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The work of Elisha, part 13

On January 4, 2010, Phil Hess and I drove to Pensacola, Florida to hear David Hogan speak. Since my wife was unable to come on this trip, it was good to have company. Phil and I became friends when I was in the first grade in the mission school in the Philippines. I have known him longer than anyone, except for my wife. (I first met her when I was just three years old and she was a year and a half. I would have “robbed the cradle” then, but I was too young to make a clean get-away.)

It was a two-day trip to Pensacola. We spent much of the time reading about John G. Lake, one of the prominent healing evangelists in the early 1900’s during the Pentecostal outpouring. He set up “healing rooms” in Spokane, Washington, where about 100,000 people were healed of all sorts of diseases.  The Surgeon General in Washington D.C. later announced that Spokane was the healthiest city in the world, based on hospital and medical records at the time.

John G. Lake also spent time as a missionary in South Africa, and his life and ministry still impacts that country to this day. When I spent three weeks in South Africa in September 2008, I talked to many people whose grandparents had turned to Christ under Lake’s ministry.

Learning John G. Lake’s history prepared our hearts to hear David Hogan in Pensacola. Hogan, we knew was a missionary in Mexico. At the time (2010), he and his followers had raised about 500 people from the dead, in addition to countless “lesser” miracles. As a result, he and his team had established over 1000 churches to serve 100,000 new believers. He preaches the gospel in some of the most dangerous areas in Mexico.

John G. Lake’s Teaching

As Phil and I drove to Pensacola, it was confirmed to me through John G. Lake’s teaching that we would see the sixth sign of Elisha at these meetings. Here is a sample that inspired me to see the connection between the birth of the Shunnamite woman’s son and the meetings that we were about to attend:

“My understanding of this is that the ‘child’ being born today is not simply Jesus Christ, but His Body through whom He will bring about the second work of Christ. Though many have already walked in the power of this second work of Christ to some extent, what is coming is a greater fullness of Christ than has been seen before.

“The new birth has brought us into vital union with Jesus Christ. This thing I am teaching you about our union with God is not known in the great body of Christians. All they have is forgiveness of sin. There is no actual union with God. They do not know that the new birth is a real incarnation. They do not know that they are as much the sons and daughters of God Almighty as Jesus is. The great body of the Christian Church has no dominion, does not know it. They have the most befogged concept of what God has done and what God is to them, and what they are to God.

“Another step. That incarnation that God has given through the new birth has bestowed upon us the lost authority of the Garden of Eden. And only here and there has a man known it, or preached it, or dared to assume it.”

The words of John G. Lake summarized the meaning of the sixth sign of Elisha, and I knew from this that we would see its manifestation in Pensacola. I commented to Phil that David Hogan would use some biblical passage in his teaching that would indicate the birthing of a son and that this would trigger the sixth sign of Elisha.

The Sixth Sign of Elisha

The sixth sign, of course, was the prophetic promise to the Shunammite woman that she would have a son. We read in 2 Kings 4:15-17,

¹⁵ He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶ Then he said, “At this season next year you will embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God, do not lie to your maidservant.” ¹⁷ The woman conceived and bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her.

We arrived in Pensacola on the afternoon of January 6, 2010, and the first meeting began at 7:00 p.m. that same evening. There was a lengthy time of praise and worship before David Hogan finally began to speak. The first thing he said was to announce his text: Isaiah 9:6, 7,

⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it and to establish with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

I nudged Phil, who was sitting next to me. “This is it,” I whispered. I looked at my watch. The time was 9:06 p.m. when Isaiah 9:6 was read.

In the Pensacola meetings, David Hogan told a story of one community of believers who were called out one night by about 200 soldiers who were sent to kill them if they did not deny Christ. The believers were lined up in front of the soldiers threatening them, but they refused to deny Christ. So the soldiers fired their rifles, emptying their clips, but none of the believers were struck by the bullets. The bullets simply fell to the ground in front of them.

Hogan said that 175 of those soldiers were then evangelizing Mexico.

In another incident, a wild pig (javelina) attacked and pushed a believer over a 120-foot cliff. He landed on his back, splitting open his head and breaking nearly every bone in his body. His son ran to him and called him back by name. He awoke and started breathing, but he was still a physical wreck. It was a three-hour drive to the nearest hospital, and when they arrived, the hospital refused to treat him. His case was hopeless.

Nonetheless, within a few weeks he was fully healed and continued to preach the gospel.

The Impartation

During the second evening meeting (January 7), David Hogan imparted Isaiah 9:6, 7 to those who expressed that desire. Both Phil and I stood in line to receive this sonship blessing. By this time, we understood the prophetic significance of the sixth sign, and we wanted it. This was what we had come to receive.

Of course, we know that we received it not only for ourselves but for all who are part of the same body of Christ. The principle of unity tells us that if any part of the body is blessed, the whole body is blessed. Though there are many individual members in a body, they are all one body. Hence, when one’s forehead is anointed, the whole body is anointed.

So no one needs to think that they were left out. We are all one body, and what Phil and I received by faith, all of you received an equal part in this.

We arrived home on January 10, 2010.