Scripture
Genesis 1:1
[1] In the beginning God created heavens and the earth
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
This is the 8th Lecture on Genesis.
Continuing from the last lecture, I’m going to tell you 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, measuring people in view of the 7 fields.
If they pass the measure by the seven spirits according to their measure of faith, answers are given to their prayers.
I also said the standard to pass is not the same for all, but different according to each individual’s measure of faith.
That’s why the seven spirits measure their faith first, and the standard for the other 6 fields are set according to their own measure of faith.
“Joy” is the 2nd attribute that the seven spirits measure.
‘Joy’ is one of the most significant evidences possessed by those who are saved.
If you truly met God, and know there is judgment, Hell, and Heaven, and if you know you are saved and have become a citizen of the heavenly kingdom, don’t you think you ought to have joy!
Before you met God, you might have lived a life that was full of tears, sorrows, pain, worries, and death. You may have lived a life without joy.
But after you were saved and became the children of God, you lived lives with hope for Heaven in the love and grace of God. Isn’t it natural that you become full of joy?
Some of you may say that you were happy even before you met God
But I’d like to ask you whether the joy was true.
You were delighted only when there was something to be joyful about?
However, when you encountered a problem or a trouble, the joy disappeared.
It was a conditional joy that only existed when situation was beneficial to you in accordance with your feelings.
It was an incomplete joy that could change according to your situation.
However, those who possess spiritual joy in faith can always rejoice regardless the situation.
The joy always comes from the bottom of their heart because they acquired the eternal life that is most precious, and heaven is filling up their hearts.
Of course they may mourn spiritually from time to time for the souls and for the kingdom and righteousness of God.
But, the joy that is from the depth of the heart never disappears.
This spiritual joy is the privilege that only the saved children of God can enjoy.
It is also a standard that differentiates Christians from other worldly people.
Additionally, joy is evidence that you have faith.
When you have firm faith in God, and believe that He will give you answers, the joy comes from your heart even if it seems difficult in reality.
Those with the faith that is worthy of receiving answers from God look different when they come to me to receive my prayer.
No matter how hard or difficult their problem is, their faces are not full of worries or anxieties. They come with bright faces and with joy.
Since they believe that their problems will be solved by receiving prayer by faith, they have joy from the bottom of their hearts.
And sooner or later after receiving my prayer, they surely testify that they’ve received answers.
However, among those who were thought to have faith, there are some who lost the spiritual joy.
They may smile outwardly, but it is not truly from the depths of their heart.
In this case, chances are that, they may have lost their love and fervor for God, and their faith has cooled down.
Why is it that their fervent faith has cooled down like this?
It is because they loved the things of the world that have attracted them away from loving God.
1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
If you love the world and seek after the world, a wall of sin will arise between you and God, and then spiritual joy will disappear.
In this case, even if you’ve been a Christian for a long time and have titles, you cannot receive answers to your prayers.
Since you are short in the measure of the fruit of joy according to the measure of your faith, you cannot pass the measure of the seven spirits.
Dear brothers and sisters.
Joy also comes from peace.
You should first be at peace with God the Father, and then you should make peace with your neighbors.
Also, if you are in peace with yourself, joy will always pour out from you.
If you are in peace with God the Father, at least, the joy will not disappear from your heart.
To be in peace with God the Father, you should never make any wall of sin.
In other words, you should live in the Word of God.
Now, check yourself.
Do you truly have overflowing joy in your heart? Do you rejoice in this situation and that?
Did you rejoice a few months ago, or a few weeks ago? Did you rejoice yesterday and today?
If you did, you must be in peace with all others.
In other words, you must be in peace with God the Father as well as with others and yourself.
If you are in peace with all, the Holy Spirit will also rejoice, and He will give you the joy of heaven.
This joy from above cannot be taken away by anyone, not even by the enemy devil and Satan.
However, if you are not overflowing with joy like this, please check yourself where the peace is broken.
For instance, did you disregard a traffic regulation as something trivial and violate it?
No matter how small it is, breaking public law is breaking the peace.
When small acts of lawlessness add up one by one, the Holy Spirit will mourn, and thus joy also disappears.
Moreover, if you violate the commandments of God, it is no less than breaking peace with God and it is no wonder there is no joy in your heart.
Your heart will be troubled with anxieties, worries, and fear.
Those who easily fall asleep during worship services or prayer meetings are among those who don’t have joy.
Those who are full of the joy of heaven listen to the word of God with happiness, and offer fervent prayers.
However, those who don’t have faith don’t receive grace when they hear the word, and they pray by compulsion.
And so, their believing lives are not fun; they manage their lives by force of habit.
If you think you fall into this category, please cut yourself off from the things of the world first.
Cast off from the things of the world and long for the things of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be pleased with you and He will give you the joy of heaven.
And also, please find where the peace is broken, and make peace.
May you be full of the joy of heaven b y doing so, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
As the third measure, the Seven Spirits, measure “prayer.”
The Seven Spirits measure whether you pray without ceasing and whether you pray properly according to the will of God.
Even if you unconditionally pray for long hours, it doesn’t guarantee you pass.
Even if it is a short prayer, you should make it proper according to the heart of God.
A prayer that is appropriate to the heart of God is, first, the prayer that y seeks after God as a matter of habit.
Just as the Lord tells you to pray without ceasing, you must give prayer that becomes habitual by practice every day.
Only those who pray like this are awake all the time in spirit.
If you are spiritually awakened, you will not fall into temptation.
Even if you face a problem or a trial, you will be able to quickly pass through it.
When you pray, your prayer is piled up in heaven like a “saving account.’
If you have remained awake all the time and have prayed, when you encounter an urgent situation, you can receive answers even if you pray just a little bit.
It is like withdrawing money that you have saved in your saving account.
On the other hand, what if you haven’t prayed much?
How much and how long do you have to pray to solve a problem or to receive answer?
The bible says that to stop praying is sin. It may take a long time just to break the wall of sin of not praying.
Therefore, you should always pray without ceasing and make it habitual.
Next, you should kneel down when you pray.
Not only the prophets in the Bible, but Jesus also knelt down when he prayed.
You ought to kneel down in humility before Father God the Almighty and ask Him for what cannot be done by human ability.
There may be circumstances when you cannot kneel down.
Except in such situations, if you kneel down when you pray, it is very biblical.
And, you must pray not according to your will, but God’s will.
Jesus also prayed like this as written in Luke 22:42, where He prayed to God, “yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
You must pray not for your own will or sake, but for the will of God.
James 4:2-3 says, “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
In many parts of the bible, God the Father promises to you that He will give you if you ask.
The reason you ask and do not receive is that you ask with wrong motives to spend it on your pleasures.
If you asked with wrong motives and received, you would take the world and commit sin.
If you would eventually commit sin, how could God give you answer?
In Matthew 6:33, the Lord said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
If you don’t seek your own benefit, but the kingdom of God first, your prayer will be proper in the sight of God.
Then, God will give answer to your prayer for personal use.
I hope that all of you will pray according to the will of God like this.
Now, you must cry out fervently in your prayer.
The bible says that Jesus was “praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”
Even if you don’t pray like Him, you should at least pray fervently enough to sweat.
It is also a spiritual principle to receive answers.
In Genesis 3:19, God said to Adam, “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread.”
Just as you should toil with sweat on your face to eat, in order to receive answer to your prayer, your prayer should be fervent.
God also tells you many times in the bible to cry out in your prayer.
Jeremiah 29:12 says, “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.”
Jeremiah 33:3 also says, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
Since Jesus knew such will of God, He cried out loudly when He prayed.
When He revived Lazarus who had been dead for 4 days, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.”
Even when He was hung on the cross, He cried out with a loud voice in His prayer.
Luke 23:46 says, “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said this, He breathed His last.”
As written, Jesus also cried out with a loud voice in His prayer according to the will of God the Father.
Next, you should pray from the depth of your heart.
That’s because God looks at your heart and not at your outer appearance.
The prayer from the depth of your heart is to pray with your lips for what you truly wish in your heart.
Then, are there people who pray even though their hearts don’t want what they ask in prayer? Yes, there are.
Especially when praying for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, there are people whose prayer is formal repetition that they use to pray all the time.
For example, people pray repetitively saying, “Please make me at peace with all the people,” since they know they should be at peace with others.
However, they still have a heart that blames others and the heart that has hatred.
In order to make peace with others, they have to change themselves first.
If you wish others to change while they don’t change at all, it is not that they truly want to be in peace with others.
Therefore, no matter how many times they pray, “Let me be in peace with others,” it is not a truthful prayer from the depth of their hearts.
It is the same with the prayer for the kingdom of God.
No matter how holy you look outwardly and how fluently you pray, what God the Father searches is the truthfulness in the depth of your heart.
Lastly, you should pray in faith and love.
James 1:6-7 says, “But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
If you pray while thinking, “Can I really receive answer? What if I can’t?” then you cannot receive an answer.
You should truly believe that God, who is alive, will answer you. You should also pray with love for God.
When you pray for your church and souls, if you truly pray in love for the church and the souls, your prayer will turn into truly beautiful incense.
The prayer without faith and love cannot become the incense that God can receive.
Therefore, even if you pray for a short moment, you should pray in faith and love.
So far, I have told you what the seven spirits check when measuring your prayer.
When the seven Spirits measure just one field, like faith, they check many things.
They don’t just check whether or not you pray, or how many hours you pray.
By the word of God as the standard, they correctly measure everything from your attitude to your inner heart.
You should not think that knowing this is too much of a burden..
You should rather make up your mind, saying, “I will pray more diligently to pass the measure.”
I hope that you will pray like this and receive answers to the desire of your heart and give glory to God the Father.
Now, I’m going to talk about the 4th attribute the seven spirits measure.
It is “thankfulness.”
Thankfulness is also one of the fruits that you should bear as a child of God.
As long as you have true faith, even a little, you will make a confession of thanks in any given circumstance.
You cannot but be thankful when you remember you’ve received the grace of salvation.
You were originally destined to suffer in Hell forever, but you are given the grace of salvation.
You are given an eternal life and will live in Heaven forever.
How can you not give thanks?
Moreover, God of love has become your Father, and He is guiding every footstep in your life.
If you truly believe this, you cannot but give thanks in all situations.
If you’re a saved child of God, you can be thankful even if there’s no apparent reason for thanksgiving.
Then, as your faith grows up stronger, God gives you more blessing, and thus you have more reasons for thanksgiving.
How many reasons do you have to give thanks just in a day?
You should be thankful for being protected in this world which is inundated with accidents and misfortunes.
Even when you drive a car, you should have nothing to worry about.
You should give thanks because God protects you from the evil forces.
1 John 5:18 says, “We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.”
There are countless diseases in this world.
If God doesn’t protect you, you may get stricken by such a disease or even two or three.
It is because the air and other environmental factors are polluted, and many diseases are newly found.
However, as long as you don’t commit sin before God, He protects you from any and all of the diseases. How thankful you are!
You should be thankful for having your body function properly for many decades.
Just how complex are your nerve system and blood vessels in your body from head to toe?
If just one blood vessel is clogged, or if just one nerve cell becomes numb, in an instant your body doesn’t function properly.
However, most of you have never been to a hospital for years or for decades.
God has protected you and you have remained healthy.
There are many wealthy people who don’t receive healing of diseases but die.
Even if they are healed of a disease, they may be stricken by another disease.
Many times, the disease they thought they were healed of reoccurs.
However, those of you who live by the word of God don’t worry about getting sick. How thankful you are!
Even if a disease gets into you, you know well how to be healed by God.
Moreover, this church has the power of God who can heal any sort of incurable diseases.
Even if you don’t pay for expensive treatments in a hospital, when you receive prayer by faith, you can be healed.
Is it limited only to diseases?
You can also solve your life troubles, business problems, and family matters, and receive blessings.
There are uncountable reasons for thanksgiving.
Since I accepted the Lord, I have been full of thanks in my heart.
There were times when I was poor and troubled.
Since I started this church though, I have overcome many difficulties that others think was impossible to overcome.
However, the thanks in my heart has grown ever greater in my heart.
How is it possible?
It is because “the thanksgiving from the depth of heart gives birth to other thanks.”
I always seek reasons for thanksgiving, and give prayers of thanks to God the Father.
Not only prayer of thanks, but also I give thanks offerings to God.
In addition to regular thanks-offerings, I look for a special reason for thanksgiving and give thanks-offerings to God.
For example, in my gratitude for God’s grace during this year’s summer retreat, I give thanks offerings.
I also give thanks offerings because God the Father gave us the songs to offer our praise.
I also give thanks offerings after I come back from the mountain prayer.
If there is a seminar, I give thanks offerings before the seminar and after the seminar.
Since I always look for reasons for thanksgiving and enjoy giving thanks, the reasons for thanksgiving don’t stop for me.
And God the Father continually gives me His blessing and grace that I cannot stop giving thanks to Him.
He has given me overflowing financial blessings.
Therefore please, I hope you, too, will give thanks in all situations.
Even if you are immediately facing some difficulty right now, just believe in God and give thanks to Him.
I hope you will pass the measure of the seven spirits of God like this.
If you give thanks only when you have a reason to give thanks, but if you don’t give thanks when you are in a difficult situation, you cannot pass the test, can you?
Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
No matter how bad your circumstances or conditions may be, please give thanks to God by faith.
God will be pleased with your works of faith that are like this, and He will make all things work for good.
May you always give glory to God with the confession of thanks, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
[Amen]
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