When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven - Matthew 25:1-13
April 19, 1959, Former Church Headquarters
Prayer
We know that history has been a sad course because of the fall of Adam and Eve, who were to serve You. Please instill in us anger over human history. The descendants of sinful Adam and Eve have continued until today with the inherited baggage of sin: driven, chased around, and suffering under hardships. Since You have responsibility as the Creator, and accordingly, can never forget them, You have been going through a historical course of toil to regain humankind, regardless of the age and time.
Please enable us to feel remorse over ourselves in such a position and to feel pain over Your having walked that path of infinite toil and suffering. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will give us the heart to feel shame together with You about who we are and anger over having inherited the sinful lineage of history.
We feel that the sinful character still remains in us. Our bodies are shackled in chains of sin. We are zealously waiting for You, merciful Father, to reveal Your power and ability. We are waiting to become true sons and daughters. We know that Your sorrow will deepen as You see sons and daughters fail, unable to cut off the barbed wire of sin, unable to sever the relationship with sin that invades them and fight.
You are longing for the one to appear who can open his mind and escape from the restriction of the body and call You "Father" with a new mind and body. Please help us be the sons and daughters who can say to You, "Father, please accept us, as we represent Your will." We know that it is Your hope that such historical victors, sons and daughters who can win over the enemies and comfort Your anguished heart, will appear. We sincerely hope and desire now that You allow us to become such sons and daughters, calling You "our Father" from that position and comforting You.
Since we know that this is both Your hope and ours, please encourage us and lead us on to that place. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that through Your guidance we can become sons and daughters with a heart to hold onto Your hand of guidance and a desire to follow any path of hardship.
Father, please bless us today. Please come to us. Please remove all the darkness that is deeply seated in our minds and bodies, and let this be the day when we can be embraced in Your shining bosom. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.
Please bless this nation and humankind. Please spread Your hand of compassion over the brothers and sisters who are bowing before You with lonely hearts. Enable them to regain the image of victors and to present it proudly. Lead this hour to be such that heaven and earth resonate and rejoice with worship and songs of praise. As we entrust You with everything from the beginning to the end, please rule over this hour. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
On this holy occasion, although we are not prepared, we still have come before You shamelessly, bowing our heads to You. Father of love, mercy and forgiveness, please tolerate us. Our minds desire to resemble Your mind; our bodies seek to take after Your form. Since we have not accomplished this task because of our ignorance, we zealously desire You to enlighten us through our minds and give us experience through our bodies, so that we can prostrate ourselves before You in the image which resembles You.
If there are sons or daughters who are not suitable for Your will, please come to them directly and admonish them. As we have deaf ears and blind eyes, and are unable to hear Your words and see Your figure, You have to make us hear and see again. Let us understand that You are more grieved than we are because of this; you are more troubled than we, and more stifled in heart.
How can we face You after not responding to Your tens of millions of beckonings and not hearing Your tens of millions of calls? Nevertheless, we have come and prostrated ourselves before You, having heard Your voice and realized that You are beckoning to us. You know that we are most miserable and helpless people. You will have to come to us and hold us with hands of love, in spite of the disgraceful shape we are in. Although our eyes are darkened and our bodies are scarred so that we are ignorant of the original substance of life, Father, please embrace us with love. We eagerly hope and desire that You will console us, resting Your exhausted feet and turning Your disappointment into joy.
Because the world is fallen, sorrow is heaped upon sorrow in Your heart. Father, you have been fighting against the enemy alone, without laying the responsibility upon us, because You know that Satan is blocking our way and sweeping the world with the power of death. Since we know that the greater our reverence for You, the greater Your desire to forgive our sins and defects, please come to us through this heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.
Please forgive the people on earth for not having been able to bow to You with true feelings of life. Please understand that although we have the desire to call You, follow You, and serve You, our situations are infinitely sad.
Please let us call You "Father" at this time, worrying about the sins of history and of the age, and about the conditions of sin that will remain in the future. Although we are unworthy, please let us invite You and bow to You. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.
With regret for being sinners and with tears of indignation as well as hearts of serious repentance, we come to realize that You have been forgiving us for six thousand years and that even now You are still trying to treat us with mercy. Father, please knock on the door of our hearts as we cry out. Please remove all our insistence and our sin-bound concepts and let us feel Your life through our minds and bodies. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will let this be the time when a relationship is formed in which we can call You "Father" and You can call us "sons and daughters." Let us experience the heavenly grace of love, Your heart of love and desperation, the heart we have never felt so far.
Father, please have pity on the thirty million people living on the peninsula of the thirty-thousand-li. We know that those who are truly worried about these people and who shed tears and sweat for them are very few. Since they have no place to stay without Your sympathy, no one from whom to receive help or to look, Father, please take care of these people. We sincerely desire this.
We know that You are making an effort to arouse a movement of life by giving them a new promise. We cannot help admitting to You our shortcomings in serving the heavenly providence to save this people. Please admonish us. We are so wanting. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will encourage us to become sons and daughters to whom You can give the responsibility to bring forth a movement of new life and build a garden of new hope. As we are moaning in the shadow of death and are captured in Satan's barbed wire due to our defects, we eagerly hope and desire that You will spread the hands of grace and lead us on.
Many people are bowing to You at this time, longing for Your embrace. Father, please show them everything. Please tell them the will of the providence and help them fulfill it.
Since many lonesome sons and daughters are pleading with You on their knees at this time, we eagerly hope and desire that in every place they pray with such a shimjung, You will spread a hand of love and show them the glory of Your presence.
We entrust the remaining hours with You. Please guide us to start and end with You. Please rule over us directly so that we can experience the joy of Your life and return glory to You. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Father, we miss the time when You used to teach us about all that was of You and the time when we beheld Your glory in ecstasy and did not want to remain on earth. We also miss the time when heaven and earth rejoiced as we were immersed in Your love and experienced Your shimjung.
You liked appearing in quietude, and did not mind coming in the middle of hardship. You have been working in history, fighting with us on the battlefield and in the place of despair. As we reflect that You have always stayed with us, fought with us, and always longed to live with us, please let us repent for our past course of faith in which we enjoyed rejecting and denying the earth, even though we lived there.
We have seen that although You are in glory when we joyfully serve You in the position of transcendence, You were pitiful, haggard and saddened when You appeared on the earth. We also have learned that You have been relating to us in this form throughout history.
We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us so that we stand in the glorious position where we can rejoice with the Father who has been wounded on the earth and who has struggled to find a true son under hardship. We hope for this, rather than rejoicing with the Father who appears in glory.
We know that if we want to serve You in such a position, we have to go through the path of tears, thorns and the cross. Only in this way can we know that You exist. We cannot help thinking that such a sad path of faith remains for us.
Beloved Father! Beloved Father! Are we lamenting now for ourselves? Are we grieving for our sake? Are we grieving for the sake of the nation? Are we grieving for the sake of the world and Heaven?
Now we must become sons and daughters who can realize for ourselves where You are headed by clearly understanding our identity. We must bow our heads while worrying about Your hope. If we have no confidence to stand before You, let us repent in our hearts. If we are unworthy to go to You, let us purify ourselves.
Father! Earthly people are not aware that You must hasten them to proclaim the way to the heavenly kingdom. You have to face untenable circumstances. Although earthly circumstances cannot be brought close to Your shimjung, You have the responsibility to bring them around by installing the one true human being.
We have inherited the sinful lineage of those who chased away, drove out, persecuted and killed at will the numerous prophets who came with a mission. Please lead us to repent for ourselves, asking what kind of heavenly responsibility we are willing to bear and what kind of determination we have.
Heaven told us in advance that now is the time to wake up. You have told us that it is time to hoist a bright lamp in the dark night. Are our minds still immersed in darkness? Are our bodies wrapped up in the barbed wire of death? Please guide us so that we can break away from this and be able to run toward Heaven, to fight for Heaven, and to take responsibility for Heaven. In this way, we should become sons and daughters who can call You "Father" and long for You to come. Father, if there is anyone who is unworthy to stand before the will, please encourage him at this time.
Please help us understand the urgency of the time. Please do not let us receive the judgment, swept up in the shadow of death. Rather, make us sons and daughters who can be led by the call of life and run toward Your embrace and the garden of freedom, although our bodies may be torn apart and we may die.
We on earth cannot help being saddened as we behold the Kingdom of Heaven and see that there are too many sad affairs. Father, as we see that the path which lies before us is a continuum of blood and tears, we cannot help hesitating and being afraid. Let us realize, however, that the heart of He who calls us is more grieved and troubled than ours. Today is the first day after Easter week. Allow us to light the lamp of the heart. Since we must receive Your eternal sap of life in our bodies and minds, Father, bring forth the works of life and re-creation at this time.
Are there people who are moaning in the realm of death? Please guide them to repent at Your trumpeting voice and succumb to You of their own volition. If there are people who have an inclination to betray You because the bitter roots of death still remain in their bodies and minds, please remove these and intervene with the authority of resurrection and life. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this. The people gathered here are of many types. Please have them form one mind, harmonizing into one shimjung. We sincerely hope and desire that You allow this to be a time when we can engage in our activities with renewed hearts.
The myriad of satans is looking for a chance to attack us even at this time. Please completely block their invasion. Make this a service that can mobilize the millions of saints in heaven and move the believers on earth who are pleading with Heaven with true hearts. Let this be a time when we can introduce the relationship between heaven and earth. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.
We do not want many words now. Now that we have understood Your shimjung that is slow to give permission, Your heart that hesitates, please have pity on us. Please understand the heart that wants to convey the truth and the hearts that want to receive it. Allow us to serve You with glory at this time by achieving a unity of heart between the giver and receivers based on You. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Based on the words, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (Matthew 25:13), I would like to speak to you upon the topic, "When We Should Stay Awake with Heaven." I would like you to hear this speech while offering yourselves to the Father, reflecting upon how awake your minds and bodies are and what shimjung and situations the Father must go through in trying to awaken you.
God Is Awake
Considering the rise and fall of a family, society, nation or state, we see that when they were not awake, they collapsed. Thus, it is extremely valuable for human beings to be awake.
For what are we to stay awake? We should stay awake not for the present reality, but looking forward to the time that is to come. That is, we should have a heart of thirsting hope. When we become so, we can stand as a person of hope or a person of the country of hope. That is why patriots in history cried out for the people to stay awake and to look to the future even when the country was sinking into darkness and being swept into the realm of death.
How much has Heaven kept awake for us and toiled for us? We can know this only to the extent to which we have stayed awake and worked hard. It does not mean, however, that Heaven has stayed awake and worked only as much as we are aware. Since the creation of Adam and Eve, Heaven has never lost sight of the hope for the ideal of creation. There has been no day when He rested or dozed. We should know this.
Heaven was not satisfied simply with having created Adam and Eve and watching them grow. We should not forget that He wakefully watched over them, worrying about their future. We should not forget that Heaven wakefully watched the descendants from the time of Adam and Eve until now, from the position of the future.
What was the fall? It was to be ignorant of the shimjung, situation and hope of wakeful Heaven. The shimjung of Heaven who stayed awake! The shimjung of Heaven who stayed awake, seeking to make a relationship with them! The hope of Heaven, who sought to enjoy glory with them in the future! The fall was to lose that hope. That is why fallen people failed to see the day of hope God had desired. They failed to connect to the deep situation of God and lost His loving embrace, an embrace beyond human imagination.
God has been working providentially, worried about humankind who left His bosom, to regain them. This is the providence of salvation. Reflecting upon our selves today, we have no relationship with the shimjung, situation or hope of Heaven. We should see that we have nothing with which to repay the shimjung, situation and hope of the Father.
Heaven, who had worried whether Adam and Eve might fall, worried about them again after the fall. He set out to save them from the embrace of Satan, the realm of death. We should be able to feel in our hearts that Heaven worried about their fall, worried about them after the fall, and has been trying to find them for six thousand years as if it were a day, not dozing off even for a single moment, to save them from death.
Humankind Longs for New Hope and the Stimulation of Shimjung
What is the desire of humankind? It is to conquer the world, transcending the family, nation, and state. Although a person might achieve this goal, if he does not align himself with and possess the shimjung, situation and hope of God, he cannot stand before God.
Looking at history, the individual, family, country and world have been struggling to find hope. Now, as in the past, they are struggling in search of new hope. We cannot find new hope, however, the way we have been living so far. In other words, we cannot find new hope with the concepts and ideologies connected with history. There is a limit there. We should expect this.
Human beings are looking with hope for the situation through which the way of Heaven and humans can be connected. East and West are looking for the way in which all the people can build the world of a new ideology based on one shimjung. However, that situation has not appeared yet in human history. They should feel the shimjung to transcend the tribes and cultures of East and West and mix together in daily life by having fair and equal situations. Yet, in their ignorance, they do not.
Thus, they feel something vaguely disturbing in their hearts. They are longing for some stimulating shock, although they do not know clearly what it is. Although they are waiting for some new stimulation of the heart, they have not been able to receive any so far. For this reason, although we may find hope and make a relationship through love, if we fail to find the unifying point of shimjung, we cannot help being scattered apart at some time.
Human history reveals how Heaven treated the human ancestors. We can say that the real nature of history is to show this. We should know this. Now everyone is saying with the same voice that the present time is the last days. In this day, humanistically cherished hope should withdraw, and so should the human situation hitherto because we cannot make an eternal relationship with it. Such a time has come.
Since the family, social, state or worldwide foundations that are centered on individual feelings cannot be an unchanging, universal center, immovable as a rock, they will eventually collapse. That is why human hearts are agitated. The greater the agitation of heart, the more anxiety they feel, the sooner the time of shimjung will come when there will be hope for humankind. If such a time does not come, humankind will start and end with despair. If there is a heavenly will for humankind, however, it is to start and end with hope, and Heaven has the responsibility to fulfill the will. Therefore, there will surely come a time when the purpose of history will be achieved.
People today think that all motivations originated from humanity, but that is wrong. Today's societies, countries and world have not formed based on historical relationships. That thinking is wrong. Historical relationships did not start with humanity. History has been flowing along to the point where a higher relationship and higher hope are to be realized.
The Right Attitude Toward History
When I say it is time to wake, I do not mean waking from sleep at night. This word has been given in every age. As there is a world of a certain ideology to be realized in the last days, this word is given in every age to those who seek to find this world.
If you have a desire to advance yourself, to insist on your opinion and rule over the whole, from where did this originate? You are in the midst of sleep. Humankind is asleep today. The individual, the family, the society, country, world, and even spiritual world are in a deep sleep, unable to receive the time of hope. If everyone commonly feels that such a historical relationship should be concluded with something new, then the problem is what is that "something". Looking back upon history, nations that insisted on traditional customs were swept aside. We should abandon the way of thinking we used to have in antiquated ages. People tend to value historical relics today because they are walking the course of restoration. This means that what has existed in the human world is to be seen as a reflection of God's heart.
Therefore, we should not rest content with the old antiquated ideology. Rather, we should understand the value of the original ideology through it and receive stimulation, gaining a desire to commit ourselves to this precious ideology. Only such people can restore the ideal that was hidden in God's shimjung from the beginning of the universe.
Thus, in the last days we should not try to find something by looking back at history; rather, we should conclude history and revive the whole ideology hidden in God and show it in a fresh new way. We should know that this time is indeed when God wakes up, and so do the people on the earth.
When the age of restoration passes, we should look for something new. Thus, granting that these are the last days, the young men and women living in this age should reject all that has been valued by people and zealously struggle for something new. Only then can they become wakeful workers of the new age. The people who struggle with eyes open for something new in this final day will closely approach the way to make a relationship with the hope of the future. They will make ties with the future and with the heavenly shimjung that appears in the historical age of the last days.
The problem then becomes in what position I am standing. Am I not standing in the fallen world, which is ruled by the power of death, which sucks the blood of goodness and has a history of nations devouring nations, countries preying upon countries? We should know that if this is so, we have no relationship with the hoped-for world of shimjung.
Unless you draw a clear line, saying, "You go your way, and I will have to go mine," the progress of history, which has been engulfed by the current of death, will prevent you from making a tie with the new age and will drive you into the world of death. Although we have had to hold onto the flow of history so far, at the final judgment, we must go beyond it. In other words, when Jesus concluded his thirty or so years of life on earth and gained the victory of resurrection, if he had any resentment about his life, any sense of himself or his importance, he would not have been able to resurrect.
The reason Jesus could resurrect was that he gave up his prior life entirely, without regret, and burned with new hope. It is also because his shimjung, situation and hope were exchanged for heavenly, not earthly, ones. At that moment, he could receive the grace of resurrection.
Likewise, you will encounter such a time of exchange. As you see this day approach, you must have a clear determination of heart. When you join a meeting, rather than having a determination because of the leader of the meeting, you must have the standard of shimjung on your own. Only then can you be regarded as having a natural environment for being awake.
What We Must Clear Away
Now you must go to this position. If you admit that you have no means to go to it, however, what should you do? What do you have to give up? First, you should know that you can never proceed if you hold onto human relationships, situations and hopes.
What do we have to make a relationship with to go beyond? We cannot just argue about sorrowful human history. We should clear the sorrows of providential history and Heaven. Without this, we can clear up nothing.
Human history is one of betraying the will which Heaven set up with hope and carefully laid plans millions of times. We should be able to feel this to our bones and in our flesh. Only with such a heart can we hate the sinful reality and stop sinful human history.
Concerning our actions today, we should be able to think to what aspect of fallen human history these actions bear witness. Also, we should able to consider how opposed our actions are to the actions of Heaven, who is working providentially with the program of the will. We should be shocked at the realization.
Only when we feel that our actions are so opposed to God's shimjung, situation and hope that they add blood and tears to God's heart can we see that our heart toward Heaven should be millions of times greater than that toward the earth. Our attachment with the world of death can then be cut off completely. God has been carefully watching us in this situation. He has never rested or dozed off, even for a single day.
Observing fallen history from the beginning of the world, He must have seen hideous sights we have never seen. He must have been mistreated in ways we never have. He must have felt anger and remorse we have never felt.
The Father endured it when the people killed the sons and daughters He sent! The Father has been watching us without rest for even one day. You should be able to feel this. If you live with such a shimjung, you will not go to the seat of judgment.
Although you are extremely small, history is pleading with each of you. The age and the world are pleading with you. Heaven is crying out for this single being to come.
You are standing at a crossroads! Now is the time to set a clear direction and end the circumstances surrounded by the power of darkness, but you do not know which direction to follow and what can clear away the darkness.
Seeing you in such a situation, the heart of God is more troubled than the heart with which He worried about the fall of Adam and Eve, the heart with which He beheld them after the fall, and the heart with which He has been working hard for six thousand years to save fallen people. Thus, you should know that your betrayal would deepen the sorrow of heaven and earth.
The Efforts of the Ancestors to Awaken Human Beings
We must wake up now. We should open our sleepy eyes. We should reverse our actions. What should we be centered upon in trying to wake? It is not any accomplishment you have made in your life. You cannot escape from history merely with this. Since history hitherto has been a history of fallen persons and a world liable to judgment, it cannot be turned back with any earthly ties or accomplishments, nor can it be turned back with any power that has ruled so far. It cannot be turned back with anything we possess or any conditions of glory. This is the situation in which we exist.
To turn ourselves around, we should have a new awakening. A new awakening, however, cannot be brought about by the human heart, by human shimjung, ties or hopes. What heart then should we possess? There has been a history beyond us. In other words, there has been a history other than the one known to humankind. Since there has been a history of which we did not know, there has been a historical shimjung, a historical situation, and historical hopes about which we did not know. This was the case six thousand years ago, four thousand years ago, and two thousand years ago at the time of Jesus.
Who were the people who came as representatives of God to awaken the age? Noah had to have a new historical shimjung, situation and hope instead of those of the 1,600 years of prior human history; he had to help those who did not understand the shimjung, situation and hope. This was the purpose of Noah's flood judgment.
It was the same with Jesus. Who was Jesus? He did not come to introduce the historical shimjung, situation and hope. They had already been introduced. Instead, he came with the heavenly hope, shimjung, and situation humankind did not know. He came to awaken the shimjung based on the hope, to bring about mutual understanding of the situation, and to become the center of the hope. After the people rejected Jesus, however, the standards of shimjung, the situation, and hope which God desired disappeared in the course of history. Jesus brought fruits only of the heavenly work and departed. Thus, God extended the providence and has been executing the heavenly, not the human, program of history toward the culmination of the six thousand years.
Thus, you should stand in line with the progress of the heavenly and earthly history and be able to come forward with confidence, holding onto Heaven above and human history below. Humanity should be like this today. God would also want this.
What is the image of this person? He is the one who is holding onto the shimjung, hope and situation of the heavenly history of the providence. There have been two currents in human history. So far, however, humankind has been able to account for earthly history, but not the history of heavenly movements.
What Are Human Sorrow and Heavenly Anger?
What is human sorrow? It is not being ignorant of history, nor is it having no relationship with history. The source of human sorrow is being ignorant of the heavenly course of history. Unless there comes a time in the last days when young men and women are told about this and become shocked in their hearts, the world will perish along with history.
From this perspective, we will have to wake up from sleep today. We humans are still sleeping the sleep that our ancestors slept. Although tens of thousands of years have passed since the time of our ancestors, no one has established the point of convergence between Heaven and humanity and cried out to Heaven with confidence. No one has confidently fulfilled his responsibility before Heaven.
Over what would Heaven grieve? It is that the point of convergence has not been created. over what should humankind mourn? They should mourn over the fact that no one has arisen from their number who has completed that relationship.
We can think of the flow of history and the flow of the heavenly way, which separates our mind and body, and make claims on them. The mind says, "Go for the heavenly way," and the body says, "Do not leave the historical ties." There should be many young men and women who confront this battle and struggle, yet there are few. It was in this position that Paul said, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24) He said that the laws of the mind and of the body are in mutual strife. This exposes the whole of history.
The power of darkness is ruling over humanity, which is far away from the standard of providential hope, transcending historical distance. Unless I can produce for myself a stimulation that can break through this power of darkness and fear which rule me, the providence of salvation cannot be completed. The ideal of the heavenly kingdom would then be in vain. For this reason, the course of a religious person has been to long for and find the self that can enjoy, live and sing from the mind. You should examine yourselves in repentance and ask how desperate you have been to find the self centered on the mind, recalling the past relationship, reflecting on the present ties, and yearning for the future relationship.
Despite the changing times and ages, Heaven is communicating with us through our minds. If you fail to experience the historical shimjung even with this communication, you will be traitors who betray not only a country, but the whole universe.
Humanity being ignorant of this, how great must God's anger have been in His historical efforts of the providence, how great His true and unchanging shimjung, situation and hope? How great has God's sorrow been, and how many sad stories has He seen? The one who has a heart so stirred that he can resonate with such a shimjung and unconsciously shed tears with God will not perish.
Therefore, although it is not yet clear, you should know that there is a heavenly relationship. You should long for the heavenly shimjung and look to the heavenly course. You should be able to call God "Father" from the position where you spontaneously feel concern for and experience God's situation. If there is such a person, the Father, who has been groping His way through the course of history, will hold onto such a person's hands.
Centering on that person, the whole of humankind should hold hands together. However, the chosen saints would frequently let go of God's hand. Heaven wanted to hold the hands of our ancestors until the end, and further, to hold hands with the whole of humankind. Yet our ancestors frequently rejected His hand and betrayed Him.
Whenever this happens, we see a wide gap between God's heart, who has to reawaken these ancestors after losing them, and our hearts, which have to be awakened. An unending hill of sorrow must remain an unending hill of hardship. There must remain a bitter course and the infinite wall of the cross.
The Time Calls for a New Hope and Determination
Therefore, we who have the obligation to break this should be able to cry for the mind. As we cry for the mind, about what should we be worried? As we cry for the mind, we should be worried about God, who tries to hold my mind, and cry. As we cry for the body, we should be worried about God, who tries to hold onto my body, and cry.
You cannot break through unless you have the shimjung to pledge before Heaven, "I will go, although tomorrow's sorrow is deeper than that of today; although tomorrow's mistreatment is worse than that of today, and although tomorrow's pain is greater than that of today. I will go even if I have to die." Don't you think so?
It is the same in the outside world. In order for a loser to succeed, he has to have new hope and determination in his heart. He can go beyond the level of failure only when a shock comes to his heart that is greater than his frustration and failure. Likewise, unless humankind receives a shock that is greater than everything in history and all the pains of the heart, they have no way to live. Considering that now is the end of the six-thousand-year history, Heaven must be calling upon us now more desperately than during the six thousand years. He must be crying out to humankind. His hope with us in this age must be greater than any shimjung and hope He has had with any people during the six thousand years. His situation and shimjung must be like this.
At this time then, when you must awaken yourselves and arise, how should you go about it? If you want to awaken yourselves, you should feel the heavenly shimjung. If you cannot take this responsibility on your own, then there should be someone on the earth who can take it. You should know this. This is how God works. At the time of Noah, He installed Noah; at the time of Abraham, He installed Abraham; at the time of Moses, He installed Moses; and at the time of Jesus, He installed Jesus. Thus, there should appear a figure who can be established in the last days.
Traditional history and the circumstances, however, have not been able to recognize this figure. Thus, you should examine all of your actions, life and movements. You should discard everything of the past, centering on the new figure, and establish the central figure in their place. You should then be able to follow, obey and harmonize with him absolutely. Otherwise, you can never break away.
Ladies and gentlemen, now is the time when feelings of anxiety come to you unawares. God is letting humanity be gripped unawares by anxiety and fear and be threatened in order to establish them as the people of hope in the new age.
In the future, you will get a feeling of being hit in the head by an iron hammer, even before getting hit by the final iron hammer. When such a feeling sweeps across your environment, you will feel fear. That time is coming. Humankind will strike at the same time Heaven strikes. Satan will strike at the same time humankind strikes. This is the great judgment.
The Meaning of Judgment
Until today, humans have been fighting against one another. They also have been fighting against Satan. Heaven also has been striking you. Humankind has been hit on three sides. It is the same on the earth. Is there not an army, an air force, and a navy? In the last age, there will be attacks in the above three types focusing on an individual human being. Humans will attack like an army; Satan will attack like a navy; attacks by the heavenly world will be like those of an air force. They will attack in these forms.
Such an age of great judgment is coming. Why is this fearful age rushing in? It is not to bring ruin, but to defeat evil and revive the heart that has been oppressed over and over in the course of history. You should know that there is such a hidden purpose.
Heaven does not try to destroy human beings but to save them. Thus, Heaven pushes us out to help us go up. Our being threatened is the work of a certain force to open something. That is why we are threatened. Do not be disappointed to see an age of fear came. We must fight against fear. In the front, there is fear, but in the back there is a place for new rest. People do not know this. Now comes the time when we should repel the world of fear and grasp the new. Satan is ruling over humankind. He is leading us in the last days to the place of fear and death by tugging on our noses, arms, and all that belongs to us. Humankind is being dragged away by Satan like a cow being driven to a slaughterhouse.Your minds organize and determine your actions, do they not? Even if you act first, all responsibility goes to the conscience. This is the real proof. This is proof of the whole of history.
Likewise, you are being dragged away into a pitfall of death. Even in the course of being pulled in, however, if you receive a shock that can defeat all the fear, you can turn back. That is why we have such a time. Since our place is not a place of wakefulness but of darkness and death, we should have a moment when we can turn back. That moment is the last days, the end of history. Therefore, you should feel the day of life approaching before your eyes. The more complicated and confused the inner elements become, and the more deeply the world of fear intrudes, the closer it is coming. You should know that the line of life is linked above the line of death.
Humankind does not know this today. They do not know that just as the line of death is linked behind the facade of life, the line of life is connected to the line of death.
Humankind has been searching for the direction of history and of the mind. They have looked in hope for the direction of history. They have also looked at the connection, shimjung, and situation in the direction of history. The new world and universe will unfold the moment they can break away from it and turn it around through a movement.
To reverse our direction, what should we do? What should we do to turn back from this place where waves of death are raging? You should find the single point based on the three points. Since you cannot escape from the flow of history and the sweeping whirlwind, you should find the one point of Heaven, which stands in the opposite position.
To Break Away from the Whirlwind of Fear and Death
To escape from being swept into the pitfall of fear and death, you should find the heavenly signboard, or the one point based on the three. You should also take risks. You must take risks. You can live only if you make a determination to hold onto something new as you toss aside the flow. Otherwise, who can guarantee that you will not become a sacrifice to judgment along with history? Thus, we should carefully watch the direction we are taking. As we watch, however, we should not do so emotionally. As the end draws near, you should turn to the right direction or look to another side for a certain rescue boat as the fear, insecurity and urgency of death you feel increases. You should have the heart through which to break away from your world view and all emotional ties and look for something else. Otherwise, you can never be awakened.
If there is something in your hearts that you feel is greater than death, you should hold onto it and set out for an adventure, leaving everything behind. At this moment, the connection of death is severed. It is the same when we look at history.
Although Noah's ark went against the historical trend, it was a signpost God established for the salvation of humankind. Moses appeared amid the intense suffering of the Israelites in Egypt. He went against the general movement of the people, yet he still was a signpost through which the people could live. Jesus was also a signpost who could turn back the four thousand years of sinful history and convert the way of death into the way of life.
The reason we yearn for the saints is that we are trying to find the signpost for our restoration. We are infinitely longing for and moving toward that ideal world, which is the place of hope, a good situation, and shimjung. We are trying to return with such efforts. It is the same with history. The world will collapse unless the unchanging center is established which can conclude the entire progress of heaven and earth and all the six-thousand-year history. It will collapse.
If God cannot establish this, He is useless. If He cannot, His slogan of faith, "Believe in Me," becomes nothing but hypocrisy and ritual. This kind of God would only try to dominate human beings. However, God appears as a rescue boat in the dire moment of death.
As the time of historical hope, heavenly hope, and the hope of the world comes near, with new determination, hope, shimjung and a good situation, you should be able to hold the one center and set out, leaving behind all personal details and willingly taking the risk for a resurrected image. Only then can we have the heart to be awakened in the course of history and the providence. Thus, you should first have hope and make a determination to endure to the end, even under raging waves of death.
Personal Responsibility in the Time of Judgment
Looking at the young people in Korea, they are flowing aimlessly like floating grass. Where will they go after flowing with the wave? Is there not a movement that can go against the flow? Is there not a way of awakening? This age requires a prince of the age who is consumed with a public anger that hates and resents the present circumstances. He must embark upon a great adventure, if such a way exists, with a determination to be more loyal and filial than anyone who has dedicated himself to expelling sinful history and the world. Only when there are many like this will the day of hope come for this nation. The moment of hope we have desired will open for the world.
Heaven does not do such work. This is not a job for Heaven, but for us. Thus, you cannot be satisfied in your present place. You should look for the one who is crying out to awaken humankind, possessing the eager shimjung of Heaven, concerned about their being in the realm of death. You should be able to hear that crying out. After hearing the sound of it, you should be able to see the one who is crying out and then initiate action.
Ladies and gentlemen! Do you have listening ears? Do you have seeing eyes? Do you have bodies equipped to act? This is the problem. Your listening, seeing and acting should be historical acts of adventure. Only then can you break away from the realm of death.
What kind of voice have you heard, what kind of figure have you seen, and what kind of action have you taken? Since there are many who say that they cannot see, hear and act, Heaven is working by presenting the people who can show, be heard, and act.
You can decide between life and death only when you determine your actions at the crossroads of life and death. Judgment is made not by Heaven, but by humans themselves. Thus, only when you judge yourself and win can you come to the place of heavenly judgment. When you cannot even win in your judgment, how can you talk about the heavenly judgment?
Can you turn back, stopping all your sins, withholding all your feelings, and re-organizing all your lives? This is the problem. The pioneers of history all followed this path. Noah also followed this path. Heaven told Noah to turn back. He commanded him, "Leave behind all your circumstances and turn back." The actions required to satisfy this command were unimaginable for Noah, to build a ship on a mountain. A ship goes on the water, but God told Noah to build one on a mountain. What kind of nonsense was this? Yet Noah obeyed.
It was the same with Abraham. When Heaven told him to leave Ur of the Chaldeans, he said yes. When God told him to offer Isaac, he also said yes. Moses worried about the pain of the nation and struck an Egyptian, going against the current. If the nation had at least appreciated it, it would have been better. Jesus also said, "Abandon everything and follow me."
This is how history has been progressing. There has been no one in the course of history, however, who could hear the cries of the harbingers, see them as they were, and adore their lifestyles. This has been the sorrow of Heaven. In addition to the heavenly sorrow at the death of Jesus at Golgotha, it also grieved God that there was no one who, upon seeing his death, worried about the heavenly shimjung, shed tears in sympathy, and came forward even to the place of death. You should know that this was even more sad for God.
In every age, Heaven has shown the path to follow with a signpost. He will do the same in the last days. The more the fear of death rolls in, the more we should feel the urge of the heart to push everything aside and go forward. We should say that sleeping, eating and living are not important. The path of life will open for the world only when a new movement appears in which we feel a desperate heart, receive a shock in the heart, and go forward, daring to risk and forsaking all personal attachments.
Wake Up and Connect with Heaven through a Life of Loyalty and Separation
As God has done in the past course of history, He will necessarily do in the last days. If there is such a movement, your past faith, ideology or ties should not present a problem. Only then can you live.
If you look in the Bible, Mary's husband Joseph was called righteous. It was historical nonsense for her to bear a child as a virgin, but when Heaven sent an angel and foretold this to Mary to establish her, she obeyed without hesitation.
What is the uncompromising dedication left behind by the loyal ministers, filial children, and devoted wives in history? You may not have realized that our ancestors dared life-risking adventures, regardless of the opposition of the evil cliques. As there has been no one serving the heavenly will who has not followed this path, and there has been no loyal minister, filial child, or devoted wife who has not walked this road, those who seek to become citizens of the heavenly kingdom, heavenly sons and daughters, should follow this way as a matter of course, choosing between life and death and beholding the final glory.
Have you ever made such a determination and pledge? If not, you are the most despised traitor before the historical providence. Only when you have such a determination can you find your new selves. You should know that the moment you start on this action is the time when you wake up and kick out the six-thousand-year course of history in which you wallowed in sleep.
When you wake up, you will realize that not only you, but also your parents exist. The day you wake up this way and shed tears with your parents is the time of the Second Coming. When we open our eyes, we come to see that there are true parents who have mourned for the six thousand years of the sorrow of humankind, and who have wandered for six thousand years in search of us. Heaven grieved even before we did. This way, when everything that has left a deep pain in the historical shimjung unfolds one day, I can call Heaven "Father" and He can call me "son." This is the day of the final awakening. This is the time when the historical and providential shimjung of hope and everything else come into my bosom. Thus, the joy experienced at this time is the joy experienced when God's entire purpose is fulfilled. The feeling at this time is the feeling experienced when humankind is perfected, without a fall. Feeling the joy in proportion to the enormous sorrow and pain humankind has felt, we can stand against Satan gallantly and proudly.
Since we should rise to this level, if we have not stood in this position yet, we should restrain our mind, body and environment to go in the direction of return. We should turn back, perceiving the words and the phenomena, focusing our minds and preparing for death. Otherwise, we will never, never be able to wake.
The more threatening the external circumstances become, the greater our inner determination should be. As despair and frustration sweep across our society, we should make a firmer determination in our inner hearts and long for the moment when hope will blossom. You should clearly bear in mind that only in this way can we connect to Heaven, who comes to us with a day of hope, a good situation, and the image of shimjung. We should rebuff the history of sorrow and make a new start for victory.
Prayer
Father! As we try to think about the new task, we realize that we cannot even think as the present flow continues; we cannot wake up unless we find a moment in which we stop the flow of history and think about ourselves. Since we cannot wake up without a new shock, Father, please continuously give us such shocks with which to escape from the historical ties. As we see that, we cannot wake without a stimulated heart. We should look for and adore such a heart.
You have sent leaders in every age to awaken others. You led them to live with the shimjung with which You grieved over fallen humankind. Noah, Moses and Jesus all lived like this. Father! Please give us a shock of new feelings in the grounds of our hearts. Give us a heart to transcend our personal concerns, to experience Your sorrow, and to worry about the nation being swept into the world of death.
We see that if there is someone with such a heart, he will receive national-level liberation; if there is someone with a heart to worry about the world, he will receive the grace of worldwide liberation; if there is someone who has the heart to cry out for universal liberation, he will stay in the new world without perishing with history. Therefore, please do not let us cry out of our own personal feelings. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You will enable us to do the good everyone desires and to take in the eager shimjung with which You look upon us.
Please enable us to take in Your heart, anxious that we may not follow, anxious that we may fall. Enable us to see the nation and world by taking after Your heart, which worries whether the followers may fall apart and therefore perish. We know that if there are children who can say, "Father, we are here, and we know Your shimjung. Please take a rest," history will progress in a new direction through them.
Please guide us to start in this direction and awaken us. As we hear historical screams of tragedy, please enable us to make a new determination and pledge deep in our hearts, to set out with thorough preparation to take a new direction.
The garden of joy can be built upon the earth and Heaven can rest only with the one who fights with the heavenly shimjung in place of the One who has fought on the front-line with tears to lead us there. Father, please admonish us so that we are not found wanting in this responsibility. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that if our steps are too slow, You will drive us to this place.
We eagerly request that we can stay awake as Heaven stays awake and shares joy and sorrow with the heavenly way and with history. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.