“The revival and the Holy Spirit of God have no age limits.  Children, in Argentina, at the age of seven and eight enter into hospitals lay hands on the sick, and they are healed.”
                                                            -Revival News-

Testimony from the Argentine Revival:
Steve Hill, world- wide evangelist, Christian author, and evangelist at the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida:
"It was 1984, Jeri (Steve's wife) and I were in Argentina...for over ten years in America God had been using us  to cast out demons, pray healing for the sick and bring salvation to the lost...we were thrilled when a friend invited us to one of the mighty evangelistic crusades of Carlos Annacondia...we met Carlos who, after hearing of my deliverance from drugs, asked me to share with the crowd what God had done...the crowd numbered about 15,000.  Their roar of approval as my testimony was shared was invigorating...it was overwhelming...After I had finished a women rushed up to me, grabbed my hand and put it on her forehead...immediately she fell to the ground and lay motionless...others saw this...ran forward, grabbing my clothes, my arms, my legs.  I began laying hands on as many hungry souls as I could.  People fell everywhere.  It was chaotic.  A surge of spiritual energy swept through me like a raging river...I felt it was my finest hour...the crusade chairman came over ... (and) said, ‘You're causing a disturbance.  This is not the time to pray for people, we'll do that later.  Now is the time for the preaching of the Word of God.  Besides, our children can do what you are doing...Now, we would appreciate it if you would stop...Brother Annacondia is going to preach the Word.'
Sound humbling?  His words sure burst my bubble.  But God was starting a new chapter in my life.  True revival is much bigger than anything we can imagine.  We must be prepared to get out of the way and let God be God.  I had become stunted in my spiritual growth...Like the apostle Paul, Carlos then (preached) to them, not with lofty words, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power." (1 Corinthians 2:5)

Pastor Paul Bridle, Hi-Venture Ministries:
"(While in Argentina) we took in the evening service at "KING OF KINGS CHURCH"...All I can say is "WOW!!!"  We arrived at the end of the afternoon's service, listened to the sermon and watched the altar ministry for nearly 40 minutes, then entered for the third service.  Both services were standing room only in this nearly 1000 seat auditorium but the lobby area filled quickly with people waiting to get in.  We were provided with headsets to hear the sermon in English and it was wonderful.  The service was on fire!!!  It was the BEST worship service I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED!!!  Not because of the professionalism of the worship team but because of the passion of the people in the seats.  It ran for over two hours and well before it ended the lobby was filled with people for the FOURTH service!!  The presence of God was incredibly tangible and His power was overwhelming to many of our team including ME!!  What an amazing night.  What an amazing week!  What an amazing God!!

Inger J. Logelin, minister TGIF (Today God Is First):
"In 1990 evangelicals in Argentina numbered half of one percent, roughly 200,000 believers.  Today, a minimum of 10% of the population, or four million people, are born again, a 2000% growth.  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."

The on-going Argentinean revival is acknowledged to be the "headwaters of revival" that have spilled over to other pockets of the world like Toronto and Pensacola Florida: revivals that have eventually 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 throughout the past 26 years of revival.

Hugh open-air evangelistic campaigns by Carlos Annacondia have attracted widespread attention and they play an important role in the Argentine Revival.  Attendance figures are reaching record numbers and surprising events of the miraculous are taking place in these meetings: signs, wonders, healings and especially deliverances from the demonic.

Former businessman turned evangelist, Carlos Annacondia has been a key figure in the Argentine Revival.  Up to 1982 Argentineans were gripped by the ritualistic and sacramental religion of the State's traditional Church which had been infused with idolatry and the occult.  It was a mixture of Roman Catholicism and voodoo.  But during Annacondia's massive evangelistic campaigns, sinners typically run to the altar with up to two million believed to have made first-time decisions for Christ.  As few others have, Annacondia has transformed the life and ministry of the Church in an entire nation.

A descendant of European immigrants, his mother was Spanish and his father Italian descent, Carlos was born in the city of Quilmes, province of Buenos Aires on March 12, 1944.  He had two brothers and they, as a family, were not wealthy, but later Carlos opened his own business and became very successful.  In 1970 he married and was blessed with nine children.

By the time he was 35, his life consisted of nothing but the quest to make more and more money.  He would think if only he had a week-end house he would be happy and find peace in his heart.  When he finally got that house, he immediately began looking for a larger and more comfortable one.  He even bought an apartment in a resort city and still could not find the peace he was seeking.  The same was true of all the luxury cars he bought.  It was about this time he became increasingly concerned about the state of his life, and especially about the future of his children.  He had heard people speak of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.  But he thought that Jesus was for others and not for him.  His life was full of fear: fear of death, fear of losing everything he had achieved, and the fear that something evil might happen to his family.  It was in these fears that he came to meet the Lord Jesus. 

There was an evangelistic campaign in the city of San Justo in the province of Buenos Aires on May 19, 1979.  The preacher was Manuel A. Ruiz, a pastor from Panama.  Carlos stood in the back of the meeting room.  He had come, to the meeting, out of simple curiosity.  He wanted to know if God was as powerful as people said.  The sound system was not working very well but he experienced an "unmistakable encounter with God, an encounter that impacted me beyond measure.  The Holy Spirit touched me in a marvelous way that night." His life would never be the same; he was touched in a personal way.  Carlos would later write:
"I understood that I was a sinner in need of Him, that I had lived apart from God, in spite of professing the Roman Catholic religion.  Indeed, I was, for all intents and purposes, an atheist---a ‘Christian atheist' who did not seek God personally, even though I professed to believe in Him.  But God came upon me and overcame me that night."
In the back of the meeting room he began to cry.  His wife who was by his side also began to cry.  They both were unable to stop.  When the invitation was given they both ran to the front.  From that moment on God began to radically change his life and prepare him for the awesome ministry he had called him into. 

Deep in his heart, Carlos felt a desire to be an evangelist.  He began praying and studying the Bible and after a year and a half God opened an opportunity for evangelism for him.  It was 1981 and he held a series of meetings in a very poor slum area in the city of Bernal.  He had no idea what he was doing but was astonished to see how God was moving.  Carlos remembers:
"God's call to evangelistic ministry began the very moment I surrendered my life to Christ.  I am thankful that, from the beginning, I had the support and council of my pastor, Jorge Gomelski.  When I was a babe in Christ, God placed him in my life to disciple me and to teach me in His ways.  I had made a covenant with the Lord.  I promised to serve Him and, in exchange, I asked Him to give me what the world had promised but was never able to provide: peace, happiness, security and quietness.  All this God gave me from the moment I committed my life to Jesus Christ... some have actually come to regard me as a successful evangelist...it is by His grace alone."

His ministry began among the very poor, in very humble neighborhoods, where he would visit hospitals to pray for the sick.  While preaching in those lowly areas a friend of his received a prophecy for Carlos that was hard for the young evangelist to take seriously.  But God sees the finished product and what a product it was going to turn out to be.  The friend prophesied that Carlos would start a revival in Argentina, and that, starting from the southern part of South America, it would spread to the entire world.  Carlos did not dwell on that.  His calling from God, he said, was to preach to the poor and down-trodden.  Carlos, about this time, noticed that when he prayed for the sick they would be healed. No one was more astonished then he was at the wonders God was doing through him.  Hundreds would be set free from demonic oppression in the evangelistic meetings.   Ed Silvoso writes:
"The new converts, pouring into the local churches in record numbers, immediately affected the spiritual climate of those churches.  Through their dramatic testimonies they became living proof of the power of God over the power of the devil."
Due to the influence of voodoo and pagan ritualistic practices of the State religion, the nation was already demonized to a degree.  God used Annacondia to prepare the church to deal with it.  Carlos quickly realized that the promises in Scripture, of the signs that will follow believers, were true.  He would address the demons in people, in the name of Jesus, and they would flee. 

It was now 1982 and revival was breaking out.  One report states:
"The revival began in an evangelistic campaign in the context of intense spiritual warfare, and the key player, Carlos Annacondia, a relatively new believer who had more in common with the multitude of sinners around him than with the Church he had just joined."

Wherever Annacondia preached mass conversions were the norm.  At one campaign in Mar del Plata over 80,000 people converted to Christ with thousands delivered from demonic oppression.  The churches throughout the area were then packed with new congregants that many had to build larger facilities to house the influx of new souls. 

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."

The occult has always been prominent on the Caribbean Islands and throughout Mexico and the South American countries.  Satanic control had its headquarters in Argentina.  Is it any wonder that the Lord God used that ground to produce the longest and greatest revival of our time?  Deeply entrenched in some rituals of the Roman Catholic Church, the occult has multiplied through sects and new religious movements, especially among the spiritualist Afro-Brazilian cults and Afro-Caribbean cults and within most of the native religions of Latin America.   For too long the traditional church has stayed on the sidelines and watched, as mere spectators to this powerful satanic advance.  Carlos Annacondia knew the only way to put an end to the Umbana, Quimbanda, Macumba, spiritualism, Satanism, voodoo, sorcery, witchcraft, quackery, Santera, magic, divination and other forms of the occult, is with the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The true and effective answer to ending spiritual oppression is the power of the Name and the Blood of Jesus.
"During the first days of January 1985, I found myself in the midst of a multitude of people who were praising God with songs, clapping their hands and shouting, ‘Hallelujah!' and ‘Amen!'  The meeting was being held by Carlos Annacondia...I felt the presence of the Lord...was strong and very real...after preaching a simple message, the evangelist confronted the very devil himself, shouting, ‘And now, listen to me, Satan!  I come against you in the powerful name of Jesus of Nazareth!  I rebuke you, I bind you and I order you to get out of this place!  Out!  In the name of Jesus!  Loose the lives you have in bondage!  Now!... I actually felt my hairs standing on end, and my skin became as goose flesh.  But I also felt the powerful presence of God in that place in a very special way... I was impressed with the spiritual authority that Carlos was walking in...persons who manifested under demonic power were taken to a tent where they were ministered to by deliverance teams...What really got my attention were the testimonies of persons who affirmed that their teeth had been healed with new bridges or crowns or perfect fillings.  Being a good Plymouth Brethren, here was a phenomenon I had never heard of in my entire life... I could not fully believe what I was seeing and hearing!  But there I was, with my arms raised, ready to receive from God some blessing through His servant."
                                         -Pastor Pablo Bottari-

"In Argentina, we are experiencing a glorious visitation of God.  The presence of the Lord comes upon our meetings in a powerful manner.  We see miracles and supernatural manifestations.  Meetings will last four or five hours, and still nobody wants to leave because God is there.  We have allowed the Holy Spirit to take control of our worship services.  Praise and worship times are now fresh and spontaneous.  Leaving behind the religious routines and spiritual lukewarmness...all that matters is the presence of God."
             -Pastor Claudio Freidzon-

Is God's hand on the revival...see for yourself, as Carlos testifies:
"In 1992, I got together with eighty local churches to hold a big crusade in a northern province.  We asked several radio and television stations to sell us air time so we could broadcast our services live.  They all wanted an extreme amount of money.  More than we could ever imagine coming up with.  The team was discouraged.  So we decided to declare spiritual warfare, and we rebuked the devil, saying, ‘Satan move back.  We bind you in the name of Jesus.  Let go of the means of communication.  Go away strongman, you are defeated.'  We prayed for several days.  The day before the crusade, we got a call from a media executive saying they would sell us the air time at 30 percent less than what they quoted.  The FM radio station broadcast the crusade at no cost.  On Saturday more than ten different radio and television stations broadcast the service.  The first night, five minutes after the beginning of the broadcast, the television stations we had not contracted with had a technical problem and had to discontinue their regular programs.  The only thing that the entire city could watch that night was our crusade."  Thousands upon thousands were converted.

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.  United prayer evangelization has become a powerful key to the transforming of the society.  As people see dramatic answers to prayer, many come to the Lord.  The move of God there has also been characterized by a passion for the lost, and a networking among leaders.

Just recently these have been reports from the revival:
* After receiving Christ, the president of a political party invited Jesus to be head of his party.

*One of the most influential couples in the nation received the Lord and invited Jesus to be CEO of their
    business group.

*The founder, president and dean of a leading university gave their lives to Jesus.

*The speaker of the house in the most powerful provincial government received the Lord, giving all to
   Him.

In Argentina, these new believers did not just accept Jesus in their hearts, they also invited Him into their corporations, political parties, Congress and city hall, because they understand that salvation has come to their house, not just their soul.

The Argentine Revival shows no sign of abating.  The fire of revival is as hot today as it was in 1982.  Not too long ago, a German pastor sent a brother to Carlos Annacondia to ask him about this revival.  This brother had written many books.  He was now investigating everything about revivals and their flaws.  He spoke about Finney, Moody, Wesley, and others.  He wanted to find out from Carlos why revivals stop and why this revival is still on-going.  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.  When we are fighting for lost souls, what carries the battle on is our love for those lives.  When the church stops the devil attacks.  Now the church is on the defensive.  Don't ever lose your place of victory within the struggle!  Love for the lost produces revival.  When love ceases, revival does too.  He who has a passion for souls lives in an on-going revival."

Luke 10:18-20... And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."

Next Week:  John Hyde

JJ(Dark) D I Pietro
Cane Creek Church
http://www.canecreekchurch.org