December 20, 2009

“Raised from the Dead”                                      www.churchreleased.com 

Over the last few months I have been thinking about people being raised from the dead. I have observed first hand many healings as I have prayed for the sick. This has resulted in a rapid church growth in the area concerned, Quezon City, the Philippines. One of the people we have been praying for Alexander was rushed to hospital recently. Before he went they rang the pastor and said “Alexander is dead.” The pastor told them to bring him to his house. They prayed and he started breathing. The pastor told me “He had no pulse and was black”  Now, I was not there but I have seen this church planted in the area where the flood hit the Philippines real bad, grow to over 100 people in five weeks. There has been amazing healings.

There are stories of restored marriages, healings, salvations.

In Matthew chapter 4v23-25 we see how Jesus “Preached the gospel of the kingdom” and “healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people”

This led to “great multitudes followed Him.” The news travelled. After Jesus healed and set free the news spread. He doesn’t need Christian TV or the Internet. When Jesus moves people are moved.

Signs and wonders follow the preaching of the gospel.

All around the world people are being raised form the dead. There is an increase in the miraculous. It seems the West is being left behind in this. I believe I will personally see the dead raised. It is for the glory of the Lord alone. Many places where this is happening it has become common practice.

Here are two articles and a report on a Summit in India that you will find encouraging;

MIRACLES SEEN IN CHINA REVIVAL

A leader from the house church movement in Henan Province reports on the continued remarkable work of God in China

The things we are seeing now are beyond anything we ever saw or even thought possible. For example, during 'Gospel Month' - a time when we ask every believer to lead at least one person to Christ - there were 120,000 conversions in Henan alone.

God worked with us, confirming the word with signs and wonders. Without these miracles, man alone would not be able to accomplish anything.

Three sisters went to Xinyue District in Henan to evangelise, and after seven days of ministry 1,100 people repented and were saved.

It was as if there was fire in their hands, for whoever they laid their hands on, they immediately experienced a 'burning' sensation all throughout their body.

As these three sisters were evangelising, a man came up to them and began to curse them. However, they paid no attention to him.

After a long time others came to the sisters and said, 'Why is it you show compassion to this man, even though he is cursing you?'

As soon as they said this the man collapsed and died. It caused great awe and reverence toward the Lord in the crowd of people who witnessed this judgment of God.

Many repented and accepted Jesus. In previous years when missionaries worked here, they didn't see such numbers converted even after several dozen years. We sense now that this is the time for the Holy Spirit to mightily work through us.

Though there are many difficulties in open street evangelism here, during the Chinese New Year festivals it is easier to go out into the open to preach the gospel.

A whole group of sisters were preaching when some police officials suddenly appeared.

One stretched out his hand toward the sisters and shouted, 'Arrest them!'

However, immediately his arm turned stiff in its stretched out position and he was not able to put it down or retract it. He went back to the police station and in desperation asked, 'What can I do?' Someone said, 'You must find a Christian to pray for you.

Therefore they invited our preachers to the police station to pray for him, and when they did, he was healed!

They then preached to the police and many of them accepted the Lord.

Previously, during our open air meetings, few people would pay any attention. Now, everywhere when we go out with our tambourines and other instruments to share about Jesus, crowds of people stop everything they are doing to attend our meetings.

As we preach, many cry out, 'We have never heard such good news in all our lives. Why has nobody told us this before?'

The people forget about all their plans and activities and remain for hours to listen to the gospel. It is truly the fire of the Holy Spirit burning in our midst.

This article has been extracted from Revival Fires, available online from the Jesus People Shop.
Source: Revival Christian Church, Hong Kong.

GUEST BIO

Jim Rutz: The 'Megashift' of the Worldwide Church

CBN.com – THE GAME HAS CHANGED
For 40 years Jim has been documenting an astounding phenomenon – the underreported explosive growth of the church worldwide.

 “Predominant power has suddenly shifted into the hands of us nobodies,” Jim says.

The Lord is working quietly, continually, and spectacularly. God has brought people back from the dead in 52 countries, mostly in the last 10 years. All documented – many through people Jim personally knows.

God has many ways of resurrecting the dead: At a Reinhard Bonnke meeting in Nigeria, Daniel Ekechukwu, dead for two days, was brought to the lower level of the meeting in his casket. He’d already been injected with preservatives when his wife brought him there. Cameras were rolling when life came back into his body, and he rose up. This miracle was featured on The 700 Club in May 2002.

In Duad-India, Manu and other church members of the Indian Pentecostal Church in Dunger, Northern India, simply prayed in Jesus’ name and placed their Bibles on the body of a six-year-old boy who was near to being buried -- whereupon he opened his eyes.

One missionary in Guatemala read all of Isaiah 53 over and over to a circle of Indians silently mourning the death of a boy until he came back.

Arjun Dass of Delhi, India, was electrocuted in April 2001. A team of five led by Savitri prayed for him, and God resurrected him 10 hours after his death.

One Chinese church leader Wang Xin Cai, who’d been imprisoned for 13 years for his faith, was meeting with seven other leaders to unify the Chinese church. Just prior to leaving for the meeting, his three-year-old daughter fell three stories and cracked her skull. He picked up her remains and laid her on the couch. Brokenhearted and weary, he told God that if this unity meeting was of Him, He had to heal his daughter. It was too tough otherwise. He returned home the first day and her skull was back together; the second day she was breathing; the third day when church unity was reached, he arrived home to a healthy, bubbling baby girl.

THE POWER HAS SHIFTED
Jim says time is up; God is taking over. In 1960 there were 24 nonbelievers for every believer in the world. Now there are only six. There are many testimonies of the Lord Himself appearing to Muslims in visions and dreams. In 1960, even the strongest part of the church was growing slowly as the rest of the world. Now we are growing almost seven times as fast. “When I was a kid in Sunday School, I was really impressed that 3,000 people were saved on the Day of Pentecost,” he says. Now that happens around the globe every 25 minutes. That adds up fast. By tomorrow, there will be 175,000 more Christians than there are today in 238 nations around the world. At a 2000 Reinhard Bonnke meeting in Lagos, Nigeria, 3,400,000 registered decisions for Christ of the six million that came. Campus Crusade for Christ estimates we’ll see a billion new converts in the next 10 years.

Any way you look at it, the Kingdom is expanding at a heart-pounding rate. From 1970 to 2000, core apostolics doubled every nine years. From our vantage point in Europe and North America, where church membership is going nowhere, these numbers sound fantastical. This is the biggest megashift in history.

 A 30-year-old farmer lives in the flat part of China – all the better to see the police coming from a long way off. This gives him ample time to take his prayer list off the wall and hide his cell phone – his gift of technology. When asked, the interpreter thought he’d misunderstood the farmer when he said he had 30,000 Christian workers in his church network. Through these missionaries he ministered to an astounding eight million believers. This number pales in comparison to those of “The Heavenly Man,” known as Brother Yun, who provides leadership for China’s largest network of house churches, totaling 60 million. In his best conservative estimate, Jim says we are looking at a dedicated Spiritual Army of 707 million missionaries. How is the enemy going to stop that Army?

Recently a Summit was held in India. Here are some highlights reported at the summit.

Global House Church Summit India      11th to 14th November 2009

Keynote sessions

Filling the Earth with God's Glory – Robin John

Robin believed it was providential that the summit should be gathered in India at the time when such a quantum leap in fruitfulness of the Indian house church movement was being seen: over 300,000 new believers were baptised by one group of networks on the day of Pentecost, May 31 2009. The movement has seen many miracles including even the raising from the dead.

“The Chinese model during the persecution was the longest lasting revival in the history of the church. There were no missionaries, dollars, sacred buildings, pastors, Sunday service, tithing or even Bibles. There was Body Ministry, where the saints prayed and ministered to each other, quietly under the radar. No wonder the church grew exponentially from one million to 100 million. India has adopted many of the best practices of the then Chinese model and is experiencing similar growth and

multiplication.”   Victor Choudhrie

Several speakers including Randeep Matthews and Anuroop Swami whose combined networks baptised over 80,000 believers on 31 May 2009.

India – More than 300,000 new Christians were baptized on 31st May 2009 (Day of Pentecost) by one group of networks alone.

Myanmar – One network was represented, which has grown from 20 simple churches and 63 believers in 2005, to 6119 simple churches and 23,159 believers in 2009. The network suffered hugely during cyclone Nagis in May 2008, when more than 1600 believers belonging to 400 churches perished. Despite this huge loss and the grief it must have caused, the network has almost doubled since the cyclone.

Zambia

The Zambia movement has been particularly blessed, with over 1000 churches planted, and major impact on quality of life for the poor by application of Holy-Spirit-revealed, Kingdom principles.

Information on this summit;

“More information, papers and reports are available at                                           www.222foundation.org                                                                

Full collected papers and reports by email can be requested from This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it stating “please send Summit papers” in the subject line. Yellow highlights indicate the paper or report available to supplement information given in this report.”

I was in Mae Sai, Thailand and spoke at a bible school where students were from Myanmar, going to plant churches there.

Amazing things happening all round the world. The dead are being raised, not in areas where they have 5 cameras on it and sell the DVD’s afterwards. Just humble, loving, obedient, ordinary people like you and me. Don’t you find that encouraging?

It’s time to “Go and bear fruit”.

Matthew

Church Released Ministries

www.churchreleased.com