Vi ber för väckelse varje torsdag i min församling, och då brukar jag dela ögonvittnesskildringar från väckelsehistorien. För en och en halv vecka sedan var vi i Argentina. Modern Jesus Army (en fantastisk kyrka som förenar brinnande karismatik med passionerat engagemang för fattigdomsbekämpning) skriver:
In 1952, as American evangelist Tommy Hicks was praying, he received a vision of Argentina and its need. Three months later when the word was confirmed in a prayer meeting.
Now sure of God’s will, he flew to Buenos Aires. During the flight, the name ‘Peron’ kept coming to his mind. It didn’t mean anything to him.
”Why, that’s the President of Argentina,” he was told. ”God wants me to talk to him,” thought Hicks, as the plane approached Buenos Aires airport.
The president had been suffering from a most persistent and disfiguring skin disease – an incurable eczema. It had become so noticable that Peron would not allow himself to be photographed.
Tommy Hicks was requesting permission from Peron to hold a salvation and healing campaign in the city, believing God had told him to hire a large stadium. The president, interested asked ”Can God heal me?”
”Give me your hand”, replied Hicks, and prayed. Before the astonished eyes of all present, the Argentinian leader’s skin became clean as a baby’s!
The eczema disappeared! Permission to hold the campaign was assured.
Hicks gained an audience with the president after dealing with an aggressive security guard in the same way. He prayed for the guard to be healed -and he was!
Huge traffic jams blocked all roads leading to the gigantic Huracan stadium in Buenos Aires during the most electrifying gospel crusade Argentina has ever seen.
Many thousands travelled by any means available from as far away as Brazil, Chile and Bolivia. People were saved, healed and delivered from evil powers daily.
The blind saw, the deaf heard, cripples were walking. Ambulances full of sick passengers were driven to tbe meetings and went away empty!
A boy of three had been unable to walk without heavy steel braces on his legs. When the crowd prayed, the boy’s mother took off her son’s braces in faith. The child began to walk unaided! Delighted, he ran up and down. The ecstatic crowd shouted cheered and wept for joy. Faith rose in many hearts and miracles began to happen spontaneously all over the stadium.
A doctor who knew the child’s case was so overcome when he saw the miracle that he fell down, grabbing Pastor Hicks by the knees. ”I want this Christ; I want to be saved.”
Thousands, unable to get into the packed stadium thronged surrounding streets and heard the message broadcast through loudspeakers. Many slept in the stadium in spite of the winter cold to be sure of a good seat for the next service.
The crusade which began in Atlantic stadium soon outgrew the 25,000 capacity. But when Tommy Hicks announced that the campaign was due to close, there was a huge uproar. ”Let it go on!” the crowd chanted for a quarter of an hour.
It sounded like the the roaring of a restless sea. What could the authorities do in reply to such a demand? The meetings went on – and increased in attendance!
Och Evan Wiggs skriver:
God was moving and His plan for Argentina was unfolding. The enemy had ruled contemptuously over the land and had kept the church small and ineffective, but never more would he rule. The gospel was making an enormous and lasting impact on this nation of 20 million people.
In the great Huracan stadium, night after night, the power and glory of God surged and flowed. Outstanding healings and salvations took place, too numerous to record. Crowds again were too large and the blocks all around the stadium filled with people searching for the God who lives and acts today.
A little child of over three had been unable to walk without heavy steel braces. When the mass prayer of faith was said the mother took off the braces and the child ran up and down the aisle. The crowds began to weep and shout, faith arose and spontaneous miracles began to happen.
A twenty year old man was brought into the stadium on a stretcher who had never walked before. When the power of God flowed that night he left the stretcher behind and ran home with the news. The next night he appeared at the stadium having walked under his own power on legs healed by the power of Jesus.
A noted publisher was healed of hemorrhoids, varicose veins, rheumatism and encroaching blindness. His healing was reported in a popular sporting magazine. One night the police brought a demon possessed woman. Terror filled all when the evangelist cried out with a voice of supernatural power, “Demon come out!” And the woman was set free. As the healings continued and the crippled and lame walked, the blind saw and the deaf heard the papers and magazines of the land reported on the massive miracles occurring in the crusade.
Hela Pingsten 