[John Series No.4] In Him Was Life

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In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended not. There was a man sent from God , whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (John 1:3)

Things Brought About by Life

John chapter 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.” It also says, “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made,” and, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” It means that there is life in the Word. When I read the Bible, there are many parts in my spiritual life that are different from the Scriptures, and one of them is the part that has to do with life. The life of Jesus has to enter us if we are to live a life like that of Jesus and walk the path of God. We must possess this life to be able to live such a life. For example, cows give birth to cows, dogs give birth to dogs, and humans give birth to humans. A woman can have a baby, but for her to make one would be impossible. One may make an image of a child with clay, but making blood vessels, making the liver, and making the heart are things that are completely unimaginable. However, if a woman receives the seed of a man and life is conceived in her, about nine months later, that woman will give birth to a child. This cannot be imitated, but this is how life is formed. Resembling the father and resembling the mother; these things are all about life. Scientists say that there is information in the DNA that commands the cells so that some will become blood vessels, some will become heart tissue, and others will make up the liver. Dr. Hongjun Jeon is a doctor in the department of surgery whom I know very well, and he said that life is absolutely amazing and talked to me about the human body’s ability to recover. He once performed a surgery to remove a section of a person’s intestines and reconnect it. About two years later, that person came to the hospital because of another illness. When he opened that man’s abdomen, there was no trace of the surgery he had performed. The body had recovered so perfectly that he almost thought, “Did this man actually receive surgery?” The life force inside this man’s body restored his body and brought about life. Not any of these things happen through man. When God made man, he not only gave man eyes, a nose, feet, and hands to live with, He allowed the life of man to continue. We know very well that when a woman received a man’s seed, life begins to work and that small seed easily and naturally becomes a human being.

You Must Receive the Seed of Life

Life that the Bible speaks of, which is the life of the spirit and not of the flesh, works the same way. We, who were dead spiritually, cannot do anything to gain life. It means that there is nothing we can make spiritual life with. Even if you were to keep the Ten Commandments, life can never be made. And even if you were to pray diligently and do something, life can never be made. Because people do not know of this very well, they think that if they pray harder, keep the law better, do good deeds, obey the Word of God, refrain from committing sins, quit drinking, quit taking drugs, and live uprightly, they become people who then belong to God. There are so many people who think this way. Such a thought is completely ignorant of the Scriptures. For us to follow the image of God, it is not that we have to do something. We must receive the seed of life. I grew up in the countryside. When I was young, my house had a larger yard than most others. At the time, we did not have snacks like cookies or pastries, so my father planted a jujube tree, a persimmon tree, and a fig tree in the back yard. So when the fall would come, we would hang on the jujube tree. Underneath the tree my father planted pumpkin vines. When the pumpkin vines grew, flowers bloomed. There are two kinds of pumpkin flowers: the male and the female flowers. A pumpkin forms on a small vine where a flower blooms on top of a tiny, unfertilized pumpkin. This is the female flower. The male flower is just a flower. When the pumpkin flowers bloom, bees come for the nectar and go in and out from the female flowers and the male flowers. Then the pollen from the male flowers is delivered to the female flowers and the pumpkins naturally grow. However, when it rains or when there are no bees, and the pollen from the male flowers do not reach the female flowers, so although the pumpkins are there on the vines, they wither away. So, on rainy days we would take our drawing brushes, dip them in the pollen from the male pumpkin flowers, and put them in the female flowers. We had no idea what effect this would have. Pumpkins are formed when the pollen from the male flower enters the female flower. The life in the female flower makes it happen. When those pumpkins would ripen, we would pluck them to eat them. We would make pumpkin cakes, and then we’d peel the seeds and eat them. That was how we spent our youth. Life is not made, but the seed that has life in it must be received. There is life inside Jesus. We must accept that life. That is what the Bible tells us.

The Life of God forms the Image of God

Let us think carefully about the Bible. Recently, I have been speaking much about the Samaritan woman. She lived without the life of God, but one day, she met Jesus at the well. What did she do when she met Jesus? She did not do anything at all. Before, this woman thought, “I should be good. I should not sin. I should be truthful.” Nevertheless, this did not work. Then she simply met Jesus at the well. Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink,” and she answered, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a Samaritan woman?” That was how their conversation started. During this time, the words of Jesus entered this woman’s heart. “Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Upon hearing this, she spoke to Jesus. “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” She was accepting the words of Jesus into her heart. She did not do anything. She simply accepted the words of Jesus. However, what was inside the Word? In him was life. Because there is life in the Word, life entered her when she accepted the Word. Then the life of God worked in her heart and things that had never happened before began to happen in her. She threw away the water pot, entered the village, and testified of Jesus. This is the life of God. Chrysanthemums bloom chrysanthemums and roses bloom roses. Likewise, the life of God makes the image of God. This cannot be imitated. The Samaritan woman threw away the water pot, entered the village, and testified the gospel to all the people. How did this happen? The words of Jesus entered her and her heart changed. A person has about 60 trillion cells. All of these cells come from a single cell. That single cell divides and becomes hair, eyes, bones . . . . It becomes the entire body. Likewise, when we accept the Word of God into our heart, it enters us and begins to work. A spiritual life unseen begins, and it is so amazing to see this life at work. One day, Zaccheus, the publican who only cared about money, climbed up a sycamore tree because he wanted to see Jesus. Jesus said, “Zaccheus, come down, I will stay at your house today.” Jesus went to his house and conversed with him. Then Zaccheus said, “Lord, I will sell my possessions and give half to the poor, and if I have wronged anyone, I will repay four fold.” These words were not spoken through Zaccehus’ heart. Zaccheus was a person who only thought of making more money, and was a person who cared only about money. However, while listening to the words of Jesus, the life inside the Word entered him and he was then able to have a heart like that of Jesus; an image like that of Jesus. Zaccheus, who only cared for money, saying, “I will sell half of my possessions and give to the poor,” was not from his own heart, but it was that the life of Jesus had entered him.

People who went against and persecuted Jesus, like Apostle Paul, were led by the evil spirit. But when the life of Jesus entered in, they became like Jesus. I, too, a long time ago, attended church, read the Bible, and prayed, but only lived a continually sinful life. But one day, as the Word of God entered my heart, I could see that the Word was working inside me from then on. Do amazing things not happen when a woman receives a man’s seed into her body? How amazing! Even if all the scientists with all the tools in the world gathered together, they could not create a baby in nine months. However, when a woman becomes pregnant, whether she naps all day, eats, plays, or even dances all day, no matter what she does, a baby is formed. I work with the International Youth Fellowship in training young college students and sending them all over the world as service volunteers. When a new semester begins, we recruit new volunteers and hold workshops. We train about a thousand students, and the first thing we do is train the heart. We do not do anything else, but we simply preach the Word of God to them. Then the students, who smoked at first and lived recklessly, although there were differences depending on the student, began to change in a matter of a weeks when the Word entered them. It was so amazing to see this. We do not say, “Be orderly. Behave. Be honest,” but we simply preach the Word of God, and they change.

Satan Who Keeps You from Accepting the Word

God made man in His image. God made man so that whosoever accepts His word could have an image like His. So what kind of things would Satan do? Through his ways and methods, Satan works in people’s hearts to keep them from accepting the Word of God. Jesus once met a paralytic. He was preaching the Word at a certain house, and people brought a paralytic, tore off the roof of the house Jesus was in, and lowered the paralytic on his bed. Jesus saw the paralytic and said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” Right then, the scribes and Pharisees nearby said, “Blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone? Who does he think he is to say that?” With this, they judged Jesus and could not accept His words. Just as they spoke this way, for a long time, Satan held and trained man to refuse the Word of God. Using man’s own experience and thoughts, Satan made man reject the Word of God. One day, God spoke to Abraham. “Where is your wife, Sarah?” “She is in the tent.” “At the appointed time, your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah laughed when she heard this. “I am old and my master being old also, how can I have any pleasure?’ Abraham and Sarah said they believed God. But when they accepted the words that fit them and did not accept the ones that didn’t, they could only think, “How can I have a child when I am this old? It has ceased to be with me after the manner of women,” and possess such humanistic thoughts. The thoughts of man make man reject the Word of God and make man unable to accept the Word of God. One day God called Moses. “Moses, Moses, I will send you to Pharaoh, to lead my people Israel out from Egypt.” “Ah, who am I to go to Pharaoh, and who am I to lead Israel out?” In this way, Satan continually makes man reject the Word of God.

If You Only Accept the Word

Now the Word of God must enter inside us. Satan continually works inside of us to keep us from accepting the Word of God. Satan continually trains us to keep us from accepting the Word of God. “This looks impossible to me!” Therefore, there are many stories in the Bible of how even people like Abraham or Moses, who believed God, rejected the Word of God. They did not accept the Word of God as it was, but rejected it. When we accept the Word of God, life enters us and has us arrive at life. Then life appears and works, but Satan continually tries to keep this from happening. What were the people who received the grace of God like? They were people in whom the thoughts Satan had developed in them to reject the Word of God were broken down. They had themselves completely crumbled down. The Word enters those who had their own thoughts and experiences completely emptied. The woman taken in the act of adultery in the Bible, the Samaritan woman, and the man who fell among thieves, were people that did not have other ways, and they were able to accept the words of Jesus; the Word of God exactly into their heart. Spiritual life is extremely easy if the heart is emptied. I, too, have my own perceptions and thoughts. And I, too, have my experiences and knowledge. There is so much knowledge, experience, and thoughts that are not one with the heart of God. Because all things not one with the heart of God are from Satan, when those things are standing strong in my heart, those things block the Word of God from entering my heart. When Jairus’ daughter died, Jesus went to that house. He said, “Do not cry. The child is not dead, but sleeping.” Then all the people laughed at Jesus. When Jesus went to the tomb to raise Lazarus from the dead, He said, “Move ye the stone.” Then Martha answered, “Lord, he has been dead for four days, and he stinks.” They all did not accept the words of Jesus and spoke of their own perspectives. I met a person a while ago who had read five of my books and said that he had listened to my sermons for a week. He was speaking with me and he kept on speaking to me about himself. “My sickness was healed, I changed like this . . . .” All of his words were only full of such things. “Ah, this man is rejecting the Word of God because of these things.” I began to speak to him. “There are many kinds of people who came to our church: great people, small people, smart people, and ordinary people, but they all changed when they accepted the Word of God. However, you say that you read my books, you say you listened to my sermons, but not a single word has entered you.” Some say they are born into Christian families, some say that their faith is deep because they lived a life loyal to God. Such people are completely held by themselves and are unable to accept the Word of God. Spiritual life is very simple. John chapter one tells us: In him was life. That is what verse four says. Therefore, if we but accept the Word, everything becomes accomplished through the Word. But people are full of their own thoughts and the Word of God does not enter them whatsoever. With their ears, they listen to the Bible, and with their eyes, they look at the Bible, but the Word is not able to enter and settle in their hearts. It is because they do not have the life of God, they only try to live spiritual life on the outside, and end up becoming people who only believe God on the surface. Spiritual life is emptying your heart and accepting the Word of God into your heart.