Authors
1. Have you ever prayed for a church member after he or she has visited you? Have you ever thought of that person throughout the night and prepared under the light of a kerosene lamp the words you would like to share the following day?
Have you waited for sun-rise, longing for that person's return?
If you wait like that, that person will surely come. When that happens you will realize, “Wow! This is the true meaning of devotion. If I offer sincere devotion, I can move God!”
If you desperately want someone to come, and you pray for that person for three hours with total unity of mind and body, he or she will start to feel restless. A desire to come to the church will stir in that person's heart. That kind of thing is possible. (075-179, 1975.01.02)
2. When you offer devotions for your members, rather than praying for many people at a time, it is better to pray for each person individually. The difference in results between praying for many people and praying for one person at a time is obvious, like the difference between east and west or north and south.
As a subject partner, pick one object partner and draw a line to that person. Then you should be able to determine all four directions. Focus absolutely on the relationship with that person until all four directions are secured. Only then can a sphere be formed. (042-166, 1971.03.04)
A leader whom Heaven remembers
3. If people are to serve God while living on earth, they need to travel the way of the saints who laid the foundation for religion. We should realize that, as a matter of course, we too have to go the way that the many religious leaders of the past have gone. We have to want to travel this road and be determined to do it.
If you unite with all the past religious leaders, you will naturally find your place in the world of the Principle, the world of religion. Having made that foundation, when you pray you will rise to a position that transcends the sphere of religion, and you will shorten the distance between yourself and God.
That is why, even though you walk a religious path on earth, you still need to offer devotion. Some people need to offer much devotion, while others, thanks to their good ancestors, can simply go straight along the path that their ancestors hoped for. What did their ancestors hope for? They sought the same world and purpose that religions have been seeking. (032-160, 1970.07.12)
4. The goal of religion is to find one true man, one true family, one true nation, and one true world. This is the purpose of religion, and it is also the purpose of God. It is the purpose of the providence God has been conducting in this world.
If we stand on the foundation of the devotion of past religious leaders, we can connect with God's purpose. The people of any particular religion do not follow only that religion's founder, but also the many believers of that religion and the leaders of all nations that identify with that religion.
If that religion has a worldwide foundation, many global leaders will want to follow it too. Thus, the distance between religious people and the spirit world can be reduced. (032-161, 1970.07.12)
5. In the Last Days it is not enough to learn from only one person who received grace; you should compare the teachings with those of many others who also received grace. You need to be wise about finding the best methods to elevate your spirituality on your own by meeting spiritual leaders with a higher truth.
However, many people of faith today do not know this. They need a comprehensive outlook; they need to effectively compare and analyze to find the fastest way for themselves. So when you travel a new path, do not just go along with it.
(032-167, 1970.07.12)
6. Do not always seek to receive grace. Do not constantly try to drink water from a well dug by someone else. Follow the stream until you find a new spring of pure water.
By the same token, when you conclude that the leader who has been inspiring you has reached his or her limit, you should offer greater devotion than that person did at the peak of inspiration. Then you will surpass that person. People of faith today do not know this. (032-167, 1970.07.12)
7. What kind of place is heaven? The answer is simple. Briefly, it is the world where people who lived for others go. People who live for themselves cannot enter heaven. Only those who lived for God and the world can go to that place.
Whether you are a church leader or a member, no matter how faithful you have been and no matter how much devotion you have offered, if it was all for yourself, you will be unable to enter the kingdom of heaven.
On the other hand, if you lived according to the original way of the Will and followed the principle of living for the sake of others, you will surely go to the kingdom of heaven.
That is, from the time you reach the age of maturity, if you lived for the sake of others and God, and if you went the way of death for God and humanity, you will indeed go to the kingdom of heaven. (077-109, 1975.04.01)
8. Whether you are a local church leader or district leader, you have to know how to read people. You should be able to glimpse their spirituality and tell what level they are at. The tasks that a spiritual leader needs to perform are very difficult.
That is why you must pray. When you pray about what is on the other side of the mountain, images of what is there should appear in your mind. But to reach that level, you need to offer devotion.
A church leader has to know the spiritual state of his or her members even before they do. A person who seriously offers devotion can know what has happened to them. (237-050, 1992.11.10)
9. Long ago, when I was leading a church with a gathering of about four hundred people, I called out the church members' names one by one. I knew their spiritual level right away.
I saw those with a high spirit standing upright above the horizon; those with a lower spirit stood slanted and those whose spiritual level was lower stood upside down. To have this kind of spiritual experience, you need to agree with God. You need to resonate with Him.
When you play the geo-mun-go, a Korean lute, if one of its strings is even the slightest bit loose, the instrument will be out of tune and its sound will be discordant. We must create resonating harmony. (237-050, 1992.11.10)
10. Never mistreat a person who offers devotion to Heaven. When a family member from the countryside brings me even one apple, I do not eat it casually. Treating an object offered with devotion in the wrong way cannot be forgiven.
Ignoring a single-minded heart of devotion is an inexcusable sin against the heavenly law. Do not treat things that contain someone's devotion carelessly. If something contains 99 degrees of devotion, you have to offer 100 degrees of devotion before you are qualified to touch it.
Suppose the leader of a certain group accepts things offered with much devotion but does not connect them to Heaven. Then the more the members of that group offer devotional conditions, the more quickly the leader and the group will decline.
That is why some spiritual groups prosper for some time but then quickly go to ruin. It is because they disregarded Heaven's way. (017-242, 1967.01.29)
11. The greater the number of people praying and offering devotion for you, the more blessed you will be. However, to have many people offering devotion to you, you should first give all the blessings you have to two others. Unless you do that, not many people will pray for you to receive God's blessings.
The person who has ten people offering devotion for his or her sake is someone God will remember. The church consists of a group of people who have created an environment of such devotion. It is a place where people say, “Let us expand the environment by encouraging one another to go to a new level.”
(031-157, 1970.05.24)
12. Church leaders should not offer devotion to themselves. They should be offering devotion to many thousands of other people. They should lead people to reach a level of devotion that is not only for their families but also for their nation and even for the world.
A church leader should be fixed not on his family and church members. He should have the heart to go out to the country and world while appealing to Heaven, “Please combine my devotion and my church members' devotion to make a path on which we can serve the world”
If a church leader establishes unity with his members and has a reciprocal relationship with them in this manner, God will surely come and dwell among them. God conies when the church members and their leader become one.
However, this happens when they unite not for the revival of their church but for the revival of the nation. (031-157, 1970.05.24)
Devotion and Heaven's Work
13. This is the era when we should restore the people. If the Unification Church members' devotion does not surpass the era of the family, then the leader must take responsibility to offer more devotion.
If this does not happen, the church will not be able to break through to the level of the people. However, if even one person can go to this level by investing all his life and love, just as God has invested His boundless life force, then the Unification Church will develop through him.
However, if there is no one like that, we will remain stagnant or retreat. For the church to develop, there must be a driving force behind the scenes. This means someone must invest life and soul, becoming a sacrifice to lift the Unification Church even beyond the people and the nation to the world.
You should know who that person is. In sacrificing himself, that person should invest not only his life and soul but also all his love. Unless such a person exists, the Unification Church will not develop to the world level. This is the viewpoint of the Principle. (032-029, 1970.06.14)
14. When you follow the Will, you have to invest your life completely. You have to invest your life force and the power of your love for a higher realm, beyond the nation and the world. Your life force and the power of your love become the elements that enable you to pioneer the path to grow the church.
There will be people who struggle so much when having to face the destiny of the Unification Church and embrace all the sorrowful circumstances on this earth. If so, even if you offer all manner of devotion for them and give them all manner of thanks and appreciation, it still will not be enough.
Nevertheless, anyone who criticizes those members and ignores them will eventually perish. When you see that the Unification Church is growing, you should feel endlessly grateful. At the same time, you should feel how lacking you are and pray, “I am at this level today, but please give me strength to become better.”
You should not be the kind of person who just lets the seasons come and go. If during the autumn and winter, you are unable to discover the life force and the power of love that are deep inside you, you will be unable to meet the coming spring and fully blossom. It will then be the end of the road for you.
(032-029, 1970.06.14)
15. Suppose that the founders of religions and the leaders who followed them were unable to fully prepare the path for people on earth to go to the good spirit world. Nevertheless, if someone continued pursuing that path for people on earth while offering sincere devotion, God would protect that person.
This does not mean God would protect him or her all the time. Rather, it means that when that individual faced a situation where his or her predecessors failed, or encountered a similar situation, if he or she offered devotion, God would lead that person to break through the predecessors' failed circumstances.
This is how God works to advance humankind to the point where we can directly receive His grace. (032-173, 1970.07.12)
16. There have been people who were responsible for laying the foundation for the way of the Principle, but who could not fulfill their responsibility. Subsequently, based on the numerous spirits who went to the spirit world, God established a foundation to pass down the same responsibility and bestowed His grace so that the successors on that path could overcome the previous failure.
At that time, God did not think of His situation. Rather, He worked based on their offering of devotion. God worked so they could climb step by step.
(032-174, 1970.07.12)
17. A church leader is in the position of a parent. Parents cannot go to sleep before they have put their children to bed. Unless they get sick, they cannot go to bed early. The parents' hearts are such that they shed tears worrying about the future of their sons and daughters who are still immature.
When their children experience difficulties in life, the parents will not go to bed without first praying for their children. Likewise, church leaders should feel so concerned about the members that they are unable to sleep.
In the quiet moments of early morning or late at night, they should tearfully offer devotion to the church members. That is how leaders can lay a foundation. After raising the members in this way, as their children, what should church leaders do?
They should inspire their members to become patriots who live for their country more than for their church. Leaders can do so only if they, in the parent position, set the example. (034-031, 1970.08.29)
18. Upright parents, before telling their children to do something, first educate them properly with love. If you live that way, God will not be able to leave you even if He wants to. If you become that kind of person, you will have a mysterious and strong power that will automatically attract others' attention.
People will have to be interested in you. In the winter, when you make a fire on the stove, people will flock to it. No one has to tell them which stove is hot and which stove is cold; they will know. In the same way, you have to become a person that other people flock to.
You need to establish your foundation based on this tradition. Then, with sacrificial determination, you must expand it to a family foundation and then connect it to the tribe and the nation. This is the path that Heaven takes.
(034-031, 1970.08.29)
19. What should you do if your leader does something wrong, or makes a mistake? You need to wholeheartedly work with that person to correct the situation. If the leader is beset with problems and has to leave that position, you will become the successor.
If you are that kind of person, you will advance wherever you go. No matter how bad your leader may be, if you continuously attempt to unite in your heart, that leader will surely be replaced one day.
If you are ordered to do something impossible but accomplish it anyway, the leader who gave that direction without personally having fulfilled it will not be in that position much longer.
The person who orders others to do what he or she has not done can be likened to a bud that has stopped growing, but the person who faithfully carries out those orders is like a growing bud. (069-281, 1974.01.01)
20. People who are always indebted to others are the rejects of society. No one likes them. They are treated as outsiders. You should not say that a particular leader is bad. Rather you should think, “Under this leader, I have a good opportunity to fairly demonstrate my ability and let my results shine.”
Do so, and everyone around you will recognize you. If your leaders are capable and guide you in detail, how can you claim your results? Deficiencies in a leader give you a good chance to shine.
That is why I am telling you not to complain when other people do, and not to draw back when others do. When the leader dies, you should even have the heart to lead the funeral service for that person, and put flowers on his or her grave. This is how you emerge as the owner. (069-282, 1974.01.01)
21. When you go to a high mountain and pray, you should be able to hear the voices of people around you calling out, “Save me!” You should also sense your ancestors in the spirit world imploring you to save them quickly.
They are calling out to you because they want you to fulfill your responsibility to them, as their high priest. That is the role of the high priest, and you have to fulfill your responsibility. A high priest cannot say, “I have a headache, " no matter how bad his headache is. He cannot say, “I am exhausted, " no matter how tired he is. He cannot rest until God permits him to rest.
If he is unable to fulfill his responsibility, he has to pay indemnity, and thus falls ill. To avoid that, he may even need to put himself in about being persecuted. A high priest needs to eat the kind of food that beggars eat and climb from there.
Furthermore, he should start by wearing the humblest clothes. In this way, he should restore everything in every field. If he wants the nation and the people to become one with him, he has to start at the bottom before he can go up.
He has to experience the misery of the people. Seen in this light, I am often thankful for the persecution I get. The noise that the outside world is making about us enables my family and our church to pay all the indemnity that needs to be paid. (089-292, 1976.02.04)
22. As a leader, you have to suffer. Suffering means that you are making indemnity conditions. If you pray without sleeping and offer other devotional conditions, what will happen? And if you work hard without resting and do your best to pay external indemnity, what will happen?
Attend other people as your kings. That is also paying indemnity. Suppose you attend a very difficult person as if he or she were your lord. Even if that person does not accept your heart of sincere devotion, God will accept it.
If that person does not want to follow the Unification Church and leaves, you will inherit all the blessings that his good ancestors had stored up for him. It is a daunting strategy. You will receive all his blessings. You will harvest them and gather them in. (089-293, 1976.12.04)
23. The Unification Church teaches that the individual sacrifices for the family. If that is so, that family too will naturally pay indemnity. Then it will surely be blessed and prosper, and the person who sacrificed himself more than anyone else will become the center.
The one who benefited everyone around him will surely become the leader. Do not offer devotion for your success, or to receive blessings. Rather, offer devotion to be given the grace to become the person who can take responsibility for the whole.
You should know dearly that the heavenly principle and history require that we take this path. It is based on this principle that the Unification Church teaches that the individual sacrifices for the family. We do not say this arbitrarily, If you sacrifice yourself in this way, you will become the center of your family.
Your family will be blessed and will pass on these blessings to your sons and daughters. Later, when your family expands into a tribe, your family will become the central family of your tribe and the center of all its blessings.
(130-295, 1984.02.13)
Offering devotions for the members
24. The person who offers the most devotion becomes the center. God's blessing will manifest through that person. The higher a broadcast antenna is, the farther it can transmit radio waves throughout the world.
Even if it is only a few inches higher than others, it can transmit beyond all other radio waves and reach the whole world. We can apply the same logic to the offering of devotion.
That is why you have to offer a lot of devotion, invest in yourself, and forget about it. Because this is God's Principle of Creation, the person who invests more than others, and forgets having done so, becomes the eternal leader.
(287-299, 1997.10.06)
25. You have to pray. You can offer two types of devotion: for the people and God. As a spiritual leader, you are in the position of a mediator who links God's life force with the people.
Hence, the results depend on how much devotion you offer. If you are completely focused on the cause, placing God at the center of all you do, then the complete result that God desires can be manifested through you.
The church members will unite with you according to the degree of your oneness with God. The members will unite with you to the degree you have become one with me. For this reason, you cannot help but consider me to be your lifeline.
God may be difficult for you to grasp, but you can think of me even when you are asleep or walking on the street. Try to keep me in mind at all times, day, and night. Then the door of the spirit world will open to you.
Forget about your situation. Offering devotion is the fastest way to do this. If you offer devotion, your members will have spiritual experiences involving you. The result will reflect the cause. (070-165, 1974.02.09)
26. A minister should pray for each member of his congregation at least once every three days. I spent nearly three years in Hungnam prison, yet even in that situation there was not a moment, from when I ate breakfast in the morning until I went to sleep at night, that I was not praying for members.
Even if members left the church I continued to pray for them. Then those people came to me spiritually and, weeping sorrowfully, told me the reasons they left the church. I could not help feeling sorry for them, especially those who confessed that they left me because they were too weak in the flesh. Even though they left me that way I continued to pray for them. (042-162, 1971.03.04)
27. When I pray for a church district, I do not pray for the leader. Instead, I pray for the members who are dedicated to that leader, who serve as a support base for the leader, and who are working hard. I do this so that the Will can advance further. I do not praise a district leader when he or she fulfills a responsibility; rather, I praise the family members who enabled that leader to be praised.
Leaders, you should pray for the members who are cooperating with you. Do not become indebted to your members in heart. When your members are suffering on the frontline, as their leader, you need to think of them even when you are eating.
You should think of them even as you put your spoon in your mouth, and swallow your food with tears in your eyes. The words, “Heavenly Father, please look after them, " should automatically emerge as a prayer in your heart. If you lack this kind of heart, you cannot advance. (013-301, 1964.04.12)
28. You leaders need to be single-minded, but for what? Is it to eat? No. It is your mission and your responsibility to resurrect lost lives, one by one, as God's sons and daughters.
It is to bring them out of the evil world and into the kingdom of heaven. Try living with that sense of mission more seriously each year; then nothing will be impossible.
If you are an absolute subject partner, absolute object partners will appear. Therefore, as the subject partner, you need to pray for your object partners. If a person you are praying for gets up early, you have to get up even earlier and offer devotions. Then that person will immediately notice that someone is praying for him or her. (042-164, 1971.03.04)
29. A leader's position is one of offering devotion. In the morning, you have to pray for at least twenty people. During the day, you have to think about and pray for more than seventy people. You have to eat and live with the members. People are most focused when they eat and when they go to sleep.
This is because when you eat out of hunger and go to sleep out of fatigue, all your nerves are focused. On the other hand, when you wake up your nerves are in a state of relaxation, and you are less focused.
Thus, you should pray for the Will with as much presence as when you eat and when you go to sleep. One prayer with such mindfulness is better than several prayers at other times of the day. (042-164, 1971.03.04)
30. Your leaders should always keep your members close to your heart, as though you were eating and sleeping with them. Then you will come to intuitively understand each person. When your perception becomes keener, you will be able to read both those who are near you and those who are far away.
Once you look at them, you will instantly know their inner situations. As a spiritual leader, if you are so dull that you do not have this kind of ability, how will you be able to guide people?
The question is, how much devotion have you offered to each individual?
You need to understand what Jesus meant when he said, "For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?" (Matt. 16:26)
He meant that each human life is more precious than the whole universe, and he dropped the anchor of his heart in each person. When you arrive in the state of Jesus' heart, you will forget about the world and fight for each life on a one-to-one basis.
You will search the deep valleys for that life, with its unparalleled value. Then you will finally recover that new life and gain a new member. (042-164, 1971.03.04)
31. You need to know the greatness and power of prayer. You may think that you are just one person praying here on earth, but incredibly, your prayer can mobilize the spirit world in the other dimension, the limitless world, and establish new bonds.
Prayer acts like a magnet. When you become a leader in the future, your prayer can be so powerful that if you pray twenty-four hours a day for the members with the unshakable belief that your prayer will work, you will see it happen. Prayer has that kind of power.
That is why Jesus is quoted in the Bible as saying, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them" (Matt. 18:20)
Hence, if three people join together in prayer, they have great power.
(076-298, 1975.03.10)
Sun Myung Moon