Third Wave of Missions May Be the Most Important Work of the Holy Spirit Ever

Missions today is not as it always has been.

In the 1980s, most evangelical Christians in the West viewed missions history in terms of two great waves:

(1) Apostles obeyed the Great Commission in the New Testament world, and

(2) around the time of William Carey’s pioneer work in 18th-century India, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, a flood of missionaries inundated the colonies of the great European powers.

Around the world today, the Holy Spirit is moving over Asian and African nations, raising up thousands of dedicated men and women to take the story of salvation to their own people, helping them to hear for the first time about the love of God. These national missionaries are humble, obscure pioneers of the Good News taking up the banner of the cross where colonial-era missions left off.

This work of the Holy Spirit among national believers is the third wave of missions history—the indigenous missionary movement.

To the Ends of the Earth

What does this mean for us? The call of Christ is for all of us to “go” or “send”—to bring His love to all peoples on earth. This move of the Holy Spirit is an incredible opportunity for us to join in this end-time work of God, to link our hearts with what God is doing across the world and to send these national believers out among their own people.

And if God is speaking to you to go, you should go! There has never been a time in history when the call to “go” changed.

There are no closed doors for God. The book of Acts and the church of the early centuries are proof of that. The question to ask ourselves is not “How are we going to reach them?” but rather “How will they be reached with the Good News?”

There is a cry now for us to run forward and make our lives count. I truly hope that God will raise up a generation of believers who are united by and overwhelmed with love for the entire world, especially for those who have never once heard the name of Christ. No one should die without hearing about our Lord Jesus and His love. {eoa}

K.P. Yohannan, founder and director of GFA World (Gospel for Asia) and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church (BEC), has written more than 250 books, including Revolution in World Missions, an international bestseller with more than 4 million copies in print. He and his wife, Gisela, have two grown children, Daniel and Sarah, who both serve the Lord with their families.

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.