Silvania Machado

Silvania Machado is a Brazilian woman who some suggest has been used mightily by God to start a “revival” among God’s people. It is a  most unusual "revival" in that it is centered on gold dust. 

According to her own testimony, a miraculous oil oozes from her skin and gold dust appears on her arms and her hands, and even falls from her hair... a couple of handfuls...  (she says) during the day. She believes these appearances of gold dust on her body are a miracle from God.


Silvania, speaking Spanish to the crowds that gather to hear her tell her story, gives a very passionate testimony of healing that took place in her body that she says was wrecked with disease and pain. Speaking though her interpreter, pastor and personal friend, Ruth Heflin, Silvania claims that it was Jesus who healed her and set her free.Her husband too gives testimony saying that Silvania asked the Lord for a sign and even he was surprised that the sign he gave to her was that she excreted a mysterious oil from her body.

At first they did not believe that it was God made this “miracle,” so they asked God for another sign and the sign he gave was that gold dust covered her body. They tell the story of how Silvania was then covered in gold for forty days. Then they took to traveling around to tell people about the wonderful revival that God is doing and how Jesus healed her from the terrible things she was going through. She claims that  God healed her and gave her these miraculous signs and in order to bring revival to the dead church.

Such wondrous miracles and testimonies do get people very excited that God is being seen and felt and doing things in their midst.  Many believe that they are seeing proof of God working when they see such things as this.  Sylvania has visited churches in Canada and all across the USA and people were amazed as gold oozed from her pores and gold dust sprinkled from her hair onto their Bibles, ending up all over the floor.  People even reported that sometimes gold  in the form of filings miraculously appeared in their dental work.

On circuit in the late 1990’s, visiting many churches, including the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in Ontario Canada, (home of the Toronto Blessing and John Arnott.) reports abounded that many people were renewed in their faith because of it. God was doing a new thing.  People draw it with their own eyes, and it was exciting. However, something about it all was all quite strange.  First of all, if she had been blessed with all this gold, why did they need to pass the collection plate?  Some people were just a little bit suspicious.

Then on March 30, 1999, Christian Week, (a Canadian Newspaper,) reported that more than three hundred people at one of these functions had made a “claim that they had received gold or silver fillings or gold caps on their teeth.” It was quite a stir.  Immediately experts were brought in to see if the claims were for real. When experts analyzed the gold, it was found to be plastic. It was fake.

The apostle Peter didn’t have gold dust to sprinkle around and get attention. It was even he who said to the lame man, begging at the beautiful gate, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give thee, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!" (Acts 3:6) The healing was not about gold, it was about God, even though gold was perhaps the thing the man would have wanted to see. Peter didn’t pretend to have something he did not and neither did God; the healing from God through Peter was real.

Christians are told that in the end times, incredible sign’s, miracles, and wonders (Matthew 24:24) will be done with the intent of deceiving us all, everyone on earth,  and it will be easy for anyone to be deceived.  IT's not always easy to know the difference between gold and plastic when they both look the same. 

How does a person discern what is real from what is fake?  Well, first you have to know the real thing, in the case of God, you have to know the truth about God. It was Jesus who said something about truth being the things that will set you free, it is the only thing that will free one from lies and deception. 

 Seeing is not always reliable when it comes to believing, and all that glistens, is not really gold. 


Matthew 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.