Self-Evaluation Report by Dan Tovar Revival Alliance Conference April 22-25, 2014
This year we attended the 2014 Revival Alliance Conference. HRock celebrated twenty years since the birth of this movement, “Celebrating Twenty Years of God’s Goodness and His Presence.” My wife and I have been attending Revival Alliance conferences since their inception in 2005. Ché Ahn, the apostle of this amazing movement writes:
In 2005, based on a prophetic word from Bob Jones, 6 couples came together to form a Kingdom network named Revival Alliance (RA). To this day, Bill and Beni Johnson. John and Carol Arnott, Randy and Deanne Clark, Heidi and Rolland Baker, Georgian and Winnie Banov, and Sue and myself meet annually for a spiritual retreat. We hold at least two RA conferences a year, one on the East Coast, hosted by Randy Clark, and one on the West Coast that we are privileged to host at HRC.[1]
We have always looked forward to those conferences where we can be refreshed and equipped along the many other leaders from all over the globe. We are so privileged to be in a godly relationship and to regularly have fellowship with the spiritual fathers of this revival (Bill and Beni Johnson – Bethel Church, Global Legacy, Randy and De Anne Clark – Global Awakening, Georgian and Winnie Banov- Global Celebration, Rolland and Heidi Baker – Iris Ministry, John and Carol Arnott – Spread the Fire Ministry and Ché and Sue Ahn – HRock Church and Harvest International Ministry) and all the other network leaders that are coming into “apostolic alignment” bringing reformation to our own areas of “apostolic assignment”. Last year (1-4 December) my wife and I were privileged to attend SOA (School of Apostles) with Ché and Sue. HIM is an apostolic network of churches, ministries, missions organizations. Currently, HIM is in more 60 nations with over 20,000 churches and ministries of “Changing Lives, Transforming Cities, and Discipling Nations.”[2]
As I have written in the past, Ché and I were class mates at Fuller Seminary (1984-89). We became close friends and have been involved in ministry since ALCC (Abundant Life Community Church – People of Destiny) days! He became my apostolic mentor and is now the apostle over our ministry network. Over the last 30 years our relationship with Ché and what has now become HIM has continued to grow.
During the period from 1989 – 2012 after leaving ALCC and Pasadena, we moved to central California (Fresno) where we planted a Hispanic church. We also founded a three-year bible institute. We have been networking with other Hispanic churches as well as non-Hispanic churches in our area who have an interest in aligning with what God has been saying to church about revival and reformation. It is interesting to see how many charismatic churches as well as non-denominational churches are emerging in this region. Their leadership is searching for a new wineskin and they are very receptive to networking with like-minded leaders to promote revival and to prepare the church for the next reformation. Since 1998 I have been traveling to Mexico City, where we are part of a network of over 200 churches that extend across the northern part of Mexico (Mexico City, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Huachinango and Vera Cruz). We have established five centers of training for pastors and leaders. We have been working with the apostles that God has raised up in that region. They have invited us to share our experiences with them. I was privileged to be invited to help in setting up apostolic centers around strategic locations throughout the southern part of Mexico. In 2005, we began to merged our network of ministries with HIM. In the future we hope that they can be aligned with HIM. Apostolic government-like leadership is a new paradigm for them. Though they are certainly familiar with Ephesians 4:11 they are interested in working with a “healthy” model of what an apostolic government wineskin would look like! (Next month I will be visiting with some of the leaders in Mexico City). Concerning apostolic centers, Ché writes about the future direction of HIM. Based on prophetic words he received from Cindy Jacobs and Bob Hartley in addition to the teachings of Dr. Peter Wagner (Ché’s apostolic mentor as well as my former missions professor at Fuller), he announced at this year’s conference that God is now calling us to be an “Apostolic Reformation Center.” He explains,
An apostolic center equips and launches people into ministry, and functions as a home base for itinerant ministers. Its leadership is patterned after Ephesians 4:11, with apostles and prophets being the foundation, and Christ being the chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). From our beginning, HRock Church has commissioned numbers of people into ministry, and we have planted 12 churches in the Los Angeles area alone. I knew we needed one umbrella covering for the different major ministries we have now, HRC, HIM, and WLI, and those to come in the future. God spoke to me through Matthew 13:15, 52 about the old and the new, and to also keep the name simple. The name is “Harvest Apostolic Center.” HAC is a house with pillars those pillars being HRC, HIM, WLI and other significant ones to come. [3]
More recently we have been working with the Messianic Jew. Currently we are helping oversee several messianic congregations in California (San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Bakersfield and Corona). Several years ago I became aware of my Jewish ancestry. My great grandfather was born in Spain. He was a Sephardic Jew (Spanish Jew) who was forced to convert to Catholic and kept his true identity a secret from the family. In rediscovering my Jewish roots I became aware of a movement of God that has slowly been emerging from among many Hispanic people whose true identity is most probably Sephardic as well. I firmly believe that the awakening (revival) of the Hispanic people that has been occurring throughout Latin America for more than 25 years is also an awakening of the Spanish Jew, the Sephardim. I am not aware of anyone else at this time (I have personally been teaching about this since 1995) that has made this connection (Hispanic people – Sephardic Jew – Endtimes Awakening) and revelation public. It is an awakening of their true and hidden identity! This too must occur during the “the convergence of the ages” and in preparation for the great move of God that is coming in the 21st Century! As well, a grass roots, spiritual movement is sweeping through the Christian church around the world. It is a new phenomenon. This movement is not well defined. To label it would be to mischaracterize it. It is likely the most notable spiritual event to occur within the Christian church since the Charismatic movement of some 45 years. This phenomenon is referred to as the “Hebrew Roots Movement” or the “Messianic Israel Movement.” It is in part, the awakening of the Sephardic Jew, the Hispanic people and the coming Latino reformation. But it is more than that. It is the awakening of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. It is the awakening of the gentile people to their Jewish roots. It is the convergence of the ages and world revival. Because this is a report on revival, I have included an excerpt from my book soon to be published entitled, “The Awakening of the Sephardic Jew and the Coming Latino Reformation”.
THE AWAKENING OF THE SEPHARDIC JEW AND THE COMING LATINO REFORMATION
We have all heard that “it is time for the Hispanic people to be visited by God with revival!” This is the message that the Lord has placed in the hearts of many concerning the next visitation from God for our Hispanic people. I say that the time is NOW! It is already happening!
Though many Hispanic people have yet to see this, we the Sephardic Jew as well as all the Hebrew people (including the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel”) are indebted to many whom largely and perhaps unknowingly (except by the prompting of the Spirit of God) have prayed for us and have embraced us. Many have responded to the prophetic call from God to pray for Israel and the Israelite people worldwide. We are indebted to “the World Prayer Movement”, “the Jerusalem Project” and the many respected theologians, pastors, prophets, teachers and authors such as Derek Prince, Dr. C. Peter Wagner (my former professor when I attended Fuller Seminary), Dr. Jack Hayford (former President of the Foursquare movement), Dr. Ché Ahn (my dear friend and apostolic mentor, senior pastor of HRock Church and founder/ president of Harvest International Ministry), Lou Engle (my dear friend and prophetic/intercessor mentor founder of Ekballo and who just recently moved back to Pasadena to dedicate himself to prayer and fasting for “the inauguration of a new era of revival and missions”), Dr. Don Finto, Robert Stearns, Ted Haggard, Michael Little, James W. Goll, Rick Joyner, Cindy Jacobs, Sandra Teplinsky as well as many other hundreds of Christian leaders from around the world, representing tens of millions of Christians who have been praying for the peace of Jerusalem. God intends to release the Jewish people from “the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them” (Jeremiah 23:8).
God is answering their prayers of intercession. God has been releasing our Jewish brothers who live in the biblical Land of the North (the area comprised by the former Soviet Union).
But, It is now time for the gathering of the descendents from the west, the Hispanic people, the Sephardic Jew our Spanish brothers and sisters of which I am one of them!
God is gathering His people, the descendents from the west!
I dedicate this book to all the forerunners of the prayer and prophetic movements throughout Church history who have prepared the way for us, for me today. Israel is a reality, and both the Church and Israel shall fulfill their greater place of destiny in these last days. We are in the midst of a “parallel awakening” of the Jewish as well as all the Hebrew people worldwide and the Body of the Messiah across the globe. It is an awakening of the Hispanic people, the Sephardic Jew as well as the beginning awakening of the Ten lost Tribes of Israel!
It is to all of them and the many others I have failed to mention, I dedicate this book.
Daniel Sanchez Tovar Pasadena, California September 14, 2013; 10th of Tishrei, 5774 Yom Kippur
Twenty-first century man has begun to witness the unfolding of God’s promise to the Hebrew people. The single most important fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the last 2,000 years is the return of Israel to her Land of Inheritance. This has been part of growing Messianic movement. It is an awakening of the Hebrew people as they return to their true God, Yahweh. Many authors have written about the relationship between the present world revival and the rise of the messianic Jewish believing community. But few have written about the Hispanic people and their Jewish roots. I am writing today, because I believe that there is also a relationship between the revival that has been occurring among the Hispanic people and the awakening of the Sephardic Jew.
Ten Lost Tribes of Israel
This awakening I believe is part of the coming Israel awakening. The awakening must include the “Ten lost Tribes of Israel” as they return to their Jewish homeland. All this must happen before we can see world-wide revival come! The Holy Scriptures spoke about this end-times activity. Christian prophets as well as Jewish Rabbis and sages have prophesied about this coming awakening as well.
But, “surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).The prophet Jeremiah foretold us about God’s people.
“I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number” (Jeremiah 23:3 NIV).
Among the great mysteries studied by historians and theologians for centuries has been the fate of the so-called Lost Tribes of Israel. We know the outcome of the Jews taken from the Kingdom of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) to Babylon, because most of the Jewish People living in Israel today are descendants of those who were taken to Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar and then returned during the reign of Cyrus.
But the Assyrians carried the ten tribes that comprised Israel’s Northern Kingdom into captivity more than one hundred years earlier, and they seem to have vanished from memory into the mists of legend.
God’s Faithfulness to all of Israel
Studying the first few books of the Old Testament, you quickly become acquainted with many of Israel’s ancient and openly hostile neighbors, who worked hard and long to completely erase this tiny nation from the face of the earth. Yet Israel remains in spite of the fact that their conquerors scattered the Jewish People throughout the world.
Even before Israel was re-established as a country in 1948, these dispersed Children of Israel somehow retained their heritage and cultural identity. One of the great evidences for God’s faithfulness to His word is the fact that they were not completely absorbed into the cultures of the nations that surrounded them.
“In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea” (Isaiah 11:11).
This amazing promise refers to the Children of Abraham being banished to Africa, Asia, and the islands of the sea—the Bible calls them the Outcasts of Israel.
The tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, and Manasseh make up what is now referred to as “The Lost Tribes of Israel.” These tribes disappeared from the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures following the repeated invasions, victories, enslavements and deportations by the Neo-Assyrian Empire between 740 and 722 BCE. The tribes of Judah, Levi and Benjamin are not included in this people group.
The Ten Lost Tribes Not Lost
Of course, the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel aren’t really lost. God knows where they are, and He is bringing them together, along with the dispersed of Judah, who have also been outcasts since the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70. They are wandering in places outside of their home, and God is committed to bring all of them Tribes home to Israel.
Did the ancient Hebrews make it to America, and other distant lands where they have survived to this day, lost and forgotten by men, but remembered by Elohim, who according to the word of His prophets as recorded in Scripture, He will re-gather in the last days? In this book we will examine the evidence shows that the Hebrews were scattered to distant lands as Scripture clearly states.
I am convinced that God intends to release the Jewish people from “the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them” (Jeremiah 23:8). Up until now, the primary focus of God’s recent message through prophetic and intercessory prayer leaders has been toward the Jewish people who live in the biblical Land of the North (the area comprised by the former Soviet Union). I believe that God also intended to encompass the land of the west which includes the Spanish Jews of Latin America. This is the primary focus of this book.
The Awakening of the Sephardic
I firmly believe that the awakening (revival) of the Hispanic people that has been occurring throughout Latin America for more than 25 years is also an awakening of the Spanish Jew, the Sephardim. I am not aware of anyone else at this time (I have personally been teaching about this since 1995) that has made this connection (Hispanic people – Sephardic Jew – Endtimes Awakening) and revelation public. It is an awakening of their true and hidden identity! This too must occur during the “the convergence of the ages” and in preparation for the great move of God that is coming in the 21st Century!
Clearly, Jeremiah, Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets foresaw a time when the Jewish People would be gathered from the nations where they had been scattered and return to the Land promised to Abraham and his descendants. Today, this prophecy is being fulfilled at an extraordinary rate. I see this aliyah, or return of Jews and the Lost Tribes to their biblical homeland, as an important sign that our Messiah’s coming is approaching.
Never before in the history of Israel has there been such a spiritual revival for the real lost sheep of Israel (the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel), the Sephardim. For 2,500 years, our fathers lived in the land known in Hebrew as Sefarad (Spain and the Iberian Peninsula area). Most of our people in Sefarad never knew anything about the death of Yeshua; yet the Spanish Catholic Church, the creators of all the barbaric tortures ever committed on any human being on earth (burning, strangling, and boiling in oil), calling us the “killers of God,” tried to force our people to adopt all their pagan ways and to curse our God.
God is answering the prayers of intercession. God has been releasing our Jewish brothers who live in the biblical Land of the North (the area comprised by the former Soviet Union).
It is now time for the gathering of the descendents from the west, the Hispanic people, the Sephardic Jew our Spanish brothers and sisters of which I am one of them!
God is gathering His people, the descendents from the west!
This is the awakening of the Sephardic Jews, the Hispanic people to their Jewish heritage as well as the beginning of the re-gathering of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel!
God has preserved the Israelite People not only because of His love for and faithfulness to Abraham, but because Israel plays a vital role in world redemption. This includes both the first coming and return of His promised Redeemer, the Messiah.
Dozens of Bible passages clearly reveal the pivotal role of the Hebrew People in the Last Days of planet earth. Note the words of Yeshua himself: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’” (Matthew 23:37-39).
Obviously, Messiah was speaking to the Jews who lived in the city of Jerusalem at that time. Some rejected Him then and many continue to reject Him to this day. Today they reject Him out of blindness. Tomorrow, they will recognize Him as Messiah when the blindness comes off of their eyes.
Hebrew Roots Revival
A grass roots, spiritual movement is sweeping through the Christian church around the world. It is a new phenomenon. This movement is not well defined. To label it would be to mischaracterize it. It is likely the most notable spiritual event to occur within the Christian church since the Charismatic movement of some 45 years. This phenomenon is referred to as the “Hebrew Roots Movement” or the “Messianic Israel Movement.” It is in part, the awakening of the Sephardic Jew, the Hispanic people and the coming Latino reformation.
But it is more than that. It is the awakening of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. It is the awakening of the gentile people to their Jewish roots. It is the Convergence of the ages and world revival.
Dan Tovar In partial fulfillment for diploma in Doctor of Practical Ministry Fresno, California April 25, 2014
[1] “Celebrating Twenty Years of God’s Goodness and His Presence” (Bulletin prepared for the 20th Anniversary).
[2] Ibid.
[3] “Celebrating Twenty Years of God’s Goodness and His Presence” (Bulletin prepared for the 20th Anniversary).