3. Faith through Experience

Which way is the Unification Church going to? Which way will Reverend Moon, the leader of the Unification Church, choose? And what kind of command will God, who is teaching Reverend Moon, give to him? Those are the questions. This way isn't for joy. We're taking this way to feel the real meaning of sorrow.

Nobody knows a person's painful sorrow except himself. Faith by experience is therefore emphasized in the Unification Church. It encourages you to feel God's heart. Why do we lay emphasis on faith by feeling? If you don't understand God's sorrow, you cannot draw close to God. For children to be devoted to their parents, they should know their parents' sorrow completely and try to remove it with a heart greater than their parents'. Then they can be filial sons and daughters. How much did you make the foundation to unite with the heart of a loyal subject or of a virtuous woman? How many times did you become one? Faith is decided according to the degree and the frequency of desire to become such a person. (43-26)

Where will heavenly judgment be made? You can't take pride in your merits and efforts for heaven. It isn't made based on those things. Only the experience of God's heart and Jesus' heart within yourself, bearing fruit-a relationship that cannot be broken even by God or Jesus-will establish the condition for eternal life. (4-107)

Are you feeling God's presence through mystical or spiritual experiences in your life of faith and your daily life? Is there anyone who sees me often or receives guidance spiritually, during prayer or in a dream? Please raise your hands. It should be one hundred percent. That's the power, pride, and treasure that only we have.

Until now, because religions have not had such experiences they have lost their way and have been secularized. However, as we know God, who is standing at the final place, the Unification Church, we men and women can plow through the storm and the flood, and can leave behind our dying wish when we pass on. That's a wonderful fact. (87-191)

Today, all Unification Church members are pulled by Heaven; however, if Heaven leaves us we are likely to be exhausted. The reason is that we are ignorant of the importance of faith through experience. Faith means pushing through any persecution if something valuable, which can gauge victorious results in the realm of life centered on God's purpose, could become better after we deal with it. Never surrender. But if the result of a deed should be negative, no matter how hard we try with all our strength, we cannot but retreat. You must not do something that enables retreat. Can you guess how much damage this does? Once we retreat, it is too difficult to make up for it. When we think of this, we cannot imagine something turning out in a negative way. We don't feel like seeing such a thing, or even such a person.

That's why those who are in a state of grace for the first time tend to avoid people. They should not freely touch this thing or that thing but just deal with mundane things. If there is something that would awaken their greed ordinarily, it is better not to touch it. It is easier if they deal with things that they had treated neglectfully before. They should never touch the things that arouse greed. The same with words. They should not make excuses. In following an actual life of faith, spiritual experiences occur.

Even if you don't have such spiritual experiences, you should raise your ability to analyze your feelings in daily life. Do you understand? Relationships between three people bear much fruit for the one-on-one relationship. This means that by making such efforts in a triangular relationship, you can feel naturally moved by an experience of a relationship that you were not directly a party to. Similarly, you can freely seek the motivation to develop your lives in this way. (40-289)

You have to pray and make sincere devoted effort to receive such experiences. You should know this. Don't ignore those revelations or dreams. How to adapt them to our real lives and how to apply them to the practical reality: this is most important in a life of faith. (76-153)

During a regional lecture tour, although I had set my destination, after making a telephone call I would suddenly go to another place. Like an electric wave; like a guided missile. It's the same action as a guided missile being attracted by steel. So, do not ask me to send you to heaven. Your going to heaven or not doesn't depend on me, Reverend Moon of the Unification Church. On whom does it depend? It depends on yourselves.

What is the most important aspect of experience in a life of faith? It is the relationship between subject and object. Because there is God, who loves you, then, keeping in mind that "God is always the subject," you should feel that as you become more and more serious God will not be able to forget or neglect what you are doing, and that He is with you. Therefore, when you are feeling grateful in your life of faith as you come to pray, God will be with you. You may not feel it at first, but when you reach a certain level you will feel it naturally. (58-312)

You should analyze the process of your life and gauge the results. You cannot assess whether God or the Devil is with you without reaching the position of being able to connect internally with your environment and being able to analyze what percentage of your feelings are right and wrong. Therefore, such a faithful attitude is needed. If you develop such a faithful attitude, experiences will certainly come your way.

On that level, you don't need to pray before going out. When you make a first step, you are able to sense immediately, "Oh, that's good" or "That's bad." What kind of way is this? Is it a good way? Does this way make God happy or sad? You can discern these things at once. When you have a bad feeling, you won't go a certain way. You must be able to sense that. So you have to do your best to develop faith through experience within your environment. (40-288)