It was a tiny match that set off a blazing fire that eventually consumed entire forests.
Argentine businessman Carlos Annacondia stood in the back of a church broken and dry. He’d reached the pinnacle of success yet the drug of amassing more money and possessions was insatiable. That night in 1979 he and his wife responded to the invitation of an evangelist from Panama and were radically saved.
The match was lit and Annacondia was on fire for God. Two years later he heard the Lord say, “Soon, soon, soon. There will be a great revival in Argentina. Argentina will be Mine.” By 1984 Annacondia founded Message of Salvation and began holding mass crusades. Now the flame of the Argentine Revival was lit.
“As soon as he started talking, I felt the strong anointing of the Holy Spirit,” remembers Claudio Freidzon, pastor of King of Kings Church in Buenos Aires, about the first time he heard Annacondia minister. “Then came the prayer. It wasn’t just any prayer—it had authority and seemed to electrify the atmosphere. ‘Listen to me, Satan!’ were the words that initiated the confrontation. It didn’t take long for the prayer to have an effect.”
Hundreds in that meeting were freed from witchcraft, black magic, the occult and more. The fire spread and the effect was so dramatic that “many cities in Argentina divide their recent history as ‘before Annacondia’ and ‘after Annacondia,’ notes C. Peter Wagner, who served as professor of church growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Missions. The flames of the Argentine Revival spread to other countries around South America and around the world, and people took the fire back to their own cities and countries—where the flames spread even further.—Diana Scimone
