- Matthew 11:29-30 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Something is beautiful when it possesses various kinds of forms and it is so beautiful and marvelous when various kinds of history happens. You are so beautiful and marvelous as much as you equip yourself with a lot of things and various kinds of things.
Then both your body and life are beautiful and marvelous, and your transformed spirit as a result of that is also beautiful and marvelous. All of you must raise your ‘levels’ from your present position. You must raise your level as you equip yourself with a variety of things as you take action on one thing at a time.
The same is true with all of your faith. All of you must raise your levels by receiving the Lord’s education and taking action so that you can display many kinds of forms. If you equip yourself with only one thing, your ‘level’ will not rise. If you only do well in one subject, math, your level is high level only in that subject. Your overall grade is not affected greatly by that one subject. If you want your overall grade to improve and your level to rise, you have to do well in a variety, in all of them. When you are equipping yourself with various things while raising your level one by one, the Holy Spirit will appear in ‘various forms’ and make ‘various works’ happen!
The workings of the Holy Spirit are truly beautiful, marvelous, and majestic. When the Holy Spirit is working upon you, ‘various things’ happen. It is not a simple history that happens when the Holy Spirit works upon you. [When the Holy Spirit works upon you], a history of life which saves the body, thoughts, soul, and spirit happens. That is why it is even more beautiful and marvelous.
There is ‘a way to raise your level.’ It is to not do things like you have always done but instead, to do things with greater strength and being more fervent. When lifting an object too – the difference in level between lifting normally and lifting with greater strength is incomparable. In this way, if you do things more fervently, your level will rise.
In everything you do in life, if you want to raise your level, all you need to do is exert more ‘strength’ and do it more fervently. The more a person exerts strength, the stronger that person gets and the more fervent a person is, the more fervently he will do things. The issue is “Do you want to do it or do you not want to do it.”
Raising your level is like ‘climbing a steep slope.’ On the way up, it is difficult because it is steep. But once you climb to the top and look, it is flat ground. Therefore, you need to exert more strength only when you are climbing up, when you are raising your level.
Once you climb up and arrive at that level, you don’t need to exert strength like that from that point on because it is like flat ground. Therefore, it is to do your best when you are climbing up, when you are raising your level. Each of you has shortcomings, things you must raise your level on, and things you must do. However, if you do them like you did last year and like you have always done, you cannot make up for your shortcomings and you cannot raise your level. You have to exert strength and be fervent. Right now is not a time to raise your level with only one thing or a few things but a time to raise your level in various things overall. Therefore, you must exert strength and be fervent in every area more than last year and more than you have always done.
When people are climbing up a mountain, it is so difficult. The more they encounter steep slopes and uphill paths, the more they must exert strength and climb up. At such times, they cannot climb up if they climb like they are walking on a flat land. However, once they climb to the peak of the mountain, there are no more steep slopes and no more uphill paths. From that point on, the only thing left is for them to look down from the peak of the mountain, praise themselves for working hard, and experiencing satisfaction and joy.
People climb mountains for this sense [of achievement]. Not all mountains are the same. There are low mountains and high mountains. The more you climb a high mountain, the more you must exert strength. However, once you have climbed up, from that point on, it is like a flat ground. So all you need to do is eat and enjoy as you rest comfortably.
The same is true with faith. The same is true with raising your level of faith in areas such as prayer, evangelism, lecturing, management, living a life of love, a life of thanksgiving, communicating with the Lord, serving the Lord, a life of unity with the Lord, thoughts, actions, tone of voice, personality, character, and other things. The more you raise your level to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th degrees, the more you must exert strength. However, it is so difficult when you are raising your level.
But once you have raised your level and crossed over to ‘the next level,’ it is no longer that difficult from that point on. Therefore, those who continually raise their levels instead of remaining at the same spot, raise their levels continually every day and every year by mustering up more strength and climbing up more, then resting, eating, and enjoying for a short time, mustering up more strength and climbing up more again, resting for a short time eating and enjoying, and repeating it over and over again. They know from their own experiences that although it is hard when they are climbing up, once they are done climbing, it will not be hard. That is why they go on overcoming and enduring the difficulties and hardships they face when they are raising their levels.
Some people worked fervently throughout ~but always get discouraged and give up at ‘the final line.’ The end of that level is ‘the steepest slope’ and an uphill path. If you don’t get discouraged and give up at that moment but instead, muster up more strength and climb, you will climb up. However, of all times, people give up at that time saying it is difficult.
That is why their hard work turns to nothing and they fail to gain the reward for their hard work. When praying, lecturing, managing, evangelizing, or doing various other works of faith, you must not fail to climb up ‘the final uphill path’ at the end and so give up or get discouraged when you have continually ~endured, overcome, and worked fervently until then. You must climb until the end! You must get through the critical moment!
You must break through your limits! If you do, you will go to ‘the next level.’ The very end is the most difficult. However, once you cross over that uphill path, from that moment on, it will be comfortable like flat ground and you will also receive and enjoy the reward for your hard work.
“At the times when climbing higher, when raising your level, you must exert even more strength and be even more fervent. It is difficult only when you are climbing up. Once you exert your strength and climb up, it will not be difficult from then on because it is like flat ground.” I urge you to make sure to remember these words, don’t forget them, and take action while always carrying them around in your brain.