Tacos and late-night prayer with Bishop Aquiña

By Steve Beard

May/June 1997

It is not often that I have been invited to eat dinner with a bishop. It is even rarer to have a bishop prepare dinner for me. But that is what happened while I was recently in Mexico, sitting in a church courtyard after a wonderful service talking with Bishop Antonio Aquiña as he prepared the most incredible tacos.

As sensational as all of that was, nothing compares to being with an episcopal leader who actually has a spiritual hunger to see God move in a powerful revival throughout the churches under his authority. Bishop Aquiña is a man with a vision, who believes in a God who longs to do more than we could ever imagine

My friend Mark Nysewander of Threshold Ministries was invited by the bishop to hold a conference for his pastors and district superintendents on the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit. Six of us ended up heading down on the ministry team and were able to soak these beleaguered pastures in prayer and share with them about the heavenly Father’s love, the river of God, the need for a world-wide revival, intimacy with the Lord, and the work of the Holy Spirit. The Lord moved among these men and women, touching them beautifully. It was awesome.

These pastors were from the northwest section of Mexico in Sonora and Baja California. Many of them are despised and tormented in their towns because of their belief that God can deliver people from the demonic strongholds in their lives. Several of them told me about being cursed on the streets of their towns by those who were held captive by evil spirits. The occult and spiritism is very strong in parts of Mexico. Furthermore, the demonic is far more publicly prominent. Unlike many pastors in the United States, these clergypersons had no doubts about the destructive power of the devil or the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. They did not blush when they refer to the torment of demons or the ministry of angels.

Over meals, many of them asked me about the preoccupation with homosexuality within the United Methodist Church in the United States. One by one they recounted the public disgrace they faced when a flamboyant United Methodist clergyperson from Southern California appeared on the “Cristina” television show to perform several same sex marriages a year and a half ago. Cristina is the Oprah of the entire Spanish-speaking world.

The UM clergyman was decked out in a clerical collar and a colorful stole draping his robe as he smiled with Glee as the male couple and the female couple kissed on television. The Methodist pastors in Mexico received the brunt of the ramifications of this display because their parishioners were disillusioned and angry. Many left the Methodist Church for other denominations where such behavior is still viewed as unscriptural. These pastors bore an undeserved stigma for simply being Methodists.

Although the bishops of Mexico sent letters of protest and concern, there came no satisfactory response. I was ashamed. But I was able to thank the Methodist Church of Mexico for always being a faithful and biblical voice on the issue of homosexuality at General Conference.

The Methodists in northern Mexico are largely evangelical. There was a great charismatic revival in their midst in 1973 that changed the denomination. While the South was riddled with liberation theology (one pastor told me that he learned to make Molotov cocktails in class at seminary), the north was finding new life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Six months ago Bishop Aquiña and his wife received a prophetic word from some Christian brothers who only knew that he was a Methodist pastor. The word went something like this, “You only give, give, give. It is now time for you to receive. Seek me. …”

They believed that this was a legitimate word of encouragement from the Lord. It strengthened him and has given him new fire to pursue the Lord with all that is in him. The bishop is a man who wants nothing less than all that God has for him and the Methodists in Mexico.

As the pastors left the conference, many of them shared how God had radically touched their hearts. Many actually felt sensations of the Lord’s manifest presence. God released a fresh anointing, healed painful memories from the past, and reconciled brothers who had been at odds. We even saw one family walk by the church during the pastors conference and give their hearts to Jesus.

After our very late meal late meal with the bishop, he asked us to pray for him before he boarded a bus for an 8 hour ride home. As we prayed, the bishop received a fresh realization of the love of God for him and was overcome with the power of a holy and mighty God. Needless to say, the Bishop caught a much later bus.

The Holy Spirit puts a very high priority on overwhelming the human heart with the love of the father. We all need it, even bishops.