- James 2:26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
As you begin the New Year and look ahead with the year ‘in front’ of you, ‘the end of the year’ looks far and distant. But think about 2015. When you look at it at ‘the very end,’ after the year has passed, one year has passed in an instant, right? The same is true for this year. When you look at it from the beginning, [the end] seems so far away. But when you look at is after all of this year has passed, you realize that it has passed in an instant. The same is true with life. When you look at your ‘life ahead’ in your 0 age or your teens, it seems to be so distant. However, when you look at it in the midst of living, you see that time has passed so fast as if you woke up from sleeping. Therefore, don’t keep saying every year, “Time is short. It has already passed.” But instead, you must use each day’s time so fully that you will have no regrets or second thoughts.
When a person is pressed for time, instead of getting less done, he will get a lot of things done by rushing and pushing ahead. You have to be pressed for time. Then you will hurry and so live performing ‘contraction of time.’ No matter who you are, if you fail to control time, problems will occur. Therefore, you will not succeed but fail. Time must be used properly. Don’t let it just flow away for nothing, don’t let it just flow away while being relaxed, but instead, you must use time sufficiently while doing an abundance of work and spending it without regrets. Only then will you do the work properly no matter what you do.
Time and the moment are God, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Son. Therefore, we have to keep the time and the moment. Only then will They work upon us. Once the moment passes, even if a million people come and do it, it is useless. Why? Because that moment has already passed. So it will not be done again for an entire lifetime and forever. You have to receive the blessing of time. Even if you have the materials and the skill and power, you cannot do your work if you don’t have time. Therefore, you must surely receive ‘the blessing of time.’
What must you do in order to receive the blessing of time? You have to keep the time. Only then do you receive the blessing of time. No matter how much you pray asking for things to go well, no matter how much you have the materials, skill, and power do to things well, you will receive blessings only if you keep the time. Even if you have fresh, new, and high quality food ingredients, even if you have the skill and ability to cook great food with those ingredients, if you don’t keep the time, you cannot produce properly prepared food. If, because you did not keep the time, the food is undercooked or burnt from overcooking, then you have failed.
If you want to achieve small and big successes in everything you do in life, they surely require time. You must surely keep ‘the time.’ Anyone can keep the time fully if they want to keep the time. If people really want to keep the time, there is not one person who cannot keep it from a lack of skill. Keeping the time doesn’t require great strength and it doesn’t present a great difficulty either. You are unable to keep the time because you do it with a rotten mentality.
This year, remember this! – “If you don’t keep the time, you will die.” If you don’t keep the time, the conversation with the Trinity will die, love will die, you will fail to do work you should do and it will be as if it is dead, your desire to do things will grow cold and die, in some cases your body will actually die, and in some cases your thoughts and spirits will die. If you take action while keeping the time, you will gain every day.
A life of faith is not ‘a life you live only with the heart.’ It is ‘a life you live by being transformed and making yourself through taking action. Look at your own lives and see. Are you living while thinking only with your hearts? Are you living while eating food only with your heart, doing work only with your heart, and studying only with your heart? No. You live while taking real action with your bodies, right? Our lives are ‘lives lived while taking action in reality.’ The same is true with faith too. You have to make yourself while taking action. Even if there is a piece of paper on the floor in a room, it remains there unless it is cleaned up, right? Even if you have delicious food, if you don’t eat it, it will remain there.
In the same way, if you have work to do but don’t do it, then it will remain undone your entire lifetime. You should not do it by yourself but do it for ‘God’s Will’ together with God. If it is work you should do in your twenties, but you don’t do it, it will remain undone even in your fifties. Since it is work you should do, who else will do it for you? Those who don’t move their thoughts and don’t move their bodies are dead even though they are considered to be alive.
What each of you want is at one level above and the things that God, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Son are trying to give you are also at one level above. The more you raise your level one level higher, ‘the things you have wanted’ are there. The more you raise your level one level higher, ‘the things the Trinity will give you’ are there. So, rather than just praying asking for things, I hope you will raise your ‘level.’ If you go to that level, ‘the things you have wished for and the things you have prayed for’ are there. In order for a person to raise his level, he must surely learn.
No matter who you are, you must always learn. If you stop learning, you cannot raise your level, and while being imprisoned in your own perspectives and taking action according to your own level, you will ultimately end up going your own way. You have to learn.
Only then will you do more, gain more, and your ‘spirit’ transforms to be more ideal by raising your level. This year, you must raise your levels so that you will resemble a lot of ‘the Trinity’s form.’ I bless that this year will be a year of raising your levels in various ways and a year of soaring up.