My recent mission trip to Costa Rica was the most glory intense trip I’ve ever been on, from beginning to end. I went with great expectation, but God exceeded that. I want to share with you some of the wonderful experiences we had on this trip to encourage you and to give you expectation. I believe we are just on the brink of the greatest move of God’s spirit on the face of the earth. To me this trip was a taste of the first fruits of glory to come when the spirit of the Lord is poured out on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your old men (and women) will dream dreams (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17).
Four weeks before going on the trip, I had a dream about going to Costa Rica. This is the journal entry I made the night after the dream.
Last night I had a dream where I flew to Costa Rica. When I stepped out of the airport all of the roads were filled with water at least a foot deep. I wondered how am I going to get to the property with all this water. I drove a car through the water to get to the property.
I also recognized that I was in a hurry and I hadn't packed my bags with any clothes. When I got to the property I started walking towards the door and hung on a line right in front of me were two shirts. One shirt was green and the other blue. The green shirt I recognized was a shirt I used on many mission trips where I would use it when I was preaching at a meeting. The blue shirt was a longsleeved shirt and more formal. In the dream I thought I must have forgotten these although I didn't remember ever leaving any shirts in Costa Rica. Neferty (the property manager) was in the house and she came out to greet me with a kiss on the cheek and told me about how she was so glad to see me there. That was the end of the dream.
To me this was a dream about part of what God is going to do while I'm in Costa Rica. The water symbolizes the holy spirit and that he's going to be in every road and every junction like rivers of living water filling the streets. The fact that I forgot my clothes was not as important as God made provision and gave me clothes.
I also believe that the shirt style and colors represent a message. The green shirt was something I was familiar with and had worn there before. To me this spoke of God continuing the ministry I've had there before. The color green also stands for new life, freshness, prophecy, and new beginnings The blue shirt I believe represented a new role I will have in Costa Rica...more formal. The blue shirt was something I would wear at work so it could stand for a more formal work of ministry there or business role there. Blue also stands for the Holy Spirit, revelation, river of God, healing, and God's throne.
Part of my prayer in going to Costa Rica is that God would open up the ministry of healing to me and more supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. I think this dream is an answer that God is going to answer my request.
Now that I look back at what happened, I realize how true this dream was. Everywhere we went, the Lord’s presence was there and we witnessed many miracles, answers to prayer, salvations, healings, and deliverances. All in all, we saw 12 people give their life to Christ, we saw more than 15 healings occur (there were more than that, but we didn’t get a chance to interview people from the last service we were at), a family of 8 received deliverance from demonic oppression, I had opportunity to preach at 4 gospel meetings on the father’s heart, we prayed for impartation to 3 young leaders who have the heart for evangelism, we saw miraculous answers to prayer, and met with over 24 pastors in making connections for future ministry opportunities. All in one week! When I went to Costa Rica, I had no agenda established. Not that I didn’t try, it just didn’t happen. I remember praying on the first morning there for God to lead me and the mini-team that we had. And He did. It was so perfectly orchestrated, I marvel at what happened.
So, to write about all that happened would make this a really long blog post. Instead, I’ll share just some of the stories. Maybe there will be a part two blog later. Our mini-team consisted of myself, Bob Wyant, Judy McCrea, and our interpreter Emerson.
I arrived in Costa Rica Sunday afternoon. That evening we met with a local pastor, counseled with a young leader, and showed the video “Father of Lights” to a couple who one day will pastor a church. After the video, we prayed for this young couple. As we did, the power of the Lord came in that room so strong. My hands were burning like fire and heavy. I thought, what will happen if I put them down by my side? As I did, the power began shooting up my arms up to my elbow, like electricity. And it didn’t leave, it remained. Not knowing what to do, we layed hands on the couple and began blessing them in the name of the Lord.
The next morning we went to see a pastor whose church was nearby. He confided in us about some things for us to pray for. And he told us about his father who was very sick. His father had not been out of his bed for 15 days, and was so weak that he couldn’t control his body functions. Consequently, they were constantly having to clean him and his sheets. I felt before we prayed for the pastor that we should honor his father and pray that God would raise him up. So, we all went into his father’s room and began praying. The presence of the Lord was there and it was good. Nothing appeared to have happened immediately, but we released our faith in God to touch his father. Just to fast forward, two days later (on Wednesday) his father was up and moving around. He was able to get to the kitchen and rest room without any help. Praise God! And then on Saturday (six days later) I walked into the church right before the Saturday evening meeting. An older gentleman was sitting on the back row and I felt compelled to go up to him to bless him. And to my surprise, it was the pastor’s father! Hallelujah! He had enough strength to make it into church and participate in a gospel meeting! Come on!
On Monday evening we went to a small home group meeting in a very poor neighborhood. But the Lord was there! I shared a word out of Acts 3:20 and Revelation 3:20; having been given Acts 3:20 a week before and given Revelations 3:20 that night. Emerson shared a message with the group and then we began to pray for those who were sick or had a loved one that was sick. One woman who came to the meeting was so touched by the presence of the Lord. She didn’t want us to stop praying and she didn’t want to let go of the Lord’s presence. It was intense. Afterward she was so touched that she asked if we could please come to her home Tuesday morning and pray for her daughter who had chronic headaches. We agreed.
The next morning we went to this woman’s home. We interviewed her daughter to find out what might be the source of these headaches. She started receiving them when she was four years old and they grew more intense over the years to the point that she got them everyday and was in pain almost all the time. As we interviewed her we found out that her grandmother had been involved in witchcraft of some sort. So we first annointed to the door posts of the home, took authority over unclean spirits, and then broke the curse of generational sin over this girl. Just as we pronounced this, their dog came up right behind this girl and began throwing up. That was weird! But I took it as a sign. After we prayed, the girl had no more headache! This was on Tuesday. We saw her again on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday and she had no more recurrence of headaches! Praise God! Fast forward to Thursday, we went to pray for the grandmother, two other sisters, and a brother of this first woman. God sent deliverance, we led the grandmother to renounce practices she was involved in earlier in her life, she confessed and received joy! The brother who had been practicing witchcraft repented and received Christ as his savior. And a sister got saved as well. All in all, God redeemed a family of eight, three generations of this family during this week!
On Wednesday morning we went to visit an orphanage and another woman who was starting a foster care-type home for orphans who couldn’t be placed in a home for various reasons. While visiting with the woman, I felt impressed to tell her that the next time I saw her she would have children in her home. She has been working on establishing a home and getting approval to have children for the last four years. At the time we saw her, the paperwork was in an agency to be reviewed but there was no indication as to when approval would come. Everything in Costa Rica takes time, and she’s had many delays in this process. She said that would be wonderful, but that she would really like to have kids before Christmas. So I said, let’s pray and ask God to do the impossible, because nothing is to big for Him. So we prayed. The very next day (no lie) she got approval from family services to have 7 children in her home. Fast forward 6 days, she then found out she would get some of the children 12 days before Christmas! Praise God! Oh I think the Lord likes surprising us with impossible answers to prayer! I love you Jesus!
Wednesday night we held a healing service. Prior to the service, I asked the Lord for words of knowledge regarding what He wanted to heal that night. The morning of the meeting, I woke with two visions; they were both x-rays, one of a heal and the other of a knee. I also received 10 other words of knowledge through impressions in my body, one of which was a pain in the back right below the rib cage on the left side of the body. I called these out in the meeting and then opened up the altar for anyone to come forward that had these problems. We then prayed over the group of 20 or more people who came up. We stopped after a few minutes and told everyone to check themselves and see if there was any difference. Four people began waving their hands that they had a difference in their body! I said ok that’s good, but let’s pray again. Then I told them to check themselves again. This time eight people began waving their hands that something was different and they were healed. Praise God!
But then I said, ok lets have some of you come up and give your testimony. So then a young girl comes up and testified that she had pain in her heels constantly whenever she walked. But after prayer, it was completely gone! Another came up and said her knee was bad and constantly popping when she bent down. She had to stop playing soccer. But when she went to check her knee that night, it popped one time going down the first time, but not anymore after that. She also got healed of headaches, which was another word of knowledge given that night. These two girls also testified again on Saturday night, having continued to bear witness that they had been touched by the Lord on Wednesday night. The next woman came up to testify, that she had the pain in the back under her rib cage. It resulted from her lungs. She had received a doctors diagnosis that she was not getting the proper volume of air in her lungs and would not be able to live much longer in that condition. That night as we prayed, breath came into her lungs! She was able to breath deeply again! She was so touched that she couldn’t stop crying! Hallelujah! All in all we had more than 10 people testify of healings they had received that night; there were more but we didn’t get a chance to speak with all those who had waved their hands at the end of the meeting.
Thursday afternoon we went to a men’s prison and while there Emerson gave his testimony. This was key, since Emerson had been in this prison a few years ago. God set him free while there and now he is on fire for Jesus! The men were very receptive of Emerson’s testimony and afterward 10 men gave their life to the Lord! Go God!
Saturday night was the last meeting I was in before leaving Sunday morning. At this meeting, the prayer time was more intense than the meeting on Wednesday. We weren’t able to interview anyone after the prayer time because it had gone on so long and the people had to leave to get on their buses to get home. But this was evident; after the prayer time, the scene looked like a battle field, with people laying everywhere, people weeping at the altar, and others praising the Lord! As Bob prayed for one woman who came up with a tumor, he literally felt the tumor disappear! It was as large as an orange, but went away!
Many more things happened of which only God could do. I only marvel at how intense this week was and how wonderful it was. This is just the beginning of what is to come with greater intensity and I believe in all parts of the world.
Acts 3:20 Get ready for the appointed time of refreshing that is coming from the presence of the Lord!
Blessings to you!
David Bates
