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 Sermon > Sunday Morning Service |
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Title |
Measure of Faith(15) - 4th Level of Faith (4) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Romans12:3,3 John1:2 |
Date |
2006-02-12 |
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[Passage]
[Romans 12: 3], [3 John 1: 2]
[Romans 12: 3]
"For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."
[3 John 1:2]
"Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers."
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In most cases, it is the desire of parents to give everything unsparingly to their children. But even though they love their children so much, they cannot just give their children everything want.
No matter how much little children cry and ask, you cannot let them play with dangerous objects like sharp knives or matches. When your children have bad friends and frequently ask for money, you cannot just give the money to them.
It's because you can't be sure where your children are going to spend the money. But what if your children act rightly and are trustworthy? If you are able, you will try to give as much pocket money as possible and give them anything they want.
God's heart is similar to the heart of parents. The almighty God wants to give anything His children ask of Him, and He is more than able to give.
But for you to receive whatever you ask for, you first have to be trustworthy in God's sight.
1 John 3:21-22 says, "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; [22] and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." As said, you have to dwell in light and have nothing to do with darkness.
This is the 15th session of "The Measure of Faith". Continuing from the last session, I will explain to you about the blessings for those who have gone into the 4th level of faith, the level of the men of spirit.
Through this message, I urge you to become God's children who please God with your action and are trustworthy in His sight. I pray in the name of the Lord that the blessings of God that He has prepared for His beloved children will come upon you abundantly.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when you have faith to receive the Holy Spirit it is the 1st level of faith and it is the faith to receive salvation. Then, when you hear and learn God's word and try to practice it diligently, you get to the 2nd level of faith.
At the 2nd level of faith, you sometimes violate the word of God and practice untruth. But, from the 3rd level on, you shouldn't have any deeds or actions of untruth. You can live by the word of God. But although you have tried and can live by God's word, you just have not yet cast off the sinful natures in your heart.
If you cast off the remaining sinful characters in your heart and become sanctified, you enter into the 4th level of faith. If you get to the 4th level, you love God and the Lord to the utmost degree and without any conditions. You will love the Lord more than anything else on this earth.
Also, your soul will prosperous and you will be recognized as a man of spirit before God. 3 John verse 2, "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers." As said, men of spirit will prosper in all aspects and they will be healthy.
They receive blessings of health, so they are free from the diseases and accidents of this life. They can receive the answers to anything they bravely ask. When they pray for others, God's works take place.
If you go into the 4th level, namely if you "go into spirit", you will receive abundant financial blessings. Deuteronomy 28:1-14 is the promise of blessings to those who go into spirit.
Verses 2-6 say, "All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God: [3] 'Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. [4] 'Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. [5] 'Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. [6] 'Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out."
Also, verse 12 says, "The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow."
Before I accepted the Lord and was healed, I was in very serious financial difficulty. I couldn't work for a long time due to my illness and disease, so I couldn't earn any money. Because I had to pay for my treatment, my debt just continued to gradually pile up.
But after I accepted the Lord and recovered my health, my wife and I worked very hard. But because the debt was so great that we couldn't afford to pay back the principal. We were barely able to pay the interest.
But since the day I went into spirit, I began to receive financial blessings. I received so much blessing that I could pay back the tremendous debt within several months.
But of course, even before I went into spirit, as I asked for necessary things, God supplied them to me according to my faith. He never let me starve. But since I went into spirit, the blessing came just like the rain pouring down.
Galatians 6:7 says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." As said, God blesses us as we have sown. Furthermore, if we sow one, He gives back not only one but with so many things in abundance.
Luke 6:38 says, "Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."
When you fill a vessel with grain, and then you shake it, press it, and fill it almost to overflowing, it will easily be about two times more than just first filling the vessel even with the brim.
Likewise, even before you go into spirit, God blesses you at least two times more when you sow with faith. The worldly people face many accidents and get diseases, and they don't know when they will face loss.
But if you sow with faith in the Lord, you don't face any unexpected loss. If you receive more than twice what you sow, it is not a small blessing. Therefore, if you don't stop after sowing just once or twice but continue to sow, you will always enjoy the rich blessings of God.
And if you go into the 4th level and into spirit, you will not only reap two times more. Matthew 13:23 says, "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." This is not only about spiritual blessing but also about material blessing.
Those who have gone into spirit and have good hearts will reap more than 30 times. If you go into the fifth level, the whole spirit, then you will reap 60 or 100 times.
Even if it seems there is no way for you to receive blessings and you don't have any particular skills, only if you go into spirit, God will prepare a way to give you blessings and guide you to that way.
Also, the blessings for the men of spirit will come upon those who are with them. It was just like Lot, who was with Abraham also received blessings and he had much wealth.
Genesis 12:3 says, "And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
Of course, for you to receive the authority of blessings and curses, you have to get into the whole spirit. But even at the 4th level of faith, the level of spirit, people around you will receive blessings together with you.
But just because they are with men of spirit, if they are not right in the sight of God, they cannot receive blessings. Please remember this is the justice of God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, next, if you go into spirit, it will be easy to evangelize other people and thus accomplish family evangelization more easily.
Acts 16:31 says, "They said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.'" If one person believes in the Lord like as a true Christian, he and his family members will also receive salvation.
Also, in Acts chapter 10, an angel appeared to Cornelius the centurion and told him to invite Peter.
At this time, Acts 11:14 says, "and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household." As said, a promise was given that he and his family members would be saved.
So, Cornelius gathered his family members and even his friends and invited Peter. At that time, everybody who gathered there listened to the gospel and received the Holy Spirit.
Seeing that all his household and even his friends gathered at the word of Cornelius, we can see what kind of life he had been leading in everyday life. He must have spoken every word in truth and goodness, and his deeds must have been beautiful.
If you live a godly life like Cornelius, your family members, your friends, and people around you will trust whatever you say. Your words will have the working power. When this kind of person preaches the gospel, the hearers cannot ignore the preacher's words.
Therefore, if you are praying for family evangelization, please check how much you have set the example of service and self-sacrifice. Even though you have not come into spirit completely yet, to the extent that you go into spirit, and to the extent that you give grace and virtue to other people, to that same extent your family members will have come into faith as well.
If you come into spirit completely, you will have spiritual authority, so the enemy devil cannot disturb you when you preach the gospel to your family members or anybody else. Originally, Adam who was created as a living spirit had the authority to rule over and subdue all things.
Due to that authority, even the enemy devil and Satan could not approach the Garden of Eden. After Adam committed sins and corrupted to the flesh, men lost this kind of spiritual authority, but if you go into spirit, you can recover this authority again.
Therefore, when you preach you can block the works of the devil and you can more easily open the door of the heart of the listener.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, next, if you go into spirit, you will receive clear inspiration of the Holy Spirit and obey it completely, so you will be guided only to prosperity.
Of course, just by entering into the rock of faith at the 3rd level of faith, you keep the word of God. So, you receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit and are prosperous in most areas.
But still you have not reached the level where your heart is fully filled with the truth and you rely on God completely. In this situation, you can receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but to the extent that you still have fleshly thoughts remaining, you cannot receive Holy Spirit's guidance 100%. Sometimes, you may get confused.
For example, after you start a certain work by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, if you face some obstacles, your assurance may be swayed. You may ask yourself, "Did I really receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit?" or "Didn't it come from my thoughts?"
On the contrary, those who are at the 4th level of faith have a heart completely filled with the truth, and the word of God is embedded in their life itself. They don't try to practice the word but because their heart is changed into truth itself, their actions come out in truth naturally.
At this level, you receive Holy Spirit's guidance correctly and you only obey His voice. Also, if you pray about something to accomplish it with faith, you endure with firm faith until that prayer is answered.
If you only obey this way, God will delicately guide you and when you lack wisdom, He will give you wisdom, and when you lack understanding, He will give you understanding. Since the opening of this church, I have never relied on my own ability or my own wisdom in this ministry.
I completely believed in God, prayed to Him, and obeyed the guidance of the Holy Spirit even for the smallest things. Even when we faced difficulties in the middle, our faith in God was not shaken.
Then, God completely took charge in everything. We have experienced that He has been working so accurately and in the most minute detail and He will until the day we accomplished a particular work.
When men of spirit rely on God completely and act, even if they may make a mistake and do something different from God's will, God will protect them and even if there is a pitfall made by an evil person, God Himself will control the situations.
He will let the men of spirit find a way around or another way or He will just block the pitfall. At times, even though it seems that a person is falling into a pit for the moment, God works for the good of everything through the situation.
Deuteronomy 28:7 says, "The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways." As said, they can always win the victory and give glory to God.
Also, verse 13 says, "The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath," So, wherever they go, they can go up to a position that is acknowledged.
Daniel 1:20 says, "As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm." Daniel and his three friends kept the commandments of God completely even in the situation where they were captives in another country.
Therefore, God gave them great wisdom and understanding to let them earn the recognition from the king and lifted them up to the higher positions in that country. Furthermore, even when they went into the fiery furnace or the lion's den as a result of false accusations and entrapments of evil people, God preserved them so that not even a single hair was hurt.
Brothers and sisters, I cannot explain each and every blessing that those who go into spirit will receive. But the greater blessing for them than blessings on this earth is the glory that will enjoy in the eternal kingdom of heaven.
The life in the 2nd kingdom of heaven for those at the 3rd level of faith and that of the 3rd kingdom of heaven for those at the 4th level of faith are completely different in the dimension of honor and happiness. Above all, those at the 3rd level of faith or below cannot see the face of the Lord even in the kingdom of heaven.
Hebrews 12:14 says, "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." To have peace with all men and sanctification, you must be sanctified and get into the 4th level of faith.
Unless you cast off all sins in your heart and go into spirit, you cannot even see the faces of the dear Lord or God the Father. You would not be able to look up into their faces because of such strong lights of glory although you can still be saved and get to the kingdom of heaven..
Therefore, other than those who live in New Jerusalem, even though they are invited to the city of New Jerusalem, they cannot just enter the city.
It's also because the angels are guarding the 12 pearl gates of New Jerusalem, but even though they don't, the people do not dare enter the city because of its such bright lights.
Because the lights of heavenly bodies are all different in each heavenly dwelling place, even though they are invited to a banquet in New Jerusalem, they have to borrow the garments for New Jerusalem to overcome the difference of light.
But even though they change their clothes, they are so sorry that they cannot look at the face of the glorious Lord directly. It is like in old days (in Korea), those who went before the emperor or king could not lift up their heads with reverence in their mind.
But those at the 3rd kingdom of heaven can see the face of the Lord because they accomplished sanctification of their heart, although they were a little short in being faithful to all God's house. If you just think of this, you can see how different it is between those who are sanctified and those who are not.
Other than this, among the imaginations you have about the kingdom of heaven, there are many things that can be given only from the 3rd kingdom of heaven or above. I will continue with the heavenly blessings for those who have gone into spirit in detail in the next session.
Let me conclude the message. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when things do not go as they want, worldly people usually blame others. Or, they blame the situation and circumstances and get discouraged. But in fact, all things are up to them.
If you change into spirit, people around you will change. God will work for you to change your situations and conditions. If you change into light, the darkness will naturally disappear, and even if you have difficult problems, they will turn into peace and prosperity.
But going into spirit is not only doing great work of God, showing His power greatly, and causing many people to give glory to God.
The evidence of men who go into spirit is that they humble themselves and serve others in each situation of everyday life and make each of their actions and words beautiful. They become the light and salt and give glory to God.
Those who used to speak cold-hearted words, brusque and hurting words, and useless words of untruth will begin to speak words of humbleness and truth, and this will move other people.
Also, when those who used to seek their own and insisted their own righteousness begin to embrace others and seek the benefit of others first, they will receive love and recognition from others.
They will love you from their heart. They will think, "My wife, my husband, my parents, or my children have changed so much since they accepted the Lord," and try to listen to you when you preach the gospel to them.
If you change in this way, not only other people will be moved but God will be moved, too, and He will work for you. Therefore, impossible things will change into possible things, and you will receive answers and blessings in all things.
I urge you to quickly cast off sinful natures in heart and accomplish holy and clean heart.
By doing this, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become the light and salt of this world, give glory to God in all things, and experience the blessings of God. |
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