The Disciple’s Strength (Isaiah 40:27-31)
In Isaiah 40 it says He will renew our strength, and it’s talking about spiritual strength. Even if somebody has physical and mental strength, they have their limitations. Because we are made as spiritual beings, we need to have spiritual strength. Humans are different from animals in that we have a spirit, so if we don’t have spiritual strength, we will have strange problems that animals do not have. Animals don’t do drugs, humans do drugs. But because we don’t know spiritual problems, we do things like drugs and drinking, but animals don’t do things like that because they’re not spiritual beings.
The nature of an animal is that they will eat when they are hungry and sleep when they are full, but it turns out that animals also have things like depression. Even the cat that is in our house will get upset when I yell at it. Even if I talk to her, she won’t turn around since she’s upset at me. One day she’ll get over it and come back to me. That’s how animals live with humans. Wolves don’t have that, this is the reason why they live with humans.
Humans are spiritual beings so without a doubt, we need to have spiritual strength. If we don’t have spiritual strength and we don’t know the reason why, it feels we are losing something continuously, and all the cause of our mental problems is spiritual strength. All of our suicidal thoughts, it’s the same thing. “Somebody said this to me and I’m upset about it,” you may hear things throughout your life, but if you’re upset, you don’t have spiritual strength.
You need to understand these words well to give the answer to the field; otherwise you cannot give the answer to the field. All the grumblings of the people in the world who are dying come from having no strength. If they’re afraid or worried, they don’t have strength. Humans need to have this strength, in other words, they need to have faith. Even before you pray, you need to have the strength in faith in God’s covenant. Without that, we cannot have spiritual strength, we get that through His Word.
If I do not have a Word of God towards which I race towards my entire life, I do not have strength. But if I do have that Word, I can do something with that faith and hope. But people don’t have this, Even if they’re racing towards some kind of hope, it is a fake hope that will wither away.
In Isaiah 40:27, he addresses Jacob, which is Israel. “Why do you say, O Jacob, and why complain O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the LORD’?” Meaning they cannot see their way. “Why do you think you are outside of the view of God, why do you ask for irrelevant things?” They are not able to see their way. Without a doubt, these are people who believe and pray, but they cannot see the way of God and think they are hidden from God. “God doesn’t answer our prayers,” they say.
Isaiah 40:28. “Do you not know, have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God.” The Triune God is everlasting, and if we are made in God’s image, it means we are created as eternal beings. Animals are not eternal; the spirit of a human doesn’t go away. Even if a human dies, their spirit doesn’t die. Later on, that spirit will resurrect in the resurrected body and go to either an eternal heaven or an eternal suffering in hell.
But the people who believe in Jesus Christ and have their sins forgiven will go to an eternal heaven. So, what’s the point of having your disease on earth be healed or not? You’re going to die anyway. What’s the point of living a long or short life, which is just by our standards anyway? If it is by your own standards, it doesn’t matter. If something good happens to you, it’s temporary; if something hard is happening, that’s also temporary. You need to look at today, seeing eternity. But if you don’t, you’ll have no choice but to see highs and lows.
Good things may happen and bad things may happen but we are eternal. These things pass by, so there’s no reason to be so excited or disappointed because either way, God has prepared world evangelization for His disciples. If you’re scarred because of what people say, that might happen, and you say, “I wish someone could support or strengthen me,” that could be true, but if you’re a person of God, you will follow the everlasting Word of God. That person will be okay no matter where they’re put. Because we’re eternal beings, we need to hold onto the eternal Word. We shouldn’t hold onto the optional or temporary words of people and have that discourage our lives.
“The Creator of the ends of the earth,” meaning all the earth and all the universe. This is the God you believe in. “He will not grow tired or weary and His understanding no one can fathom.” People may grow tired but God will not grow tired because He is the fundamental one. Everything comes from God. When I went to CSUN, I saw someone selling books on transcendental meditation and they had been doing transcendental meditation for 40 years. A long time ago, I saw someone selling books at UCLA, and it seemed like the same person. They say they wander around, selling books.
I asked, “How many professors do transcendental meditation at this school?” He said, “3,” and I asked, what majors do they teach? “Philosophy, sociology.” And I asked, “Why do these professors do transcendental meditation?” Let’s say, the philosophy professor or sociology professor, people who study the phenomena of society. These are disciplines that study the conflicts between people. These are people who receive their answer through transcendental meditation.
They came to the conclusion that the reason the government is like this is not because of the government, but people are the problem. So, these professors come to the conclusion that the person who practices transcendental meditation comes to the conclusion of their own god needs to become the governor, so they start doing transcendental meditation.
Right now I’m talking about meditation taught in yoga in the Hindu religion. So, I read this book and I’m telling you, the real yoga isn’t what you see in the fitness centers, but it’s about meeting your own god. Countless other organizations do yoga their own way, too, and Hinduism has a longer history than Buddhism. Buddhism actually came from Hinduism. Hinduism has a very long history and that’s where meditation and yoga came from. Through these things, they want to meet God. They say, “Once I meet God, I am happy.”
There’s another book I hadn’t read, and I asked for it, and they gave it to me. They said that all the problems of the world, like sadness, came from one of their gods, Shiva, and it sounded like crappy philosophy. They said, “All the sadness and problems came from this god,” and they say the philosophy of humans are not enough; you need to know this true philosophy. It seemed like a joke to me, the book was written in a question/answer format. Not everybody will get stuck in this book, but if someone doesn’t have the answer, they’ll be sucked into it as they see the answer from one perspective.
As I was leaving, I saw a lot of high school students touring the school every week. There were two or three buses lined up for high school students to see the campus, and a Muslim bus driver had his prayer mat out, he faced Mecca and did his prayers. I’m sure he does receive answers, but who do these answers come from? They are not praying to God. Even if they use the word, “God,” they are not praying to God.
If they do not believe Jesus is God, that is not God. God gave all of this to Jesus Christ so the words of Jesus Christ are the words of the Jehovah God, and the one who has seen Jesus Christ has seen the Father God, and He has given all suffering to Jesus Christ. So, if anyone believes in a god who is not Jesus Christ, that is not God. When you evangelize to someone, you must surely confirm this, because everyone uses the word, ‘god,’ but it is not the god of the Bible. They talk about their own religion and you ask them, “Do you believe in God?” They say, “Yes,” and they pass by.
Ask them, “Is Jesus God?” If they say no, they are people of the devil, without a doubt, because everything in the Old Testament is talking about Jesus Christ. If they don’t know Jesus Christ then they cannot know the Old Testament. The Jewish people knew the Old Testament but they only knew the laws. Right now, next week we are celebrating Easter but the Bible tells us about feasts, that all the tradition and food we eat during the feasts represent Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is just a shadow of that. We just do it for that, but every day should be the resurrection. There’s no reason to stop doing what we’re already doing, we are already doing it, but the important thing is, through things like that, we keep telling the essence.
But the important thing is, among the Jewish people, they were not holding onto the reality of Jesus Christ, but they held onto the shadow of Him. Even though some among them believed in Jesus Christ, many didn’t. Try asking any Caucasian young student if Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, and many of them will say no. “Is Jesus Christ your way to salvation?” they may say, “Yes. I think He is the way for me, but there are other ways as well.” Those are the strange ones. But most Caucasian students believe that way, so try asking one.
I’m telling you to ask Caucasian people because they brought the Christian religion from Europe. Most people say He is not “only,” do you know where that’s from? They cannot make others uncomfortable; they have to respect other religions as well, and that’s the education of America so they cannot have “only,” so if you can’t have, “only,” you will die as Satan holds onto people without “only,” so even though they go to church, these kids fall over because of spiritual problems. Even though there are so many churches and people who go back and forth to church, the mental problems, shootings, and addictions happen. It’s the fault of the church that doesn’t have “only.”
If they don’t have “only,” I’m not talking about being narrow-minded, but they don’t understand spiritual things, and without that, they cannot discern Christ. But if they cannot discern spiritual things, they cannot meet God, and that’s why they think there’s multiple ways. There are many churches where many people talk about God and Jesus Christ, but because they don’t have “only,” Satan overtakes them, and that’s the state of the churches today.
I’m telling you this with the data from the field. Of course, I didn’t go to all 50 states, but every region I went to, whether talking to a Caucasian or African American person, it’s that. I don’t ask Asian kids because they sometimes believe in Buddhism. I was talking to Christian Caucasian students, and this is what they said, so it means “only” is not being relayed to the field. They say, “I have my faith, you have your faith, what’s the problem with that?” Then with this faith, Satan takes over.
“Only” means only relying on the Lord through the name of Jesus Christ. There’s no other way. It doesn’t matter what methods you use; there’s no other way. If you have this, then you will survive no matter where you go. Because God answers you for the sake of the name of Christ. Satan breaks down because of the name of Christ. You need to hold onto that firmly in the covenant.
Why does this become weak? This becomes weaker as you look at your own actions. “My actions are so sinful and lacking,” but because of that, you need Christ. If someone says, “I can pray when my actions are good but I cannot pray when my actions are bad,” that’s not right. Only Jesus Christ. Even when you don’t have Christ, you need Christ all the more. Regardless of my situation, Christ is the promise from God. That’s what the New Testament is telling us today.
Simply put, why are you not able to pray in the name of Jesus Christ and you’re sitting still, not receiving answers? Why do you say you do not know the way for your future? God gave you the covenant of the CVDIP and it would work out if you followed that, but you say it is not. Why do you say it’s impossible to find the 70 regions and 70 disciples and you’ve given up? God said He would do it through Christ. God promised that He has hidden and will show you the disciples He has prepared in your field of work and school, but you say it is impossible because you’re not relying on Jesus Christ, you’re only looking at yourself.
Did we receive salvation by our strength or actions? You can never do that. You’re a sinner, how could you be saved? The one who is without sin must die on the cross for the problem of my sin. That is how the authority of Satan is broken, and He is with me forever. You have the authority to say this but why are you not praying? You get depressed at your situation and you’re stressed out about evangelism and you think your life is over at work. If kids aren’t able to find their talent, they think their lives are over.
Do not be discouraged or lose strength when you look at your strength; you are to gain strength when you look at Christ. If you have strength, it is bound to dim one day because you look at yourself. Within Jesus Christ are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In today’s verse, “And His understanding, no one can fathom,” meaning everything is hidden in Jesus.
Isaiah 40:29, “He gives strength to the weary,” we may be tired in many ways, even physically, but Friday night, gain strength. If you live from Monday onward, you’ll lose strength by Wednesday. You lose all strength once you leave church. I’m telling you the things I’ve experienced. If you have a little bit more persistence, you may go until Monday, that’s strangely how it was. Without a doubt, I did receive grace on Sunday, but when I woke up from my sleep, it was all gone, then Monday passes by and now we’re on Tuesday. It was very fascinating, why was this happening?
Wednesday would come, “I guess I’m going to get lost on Wednesday as well,” but that turns out to be my roots. It doesn’t matter how much grace I receive, the roots are so weak and disappear by Monday. What am I talking about? Not roots you lay down with diligence. “I have to work hard to do this”? That’s not right. Jesus Christ has finished everything but if that word isn’t enough for you, you’ll continue to shake. Do not misunderstand that you think you need your diligence to root down. Even on Wednesday, it is that Word so it doesn’t matter. Even if you despair, Christ is with me, with us, and in oneness with all things. That’s an issue of the root. If my roots are so weak, then as soon as I face a problem Monday, I lose all of it. Even if it’s inside of me, I forget it, but if your roots are laid down, it keeps going like that. Then you also have your prayer in the early morning and evening.
He increases the power of the weak. If you’re weak, that’s why you need power. The Bible tells us if someone is strong, wise, and intelligent on their own, God blocks them from seeing God’s Word. If you’re wise in the world, you’ll talk about physical things, but spiritually you’re completely dim. There’s someone named Cornelius in the Bible, He was an elite and came to Jesus Christ in John. I’ve experienced this in my ministry, the elites are able to understand so well, but they aren’t really able to understand. They are able to understand the physical things so incredibly, but it’s not that they’re stupid, but they just don’t get the spiritual things. They just keep living their lives with physical intelligence, thinking they’re great. But spiritually they’re complete children. Because they are spiritual children, they’re going to face spiritual issues. These spiritual problems are revealed visibly. They are not able to solve those problems with their own wisdom or intelligence.
On the other hand, if an elite intellectual person receives the gospel, they work amazingly. But most of them cannot understand and there’s nothing we can do about that. We need God’s grace to realize, “I am weak,” but they don’t think that. They rely on something else instead, they rely on money, skills, or intelligence, but that’s not going to work. Apostle Paul completely knelt facedown, he was shocked by Christ by the point where he considered his elite education and everything in the world to be rubbish.
“There’s nothing else for me to rely on,” elites must receive it to this extent in order to be used; otherwise, they’re used a little physically and then they leave. That’s not what should happen. Even though I’m weak, God gives me power. We’re spiritually weak so we must receive this. We’re spiritually weak but you think what you have is enough, so you don’t need to receive this power. Every person needs God’s power, even the Apostle Paul.
“He increases the power of the weak.” You need to have this power in order to save others. There are heretical groups that have spiritual power, they have another kind of spirit but it is power. They’re all foolish people, uneducated. In the past, he used to conduct the choir and made a complete mess, he did whatever he wanted, and then another person said, “This conducting makes no sense,” but why do so many elites revere him so much? That’s spiritual power. He has this assurance to show them. All these intellectuals follow him because they’re spiritually dim, and everyone is deceived by it.
He says such strange things but people fall for it. The Shin Chun Jee group has many Pastors and Assistant Pastors, why do they go there? They say their leader, Lee Myun Hee, is a god, but he’s not, yet they follow him so strangely. Then in America, there’s a church that says, “It’s not God the Father but God the Mother,” and it makes sense to Americans, because they think, “Why is God a male? Why not female?” I went to LACC, and a blue-eyed American asked me boldly, “Do you know God the Mother?” The person next to him seemed to be bashful, it seemed they were in training.
“Do you follow Moon?” They said, “Yes! You’ve seen God?” “Yes, I’ve seen him a few times, actually.” I went to New York and in the Unification church, people were making kimchi and they thought this person was God because he helped them in war, and in this cult, they have to sleep with the leader to have their sins forgiven. I said, “Is it possible to sleep with him when he’s old?” Then they spray water for sins to be forgiven.
People crowd around him. Japan actually gives him so much offering, “We’ve stepped on the land of our father for 36 years.” There was actually a place in Korea, the Unification Church building and there were people with blue eyes who traveled from America, and this was their Mecca. Imagine, how do people flock to places like this? They do, because it’s a spiritual thing. In Seoul National University, a cult leader JMS makes a circle of followers, and there’s a huge controversy in Korea because of rape and sexual harassment. This already happened 20 years ago, and even right now, he’s doing it even though he’s old, and I realized, people who are demon-possessed have tremendous power.
20 years ago, he went to Seoul National University and tried to rape a female student. He then changed the name of the cult from JMS to something else, but how are elites getting sucked into the doctrines of JMS? They are spiritually ignorant. Because they have spiritually nothing, when they speak these words, it just goes into them. So, you need to receive God’s grace. If anything, the people who say they have nothing have spiritual potential. That’s even written in the Bible. God says if someone has nothing, God will reveal things to them. Ever since Jesus Christ came to this earthly ministry, He found sinners first, people who had no hope of following the law.
The Jewish people were so offended because they thought the Messiah would save the righteous people who kept the law like them, but instead, he was playing with sinners and called the Pharisees “You brood of vipers.” How could he get along with sinners? He should save the righteous, why would He save the sinners? They thought they were righteous by following laws, but all the prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners knew they were sinners, so they confessed that and they received grace. It doesn’t mean you have to be ignorant to receive grace, but they were ignorant and had nothing to exalt on their own.
It was to their benefit. That’s it, and it’s the same thing today. If you face a problem or situation, it’s a blessing. “Because of that, I will kneel.” There are some people, parents who are elite and stubborn and firm, so God will touch their children, and if they do that, the parents have to surrender completely. The parents think they can control their lives with their strength, but they cannot with their parents’ lives. They use many different ways.
What does it mean, we’re all sinners? We have to acknowledge that first. “In my state, I cannot do anything. My state has no choice but to be dragged around by Satan.” That’s a person who receives the gospel, otherwise, you cannot receive this. You must receive God’s grace. You can’t acknowledge that by becoming a pastor, you need to receive God’s grace, and that’s how you easily open the doors of your heart.
Even youths grow tired and weary, young men stumble and fall. The youths and young adults who are vibrant will stumble and fall. Every person is like this so we need the strength of the Lord. Without this, we have no strength. Even the president must receive strength. The homeless people need to receive God’s strength, that’s the only way to break out of their homelessness. They have no strength to break out of homelessness or drug use. We don’t have the strength to break out of our mental illness, so we’re stuck in it.
“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength,” what do we hope in? Hope. The one who hopes in the Lord. If you hope in yourself, you keep losing strength. The hope of my life is only within Christ, only within the Triune God. It’s so simple. Whether I have something or I don’t, whether I’m tired or not, it’s completely irrelevant. All my hope is in the Lord, I don’t have to learn from people, and no one can teach me how to do my business or evangelize; those belong to God. If you don’t teach this fundamentally and you just teach methods, “Do this or do that,” then you will die.
I’m very thankful that when I was a young adult, my pastor trained me to look to God. Most pastors always want to teach, and from their perspective, it may be right, but in another situation, that will be wrong. But he never taught me what he received, “Pray to God and receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit yourself.” Even Rev. Ryu says if someone asks them how to run their ministry, he says, “Pray because God knows. How do we evangelize? Pray. God moves evangelism.” But instead of putting your hope in that, you say, “I know this, or I don’t know that,” and one day, that will all be destroyed.
The education of the world tells you to train, knowing strategies and skills so you can win. I’m sorry to tell you this, but you cannot get along. The true training you must receive is to look before God. The one who has the fundamental training of looking to God can survive no matter where they go. But most people learned the methods of the world, “Teach me the strategies and methods of the world to win.” That person doesn’t rely on God, they are trying to do something by themselves with their own strength, and nothing will work for them. That’s why they say it doesn’t work. “I did it and it didn’t work,” but they actually never tried it. All the answers are within Christ and within God; they have to receive that guidance but instead they do it with their own strength and mind. If Joseph had tried to do that, he would have immediately died as a slave. How can you navigate through something you’ve never experienced before in another country? Daniel was dragged off as a political prisoner of another country. How many would have died in that situation? But three times a day, he prayed every day, facing Jerusalem, so the answers came. All answers are in Christ.
When kids ask me questions, I don’t answer them because it may be right in my situation but wrong in theirs. I tell them to pray, and they think it’s something I say, but it’s training. Do not follow me; follow Christ. Why learn methods and techniques through people? That’s not a disciple. A disciple looks to Christ and follows Christ. The Disciple of Christ follows Christ. Does that mean a disciple of Christ looks down on people’s words? No, God raises them up. These are the people whom God raised up but if you only follow the words of people, you’ll betray God because one day they will be offended or feel bad. Because they have come this far not following God, they will get betrayed.
I told this to a missionary in Africa, “Don’t follow money, don’t try to control the people in Africa with money.” I told them everything I experienced in the Philippines until now, disciples do not follow after money. If anything, they will reject money if you try to give it to them. Otherwise, they won’t have any disciples left. If they don’t know any ministry and language, they have no choice but to pay these people. But the missionaries don’t know the local people. Already in places like Kenya, American missionaries have gone in and out. Most places where Americans have gone consider Americans to have money. After time, there’s nothing left. They were only there because of the money. If they don’t have any other way of making money, they have to be with a missionary to make money.
You can’t stop this but the missionary must know this. The disciple isn’t moved by money. I stayed in Korea for 9-10 years and I saw many types of pastors. Even my senior pastor offered to give me money for training and I turned him down, “I will receive my answer from God in prayer,” that’s what I did back then. I’m not saying to refuse all money. But the reason I rejected that money was because people were looking pitiful on me as if I were a beggar, and I didn’t want the church to say that they were helping me and I was receiving their help, so I boldly rejected it. That’s what disciples do.
Disciples never waver back and forth because they are offended or feeling bad, so I never went anywhere else; 99% of people said it won’t work, to go somewhere else, but disciples don’t listen to the words of people. They stand before God, and if God’s Word is true, I stay. It would have been a problem to listen to people’s words. Later on, they actually talked to me and said they were sorry, but that’s irrelevant to me, that’s what it’s like.
This is how God has led me and this is how the message goes out as well, but if I give messages like this, people wonder why I’m not comforting them. God didn’t comfort me. God made it so that I stood before Christ and lived with His strength, then without a doubt, there are people like that here. That’s how we do the evangelism movement. “Pastor, I’m so offended by what you said.” Look at my face, do you think that I’m a comforting person? I’m not a gentle person, I grew up as an unbeliever.
I have one thing, Christ has finished everything, it doesn’t matter what anyone else says. My strength is my one foundation. Being comforting is not my strength, but the remnants and church officers will arise. It doesn’t matter what they do, it’s irrelevant to me. I live the gospel and do the gospel movement. I have no name for myself, so I should try to attach myself to others to make a name, but I don’t need that. People are stuck in the intro.
Apostle Paul went beyond that, “It’s okay if I have no name for myself,” why? I love the gospel and gospel movement. Even the role of a pastor is a glorious title; what greater title do I need? Why do I need stripes on my robe? I’m not saying I don’t need that, but how glorious is it to be a pastor? Then, does that mean being a member of the church is not glorious? Being a member of the church is glorious, but without knowing the true value of this, the church is dying.
If you knew this true value, you would change the world. It’s not about your personality, you are under a misconception. There’s no pastor with a better personality than a monk. The pastors are living in the world, they get married. Monks don’t even get married and they live in the mountains, they drink water, how could anyone compete with that? I’m saying that is not the standard. Christ. The one who hopes in that Christ. They will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faith. “I will be with you until the ends of the earth,” this is the tremendous blessing we have in Christ. We have to finish our lives with this. If you think there’s anything other than this, you need to go to a cult. If you’re a Christian but you haven’t finished it with Christ, you have to go to a cult. But if you have finished everything in Christ, go with God to the field as all the answers are there.
If you pray, God will give you power, wisdom, and everything. We have received that blessing. But Satan makes us not know that. I hope you will be rooted in the fact that everything is finished.