What possessed a church to put up a sign like this in a cynical and cold world, especially in Los Angeles?  But is that right?  Is it right to offer hope to those who medical science cannot help?  Is it right to raise expectations to those who have given up on everything else?

What is up with this sign? Is it right to offer  miracle healing to a skeptical public?

By Mario Murillo 

When that young campus radical put his hands on my throat, I know, neither he, nor I, understood the rage in his hands.  Evil understood clearly what was at stake.  It knows the souls that can be saved, and the bodies that would be healed, if any miracle ministry, anywhere, is born.

In a moment, i’ll explain why my mind races back to that fateful day in Berkeley.

All afternoon I paced and prayed on the hillside above the campus of 44,000 students.  Two violent forces were colliding within me.  The burning question?  How do I reach a generation of students bent on Marxist revolution?  What reminded me of that day?   The fact that we now dealing with a generation that is, once again, bent on Marxist revolution.

On that hill, so many years ago, one inner voice argued that I must study the great modern apologists of the faith.  I should immerse myself in Francis Schaeffer, C.S. Lewis, and G.K. Chesterton.   The other voice said simply, “it is not by might nor by power but by my spirit.”

That night I would get my answer–emphatically.   It happened in front of the Student Union Building of Cal Berkeley at about 11PM.   I was sharing my “apologetic faith” with a flower child.  In the darkness, I could not see the angry radical who was stealing up behind me.

This atheist Goliath grabbed me by the neck and proceeded to choke the life out of me. Now the words of great Christian intellectuals were useless.  There was a demon fueling his rage.

God ordered me to take my stand in the power of the Spirit. In my own faltering way I did.   My assailant suddenly stopped and stood stunned by something behind me in the shadows.  To this day I do not know what startled him, I only know that I ran, and as I ran I affirmed my commitment to the Supernatural Gospel of Christ.

That what when we began telling people they could come and be healed.  But is that right?  Is it right to offer hope to those who medical science cannot help?  Is it right to raise expectations to those who have given up on everything else?

The world began to change when Jesus stood and read these words from the book of Isaiah:  Luke 4: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

1. He was hanging out a shingle:   When you start a business you do what is called hanging out a shingle.    A Shingle is a small signboard that indicates a professional office. The world began to change when Jesus stood and read these words.

He was announcing the start and the content of His miracle ministry and He did it publicly.   Here are 6 targets of His ministry:

Give good news to the poor.

Heal the broken hearted.

Proclaim liberty to the captives.

Recovery of sight to the blind.

To set at liberty those who are oppressed.

To declare the time of God’s favor.

2.  He announces by what authority He is announcing this.

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  What an astounding statement that is!   Every Jew knew that verse.  Everyone in Israel has been waiting for that verse to be fulfilled and Jesus flat out says that He is fulfilling it. Talk about raising the hopes of the people!

Yet it is right that He does this so that the miracles can be released.  And that is precisely what the Church of Jesus should do.  We must go public about the resurrection of Jesus did to the works of Satan and all of the benefits of the Gospel.

3.  God was with Him in this project. Acts 10:38 says, “Jesus went about doing good healing all who were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him.  Jesus was not acting on His own initiative.

Likewise, we are the continuation of Christ’s war on the works of Satan.  We too must make a public announcement, we must set the time and the place that the Holy Spirit has designated for the supernatural to appear.

Having settled the question in Berkeley we announced our first healing rally.  I was such a newbie that I stood in front of the audience frozen in fear.  What I did not know yet is that God rewards those who show up for war.

In the crowd was a young man lying unconscious on a couch at the back of the chapel.  He had shot a mixture of LSD and Heroin and it made him comatose.   Supernaturally, he woke up and his symptoms vanished.   He came to the front and knelt in utter adoration of God.   This single healing launched ten years of harvest on that university campus.

So today I am in prayer because we have gone very public in the Inland Empire of Southern California.  Thousands of card invitations have been given directly to the public and they plainly state that miracles will happen in the meetings.

If this was a human endeavor I would be panicking right now instead I am clothed with a divine peace.  Nothing man can say or do will be able to undo the conviction that I feel that this is a God event.

Let Church leadership everywhere listen from their heart.  If ever I knew that Jesus was trying to get a message through it is this:  Seek Him now.  Set a date at His bidding.  Prepare your people for signs and wonders.  Vow to give all glory to God.  Invite to public to come and see the awesomeness of our God!