...and the gates of Hell shall not prevail

There was once a man who wished to honor his deceased grandfather.  His grandfather had hated and feared one specific group of people the most.  He had had them tortured and killed, and deported their leaders, so the grandson decided to do the same.  When the last of the ill-fated group rose up in rebellion against this heavy oppression, it was under the leadership of a 16-year-old boy.  The man sent his army to lay siege to their stronghold and quelled the rebellion by massacring them all – men women and children. 

40,000 Christians died that day.  They were essentially the last Christians in Japan.  But Tokugawa Iemitu wished to honor his grandfather even further.  After all, it was his grandfather who had succeeded in uniting the islands of Japan into one great nation.  He decided to make sure there would never again be a Christian in Japan.  He forbade all communication with foreign countries and required every citizen in his land to register with a local Buddhist temple.   No commerce or business was allowed without a certificate of the temple registration. 

That was all he could do, but he still wasn’t satisfied.  Man’s best wasn’t good enough for his grandfather, so he invited the spirit world to assist him.  Tokugawa Ieyasu was declared to have been a personification of a god.  The highest god – spiritual ruler of Japan.  Amaterasu no Omikami.  A temple was built to worship him, and lesser temples were erected all over Japan, so people could worship him without traveling far.

In this way, Amaterasu no Omikami, the ‘god who illumines the heavens’ was invited to rule Japan at the very outset of its unified government.  Amaterasu, the demonic prince of Japan ruled over the princes of each island, who in turn controlled the authorities of each district.  The cities were appointed head demons. Each city section and then each household were covered individually. 

And so the web of control continues to this day;  a web that was set up deliberately to shut out Christianity, and for which a 16-year-old boy, Amakusa Shiro and his 40,000 followers were sacrificed. 

And what about all the people in the 360 years since that event?  Most of them have been sacrificed to the demonic system, too.  One by one they have slipped into an eternity of hopelessness and despair.

What can we do?  I think each of us can tell stories about individuals who have been saved despite tremendous odds.  We prayed for them.  We asked our churches to pray, and sent out bulletins to our prayer supporters.  And God answered the prayers of many people.  Cumulative prayer is powerful!  360 years of oppression can’t withstand it!  But sheer numbers and hours spent in prayer is not enough.  Real change begins to take place only when we surrender the situation to God’s grace, power and wisdom.  Simple trust and humility, and an awareness of our own helplessness in the situation are a must before God will move mightily on our behalf.

In a sense, that’s easy.  100 years of mission work in Japan have shown that there is nothing we can do to initiate a great awakening.  First, the web of satanic power must be broken, and only God can do that.  That’s why several of us have initiated the Free Japan movement.  We want to invite as many churches as we can, both in Japan and all over the world to pray for God to bind satan and pour out His Holy Spirit, so that a great multitude of Japanese people will come to Christ.  We met from many places in the world in March 2004  at the Toshogu shrine. We asked God to break the great web that has Japan bound, and free her people to turn to Christ.  We saw small indications of furthered growth and maturity iin our individual churches as a result. Now we are continuing the movement by asking people to be faithful and continue to pray.

I can’t help but wonder what great things God would do if we all joined together to beseech Him in one great chorus for this nation.  Will you join us?

...fixing our eyes on Jesus...

This is not primarily a movement to encourage warfare praying.  We want God to bind the enemy, and free Japan to be able to accept Christ in a way, and on a scale that has never been possible before.  But at the same time, we realize that Daniel never prayed that the angel would get past the Prince of Babylon.  He wasn’t even aware that there was a Prince of Babylon.  His prayer focused on repentance and an earnest plea for God to act on behalf of his people. (Daniel 10)

We want to pray primarily for revival in the Church, and a great spiritual awakening in Japan.  We know God will first have to bind the enemy, and we pray to that effect as well, but that is not our ultimate goal, nor is it our main prayer focus.  Our main prayer focus must always be first and foremost for personal repentance, cleansing, revival and radical commitment to the way of the Cross and the Kingdom of God; and secondly for the blessing and empowering of our local Church.  God will ultimately take care of the demons.  He will fight our battles for us.

Don't lose your balance!

We need to maintain a balance in our quest for a significant awakening.  There are many theories as to what triggers a major, lasting revival, but historically, these six elements seem to have always been present.  Let’s not leave any of them out!

1.        Solid doctrinal teaching

2.       Personal and corporate repentance

3.       Surrender to the Lordship of Christ

4.       Unity in family units, within the church, and in interchurch relations

5.       Spiritual Freedom

6.       PRAYER

 Won't you join us?

Free Japan is more a movement than an organization.  There is no form to fill out or membership fees.  Of course we will be greatly encouraged if you let us know you are with us, but in any case, we urge you to join us in praying for the emancipation and spiritual awakening of the Japanese people.

Here is a list of things you can do to be involved in freeing Japan.  We hope you will join us!

Prayer Personally

He who goes to and fro weeping, 

1. Commit to Pray daily for Free Japan.

    Pray that Japan will be freed from her spiritual         bondage.

Ask that the Spiritual authorities that have kept out the gospel until now will be bound, and each individual will be able to hear, understand and accept the gospel.

Pray that God will bring a great spiritual awakening to Japan.  Ask God to send His Spirit to breath new life into each believer, cleanse us from sin, and fill us with faith and a radical commitment to Christ, to the exclusion of all else.  Pray that He will bring great numbers of unbelievers to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Pray that the Free Japan movement will spread across the nation.  Ask God to protect and empower the people who are working to spread the word, and raise up more.  Ask God what He wants you to do, and pray for the resources and commitment to obey.

2.  Commit to spend at least 1 hour in prayer on the 3rd, 13th, and 23rd of each month.

3. Try to schedule regular time for prayer and fasting both privately and with others. Pray that God will do a mighty work to free Japan of 400 years of bondage.

Schedule Prayer Walks

Carrying his bag of seed,

1.      Schedule as many prayer walks as possible during the month of March.  Go to the main temples (try especially to target temples that worship “Gengonsan”[現権さん], city offices, schools and other places of power and influence in your area to quietly pray for Satan's power to be bound and defeated, and for God’s kingdom to prevail.  Use the prayer list provided, pray Scripture, and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance.

2.      On the 20th, try to have at least two persons from your church or core of churches in your city or area join a prayer walking group at Nikko Toshogu.(I know there are many other powerful temples in Japan, and many of them are far older.  God’s intervention is needed in each one of them, but this is the original temple whose specific purpose was to shut out Christianity.  We want to target the power exclusion that originated when this particular temple system was built.)

 If you or someone from your church wants to join an existing prayer walking team please contact the Free Japan office. 

Reap the Harvest

Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy,

This is the window of opportunity we have been praying for and looking forward to.  God answers prayer, but only in His time and in His way. We want to ask the Holy Spirit to breath new life into the church, and into the Japanese people in any way He wishes.

Represent FREE JAPAN

Bringing his sheaves with him.

We are praying for a Prefectual delegate to take responsibility to see that every pastor in each prefecture is aware of Free Japan.  Please pray with us, and consider being that delegate for your prefecture.  If you are interested in joining us in this ministry, contact us.  There is very little time left!

The fervent prayer of a righteous man...


Here is a more extensive prayer list.  Please pray with us!  It is the one single most important thing you can do with your time.


  

 

 

a)   Repentance and cleansing, personal relationships,  worthiness to pray.

b)       Personal Spiritual freedom from any remaining bondage.

c)       Filling of the Holy Spirit.

d)       Guidance in how to be involved in God’s Kingdom as a whole, and Free Japan in particular.

2.  Christian workers, and others involved in Free Japan

a)      Pray for Christians in your church and in your area to be renewed and empowered.

b)      Pray for more leaders and workers for the church and Free Japan to be raised up.

c)      Pray that people will be led to pray for Japan in your church, your area, Japan, and worldwide.

d)      Pray for pastors and workers to be protected both spiritually and physically, and that they will be blessed with a burning commitment to Christ and filled with the Spirit.

3.           Spiritual Freedom

a)      Pray for spiritual authorities to be bound

(1)   on a national level – the Prince of Japan

(2)   on a prefecture level

(3)   on a city level

b)      Pray that the spirit of unbelief, worldliness, deceit, etc. will be bound.

4.         Spiritual Awakening

a)      Pray that the Holy Spirit will move over the area to seek out people to be saved.

b)      Pray for the Holy Spirit to instill faith in God in people’s hearts, and prepare them for the gospel.

c)      Pray that they will be convicted of sin, righteousness and judgment.

d)      Pray that they will have opportunities to hear the gospel, and that God will enable them to hear and see the truth.

e)      Pray that God will save them, fill them with the Holy Spirit, and provide them with the leadership and guidance they need to grow and continue in the faith.

5.         Unity

a)      Pray for unity within families and marriages in your church

b)      Pray for unity in your church

c)      Pray for unity between churches in your city

In their misery they cried out to the Lord, and He saved them from their troubles.  He brought them out of their gloom and darkness and broke their chains.  Let them give thanks to the Lord for His love, and for the miracles He does for people.   (Psalm 107:13-15)