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Subject 18 : GENESIS
[Chapter 2-7] We Must Believe In God’s Work (Genesis 2:1-3)
(Genesis 2:1-3)
“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
So far, we have shared the Word on what God had done until the sixth day of His creation. Now I would like us to ruminate on the passage about the seventh day of creation. God said in Genesis 2:1-2, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” It’s said here that on the seventh day God finished making the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them. And as God completed His work of creation, He rested on the seventh day.
Here we need to pay particular attention to the passage that says, “all His work which He had done,” and realize what it means. For six days God had made the universe and everything in it, including us humans, and we should examine first whether there was anything lacking in the whole dominion of God’s creation. Is there anything imperfect that’s made by God? No, of all the things that God made for six days, there was nothing that He failed to achieve, nor anything that was imperfect. In other words, God had finished everything to perfection in six days.
When we turn to Genesis 2:9, we see the Bible saying, “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Our God wanted us to realize that He had finished everything to perfection, making and placing the tree of life in the middle of the Garden of Eden, so that we would eat from this tree of life and live forever.
Who Takes the God-given Blessings?
God has fulfilled our salvation perfectly through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but who takes God’s blessings by faith to enjoy them? Through Genesis chapters two and three, God says that it is the people of faith who can eat the fruit of the tree of life and enjoy everything made by the Lord. Our God says that faith is what enables us to enjoy all His accomplishments. God has fulfilled our salvation completely, and those who enjoy this accomplished work by faith are the people of true faith. Therefore, those who believe in the salvation completed by God can enjoy all His accomplished blessings in His dominion. But those who do not have faith in these God-accomplished blessings cannot enjoy any of His blessings prepared in the Garden of Eden; rather, they will be driven from there.
The Bible says, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” This makes it clear that on the seventh day, God finally completed all the work of creation He had planned. Do you know and believe in this truth, that God has fulfilled everything we need so that we would not lack anything?
We believe that even now, God continues to work in the history of mankind. Some theologians insist that God is still creating through the evolutionary process, a notion called the doctrine of creative evolution. They think that the creation of the universe and everything in it continues on. But that is not the case, as God finished everything to perfection on the seventh day. The only difference is that there are some people who enjoy His accomplishment while living on this earth, while others cannot enjoy it.
What, then, is the difference between those who receive and enjoy all the God-accomplished blessings and those who cannot do so? Before God, the people of faith take the salvation that God has already achieved for them by faith, and they live enjoying all His blessings freely. In contrast, those who have no faith in the God-given blessings do not realize that God has already achieved everything, and so they still feel that something is missing and lacking. That’s why they try to make something up as a supplement. All that we have to do is just take by faith what God has accomplished for us, but tragically, these people do not know this and therefore they cannot take the God-given salvation and eternal life to enjoy them. Do you understand what it means when I say that all that you have to do is just take by faith every blessing that God has accomplished for you? Indeed, the only step that we need to take is just to take by faith our salvation, blessings, and eternal life that God has fulfilled. We will then make God’s blessings ours freely by faith.
God said on the seventh day, “The heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.” This means that God completed all His work of creation. My fellow believers, God’s dominion of faith is filled with amazing truths and blessings, and we can take possession over all these God-fulfilled blessings by faith. For us to enjoy everything by our faith in the Word of God is what true faith is all about. With His Word, God has already given us our salvation from all sins, all our happiness, and all our blessings. This means that God has prepared all blessings in His love. Do you believe in this, that God has already fulfilled every blessing for you and me? Believing in the God-fulfilled blessings is true faith.
Although right now I am carrying out various works in my life of faith, this is just taking and doing by faith what God has already achieved. God has already done everything for us by Himself. In other words, God has already laid down and secured the foundation and all the resources of His Church through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and He has already achieved everything so that we the saints would be more than able to serve the Church, unite with one another, and lead our lives in His Church by faith as the righteous. We are living in the present, having taken eternal life by our faith in the love of God. God has already fulfilled everything righteous so that we can live an upright life through His Church. During the six days when God made the heavens and the earth, He finished everything. It’s because God finished His work that He rested on the seventh day. God completed His work in six days and rested in peace on the seventh day.
My fellow believers, God has already fulfilled every blessed work for us. Look at how God has completed all His righteous works through your eyes of faith. When viewed through the Word of God, we can see that God has already accomplished everything through His Church. We can realize, “God has saved our brothers and sisters from the sins of the world and made us one body. That’s how He has made our brotherly and sisterly relationship so beautiful. He has also built a wonderful relationship between the leaders and the saints.” As we have now taken by faith what God has finished completely, we are actually enjoying it in our lives.
How can we then make God’s Church even more beautiful? How can the saints share wonderful fellowship with one another? There is nothing to worry about here. Since God has already fulfilled all these things, we just have to live by faith trusting in this fact. God did not tell everyone to build His Church. What kind of a gathering did God say was His Church? God said that His Church is the gathering of the saints who have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and who have therefore been already sanctified (1 Corinthians 1:2). In this Church there are leaders who guide the congregation. God makes them carry out His work through the order of faith, and through His Church God also manifests His glory and love, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and all blessings. In other words, God has achieved everything, and He has allowed it to us who believe in this. So those who have faith in what God has done for them take His blessings by faith and enjoy them, but those who do not have this faith try to make God’s blessings theirs through their own human efforts. This means that God’s blessings are not something that one should try to take and make his arbitrarily.
Because God has accomplished all blessings for us, we are happiest when we obey His will and enjoy all His blessings by faith. For example, a married couple in this world forms a family, and this is the divine principle of marriage. If God has already set this principle, that a man and a woman should come together and live in harmony united by their faith, then it is most beautiful when we obey this will of God by faith. God has perfectly fulfilled the work of saving the entire human race once for all through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He has fulfilled it most justly and most perfectly, so that there is nothing to fix or add to this gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The God-given blessings are different from the things you used to cling to in your past. Before Russia fell into the hands of communism, the Russian Orthodox Church was arguing over whether a priest should wear a red robe, a black robe, or a white robe when preaching at the hour of worship. While it wasted time arguing over such a trivial issue, a communist revolution broke out in Russia and the whole country fell under a communist regime. You have to realize what it is that you must believe in order to become a member of God’s Church, and to do so, you must first of all discover the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Many Christians, completely ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, foolishly claim that their own respective churches are God’s Church. If the Christians living in Russia when it fell into communism knew that God’s true Church was built by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they would not have wasted so much time on such a trivial issue. Russia then would not have turned communist.
In the Catholic Church, the Papacy has all authority. The Bible explains clearly to whom church authority should be given, and it is on the people of faith like Peter that authority is bestowed—that is, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But despite this, Catholics elect their own leaders and obey this hierarchy. They are wrong to do so, since they have nothing to do with faith in the God-fulfilled work, the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and they are just following the will of their own denomination instead.
God said, “The heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.” If we realize just how perfect the God-fulfilled salvation is, and if we believe in it, then that is the real blessing. Rather than living in vain, we will then know what is God’s Church and what is not, and therefore we will also be able to realize in the gospel of the water and the Spirit what it is that we should really take by faith, and what it is that we should cast away. God is telling us to take by faith the perfect salvation He has accomplished for us.
My fellow believers, what is the Bible trying to tell us? What does it mean to live by faith? It’s because almost all Christians do not know the salvation God has completed that they believe in something totally wrong instead of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Because these Christians do not know that Jesus Christ came to this earth by the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they are leading their lives of faith on their own, and therefore they are actually disobeying the will of God only to stand against Him in the end. In contrast, those who believe in the God-accomplished salvation through the gospel of the water and the Spirit are following God trusting in His blessings. And by their faith they are living the God-given blessed life. As God has finished His work of saving us from the sins of the world, we can see that the Kingdom of God is being built on this earth through such people who follow God by trusting in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Like this, God’s Kingdom is built by those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The passage, “God ended His work which He had done,” has such an implication.
You the students of our Mission School must realize this. God has already finished all the work of saving us from sin. Shouldn’t our minds then grasp that God has already blessed His Church for all its needs, and shouldn’t we abide by this faith? If this is true, then we have to change our hearts and our mode of thinking. If God has indeed finished everything for us, then we should live by faith, with our hearts trusting in everything God has done for us. No matter what God asks us to do, and no matter what kind of work He entrusts to us, we must take by faith what God has completed, and we must carry out His work by trusting in Him. Only then can we be used properly to carry out God’s work, and become the most appropriate instruments in both our words and actions for this work of God.
If our hearts still have no faith in what God has done for us, we will surely miss out on His blessings. Even the tasks that we should carry out in the Church have actually been set by God already. However, the will of God cannot be fulfilled through us if some brothers and sisters, far from taking the God-accomplished blessings by faith, instead look at their own insufficiencies and say, “I don’t have enough faith. I can’t even pray that well, and so I can’t do God’s work.” If you and I don’t believe in what God has already accomplished, and therefore we are unable to enjoy it, then it will only be our own loss. What could God then achieve through us?
We must believe that God has finished working on you and me and has already made us perfect. Whenever God asks us to work, we should all believe as the following: “Oh, God has made me such a perfect person. He has finished everything on His side. He has prepared everything so that I would be able to carry out all His work.” My fellow believers, do you believe in God, in His righteousness, and in the fact that He has already fulfilled everything? That is what faith is all about.
We Don’t Need the Things of the World to Build God’s Church
One day, while Matthew the tax collector was sitting in his office collecting tax, Jesus said to him, “Follow me. I will make you a fisher of men.” Matthew then rose up and followed Jesus. He followed the Lord believing, “The Lord has now made me a fisher of men.” On another occasion, when a certain disciple was called to follow the Lord, he said that his father was dead, and that he would return after burying his father. Jesus then said to him forcefully, “Let the dead burry their own dead, but you should follow Me. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for Me.”
When our Lord tells us to trust in His righteousness and follow Him, we should just obey His calling and follow Him by faith, realizing, “Oh, the Lord has enabled me to follow Him. God will do His work.” Those who glorify God manifest this kind of faith. Do you believe in this? Do you believe that God’s glory will be revealed through each and every one of us? None other than this is the faith that believes in the righteousness of God. Such faith has nothing to do with our secular education. We have no need for worldly faculty in the dominion of faith. Everything is possible if God has decided to carry out His work through us. Once God decides to use us as His instruments to carry out His work, then we are made His instruments, and once God decides to manifest His glory and achieve His work through us, then His will is achieved without fail.
If what we are doing is of God’s will and His work, then will it be fulfilled? Of course it will! That is the very faith in God. Let’s assume here that I am about to send you to someplace as a minister. You have to then believe that God has raised you as His servant, and that He will manifest His glory and fulfill His will through you. Do you believe in this? Following by faith with “yes” is what true faith is all about. When Jeremiah confessed, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth” (Jeremiah 1:6), the Lord said to him, “Do not be afraid. You shall go and speak as I command you.” Indeed, as Jeremiah obeyed the Word of God and did as commanded by Him, God’s work was carried out and His will was fulfilled.
Those Who Know the Will of God Can Lead His Church
Why do I train you in our Mission School? It’s because God’s Church is desperately needed in both Korea and the entire world. You are now being trained in the Mission School precisely because God’s Church must be established everywhere around the world and it needs God’s servants to send. Of course, we don’t need any big church buildings. It’s enough for God’s Church to be built in a cozy little place everywhere, as a home is built. Even if we can only afford to rent an empty office space, put up a cross, put some carpet in, and place a pulpit, it’s okay as long as we can preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to those who come in there. What is needed are such churches that preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to those around them.
When God began this Mission School, I professed, “God has fulfilled everything. He has achieved all His work. He has already blotted out the sins of this world with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He has made those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit His saints. He has made people happy.” We can fulfill all the duties God has given to His Church if we preach by faith what God has already accomplished. We can lead people to faith in the righteousness of God and make them happy, and bring hope and salvation to those who are hopeless if we believe that God has already accomplished all those things.
What should we do about those who are demon-possessed? The Lord has given us the authority to cast away demons with the power of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, we should bring the Word of God into their hearts and hold them by faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We are running the Mission School in order to carry out God’s work and establish His Church through those who have united their hearts with God’s Church. Do you believe in this? If God tells you through His servants to go to some place and plant His Church, then He is telling you that He has already achieved everything.
I have spoken to you about how to actually establish God’s Church. When there are more brothers and sisters, they will make financial contributions to support the church-planting ministry, but God’s workers must first empty their own possessions to serve the Lord. That’s the right thing to do. If you desire to follows the Lord, you must not cling to your own possessions, but you must regard them as the Lord’s possessions and use them for His work. What happens when God’s Church is thus established and the saints grow spiritually even more in His Church? When many more souls arise to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, this Church of God should plant a new Church with its contribution and continue to cultivate more Churches. Are you not sure about this?
What does it mean when the Bible says here, “God ended His work which He had done”? It means that we should live by trusting in the will of God. And it means that we should serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There is no disciple who can follow the Lord unless he gives up and sacrifices himself first for the sake of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and its proclamation. Even if we believe that God has already accomplished everything, unless we offer ourselves to Him by trusting in this truth, how could God’s will be fulfilled? How can anyone who doesn’t sacrifice himself be called as someone who believes in and follows the Word of God? If we really believe in the Word of God, then we must follow it by faith. When we believe in the passage, “God ended His work which He had done,” and follow the Lord by faith, the young believers in the Church will also begin to follow the Lord. Isn’t this true, my fellow believers? Of course it is. You have to get these issues resolved when following the Lord.
God has already finished everything that needs to be done on this earth. This means that people can now be remitted from their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Yet because so many people do not realize that God has finished all the work of salvation, they are heading to their destruction. Who will then truthfully offer himself for this work? Who will give up even his own life for this mission? Who will really live for the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit?
The Lord is saying that it is none other than “you.” Our God said in the Book of Isaiah, “Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1). This Word is spoken to us the righteous who know the will of God. God does not speak to those who are ignorant of His will, but He speaks to those who believe in His Word, those who have accepted His will, saying, “You are My worker.” God did not entrust His work to anyone else who doesn’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is to us that the Lord is saying, “Go and shine the light of salvation.” Therefore, it is through those who really believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and know the will of God that His work is carried out. Can you say amen to this?
The Workers of God Raised by the Lord
My fellow believers, the workers of God’s Church are never raised by man. It is God who raises us to be His workers, and it is God who holds us steadfast and leads us; it is not any man who raises God’s workers. Someone who believes that “God ended His work which He had done” takes this Word by faith and enjoys it by faith in his life. On the other hand, those who have no faith in the righteousness of God say, “I can’t fully comprehend God’s work. I am too insufficient.” But I ask you to offer your life to the Lord by faith, realizing what it means to serve the righteousness of God.
Do you know what God’s will is? God’s will is to for you to offer all your life to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It’s said, “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life” (John 6:40). And believing in Jesus means believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So God wants you to bear witness of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When I first came to your gathering and began the work of spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I saw that even students at the Mission School didn’t unite their hearts with me, and when they sang praises, they were singing with just their lips rather than out of their faith. Nevertheless, trusting that “God ended His work which He had done,” I took the leap of faith and offered my life to the Lord. I then saw the spirit of faith rising among you.
By the time you complete the training course at the Mission School, you will be able to follow my guidance by faith. If you are told to embark on the way of ministry on a full-time basis, can you march forth by faith to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit? When you are told to offer your everything to the Lord, to trust in the Lord fully, and go forth by faith, you can also march forth. But do you think that you cannot give up your material possessions? There is a hymn that goes, “♬Don’t say love only with your lips, ♪Don’t say love only with your eyes♪” Just saying it with your words is not the real love. Because faith is not just a matter of theory but of practice, believing in the Word of God from the depth of your heart and actually following this Word is your true faith. Like this, just claiming to believe with your words is not the real faith.
Let’s consider an example here. If I say, “God’s Church needs financial means to carry out its world mission. Let’s all pray in one voice,” then I’m sure that you will all pray hard. But what if I say, “We shouldn’t just pray, but we should actually serve the gospel with substance. So let’s offer our possessions to the Lord”? Wouldn’t your heart then feel it’s too much to bear, the very moment you hear this? But that is exactly how one speaks of love with just lips and eyes. While none of you have any problem praying to God, some of you react rather badly when you are actually told to serve the gospel. Such people still do not really know the love of God. We are of those who offer themselves to serve the Lord because they actually believe in the love of God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Yet do you feel that your possessions are too precious to you? Do you think that your youth is too dear to offer to God? Do you hesitate before offering your material possessions to the Lord, thinking about how hard you had to work to build your wealth?
These questions cannot be asked unless the one raising them believes in the Word of God and the questions are asked for the sake of God. To raise these questions so bluntly, one must live a devoted life himself. I can raise such questions. Those who follow the Lord united with Him believe that they will eat when the Lord feeds them and go hungry when the Lord leaves them to go hungry. That is what union with the Lord entails. Since I’ve completely dedicated myself to the Lord, why should I not be able to offer my material possessions? If what I offer to the Lord is invested by God’s Church to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit, shouldn’t I actually be thankful? We have to have faith on such issues.
Watch carefully to see for yourself if your church leader is someone who would just embezzle your offerings, or if he would invest all your offerings into the work of God down to every penny. You have to know for sure whether your church leader is someone who lives only for his own self-interest or for the righteousness of God. When you thus find out that every penny is indeed offered to the Lord by your spiritual leader, then you can offer all your material possessions, for these materials will then be all used for the Lord. Whatever God’s Church may own, it must not turn into private property. It’s on these assets that God’s Church was built. It was made with the offerings of our brothers and sisters. Then whose property are these assets? They are most certainly not private property. If anyone claims private ownership over these assets, everyone who contributed offerings will rise up in revolt. No one can claim private ownership on these assets. All our possessions should be offered only to God. Our offerings must be offered to the Lord to be used to build God’s Church with the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
If God sends me to somewhere else after ministering here, I will leave behind everything that belongs to this Church of God. While I will take with me my personal artifacts and my family, the rest must be left here intact. All these things should be handed over to the successor. These things all belong to God, and it is by the grace of God that we are living. Whatever belongs to God belongs to us, and whatever belongs to us belongs to God. That’s why regardless of which Church we go to, we leave everything behind. When we go to the next Church of God, all the necessities are there, as whoever ministered in this Church also left everything behind.
A Leader Must Actually Demonstrate His Life of Faith
You can follow the Lord by trusting in the righteousness of God. If our hearts really desire to live for the Lord, then we can actually offer our lives by faith. The Lord does not want you to follow Him out of coercion. If the materials you offer to the Lord are too dear to you, how could you carry out the Lord’s work? If you consider your possessions more precious than God Himself, how could you follow the Lord? We offer our belongings to the Lord to be invested in His work precisely because the Lord is far more precious than any material possessions, and because these material things, while valuable, are still far less important than the Lord. The people of faith who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are actually leading such a life of faith before God.
However, only if the church leader himself actually lives such a life first do the saints make financial contributions for the Lord, carry out whatever work before Him, and offer their time and service for the gospel. Isn’t this right? Of course it is. Is there any Church that belongs to someone else other than God? No, there is no such a thing as a Church that belongs to someone else. All that you do is just minister in God’s Church and go to meet the Lord when He calls you.
My fellow believers, the preceding servants of God even offered their children for the sake of the Lord’s gospel of the water and the Spirit. Some of them lost their own children while serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit as they could not take care of their families, and others have lost their wives. During the dark age of catacombs, it was common for anyone who believed in God to suffer many such sacrifices. Although this present age is not the dark age of catacombs, there still are God’s servants who have given themselves up entirely for the sake of the Kingdom of the Lord, and who are living to spread His gospel.
We Are to Fly across the Sky by Our Faith in the Righteousness of God
There is a passage in Genesis chapter one that says, “Let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” There is a life that’s lived flying freely across the God-made dominion by faith, eating whatever God has given, and manifesting His glory. The dominion of faith is such a glorious world. Therefore, sacrificing yourself for the Kingdom of God is a very minute thing, as it is written, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). I am not saying here that you have to inflict pain on yourself deliberately. Rather, what I am saying is that if you really want to become God’s servant, then you must be able to give up yourself. This is such a self-evident truth, and yet we don’t quite understand it because we are mired too deep in our own self-love. It’s because the world is too filthy, and because so many people are working against God to garner His enmity, that falsehoods are shining as the truth while the real Truth cannot shine.
The Bible says that Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field. It also says that Heaven is like a priceless pearl that a merchant, upon finding it, sold all his possessions to buy it (Matthew 13:46). A life that’s lived to spread the gospel of Heaven is the most precious life that’s like this priceless pearl. I believe that this is the most righteous and worthiest work. My faith is this: “I would rather be a servant of God than a servant of man. Whatever I do, I will work for the Lord, and I will go to my Lord after working for a worthy cause like this. So Lord, take responsibility over my life.”
If your faith is not strong enough to offer 100 percent of your belongings to the Lord, then at least offer 50 percent. Entrust yourself to the Lord, so that He would train you until such faith is instilled in your heart. You will then be able to live for the Lord by faith. In other words, once we begin to live like this, we will eventually be able to offer 100 percent of our everything for the Kingdom of the Lord. It’s none other than the Lord who makes this happen. Our Lord is saying, “Unless you forsake your parents, your children, your relatives, your wife, your possessions, and all your worldly things, you cannot become My disciple.” I want you to be more rejoiced to serve God than to work at a travel agency, to teach the Truth rather than secular knowledge, to take charge of God’s work and live as the Lord’s steward rather than working at an office, and to live your life as a true shepherd devoted to the gospel of the water and the Spirit and preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit rather than serving the people of the world.
Works of the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit Are Manifested through God’s Church
Among the students at our Mission School, there still are some people who are young in their faith, and that’s why I am explaining to you in detail what the will of God is. Can you give up the greed of your flesh and live for the Lord? Of course you can! That’s all that matters.
The Lord is telling us how He would lead us. It is through God’s Church that the Lord leads us. You and I believe that God will work in our lives. Whatever we ask according to the will of the Lord, God will answer us. Whatever we do according to the will of the Lord, God Himself will bear fruit. I want to establish God’s Church everywhere. In both Korea and overseas alike, I want to plant many Churches that believe in God’s gospel of the water and the Spirit. We will pool our strength and work hard until God’s Church is established everywhere.
It is through His Church that God carries out His work, and it is through the Church that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is preached. Unless it’s through God’s Church, neither can our faith grow nor can the gospel work of the water and the Spirit arise. So we must establish God’s Church everywhere. And workers are needed everywhere. Who will go then? Will you go? Will you go to preach the gospel? The people of faith who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit go anywhere by faith if God wants them to go, no matter how insufficient they may be.
Some people say that we are arrogant, but what’s so arrogant about us? Is it arrogant to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? How is it arrogant to follow the will of God by trusting in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? It takes seven years of undergraduate and graduate theological training to become a pastor, and so some of you may wonder how you can become an evangelist with just six months of training at our Mission School. But we have to examine whether the people of faith in the Bible took theological courses to be qualified as God’s workers. They all became God’s workers just by faith: The people of faith all carried out the work of God trusting only in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But those who don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit cannot carry out God’s work even if they were to study theology for hundreds of years. As long as they do not have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they cannot become God’s workers even if thousands and millions of years go by. In contrast, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can indeed become God’s servants even in just a single day.
Since we are carrying out God’s work just by ourselves like this, worldly church leaders may feel that we won’t be able to preach the gospel of God, but wherever God’s Church is established, our workers will do just fine. Just entrust God’s work to His servants and see what would happen. They will bring about enormous results through their faith in God. My fellow believers, by the righteousness of the Lord, we can all carry out God’s work. Though this is not possible on our own, it is possible by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and trusting in God. Whatever we do, God will fulfill it all.
We must take the Word of God by faith. During your stay at the Mission School, I ask you to learn to live by faith trusting in God. Pray to God also, asking, “Lord, where should I plant God’s Church?” We need to pray to God, “Give us a place to plant Your Church, and help us save souls.” And we must see God’s work unfold, drawing souls and planting churches everywhere. Isn’t it true that all that any minister needs to do is just live by trusting in God, just as his physical life is sustained by bread? In fact, people work at their jobs to earn the bread and make a living. If we don’t go hungry while abiding in the Lord, and live while carrying out the righteousness of God, isn’t this enough for our lives to be wonderful? If we follow the righteousness of the Lord by faith, then we are more than able to carry out God’s work.
True Faith Comes When You Believe in the Word of God
“God ended His work which He had done.” Those who take this Word by faith will prosper greatly and live a happy life. But those who cannot follow by faith just try to guess about their leaders, wondering every day, “Isn’t that man trying to deceive me? He says such bold things, but are they biblically sound?” My fellow believers, if you believe in God, then faith will spring forth, but if you don’t believe in God, then you will have no faith. It’s as simple as that. Since the object of faith is God Himself, the core question for our lives of faith is this: “Do I really believe in God?” Who among us will become God’s servant? Those of us who believe in the righteousness of God, obey it, and follow it by faith will become God’s servants. In contrast, those who don’t believe in the righteousness of God, don’t obey it, and don’t follow it will not become God’s servants, no matter how gifted and talented they may be. Such people are not qualified.
I know a businessman who is now planning to attend a seminary in his old age, after the company he ran as its president failed. It saddens me to see a 50-year old man about to enroll at a seminary. When you visit a seminary, you will see many elderly people. Many of them used to be church elders but now want to become pastors, and there also are many people who want to somehow dedicate their lives to the work of God. But such people’s ulterior motive is not really to do the work of God, but they just want to attain the title of pastor or evangelist. It’s almost unbearable to see them paying tuition every semester and trying so hard to memorize English vocabularies and learn Hebrew and Greek with their already hardened brains. I heard that a bus driver of the nearby church enrolled himself at a seminary in Seoul, only to give up and return after just a semester. He is an elder at his church. When such people plant and minister at a new church after finishing seminary, they often face severe financial difficulties, sometimes even unable to feed themselves. There are so many pastors struggling to make a living like this, after offering all their wealth and putting their wives through so much hardship. What’s really tragic, however, is that because they don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they cannot become God’s true workers. Despite this, many of them try to live according to the will of God, sacrificing their everything including their wealth and even their own children, all to live entirely for the Lord. After all, don’t all pastors claim to have given up their lives completely for the Lord?
My fellow believers, if the Lord has saved you from sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, called you and guided you, then the right thing to do is to live for the work of God. Once born in this world, the happiest thing for everyone to do is to live for the righteousness of the Lord and then go to God. There is no life that’s more blessed and happier than this. We are all lucky, since we have been chosen to live for the righteousness of the Lord. Isn’t this true? In the world, there are many people who seem like angels of the light, but who are actually dedicating their entire lifetime to the Devil as his slaves. In contrast, you and I have been born again of water and the Spirit, and we are now living for the Lord as the precious servants of the truly living God. Just how amazing and wonderful is this? How joyful and worthy is this? I admonish you all to realize what a grateful blessing it is that our God has chosen us out of all these countless people.
How many people have forsaken everything for the Lord and yet actually failed to lead others properly, not to mention lacking any assurance as to their own souls’ place in Heaven? Haven’t you also met such souls? There are many people wanting to live according to the will of the Lord, but among them, God has called us in particular and made us live according to His will. The Lord has spoken to us, nurtured us, and entrusted us with the work of God. We must answer this calling by faith. That is the right and joyous decision worthy to make.
My fellow believers, we must realize clearly what it is that we should live for. If we live, we must live for the Lord; if we die, we must die for the Lord; if we play, we must play for the Lord; and whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, we must do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Do you not want to live according to the will of God? God has chosen us and raised us to suffer together with the Lord and to be glorified with Him. Therefore, we must follow the Lord with our hearts firmly resolved by faith. I admonish you all to follow the Lord by faith and live out your faith for Him. Do not live your life in vain. Do not be like Esau who sold his precious birthright just for a bowl of porridge. Do not be such a person who struggles all his life in this world just to make his ends meet, only to perish away in the end.
My fellow believers, even though I have nothing else but the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I am living my life without envying anyone in this world. While preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I’ve come across many rich people living in luxurious mansions. But their possessions mean nothing to me. I can do everything in this Church of God—if I want to eat, I can eat here; if I want to play soccer, I can play with my coworkers; and if I want to sleep, I can sleep here.
I want to live an upright life even if it’s short, rather than living a long but meaningless life. And even though I have no great strength to show off, I want to live by faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the gospel through which the Lord strengthens me. I hope and pray that you would also lead your life following the Lord by your faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and then meet the Lord face to face.
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