Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 226

Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 8: Life of Faith and Training
Chapter 1: What Is a Life of Faith
Section 3: The Path of Faith, 27
Section 4: Stages in a Life of Faith, 09

(27)  When God created Adam and Eve, He invested Himself wholeheartedly based on that original relationship. In the same fashion, we must transform our fallen selves and strive to return to our original position, by investing several dozen times greater effort than God did, using all his creativity through thousands of years of history. In the history of restoration, the effort to secure a foundation of goodness has run to hundreds of attempts and has taken tens of thousands of years.

(28)  The human body and conscience began to fight once they were placed under the realm of Satan's love, within the devil's dominion, which stands opposed to the original mind. The critical issue is how to resolve this fight between our conscience and our body. Resolving the issue at the personal level, however, is not enough. Each of us must repair the global environment, which has been overtaken by satanic forces. The environment should not contradict us; it should adjust to us. It should even follow us. Unless we accomplish the correct order of dominion, we cannot move in the direction to which our original minds aspire.

(29)  We must ask ourselves, "What kind of being am I?" We are divine princes and princesses with cosmic value who are meant to find the crown of glory at the end of our lives, inheriting all of creation and the entire universe. Is it acceptable that people with such value be sold for a bowl of rice, or be the puppet of a group of worthless outlaws? Absolutely not! We must find ourselves. We need to bear the responsibility for our own restoration and rebuild our original nature. We have to ask, "Where is my original self?" We are searching, full of hope as we struggle to reunite with our true selves. We must uncover our self, which is connected with the origin of history, with cosmic law, with today's reality, and with the future.

Section 4.  Stages in a Life of Faith

(1)  If you look at the Chinese character for shin (信), meaning belief, you will see it is a combination of the characters for person (人) and word (言). Belief, therefore, means a person's word. "Word" here signifies the means of communication that connects two people. When there is an absence of relationship, not a word is spoken. But when two people speak there is immediately an underlying giving and receiving. So, to form a relationship, we need belief. Moreover, the foundation for a relationship emerges from a connection established with love. But such a relationship cannot be established arbitrarily. A connection is possible because the necessary conditions of energy are there and somehow the levels of both parties' objectives coincide.

The stages in establishing our faith

(2)  Hope always supports faith. What does faith demand? If a person has perfect faith, faith demands that he match it in value with substantial effort. Faith means standing for and believing in the person who has matched the ideal of creation, who is in accord with principled law, and who has not fallen, but has reached perfection, and then is acting accordingly. The one who is victorious in this kind of faith will realize his hope. God's love comes naturally to the one who achieves victory in faith and hope.

(3)  Since God's formula based on principle requires absolute faith, He had no choice but to command Noah to build the ark on top of a mountain. Noah faithfully accomplished his task over 120 years. That is how the number 120 could be reclaimed. Noah invested his entire life in carrying out God's command. After the flood, Noah's sons realized that their father had been correct, and they respected him, saying, "We thought our father was insane. But, as he predicted, God's judgment came to pass and only our eight family members are left. Our father's words were true. He is a prophet and a man of God." Nevertheless, after the flood, when Ham saw his father lying asleep naked, he felt ashamed and called his two brothers, saying, "Father is crazy. Now he's sleeping naked." Then they took a garment and, walking backward, covered Noah's naked body. With this act, the brothers completely denied Noah's God-ordained position. That they opposed him in the end is undeniable. Therefore, we must practice absolute faith before God.  We must devote absolute faith only to God, not to Satan. The one who dedicates absolute faith only to God will surely be blessed by God as the father of faith. God cannot help but love such a person.

(4)  When we look at faith and practice, there is always a gap between the two.  Faith always precedes practice, not the other way around. Only when fallen human beings have strong faith can they practice it vigorously. But God does not look at faith only. God requires faith as a bridge to a better outcome through practice. In spite of this, people neglect the practice and focus primarily on faith. This is at odds with what God desires, but this is the way people generally practice their faith.

(5)  God began the creation with absolute faith. So to accomplish the providence of restoration, He also had to begin it with absolute faith. However, absolute faith must be practiced with absolute love as the center. Love is the subject partner, and faith is the object partner. This is why everyone yearns for absolute faith; this desire centers on love. The purpose of love is to give birth to the universe. Absolute faith is needed for creation. In order to create this immense universe, God has to invest His entire mind and body and continue to invest unto eternity.

(6)  Absolute faith is about living for others. The absolute God lives for others.  During their courtship, young men and women ask each other how much each believes in and cares for the other. In order to lay a path of living for others, the two must become one over time. Absolute faith creates an object partner. On top of that, investment is required, since unity is forged based on true love. One side must begin investing to level things out. But who should do this? A man cannot ask that a woman invest herself for his sake, just as a woman cannot demand that a man invest himself for her sake. Both parties need to invest selflessly in each other in the hope of attaining the greater goal. Practicing this is absolute faith and absolute love.

(7)  Why is absolute faith needed? God, Himself, needs to reach the highest, ideal standard. Based on this standard, the realm of love's object partner appears. Thus, God created with absolute faith the realm of the object partner, including the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms. God also invested Himself with His absolute love. God invested Himself absolutely during the mineral era, the plant era, and the animal era. After these comes the era of settlement. Unless we reach that final point where our mind and body absolutely do not fight each other, a heavenly world cannot be established.

(8)  What is absolute faith? It is all about establishing the order of absolute love. It is all for love. A person who seeks absolute faith for the sake of absolute love forgets about him or herself as an individual embodiment of truth and invests everything. And when God invests Himself completely, ignoring the internal nature and external form of His own divine character, only then can His object partner become perfect.  Thereafter, God can say, "Please make me a Parent who can love His child as the Owner of love." But it is the child who fulfills this request. Neither God nor the father and mother can do this.

Removing the fallen nature through practice

(9)  God has toiled up to the present day, seeking to find what was lost. It is not because He is unable to take dominion over human beings. Similarly, God has been fighting Satan and his accusations not because He has no authority. God fights in this way in order to establish the Principle. In this great struggle, God actually permits Satan to act; then He does the great spiritual work of rearranging what Satan has done. Satan cannot accuse God for rearranging what he himself has dominated first. Thus, the wisest person is the one who knows how to get even Satan to run God's errands. Such a person will be the ultimate victor.