Timing and Alignment

Ulogoblock

 

Shaloha Everyone

 

How was hurricane Iselle? Julio? How was Sunday service? Worship? The Word? How was that fire tunnel? It was sizzling!!! The whole spiritual atmosphere was crackling this past week, especially over Volcano National Park! Cheehoo! God was forging something very special through the hurricanes, service, and Pastor Dean’s, birthday fire tunnel. We got basted, baked, broiled, barbecued, blasted, blown away, and blessed by the fire of God. I know many were touched and transformed.

 

I personally experienced the ‘uncle anointing’ and finally couldn’t handle God’s unbearable goodness! I yelled uncle after only three minutes of prayer from Pastor Kerry, Pastor Michelle, Pastor Jan, a few of the team, and I believe a bunch of angels! I personally believe this past fire tunnel impacted my life more than all the others. This is just my opinion.  I may share more about this later, but I wanted to set the foundation of this article with some other background information first.

 

We live in a very special time, a time when God is aligning everything according to His will and ways.  His sovereign hand is working His will in and through our lives.  The old and the new are coming together as one! It’s a beautiful dance to behold. The fullness of the Gentiles are coming in and all of Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25-26). Do you feel it? You’ve been raised up for such a time as this!

 

Yesterday, August 11, according to the Jewish calendar, was the 15th of Av. The Israelites look upon this historical day as the day when people stopped dying in the wilderness. For forty years, the unbelieving Jews died in the wastelands of the Middle Eastern deserts because they disobeyed God and brought back a fearful report. They doubted Yahweh’s goodness. God then blocked their entrance into the promise land for four decades. Only Caleb and Joshua believed and received their inheritance.

 

God willed that none of the disbelieving generation would enter; thus, for forty years the Lord waited for all of them to die off. Yesterday marked the historical day when the Lord reversed the forty year curse – no more dying in the wilderness! God raised up an entirely new generation, a believing one, a people aligned to his will, an army tempered by flame, devoted to God (Iselle).

 

The 15th of Av or August 11th also marked the beginning of a special season for people to take extended time to study and meditate on the Torah. Why did God use this as the start date? Based on the information at hand, it was a period when the days were longer and thus gave more time for the study of Scripture, even to the wee hours of the night (I wonder if they had coffee at that time? Starbucks? Ha!). The Jews looked upon evening as the time for serious contemplation on the Bible.

 

On August 11th, yesterday, the 15th of Av, it signified the raising up of a brand new people who loved studying the Bible. Does this sound vaguely familiar?

 

Do you remember what we proclaimed this past week? We proclaimed that the curse has been reversed over our lives (Friday night). We did it three times! No more dying in the wilderness. Life!!!! We even blessed and broke something in the spiritual realm at the national and state level by blessing our president and governor.

 

We fasted during the Fast of Tammuz (7/15), a fast which focused on the reversal of curses over Israel. We ended our fast on 7/17 which divinely coincided with Genesis 8:4, “In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.” What does Ararat mean? Reverse the curse!!!!!

 

This gets even more interesting. The staff and board pitched in and got Dean a signet ring from Tiffanys for his birthday. This type of ring is rare for this day and age. Not only is it rare for this present time in history, it was also the last one of its kind at the Tiffany stores on Oahu.

 

In ancient times, kings used it to seal important documents or to inaugurate a new law or edict. It was a symbol of power. It reversed curses! Esther 8:8 states, “Now you write to the Jews as you see fit, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring; for a decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.”

 

With this seal, Mordecai used the king’s signet to thwart Haman’s curse and bring about  a great deliverance for the Jewish people. They were now able to defend themselves. The king’s authority on the signet reversed Haman’s curse. The Feast of Purim commemorates this day!

 

Dean and other apostles (David Demian, Eddie Ma…) have become signet rings in the hand of the Lord to reverse curses, especially for the nations, especially for Israel! On that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’  declares the Lord of hosts” (Haggai 2:23).

 

Dd and Michelle, who spear headed the buying of the gift, had no intention of buying a signet ring; let alone buying something for Dean from a foo foo place like Tiffanys. God told them to do this and the rest of the team agreed. The deeper meanings unfolded later. God works this way. We obey first and maybe understand later. I say maybe because God doesn’t reveal the why a lot of the times. Even now I personally think we are only scratching the surface of understanding.

 

Couple this with our recent emphasis on going deeper in the Word and you start moving into chicken skin territory when you now compare it with the Jewish calendar and how God led the Israelites into the promise land and into His Word. He is doing the same with us. Yes, he is doing the same with us. He is raising up Iselles, people devoted to God. Hallelujah!

 

The fire tunnel, Dean’s 55th birthday gift to us, was like God sealing us with his signet ring into a new season, a new land, the promised land. The Lord has birthed us through the cleansing fire of our own wilderness experiences, the wind and water of spiritual hurricanes (it’s interesting that we experienced one this past week), and capped it off with a fire tunnel, ’55’, or ‘grace grace’ on the capstone of the spiritual building of our lives (Zech 4:7, Eph 2:21-22). God then took the ‘grace grace‘ thing to another dimension when we received more blessing later that evening. We won’t go into that because it would take another article to explain what happened. Just know that Sunday was epic! I’m still in a daze.

 

August 11th or the 15th of Av inaugurated a whole new season of life and depth in His Word for the Jewish people. He did and is doing the same with us! He has reversed and is reversing the curse! He is causing us to go deep into His Word and Spirit! God is raising up an entirely new generation, a believing one, a people aligned to his will, an army tempered by flame, devoted to God at Unified… . Blessed be His awesome and mighty name! Grace! Grace!

 

 

“For you will go out with joy

And be led forth with peace;

The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

“Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,

And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up,

And it will be a memorial to the Lord,

For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”

Isaiah 55:12-13

 

Pastor John

Synchronization

Ministry LEaders 2014

Synchronization

 

Websters defines synchronize in this way: to represent or arrange events to indicate coincidence or coexistence, to happen at the same time. As I sat listening at our Friday night leadership meeting to Pastor Rod, Pastor Dean, and observing what was happening in the body, I realized God was causing everything to come into His synchronization, into His timing, into coexistence with His being and His ways.

 

The land, The Spirit, and the season we live in are all intersecting at this time and making clear what we need to do as a body of believers. The land exudes servanthood. The Spirit and the season cry out mercy. We are called to do the same.

 

Ephesians 1:9-10 states, “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which he purposed in Him. with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things in the earth. In Him.”

 

This verse makes clear God’s intent: to sum up all things in Him. You could say He is synchronizing the things in heaven and the things on earth in Him as the days draw near to His second coming. He is causing us to synchronize with our heaven driven mercy church call and Spirit rich servant land destiny. Heaven and earth coming together as one. We coming together as one. The Mercy Church and Servant land singing with one voice.

 

Pastor Dean spoke on Matthew 13:24-30, “Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? And he said to them, ‘an enemy has done this! The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers,. “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”

 

He made an intriguing observation that only servants could see the wheat and the tares, the true believers and false, the humble and proud. Servants can see because their humility allows them the grace to see the things of God. 1 Peter 5:5-6 states, “….God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” He gives grace to the humble. The servants saw the water being turned into wine, the coming home of the prodigal son, and stood ready when the Master came home.

 

They bought the eye salve to see the things of God through their humility (Rev 3:14-22).    God is also calling us to walk as humble servants so that we can see. We are also called to buy eye salve in this season. The proud stay blind and deceived as Kris Valloton shared in his short video clip.

 

Pastor Dean also mentioned that the wheat in its maturity bend because of the weight of its kernels. The tares stand erect because they don’t carry the same seasoning, weight, and maturation. They, the wheat, also bend with the wind. The tares resisted the flow of the wind.

 

The servant will walk in humility bending to the will of God and His Spirit, but the proud will stand out like a sore thumb in the maturation season when all things are revealed. The sad thing is that they will be oblivious to their arrogance. They will think they are wheat. The servant will be the only one who can see. They have kept their heart pure. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).

 

Pastor Rod talked about connection and one of the characteristics of a connector is a person who takes responsibility and not blames others for their shortcomings. Simply put, a servant takes the initiative to call and get together with others, they take responsibility to connect, they take responsibility to grow, they take responsibility to learn. In the old season we waited for the church to set up an event in order for us to connect. It’s not the same in the Mercy Season. We are called to take the initiative.

 

Heaven and earth challenge us to flow with their synchronization into the glorious flow of responsibility and maturity. We are called to bend with God and not blame with the Devil.

 

Pastor Dean talked about the North Vietnamese army and their ability to see the right time to strike the Americans and their southern brothers. They chose the right season of the Lunar New Year when people had their guard down and were partying. It’s interesting that Vietnam is a servant redemptive nation. Servants see. They saw. They won a glorious victory during the TET offensive.

 

They also waited out the Americans and eventually wore out our proud nation by their patience. General Giap, the top commander of the North Vietnamese Army, stated that they would eventually win because they could outlast the Americans. The might and technology of our prophet redemptive nation could not stand up to the patience and fortitude of the servant redemptive Vietnamese. You could say that blessed are the gentle or humble, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). They eventually inherited their land.

 

Servants know how to wait and walk in patience. The proud are impatient and act impulsively. They react. They get angry. They jump to conclusions. They blame. They lose. The servant inherits. Remember: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

 

God is calling us to walk in the same way. He is calling us to walk as servants. He wants us to walk in humility, true discernment, patience, unselfishness, maturity, responsibility, and to serve with a good and right heart.

 

We connect with our mercy redemptive church DNA by choosing to walk intimately with God and with one another; to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. The Mercy Season calls us to intimacy. Ultimately, the Mercy Season is a summons to go deeper on the two great commandments. It’s simple and profound.

 

In summary, the exhortation to servanthood and true intimacy with God and one another synchronizes with the spiritual DNA of our land and our call as a church. On a grander scale it synchronizes with the inevitable flow of Jesus bringing all things in heaven and on earth together as one.

 

God is exposing hearts right now (Rev 3:18). He is causing all to come into alignment with His Spirit, His will, His purposes. Anything out of alignment will be corrected by Him. It is and it will be revealed.

 

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him, and will dine with him, and he with me.” Rev 3:20

Proverbs 2/26/14 Celebration Service

Proverbs
We went from a cool acronym, KYLO, to a straight, unadulterated, simple, book of the Bible, Proverbs. It’s like Sesame Street’s version of “Which of these things belong together?” Do you remember that song which compared apples to oranges, monkeys to cows, cars to trains?
It has that kind of feel, especially after the powerfully charged last four to five weeks. However, I believe we moved from focusing on one proverb – a very important one – to a multitude of others. Solomon’s words penned under the power of the Holy Spirit set the bar when it came to short powerful sayings that can carry a person’s destiny, a church’s destiny, a country’s destiny.
Think about this one, “Watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). This to some extent is KYLO. To keep our love on we need to watch over our heart with all diligence. Love comes from our heart fueled by the Holy Spirit. There are other powerful sayings like Proverbs 3:5-6, 3:9-10, 4:18. The list goes on and on. I know you will come away with some powerful verses in these next thirty one weeks that will change your life.
We made a good start last week and it will only get better. Please take some time to read chapter two before service.
These are some questions to key on before we meet:
1. What is your favorite proverb and why?
2. Can you share an experience where you had to obey God over obeying this world system? Over the fear of man? (This is another way of wording our homework from last week)
Stay tuned. We may have other questions for your small group time that may pop up during the evening.
God bless you all. See you all tomorrow night.
Pastor John

Valentine’s Day at the Prince

Valentine’s Day at the Prince

Love is in the air everywhere I look around…. . Do you remember this song by Lou Rawls from the eighties? Yes, I know. I am dating myself just like my Armani coat that Gavin Tokuda likened to something Robert DeNiro would wear in one of his famous mafia movies from that same time period. “Hey, paesano, you making a fun of my coat? Are you calling me a Good Fella? Ha!
Whatever the case, love was definitely in the air last night at the Hawaii Prince Hotel. How would I describe or summarize our experience in Waikiki, minus all the love crazed individuals causing bumper to bumper traffic on Kuhio, Kalakaua, and every road that housed a restaurant or hotel? Which means every road. I would say first that it was a fitting way to end our KYLO study.
How could you script this any better? After four weeks of laughing, crying, venting, sozoing, apologizing, not apologizing, repenting, and gleaning some amazing wisdom from KYLO, last night was a love, healing balm that tied everything together. It was the cherry on top of the sundae, the ribbon that finished the present, the gravy that smothers a loco moco with extra mac salad, hamburger, and egg. Maybe the last illustration doesn’t quite cut it, but you know what I mean. It was full of fatness!
On top of this, you had the author of the book and his wife, Danny and Sheri Silk, visiting us on our last class and also taking part in our marriage renewal ceremony, along with officiating the communion time and eating the very thick bread. Yes, that bread was amazing. It had some ‘oomph’ to it! The fizzy grape also added a level of pizzazz to the whole affair. All kidding aside, it was powerful. It was so meaningful. It was crazy! Jesus walked among us.
On another level, as Pastor Dean so aptly put it, we were walking in God’s perfect timing. We experienced a kairos moment last night. When I think of the Book of Revelations and the marriage feast of the lamb, our time in the Mauna Kea Ballroom foreshadowed in a nuanced sort of way that glorious day when we will consummate our union with The King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
It was truly a sign to the principalities and powers of that impending reality, punctuated by the fact that seven years earlier in the same room we celebrated Dean’s and Kerry’s wedding. Again, the timing was impeccable, the number seven only strengthening the message from God. The Lord loves to use prophetic repetition to confirm spiritual realities. In this case, the church’s future marriage to Him. The time table is moving ever so swiftly towards this apex of perfected time.
On a personal level, I was floored by the marriage renewal ceremony. It was so so so so powerful. As Kevin Cockett so appropriately stated, we received way more than we expected. All I can say is that my love was deepened, my marriage strengthened, and my commitment to Jesus fortified. Another foundation stone was placed in my life, our church’s life, and in all our marriages. We will never be the same.
From Pastor Dean starting the night by honoring the passing of Bob Jones and sharing a quote from his life (Did You Learn to Love?) that mirrored the title of the last chapter of KYLO to Pastor Rod leading us at the end with “You are Worthy of It All”, the evening was pregnant with prophetic messages. I also appreciated the beautiful accents that God added to the night’s festivities by having the Kepoos cut the cake, the two families sharing their powerful testimony, and them leading the rest of us in a Filipino bridal dance, complete with money spilling out of their clothes. It just confirmed God’s love for the individual and the whole body. Their blessing blessed me, it blessed us all. God was smiling.
Words cannot do justice to all that took place last night. From Mari’s loving words to her parents to everyone’s spiffy clothes to the The Electric Slide to Troy’s joke telling, the night can only be summed up with one word: awesome! God bless you all. KYLO!
Pastor John

Unified… Christmas Party Re-cap

Unified’s Thanksgiving, Christmas Party, Love Train Extravaganza
Good evening ohana, this is my take on today’s gathering at beautiful Kapolei. As always, please fill in where I prove deficient.
For me, it was an amazing day of fun and fellowship, capped off by an amazing victory and season. I’m still coming down from Kaiser’s victory over Kauai High at the Aloha Stadium today. Guess what the score was? 17-7. It was also Kaiser’s 13th victory. This is crazy! This seventeen/thirteen thing, phenomena, marker, sign, or whatever you may want to call it, continually fills the spiritual atmosphere of our destiny as a church. We even had 17 tables at the party. I need some smelling salts right now. “Okay, I feel better. I can continue.”

 

As Pastor Dean shared this past week, this is God’s way of saying that we are walking in the sweet spot of God’s perfect timing. Yes, that’s how I would summate today’s party: we hit the sweet spot.
It’s fitting that we had our party at a golf course. In golf, like any type of ball meets stick sport, it’s not about striking with brute force, but hitting the right spot, the sweet spot. We got a hole in one today when it came to living and rejoicing as family. We hit the sweet spot of true fellowship. We walked as ohana. I believe we also touched the sweet spot of God’s heart through our love, joy, and unity. God’s presence filled the time. His smile warmed our hearts. He commanded the blessing (Psalm 133). I felt it. We felt it.
It is a new day in our church. A mysterious, overwhelming, wave of God’s momentum continually surges us forward into the future. I cannot explain it any other way. The blessings of God are overtaking us. Deut 28:2 states, “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God.” Let us continue to plunge the paddle of obedience into the turbulent but promising waters of life as we travel on the Unified… canoe. The blessings will surely follow and overtake us. It’s already happening. It’s now splashing on our feet and head. “Hut, Ho!!!!”
The spiritual naval officers of seeking God’s perfect timing, Pastors Dean and Kerry, have deftly navigated our outrigger into these exciting, uncharted waters of fullness and we now reap the benefits of a fresh and evolving jubilee season!  “John, that’s good!!!” I thought I do a Bill Johnson on myself through the medium of writing. Ha!
The whole day was filled with fun, excellent, and spirit satisfying fare like: Carrie’s A-plus administration of the whole event; Pastors Rodney and Michelle’s witty and uproarious MCing; the over-the-top, generous raffle ticket gifts; the amazing song and dance mixes concocted by the Arias ohana; the highly competitive and fun Christmas carol game (Happy Birthday almost snuck by, but alas, it got beeped or buzzed); the heart inspiring and stopping sound of the thunderous taiko drum performed by the Netsu’s; the delicious buffet spread that brought great joy to all our opus; the beautiful love train we formed in the end. There were many more things that I could add to this list, but if I did, there would not be enough books to contain the rich treasures of today. For some reason, this sounds very familiar to a Biblical passage in the Gospels of John, but I am serious. How can you capture all the richness of today in one article? Everyone and everything were awesome!!!!!
“God serves no wine until it’s time!” It was worth waiting these last four years for our first all church Christmas party. It was the right time and season for this wine to be served. The flavor and richness of this wine carried the bouquet of the fruits of the Spirit and the tannins of deep wisdom. Again, I cannot explain it in any other way. It was the right time. It felt right in our spirit. It set us on the right course for 2014 and beyond. Unity can have that mysterious and powerful effect on the life of a church.
Isaiah 43:18-19 states, “Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.” The Love Train has departed the station of the past and we are now moving inextricably toward the bright Son of the future. Today’s party carried this joyous momentum of God’s Spirit. He has made all things new. It is marvelous in our sight. Sweet dreams everyone. Love you, folks.
PJ