Genesis Lecture 9 (Division of Spirit 6)
Bible passage: Genesis 1:1
“ In the beginning God created heavens and the earth”
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.
All saints from branch churches, and local sanctuaries. GCN viewers and all children of God who attend the worship online.
This is the ninth lecture on Genesis. I’ll continue talking about the Seven Spirits, which is one of the divided entities of God the Father. I told you that the Seven Spirits are the heart of God that measures seven attributes of people. As a result of measuring seven fields, if you pass each measure of faith, your prayer will be answered. As you listen to each word, check whether you can pass the test of the seven spirits. The same applies to those who think it is difficult to keep all seven fields. If you keep one thing, you can keep all seven ones. If there is faith, there will be love, and if there is faith, joy, prayer, gratitude, faithfulness is within you. So, rather than saying, ‘It’s difficult because there are seven fields,’ it means that if you can keep one, you can just keep the rest.
So far, I have explained 4 out of 7; faith, joy, prayer, and gratitude. The fifth attribute the seven spirits measure is how well you keep the commandments of God. In the Bible, there are instruction such as to what to do, what not to do, what to keep and what to cast away. All of these are the commandments that all the children of God should keep. God summarized these numerous commandments into ten and commanded us to keep them. These are known as The Ten Commandments. The Seven Spirits of God precisely measure how well you keep the Ten Commandments. When God wants to give answer to your prayer, He reflects on the result of this measurement. When you think of the Ten Commandments, you don’t say, ‘Oh, I just have to keep these ten!’ If you say you can keep these ten, you can keep everything in the 66 books. So, putting this all together, God briefly categorized it into ten categories. The Ten Commandments are divided into 66 volumes of the Bible, which instructs what to, what not to do. God gives answers and blessings to those who keep the commandments well.
On the other hand, He cannot give answers to the prayers of those who don’t live by the commandments. Why does keeping the commandments become a condition to receiving an answer to your prayers? The fact that you receive answers and blessings from God proves that you are loved by God. However, God the Father works on everything according to justice. He doesn’t give answers and blessings to just anyone. Only to those who are worthy to receive love in the justice can be given that love by God. You will be loved by God by keeping the commandments, it will be proof that you have faith, and you will receive a response.
So, Proverbs 8:17 that you love says 17“I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me. It’s so natural that God loves those who love Him. Because they love God, they also desperately seek Him as the verse says. What does it mean to earnestly seek God? You too can meet God. Anyone can meet. Servants of the Lord or Elders are not only ones who can meet God. However, it is very unfortunate if you still do not know what it means to seek God. The answer is always in the Bible Do you know what it is to desperately seek God? do not you know? To put it simply, it is about finding where God is, If you go to where God is, you can meet Him.
But where is He ? He is in light, goodness, and love. Finding God means discarding evil from my heart and emulating the Lord. Only then can you enter the light and meet God. If you do this, you will definitely meet God. God made countless promises in the Old and New Testaments. He said, if you seek, you will find, and if you knock, it will be opened to you. If you believe and ask, it will be given to you. He always promises that it will be done according to your faith. It’s not something difficult. Exodus 20:6 says “ but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. “ God loves and will give grace to thousands of generations to those who keep his commandments. Do you have this evidence of God’s love?
Are you blessed with material blessings and good health? If you feel disgusted, irritated, and uncomfortable with the slightest thing, you are far from keeping the commandments. The Bible says If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. Although people know these verses, they don’t keep it mind. It means they are not circumcised, not doing what God commands. However, keeping this commandment ultimately proves that you love God. Our Lord also says in John 14: 15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. People who keep the commandments will not steal, be jealous, hate anyone, judge, condemn, whisper, complain, or commit adultery.
The Lord also says in the verse 21: Those who have my commandments and keep them are those who love Me. Likewise, keeping His commandments tells that you love God. The Lord says “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, I also love him and will reveal myself to him.” He says that people who love the Him are also loved by God In this way, a person who truly loves God keeps God's commandments. Therefore, we keep God’s commandments no matter what the situation and without any reason. Only then will God be pleased If you know heaven, of course you want to go to heaven, but if I know hell, why would you go to hell? Also, why should you do something that God hates? If you have faith, you will love God, and if you love, there is no way you will do something that God hates. So, keeping the commandments is loving God. It's not something you have to force yourself to do.
You do it happily because you love God. Of course, for believers who are still young in faith, there are times when it feels difficult to live according to God's commandments. The reason is why they do not love God, they cannot even feel His love. If you have faith, you will love, and if you love, you will keep it, but since you do not know God clearly and only have a little knowledge from what you’ve heard, you cannot say you love God, committing sin. So, they cannot keep the commandments completely. In this way, God also waits believers who are young in faith growing. Do newborn children love their parents? 100-day-old babies smile well. It seems like they recognize their mothers and smile, but that's not the case. Babies do not yet recognize their parents' faces accurately. When someone other than the mother looks at the child, the baby smiles easily. Those babies don't really know who their mother is, which means they don't really know what a person is. Their laughter is from thier nature.
Babies don't know much about their fathers, so just because they smile doesn't mean they love their parents. Anyway, if you love God from your heart, you will keep the commandments. And this means that God sees it through faith. Also, even if there are times when you cannot keep the commandments, if you try to live according to the word of God, He still loves you. However, if you have been living a faith life for a long time, you should not be unable to keep the commandments. The longer you’ve been Christians, the more completely you should do it. You should not only strictly adhere to the commandments, but become perfected in “deeply reverent behavior” Let me explain what “deeply reverent behavior” is. What is the ninth commandment among the Ten Commandments? Exodus 20:16 says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” “False witness” is to say something against the truth such as saying you didn’t do something you actually did, or vice versa.
This act of false witness may have a huge effect on making a certain kind of decision. Especially in a trial, a false witness can make an innocent man to be found guilty, or the other way around. Wouldn’t you speak only the absolute truth if you stood to witness in a court? Of course, you should. Now, can you say you keep the ninth commandment completely just by doing that? Those who don’t bear false witness in any give situation don’t tell a lie; even if it is trivial. Even if it doesn’t cause serious harm to others, a lie that is told against another person is untruth. In addition, if you keep silent in a situation when you should tell the truth, this act will also be considered as ‘false witness’. Let’s say, a man B is wrongfully accused of something that was actually done by a man A However, you keep silent pretending you know nothing because you are close to A This act cannot pass the measure of the Seven Spirits of God who searches all things with His fiery eyes.
As faith grows, your heart also becomes truthful, and you will not tolerate even a trivial lie of yourself. And thus, you will not even tell ‘a white lie.’ A white lie is to say something against the truth in consideration of others. However, as your faith grows, you will not even tell these white lies. Dear brothers and sisters, adding or omitting information deliberately when conveying someone's words is a form of bearing false witness. This refers to situations where you misrepresent what someone said by adding your own interpretations or omitting key details However, this kind of false witness also diminishes as your faith grows up.
The reason is because such fleshly thoughts and personal feelings disappear as your faith grows up. And so, you can speak the truth as you see, hear, and feel it. If you become like this, you will not judge or condemn others as you please. It is also false witness if you judge others and speak about it without knowing others’ hearts or situations. As your faith grows up, this kind of false witness also disappears. When you abandon even the form of evil and grow in faith, you won't want to do any false things and to hear them. Just looking at the commandment not to bear false witness, the depth of deeds varies depending on one's faith. A person cannot be acknowledged to keep the Ninth Commandment perfectly just because one doesn’t bear false witness in a courtroom.
The degree of engagement to keep the commandments should also become better according to your faith level. This principle also applies to all other Ten Commandments. I explained the Ten Commandments in great detail in my book, “The Law of God.” Please take this opportunity once again to make bread of the information in this book. Check how well your faith has matured and how completely you’ve kept the Ten Commandments. I already delivered messages about “Whole tithe and Offerings,” and “Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy.” How many answers and blessings have you received since you heard the messages and obeyed them? Even though you completely obeyed these two things, Father God gave blessings to many of you as if He had been waiting for you.
If you keep the Ten Commandments completely, how much more would God answer and bless you? God will not hesitate to give blessings not only to each one of you individually, but to church-wide prayers. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Sixthly, the Seven Spirits measure “faithfulness.” They measure how faithful each one of you are to your given duties. Therefore, as a servant of God, a His worker, as an elder, or as a Sunday school teacher, you should be faithful to your give duties. You should also treasure your duty and be faithful as a group or a cell leader, or as any position you are given. However, if you’re faithful only to God-given duties, then it cannot be called perfect faithfulness. You must be faithful not only to the duty given in your church, but to work at a workplace and home. Then it can be called perfect faithfulness. As a husband, a wife, a child, or a parent, you must be faithful in the truth to any duty you are given. Of course, if asked to choose between the Lord's work and the world's work, you will choose the Lord's work. But it doesn’t mean that you can neglect you’re the other duties.
Ultimately, without being biased towards one side, we must all do things appropriately in the truth for the glory of God. Some people who are high ranked church workers have serious problems. They come to receive my prayer to solve the problems, and they make a confession of repentance. What is it? They used to be faithful to their duties with fervor, but they started to neglect their duties at some point. They say they became absorbed in the affairs of their business and so they gradually neglect the Lord’s work. Or they didn’t overcome the difficulties in their lives, or they compromised with the world to avoid persecution.
They were once faithful, so how could their hearts have changed like this? It is because they neglect spiritual faithfulness even though they say they were faithful. What is the spiritual faithfulness? It is to continually circumcise your heart. It is the work of washing the robe of your heart without ceasing. Those who try to be spiritually faithful like this can also be faithful to their duty. Even though there may be difficulties and persecution, for those who are spiritually faithful, it eventually diminishes or disappears. You are persecuted because of your fleshly faithfulness, but when you become spiritually faithful, the persecution gradually disappears. Because God is with you and loves you. God has no choice but to love those who are spiritually loyal Doesn't it clearly say in 1 John that if the Lord God Almighty loves and protects one, no matter how evil he is, he cannot touch the one. Such people do not give up on their duties no matter what the situation is. If you have left your duties, it is evidence of lack of faith and no evidence of your love towards God, so it is not recognized as spiritual faithfulness. Even if they have a serious problem at home or with financial difficulty, they don’t give up their duty. Because it the promise they made to God that they would fulfill their duties. No matter what kind of problems they may encounter, they never break the promise with God.
On the other way, what will happen when they don’t circumcise their heart? When faced with difficulties, their evil side emerges, and they can no longer hold onto their faithfulness. They eventually end up giving up the promise they made with God. Therefore, to make your faithfulness complete and unchanging, your faithfulness should be spiritual. Being faithful in all God’s house refers to the spiritual faithfulness. The first thing in being faithful to God’s whole house is circumcision of the heart. Without a circumcised heart, the spiritual faithfulness remains out of reach. The first faithfulness you have to accomplish is personal holiness, free from even the slightest evil. Then the spiritual blessings come, and then the blessings of life come, leading to the faithfulness of the whole house. In your home, , you must be faithful as a mother or father , or a child.
Though they don’t give up the duty completely, I’ve seen people manage their duty under pressure for they are not full of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, they don’t even keep their position, or they barely keep it. When the Seven Spirits measure this kind of people, how can they pass the measurement? Therefore, in order to fulfill your duty, you should cast off every form of evil through the circumcision of your heart. It is not someone else or bad environment that takes away the fullness of heart from you. It is evil nature that remains in your heart. Therefore, leet us once again remember the importance of spiritual faithfulness. If God had wanted only behavioral faithfulness, He would not have created man. He has countless angels and heavenly host around Him that obey Him well and work faithfully. However, God wants to find children who are faithful from the depth of their heart with love towards God.
Our Jesus came to this earth to be faithful to the point of dying because He loves God. Elijah, Moses, the apostle Paul, Peter, and John were also faithful completely until their deaths. I hope that your heart will resemble the Lord’s and the hearts of the forefathers of faith to become more faithful than before. Since I started this church, I’ve never overlooked the work for God the Father’s kingdom even for a day. On July 25, 1982, 13 people - 4 children and 9 grownups - held its opening service. Those 13 people included 5 of my family members. We had given all-night prayers before opening this church, and the fire of prayer hasn’t put out since then. There was no the Daniel prayer meeting at that time. From midnight till 4 am, I prayed all night long, and then soon led an Early Morning Prayer Meeting. I had to manage all the meetings because there was none who could lead the Early Morning Prayer Meeting. At that time, there wasn't a single worker needed. That's why I never sipped the early morning service.
While attending seminary, I led and preached alone from the early morning service, to Sunday services, to Wednesday and Friday night worship. I had to submit a seminary report and had many books to read, but I did it all on my own. So, I had no time to sleep or rest, keeping praying at dawn. I never missed work because I was tired or asked someone else to do it for me. I did what I had to do. I have never tossed it to someone else. I never asked someone to cover it for me. After leading the Early Prayer Meeting, I went to Seminary School after a short break. After I came back from the school, I took care of the sick. So many sick people heard about me; they stayed in the sanctuary to be healed through my prayer. After school, I either took care of such sick people or visited the members. I served each one with my all heart. Among school students including ones of primary school, they came to church from far distance. People living in Geumho-dong had to transform buses three times: at Cheongnyanggae, Yongsang, and Noryangjin.
At that time, transportation was very inconvenient. They had no money, but they came to this church from far away. How precious souls they were! I served such students in love. On Saturday or Sunday, when they were to go back home after service, I always saw off them at a bus stop. I always waved goodbye and gave them transportation fare. We gave them enough money for transportation so they could come to church again. Since they were students, they couldn’t come to church without transportation fare. Those who changed buses twice were given transportation fare for four rides. And those who did 3times were given for 6 rides. Back then, since the total offerings was very little, I didn’t do that from church finances. I did that by saving my money. New comers were like precious jewels to me. That why I always prayed for them in earnest love not to lose them. Once they came to this church, they never left here.
Every week, new souls were led to this church, and I served them in so much earnest. No one left the church and this church kept on growing. Now, since this church has grown up so big with countless members, did my faithfulness cool down? Not at all! My heart for the souls has never been cooled down. Nothing was sufficient back then. Everything was lacking. Nevertheless, I did my best. Now, we have more than thousands branch churches around the world, and there are countless servants of God and Levite workers. Is my heart at ease, and did my faithfulness and fervor cool down? My love for souls, prayers, and all matters; have all become hotter than ever.
My fervency has never cooled down. Servants of God, Levite workers, and all the title holders; please check your lives. Regarding your position, how different is your current faithfulness from back then before God? You used to long for your duty and be faithful to it, but you don’t have any duty given now? Or, your duty has been the same then and now, your fervor for the duty hasn’t cooled down at all? If you have true faith, the longer your life has been as a Christian, the more faithful you ought to be. Only then can you pass the measurement of the Seven Spirits. The seventh attribute the Seven Spirits measure is “Love.” Of course, it is the spiritual love that never changes forever. Love plays a role of a band that perfectly binds all the previous six into completeness, In other words, ‘love’ makes ‘faith, joy, prayer, gratitude, keeping the commandments, and faithfulness’ complete. What does it mean?
First of all, if faith lacks love, it is useless. 1 Corinthians 13:2 says, “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” What you’ve done is nothing without love even though you did it with the great faith. The same goes to joy without love. If you felt overjoy seeing others in trouble, how evil would you be? You don’t doze when praying with love. It is difficult for prayer without love to ascend to God as incense. The same also goes to gratitude without love. A Gratitude devoid of love fails to truly touch hearts, especially the heart of God who sees into the soul of man. I told you earlier that it’s true love to keep the commandments of God with love for God. I also told you that God the Father truly wants you to be faithful in the love for God. Love is placed last because it serves as the unifying force that binds the other six virtues together, making them whole The Seven Spirits of God thoroughly measure how sincerely with love people manage all these attributes. Gratitude without love is not true gratitude.
A truly grateful person does not think that once repaying a favor to someone who helped is all done In novels and movies, it is said that the main character who saved his life due to the help of another person has done everything when he repays the favor to the one. The main character is alive because the other person saved him, so wouldn't it be right to give the one love and gratitude forever? If the protagonist hadn't received help, wouldn't he have been doomed to die forever? So, he should always love and be grateful to the person who helped him forever. This is true gratitude and God is pleased to receive it.
What true spiritual love is clearly explained in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Let us count how many attributes love has. 1 Love is patient, 2. kind and 3. not jealous; 4. love does not brag 5. and is not arrogant, 6. does not act unbecomingly; 7. it does not seek its own, 8. is not provoked, 9. does not take into account a wrong suffered, 10. does not rejoice in unrighteousness, 11.but rejoices with the truth; 12. bears all things, 13. believes all things, 14. hopes all things, 15. endures all things. They are 15. Do you practice all of them? Now, it’s obvious that they refer to spiritual love. If you are lacking any of these, you need to make up for it. Surely you will find out what is lacking in you. Even though you’ve listened to love sermons many times, there are still many out of you who don’t achieve even one of these 15. That's why you need to look back on yourself again and again. Now let's reflect Let’s not just listen to the Word, but think carefully about how much you are digesting and practicing the Word, and how much you have entered into the Spirit.
Only then will you be blessed in all areas of your health and life. How lamentable would this be from God’s perspective? You have heard the word for so many years, but you just brushed them off. You spent 5, 10, 15, and 20 years without going to the spirit. How unfortunate is that? I urge you to remember in faith this standard of spiritual love no matter what you do. Whenever you pray or work for the Lord, please remember and ponder what refers to spiritual love, then your prayer and faithfulness will become perfect. Like this, those who do all things in love are those who truly love God. God the Father wants to gain such true children who love God in this true love. It is the reason He started Human Cultivation. Therefore, I wish you accomplish this true love and become true child of God. And I also hope you do all things with love and get answers by passing the measurement.
Dear brothers and sisters. Now you can understand what role the Seven Spirits of God plays. You can compare the seven attributes that the Seven Spirits measure to the parts of an electric appliance. If any one of them is missing, the electric product won’t operate. By the same token, if you lack any of the 7 attributes, you cannot receive answers to your prayers. However, I told you earlier that God the Justice and Love measures your faith first, and sets the standard according to your faith level. God the Father said in Exodus 33:19, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” God the Father gives mercy to those who need His mercy, and grace to those who need His grace.
The reason for His measuring in such detail is to provide more answers to you. He doesn’t intent for the standard to be too high for you to get answers. He wanted everyone to freely receive answers and be blessed according to their faith level, so he set the standards. Therefore, I pray in the name of the Lord may you do everything with love and receive overflowing grace and blessing from God the Father.
