At Heart Of God Church, Dr. Kim Sung-Hae explained why every Christian must live life through the Holy Spirit.
Contributed By Yasmeen Chan
Dr. Kim brought a word in season. PHOTO COURTESY OF HEART GOD CHURCH.
Close to 1,400 people gathered at Heart Of God Church on Friday, Aug. 12, to listen to Dr. Kim Sung-Hae, president of Hansei University and wife of Dr. Yonggi Cho, Pastor Emeritus of Yoido Full Gospel Church.
The auditorium was filled to capacity and the atmosphere was filled with expectation. A flurry of live Tweets went up on the screens prior to service: “I’m so so so so so excited for service!”, “Today is going to be the greatest milestone … service is going to be great and awesome” and “6 MORE MINS AND HOGC service starts!”
Cheers erupted from both young and old as the woman of God took to the stage. Her sermon entitled “The Life Connecting With The Holy Spirit” could not have been more apt for HOGC. Yoido Full Gospel Church is known for its powerful prayer atmosphere and for Cho’s teachings on faith, the Holy Spirit and the power of the Fourth Dimension.
Kim shared four points on life with the Holy Spirit: the life of (having) the Holy Spirit as one’s owner, the life of linking with the Holy Spirit, the life of saving people by the Holy Spirit, and the life of positive thinking with the Holy Spirit.
To illustrate her first point, Kim likened prayer to connecting a faucet to an unlimited reservoir. Walking in one’s own strength, she explained, was like trying to move a mound of dirt with a shovel, while drawing on the Holy Spirit was like using a forklift to easily and effortlessly do the same job. She then emphasized that an intimate relationship with God is vital for the believer and that “fellowship with God and prayer is like a life string”—when one is linked up to the Holy Spirit, in time of need or danger, He would be able to come swiftly to the believer’s aid.
She then encouraged the congregation to continue to reach out to the unsaved, reiterating that salvation can only happen by the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon an individual’s life. She used the Korean game of Dabanggu to memorably illustrate her point: one needs a savior to touch an individual who has been captured by the enemy in order to set him free.
Kim then ended with a final point of challenge: “Your dream can be nowhere or your dream can be now here. It all depends on your thinking. How we think determines how we act. Our mind is like a search engine. We can either ‘Google’ positive or negative. A diamond becomes valuable because of the cuts and the brokenness it endures. It is the cuts that cause a diamond to shine. So, when you have problems, see how God is making you into a beautiful diamond.”
The service closed with the congregation singing Kim’s original composition, “Oh Hallelujah!”. Nadine Leong, a HOGC member, later said, “The ‘Hallelujah’ song Dr. Kim sang was so simple, but yet it ministers so much to the soul.”
More than the message that Kim brought, it was the message of her life that made the biggest impact on the congregation. Member Megan Chang, said, “I am so inspired by how connected to the Holy Spirit Kim is. She’s so simple and has childlike faith. I want to have that, too.”
Yasmeen Chan is the general manager of Heart Of God Church.
