Moscow, March 20, 1997
On Receiving the Answers to Prayer
Now I want to give, by way of answer to what you
mentioned about communicating with God, part of the
testimony of Rev. Mrs. HSK, the National
Messiah to Russia, and the first member of the Unification
Church to join in South Korea, who met Father on the very
same day that he finished writing the Divine Principle book.
Here is part of her testimony, from 1986, before American
Christian ministers:
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There was an old lady by the name of Mrs. Auk who had
followed Rev. Moon from North Korea and had rejoined
him in South Korea, an elderly lady, and she was talking to
me and said, "Look at him -- he is a great man. He is a really
excellent and great man. God really loves him so much."
And so I said to her, "Why do you always brag about this
man? he is just a man. Why do you keep on bragging about
him like that?" And so she said, "I understood who he is
through a revelation from God. So I asked, "What do you
mean a revelation from God? Did God actually speak to
you?" She said, "Yes, I heard the voice of God talking to
me." And so I said, "What does it sound like, the voice of
God?" She said, "Well, it sounds similar to a man's voice."
So I said, "Well, I have been a Christian for a long time, and
I have never heard the voice of God. I have never heard
God speak, so next time when you hear the voice of God,
why don't you invite me?"
So she said to me, "When God speaks it is a
spiritual experience, and that time only one person, the
person who is spiritually open, can hear it. So if I hear it, it
doesn't mean that you can hear it at the same time." So I
asked her, "How can I hear the voice of God?" She
answered, "If you throw away your selfish thoughts and
you pray with a sincere heart, and you completely abandon
your own thoughts and just open yourself up to the voice of
God, to the love of God, then He can speak to you." So I
went to my church and I started praying but nothing
happened. I was waiting for God to say something, but he
didn't . But then after a few days, finally, suddenly, I heard a
Bible verse spoken. It was from Philippians, Chapter 3,
verse 20. ["But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly
await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ."] I heard
that verse spoken very loudly, in a loud voice, but nobody
was in the church. I was looking around, and I was looking
for a hidden microphone or something. But there was
nothing. There was nobody in the church except for myself.
But then it kept repeating the same verse, three times. I
heard the same verse spoken very distinctly, very loudly to
me, but there was nobody I could see. So I went to Rev.
Moon and I talked to him and I said, "Listen, I was praying
and I heard voices. What's happening." And so he said,
"Are you going crazy or what?" "Why, what do you mean
I'm going crazy? I'm trying to believe straightforwardly. I'm
trying to believe in the right way about Jesus Christ. How
come I am going crazy?" And so he said, "Don't worry. If
you are going crazy for God, that's okay."
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That is the end of the relevant part of Mrs. Kang's testimony
which I wanted to share with you, which I thought relevant
to your question about how to communicate with God. Now
I want to add some of my own comments or suggestions on
what you have said.
God wants to communicate with us. When we pray, we
believe that God is hearing our prayer. Maybe He will
answer and maybe He will not -- generally indirectly, and
generally by taking some time.
What constitutes "communication with God"?
Communication is a two-way affair. We talk or share our
heart, and also we hope or expect to hear an answer, or that
some kind of response or effect will come about at some
time.
Now, ideally, if we can communicate with God, we should
be able to ask God some question, sincerely, and be able to
quickly receive an answer, especially if it is an urgent matter
upon which our own response is also depending. We have
many times to make decisions. So we ask God's guidance.
Before we ask, "How will God guide us?", we must ask,
"Upon what conditions will God guide me or listen to me?"
Then we realize something similar to the points of the 7
Essential Points of U.F.T.: Especially I call attention to:
Know God's Heart, Know God's nature, Know God's Will,
Become a godly person, Know the reality, Do God's Will.
Basically, the meaning is that, God can pay attention to you,
take you seriously, when you are in the position of knowing
His Heart, His Providence (plan or purpose), and ready and
willing to do His Will (His bidding or commandment to
you).
God's more bright spirit, clear guidance, and active help will
come to you who are doing His Will. This is demonstrated
time and again by our brothers and sisters in the Unification
Movement. Then the issues of your life take second place,
and God's Will takes first place, the surging mainstream,
and naturally He will help you and bless you and protect
you so that you can do His Will.
What is God's Will? It can be big or small. There is God's
Will for you personally, for your family, for your Church,
for your city, for your nation, for mankind. Also, on time
scales, there is God's desire on a moment by moment basis,
like which direction you step in, and also day by day --
somebody you should meet, some purpose or project which
is in God's Will, etc. Also, more long-term projects and
directions connected to Father's directions, which
specifically apply to you or to the Church members in
general, or to mankind as a whole.
You should have goals and plans in line with God's Will. A
daily goal, weekly goal, monthly goal, year's goal, 7-year
plan, 10-year goals, 21-year period, goal by the age of 40,
lifetime ambition or goal in line with God's desire, and even
goals for 100 years for your nation, even you can pray for
your nation and for the human race ten thousand years from
now, even 1 million years in the future. Mankind will be
conducting God's Will very actively on an intergalactic level
a million years from now!
So, back to the point: How to receive God's message?
Here are some of the gifts God has given us for receiving
guidance from Him:
(1) Intuition: Father has said intuition is the highest gift.
(2) Heart: The God-centered heart is guided by God. We
should "heartl", or "heart-love", or "shimjung" -- a
Unification term. It is like emotion, but deeper, more
connected to eternity and God's Own Heart. "The heart
knows best what is right."
(3) The brain, or intellect. God gave us our brain (mind) to
think. We should remember the human mind is not like a
physical computer or some such apparatus, but primarily
spiritual, and the brain itself, with many levels and
hierarchies and functions of sung-sang, is rather like a
mediator or transceiver for the highest spiritual level of our
existence. Our mind must be educated by Divine Principle
so that we can reason out what is right and true and
"Principled". Whatever you hear, or whatever comes to
mind, check it out by Principle. That's why you should also
know and practice Principle thoroughly. Many times God
does not answer a question directly. Then the approach is to
think, "What is God's purpose, how does His purpose relate
to this matter or question, and what is the Principled way to
work out the answer or solution?" Then, by thinking it out
and taking responsibility for it yourself, God will be even
more pleased. You can think and do "in advance of or ahead
of God". This is a true Son or Daughter of God and True
Parents. God and True Parents are very pleased with such a
mature son or daughter.
(4) The physical body. You know, you "get a gut feeling".
That is something like intuition. But, since our minds or
spirits are foggy, then God works to warn or remind us
through our physical organs -- like our heart, stomach, even
womb -- in the "Inside Belly Church" of Lady Ho Ho Bin,
when she received revelations, her womb would move.
Because your physical organs have a sung-sang dimension,
and the physical body itself is actually purer than our fallen
mind, then God can work through it. But you have to offer
it to God, and you may have to make conditions of
indemnity to place yourself in the position for God to guide
you without the false interference of evil spirits. As you
know, for example, your sexual organs are very vulnerable
to evil spiritual influences -- even when you are not looking.
(5) The Bible. You can pray, ask a question, and open the
Bible, Divine Principle, Way of God's Will, or most any
holy book, and you can often receive a surprising direct
answer to your question. God may tell you something you
may not want to hear, or which is painful, or a scolding to
you. But you will see that God or some angel has directly
given an answer to you. However: Do not worship the book
alone as the ultimate authority to God, as some Christians
do, even not listening to their heart, conscience, nor True
Parents and spiritual Jesus, for that matter. So they make a
mistake.
(6) Your central figure. God works through central figure.
Ask him or her. Amazingly, in the position of Central
Figure, he/she is given a kind of common sense or God-
centered, whole-purpose viewpoint by which to clearly
distinguish or judge a matter that may be obscure to you.
(7) True Parents. I have had the opportunity to see True
Parents many times. I can tell you: If you have a question in
your heart, when you see True Parents, they will almost
invariably address your silent question, and you will be
most amazed to see that they know your mind and heart as if
personally. Furthermore, if you ever have the chance, as I
once did, you may be able to ask True Parents a direct
question. I received a big one-and-one-half hour answer to
my question to Father once. God works most directly
through True Parents, because they are the Messiah, Parents
to mankind and to you personally, and the True Son and
Daughter of God, the first ones ever, since Jesus Christ
walked on earth.
(8) Your own parents. Believe it or not, through several
steps, it was really because I listened to my parents' advice,
that I ended up meeting the Church. My father said, "Get on
the bus and go to San Diego, or I will stuff you in the car
and drive you there myself!" So I met the Church and
joined. Even after joining, occasionally my parents gave me
good advice. My mother said, "Listen to your wife. She is
very sensible. She knows what is good for you." Yes. You
too?
(9) Cain. Yes, listen to Cain. Cain is the person who is not
in the position closer to God, but is criticizing, even
accusing, and, possibly, hating and trying to destroy you
and your work. Listen to Cain. Why? Because Cain is most
sensitive to Abel's faults and failings and weaknesses. Cain
is closely observing Abel and ready to accuse anything even
slightly unprincipled. So you can be educated by Cain!
BUT: Cain is not coming from a parental heart in general,
and, in general, the person with a parental heart, who loves
you, can help you with the most eternal, spiritual benefit.
Cain is not shy to point out the fault, whereas Abel often is
so polite, and says nothing but embraces with love.
(10) Nature. God speaks through or works through nature.
Ask for a sign. The ancients looked for signs in the
heavens, in the animals (eagles, frogs, bullocks, etc.), and
the trees and rocks. They were very sensitive and perceptive
to these. Then they would base important decisions on this
sign, like to go to war or not, to listen to a messenger's
warning or not. God can work through nature because it is
pure and unviolated. Again, some kind of condition is often
necessary, in order to get a reliable sign from nature.
(11) An altar, or conditional object. When you set up an
altar, it is specifically directed toward God or heaven. Then,
how God responds to your offering is most significant. We
have not emphasized the aspect of God's response or
reciprocal action to our offering, but in the ancient days, an
offering was clearly accepted by God or rejected. Even fire
would come down. Or the sacrificial animal would have an
interesting appearance in its internal organs. Something like
that. The altar is an offering of purity. The offering should
be combined with tears and sincerity of heart, utmost
desperate entreaty to heaven.
(12) Inner voice. As Mrs. Kang's testimony, also Joan of
Arc and many others, the internal voice can be an answer
from heaven. Be careful though: The voice may be your
own, or an evil spirit, or your "socially educated
conscience", or your "Principle-educated conscience", or a
holy saint or good ancestor, or a very high spirit, or even
God Himself. Another point about the inner voice: even a
good spirit, who can guide you well, also has some point of
fallen nature, or is limited at a certain level of historical
providence, and needs to be restored, and can only be
restored by you, so they can help you up to that point, and
then, their level of heart comes out to be limited, and they
may even tempt you to go the wrong way. Then you have to
be subject and guide them instead, and do the right thing.
Otherwise you may fall to a temptation. This is a very
common danger.
(13) Dreams. Dreams come from different sources: From
your psyche or inner psychological makeup and situation,
so they serve to let you know what is your inner state -- the
state of your soul, or psychological well-being. You can be
spiritually healthy, going up, and yet psychologically
neurotic. So the dream can show you the state of
contradiction within you. Secondly, the dream can come
from your interests or desires, but not necessarily indicate
God's will, nor be prophetic in nature. Thirdly, the dream
can be an indication of the spiritual state of things in the
providence on a worldwide level, or a more personal level.
You don't need to take a dream too seriously, but take note
of it, reflect, think, pray about it, write it down. Even keep a
"dream diary". Fourthly, the dream can be a definite
prophecy or warning. This is rather rare, but for some
people it is very significant. Basically, don't take dreams all
too seriously, except in special cases. Report it to Central
Figure for advice, if you feel so.
(14) Mediums (soothsayers). They are gifted, but generally
tainted or conditioned by complete immersion in the fallen
world. They usually have self-centered motivations, and are
open to a certain low level of spirit world. They can often
truly see, but they are under the clouds, whereas you are
high in the stratosphere in the sunlight of God, spiritually
speaking. Honestly, even Father has consulted or suggested
to people to consult mediums, and taken their advice
seriously. The true medium should testify to Father and the
Kingdom of Heaven, and give warnings of the Last Days to
the nation and its people and leaders. But generally it is not
necessary or even desirable for us Unification Church
members.
Remember, you are subject, and the dream or any other
spiritual medium is object. You are on earth doing God's
Will at the tip of the spearpoint of the providence, or at least
along the shaft. God Himself is watching and loving and
concerned about you, and wants to make sure you go the
right way. So He will really try to guide you in your life and
your daily life. You are a historical and important person.
I hope this may help you to distinguish God's Will and
receive His guidance, and to be in the position to do His
Will. Then it will also certainly benefit your life, in the long
term, for the sake of others and for the sake of your nation,
and in the more spiritual sense.
To rightly know God's Will, consult Principle, ask Central
Figure, offer indemnity conditions, pray, and keep your
physical and spiritual senses open.
Oh, another thing Father said, in the Way of Tradition: To
receive the help and guidance of spiritual world, your spirit
and heart should be calm as a lake. Usually in the early
hours of morning, when your blood has settled, and the
impurities have settled to the bottom, your spirit is clearest.
Then you can receive heavenly revelation or God's
guidance.
Yours truly, for the benefit of all,
William S. Stoertz,
ITPN
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