Ep 565 - The Model of the Ideal Kingdom of Heaven
The Model of the Ideal Kingdom of Heaven 200-44-15-40-565 - May 13, 2022 - The New Yorker Hotel was purchased in 1976
Today I’d like to talk about “The Model of the Ideal Kingdom of Heaven” from True Mother’s Anthology, Book 1.
True Parents live in Cheon Jeong Gung which is the center of the HyoJeong CheonWon complex. And in this estate there are many institutions. These institutions must become one and move forward for one purpose. The place that monitors them day by day and can give directions is Cheon Jeong Gung. Therefore I have installed the entire world headquarters here. The museum has merged with the world headquarters. (2016.06.01, Cheon Jeong Gung)
HyoJeong CheonWon is not an ordinary area of the Korean peninsula. Here, in Cheon Jeong Gung, we are directly connected to the Cheon Jeong Gung that is in heaven. Each day you report in prayer to Heaven. If that report prayer is centered on the Will , it can be transmitted (and) reported immediately. It is that kind of place. Just as the Vatican is Catholicism's global headquarters and has the form of a nation, this place is the central headquarters that is leading the providence with all the businesses and institutions becoming one to directly attend Heavenly Parent and True Parents and to realize that Will. (2016.07.07, Cheon Jeong Gung)
True Mother said, “Each day you report in prayer to Heaven. If that report prayer is centered on the Will, it can be transmitted and reported immediately” These are very simple words, but they are very important.
If the dream I dream is the dream for realizing God’s Will, and if the prayers I offer are prayers for realizing God’s will, I have the conviction that it will surely be realized. This is because it is not MY will, but God’s will. If I genuinely have the conviction that what I am doing is for the sake of God, True Parents and the world, it will definitely be realized.
Whenever you are doing something, sometimes you are struggling and you want to make sure (whether) this is God’s will or not. Once you are convinced that it is God’s will, then you need to have absolute faith that it will definitely be realized. This kind of condition and faith is very important.
I always try to get confirmation. Sometimes I receive visions, revelations and inspiration and always try to confirm (them): “Heavenly God, please answer me. Is this your will? Is this your vision and direction? Is this a vision of True Parents and their will?” Once I am convinced and have absolute conviction, then definitely it will be realized. I have that kind of faith. I really have confidence once I receive a confirmation that “This is God’s will.”
That is why Mother says, “If the dream I dream is the dream for realizing God’s Will, and if the prayers I offer are prayers for realizing God’s will, I have the conviction that it will surely be realized.”
This is the reason a person who works for the public, works for the whole, works for others, and works for the sake of God’s Will always receives incredible spiritual power.
(For) anything you do centered on your own desire, you cannot receive much power from the spiritual world. But once you have conviction -- “I am doing (this) for the sake of God’s will” - you will get incredible heavenly and spiritual power.
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: Principle of Creation 48 -The Growing Period of Created Beings, the God of Night and the God of Day
This is new terminology, but Father often talked about this point. It is very important. Nobody uses such words: “God of the night” and “God of the day.” What do they mean? Let’s study in more detail.
The Growing Period for the Creation
• When the first day of creation was completed, Gen. 1:5 states, “There was evening and there was morning, one day.”
• One would think that the arrival of the morning after the passage of an evening and a night would be reckoned as the second day, yet it is referred to as the first day. The Bible states “one day” to show that a created being must pass through a growing period symbolized by the night, before it reaches perfection in the morning. Then, as it greets this new morning, it can step forward and realize its ideal of creation.
• All phenomena occurring in the universe bear fruit only after the lapse of a certain interval of time. All things are designed to reach completion only after passing through a set growing period.
God Also Had a Growing Period
<256-225> Do you think God grew over time or that He grew suddenly? Don’t you think God grew through the stages of infancy, childhood, adolescence, middle years and old age? He did not grow suddenly but through stages. Right? Do you understand? I’m saying that God had a childhood. He grew up as a child. Do you understand? God went through childhood and grew through sibling love. God is an incorporeal substantial being with internal nature and external form but within His being, he grew as a baby.
Everyone needs to go through the growing period in order to perfect love. In order to realize its ideal of creation, even God becomes perfected through the period of loving Adam and Eve, the substantial object partners He created.
Therefore, God's love will also be substantially perfected when God grows along with the growth period of Adam and Eve and when they become perfected.
In that sense, God also set the ideal of true love and went through His growth period through Adam and Eve. Parents grow together as they raise their children.
When a child turns 10, the parent becomes a 10-year-old parent, and when a child turns 20, the parent becomes a 20-year-old parent. Likewise, God also grew through the stages of infancy, childhood, adolescence, middle years and old age.
God also had a period of growth for the perfection of love, and it may be difficult to understand that God is growing up, but it will be understandable if you look at the growth period of love.
Love requires experience. In order to receive love, it takes time. There is a time period.
This is so because love must grow and (be) experienced through the object partner. It is a fact that God can never grow and perfect His love without human beings who are His object partner.
Father’s explanation is incredible. God also had a growing period. Christians cannot understand what he is talking about. Other religious leaders cannot understand that God had to have a growing period, but we need to understand centering on the time period of growth and centering on love. Then we really can understand. God’s will is not yet completed because each human being has not become perfect yet. God’s entire creation is not yet complete centering on true love.
I would like to introduce more details today about the God of night and the God of day.
God of Night and God of Day
Rev. Sun Myung Moon divides God into the God of Night and God of Day. “God of Night is God before creation and God of Day is God after creation.” (2010.7.15) God of Night existed before creation as the intrinsic original essence. God of Night was the first being to exist in the universe. God of Night is the first cause of all things. God of Night is the first creator who created all things. God of Night is the internal-nature-type original form of all things.
Sometimes Father talks about the God of the night and the God of the day. The God of the night (exists during) the time period of growth. When Adam and Eve were growing before they received the blessing, that was the time period of the God of the night. But when Adam and Eve (would have) married and started family, (that is when) the God of the day (would have) begun.
Father explained that the God of the night is kind of the time period of growth. Then when Adam and Eve (would have) started their family, the God of the day (would have) begun.
When Adam and Eve Become Perfect, They Become God of Day
When Adam and Eve become perfect, they become God of Day. God of Night desired to become God of Day within Adam and Eve when Adam and Eve became perfect. God of Night desired to become a corporeal God wearing the bodies of Adam and Eve when Adam and Eve became perfect. God of Night desired to become a physical God wearing the bodies of Adam and Eve. God of Night desired to become a horizontal God who could reproduce by wearing the bodies of Adam and Eve. God of Night’s desire is realized in the moment that Adam and Eve are perfected and become God of Day.
Human Beings are the Only Beings That Can Turn God of Night into God of Day
The very first human beings that existed within the plans of God of Night’s creation were Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are the root ancestors of human beings. (2005.4.27-5.1) Adam and Eve are the final ancestors of human beings. They are the only beings who turn God of Night into God of Day. Adam and Eve were two individuals but they were not ordinary individuals. For God, everything depended on Adam and Eve’s perfection.
We need to understand the concepts of the God of night and the God of day. As for my individual course, how do we apply this principle? The growth period until I receive the Blessing is that (period when) God is the God of night to me, to you.
However, the place where I receive the blessing and start family is where God appears to me as the God of day. The God of day is the place where God's ideal of creation is completed centered on the couple.
Wow! I really admire Father’s beautiful explanation. Those who have not yet received the blessing and have not started family, your God is still in the position of the God of night, not the God of the day. Our final goal is how we can see God as the God of the day. Heavenly Father wants to be the God of the day through your couple, through your family. We need to have this understanding regarding the God of the night and God of the day.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: A Life that Shares in the Sufferings of Heaven
Recently for 7 or 8 days I have been continually talking about God’s suffering. For one or two days (I will continue to speak about this). Why am I talking about this again and again? We need to deal with human suffering very well. That is why I emphasize again and again: when we take suffering and pain well, this is very important. Today let’s learn about “a life that shares in the sufferings of heaven.”
1. Until now, believers did not know that God has pain. But the great thing about our Principle is that it reveals that God has suffering. Any wandering fallen human being who turns away from God cannot help but go the path of suffering and endure it. Ultimately, we must share in the sufferings of Heaven. Pain does not mean only physical pain. If you are searching for the original path, you cannot be free from inner or spiritual pain. There is no easy way for us to follow the path of faith normally. When Jesus came to this earth, what he said to us was not to seek comfort, but to seek pain. He taught us not to think at all about living, but to be ready to die.
If anyone knew for sure that God has pain and suffering, this would be unimaginable shocking news.
Also, if it is really true that the relationship between God and man is that of an eternal parent-child relationship, this would also be shocking news.
And it will be shocking news when we realize that we humans are the beings who have to relieve God's pain and sorrow by serving our heavenly parents with HyoJeong, the heart of filial piety.
Just as orphans who have lost their parents are forced to suffer, human beings who have left God's bosom are inevitably forced to suffer. What we struggle with is our destiny's course to find our parents.
We left our parents. That is why in order to find our parents, pain and suffering are necessary.
Therefore, any fallen human beings who are separated from God cannot help but endure the pain.
If you are searching for the original path, all human beings, without exception, cannot be without spiritual or physical pain and suffering.
There is no easy way for us to follow the path of faith normally.
2. Jesus said, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” To die means to follow the path of suffering. The way of faith means that if you do not seek to die, you cannot survive. Jesus told us not to take the wide gate that the secular world enters, but to follow the narrow path. He is saying to give up all the comfortable paths and go on the path of suffering that others don’t like. He also said not to go to the banquet house, but to go to the house of mourning. He said blessed are the hungry, so do not try to get full. He told us not to just be happy, but to be sad. He said blessed are those who mourn. He said that those who are persecuted are rather blessed. He even insisted that we be willing to seek the place of suffering. This is the main teaching of the Bible.
The Bible teaches us not to avoid suffering, but to be proactive.
For example, Jesus said, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” To die means to go on the path of suffering voluntarily. The way of faith means that if you do not give up your life, you cannot live.
Wow! The life of faith is what? Prepare to die. That means you need to prepare (to endure) any suffering, any pain. Otherwise you cannot survive.
Jesus told us not to take the wide gate that the secular world enters, but to follow the narrow path. He is saying to give up all the comfortable paths and go on the path of suffering that others don’t like. Wow!
The reason we suffer and go through hardships in the course of life is ultimately our struggle to find God.
“Where is my Father? Where is my mother? Where are my parents?” We lost God. We lost our parents. In order to find our own parents, in order to find Heavenly God, everybody is wandering here and there struggling (with) how to find God. That’s why since Adam and Eve fell, … the way of humans is that all the time they need to go through that kind of hardship and suffering.
3. The reason why many of today's believers are still unable to find their way and wander is that they want to take the comfortable path that the secular world seeks rather than pain. Until now, believers have not voluntarily chosen the path of suffering because of their attitude of heart, and rather chose the path of blessing in which their bodies were comfortable. They only thought about how to get out of suffering. For example, the Israelites longed for the welfare of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, but they complained whenever they suffered in the wilderness. When Jesus came, the disciples thought that the Lord was truly holy and followed him with admiration, but they could not endure the same contempt and abuse that he suffered. It is evidence that believers took their first steps on the path of faith without treating their suffering as worthwhile. They turned away from pain and hated it.
If you look at God's providence of restoration, He has driven all the central figures He loved out into the wilderness. Jacob went the way of the wilderness, Joseph also went the way of the wilderness, Moses and Jesus also went the way of the wilderness, and True Parents also went the way of the wilderness.
Many people really dislike the wilderness course. However, many of God's people met God on their wilderness course. People do not seek God when food, clothing, and shelter are resolved. However, in the wilderness course, without asking God for help, everyone starved to death.
Every human being has a wilderness course. You should not try to avoid the wilderness course. If you try to avoid it, an even worse wilderness will appear.
Then how do you graduate from the wilderness course? If the Israelites had become one with Moses when they left Egypt, they could have entered Canaan in a short 21 days.
But because of their disbelief and complaints, their path of suffering was prolonged. The quick way to enter from the Canaan course to the wilderness course was to make Moses and the Israelites one.
How can I become one with the central figure? How can I really enjoy and be grateful for God’s direction even though we are going through the wilderness course. If we unite and feel very happy about God’s direction even though externally (there is) so much suffering (from) this and that, that is the shortcut to enter Canaan.
It means that we must become completely one with the Center -- our Abel, our True Parents -- in our life of faith. Secondly, we must bring joy to God.
If you do not bring joy and do not adjust very well to your suffering and pain, your suffering course will be delayed and delayed and prolonged just as for the Israelites. The Israelites could have entered Canaan in 21 days, but they took a long time, 40 years. (It took) another 40 years. Can you imagine that?
You must be grateful to God. Then you can graduate from that wilderness course. This is really a great lesson.
4. Although believers have avoided the path of suffering, they cannot avoid suffering even if they tried. In fact, the more you avoid pain, the more tangled you become. In order to gain life from pain, the pain you suffer is more bitter and painful. Most believers do not even know the preciousness of suffering, so they do not gain the value of suffering. If we had thought that pain was precious, we would all have cherished it. If I had valued the pain, I would have treated it as precious, thinking that my pain is the grace that God has given me. However, the suffering was in vain because most people ignore the pain that comes to them as they suffer. If you do not deal with pain properly, you will live inhumanly, waste your time, and only grow older.
The more the pain is avoided, the more tangled it becomes and the greater the pain.
Then how do you overcome it? First, we need to know the cause why God gives us such pain. There can be no pain without a cause and reason. So we have to keep asking until the answer comes from God.
“Heavenly Father, why am I dealing with this suffering? What do you want to teach me? What (must) I realize, Heavenly Father, through this suffering?” You need to know the reason and cause. Don’t just try to avoid suffering; you are just wasting your time.
You have to keep asking God, “Heavenly God, why are you giving me this pain? What are You trying to teach me and (how are you seeking to) enlighten me through this pain?” Then God will surely tell me the meaning of the pain that comes to me.
Secondly, when the pain comes, I (need to) think about how to become one with God and bring Him joy. When you bring joy to God, the pain goes away immediately. If you don't think of pain as pain, but think of it as God's pain and accept it with joy, you can graduate from that pain.
Thirdly, instead of avoiding the pain and wilderness course that comes to us, we must take action and rejoice because there are treasures and blessings in the pain. Otherwise you're just wasting time.
5. People would become more precious if they really treated pain as precious. But most people forget about themselves when they are in pain. When Jesus was arrested, even Peter wanted to run away. When a person suffers, they do not think they deserve to suffer or pay indemnity. You should think, “I deserve to be treated badly” and “It is natural for me to be treated falsely because I am a false person,” but when you try to avoid that pain, you tend to be pessimistic about your own destiny and start blaming others. As a result, you lose your identity. Human beings pretend they’re not wrong when they did wrong. However, if I did something wrong, I should be able to honestly admit that I was wrong.
6. If I make a mistake, it will be revealed someday. But everyone keeps trying to hide the fact that they did wrong. If I plant the wrong seed, I harvest the wrong fruit, so I do not try to take responsibility. Therefore, it's easy to forget your original self in pain. The one who values suffering is the one who finds himself and his true self. The one who hates pain is the one who loses his true self. He deceives himself through his false self. If I take responsibility for my pain when I suffer, I will be able to remove what’s false and revive my spirit through that pain. Likewise, if we take up the cross properly, our sins can be forgiven and we can be resurrected with true love.
7. Today, we must understand the value of suffering. From now on, we must bear with this principle of suffering. The person I hate may bless me, and the person who treats me kindly may rob me of the grace I have received. Blessings come when you harmonize with people you don't like. If you hate someone, you lose yourself. That is because you try to avoid people you hate. When you have a good relationship with the person you dislike, your spirit grows. How precious are these words? These are difficult words, but those with a lot of experience will understand well. Now let us remember this well and cherish the pain. Because the value of pain is so precious, if you deal with it incorrectly, you will never find your true self. It means you will lose your true self. The reason Jesus became precious is that he knew the value of suffering and endured it wisely.
A person who hates pain is a person who loses his true self.
If I go out to take responsibility for the pain, I will be able to remove falsehood and resurrect my spirit through that pain.
Pain is love. Pain is growth. Pain is a blessing. Pain contains hidden treasures.
This is very important. We need to understand how to deal with our pain and suffering. Then surely you will receive incredible blessings.
LIVING TESTIMONY: I am a Living Testimony
Today, let's take the time to hear another living testimony. I hear that today our beloved minister, Meldon Quarells, is going to share his living testimony. Let’s welcome him.
(Testimony of Meldon Quarells, an ACLC Christian pastor in St. Louis, Missouri, who has fully received True Parents in his life. He is making an active effort towards Cheonbo, both horizontally and vertically. He is the key ACLC leader in Missouri.)♦
NOTE: This lightly edited transcription may contain errors and omissions. Indecipherable or uncertain words and guesses are tagged with a “(?)” and indecipherable phrases, with an ellipsis “...”. First, second and third person pronouns have been left as spoken if the meaning is clear, and other apparently Korean English expressions have been preserved. Some repeated phrases have been eliminated. This text and the powerpoint slides from this speech are available as pdf files at the top of this text and at text.morndev.com & yong.hoondok.com. Audio only is available at anchor.morndev.com, spotify.morndev.com & audio.morndev.com. Notes or transcripts of Dr. Yong’s Morning Devotion speeches from November 11, 2020 through January 2, 2022 are available as five paperback books at cost at Lulu.com/Shop -- search for Dr. Chung Sik Yong -- and as PDF downloads free of charge at MDBooks.Hoondok.com.♦