This article teaches that “Deliverance is the most misunderstood and the least practiced. Where deliverance is practiced, there is revival… If revival is accompanied by deliverance, it is more likely to be sustained.”
For example, Argentina has been in a continual revival since 1984 (28 years). “Carlos Annacondia incorporates deliverance in his campaigns by coming after the satanic so they manifest. Then stretcher bearers pick the people up… take them to a tent where there are chairs in groups of 3 for two counselors per person who lead them to Jesus, then deliver them.” New converts are taken on a 3-day retreat to teach them what has happened to them, basic doctrines, etc.
Statistics from November 1998: Peru- a protestant church is planted every 8 hours Rio de Janeiro,Brazil- an new church is created every day Argentina- today in Argentina there are cities where it is difficult for sinners to go to hell because the Church has learned how to pastor entire cities.
Carlos Annacondia and the Argentine Revivial: http://canecreekchurch.org/index.php/what-is-your-legacy/7-carlos-annacondia-and-the-argentine-revival
“The on-going Argentinean revival is acknowledged to be the “headwaters of revival” that spilled over to other pockets of the world likeToronto and Pensacola, Florida- revivals that have… sizzled out. The Argentine revival is showing no signs of fading since Carlos Annacondia first exploded on the scene with revival fire in 1982. The continuing impact of his ministry, along with others like Claudio Freidzon, is still being felt…”
Prior to 1982 Argentineans were gripped by the state’s traditional church which had been infused with idolatry and the occult, namely Roman Catholicism and voodoo. “Due to the influence of voodoo and pagan ritualistic practices of the State religion, the nation was already demonized to a degree.” In the case of Pastor Carlos “in spite of professing the Roman Catholic religion… Indeed I was for all intents and purposes… a Christian atheist who did not seek God personally, even though I professed to believe in Him.”
In 1981 Pastor Carlos began his ministry among the very poor. “satanic control had its headquarters in Argentina.” After his preaching, Carlos would then rebuke the devil, “Listen to me, satan! In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I command you to lose the captives, now! A wave of God would move over the crowd and evil spirits would instantly manifest themselves as authority over the devil was imposed in Jesus’ name. Those who needed deliverance were immediately taken to a tent called by some the Spiritual Care Tent.”
“What sets this on-going revival apart from any other is the understanding of spiritual warfare which gets to the root of the problem instead of dealing with symptoms.” A visiting pastor who had been investigating everything about revivals and their flaws including Finney, Moody, Wesley and others asked Pastor Carlos why revivals stop and why the Argentinean revival is still on-going? Pastor Carlos answered:
“If there are two boxers in a ring, one attacks and the other defends himself. When the one attacking stops, the one defending himself will start to attack. The same happens with the church in her struggle with satan.”
Argentina Revival by Peter Wagner http://www.openheaven.com/library/history/argentina.htm
Argentina was once the world’s tenth strongest economic power and was the jewel of South America, peaking during the reign of Juan Domingo Peron during the 1950’s and 1960’s. However “in the early 1970’s, Peron linked up with a powerful occult practitioner Jose Lopez Rega known popularly as ‘el brujo’ (the warlock). Lopez Rega served under Peron as social welfare minister and after Peron’s death [imagine that – not an accident] in 1974 [Lopez Rega] became the chief advisor to the wife Isabel Peron during her two years as president. [Lopez Rega] erected a public monument to witchcraft (since dismantled), and is said by many to have publicly cursed the nation when he lost power with the military coup of 1976.”
Thereafter, spiritism principally from Brazil began to flood the nation. Military rulers secretly killed 8,000 “political suspects” who “disappeared” but the bodies are now being found in mass graves. Thus, Argentina once the 10th strongest economic power fell to 10th from the bottom as the power of witchcraft continued to escalate and false cults such as Mormonism experienced rapid growth.
The churches experiencing God’s power understand that spiritual warfare is paramount and have intercessors on their knees for the duration of the church services (as well as before and after the church services). Argentine leader Edgardo Silvoso of Harvest Evangelism explains “If there is one dominant element that has emerged in the theology and methodology of evangelism in Argentina, I would say it is spiritual warfare… Silvoso contends that understanding this allows Argentine evangelists to get to the root of the problem instead of dealing merely with symptoms.”
Example, Eduardo Lorenzo the National Director of Harvest Evangelism in Argentina pastors Adrogue Baptist Church and upon casting a demon out of a woman in the early 1980’s the church later came under attack by the devil who sent “A new woman who professed Christ [but] was soon discovered to be an undercover agent sent by the enemy… satan was counterattacking. Through a prolonged process of prayer, ministry and discernment, Lorenzo and his leaders finally identified the chief prince over Adrogue… They took authority over the territorial spirit” forcing the evil spirit to leave and starting in 1987 the church began to grow.
This begs the question – what makes the pastors in Argentina and Carlos Annacondia in particular different? “The major difference is Carlos Annacondia’s intentional, premeditated, high energy approach to spiritual warfare. I have never observed a crusade evangelist who is as publicly aggressive in confronting evil spirits as Annacondia. With a high-volume, high energy, prolonged challenge he actually taunts the spirits until they manifest in one way or another. A permanent fixture of Annacondia’s crusades is what has to be one of the most sophisticated and massive deliverance ministries anywhere… literally hundreds of individuals are delivered from demons… the 150-foot deliverance tent, erected behind the speaker’s platform is in operation from 8pm to 4am each night.”
The additional things that Carlos does that ARE NOT different from traditional crusade evangelists include: 1. Secure a broad base of support from pastors in the target area (similar to Billy Graham and Luis Palau) 2. No formal academic theological training (similar to Dwight Moody and Billy Sunday) 3. Crusade meetings feature miracles, healings and deliverance from evil spirits (like Reinhard Bonnke and T.L. Osborne) 4. Open air, three hour services with on-the-spot intercessors praying for the ministry 5. A simple gospel message 6. Invitation to come forward to receive Christ as Lord and Savior 7. Trained counselors lead them to Christ and give them literature 8. Collect names and address to invite them to a local church
Example, Pastor Pablo Prokopchuk’s church “plateaued at 30 members for years before Annacondia came. After Annacondia left, his church persuaded him to hold a local church evangelistic crusade. ‘I do not have the gift of evangelist he protested.’ The lay leaders responded saying ‘You preach and we will pray that God gives you the gift of evangelist!’ Then Prokopchuk felt an inner voice saying ‘Try it the way Annacondia does it!’ Although it was not part of his Baptist tradition, he began challenging the spirits and praying against them. He gave the invitation again… people actually ran up front to receive Christ. He now has 900 in his central church with 2,100 others attending satellite congregations around the city… He has been ‘doing it like Annacondia’ ever since.” Argentine Revival – Claudio Freidzon http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/journal12/12c.htm
In 1985, pastor Claudio Freidzon received a vision from God Almighty to do ministry in similar fashion as Carlos Annacondia but in an Argentina location controlled by an evil man Sergio Marquet “the Frenchman.” After some time, the area was won over to Christ and “the Frenchman” was saved and later became an assistant pastor to Claudio Freidzon.
In 1992, pastor Claudio Freidzon was challenged to spend more time “listening to the Holy Spirit” which changed his life as he made effort “to know the Holy Spirit more and more, and to be guided by Him.” Without any promoting of what was happening at pastor Claudio Freidzon’s church, people and pastors came to be refreshed – some laid on the floor under the presence of God for hours, others cried, others left “drunk” in the Holy Spirit, and news began to spread over the radio and television.
Pastor Claudio rented an indoor stadium seating 6,000 to accommodate the large crowds that came. Crowds continued to come, so Pastor Claudio held two services per day with 15,000 in each service (30,000 per day), and another 25,000 were unable to enter the facility. So, Pastor Claudio used the soccer stadium on 4/9/1993 with over 65,000 in attendance. Pastor Claudio had learned from Carlos Annacondia and the Holy Spirit.
Carlos Annacondia is credited with launching the Argentina revival. According to Pastor Carlos we Christians “love to have power… need his power… but we want to have his power and keep our own ways.” God is saying “I will give you power, I will use you, I will bless you… but you must be holy.” The exhortation is “if we start to search for the… blessed Holy Ghost, if we come close to Him and He becomes our friend and our master, our companion and our Lord, we will have all what He is.”
One testimony included native Indian tribes in Argentina who lived on a barren land on which nothing would grow except a few weeds. Handfuls of the barren dirt were taken to the church who laid hands on the bag of barren dirt. The barren dirt was taken back and spread all over the area. The barren land was healed and started producing crops because God had healed the barren land.
Rick Hollman Phone: 402-896-3760 House Church Ministries For Jesus Email: HollmanInsuranceGroup@Cox.Net 5605 Blackwell Drive, Omaha NE 68137 Web: www.HCMFJ.Com