PassageIsaiah 60: 4
"Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried in the arms."
This is the third prayer title for the New Year 2011.
It is the "Sanctuary Having the Beauty of Father God."
This is actually refers directly to the Canaan Sanctuary.
As you know already, the Canaan Sanctuary is one of the annexes of the Grand Sanctuary. It is the beginning point of the construction of the Grand Sanctuary.
After all, when we pray for the third prayer title, we must have longing not just for the Canaan Sanctuary but also for the Grand Sanctuary, and offer up to God this aroma of prayer.
Until now, when we were moving into new churches, we did not build a church of our own. We had to get a building that was available.
The Canaan Sanctuary, on the other hand, will be designed and built by our hands, and we can erect a beautiful structure that God wants.
We can put spiritual meanings into the structure, shapes, materials, and colors of the building.
But having the beauty of the Father is not just about outward appearances.
The hidden meaning is much more important.
The heart of the church members who build this sanctuary must have the beauty of the Father.
Only when the believers who are pleasing in God's sight have to build this sanctuary with all their heart, mind, and soul, will God's glory and honor will be revealed through this sanctuary.
Whenever God has given us prayer titles for the sanctuary, He has always emphasized that we must have the proper heart to build it.
In this message, let us once again think about what kinds of qualifications we have to have for us to build the Canaan Sanctuary and what kinds of prayers that we have to offer up to God.
[Main]Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In order to build the sanctuary that has the beauty of Father God, we first have to sanctify our hearts.
1 Corinthians 3:16 says, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you-"
As written, God's sanctuary spiritually refers to our heart.
In the Old Testament times, the Temple in Israel was destroyed because the sons of Israel committed many sins before God.
The sanctuary that God is going to build at the end time is not just the visible building.
It is a sanctuary that is built by the children who truly revere God with all their hearts, minds, and souls.
God wants to manifest His glory all over the world through this sanctuary at this end time.
For this reason, God has established this church and given us the holiness gospel and the duty of constructing the Grand Sanctuary.
He wants to build this sanctuary through His children who revere God and have holiness of heart.
Since the opening of this church, our church members continuously have been praying for the Grand Sanctuary, trying to circumcise their hearts.
And in this process of sanctifying ourselves, this past year of 2010, was year that can be remembered forever.
Even though you listened to so many messages on the holiness and you were praying and professing that you were being faithful to God, many of you were dwelling in sins. It was a time of grace in which those people could turn from sins.
It was a chance to check the fundamental parts of our sins, confessing not only sins leading to death but all the past sins and iniquities as well.
This flow has a very close relation with construction of the sanctuary as well as your sanctification.
God knew that we had to go through such a process to build the sanctuary, and God foreshadowed this kind of event in the beginning of 2010.
What does this mean-
It was the contents about the sanctuary, in the third prayer title of 2010, "God-pleasing sanctuary."
The Scripture for this prayer title was Matthew 21:12-13.
It says, "And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer' but you are making it a robbers' den."
It is the scene in which Jesus was purifying the Temple.
Every year God gave us prayer titles for the construction of the sanctuary, and every time He emphasized that we have to be holy to build the sanctuary.
But unlike previous years, God gave us a very strong message about the sanctuary, and those who had spiritual sense could have felt that there must be a reason.
Some of you now realize the reason why, although you couldn't feel it at that time.
In fact, God began a process of purifying the temple in the second half of 2010, just like in the scriptures.
God drove away all the filthy sins and evil from your body and heart, which is the spiritual temple.
Through this purification process, God has laid the foundation to build the visible Canaan Sanctuary as well.
But this is not all.
Even if you confessed all your past sins and evil and demolished the barrier of sins, the more important thing is that you bear the fruit of repentance.
Not to mention never committing sins again, you also have to pull out the origin of the sins through fervent prayers.
You have to bear the fruit of light, fruits of the Holy Spirit, and fruits of goodness and spiritual love.
Only when we cultivate holiness of our heart can we say we have the qualifications to build the sanctuary.
Those who have repented thoroughly would not feel that holiness is not too far away.
Many people said that they could do it, that they could quickly accomplish spirit with confidence.
God is pouring down additional grace and strength for you to cultivate holiness in you.
In the New Year, I hope the number of those who are in spirit will be more than enough to accomplish the world evangelism and build the Grand Sanctuary.
I hope each of you will make up your mind to be one among those numbers and pursue it vigorously.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In order to build the sanctuary that has the beauty of Father God, secondly, we must be united.
First, we must be united with the Father and the Lord and with the shepherd.
The leaders and the members have to be united with each other.
In order for you to be united with the Father and the Lord, as I mentioned in the first point, you have to become holy and dwell in the Word of God.
Secondly, to be united with the shepherd is to obey with faith and bear the fruit in the works of the Holy Spirit.
Even those who say they trust their shepherd and they will obey 100%, they cannot truly obey if they do not receive the works of the Holy Spirit.
They try to obey, but they will produce results that God does not really want.
And in order to receive the works of the Holy Spirit clearly, you have to cast away evil in heart after all.
Next and thirdly, the leaders and the members have to be united in love, service, and humbleness.
What you especially have to remember and keep in mind is that you have to be united with each other.
You know very well that holiness is important when you do God's works.
But sometimes you do not realize the importance of being united with each other.
In building the sanctuary, it is such a basic and essential condition that all the bodies of Christ become one.
Ephesians 2:20-22 says, "having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."
The sanctuary cannot be built just by having many bricks around.
The bricks have to be firmly connected with each other to form a building, and each building has to be connected with other buildings in harmony to make a beautiful sanctuary.
In order to become one this way, you have to respect each other and consider others better than yourself.
You must not seek your own benefit, but love your brothers and serve them as you would yourselves.
Last year, during the time of repentance, God gave special advice to the workers and members respectively.
For the workers, He mentioned the restructuring of the organization, and for the members, He mentioned love as in the early church.
In fact, the overhauling of the organization is, after all, that we have to be united together.
If you truly love God, you cannot blame others or try to receive the credit for what you have done.
The kind of heart that God wants from the workers is that, even if your credit goes to another worker, you will still care and do your best in your work because it is the work of God.
When there is a mistake the important thing is not who is responsible and which department's mistake it is.
You should check the following: When other departments or other workers do certain works, do you care about it as if it were done by your own siblings or your children for the glory of God- Or, when there is a problem with the matter in which you are involved, even though you did not directly cause the problem, do you consider it your own mistake and mourn-
If you have such a mind, all the workers can be united as one, just as hands and feet and other body parts work with one will.
As you do this, the best ability of the church can be shown in achieving the one goal, which is the glory of God.
In addition, when God mentioned love like the early church, He gave us the example of the insurance business, but this does not apply to that industry alone.
It is an advice given to all the church members.
Just as you would rejoice and your family members do well, you should rejoice when the brothers in faith are doing well, and you should care for them when the brothers are in difficulties.
If you really love others, you will not cause damage to others for your own benefit.
You will not give a hard time to your beloved ones talking about which person worked harder and which person did right or wrong.
I hope you will remember the verse in Matthew 25:40 that says, "To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'"
Among all the brothers and sisters in Christ I hope you will all be united as one and serve each other with love and sacrifice.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In order to build the sanctuary that has the beauty of the Father God, thirdly, you have to store up prayers of love and faith.
The construction of Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary is the blessing God has promised to us, and it is the providence of God that will certainly be fulfilled.
But to achieve this goal, we have to pay the price according to God's justice.
You know very well about the 21-day prayer of Daniel.
God gave the answer to Daniel's prayer on the first day of his prayer.
But it took 21 days before that answer came down and reached Daniel.
Daniel could actually receive the answer in his hands only the amount of prayer had reached the measure according to justice.
As God says that we have to ask God to do it for us, Daniel had to pray with faith until he received the answer.
The blessing to build the Canaan Sanctuary is already given to us, too.
But it's just that God will reveal it at the most proper moment, when all the political and international situations have appropriately come together.
Since you have seen numerous works of God, you must believe that it is already given.
Therefore, I hope you will not disappoint God with words of doubt or negative words.
When the sons of Israel had to attack the city of Jericho, God gave them a command, which could not really be readily understood by men's thoughts.
The enemy force was all prepared in the city, and God told them just to march around the city every day.
This was something very dangerous, and it was not possible to think that they could win the battle that way.
But the people just marched around silently.
Joshua 6:10 says, "But Joshua commanded the people, saying, "You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor let a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you, 'Shout!' Then you shall shout!"
Until the moment God's providence is fulfilled, we must never speak any words of unbelief, words of doubts, or words of untruth.
We have to offer up to God just the prayers with faith and confession of good faith.
All these aromas of prayer will make your soul prosper and everything go well with you, and be stored up in Heaven as rewards.
ConclusionDear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The Canaan Sanctuary that has the beauty of Father God will be a sanctuary that will be adored by the unbelievers, too.
The glory and honor of the Father will be embedded in it, and the word of life will be preached in it.
The unimaginable power of God will be there, and it will be the source of blessings.
When we build this sanctuary, it is not just the visible building, but literally the era of Canaan, the glorious era will be opened up.
Today's reading passage Isaiah 60:4 says, "Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried in the arms."
Having the Canaan Sanctuary as the foundation, we will also construct the Grand Sanctuary.
Right after the opening of this church, God gave us this duty of Grand Sanctuary, but we didn't know any details of it.
We just thought it would be big, but we never knew how big. We knew it would be built, but we didn't know how. We knew kings of nations would come, but we didn't know how it was going to happen.
Even though we didn't know them, however, we never doubted, and we have been praying continually for the will of God to be fulfilled.
God has accepted such prayers of faith, and He has been step by step laying the foundations for us to be able to construct the Grand Sanctuary.
The construction of the Canaan Sanctuary, which will be the beginning of the Grand Sanctuary, is right in front of our eyes.
I hope you will cultivate your heart with greater trust and love to be proper to build the sanctuary.
I also hope you will have the spiritual and physical qualification as workers who can embrace the whole world when the kings of the nations come forth to our church.
I urge you to keep on praying fervently until we finish our duty of constructing the Grand Sanctuary that will gloriously wrap up human cultivation.
I pray in the name of the Lord that all of you who participate in this precious ministry in the name of Manmin will receive great blessings and heavenly rewards.
2011-01-03 Posted
2011-05-29 Updated