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy
the works of the devil."

"So Jesus said to them again, 'As the Father has sent Me, I also
send you.'” (Jn 20:21) -As the Father sent Jesus into the world to
minister with authority over demons, disease, and to forgive sin,
Jesus has sent us his disciples into the world with a measure of
this same authority to minister and complete the work that he
began. As the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon Jesus, Jesus has
given us the Holy Spirit through whose power we will destroy the
works of the devil---sin, disease, and demonic bondage---as we
preach the gospel.

John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me,
the WORKS that I do he will do also; and greater works than these
he will do, because I go to My Father.“ Miraculous signs will help
people to believe, and Jesus has given us the authority to perform them.

It is good to have the leading of the Holy Spirit when we minister.
But where we seem to lack the leading of the Spirit, we are not
helpless; we can still accomplish the job with the authority and
mountain-moving faith the Lord has given us for the sake of the
gospel. The release of power and anointing does not depend on our
feeling the anointing or our feelings of self-worth or merit in God’s
eyes. Rather it is a function of God’s desire to save the lost and our
understanding of the authority He has given us to heal and deliver as
signs to confirm the gospel. Some need to see miracles before they
can receive Jesus as Lord. But then again, some will not believe
even if they see someone rise from the dead.

For the wicked, adulterous, and hypocritical Pharisees and teachers
of the law, he would perform no special miracle. Jesus knew they
would never believe. But for those who would, Jesus indeed
performed many miracles. Hypocrites will not believe even when
confronted with miracles. But on the other hand, some people will
believe ONLY when they see miraculous signs.

According to Matthew and Isaiah, atonement from sin includes
physical healing, since the ultimate cause of sickness is sin. Where
sin is forgiven, sickness can be healed. Thus when the atonement is
preached to the lost, physical healing can accompany it.

Jesus did not pray for the man’s healing, nor did he plead nicely
with the demon to leave the man alone. Instead, he quite ‘rudely’
and sternly commanded the demon to ‘shut up’ and ‘get out.’ We
must learn to speak to demons and disease in this same manner---
sternly, without civility. In his time, Jesus considered disease and
demons to be the work of Satan, and in no uncertain terms he
destroyed them without mercy. Jesus commanded the leper
to “be clean,” and he was healed. Demons and disease shrink back
also when believers invoke the name of Jesus with authority.

Luke 9:1 "When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave
them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure
diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God
and to heal the sick. …So they set out and went from village to
village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere."

After giving them authority over demons and disease, Jesus sent the
Twelve out to preach the gospel and to demonstrate its veracity by
healing the sick---not by praying for the sick. There is a world of
difference between the two. Asking the Lord to heal the sick is
risk-free; whatever is the outcome is not our responsibility. By
contrast, healing the sick is exactly what Jesus did---commanding
the sick to be healed using authority. When we disciples of Christ
attempt it, there is the possibility of failure: the sick person is not
healed. Thus for the most part the Church no longer obeys the
command of the Lord to heal the sick, preferring instead to “trust
the Lord” and to ask Him to heal the sick. What about us disciples
who are not apostles? Luke 10:1 "After this the Lord appointed
seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every
town and place where he was about to go. …Heal the sick who
are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ The
seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons
submit to us in your name.”

The seventy-two were also given this authority. This was not a
special “gift of healing,” but simply standard equipment for those
who advance the Kingdom of Christ. Note in verse 9 the Lord’s
command apparently was to heal the sick even before proclaiming
the kingdom of God. When the Lord commands us to heal the
sick, it means that it’s His will to heal when His kingdom is being
proclaimed to the lost--- many of whom demand to see a
demonstration of His power before they believe.

Christians must be set free from this spirit of fear of failure so that
they will obey the Lord’s command to heal the sick to confirm that
the kingdom of God is near.

TESTIMONY from William's HEALING ENCOUNTER Class:

A ministry leader writes:
“Thursday night was my regular monthly ministry time at our
church's healing room. So I decided I would try to apply the
principles I was learning in the Healing Encounter class. The first
person we prayed for had a sore back that had been hurting for a
great number of years. My teammates prayed more of what I would
call “petition” prayers asking Jesus to take away the pain, asking
Jesus to remove generational curses, etc. I watched them pray for
a bit and then when they sort of paused for a bit, I began “authority”
prayer [that is, to speak directly to the pain with authority]. As
soon as I began that style prayer, things started happening. First,
the pain began to move. All of us on the team knew moving pain
meant a demon, so we all began to command the demon to leave.
It had started in the lower back, and worked its way up the spinal
cord and eventually was gone. The spirit of infirmity did not have a
chance, with the three of us evicting it and commanding it to leave.
The spirit had stayed hidden during the petition prayer and did not
manifest until we began the authority prayer [that is, to command
it directly to leave]."

With utmost confidence and boldness we exercise authority over
demons and disease that oppress people because Scripture says
we have been given that authority. However, authority by itself is
not enough. If a believer wavers in doubt as he rebukes disease and
demons, they will not leave even though he has authority. The
commands must be spoken forth with no doubt, with the faith of
God, with complete conviction. Does God have “faith that moves
mountains?” If He should speak to a mountain and command it to
move, would He ever doubt that the mountain would obey Him? When
God said, “Let there be light,” did He have any doubt that the light
would obey His command? When Jesus spoke to the fig tree, did
he entertain any doubt that the fig tree would obey him and die?
God does not doubt when He issues a command, for He knows His
authority as God; all things must obey Him. This is the “faith of
God.” Jesus knew he had been given authority, and so when he
gave commands he had no doubt that they would be obeyed. We
also have a measure of authority over disease and demons given to
us by Jesus, and we must not doubt that they will obey us when we
command them to leave. This is the “faith of God” that releases the
power and anointing to accomplish the miracle for the sake of the
gospel. This measure of authority varies from believer to believer.

MORE TESTIMONIES of "COMMANDING" Faith:

William Lau writes:
"On the third day in Vietnam there was a large Evangelistic Crusade
where non-believers were invited to come to hear the gospel and
receive healing prayer. My wife and I were taken to a hall completely
crammed with thousands of people who had been waiting an hour
before the start of the meeting. There was no place to sit down even
for us. People with various debilitating infirmities had been physically
carried to the meeting.

One of the pastors who had attended our Healing Encounter training
was so stirred that he read to the crowd the New Testament account
of blind Bartimaeus who had been healed because of his faith. He
then told the sick in the crowd to cry out to the Lord by faith as he
prayed over them. The Lord Jesus began to minister as never before
seen by anyone in the crowd, perhaps as never before in the history
of this country. Miraculous healings broke out "spontaneously" in
the crowd. Cripples, paralytics, and stroke victims began to walk;
some had not gotten up or walked in years. Many people were
healed directly by the Lord without anyone laying hands on them
or praying over them. A man deaf and dumb for over forty years
could hear and speak, an emaciated woman with terminal cancer
who had been carried to the meeting by eight people walked up to
the platform with arms raised to Heaven to testify that she was
healed. The crowd roared with delight and gave praise to God."

Gideon S. writes:
"I met you at John Thomas' in his home before I took a team to
India. As you prophesied God used me to minister healing at the
"mass level." It was awesome. I was in complete shock to see
team members even 17 years old healing the sick and driving out demons."

Chris D. writes:
"After you taught about healing at Pastor John Thomas' house
several weeks ago, I went to India to minister there at meetings
organized in the villages in Tamil Nadu. The Holy Spirit moved
mightily there and after the Word was preached, I asked for
people who were sick to come forward and I laid hands and
prayed for every one of them (I spent several hours). I saw instant
healings; pains---chronic and acute---leave them. Many came to
know the Lord in those meetings after the word was preached...
The youth were set on fire that night."

The measure of authority given to every witness can be compared
to the differing measure of talents that the Lord entrusts to each
believer according to his ability. If the witness is faithful in using his
measure of authority for winning souls, he or she will receive more
authority and will be able to do greater works. However, if he is
“afraid” to use the authority to heal the sick for fear that “nothing
will happen,” that authority might be taken away.

In this model based on John 14:12, "ordinary" disciples of Christ
will preach the gospel and minister miraculous healing if desired
in low-budget, low-profile, relatively small (or even one-on-one)
meetings. When the listeners see the miracles and hear the gospel,
their hearts will be open to accepting Christ. The new believers will
be followed up or discipled by the concerned friend, family member,
business associate, or acquaintance who brings them to Christ at
the meeting. Such personal follow-up of new believers will be more
effective than the impersonal follow up after large mass crusades.
This kind of evangelism involving miraculous healings and the
demonstration of the Spirit's power is through ordinary disciples.

-William Lau.
Website- www.theelijahchallenge.org/
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