John 15:1-27
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
Prayer
We know that the ideology of creation does not seek only certain specially chosen individuals; it seeks all humanity. Father, You have been working hard, seeking the humanity of this earth! When we think about how the providential will remains to establish the whole universe upon the ideology of goodness, we pray that You will allow us to become the fertilizer for the fulfillment of the will; that we can give even a little bit of help to the Father.
Please allow us to understand in this hour that the sorrow of the Father was not caused by the things created on the earth. It is because there is no person who can realize the Father's ideology of creation on His behalf. Please allow us now to pour out all of our heart and effort to fight for the sake of the will. Please allow us to understand that You are the Creator who made all things of the creation. You have been toiling infinitely for our sake.
Please allow us to understand that those who cannot comprehend the heart of the Father cannot comprehend the life of the Father. Those who cannot experience the heart of the Father cannot understand the situation of the Father. Beloved Father, we pray ardently that You will allow us to come to that realization, even in this hour today. You are sad as You look down upon those of us who cannot accompany You in our hearts.
Please allow our hearts to become totally one with the Father's will. Guide our lives so that we can live like the Father's friend and become someone whom the Father can govern.
We know that Jesus was the person who emerged with the will of God in his heart, for the sake of the chosen people. Please let us realize that, although people are the way they were when they were created and all things are the same as when they were created, the anguish of the Father is not being able to find substantial people in whom He can reside. Beloved Father, please sanctify our minds and bodies so that You can dwell within us. Allow us to become that kind of person. Loving Father, we ardently wish that in this way You can guide us to become the forerunners of the new era who realize the ideology of creation.
We know that You work with the same love today as at the time of Jesus and will do so in the future. Father of love, please allow us to experience, at this moment, the grieving heart of Jesus. Moreover, Father of love, we earnestly wish that You will allow us to possess the heart of love which has the capacity to love everything on the earth. Allow us to take after the nature of the Father, who can embrace and love all of humanity.
Father, we know that even now there are many children of Yours who are scattered all across the countryside, being driven out and chased around. Please take care of them. Help them to possess the heart that can deny everything they have and struggle for the sake of the will of the Father alone. We sincerely wish that the Father will lead us with love, so that we may become sons and daughters who can penetrate through any path of sorrow or path of the cross and march forward on the path of life.
You are the one who caused us to possess the tormented heart that others do not understand. Father, please comfort our hearts, and counsel us through our bodies. In this way, Father of love, we hope that You will let us become the sons and daughters who can defend the last battlefield of the last days and receive the full submission of Satan after winning the victory.
Although the individuals who have gathered here may all be different, we know that their hearts toward the will must become one. Their bodies must become united for the sake of the will. If there are some elements in us that violate the Father's will, then Father of love, please liquidate them.
I am going to convey the Father's words now. Father of love, I sincerely wish that You will allow the listeners to become the sons and daughters who can reveal everything frankly before the Father's heart and repent after analyzing themselves.
Father, in this hour, people have gathered with many different wounds in their hearts. Father, the ruler of hearts, please soothe the wounded ones. If there is something unacceptable in our hearts, please cleanse them. Father of love, we hope that You will help us to always reflect upon whether we have some condition for Satan's invasion. If there are some such conditions, then please protect us with Your consuming eyes so that we can remove them.
Father, I want to convey the words now. Let the heart of the speaker and the heart of the listener not become divided into two. Even in this hour, Satan is looking for a gap. Father of love, please allow this to be an hour when we can move and be in harmony like one group of friends centering on the will of the Father.
Father, please have pity on the thirty million people and all humanity upon this earth. We sincerely wish that You will claim back the indemnity conditions of restoration that all spirits in the spirit world demand.
Sincerely requesting once more that You protect the lonesome members throughout the countryside with equal grace, we pray all the words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
In this hour I will speak to you on the topic "To Whom Do You Belong?" All the people who live on earth claim that they are living for some purpose. On the surface, our life might seem to begin and end centering on us. However, if we think again, the life that one seems to live for oneself has many trials, agonies, griefs and sorrow. You have probably experienced this in your own life.
Moreover, you have probably felt in your own life that when someone lives only for the sake of himself alone, his life is filled with sin and sorrow. When someone forgets himself and lives a life of denying himself, he can overcome any kind of difficulty.
The Condition of Existence for All Living Beings
If we delve more deeply into the sphere of the original nature, we will not be able to deny that our minds and bodies are not our own. The things of creation might seem to be the masters of the whole world of creation and the universe, but if you think more deeply, you cannot deny that they belong to the Creator.
For example, it is easy to think that the owner of this earth is the earth itself. Yet no one can deny that this earth belongs to the universe. Although it is easy to think that all existing things on the earth are their own masters and came into existence on their own, no one can deny that they cannot exist outside their relationship with the earth.
Similarly, when you examine all existing things, you will find that from the big things to the small things, all are in inseparable relationships. Even when you examine the earth, you can understand that this earth cannot exist by itself. In other words, when it operates according to the laws of nature based on inseparable relationships, it can then obtain the conditions to exist as the earth. If we acknowledge that there is a cause, the Creator, then we cannot deny that this universe came into being because of the Creator God, the earth came into being because of the universe, and all things that exist on the earth came into being because of the earth.
Who is the ultimate source of all things that exist on the earth today? In other words, who is the parent of humankind? You will not be able to deny that it is the earth. Who is the parent of the earth? You will not be able to deny that it is the universe. Yet it is a fact that there is still no explanation for the question of who is the parent or ultimate cause of the universe.
Although all things exist as the fruits of a causal process linked to a parent-like relationship, they attain satisfaction only in the world of results. This is the historical and practical contradiction.
Should there ultimately be some solution for all things in the universe and for you who are in this situation? At the end of history a person must appear who can give answers to all these questions, a person of character who can go forward toward the universe after becoming the one substantial embodiment who can represent the ideology of the Gospel. You have to understand that if such a person does not emerge, we cannot conclude that God has been leading the providence, centering on humankind.
If you feel you are the ones who are governing this visible world of all things today, the so-called masters of all things, then this is a misunderstanding. Your bodies are not yours. Your minds are not yours. If someone asks you what evidence there is that they are yours, you will be stuck and will not be able to answer.
If this problem is solved, then this will become a historical beginning point. At the same time, it will become the solution point, based upon which all problems can be solved. However, humankind on earth today has completely forgotten this problem, as they casually go about their lives.
God mourns more grievously over the fact that people have become like this, than He does over having lost the universe. Therefore, if there is someone who can feel and experience the heart of God, then the fundamental providence of religion will begin from that person. You have to understand that the path to find God again will be pioneered from there. In the same way that all earthly things consider the earth and Heaven, the Creator, as their parents, your existence is not limited to yourself either.
Have you ever felt that the earth is your parent? Our bodies have been constructed with all elements of the earth. We cannot deny that the earth is our origin. However, people often forget the earth is embracing them. Now that you have learned that the earth is the parent of materials, you must go one step further and understand that there is a parent who gave you birth as a being of character.
The Structure and Value of Human Beings and the Standard of Life
What were human beings created as? The reason that God created men with soil, water and air was for the sake of establishing us as having all material elements. We are the substantial hyung sang who can represent the ideology of Heaven. Because people have been created through this ideology, if there is no element within human beings that can harmonize them with the divine nature of God, then according to the principles of creation, there cannot be any ideal, hope or desire in people.
When God created man, He molded the physical body as the combination of the material elements that can connect with all materials. Into that physical body, He blew the spirit that would govern the physical body.
In the same way materials have relationships that link them to the earth and the universe, to manifest the nature of existence, people also have to recognize and believe that the earth is their parent. Furthermore, they must realize that Heaven, the Subject of all ideology, is the ultimate Parent. You have to understand this clearly.
What is a human being? A human being is one who was created and molded as the one body in which the substantial body which represents all material (physical body) and the substantial body which represents all spiritual relationships (spirit) are joined. Because human beings have this kind of value, they can rejoice before the Creator; they can offer a full bow to the Creator and sing praise to the Creator. Similarly, although people themselves are extremely minute beings, they have a universal value that can reveal the glory of Heaven on behalf of the whole universe. Moreover, God longs for them to become perfected in this value. Therefore, you must not have the desire to elevate yourself and assert something about yourself. If you make assertions when your body is not yours and your mind is not yours, history will not forgive you. You probably know well that in the past, such individuals, races and nations came to ruin.
Because you must inevitably walk this path, God has been revealing the way of goodness and pointing out the direction of goodness. He has been guiding history in this way until now. In the era of the clan society, people lived centering on the customs of the clan. In the national era, they lived centering on nationalism or the doctrine of the nation. Today, transcending the level of the nation, they have been living centering on an ideology on the world level.
This is not to end here. Ultimately, people must live for the sake of the providential will, centered on the heavenly way. Those who pursue their own doctrines or the doctrines of their nations will surely be shattered.
When you think about this, where can you find the realm of stability? You probably will not be able to easily find the realm of repose, where you can feel joy and satisfaction on your own. You will not be able to find the realm where you can step forward before the world of creation as the representative of God. However, this is the common goal which humanity has been pursuing.
Your minds must face the heavenly nature and your bodies must face all things. Have you ever entered the realm where you can confidently say that all existing beings belong to you? Can you say, not only to the people of the earth but also to all the spirits in the spirit world, that they belong to you?
When you think about this, indemnity will fall upon those who are arrogant and boast about something they have when this is not really the case. Those who elevate something about themselves in order to brag or assert their own doctrines will surely perish.
If you cannot deny these facts, then the question of what standard you should base your life upon will become important for you.
The Teaching of Religion for the Sake of Restoring the Parent-Child Relationship
Originally, if human beings had not fallen, they could have stood in the object position to Heaven, possessing the value of goodness. However, because of the fall, the relationship with the good Parent has been severed. After that, people traveled the path of sorrow. Even if they must climb over the hill of death, they must restore this severed relationship.
How will they forge the tie? This relationship is not bound up with some doctrine or assertion on the world level; nor is it bound up with some national ideology or with some institution in society. It must be inside your mind. Therefore, you must understand that if your mind is not connected with the True Parent, even if this world was to become a world of happiness and goodness, it would not have even the slightest relationship with you.
However, your desires today have transcended themselves and are moving toward the nation or the world. Although it is probably precious to have this kind of desire for possession, what is more important? First, recognizing that you belong to the eternal and unchanging subject. Next, you must satisfy the universal desire. If there is such a person, there will not be any power or authority on earth that can strike him. However, people today have failed to think about this. What use is there for people who cannot insist upon their genuine value to attain all things and rule the universe?
If there is some doctrine or assertion that reveals the universal ideology, it is religion. There is no doctrine or assertion that surpasses religion. Religion began based on the relationship in which we can say that the invisible Creator is our Father and that we are His sons and daughters. It began based on the inseparable parent-child relationship and its value. Accordingly, true religion does not remain only in the state of merely having dominion over people. It looks ahead toward the nation of the future, the world of the future, and the cosmos. It has been progressing toward the purpose of unity, which the earth and humankind, created by the ideal of the Creator, have been trying to attain through the relationship of the four position foundation.
Because religion sought this in order to restore it, religion has stressed the master-servant relationship until now. Moreover, it has been building orderly relationships based on such things as which is first and which is last. This is the way of the heavenly principles.
Where, then, does evil begin? Evil began by escaping from the orderly relationships centered on the heavenly principles. Thus, to establish the one standard based upon which Heaven can say that you belong to the whole universe, to the Creator and to yourself, Heaven has been working hard until now.
Do you want to become the center of the future? Any center in the human world which has been established without relationship to God cannot last. Do you want to become the center of the people? Even if you have become the center of the people, because you are fallen, you will one day be frustrated. Even if you once stood confidently before the world, you will be frustrated. This is the reason that all those who are trying to walk the path of religion, the path of the way, are taught to abandon everything. However, it will not always be thus.
As fallen people walk the course of goodness, they have to pass through unspeakable vicissitudes and a course of revolution and conflict. Because people must pass through this kind of course, God told them to abandon everything, because He knows that anyone will be destroyed if they lean toward some doctrine and are bound to it.
This is the reason that when Christianity emerged on this earth, they received indescribable persecution. In every period, individuals and people raised by Heaven were unwelcome. When Jesus went forward with the Gospel of the New Testament, he was harassed on the national and world levels. Furthermore, from the time of Jesus until now, there has not been a people who did not persecute Christianity. To establish the Christian ideology on the earth, God did not tolerate it when some policy or ideology of a nation was not in accordance with what Jesus advocated.
The Individual, Family, Nation and World Which God Must Possess
Because Jesus could not possess the people, the nation and the world that he should have, God has been exerting Himself until now to claim them back. Who is going to accomplish that will? Heaven and earth will not accomplish it. You must do it yourselves.
Because God could not at once claim back the whole universe, He first worked to find one person. This was the effort to find Noah during the 1,600-year period after the fall of Adam. Although God had to raise Noah due to Adam's mistake, because Noah could not fulfill his responsibility toward the will either, God's will was prolonged for 400 more years. Through Abraham and Isaac, at the time of Jacob, God found the one individual and family.
Centering on that family of Jacob, God led the Israelites through the course of Egypt. God lifted up Moses to lead the Israelites. However, when Jesus came to recover the nation of Israel centering on the people, he could not claim it back as his own and died without establishing it as Heaven's. What then happened to the chosen people of Israel? They became scattered all over the world. God worked to establish the course of the New Testament providence, from the time of Jesus' death until today. He tried to construct a people and a nation centered on God, which Jesus had tried to recover. He tried to build a world where the ideology of cosmic heaven could be in full operation. Because this kind of foundation was not laid, the Christians who believe in Jesus today still must find and establish the ideology of a nation. However, they are ignorant of this.
What does Jesus demand in today's era? Because the Israelites, whom Heaven raised through 4,000 years of toil were lost, Jesus hopes that Christianity today can cope with the mission of the second Israel, representing the Israelites. However, you must realize that Christians are ignorant of this.
When you think about yourselves, as you are moving toward the heavenly nature, you will discover that you are miserable. Because people failed to convey the way of the heavenly nature correctly, there is no family, society, people, nation or world that can connect with the way of the heavenly nature. You must reflect upon being in this kind of situation.
Because restoring all of this is your ultimate purpose, Heaven has hoped that before you achieve it, you will not rely too strongly upon something else. In other words, He does not want you to put yourself under some group or doctrine. Therefore, it is your fate to take this to heart as you move forward.
When you ask whether your body has become capable of representing the earth, the people and eternal life, you will not be able to answer in the affirmative. Therefore, you must not assert that you belong to yourself. As Jacob had seventy relatives centered on his twelve children, you must form a family in which God can dwell. Your family must belong to the nation over which God can rule, and that nation must belong to the world over which God can rule. Furthermore, even all the spirits of the spirit world must belong to the realm of ideology that God governs.
Clearly you must understand from what position and situation you have been chosen. You must reflect upon the position from which you have carried on your ideology, desires and actions. By doing so, you must clearly understand what situation you are in before the whole will of the heavenly principles, before the whole providential will of the creation.
God's providential will for Christianity is for the sake of finding individuals who can bring joy to God; finding families God can govern, and forming a heavenly people by joining those families together. The chosen people of Israel should have completed the responsibility to realize this will, but when they were torn apart, God mobilized the Christians of the world and has been building the second Israel. Therefore, the Christians of the whole world must unite into one to usher in the one day they can take the offensive toward the evils of this earth, the day of the last judgment which Christianity speaks about.
To Become the Possession of God
Those who have become completely united with the heavenly will and have won the recognition of Heaven, and those who have had mysterious experiences probably understand this. They will feel God recognizing that they are His. At the same time, they will see all things bowing their heads toward them. Human beings today do not realize that on the day that all things of the creation recognize that you are the son of God and the possession of God, the countless spirits of the spirit world, as well as all things of the earth, will bow their heads in praise. If God and all things can recognize someone, then those with a true conscience can also be in harmony before them.
You can have the sense of your position and existence, but you must abandon all sense of possession. You must think that you will represent the will of all things, the will of humanity, and the will of the heavenly principles. Those who realize that they are marching forward with this ideology are the so-called enlightened people. To walk that path of enlightenment, you cannot possess all the things you want on earth, do all the things you want, and enjoy all the things you want in your life.
If you truly want to establish the value of existence based on the heavenly principles, you must first be able to deny yourself mercilessly. You must be determined to go forward with the enmity to mercilessly fight against your family, society and this sinful world. That does not mean you are to use brute force. You must attack sin with service and sacrifice. Traveling through this kind of course, Heaven has been battling silently for the long period of 6,000 years.
Now that you have come to know that God, the Creator, has been working hard to reclaim human beings in this manner, what must you do? You must become someone who can be in harmony as the possession of the universe, all people, and all things of creation. You must be taken as the possession of God. What must you do to become the possession of God? You must first learn to feel that God, the Creator who created all things, is our Father. By doing so, you must understand that the Creator God is our Father who, as the eternal, unchanging and Absolute Being, has been exerting Himself to restore the inseparable parent- child relationship since the time of the creation of the world.
If our physical parents gave us flesh and blood, then what kind of parent is the Creator? He is our eternal and unchanging spiritual True Parent. He is the Parent of our minds and the True Parent of our spirit, who gives us eternal life. Human principles have taught us, until now, that we must look up to and be filial toward our flesh and blood parents. Because there has been no law concerning the Creator of the heavenly principles, the human principles and the heavenly principles have been going their own separate ways. Therefore, there had to be someone who advocated the way of the heavenly True Parent, the Creator God, who can represent both the human principles and the heavenly principles. This person is Jesus.
When Jesus came to the earth, he said that the Creator was his Father and that he was one with Him. He advocated this with the content of the unity of couples and the unity of parent and child. Advocating the way of sons and daughters of filial piety toward the heavenly principles is greater than any other advocacy.
The Reason Jesus Could Become the Messiah
You who believe in Jesus today are living in the last chapter of history. However, countless courses of revolution have been passed through to reach this far in the process. The norms and customs centered on individuals or clans were shattered when a greater group of people came onto the scene. The course of history has been such that individual nations have been absorbed into bigger and stronger nations by the providence which pursues the unification of the whole.
There is only one earth, there is only one human race, and there is only one God, so God has been toiling to realize the one day when these three can sit together and rejoice. God's intention is not to give directions with the authority of a leader nor is it to predominate, based on His personal desires.
God has been relating to humankind for 6,000 years with a heart that surpasses that which parents have toward their children. God's history of toils in relationship to humanity has been His attempt to find the one day when people can demonstrate filial piety toward Him, which exceeds that which is given to physical parents and call Him "Father." However, people today are not aware of this fact.
If you pray with this kind of thought in your heart, you will not need many prayers. With the words "Heavenly Father!" alone, you can feel the heart of the Father who has been working for thousands of years. You will also feel that God traveled through the course of conflict, throughout the 6,000-year history, for the sake of finding you.
Therefore, if God wants to call you "My beloved son," you must be able to relate to God as a Father. You must feel the heart God possessed at the time of the creation, His broken heart due to the fall, and His heart which longs to save all the people of the world.
You are not to be satisfied and happy while looking at the providence of God toward you. If you feel the heart of the Father who is concerned about humanity confronting the evil left on the earth and reaching the destination of Canaan through all kinds of tribulations, then if you call out to the beloved Father, that one word can penetrate through the whole historical will.
When you pray today, you frequently call out, "My Father who is in heaven," yet in this world there are many people who are defiling that Father's name. We have to understand that contained in the word "Father" are the cries of the prophets who have come and gone through an altar of blood over these 6,000 years. Contained in that word is the crucifixion. We have to understand that the infinite agonies and the miserable historical bonds of the prophets and patriots are manifested in that word.
Therefore, if you have come to realize that this Creator is the Father who has an inseparable relationship with you, then no matter how powerful Satan might be, he can never snatch you away. No matter how scary the fires of hell might be, such a person will not be melted.
Why did Jesus become the Messiah? In the same way that the conviction of the rightness of filial piety can represent the history of human principles, Jesus was determined to represent the heavenly principles, even at the cost of abandoning the human principles. Unconcerned about whether he perished or prospered, not thinking about his own honor, Jesus served God, the Creator of all things, as his Father.
Jesus was not welcomed in his family, and he was mistreated by his relatives. He was not welcomed by John the Baptist's group, and he was ostracized by the religious leaders. The Israelites charged him as a traitor. However, because he understood his mission to alleviate the Father's bitter heart of grief, bound up in history, Jesus abandoned everything. Even if people turned their backs on him, he did not despair. This is how Jesus became qualified to become the Messiah. Jesus had a heart that no one in the history of humanity had ever possessed; the feelings of his heart for the sake of God pierced more deeply into his flesh and bones than his feelings for his own relatives.
Therefore, when all people were opposing Jesus, as God stood in the position to end the 4,000-year history, He forgot all about His dignity and was able to shed tears, clinging to Jesus. Although countless prophets and patriots had come in the 4,000 years of prior history, Jesus was the only one who truly understood the heart of God.
Jesus showed humanity the laws of the heavenly principles in his life course. When Jesus stood in the position where his body and blood were linked to the heart that could call God "Father," and when he perceived that all things long to make a heavenly relationship with people who are searching for God, Jesus felt indescribable torment.
True Children of God: the Heirs of the Heart
Therefore, humanity today must feel the heart felt when Jesus and God met in one moment in time to bring an end to the 4,000-year history. Yet humanity today is not even thinking about this. When Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane in blood and sweat, his heart was unspeakably sorrowful as he thought about the betraying people and the faithless altar. He tried to represent the worldwide dispensation.
As you can see, because Jesus' heart of love toward God was greater than the opposition of the religion, the people, the nation and the world, he could possess all the heart that one can feel as a human being and all the heart that God possessed. As a result, he could walk the path to Golgotha with confidence.
Therefore, if you pray today with the same heart as that of Jesus who prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39), none of you will go to hell. However, there was no one who understood Jesus' heart of love. Consequently, Jesus left behind the terms "bride and bridegroom" on this earth.
Why is Mary Magdalene remembered in Christianity? Why is it that her name has been passed down through many generations in memory? Jesus said it should be so. At that time, who would have tolerated a lowly woman pouring 300 denarii worth of aromatic oil on the feet of a bachelor and wiping it with her hair? Why did Jesus say that the name Mary Magdalene would be remembered wherever the Gospels were taught? The disciples laughed at him, Judas Iscariot protested, and everyone opposed him on this. He spoke these words because, more than his beloved disciples or countless other people, the actions of Mary Magdalene in that hour set the condition of having offered all of her heart and effort.
When Jesus died on the cross, the disciples who had followed him all ran away. However, Mary Magdalene and the mother of Jesus went to visit Jesus' tomb. They had families, a husband, and the Jewish customs centered on the peculiar Old Testament mentality. However, disregarding all of these, unconcerned about social dignity or honor, they went to visit the tomb of a deceased bachelor Jesus. This is how Mary Magdalene could meet the resurrected Jesus.
Where will the heavenly judgment be determined? You should not brag because you have made many contributions and efforts for Heaven. It is not decided by that. The only thing that counts is when the heart of God and the heart of Jesus are experienced in your body and bear fruit. When this becomes an inseparable relationship with God and Jesus, this alone will be the condition of eternal immortality.
When you consider this, what should humanity do today? Although it is good to pursue the words of truth that can link you with God and pursue spiritual experiences, more important, you must build a relationship of love through which you can dwell deep inside the heart of God. You must build a relationship of heart and love with Jesus. When you do that, you can stand as the bride of Jesus and the sons and daughters of God.
Today, however, we are a sad people. The thirty million Korean people should become the Israelites, but we have failed to do so. No matter how many churches there may be in this society, there is no church of God. No matter how many people of faith there are, we have come to realize that they are not the sons and daughters of God. Therefore, what must emerge on this earth? There must emerge on the earth the sons and daughters of God who can save this people. There must be a church of God. A people of God must emerge. Accordingly, if a way opens on the path of tears and the path of abandonment, through which we can become the sons of God, we must offer gratitude for that.
In the 400-year period of the Egyptian captivity, the purpose of which was to build a people, the Israelite clans set the one standard and ideology centered on Heaven. By uniting as a people, they passed through a period of unchanging faith. Only after that were they finally able to usher in the one day of hope. Similarly, you are in the same position. You must feel deep in the core of your bones that you are living in a land similar to Egypt today. Therefore, you must now possess the heart of Moses. He carried on the battle, with a heart of enmity, toward the palace of the Pharaoh that overlooked the chosen Israelites. Moses did not change his determination for one day, even as he was struggling through the forty-year course in the Midian wilderness.
The Responsibility Toward the Three Great Parents
What must you do to endure through a long period of time? It is not enough with some truth or some doctrine. You must look upon the people representing the heart of Heaven. You must possess the heart of Jesus, who prayed for the sake of the people and the church and for the sake of reversing the decline of the nation of Israel. Having done that, hand-in-hand like the early church, you have to forget your situation and dignity and go forward on behalf of Heaven. When you do that, the people will come alive.
Although Jesus wanted to curse the opposing Israelites, because he sensed the heart of God, who had been persevering for 4,000 years in His providence, he was able to wish them blessings instead. In other words, he was able instead to shed tears and pray for the sake of his enemies in the garden of Gethsemane and on the hill of Calvary, the hill of the cross.
How could Paul who had Roman citizenship and abided by all the customs and laws of that nation abandon his reputation, the Judaism in which he believed and all of his knowledge, and stand in the position of being driven out? This was because Paul understood Jesus' great heart of love. Therefore, though he did not have any place upon which to rely, no place to rest his body and, even when he was being swept around by a strong storm, he forgot his own comfort and spread the words of Jesus.
The apostle Paul did not fulfill his portion of responsibility by virtue of his character. You have to understand that he had the one standard which others did not possess, the one standard which could link him with the heart of Jesus Christ who appeared in place of God's love. Therefore, he could become the apostle Paul. No matter how much knowledge and money one has, these cannot achieve it. Therefore, you also must live centered on the heavenly laws. Your minds and bodies must move toward that direction.
We cannot escape our relationships with the three great parents of Heaven, the earth and people. How are we going to pay back the debt for their grace? Until now, humanity, people and citizens who were in debt, all perished. Because the providence to seek and establish this ideology remains, material fortune on the world level is coming toward humankind today. The time is near when all things will strike humankind. The reason is that humans have forgotten their position and committed sins before all things, before the world, and humanity in the last days. Therefore, the will of restoration through indemnity remains.
Consequently, people must emerge who can step over and rise above material suffering. Apostles must emerge who can connect with the love of God, as in the early days of the church.
The advanced nation of America is operating according to democratic ideas; but if it advocates the supremacy of materialism, then it will be struck by materials. The time has come when we must think about a way to use these materials for the entire human race. Nations like America must assist other nations. However, if they help others for the sake of attaining some selfish benefit, then the heavenly principles will not tolerate it.
To realize this ideology, humanity has passed through a democratic economic society and is progressing toward an economic society of the original material culture. Accordingly, people must set the substantial standard that can advocate the original value of materials and represent the original ideology so that they can attain the form where materials, humankind and Heaven can join as one.
The Tradition of the Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven
As we fathom all the lives of faith today, clearly we must not have faith that is subordinate to material things. If there is such a religious group, then God will mobilize people of conscience to revise it. Such a time is approaching. We are entering the time when we must correct the mentality of those who neglect the heavenly principles and are insisting on their own way.
Because the earth is one, it must also have consciousness and a purpose for existence. Because the earth is a created thing, it must have one master. This one master is none other than God. Therefore, as long as God exists, the world that can operate under the one ideology will surely be accomplished.
There must emerge a unified perspective on the universe which can dominate all thought. If the ideology centered on the actual existence of God cannot govern the human world and cannot build the parent-child relationship with humanity, then this amounts to God failing to fulfill His responsibility as the parent of this earth and humanity. Therefore, there must come one day when all things revolve around the one center, when the earth revolves around the ideology of the universe, and when humankind moves centering on one doctrine.
Today many people are boasting, "I am such and such a person," or "I am a citizen of such a nation." Americans today are bragging that they are the citizens of a great nation. However, this will not last forever. America is existing for its own sake; it does not know that it must live for the sake of other nations. This is the same as the Greek civilization of the past that did not realize it existed for the sake of Rome nor did Rome know that its international civilization existed for the sake of modern civilization through England. Therefore, the American people must understand that they must work not only for the sake of their nation, but also for the sake of other nations. Nonetheless, most Americans are ignorant of this. Even in this situation some of the people have the mentality that the situation in which they must work for the sake of the heavenly principles is a fortune among misfortunes.
Therefore, you must now represent the heavenly nature and go forward toward the providence of the world with new weapons. Although material civilizations have dominated humankind and doctrines based on human reason have dominated the world, this is not the end. The time will certainly come when a doctrine will appear somewhere on earth that can connect with the heavenly nature, Jesus and the heavenly ideology.
However, today we do not have any doctrine, and our nation is not an advanced nation on the world level. However, if this people can offer the cosmic heart of God, which will remain until the end as the possession of God, if they can feel the ideology which the whole of humanity depends upon and hopes for and can be manifested as Godism, then you must not despair.
You who have gathered in the Unification Church today, although you are sitting in a small church here, if you have felt the heart that when this is expanded, it can represent the world and the heavenly nature, then all problems will be solved. You can resolve anything. Because you are the children who must represent the will of God, you must become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven who attend God as the master of this world. You must remember that you cannot deviate from the will of God in any place or time.
In the Bible verse that I read there were the following words: "There is no greater love than loving your enemies," and "Pray for the sake of your enemies." We must establish the laws Jesus advocated and the traditions in which the people of the eternal Father must take pride. What Jesus advocated is not limited only to that time; he advocated the laws of the heavenly principles which are needed for the restoration of humanity. Accordingly, if you want to become the sons and daughters of God, you must feel and possess the love of God. To do that, since God has been enduring for 6,000 years and has been fighting until now to find the sons and daughters of love, you must also carry on the fight.
The Nine Fruits of the Sacred Spirit
If you want to call yourself Heaven's own, you must first enter the position of God, who sheds tears. You will feel what God has experienced through the tormenting course of history, and you will also shed tears. The same thing is true for the ears that are listening. You will not be able to swallow even one spoonful of rice you are eating. If you have become the people who can connect with the distressed heart of Heaven in this manner, then this people can live on. You have to understand that God is seeking this kind of person.
In the Bible, it is recorded about the nine fruits of the sacred spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23) These nine fruits of the sacred spirit are the standards of the nation that Heaven advocates, which God is constructing and trying to establish. They are the system of that society and the ideology of life. Have you ever felt this deep inside? If you have such a deeply felt conviction, you will feel the heart of Jesus, who had to close his mouth and persevere while clinging to the rock and facing Jerusalem, though he had many things he wanted to say.
You have entered the Unification Church today. You must not desire the Unification Church for your own sake. You have to understand that the reason we are here is for the sake of the people. The reason the people exist is for the sake of the world. The reason the world exists is for the sake of Heaven. Moreover, although you will exert yourself for the sake of this will and offer something before the altar, you have to understand that God is happier about someone worrying about the will. You have to also understand that, more than preparing a comfortable place for Jesus to sleep in and more than conducting a big and generous banquet for him, God and Jesus are happier about someone who is worrying about the heart of Jesus and shedding tears while holding onto the world.
Jesus wanted the twelve disciples to love the chosen people, forgetting themselves, more than he wanted them to serve him. The same thing was true of Moses, and it is also true of God.
Therefore, you must become filial sons and daughters, loyal subjects, and women of piety who feel a great shame which gives you no room for any excuses. You must feel how inadequate you are for not being able to insist that you will do something, and you must feel apologetic toward Heaven. You must carry on the battle so that you will not become the possession of the Father. If you can become this kind of person and go forward, then history will pass through the people, the nation and the world to cross over into the era of the cosmos.
Who can guarantee that the time will not come when Heaven will play the leadership role? As long as there is Heaven, there will surely come a time when Heaven must play the role of a leader. Because the one standard of human principles has not been set until today, the heavenly principles could not interfere. Yet on the day that the dignity of the heavenly principles is restored before humanity, humankind will have no way to escape from its commands and laws.
The time like this is coming, yet people are ignorant of this. They must reflect upon themselves again. Having done so, passing through the gates of God's love, you must become capable and confident people who can say, "We believe in God absolutely," and become the true sons and daughters who can serve the Father.
