PDF file: 20200801_Grand Ancestor Service_Kyoshu-sama
The Portuguese audio version of the Sacred Word of Kyoshu-sama is available here.
Congratulations everyone on today’s World Church of Messiah Grand Ancestor Service.
Last month, a torrential rain fell across Japan and caused serious damage, particularly in the Kyushu, Shikoku and Chubu regions. Representing all of you, I offered my prayer at the service in the following way:
O God, I pray to You that recovery work will advance as quickly as possible. O God: those who fell victim to the disaster; those who are still affected by it; we who are seeing or hearing about all the developments; all creation including water, which forms the rain – I acknowledge that You use all of them to deliver Your salvation. In the name of Messiah, which is one with Meishu-sama, I return to Your heaven and surrender everyone and everything as something You have atoned for, forgiven and made alive. O God, use us as You wish, so we can serve in Your work.
On this day of the Grand Ancestor Service, let us remind ourselves once more that we are the true goreiji (ancestral shrine) united to the church bearing the name of Messiah. And with that in mind, I offered the words from the Invitation of the souls to God, determining in my heart that the ancestors of all humanity – both paternal and maternal – exist within me.
Now, what is death? It is when the physical body ceases to move, is it not?
Many seem to believe that human beings go to heaven only when they die.
Is this really the case? Is heaven the world where we will go one day?
I tell you that it is not.
Heaven has existed within us from the beginning.
It exists in the center of our consciousness even now.
Meishu-sama wrote a number of calligraphies that read, “Heaven exists at the center of my heart,” and handed them out to his followers.
Why did Meishu-sama hand them out? Isn’t it because he wanted to share the truth he received from God with his followers?
For us who look up to Meishu-sama as our model, I believe we must say the following to Meishu-sama with a resolute mind: “Heaven does exist within us!”
Even though I say that heaven exists within each one of us, I do not mean that there are many heavens.
Heaven is one. There is only one heaven.
What is heaven, then? As Meishu-sama says that “God is Light,” I believe that heaven is God Himself who is the origin of Light and who shines gloriously.
God is our Creator and the Lord of all creation who is one and only.
Without Him, nothing can come into existence.
Both the material world and the spiritual world are one body with God, and He governs them both, that is, this material world – this earth – is not separate from the spiritual world, from heaven.
Heaven is invisible and high in its density. That is why the earth which is visible and low in its density can exist.
This earth is made to exist as a part of heaven.
God prepared both heaven and the earth, which is a part of heaven, so that they could serve in the fulfillment of God’s purpose that He predetermined.
The purpose of God’s Creation is this: to bear children in His likeness and live with the children He bore for all eternity.
For the fulfillment of this purpose, God bore numerous souls in heaven, in the world of high density, of high dimension, and sent them to the earth. Each one of these souls possesses the name of Messiah and is our true self. It can be called a spiritual body, too.
With his very own body and being, Meishu-sama confirmed this predetermined purpose of God.
He repented of taking possession of his soul – God’s possession from beginning to end – received God’s forgiveness, returned to heaven and was born anew as the child of God, as the Messiah.
By announcing this as a fact, Meishu-sama showed us the path of how to fulfill the purpose of God’s Creation.
Everyone! If you believe in the name of Messiah, this path of new birth is open to each one of you! It is open to everyone!
That is why Meishu-sama is the model for us, no, for all humanity.
God is in us, loves us and is trying to communicate His thoughts with us.
How about us? Instead of turning our hearts to God, haven’t we selfishly invented a heaven based on our own criteria of good and evil – a heaven that is convenient for us? Haven’t we tried to increase our value on earth so that we would be respected, praised and regarded as someone who is full of virtue?
Being like this, haven’t we disregarded the very purpose of why God sent us to the earth from His heaven?
We must admit it. We forgot the true purpose of why we were sent to the earth, dishonored God and became proud and conceited. We lived in this way for many generations – this way of being flows in our blood. It was, therefore, absolutely impossible to be cleansed from sin through human effort. It was absolutely unforgivable to be called “children of God.”
But even though our bodies were full of sin, God turned His face toward us to make us His children.
He atoned for our sins, forgave us and delivered us from darkness. He welcomed us into the new work of heaven – the work of reviving everyone and everything.
What is more, He prepared a path within each one of us so that we can be born anew as children of God, as Messiahs, just as Meishu-sama achieved.
This great transition for humanity was nothing but the grace of God.
And this great transition, I believe, is the Transition from Night to Day that Meishu-sama received and conveyed to us.
We were able to know that we were made sinless in the eyes of God. How humbling this is!
The blood of the generations of our ancestors that is flowing within us is atoned for and cleansed by the holy blood of Jesus Christ who was sent to the earth by God.
Together with our ancestors, we have been forgiven and made into living beings, and all of our souls have already been welcomed into heaven.
Acknowledging this as a fact – this is what it means to “return to heaven.”
Meishu-sama said to us that we need to elevate ourselves to heaven, to live there and be its residents. He also said that our task is to construct heaven, establish heaven and project it onto the earth. Through these words of Meishu-sama, I believe he was strongly wishing for us to recall heaven where our souls were born, return to it and serve in the divine work of creation – the work of remaking all creation anew.
All that exists on earth is in heaven, and this heaven is within our hearts.
In our hearts, many kinds of feelings emerge. Isn’t this because within our hearts there is heaven? Isn’t this because God is trying to accomplish the work of salvation – the work of welcoming all humanity into His heaven?
We must firmly believe that all those feelings are united to the name of Messiah, and by each one of our own wills, we must declare to God, “Together with everyone and everything, O God, allow me to receive the holy blood of atonement and return to heaven as one who is forgiven and saved!”
To do this, we need to determine in our hearts that our souls were born in heaven, that we still belong to heaven as “residents of heaven” and that we are serving God for the fulfillment of His purpose – God who is one with the name of Messiah. Let us engrave this deep into our hearts.
As I said earlier, the one who governs all worlds and all dimensions, including the spiritual world, is the Lord God who is one and only.
Regardless of their religious origins, the names of the numerous deities that exist in the world are expressions of the Lord God.
Meishu-sama taught us that Kakuriyo no Ookami or the Great God of the Mystic World, whose name we chant in front of our ancestral shrines or a grave, is a god who rules the spiritual world. However, isn’t the true identity of this god the Lord God?
For a long time, we could only picture the material world and the spiritual world as something separate from each other.
Isn’t this why Meishu-sama allowed us to call on the name Kakuriyo no Ookami so that we could learn that God does not exist in the material world only but also in the spiritual world?
In the eyes of God, there is only one world.
All worlds, including the material and the spiritual worlds, are filled with the eternal life of God.
Nothing is considered dead for God.
Without a shadow of a doubt, our ancestors are alive.
Within the center of the consciousness of each one of our ancestors exists heaven.
God has already made up His mind to make the ancestors of all humanity His own children, and we, in order to serve in this divine will, are allowed to breathe now here on this earth.
Just like us, the true Parent of all the ancestors is God.
If God is the true Parent of all, aren’t we brothers and sisters with all the ancestors? Aren’t we all being nurtured together as one?
If one person among all of our ancestors – even just one person – could be born anew as a Messiah, how happy Meishu-sama would be. How happy God would be! This happiness of God must be something far beyond our imagination.
This happiness of God must give birth to a power so immense that we cannot even comprehend it. Where would it be born? Inside each one of us! This power will be born within each one of us in order for God to accomplish the salvation of all humanity! This power, I believe, is, in the words of Meishu-sama, the “Great Divine Power of God that the Messiah exercises.”
At the end of today’s service, I will perform the Returning of the souls, representing all of you.
Through it, let us report the following to God in the name of Messiah, which is one with Meishu-sama: that all of us, together with the numerous ancestors who exist within us, will return to heaven existing at the center of each one of our consciousnesses with courage and without hesitation, through our inhaling breath and exhaling breath.
And holding fast to the conviction that we are ones who belong to heaven, let us serve in the second phase of the work of creation, the divine work of reviving and remaking everything anew, together with all of our ancestors.
May the salvation and comfort of the church that bears the name of Messiah and exists within us be shared with all that exists on the planet earth.
I return all glory, authority and grace to God who is one with the name of Messiah.
Thank you.
