All things in the creation go through a growing process. Plants begin as a seed and the seed reaches its completion when it produces the seed for the next generation. Man likewise goes through a process of growth. Like plants and animals, human beings grow naturally to their completion. But can we say that man has reached completion because he can reproduce himself? As we can see from the dilemma of teenage pregnancies, it is not enough that a human can reproduce. There is another responsibility involved with human growth, and that is completion of their spirit. This completion of man's spirit involves a sincere effort on man's part.

Originally, man was meant to grow in the true love of True Parents, directly receiving God's love and growing in an environment of support, encouragement, sensitivity and love. This environment would have allowed man to be nourished in love and grow in love, feeling total trust toward God and his parents, and learning responsibility in love. Man would have learned to give love, as he would have received love from God. Man would have grown to know the unconditional giving love of God and therefore would have become an unconditionally giving and loving being himself.

Man misunderstood his purpose and was corrupted during his growing period. At a crucial point in man's growth, he lost sight of God's plan, lost the feeling of God's love and instead of centering his mind and heart on God's ideal, the ideal of love, he centered his mind and heart on Lucifer's ideal. What did Lucifer have to offer man? Lucifer had only his desire for power, and fulfillment of his self-centered desire for power.

Originally, man was to grow with a full experience of God's love. Man would have been completely embraced in the love of God. Restoration is a process whereby man makes an effort to come back into God's embrace. Adam and Eve didn't trust and believe in God's word. They didn't believe in their Father. So, in restoration, we must recreate our relationship with our Father, God. We do this by offering a pure response to the conditions which our Father, God, puts before us.

Man fell by seeking his own benefit, so in restoration we must gratefully sacrifice our own benefit for the sake of God. When your own children make a mistake, don't you give them a way to make up for it? How do you feel when they do it grudgingly? Do you feel that they are mending their relationship with you, or do you feel that they are not really sorry? We must respond to God with a grateful heart when He asks us to do something. We call this pure response to God's dispensation tangam.

tangam doesn't mean suffering or sacrifice-that is not the purpose. tangam is the heart of our response to God, not the external condition we are doing. God's purpose is at the center of our mind and thoughts. Originally, our responsibility was simply to offer tangam to Heavenly Father-that is, to simply respond to God. Because of the fall, however, we inherit the fallen natures, which are basically Lucifer's response to God. Our ancestors were meant to put God's commandment first in their thinking. They were meant to develop their love centered on God.

Our True Father says that tangam is the most beautiful word. Contemplate on that for a moment. The most beautiful word because it is meant to reflect the deep emotional bond between Heavenly Father and His True Children. When your heart is grateful for anything God asks of you in the providence of restoration, this pure response of gratitude is tangam. If God asks you to make an offering (whatever that may be according to where you are in your "formula course"), you can accept this condition with gratitude because you realize that, through this sacrifice, you will liberate your heart and also the heart of God. We need to respond to the demands of the providence with God and True Parents at the center of our thoughts.

God wants to bless us. We must believe that God is thinking of our benefit when He asks us to do something. Our response is so important. Instead of complaining or feeling resentful about God and what He asks us to do, we have to accept it as a challenge and offer it to God with a faithful and loving heart, believing in God and not rejecting His blessing. Imagine how difficult it was for Lucifer to believe in God's plan when he was feeling lack of love. Lucifer knew God's plan; if only he had trusted it. It was when he sensed that God loved Adam and Eve more than him that Lucifer separated himself from God. Lucifer should have gone to God and told God how he felt. God could have reassured him and explained to him once again that if he could only help to raise Adam and Eve to perfection, then Lucifer would be in a position to receive God's love in such a deep and powerful way from Adam and Eve. Lucifer didn't go to God. He separated himself from God and then caused Eve to separate herself from God. Eve in turn caused Adam to separate himself from God. No one thought of their Creator, their Father. No one put God's thoughts and feelings at the center of their actions. We must have an appropriate response to God, with God's purpose at the center of our minds and thoughts.

True Father said that he never once thought of complaint in his course. He never once thought of a complaint about his situation. Somehow, he always knew that any seemingly difficult situation was a condition to restore mankind's relationship with God. God would never do anything that wasn't for our ultimate blessing.

There are two types of tangam: active and passive. Active tangam is when we create our own conditions for restoration, such as fasting and praying, and we do these with a grateful heart. Passive tangam is when we respond with a pure and grateful heart to a difficult situation or any dispensational situation. The most important thing is our heart. That's why we cannot compare our situations. That's what Lucifer did. People may think that their setting of conditions makes them better than someone who does not set conditions and who appears always to struggle. The fact is that if they do not have the right heart in setting their conditions, they may not be offering tangam. However, the person who is struggling in their situation but may be sincerely praying and offering their course for the sake of coming closer to God's heart may be offering pure tangam. Both forms of tangam have equal value, as they reflect our response of heart. The key point is to see things as God sees them.

Five people may receive the same prayer condition but only two may have a pure desire; three do it unwillingly. Those who act unwillingly limit how God's grace can touch their lives. We must not act out of duty, but from a heart of gratitude. It's better to wait until you can offer a condition with the proper heart than to do it out of duty. It is only when we respond out of gratitude that we receive God's grace.

We must check our heartle several times a day. Heartle is our heart's response. We must check our tangam. Take the time to clear away all that surrounds our hearts which takes us far away from God's point of view. Let the waters of our hearts and minds settle until we can see our original hearts shine through like the pebbles shine from the bottom of a clear river stream.

There are different types of tangam. Individual or personal tangam is that which you offer representing yourself. Family tangam is when your family offers a pure response to the dispensational directives of God. Tribal tangam is a tribe's response to the dispensation of God.

National tangam is a nation's response of gratitude to the providence of God. World tangam is the pure worldwide response to God's dispensation.

There are eight levels of tangam by which we can evaluate our own relationship with God. Of primary importance in our lives is our relationship with God. Our response to brothers and sisters will reflect our relationship to God. To establish true relationships which have eternal value, we must respond to others with God's heart and wisdom at the center of our response. You can actually evaluate your relationship with by simply evaluating your response to brothers and sisters. We are meant to experience God in every relationship. You know how some people bring out certain feelings that others do not. Perfection is learning to be able to love every character type, as Heavenly Father loves all of His children. So you can evaluate your relationship with those around you. Note carefully the aspect of serving involved in each level of tangam. Remember, Lucifer didn't serve. Also, the first thing Lucifer did wrong is that he never went to God with his problem. In every relationship we need to understand the importance of going to God to share honestly your situation and ask for God's advice.

According to Father, "Heavenly Father has no concept of enemy." When we are separated from God, we embody Lucifer's heart toward God, which is that of an enemy to God. Father doesn't recognize enemies "because he doesn't want to give it any power." The heart of an enemy is one who feels distant from God and even hates God. In this position, you resent God and instead of serving or even not serving, you do negative things to others and to God. Basically, you are offering energy to Satan. If your response to others is resentment, hatred, deceit, conspiracy, etc., then you are in an enemy position to God.

In his speech "True Parents and Blessed Couples," given on March 23, 1993, Father said, "If God tries to lift up someone and tells him to go through a restoration course and that person responds, `No, I don't want to; I'll revolt against that,' then he is not material that can be recreated." Therefore, if you are a person in this enemy position to God, you are not material that can be recreated.

Servant of servant tangam is when you have no relationship with God. You may do good deeds, but you have no sense of offering it for the sake of God and His providence. If you are a master of a household you have many servants. You wouldn't feel any connection of heart to the servant of one of your servants except that they are in relationship to your servant. There is no relationship-no direct serving.

Servant tangam is when you still fear God. You feel that God values you for what you do. Your value is determined by your performance. You serve God out of duty. A servant is valued by his master for how well he serves. There is no feeling of trust that your master loves you for who you are as a person, only how well you perform. You don't believe that you are unconditionally loved by God.

Adopted Son tangam is when you begin to receive the love of the parents. An adopted son is one who begins to experience a relationship of trust that comes with the recognition of being related to his parents. You are valued even if you make a mistake. You begin to feel gratitude as you begin to believe in parents' love and receive parents' love. Value comes because you are related. You are not of the same lineage, however, so you still feel some doubt as to your parents' unconditional love for you.

Stepson tangam can trust parents' love more than adopted son because he is part of the blood lineage. Still part of him is not of the same lineage as the parents. You have a deeper sense of being valued, a deeper sense of trust, yet it is not 100% unconditional. With your birth parent there is a genuine experience of gratitude because you can truly believe that they love you.

True Son tangam is able to receive total love of parents and respond fully with gratitude and filial piety. A true son can claim full inheritance of parents. A True Son is one in heart and mind with God and believes in God's unconditional love because he experiences it.

Adam and Eve kingship tangam is the full expression of the love a True Son and True Daughter experience with God in relationship to each other as True Brother and Sister and True Husband and Wife. Here lies the perfection of brother/sister love toward each other, each gratefully living for the sake of the other. This is the trinity of love, beginning of the Four Position Foundation and of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. This love is rooted within God and from here the royal lineage is bequeathed to the world.

True Parent tangam not only receives the love of God and feels grateful, but wants to take responsibility to comfort the heart of God. True parents want to care for others the way they have experienced God's care and unconditional love for them. True Parent tangam is wanting to bring the world back to God.

The eighth level of tangam is God Himself/Herself. Speaking on "The Restoration from the Origin and Rebirth are for Myself" on Sept. 20, 1992, Father says:

"Father looked for the truth and he was amazed to finally realize that there was nothing God did not give to everybody. Everybody had and has the potential to experience God's position himself. There is nothing God reserved for Himself. You want your truly loving father and truly loving mother to be a king and queen, don't you? You also want your grandfather and grandmother to become a king and queen, don't you? And also, you want your spouse to become a king and you a queen. How about your children? That is the privilege God bestowed on all mankind, all children, without exception. You are rightfully eligible to have that.

"We can see already, we must be kings and queens because our parents are kings and queens. We are offspring of kings and queens and eventually we will be, too."

The restoration of history depends on my response to God. By offering a pure response-to be grateful in every situation-we offer tangam to God. With this pure response of gratitude, we are able to restore ourselves and we are able to restore those around us. We deepen our own relationship with God, and find ourselves in the midst of God. Father says: "Father and Mother together restore all people and establish the kingdom, which then gives rise to the royal families. Whoever becomes one within the family and one with God, instantly becomes a royal family."

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