The passage we read today is Acts 8. The title is “People Who Meet God.”

Every one of you should meet God. And everyone who attends and leads a faith life in our church has met God. If you have attended another church before, you probably didn’t hear the phrase, “I met God!” It’s common to say, “I believe in God,” but not often do people say, “I met God!”

I got my first job in the 1990s. I graduated university and got a job at a Christian foundation’s social welfare organization. It was a fairly large and well-structured organization. Because I was newly recruited, they held a welcome party, which involved drinking. Most of the people who were there attended church and yet they didn’t mind the drinking. I felt a little awkward, but since they were Christians, they didn’t force anyone to drink alcohol. I did a toast with a glass of coke and introduced myself.

When they called me up to introduce myself, I got up and said, “I’m Ki-Taek Lee. I graduated from such and such university.” After that, I said, “In August 1992, I met God!” And then I briefly said a few things about myself and finished. On the next morning, my manager, who was a lady in her early 50s, called me to her office. So I went. I was nervous because I didn’t know why I was called. She asked me a question. “Yesterday, when you introduced yourself, you said you met God. I have been a Christian since birth because my mother went to church before I was even born. But I have never heard anybody say what you said! How you met God…” Apparently, she pondered over that. “He met God? Have I met God?” When she asked herself, she wasn’t confident. That was the reason she had called me to her office so that she could ask about it. “What do you mean by ‘meeting God’?” She also mentioned that normally people would say, “I believe in God,” but the fact that I specified the day on which I met God was puzzling her. So she called this fresh recruit into her office. And I was very nervous.

But from what she said, it was very obvious. I could tell that she had not yet received the Holy Spirit. She believed in Jesus but didn’t receive the Holy Spirit. Hence, she didn’t have any experience of meeting God. If a person is unsure of whether or not they met God, it’s because they have never met God. Whoever has met God will know it himself. It might be hard to explain, but they will know for sure. Yet since they haven’t met Him, they doubt, “Have I met God?”

So I explained to her. “You need to receive the Holy Spirit!” And she replied, “But I already did!” “When exactly did you receive?” I asked. She responded, “I received the Holy Spirit when I believe in Jesus.” Of course, there’s a verse in the Bible which says, “No one can confess Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” So she said that deciding to believe in Jesus and simply calling out “Jesus!” means receiving the Holy Spirit.

However, if you carefully observe the Scriptures, you will realize that such an idea is an error. Unfortunately, this misunderstanding is widespread. This is not just a trend in South Korea but across the globe. About 90% of churches believe that. I discovered this problem as I was reading through a Bible study textbook used in another denomination. In that book, there was a question: “When does a believer receive the Holy Spirit?” The answer given was, “When he or she receives Jesus.”

When I first came to Sungrak Church, I also had this idea gained through knowledge even before I started going to church. But after coming here and learning from the Bible, I discovered that this wasn’t right. And the passage we read today in Acts 8 demonstrates that. Receiving the Holy Spirit may be a whole different matter from believing in Jesus and accepting Him. A believer of Jesus must receive the Holy Spirit, but one mustn’t mistakenly assume that he has received the Holy Spirit simply because he accepted Jesus. If that were the case, Christians wouldn’t even ask. The Holy Spirit does not come into you just because you believe. With Jesus, you just have to believe in Him, and you will be saved. But receiving salvation is not the end. When God saves us, it is because He has a specific purpose behind it.

Receiving salvation can be likened to cutting off a tree branch and grafting it onto another tree. You might take a mandarin tree branch and graft it onto a trifoliate orange tree. The trifoliate orange tree produces many fruits, whereas mandarin trees produce less fruits. So the mandarin branch grafted on the trifoliate orange tree will bear many fruits. At the same time, the fruit might become a bit more sour. Surely, there must be a reason for grafting, isn’t there? If you grafted a branch but the branch doesn’t produce fruits, that’s a failure. The branch can stay on the tree, but that’s not what the farmer desires.

Similarly, we used to be unbelievers but came into Jesus; we were grafted onto Him. God has a desire. Just as a farmer wants fruits, God also wants something. But bearing that fruit is not that difficult. Since the branch is already grafted on, what does the branch then need to do? For what reason was the branch grafted? The branch needs to draw the sap from the tree. The branch that was not of the tree gets grafted into the tree. “I in Jesus.” If you are in Jesus, the sap that is in Him would come into you. That’s the fulfillment of “Jesus is in me.” “I in Jesus, and Jesus in me.”

But the problem with many people is that they only got to the part of “I in Jesus.” They are not receiving the sap into themselves after that. For the sap to come in, one has to receive the Holy Spirit. If you are only in Jesus, you are just a branch attached to Him, and nothing else is happening. Maybe you will receive salvation, but the works that please the Lord are not being done. Thus, believers of Jesus have received salvation, yet they must also receive the Holy Spirit.

Also, believing in Jesus and being saved is very easy. All you need to do is believe. Of course, this part is difficult because people don’t believe. If they are stubborn and arrogant, they won’t be able to say, “I’m a sinner!” Thus, one must humbly repent and believe in that name. They simply need to believe that Jesus died, resurrected, and redeemed them of their sins. However, receiving the Holy Spirit is not something that happens just by believing. To receive the Holy Spirit, one must pray. One needs to be longing. One needs to pray earnestly, not once or twice, but until he is given the Holy Spirit.

In regards to believing in Jesus, the Bible says, “Anyone can believe! It is easy! Come and buy it without money, without price!” Can you buy something if it costs a lot of money? If you are not given any money to buy, what’s the use of telling you to buy something? But He says to buy without money. If anyone doesn’t want to buy it, he won’t. But whoever wants to, is able to buy it because it is without price. Nevertheless, receiving the Holy Spirit is not something you can acquire without price. He is given only to those who want Him, who earnestly long for Him. He is a gift because He is given to all. However, if one doesn’t make effort, ask and long for Him, He cannot come.

So that lady I mentioned had been living a faith life for 50 years. But she never received the Holy Spirit. That’s why she didn’t have the experience of meeting God. Hence, she couldn’t go to anyone to evangelize. Even though she attended church for 50 years, she never told anyone to believe in Jesus. All that she ever said to others was, “Come to church. It’s really nice.” But you might notice in Sungrak Church that people look like mad people. They tell others emphatically, “You have to believe in Jesus!” Sometimes, they call you so many times until it starts to get annoying. They call to say, “You should come to worship regardless!” What is the reason that they are able to do that? Because they met God. They are certain.

After I met God, the first people that came to mind were my parents, whom I love the most. When I returned home after meeting God at the church camp, I approached my mum and dad. And because I used to be a very quiet person, they were shocked when I excitedly told them, frothing around my mouth, “God is living!” At first, my mother cried. She was saying she had lost her son because the change was so sudden. Now, in the end, they all attend church. Back then, they said to me, “It’s good that you have a faith life! You changed a lot!” Since I studied hard after that, was diligent, and friendly to my parents, they said, “It’s good! However, don’t force it on me.” But later on, they all got to meet God.

So I told that lady manager of mine how I met God and explained these things. At first, she couldn’t believe. But I opened up the Scriptures to her and told her she needed to pray to receive the Holy Spirit. Then I asked her, “Don’t you think that you haven’t yet received the Holy Spirit?” And she agreed. She said she felt that she didn’t receive the Holy Spirit. Then she said, “What do I have to do to receive the Holy Spirit, sir?” Even though I was her junior, she called me “sir.” So I told her, “You just need to ask now!” “How do I ask?” “You need to ask out loud. If you pray quietly like a meditation, you won’t be able to know if the Holy Spirit has come or not, even if He does.”

Originally, when the men in the Bible prayed, they opened their mouths and prayed out loud. When you pray like that, you will see the signs that appear when God pours His Holy Spirit. What kinds of signs appear? In many cases, the general sign that appears is that irrespective of one’s own will, the person is powerfully moved and bursts into cries of repentance. Tears and cries of repentance and thanksgiving will overflow. Here the repentance does not mean listing out your sins and crying out in despair, saying, “What do I do?” They are tears of joy that your sins have been forgiven.

And in many instances, your lips are driven by a force that is out of your control. Some people feel the force strongly, while others might feel it less. It may feel as though you are speaking on your own. Anyway, your tongue starts to move. That’s when one speaks in tongues.

Speaking in tongues literally means “a new tongue.” It is another tongue that you have never spoken before. They are incomprehensible to man. This is all written about in the Bible. One does not speak in tongues to man but to God. It can sound like frog noises or “Lalalala,” which doesn’t seem to have any meaning. However, this is one of the most typical signs that appears when one receives the Holy Spirit.

In another instance, one might prophesy. But this prophesying doesn’t mean to predict something such as, “Tomorrow it will rain.” Rather, it refers to speaking of the great things that God will do, His plans, or fervently praising God.

I went to a particular region in China. After I finished preaching, some people testified after listening to the sermon. I didn’t even tell them to receive the Holy Spirit. But one old grandma came forward to testify. She was a grey-haired grandmother. She testified, saying, “Through the sermon today, I realized that I am forgiven of my sins.” She was overjoyed. She wasn’t praying, “God forgive me of my sins!” She said, “I realized that my sins have been forgiven, and I am very thankful. Lalalala…” She continued, “God is great, for He sent His Son…” and after speaking for a while, she again said, “Lalalala…” She was prophesying, then speaking in tongues, prophesying and speaking in tongues.

Well-educated people tend to suppress it forcefully. When these signs occur, people who are very logical would think ‘Why am I doing this?’ and will suppress their cries and try to control it. But this grandmother was very simple-minded, like a child. Thus, she was saying everything that was on her heart. She spoke of the things God had done and then started speaking in tongues. That was the first time she had spoken in tongues. These occurrences are also written as such in the Bible. The Bible says, “They received the Holy Spirit!” How do you know that? It says, “They prophesied and spoke in tongues!”

I said to my manager, “It’s hard to pray out loud here at work, so when you are finished today, we can find a place and pray there. I’ll help you! If I pray next to you, I can put my hand on you and pray with you. And if you are truly longing in your heart, you will surely receive the Holy Spirit. It won’t be difficult at all!” She asked, “What should I do? Where can I go to pray out loud?” So, I offered, “Do you want to go to my place?” It had been only a few months since I got married. My wife was also working at that time. When I offered her to come to my place, she said she would, as long as it was okay. Immediately I called my wife and told her, “My manager is coming to our place today, so please prepare a light dinner for us!” That evening, she came to my house, and we ate dinner together.

She sat facing me and my wife on the dinner table. And I could see that she was getting impatient. During the meal she kept asking questions—what she has to do to receive the Holy Spirit, whether she needed to pray for a long time, and so on. At first, I answered her questions, but in the end, I left the spoon in the bowl and asked her, “Do you want to pray right now?” She said she wanted to. She wanted to pray desperately.

So, right in the middle of our dinner, we knelt down and prayed. She prayed, “God, grant me the Holy Spirit! Send the Holy Spirit to me as it says in the Bible! I said I was a believer for 50 years and thought my faith was good. But this man who only just started to believe recently says he has met You. I can’t even say that I ever met You. How can I say that my faith is sound? God, please help me!”

At first, she kept speaking of her faults. So I paused for a moment and said to her again, “Jesus saved you not because you did anything good. It is because you are completely united with Jesus. As I said before, you are a branch that has been grafted onto Him. Therefore, you are part of the tree. Then it doesn’t matter whether you prayed a lot or a little, whether you are nice or bad. You are already grafted into Jesus. Hence, the Holy Spirit can come into you. You are already forgiven of your sins. Aren’t you thankful? You should rejoice. Pray like this: “Thank You God. Thank You for forgiving me of my sins!””

Although I tell people to pray in this way, many people still pray like this: “God, forgive me of my sins! Forgive my sins!” When I was in China evangelizing in the rural areas, in many cases, even after explaining expansively, people would still pray, “Forgive me of my sins! Forgive me!” So I would stop the prayer and tell them, “No, since the price of your sins has already been paid for, pray like this instead: Thank You for paying the price of my sins! Fully accept it and confess it! Stop asking to be forgiven!” After guiding them to pray a few more times, they finally start saying, “Thank You! Thank You for forgiving me of my sins! Thank you for forgiving me of my sins!” Can you see that the underlying sentiment is joy? There is thanksgiving, joy and acknowledgement of what God has done. When one prays in this way, they will start speaking in tongues, receiving the Holy Spirit.

I explained the same to my manager, and she started praying again. And within just a few minutes, something erupted in her. She suddenly started crying. She was weeping. Actually, that’s what happened to me when I first believed and received the Holy Spirit. I wept. She was also weeping not out of her own volition but because the Holy Spirit of God came upon her and deeply moved her. That’s why she burst out crying. In that moment, there’s no need to think about what you’ve done wrong. It’s like being reunited with your long-lost mother after 30 years of separation. That’s the happiness you experience. She was so overwhelmed and weeping in tears. Her snot was dripping out. But the snot that drips, when you receive the Holy Spirit, is no ordinary snot. The amount of tears and snot is astounding. A long time ago, when I received the Holy Spirit, I opened my eyes after praying for an hour, and I noticed the snot from my nose drooping all the way down to the floor. It was like a puddle. That’s what happened to her, but where did her snot droop onto? Her rice bowl. Because she was praying in front of the bowls, her snot drooped all the way down to her bowl. That’s how greatly she was moved in her prayer. She received the Holy Spirit.

So afterward, I asked her, “How do you feel? Do you think you’ve met God?” She replied, “I have met God! I am certain I’ve met Him!” From that point on, she could confidently testify anywhere that God is alive. This is what it means to bear fruit. And when there is fruit, the farmer is pleased. In the same way, God is pleased. This is exactly what God expects and desires.

You came to church, heard about Jesus, and through perseverance, came to be baptized. To be baptized means you have gone into Jesus.

Then there is something you have to do next. You must not stop there. Jesus has to come into you. The Spirit of God must come into you. Only then can God carry out His work, and fruit will naturally be borne. For those who are zealous, they can bear fruit up to 100 times. But even if you can’t bear that much, you will still bear 60 times the fruit. Even if you are lazy, you will bear at least 30 times fruit. Do you know? Because the branch is attached to the tree, it will bear at least the minimum. If there is no fruit produced, it is because the sap from the tree is not being supplied to the branch. In other words, s/he hasn’t received the Holy Spirit. You must receive the Holy Spirit.

The first reason I say this to you is so that you will long for the Holy Spirit. You have to earnestly desire Him. Even if you haven’t been longing until now, from this moment onward, you must understand that you need to receive the Holy Spirit and it is God’s will, and start longing for Him. After that, you have to ask. When you pray, ask God to pour out the Holy Spirit upon you.

As His name suggests, what kind of Spirit is the Holy Spirit? He is holy and pure. Therefore, the Holy Spirit abides in those that are clean. Originally, the Holy Spirit was only in God. Also, He was in Jesus, the Son of God. But now, where is the Holy Spirit trying to come into? Within us. But am I holy right now? My flesh and my deeds are unclean. No matter how clean a person is outwardly, he is still unclean in reality. This applies to the pastor as well. Though a person may appear to be righteous and holy in one’s fleshly deeds, he is still unclean for the Holy Spirit to abide in him.

So then, how can the Holy Spirit come into us? The Holy Spirit doesn’t dwell in our flesh but in our spirit. Is my spirit clean or unclean? In the past, we were unclean. But what about now? We are made clean. Why? There’s no other reason. It is not because you did good works. It’s because you repented and united with Jesus Christ. Being baptized means you buried your old, unclean self and have come into Jesus. You have become a part of Jesus. That’s why you are clean.

If you have been baptized, are you clean or unclean? Is your spirit clean or unclean? You are clean. Were you baptized? Even if you were to go outside and smoke a cigarette, that is the deed of your flesh. But your spirit is clean because you are united with Jesus. You are made clean. You need to acknowledge that, for that’s faith. When you have that faith, the Holy Spirit comes into your clean spirit and transforms you.

Everyone, confess this: “I am already clean in Jesus!” And then earnestly ask the Holy Spirit to come into you. Long for Him! You must pray.

The Bible says this: A man had a friend come to him in the night saying, “I have a guest who came to my home. I’m sorry, but can you give me some food? Please give me some bread!” This was in the middle of the night—let’s say, 1 am. Now, would a person get up and answer a neighbor who asks for something at 1 am? Probably not. They will feel annoyed. But this friend comes knocking on the door again. The friend tells him he can’t but will give him the bread tomorrow. But the friend keeps knocking on the door. So the man gets up from bed to give him bread. Why does he give it to him? Because he is being bothered. And since he is constantly bothered, he will give his friend the bread in the end. In this way, even people will answer a request if they persistently ask. How much more will our God give the Holy Spirit to us when we ask Him? Therefore, ask until He grants the Holy Spirit. With assurance, keep asking. This is written in the Bible. And it is emphasized that we should keep asking when we ask for the Holy Spirit. Keep asking without giving up.

I received the Holy Spirit three months after I started praying for Him. Some people, however, may receive the Holy Spirit on the very day they hear the gospel. The reason some cannot receive the Holy Spirit is because they have not been broken yet. They haven’t fully acknowledged that their sins are forgiven, or they think that they are already righteous. That’s why they are not able to receive Him.

You can ask right now and receive. It is different for everyone. What’s important is that you acknowledge that you have been grafted into Jesus, recognize that you are clean, and earnestly desire the Holy Spirit. Pray, “God, pour Your Holy Spirit upon me!” Do you understand?

In this way, earnestly long for Him, and pray like this whenever you’re praying. Then, at the most appropriate time for each of you, He will grant His Holy Spirit. You will start speaking in tongues; some might also prophesy, and others might see visions. Such wonderful things will happen. Let’s pray.

Father God, even though everyone here has been united with Jesus and belongs to You, if there are souls who have not received the Holy Spirit, help them to have the certain faith to acknowledge the grace of Jesus Christ. Also pour out Your Holy Spirit, who was only granted to Jesus Christ, upon them, so that they may certainly know that they are united with Jesus Christ. Let every happiness and joy in You so that You can be active and work inside of them. Help them to earnestly desire the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name!