The Words of the McCarthy Family
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The Words of the McCarthy Family |
Kevin McCarthy joined the Unification Church in 1972 and served for several years as state leader of North Carolina. Since 1981 he has been with the Education Department, teaching in the national 21-day and 40-day workshops. He has lectured at all eight ICC's in Korea. Kevin shared his insights about the ICC. We asked him: "In your experience through these eight conferences, has the response of participating ministers changed, and if so, how?"
The ministers are definitely more positive in their response. But I don't think it's so much that the ministers are changing; it's because we're changing and the spirit world is changing. This is entirely due to conditions Father has made. After Father's Danbury course, there was a dramatic difference in the amount of spiritual power available. It has taken us a long time to realize that there is something much more powerful available to move the ministers now.
The first three conferences we held in 1985 were in a sense external endeavors. God's spirit was moving, but not moving us, the staff. I'm speaking personally. Last year I didn't realize how serious God was about this entire dispensation of minister education, and because of that ignorance on my part, God's spirit couldn't really move, But through the tangibility of the spirit world and the intense presence of God in Korea, the deep spirit of Korea has gradually begun to rub off on this "old" American guy.
I found that after the fourth, fifth, and sixth conferences, I was going back to America with a tremendous enrichment. I also felt a deeper, more intense judgment upon my attitude and lifestyle. There has never been a time in my life like this. I feel God is absolutely determined that I change. Touching that spirituality in Korea has brought a deeper consciousness into my life. It's been heaven and it's been hell.
American
ministers sing some gospel at the headquarters church in Seoul.
Amazing phenomena have been taking place in these conferences. The ministers are not just having a good time but are having internal experiences of God's spirit manifesting from within. After attending Sunday service at the headquarters church in Seoul or praying at the Rock of Tears, many ministers have incredible prayers or receive very specific revelations about Father. You can see the look on their faces; they become curious and contemplative. Their question is simple: If this is a heretical church, and Rev. Moon teaches heresy, how in the world can the spirit of God come down so powerfully in this church? They're not sensing just the common Sunday-service spirit of God. This is the most powerful spirit they've ever experienced. At the time of Jesus the spirit of God manifested very strongly, but outside the doctrines of Jesus' contemporaries. That's exactly what's going on here.
Once I had the chance to report directly to Father about this. I said, "Father, these are the interesting phenomena happening at these conferences:' Father looked at me very seriously, with that dead-eye look, and said in English, "No! Not interesting. Serious phenomena!"
Teaching the Principle should not be just explaining what we believe. We need to give the ministers a direct experience of God through His word in the 20th century. I feel that if we, as lecturers, can conditionally fulfill our responsibility to proclaim God's absolute word, then something unimaginable by even the greatest stretches of our faith can take place in these conferences.
When God feels confident that we lecturers are standing squarely in that sanctified position, then He will bring about some "serious phenomena" directly through His word, the Principle. When we hit that point, and become more focused on that spirit, multitudes of ministers will come, and they will have not just an interesting experience, but a serious one.