God's Rice Field & Building Altars on the Threshing Floor

For sometime now, I've been studying and researching the Father's heart on our location and how it connects with the name of our HOP. The more I pursue this, the more firmly I believe our prophetic destiny as a house of prayer is written into our name and the locations where we met. Please see this link for the first writing. Please see this link for the second writing.

The first place of meeting was in a cafe. A place of eating and feasting called "The Decision." (At the time, it was still known as Art Cafe Decision by most)
That cafe is in an area of Tokyo that hosts the seat of government for the nation of Japan. The name of that area is called Chiyoda-ku.
The name of the area within Chiyoda-ku where The Decision is located is called Kanda.
The English literal translation of the chinese characters for Kanda is as follows:

神 = God

田 = Rice Field

In 1 Chronicles 21, David ended up at a threshing floor. A place where the harvest was brought in and prepared for distribution. In the context of the story, God speaks and instructs David to construct an altar in that place. David purchases the property and does as directed. In the process of making the sacrifice and carrying out the act of worship, fire falls from heaven and burns up the sacrifice in response to David's prayers.


>In 1 Chronicles 22, David makes a decision and determines that this will become the new location for the Temple of the Lord and the place of the altar for Israel's burnt offerings.

Moving forward to 2 Chronicles 7, Solomon has already become king. He has completed building the Temple of the Lord as instructed by his father, David and gone through the process of dedicating the newly completed temple. Before the Solomon and the people, fire again falls upon the altar which compels the people to worship Him all the more. Starting with verse 11, Solomon receives a response from the Lord to his prayers of dedication.


Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 

It is interesting that the altar which David built was one with a purpose of intercession. It is interesting that the altar was needed due to a decision David had made. It is interesting that the altar was built on a place where grain was separated from the chaff. It is interesting that God is the one who chose the location of the altar which later became the temple.

It is interesting that the story of The Altar IHOP, Tokyo so closely shadows some of the themes found in scripture.
And this is the word I believe Abba is continuing to speak to us about it:

I AM the LORD of the Harvest. The grain is mine. The kingdoms of the earth are mine. The governments of the nations are mine. The "field of japan" is mine and my kingdom will be made manifest in the earth.

More insight to come as it is made known. Connecting threads are on The Decision and Ecclesia Cafe as modern day threshing floors and further study on altars.
Grace,
jg

UPDATE: Cafe' Decision & The HOP

Hi again tribe!

This past few weeks at the HOP have been amazing. We've had 3 sessions in 2009 so far (one impromptu session last Thursday) and Abba's presence has really been so strong in each of them.

It's been such a sweet time of prayer & fellowship it's been hard to stop and go home in the evenings- we've all just wanted to linger a few minutes longer before heading back to "life." Oh, how great it will be the day we go 24/7! I just cannot wait for that season to arrive! What a huge celebration we will have and what an amazing victory it will be.

In our sessions, we've had times of personal prophecy and prayers for physical as well as emotional healings. A few of us have even started to notice the overflow of this time in prayer impacting our house church groups. In fact, just this last Saturday, we were able to move in a powerful time of visitation. Abba touched a number of members and set them free from fear. Fear of man specifically but, there was a new freedom from fear in general. It was, as always, such an honor to be involved and have a front row view of the transformation individuals experience when they step into new realms of freedom.

Come to think of it, in the prayer room before our fellowship, we started prophesying, "never the same, after today, never the same." Towards the end of ministry time, the group leader actually said, "after today, we'll never be the same again..." How much more of a confirmation of God's word for the hour can you get than that? Especially when the person who spoke that phrase was not present in the prayer session?

Since December, God has also been doing amazing things at Cafe' Decision.

He's brought a core team of individuals together to really dig in and build up the business through a wide variety of new and very creative avenues. Some of which I am a part of.

This team coming together truly is an amazing miracle. Especially since there was contemplation and much prayer the later part of 2008 over whether or not it was time to close down and do something else. Instead, Monday & Wednesday evenings have been dedicated to the HOP. Tuesday is going to be an English Village event. Thursday will continue as a bible study lead by Mr. John LaDue of YWAM. (Youth With a Mission) Friday & Saturday evenings will be very event focused with special emphasis on hosting "live-house" style performances. And Sunday will maintain itself as a church for those who have met Jesus while at the cafe'.

This church, I'm told, is about 30 individuals and nearly ALL of them Japanese! The cafe' has only been opened for about 3 years! In Japan, this number if new believers is pretty amazing especially considering most churches often average 30 members with only one or two new believers added to their community annually. Yay for God. He truly is building His church through some unusual and unconventional means.

I've written a bit on the cafe' before. Specifically, about the HOP being located in "the upper room underground." I'd love to share with you some additional interesting insights regarding its location.

The district in which Art Cafe' Decision is located happens to be the same district in which much of the government of Japan functions and is housed. This area is known as "Chiyoda-ku" and is one of the 23 ward areas which compile the city of "Tokyo."

Not only that but, twice to date (in 2007 & 2008) teams from Bethel Church in Redding, CA; USA visited the cafe' as part of their mission trip. On one of those trips, a picture was sketched of the cafe building with a tree growing up through the center of it.

The prophecy attached to the picture was of a seed being planted deep and growing into an amazing tree.

I believe we are in the process of seeing this prophecy come to pass- at the very least, the tree is starting to break ground and be a tree rather than a tiny seed.

As has been mentioned in at least one earlier writing, the sign on the front of the building is "Big Vision." Haha! Abba is so good to us. He has indeed given us a BIG Vision for this Cafe' Decision, the HOP and also Japan.

We ARE the upper room underground and we are indeed PLANTED in the field of government for the nation of Japan. In fact, to my best knowledge, the Kanji Characters used for the name of the area literally mean, "God's Field." Or something very close.　神田 is spoken, "Kanda." The first character meaning "God" with the second character meaning "field."

Taking that to the prophetic, The Altar IHOP, Tokyo & Art Cafe' Decision are planted in Abba's field of Government. Hee hee! Can't really get much better than that hey?

"of the increase of His GOVERNMENT, there shall be NO end."

Interesting statement I think- that Abba would plant a cafe dedicated to the "arts" and promiting artists in the center of His field so that it would grow up a fruitful tree. Haha! What a good God. I so love the way He hides His treasures for us to find.

In closing, please do be in prayer for the cafe'. This is one of our 10 main prayer points for the HOP and we could use all the prayers we can get. Both for the HOP team that meets there weekly and also, for the cafe' operations & administrative teams who are working very hard to ensure there is income coming in to pay the bills and keep the cafe' operational.

That's about all for now.
Grace-
JG