by Rev. Young Hwi Kim
Chapter 29
February 1, 1985
Good morning. I'd like to speak about life in the Kingdom of Heaven or the ideal world this morning. We all know that the goal of our life of faith is to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. This means we must lead a life worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. But we don't know how to live in the Kingdom of Heaven because we never experienced living there. One thing is certain though, the Kingdom of Heaven should be a world centered on God and in which we constantly feel God's presence. Also human relationships should be much better than those we have here now; good relationships should exist between people.
We have never been to the spirit world, but we hear that the people there communicate without speaking, just by feeling each other's heart; it is a world of intuition. This is what people say about the spirit world. From this we can understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is a world of intuition where we can understand others quickly and easily. Man's intuition should be highly developed so we can understand each other without much talk. Scientists say that energy radiates from man; it is measurable with a certain type of meter. You know when someone approaches you even without seeing or hearing them; you can feel it. Some kind of energy emanates from man. Men can sense each other through these various energy vibrations. Man has a physical body and a spiritual body, therefore the energy is also of two kinds: physical and spiritual.
If man hadn't fallen, but gone on to completely develop his spiritual senses, he would be able to feel these vibrations and thus understand others better. Due to the fall though, man's spirit couldn't reach perfection, and our understanding and intuition are not well developed. This is one reason it is difficult to have good give and take in the fallen world. Another reason is that because of the fall the world is filled with evil spirits; we live under the influence of evil spirits who sow mistrust among people. We also have fallen nature which often dominates our original nature. Of course, our original nature expresses itself occasionally, but our fallen nature is stronger and usually dominates. This also causes difficulties in our relationships with others.
Because we are fallen we often have the wrong view of life and there are many individual lifestyles. Most people have an egocentric view of life and thus want to be totally independent. Independence is not bad. The question is how far individual independence should be allowed; how independent should man be? Man cannot live alone, we are interdependent. This means we must help each other; we are dependent on others in various ways. Man often wants to be independent for selfish reasons. In certain situations man should be independent, but often man wants to be dependent when he should be independent and independent when he should be dependent. Fallen people are often physically mature, but spiritually like little children. Parents must take care of their children so they don't go astray. We must admit that we need the guidance and assistance of others. If we resent their assistance as interference, it will cause problems. Then even when someone sees that we need help, he will be reluctant to offer it.
Westerners have much confidence in their own abilities. But I often find that they don't have much trust in human relationships. Many think they can find happiness by having a good living environment. But if they live alone, a good house or a good car cannot bring them happiness. They know this and seek someone with whom they can share their heart, but they don't have much confidence they will find such a person. We say that we must build the Kingdom of Heaven and live in a world of heart and that this should be done where we live. So we must try to develop deeper relationships. Both sides must take responsibility and open up to each other; we must all open ourselves to others. Only in this way can we discover more about each other. Sometimes we are too timid to open our hearts or initiate give and take action. We can understand why this happens. Still everyone needs somebody to talk to and share their heart with even if it is difficult. We must discover the reasons and resolve them, we must improve our relationships. We still have many things to work out among ourselves. We should open up more to each other. And we must adjust our different ways of living to the proper direction.
We say we want to build a world of heart. To do so we must destroy the barriers between us. As I mentioned earlier there are certain obstacles that hinder good give and take action; they must be dismantled. Satan cannot invade when we have close relationships and we can have much more power and can cope with our problems in a better way. Many people, especially those in the fallen world, suffer from a lack of give and take. They lead lonely lives and sometimes even commit suicide when depressed. Sometimes we also suffer from a lack of communication. We must solve this problem. We need deeper relationships.
In Korea there was once a center leader who always prayed but he didn't witness. No matter how hard he prayed, he couldn't find spiritual children. Prayer is important. But by itself it is not enough; it must be accompanied by action. It's as simple as that. We all seek happiness and a good life, but prayer alone isn't sufficient to fulfill our desires; we must act. We must open our hearts to others. We know we aren't able to have good give and take with some people. We must change this and open ourselves so we can have good give and take with anyone. Naturally there will be varying degrees of closeness in our relationships, but we should try to be open to everyone. We want to create a world of heart where we live. If we are concerned about others, we can understand them better and our concern can deepen to love.
Love cannot develop where there is no concern for others though. We say we are brothers and sisters. If we are truly brothers and sisters we should show more concern for each other and accept other's concern for us, rather than rejecting it as intervention. This is the second month of the year. Our motto this year is "The Creation and Building of the Fatherland". There are two ways to accomplish this: one is to gather many people and create a nation, the other is to develop good relationships among ourselves and expand them to the world. Even if we fulfill the external aspect, it won't mean a thing if the internal aspect is missing.
In our prayer we should ask to inherit God's faith. God has strong faith in us even though we are unworthy of His trust. God wants to believe in us and He gives us His full trust, so we must try to trust and believe in God. We need faith in God, our brothers and sisters and our work. We often hear that we should be strong and bold; this is impossible without faith. We can be strong and bold only through our faith in God, True Parents, our brothers and sisters and our work. Sometimes we forget this aspect of absolute faith in God and True Parents when we say we should be strong and bold. Even though it is difficult we also want to develop absolute faith in our brothers and sisters.
Everyone has their own prayer. Of course we all pray in our own way, but we should think about what we pray. We must also try to realize our prayer in our daily lives. This is difficult, but we have to try. We cannot allow our prayer and our daily life to be separate. Time passes whether we lead a good life or not. We know that if we don't lead a good life on earth we will regret it later. This is certain. He who leads a life he won't have any regrets about later is a wise man. We are truly wise to live such a life. We know it is difficult, but we must try. We may make mistakes in the beginning, but if we persevere we will gradually develop and eventually be able to lead a good life. 1 hope this month will be a good month for each of you and for our Heavenly Father and True Parents. Thank you.
Let us pray together:
Our loving Heavenly Father, you created us as your children and even though we fell away from you, you never forsook us, but always sought to bring us back to you. Even though we often sin, you always try to forgive us and long to see the day we will sin no more. Father, because of your love you can forgive us and are waiting for the day when we can return to you as worthy sons and daughters. Father, we truly want to become your true children. We want to love others and create a world of good relationships where we can share our heart fully with brothers and sisters. We want to build the Kingdom of Heaven where we live. To do so we must develop good relationships with our brothers and sisters living nearby and create a world of heart. Then you can dwell with us and guide us. We really want this, Father.
We cannot go on without you; we cannot find happiness. Everyone on earth seeks happiness, but most don't know how to find it. We say that we know the way, but we don't live accordingly in our daily life. We ask you to help us, Father, so we can develop good relationships among our members and truly establish your world of heart. When this happens we can fulfill our motto for this year, "The Creation and Building of the Fatherland". Our Fatherland is the land of good heart and good relationships centered upon you.
Father, the first month of this year passed so quickly. Now we are starting the second month; we want to do something for you and ourselves this month. We also want to console the heart of our True Father in Danbury. He is suffering because of us. Even in prison he is praying for us. We must answer his prayer by improving ourselves and trying to do your work as your sons and daughters. Father, we ask for your blessing and guidance throughout this month and pray it can be a fruitful month.
We pray all this in the name of our True Parents. Amen.