15 April 2015 by Adeline Lum CM-
On 9th of April, Dr David Yonggi Cho, founder and former pastor of the largest Pentecostal church in South Korea – Yoido Full Gospel Church – came to share about visions and dreams at the Full Gospel Tabernacle (FGT) in Subang Jaya.
Do you have a vision and a dream? The Bible says, “In the last days, God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)
As God’s beloved child, you are meant to have a vision and a dream!
Joseph had a vision at 17 years old. But all his brothers wanted to kill him along with his vision. (Gen 37) Yet, he never gave up on his vision through slavery and imprisonment, but kept his vision alive until he met the Pharaoh. Joseph’s vision guided him to become the prime minister of Egypt.
Yonggi also recalled how he first had a vision from God in having a 300-member church in a slum area. Although he had no money, he believed in the vision and set up a tent on the street to teach the gospel to anyone who wanted to hear.
“People would say to me that they pity me because I can never build such a great church in this slum area,” said Yonggi. “But in my heart, I saw that vision.”
The Kingdom of God belongs to those who are poor in Spirit (Matt 5:3). Because Yonggi preached about Jesus Christ bringing hope, many people started coming to church.
“When you come to the Bible, you will find hope for victory in every page. And you cannot receive such tremendous unfading hope from other books,” said Yonggi.
Even when his church members were not many, he would speak in a loud voice, as if he was addressing a large crowd. His mother-in-law, a close ministerial associate, would ask him to speak softly.
“I said, ‘Mother, the people I am speaking to are in the canvas of my heart.’ In my vision and dream, I have 10,000 people in my church. So, I speak to that 10,000 people,” said Yonggi.
God added to his number and his church grew beyond his vision to 500 people. But his dream of having the largest church in the world is still guiding him. So, he went to Seodaemun and built a 1500-seat church.
“I preached the message of God to meet the people’s needs. I casted out demons and gave them divine healing. I spoke that God is good and He will never give us bad things,” said Yonggi.
Through the suffering of Jesus Christ, God gave us the gospel of sanctification, righteousness, divine healing, Abrahamic blessing, and resurrection. Through Jesus Christ, we can have a vision and a dream!
By the year 1973, his church grew to having 10,000 members.
“When the Holy Spirit is present, the reality of God comes to church. When people find that God is leading and not religion, their lives are changed,” said Yonggi. “I am not a good preacher in persuading people but I met my Jesus, and I know my preaching is real.”
At 17 years old, Yonggi found himself with tuberculosis with only six months to live. The doctor told him that his lungs look like a beehive. Resting at home, a Christian friend of his sister would slip into his home during the absence of his parents, to share the gospel and the Bible with him. What amazed him was how Jesus spent two-thirds of his time in the ministry of healing and casting out demons.
“When I was reading the Bible, Jesus is the doctor, and the church is the hospital,” said Yonggi.
He prayed, “Jesus, I know that my family religion will not heal me at all. I can’t receive treatment in the hospital. Will you please heal me? I will do whatever you want me to do.”
He woke up one night and heard someone coming into his room. Dressed in a white robe with a long beard and white hair, this person revealed to Yonggi that He was Jesus Christ.
Jesus said to him, “If you trust me and turn over your life to me, I will not only heal you but manifest my glory in you – not only in Korea but throughout the world.”
Yonggi woke up and told his parents. They cried upon hearing because they thought Yonggi would be dying soon for having hallucinations. But after six months, instead of slowly dying, he fully recovered from his punctured lungs and was drafted into the Korean military service.
“I see Jesus as the solution to our life’s problems. Seek the glory of Jesus Christ. He is the same today, yesterday, and forever,” said Yonggi.
When his church reached 100,000 people, he wondered if his church would continue growing. But God kept adding to the number, thousands upon thousands, that when he retired from his church, he had more than 800,000 members! Till today, his church remains as the largest church in the world.
Now, God has called Yonggi to be a traveling evangelist throughout the world. To date, he has travelled around the world 120 times and preached in 51 metropolitan countries in the world.
“As I see the vision and dream, God fulfil them completely. Vision is seeing your future in your heart. And God’s blessings start from your heart. He works from the inside of your heart to your circumstances.
“We can believe that Jesus Christ loves you or He would never die on the cross for you. Jesus Christ has the power on Heaven and on earth. Trust that you have His Power and you can exercise your faith,” said Yonggi.
God wants us to speak about our faith openly because our words when spoken out from our mouth become an energy that will change our circumstances.
“If the word stays in your heart, you can control it. But when you release the word, it becomes energy. And energy has creative power,” said Yonggi.
God created the world through His speaking. Jesus Christ heals, forgives, and raises the dead, by speaking. We have been created in the image of God. So, we can speak like Him, unlike his other creations on earth. We can change our life and circumstances by speaking positive words over our life – words inspired by the Spirit and the Bible.
“Jesus Christ wants to work through you. But for Him to do that, you must have a positive and a possible kind of thinking. Jesus Christ took away all of your infirmities and curses on the cross, so that you have Abrahamic blessings.
“When you come to the Lord, God wants to work with you if you are ‘soft.’ ‘Soft’ is the place where the Holy Spirit comes and works with you. I always say to the Spirit, ‘Come and let’s go together through positive and possible thinking of the future,’” said Yonggi.
You may have a small church or a small pocket, but you have the power of God’s Word and your words! The westerners are good in blessing each other, but not so with the Korean culture. We must change our words together with the Holy Spirit.
And at this point, all of his dreams and visions had been fulfilled in his life. When he asked God what to do with his life, God said to him, “As you dream, you shall live.”
Yonggi asked God to help him live to a ripe age of 100 years old with a healthy body, so he can continue to preach about Jesus Christ.
“God is not a religious God. He loves you and He sent His only begotten Son to die for you. He took all of your sins, sicknesses, poverties, and failures. You and I are going to enjoy the blessings of Jesus Christ through bold faith.
When you pray, “Jesus, help me draw the canvas of my dream and vision in my heart” and you live by bold faith and not by feeling, Jesus who has the power of Heaven and earth will help you and change your life.
“Tell yourself that you are strong. Tell yourself that you are going to be healed. Tell yourself that you are going to prosper. All things will be done according to your faith. And Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is going to manifest Himself in your life,” said Yonggi.
…so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
(Isa 55:11)
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt 17:20)
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (John 15:16)
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. (1 John 5:14)
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