Tuesday, November 4, 2014

#13 Drawing the Battle Lines



C. Peter Wagner tells us, "As I have 
said before, I do not see warfare 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.

Edgardo 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, which found that in the average city-wide evangelistic crusade, only 3 to 16 percent of those who make first-time decisions 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 better way to evangelize.

Ed Silvoso studied church growth at Fuller Seminary and developed a radically different city-wide evangelistic strategy, which he called Plan Rosario 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 thee experiment in 1976. Instead of 3 to-16 percent, a full 47 percent 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 planting new churches.

Two years later Silvoso and Palau repeated the effort in Uruguay and recorded 54 percent assimilation.

Then Edgardo Silvoso contracted a rare, fatal illness, myesthenia gravis. He was given a maximum of two years to live.

That was when he founded his current ministry, Harvest Evangelism, 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 evangelism: spiritual warfare!


 #13 Drawing the Battle Lines
By C. Peter Wagner

(pgs. 28 - 29) Regal Books




Prayer for your pastor: Worship. Draw my pastor into deeper worship of You. Give my pastor a vision of heaven, and keep him/her from traditions that hold the form of godliness but deny its power (Isaiah 6; Revelation 4; 2 Tim. 3:5) Scripture-Based Prayers to Pray for your Pastor by Terry Teykl


Pray with me:

   Father, help our church leaders
realize too, that making disciples
is important in adding folks to our churches.

   May we ask for ways to help disciple new people who come to our churches, so they can grow in their faith and come to understand God's plan for them.

    Help me to grow into a closer relationship with You as I make every effort to be a good disciple myself.

  I ask for Your guidance. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Today’s Bible verse: 2 Sam. 22:47  "The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the rock of my salvation."

Today’s quote: 
Jonathan Edwards – “To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here.”

Some thoughts today: 
The Word of God frames our worth to live, and for all eternity.

- Without Christ, there is no substance for living. No dignity and purpose to live.

- Your confession of your great God empowers you to keep faithful to Him in any given situation.

6th- Thursday’s post: #14 The Fall of Merigildo  

C. Peter Wagner

8th- Saturday's post: 9 Reasons to Care For Myself  

Diane Leagh Matthews

9th- Sunday evening's post: Realizing and Memorizing James Cagle (excellent words)

11th- Tuesday's post: #15 Plan Resistencia
C. Peter Wagner


A popular post: Be Defensive - Keep the Serpent Out!: Prayer Note #120

Dutch Sheets tells us, “Adam was told in Genesis 2:15 to guard or ‘keep’ the garden.    From what?

It had to be the serpent! I assert this because first of all, it is much in keeping with the nature of God to have warned him."


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