A Prayer for Your Life of Faith

Beloved Heavenly, Father, I thank You for Your grace, and for shielding me while I experience struggle from my childhood until now.  During those years, I have been apprehensive of any humiliation or shame that Heaven might suffer.

There is nothing among all the good things on this earth more precious than connecting to Your original heart.

Knowing this, we should eternally have a longing for that relationship with You.

We should keep in mind that those who experience Your love will have no regrets, even if they forget about all the things of this world.

We must now seek the ideal world which You created, the original homeland where we live by Your love.

We must prepare today while on earth for our third life as liberated children endowed with the authority of freedom.

Just as we needed to be healthy in the womb in order to be born with a healthy life on earth, we need a wholesome earthly life to have a wholesome life in heaven.

The world today is a world of conflict dominated by evil.  

We must be resolved to fight to the death in order to be blessed with the cooperation of heaven and earth and to keep in step with the dynamics of fortunes of the universe.

We must resolve that our descendants will never have to be placed in such a sorrowful position as we have been suffering under the dominion of sin.

Beloved Father, when we reflect on how you have toiled to usher in a new spring, we should become Your infinitely grateful and joyous daughter and sons who lament over the fact we could not offer our entire life and love to You.

In our predestined relationship with You, our lives were meant to be harmonized, and completed by You so that we too may greet the new spring.

Only when we greet spring for the first time is when the flowers bloom.  Just as flowers go through summer and autumn before bearing fruit and blooming, we too are to undergo a similar process to bear fruit.

For a tree to bear any fruit, it absorbs life elements through the roots, trunk and branches in the summer.

There, it concentrates a perfect life to bring forth a second life.

Similarly, we must become sons and daughters who are introspective and determine whether we have a life for which swells up in our hearts capable of rebirth in a new world even if our bodies should die.

No matter how much time passes or how much the storm rages, our inner life force must withstand the intrusions of the environment and persevere persistently on the path of growth.

Only in this way, can we welcome the new spring and become a seed, that is the original source of a second life, which can be planted again.

Even though we may look pathetic externally, if we maintain our value as the original essence that can enhance the spiritual life force as a seed that can be planted in the eternal world, we are no longer miserable people even though we may think we are.

Please allow us to realize that the more miserable we appear, the more the value of our internal selves becomes complete and guaranteed..

Father, we realize that if we do not have the desire to serve and bow humbly before You, we can have no relationship with You in the eternal world.

Please, open the doors of our heart to feel Your heart and hear Your voice welling up from the depths of our hearts.  Guide us to regain our lost bodies today.

Father, help us to appreciate Your historical course of toil and trouble to find each of us that we can then humbly bow our heads before You.

Return for Tomorrow's Post: The Root of Promiscuious Sex

This post was rewritten and derived from the book Cheon Seong Gyeong Book Five, Chapter One, Section 1, 1-4

 

The Power of Prayer

Through prayer you can receive visions into the future and guide yourself accordingly. You will know what kind of difficulty is coming and how to divert it and overcome. If you know how to steer yourself, then you can do big things, and prayer alone can pioneer such a path.


Reverend Sun Myung Moon


Prayer is more important than eating.


I go out to nature because it gives me a better environment for prayer, and I love nature for that reason. I love the quiet of midnight. I don't say much about the visions I receive, but if you receive them then don't you think I do, too? That kind of new world can only be reached through prayer. In that position, you can taste love. 

This world is desert-like, but the world created through prayer has a climate where love can thrive.

You must learn to generate your own power.  You should not expect to be pushed and pulled out to your mission.  Be self-propelling.

In order to have this, you must have prayer as your daily diet of life.

Even if people do not recognize your efforts, you must do your duty enthusiastically because you have a covenant with God.  With this determination, day and night you move on without pause.  This is a living testimony.

Each year, this topic of prayer changes in Father's speeches, which shows that we are progressing into a new era.  Through having a prayerful mind, Father knows precisely God's timetable.  This kind of preparation is needed for self-perfection, and you must learn it through the power of prayer.

Do you prayer for His kingdom and righteousness?

Pray that this country can become the center of God's righteousness.  Many fervent patriots have come through this nation, but you must be able to pray with more fervor than any of them.  If you have the determination to care for this country more than God, then this country will prosper, otherwise it will crumble.

You are being led where God desires for you to be.  Obstacles do not matter, the important thing is not in getting there, but getting there in the shortest possible time.  If we are able to go quickly, then there is less danger.  If the process is stretched, there are many opportunities for disaster that we must not allow.

This is, therefore, a critical moment for you and God.  The ability to witness the Completed Testament to 360 homes, or home church, to spread this new truth is a gift to mankind.'  This has never existed in history and will not again in the future.

This is a transitional period; we are entering into a new era, a new plateau and history of faith. 

When you take this gift as your own, you are definitely becoming a true son and daughter of God.

This gift has been freely given to you and is an incredible opportunity.

Your home church area should be the subject of your prayer. 

You should pray for the people in your area with a parental heart, just as your own children who are struggling in hell.

As a parent, your heart should grieve and desire to save them.  If you have not reached this level where you feel you are in a dire emergency, you must open your heart to parental feelings of love toward your people.    If you do not have real love for the people you witness, just push yourself until you do.

No one really has to teach a parent to love his own children.

If you are able to feel that you are a parent to people in your home church, then your love will be the same and no one will have to teach you.

Elementary school takes six years to complete, how much more important is this home church?  You should give your heart and soul for your home church area because this is the best teaching you can receive.

The entire universe is represented in your area.  When you work hard serving and witnessing your home church, God will treat your efforts there as though you had given them for the entire universe.   By serving your area for three years, is the same as serving the universe.  You may be able to do so in six months time.

Home church should be your priority.

You can test this power of prayer: take one person and pray for them fervently, constantly, but do not tell them you are doing so.

When you pray tearfully for this person, they will feel a magnetic attraction to you.

Such phenomenon happen once you adapt this prayerful life.  You may receive a revelation in your prayer that you will meet such and such a person when you go to a certain place.

The power of hypnosis can place someone in a trance like state, but how much more powerful would prayer change lives?  You can mobilize the entire spirit world through your prayer.

There is no limit to the power of prayer.

When you have the right attitude in prayer then miracle after miracle will happen.

The foundation is the most important part of a launch pad. Your prayer is like a missile firing.  When it is time for take off, it should not break under the intense heat and pressure.  When you pray, you must not pray for greed for yourself.

A selfish prayer will be harmful to you.  Public prayer will cleanse you and elevate you higher and higher.

When you live in this high sensitivity to the spirit world, you are able to sense what is about to come.  Your perception will be keen and it will help you prepare for the future.

You are really two people in one.  Your inner man is like a mirror, clean and bright. When the inner and the outer man does not synchronize into oneness, you will feel pain and anguish.  When the two
are perfectly aligned, you then feel joy and power.

Everyday, this inner battle is within you.  Your inner man can tell you about a person like a sixth sense and how truthful they are.

Everyone should experience these spiritual things.

Do not neglect this inner man.  Just like you need to feed and nourish your physical body, you also need to nourish your spiritual body.  When you are working at a higher spiritual level, you are always speaking with this inner man.

Don't pray empty prayers.

A person like this will pray for the nation and the world before they pray for their own family.  God would concern Himself with this person's well-being because he would be concerned with God's well being.


If I only paid attention to my family instead of to the world and God, my family would get sick. I don't concern myself with my family's well-being; I concern myself with the Church and God's work and I know God will take care of them in the meantime. This is the principle of give and take. 

Those who want to do more for others will receive more.

The Principle states that those who want to go down will be lifted up and vice versa.  Now you fully understand the power of prayer.

You should know beforehand, whether the things you do will succeed or fail.

You will be able to feel a pull in the direction of things that will lead to your success and you will be eager to go ahead.

Think of your body as a receiver of the radio.

You should be able to free yourself from thinking that is only centered on you.  Once you are able to free your mind, then it becomes like an open valve.  You have the right to ask for God's power, but only if it is for the sake of righteousness and His Kingdom on earth.  Then God will come down.

Pray then act.

Once you are able to have this attitude toward prayer and live this prayerful life, you will feel different from yesterday and you will know when the power of prayer is in action.

Today is only the beginning.  You can pray and report to God that you are just beginning to live in this daily prayerful life and that you need His help to continue to do so as a frontline soldier.

Make this kind of showdown prayer with God everyday.  This way of praying should become second nature and not forced along the way as a daily habit.

You can then live this way all the time without even being conscious of it.  Let's do it then; take action.

Let us pray.



Return for Tomorrow's Post: We Must Get Rid of Barriers

This post was rewritten and derived from the speech The Importance of Prayer

Even God Prays

As a person of faith, you should create a good problem: be a heavenly troublemaker for God.  That is what Father did when he came to America.

America has reached first class status in the world and has built a prosperous society and culture in the world.

However, I came to shake this nation up, as with karate chops and kicks. Americans resent my disturbing their "peace". But I did not come to destroy America, only to warn this nation that there is danger ahead. If there will be a dam break, someone has to warn the people and bring them out of disaster. You know there is a big battle coming, so you must ready yourself in body and spirit.

You must prepare you mind, body and spirit readying it for battle, have you done that yet?

If you go, you can ask God to fill in the areas which you lack and He will come and help you fill in any gaps you have in order to complete the mission.  He will say, "I'm right behind you, child."  He will think that you are resolute and totally committed to the mission.

For, if God is assured and confident about you, an avalanche of help will come to you. 

You should build up a basic attitude and atmosphere for prayer.  If you do not do this, your prayers will not bear fruit.


In my case, by just thinking about some problem and not even praying about it, already God knew my thoughts and fulfilled what I was thinking. I have such experiences. God went one step or several steps ahead of me. When I discovered that my thinking had been fulfilled, He smiled and said, "See what I did?"

What is better than sitting in a dark room praying for hours?  Knocking on one more door of your Home Church area, in order to save one person even if they spit on you with contempt.

You only need prayer when you have exhausted all of your energy and it still was not enough.  Then, you can pray to God, "I gave all I have. Please come help me."  When you come to the point where you can do that, then you don't have to ask God, but you can tell Him to relax.  

What about God?  Do you think He prays sometimes, too?

We can think a little deeper about this. A father or mother can sometimes talk to themselves, "Oh, I wish my son would do this, or be this or that way." This is kind of a prayer.  God does that, too.

This is the same prayer that He has.  God murmurs about, you, about me and the church.  He will say, "How is everyone in the church today?" He would say, "Oh, my son and daughter, be bold and strong and keep going in the battle today.  I am always behind you."  This is God's prayer.

We are living in an emergent time, and He is engrossed in His concern.  This is the same for you.  You don't have to sit down and pray, you can just talk to your yourself.  You can whisper to God that you know that we are living in a time of emergency and you know what you must do and you should do more for the time which you are living.  This is a prayer.

In practice, you may pray first, and then go out for action. But, in my view, prayer and action are one. 

This is your case, praying and doing at the same time is your life.

Praying and waiting for the answer should not be your life.  If you live the life of unconsciously praying, then you are without a doubt becoming sons and daughters of prayer.  When you give your last ounce of energy and it is not enough, then ask God for assistance and your prayer will be answered.

If this was not true, then how will it be possible to subjugate Satan?  There is an end to the suffering and anguish that Satan has caused God for thousands of years.  There is a way to finally subjugate him.  

You can test the power of prayer.  Take one person, pray for them fervently, constantly, but don't tell them that you are doing this.  Pray, with tears for their well being and then that person will feel the magnetic attraction to you and they won't know why they feel so drawn to you.

If you pray for a person with this kind of heart, for sure, when you go out, that person will come to you.  If you do this with seriousness, then these things will happen.

We know that someone under hypnosis can place a person in another state of consciousness, but how much more powerful prayer can change lives.  There is no limit to the power of prayer.

Prayer is not limited by distance, or have limited influence, because the power of thought travels everywhere in the universe.  With this, you can mobilize the entire spirit world just through the power of prayer.

When you have the right attitude toward prayer, then miracle after miracle will happen.

The most important part of the launching pad for a rocket is the foundation.  When it is time for take-off, it must be strong enough not to break under the heat and pressure.

Your prayer is the same way.  It is like firing a missile; you need a solid foundation.  

You must not pray from greed for yourself. 

When you pray with a public purpose, this prayer will cleanse you and elevate your spirit higher and higher.  When you acquire this sensitivity to spirit world, you will be able to sense the events that are about to happen.  Your perception will become keen and you will be able to prepare better for the future.

You should know that you are actually two people in one body.  Your inner man is like a mirror, it is clean and bright.  Therefore, you will feel anguish when your inner man and external man are not in harmony.  But when they are perfectly aligned, you feel joy and power.

This battle is happening everyday within you.  Immediately, when you see a person, your inner man will be able to tell you what kind of person he is.  When you hear someone's report about something, your inner man will be able to tell you how truthful it is.

As soon as someone walks into a room, your inner man will be able to tell you whether that person is here to bring good news or bad news.  This is what happens when the two men interact as one.

Don't neglect your inner man, but consult him all the time.

You inner man always wants to talk to your physical man.

You inner person and physical self are united once you are higher spiritually.  Here, they have a clear communication with one another.  You will find that you may not intend to say anything, but all of the sudden you find that your mouth is moving.  That is not you, but your inner self speaking on  your behalf.

Even rats of a ship can sense when the ship is in trouble and they run away.  How much more should man, which is God's supreme creation know about life or death situations that are about to come?

Wouldn't God create within man some alert system when a certain fate is coming?  Isn't man superior to a rat?  Through practicing prayer, you will gain such spiritual sensitivity.

For your inner and outer man to become one, you need the power of prayer.

Everyone should experience these phenomena spiritually.  Don't pray prayers that do not have meaning.

Now you have an understanding of the power of prayer.  You body is just like the receiver of an radio.

Then you know whether you will succeed or fail.  You know when something you want to pursue will succeed, because you will feel pulled in that direction and you will be eager to go ahead.

Once you are able to free yourself from your own thinking centered on yourself, you will be filled with a mighty power.  You must be able to win such spiritual battles.  Once you do, you will be entitled to ask for God's power as you pray for the sake of God's righteousness and His Kingdom. Then He will come to you.

Pray and act. As you act, you will know the power of prayer. 

With this kind of foundation, you will discover yourself being different from yesterday.

Make a showdown with God everyday.  When you get home at night and you were unable to accomplish what you prayer, you must pray, "God, I worked hard today, but it still was not enough.  I need Your help."

This is absolutely necessary.  This routine should become second nature, and without you being aware of it.  You can live that kind of life all of the time.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: America, Get Rid of Complaint

This post was rewritten and derived from the speech Prayer and Action & The Power and Work of Prayer

How to Have the Happiest Marriage Book Part 2

Thanks for returning for these 10 tips to a very happy marriage tested and practiced by people married over 20 years.


5. We should call each other at least once a day in the daytime and always keep in touch.

The next is advice given to husbands about what their attitudes should be while they are working outside the home.  With the rush of life these days, easily a couple can spend time with coworkers more than with their spouse.

Therefore, we should take care during the day in our thinking and care about our spouse.  A husband is wrong if he doesn't call at least once to his wife at home or that she worries where he is all the time.  Husbands can talk a long time on the phone with others, but are reluctant to call their own life.  

When the husband is taking a lunch break, he shouldn't think that because his wife can take care of herself that she doesn't need to be asked if she ate lunch during lunchtime.  A husband should call his wife to see if she ate.

A wife's attitude once her husband leave for work is to visualize the hard work the husband does outside the home.  The woman should trusts that her husband is doing an admirable thing.  She should become a wife that calls the husband to check to see what he ate for lunch and how did it taste.

It is small sentimental moments as these that touch the spouses' heart, remind of one another while away and show the tender care you have as a reminder of what brought the two of you together.

The writer of the Book spoke on this point about his own marriage:

"My wife called me every morning and every evening, and it was our couple’s daily habit that we talk on the phone twice a day. Always staying in touch with each other through phone calls was tremendously helpful to us for our heart-to-heart relationship."

The technology of cell phones has developed very rapidly, and the cost of phone calls has dropped sharply, especially when using alternative lines. Consequently, no matter where the husband may be, and regardless of where the wife is, it has become possible for a married couple to freely have an intimate talk

The young people of today take for granted how cheap and conveniently easy it is to stay in touch with anyone from around the world.  This makes it easy for a couple to have intimate talk during the long hours they are away from one another.

When a couple work separately during the day, they should make a strong effort to develop a heart-to-heart relationship through talking over the phone regularly.

6. We should bow down before the picture of True Parents (Same as Jesus and Holy Spirit) , recite the Family Pledge and report (pray) to God together

This can cater to your faith.  Some faiths already have some kind of altar with a picture of the founders of their respective faiths. While facing each other and holding each other’s hands and bow (or pay some kind of respect) to each other at the end, every morning and every night.

This is best done during a new day in the morning and at the end of the day before going to sleep.  The couple bows to each other, recite the Family Pledge or equivalent of a commitment for each day such as the "Lord's Prayer", report to God what you plan to do for that day, while facing each other and holding hands, bow to the picture or equivalent to the founder of the faith.

"My wife and I liked to offer a full bow to each other lowering the head all the way down to the floor. However, if you and your wife are neither Korean nor Japanese, the couple may make a slight bow to each other while standing, and hug warmly after greeting to God and True Parents, ideally with a full bow.

My wife and I also made it a rule to hug each other and to say each other, “Let’s do our best today,” or something like that, in order to encourage each other in the morning, or “Thank you very much for your hard work for today,”to show thanks at night, after bowing to each other. It is important for us to practice the daily-life habit of expressing love and respect not only to God and True Parents, but also to our spouse."

Here is Dae Mo Nim’s(church spiritualist) advice on the importance of offering a bow and reporting (praying) to True Parents (Equivalent Jesus and Holy Spirit) every day:

"Every member has a picture of True Parents in their home. The picture conveys the meaning that True Parents, who are united with God, can come to your home and are, indeed, at your home. God and True Parents do not exist in a place far away from you. 

You must think that spiritually they are always watching your whole life. It is very important in our life of attendance that we thank God, who is the origin of true love, and True Parents who have come as the substantial embodiment of true love.

When we live in the evil world, in the realm of Satan, it is very difficult to live without the protection of God and True Parents. I recommend that you offer a bow to the picture of True Parents in the morning, saying, “I will really live with God today. I will work centering on God and True Parents, without showing any self-centeredness and arrogance.

When you come home after the day’s work, you should examine whether or not you have lived the entire day with God, saying, 'Heavenly Father and True Parents, thank you very much for allowing me to come home safely.  Thank you very much for allowing me to come home without any accident from this evil world'. You must make this kind of practice your daily-life habit. You cannot faithfully live a life of attendance if you live a life halfheartedly."

Both the husband and wife will slightly bend the fingers of both hands, extend both hands in front of each other, place each other’s right hand with the back of the hand upon the palm of his or her spouse’s left hand, combine each other’s fingertips in both hands, and lightly hold hands with their fingertips. 

Then, a couple offers a report (prayer).

Thanks to the great victory of the Second Advent, the new providential age has dawned when we can unconditionally receive the special grace of “the realm of complete freedom” from Satan’s accusation. Therefore, as the representatives of the victorious True Parents, we Blessed couples can now become God’s branch temples wherein God always dwells.

Revelation 21:3 of the New Testament prophesied the advent of “a new heaven and a new earth”: 

See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will always be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

"We are living in the beginning of the long awaited new heaven and new earth, which billions of your ancestors in the spirit world, who have come and gone in history, have yearned for. This is the era of the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world."

We are living in the time that was prophesied in the book of Revelations in the Bible.  God will dwell with us directly on earth.

"My wife and I personally changed the style of our couple’s reporting (praying) to the posture of facing each other with both hands extended and clasping each other. As a result, we became more deeply conscious that God does not reside in heaven far away from us outside our home, but in fact dwells within the bodies of our couple here on earth. 

As we looked at each other’s face while reporting to God, the spouse’s face sometimes appeared to be like God’s. Consequently, more and more, my wife and I came to feel that each of us was a precious reflection of God’s duality of masculinity and femininity."


7.  We  should always send off, and welcome home, our husband (wife) by holding his (her) hand, kissing, and/ or hugging at the front door when he (she) goes out for work, and returns from work.

We should practice at least one point for the seventh habit: holding his or her hand, kissing, and hugging.  You are free to practice all of the points at the same time.  When the husband returns home the wife shouldn't stay in the back room, but be able to greet her husbad who wants to hear such words at least three times.

The husband comes back home extremely exhausted and rather than hear the problems of the wife's day want to receive comfortable words from his wife and children.  If the woman habitually stays in a another room when her husband returns, daily this will deplete his love for his wife in an instant.

A wife should anticipate the return of her husband and wait for him at the entrance with the first sign of his return and be excited that he is home, "Honey, you're back, welcome home!" Any husband that comes home to a welcome home parade led by his wife and children will feel that he truly has arrived at the the Heavenly Kingdom.

Dae Mo Nim also spoke to wives about their attitudes when a husband leaves home for work in the morning. You also should not simply let your husband go to work in the morning. At least hold his hand when you see him off.

According to the wishes of almost all wives, when their husband leaves home for work, some wives want him to hug her, and other wives want him to hold his their hands or kiss her. Have you done that?

There are more husbands who have not done that than those who did. Those who say, “I have done that,” only practiced it once in a very great while. Is that true? That is not good.

A husband and wife's hands together should create the same hot feelings that is felt on a long hot day.  When a husband does this, he will come to not look at any other woman but his wife.  The other women will become invisible to his eyes.  A man should become the type of husband that can hug, kiss, and hold his wife's hands warmly.

A husband has to become a person who can give absolute love to his wife. 

Some church members are expressionless in the morning.  If we look at men in the secular world they are not ideal either.

A husband should be able to embrace their beloved wife even in the morning.

A husband who touches his wive's breast and caresses her hands in the morning will have a wife that could live off of her husband's love all day.  A wife that can consume such love can live during the day for the sake of her husband and children.  The person who lives and thrives on her husband’s love is the happy wife. 

Before a husband leaves for the day, he should hold his wife's hands, hug her tightly, touch her breast, or kiss her.  If any man acts this way toward his wife, she would be enchanted and filled with an euphoric feeling thinking, "I am the happiest woman in the world".

Would this be true or not?

This is the testimony about the author of the Divine Principle which this blog is based upon:

"Regularly there was a time for prisoners to see their wives and families. When True Mother visited True Father, they always kissed each other intimately in public. True Father also ordered Mr. Kamiyama to kiss his wife, who regularly visited him, boldly in public without hesitation.

One of the things Mr. Kamiyama learned from Reverend Moon was sent to prison was the importance of expressing affection between a husband and wife. 

In fact, watching Mr. Kamiyama’s hesitant attitude toward his wife, in prison, True Father ordered him to 'teach our members to express affection more openly between a husband and wife', after his release from the prison."

Couples should inherit this tradition and accomplish one heart, one body, one mindset, and one harmony as a husband and wife just like True Parents. Many Blessed husbands seem to be poor at expressing affection to their wives.

As the Coming of Heaven and Earth settles, we should throw away the old culture of conjugal relations in the past.  The selfish practices do not have a place while establishing the ideal world centered on God's love.

We are inheriting a new heavenly culture of true conjugal love that has been established by the True Parents which have shown us an ideal model which gives us the daily-life habits of true love in order to become supremely happy couples.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: How to Have the Happiest Marriage Book Part 3

Yoshihiko Masuda, PhD (Professor, CheongShim Graduate School of Theology

This book is in large part was rewritten from the English translation of the Japanese booklet.

CheongShim GST University Press

Based on the Speeches of True Parents and Dae Mo Nim

Published by CheongShim GST University Press

Copyright

ⓒ 2010 by Yoshihiko Masuda

All Rights Reserved

Published in the Republic of Korea by CheongShim GST University Press