Eli and Judy Arenas
In order to better understand where Eli and Judy are today in Christ you first need to understand where they came from. Judy was raised Catholic since childhood; however, her salvation came later in life as a direct result of God’s perfect gift of healing. At the age of 38, Judy was literally in the last minutes of her life from a cancerous brain tumor; she also had a tumor in her uterus. She told God, “If you want to take me; then take me.” Instead of death she immediately felt the physical stress in her body turn to perfect peace and rest. She was completely healed. The following week she waited to hear from the doctors the latest result of a brain scan. The doctor called her in person to tell her there was absolutely no sign of any tumor in her body or cancer in her brain. Her brain and body were perfect and whole. Rejoicing, she began to buy bibles for everyone and draw hearts everywhere she went. She told everyone what God’s love had done for her. While attending a service at Los Gatos Christian Church, she first prayed the prayer of salvation and has kept her eyes lifted up to her God ever since.
The opposite of Judy spiritually, Eli was not raised in any faith. He did not attend church and didn’t believe or disbelieve in God. Around the same time as Judy’s healing, Eli was teaching college courses. After class one day, he heard a voice saying, “Come.” Though not a religious person, there was a familiarity through seeing God in his wife and daughter. So when God called him to come, he didn’t react negatively to Him. Eli’s response to the call was, “OK, let’s see what you’ve got. Yes, let’s do this.”
When Eli got home after hearing the voice, he didn’t do much with it. Judy began watching Christian TV and videos. One day she was watching Charles and Frances Hunter’s show. Eli was walking by on his way out of the door when he stopped to watch Charles and Frances performing miracles. Eli looked at Judy and said, “I can do that.” Eli didn’t know how he knew, but he knew he could heal.
Judy began to want to go and see some of these people they were watching on TV. Eli still didn’t know or understand what a Christian even was, nor was he yet versed in the Word. Baptist, Catholic, Protestant; none of this meant anything to Eli.
The first event Eli and Judy went to was a Kenneth Copeland convention. While standing in line, Eli saw a woman walking by, and he said out loud, “That woman has a hole in her heart. How do I know that?” A video producer for a prominent Christian network standing next to them explained that was the spiritual gift of discernment. He still didn’t understand any of it, but he was doing it. About a month after seeing Kenneth Copeland, they saw Joyce Meyers. During the service, Eli saw fire swirling all around the ceiling of the room they were meeting in. He looked around and everyone else was calm so he thought okay, this must be normal. He assumed everyone was seeing what he was seeing. Next he saw the flames form a ball over Joyce’s head and then suddenly it came straight at him, shooting directly into him. The fire totally consumed Eli in that moment; baptizing him in fire. It was so powerful it made him suck in his breath. He reached out and grabbed the hand of the woman on one side and his wife’s hand on the other side. The woman began to scream, “I’m healed! I’m healed.” She had checked herself out of the hospital just hours before and came straight to Joyce Meyer’s.
God’s call upon his life and the immediate downloading of all the gifts of the Spirit, the power to heal, power to discern, words of knowledge, words of prophecy, etc. were all his without any previous religious or spiritual background. It is all by the Spirit and the grace of God.
A few years later, the church Eli and Judy were attending asked him to speak. He prepared for hours but when he reached the podium, God told him he couldn’t use any of the notes he had prepared. He said, “Okay, it’s on You.” That was when he learned to totally trust and rely upon God. He stood there for several minutes, not saying anything. Then it began to come out of him; he opened his mouth and the Spirit spoke through him. After the service numerous people approached him to tell him that what he had said was exactly what they needed that day. At that moment Eli learned something, if he had spoken the message he had prepared, it wouldn’t have been what the people needed. But because the Spirit spoke through him, it was exactly what people needed. From that day on Eli chose to continue to operate in that manner; he does not prepare for anything. He lets the Spirit tell him what He wants him to say. He is empowered, filled and led by the Holy Spirit in all things. When the Spirit speaks through us, it is always what is needed.
Eli’s whole Christian walk has been the same thing; listening to the Spirit and being immediately obedient. God’s Word says, “You know them by their fruits.” The Spirit speaks to him continuously and God continues taking him to new areas, to new heights. He has continued, over the past thirty years, to follow the Spirit by traveling to people's houses preaching the gospel and healing the sick. These travels take him all over the world from city to city, state to state, country to country.