Warfare Prayer By C. Peter Wagner. (Pt. 2)

C_HAPTER 1

FRONTLINE WARFARE

A

rent short lists of nations that have a special importance to me:

• Nations at this time experiencing the greatest outpour- ing of the power of the Spirit of God: China and Argentina
• Nations highest on my personal ministry agenda: Japan and Argentina
• Nations of the Third World that now offer specific con- tributions to Christianity in the Western world: South Korea on prayer and Argentina on spiritual warfare

Throughout the years, my wife, Doris, and I have made many ministry trips to Argentina to observe firsthand and par- ticipate in what amounts to a laboratory for relating strategic- level spiritual warfare to evangelism. For us, Argentina has been the front line in a highly significant experiment helping us to learn more about the spiritual dimensions of world evangelization.

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Three Levels of Spiritual Warfare

As I see the world picture unfolding, the year 1990 marked the beginning of a strong upsurge of interest across denominational lines in spiritual warfare, particularly what I like to call strategic-level spiritual warfare.

When all is said and done, there are probably many, many different discernable levels of spiritual warfare. At this point I will suggest three generalized levels for which there is a fairly broad consensus among Christian leaders who are specializing in this type of ministry. I realize that each one of the three will allow for several subdivisions, and that there will also be considerable overlapping around the rather fine lines that separate them. But I have found it helpful to distin- guish the following:

• Ground-Level Spiritual Warfare

This is the ministry of casting out demons. The first time Jesus sent out His 12 disciples, “...He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out...” (Matt. 10:1). When the 70, whom Jesus sent out in Luke 10, returned from their mission, they said with great joy, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name” (Luke 10:17). When Philip evangelized Samaria, “unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed” (Acts 8:7). All these are instances of ground- level spiritual warfare.

Ground-level spiritual warfare is the most common vari- ety we find in the New Testament, and it is the most common variety practiced by Christians today. Groups and individuals involved in “deliverance ministries” by and large are engaged in ground-level spiritual warfare. In modern times, we have seen a good bit of this in the United States, particularly among Pentecostals and Charismatics, and missionaries of all stripes have brought back stories of it from the mission fields. In parts

of the world such as India, most converts in some village churches have been delivered from evil spirits. Throughout lands such as China, Nepal, or Mozambique, effective evan- gelism is all but inconceivable without an accompanying min- istry of deliverance.

Most books in Christian bookstores on spiritual warfare deal with ground-level warfare. Although they are relatively new to some of us, deliverance ministries have been going on around us for some time, and a good number of Christian leaders (although not nearly enough in my opinion) have accumulated considerable expertise in the field.

• Occult-Level Spiritual Warfare

It seems evident that we see a kind of demonic power at work through shamans, New Age channelers, occult practi- tioners, witches and warlocks, satanist priests, fortune-tellers, and the like. This is substantially different from the ordinary demon, which may cause headaches, marital blowups, drunk- enness, or scoliosis. When the apostle Paul was in Philippi, a demonized fortune-teller annoyed him for many days until he finally cast the spirit out of her. This apparently was some- thing different from the ordinary demon because the event caused such a political commotion that the missionaries were jailed (see Acts 16:16-24).

Not too many years ago, Christians in the United States were fairly ignorant of this occult-level spiritual activity. Some did not even seem to pay a great deal of attention to Nancy and Ronald Reagan using an astrologer as a consultant for presidential-level decision-making in Washington.1 The fact that Governor Michael Dukakis had named a woman as offi- cial witch of the state of Massachusetts may not have been a major reason why evangelicals did not vote for him for presi- dent.2 Few at that time had much information about occult- level spiritual warfare.

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Excellent books such as Russell Chandler’s Understanding the New Age (Word Inc.), Paul McGuire’s Supernatural Faith in the New Age (Whitaker House), and Evangelizing the New Age (Servant Publications) are raising our level of consciousness and concern about occult-level spiritual warfare. The cover of the April 29, 1991, Christianity Today shows demonic power coming to earth from a full moon. Mark I. Bubeck’s The Satanic Revival (Here’s Life Publishers) documents much of what is happening in the United States and offers suggestions for Christian action.

• Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare

Here we contend with an even more ominous concentra- tion of demonic power: territorial spirits. In Ephesians Paul writes, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Nothing in this verse itself indicates that one or more of these categories would necessarily fit the

description of territorial spirits, but many, including myself, feel it is highly probable. (I will discuss this issue later in the book.)

A clear biblical account of strategic-level spiritual warfare is found in Revelation 12 where we are told, “War broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought” (Rev. 12:7). This is something quite different from dealing with Voodoo or casting out a demon of lust.

Undoubtedly, the single-most influential event that has stimulated interest in strategic-level spiritual warfare among American Christians was the publication of Frank Peretti’s two novels, This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness (Crossway Books). Many Christians who had scarcely given thought to the possibility that events shaping human society could have a relationship to struggles among powerful super- natural beings are now openly talking about the likelihood. In fact, even though they know better, many find themselves reading This Present Darkness as a documentary rather than as somewhat fanciful fiction.

The Focus of This Book

This book is about strategic-level spiritual warfare and the kind of prayer it requires (though it cannot be totally and cleanly separated from the other two kinds of spiritual war- fare). As readers of This Present Darkness will readily under- stand, the three levels are closely interrelated, and what happens on one level can and will affect what happens on other levels. In all probability I will find myself crossing the lines from time to time, but the emphasis will be on strategic- level or, as some call it, cosmic-level intercession.

I do not believe that we should see spiritual warfare as  an end in itself. In a valid sense, Jesus came to destroy the

works of the devil (see 1 John. 3:8), but this was only a means toward the end of seeking and saving that which was lost  (see Luke 19:10). Jesus mainly wanted to draw human beings back into fellowship with the Father, and He was willing to die on the cross so it could be possible. His focus was on peo- ple, and the devil was simply one of the obstacles, albeit the most formidable one, standing in the way of human redemption. I see the heart of God as so loving the  world that He gave His only begotten Son. For what reason? So that all who believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting life  (see John 3:16).

God’s highest priority is evangelism, calling out a people who will honor and glorify His name. This is my highest pri- ority as well. I have given over 35 years of active ministry to missions, evangelism, and church growth. If I have 10 more years to serve God, I want them to make a difference in the number of souls that are saved around the world. My interest in warfare prayer is directly proportional to its effectiveness in enhancing evangelism.

Which brings me back to Argentina.

Argentina

Evicting the Ruler of Adrogué

The upper-middle-class suburb of Buenos Aires called Adrogué had experienced little effective evangelism. Many had tried, but none had succeeded. Most of the Protestant churches planted in Adrogué had struggled and then closed their doors. It was a graveyard of church planters. One of the survivors was a Baptist church, which after 70 years of attempting to evangelize Adrogué counted only 70 members. More disturbing yet, virtually none of the 70 members were residents of Adrogué proper. No one could remember a single resident of Adrogué being converted. Pastor Eduardo Lorenzo

accepted a call to the Baptist church in 1974. He was a dynamic leader who applied church growth principles, and by 1987, the church had grown from 70 to 250. Still, few of the members lived in Adrogué.

In 1987 a growth surge began. When I visited the church in 1990, it had passed the 600 mark and they had constructed a new auditorium that could accommodate 2,000. By mid-1991 more than 1,000 attended. Eduardo Lorenzo said to me, “If we do not make 2,000 members by 1993, it will be because we are not trying!”

What happened in 1987? How did mediocre evangelism become effective evangelism?

The answer was the frontline application of strategic- level spiritual warfare. This did not come about quickly or easily. Eduardo Lorenzo, like many of us, had not been trained in spiritual warfare of any kind. Some of his seminary professors considered dealing with the demonic something those Pentecostals might do, but off-limits for respectable Baptists. Coming from this background, it took Lorenzo sev- eral years to get to the root of the evangelistic difficulties in Adrogué and to begin to understand the spiritual dimensions of the issue.

Face-to-Face With a Demon

It began in the early 1980s when Pastor Lorenzo found himself face-to-face with a demonized woman. Although he felt totally inadequate to attempt it, he rebuked the demon in Jesus’ name. It left, and the woman was delivered. This did not launch Lorenzo into a regular ministry of deliverance, but it did perk his interest. Soon after, one of his church members traveled to the United States, learned some things about spiri- tual warfare, and reported back to the congregation. Lorenzo sponsored two spiritual warfare seminars in his church. One

was led by Edward Murphy of Overseas Crusades and the other by John White, the well-known Christian psychiatrist and author from Canada. The process of retooling a congrega- tion was underway.

Soon afterward, the battle began in earnest: the enemy attempted infiltration. A woman who feigned conversion to Christ was discovered to be an undercover agent of the demonic forces over Adrogué. Demons began to manifest openly in church services. Satan was counterattacking and attempting to intimidate the believers. Eduardo Lorenzo says:

Satan was happy if he could keep that little Baptist church on its merry-go-round. He had effectively blinded the minds of the unsaved in Adrogué to the Gospel. Through the years several other churches had been destroyed. Now we ourselves were under direct attack.4

Through a prolonged process of prayer, ministry, and dis- cernment, Lorenzo and his leaders finally identified the chief demonic principality over Adrogué. They even discovered the name of this territorial spirit. Sensing God’s timing for the final battle, they recruited a team of 35 or 40 church members who agreed to spend Monday through Friday of a certain week in prayer and fasting. On that Friday night, 200 believers, almost the entire congregation, joined together for the strategic- level intercession. They took authority over the principality over the city and the lesser demonic forces.

At 11:45 that evening, they collectively felt something break in the spiritual realm. They knew the battle was over. The evil spirit had left, and the church began to grow. Not only did the membership triple in a short period of time, but now 40 percent of the church members are from Adrogué itself

The year of the victory was 1987.

Argentina’s Decline

In all probability, what happened in Adrogué in 1987 would not have happened in 1977, ten years earlier. Of all the nations in Latin America, Argentina, along with a few others such as Uruguay and Venezuela, had not seen the rapid growth of Protestant or evangelical churches so characteristic of the continent as a whole. Argentines had been widely known as indifferent or resistant to the Gospel. With the exception of the extraordinary impact of the Tommy Hicks evangelistic crusade in the early 1950s, the evangelical move- ment in Argentina had been relatively stagnant.

A dramatic change came with the Falkland Islands War against Great Britain in 1982 when Argentina tried unsuccess- fully to occupy the Falkland Islands or Malvinas Islands, as Argentines call them. The British victory caused a radical change in Argentine social psychology. Argentines had gained the unenviable international reputation of being the proudest people in Latin America, but their national pride was shat- tered. Many became bitter. The Church had failed them; the military had failed them; Peronism had failed them. They were ready to try something new.

The basis for Argentine pride had been seriously eroding well before 1982. Once the world’s tenth strongest economic power and boasting a standard of living higher than that of southern Europe, Argentina was justly considered by many as the jewel of South America. Juan Domingo Peron was fly- ing high as their political leader through much of the 1950s and 1960s. But as his influence began to wane in the early 1970s, 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 in 1974, he became the chief advisor to his third wife, Isabel Peron, during her two years as president. He

succeeded in erecting a public monument to witchcraft (since dismantled) and is said by many to have openly cursed the nation when he lost power with the military coup of 1976.5

The wicked principalities and powers over Argentina were, quite obviously, having a field day. Their mission is to steal, kill, and destroy, and they were doing all that and more to one of the finest countries of the world.

Spiritism, principally from Brazil, began to flood the nation. Under the military rulers, thousands (some say tens of thousands) of political suspects “disappeared” forever; the bodies of many were recently uncovered in remote mass graves. Once the world’s tenth strongest economic power, Argentina now finds its financial fortress plumetting by some measurements.6

In such a spiritual vacuum and surrounded by such social misery, almost any change is seen by many as a change for the better. The power of witchcraft continues to escalate. Occult artifacts are displayed in store windows on every other block. False cults such as Mormonism are experiencing rapid growth. A huge ornate Mormon temple dominates the high- way leading from the Ezeiza airport to Buenos Aires. Accord- ing to Somos Magazine, Carlos Menem, Argentina’s president at this writing, consults regularly with a “personal witch” named Ilda Evelia, whom he has retained for 28 years. A high government official also mentions the frequency at which the majority of them consult witches.

Spiritual Vitality

Although much of Argentina is still struggling in the grips of the rulers of darkness, the light of the Gospel of Christ is bursting forth as never before. God is raising up a company of world-class Argentine leaders. He is using them to open the “eyes [of the Argentines] and to turn them from darkness to light,

and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgive- ness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18).

J. Philip Hogan, former executive director of the Division of Foreign Missions of the Assemblies of God, knows as well as anyone what God is doing in the world. His international travels have taken him to Argentina many times over many years. He is amazed at what he now sees in Argentina. Hogan says, “Argentina is in the throes of an absolute sovereign revival unheard of in the history of that country. I know of churches where they have taken the seats out so they can pack more people in.”7

Ed Silvoso of Harvest Evangelism, one of the leading experts on the Christian movement in Argentina, said in 1987, “The church in Argentina has grown more in the last four years than in the previous one hundred.”8

Silvoso’s “four years” date back to 1984 when evangelist Carlos Annacondia conducted his first large evangelistic cru- sade in the city of La Plata. Many observers use this as the beginning date of the current outpouring of spiritual vitality in Argentina.

Carlos Annacondia

Carlos Annacondia was a committed Christian owner of a prosperous nuts and bolts factory in Quilmes on the outskirts of Buenos Aires when God called him into evangelistic min- istry. It was probably no mere coincidence that the day he launched his first public crusade was the day the British sank the Argentine battleship General Belgrano in the 1982 Falkland Islands War. Carlos was 37 years old and the father of eight children at the time.

After observing the ministry of Carlos Annacondia both at a distance and first hand, I am prepared to offer a hypothesis. Although some other likely contenders may be Reinhard

Bonnke or Billy Graham, my guess is that Annacondia may well turn out to be the most effective crusade evangelist of all time. More than any other evangelist I have studied, Annacon- dia’s ministry seems to be an instrument for increasing the growth rate of participating churches.

In La Plata, for example, the Assemblies of God Church of the Diagonal pastored by Alberto Scataglini grew from 500 to more than 2,500 in three years following Annacondia’s cru- sade. They have held their Sunday services in a leased basket- ball stadium ever since because their sanctuary could not hold all the attenders. The neighboring Los Olivos Baptist Church pastored by Alberto Prokopchuk grew from 200 members to more than 1,600 in the same period.

On a visit to Argentina, I worked with pastors of four cities. Without any leading questions on my part, in each of the four cities I heard Christian leaders, in a matter-of-fact way, refer to trends in their cities as “before Annacondia” and “after Annacondia.” In more than 20 years of studying urban crusade evangelism, I have never heard such consistent testi- monials of the ministry of a single evangelist across the board. Pastor Alberto Scataglini, the principal host of Annacondia’s milestone La Plata crusade, says,

He transmits his ministry. It’s not just one person; wherever he goes, he seems to transmit the same anointing to other people. And that was very different from any other evangelist we had here. Before, the evangelist would come and when he left the revival was over; the power was gone.9

Warfare Prayer

What is Carlos Annacondia doing that other urban cru- sade evangelists do not usually do? I believe it is warfare prayer. My friend Ed Silvoso agrees.

Ed Silvoso says that Annacondia and the other prominent Argentine evangelists “incorporate into their evangelistic work a new emphasis on spiritual warfare—the challenging of the principalities and powers, and the proclamation of the Gospel not only to the people but to the spiritual jailers who held the people captive.” Prayer is the chief variable, accord- ing to Silvoso. “Evangelists begin to pray over cities before proclaiming the gospel there. Only after they sense that spiri- tual powers over the region have been bound will they begin to preach.”10

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The 150-foot deliverance tent, erected behind the open-air speaker’s platform, is in operation from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. each night. Annacondia calls it the “spiritual intensive care unit.” Scores of teams whom Bottari has trained in deliverance prayer do the actual hands-on ministry.

I have never observed a crusade evangelist who is as pub- licly 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. To the uninitiated, the scenario in the vacant city lot where he

holds his crusades might appear to be total confusion. But to the skilled, experienced members of Annacondia’s 31 crusade ministry teams, it is just another evening of frontline warfare prayer in which the power of Jesus Christ over the demonic forces is displayed for all to see.

And the power of the meetings is awesome. Many mirac- ulous healings occur. For example, so many dental miracles occur—teeth filled, new teeth, and defective bridges replaced by whole teeth—that only those who have had more than two teeth filled are allowed to take the time to give a public testi- mony. On one occasion, a dwarf was reported to have grown over 15 inches taller!

Unsuspecting pedestrians passing by the crusade meet- ings have been known to fall down under the power of the Holy Spirit. In the city of Santiago del Estero, a local priest decided to oppose the crusade by invading the area with a religious procession. When they arrived, the four strong men carrying the statue of the priest’s favorite virgin all fell to the ground under the power of the Spirit, and the statue shattered into a thousand pieces. Two of the men spent the night in the hospital and the other two in Annacondia’s deliverance tent.

This is warfare prayer in action. Spirit-directed prayer opens the way for the blessings of the Kingdom of God to come upon the earth with healings, deliverances, salvation, holiness, compassion for the poor and oppressed, and the fruit of the Spirit. Above all, God is glorified, worshiped, and praised.

Drawing the Battle Lines

As I have said before, I do not see warfare prayer as an end in itself. I am a very pragmatic person in the sense that the theories I like best are the ones that work. My chief interest is warfare prayer that helps bring about effective evangelism

such as in the ministry of Carlos Annacondia. My wife, Doris, and I were privileged to participate in a real-life experiment in the relationship of spiritual warfare to evangelism in the Argentine city of Resistencia.

Ed Silvoso is a world-class evangelistic strategist. Years ago, God called him to evangelistic ministry in his native land of Argentina. But after some time he became dissatisfied, wondering if the fruit he saw in decisions for Christ was truly the fruit that endures. Silvoso had read a research report which found that in the average citywide evangelistic cru- sade, only 3 to 16 percent of those who make first-time deci- sions ever end up in the cooperating churches. And very few, if any, churches report a noticeable increase in their growth rate after the crusade. He began to suspect there must be a bet- ter way to evangelize.

Ed Silvoso studied church growth at Fuller Seminary and developed a radically different citywide evangelistic strategy, which he called Plan Rosario (The Rosario Plan) because he was going to test it in the city of Rosario, Argentina. He teamed up with his brother-in-law, Luis Palau, and tried the experiment in 1976. Instead of 3 to 16 percent, a full 47 per- cent of those making first-time decisions were assimilated into the churches. This is not the place to go into detail on the evangelistic strategy, but the major innovations had to do with setting goals for disciples, rather than decisions, and with planting new churches. Two years later Silvoso and Palau repeated the effort in Uruguay and recorded 54 percent assimilation.11

Then Ed Silvoso contracted a rare, fatal illness, myesthe- nia gravis. He was given a maximum of two years to live. That was when he founded his current ministry, Harvest Evangel- ism, which maintains offices both in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in San Jose, California. God brought intercessors into his

life, and through prayer he was miraculously healed. The whole episode brought Ed and his wife, Ruth, into a closer relationship with God than they had ever had before and introduced them to a hitherto underemphasized tool for evan- gelism: spiritual warfare.

The Fall of Merigildo

As a test case, Silvoso drew a circle with a 100-mile radius around his hometown of San Nicolas where he was establish- ing his Harvest Evangelism training center. He discovered that within that circle were 109 towns and villages with no evangelical church. Research showed that a powerful warlock, Merigildo, had applied supernatural occult power to the area to keep out the Gospel. Silvoso gathered Christian leaders, Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal, together for serious warfare prayer. They took dominion over the area in the name of Jesus. Silvoso said, “We served the disciples of Merigildo and the rulers of darkness over them an eviction notice sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ.” They sensed the power was broken. Just recently I received a report from Silvoso that all 109 towns now have an evangelical church.

Plan Resistencia

After the Merigildo experience, the city of Resistencia in the northern Argentina province of Chaco came to Silvoso’s attention. The revival so prevalent in many parts of Argentina had seemed to bypass Resistencia. Resistencia is Spanish for “resistance.” Although the name originally had military con- notations, the city turned out to be spiritually resistant as well. As of the beginning of 1990, fewer than 6,000 of its 400,000 population were evangelical believers, a mere 1.5 percent.

In 1989, Silvoso had initiated a three-year Plan Resistencia (The Resistencia Plan) aimed at significant, measurable evan- gelism. He based it not only on state-of-the-art church growth

techniques, but even more importantly, on the spiritual war- fare he had been learning about. Silvoso discerned two major demonic strongholds over the evangelical community in Resistencia: a spirit of disunity and a spirit of apathy toward the lost. He moved members of his Harvest Evangelism team into Resistencia and for over a year laid a foundation of prayer, spiritual warfare, and leadership training.

By April of 1990 the tide had turned. Almost all the pas- tors were united and in agreement with the Plan Resistencia. Christian people had begun witnessing and speaking of their neighbors as those who were “not yet believers.” Disunity and apathy had been defeated by the power of God.

In April 1990, Ed Silvoso invited my wife, Doris, and me to visit Resistencia and train leaders in church growth princi- ples. While I was training leaders, Doris was taking the spiri- tual temperature of the city. What she discovered alarmed her. It became obvious that the believers had meager knowledge about strategic-level spiritual warfare and warfare prayer. Unless this could be changed, the chances of a significant evangelistic impact were slim. She sensed that God wanted to see it changed.

Calling the Generals

Doris and Ed agreed to call in one of the leading experts in warfare prayer, our friend Cindy Jacobs of Generals Interna- tional. Cindy and Doris made three more visits to Argentina in 1990. The question in my mind was whether intentional strategic-level spiritual warfare could actually make a measur- able difference in evangelizing Resistencia.

In June, Cindy taught two intensive seminars on warfare prayer to several hundred pastors, intercessors, and other Christian leaders, first in Buenos Aires and then in Resistencia. Marfa Cabrera, a precursor, along with her husband, Omar, of

the Argentine revival, teamed with Cindy as her interpreter. The impact was electric. Not only did the Argentine leaders want to know about strategic-level intercession, but they wanted to see it done and they wanted to do it now.

Sensing the direction of God, Cindy invited those who felt a special call of God and who had their lives in order to assem- ble the next morning in the city. A group of 80 showed up and marched into the central Plaza de Mayo of Buenos Aires for five hours of intense battle against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. Eduardo Lorenzo, pastor of the Baptist Church in Adrogué and director of Harvest Evangelism in Argentina, led the small army of intercessors.

Among other things, the group sensed a spirit of witch- craft and a spirit of death in the Ministry of Social Welfare building where Peron’s notorious warlock, Jose Lopez Rega, had maintained his office. Cindy felt that before going to Resistencia, it was necessary to serve notice of the coming of the Kingdom of God to any evil powers in the capital who might have had national influence.

When the group left the plaza, they felt a sense of victory. The principalities and powers had not been destroyed, but warfare prayer had in some measure begun to weaken the evil hold they were exerting on Argentina.

Arriving in Resistencia, Cindy, Doris, Marfa, Ed, and the others found that the names of the spirits ruling over that city had been known by the people for generations. San la muerte, the spirit of death, was perhaps the most powerful. A large number of citizens of Resistencia were so devoted to san la muerte that they had tiny bone images of his idol surgically implanted under their skin or under their nipples, believing the false promise that this will assure them of a “good death.” It is hard to imagine the degree of emptiness and despair that had penetrated the city.

Other spirits of almost equal rank turned out to be pombero, a spirit of division who brought terror, especially to children during the siesta time and at night; curupí, a spirit of sexual perversion and incest whose image was characterized by a ridiculously long male organ; the queen of heaven, a reli- gious spirit who had perverted the true character of the tradi- tional Church; and the spirit of freemasonry, a cleverly disguised form of occult power. Apparently, coordinating their activities was a principality of divination or witchcraft, represented by a snake.

Surprisingly, the images of these spirits and their activities were clearly depicted on several large folk art murals in the central plaza of the city. After Cindy taught a day-long semi- nar on warfare prayer to pastors, intercessors, the Harvest Evangelism team, and others, a group of around 70 felt led to go to the plaza and engage in frontline warfare. After collec- tively praying, repenting, and confessing the sins represented by these evil principalities and powers, they engaged the spir- its in five hours of spiritual battle. Only then did God give them an assurance in their spirits that they had broken through. When it was over, they lifted their voices together in praise and victory.

Fruit  That Endures

What happened?

The Harvest Evangelism Plan Resistencia proceeded as scheduled with city-wide evangelistic events in August and October 1990. Cindy and Doris visited Argentina twice more that year. Ed Silvoso reports that the growth graphs of the churches in Resistencia took a decided turn upward beginning in April when the group prayed in the plaza. In one public event, 250 people were baptized in portable pools. Crowds of almost 17,000 packed into an open field for evangelistic meet- ings where objects used in occult rituals and witchcraft were burned in a 55-gallon drum each night. The mayor of the city

was reported to have made a profession of faith in Christ. Hundreds were healed physically and delivered from demons. At least 18 new churches were started.

Most significant of all, the evangelical population of Resistencia virtually doubled in the calendar year of 1990. Reports like this indicate that warfare prayer undoubtedly had some direct effect on the evangelistic fruit.

Perhaps a weakening sign of the territorial spirits over Resistencia was the tragic fate of the high priestess of the cult of san la muerte, the spirit of death. Two weeks before the mas- sive evangelistic thrust began in October, her bed caught fire. For some reason the flames seemed to be selective. They con- sumed only the mattress, the woman, and her statue of san la muerte in a different part of the room.

San la muerte kept his promise of granting his followers a good death in the manner that would be expected of the father of lies.

Reflection Questions

• Look back at the description of the three levels of spiri- tual warfare (see pages 14-17). Name examples of each that you have personally experienced or heard about.
• Do you agree that “we should not see spiritual warfare as an end in itself”? Discuss your opinion.
• When the territorial spirit was cast out of Androgué, Eduardo Lorenzo had learned its name. How impor- tant do you think it is that names be revealed?
• Talk about Carlos Annacondia’s crusades. How would a crusade like that go over in your city?
• What do you think actually happened in the heavenlies as a result of the five-hour spiritual battle in the plaza of Resistencia?

C_HAPTER 2

THE REAL BATTLE IS SPIRITUAL

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Many are beginning to ask whether, given their traditions and training, it could ever be integrated into their ministry. But Americans are not alone. Even Argentine pastors struggle with some of the same theological and practical issues.

Learning the Lesson

I greatly enjoyed talking to Pastor Alberto Prokopchuk of the Los Olivos Baptist Church in the city of La Plata, Argentina, because I could identify so closely with his back- ground. His traditional Baptist ministerial training had not included a course in Spiritual Warfare 101. His ministry at Los Olivos Baptist was not much different from what we observe in so many typical churches in our American cities: good, solid Bible teaching ministry, a relatively high moral standard, the fruit of the Spirit manifested to a reasonable degree, and church members who pray, tithe, attend services, and witness to their neighbors when the opportunity presents itself.

All this, and no growth! Under Alberto’s ministry, the Los Olivos church had been stalled at 30 members for many years.

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Then Carlos Annacondia came to La Plata to conduct a crusade. Alberto and Los Olivos Baptist cooperated with the crusade. As they attended meetings night after night, they began learning about warfare prayer by observing Annacon- dia. And they were deeply impressed with the results, not only the thousands who were personally healed and delivered from evil spirits, but even more so the 50,000 who made pub- lic decisions to follow Christ. Nothing even close to this had been seen previously in La Plata.

Watching Annacondia and his team conduct the crusade was one thing—carrying this type of ministry over to a tradi- tional Baptist church was something else. One thing Baptists did know how to do, however, was to evangelize. So the lay leaders of Los Olivos approached Pastor Alberto and said, “Let’s have an evangelistic crusade in our own church.”

Alberto wasn’t ready for that. “I don’t have the gift of evangelism,” he replied. “Should we invite an outside evangelist?”

“No,” his leaders said. “Let’s make a deal. You preach the crusade, and we will pray that God gives you the gift of evangelism.”

Alberto, possibly in a weak moment, agreed. They organ- ized the crusade and held the first service. Alberto preached an evangelistic message and gave the invitation. No response!

As he was agonizing to himself over this apparent lack of power, Alberto seemed to hear an inner voice saying to him, “Try it the way Annacondia does it!” In semi-desperation, he decided to go for broke and give it a try. He publicly prayed a strong warfare prayer and directly rebuked the spirits as he had seen Carlos Annacondia do so many times. When he had bound the spirits with the authority that Jesus Christ had given him, he gave the invitation once again. This time more

than 15 people sprang out of their seats and actually came running to the front to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord!

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The Real Battle

The basic lesson Alberto Prokopchuk learned was that the real battle for effective evangelism is a spiritual battle. He learned it in his way; others of us are learning it in our own way.

The Church Growth Movement, which I represent, has been blessed by God and has been used to stimulate funda- mental changes both in local church ministry and in world evangelization. The movement began in 1955, and for the first 25 years or so under the inspiration of its founder, Donald McGavran, it worked on developing the radical new techno- logical aspects of church growth and evangelism, which have been so widely acclaimed.

Around 1980, a few of us started to explore what some of the spiritual dimensions of church growth might look like. This is not to say that any of the technology is now regarded as bad or that the spiritual will substitute for the technological.

No. The technology has been extremely helpful to churches and missions, and we continue to work vigorously to improve and update it.

What we have discovered, however, is that all the evan- gelistic technology in the world will have only a minimal effect unless the spiritual battle is won. It is like a brand new automobile with all the latest engineering. It may be beautiful and perfectly constructed, but it will do nothing until gasoline is pumped into the tank. The same thing applies to spiritual power in evangelism and church growth.

To illustrate, look at the decade of the 1980s in America. This was a decade of the mushrooming of some of the largest churches the nation has ever seen. Almost every metropolitan area now has one or more megachurches that it did not have previously. Church growth seminars and evangelistic resources have multiplied. Private Christian schools and the Christian use of the media increased dramatically. On the sur- face, it looked like Christianity was making great progress in the nation. But statistics paint another picture. At the end of the decade, church attendance was the same as at the begin- ning, and Protestant church membership had decreased.

I believe God wants us to do a better job of evangelizing our nation in the years to come. And we will do it, in my opin- ion, to the degree we understand that the real battle is spiritual.

Learning About the Battle

Around 1980, I began sensing from God that I needed to concentrate on the spiritual dimensions of church growth. Because of my close friendship with John Wimber, who at the time was being called “Mr. Signs and Wonders” by some, I knew that power evangelism would be the first item on my new agenda. I also sensed that after that, prayer would be my

next agenda item (although I must admit, at the time I had no clue how prayer might relate to effective evangelism).

I shared the research I had done on signs and wonders in my book How to Have a Healing Ministry (Regal Books), which was published in 1988. A year earlier, in 1987, I began to seri- ously research and teach on prayer. But not until the great Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Manila in the summer of 1989 did I fully learn about the real battle.

Although I didn’t know that much about it, by 1989 I had at least begun to realize two things: (1) evangelism would work better when accompanied by serious prayer, and

• throughout the Body of Christ, God had gifted, called, and anointed certain individuals who were unusually powerful in the ministry of intercession.

I was in a position to integrate these new insights with the Lausanne II Congress because I happened to be a member of the international Lausanne Committee, which was sponsoring the Congress.

As I prayed about relating intercession to evangelism, God impressed me with the thought of attempting to identify 30 to 50 of these gifted, world-class intercessors and challeng- ing them to go to Manila at their own expense. They would bypass the established participant selection process, stay in the Philippine Plaza Hotel across the street from the Conven- tion Center where the congress was to be held, and pray together 24 hours a day throughout the congress. The Lau- sanne leaders agreed, and I asked Ben Jennings of Campus Crusade’s Great Commission Prayer Crusade to organize and lead it. Ben did a magnificent job, and 50 intercessors showed up, fulfilling our highest expectations.

Through the Manila intercession team, God gave us what I like to call a “living parable” to show us clearly what the

underlying issues for world evangelization really are. Before I describe the living parable, one more crucial factor needs to be explained.

The Threefold Cord

In the spring of 1989, I began learning about another spir- itual dimension relating to evangelism: personal prophecy. I will not go into detail here how individuals such as John Wim- ber, Cindy Jacobs, and Paul Cain helped open this new area of understanding to me except that at the beginning I was some- what skeptical, but I now believe that the prophetic is a valid and significant ministry in these days.

Early in the summer of 1989 John Wimber told me that Dick Mills would telephone me with a prophecy and he rec- ommended I pay close attention to it. To my embarrassment, I had never heard of Dick Mills, but John described him as one of the most respected prophets in America with a well-tested track record. I subsequently learned from Cindy Jacobs, who knew Dick Mills well, that telephoning strangers was contrary to his usual practice. Coincidentally, Cindy happened to be our houseguest the day Dick Mills called my home.

I will not relate the prophecy in detail here, but the item of the living parable in Manila was a prophetic application of Ecclesiastes 4:12 to my ministry: “…a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Dick said he felt God was calling me to serve as a catalyst to help bring together three cords that He desired to weave into a pattern to accomplish His purposes in the years to come. The three cords are the conservative evangelicals, the Charismatics, and the conscientious liberals.

Lausanne II was to play a significant role in bringing together the first two cords. Although Lausanne I in Switzer- land in 1974 included only token participation by Pentecostals and Charismatics, in Lausanne II, 15 years later, they were

quite prominent. Some said that by looking at the number of raised hands during worship in the plenary sessions, it appeared the majority of participants might well have been Charismatic.

It turned out that about half of those who gathered for the intercession team in Manila were conservative evangelicals and about half were Pentecostals or Charismatics. I found out later that since this was the first time these two groups had mixed at this level, a variety of thoughts were going through their minds. The Charismatics were saying to themselves, “I wonder if these evangelicals really know how to pray and get in touch with God.” The evangelicals were saying, “I wonder if these Charismatics are going to shout and scream and roll around on the floor.”

But much to the delight of all concerned, they found that when they began to pray together there was no discernible difference at all. When they entered the throne room of God together they found themselves saying the same things and hearing the same things. The evangelicals were encouraging the Charismatics, and the Charismatics were encouraging the evangelicals. Two of God’s cords were coming together.

The Living Parable

One of the most dramatic, visible signs I have seen from God occurred during the first evening the Lausanne interces- sion team met in the prayer suite of the Philippine Plaza Hotel. On the eve of the greatest international convocation on evangelization yet held, God gave us a living parable to show us once and for all that the real battle for evangelization is spiritual.

The 50 intercessors sat around the large hotel room in a cir- cle. They had come from 12 nations of the world, the greatest number coming from North America. Ten of the intercessors

were Filipinos and Filipinas. Although my wife, Doris, and I are not intercessors, we were invited to participate in the prayer room activities because we happened to be the origina- tors of the idea.

Naturally, the first item of business was to introduce our- selves. As we got a little more than halfway around the circle, a Filipina named Juana Francisco, a woman in her late 50s, introduced herself and told of the ministry of intercession she had exercised for many years. Two or three minutes later, while someone else was speaking, Juana Francisco suffered what we learned later was a critical attack of asthma. She screamed, lost color in her face, and began loudly gasping for breath. A wave of panic went through the room.

Two men took Juana by the arms and half carried her out the door into the hotel corridor. Right across the hall was the room occupied by Bill and Vonette Bright of Campus Crusade, and they managed to get her onto Bill Bright’s bed. Fortu- nately, one of the Filipina intercessors was a medical doctor, so she went out with Juana to attend her. Having the comforting knowledge that she was under medical care, two or three intercessors prayed for her healing, and we continued the introductions.

We had almost completed the circle of introductions when someone burst in the door and shouted, “Who has an automo- bile? This is an emergency! We must get her to the hospital! The doctor says she is dying!”

Immediately two women jumped out of their chairs and hurried out the other door into the hotel corridor. These women had not known each other well before. One, Mary Lance Sisk, is known as an evangelical. She is a Presbyterian from Charlotte, North Carolina, and has served for years as the personal intercessor for Leighton Ford, the president of the Lausanne Movement and the highest official of the congress.

The other was Cindy Jacobs, whom I have mentioned previ- ously. Cindy is a known independent Charismatic.

The Voodoo Spirit

Once in the corridor, Mary Lance and Cindy made eye contact and knew at once in the Spirit that they had received the same message from God. God told them both that Juana Francisco’s attack was due to the invasion of a voodoo spirit. Philippine voodoo had been spoken against the group, and God had pulled back the protection enough to let the afflicting spirit reach the intercessor, much as He had allowed the enemy access to Job in yesteryear. In a matter of seconds, Mary Lance and Cindy grasped hands, agreed in the Spirit, prayed a warfare prayer, and broke the power of the demon in the name of Jesus.

Just at that time, Bill Bright, who knew nothing of what had happened, got off the elevator and went to his room. There on his bed was this strange Filipina woman gasping for breath in a life-threatening situation. His reflex action as a Christian was to lay hands on her and pray for her healing, which he did just at the time Mary Lance and Cindy were breaking the curse. Juana Francisco opened her eyes, began breathing normally, and the crisis was over.

By that time Doris and I were out in the corridor. Bill Bright walked out of his room, came over to us, and said with no little emotion in his voice, “We have a lot of power! We should use it more often!”

What Is God Showing Us?

God’s purpose behind parables, in this case a living para- ble, is to teach His people an important lesson. As I analyze this event, the interpretation is clear. Although these 4,500 hand-picked Christian leaders from almost 200 nations of the

world gathered at Lausanne in Manila to strategize the evan- gelization of the 3 billion people who do not yet know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God wanted them all to know the real nature of their task. I see three major lessons from the parable:

• World evangelization is a matter of life and death. Medically speaking, Juana Francisco was on the verge of death. Spiritually speaking, 3 billion people in the world are on the verge of an even more terrible death— eternal death in hell. Had Juana Francisco died, she would have gone to Heaven. The evangelistic crisis fac- ing God’s people is much more serious than was the brief crisis in the Philippine Plaza Hotel because if unbelievers die they do not go to Heaven.
• The key to world evangelization is hearing God and obeying what we hear. Mary Lance Sisk and Cindy Jacobs both received an immediate revelation from God. As seasoned intercessors they were accustomed to this, so it did not take them by surprise. The fact that they had both heard the same word at the same time confirmed to each that they were hearing correctly. But they also knew that hearing God was only the first step. The second was having the courage to obey Him no matter what. They knew God wanted the curse broken, so they went into action, again doing what they had each done many times before. They took authority in the name of Jesus, and neither one had any doubt that at that instant the battle had been won.
• God is going to use the whole Body of Christ to com- plete the task of world evangelization. The evangeli- cals are not going to evangelize the world by themselves. The Charismatics are not going to evangel- ize the world by themselves. God chose an evangelical

and a Charismatic to meet in the hallway and do the spiritual warfare. And to seal it, He chose Bill Bright, one of the Lausanne movement’s most visible evangel- ical participants, to pray the healing prayer and watch God raise up Juana Francisco from her deathbed.

Territorial Spirits

Previous to Lausanne II in Manila, there had not been much discussion about how territorial spirits could influence world evangelization even among Pentecostals and Charis- matics, to say nothing about evangelicals. Although the sub- ject was not part of the overall design of the program committee, five of the workshops at Manila ended up dealing with territorial spirits and strategic-level spiritual interces- sion. Those who addressed the issue were Omar Cabrera and Ed Silvoso of Argentina, Rita Cabezas of Costa Rica, and Tom White and me from the United States. The interest in these workshops exceeded expectations, and I sensed before we left that God wanted me to take some leadership in further research on the subject.

John Robb of World Vision precipitated the convening of a very select group of those living in the United States who had acquired some knowledge of strategic-level spiritual warfare. Almost by default, I became the coordinator of the event. Prominent among the 30 individuals who attended the first meeting in Pasadena, California, on February 12, 1990, were Larry Lea, Gary Clark, John Dawson, Cindy Jacobs, Dick Bernal, Edgardo Silvoso, Mary Lance Sisk, Gwen Shaw, Frank Hammond, Bobbie Jean Merck, Jack Hayford, Joy Dawson, Beth Alves, Ed Murphy, Tom White, Charles Kraft, and many others. Bobbye Byerly led a simultaneous intercession group who prayed in the next room throughout the meeting.

The group began to call itself “The Spiritual Warfare Net- work” with the subtitle: “A Post-Lausanne II in Manila

Group Studying Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare.” None of the members of the Spiritual Warfare Network considers himself or herself an expert, but all agree that the real battle for world evangelization is spiritual and that the more we learn about it the more effectively we will be able to com- plete the Great Commission of Jesus to make disciples of all nations.

Some in the group are moving ahead on this. John Daw- son’s excellent book, Taking Our Cities for God (Creation House) was the first analytical and instructional book we have on warfare prayer. Dick Bernal’s books such as Storming Hell’s Brazen Gates (Jubilee Christian Center) and Come Down Dark Prince (Companion Press) share actual field ministries of war- fare prayer. My book, Engaging the Enemy (Regal Books), brings together writings on the subject by 18 Christian leaders such as Tom White, Dick Bernal, Jack Hayford, John Dawson, Ed Silvoso, Michael Green, David (Paul) Yonggi Cho, Timothy Warner, Oscar Cullmann, and others. Cindy Jacobs’ Possessing the Gates of the Enemy (Chosen Books) is the practical textbook on how we actually do the intercession. The important con- cept of “spiritual mapping” (see chapter 8) was introduced in George Otis, Jr.’s, The Last of the Giants (Chosen Books).

Spiritual Power in Evangelism

Not everyone who sets out to evangelize is equally effec- tive. Since that is the case, it is helpful to know who is the most effective and what things they may be doing that others aren’t. This is one of the tasks of professors of church growth like me. I have been studying the growth and non-growth of churches for more than two decades, and some of the answers have been emerging.

Church growth is somewhat complex. Three sets of fac- tors enter the picture when analyzing growth or decline of churches. Institutional factors the church can change if it

wishes. Contextual factors, which are sociological conditions, the church has no power to change. Finally there are spiritual factors, which reflect the hand of our sovereign God.

When looked at on a global scale, however, it seems that the institutional and contextual factors may not be as crucial as the spiritual factors. This becomes evident when one looks at the growth of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements in the past 40 or 50 years. Although some vigorous growth has occurred among non-Charismatics and not all Charismatic- type churches and denominations are growing, the fact remains that through recent decades the most amazing church growth worldwide has been seen among the churches that most explicitly depend on spiritual power, namely the Pente- costal and Charismatic churches.

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In all of human history not another non-militaristic, non-political voluntary

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One Pentecostal denomination, the Assemblies of God, grew from 1.6 million in 1965 to 13.2 million in 1985. Even though it is a relatively new denomination, the Assemblies of God is now the largest or second largest denomination in

more than 30 nations of the world. In one city alone, Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Assemblies of God reports 2,400 churches. The fastest growing Christian movement in the United States is the independent Charismatics. With some exceptions, the largest megachurch in almost any American metropolitan area is Pentecostal or Charismatic. All six of the world’s churches that had a 1990 worship attendance of 50,000 or more are Pentecostal/Charismatic.2

Although I am not a professional historian, I would be bold enough to advance a hypothesis. I would think that in all of human history not another non-militaristic, non-political voluntary human movement has grown as dramatically as the Pentecostal/ Charismatic movement has grown over the past 25 years.

It seems reasonable to assume that those of us, like me, who come from the traditional evangelical wing of the Church would do well to be open to learning from our Charismatic brothers and sisters. The most fundamental lesson, as I see it, is that they have a more advanced understanding that the real battle for evangelization is spiritual. Signs and wonders, deliverance from demonic powers, miraculous healings, sus- tained and enthusiastic worship, prophecies, and warfare prayer are seen by many of them as the normal outworking of Christianity.

The manifestation of this spiritual power in bringing large numbers of people to Jesus Christ speaks for itself. We need only observe what God is doing in the world today to realize that the effectiveness of our evangelistic efforts depends to a great degree on the outcome of the spiritual battles in the heavenly places. The Scriptures indicate that our chief weapon for engaging the enemy in this battle is warfare prayer (see Eph. 6:12-18).

Reflection Questions

• Discuss some evangelistic methodology or church growth techniques you know about that do not seem to be working as well as they might.
• How would you describe each segment of the “three- fold cord” God is bringing together? Name some lead- ers of each. Can you see them supporting each other’s ministry?
• Do you believe that Christians like Juana Francisco can really be cursed? Could she have died if the curse had not been broken?
• If you were to attend a meeting of the Spiritual Warfare Network, what topics would you like to hear discussed?
• Name several of the specific areas the rest of the Body of Christ can learn from the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement.

(Note By Blogger: Due to the length of the book which this content is from I have broken it up into a short series of blog posts.)