God is at Work in Japan, South Korea & Taiwan

Truthfully, He's at work everywhere, but I'll share what He's given me to share.

I'm always so in awe with the way that Abba works. How He builds. His care. His love. His level of strategy. He puts the top business people to shame. He's better than any world renowned engineer.

And His love...is deeper than anything. Just the parts that I've seen, perceived, felt...His unfailing and faithful love, the depth of it is unfathomable.

But what many don't understand is that while He is so loving, He is also holy. The only way to have a relationship with the true, holy God who cannot be in the presence of sin is through Jesus, whose name means Salvation.

"I am the way, the truth and life, no one gets to the Father except by Me."John 14:6

Jesus & His willingness to die for our sins so we could have a relationship with God and be with Him after this life, is the ultimate expression of God's love.

In this time, He showed me how this love applies to Northeast Asia.

I was surprised when God showed me these things. I was surprised by His heart and what He wanted me to see and do, talk to, pray for, bless, and serve. I was surprised by what He told me.

When I think I the "church" I often think of the west because I'm from the west. But the body of Christ is bigger and more diverse than we experience each day. I don't mean diversity in race, that is everywhere, I mean diversity in what they are experiencing.

There is so many beautiful and amazing things taking place by the Spirit.

I'm going to record about what God has asked me to release about what He's doing in northeast Asia, but I want to type out some of the things here as well.

I know this is meant to encourage those on the ground serving and ministering in these areas and help those who are not there to know how to pray and support them.

Taiwan:

I so impressed with the church of Taiwan. The passion, the commitment, the willingness to take every opportunity and go into every place to share Jesus. I'm in awe by how God has called people from all over to join with locals who are committed to sharing the gospel.

You witness people from as far as Oregon, to Fiji, China, California...everywhere and they work seamlessly together, letting the Holy Spirit dissolve differences for a common goal. It's beautiful. I've never seen the principle of "dying to oneself"more than I have here.

There is a camaraderie, a joy, that is so special and distinctly Holy Spirit.

Out of the three places I'm talking about today, God showed me Taiwan as most open to the gospel. You have a people living under a constant threat from China. It's not a fear that paralyzes, but one that is like a low-level droning in the background.

He showed me a people who were small in number but proud of who they are, a determined people.

He also showed me a people who are not strangers to spiritual warfare. These are not a people one has to convince that there is an unseen world because they battle it daily.

A missionary told me about how every year there is something called Ghost Month around August and September where it is believed that the gates of hell open and evil spirits roam. They are many rules during this time. No swimming. Food offerings must be left out, etc.

One will also hear the sound of fireworks and drums year round meant to scare spirits away from temples and shrines. People are often terrified about how spirits are affecting their lives and children.

Fear of and battle with evil unseen things is a daily part of life.

How does that affect how the Jesus can be shared? The people of Taiwan need to know that Jesus is the Savior who conquered hell and gives all who put their faith in Him and confess Him as Lord spiritual authority over all evil. All evil.

Warfare exists, yes. "In this life you will have trouble," but the rest of that verse says, "I am have overcome the world."

The verses for Taiwan are:

"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Luke 10:19

The second verse is:

"And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18

Jesus was speaking to Peter, but Taiwan is an island, a nation build on a rock. With Jesus, you are strong. Hell can not prevail over you.

There is an ongoing fear both of a return to colonial living, being dominated by an outside force, and being dominated by spiritual forces. For Taiwan, God wants you give you this third verse:

"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."Joh 8:36

Taiwan is not alone. It is part of a unified family, an unpenetrable army, one church. You are not abandoned or forgotten. You are beloved and remembered, not only by our faithful God, but by the body of Christ. We are praying for you and everyone serving.

South Korea

I was surprised by what I felt here. My experience of South Korea had only been from watching YouTube videos. Carefully curated whimsical & cute cooking and cafe videos of colorful fruit and coffee drinks. Beef bulgogi, gimbap, tteokbokki, bibimbap, Korean food and culture has exploded in popularity.

The cute and fun aesthetic is known, copied, and beloved.

But being in Korea felt like being behind the scenes of a YouTube family that is working hard to portray a scene of happiness when all is not okay at home.

The heaviness in the air was evident on people's faces and expressions. I wondered how I managed to catch so many people in a bad mood. It wasn't rudeness even though it looked like it.

Feeling and seeing the sour mood that people seemed to be in various stages/levels of being able to push past. I wondered, "Why does almost no one I'm interacting with seem genuinely happy?" What is this struggle of the soul I'm feeling? This heaviness.

I asked a friend who had been to Korea because I thought, maybe it's just me. She confirmed she'd experienced it, too.

I brought it to God. He explained that it wasn't anger or frustration or annoyance as it seemed, but grief. He showed me trauma, a type of fracturing that looks like anger, but isn't. There was a guilt, but a survivor's type of guilt. People were moving, creating, and doing things despite all of this.

The word He gave me was "not forgotten."

I don't know the history of South Korea and everything the nation has been through, but He showed me an ongoing grief, an unresolved trauma. God wants you to know that you're not forgotten.

God deals with things in His own time and way. The struggles a nation or person faces are not always judgement. God hasn't abandoned you in your ongoing need. You are not being made an example out of. God is not an abusive or absent father. He is not a dictator. He is loving.

He showed me a spiritual tie to North Korea and the people of both nations like two brothers living very different lives. One was captive, one was free, but the free one was bound in a sense, unable to live because how does one live freely while their brother is in chains and abused?

What God wants South Korea to remember is how Jesus left the 99 for the one. He wants you to remember that the Father never forgot the prodigal.

The verses for Korea are:

"In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:2-3

Jesus said this. You're looking at the churches and life in the west and seeing mansions, but what Jesus has for you, for those who put their faith in Him and keep it there, is infinitely better. What Jesus has, moths and rust can't touch.

There is a feeling of being abandoned by the nations. There are two siblings, one kidnapped, one free. The free one is being told to move on. Your Father has not forgotten either of you. He wants you to put your hope in heaven even as He works on the ground here. He sees the pain many carry and has not forgotten You.

You know, there was one time Abba told me that people will be very surprised by who receives what reward in heaven. People often assume that the blessings of earth, who has more here, will be the same in heaven. Remember the parable of the women who had only two mites to give and gave it all. Jesus said she gave more than anyone in the temple because she gave out of her lack.

People are going to be very surprised when those who had nothing or very little here recevie the honor due to them. There are spiritual giants who seem very small here on earth. God does not look at things the way people do.

You are not abandoned. Stay faithful. Keep your eyes on things above and know that God sees the state and condition of your soul, what you have endured, what you are enduring, and is there helping.

Japan

I have to laugh because what I heard in the Spirit from God about Japan just now was, "Oh Japan, what am I going to do with you?" the way a Father lovingly talks about a difficult but beloved child.

It reminded me of the song, "How do you solve a problem like Maria" from The Sound of Music. In the song, the nuns are singing about a nun-in-training named Maria who isn't following their protocols. One line goes:

How do you make her stay? And listen to all you say? How do you keep a wave upon the sand?

From the outside, Japan does not look like a difficult child. It looks like the well-behaved firstborn. Reserved, respectful, and clean. Japan appears to have it together. Japan is a calming place to be. There are rules and much consideration and thought put into making it such a place.

Japan is image conscious, fashionable, confident, and well-planned. Beneath the surface shame and a quality of fierce independence drives everyday living.

God showed me a people determined to be in control of themselves to the point of intense repression of the human experience, feelings that He put inside of us for a reason. Feelings that allow us to connect with each other, be vulnerable, open us, depend on one another, and be genuinely knit together.

He told me that the intense repression causes strange and perverted outbursts. How he showed it to me was actually like an outbreak of sores caused by problems in a body's nervous system. Aggression, sexual perversion, issues with masculinity: strange outbreaks of damaging behavior bursting out of people due to repression and suffocating themselves.

He showed me a false sense of goodness based on this warped type of intense self-control, cleanliness, and image management.

The false goodness, the feeling that one is "good" based on how they perform in society is serving as a false gospel.

I found the verse that God chose for Japan to be interesting, especially considering how high of a value cleanliness is:

"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away." Isaiah 64:6

I believe this is the first nation God gave me a verse from the Old Testament to. "They respect prophets because they respect oracles."

Isaiah 64:8 goes on to say, "But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand."

Is it time for the people of Japan to ask, "What was I made for?"

Who was I made for? Was I made to perform? To be independent and "perfect"? To function well? Or was I made human on purpose, to feel and connect with people and the one true God?

There is a belief that to feel and to connect genuinely, to open up, will begin a fracture in the nation, a weakness that will make it vulnerable to attacks.

This isn't true. In fact, approaching life with a robotic detachment is a type of slavery and bondage that one already lives in. Over time, there is a cost to society both physical and spiritual. There are attacks on the society that prosper when hearts and minds are ignored in favor or perfect-seeming behavior.

God cares about the inside because it He loves us and it matters. The Bible says all of the issues of life flow out of the heart. We must protect it, this doesn't mean to shut it down. Rather, we yield our hearts to God and through relationship, He will guide us in spirit and in truth.

One of the fruits of the Spirit that grows in us as we follow Jesus is self-control. The Holy Spirit helps us be respectful, considerate, kind, thoughtful, people. The Holy Spirit allows us to feel and connect with others properly. To shut down this side of ourselves means we shut out the heart of God.

When you allow Jesus in, you are not making yourself dangerously vulnerable, you are fortifying your life with the strongest force in heaven and on earth. He alone cleanses from the inside out, forgives all sins, and true righteousness, goodness before God, comes from Jesus alone.

How do you start on this path with Jesus?

"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9

Repent of your sin to Him, tell Him you believe He is the Son of God and Lord, and invite Him into your life.

For people serving in Japan:

God had much to say! You weren't called by accident, you weren't called to a hopeless mission, and you're not alone.

The thing He has told me over and over is that you cannot take models that work in other places and slap them onto Japan and think they will be effective. They will not.

Japan is different. He's not calling you to make the people more like you. He makes people a specific way for a reason. Japan IS called to model respect and self-control.

A loudspeaker in a public square at 7am is probably not going to be effective. I talked to a Pastor and wife team who had done street preaching with amplified music and had it not work well due to the laws against public noise.

Meet people where they are a little bit.

Especially when you are coming from a different, maybe louder culture, you may have a desire to bring the way you ministered in your home country to Japan.

But remember when Paul said, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under aw toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." 1 Corinthians 19:19-22

This isn't about quenching the Spirit as some of you have felt you were being pressured to do, but taking off the cloak of culture and putting on the one of Jesus who understood and loved the people He ministered to.

Prayerfully consider every single ministry decision and outreach.

God knows regular tract distribution has not worked in many areas. I was talking to those same pastors about people rejecting flyers.

Japanese people do not like random papers. Trash is seen as a burden. There aren't even that many trash cans. People don't like being handed things, especially by strangers due to culture and cleanliness concerns.

Tracts and distributed papers in general are looked down on. Stories are not. Stories are appreciated. Good stories are respected.

You have a story to tell. It's of the Best Man Who Ever Lived. Jesus. Be creative. Write it up as an anime-style comic and have physical copies for those who want to take it as a gift and digital ones accessible by QR code. Be creative. Make it beautiful.

People read on buses and the train all the time. Make short books with the greatest, true story ever told. "The Man Who Heart 'Well Done' from God."

People are lonely. Many, many, many people are depressed. The suicide rates are sky high. People want to connect but don't know how. One thing pastors are doing is organizing English classes and gamer nights for people and sharing the gospel that way.

The Holy Spirit is so creative and understands all people. Let Him guide you.

A province in Japan just had over a week of revival meetings. Jesus is moving. Trust Him.

If one thing doesn't work, pray and try something else. A Pastor I listen to calls it "digging another well."

I started reading a book that is popular in Japan. It's a self-help book called, "The Courage to be Disliked." It's about how one can be in even greater control of their emotions and life. People young and old are desperate to know how to be ok on the inside because so many are not.

God is opening up Japan in a way that hasn't been seen before. This is your chance to reach so many for Jesus. Pray. Ask Him what to do. He will show you.

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If you're reading this from far away from northeast Asia, pray. If God puts a church, pastor, or missionary on your heart, email them. Support them.

If God has called you to go to one of these nations and you haven't for whatever reason, if you could just go that would be great. You won't regret it.

I'm very excited about what God is doing. Jesus is coming back and He's adding to the family.

You can listen to the recording about this message. It's called "The Nations."

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