Joel 2:28­-31 “ It shall come about after this That I shall pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 2 9 “ Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 3 0 “ I will show signs a nd wonders [displaying My power] in the heavens and on the earth, Blood and fire and columns of smoke. 3 1 “ The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and terrible day of the L ORD comes. “And it shall come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD W ill be saved [from the coming judgment] For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape As the L ORD has said, Even among the remnant [of survivors] whom the L ORD calls. God told His prophet this statement, “In the future, the time will come, when I will powerfully pour out My Spirit on all mankind. You do not know the time, but that day will come.” God’s prophets were filled with great expectation. They might have said, “God! How about now? The era I am operating your works? Can you perform such a great work in this era?” God probably had not replied to their question. The meaning of God’s presence is “I AM with you”. In the Old Testament, God’s presence manifested through certain people. Even in today’s time, God’s presence begins with a few people. In the future, lay believers will be called to perform God’s work and to plow the field of God with the plow of God. Like Elisha who was plowing the field with twenty four oxens, God called him, “Come follow Me!” Even though Elisha was only a farmer, when God had called him through the Prophet Elijah by throwing a mantle on him, he followed without looking back and without worrying about his family. In the Old Testament, who did the Israelites respected and fear the most? The Israelites were fearful of the prophets because God’s prophets were in the midst of the presence of God. Whoever listened and obeyed those prophets transformed and changed. Why? The words that were spoken through the prophets were the words of God. The prophets of God had delivered and manifested the presence of God through their life style and ways, their prophecies, their words, and the other works of God. God’s presence is like “dressing up in God’s cloth”. When you encounter the real prophets, your way of thinking will be changed through their words. All your habits, ways, lifestyle, will be
changed by their great influence. But then, why would people place distance between themselves and the prophets as they become fearful of the prophets? It is because of the Holy Spirit who has come upon the prophets. When the Holy Spirit powerfully comes, the holy fear will be created. The prophets of old delivered the presence of God in a special way. The power of God had greatly manifested. We are living in the New Testament era. The Spirit of the Lord grants His power and holy gifts to us. Whoever determines, loves God and only trusts Him, HE will grant His power and holy gifts. In this era, everyone is able to become God’s priest and carry out the work of a priest. God is looking for a people who will carry out the work of God’s priesthood. Jesus is looking for such people. But since most of His people possess twisted personalities, wrongly molded characters, narrow minds, strongly self­asserted, stubborn and so on. These characteristics represent the hard husk on Christians. This is the reason why the power of God cannot and will not come on ourselves. Our husks are too hard or strong. The era we are living in requires the role that God desires to grant. Even worse of all, many pastors misunderstand the power of God and His holy gifts. Even now, awful things are occurring in the churches. Such things as discordance, jealousy, envy and so on. But only if these churches humble themselves and receive the word, the power and holy gifts of God, they will be restored. The powerful people of God will come out through their actions of humility. God’s presence and glory is gradually becoming materialized. God is with us and whoever truly, earnestly, and desperately realize this, God will work for them. Such types of people will say, “Lord, I know you are with me. Lord, this is not right, right? Then how about this? What do you think? Lord, what do you want me to do on this matter? Lord, am I lacking quantity in prayer time? Lord, am I in the period of repentance with tears?” The more we continuously, truly, and earnestly realize the grace of God and how He is with us, the more God will say this to you, “I will work together with you” In the last days, there will be a time when the people of God is required to possess the power of God and it will be necessary. In the last days, calamities will manifest. When calamities and disasters occur, the power of God will also manifest. When we receive the power of God, the tests will come as well. The people of God greatly desire to possess the power of God and His grace. They are desperate for God’s power and grace. But what they do not realize is that the tests will come along with God’s power
and grace. The degree of how the Holy Spirit comes upon a person to perform His work with His power depends on the person’s maturity. The maturity of a person is required. It will be great if a person possessed self control and gradually molds their personality and character. Depending on how much passion a person desires to be used by God, and depending on their level of faith, God will use each person accordingly. God is looking for a passionate people who desires to be used by God. God desires to mightily come upon us but in today’s present days the people will not budge. Christians do not even crave. Even when God impresses them, they do not even feel it. Therefore, the Holy Spirit continuously looks for a people who will obey. Through the prophets, God in the Old Testament had shown us a preview of what is coming. God loves to show us His secrets and plans. God even desires to show us things that are in the distant future. But on the other hand, He also hides them. Proverbs 25:2 (EXB) G od is honored for what he keeps secret [ I t is the glory of God to hide a matter/things]. Kings are honored for what they can discover [ I t is the glory of kings to examine them]. A mos 3:7 B efore the Lord G OD does anything, he tells his plans to his servants the prophets. God shows us things that were hidden but even if God does reveal some things that were hidden and if we abuse or overuse it, you will become a counterfeit. Many times, the reason why God hides and keeps many things in secret is because it is for our own good. Yes God may reveal and shows some things but at the same time God hides it as well. He will not show us all the things but at the same time He will not hide all things. This is why I would say that God shows us somewhat a preview. People who receives God’s holy gift often misuse them. When pride enters and are mixed with the holy gift, you are finished. You will then be using the corrupted holy gift to delude and deceive others. God is greatly pleased to show us the future. But when God teaches, shows and grants His things, it will be good for us to be prepared at some spiritual level. What is very important is the maturity, personality, and character of a person. Before anyone receives the power of God, the person needs to be matured and molded. When a person is prideful, God will not manifest Himself or His work. We need new character and nature. All people have a basic character and nature and it is a fleshly character and nature. All people have a basic desire and craving. When we receive the power of God with such character, nature, our desires and craving, we will become corrupted and will deteriorate. Therefore, we need God’s DNA in us and we need to manifest a new character and nature. We need to pray and envision possessing new hearts.
After Jesus had come and ascended, whoever confesses Jesus Christ as his/her Lord and Savior will receive the Holy Spirit in their hearts. God will validate the person. When this happens, God desires us to experience Him and we have received right to enjoy His given privileges. We have the privilege to enjoy the prepared blessings. Because of this great privilege, we have greatly received God’s grace. But only if we pray will God pour down an overflowing of His Spirit. He will pour down the Holy Fire. We will be imparting holy fire. We can enter into the presence of God as a group and carry His presence all throughout the world. Please believe this is a great privilege. We not only have received God’s privilege, we have received this responsibility as well. We need to properly discern the spirits. We need to be balanced. We need to fulfill our duty. We are living in the days when whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, God’s Spirit will come upon them. But at the same time, we are living in the days where people do not get inspired and impressed by God. The return of the Lord is very close and we are still running towards the day of His return. Therefore, it is a requirement for us to change our character, nature and the way we think. When your self assertion is too strong, you will damage the group or the community you belong too. It does not matter what kind of group or community it is but your strong self assertion may influence terribly. Even within your household, husbands have a role to fulfill and a wife has a role to fulfill. But if both of them persistently insist their voice or opinion demanding an adjustment to their comfort and need, a crisis will come to this family. They will damage their household through their actions. We need to lower our voice and we need learn to yield. By yielding, understanding, loving and self sacrificing, we will expand the kingdom of God. This way we will gradually expand and maintain peace. But when we are too stubborn possessing strong self assertion, no yielding, love or understanding, God will not come into us. This is why, God weakens our strength through our difficult circumstances, husbands, wives, children and whatever or whoever we have trusted. Do you have strong self assertion? Please put it all down. Fill yourselves with God’s love. You need to be completely seasoned. Do not be despaired in any situation. It does not matter how your situation may look hopeless and difficult, have hope in God because the Lord is with us. In the last days, when the overcoming Bride are all prepared, a particular period or days will come. These are the days where the book of Matthew chapter 24 speaks about. The overcoming Bride will enter into these particular days. Right now, the Lord is preparing our mansions in heaven. How is our mansions prepared? It is based the proportion of our current sacrificial works, devotion, and how we are loyal and faithful to Him on a daily basis, God is building and expanding our mansions in heaven by commanding the angels.
“There is not many churches who are praying nightly. I am seeing deacons, deaconesses and other lay believers working hard. Angels! The materials are being given through their faithful works. Decorate, build, and expand their mansions!” These are the mansions which we will receive in the future. However, God builds it depending on our current condition. Then the Lord will return to the earth with the all the power. John 14:2 (AMP) In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. G od will prepare all the things ahead. How do we know and discern our current spiritual state? Our spiritual condition will manifest in the reality. God helps us realize our spiritual condition through the manifestations of our reality. This is the spiritual thermometal. In Israel, the land was suppose to bear many figs and grapes from their trees and vines. But there were no fruit. The figs and grapes had represented the blessings on the land of Canaan. Then why are those fruits not bearing? It is because the people of God did not obey and keep God’s word. When they had kept the Word of God, there were much fruit. But when they had not keep the Word of God, there was no fruit. In the world, the common people bear fruit in every season. But when it comes to God’s people, God will handle them uniquely. To the world and common people, they measure their lives based on how rich they are and how much they have. But when it comes to the people of God, this is not so. It is not important on how wealthy we are as God’s people. The most important thing for us is, do we keep the Word of God or not? This is the one of the reasons why the Israelis were very stressed. “How long do we need to pray? How much of the Word of God do we need to keep? This is very difficult!” We see many people around us shopping, dining out, and going out for entertainment on the Lord’s day which is Sunday. But God desires us to keep and obey His Words. The people of prayer should never loosen the string of praying. Do not loosen the string of grace. God always warns us with His Word when we loosen the strings that are connected to Him. Many worldly people have great jobs and nice facial expressions but when it comes to God’s people, many of them have long faces. When we let go or loosen the spiritual life line or the string that are connected to God, we will lose everything. The worldly people do not have such a concern. It does not
matter if they live fleshly or soulish lives. God’s people, the Israelites were tempted in their daily lives. What was their temptation? “Look at that person, he/she has met someone great and got married! Look at me, what about me? Look at that household, how about mine? I pray a lot but it seems useless! I am so worn out!” They had compared themselves looking at the other people. They wanted to let go of the string. If you loosen or let go of the string, what will happen next? God’s Words will become burdensome and annoying. It will be tiresome to come to church and tiresome to pray. Some of these people will make girl friends when they are already married. They will begin to lie to gain some kind of benefit. People will get married to whoever they desire instead of waiting on God. As they long for the freedom and enjoyment of the worldly people, they will eventually let go of the spiritual string completely. But God warns us. “Do not do that!” The people of God always witness what they do not expect. They thought the fig trees and grape trees will bear much fruit but instead the gentiles were bearing much fruit on their trees. Why does the chosen people of God have no fruits? They should have not let go of the spiritual string. However, they had either loosened it or had just let go of it. Hebrews 2:1­3 (NLT) So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. 2 For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. 3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? When you listen to the Word of God, do not just lightly listen. You must listen with desperation. When it comes to God’s chosen people, God does not just watch and let them do whatever they want to do. If God has to make them handicapped so that they maintain within their boundaries, then HE will do so. He will make them handicapped. I am very scare when it comes to God’s judgement. If I ever smoke, God will probably burn my lips with His fire. When I was teaching Sunday School, I already knew I should not buy anything on Sundays. But one particular Sunday, I was very thirsty and I wanted to buy some 7 Up soda. It was Sunday 11:55 pm. My mother had advised me just wait five more minutes but I went ahead anyways. I went to the small grocery store and walked down the high and long staircase along the way. As a Sunday School teacher, I
used to teach children not to buy anything on the Lord’s day. When I had arrived at the small grocery store, it was already 11:57 pm. I was thinking, “Well...only after about two to three minutes, Sunday will be over. It will be ok” Then I bought a 7 up and drank it. But as I was drinking I was assuring myself as I thought to myself, “No, God will not punish me for few minutes..” But since I had disobeyed God’s Word, I walked up the long and high staircase and I was very cautious by the way with every step because you never know what HE will do when you disobey. Then all of suddenly, my eyes had became darkened. I could not see anything in front of me. When I finally reached the top of the staircase, I misstepped and fell all the way to the bottom. If had fallen backwards. I landed on my head and I had lost my consciousness for about thirty minutes. My whole body was paralyzed. When I was conscious, I had realized my body was not moving. Then I realized my ankle was twisted very bad but my bones were not broken. I waited about thirty minutes but no one passed by and no angels had come to awaken me. God had intentionally not sent any help. I woke myself up. The leg with the twisted ankle was totally paralyzed. I dragged one leg and arrived home. I repented but God did not fix my body for awhile. I had to drag my leg to work. The Lord’s day is His Holy day. Please keep it Holy. One time, my son Joseph spent his offering money on a Sunday with his friends. But on the way home, he fell hard to the ground and had damaged his face badly. Please properly give offering and tithes that belongs to God and please do not violate God’s holy day The Lord’s day. In one incident, I had gotten very angry after I had argued with my wife. Then God brought confusion over me as I hit the glass door very hard. When I hit the glass door, the nerve on the side of my neck was affected. Then I had lost conscious. When God strikes us, there is no way we can fight or defend ourselves. Whenever I had physically and overly disciplined my children, the Lord struck me. When God had struck and judged me for my sin, I realized it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of God. (Hebrews 10:31) God’s judgement and discipline is a very scary thing to experience. Sometimes, his judgement or discipline lasts one or two years. God’s people had loosen or broken off the string that is connected to God. The people who used to pray have now stopped praying. They have stopped reading the Word of God. The most dangerous thing for God’s people to do is when a spiritual person goes back to a fleshly carnal person. With our spiritual string tied to God, God grants His Word and sometimes grants difficulties within our household. Because of difficulties, we pray. When the people of God loosen or let go of this string, they begin to date anyone they desire. They will even seek higher education as they desire leaving their families and will live accordingly to their desires.
Ecclesiastes 12:6 Earnestly remember your Creator before the silver c ord [of life] is broken, or the golden bowl is crushed, or the pitcher at the fountain is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; The people of God had homework. God says, “You are the people of God. Therefore do not feel envious about their wealth or when their things go well.” We need to be very be careful what we hear and see. People say they earn so much money through stocks or someone won the lotto with a certain amount of money. Please be careful of these words. Hebrews 2:3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? We have received this precious salvation. God desires to perform the work which is in the book of Joel chapter 2. We need to depend on God. We need to pray and we need to receive the pirit of God. We will receive the great power of God. Even the prophets of Old Testament could not perform and receive what we will perform and receive. Even King David and his people had desired but they could not receive what is instore for us. But we are living in the days where God desires to grant all His power. We are privileged to live in such days. Therefore, we have our responsibility and duty to perform. Remember, God watches and observes our prayer and prayer lives very closely and meticulously. We must concern ourselves about the spiritual matter, the matters of corruption, and matters of our family issues. God may require you to have more prayer time. Please obtain victory as you cling onto the Word of God.
Pastor Kim Yong DOO