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A Taste of Revelation 7 in Jakarta

More than 9,000 prayer leaders, pastors, and ministry leaders from more than 80 nations gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 14–18, to participate in the World Prayer Assembly. Many participants believe it was a picture of Revelation 7:9–12, with those from every tribe and nation worshiping around the throne of God.

Themed “A New Wave Is Coming,” the event was hosted by the churches of Indonesia and Korea. The Assembly featured vibrant worship, informational keynote speakers, practical workshops, and lots of prayer. Frequently throughout each general session, the crowd huddled in groups to pray over what they just heard. Topics such as the underground Church in North Korea, the Church in China, human trafficking, political corruption, and a fresh outpouring on the younger generation (children and young adults) brought intense moments of intercession. Worship was led by teams from Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa, and Sweden. Participants often sang in their own languages, with the lyrics of a song regularly displayed in Indonesian or Chinese (there were more than 600 participants from mainland China). Besides Indonesia and Korea bringing the largest contingents, other nations with significant national groups were China, Singapore, and Vietnam. Other nations that had smaller, but noticeable numbers, were the United States, Great Britain, South Africa, India, and Malaysia.

The main gathering was held at the Sentul International Convention Center, south of Jakarta. Actually a church building, the arena held 11,000 with plenty of space for breakout sessions. Pastored by Niko Njotorahardjo, Healing Ministries is a movement of more than 800 local groups (numbering more than 200,000 members) who focus on prayer. Each of their facilities has a 24-hour prayer room that focuses on intercession for Indonesia and the nations. The Sentul church is working to bring transformation to its community by building homes, launching businesses to provide jobs, and ministering to the poor.

Packed Stadium The culmination of the event came Thursday night when participants joined more than 100,000 Indonesians at the largest soccer stadium in Jakarta for a four-hour prayer rally. The event was streamed into more than 300 stadiums around Indonesia with an estimated one million participants. It reached even beyond Indonesia through live broadcast on God TV.

One of the moving moments of this event was the ceremony of Lighting the Unity Torch. Representatives from different regions of the world passed a lit torch until it came to two Indonesian church leaders—a Protestant and a Catholic—who lit a large torch. The Indonesian Church is largely believed to be the most unified Church in the world, with every stream—from Pentecostal, Evangelical, Mainline, and Catholic—praying together for the salvation of souls and transformation of Indonesia (a must, given the fact that Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world.)

The World Prayer Assembly was the second one in history, with the first held in South Korea in 1984. Many church leaders look at the first event as the catalyst for the modern prayer movement. Prayer leaders are watching closely to see what God births out of this recent event.

Main sessions can be viewed at worldprayerassembly.org.