The ministry was focused on the indigenous people living between Tampico and Mexico City.
Introduction
David Hogan and his family had been serving as missionaries in southeastern Mexico since the mid-1970s, focusing specifically on the indigenous people of the region around 75 miles southwest of Tampico. In 1981, Hogan founded Freedom Ministries, and through their 40+ years of ministry, they have seen:
► Over 600 churches started.
► Countless villages having the gospel preached in them.
► An overwhelming number of physical healings, some of them creative miracles.
► People being raised from the dead, with Hogan himself being present when 37 were raised from the dead. The entire ministry team, including indigenous pastors, account for 500 being raised from the dead.
David & Debbie Hogan
Extraordinary Prayer and Fasting
The missionaries and ministry team with Freedom Ministries had a pattern of rigorous prayer and fasting. At times the fasting would be every other day, and on other occasions it would be three days on and three days off.
It was during the course of regular ministry events that Hogan was making a visit to an extremely remote village, and after he arrived the national pastor approached Hogan and said,
Brother David, I’m really afraid I’ve made a mistake.
Hogan hadn’t heard of any reports of wrongdoing by this pastor. This man was faithful overseeing his four churches in the area, so he asked what had happened, and the pastor continued,
It’s not my fault. I apologize. I’ve done everything right, like you taught me. I pray everyday. I read the Bible. I’m doing it right. What happened is not my fault.
Being startled with this pastor’s behavior, Hogan said,
What happened? Come on, tell me what happened.
The Indian pastor was trembling, and with tears running down his face he said,
Brother David, I got up in our little church. I opened my Bible and I started preaching and the people started falling down. The people started crying. The people started laughing. And it scared me. I ran out of the church.
This was what Hogan had been anticipating. He was very cautious not to fabricate a movement that did not originate from the Holy Spirit. He also had not allowed those who attended the Toronto or Brownsville Revivals to report on what the Holy Spirit was doing there, as he wanted a genuine and authentic Holy Spirit movement that was not imported. He wanted a totally indigenous work for the hills of Mexico.
Fanning the Flames of Revival Through Prayer and Fasting
Hogan said that he had waited a lifetime to see a move of the Holy Spirit like this, and to see what the Holy Spirit started spread further. The ministry team and pastors made a covenant to fast during the month of September, 1995. They had already been fasting three days on and three days off, and they wanted to step up their preparedness for whatever the Holy Spirit was wanting to do next.
During the fast many of the ministry team had dramatic encounters with the Lord, as He was working deep within them, preparing them for the outpouring that was soon to come.
David Hogan (right)
Hogan knew the Holy Spirit had started something, and to determine the extent of what He was going to do, he gathered national pastors together in the different sections of the region in which he was ministering, for the purpose of conducting church services with them.
In the first section there were about 75 pastors that came together. Hogan had typically preached for about two hours, but after he opened his Bible and read a few verses, with not even 10 minutes having passed, he felt that was enough.
He then asked the pastors to stand. After they had risen, he said, “Receive the River of Life!” Hogan’s account of what happened next is as follows:
You should have seen it! It looked like someone was hitting them with bats in the stomach and the head. But nobody was touching them. People were lying over benches, forward, backward, all over the place. I was trying to help, but I couldn’t help. People were just flying everywhere. And these were ministers.
Hogan continued traveling and ministering to the pastors in the different sections of the region his ministry covered. He arrived at one area he had not been to in several months, and as he stood to minister to them, he read one verse from his Bible about the fire of God and the people started shaking. He asked the people to stand, and Hogan’s recollection as to what transpired was as follows:
They tried to stand up. Some of them couldn’t stand. I just said the word “Fire.” And the whole place fell. It was getting more and more scary to me. But people were getting healed without anybody touching them. A man in that meeting had been deaf for 27 years. I didn’t know the man. He fell over and hit his head on a bench, and fell underneath the bench. He got up from there after a few minutes and he took off running out of the room. His ears had unstopped and he was running from the noise!
After Hogan had introduced this work of the Holy Spirit to all the sections, he brought all the pastors together from throughout the entire region.
David Hogan
First Day of the Regional Gathering
On Wednesday, October 25, 1995, about 200 pastors had assembled, as well as the congregation that was hosting the event—a total of around 450 people. The Holy Spirit was poured out on this day with many being healed, bringing tremendous encouragement to all.
Second Day of the Regional Gathering
On Thursday, the presence of God was even stronger. The service started at 8 a.m. and ministry continued until 10 p.m. Unconverted people from the community were visiting, with many of them being saved.
Third Day of the Regional Gathering
Hogan was staying about 45 minutes away from where the services were being conducted. He wasn’t aware that the Indians on Thursday night had commenced an all-night prayer meeting. During that evening the Holy Spirit had fallen upon them so powerfully that they weren’t able to stand. Many of them had such a weight of God’s glory resting on them that they were prostrated on the ground, not able to rise, and they were that way the entire night, and even remained there until the next morning.
It was early Friday morning, October 27, 1995, as Hogan was heading toward the church that was hosting the gathering, that he heard missionaries talking on the two-way radio, saying,
What’s happening here. I can’t walk.
At the same time, Hogan began to sense the power of God coming on him, and that involved a heat that accompanied God’s power. When he arrived and opened the door to his truck to get out, he instantly felt the heat intensify. As he walked closer to the building, the heat became even more noticeable, and the presence of God grew increasingly thick.
It was 7:45 a.m. when he entered the building, and the sight that presented itself to him was:
People were all over the place. Some were knocked out. Some were on the ground. Some were moaning and wailing. It was very unusual. By the time I got to the front of the church where the elders were I could hardly walk. I was holding on to things to get there. I could hardly breathe. The heat of the presence of God was amazing.
The first thing Hogan did was ask the nine national leaders to come to the front, and on the spot they made a pact with each other and before God for the salvation of souls, even if it meant martyrdom.
When they all lifted their hands, indicating their agreement to the pact, all nine fell prostrate at once, and Hogan was hurled backward. At the same moment, every pastor in the building also fell prostrate due to the presence and power of God.
Services under a tent
Unbelievers Impacted
The activity raised the curiosity of the unbelievers in the community and they came to see what was taking place. When they came, they also fell under the power of God–even those outside the building. From the church on the hill, looking down the hill, people in the village could be seen running out of their huts screaming and falling prostrate under the power of God.
Healings
At the meeting on October 27th, there were around 30 sick people present. Some were brought in on stretchers. Every one of those people were healed at this time. Those who were healed had been afflicted by blindness, cancer, lupus, tumors, epilepsy, and demonization. Nobody laid hands on them to pray for their healing–it was a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit’s healing power.
Reconciliation
There were some who had been at odds with each other, and these were united, sobbing and repenting as they embraced.
Visions
There were at least five “open-eyed” visions, with the individuals relating to others everything they were seeing. Most of the visions had to do with the grandeur and greatness of Jesus and of heaven.
Results of the Revival
► One year after that visitation there were between 150-500 people who were being saved every month, and that is just through what the North American missionaries were doing.
► Healing miracles continued to take place, as well as people being raised from the dead.
► David Hogan is now involved with international ministry opportunities, traveling to nations throughout the world.
Sources
► 1995-October: Mexico (David Hogan) by the Renewal Journal
► David & Debbie Hogan from Freedom Ministries Website
► Transcript of Sid Roth Interview of David Hogan from Oct. 6, 2016 “Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural”
► Faith to Raise the Dead video by David Hogan
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