Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
It is the 33rd Anniversary Eve Service.I’d like to give thanks to those who’ve worked hard for this 33rd anniversary celebration, as well as to the cast and staff of this eve celebration.
The title of the message is the “Church that has fulfilled the Word.”For the last 33 years, the history of Manmin has been full of the words that perfectly proclaim the will of God and the power that supports the words.
Amos 8:11 says, “”Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.””Today, you can find many churches and preachers. It is much difficult, however, to find in the dark sin-prevailing world the words that proclaim the will of the Lord who is the way, the truth and the life
In this materialism-dominating fleshly world, it is rare to find the words that can help you meet and experience God who is spirit. Just as Amos the prophet prophesied, the world is hungry and thirsty because of the famine of the word.
I met God at the end of 7 years of sickness. Nobody could heal me, and I was in despair waiting for death. But God healed me all at once.After I dramatically met God like this, I so much wanted to know the will of God.I worked so hard to know who God is, and what I should do to live by His will. I diligently attended revival meetings, and read the bible.
But there were many words I couldn’t understand well. Although I asked questions to pastors and referred to famous bible annotations, I couldn’t understand them. One day, I heard a testimony that an angel interpreted God’s word, and I started to earnestly pray for it. I prayed for 7 years that the words might be interpreted either by God Himself, or by angels.
Whenever possible, I went to mountains, found flat rocks, put a blanket on top to kneel down on it. I prayed from early in the morning, and came back late at night. I slept only a little and went back to mountain again. While praying all day long, many times I skipped lunch to save time.
Finally, God started to interpret the words one by one in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He explained those difficult words to understand, and the providence contained in the suffering of the cross. He also explained the spiritual principles such as why only Jesus Christ can be our savior, and what it is to eat and drink the flesh and blood of the son of man.He told me about Heaven and the things about the deep spiritual realm, as well as what would happen in the end time.His words everyday were sweeter than honey and honeycomb, and they were jewels as precious as the life.
And then, God told me to preach these words to the whole world.Whenever the words were preached, dead souls came back to lie, and souls in sleep woke up.The testimonies of salvation, answer, and blessing keep coming to my attention.
Tonight, I’d like to tell you what the gospel of holiness is; the gospel that is allowed to us.I pray in the name of the Lord that the grace of God who gave us the gospel of holiness in the history of Manmin may come upon you once again.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The gospel of holiness is, first of all, the word that changes our hearts.
How does it change our hearts?It is to turn a heart that is dirty due to sin and evil such as hot temper, hatred, adulterous mind, greed, arrogance, and craftiness into a pure heart.It is to circumcise a heart and to accomplish sanctification. Once the heart becomes clean and empty by casting off sin and evil, it is now to be filled with love, goodness and truth.
To the extent the heart is changed like this, it resembles the heart of Jesus Christ, and you recover the image of God who is the light. Only then, just as 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, can “your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
When I was a novice Christian, a famous pastor said one’s personality cannot change. He also said, “How can a man keep all the Ten Commandments? He only tries.”
But the bible doesn’t agree. 1 Peter 1:16 says, “…YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”And our Lord said in Matthew 5:48, “…you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”You must change your personality and habit, and even cast off the sinful attributes in the root to become the child of Holy God. Besides, the bible keeps telling us to depart from the darkness and accomplish sanctification as the child of God who is the light.
Of course, you cannot be sanctified by your own effort. But when you seek for it by faith and make an effort, the grace and strength of God will come upon you. And the Holy Spirit inside you will help you. He will help you burn the sinful attributes by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and pull them out one by one.
When you were yet a sinner, you accepted the Lord, and you were called righteous by faith. But that is not it. You now must get sanctified. God gave us many words that can help us change our heart into the sanctified one. He explained in great detail what sinful attributes to get rid of, and how to cast off the works of the flesh, things of the flesh, and even the original evil deep in our hearts. He also explained what truths to fill our hearts with, and about the spiritual love, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and Beatitude. He said that, to the extent our hearts change, our faith can also grow up.
1 John deals with the faith of fathers, faith of young men, and faith of children differently. The level of faith is not decided by how long you’ve come to church, how much you known the bible, or what title you have in the church.It is decided by how much sin and evil you cast off from your heart and how much you fill your heart with the truth and how well you resemble God.
As your faith grows up, you will have strength to defeat the enemy devil and Satan when they test you. You will get away from diseases and disasters, and receive blessings and answers. Furthermore, you can do miracles and manifest the power. And you will be great in Heaven.
Many people around the world testify.They went to church for a long time, but they suffered from trials and afflictions such as problems of children, troubles at work, and diseases. Since they knew this church and heard the gospel of holiness, however, darkness has gone from their lives and they’ve received answers and blessings. This gospel of holiness is the word that changes your heart and enables you to enjoy the rights of being the child of God.It is the word of life that helps you meet and experience God all the time, and receive answers and blessings.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
The gospel of holiness is, secondly, the word that helps you truly understand God the Father.
People of goodness can understand the divinity and power of God as they see the things in the universe, and they may meet and experience God in their Christian lives. They also learn God in the bible. But as men of flesh, there is a limit to understand God who is spirit.
For example, they have so many ideas about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.Some people say, “Why did God put the tree there and make Adam fall?”They don’t know the providence of God who let people experience relativity and choose the truth in their free will.
Some people think God forgives unconditionally. Even if they repeatedly commit sin, all they have to do is just repent with their lips; this is what they think.Others think God is the fierce God of judgment; they are only afraid of God.Since they don’t know the justice and love of God, they misunderstand God.
Through the gospel of holiness, God the Father explained to us in great detail the providence of cultivation, and the love and justice contained in it. He also told us about His fundamentals. Originally, God was the light containing the voice; He existed filling the entire space. That space was the heart of God, His power, His love, and His word.
Then God had a plan.He wanted to make one who could share all His glory and love He used to enjoy alone. That is, He decided to create and cultivate man on earth. Once God planned this human cultivation, He had to deal with all the sacrifices.
The betrayal of Lucifer, the sin of Adam, the flood of Noah, the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah; whenever He encountered these incidents, He had to suffer. When watching human beings stained by sin, He had to mourn and lament. He also had to suffer from giving up His one and only Son.
It is not true that God doesn’t feel a thing when He judges sinners and when He is betrayed only because He is God and spirit. Whenever He dealt with such things, He shed tears, and He had to turn His face away to avoid watching things.
As time went by, however, the children who understood the heart of God came out.Enoch, Abraham, and Moses; when a child of whole spirit came out like them. God the Father was consoled. Even tonight, God the Father is searching with earnest eyes of expectation and hope. He looks at you and me, saying, “Who can understand My mournful heart and who can understand my heart of love?”
To understand God the Father truly is to understand His sacrifice and love.It is to ardently understand the heart of God the Father who wants to save just one more soul and to give only the good things. Once you truly understand the love of the Father, it becomes great help and strength to cast off sin and evil and sanctify your heart.
You don’t constrainedly live your Christian life not to go to hell or to avoid punishments. You change your heart with joy to console the Father. Just as 1 John 2:14 says, the faith grows up to be the faith of fathers ‘to know God who has been from the beginning.’As you can see, the gospel of holiness is the holy word that teaches you the fundamentals of God the Father, and the word of power to help you understand the love of God and change.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
The gospel of holiness is, thirdly, the word to let you hope for heaven.
In 1984, it was the week of my birthday. God suddenly made me do 3-day fasting, and He said He would tell me about Heaven that I had prayed for. After the fasting, the amazing words came to me in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
What kind of place Heaven is, how it is divided, what kind of life is lived there, what is the heaven, heaven of heavens, what is the third heaven that Apostle Paul saw; He explained all these.He also told me that all the saved souls would not go to the same place, but that their dwelling place is decided by their measure of faith, and so is their rewards and glory. How their face, body, clothes look, how their houses are constructed, what rewards are given, how they live there; all of these things were explained. He didn’t vaguely say it is good and beautiful place; He let me vividly feel Heaven as if I could see it and touch it.
Since Apostle Paul saw Paradise in the 3rd heavenly kingdom, he could rejoice and give thanks under the persecution and sufferings. For the Lord and the soul, he sacrificed his time, energy, and even his life, he didn’t regard it difficult. Today, many people say they believe in the Lord, but they live their lives for the things of the earth.
However, we heard the gospel of holiness, and so we have vivid hope for heaven, and live our lives for the things above. We are more interested in how to be sanctified and faithful, how to pile up more in the sight of God instead of seeking for riches and honors of this world.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and precious guests.
The gospel of holiness that God the Father gave us is the powerful word that can change our hearts to reach spirit and whole spirit.It is the touching word that helps us understand the heart of God the Father and love Him in our free will.It is also the word of hope that can let us possess New Jerusalem, the best dwelling place in Heaven.
The fruits the church that fulfilled this word are our pastors and members. 33 years ago, when God the Father established Manmin church, He gave us vision of World Ministry. He told me to go over mountains and cross rivers to preach this gospel so that people can welcome the Lord who’s coming again.
Just as God was with the apostles followed by signs and miracles when they testified to the resurrection of the Lord, where this gospel of holiness was preached, God was always with us with great works of His power.I wish this word will be more preached to the whole world through you.Just as the Lord commanded, “you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth,” I urge you to peach this gospel not only to your family, relatives, and workplace, but also your country and whole world. As you do so, may you be in the praise, honor, glory of the Lord when the Lord embraces you, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
[Amen]
