God thus assists ignorant, fallen people to elevate their spirituality and enlighten their intellect through spirit and truth. By these means, God conducts His providence to restore people to the original state before the Fall.
Exposition of the Divine Principle (p.104)
Since True Father’s seonghwa, True Mother has emphasized, on every occasion, that we must return to the pioneering days of the church when it was filled with the spirit and truth. How have we understood and faced these words that True Parents have emphasized: spirit and truth? What are the things that were present in those days but have been lost in today’s church?
Resonate with spirit
The Divine Principle states that “[c]ognition of a spiritual reality begins when it is perceived through the five senses of the spirit self. These perceptions resonate through the five physical senses and are felt physiologically” (p. 103). This essentially means that humans can physiologically recognize the facts of the spirit world through interaction between the spiritual body and the physical body. For this to happen, the five spiritual senses must first be refined.
We have been taught that the core value of the spirit world—the world of eternal life—is true love. The spirit world is a place where we live, breathing love. In other words, the cultivation of the five spiritual senses is to develop love as life, to resonate with love, and to perceive the joy of love.
True Father said, “What it the Holy Spirit? It is not a momental spiritual power or spiritual action. It is the power of God’s love that the spirit world and human world harmonize and resonate centered on true love.
(p. 792, Cheon Seong Gyeong, CIG Holy Scripture)
The greatest power that resonates between the spirit world and the human world, between the spiritual body and the physical body, is the spirit, which is the power of God’s love. The cultivation of spirituality and intellect that can resonate with God’s love is one of the major purposes of our life on earth.
A life of living for the sake of others is what the spirit mind seeks
Furthermore, The Divine Principle says that “[c]ognition of truth, on the other hand, arises from the knowledge gleaned from the physical world as it is perceived directly through our physiological sense organs” and “[t]ruth illuminates the innermost desires of the spirit mind.” In addition, it says the “spirit mind is the center of the spirit self, and it is where God dwells” (p. 103, 49).
(The spirit mind is) the central part of our spirit bodies within our daily, physical lives as human beings. Originally, by living a life sought by the spirit mind, in which God resides, can we become living embodiments of truth.
The life that the spirit mind seeks is the life of living for the sake of others that True Parents have taught us throughout their lives. A life lived for the sake of others, the nation, and the world is truly the path to truth. It is the path that can reassure the spirit mind, and it is also the path that allows you to become a living embodiment of truth.
Jesus did not say that the Word itself is truth, but that He Himself was the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Truth is not mere words, but must come to fruition substantially.
It can be said that spirit and truth will take root within ourselves only when we develop our ability to love through a practical life of living for the sake of others while resonating with the power of God’s love. This means that we ourselves must become the embodiments of God’s spirit and truth.
For fallen man, this is not an easy task. That is why, in the providence of salvation, God has been urging human beings to overcome their internal and external ignorance, and pursue spirit and truth by cultivating their spirituality and intellect.
We have already received True Parents, who are the embodiments of God’s spirit and truth. And we are living in a miraculous time where True Father is guiding us from the spirit world and True Mother is guiding us as the substantial Holy Spirit on earth.
As written on page 282 of The Way of God’s Will, the “purpose of the Word is substance and the purpose of the substance is heart.” Therefore, the core where the spirit and truth take root is none other than in our hearts. Through our earthly lives based on truth, we can aim to experience the four great hearts and the four great loves; and in this process of growth, we can build a realm in which we can resonate and sense the spirit.
Currently, True Mother emphasizes the Cheon Shim Won prayers. Prayer is not just meant to be offered, but it is meaningful when you desperately seek Heavenly Parent’s heart (God) and True Parents’ heart, as if you were little children, and build a realm the resonates with heaven’s heart. A heart enlightened in this way, will help us lead our lives of faith, towards a life worthy of becoming embodiments of spirit and truth.
Spirit and truth are not words or conceptual. They are to be experienced and brought to fruition in our lives.
