Kumamoto, Japan

After 32 hours traveling we landed in Fukuoka, Japan. From there we took a 2-hour bus ride into the city of Kumamoto. We are here with our friend Seumean to help teach a three-day workshop on discipleship, spiritual gifts, and offer spiritual deliverance and emotional healing to any who desire prayer. Tomorrow we leave for Tsuda. We go where Shigeru, our logistical coordinator and translator, tells us to go.

Today is our third day of teaching. Last evening, I prayed for a woman who wanted prayer to release her from anger, disappointment, hatred; fears about health and finances; various types of sins, including an abortion; and participation in different forms of the occult. The prayer time lasted about an hour and a half. She received a great deal of healing and deliverance. We’ll see how she is doing today.

We are teaching in a very lovely church. I have included a picture of the worship we began our day with yesterday. The pastor of the church is a woman who planted this church 19 years ago. She is a Spirit-filled woman who received the Holy Spirit about 20 years ago in her kitchen. The anointing was so strong that she spent hours on her kitchen floor weeping. The church has about 60 members. This is a large church in Japan.

Christianity is a vanishingly small part of the culture in Japan. The pastor of this church told me that Christians make up about 0.1% of the population in Japan. There are about 80 Christian churches in Kumamoto! But each church has 2 or 3 members and no pastor. I wonder why they don’t all come together to form a single church, but I haven’t asked that question.

In spite of, or maybe because of, their small size, their passion for Jesus is huge. Yesterday I marveled at the power of the Holy Spirit I felt in their worship time. They really are on fire for Jesus. And many of the attendees at our conference are young – between the ages of 20 and 35. Some of them traveled several hours to attend. Many of the young women who traveled in from other cities are sleeping in the church and helping out with logistics.

Here are the words from one of the worship songs we sang yesterday morning. It was written by a Japanese Christian and was obviously translated into English:

“Hide me under Your wings, cover me with Your mighty hand. When the oceans rise and the thunders roar, I will soar with you within the storm.

Father, You are King over the flood. I will be still and know you are God.

Find rest my soul in Christ alone. Know His power in quietness and trust.”

These are words of hope, humility, and trust.

Christians are not oppressed in Japan the way they are being persecuted today in China. But being such a small minority in this country brings with it other types of societal pressures. I prayed with a man yesterday who has given his life to Jesus and wanted me to pray for his wife. She leads worship in a local temple/shrine. Today Christians are such a small part of this dominantly Buddhist and Shinto country that they can be easily overlooked except when the dividing line runs through the middle of a family.

But God does not despise small beginnings. The Holy Spirit is moving in Japan and Seumean’s work is tapping into that embryonic power. Who knows what will happen when the power of God begins to sweep over this nation, releasing people from bondage to the dominion of darkness, bringing them into the Kingdom of the Son, where there is light and life.

Yesterday, during our worship time, surrounded by Japanese Christians passionately worshiping Jesus, I found myself saying, “Thank you Father for these faithful, Spirit-filled Christians.” In some way, the move of the Spirit in Japan, and the faithfulness of this tiny minority, is connected to the Church in America. As they grow in Christ, worshiping faithfully, sharing their stories with their neighbors and family, the love and living water they are releasing here is joining the river of Power flowing out of the hearts of Christians all over the world. This river is flowing through the churches in America and Europe, at least in those churches that have “eyes to see and ears to hear”, releasing a reformation spirit.

I thank God for the committed Brothers and Sisters in Christ in Japan who are keeping the flame lit in their country so that one day the consuming fire of God will pour over this entire nation. When that happens, that light will illuminate not only Japan, but the lives of Christians worldwide.

Excited about what God is doing in Japan,

John