8/12/2008
I was born in an environment surrounded by prayer. Although my parents at that time didn’t believe much in the power of the Holy Spirit as displayed in the Book of Acts, my mom taught me how to pray. And, we needed to pray since we had to pray for everything.
One of the cherished memories I carry from my infancy is the many occasions my dad would awaken me to pray with him in the temple. Oh, how I loved to walk with him to the church at 4 a.m. just to pray! I have learned since childhood to depend on prayer. As a matter of fact, prayer is my survival tool.
In 1997 God was using our ministry to touch hundreds of lives in Brazil. I told my wife that the U.S. Visas on our passports were not the final answer from God that would allow us to return to America. God, however, spoke to us clearly in Zechariah 6:8: “Then He called to me, ‘Look, those going toward the North Country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north.’”
What a charge! Just to think about it still humbles my spirit and gives me a feeling of total dependence upon the Lord. Moving to the United States was indeed God’s direction for my family, and I have known since the beginning that only prayer would enable us to fulfill His plans for us in this land.
New England is a cradle of great visitations from God even though Worcester, the city we live in and love very much, never experienced a revival in the past. We planted a church in Worcester in 1991 and another in October 1997. We won and baptized many lives during these years. We helped open doors for other churches to be planted in the city and through Massachusetts because we believe that Christ-centered congregations are agencies of God to reach out to the cities. But digging a brand new well of revival in the city of Worcester would require lots of effort in prayer and intercession, and a high cost in suffering and pain – a statement that has proved true during these last years.
There is a mountain on the north of the city about 15 miles away that I have visited many times just to pray there. I’ve cried many times: ‘Holy Spirit, why don’t you come down again as you used to do in the past? Come down, Holy Spirit, come down!” (Isaiah 64:1-3)
“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.” (Isaiah 64:1-3)
New England requires a different strategy for advancing the Kingdom, namely "planting hundreds of churches (small ones) and home churches (cell groups, home groups, etc.)" in every corner instead of planting mega-churches. Now, a silent revival is occurring in the Boston area, where hundreds of small churches have been planted in the past 10 years. (Ed. note: See the article “Boston’s Quiet Revival,” Christianity Today, www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/104/32.0.html.)
I want to share a secret with you that has not been captured by national media: There is a strong movement in New England of ongoing, travailing prayer focused on city transformation, rather than individual salvation, that is paving the way for revival right here in the midst of cold, dead religion, humanism, false ideologies and intellectualism.
Let me share a few experiences with you:
· In December 1999, 14,000 Brazilian and Spanish-speaking people came together at the Fleet Center in Boston for a Day of Prayer and Repentance. All these warships (believers) came together under a single Commander, Jesus Himself. (And Fleet means just that; it was fleet indeed!)
· God put in our hearts to call for 40 days of fasting and prayer in Worcester in January 2000. Our church met every night to pray and worship, asking God to send His Holy Spirit. During that time we planned a city outreach event for May, called “Worcester for Jesus Crusade.”
· In May we called for 21 days of fasting and prayer before the crusade. Several pastors came together and on the last day we prayed for 24 hours. During that time we consecrated seven gallons of oil. We rented a helicopter and on Saturday at noon, while some pastors were praying on the ground, we flew over the city and anointed it with oil. At midnight, we sent seven groups out and they anointed every exit of the city, claiming the city of Worcester for God.
· On the first day of the crusade God healed a woman from heart disease, and she left her wheelchair by the power of Jesus. As a result, 35 people from her family were saved. God moved powerfully during those days saving people, healing the sick and a tithe of the crusade fundraising was sent to India to help missionaries with a rehabilitation center. Another significant result of the spiritual warfare of those days was that in the three years following the crusade, the crime rate of the city dropped dramatically.
· September 1, 2001, we again rented a helicopter and anointed the city of Boston with oil; we focused especially on Harvard University. Since then dozens of campus prayer groups have formed, praying for revival of Harvard. This anointing was in preparation for The Call, New England, on September 22, an event which drew 50,000 young people to City Hall Plaza from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to fast and pray for America. We could not have imagined that on September 1 two airplanes would depart from Boston to hit the World Trade Center towers 10 days later. We still believe God spared Boston because of the prayers of His saints.
You may pray as I did when I was a child, not knowing the power of the Holy Spirit. But we must pray today and intercede while we dream to reach our neighborhoods, our cities and even the nations, relying only on the power of the Holy Spirit. His power is still available and He still performs miracles as in the early church, if we dare to believe Him. If we dare to preach repentance and faith as John the Baptist did, as Jesus did, as the Apostles did. If we dare to preach the Message of the Cross, the only message He is committed to fructify.
Josimar Salum is a member of the Cornerstone Church Network Vision Architects, Director of Greater Revival Ministries located in Worcester, Mass., and Executive Director of BMNET, Brazilian Ministers Network. Email: jsalum@greaterrevival.com
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