Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 389. A Church Leader's Devotional Life
1 Have you ever prayed for a church member after he or she has visited you? Have you ever thought of that person throughout the night and prepared under the light of a kerosene lamp the words you would like to share the following day? Have you waited for sun-rise, longing for that persons return? If you wait like that, that person will surely come. When that happens you will realize, "Wow! This is the true meaning of devotion. If I offer sincere devotion, I can move God!" If you desperately want someone to come and you pray for that person for three hours with total unity of mind and body, he or she will start to feel restless. A desire to come to the church will stir in that person’s heart. That kind of thing is possible.( 075-179,19750102)
2 When you offer devotions for your members, rather than praying for many people at a time it is better to pray for each person individually. The difference in results between praying for many people and praying for one person at a time is very clear, like the difference between east and west or north and south. As a subject partner, pick one object partner and draw a line to that person. Then you should be able to determine all four directions. Focus absolutely on the relationship with that person until all four directions are secured. Only then can a sphere be formed.( 042-166,19710304)
A leader whom Heaven remembers 3 If people are to serve God while living on earth, they need to travel the way of the saints who laid the foundation for religions. We should realize that, as a matter of course, we too have to go the way that the many religious leaders of the past have gone. We have to want to travel this road and be determined to do it. If you unite with all the past religious leaders, you will naturally find your place in the world of the Principle, the world of religion. Having made that foundation, when you pray you will rise to a position that transcends the sphere of religion, and you will shorten the distance between yourself and God. That is why, even though you walk a religious path on earth, you still need to offer devotion. Some people need to offer much devotion, while others, thanks to their good ancestors, can simply go straight along the path that their ancestors hoped for. What did their ancestors hope for? They sought the same world and purpose that religions have been seeking.( 032-160,19700712)
4 The goal of religion is to find one true man, one true family, one true nation, and one true world. This is the purpose of religion, and it is also the purpose of God. It is the purpose of the providence God has been conducting in this world. If we stand on the foundation of the devotion of past religious leaders, we can connect with God's purpose. The people of any particular religion do not follow only that religion's founder, but also the many believers of that religion and the leaders of all nations that identify with that religion. If that religion has a worldwide foundation, many global leaders will want to follow it too. Thus the distance between religious people and the spirit world can be reduced.( 032-161,19700712)
5 In the Last Days it is not enough to learn from only one person who received grace; you should compare the teachings with those of many others who also received grace. You need to be wise about finding the best methods to elevate your spirituality on your own by meeting spiritual leaders with higher truth. However, many people of faith today do not know this. They need a comprehensive outlook; they need to effectively compare and analyze to find the fastest way for themselves. So when you travel a new path, do not just go along with it.( 032-167,19700712)
6 Do not always seek to receive grace. Do not always try to drink water from a well dug by someone else. Follow the stream until you find a new spring of pure water. By the same token, when you conclude that the leader who has been inspiring you has reached his or her limit, you should offer greater devotion than that person did at the peak of inspiration. Then you will surpass that person. People of faith today do not know this.( 032-167,19700712)
7 What kind of place is heaven? The answer is simple. Briefly, it is the world where people who lived for others go. People who lived for themselves cannot enter heaven. Only those who lived for God and the world can go to that place. Whether you are a church leader or a member, no matter how faithful you have been and no matter how much devotion you have offered, if it was all for yourself, you will be unable to enter the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, if you lived according to the original way of the Will and followed the principle of living for the sake of others, you will surely go to the kingdom of heaven. That is, from the time you reached the age of maturity, if you lived for the sake of others and for God, and if you went the way of death for God and humanity, you will indeed go to the kingdom of heaven.( 077-109,19750401)
8 Whether you are a local church leader or district leader, you have to know how to read people. You should be able to glimpse their spirituality and tell what level they are at. The tasks that a spiritual leader needs to perform are very difficult. That is why you must pray. When you pray about what is on the other side of the mountain, images of what is there should appear in your mind. But to reach that level, you need to offer devotion. A church leader has to know the spiritual state of his or her members even before they do. A person who seriously offers devotion is able to know what has happened to them.( 237-050,19921110)
9 Long ago, when I was leading a church with a gathering of about four hundred people, I called out the church members' names one by one. I knew their spiritual level right away. I saw those with a high spirit standing upright above the horizon; those with a lower spirit stood slanted and those whose spiritual level was lower stood upside down. In order to have this kind of spiritual experience you need to be in tune with God. You need to resonate with Him. When you play the geo-mun-go, a Korean lute, if one of its strings is even the slightest bit loose, the instrument will be out of tune and its sound will be discordant. We must create resonating harmony.( 237-050,19921110)
10 Never mistreat a person who offers devotion to Heaven. When a family member from the countryside brings me even one apple, I do not eat it casually. Treating an object offered with devotion in the wrong way cannot be forgiven. Ignoring a single-minded heart of devotion is an inexcusable sin against heavenly law. Do not treat things that contain someone's devotion carelessly. If something contains 99 degrees of devotion, you have to offer 100 degrees of devotion before you are qualified to touch it. Suppose the leader of a certain group accepts things offered with much devotion but does not connect them to Heaven. Then the more the members of that group offer devotional conditions, the more quickly the leader and the group will decline. That is why some spiritual groups prosper for a span of time but then quickly go to ruin. It is because they disregarded Heaven’s way.( 017-242,19670129)
11 The greater the number of people praying and offering devotion for you, the more blessed you will be. However, to have many people offering devotion for you, you should first give all the blessings you have to others. Unless you do that, not many people will pray for you to receive God's blessings. The person who has ten people offering devotion for his or her sake is someone God will remember. The church consists of a group of people who have created an environment of such devotion. It is a place where people say, "Let us expand the environment by encouraging one another to go to a new level."( 031-157,19700524)
12 Church leaders should not offer devotion for themselves. They should be offering devotion for many thousands of other people. They should lead people to reach a level of devotion that is not only for their families but also for their nation and even for the world. A church leaders eyes should be fixed not on his own family and church members. He should have the heart to go out to the country and world while appealing to Heaven, "Please combine my devotion and my church members' devotion to make a path on which we can serve the world" If a church leader establishes unity with his members and has a reciprocal relationship with them in this manner, God will surely come and dwell among them. God conies when the church members and their leader become one. However, this happens when they unite not for the revival of their church but for the revival of the nation.( 031-157,19700524) |