In February 2004, in lower Asaro territory, on the other side of
Goroka from here, but still in the Eastern Highlands Province, something
special happened. A local Assemblies of God pastor named Joseph
was holding evangelistic meetings at a local elementary school yard. Only
a handful of people showed up, and he was preaching the Gospel. Suddenly,
he felt the anointing of the Holy Spirit come on him in an unusual way.
He then saw a group of people carrying a coffin through that area. The
man had been dead three days, and they were about to bury him. Pastor
Joseph used the microphone and called them up to put the coffin on the
stage. They did, and Pastor Joseph kicked the coffin so hard that
he broke the side of the coffin, popped the lid off, and split
open the toe of his own boot. He looked into the coffin and commanded
the man to get up in Jesus’ Name. The man instantly sat bolt upright.
This scared the people around him, and they ran away.
Pastor Joseph asked the resurrected man if he was alright, and he said
that he was. He then asked if he went to Heaven or Hell. The man replied
“No, I was on the way down when you called me.”
“Then you need to repent,” Pastor Joseph replied, and the man
prayed to ask Jesus into his heart right then and there. Pastor Joseph
then asked the man to go back to his village and invite people to the
next day’s evangelistic meetings. They came. There were about 3,000
people there to hear the Gospel the next day, and hundreds were
saved.
As Pastor Joseph was praying for the people who came forward to
receive Jesus Christ as their Saviour, the Holy Spirit told him that
there were three witches (sanguma meri) in the prayer line who
were there to challenge God’s power. Pastor Joseph told them this,
and they fell backwards to the ground, and he said that he saw something like flying
foxes (a very large kind of bat) fleeing their bellies. Those ladies
were delivered and saved gloriously by the power of God!
This report of resurrection, deliverance, and salvation from Pastor
Joseph comes to me through my neighbor, John Kenea, who assures me that
it is true.
For the story of another contemporary resurrection, see the Raised from the Dead video.