Arise and shine the light
By Pastor Kim, Yong Doo sermon
Isaiah 60;1-4 Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light, has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you.
3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
4 Lift up your eyes round about you and see! They all gather themselves together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried and nursed in the arms.
A seed grows as it is watered, receiving proper nourishment, and light. Even though we are not able to see it growing, a seed germinates in the dust. God works through a person’s faith. Through each person’s faith, God grants material and heal sickness.
Did you lose passion of praying? How can we believe the things that are not visible as though we are seeing it? I’ve lived at a place where it was always damp and shady. I have led small c, pathetic church for eighteen years. Since a church was located under basement of a building, it was always humid. In such a condition, all I could do was praying. A basement was surrounded by mold and mildew all four seasons. My little children lived at such a condition. My wife was internally sick. Imagine if you were placed in a poor surroundings such as mine, what would you do? This was life and death situation so all I did was praying with all my life. More I prayed, more I refused to give up. God sent me handicapped people. All of us prayed together every single night. As we prayed every night, God grant us Holy fire and we all experienced the baptism of Holy fire. This Holy Spirit fire spread throughout the world now. Right now, many people are experiencing the power of the holy fire and many are being healed.
Many people have vision and dream. But that’s about it. Many cases, the vision, and dream never come to pass. Every time when God grants us His power and grace, we must also need to have our capacity to accept or embrace all types of people to be enlarged. As many people live their Christian life, they do not keep the Lord’s day holy and come late to the church service, become lazy and stubbornly insist on their style. They get angry easily, severe mood swing and when people say unpleasant words have difficulty endure or patient. As we receive more grace, we need to become a gentle and soft person but sometimes, people go the other way. Once we are sown into the ground and begin to germinate, we must bring force the flower and bloom it. Even though you have brought force a bud, are you having difficulty bursting bud? Or you have bloomed flower but a flower does not have a seed? All steps are very precious.
Please pray to God to grant you a chance. Instead of always talking about the other person’s changes, you must pray to God to change your personality, nature, and character. Pray and cry out to receive power to overcome poverty, a gift of healing and a gift of prophecy. Every person has their own beautiful color and scent. But we must give God what He desires.
Heaven is the place which allows only to that enter whom they have passed their trial and suffering. People who have victory. Heaven is the place for those who have endured people’s criticism, contempt, and scorn. Heaven is for the ones who have gained victory from desperate battle with Satan. Depending on how much you can endure and gain the victory from hurt, criticism, and any types of attacks, you will gradually come close to the Lord.
One day, The Lord opened up my spiritual eyes and showed me a vision. In my vision, I was standing in front of the Lord. My whole body was covered with scars, bruise, and wounds. Also, the Lord’s whole body was completely covered with many scars, bruise, and wounds. He wore a thorny crown, and He was pierced with many long and short spears. His body reminded me of a hedgehog. The moment I saw the Lord, I shouted out with lamentation and said, “Who had done such a horrible thing to the Lord?”
But soon after, as I was looking at the Lord, waves of peace overwhelmed me and sadness had changed me to joy. Then I saw the people standing in front of the Lord. Their body was wholly covered with scars, wounds, and bruise. I then looked behind and saw another group of people. These people were covered with some scars and wounds. I saw a man who was standing at the front line where he was close to the Lord, but soon, he was pushed to the back. This particular man could not endure other people criticize and hurting him. So he was continuously pushed to the back. In the end, he was pushed to the very back.
The people who had failed to change or transform, they could not come anywhere near the Lord. That moment, I realized by enduring and overcoming trials and suffering is the way to get to heaven. Do and say whatever I want to, you will be pushed to the very back. The Lord hugged me with his body full of spears. As the Lord hugged me tighter, spears on His body went deeper into His body. When spears went deeper into His body, more blood flows down from His body.
I shouted, “Lord, Please! Let go of me! Do not hug me!”
But the Lord said, “I love you“ He then hugged me even tighter. He continued to shed His blood as He tightly hugged me.
Even though you say that you will live according to the will of God, do you frequently change your mind and you have not bear any fruit? As a seed, you must germinate but do you have a weak determination and will? Then you must firmly choose and determine to fix it right this moment. You do not know what will happen tomorrow. “Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.” (Proverbs 27:1) Satan wants to destroy us in one moment.
The Lord said, “My temple will be called a house of prayer for all nation.” (Mark 11:17) A church supposed to be a place where it destroys the power of hell. (Matthew 16:18) A prayer church will face many tests. Suddenly things happen in our households, our body becomes sick and therefore these problems block us from praying. Instead of putting more time in prayer, many put their time and heart toward their children and spouse. Therefore, there is no way for them to really encounter or know God. You must first concern having an intimate relationship with God above all things. “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30 NLT)
One day, I was in a prayer regards to how and where He will lead me to. Which region I must go to.
The Lord showed me a map. On a map, I saw the Africa continent. I saw countries and cities of Africa region. I saw road signs in every country and city. On these regions, I saw groups of Satan. In some region, Satan and his followers stood individually. The map was alive so Satan in a map glared at me and He poised to enter a war. When I cast holy fire to the countries and regions where the devil and his followers blocked, the pathway was made. According to my proclamation and determination, each places where they were blocked become cleared up and pathways were made. A map of Europe, Oceania, and South America were presented before me. When the holy fire was cast, like what happened in the African region, a pathway was made. In the very front, the Lord and the Holy Spirit was the One who made pathways. The Lord was wearing a white gown and the Holy Spirit had an outer appearance of Fire. They were making pathways. All we have to do is to just follow the Lord.
We supposed to follow the Lord but our spiritual disposition and nature are so weak and fleshly disposition and nature is too strong. When we sin with our physical body, even if you pray a lot, the spiritual side will be shipwrecked. You must raise your spiritual level.
Daniel had determined to pray three times a day. God had granted praying Daniel ten times more capable wisdom and balanced judgment than the magicians and enchanters in Babylon. Praying is very important. When you pray at church, please focus and concentrate on praying. Please diligently read the Word of God. God always grants power to move ahead of others to those who pray. Today, darkness is covering the earth. People’s common knowledge and the law may have the power to control the sin of human society but it will not be able to stop the corruption of human society. Only the Word of God has the power to change this world.
We are living in an era where we can see dreams, visions, and posses holy fire. When God grants us a holy gift, it is related to saving souls. When it comes to gifts of God, Satan leads people to the purpose to become spiritually superior with one’s greed, desire, and ambition. But God’s gifts are given to us to break us even more. We must fight the spiritual warfare. All these are related to God’s mission and calling. Do not lightly think of God’s power. “For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.” (Ecclesiastes 5:7)
Ideal can be made within the subconsciousness from what we listened, see and relationship in our daily, ordinary days. When we prophesy, there is one thing that must become a priority, we must completely become God’s mouthpiece. If we have not completely become God’s mouthpiece, it will become dangerous. When it comes to prophesying, we first need to learn to clearly discern His voice, listen and deliver it as it is.
Have you ever received any gift from God? Is your holy fire becoming weak or have gone? Fail to transform and change? Then the blame is you, you have responsibility. Are you fading away from praying? Is your light becoming dim? Are you still wandering? The Word of God said, it is not because of short arms of the Lord that He can not save you, it is because of our sins we have a gap between God and us.
Isaiah 59:1-2 Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. 2 It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.
Jesus had pulled down walls placed between God and us.
God said, when He poured out His Spirit to all people, our children will prophesy. (Joel 2:28) Teaching our children the Word of God and things of Him only one day, Sunday out of the whole week is not enough. In order for our children to dream and prophecy, we need to teach them to pray even weekdays. God has amazing and wonderful plan for our children.
Psalms 139:17-18 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
When a person runs a business, he/she can no longer release him/her self from a duty and responsibility as long as he/she runs a business. I have seen a person who actually goes to work earlier as he was promoted to higher position. The worldly people go to work early and leave the work late. When God’s people are placed in certain position or office in the church, they must ask God to grant them wisdom. God said in His Word, whoever is entrusted more, more is required. Since we, Christians believe in Jesus, we must fervently live our faith life and we must faithfully carry out our position and work. We must show our loyalty.
Your standard of choosing a home church is not based on how you can serve that particular church, or going to a church needs people. You need to find a church where your soul can be revived, and restored. When your soul is revived and restored, now you are able to carry out spiritual warfare, filled with the Holy Spirit, be loyal to the Lord and serve the church. When you serve after your soul is restored and filled with the Holy Spirit, you will receive great reward before God.
You must always serve in the midst of gratitude and overflow of Joy. Have a victory in this year with the Lord and through your faith.
Sermon by Pastor Kim, Yong Doo
Head pastor of the Lord’s Church, Korea
Author of Baptize by Blazing Fire book series
Translated by Pastor Steve & Yoojin Kim
Pastors of Fire of God Church in San Francisco (Fremont)
Fire of God Church is a branch church of the Lord’s Church, Korea and is under the spiritual covering of head Pastor Kim, Yong Doo