CAUSE prayer

Argentina Revival

I recently went on a two-week mission trip to Argentina. The purpose in going was to experience first hand the revival I have heard so much about.

After a few days of the first week I was wondering why I was there. I was not seeing the hundreds of souls coming to the Lord as I had expected or the large stadium events and crusades.

Argentina Revival Was Not What I Had Expected

Part way through the first week I saw the revival. I saw it in the sparkle of the eyes of the people in the churches and the hope and the belief in their hearts. They had belief in prayer and there was much prayer preceding our coming as well as while we were there.

Over and over I heard the comment from the people from the different churches saying “Our pastors have a plan from God.” It was not just one pastor but many pastors coming together in unity and purpose to advance God’s kingdom and to transform their city to exhibit the characteristics of God.

The Outreach Strategy in the Argentina Revival

The pastors had the city broken into zones with the individual churches within a zone responsible for covering the area with prayer, for discipleship training of their members and for reaching out to the unsaved people in the area.

The churches would work together in unity to conduct prayer fairs in different parts of their zone.

At the prayer fairs there would be individual prayer stations set up to pray for specific needs dealing with jobs, families, witchcraft, healing, marriages, abuse and miracles.

Many, many non-Christian people from the area would come to the prayer fair and get in line to be prayed for.

I was praying at the station for healing and would pray in English because I don’t speak Spanish. Some times there would be an interpreter but most of the time not. Even though I could not be understood, people would fall down, would weep and sob and would claim healing. Workers from the churches would then ask the people if they wanted to know the Jesus that we knew.

God Touching People Who Could Not Even Understand Me

At another time I was working with two young teenagers who could speak just a little English and understand me if I spoke slowly. We were on a very busy street corner in a zone that had received very heavy prayer coverage. The girls would hand out a flyer inviting people to a prayer fair then ask if they would like for me, the American with them, to pray a blessing over them.

I prayed for about 25 or 30 people in a two hour period. Even though these people on the street couldn’t understand me, they would weep and sob and fall down; then the girls would ask them if they would like to know the Jesus that we knew.

On a street corner!!!!! Now that is the Argentina revival!

2,000 Salvations – The Argentina Revival!!!

The mission team I was with was actually in the streets working only eight days but there were over 2,000 salvations recorded on paper with names, address and phone numbers.

“0” Salvations In Un-prayed For Zones

Not all the zones we went into had been prayed for and in those zones not prayed for we could hardly even talk to people, let alone talk to them about the Lord. Our main task in those zones was to help cover the area with prayer to prepare the way for a future harvest.

The Argentina revival requires being in the presence of God – ABIDING IN CHRIST!!

 

Vital Lessons For America From The Argentina Revival

Some of the most important things I have returned to America with from this Argentina mission trip can be summarized as follows:

1. Revival is hard work. It does not just happen. It takes pastors and leaders first seeking the will of the Lord and being willing to set aside personal agendas to follow what the Lord leads for the Body of Christ in unity with other pastors. It also takes pastors and leaders who know how to disciple believers.

The leaders must abide in Christ and lead the way for the people.

2. There is tremendous hope for America. Pastors and leaders are coming together across our land. I believe the Lord desires Revival for our country even more than we do and will begin to transform America when we learn what many of the Argentines have learned which is expressed in number 3 below.

3. Prayer works when it is done by believing Christians

(a) who understand the need to submit to the Lord and understand that the eternal purpose of God is that Jesus must have preeminence in everything,

(b) who understand that all the work we do for the kingdom must be conceived by God to be effective, and not by man,

(c) who understand that all work for the Lord must depend upon the power of the Lord to be effective and not upon the natural ability of man,

(d) who understand that the end and objective of all work, whether revival or other work to which God will commit Himself on our behalf, must be for His glory alone and that we are to get nothing at all from it.

When these above four issues are truly settled in our heart then all of hell has to recognize the authority that we walk in. The people and leaders in the Argentina revival have learned this.

4. With proper discipleship, even new believers are able to operate in the authority of prayer.

5. The work is grueling and you have to prepare, then go outside the four walls of the church to where the people are.

6. Our task is to know the Commander Jesus Christ – not so much to follow the Commander’s plan but to know Him intimately.

7. We must believe that God wants the non-Christians to come to know Him and that He will supply all power, fire, anointing, strategy, signs, wonders and healings to do this through us.

8. In our sphere of influence we can walk in spiritual authority and see the same kind of signs, wonders, miracles and healings as in the Argentina revival if we believe and will accept and walk and work in that authority, expecting God to do what He has promised to do.

9. Pastors in Argentina still pastor their own churches. A core group of pastors have come together in unity as the Body of Christ to plan strategically together, in the presence of the Lord, to reach their city. They have a view that there is only one church in the city with one shepherd who is Jesus Christ, but individual congregations are still individual and denominational. As the Body of Christ working in unity, they share a joint vision for the non-Christians and have a joint strategy to reach them, and a joint vision to transform their city.

10. Revival in Argentina is first in the heart of the individual then in the heart of the people then one on one outside the church.

11. In America, when we do pray with authority we most often have not spent the time with the Lord to know what to do. We expect the Lord to do it all for us. The Lord does it all; however, the thing we don’t always internalize is that the Lord does it through us as we yield to Him as His vessels. But we must spend time with Him intimately for Him to reveal to us the steps He wants to take through us.

12. I did things in Argentina I never thought I would or could do. I prayed blessings for people and I prayed for the personal needs of people in busy public places, people that were non-Christians. People sobbed and wept and claimed healing. This was not me, it was the power of the Lord ministering to those people. I prayed in English which they could not understand, so I was just along for the ride and being a vessel through which the Lord moved to minister to those particular people whom he loved.

13. In America, we do not allow Christ to move through us often enough. We have not settled within ourselves the four issues expressed above in number three. Rather we allow fear of rejection, fear of what others will think, and/or fear of failure to work in us. We also do not give the time in intimacy with the Lord so that He can show us what we should do or say or where we should go.

14. We must abide in Christ first then He will send us to work