Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 241

Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 8: Life of Faith and Training
Chapter 2: Training the Mind and Body
Section 6: Life with the Goal of Mind-Body Unity, 03-14

A life of witnessing

(3)  God trudged through the course of restoration and found the individual and the family, but this individual and family shunned Him. And yet God continues to walk toward the salvation of the world. In the same way, each of us also has to advance. We cannot avoid this path, even though it is perilous, filled with life-threatening dangers and wandering paths of sorrow. We must walk the same path as our Father, and seek to share in His adversity and sorrow. This is the concept of unity. When we truly come to realize the Will of our Father, no matter what hardships we face, we can overcome them. Furthermore, however challenging the circumstances may become, God is our Father and His difficulties are our difficulties. Therefore, we inherit God’s tradition and engraft into His heart and history by enduring pain when the Father is in pain. This is logical. Unification Church members have to go this way without rest. Just as Jesus prayed and bore witness, even when facing death on Calvary, we Unification Church members have to bear witness in this world shrouded in the darkness of death. Even in hell, we have to witness to the most miserable of people.

(4)  A life of faith is not a side job. It is a main and primary vocation. When you meet someone, who knows what will happen to this person afterward if you do not share the Word with him or her? Do not view this person as simply another person; view this person as your parent, your brother or your sister. If you are late, try to create a condition to meet again. Excuse yourself for having been late to a meeting and having been unable to share the Word, and set up another appointment.

(5)  Witnessing is not easy, because it is the activity that enables God to engraft a new life to a person. This is why you need to offer devotional conditions, even if it is for but one person. For how many people have you risked your life and offered conditions? Do not boast that there are a large number of people offering conditions for you. Those who offer devotional conditions for others will be blessed, but the recipients of others' offerings will not be blessed. Hence, we need to be the ones who offer conditions. If the other person does not listen to us in spite of the conditions we have offered, do not feel lonely or sad. Just accept that the heavenly principle works this way. If you have this disposition, you will never feel lonely or sad.

(6)  Witnessing is like giving birth. Based on my experience, it takes three times more effort to raise someone into a person as trusting as a child than it does to give birth. We must take responsibility for those people even after witnessing to them. And for someone who has gone astray to return, they have to either feel astonishingly and profoundly tearful, vexed, and depressed with themselves, or an unprecedented explosion of heart.

(7)  For whom are we witnessing? Yes, we are witnessing for God and for humanity, but we are really witnessing for our children and ourselves. Indeed, we are witnessing for ourselves. Therefore, we cannot hold grudges against others; rather, the target of our resentment should be ourselves. We need to do witnessing ourselves instead of ordering other people to do so. Only then will there emerge that place in which we wish to live.

(8)  We have to witness like hungry people seeking food. Just as we recognize the value of food when we are hungry, witness with the same intensity to receive support from the spirit world. This is how an object partner will emerge. Witnessing has to become our main job, because the most important thing is to lead a life of faith.

(9)  Adam was unable to reach perfection and marry. Therefore, True Parents must be realized in the fallen world. They have to form a family that will expand to the entire world, give birth to families and form tribes on God’s side that together will reclaim what was lost to Satan at the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, and world. Therein is the importance of witnessing. What is witnessing? Human beings are born of the fallen lineage of Satan's world. Witnessing is the process of engrafting God's lineage onto every tree born of the false lineage, completely transforming the false olive trees. Witnessing constitutes this.  Witnessing is also the fortune we take to heaven.

(10)  Once we receive God's love, we have to share it. Therefore, it is impossible not to witness. We need people as our foundation, our platform on which to attend God above. Hence, we witness. We need spiritual children who can take responsibility even for our sins. Accordingly, witnessing is not for the church, it is for one's self. If we share the Word with God's heart, we will succeed.

(11)  If we travel around to witness, God will accompany us. What word do you get when you invert the Korean word for witnessing (jeondo; 전도)? You get the word challenge (dojeon; 도전). If you have enemies, as long as you are with God, He will defeat them and everything will be fine. Witnessing is a challenge; those who refrain from the challenge of witnessing become lethargic. Your father doesn't like that, your grandfather doesn't like that, your father and grandfather's descendants do not like that, and even your wife and children do not like that. Therefore, the father needs to challenge himself as a father, just as the mother needs to challenge herself as a mother.

(12)  What happens when you sow the seed of love and this seed grows? When you ascend to the spirit world, all the people to whom you witnessed will not be someone else's descendants. They will be akin to a new branch growing on your branch and all will be united as one. A tree that has grown new shoots for several thousand years will grow new shoots this year and new shoots next year. Furthermore, you cannot be severed from this tree that is tens of thousands of years old or from its nutrients. Once you are connected to the tree, you will grow.

(13)  If you feel restless with a yearning for God and go out into the street and meet someone, you will be able to establish a bond and naturally witness to that person. When you are alone and have no one to whom to relate, God will come personally and dwell with you. If you clasp your hands, light will appear. You will feel it wrapping you in a protective embrace. When this happens, the question is whether you will profoundly experience this heart with a peaceful face, with your countenance manifesting peace, filled with happiness. You should feel the exultation that transports your mind and body and completely fills your every cell. You should feel the complete embrace of Heavens infinite love. Also, when you dance and sing popular songs and feel the universe's attention, you need to feel your heart cry out to God, "Father!" This is the sound and the realm of heart we need. Every person wants to experience this. If you have these experiences, your witnessing will be successful.

(14)  When your heart moves you to witness and tells you, "Let's go witness," there are those who witness because they want to, those who go with the flow, and those who witness because they are scared or afraid for their lives. How should it be for us? Should we witness because we welcome it, because we go with the flow, because we know we'll die if we evade it, or because we are afraid? Which one is it? All of these motives fail the test. How then should we witness? The mind and body stand in the position of subject and object partners, and you start out with joy when the environmental conditions conform to your partner's intent. Your mind was meant to begin with happiness, not sadness. The experience of joy, rather than of sadness, was to come first. What was the Fall? The elements of sadness took primacy before happiness could blossom. We are people in search of the path of destiny leading to redemption. Therefore, we need to begin with joy and internalize God's Will in a joyful process.