The Treasure of Treasures is Faith
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August 05, 2012 |
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"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
 Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Chairman, The United Holiness Church of Jesus Christ
Permanent President, The World Christianity Revival Mission Association
Joint President, Association of Lovers of National Assembly and Prayers for the Country
Founder & Board Chairman, Global Christian Network
Founder & Board Chairman, World Christian Doctors Network
Founder & Board Chairman, Manmin International Seminary
Founder & Board Chairman, The Alliance Holiness Theological Seminary
Doctorate of Ministry, and Honorary Doctorate of Divinity
Senior Pastor, Manmin Central Church
His sermons were broadcast by the Far East Broadcasting Company and the Asia Broadcast Station
His Christian columns appear on The Chosun Ilbo, The JoongAng Daily, The Dong-A Ilbo, The Hankook Ilbo, The Seoul Shinmun, The Kyunghyang Shinmun, The Munhwa Ilbo, The Korea Economic Daily, The Korea Herald, The Sisa News, and The Christian Press.
He conducted crusades in New York City, Washington, Baltimore, Maryland, Los Angeles, and Hawaii of the USA; Japan; India; Pakistan; the Philippines; Argentina; Honduras; Peru; Russia; Germany; Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Jerusalem of Israel; and Estonia.
The title of the first message that was preached in the opening service in 1982 was "The Treasure of Treasures is Faith". Since then, the 30 years of history of Manmin was solely a path taken by faith. God has been watching us with His blazing eyes for the last 30 years, and whenever we showed Him our faith, He changed all the trials into glory. In this edition, let's remember the works of God who has been with us in this march of faith that our church has been taking since the opening of the church.
1. The power of faith
On July 25, 1982, when we had the first service, the sanctuary was just about 350 square feet, and there were only 13 members including four children. The money I had at hand was only 7,000 won, which was about 7 dollars then. But because we had faith, we could be more confident than anyone who had thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars. With this faith, we stored up countless prayers and fasting. As we prayed like we did, we got the pulpit, microphones, telephone, piano, and all the things we needed one by one every week. God also sent those leaders who had great talents. The number of church members increased very rapidly.
We had the establishment service on the 77th day after the first service, and 170 people attended. In less than five years from that time the number of members hit 3,000. We had to move to bigger places without even having enough time to build a new sanctuary. Every time, God dramatically worked for us to be able to move to bigger places.
The main power-source of such a revival was the power of God that guaranteed God's word that was preached. As He had spoken, such great healing works took place in our church, and even before the opening of the church the news spread all over the country. Sick people, the demon-possessed, and people with problems in spirit and body came from all over Korea. Those at the threshold of death having cancers, leukemia, brain tumors, gas-poisoning, pulmonary TB, or severe burns came back to a state of quality of life and health. The demon-possessed were set free. Even those who had completely stopped breathing came back to life.
For the last 30 years, the works of God's power became greater year by year. When necessary for the kingdom of God, God even controlled the weather conditions for us like by changing the course of typhoon. There were so many extraordinary things such as moving of the stars, appearance of dragonflies, and various kinds of rainbows. Experiencing such works of God's power, the faith of our church members increased quickly. They became increasingly passionate to accomplish world evangelism and build the Grand Sanctuary.
2. What is meant by "The Treasure of Treasures Is Faith"?
We believe in the invisible God, Heaven and Hell, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Through this faith, we are saved. We also receive answers and blessings with faith. That is why the treasure of treasures is faith. But the faith here must be true faith and not counterfeit faith. It has to be spiritual faith and not fleshly faith. Just confessing with lips, "Lord, I believe," does not mean you have true faith. Then, what kind of faith is true, spiritual faith?
First of all, spiritual faith is the faith given by God from above.
Men cannot have spiritual faith at their will. In Mark 9:23-24, we find the words of a father who wants his son to be set free from demons. It says, "And Jesus said to him, 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief."
Here when the father said, "I believe," and "help my unbelief", they are different kinds of believing. He heard about the power of Jesus, so he first had faith as knowledge thinking Jesus could heal his son. That is why he said, "I believe." But because he did not have spiritual faith to believe from the heart, he asked Jesus to help his unbelief.
Then, what do we have to do to possess spiritual faith? God gives us spiritual faith when we walk in the light according to God's words, when we ask God in accordance with His will, and when we prepare a proper vessel to receive blessings according to justice. If we say, "Lord, I believe" without living by the word of God but in sins, then it is a lie. If we truly believe that God is alive, we will have the deeds of obeying the commandments of the living God. Faith without deeds is dead faith, and with dead faith nothing can be accomplished (James 2:17).
Secondly, spiritual faith is the faith to obey even the impossible things.
If you have spiritual faith you can obey the commands of God, even if it doesn't agree with your ideas. You can obey God's will, even if it is something you are not able to do. It's because you believe that God is the loving Father who gives you only the best things. Also, you believe that God is wiser than you and He has greater power than you, so you can obey relying only on His wisdom and power.
When God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac, if Abraham had had fleshly thoughts, he would have never been able to obey. But Abraham believed in the goodness and love of God completely and obeyed. He believed that God had a reason when He told him to offer his son Isaac, and he also believed that even if Isaac died, God would revive him.
God was so pleased with the complete obedience of Abraham that God called Abraham the friend of God, and fulfilled all His promises given to Abraham.
Thirdly, spiritual faith is unchanging faith.
In any hardship, or even if a long time passes, spiritual faith never changes (Mark 11:24; James 1:6-7).
In Genesis, Joseph, the son of Jacob, had very mysterious dreams when he was a child. Once the sheaves of his brothers bowed down to his sheaf and at another time the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed before him. Joseph believed that they were dreams of blessings that God would make him a noble person.
But the things in reality after this were not glory but unspeakable trials. He was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. In addition, there he was wrongfully accused and sent to a deep prison. But in this dire situation, Joseph always believed in God.
After a long time passed, God finally saved Joseph from the prison and let him stand before the Pharaoh. A 17-year-old boy who was sold as a slave spent an unfortunate 13 years, but he became the second highest person of power in the mighty nation of Egypt. And the dream that God had given him came true. Joseph wouldn't have been able to achieve his dream unless he had spiritual faith.
Joseph did not lose faith. He sought the will of God in any situation and performed his duty faithfully. The difficulties that Joseph went through were necessary steps to fulfill the will of God. When he was managing the household of the commander of the royal guard, he learned how to manage a big household. When he was in the prison for king's criminals, he met with many politicians and people who had knowledge in the nation's economy. He acquired the necessary knowledge and skills to rule over the whole nation of Egypt. The 13 years of time looked like a time of hardship, but it was the fastest way to train Joseph to make him the prime minister of Egypt.
The promises of God are certainly fulfilled. But sometimes the time that God wants and the time that men want can be different. When God says He would soon fulfill His promises, it can be fulfilled after several months or several years. In men's eyes, it looks like it is delayed, but in the view of God, it is done at the most appropriate point in time. When we believe God until the end without changing, He gives us more amazing fruits of blessings that we expect. He makes what we have believed become reality.
3. The walk of faith
Since the opening of the church, we have believed without changing the providence of God given to this church. We have prayed everyday to achieve our visions such as, 'a church that arises and shines' and 'a sanctuary that reveals the glory of God to the whole world'. Our ways were not always easy. Sometimes it was like thorny road, and at other times it was like we were standing at the edge of a cliff. We were afflicted in every way, being unable to see just an inch ahead.
Once in 1991, we had a very difficult time because of the church council we belonged to. As there were signs and wonders and rapid growth, pastors of other churches were jealous of us. And we did not follow the request of unrighteous people, and we were hated. Eventually, through an illegitimate process, they dismissed my pastorship and one-sidedly expelled our church from the council. But I only committed everything into God's hands giving thanks in prayers.
After some time, the plan of God in allowing for me this trial was revealed. We came to establish a new denomination based on the five-fold gospel of holiness, and we became able to preach the holiness gospel without any restraints. We were even more recognized by other church councils, and I began to speak in many overseas crusades and seminars. The fruit of revival continued, and in 1993, we were selected as one of the top 50 churches in the world.
We were accelerating our ministries when we had another major trial in 1998 and 1999. Some of the pastors and Levites became unable to hide their unrighteousness in the church any more, and they left the church in groups. Meanwhile, they created false rumors to slander the church and deceive the members. They even spread such rumors to the church councils and the press of the world. These things were carried out in a detailed plan to destroy the church.
But even before this trial had begun, God let me know that it would come. He said it was not disaster or hardship but blessing that was coming upon us at the speed of light. Even though the church had such a difficult financial situation, and even though I lost all my energy and my legs were shaky, I firmly believed the word of God. I confidently proclaimed blessings and glory every week in the sermons. Now we know about the results.
Also, in Muan Manmin Church in March 2000, a work of creation took place. The well that was giving out only salty sea water began to pump up fresh water. From the Uganda crusade in 2000, the era of overseas mega size crusades began, and the explosive works of power began to be unfolded all over the world. At the time of the early church, the persecutions on Christians in Jerusalem made Christianity spread all over the world.
Likewise, our trials became a turning point to spread the power of God all over the world. We had mega size overseas crusades in Uganda, Japan, Pakistan, Kenya, the Philippines, Honduras, India, Russia, Germany, Peru, DR Congo, and the United States. Tens or hundreds of thousands of people, or even millions of people gathered to meet and experience the living God.
From 2007, as God had commanded us at the opening of the church, we began to preach about Jesus Christ in Israel, the remotest part of the earth. Our ministry is not only about overseas crusades. The WCDN (World Christian Doctors' Network) and MIS (Manmin International Seminary) were established to make our vision more concrete. The broadcasting ministry opened wide through GCN, and more publications were carried out in many countries. We were enabled to spread the holiness gospel and the works of God's power to all corners of the world.
Dear brothers and sisters, in this past 30 years since the opening of the church, God has always been with us. He has always blessed us and made us prosperous. Of course, we sometimes had times of trials or times of waiting for blessings. But after all those times passed, God always gave us greater fruits than what we had expected.
Therefore, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become God's glorious instruments as God's workers with faith that is like pure gold by trusting God completely.
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