I know the end of the story
I come up from the wilderness, leaning on my Beloved
Your love is so high, Your love is so wide
Your love is so deep, Your love is so long
I know it’s Your love, it’s written on my heart
And there is not a flood that can quench this love
I know it’s Your love, it’s stronger than the grave
And death could never take me from this love
Death nor life nor angels nor powers
Present things nor things in the future
Height nor depth nor any created thing
Could separate me from Your love
It’s Your strong love, Your strong love
It’s Your strong love, Your strong love

I’m going to lean into your love
I’m going to lean into your love

First of all, I am not afraid of the end because I know the End is a Person, Jesus Christ. I am not afraid of Jesus. Jesus said

that He is the Alpha & the Omega, the beginning & the end. Because I am secure in my faith in Christ Jesus, I am actually looking forward to the day of His Return. Looking forward is actually an understatement. I’m longing for His Return.

The correct title of the book of Revelation is the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The last book of the Bible is not a book on the revelation of the end-times, even though it reveals the events of the end-times. It’s a book about Jesus. Because many Christians have this misunderstanding, they skim through the parts about Jesus & focus intensively on the events that will unfold. When I read the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, I fall more in love with the Man Christ Jesus. This final book of the Bible is about Jesus. Knowing Jesus prepares me for the end-times.

One of the primary assignments satan has against mankind is to bring blindness to the reality that Jesus, the Son of God, came in the flesh. The Bible calls this the spirit of the anti-christ. If he can do this successfully, those that do not believe in Jesus will go to hell. I believe one of the biggest assignments satan has against the Church is to bring confusion &/or apathy concerning the End-Times.

In the Western world, when most people come to faith in Jesus Christ, they are approached with a watered down gospel. What’s being preached is, “God has a wonderful plan for your life, He’ll forgive you, & ask Jesus to come into your heart.” While all these things are true, this is not the way Jesus approached His disciples when He first met them. He told them, “come & follow Me.” Christianity is all about following Jesus. What He also told His disciples was that in order to be His disciple that we have to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, & follow Him. This is true Christianity. Right after this, Jesus tells His disciples that if they lose their life that they would find new life in Him. If they save their life, then they will lose it. What Western Christianity teaches us is to keep our lives & add Jesus into our hearts. Christianity is not adding God into your life. Christianity is losing your life for the life that matters most.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 NKJV)

With this Biblical framework of Christianity now in mind, every Christian needs to know the Jesus who is, & who was, & who is to come.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:8 NKJV)

The Jesus who is refers to the daily relationship you have with Him. The Jesus who was is who we meditate on in Scripture, what we read about who Jesus was & what He did & what He said. The Jesus who is to come is about His Return.

You cannot only focus on the Jesus who is. I believe Charismatics & Pentecostals focus on this more. The Jesus who was (what He did) is what Conservatives & theologians focus on more. We need to understand that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, & forever. We need to know what He did as equally as what He is doing presently as equally as what He will be doing in the future.

I want to encourage you to ask the Father of glory for the spirit of wisdom & revelation of the knowledge of Him. Take the time this year to make it a priority to learn about Jesus’ Return. I believe as you study this that you will be stirred & your hunger for Jesus will deepen. Please search the Scriptures daily like the Bereans in Acts 17. The Holy Spirit will guide & teach us just as Jesus promised.

For the past two years, I & many others in the Body of Christ have been talking a lot about shakings (Hebrews 12:25-29). God is revealing what is on the heart of man. He’s doing this out of His kindness. He’s bringing to light all of the junk that is in us so that we can be better prepared to meet Jesus face to face. The Father wants His Son to marry a Bride that is not walking in compromise. He’s exposing our hearts so that we will be prepared for His coming. Jesus put it in another way.

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. (Matthew 7:24-27 NKJV)

Be a wise Christian this year & build on the rock. Don’t just believe whatever you’ve been told to believe. Be prepared to even be offended by the Word of God. Be humble & stay humble. Let the Word of God read you! Invest in deep study of the Word & invest heavily in your prayer life for 2012. The way you worship God will explode!

Christmas is not only about remembering the Word that became flesh who tabernacled among us, it’s also about His Return.

As Jesus’ words are unfolding before our very eyes concerning global events, let’s continue to keep our gaze on His beauty & meditate on His words.

Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. (Revelation 22:7 NKJV)

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13 NIV)

I’m looking for a city not made by human hands
I’m longing for the garden where God once walked with man
For eternity is written on my heart and I’m longing for the day
We will never be apart.

I looked and saw a city
Descending down from heaven
prepared just like a bride
For the Son of Man
And there’s a day of gladness
It’s written on his heart
He’s longing for the day
Where we’ll never be apart

Every tear will be wiped away
There will be no sorrow hurt or pain
Be no more night
Things will be made new
And there will be a brand new day
In righteousness You will reign
And the Lamb will be the light

Behold the Tabernacle of God will be with men
And He will be our God and we will be His people
And the Bride she will marry the Lamb
But until that day I’m longing for the
New Jersalem.

I love the day of Your appearing
I want to hasten Your return
The Spirit and the Bride say come for Your beloved ones

Yong-soo lives in a small coal-mine village in North Korea with his wife and young son. Although living in extreme poverty, the family is happy just to be with each other. Then one day, Yong-soo’s pregnant wife becomes critically ill. Let alone medicine, Yong-soo can’t even find food for her in North Korea. So he secretly crosses the borders of China hoping to find the medicine for his wife. After many life threatening moments in China, Yong-soo is forced into South Korea, becoming an unwanted refugee prohibited to return to his family. Meanwhile, his wife passes away leaving their young son alone in desperation. With no one to turn to, his young son sets out to find his father not knowing where or how to find him.

On my last trip to Korea, something changed in me. Prior to that, the Lord used a Chinese-American to stir revival in my heart for Korea that marked me. Jaeson Ma came to Kansas City IHOP to speak on his time in Korea & the direction he felt the Korean Church needed to turn to. Up until that time, I’ve just been “proud” of Korean missions, but not at the same time, because I’ve witnessed on the mission field where culture was more “exported” than the Kingdom by Korean missionaries.

When Jaeson spoke in Kansas City, my heart broke. I was saddened by my apathy for the sins of my nation. I cried tears for Korea for the very first time in my life & I was gripped with holy anger at the devil for deceiving my people into suicide, abortion, & religion. Towards the end of Jaeson’s message, to my surprise, he called my name out to come up on stage to pray on behalf of Korea. As I made my way up on stage with Kairos, I cried out for mercy on Korea. I felt that the Lord was using my prayer for His plans. He’s convinced me that although my calling is global, that I cannot forget my mother country & where I came from.

In 1994, Pastor Robert Kayanja, a revivalist from Uganda, prophesied the death of Kim Il-Sung at my church. I’ve been in many interesting revival meetings & this one is definitely up there. I was 12, turning 13 years old at the time, & I heard Pastor Kayanja prophesy, “In 6 months, President Kim Il-Sung will die.” Interestingly enough, 6 months later, our youth group was coming back from a summer retreat, still on the church bus, & my youth pastor announces that Kim Il-Sung had just died, according to what was prophesied 6 months earlier.

What happened after the death of Kim Il-Sung was that the Lord opened the doors for my church to start North Korean missions through opening up a noodle factory near the border of Ch1n@ & NK, with a missionary crossing the border with food & the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A handful of our youth group faithfully gave everything that we had for over a year, to bless the hurting & the lost in North Korea.

In 2009, Joyce & I went to the border of Chin@ & NK to intercede. I remember looking into North Korea reading all the propaganda & seeing the faces of North Koreans working on the docks. I couldn’t believe it. I saw North Koreans in North Korea right in front of my very eyes. Joyce has been keeping North Korean currency which she purchased as a souvenir in her Bible to remind her to pray for NK.

About a month ago, I went to Seoul, Korea to speak at a conference. For those of you that do itinerant preaching, this was one of those speaking engagements where I felt like I was more blessed than the people I was speaking to. I felt the Lord speaking to me & ministering to me about my Korean heritage. I spoke the first night & said that I never felt this proud of being Korean. I felt proud because I finally identified with the destiny of the nation of Korea. I felt like I experienced Breakthrough, which happened to be the name of the conference. God has given much to South Korea in a short amount of time because He’s requiring much from us. He’s called Korea, both North & South to spread the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Can you imagine both North & South Koreans walking hand in hand to bring the Gospel back to Jerusalem? You have the wealth & technology of South Korea along with the suffering & persecution of the North. This is an unstoppable force! No doubt that South Korea is a praying nation. Prayer Mountains have been well established for decades with new expressions such as Houses of Prayer springing up rapidly. God is doing something.

A few weeks ago at the Call2All Congress in Long Beach, CA, I hosted major leaders that are involved in North Korean missions. I connected with people who serve in radio broadcasting, met women who run a North Korean orphanage, & a man of God that runs a training center for NK. A week after the Congress, Joyce & I had dinner with a close YWAM missionary family who shared reports from their most recent trip into North Korea. Towards the end of our time together, one of them pulls out a NK identification card that he found on the ground in NK, & he gives it to me to remind me to pray for NK daily. He says he doesn’t know if the lady on the card is dead or alive, but to earnestly pray for her & NK. Just a couple of days ago, my friend & I met with a leader who invited us to go into NK next year.

In the midst of this crazy swirl, I’m also torn at the same time because I feel like South Korea is not far from what Europe has become. What once used to be the power house of Christianity & the spread of global missions, religion & control has killed the church over the centuries & churches are shutting down rapidly becoming bars & night clubs in many parts of Europe. Korea is on the same path with religion & control, & the ones that suffer the most are the youth. Young people have no where to turn to but the things of the world. They see a form of godliness but no real power. South Korea boasts the largest churches in the world but are seeing a drastic decline in youth attendance. Young people want authenticity, not religion.

Everything is starting to come together for me, sort of like a 5,000 piece puzzle you’ve been working on so long that now it’s starting to look like something recognizable. The day that Kim Jong-Il died, I had a dream that afternoon when I took an unexpected nap. In my dream I was speaking to our staff trying to articulate what the Lord was showing me but without success. I wasn’t making any sense of what I was saying. Looking at the confusion on everyone’s face, it finally clicked. I bursted out, “can’t you see that all this time God has been preparing us to receive this great harvest of souls?!?” Immediately after I said that, everyone’s facial expression changed from confusion to inexplicable joy.

I think we should take advantage of all this news coverage of North Korea to pray for Koreans all over the world to identify with the destiny of both North & South Korea. No doubt there’s still a lot of work to be done in both North & South Korea. There are still millions of people suffering, dying of starvation, & oppressed under the North Korean regime. Violation of human rights is off the charts. We must contend as the praying Church for North Korea. We must pray for creativity & wisdom on how to help North Korea even when we think it’s too difficult. We also must recognize the divisive spirit that is upon Korea. I believe this kind of spirit cannot come out except by corporate “prayer & fasting.” In the midst of the greatest hardship will come the greatest revival. Jesus loves Korea.

Today my son is officially 1 years old. He has lived outside of his mommy’s tummy for 365 days. Kairos represents a lot of things to us. First & foremost, he is a precious gift the Lord gave to us.The Lord clearly spoke to us before Joyce was pregnant that we would have a baby in “His time.” The first person to tell us that the baby we would have would be a boy was from a little girl in Kona. A DTS student from Maui told us that we would have an exceptionally cute baby boy. I had two dreams of Kairos before Joyce was pregnant & he looked exactly what he looks like now in my dream.

When we found out we were going to have a baby, we just knew that we would have a boy. As we were thinking about possible names, nothing really stuck out to us. One day Joyce came to me and said that she knows the name of our baby. When she told me it would be Kairos, immediately it resonated in my heart. Our son would be born in God’s time, in the darkest & most glorious hour in history, & his generation would be the greatest generation ever to live.

Many mighty men & women of God have prayed for Kairos when he was in his mommy’s tummy.What’s interesting is that most of the people prayed something about the timing of God when praying for Kairos, without knowing that his name would be Kairos. We know without a shadow of a doubt that our son is a special son. My wife’s due date was actually 12/17, but her water broke early morning on 12/11. We went to the hospital later that day & after 23 grueling hours of labor, Kairos was born on Dec. 12 (12/12).

Significance of the number “12″

I’m not too big into looking into finding the meaning of numbers in the Bible, but I can’t help with Kairos’ birthdate being 12/12. I was born on 8/8 & I learned that the significance of the number “8″ in the Bible has to do with “New Beginnings” & also the covenant between God & man in regards to circumcision. Lev. 12:3 says, “And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” & Gen. 17:11″…and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a covenant between Me and you.”

With the number 12, 12 was the number of the tribes of Israel, the number of the apostles, & represents government & authority. When Judas fell, the apostles were quick to replace him to make the number “complete” in Acts 1. Next year the world will see 12/12/12, 3 areas of the number 12. My prayer is that the Body of Christ will rise up in our God-given authority, won for us by Jesus through the victory of the cross & resurrection, & live under the rule & reign of the government of God in every area of our lives.

We’re living in a Kairos Moment. I prayed a few months back concerning 2012 & how I should prepare myself for the next year & the Lord spoke to me that 2012 will be a year of extraordinary divine appointments (Kairos Moments) that will cause me to be in awe of God more & more as He reveals to me His divine nature & character.

2 Corinthians 6:2 (ESV)
Forhe says,

“In a favorable time (Kairos) I listened to you,

and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time (Kairos); behold, now is the day of salvation.

As the year is coming to a close, our family would like to give thanks to God for being who He is, Faithful, Loving, & True. That God has called us blows our minds away because we know that we aren’t called because we’re qualified, but that He qualified us through Jesus’ blood.

We also want to thank YOU & the countless others that we don’t know but are known by God, who have labored with us in prayer & partnered with us financially. We’re beginning to understand that we weren’t meant to do this alone!

For those that want to make a year end donation & haven’t yet, we would be more than grateful if you thought of our family.

Please click on this link below to make a tax-deductible donation.

http://uofnkona.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=652&MN=5435

Thank you for obedience to the Lord, & thank you for standing with us in missions.

With Thanksgiving,

John, Joyce, & Baby Kairos

2011 Breakthrough Conference from Joyful church on Vimeo.

I don’t even know where to begin…

How can words describe who Jesus is & fully give justice? We don’t even have the language for it, but even the weak words and praises we give Him He receives. This song Humble King means so much to me. We used to sing this song a lot when I was a youth pastor & every time I’m gripped by the humility of Jesus, how pure and how holy He is. Jesus has no ounce of pride, & here I am, so full of it. I guess I’m at one of those crossroads where I’m feeling the weakness in me & at the same time, perplexed by the fact that He still listens.

Humble King by Brenton Brown

Oh kneel me down again
Here at Your feet
Show me how much You love
Humility

Oh Spirit be the star
That leads me to
The humble heart of love
I see in You

You are the God of the broken
The friend of the weak
You wash the feet of the weary
Embrace the ones in need
And I want to be like You Jesus
To have this heart in me
You are the God of the humble
You are the humble King