Models and Movements of Indonesian Mission by Luis Bush

Introduction: This is the day the Lord has made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it. Why? Because the Prophet Habakkuk assures us that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea (Hab 2:14). That promise applies to Indonesia and all nations. A new wave is coming at World Prayer Assembly II (WPA2). It is a Holy Spirit anointed wave. It is a holy wave. Indonesia shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the Sea. That is the word from God to His people. That means Indonesia will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the Sea. It is only a matter of time. Almighty God said so through his servant Habakkuk a second time, as recorded in chapter three and verse three, "And the Holy One … His splendor covers the heavens, And the earth is full of His praise." That is where we are in this World Prayer Assembly II. Indonesia is full of prayer and full of praise. 

WPA2 will be a Holy Wave from the Holy One sweeping forth across Indonesia and her 17,000 plus islands. No doubt Indonesia will be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea. Isaiah the Prophet confirmed that conviction when he wrote chapter eleven and verse nine. It reads: "The earth is full of the loving-kindness of the Lord for they will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the Sea." The Holy Wave is sweeping across the nation and blessing the people of Indonesia and the World." That same Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 6:3: "I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne: And one called out to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." The Holy wave is moving across Indonesia. We need to catch that wave. At WPA2, we must catch the wave. God's servant Moses expressed the same conviction: "but indeed, as I live, the glory of the Lord will fill all the earth" (Numbers 14:21). That promise includes Indonesia with each of her many islands. Indonesia has experienced a revival going back to the mid-1960s.

In the book Like a Mighty Wind, author Mel Tari reports that many teams were formed and began their evangelistic work throughout Timor in Indonesia and beyond in early October 1965, with many signs and wonders reported. One revival team from the Maranatha Church visited the town of Niki-Niki. During a two-week evangelistic thrust, nine thousand people professed their faith in Jesus Christ. Great prayer revival swept through Indonesia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which several Christian leaders from Indonesia today came to know the Lord. Christian servant-leaders of different generations come together in anticipation of another great revival in our day. God's servants have seen visions of the people of Indonesia and God's love for them. Today this vision is being fulfilled as the Church of Indonesia is coming into a season of greater unity. 

In Indonesia, the Christian Church hosts the World Prayer Assembly II, as was the World Prayer Assembly I ten years ago, in an atmosphere of Holy Spirit revival and unity of the Body of Christ. Christian leadership in the nation has recognized that, for Indonesia to experience peace and wholeness as a nation of great diversity, there needs to be unity and synergy among believers in Jesus. The Indonesian Church has been a spiritual forerunner of global mission movements rooted in and realized by a national prayer movement over the last thirty years, such as, for example, the AD2000 Movement and The Transform World Movement. 

The prophecy of Habakkuk has inspired a biblical framework for the Indonesian mission. By faith, we see a New Wave Coming at World Prayer Assembly II, by which Indonesia shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the Sea. That is the Word from God to us through His Prophet. The fulfillment of that word will certainly take place. It is only a matter of time. And almighty God spoke through his servant Habakkuk a second time as recorded in chapter three and verse three, "And the Holy One … His splendor covers the heavens, And the earth is full of His praise." That is what we anticipate in this World Prayer Assembly II“ - an assembly of God's servants in person and virtual presence throughout all the world-full of prayer and full of praise. 

This is the plan of Jesus, the Son of God, as was recorded by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:10 "He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens so that He might fill all things. Among all things, Jesus will fill the nation of Indonesia. Paul the Apostle wrote a letter to the Church in Ephesus. In chapter 1 and verses 22 and 23 of that letter, he wrote: "God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." As we seek God together at this World Prayer Assembly, the question is “how? Who better could answer that question than Habakkuk?” We must respond to God's revelation in three ways: prayerfully, personally, and proactively. Habakkuk, whose name means "he that embraces," was called by God to embrace the revelation he was to receive by God. He did so prayerfully, personally, perceptively with insight as to what God is doing “ "Look at the Nations .. with concentration" "Watch the progress of what God is doing" in filling the earth with His glory and proactively as we hear Jesus say to his disciples while sitting on the Mount of Olives in relation to how to fulfill the word of Habakkuk 2:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Mt 24:14). These nations or ethne refer to the people groups1. "For evangelization purposes, a people group is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread as a church planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance."

Indonesia Christians have engaged prayerfully, personally, and proactively just as Habakkuk did from his prayer tower (see Hab. 2:1) as he said: "I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint." In the climactic center of this revelation from God to his servant Habakkuk, between his beginning question, "how long must I cry?" and his final words, "I will rejoice in the God of my salvation," we discover the reason for the rejoicing as stated in Habakkuk 2:14 which is this fact. It is because of an emerging transformed world as "The Task" is finished. This new world, with all of its peoples, will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea. 

Conclusion: Paul and Barnabas accomplished the missionary "work" that the Holy Spirit had commissioned them to do in their day. Should we, servants of God, not accomplish the work that the Holy Spirit has commissioned us to do in our day in Indonesia and beyond? The repetition of the term "work" first appears in Acts 13:2. "As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.

As Paul and Barnabas were passing through Phoenicia and Samaria, they were taking time to meet with believers who were Hellenized Jews, "describing in detail" with the fullest and clearest declaration what God had done resulting in the conversion of the Gentiles (Acts 15:3). The present tense pictures Paul and Barnabas continually describing in detail the Gentile reception of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the true and living God! Filling the earth with God's glory includes the celebration of what God is doing among the unreached peoples of Indonesia as we are doing in this event and calls us together to work as one body, regardless of church or denominational affiliation. We are the Body of Christ. We are His servants called to do His will by filling Indonesia with God's glory by making disciples among all the ethne“, a church for every people by 2030. Now is the time. Now is the opportunity. 

Luis Bush
May 2022