Sun Myung Moon
April 1, 1977
Gracemere (East Garden), New York
Translator - Sang Il Han
I have been answering your questions about witnessing little by little in many speeches. To summarize, however, you must mobilize spirit world. I witness without speaking any words. While I was in prison I could witness to many people without speaking because spirit world testified to them about me and people came on their own.
You may have noticed by now that some people witness very easily while others cannot witness effectively and have great difficulty. It is a spiritual law that an individual must have a personal foundation of indemnity in order to effectively witness to others. Two people may be faced with the same difficult situation yet one of them does not accomplish much, while the other easily brings results. The difference is mainly that the ancestors of the successful person are qualified to help him. Anyone who is witnessing has to be able to arouse a person's interest toward God, toward the Church, and toward himself. How can this be done?
In approaching individuals on the highest levels and in meeting the public in general our approaches are parallel. If you just witness to someone without having some personal foundation of your own they will not respond. You must consider how each of you is going to create your own foundation.
You may notice soon, if you have not already, that people seek to advance their lives by getting the attention of or taking advantage of other people. Our members' motives for joining the Unification Church are quite varied, often being selfish and intertwined with personal objectives. For example, many people are searching for spiritual insight and when they discover that the Unification Church can give them spiritual enlightenment then they join. However, some people are pursuing materialistic goals and they speculate that since the Unification Church will expand in the future they have a better future here than in any other place. Of course it is very true that if we were to lose by being in the Unification Church, either spiritually or in any other way, then we would not remain here very long. Not only spiritually-oriented people but many other types will join the Unification Church.
Our purchase of the New Yorker Hotel and Tiffany Building are changing people's attitudes. Creating a university and building a newspaper company are extremely difficult, requiring much money, but once these are established they will be vehicles to reach people in a substantial way. This is the logical course for us to follow. People have many varied opinions about me, not just those with superficial concepts they picked up from the media, but people who are deeply concerned about the Unification Church and who have taken a real interest in me. Do you think they will ultimately respect me or despise me? I see clearly that in my lifetime many people in every field of learning will study and write articles about me; there is abundant material for them to study.
People have a tendency to respect millionaires because they know how difficult it is to make money in this society. Establishing and operating one university is so difficult that even state governments cannot afford to do that. Because they are continuously under pressure to keep up with expenses, if one individual creates a top university from nothing then knowledgeable people will be amazed. The same is true in creating a newspaper.
There are so many events that testify to our Church. I never encouraged the Korean members to fund raise. Only 15 years ago we did not own any property other than a small cottage with a total area of half this room. Yet all I talked about was saving the world, and I emphasized that only God would be able to raise the funds we needed. Many people said that I was an idealist and really out of my mind. Now when I talk of those same things almost everyone believes me.
Let me discuss the situation in Korea. All Koreans, from the top officials and the President down to the grass roots are very sensitive about me. This is very strange when you think about it, yet not only Koreans but also the Japanese know that I am not just a passing phenomenon. They are all ears when they hear of something I have done in America.
You alone can accomplish your dreams
Most people are determined to remain unchanged throughout their lives. With this most formidable characteristic what will they be like ten years from now? Do you even visualize how you will be ten years from now? If you took a random sample of 23-year-olds in this country, what qualifications would they have to change this society? But look at this brother-he has vision and determination that are unusual to see in a young person. Ten years from now when he is only 33, what kind of formidable person will he be? During those years he will continue to improve and he will experience many new things that the average man does not experience in a lifetime. In just five years we give our members a whole life-time of experience. What a triumph!
Americans are a high level people, having heart as well as intelligence, yet one Oriental man has been able to transform these young Americans, giving them a real conversion experience. This is one of the world's greatest happenings. From now on your progress will accelerate. Because opposition to us is so unfounded, the time will soon come when people will change their negative opinions about us and we will really begin to gather momentum. Each one of you will share in this experience. Do you have some dream inside you? You must do everything in seeking to achieve that dream. You must not think that perhaps I will accomplish this dream for you. A vague wish and hope are good temporarily, but do not ever have the attitude that the Unification Church will become big enough to help you. No, instead you must realize your own dreams by helping the Unification Church, and then God will certainly assist you.
You should feel, "It is not so good if someone must help me accomplish my dream because then I must pay the price for all I receive." Always imagine that with your own hands you will nurture 100 people, even 1,000 people, in your own state. Unless we totally dedicate ourselves, making the necessary effort with tears and suffering while we are young we cannot experience joy when we get old. The worldly way and the heavenly way are very much the same in this respect. Once you yourself fulfill your responsibility then other people will come to help, but if you first search for help then you will not accomplish what you need to do.
When you are the leader of a state then the minimum attention you must give it is to go around and see what is there for you to pay attention to and love. You must make a complete tour around your state at least one time. When I initially came to America in 1965 the first thing I did was go around the United States at the fastest possible speed. I just kept moving, not sleeping in a motel and not eating in restaurants.
Today one of you brought up a good point. This brother had come to his saturation point, his limit, but then when he pushed forward God started working. We have to keep pushing past that point. Never worry when some difficulty comes to you; just pay attention to the next step. The difficulty could defeat you or it could resurrect you to the highest possible level under the circumstances. You must remain confident that as long as you are one with God He will never abandon you. Your situation may seem bad, and it may be bad, but the moment that you can go over the difficulty then it will benefit the side of goodness to an equivalent degree.
When the opposition is fiercest then I am the most intensely interested in what will happen next, and what reward or what lesson will follow. Your lives are like walking a tightrope and balancing with a pole. As you are crossing that rope you could fall either to the left or right, into heaven or hell, but in any case you keep balancing yourself and continue the length of the rope. We are all really living at the edge of a tense situation. If you make a serious error-perhaps a deprogrammer grabs you and persuades you to leave-there might even be eternal consequences. In the usual day to day living it does not matter so much if you slip one way or another. But in our course you must be prepared to even give up your life in order to hold fast. If you do not go this way what is there for you?
Jesus was asked by many average Jews, as well as by the high priests and Pilate whether he was the King of the Jews. In ordinary times he had instructed all of his disciples to not speak of this to other people, but when the moment came he did not contradict them. If he had, there would have been serious consequences.
You can imagine that the fortune of America does not go in a straight line but up and down. This is a natural phenomenon in everything. Water, for instance, does not flow on level ground. There are always ups and downs because nothing can stay in one place. Spiritually America is now on the decline, and should the present pattern become deeply established then it will be very difficult to reverse. Unless some force can reverse this direction soon, America will just plunge downward.
As you know, if an object is falling very quickly but some force can change its direction, then its original momentum will send it back up very fast. This has been true throughout history. The time when everything is corrupted and declining is exactly the moment that God will reveal a new way to elevate the situation. There is no exception in this pattern of history. The world is situated at such a point now and the work of restoration is exactly what we are doing. In doing this are we going to be confined to America? No, in that case we would only fall again after a while. The only way to survive is to continuously expand until we are working on the world level. This is what God desires. If we go this way then God will lift us up even higher.
My strong advice: never be comfortable
The strong advice that I want to give you is to never be comfortable. Go out and witness to someone who is negative or give a lecture to a new type of person. But keep fighting the battle and allow yourself to get hit. If you are complacent then even try to have a deep feeling of resentment. With that unrest you will then be able to overcome.
When you really do not know what to do with yourself then stir up some controversy; go pick a fight with a multitude, and let them really knock you out. Be grateful when you are beaten and take advantage of that moment. If you really understand this then you will see why I actually do not mind opposition so much. In fact, I welcome it. When you are beaten without cause then naturally you become indignant, and then you have inspiration to fight again. Whenever we determine our goal we have to aim at total victory because with that heart we will always be victorious. A champion is ready to fight at any time. If he wants to be a champion for ten years then he has to keep fighting and winning for ten years; that is the only way to guarantee that he will remain the champion. Muhammed Ali once said, "I will become greater than Reverend Moon."
When I compare my opponents of ten years ago to my opponents of today I can predict what our opponents will be like ten years from now. We will be grappling with communism. Ten years ago our opposition was coming from the small country of Korea, while today we are opposed by America. Actually, in comparison, the difference is not really that great. However, suppose the whole communist world united against us. We must prepare for that day, and not just be concerned about our present opposition in America.
We have to take our pattern from God. God is a champion of many thousands of years. He has never been beaten but has always been challenged. This has been the pattern of His dispensation and God just keeps on fighting. I know that opposition to us will just continue on and on until finally one day there is no more left. Are you going to be the champion in your own state? If even greater opposition comes will you pack up and leave? If no one opposes you then you should go argue with the state governor. If you fight at all, do not confront a weak opponent, a servant of servants. Challenge the greatest opponent, and even if you do not win on the first try the record of your attempt will remain.
Prayer
If we cannot achieve 1-1-1, can we still say that we will bear the historical responsibility? Think deeply about this. If you had as intense a sense of responsibility and emergency as I do then you would witness even 1-1-10. Have you ever really burst into tears outside in the street while witnessing to the people? Have you ever had a sleepless night in prayer? I have prayed to God in such a demanding and intense way that my heavy clothing became soaking wet. This has happened on many occasions. Except for that, what is the difference between us? We all eat the same amount of food and we live in 24 hour days.
As witnessers, you must have such a deep heart of concern that you burst into tears when you pray for the people. You must strive to make yourselves that way, but without my experience for comparison you will not progress too far. Suppose one of your hardwon members goes somewhere and does not return by the middle of the night. Would you really stay awake and cry for him, praying for his return? If you do that and he does come back the next day, he will tell you that he also had a sleepless night.
What you are doing is simply living a religious life; it must be accompanied by tears, and must be connected securely with the spirit world. If you have not experienced this then your religious life must be improved. When you pray, do you often feel cold, with no deep emotion welling up from within you? When you are in that state you are like a flower which cannot attract a bee to drink its nectar. People will come, desiring to have their lives connected to your life when they feel that God is present with you. You have to feel God's presence in your centers.
When you maintain this spiritually then people will come and rest in you. Each day, without thinking, you will know who will come to visit and what kind of events will occur. When you can develop such a heart, then imagine how interesting witnessing will become. For this reason I am telling you that you must have deep and intense prayer.
The period in my life when I prayed most intensely was when I witnessed for the lives of others. I prayed in an area that was 9 square feet and that area was always soaking wet with my tears. Man's departure from God took place in the midst of tears, and now as man is being restored back to God, we must meet God in a tearful position. Even though I do not pray in that way now, you must go through this experience. The one who knows me best is Mother because she is the only one who watches over me 24 hours a day. Mother respects me because she has seen that I act first and then speak. Whenever I speak Mother always knows that it matches my actions. Mother is in a position to be with me on this level. She already leads a difficult life. I have to really give her credit because she simply does not have time to pray much and keep up with the children as well.
When you pray you must have the sense that God's spirit is really close. After such a prayer you will feel relief at having been spiritually victorious. I can tell you to do this, but most important is for you to feel the necessity of prayer on your own. When you are hungry you want to eat; in the same way you must feel the need to pray, feeling unsettled if you do not. With that urge and need to pray often you can experience meaningful prayer.
Sometimes you may sense that something important will happen and you are unable to keep your mind on anything for more than a few minutes. In that case you must first pray to get some sense of direction, and determine what you should do. Generally when you have that kind of feeling something important is about to happen. We are going a course of restoration by indemnity and we should expect to pay an equivalent condition of indemnity for anything important that happens. We must be prepared to go over any initial difficulty in prayer, and never be defeated by it.
You can identify the person who prays by his appearance. He may be thin and not so handsome but his eyes are shining, and his lean body is emitting light. You need to have strength always ready within yourself. It is better to have a small spring which constantly bubbles up to fill the space within you than to have a large pool of stored water without a source or spring. Such a pool will soon be gone but a small bubbling spring within will continue to flow, no matter how much you use. Through prayer you can continually be filled.
Please do not be a person who must come to hear me talk in order to be revitalized, because you will only need to return again and again. Rather try to find that supply within yourself. If you can do that then I will begin to appear spiritually and teach you directly. Many people say that Onni Durst is good at witnessing, but the only difference between you and her is that she sees me often in dreams. She can tell how many people are going to join by how frequently I appear in her dreams. When I appear many times then she knows that many people are coming in. If I appear only occasionally then only a few people are coming in. This can happen while you are sleeping but best of all is a vision that you receive during prayer.
Have many of you had experiences of my appearing and teaching you? After many such experiences you will be able to receive guidance and insight even without closing your eyes. You can have an intense prayer and deep spiritual connection even with your eyes open. With this ability you can tell immediately who is a good person and who is not. Your spiritual eyes are miraculous, and with them you can see anything. Wouldn't each one of you like to be like that?
To achieve that you have to pay indemnity, especially in prayer. The best place to pray is in nature, for instance on a mountain. I have prayed outdoors in the middle of winter, sitting in the snow with only a blanket on my shoulders. I prayed intensely, knowing that I would freeze to death if I fell asleep. This has been my course but there are many Unification Church members nowadays who just tag along instead of trying very hard to also have such precious experiences. Probably you vaguely realize that this is valuable but still do not understand it deeply. When you return to your center after the conference the first thing you must do is pray.
Not only you must pray but there must always be prayer in your center. Again I want to tell you to have constant 24 hour prayer in your centers, and if there are not enough people to do this, then record somebody's prayer and play it back. Prayer is that essential. Prayer is like rain, washing everything, giving moisture to the land so that life might come forth.
When I am confronted with difficult situations then the spiritual surroundings are pitch black, without even one small opening, and I wonder how we are going to solve all the problems. At those times I pray most intensely, even forgetting my own life, and as I pray a way gradually opens through which I can reach out. At times such as these you must always distinguish between which solution belongs to heaven, which belongs to you, and which belongs to earth. Always distinguish between these three ways.
This enthusiasm marks the difference between you and me
When you open your eyes in the morning, the first thing you should think about is offering greetings to heaven. Report to God about what you are going to do that day. When you can accomplish during the day all the things that you promised in the morning then you will feel a great sense of victory. Only through experience can you deeply understand that.
When you experience the pleasure that comes from this victory, you really do not want anything else in life. This is what will keep you going even when you are tired and overworked. If you are so tired from your efforts that you just do not bother to take your clothes off but fall into bed for a few hours of sleep, then when you wake up you will feel more refreshed than if you had slept all night. That kind of life should not tire you in any way, and the longer you continue it the more you want of it. God will also find joy in continuing to help you.
I have had many sleepless nights, particularly in the 1950s. How could I humanly continue to do that? My sense of joy and happiness was so great that in talking to new members around me I wanted to continue hour after hour, even until 3 O'clock in the morning. If one of them had to leave because he had something to do in the morning I felt really sorry to see him go, wishing that he could stay longer. You must experience these feelings also. When I missed him that much I knew that he would return in the shortest possible time because he could not bear the separation either.
This enthusiasm marks the difference between you and me. You must understand this clearly because once you become like this then you will have nothing to envy. No other wish or desire or ambition will push you and happiness will be yours as long as you continue. If you always intensely desire to work closely with the spirit world, then you will not have to think about it all the time, but it will automatically happen. I am raising Hyo Jin in this way. He hears beautiful music spiritually and I told him that this is a natural experience.
We offer our prayers in order to bring spiritual benefits. Prayer is like a spiritual meal which you have to eat every day. I am now so expert in prayer that I can direct myself in a certain way and after a few seconds receive the results of intense prayer. After a few moments of intense thought I can sense the atmosphere of a meeting that I am going to, whether the people have made some internal foundation, and also whether the men or women are more prepared. The person who has a dedicated heart stands out, even in the midst of thousands of people.
When the spiritual energy among the people is strong, then a fire is kindled that burns throughout the auditorium. Once you discover how to do this then sleepless nights are not a problem and the spirit world is always close to you. I can continue with this talk, but if you become too intensely involved in it you will start to feel some deep emptiness. Such an emphasis on prayer may seem to contradict your busy working schedule, but nevertheless you should practice these things. Since we are all going to spirit world at some point it is important to have some understanding of it.
Where shall you begin in order to have such love?
If a person has deeply loved someone other than God, then after joining the Unification Church he has to overturn that standard and build a deeper sense of love for God and the True Parents. This deep feeling of love is the shortest route to receiving assistance from the spirit world. You can communicate with spiritual world instantly when you are consumed by a love for me which is so intense that you cannot help but have tears running down your face. Sisters especially may have this experience. If you have that experience three or four times, then the spirit world will immediately open to you.
Since your goal is to come as close as possible to God, then you need to deeply long to be with me. You must be able to overcome any number of sleepless nights and hungry days in your desire to see me. When you have conquered your physical body then the spirit world will be right there to assist you. Sometimes in meditation or prayer a person may suddenly realize the significance of my life, how I came after many thousands of years with such an arduous distance to conquer. That person may have an intense desire to buy me the best clothing in the world, although he has no means to do that. Then later while he is dozing off I will appear in the finest clothing and tell him, "Don't worry. You have just given these to me. I am wearing your gift." This is an important experience. This correlation between your deep desires and your experiences always exists. Have you ever experienced such a thing?
Where shall you begin in order to reach that level? It is actually not too difficult. When you encounter any man on earth, you must value him in the realization that I have come just to save that man. You must feel that love and closeness for the most insignificant man, let alone for the great man whom you can easily appreciate. You must love the least important man because I have come to save him. Train yourself to feel that closeness for another person. When a member joins, no matter how shabby he may look you must remember that I came for him, and value him just as much as you value me. You need to feel the intense closeness and vitality of such love.
You need to experience how glad I must be to meet that person for the first time in 6,000 years and learn to develop that heart for all the people you come into contact with. Gradually you have to deepen the intensity of your feeling for them so that when you see them for the tenth time you are as happy as you were when you first met them. If you can associate me with them in your mind then such deep love for them will eventually come naturally to you.
Your own yearning to be with me wherever I go can be immediately transmitted to others. I am limited to having only one-way relations with members. You, however, stand in a more advantageous position since you can relate in so many different ways with people, envisioning them as my brother or sister or parent, and treating them accordingly. In this way you are in a better position than I.
When you feel that deeply about some person, if he does not come for a few days you will not be able to control yourself in your urgency to see him. When you pray from your deepest heart, "I must see him; I cannot live without him," then he will be drawn to come by a warm feeling. Once such a bond is established then even if you kick him out, he will not leave you. Do you understand this? Many people are presently coming into the Church but many members are also leaving. We can easily diagnose why: instead of giving respect and love to them their leaders have been treating them in an opposite way. If you only want them to love and respect you then your relationship with them will not last too long.
It is stated in the Bible that if you treat a man as a righteous man then you will receive the reward of a righteous man. However much you can give yourself to your members equals what God will be able to give you. Onni is different from others in that she wants so much to feed her children that she will look everywhere in search of spiritual food to give them. Any person can feel such persistent love. This is the most basic and important knowledge in witnessing.
Your feelings are reflected in the spirit world, and then felt by other people. If you really love the person you witness to, then he has no place on this wide earth he wants to go except to where that love is. Once you can feel these things then your spiritual door is open to communication. You have to train yourselves to relate to others in this way. It is not possible to cheat in spiritual things as it is in worldly matters. Anger, for example, brings much disturbance to the spirit world.
When you develop this intense prayer then those who are the objects of your prayers will come to where you are in spite of themselves, even going to the train station to get to their spiritual home. Have you ever experienced this yourselves? Have you been able to love another in such a way that you can save him, and he will follow you wherever you go? That is the perfect savior, isn't it? When you share this beautiful love with another it will probably be the first such experience in that person's life. Since it is the first, he will cherish the memory of it as long as he lives. You have to have that intense feeling of love toward the people you witness to. When you love a person like that, he will be drawn to you.
If that love becomes your spiritual environment then you will have the qualification to govern in the world, and when you go to spirit world you will find yourself in the highest realm. The first step in witnessing is to think, "I myself must become perfect." Then you will be able to give goodness to other people. In preparing to give a sermon you have to really feel fearful of erring just the one inch that might damage the souls that you are responsible for. When you feel that you cannot afford to make the slightest mistake then your sense of responsibility becomes acute. You have to pray with great intensity, "Just help me get through these few hours. I must speak to them according to Your will." When you speak with this sense of responsibility then you can deeply move those who listen.
If you want to give life to other people and save them then you yourself must be alive. If you would have others shed tears, then you must have experienced tears first. If you feel tears as you give a sermon, then those who hear you will also weep. You must first have these qualifications if you would lead a church. That is why your responsibility is difficult.
Please remain humble. If you are not arrogant then you can easily begin this way of life. Even though you are in a leadership position you should feel that you are the most miserable, unworthy being in the whole history of man. This can be compared to the different kinds of wire which can conduct electricity. Copper is a good conductor but pure gold is even better, while iron and other metals are inferior conductors. Presently you are like the poorest conductors, but as you are refined, you will become like pure gold.
Your situation is such that even though you are unworthy you have been given the privilege of loving God, the highest being on earth. You will be the happiest people if you are able to drown in His love for you, and feel Him embracing you. The moments when God loves you are the moments of complete happiness, the happiest times you will ever experience. Like pure gold you will have no resistance and all of God's love will be drawn to you.
All of these experiences are actual sensations and not just your imagination. Because of the experiences I have shared with God it is easy for me to be a natural person once I step down from my official position. After addressing the public I step down from the platform into the position of an everyday person. I never want to take an arrogant position over anybody, in any way. At first you may have felt that you could do anything with me and you felt confident of yourselves, but soon enough you discovered that this was not so. I am not so easily accessible. This authority comes naturally from my having shed tears for God.
When you return to your states then witness and pray as I have taught you. Because God lives that way then He has control over everything through religion. God loves man so much. What is heaven? Heaven starts by loving another human being the way God does. Once you exercise this and condition yourself step by step then I expect that many people will come to you in a month. When you truly have the experiences I speak of then you can experience the heart of Jesus as he washed his own disciples' feet. Why would he have done that? He did that to tangibly establish the standard of love, the law of love.
If you as a leader do not experience these spiritual things then something is not complete. Once your mind reaches that level but you do not have people who are close to you that you can share deeply with, then you can talk to a tree and the tree will talk back to you. You will witness that a tree actually talks, as expressively as if it were dancing. This is not imaginary. The tree can actually be company for you. It is so natural that heaven is in you and in us; heaven depends on man.
A summary of my life would say that I really tried more than anyone to understand people. All my life I have been trying to understand my position and relationship to other people. This is how I can lead the Unification Church. Since God has watched all this and helped me do everything, step by step, God cannot help but assist whatever I do. This is one reason why I am assured of God's help.
At home when I hear the sound of someone dropping apiece of china, I immediately feel, "Oh, I broke that, not her." If that person breaks a piece once, then twice and even three times, still I do not say anything. That person feels very ashamed, and in passing me our eyes do not meet, and she wants to go somewhere else. That sensitivity is a beautiful aspect of human beings; both that person and I know what she is feeling. That kind of awareness is absolutely necessary in becoming a leader.
Heavenly law dictates that if you are persecuted and attacked by others, even though you are not at fault, then much blessing will come to you. Since God knows your true situation, when the time of persecution is over He will be free to give all the blessings of your opponents to you. If your conscience is clear then persecution will never bother you. No matter what is said about me my conscience is clear and I am not bothered by it. In my work here in America nothing has been done out of selfishness, but out of a determination to save America for God. The fault does not lie on my side but on the side of those who oppose me.
What can we do about that? Under the circumstances the best God can do is to support our side. He will not punish our persecutors but will stay perfectly on my side. I know that the Unification Church will never fail or perish because God cannot perish. Even though you may be treated as a sinner and persecuted when there is no fault within you, it is necessary to stimulate yourself to go out and witness. Taking a beating from other people is better than staying quiet.
You must believe that persecution is a beautiful way of going through many things. We each are filled with our own individual sin, but when you are persecuted unjustly by other people and can persevere instead of fighting back, then you have discovered the quickest way to have your sinfulness forgiven by God. In the midst of the worst persecution, not only your own sins are forgiven, but also the sins of the person who persecutes you may be forgiven in a certain way, and you can further receive blessing for that. This principle is universal; being persecuted brings all manner of results everywhere.
Throughout the ages of the primitive religions people were ignorant of all this. Modem religion has consistently taught man to do good deeds, but without explaining why they should endure persecution with forgiveness. I am explaining the law of indemnity for the first time in history. This understanding is the perfection of religion; all throughout history man has known that he should try to be good, but without understanding why. If you develop your life as I have described then you can go to exactly the same spirit world as I do.
The key to leadership is your concern for others
This has been a detailed explanation of how to witness. Whenever I went to some village, I was always prepared to go out at any time with a hoe in my hands, or to become the friend of the most miserable person in the village. I was ready to talk all through the night at anytime that I felt it would do some good. The easiest way to love another is to care for him. That person may have never had a friend in all the world, but you can become his best friend. It is a rather simple rule, but this embraces everything.
I always felt especially close to children and got along so well with them, although now my circumstances do not allow me to love my own children as much as I love you. I used to love to tell stories to other children. Once I would start telling a tale I would create it as I went along, and spirit world would help me. I could make a group of children laugh and cry. There were many times in Sunday school when I opened my heart to the children and they cried, but I could never stay as long as I wanted because I had to run home after my mother. How can you bring others to tears? Only by shedding tears first; nothing else can bring that experience to them. I always felt the necessity of this and want you to feel this also.
With this attitude I always found myself looked to as a leader. When I was a dock laborer I quickly united with the men and they soon treated me as their leader, and responded to my direction. Hyo Jin is like this; children willingly follow him even after knowing him for only a few days. He has inherited my foundation and this happens to him even without his trying. The key to being respected as a leader is your concern for others. If you hate others then you can achieve nothing.
You must take a humble position; one way of doing this is to regard everybody as your teacher. Then you can learn many things from other people which will in turn improve you. If you have witnessed to many people and have been raising many members in your church you will have experienced the fact that each person is different. When you meet a person you may sense that he has a certain type of personality that resembles someone you know. Then you can use your past experience in relating to him. A pine tree in Korea and a pine tree in America are very different but at the same time they are similar. In the same way, almost 90% of you resemble one of the thousands of people whom I have already nurtured and poured love into. Maybe you have differently set eyes, or a larger nose, but the pattern of your character is the same and you are not strangers to me.
People often possess similar natures, even expressing themselves in the same way. In order to recognize the similar qualities in people you have to pay loving attention to them. Then you will come to love their characteristics and see how God also resembles them. God loves a man not just for himself, but for his godly character.
Now you know to witness with tears. What is the gateway that makes this possible? Love opens the door to the spirit world. How much love? You must become able to love more than anyone else has loved You, even your father or mother, and more than you have ever previously loved anyone. The beginning of love in the spirit world is the feeling of deepest love for the True Parents and then for other men. If you love below God's standard then you are in the realm of love that Satan enjoys. God will never accept your love if it has not been separated from Satan.
What has been the religious way? Many men of religion teach that you should love God and heavenly things more than the greatest love you have ever experienced, without exception or compromise. If you do not love to that degree, then you will simply remain in the satanic world.
Have you ever experienced watching over the members as they slept and found yourself shedding tears just to see them? In their lives your members realized that there is no place of goodness in this wide world that can be relied upon, and they continued wandering like children until they finally found rest in your home. Have you felt such a realization about them? In your heart you can be really grateful to them because they came and settled in you, and out of gratitude you would bow to them for their trust in you. Can you understand this? That kind of heart is necessary because you are responsible for their lives.
Because I am consumed with these feelings someone can come and speak certain words to me and my tears will just flow down my face. In that world of heart God can come down and make immediate connection with the fallen world. Have you ever missed a person who went away, and become so frantic to find him that you did not even put your shirt on correctly but just started running? Have you ever experienced that kind of insane desperation? If you have not experienced that yet, then is your attitude of mind anywhere close? Have you ever intensely desired to improve? Sometimes when I go out and see a sunset and a quiet scene, I want to start crying because I feel such heaviness that young men and women must suffer so much for me and my work. I feel so sorry for you young people, and I cannot even sit because I am so uncomfortable and agonized for you. I just cannot help but cry out.
Because I am this way others cannot curse me, and you who are doing God's work with me cannot have a feeling of anger toward me. My basic philosophy is to never be indebted to any living soul. I will always at least be even, or if possible return more than is given to me, but I will never be indebted. I do not like to receive something from a person without also returning something. In that way my own children are not in such a fortunate position; I automatically treat them as though I do not have to sympathize with them since they are already part of me.
I always think that you have been looking for a leader such as myself. In this respect all of your members would like to have you be for them what I am for you. From this moment on you should realize your situation and repent, thinking, "I haven't been that way; I haven't been a true messiah but a false one." Start over again from this point. Even after your members are asleep at night, pray over them and then they will grow and mature. I began this tradition even before you were born. This is the relationship between father and child. You must always be aware of your members, soaking your clothing and your rugs with your tears.
If you live that way but your situation never improves then you can hold me responsible. Likewise know that I do all this for you. If for some unhappy reason you do not respond, then I still do not lose what I have invested. It is collected, like heavenly earnings, and saved to build a heavenly foundation. It is never lost. In the same manner, when an individual tries very hard, pouring out his heart toward other people, then what he has invested will never be lost, but remains with him as a record. Heaven sees to it that you never lose this. Seeing this accumulation, you can understand why heaven is so grateful to us, and in turn we must be so absolutely thankful to God.
This time, when you go back to your assignment, start living this kind of life and follow this way in witnessing. Once you are successful in this America will be quickly covered. By practicing and improving in this way you will deepen your hearts and even evoke God's tears. That standard of heart which makes God cry remains eternally in spirit world. Respect and like others as much as you love God, in the same way I have done.
It does not matter how many times another deceives you or betrays your expectations. Do not give up because you will not lose. I was actually betrayed many times and know that I will continue to be betrayed, but I am secure in my way and I go on. I have never found that my position gets worse; instead it is always improving. That is the heavenly standard.
We have had a crude foundation so far in the Unification Church in America, and I realize that it is urgent that we reform ourselves. Our personal reformation is due now. Do you understand? You are going to do a lot of work from now on, which means that you are going to do a lot of loving from now on.