In the process of restoration, Father emphasizes two elements: they are repentance and service. Christianity stresses repentance for one's sins, but in its development lost the aspect of a daily life of service. Especially St. Paul emphasized that we are saved by our faith and God's grace, thereby losing the ladder by which we climb through restoration. Oriental religion and philosophy, on the other hand, has maintained consciousness of our "ancestral ladder." To restore ourselves and mankind we must realize that our ancestors' sins cannot be restored in any other way than through us on earth. Therefore, all the sins of the past, such as taking another person's life or mistreating others, must be restored through us. Many people have mistreated other races, so in restoration it is necessary to serve these races. By repenting and taking a "servant" position (serving others well) we can resolve our ancestral sins. If we always seek to evade difficulties, their restoration is frustrated and we lose their eventual grateful assistance.

Once I asked Father how we could tell the difference between God's efforts and our ancestors' influence. Father replied, "In total, God is working; but every moment ancestors are working." Even a small group of members bring many, many ancestors along with them. When working with guests, if we treat them well and offer them our very best, our good ancestors can connect with their good ancestors. If our own ancestors don't have good merit, the good ancestors of our guests cannot allow their descendant to follow us. They would have to pay the debts of our less worthy ancestors. For this reason we make conditions of indemnity, such as prayer and cold showers, when we witness. Conditions elevate your ancestors' merit above that of those to whom you witness; because of your conditions, ancestors can allow their descendants to follow you.

Through the fall Adam and Eve lost love (by spoiling their first love), their body and dominion over all things. This is their debt. God wants to restore these three areas. All ancestors committed sins in these three areas; they misused their first love, they misused their body and all things. Rich people almost always misused their wealth, for instance, while righteous people were often poor.

Our love, lost by the fall, is restored through the Blessing. Our body is restored through witnessing, and all things are restored through fund raising.

In the spiritual world people cannot repay these sins directly. Therefore, they come down and plead with us to repay their sins. Your ancestors come down to you with many problems. Therefore many of the problems coming to you are connected to your relatives. These problems don't come from you personally, but from your ancestors; so it's better not to focus on them too much as problems. Rather, by going the restoration course the problems will be resolved.

Before we go to the spiritual world, we need repentance and sacrifice. Repentance actually makes the internal condition to restore ourselves. Sacrificial service means practical actions to carry out our mission. We should appreciate a mission given us by Father; it is given for our own restoration. I learned Father's secret strategy. It is dedication. Dedication means that even if you don't get any results, you keep doing it. Sometimes members criticize the things Father does and asks of us, but Father gains the victory through his perseverance.

Every day I learn something from other people. As leaders, we cannot judge other people until we judge ourselves; if we get problem members, we should repent for ourselves first. Then the way can be opened for us to become more complete through the relationship.

Once I asked Father how to raise my children on the path to individual perfection. Father said that our personal perfection is to love eleven types of people who are different from us and get these eleven types of people to love us in return. The more children you can have, the more aspects of God you can restore in your lineage.

One day Father drew a diagram with a sun shining over mountains and a valley. With the benefit of the mountain of his accumulated ancestral merit, person "A" can easily receive God's grace; his whole life is very easy, bathed continuously in the sunlight of God's grace. However, person "B" lacks the benefit of ancestral merit and is in a valley, receiving the light of God's grace only for a brief period each day. To fill the gap and compensate for his ancestors' shortcomings, "B" can make indemnity conditions. When your ancestors don't have the merit to pay their debts directly, they come down and plead with you to pay their debts. Each of us who has joined is chosen from among our relatives to clear up seven generations of conditions.

Especially after you are blessed, many of your ancestors come to you begging you to help restore them. I can give you many examples. One sister, for instance, was blessed among the 124 Couples. After her blessing, there were periods of time when she would tremble, shake and lose consciousness. She wasn't always this way, but once in a while. I asked her what she experienced during these periods. She said she felt large numbers of ancestors were coming against her and attacking her.

I asked Father why this happened, and Father replied that her ancestors' merit was not sufficient for her to join the 124 Couple Blessing. As a young member this sister had sacrificed very much to serve an elder member. And when the 124 couples were being chosen, the elder member came and pleaded with Father to include her in that Blessing group. Father replied that the sister was not qualified. However, the elder member came every day, begging Father to include her.

Because the first three blessing groups, up to the 124 Couples, are part of Father's royal family, Father was very careful in selecting who should be part of that group. Because of the elder member's insistence, Father eventually included that sister, but her ancestral merit was not strong enough, and she had to pay much indemnity after the blessing.

Position is predestined, not the person. Even though Father is the Messiah, if he cannot fulfill his mission, God can change the person. In spirit world everybody is watching what Father is doing.

Father knows that the Korean regional leaders he assigned are not perfect, but he sends them out to uphold his tradition. You have to make a relationship with them in order to connect with Father. You may sometimes feel that your central figure is inadequate, but remember that God is working through that position. Father has said that if your central figure is following a wrong idea, you can turn to the next higher central figure.We are Climbing the Mountain of Indemnity

Father said that restoration means to climb up a 6000-year high mountain. The best image I can give you of Mother's course is a dream in which Mother was carrying Hyo Jin Nim on her back and leading Ye Jin Nim by the hand, climbing up a high mountain. She was crying in exhaustion and pain. Father said this is what Mother's seven-year course was like.

Our destiny in joining this church is to become true Adam and true Eve. We joined the church, inspired to build the kingdom of heaven on earth. Then we started to climb the mountain.

Father once asked us what percent of the world's population will we meet before we go to the spirit world. He said that everyone we meet is our teacher. They bring to light our ancestors' sin. Because you represent the second coming of my ancestors, I have to respect you and receive you well. We don't know our ancestors personally, because we have not met them. Therefore, we don't know their exact sin. But when difficulties arise in our relationship, your ancestors and my ancestors take this opportunity to settle their debts.

After the Korean War a large number of beggars wandered from door to door. Many people closed their doors to them, but Father said we should treat these beggars as the second coming of our ancestors. If a beggar asks me for money, my beggar ancestors will want me to serve him in order to resolve their debts; the beggar's rich ancestors will pay my beggar ancestors if I help the beggar I meet on earth.

We should treat even our enemies as our teachers, because they help us pay for our ancestors' sins. Without them we would not know our ancestors' sins. Because they teach us this, we need to serve and love them. The enemy doesn't even know why he treats you the way he does; he does it because of his ancestors' influence. So you must not hate him.

There are three kinds of people: ordinary people, evil people, and saints. An ordinary person will do something good to you in response to your good deeds for him. An evil person will do something bad to you in response to your good deeds for him. A saint will do something good to you in response to evil you do to him.

If we remain at the level of ordinary people, returning hate for hate and love for love, we cannot restore our ancestors' sins. If someone hurts you, appreciate him or her as your teacher of ancestral sins. With love, try to resolve the relationship and bring that person to the point of willing surrender before you.

Father's love is unconditional love. If you understand the spiritual world, you don't worry about your possessions during this short span on earth; therefore, you should give, give and give. Serve whomever you meet, because they represent the second coming of your ancestors. By serving our enemies we can resurrect our ancestors from hell.

Father once used the term "lucky indemnity." By this he meant that after we pay indemnity, good fortune comes.

In the spirit world our ancestors become our teachers. When people die, their ancestors come and inform them where they are and teach them about the spirit world. We need to liberate our ancestors. If our ancestors are in hell, in order to liberate them we have to go there, too.

By Father giving us the wonderful mission of tribal messiah, he is giving us the mandate to restore our ancestors. Based on Father's victory of restoring the eight vertical stages and the eight horizontal stages culminating in Father's victory over the Danbury course in 1985, this restoration is now possible.

In 1970, when Father sent out all the blessed wives on a three-year witnessing condition, I was the team leader of nine newly-blessed sisters. They looked so young, and people wouldn't guess they were married. We were staying in a house, because there was no public church center where we were witnessing. Some men whom we met came over and, seeing all these young girls, thought it was a house of prostitution! Sometimes late at night, a man who had drunk a bit too much would come and ask for one of the blessed wives. Later, after hearing the Divine Principle, they would confess how badly they misunderstood our motives. When Father assembled the team leaders a few months later, he told us he knew the kinds of things that had been happening. He said it was our bad ancestors who had sent such people to us. Only after overcoming such situations would we be qualified to meet higher-standard people.

After these men heard Principle, I would educate them that the person who witnessed to them was now their "spiritual mother". They had to humbly address these women, who were younger than they were, as "omma."

Problem members are wonderful teachers. A counseling mission is a very sacrificial mission. You can restore your ancestors if you repent for your ancestors' sin, through helping members overcome their sin. When you listen to someone's problem, take it as a chance to repent for your sin and your ancestors' sin. In this way you can divide yourself and your lineage from Satan.

In Korea there are people who do spiritual healing. Some do it for money, but sometimes when they request money they cannot heal and people get upset. Father once said that people should not charge money for doing spiritual healing or giving spiritual readings. Healing power is God's grace, Father said, and to ask money is to cut off God's grace and cut off spiritual power. If you request money from those who come to you for help, then the bad destiny of those who have come for help may be inherited by your own family so that your own family may have to pay indemnity. However, if people do donate money, it can be sanctified through tithing. By tithing the money you receive, you can protect your life and protect your children.

I talked to the Japanese missionary who knew the black brother through whom Heung Jin Nim was working. He told me that this brother had been prepared by Jesus, because of his black ancestor who had carried the cross for Jesus. After this brother joined, he worked hard without complaining or resentment. But nobody realized what kind of person he was. His quiet, uncomplaining, hardworking nature is like that of Heung Jin Nim. To make contact with Heung Jin Nim, people must have a sincere spiritual life.

Sometimes people ask how we can repent. Father said that whenever we hear news of somebody's misfortune on television, newspapers or personal communication, we should think of it as our mission to save them. Also when you hear about some criminal activity, repent for it, representing your ancestors' sins. There are so many opportunities to repent! The archangel became the second God, the false God. The key way to cut ourselves off from him is to repent. If you can repent all day long, you can receive God's love and reflect His beauty.

Judgment comes from God, and accusation comes from Satan. Let us welcome God's judgment and repent. We cannot judge people. Through my prayer, God shows me my mistakes and highlights the good points of other people. Many people see only the bad points of others, but through prayer I could discover people's good points, such as their beautiful heart. Through prayer, even their bad points became transformed into good points.

(1) Trust that God is listening to you. When your children ask you for something, you try to fulfill it, right? Trust God, as your Heavenly Parent, to give the answer. Remember also the mountain of restoration: people are at various levels some at the 2000 year level, some at the 4000 year level, etc.

(2) Wait for the appropriate time. Sometimes the answer comes quickly. The answer might come directly from God, through other people, or through your own intuition.

Father said that if we don't know what to pray, we should repeat the contents or paragraph #5 of the Pledge. This is the perfect contents of prayer. Also, please memorize this section in Korean. It is good to learn and incorporate into your prayer basic phrases in Korean, such as Hananim Aboji and Cham Pumo Nim.

How can we connect our spiritual life to True Parents? We have to at least fulfill the three minimum qualifications for being Unification Church members.

First, we should tithe, even if it is only one dollar. If you do not have money, why not go and care for the church center? At least do something for the church. If you just sit at home and complain and complain, your spiritual life becomes dead. At one point I took responsibility for cleaning the headquarters church in Seoul every Saturday. Some people wondered why I, one of the early blessed couples, would do such a humble mission, but the memories of that time are precious.

Secondly, we must maintain the tradition of 5:00 a.m. Pledge. This is the key to developing our spiritual life and also the qualification for blessed children to be included in the second generation of blessed couples.

And thirdly, we should always attend Sunday Service. This will connect us with God throughout the week.

Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Copyright Information
Tparents Home