[Passage]
Hebrews 2:4
“God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”
[Introduction]
Dear brothers and sisters, and guests, today is the 33rd anniversary of Manmin Central Church.
Let us give all thanks and glory to God the Father who has established and guided this church for the last 33 years. I give thanks to all the guests who have come to celebrate together with us, and I welcome you all. I give thanks to all the pastors, workers, and members who have been in this church since the opening. I also give thanks to the members and viewers who are attending this service on the Internet and through TV broadcasting all over the world. I pray in the name of the Lord that God the Father will bless you for you are celebrating the 33rd anniversary of this church. I hope you will have a wonderful day today!
Dear brothers and sisters, and guests,
The 33 years of history of Manmin, first of all, has been history of fulfilling the Word of God.
In other words, it is the history of the Holiness Gospel. This Holiness Gospel contains the reason why God the Father created the heavens and the earth and cultivates men. It is because He wants to gain true children with whom He can share love. For this reason He made His only begotten Son Jesus the atoning sacrifice and also sent the Holy Spirit to us.
When those children of God who have accepted Jesus Christ cultivate holiness of heart through the help of the Holy Spirit, then they become God’s true children. Such true children will have the evidence that God is with them and furthermore God walking with them. That evidence is ‘Power’.
This power belongs to God as in Psalm 62:11.God gives His power to ‘true children’ who are after His heart. Mark 16:20 says, “And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.”Because the gospel preached by the disciples was true, the Lord worked with them, and the evidence was shown through the signs.
In the 33 years of Manmin’s history as well, God’s power has been manifested constantly. Hebrews 2:4 says, “God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”God confirmed with His power that the holiness gospel preached in this church is the pure Word of God.
Now, let us look back at the 33 years of history of God’s power briefly.
[Main]
Dear brothers and sisters, and guests,
Let me talk to you about the 33 years of history of power in three major aspects.
First, it is ‘signs and wonders’.
First, a wonder is the work of God moving the heavens. It is to move the celestial bodies in the universe and to control the weather conditions on this earth including snow, rain, clouds, temperature, or air pressure.
For the last 33 years of Manmin’s history, we’ve repeatedly experienced such wonders. Especially, we experienced new kinds of wonders in every summer retreat. We experienced a wonder right from the first summer retreat of our church.
It was on August 1, 1983. It had rained very heavily since the night before the day of the retreat. Those young adults who lived far away from the church slept over at the church to depart for the retreat at 5 AM. But even at 4 AM, it didn’t seem like the rain was going to stop any time soon.
We got ready to start by 4:55 anyway, and there was thundering and lightning and strong wind. So we prayed in union that the rain would stop. But even after the prayer the situations didn’t change at all. So, I proclaimed, “Just do not worry and go downstairs with your luggage. The rain will stop when the first person steps on the ground.”They all said ‘Amen’ and began to move. And as soon as the first person stepped on the ground, the heavy rain suddenly became like mist. The thundering and lightning also stopped.
This was how the first Manmin summer retreat started. And for the last 33 years, God gave us the optimal weather conditions for every retreat. Sometimes the course of the approaching typhoons was changed or they died out. During the time when we had athletic events, thick clouds came and covered the scorching sun, or there were cool breezes.
And in this year, God worked with the heavenly wind to give us even spiritual energy. The whole country was under hot weather warnings, but our retreat location had the optimal weather conditions. In the evening meeting, it was around 21 degrees Celsius (about 70F). Although it was outdoors, we experienced the spiritual space of another dimension as if we were in a very well air-conditioned room. We could feel the happiness of Heaven.
In the retreat of the year 2000, at the Muan Manmin church, thousands of members watched together as there were three stars moving. This moving of the stars has been one of the most common wonders that we experience at every retreat. And the same goes for the dragonflies coming down and making the members happy. Actually dragonflies are very fast and very hard to catch.
But they sit on the fingertips and other parts of the body of the believers. They catch the mosquitoes. It is like experiencing the wonder of the quail written in the book of Exodus. We can understand the wonders written in the Bible because we experience them, and through this we came to have greater faith.
And one of the wonders we cannot exclude in this church is that of the rainbows. In this world, they say rainbow is an arch that has seven colors made by the drops of water in the air reflecting the sunlight, which usually appears at the other side of the sun after rain. But how is it with us? We see a rainbow even on a sunny day, and we see it even around the moon at night. We don’t only see the usual arch shaped, but we have seen extraordinary shapes such as circular, straight, and symmetrical rainbows and for more than 300 days a year.
Revelation 4:3 says, “There was a rainbow around the throne,” and Genesis 9:16 says it is the symbol of God’s promise. If you believers who love God asked Him to show you rainbows, God did show you the rainbows. Even when we were conducting overseas crusades He showed us rainbows as the evidence that He is with us.
Brothers and sisters, James 5:17-18 says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. [18] Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.”In the history of Manmin, there have been many cases where drought was resolved.
First, it was during the India crusade held in 2002. The Tamil Nadu state where the crusade was held had been in a drought that had lasted for three years, and they barely had any rain for 10 months. So, the whole state went on a strike against the central government for an increase in thesupply of water. It was so serious that it was called a ‘war’.
But from the day our mission delegation arrived at the airport, it began to rain. During the crusade, too, it rained every day, and it quenched the drought. Of course, we gave glory to God greatly through the explosive works of God’s power in the crusade, and the estimated total attendance of 3 million for the 4 days.
In September 2009, Israel also had been in a long lasting drought. The water level of Galilee was getting very low and it caused very deep concerns. So, on the first day of the crusade, September 6, 2009,in the International Convention Center (ICC) in Jerusalem, I prayed that Israel would have rain.
At that time, Israel was in the dry season; they could expect rain only from late October. But when we left Israel, there was rain near the Galilee. After several days, there was quite a bit of rain in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, too. After experiencing such a wonder, the local pastors asked me to pray once again. So, I prayed once again, and there was more rain after that in Israel. For God’s power, there is nothing impossible.
Brothers and sisters, now let me talk about signs among the works of God’s power. A sign is a clear trace of the works that have been done through the Lord’s working together with believersor the works of the Holy Spirit.
Mark 16:17-18 says, “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; [18] they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”To heal an incurable disease is a sign. To drive away demons is also a sign.
The disciples of the Lord and the apostle Paul also showed many signs in their ministry. Acts 19:11-12 says, “God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, [12] so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.”
Such extraordinary works began to take place frequently in this church since 2000. Of course, there were many signs that took place through me even before the opening of this church. However, the same kinds of signs began to take place when assistant pastors and other workers prayed for the sick with the handkerchief on which I prayed. That is how we now had a new form of crusades called ‘Handkerchief Prayer Meeting’ all over the world.
Let me just introduce one of those cases.After the 2009 Israel United Crusade, they have had commemoration meetings every year. So, pastor Soojin Lee, the chairperson of the Pastors Association of our church, went there as the speaker many times. There were many signs and wonders that took place when she prayed with the handkerchief on which I prayed.
And in 2013, something very extraordinary and amazing took place. Pastor Soojin Lee prayed in Israel for a very sick person in ICU who was in Russia, and the patient miraculously recovered. That person was a younger brother of Pastor Yuri Kalmikov of Water of Life church in Haifa. That patient had received many surgeries for his heart condition but did not get better, and his life was in danger. He couldn’t live without the life support.
In this situation, his older brother, pastor Yuri, received the handkerchief prayer from Pastor Soojin Lee. And the work of power took place transcending time and space. Pastor Yuri’s brother began to recover from that time, and his heart became healthy. He was released within several days. It is not that I prayed for him personally, or that the patient received the handkerchief prayer directly. Just by praying with the handkerchief on which I prayed, a work of power was manifested transcending time and space. God is almighty, and to those who earnestly seek Him and pray to Him, He shows that He is alive.
Dear brothers and sisters, and guests,
Let me talk to you about the second aspect in the works of power that has continued for the last 33 years. It is divine healing and solving problems. Of course they belong to the category of signs, but let me elaborate on these. Matthew 15:30-31 says, “And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. [31] So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.”
The healing works that Jesus performed have also taken place regularly in this church. Those who were on crutches or wheelchairs came to walk by themselves after receiving prayers. Eyes that had been blind regained sight, and bad sight was improved. Those who couldn’t hear since birth came to hear. Such news spread all over the world, and many deaf and mute believers from around the world attended the summer retreats. This year there were 29 deaf and mute people in attendance, and 21 of them testified that they can hearbetter now.
Additionally, atopic dermatitis, burns, and skin diseases that are difficult to cure with medicine were also healed. Also many infertile couples came to have babies after receiving my prayer and came to have happy families. Even Down’s Syndrome in a fetus was healed. Furthermore, when the parents earnestly wished, the gender of the fetus was changed from a boy to a girl or vice versa.
Diseases can be prevented, but humans are very fragile in event of sudden accidents. Many Manmin members were protected even in accidents. For example, many believers were not injured although their vehicles were severely damaged in traffic accidents. There was a pregnant woman in the van who was thrown out of the vehicle, but both she and her fetus were fine.
There were other kinds of accidents, too. Once, a big grape was sucked into the lung of a two-month old baby. He couldn’t breathe even with the oxygen mask. They had to give him some electric shock so he could breathe for half an hour each time. But then, after receiving the prayer recorded on the telephone automatic response system, he recovered. He grew up well, and he went to college this year. (Jeong Taek Lee at Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology)
Brothers and sisters, there are people who are spreading such works of power as these. They are the numerous Christian medical doctors in WCDN, the World Christian Doctors Network. They testify about the divine healing cases with medical documentation. They do that in the conference held annually by the WCDN. This year they had the 12th conference in Malaysia.And they will have the next one in Spain next year. The works of power of God are such obvious facts that medical doctors can confirm them.
[Conclusion]
Dear brothers and sisters, and guests,
For the 33 years of Manmin’s history, the works of power have always been becoming greater. Because I met the living God, I believed all the signs and wonders in the Bible 100%, and I wanted to perform them, too. It’s becauseJohn 4:48 says, “So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.””
God the Father gave me His power, and since the opening of the church, He has been showing us greater works year after year. This is to fulfill His providence at the end time toward the end of human cultivation. It is to fulfill His plan of world evangelism through this church.
This is the third aspect of the works of God’s power. I will continue to talk about this in the evening service which starts at 3 PM. Once again, I give thanks to all of you for your congratulations on this 33rd anniversary. May God the Father bless all of you, too, I pray in the name of the Lord.
(AMEN!)
