Preparing to Receive God's Words

When we have a meeting and announce that we will start at eight o’clock, many people come after eight o’clock. Some people come even later. In the outside society it is normal to come either punctually, or later. This is a kind of habit in the secular world.

In any meeting, even in the outside society, there is a speaker and an audience. The audience wants to understand the other people and also hear what the speaker has to say. This is so even in the outside world, but in our case most of our meetings are of a religious nature. An any religious meeting the most important thing is to unite subject and object, because we are dealing with the resurrection of life. Particularly during this meeting we should try to receive something to revive our spirit, not just pass on knowledge to one another. Because of this we must maintain unity between subject and object.

Therefore, in this kind of meeting, both the speaker and audience must prepare before coming to attend. That is why, whenever we have a meeting we should come a little earlier in order to pray in preparation. We need to have this kind of attitude. It’s the same for the speaker. The speaker has to prepare even more than the audience. The audience should take time to separate from Satan in order to prepare to hear something from God through the speaker. Whatever the speaker says, the audience must try to accept it and unite with it.

In Korea, whenever Father gives a sermon, the members always prepare beforehand. Some even come

one day earlier, others invest a few hours of preparation before hearing Father’s speech. Also, in the past a spiritualist told the members, “Whenever you listen to Father’s speech you must come at least three hours earlier or prepare one day in advance through prayer, to purify your heart before listening to the speech.”

Why did the spiritualist say this? It is because Father always prepares more than the audience does so that he can give spiritual life to them. This is why the spiritual world told us that anyone who wants to hear father’s speech must come at least three hours earlier. Father always tries to give us a speech reflecting a high standard of spirit, so the audience must prepare to meet Father’s standard. Otherwise one cannot receive or digest what Father says.

Father once told us that when he gives a Sunday service the members come, but most of them do so without any preparation. They spend their time during the week in a normal way, and then come to listen to Father. In this case it is very difficult for Father to have give and take action with them, because Father wants to lift up the audience through his words. Father always had difficulty in raising up the people, but this was the only way for them to unite with him. What I want to say is: whatever kind of meeting we attend, we need to prepare for it beforehand, otherwise we cannot benefit from it.

So far, many members’ attitude in giving a lecture or was just to pass on knowledge to the audience. That’s why it has been so difficult to revive the members’ spirits. We really have to be more concerned

about how to give spirit and life to others. This we should learn from Father. So, whenever you give a speech or sermon, you should not just convey your knowledge or understanding, you should really try to feel in your heart how to give something of God’s spirit. You are not just normal members, you have a leadership position, therefore I think you should understand this point.

As you are all leaders, when you go back to your countries I hope you will keep this attitude and practice it in your daily life.

Curated by Antonio Ciacciarelli