God Looks Through the Minds of the Humans

Deeply rooted in the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church for over 20 years, I lived as if I were already predestined to go to Heaven.
However, my faith was shaken after I heard the words of God and received the grace at the Gwangju Park meeting in November 1955.
When I was near to God who came to lead the meeting, I had doubts, “Is this man really the righteous man from the East and the Olive Tree?”
Then, God read my mind and replied, “Yes, I am the righteous man from the East and the Olive Tree. It seems like I am not qualified, doesn’t it?”
After that, I began to live a life of reverence for God, striving to live according to His will.

Kim Young-hwan Seungsa

I was born in Samdo-myeon, Gwangsan-gun, Jeollanam-do. I started going to the Presbyterian Church in 1933 and worked as an elder at Yeongsanpo Presbyterian Church before I attended the Chunbukyo Church. Deeply rooted in the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church, I lived as if I were already predestined to go to Heaven after my death.

The one who pulled out the roots of my wrong faith overnight, which had never shaken like a deep-rooted tree, was Elder Park Tae-sun, known as “The Messenger of Fire”. I first met Him at the Gwangju Park meeting in November 1955. As many revival gatherings were taking places at that time, the news of Elder Park Tae-sun’s meeting spread like wildfire. Especially, the news of a miracle which happened during his meeting was a big issue in the established church community, and there was nobody to stop anyone who was curious and wanted to attend.

As soon as I heard the news that there would be a meeting at Gwangju Park, I went there with several fellow believers. From the first day, there was no place to sit in the large tent in the wide park due to the large number of people who came from all over. Although the sight of clapping hands and singing along with the sound of the drum did not seem solemn, I just sat in the back seat on the first day, waiting for the appearance of “The Messenger of Fire”. Finally, Elder Park appeared on the stage, and He looked like a slim and handsome gentleman in his early thirties. The sight of His looking up at the sky in prayer and leading hymns afterwards looked extremely natural and deeply moving.

As I continued to sing the hymn He was leading, a fragrance was suddenly wafted in and caught my nose. The fragrance was like that of lilies and also smelled like the most expensive perfume or hair oil. So I looked around to find the source of the smell. Then, the fragrance disappeared and the stench of decaying flesh filled the air, making me nauseous to the point of wanting to vomit. The disgust continued as the smell persisted. Then, suddenly a strong fragrance filled the air again. After listening to the sermon, I realized that the stench of decaying flesh was the smell of burning sin inside a person and the fragrance that returned was due to the connection of the grace.

Through this experience that I felt for the first time since birth, my tightly closed heart opened up and the tough heart that had never shed a tear melted like snow and tears of emotion poured out endlessly. Also, I was filled with regret and deep repentance as I remembered the sins I had committed.

The sermon He emphasized on the rostrum was the powerful word of God that He would risk His own life to save the souls of the humans. It moved me deeply and made me make a new determination. I had believed that going to Heaven was predestined before the creation of the world, but this powerful word of God shook my faith to its roots. Thus, I became to realize the truth and decided to run toward the new goal of life.

One week later, in the morning on the last day of the meeting, as I was about to say goodbye to my dear fellow believers, God spoke to us, “Now that you are returning home, hold fast to the grace you have received and spread the word of God, supporting the pastor who received the grace.”

A few days later, after exchanging regretful goodbye, I went to the church I had been attending and attended the Sunday service. On that day, the pastor Kang who had also attended God’s meeting delivered a testimonial sermon with a big smile on his face.

Then, a few days later, the Presbyterian General Assembly was held and they issued a statement saying, “Elder Park is a cult leader. Therefore, all those who attended his meeting should be fired and expelled from the church.”

After receiving such a notice, Pastor Kang changed his attitude and began to shout loudly from the rostrum, and ultimately called in gangsters to force church members who had attended the Gwangju Park meeting to leave. At that time, we knew that whether it was a palace or a tent, the place where we worshiped God was Heaven. We did not fight with them in order to keep the grace we received. We simply came out empty-handed and started gathering at my house. That was the beginning of the Yeongsanpo Church and it was October 7th, 1956.

More than a half of the church members came out and gathered at my house to worship, and the entire room was filled with a fragrance and a dew-like grace descended. Those who experienced this grace resolved there to build a new Chunbukyo Church. Meanwhile, we followed God wherever He had a meeting for the joy of receiving the grace.

Afterwards, we attended the opening ceremony in Gwangju and received the grace. After returning, we gathered together and, on the new site, we built a modest church of about 50 pyeong (approximately 165 square meters). We had the opening ceremony with God. In the morning of the opening ceremony, He specially blessed us laying hands on the head of everyone and I felt my whole body heat up as soon as His hands touched my head.

Upon receipt of the Holy Spirit of Fire, my face became hot with excitement and an endless joy burst out, making my mouth sweet, and causing me to continue singing hymns of gratitude. Having experienced the Holy Spirit of Fire, my heart was filled with even greater longing and I participated in the opening ceremony in Gunsan. There, I was blessed with the Water of Life and for the first time I saw the Holy Dew Spirit descending on the rostrum for three days.

Before I experienced the clear-cut grace of the Holy Spirit and followed God, I had a tendency to doubt and question just like pounding the stone bridge out of fear of making a mistake. As I accepted things only when I was absolutely sure, I earned the nickname ‘Hard-headed Elder’ from the church members. As I was like a rock that was smooth and hard to break, I was teased with nickname ‘hard-headed’. And, one day, we received special blessings from God and as it was my turn, I lied down. God touched my forehead several times and said, “What is in this head that makes you so suspicious and hard to break, Hard-headed Elder…?” From that moment on, I became entrenched with the nickname, ‘Hard-headed Elder’.

I had a strong motivation that completely changed my suspicious attitude of not accepting God’s word as it is and constantly doubting and questioning. The day before the opening ceremony of the Yeongsanpo Church, God came to guide the ceremony and rested for a while. In order to greet Him, I brought a tray of refreshments and put it in front of Him in the room and said, “Please have some fruits.”

I thought, “Is this man really the righteous man from the East and the Olive Tree?” No matter how much I thought about it, I doubted whether He was qualified. Then, God looked at me for a long time and laughed, saying, “You thought about ‘The righteous man from the East and Olive Tree’, didn’t you?” and He mentioned exactly what was in my mind. And God asked, “It seems like I am not qualified, doesn’t it?” I was so surprised that I became as red as a carrot. Feeling sorry, I couldn’t sit there any longer and immediately came out of the room. I felt a sense of guilt for making a big mistake in front of the Holy Spirit who could see through people’s hearts, and began to have a new belief in God.

Since then, I have become more fearful of standing before Him. And I have begun to revere Him and resolved to live in humility. And in order to help myself attain salvation and live a worthwhile life, I came to realize that the most rewarding way is to hold onto the grace I received and bear witness to God who came to this land.

With this in mind, I made a commitment to live according to God’s will and was appointed as a minister at the Nam-pyeong Church in Jeollanam-do on April 8, 1957 after receiving special blessing from God. I had many experiences and witnessed the work of God, but the most memorable one was when I served at the Mokpo Church.

My father who lived only 130 li (approximately 51 km) away, refused to believe in God’s miracles and wonders despite my constant efforts to share them. One winter, as he fell and was severely injured, unable to get surgery, he came to me. Since God came to Mokpo at that time, he asked to have His hands laid on him just like a drowning man grabs even a straw. I spoke to God on his behalf and, as soon as His hands were laid on him, he got up and walked home on his two feet. And another time was when I myself was suffering from appendicitis for 5 days while serving at the Gunsan Church. I had His hands laid on me on the blessing day and recovered without relapse, which was also a memorable experience.

While it is important to be free from physical suffering and to live happily, I firmly believe that living according to God’s will is a greater challenge. I retired after 27 years of ministry on April 10, 1984. I am at the age of 88 this year.

Even though I am now 88 years old, I have remained healthy by God’s grace and am striving to live the rest of my life in purity and receive the grace of salvation.

(The Chunbukyo Weekly, dated 03/14/1999)