A Taste of the Covenant of Only Christ (Acts 1:14)
They devoted themselves to pray, meaning they were not forcing themselves to pray. If you feel like you’re being forced to pray, it is not out of joy; it is a burden or obligation. Then, you can only continue something until the end if you like it. The members of the Early Church who gathered really enjoyed the covenant Christ had given to them, and they saw the future with that. Yes, the Lord may have commanded this of them, but if they were forced to do this, like a burden, they wouldn’t have stayed up there.
In one moment, all the things the Lord had trained and imprinted them in for three years started to come into action. They joined together constantly in prayer, meaning you have to enjoy doing that. Without enjoying something, you can’t constantly do that. If someone loves to play, they will run around, constantly doing that because they like it. If people like to eat and play, they do that, because that’s the goal of that person’s life; it is set as their 24.
Those people would not be able to have “only” within Mark’s Upper Room in the Early Church; they could not endure it. Then, what has come into us as something we enjoy or like? We must be imprinted in good things, not what I like, but what God likes must become what is good to me. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection needs to be my joy, I need to like that. If that doesn’t become my answer, then I do not have an answer in life.
In other words, the cross of Jesus Christ must come as the answer to the fundamental spiritual problem of mankind for me to like it; but for the Israelites, the cross was not the answer; if anything, they took joy in their physical actions. So, they were in the midst of relentless fighting and judgment. What must we enjoy today? We must enjoy Christ. That is how you can do “only.” Christ must come into you as “happiness,” your imprint. That must come into me as the answer to life.
Your studying is not an answer. Making money is not an answer. Wearing nice clothes is not an answer. Success is not the answer to your life. But if you enjoy that and that is what gives your life flavor, that is no answer in life because that person will think about it, 24 hours. Then, that person cannot save themselves.
Christ is the answer to all of life’s problems. The moment that began to go into Paul, he wasn’t doing things out of obligation or force; he did things out of joy, he went into prison but he did not show them his Roman citizenship. If he did not want to go to prison, he would not have shown them his Roman citizenship and would not have gone to prison. He thought Christ was the most precious, greatest thing. We all know Christ if we receive a few trainings, but “I don’t really like it and it doesn’t bring me joy so I live my life according to what I like. “ We know things in our brains, but in reality, the direction of my life is bound to go in Genesis 3, 6, and 11, because that’s what I like.
Think about it, it would be impossible for you to go to Mark’s Upper Room in the Early Church during the age of persecution. So, in the midst of all the people who call themselves Christian, do we really like Christ? We can only live our walk of faith if we truly like Christ. That’s what we call “only.” If we don’t truly enjoy Christ, when we try to do “only,” we’re oppressed by legalism. Restoring the Early Church means I begin to enjoy Jesus Christ as my “only.”
Then the Bible never talked about their lackings. They were already lacking, but the Lord never talks about how much you’ve done. “Do you love Me?” Meaning, “Do you love this gospel the very most? Do you like this gospel more than anything you’ve cherished in life?” It’s not about what you have or not have, He is not asking how much you’ve done. Do you really like this gospel? We need to like it. We cannot choose to like it, but we believe the gospel is the answer to life, and when you think about it, you receive strength and joy.
If you don’t like the gospel, you’ll be headed down a different path, even a pastor will be headed down that path because there’s something he enjoys more. That is the reason the Israelites were punished and destroyed by God. As you’re walking through the wilderness, the fact that you’re liberated by the blood of the Lamb is your everything; you must enjoy that. Going into the land of Canaan should be your only hope, your only goal in life. If you don’t truly like that, you cannot walk the wilderness.
The wilderness is not the issue; if you enjoy it and are happy, you can enjoy it. It’s the same with your physical work. If I begin to move everything, looking towards my hope and that gives me strength, even my physical work will not be a burden. That’s why the Apostle Paul never confessed that things were hard for him. He was beaten up by people, by gangsters; he was chewed up by animals and almost drowned in a storm but he never said things were hard for him.
If you say life is difficult, it means you have no hope or goal in life. We have the answer. The One Who has finished all problems is seated at the Throne of Heaven and is with me right now. That was his true joy and his hope in the Kingdom of God. Satan ruling over the kingdom of the air controls this world, but the Kingdom of God must be established there. If the Kingdom of God is not established, we cannot escape from the ruler of the kingdom of the air.
If you’re just eating and making a living in the world, that’s basic, but if that’s what that person is like, that person is irrelevant to Christ. It doesn’t matter if you go to church or not, because it means you haven’t received the full emotion or inspiration of the gospel. Then, healing cannot take place. When we take drugs, our brain produces dopamine. It doesn’t matter how you try the drug, whether you snort or inject; the people doing drugs are having a difficult time.
For example, let’s say there’s a woman who has depression and it’s so hard, and that person does drugs. When she tries that drug, her brain releases so much dopamine and it makes her feel the happiest she’s been, and that’s why she does drugs. She suffered through depression but her brain releases feel-good chemicals, so she enjoys it so much. After that ends, she’s afflicted once again, and the taste of dopamine one time will drag her back in to do drugs again. Once you get a taste for that drug, it releases all the dopamine you can create.
Usually when we’re diligent about something, or we accomplish something, we release dopamine. However, when we do drugs, the dopamine released is at an extremely high level, and it goes to a maximum state where this person has never experienced that level of joy before. But the normal person might try it and then stop. Then, if someone has spiritual problems, they’re so afflicted that they want to taste that joy again. But when they try the drug again, they’re not receiving the same level of dopamine as they did in the beginning.
Let’s say they released 100% dopamine during the first time they did drugs; the subsequent times it becomes less, so that person does more and more substances to gain the feeling they had the first time they did drugs. So, when you look at these women, they’re completely covered in marks from syringes. The beginning of that is not because the person is a bad person; it’s because they were so afflicted.
It’s the same thing with alcohol. There is something released in your brain when you’re drunk on alcohol. Someone so timid or shy will laugh and sing and be loose because of the things released in their brain, and it’s the same with alcohol and drugs, they go into this because they’re so afflicted. When they’re afflicted, they get this good feeling and it feels incredibly good for them, then what will happen as time passes? That good feeling gets less and less, and later on, they use all their dopamine so they can’t release anymore, so what will happen to this person? They have to do everything they can to try to taste the joy from their first time doing drugs. But it doesn’t matter how much they increase the usage, they can’t get the same feeling, then that person is completely seized by demons and is being dragged around. That’s why they keep falling into addictions.
In Korea, the doctors are prescribing medicine you ingest and it has 100x efficacy. They don’t prescribe this in America, but these kids got a taste for this drug and they gather prescriptions to get this drug. Why is it so hard to quit drugs? There’s a feeling in your brain you’ve never experienced before. Do you know the reason why people keep going and finding the best restaurants? Once you’ve tasted something so good, you can’t go to another restaurant that isn’t as good. We can’t get that first taste, though, once you eat it more and more, that taste goes down, so you have to find better and better restaurants. Then what happens? You get lost in that.
It’s the same for game addiction. When the kids are struggling with their studies or mental problems, they try gaming and fall into it. Today, we’re talking about getting this taste for Jesus Christ. Nothing can help us except Jesus Christ. We need to be imprinted in our brain with, “I really need Christ,” that’s how we quit drugs as we like Christ more than we like drugs, and we keep taking more of Christ. What do we mean by, “Be rooted and have the nature of Christ?” be addicted to Christ. It’s not a good or bad thing, it becomes an instrument to save yourself and other people.
The members of the Early Church were persecuted, accused of being heretics, and being killed, but they enjoyed this so much, they were not afraid of these things. But they knew one thing, what was it? They knew that the Romans are seized by the ruler of the kingdom of the air, and they knew the fall of Rome. They also knew God had promised them the Kingdom of God. They also knew they were changing the world into the Kingdom of God with the power and the blessing of the throne of heaven. That’s why it didn’t matter what Rome did to them, they didn’t even bat an eye.
They concentrated for ten days like this, meaning they were praying. They went into only prayer, holding onto the answer of only Jesus Christ for their life, as well as the future, the dream of world evangelization. Why is it possible to only do this in prayer? Because there’s no other answer, but why can we not go into only prayer? First we don’t really like Christ, we like something else more. Then we also don’t know the end. We are relentlessly being moved by Gen. 3, 6, and 11 that I developed a taste for in my past. There is something I’ve tasted in the past and that’s more delicious to me than Christ.
Yes, that may be delicious, when celebrities are on the stage and their fans only cheer for them, there is a certain joy in tasting that, but why do they fall into corruption? It’s because when they lose their popularity, they cannot taste the same joy so they have to do drugs, even if they don’t want to, they have to. If you succeed without the gospel, that’s what’s going to happen. We can succeed without the gospel and people will applaud and revere you, and that’s no ordinary feeling. It feels like you have everything in life, like you’re God Himself. Once you’ve tasted that but you think your seat of success and popularity are decreasing, you go crazy. That’s what happens when you succeed without the gospel.
Success is not the issue; if you have it without the gospel, it becomes a headache. That’s why the remnants have to have the system of the gospel first. It doesn’t matter what anybody tells you, you are bound to go in the direction you enjoy, that you really like. When you face a problem or crisis, you go in that direction, but you don’t know it in your everyday life, and you’re trapped so you can’t go int hat direction. God knows, once you’re successful, you will go where you want, so God prevents you from succeeding. Recognize this as God’s grace. God knows you more than yourself. I know what I’ve a taste for in life.
We dream of our past success, that’s no ordinary taste, but it means we haven’t tasted that which regards all else as rubbish yet. Yes, we may all change at once, but in my experience, it takes time until we don’t need the things in our past anymore. We don’t need those things. If you force yourself to fight against it, it hasn’t gone away. The things you talk about the most, the things you brag about are the things you’ve developed a taste for in your past. You’re not able to talk about anything else; you talk about the same things again.
But when you get a taste for the gospel, a taste for Word Fulfillment, you are bound to talk about that. Our walk of faith should naturally take place, but if the gospel is not delicious to you, you think, “This is just something we have to do in church, to do our forum and our three today’s.” One church officer said, “In our church, we have to evangelize.” In my head, I thought, “That person is not right.” The evangelism God talks about is not the same as what this person is talking about, and the reason I knew that is, the person thought, “Our church has to evangelize and I’m a church officer so I have to evangelize,” they are diligent but they are evangelizing to match their position, so they will face a limitation.
The Early Church was not like that. They knew the end and relayed the gospel of Christ. We must have this, that is a person who is able to constantly pray. If you decide what your golden fishing ground is and you keep praying for that, then your life is finished. But if you’re not able to pray for the golden fishing ground and instead you think of other things, it’s not finished for you, yet. If the members of the Early Church really enjoyed fishing, they would not remain in Mark’s Upper Room, isn’t that right? Imagine how many good experiences they had as fishermen but they loved Christ more than that. That has to come firmly into our brain.
That doesn’t just release dopamine, it releases everything and pulls our whole life forward. That’s what America needs. America doesn’t lack science or great leaders, there are many of those all over the world, there are many elites; we don’t need yet another elite. There’s the top 1% in every nation, that’s not something we should rally around. That’s not what the Lord called us for. If anything, the elites have tasted other things and run their lives to maintain that taste or flavor in life. They will be used by Satan so that’s why Jesus called fishermen.
He also called Paul, successful people as well. What is the standard? Christ, we must enjoy this. I’ve been crucified on the cross so there’s no reason to look back at myself anymore. Everything I’ve learned and experienced in the past is rubbish. Everything I’ve loved in the past must feel like it’s useless now, but if you don’t feel like that, your past will just repeat. If you receive something so great, then the scars of your past will seem irrelevant to you.
People who are hooked on drugs don’t need food because they love drugs so much, so they’ll starve for days. Some women take drugs to lose weight. Even if you’re overweight, if you love the gospel, it’s better to be overweight in that state so you can save other overweight people. For God, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in this or that form, the standard for everything is the gospel. When you look at my daughter, she does whatever she wants to do. It doesn’t matter. She does that because she’s going through puberty. But ever since she was in the womb, she received prayers, worship, and the Word, but without the taste of the gospel, she becomes a pharisee. At least, whatever was imprinted in her when she was younger will come as answers later.
Youth kids don’t receive answers right now. Whatever gets imprinted in us lays down its roots and the answers come as fruits later. So, we are planting right now, looking at the age of the future. This promise of world evangelization is the final goal, the finish line in our life to which we are racing. So, we hold onto this covenant and pray. You begin to pray holding onto the end result of saving the 237 nations, the 70 regions, the 70 disciples, and the golden fishing grounds.
If your prayer doesn’t have an end goal, it is not a prayer. “Give me this, give me that,” he told us we don’t need to pray for that. But we need to truly know the end and know the goal of the golden fishing ground as you pray. In Acts 1:8, it says, “You will receive power,” and when these people pray, what is the goal God gave them? Is it the goal of making bread? To solve the problems of Israel right now? What do they pray now?
It’s in the Bible, “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” was their goal they prayed for. They prayed for disciples to arise as witnesses to save these regions. They prayed for 10 days and one day, they received answers and God began to work. Then, the evangelism doors to all the nations began to open exactly as it was written in the scripture because God’s answers come according to His promise.
That is why we need to pray, holding onto the Word God has given us. We shouldn’t pray, holding onto unnecessary things. Then this word will actually become the design of your real life. If this word has become edited into your life, you must begin to plan with that Word. Then, you need to apply this life into your field so that it is actually aligned. Your Jerusalem is the region you live in, and you pray for that region. Regions that are not where you live, like Judea and Samaria, all the way to the ends of the earth, is world evangelization.
When you pray holding onto that covenant, you receive answers. The doors to evangelism to 15 nations opened through the businesspeople who gathered. You must remain within this stream, and it’s the same for the evangelism camps. Set up the golden fishing grounds and pray for that. The Word happened exactly according to Mark’s Upper Room, but we’re not certain in God’s Word, meaning we’re not rooted in God’s Word so we start and stop. That’s why we cannot have one heart, whole heart, continuation. But anyone can hold onto the covenant and this will take place.
This goes up to Acts 13. Then God guides this into the missions fields and evangelism. Look at the time schedule. They first started in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Macedonia, where the Antioch Church was raised and the Jerusalem Church couldn’t overcome. God raised up select individuals to raise up the Antioch Church, and the same thing happened there. Five people prayed to spread the gospel to the Gentiles and God opened the doors to the island of Patmos, and there, there was a meeting with the proconsul and the sorcerer Elymas. That’s the evangelism camp we must do. When we do camp, some days we set a time, but your everyday life must be a camp.
This goes to Acts 16, it’s the same time schedule, going beyond Troas. Apostle Paul prayed to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles and God allowed him to meet Lydia, and God guides according to His Word. That became the church of Macedonia, so the disciples are there, and the disciples devote everything. She said to Paul, “If you believe I’m a servant of the Lord, come stay at my house,” meaning she would provide food, shelter, everything.
Lydia was a seller of fine purple cloth, selling to royalty and elites, and designed the finest fashion. She was wealthy and connected, and God prepared such people. It says that God opened Lydia’s heart, so we might proclaim the gospel, but the Holy Spirit works to open their hearts, then Lydia’s house became a platform and a church.
That goes to Acts 19. Yes, we go to Acts 17 and 18 as well. Paul initially wanted to go to Troas, but God led him there circumferentially. The Apostle Paul taught the exact same thing as what was in Mark’s Upper Room, who is the Christ, and made the entire region of Asia to hear the gospel, meaning he raised disciples everywhere, meaning God prepared disciples in the region.
In this way, God fulfills the covenant in His time schedule, and by the Holy Spirit, God led them to Rome. He was already holding onto the goal of proclaiming the gospel to Gentiles. While he was praying, God gave the Word, “You must go to Rome where the Gentiles are.” God continuously gives us the Word every week to fulfill the covenant.
It goes to Acts 27, what is this talking about? According to the promise God originally gave in the very beginning, God fulfills the Word and your life must remain within that stream. Then, your beginning must be the Christ. If your beginning is not in the Christ, you’re still in the Old Testament; you haven’t come into the New Testament and that person will not be moved by the blood of Christ; they have to stick with the laws and sacrifices of the Old Testament, or they go back to what they used to do, fishing.
Christ is the beginning of life. It’s not just saying Christ, but Christ becomes everything. This must take place for you to hold onto the end of your life. If Christ is not your answer, how can you hold onto the end of world evangelization? If you received Jesus Christ but He is not your end, you will have Gen. 3, 6, 11. And God doesn’t let you stay like that, but He beats you up and makes you fail constantly. It’s a sign to go into the correct covenant, the correct stream of blessings. But relentlessly, what I like and what I want are the things of the world I used to do in the past.
We must be healed; it’s impossible to receive healing unless our imprint, root, and nature are God’s Word. Then what church does God want today? A church like the ones in the Bible. If our church is within the biblical stream of evangelism like these churches were, then God has prepared a Temple for us. The Temple is not the issue; the gospel must be relayed. The temple will disappear one day but souls exist for eternity. Why would God, Who even gives believers success, not give us this? We must at least be better than nonbelievers, and the fact that God has prepared this for world evangelization means He has prepared the economy of light.
I told you the entire stream today but some people still cannot go into the stream, they are just standing by. Those people must come to the answer of Christ first. I think the beginning of your life is that answer becoming your prayer topic, that’s how you become the platform. If Christ is not your answer, then why would God send anyone to you? Your job where you have the answer is your platform. If your job is a minister of the church, that becomes your platform. You need to know the end or the goal of your life to shine the light of Christ.
If missions and evangelism is not the goal of your life, you cannot be the watchtower. If the goal of your life is success, you cannot be the watchtower as you cannot shine the light. If raising your children well is the goal of your life, you cannot be the watchtower; that’s why the churches are closing. The fact that churches are closing means they are already colonized by the world, they’re in a state where they’re captives and colonies to the Gen. 6 of the world. But we don’t know that because they haven’t yet closed, but one day, you will feel it in your bones, and even so, God will bring you out because you have salvation.
If you just keep spending that repetitive cycle getting beat up, you’re only living one life. You don’t know this yet so you move with your own ego, but if you really knew the Truth, you wouldn’t do that. This church is raised in this region. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the field we are not even connected to. We’re not connected to other states, but we go there as well, all the way to the ends of the earth, to the whole world. God has begun this church within the stream of that covenant and moves us forward. Then, the stream of our life has to be within that. Then, we can even know all around, what point we are in now.
Your walk of faith shouldn’t be lived in a vague way. If you are unsure or confused about your walk of faith, it is because you are unsure of God’s Word. Once God’s Word comes to me as my covenant, I will speak of it as if it were my words. At first, these are words from the Bible; they’re not mine yet, but one day, I will be imprinted, “This is true,” then you will be rooted in it. The imprint is so important, but if you’re not rooted, your life is irrelevant to the stream. Then your future generation’s future is insecure. We’ve been given the answer to shine the light in the world of darkness, but if you don’t know that and you don’t know the future, you’re bound to wander. People are lost in darkness but they think they just need to succeed. We shouldn’t be like that. We must join within the stream of the correct church and covenant.
Even if we go slightly in a different direction, our whole direction is off, isn’t that right? Let’s say for example, today’s message is not according to the flow of the Bible but it’s another direction, you have to go in that direction, too. That’s what happens to the church and in conclusion they cannot overcome the darkness. In conclusion they cannot see the end of world evangelization but they live their life in confusion and darkness; the future generation will wander. There are so many people who are still wandering, lost, as they go to church.
Have you ever seen someone give a biblical prayer topic as they are asked about their prayer topic? Everyone holds onto their prayer topic from Gen. 3, 6, and 11, and that’s why they’re not able to overcome the darkness with the light. They are instead lost. That’s not the church God wants. God wants a church that relays God’s desire. It doesn’t matter even if there’s hundreds of thousands of people, if they don’t have the answer; elites can gather but they’re covered in darkness, drunk on the feeling of success. If someone doesn’t acknowledge them, they’re offended, “My pride is hurt.” It doesn’t matter if there’s thousands like that. But one person who loves the gospel will change the entire church like yeast. But for us, there’s not just one person; there are many and this must be relayed to the future generations and we put them in training.
What is “Friday, Saturday, Sunday”? The age gets darker and darker so we must call them from Friday. Go when you let go of your things and think this is important, and it doesn’t matter if you tell them a lot; they think other things are important. We have to wait, but we don’t know when this will be. God doesn’t tell us to open the age of “Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” for no reason. But Friday afternoon to Sunday is free time for children, and that’s the time to lay down the imprint, root, and nature.
What happens if they’re just home on Fridays? They’re filled with other things, so we create an environment in the church where children can gather, and the Saturdays should be RUTC day. Even still, the kids are iffy. They’re at church but they’re barely listening, and they can’t do anything about it at home. Even me, a pastor’s family, cannot do this for my kid, because we have work. The bare minimum I can do is while we drive together or before going to sleep.
The kids stay in this state all week long, and on Friday, they go on the internet and they’re with friends. On Saturday, we listen to messages for 20 minutes, they can’t concentrate on that. This is the spiritual state of the future generations. The church officers must gather their prayers. You only care about yourself but you have salvation. Jesus told us to cry for our children, Jesus says, “Do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and your children,” that is the stream of the Word of God, then God is bound to answer.
Do you not do camp when it’s raining? We didn’t learn like that. There are disciples in the rain because in our thoughts, we think, “It’s raining; no one will be there,” if anything, true disciples will go in the rain; other people will not go but the prepared disciples will go. Why would anyone go in the rain? God sent them there, so they’re easy to find. But we think, “There must be sunlight,” but who says we fight only in sunlight? Does the devil not work in the rain? He works 24 hours, but our thoughts are so used to the environment.
If there’s a holiday, do we not proclaim the gospel? Our hardwiring is fascinating. “We go on vacations on holidays,” we’re so used to that. We should go to proclaim the gospel but you have a taste for playing. All our conferences and retreats are on national holidays like Thanksgiving and New Years, that’s when disciples will go. Otherwise they run away as they need to live for physical things, but this is the time the disciples have. The disciples gather together and works take place, what does this mean? The covenant of God doesn’t change, He fulfills it rain or shine.
Will the covenant not be fulfilled in war? The covenant is fulfilled in Ukraine, the remnants do this even in war, so it doesn’t matter, until we die. That is how much we have to see the end and race forward.
May you confirm this Word once more and go into that stream. Let us pray holding onto the Word we received.
2nd prayer topic, let us pray for W.E. and world missions. For Jewish evangelization. Without a doubt, there are disciples because God sent a disciple. If you look in Acts 2:9-11, God sent the disciples. God sent these disciples because there are the doors of evangelism behind them.
__Insert all mission fields. __ When we pray together in the name of Jesus Christ, God works.
Let us pray for the Seattle/ Yakima regional church. I believe that God will guide them with the time schedule with the work of the H.S. there must be churches that do the church movement in the 50 states in America. The president is not the answer. You can raise whoever you want as president but that is not the answer. Only Christ, Only God’s Kingdom, Only power and working of H.S. That disciple, that prayer, that bartizan. 10,000,000 disciples must be raised up.
Let us pray for temple construction. The temple construction that is within this stream then of course the work and guidance of HS will come. The time when we are giving offering is when God restores economy of light. God, work through the offering to do the 237 saving movement. And through this offering of faith…. May all of the curses of darkness and powerlessness be broken down with this offering.
Finally, let us pray for the Sunday message. God is bound to give the message according to His time schedule. Let us pray for all of the evangelism schools tomorrow. The businesspeople message. May they all be within the stream of evangelism.
Let us sing one hymn and end with benediction, church, and individual prayers and go home.
Now may the grace of Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, filling, guidance, and communion of the HS, be upon all the people of God who want to be the bartizan, watch tower, and antenna, be with you now and always.