How to Gain Spiritual Help

"What attitude do we need to nurture in order to move the spirit world? We need to change our concepts. Our attitude is an environment that must be prepared in order to receive spiritual help. We must use Father's words and make ourselves channels to receive spiritual power."

Is it possible that we can dominate the spirit world and what does that actually mean?  After Adam and Eve chose to ignore the commandment of God and chose the words of the spirit Lucifer to eat and have their eyes opened, humanity has been led by evil spirit world ever since.  Through religion and the work of saints and people of conscious, good spirit world has been able to work throgh people of goodness as well.  Reverend Sun Myung Moon speaks further about this situation: 

"Actually, the spirit world wants to be part of everything we have and do. They want to be involved to such a great extent. So whatever we may look at, we must search for the nobility in it, and treat it as if it were owned directly by True Parents. Then everything becomes like an expensive antique, a God-given treasure. Each object is waiting for your touch, hoping to feel the vibration of God through you.

Consider all things holy. Why does a handkerchief owned by a holy man become so valuable? Because of the vibration of the holy man. So you, too, should give all things a holy value. When you touch something, feel that you are giving it glory.

The same holds true for the people we meet and live with. When you see another person, how much do you care for him or her? How do you feel towards that person? You must really love the people you meet, because they are the temples of God. When you touch another person, feel that through your touch, both of you will be blessed.

Each of us has two aspects, mind and body. Our true mind wants to touch our body with heart and give love to it. We should think of our mind as God's mind, because God loves it and that is where He dwells. Look at each man or woman as a holy person. Regard each person's body as sacred and their mind as hallowed.

If you live like this, soon you will hear inside of yourself a small voice, the sound of your mind. Wherever you walk, no evil or darkness can remain. Only good spirits can touch you if you create such an atmosphere. If you place yourself in such a position, then spirit world will pour down upon you its abundant blessing and power.

You must attract this power from the spirit world and then weld yourself to it. Make it one with your body, so that even your arms and legs feel special. When you are in bed, even if it is a sleeping bag, your surroundings will become like a king's palace; your body will be resting in a king's bed.

You must name yourself as the dwelling place of God. Then all good spirits will touch you. When you go to bed, lie down with a beautiful mind. Remove all ugliness from it. In the morning when you wake, come before the deep bosom of God, and then, when you go out to your mission, you will embark from the throne of God.

The spirit world is always around you, listening and attentive. Always be aware that it is within your reach. If you keep thinking this way, then you will be able to control your circumstances. Make yourself a tuning fork, resonating with and vibrating along God's frequency. Resonate with God's unselfishness.

If you partake of this resonance with God, then when you see someone, you will automatically be able to sense what type of person he is. Sometimes you will be able to see your own spirit man with your own eyes. Train yourself and discipline yourself to develop this capacity. If you live this way, you will be always able to act in the right way when an emergency arises."

Daily, you compete with the spirit world, so we must learn how to conquer and surpass it.  As God's children, he created us to subjugate the spirit world, but in our circumstances spirit world dominates the creative world. With deep prayer, within our mind, we can become a magnet, a mover of people's spirits.  We must become a spiritual magnet, drawing people with love.  If we retain this high standard of condition, our prayer will become reality.

"Pray with all your heart, focusing your mind and soul on the object of your prayer, otherwise your mind will become restless and hasty. In the life of prayer, you must make the time to pray. Sit down even if it takes eight hours and pray; this time will never be wasted. Then you can go out and work eight hours for God.

Therefore, be prayerful now and then go out, you and God together. If you have to write a sermon, for instance, the spirit world will help you prepare it. If you go out, the spirit world will lead you. You will discover the feeling of breaking through; you will become selfless, feeling the power of your mind and body pulling together in harmony. So the key word for this kind of life is respect.

Respect all things as holy things.

Respect all men as holy men.

Respect yourself as a holy person.

Respect your mind as holy.

Respect your body as holy.

Pay deep respect to all people, no matter what kind of person they may be. As a child, be respectful towards an elderly man.

Think over your words three times before uttering them and always have a humble attitude.

Always share with others the best thing you have. Empty your pocketbook to give; then you will deserve the best result.

If you do not do good for your fellowman, you will have no sleep; if you have done good, then your mind will rest in peace.

Unpack the dirty elements inside yourself and cleanse them. Open up the baggage of your mind and look what you find there. Don't harbor selfish feelings. Repent publicly for any selfish feelings you may have entertained. Practice the virtue of meekness.

If you push yourself to develop these attitudes, then the spirit world must descend to assist you. The spirit world is using so many channels by which to come down and participate in God's providence; they will choose the best one to use first.

In the Unification Church a true leader must be able to mobilize the spirit world. When you touch it, all kinds of phenomena start to occur some very strange, some very wonderful. Don't be manipulated by them. You be the subject. Don't let yourself be driven by strange phenomena; before this, you may have had to face these challenges all alone, but now you have a clearer understanding.

You already know the secret of tapping power from the spirit world; witness to others, pouring out all your heart, soul and mind for them. When I was in prison camp, I would pray, and prisoners would just come to me and stand there. When they were introduced to me through the guidance of spirit world they would cling to me.

You, too, can be like me. The problem is that you are often too distant from thinking about the spiritual dimension: holy things, holy mankind, holy temple, holy mind. When I was in the worst of situations, lonely and hungry, a revelation would come or an important guest would appear before me. When I needed money, the spirit world would guide someone to me. Spirit world is never far away; they can cooperate with us. We should always feel that we are not doing quite enough, and that we always have to try harder.

Act with the support of the spirit world. If they are behind you, you will never be lonely; you will always have energy and power. Even though you may be penniless, still have no fear. You can be adventurous and bold. On the road of success, the more you walk, the further you yearn to go.

Who knows how long he or she will live? Maybe tomorrow you will die, at a mere 25 or 30 years of age. Do you have some guarantee from God how long you will live? No one has such a guarantee.

A wise person thinks like this: "I have only a short time to live. Within this time I must prepare myself for eternity. The way I live in the next two years will be the model for my eternal life." Then explode your sense of love. Love God, and love another person as God. For an entire day, 24 hours pour out your entire energy for someone.

 If you love a person like this, even though you may die early, you will have made the highest accomplishment in all eternity. Then when God gives you more time to live, your response will be immense gratitude. Push yourself to live more fully. The person who expects death and then is given life dwells in the fullest gratitude.

Leave behind something that God can praise. Each moment is so precious there is no time for worry or frustration. The person who recognizes that earthly life is short compared to eternity and, therefore, condenses his accomplishments is a wise man indeed. Think about what "label" you wear spiritually on your forehead. Ask yourself how many people, how many clans, how many tribes, how many nations you have loved.

Seek to become that master of love. Program your life like that, and you will never be a loser. Plan as if you only had two years to live, and then by the third year, when you are still alive, think of the joy of living! This is "resurrected" living. I still have so much to do: love my wife, love my children, love all mankind. I have to love the Unification Church; I must pay indemnity for all mankind; I need to liberate man from sin. I am determined to leave behind tremendous assets."

We must change our mindset to do everything for the purpose of love. So, even when you work, you must love that business, love the products you work with, and, of course, love the people. Always give honor to other people.

Even though God created us, he gave us the ability to reshape and restore ourselves into the original image. 

We tithe to church a portion of what we earn back into God's providence.  This is a way to separate the money we earn from the satanic world by offering part of it back to God to claim it ass a sacred offering.  Three-tenths is the best standard. Give one tenth to the local church, one tenth to the national level work and one tenth for the worldwide level.

We should thimk that each time we give, we are giving a heavenly treasure, not just money frm our own pocket. Then the person who is receiving through you is actually receiving from God. The spirit world can then help you, and God will remember everything and return it to you ten times over.

Going to work can become tiresome day in and day out, but we must not feel like a worker or supervisor.   Make your company a dwelling of God. Invest your heart in your work. Determine to make it a business that will serve all people. Then wherever your business goes, it becomes God's "love extension." Whatever you are responsible for, give it your heart and soul on a 24-hour basis; feel like you are the parent and it is your baby.

Whatever you do, think that you are carrying it out in partnership with God. Feel that you are the second owner and pour all your love into it. The one who loves something the most is the ultimate owner. When you give love, you will attain infinite value.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Don't Doubt in the Dark What God Told You in the Light

This text was taken from How to Gain Spiritual Help given by Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Our American Culture Praises Lucifer-like Images

The universe was created beginning with an idea in the divine Mind, followed by the expenditure of energy to make that idea a reality. Likewise, artists and scientists give all their heart and effort to create a new existence that manifests the images and thoughts in their mind.  Artists, scientists and inventors take after the creativity of God.

This section focuses on the arts, and so includes scripture and selected passages from famous artists reflecting on the meaning of their art.

Yet, creativity is not the sole possession of these elite personages; we find creativity in the athlete who plays exuberantly for the love of sport, in the merchant who finds better ways to market his wares, and in children as they dance and sing.

Father Moon, which this posts uses his deep teachings of the bible, who has established ballet companies and art schools and who himself loves to sing duets with his wife, is cognizant of the role the arts can play in creating a God-centered culture. 

Topics include: art as harmony of opposites, art’s emotional core and emotional power; the muse, or spirituality of art; and the problem of art and values.

A culture develops from words. It begins with speech; then the words are written down to become literature. Then they are expressed in paintings and other works of art. Art and culture are thus expressions of the invisible word. This is the principle of creation through the Word, emerging as visible form and substantial existence.

Humankind struggles in frustration, longing in the world of the heart, because they have defiled

the heart’s law. People strive to fill that longing through hobbies, art, knowledge, and love objects,
but they are never fully satisfied. This is the sorrow and tragedy of the human condition since the human fall.

Human Fall

After World War II, the trend developed, especially among American women, to worship Lucifer-like

men. Who are they? Movie stars, singers and actors, etc.  Lucifer seduced Eve away from God and Adam.  When we study the bible as symbolic, we see that he seduced her away through the misuse of love - sex without God symbolized by the fruit. 

We see the terminology used today "to eat" of a woman the same way it was meant in the bible, "to eat of the fruit".  Don't most men that are idolized in the media have this same quality?  Wooing many women, accentuate outside beauty only, and have multiple sex partners outside of marriage.  These people are actually last in line to enter heaven, yet women came to worship them.

What is Lucifer-like?  Sadly, Lucifer's way and will is so ingrained in our culture, that we fantasize about obtaining it.  The music industry, fashion industry and movie business have fashioned the lifestyles of these idols around glorifying sex centered around false love, promiscuity (be with whoever you want), free sex with anything and anyone without relationships and outside the family unit. 

Does any of this sound like the creation and culture that God wants us to have or does it stem from somewhere else?  That someone else is the beautiful Lucifer who has the gift of God's beautiful creation as he is a creation of God.  Lucifer used the gifts God granted him and uses it to sway every human being away from God's path by glorifying his ungodly way and making it desirable even though his type of behavior will place people at the bottom of hell.

Lucifer-like is any behavior outside of God path.  Is wanting to be beautiful or worrying about fashion sinful? 

No, but when beauty alone is placed as a measurement of one person's worth and value - they aren't beautiful, therefore let's trash their value - then it is far from God.  It is a fine line.  To see the opposite sex as beautiful and admiring God's handiwork with someone's external being is not sinful.  To lust after it, go after that person to possess their divinity, their essence through sex, to want what is not ours outside of God's dominion is sinful.  For instance, wanting to be with a person who is not our intended spouse whether we are single or married, plants a seed likened to the bible phrase satan is crouching at the door waiting for a way in. 

Fallen Lucifer waits for us to open that door and when we plant seeds that are small it is only a matter of time.  This is how Lucifer thinks.  With even the hardcore religious, this is how he works, through the small ideas we keep to ourselves until they grow and it is hard to stop the temptation when Satan breaks his way through the door we left open for him.

Father Moon, who passed away this year at 92, had a vision for the arts far beyond secular art. He believed secular world’s art is rotten; especially the recording artists and Hollywood set who are immersed in free sex. Many have contracted HIV/AIDS. He promoted absolute sex, and advocated that members of my ballet company should not be involved in immoral love affairs. It is a wedge to protect American people from rotting away because of artists who promote ungodly behavior.

In America, you can watch movies on television 24 hours a day. You can watch any kind of movie: war movies, movies about love, even pornographic movies. Young people are readily attracted to them and influenced. Since they do not have a clear viewpoint of life or thought, they copy what they see in these movies.

Youth today live in a permissive environment and have abandoned traditional values that might restrain them from seeking out the stimulating positive activities that they see in the movies. Since their parents do not pay them much attention, family ties are not strong enough to sway them. Teachers and public officials avoid giving children proper education on these matters. Therefore, there is nothing to stop them from following the wrong paths that movies made for entertainment makes seductive.

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

What can stop young people from trying free sex, drugs, violence—copying everything they see in the movies?

If this continues, the family will disappear and the world will soon be doomed.

Therefore, we should quickly establish the standard of a new tradition for the building of a new culture. It is a most urgent matter.

 God’s heart of true love—to give and give more, and forget and forget again, to give unconditionally and live for the sake of others—is the foundation of the world of heart.

God’s ideal out of which He created the world began from His heart. The arts, which spring from this Origin, should resemble this heart. Hence, in the world of art, there can be no barriers. Art cannot be used as propaganda or the instrument of a particular ideology.  Harmony and unity are its basic principles. Divisions and conflicts are the fruits of fallen nature. Accordingly, in the world of art, East and West should understand and accept each other through art whose character is universal and inclusive.

When professionals in the art world seek for something profound and need inspiration, they fall back on their religious background. That is why the culture of art developed centered on religion. Take Christian culture, for example. If you have a chance to travel in Europe, you should visit the Vatican. You will see the essence of European culture in each work of art.

Art is worthless unless there is profound emotion in the background. A great work of art should be capable of arousing deep emotion, whether one views it today or a thousand years from now. A

painting that can stimulate such a feeling deep in our hearts is called a masterpiece.

To be an artist is to make one’s life a work of art. Children’s education should be imbued with art. A

wife should be an artist of the emotions in the way she honors and shows appreciation to her husband.
I believe that it is a greater art than the paintings that hang in museums. The greatest value of art is to beautify and elevate love in the family.  When God's love is the center of the family, this spreads to the society, to the nation and to a world of heart.


Return for Tomorrow's post: Why Children Rebel

Today's post was taken from the World Scripture II book chapter God Creation and Human Creativity section Creativity and Art

World Peace Through Family

Scan any television station and you are sure to run into a reality show giving us a fly-on-the-wall view of a celebrity or non-celebrity's everyday interactions. 

The fad is so great that we can't stop watching non-celebrities with their multiple children and such.  If we completely followed how these families lived, would it bring a world of peace? 

Unfortunately, not to judge, but many of the lives we follow, real or fictional on television, are not the best example to realize a world of peace.  Our family example as well.  Teen mothers, angry housewives, bored celebrity kids may be cool to emanate, but the results they yield their followers is a life different than the ideal life God had imagined during creation. 

I don't know many children who wish they live without their parents, or any wife that wishes she could lose her husband to another woman.  I also don't know of any family that wishes for problems arising every time they communicate.  It is not in our nature.  Humans were created for one purpose - true love.  If we don't experience this with everyone in our lives - TRUE love - then how can we hope to see it on a global scale?


God's Only Institution


God created one institution as a way humans can learn to love, and learn how to relate to others based on this love - The Family.  The family is supposed to be the school of love.

Religion as its basis is God's primary means of education by which to instruct and love humankind.  We were supposed to be mature and raised up in God's true love and become parents that teach children what the world and God likes.

The family is the workshop based upon which one meets the qualifications to graduate from primary and secondary school, on to university -- even to earn a doctorate. Furthermore, the family expands into the world.

When the world was in the planning stage God had planned for the world to be a kingdom of love.  This is His will.  The family was set up as an instituion of this love on different levels equivalent to primary school on to the university and obtaining a doctorate.  Then this family that has graduated into a higher love interacting through four positions: Sibiling to Sibling, Parent to Child, Parent to God, Child to God.

This family then would expand from clan to nation to a worldwide family.

 If there was a family that was absolute or true it would be a place where the husband loves and serves his wife as he would his own mother and sister and his wife serves and loves the husbad as she would her father and brother.  They would love and respect one another as they would respect God Himself.

If we have a true family such as this all over he earth then World Peace happens automatically.  This type of world would be the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

In this this type of family we can find happiness not depression.  However happiness will not arise in an family with many emotional difficulties or in a family that does not have love. 


Where does misfortune come about in a family?

It begins when love disappears. Parents serve as a protective fence around the house as they attend God obeying heavenly laws as husband and wife and pass this on through their children.


A family such as this, a true family does not just sprout from anywhere.  A family starts with a couple, and a couple begin with two separate individuals each working to perfect their character. 

Majority of us stop growing our spiritual self along the way onto a path toward God and start a family before we are mature.  Then our children inherit the parent's immature spirit, mess and all.

What is this path that God leads us?  The path is the standard of absolute sexual purity. 

The first stage is to maintain absolute sexual purity before getting married.  We grow through different stages of our lives from childhood to adolescence.  Adolescence signals a start of a new dynamic life on a new level relating to others around us and things of creation.

Adolescence is the time where we begin to travel the path to becoming an absolute human being -internally.  In our time and all through history no one or any law has required us to become our absolute true self, but it is absolutely a requirement that every human should fulfill no matter what position - how high or low a level they live in society, we should fulfill this standard. 

We see in our current situations of family how living away from the standard of God has led to a society of broken families.

God gave to us a responsibility of maintaining purity in order to fulfill His ideal of creation.  This is the model of absolute sexual morality for us as humans.   This path leads us toward perfecting the model of absoluteness in conjugal love - love between husband and wife. 

Remember the warning God gave the first ancestors from which we were born?  He said, do not eat for in the day you eat, you will die.  He gave them the responsibility to maintain absolute sexual purity until God's approval of marriage. 

Our first family on earth failed in so many ways because it started otuside of God's realm.  It was intended to be a marriage approved by God, instead started outside of God's realm.  The first family on earth - the model we followed - was a family begun outside of God's ideal and multiplied now millions of families later.  This is why today we experience families that are far from the true ideal family.

What would have happened if Adam and Eve followed God's direction?  What if they chose to follow the commandment instead of being tempted away by satan?

They would have perfected their character and stood together with God as His equal, then their marriage would have been blessed by God.  Then they would bore True Children and this is a True Family. 

Secondly, we would see how can we preserve our purity before marriage and keep from following the wrong path.

Right now our American lives are leading a life toward self-destruction because we are children of the first family that follows the path outside of God.  Purity is the greatest blessing of Heaven given to humanity and without maintaining purity, our path toward a perfected individual or spiritual maturity is closed.  So, when Adam and Eve had eaten it was pertaining to wait to have sexual relations once they had matured in God's love.  Instead, our historical parents had lost their purity and left direct relationship with God.

This truth in God's commandment for Adam and Eve has lain hidden throughout human history, but this is what God truly told Adam and Eve - to keep their purity.  If they had obtained purity and conjugal relations they would have attained complete oneness with Him and then had children of goodness.

Can we say that we follow the path of God so completely and have children of goodness?  All of the world's problems stems from the hidden fact in history.  Humanity started from a family outside of God's protective realm.

One Global Family of Peace

Here is a word we probably never seen - True Families, True Children.

We think it is not possible with the climate of marriage these days.  No matter how far humanity strays from the ideal it is still God's mandate to experience a True Family.

Family members means there must be a family.  Then if there is a family then there are brothers and sisters and siblings means there are parents.
In religion, we call others "members" or "believers".  But when have religious members called each other on the global level "family member"? 

When we talk about world peace we also may say Global Family.  A great family will require parents - a father and mother for this great family.  This parent is none other than the one to come who opens the gateway to World Peace - the returned Messiah.  Even though there will be many brothers and sisters there will be only one set of parents or one head of the family.

How will one who is a "family member" in this heavenly family look?


This is the question.  

These True Parents will not be self-centered or have anything to do with evil.  They will be the center of this family and these parents will have God as their center.

So, a true family will be realized only when the Savior, Messiah becomes one with God as our parent on earth.  Then those who join with the Returned Messiah they will become true Children and true brothers and sisters.

You will become brothers and sisters to those you are not related and follow parents who are not your physical parents.  A world of peace will be able to go past the emotions and affections of the flesh and blood, transcend race, and nation creating a new culture based on heart.

How will this come about?  How will it be possible for unrelated people to love one another as their own flesh and blood?  By force?  Through law?  It is only possible through God's love.

Return for tomorrow's post: You Can Save the World

Photos courtesy of: freedigitalphotos.net


Note:

These words are taken from a combination of 8 textbooks and speeches taught by Dr. Reverend Sun Myung Moon and rewritten in a conversational tone. 

To find out more about the Freedom Society and Unification Movement - the fastest growing global community please visit www.familyfed.org