Restoring the Image of God (Gen. 1:27-28)
Our status and authority change in our walk of faith with God, and when we are apart from this gospel, that’s when problems and hardships come. We were created in God’s image, meaning we were created for God. God exists by Himself,
Genesis 1:27 Image of God, 1:28 blessing
Things I think are blessings actually are curses. What am I trying to make for myself? My studies, my work, my marriage, all these things come from me, and it’s not my work that is a curse, but I live for myself. The studies are not curses; the person oneself is the curse. It’s a thing that doesn’t come from God but from themselves, so it is a curse.
Fruitful, Rule Over
You’re afraid of your future. People who are not afraid of the future have confidence in themselves, but what happens when that assurance falters? Then they will be confused. They believed it to be true and they have that assurance and it came to fruition, but mankind does not have the ability to carry out things. If something is created, it is only by their mental and physical efforts. That is why unbelievers rely on themselves, using mental and physical strength to carry it out, because the source of everything is themselves, they face limitations, then how do those limitations appear?
Mental Suffering
You’re not able to control yourself because you cannot overcome your own limitations. You can overcome depression or anxiety, but you can’t as you’re caught up in your own limitations. You have created everything from the source of “you,” so you face your own limitations. Why are you angry and full of wrath that you would even take a gun to kill someone? This anger is uncontrollable with their own strength. That is why it manifests in murder.
Drug, Alcohol; Fun
Through drugs, they attempt to ease their suffering, and there’s also alcohol. It may temporarily ease suffering and makes everything more fun. “Are there any fun places around?” because you want to ease your pain and suffering. So you travel the world looking for ways to ease your suffering. Others go into games because they temporarily forget. That’s the method people use, and that’s how they fall into addiction, because they keep doing it and going into addiction. Or, they can have this division, meaning they’re not able to study. They’re alone by themselves and want to study but they are unable to, because their state is divided. They have to do their work but they can’t do their work because they keep thinking other thoughts, and that’s division. This is just moderate division, but when it’s severe, mental diseases come from this.
What happens when you want to study but you can’t? It’s painful because you can’t overcome your own limitations, so you want to play to ease the suffering, you try to ease your suffering with your own methods. Because of COVID, many people lived inwardly at home towards games, but is your pain solved this way? It is not.
Me – Sin
The fundamental problem is that you’re centered on yourself. All things must come from God, but because all things come from me, that’s the source of all problems. It’s not a matter of whether you’re good or bad at studying, but you start everything from “me.” You have to start everything from “me” because you have to live, you’re trying a little bit harder because you want to live better than other people, you want to live getting more respect, but that’s sin. It’s not that everything comes from God, but everything comes from me, whom I regard as God, and that is sin. It’s about what I want or not want, so everything is cut off, and that is why your friend becomes an enemy as you don’t like them. If you like them, they become your friend because they are some benefit to you. The benefit is that, when I converse with my friend, the conversation flows freely, but I don’t like speaking with this other friend because the conversation stops. Then you claim what is good or not good, and you divide everything up like that, to good or not good. But that’s what God sees as sin. Thievery is sin but you can repay for what you stole. The Jews also thought if they didn’t do physical actions, they would have no sin, but that’s not correct. Sin is this.
Satan
It goes beyond this to say Satan controls me, I have become Satan’s puppet.
Hell
After death, you’d be in hell, but you experience hell on earth. Mankind came out of everything created from the Triune God, and if you’re able to restore this, it would be very simple, and life being hard means you’re centered on “me.” The walk of faith being difficult while attending church means you’re continually centered on “me,” so it can be that you have many mental problems as you attend church, why? You’re oppressed by something called “legalism.” When you didn’t believe, you boldly went out into the world, doing anything, but now you’re oppressed by legalism and a guilty conscience. That’s what happens when the accurate Word is not restored.
So you cannot escape from yourself, you have to either die, but after that, you go to hell. But that’s not the problem, you have to change “me.” The world states that education can change a person, however, as time goes on, we can never change ourselves. If we learn a little bit about the other person, then we can be more conscious and nice, but that’s also for myself. All things are under Satan’s control. That is why you are constantly under the pain of being under Satan’s kingdom, hell, and that’s pain as a form of mental suffering.
Physical
Then physical suffering follows. A 52-year-old person recently had diseases, and they said they had these physical limitations. For some people, this physical suffering may appear a little bit early on, and even if it doesn’t appear for you, look at your parents and see how this physically affects them. In the end, it leads to death, because there’s no way to get rid of suffering, they may choose to end their lives.
Death – Hell
We are destined to die once, but the spirit is eternal and will face judgment. In the world, you’re judged by the laws of the world, but after death, you are judged by God. If these problems are not solved by Christ, you will go to hell, and before that, you experience hell on earth. Why would happy people do drugs? If people are happy, why would they attack and disturb others? If people are happy, why would they be so worried about their futures? If people are happy, why are they constantly tormented by the scars of their past? Happiness means you cannot feel this suffering, but how can we be happy? Only when you believe the start and the end are all inside of God, that’s when you can be happy.
But if you’re caught within these problems, you cannot meet God, that is why God came in the flesh to this earth. On the cross, He died for our sins, overcame Satan’s authority and hell and became the Christ. America is a nation with one of the most medical technologies, but it has the most mental and drug problems. America seems so well off, but why are so many homeless? America is one of the greatest nations of the world, it’s one of the most advanced, but there seem to be many more problems.
America has the most churches and seminaries, but why do we have problems? The churches are turning to religion. Religion means you believe in Christ but continue to live self-centered. You can never overcome your sin and Satan, you will continue to suffer. Why do you face limitations even though you come to church? You’re self-centered. A newcomer who hasn’t been to the church for a long time told me, “The real problem is that I’m too centered on myself.” This is the start of all problems. But this is what Satan uses to control us, and Satan drives us towards hell.
Buddhism says to empty yourself, get rid of yourself because you are the source of problems. However, when you empty yourself, Satan enters into you, so that is why you must be careful with the transcendental meditation of America. Do you know why you do transcendental meditation? To solve their problems. They came to church but their problem wasn’t solved. The problem isn’t solved at church because the church speaks about “me,” “you must live righteously and piously, you must have power and blessings,” so people do transcendental meditation.
Do you know what happens in transcendental meditation? The thought is to “empty yourself,” how? They play music and say, “Close your eyes and breathe deeply,” so they can come out of themselves. People say, “Now my scars are gone,” but they can’t believe why that happened. When a child was young, he passed away and now the parents grew older and were in constant suffering because of what happened to their child. At Johns Hopkins, there’s a Meditation program that calls doctors and nurses to do it, and it’s not a recent thing, but they set aside a place for this, and they turn on music, and a narrator says, “Let us close our eyes, let us breathe in and out,” and that’s it. The couple had this constant guilt over the death of their child that wouldn’t go away. Is there anyone like that today? Is there anyone who faces constant pain due to the scars of their past from their parents or neighbors? It’s not being healed because you continue to be centered on yourself, so what can you do?
Scar
The world tells you to empty yourself, how? “Empty your thoughts through music.” As they listen to music, it appears their scars disappear. The facts of the past still remain; however, as they concentrate and empty themselves through meditation, their scars disappear, but has that person really changed? If this center on “me” hasn’t changed, it will not change, then they enter deeply into meditation, and so, they actually teach that meditation is good for the brain and is good for the students. If you go to classes nowadays, they will turn on meditation music because it makes your brains better, they claim. Once your brain becomes better, you can look forward to more things in the future.
We were meant to live as the image of God, by God, are trying to make a living themselves, and other people say they have experienced their spirit coming out of their body. Other people use hypnosis to try to remember the past. There are videos of people using hypnosis to remember the past. Another person speaks five languages, but since what age? He went to a hypnotist, “We will close our eyes and go to the past, 1, 2, 3,” snap! “Who do you see?” “I see a Korean person and a Japanese person speaking to each other.” “What are their names, and what are they speaking about?” “They speak in Japanese,” and explained what they were saying. The child woke up and afterwards, the child could speak five languages. The person the child was speaking about was a historical figure, a person who could speak five languages. It was recorded in the Joseon dynasty and he spoke this old style Korean.
They tried to sell this idea to people as a business, “Your child can speak five languages,” but this child is actually demon-possessed. If the demon comes into you, you can see in the past for hundreds of years. Demons can also imitate voices, and it is because people are in pain that demons come. Beings who are meant to live by the grace, power, and wisdom, everything that comes from God, they face all these problems. That’s why Buddhism says, “Empty yourself,” but if you do that, it gets worse.
We say, “Change yourself,” but you can’t. Only the perfect Jesus Christ Who is God can change you when He comes into you. That’s what we call “acceptance,” accepting Jesus Christ as the Master of your life who controls your thoughts, mind, spirit, and body. You may think, “I just need to keep doing the acceptance prayer,” but that will be difficult. The start of a person saying, “I am a sinner, I’m under Satan and separated from God.
Only when Jesus Christ comes as the Lord and Master of my life will I be changed,” it may just be reciting, but other methods involve acceptance even without changing yourself. That’s why I asked earlier, “Do you want to change ‘me’?” This person has a problem and It’s not about accepting to solve the problem, but you know that the source of all problems is being self-centered; do you want to change the master of your life? If so, I can help you through prayer. Accept Jesus Christ as the Savior of your life, then the Holy Spirit is with you from the Triune God, and He is working. Being “with” does not mean you’re in communication with each other, but you live as a servant under the Master, God.
It’s important to know who proclaims the gospel. If they are insincere, their walk of faith won’t change. “Do you know the source and cause of suffering?” If you believe in Jesus Christ, you believe in the Savior. The suffering you face will all be resolved in God’s perfect time schedule, but you believe in Jesus Christ to end the suffering right now, so I say, “Don’t believe in Jesus Christ just to end your suffering, because if your suffering ends, you won’t come to church; that’s not the gospel. You must change yourself, you must change the Master from yourself to Jesus Christ, and that suffering is up to God to resolve, so let go of it.” Whatever problem it may be, whether it’s drug addiction, problems from the past, God will resolve it.
Holy Spirit – With, Guidance
It’s important to proclaim the perfect gospel. Right now, we are living in a nation and system where we are the masters of our own lives. Now, through studying the Word, experience the Word of God being with you because God will guide you to do that. You keep wanting to live your own life, you pray for what you want, but that’s a religious person. They have either not received salvation, or they live a religious lifestyle. Many people are like this, the spiritual problems of their family background isn’t solved, but who can heal such people? God can only use those people who have Jesus Christ as the Master of their lives. Only the witness who has Jesus Christ as the Master of their lives can help these people because God is working through them.
Work
It’s different, people say, “If this happens, God is working, but if that happens, God is not working,” so their master hasn’t changed and the answer hasn’t come. More than evangelism not taking place, it cannot take place. When you pray, God works. When you face a problem, God will guide you. Whatever limitation you may face, God will work for you to overcome
Status
Darkness, Angels, Heaven, Disciple
Humans are spiritual beings, so they can understand. That’s how the other person’s spirit will be changed. You know this as a theory, but they will respond, “I understand but we’ll do this another time.” Proclaim this first. If God is going to use that person? The pulpit was centered on the law, God used it to change me. God said, “Do not do this,” so the people didn’t do it, and they thought themselves sinless. Then they will face a limitation. Turn back to God. The law was created to change your inner being. But instead of changing yourself, you try to change your actions to appear good before other people.
Believing in Jesus Christ means God sees us as righteous, but will this person believe in Jesus Christ? Hold onto this as your covenant. Why do you shake? You are swayed by feelings and you focus on your own emotions, so you forget Jesus Christ died on the cross 2000 years ago, so you just look at your problems. If you hold onto Jesus Christ, God will work upon you like this. It seems like a problem, but when you look at the problem as your changed self where Jesus Christ , the people with a big vessel will grow. We may see a problem, but for God, it is a blessing and an opportunity, so pray to know God’s plan.
Throughout the week, may Jesus Christ become the Lord and Master of our lives, so I want you to make a promise with me. The problems that haven’t changed in the past will continue to flow. It’s not that you won’t face any more problems but the problems will be used by Christ, and you will stand as witnesses to the 237 nations and 5000 tribes. That is why God is going to use you through your studies, work, and talents. I hope you will all enjoy this blessing.
Prayer
Dear God, thank You. I know You will work according to Your faith, according to the Word given to us today, in the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.