The Alvarez Blog for July 2008
We returned back a few days ago from a two week ministry trip to
New Mexico and Ohio. After we moved back from Africa the Lord told us to hold
conferences in the USA which would help support the ongoing work still there.
A
few months ago we received a phone call from friends in Ohio, Tim and Pam
Waddell. Their pastor, Duane Logan asked us to teach meetings there about the
Holy Spirit. At the same time Mary and I
flew to New Mexico where we used to live, to get leftover storage and drive it
back to Miami, now our home. There, we
divinely hooked up with James and Judy Warnack of Only You Lord Ministries. These wonderful people whom God called to New
Mexico from Tennessee to spark revival fires, (as a matter of fact James looks like Todd
Bentley) are prophetic, and have a great heart to raise up the body
of Christ. When we met with them, God
instructed us to have Holy Ghost revival meetings that would aid in the
sparking of a spiritual breakthrough in NM, and tie this trip to the meetings
in Ohio.
Lakeland is not a phenomenon unto itself. Wherever there are
hungry hearts for God, there is an outpouring which the Holy Spirit is
demonstrating at any church or any place. This expression of God’s grace is
presently manifested at our church, Doral Vineyard in Miami. We found the power
of God to be just as evident in New Mexico and in the little town of Peebles,
Ohio.
The trip began with a bang that resounded for
the next two weeks. On Sunday, the 29th
of June, a day before our departure to Albuquerque, we got a phone call from
our friend Maria Passwaters. Pastor Alan
Apfel of “Love Never Fails Ministries” had telephoned her from a hospital where
a young man by the name of Scott laid dying. He had contracted malaria on a
mission trip to Africa and was in intensive care with 106 degree fever. The
hospital had summoned the family to come because they were losing him.
I telephoned Alan and prayed with him. We have had various experiences
with malaria while living in Kenya. One
pastor told us that malaria is a demon. There had been a number of occasions
when we were going to teach a conference that we would get hit with the
horrible symptoms of this disease. The Lord showed us time and time again that
someone in the conference audience was praying a curse of witchcraft upon our
family because we were teaching the Word of God. After prayer, the symptoms would leave.
When I prayed for Scott, the Lord said that witchcraft had been done on
him while in Africa. Over the phone we
broke the curse and half an hour later the fever had dropped to 104. When I called up Pastor Alan the next day the
boy’s fever was down to 100. What medicine could not do the power of the Lord
Jesus in a fifteen minute prayer accomplished!
We flew in to Albuquerque Monday night and were met by our
precious friend Susan Weeks with whom we stayed. At midnight we ate green chile
cheese enchiladas, a specialty of delicious New Mexico cuisine.
The
meetings began the next night at Albuquerque’s
Quality Inn. It is not the number of
people who attend these meetings but the hungry remnant that God is feeding,
mentoring and raising up to do His work. The Lord has always accomplished His
work with a few. Watchman Nee, the great Chinese apostle, equates the remnant
with those whom the Lord calls overcomers in the Book of Revelations. There is a new generation of hungry babes in
the Lord who do not look like we did when we got saved. Some have blue dyed
hair, red dyed beards, lip and nose rings, tattoos, and holes in their jeans. A
number of them have no local church that they attend. Some of them “shake and
bake” under the power of the anointing, they are nameless in terms of ministry
recognition, and denominationless in their doctrines. They simply love Jesus!
I had the opportunity to meet and talk to Todd Bentley in London
when I was coming back from Kenya last year. As a matter of fact, I first
spotted him right in front of me at the ticket counter in Nairobi. Todd had
shoulder long hair, half dyed blond and half glowing orange red, to go along
with his tattoos, assortment of piercings and so forth. My first reaction was,
“This really looks like Todd Bentley, but it cannot be Todd Bentley”. It wasn’t until I was in London that I saw a
logo on his T shirt that said, “Forgiven”.
I then approached him.
There
is a danger for us “the more mature” believers to become the older brother in
the account of of the prodigal son and become offended when he comes home in
God’s revival, if our focus is one of simply getting. We have a responsibility
to feed, minister and disciple this new hungry generation. If our hearts are in a place of giving out,
very little will come to offend us; as a
matter of fact we will rejoice at the harvest that is here and that we have
been chosen to reap it.
We will share just a few of the testimonies that came from
Albuquerque. During the worship at Thursday’s meeting the Lord gave me a word
for the healing of ears.
More than 10 people came up. One lady probably in her 90’s,
stood in line leaning on a cane. We
prayed for her and did not see anything. All of sudden she said, “I can hear
more clearly!” She also got a healing in another part of her body. I gleefully
told the crowd “This lady is getting an extreme makeover!”
Another woman that had
eight operations on the Eustachian tube on her left ear got a new one while she
was on the floor under the power of the Spirit. She later testified that all of
the ringing had stopped. She also suffered from hemorrhaging in her right eye.
She recounted how she saw Jesus pull out her eye ball and pop another one into
her socket. One sister got a word to
close her eyes and receive a seer’s anointing. When she reopened them she said,
“I see a huge eye all made of gold”; she was in the middle of an open vision
confirming the impartation! Two other ladies with hearing loss and ear nerve
damage experienced their ears pop open. A Vietnamese woman that was dealing
with gestational diabetes felt heat through her body that turned into sweat; a
sure manifestation of God’s healing. Another woman that needs surgery on her
lung experienced the physical wind of the Holy Spirit blow through her
lung. A Navajo sister with a tumor on
her right shoulder complained of pain that radiated all the way down her back.
When we laid hands the power of God hit her shoulder like a crushing blow. I
talked to her a few days later. She was going to have surgery to get the tumor
taken off, but the pain was gone. If was
like if God had killed the tumor. We were going to prophesy to a pastor, when I
heard the words “High blood pressure”. I mumbled silently to the Lord, “What if
this is supposed to be a symbolic picture and he does not have high blood
pressure and then we put fear and worry into him?” Very guardedly, I presented
the word to him. He replied, “Just right now I was telling my wife how tired I
am of this high blood pressure.” When we prayed I saw blood that had been
clinging to walls of his veins released and fall down back down into a normal
flow”. He immediately experienced freedom in his body.
The Lord prophesied during one of the meetings “I
have given the gift of the Spirit of revival resting to this ministry, now
cultivate it!” (This is the Albuquerque ministry, “Only You Lord” that we are doing these
meetings with.)
Hours before we were to catch a train
to our next stop in Ohio I telephoned Linda Evans. She is a prophet who had been sidelined from
the meetings due to a kidney infection. The fire of God went through her
kidneys and within seconds all the pain was gone.
In West Union Ohio
we stayed with our friends Tim, Pam and Chrissy Waddell. Our friends of twenty
odd years, Jim and Cindy Heider who live in Louisville, KY, met us in Ohio to
minister with us. Jim is an anointed
worship leader and Cindy is a prophet. Their presence was a tremendous boost to
the success of these meetings.
When Jim began his worship on Saturday
afternoon a wonderful outpouring of the Spirit began. In the days of Toronto,
Brownsville and Smithston, it appeared that the Lord centered on specific
geographical places to pour out a revival spirit. Today, we are attesting to
the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh and in all geographical places
where the Holy Spirit is welcomed.
We prayed for numerous people that had diabetes. We
can say with certainty that we felt immediate healing power of God for every
person that was ministered to. Those that had arthritis could move their arms
and legs with more ease. One lady with extensive surgery on her arm began to
move it back and forth in a way that she could not before. Another sister who
had been in a car accident and had severely damaged her eye began to see
without pain and without the brightness of lights hurting her. Another lady
with bone spurs in her heels was able to roll herself back and forth on her
heels without pain.
Some of the greatest hunger that we
observed was amongst teenagers. Many who had never fallen under the power of
the Spirit or received a prophecy did so. One mother phoned her teenage
daughter who came to the meeting as it was just finishing. We prophesied to
her, she fell on the floor and wept for a long time as the Lord mightily
touched her. Another last minute attendee received a prophecy about parenting. She told us that she is raising her nephew
and is having a difficult time doing so. An older woman was delivered from the
spirit of depression as she testified one day after getting prayer.
The testimonies
are countless more than these of what the Lord is doing around the world today.
It is truly wonderful and we give Him all of the praise. We need to get into
the flow of the river and become the reapers that will gather the harvest.
God bless you,
Jose and Mary
Alvarez
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