Get Uncomfortable, Meet the Comforter

Pastor Jay Miura and his wife, Ayako, open by thanking the church a year after moving to Kanazawa, Japan, as missionaries. Pastor Jay grew up right here and spent 40 years in this neighborhood. He tells how he didn’t realize he needed glasses until he couldn’t read a street sign on the mainland. In Hawaii he never looked at the signs. Familiar places can lull us into a sleepy rhythm, and “sometimes the Lord, he has to get us out of our comfort zone for the Comforter to come.”

He turns to John 16, part of Jesus’ farewell words to his disciples. The Holy Spirit has many names: the Paraclete, the helper, the comforter, the advocate. Here Jesus calls him the Spirit of truth, who guides us into all truth. Pastor Jay says he has never relied on the Spirit more than in this past year. Plans and partners fell through when they arrived, and none of their five kids spoke Japanese. With no one to call, they asked the Spirit for help, and he led them to the school principal. Their testimony opened the school’s doors to the family.

The Spirit’s job is to reveal Jesus, and Pastor Jay learned that Jesus carries a father’s heart for our families. In the first year, God told them to take care of their family, spend time with him and get to know the community. Pastor Jay calls it a fight to stop trying to build a church and be the church to his family first. They kept daily devotions with five kids every morning and began praying about “each one reach one”: every person reaching one person a year.

Growth comes through discomfort, like the gym. The Spirit also gives “insider information.” After a mission team spent days picking frozen apples off the ground, one apple at a time, on a farm damaged by the Noto Peninsula earthquake, God told Pastor Jay to stop worrying about what was next and go to his son’s basketball game. In broken Japanese, he talked with the coach, a fishmonger, who mentioned that the restaurant across the street had just closed. It became the family’s new cafe and ministry space.

Finally, the Spirit glorifies Jesus through obedient people. Before they moved, the kids prayed too, because the Spirit in them “is not a junior Holy Spirit.” Pastor Jay shares how teachers and classmates noticed his children. He closes by inviting people to say yes to Jesus, and asks believers to deal with any delayed obedience.