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The Words of True Parents from 2001 |
Father's Words on Witnessing Sun Myung Moon
February 2001
Father spoke to 33-city missionaries and participants of the 43-day workshop at True Parents' house on the grounds of the Hotel Americano in the Pantanal. They had been invited for a day of fishing with Father, who had arrived there in advance of the Korean national messiahs who were called to make a special 40-day condition there. These notes were compiled by two missionaries, Charles Kannal and Shinichi Washisu, from Alejandro de Souza's translation.
How should people be educated? Make a plan, consistently develop it and put it into practice-organize, systematize. To make strong relationships with people, make conditions continuously, especially prayer conditions. Remove walls between your heart and others'. We should visit two, three, four times to give them a good impression. We need to touch their hearts. Prepare many topics with which to inspire them.
Witnessing is like war. Do you want to lose the war? Preparation is necessary. Make conditions for three years. If you give sincerely, people will come close to you and follow you. At the beginning of your preparation, planning is important. A four-position foundation is necessary. A foundation of three people is very important. Witnessing to people is the same as taking care of children. If you are a parent you never forget your children.
Invest yourself like a mother. Make conditions. Choose your words, what to say to people. You have to taste witnessing. Study. Research like a doctor. Prepare what people need. If you continue to make conditions, the spirit world will teach you. Until the spirit world teaches you, make conditions, pray and act. Visit your contacts. You will receive help from peoples' ancestors.
Through prayer conditions you generate love and interest, create parent-child relationships and understand what people need. Each mission city is like one family whose citizens are like your brothers and sisters. If your brother goes to hell, do you mind? You should pray with tears. True Father has already liberated the peoples' ancestors, so the spirit world has to help them. Study Divine Principle and Father's words in order to develop an absolute standard. If they understand the absolute standard, then people can be restored. The prayer room floor should always be wet with tears. Why is witnessing so difficult? The reason is that you haven't made any conditions.
Each missionary must take responsibility not only for people living in his city but also for their ancestors in the spirit world. A spiritual leader should always pray for other people in order to witness to them. Pray for those who need your help. Relate to people as if they are part of your own family. As a church leader, you should pray with tears. You should be conscious of how many people you have witnessed to. Your position in the spirit world is determined by how many people you witnessed to. You should have some results.
Father is battling in order to restore America. Father is making a (fishing) condition for this tour. When making such a condition, Father is very serious. Prayer and conditions are necessary. When you bring people to Father's speeches, pray first. You should establish a higher standard than Father. The early history of the Unification Church was a foundational time, a time only for making conditions.
Father started the Unification Church from absolutely nothing. From that zero point, he finally reached the point of holding the coronation ceremony, on January 13th. If Christianity had united with Father after World War II, this would have been accomplished forty years ago. Jesus was supposed to have conquered Rome by the time he reached the age of forty. Before Father reached the age of fifty-two (by 1972), he was supposed to unite Christianity. But God's providence wasn't fulfilled at that time. Christianity has been miserable. Heavenly Father has also been miserable. Finally, this year, 2001, Father actualized the coronation of God and liberated His aching heart.
To be successful in witnessing you must pray hard. Pray before meeting people. Through prayer, you should know what to say to a person to capture his heart. Father's life was extremely difficult, but finally he accomplished God's coronation. Father broke through all barriers, liberating even Satan himself. How difficult it was to overcome all satanic obstacles!
Fishing is also a condition for witnessing. Jesus told Peter, "I will make you a fisher of men." Father's heart is the same. While Father is fishing, he concentrates 100 percent. He focuses on the fishing pole. When he catches his first fish, Father feels relief and liberation from all his hardships.
Prayer conditions are necessary. Through prayer conditions you receive help from the spirit world and can understand what is going to happen. Witnessing is the same as war. Compare yourselves to a soccer team. If you don't know your opponent's strategy and ability, you cannot win the game. By studying your opponent, you can score. You must practice hard and unite together as a team-one harmonious unit.
To take dominion over your environment is a subject-object problem. If you have an object of your witnessing, a person to whom you can witness, then you can receive a great blessing. But you must prepare. There is a big difference between simply meeting a person, and praying for him ten times before meeting him. You should have a plan and goal. Do you have a goal: how many people to witness to within a year, two years and three years? If you don't have a goal, then repent, double your effort and make a determination at this time.
Do Hoon Dok Hae every day, and listen closely to Father's words. You will receive inspiration about what to say to the guest you are witnessing to. You should love the guest more than your family. Father has prayed for seventeen straight hours in one day. Life or death prayer. It is a battle, a war. If you make absolute determination through prayer, then afterwards prayer is no longer needed.
Every year you should be rising up to a new level, constantly advancing. Work night and day toward your goal.
Now is a time for witnessing through all types of media. Research and use every medium to witness. On one day you will understand Father's words; the next day calculate how much it costs to broadcast Father's words for 30 minutes.
Father is going on a speaking tour throughout America. Two thousand Christian ministers per state makes 100,000 in total. By this, the unity of all Christianity will be brought about.
If there is unity in North America, it is very easy to achieve it in South America. We are working along with the United Nations. Compare doing that to working in your city: your task is very easy.
Many of Father's old friends persecuted him a long time ago. Now they respect Father. Those who are participate in ICUS or IIFWP international conferences become good friends of Father. Because Father has a victorious foundation through prayer and conditions, our present situation is quite different from what it once was. Everyone comes because they now understand Father's value.
God is working for our victory. God wants to help us. If you don't make conditions, then God cannot help.
Does everyone need Father? Why? Because they need parents to resemble. We have to become like Father, resemble him. You have a goal in your lifetime: resembling True Father. No one else can take the place of Father.
Satan opposed Father with all his force. God never taught Father how to conquer Satan. Father had to learn how to do it and accomplish it all by himself.
The past forty years of Father's life restores the six thousand years of Biblical history. [To one member] How old are you? [33 years old.] Less than half of Father's age. Father has no time to rest. Father's way is the way of a pioneer.
The Kingdom of Heaven depends on Father. We are now working with the United Nations, the whole world. We are using radio, television, the Internet-every means. It is the time for witnessing to and mobilizing the whole world.
You should have conviction and a challenging spirit. Open up the way of the future. Uniting mind and body, uniting husband and wife, uniting parent and child: this is the challenge. From now, parents must give the blessing to their children. It takes time to become competent enough parents to give the blessing.
As a missionary you should have sensitive spiritual antennae. You also must indemnify the sins of your ancestors. You should go the way of filial piety and loyalty; the way of saints, the way of sacrifice for the sake of others. You should invest your whole heart.
Charles Kannal remembers: The content of Father's speech was not new. But it was delivered with a personal warmth and intensity in a close family environment that engraved this unique experience upon our hearts.
When Father finished speaking. We stood, bowed and began exiting. True Father came outside and walked with the members. He stood waiting by the dock while we gathered our bags and boarded the boat. It was a long wait. Father leaned with one arm on a light pole. I will never forget the expression on his face as Father waved goodbye to us. He continued waving as the boat slowly pulled away and chugged down the river. For as long as I could see him, he was still waving. In a newly personal way, I feel reborn and raised up through the love and words of True Parents.
[Originally published in for Today's World, February 2001]