Most people know that Rio de Janeiro hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup. But what they may not kow is that this year's international spotlight on rio de Janeiro is part of a national upturn - an incredible blessing - that started after a group of Brazilian Christians came together to repent.
Rickie Bradshaw, a community transformation leader based in Houston, TX, and one of the many catalysts behind the decade-long prayer movement in Brazil, gives credit to God for this unfolding story of national transformation - both economic and spiritual. "Darkness lingered because of a broken covenant between God and His people," said Bradshaw, summarizing several centuries of Brazil's history. "But once it was addressed in the heavens, God was attracted to the region."
What did this "attraction" look like, and how did it begin? Bradshaw said a milestone came in 2006 with a time of corporate prayer in Recife, a coastal city where 5,000 intercessors met at The Sentinel Group's Transform Brazil conference to learn about revival. As one of six Americans attending the conference, Bradshaw witnessed how Brazilian leaders asked God one question in particular: "Why is the darkness lingering in this region?" They spent time to search and prayerfully wait for specific answers.
Searching for answers meant tracing the darkness to its source. The Transform Brazil team found a telltale clue as they reviewed Brazil's colonial past.
In 1645, there were 1,630 European Jews living in Recife, and under a short period of Dutch rule, these Jews were allowed to openly practice their faith. They thrived and established a vibrant community in the New World Their presence in Brazil boosted the economy through business and trade. However, the prosperity of Brazil's Jewish community made the colony's Portuguese and indigenous populations resentful, and when the Portuguese pushed out the Dutch in 1654, the Jews suffered persecution and were also ordered to leave.
While most of the Jews uprooted to Europe or the Caribbean, a remnant settled on an island called New Amsterdam, now known as New York City. Once again, these industrious Jews built successful businesses and thrived. Today, that island is Manhattan, one of the richest, most significant, and most powerful places in the world.
As the Transform Brazil team uncovered this story of discrimination, they were convicted of the need for repentance. They understood that a great injustice had taken place against a people that had come to create major economic imporvement in Brazil. Had their forefathers been grateful rather than bitter toward the Jews for their prosperity, perhaps Brazil's physical and spiritual landscape woud be different.
The Transform Brazil team pursued reconciliation in a tangible, public way by inviting a group of Jewish rabbis to come on stage while leaders of the converence prostrated themselves and asked forgiveness for what their forefathers had done. In response, the rabbis offered forgiveness and a blessing to the people of Brazil.
This profound act of national repentance and reconciliation galvanized Brazil's Christians. In 2008, Bradshaw returned to Recife for another speaking engagement and reported, "Many people met me on the coast and repented of their sins. I spoke about how the condition of the land directly related to what's going on in the hearts of His people and in a short period of time, thousands rushed to the altar to demonstrate their brokenness and desire for the Kingdom."
Immediately aftger that meeting, a breaking CNN international report on the Petrobras corporation announced the discovery of a giant oil field. The president of Brazil stood on a platform wearing a hard hat and holding a cup of extracted oil, rejoicing that the cup represented the future of Brazil - jobs, education, and medicine.
Coincidence? Bradshaw doesn't think so. He is convinced that repentance is paving the way for healing of the land (Zechariah 1:3 and 2 Chronicles 7:14). Brazil is now number 4 in the global economy (up from number 11) and unemployment is almost non-existent in some cities. Meanwhile, Christian prayer towers are prevalent across the country.
"The World Cup was in Brazil because God wants to bring attention to what is happening there," said Bradshaw. "Christians are giving Him credit. Oil has always been off the coast of Brazil, but nobody could find it - the world's largest oil company struck and missed - and then all of the sudden, when so many repent of national sin, they found it."
(Nichole Arnoldbik, IFA's National director of Communications, Intercessors For America, Sept. 2014,
www.IFAPray.org)
No comments:
Post a Comment