Intercession Movement Changes An Entire City

Prayer changes city

Local intercession leaders report that the number of evangelical Christians in
Goiania, a city with 1.3 million inhabitants near Brasilia, has grown from 8% to
45% in the last 6 years. Previously, the city had been a bastion of spiritism.
Many local pastors attribute the phenomenal growth, in which hundreds of
thousands of people found Jesus in only a few years, to intense prayer led
mainly by Christian women.

It started over 15 years ago, when a small group of
some 5 women began praying for the city. Elizabeth Cornelio, housewife, mother,
and one of the movement's initiators, was then told by her pastor not to pray
with Christians from other churches. "Members of other churches are not
spiritual brothers and sisters, they are at most spiritual cousins," he said.
Around 6 years ago, Elizabeth invited Christians from various churches to meet
to pray in unison for the city; for this 'sin', she was expelled from her
church. The 850 who attended the first meeting have now become one of the
world's largest intercession networks, with 188,000 women praying every morning
for the city. They are linked together through a radio program moderated live
by Elizabeth Cornelio and her close co-leader Elizabeth Albernaz.


372 new churches in one month

Every church in the city has grown, and many new churches have been planted,
they report. The intercessors, mainly women, regularly pray in people's houses
for their deliverance from demonic powers, intercede and pray prophetically, or
pray on the street for an as yet unreached part of town. They often experience
that a new church is planted in the area where they prayed within a day.
"Prayer," they say, "makes people incredibly open to the gospel, and is
therefore inseparable from church planting, because it is prayer to the one who
said 'I will build my church!'" Christians from one denomination prayed and
fasted for 40 days at the end of 1998, and planted 372 new churches in January
1999 alone.


Who are the real key leaders?

Even if some pastors still have problems working with other Christians, the
women have achieved something which many leading pastors considered impossible:
they now work with over 80 of the local denominations, have trained over 5,000
prayer leaders and given God's people a vision for the spiritual transformation
and salvation of an entire city: a flame which has already started spreading to
many other parts of Brazil, and other nations.


"Prayer prevents bloodbath"

Some time ago, a dramatic breakout and hostage-taking at Goiania's prison had
the police at their wits' end. They approached the intercessors, asking them to
pray for the derailed situation. Elizabeth Cornelio not only mobilized thousands
of intercessors, but was also given a direct telephone line into the prison, so
that she could target the prayer. The whole town saw live how the drama was
turned around, ending without bloodshed at exactly the prophesied time, 5pm. The
headlines in the local newspapers then proclaimed "Prayer prevents bloodbath!"


Gold dust on hands and faces

In Goiania, they have recently been experiencing a peculiar phenomenon (also
reported to be occurring in Switzerland, Israel and South Africa): following
prayer, the women often have a fine, clearly visible gold dust on their faces
and hands. Initially astonished, the collected some of the dust and took it to a
local jeweler, who declared it to be the purest gold he had ever seen. The
intercessors see this as an inexplicable manifestation of the Biblical phenomena
in which some people, such as Moses, had "radiant faces" after meeting God. They
warn against an emphasis on external phenomena: "Jesus alone suffices!"


Brazilian intercession leaders: what does God say about Switzerland?

As a quick glimpse into the intercessors' lives, here is an extract from one of
their (prophetic?) prayers for Switzerland:
"God seems to be saying 'I am preparing a great army in Switzerland.' We can
already hear the soldiers marching; they are Christians going into peoples'
houses looking for the lost. The time of esoteric and New Age is past. I see
mothers praying for their children, that God's fire will burn in their hearts,
reaching whole schools and universities through them... Now is God's hour for
Switzerland - many Christians must learn to clean their ears and listen for
God's voice again. There will be a spiritual earthquake, affecting whole
churches, denominations and fellowships. The population will have to be shaken,
God is waking the supposedly revived, who are sleeping. The pains are as in
labor...

In Switzerland, says God, I did not find many to pray for the nation, but I
have found them in other nations. They will join you. I will bring Christians
from other nations, spiritual midwives, praying for Switzerland.... There is not
much time, hurry, hurry, hurry... It is not time for your house, but for mine,
says God. All I need is your open heart and willingness to obey me from now on."