2ND KEY - PRAYER

"PRAYER IS AS IMPORTANT AS SLEEPING, EATING AND BREATHING."

"THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OUR LIVES IS PRAYER."

Pastor Cho started his ministry in a used tent bought from the US Marine. He pitched it in one of the poorest areas in Seoul.

"I remember so well actually living in my tent, spending my nights in prayer. During our cold Korean winters, I would cover myself with blankets and spend many hours in prayer, lying near my pulpit. Soon, other members of my small congregation began to join me in prayer. In a short period of time, more than fifty people were gathering to spend entire nights in prayer."

"I spend a great deal of my prayer life praying in my spiritual language...in my personal prayer time I use my spiritual language a great deal."

"We have learned not only to pray, but we have learned how to live our lives in prayer. Jesus commanded us to pray WITHOUT CEASING."

Pastor Cho also taught the importance of praying long, persistent prayers. He taught that we must pray through the issue:

"If you just pray casually, then after a little while you become tired and can't think of anything else to pray about."

Pastor Cho also emphasized the importance of praying for at least one hour:

"We should pray at least one hour...The least time of prayer that you need to pray in order to conquer the devil is to pray for one hour...When I have prayed for one hour, something "clicks", and I break the barrier and enter into the spiritual realm."

"For one hour I am fighting in my spirit. I try to concentrate, but my flesh fights me. The devil fights me. So, I have to fight back. After one hour I feel something click and feel so powerful in my praying. This always happens after one hour of praying."

"Everyday we need to pray more than one hour...Make definite times of prayer...I make it a point to pray 3 times a day...When I go out on evangelistic tours, then I always spend the afternoon in prayer. After lunch I do not have any engagement, I stay in my hotel and pray three to five hours. So when people ask me why I pray so much, I respond in this way. I PRAY BECAUSE GOD WANTS ME TO."


3RD KEY - SEEKING GOD'S FACE

The churches in Korea began to earnestly seek God's face.

"Not only in our church, but in most churches in Korea, our prayer time begins at 5am. We regularly pray for one or two hours."

"We are seeing approximately 10,000 converts joining our church every month. Would you not call that a real revival? How have we maintained such an unusual growth in our local church? The real answer is prayer. Every Friday night we have an all-night prayer meeting. We literally don't have enough room for all the people who want to come and pray."

Even as public prayer developed, he did not lessen his own private seeking:

"Sometimes I would go to a mountain to pray, sometimes to a valley. I searched everywhere to find God..."

He began to receive answers. God began to speak to him.

4TH KEY - TURNING FROM WICKED WAYS

Pastor Cho knew he is not perfect. However, he honestly faced his own shortcomings in the early days of his ministry. God responded with the miraculous.

"I learnt to become more sensitive to repentance in those days."

"If I make a mistake, I confess that mistake before the congregation. I never cover up an error I might have made...When I first started confessing before my people, I died inside. My natural thinking told me that my people would no longer respect me...But after many years of telling my people the truth, their love for me is stronger than ever."

"In the beginning of my ministry...while I preached I stuttered and stammered, and many in the congregation fell asleep...I wanted to resign from my church. I wondered if God had truly called me into the ministry...the evening service was even worse...I was rapidly growing to hate myself...I wrapped myself in a blanket, sat in the chilling tent church, and prayed. Feeling deeply depressed, it seemed to me that even my prayers could do not good."

"Suddenly I heard a sound. A young crippled man with badly injured knees came crawling to where I sat..."I came to be healed." I could not even preach a decent sermon. How could I pray for someone in his condition?...so severe was the injury to his knees I questioned whether Christ Himself could heal them. "God why did You send this man to my church? You know I can't help him. You must supply faith to me, I would rather just here and die."

"Suddenly I could sense God's Holy Spirit come upon me in a special way...When I helped the young man up his legs still dangled. But my faith was strong. Taking firm hold of him, I commanded, "In the anme of Jesus, walk!" I then gave him a slight shove, and closed my eyes. I was afraid to see what would happen. Soon I heard a noise. When I opened my eyes I saw that young man, full of healthy vitality, running around the whole area..." News of such miracles soon spread and more people are attracted to his little church.

Author's note:

In my observation, it seemed that many anointed ministers of God in Korea possess the same trait: they are sometimes quick to make mistakes at first, even faithlessness. But they are open to let God deal with them quickly and use them as instruments, and the result is always supernatural and miracles. A lesson or example for us?