Roh Kudus

This is a piece written in relation to an Indonesian Missionary trip in April 2024.

Journal Entry

The journey began in Makassar, with a greeting from the humid air and foreign smells, the likes of which some of us City boys had never encountered before. Beyond Europe, we were quickly faced with the reality that we were far from home. Although we were physically absent from our familiar atmospheres, we were soon at ease with the warm embrace of our foreign family.

Unlike the flamboyant airport salutations missionaries and ministers are used to these days, we were greeted with hugs and genuine smiles, which proved to be much more inviting than the elaborate posters, expensive flowers and cameras. These people…these people were genuinely glad to see fellow believers, everyone from Pastors to Photographers were all treated with the same honour. As if we were long-lost siblings who had come back from an extended vacation. Their candour and sincerity removed all potential layers of pretence, making the mission a family meeting as opposed to a business venture.

The first thing worth noting was the huge difference in culture. Honour was not just a key they were taught by the Church to open closed doors in their lives or a tool they could use for answered prayers, honour was their lifestyle. Consistently greeted with bows on the streets, in our accommodations and in the Churches, we were touched by their unfiltered display of love. One particular hotel server bowed at me once, and then again, by the third time I felt like crying, it was enough to make this Nigerian boy give him all the rupiah I had left in my pockets. More than bowing, their culture of honour was even inscribed in their love for feeding their guests. In fact, the amount of food they persistently offered us was a potential gate to gluttony; so as to not dishonour their genuine display of honour, the tactic we enforced was to take little bits of the food from each dish to extend our gratitude for their efforts.

After exchanging formalities, we were introduced to the reality of Christianity in their nation. Unlike the significant struggle we face at home with Church buildings, the issue in Indonesia was not buildings, it was presence. The mere fact that there was a group of Christians willing to hold Jesus-centred services in the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, was a cause of concern for safety. And so, to mitigate any prospects of backlash, Churches would have to be located on top of businesses, hotels, schools or any sort of institution that was valuable to the community. In hopes of not alarming the endearing threat from Muslims who opposed the faith. The nation’s devotion to their god was clearly seen in the altars placed in every hotel, shop and shrine across the country, particularly in Bali. Such devotion was also evident in their alarming midnight pray chants and calls to their god, which to our spiritual ears sounded like a call to war.

My prayer for the nation and the world is that we would not have to hide behind the prospect of society advancement, to project Jesus. Although Christian contributions to advancing society are beneficial, His name alone is all the value the world needs. Fast forward to Solo City, home to some of the most radical Islamic movements in the country. We were now in the centre where the real action takes place…

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Writers account

The first communication given to Man was not “Let there be light”, this was the first command communicated on Earth. God had already spoken in the heavens, the first communication, therefore, was when ‘the Spirit hovered’…

Enter Roh Kudus (the Holy Spirit).

The issue is not that God speaks a different language to Man, the issue is that He speaks in a different realm. Whilst the language of Man is conducted through speech in the realm of the flesh, the language of God is conducted through light and perceived in the realm of the Spirit. So, when God speaks it transcends the barriers of language, culture and race that confront Man and impale our ability to reach a common understanding. The speaking of God is communicated in a way all races, languages and cultures can perceive. The Saints in Solo City taught us this. Although we didn’t share the same dialect, traditions or skin colour, the Holy Ghost was a language we all understood.

Western society, medicine and AI would have us believe that we are advanced beyond our times. After sitting in discernment meetings, apostolic conversations and discussions on systems of preserving revival, the Saints of Solo City proved far advanced beyond us spiritually. The sheer practical application of spirituality in their lives and the Church’s was a testament to their priority of spiritual advancement over economic, medicinal and technological progress. Let us not be deceived by Apple-Pay, the spiritual progress we are making as a nation in the UK is trivial compared to our brothers and sisters dwelling in this ‘less-economically’ developed country. It poses the question, have we sacrificed spiritual advancement for technological evolution. This experience taught me that there is no technology advanced beyond the Holy Spirit. As stated before, the Holy Ghost is a language we could all use without any need for AI.

Let us not allow our big screens, fancy cars and tall buildings to puff us up. Our minds have been focused on the mundane. This is why spiritual things in our nation are not discerned or respected, they are seen as foolish. Take for instance the Indonesian Timor Revival of 1965, Cessationism – a doctrine that believes certain spiritual gifts, such as prophecy, speaking in tongues, and healing, ceased to be given by God as ‘many of the reported miracles were too much for the western mind to accept.’ With many choosing to rather conform to the doctrine of the church after the apostolic age, ‘this revival drew a tremendous amount of criticism,’ because the spiritual state of the West could not comprehend the genuine move of God.

And so, I thank God for the life of the remnants he has preserved, like Pastor Yanty Yoyanto of El-Bethel Church, who himself stated, whilst pondering on our current position as a Body in the UK; “I wonder if the fathers of our faith like Martin Luther and John Wesley would be shocked to see that we made denominations out of something that was simply the current move of God at the time.’

Instead of making advancements through the Spirit, we are making denominations. We are making monuments out of moments and statues of the soldiers that went before us. This is modern-day idolatry. My precious United Kingdom, let us not be deceived, though we are historically at the forefront of physical revival (colonisation), we need to wake up to the reality of spiritual revival. It is not falling, shaking and loud prayers, it is transforming and building. God is using the colonised to re-teach the coloniser’s spirituality, it is the order of the kingdom. The least will be the greatest.

Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, beyond our Western advancement, let us learn in the Spirit the things that cannot be intellectually communicated. Lessons that we learnt in Indonesia, like love, unity and uncompromising faith, proved that when the emphasis of a people is spiritual growth, the benefits outweigh a society that has advanced phones of which cause segregated homes.

Roh Kudus, help the UK progress far beyond technology, into greater heights of your Spirit, in Jesus’ name.

RW.

I would like to sincerely honour Apostle Randolph Adjei who made this trip possible and allowed us all to experience the gospel at the other end of the globe. Thank you, I love you sir