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Chujoh Gisuke On Prayer In Korea

The Third Day   March 6, 1984 (Tuesday)

I went to bed [on the floor] at 12:50 AM and got up at 4:50 AM.  I had exactly four hours of sleep.  Whenever I come to Korea, on the whole an average day's sleep [for me] is only three to four hours.

From five to seven o'clock was the early morning prayer service.  In this meeting, the temple director sister Lee presided and preached.  Then after seven, she laid hands on more than two hundred people one at a time who were in attendance at the morning prayer meeting.  I was surprised because it lasted passed nine o'clock.

Sister Lee, the director of the prayer temple, by herself for more than four hours presided, preached, and continuously laid praying hands on [the folks.]  She truly had an amazing amount of physical stamina.  Korean leaders were superior in physical strength and worked very hardily.

I went back to our room at 7:00 AM and had a time of fellowship talking with ten pastors.  This place lies near the coast of the Sea of Japan on a mountain near the thirty-eighth parallel.  There were many pastors and evangelists who came from the small churches of [that] region.  I heard about the harsh conditions of that region.  One evangelist made a circuit of three or four small mission stations and maintained their meetings.  The meetings with four or five people had a humble offering.  For that reason many evangelists and pastors lived on donations under ten thousand yen [roughly three hundred dollars] per month.  Still, they were different from Japan because no matter how poor or difficult it was for them they would never work a side job.  They only do the work of gospel missions of the Word of God.

Indeed, we could also talk about the lifestyle of the martyrs of the early church [in Korea].  This attitude and spirit overflowed throughout the entire Korean church.

The pleasure of the prayer temples of Korea [for me] was certainly in the preaching of [God's Word] but also it was in the deepening of [my] fellowship and in the conversations with many pastors and evangelists in the Japanese language across various aspects of missions, church, and even culture.  Also, [it was a joy to] sleep and eat together in a narrow room and to be able to share in our day to day lives.

Well, on this [particular] day the morning meeting was my responsibility.  From 10:00 AM we had a time of praise and prayer and from 10:50 AM to 12:30 noon I spoke from the text in John's famous chapter three and verses sixteen through eighteen on "God's Love."

When one preaches for two hours in Korea, there is a time of praise and prayer every twenty minutes [or so.]  That's why one needs to memorize four to five Korean praise songs.  Also, as is the custom you must have a time of praying together with voices raised aloud.

As Paul related in The Epistle To The Corinthians, "To the Jew I became a Jew, so that I would win a Jew.  To the person under the law, though I was not personally under the law, [I became] a person under the law ... " I had to act according to this message (in First Corinthians 9:19-23).

The participants in this meeting with more than three hundred and fifty persons from the night before filled up every corner of the sanctuary.  In addition, in the afternoon and evening they held a special seminar for pastors, and I lectured on missions, pastoral care, and prayer with forty Korean pastors and evangelists, and having provided a time for questions and answers, they had various conversations and were given opportunities to ask [things].

As I wrote in the previous day's entry, this was enjoyable and we were able to truly learn.

It was really significant that what they asked about was not big city churches or town size churches, but country churches, rural churches, small churches, and the new appearance of mission stations.  Even after the seminar was over, about ten people, as usual, crowded into my room, I couldn't get any rest or sleep, and on this day as well I lied down at midnight.  "O Lord, I thank you for preserving me!  I trust everything over to you! Amen!

The Fourth Day  March 7, 1984 (Wednesday)

I got up at 4:50.  Outside it was covered with ice and very cold.  When I entered the sanctuary at five, already more than two hundred people were sweating profusely and engaged in prayer and praise.

So the instant I entered the sanctuary I had the feeling that I was going from the cold north pole to a land below the equator.  Actually, it was not a humanly set fire that was burning, they were burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit.  This fire not only heated up the coldness, but it was the fire of the cross and the fire of Pentecost which burned out "the freezing point" in the people, [their] original sin nature [if you would].

This very fire is the fire now being sought out by the churches of Japan, indeed, by the different churches of the world.  This fire is given when we pray and it will burst into flames.

I spoke the first time with "Prayer Heard By God" as my topic.

The Outline Of Its Contents --

1. You can pray sensing the Lord's presence, (Matthew 18:20, 28:20, Hebrews 13:8).
2. Spend time in continuous prayer, (Luke 22:29-46, Ephesians 6:18 ... ).
3. You can pray holding to the Word of God, (John 15:7).
4. You can pray with thanksgiving, (Philippians 4:6, Colossians 4:2, Acts 16:25ff).
5. You can pray believing, (Matthew 21:21-22, Mark 11:22-24).
6. You can pray with expectant hope, (Luke 18:1, Romans 12:12).
7. You can pray with urgency, (First Samuel 1:10-11, Second Kings 20:1-6).
8. You can pray with sincerity, (Psalm 145:18).
9. You can pray with fervency, (Luke 22:44, Acts 12:1-17).
10. You can pray aiming for victory, (Exodus 17:8-13, Joshua 6:1-20).

I preached some more from 5:20 AM till 6:40 AM.  The audience was generally the same number as yesterday's early morning prayer meeting with about two hundred and fifty people.  After the sermon, until 7:30 they had a time of praise while also praying.  While speaking with pastors and evangelists after breakfast a morning service began.  When I went into the sanctuary at 10:30 AM the fire of the Holy Spirit broke out even more than usual.  I preached from 11:00 AM till 12:30 PM from the Word in the Gospel According To Luke in chapter twenty and verse twenty-two on the theme "Receive The Holy Spirit."

I gave five reasons why we had to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

1. To make sure of one's confidence of salvation, (John 9:25).
2. To make the inner person stronger, (Ephesians 3:16).
3. To receive spiritual power, (Acts 1:8).
4. To become a zealous Christian, (Revelation 3:14-19).
5. To get victory even in times of hardship and difficulty, (John 16:33).

I delivered a message before an audience of more than three hundred and fifty persons.  In the afternoon I enjoyed some sight seeing of a cave nearby the prayer house with some interested people and here as well I was able to have close fellowship with friends in the Lord.  Hallelujah, I gave thanks.  In the evening from eight to ten, prayer temple director Lee did the presiding, the preaching, and the leading ... and whatever else by herself.  I was in attendance as well and I received a tremendous blessing, a [double] blessing.  After the meeting, I had fellowship with forty pastors and evangelists in the minister's room at the prayer temple and about midnight I set off to sleep.  Today, too, I gave only thanks with all my might for the work done for the Lord.

The Fifth Day  March 8, 1984  (Thursday)

I woke up at 4:30 AM.  I came into the sanctuary at five.  As usual praise with dripping sweat and flowing tears was in progress.  There were still there from the night before in the worship hall fifty to sixty people who had kept up their praying all through the night.  Just walking into the worship hall alone felt like I was overwhelmed by the spiritual atmosphere.  This very [atmosphere] is a needed power in the churches of Japan, indeed, in my church and in me personally.

From 5:20 AM until 6:30 AM, in continuation from the morning before I preached on the second installment of "Prayers God Can Hear."

First, pastor Sang-Duck Bai read aloud an interpretation of Matthew 18:19.  The points of my sermon --

11. You can pray with one heart, (Matthew 18:19).
12. You can pray using all your strength, (Deuteronomy 4:29, Jeremiah 29:12-13, Romans 15:10).
13. You can pray through the Holy Spirit, (Ephesians 6:18, Romans 8:26-27, Jude 20).
14. You can fast and pray, (Daniel 9:3, Acts 13:2-3, 14:23).
15. You can pray rooted in love, (Ephesians 3:14-19).
16. Make intercessory prayers ... The prayer of the Lord Jesus on the cross, the prayer of Stephen, the prayer of Abraham.
17. You can pray in anticipation ... You can pray on the front lines making the first move before the devil.
18. You can pray making confession of your sin, (Nehemiah 1:6) The prayer of David (the Psalms).
19. You can pray shedding tears, (Isaiah 38:1-6).
20. You can pray in the holy name of the Lord, (John 14:13-14, 15:16, 16:24, Acts 3:1-10).

During the sermon they gave praise three times and also had prayer in unison three times.  I went for breakfast from 8-8:30 AM and went out for a walk right after through the deep snow of the mountain.  Outside the cold was ten degrees below.  Surprisingly even in times when there were no meetings at the prayer temple some made "secret prayer closets" in the white snow of the mountain or others made them with hiding places in the rocks.  In the ice and snow they knelt and forgetting the cold they prayed fervently.  They practiced exactly what the Bible said about "praying without ceasing."  In that entire period of about one hour of walking, along the way I saw many times the figures of people praying and I heard the praying voices of the likes of those I could not see from among the hidden places in the tree groves and the rocks in the mountain.

What a wonderful holy land this was!

Starting at 10:30 the morning service (the meeting) began.  While they were praying I came into the worship hall at 11:00 and preached from 11:10 to 12:40.

The sermon was on the topic "Entrust Yourself To The Hand Of The Lord" taking Acts 13:21 as the text.

A Summary Of It --

<Introduction>  In Korea they call the Lord "Chu."

<The Main Subject>

I. What about the hand of the Lord?:

1. They are hands that created heaven, earth and all creation, (Psalm 19:1, Isaiah 66:2).
2. They are hands that freed the Israelites from Egypt, saved them and gave them victory, (Deuteronomy 6:21, Exodus 15:6).
3. They are hands that touched and cleansed leprosy, (Matthew 8:1f, Mark 1:40f).
4. They are hands that delivered Peter from the sea, (Matthew 14:31).
5. They are hands that nourished five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, (John 6:1).
6. They are hands of love that were nailed to the cross, (John 20:20).
7. They are hands of blessing, (Luke 24:50-51).

II. Where were the hands of the Lord?  Who were they with?:

1. They were with those Christians who had been persecuted and suffered for the gospel, (Acts 11:19).
2. They were with those who went on missions preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus, (Acts 11:20).

III. The results of entrusting oneself to the hands of the Lord:

1. A great many people believed and became the Savior's, (Acts 11:21,24).
2. They shared the grace of God, his blessings and joy with other people as well, (Acts 11:23).
3. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and their faith was strengthened, (Acts 11:23-24).
4. They were given a confidence of faith, (Acts 11:23).
5. They started having the ability to encourage others, (Acts 11:23).
6. They came to be called Christians, (Acts 11:26).
7. They started having the ability to assist other persons and churches, (Acts 11:29, 20:35).

<Conclusion> Proverbs 3:5-6 -- Entrust yourself to the Lord who cries out "Entrust it all [to me]!"

The sermon with the above contents that morning took over an hour and thirty minutes.  Every participant in the prayer temple was a believer (though I don't know if they were baptized or not).  Everyone held to some purpose and having come to the prayer temple they were in prayer to God.  For that reason they never have [to set aside any] special invitation or time of decision.  Within the meeting they hold numerous vigorous opportunities for prayers of decision and prayers of dedication.

From 1:30 to 2:00 PM I ate lunch, then afterwards I went down the mountain to a local hotel and took a good long bath.  There are no baths or showers in the prayer houses and country churches.  Their daily customs of living are different from the Japanese and the Americans.  But, recently within the city of Seoul in the apartments, condos, and new homes showers and baths are being furnished; if you have an extended visit you don't have to worry about this.  The Japanese are accustomed to the daily use of sleeping on tatami mats on the floor and can sleep in this style just like the Koreans do without beds.  But, life without a bath is very cumbersome.  During twenty missions to Korea I had as many as six occasions when for an entire week I had no [access] to either a bath or shower.  So, if one really wants to do missions in Korea it is important to have a readiness to do without baths and showers for either a week or two at a stretch.  After finishing up a long bath I caught an hour's worth of sleep in the hotel bed.  I only rented and used this one hotel room for two hours but I felt the five thousand won [which I paid for it] was too high (in yen about one thousand five hundred yen, or forty-five dollars).

In the evening, about six, I returned to the prayer temple, finished up some dinner and took part in the meeting from 7:30 to 10:00.

Tonight the prayer temple director served by herself in the presiding and preaching.  It was completely surprising.  It was just the wife and she was a woman who never attended seminary or barely studied in the sixth [grade] nonetheless any theology.  She was an average common person like Peter.  But, the director was a person with a totally wonderful spirit, because while fasting she prayed and was given by God knowledge and power, and besides that faith and love.  So, from all over Korea crossing denominational lines various fine pastors, more than forty to fifty persons, were always participating in the director's meeting.

Wherein lied her attraction?  I don't think it was humanly based.  But, at the meeting when she stood herself in the pulpit she looked like Stephen and Peter imbued with the Holy Spirit, or even like Marthin Luther.  From 10:00 PM till 11:00 PM in the pastoral office of the prayer temple I had fellowship with twenty pastors and from 11:00 PM until 12:00 AM we laid hands of prayer on twenty people there in that room.

Then, as I prayed in thanksgiving and tranquility I lied down at twelve and went sound asleep.

The Sixth Day  March 9, 1984  (Friday)

I woke up at 4:20.  I got about four hours of sleep.  But, with the help of the Holy Spirit, my health was preserved.  I finished getting myself ready before five and entered the sanctuary at 5:15.  This morning as well there was a fervent atmosphere as ever!  Indeed, the spiritual climate was flowing to the hilt.  Everyone in the audience was sweating, praising, and praying.  This morning's dawn prayer meeting was the last meeting for me in this prayer temple.  This morning the director Mrs. Lee expressed her appreciation and presided over the meeting for me.  As director Lee presided over the meeting a vigorous spiritual power was poured out more than usual and it was so amazing as if the prayers and praise both echoed from heaven.  From 5:30 AM till 6:40 AM I preached from John 15:16 on the topic of "Bear The Fruit Of The Spirit."

The Main Points [Of My Sermon] --

1.  Why are we alive?  Why are we here?  What is [our] purpose?
  A. The invitation of God the Father, (John 6:44).
  B. The election and call of God, (Galatians 1:1).

2.  Why!  What is the purpose for which God has called us?
  A. To bear fruit, (John 15:16).
  B. That [our] fruit will last, (John 15:16).

3.  What is the fruit?  What kind of fruit is there?
  A. Bad fruit equals fruit of the flesh, (Mark 7:21-22, Galatians 5:19-20).
  B. Good fruit equals the fruit of the Spirit, (Galatians 5:22-23).

4.  How do we bear good fruit (the fruit of the Spirit)?
  A. Being firmly connected to the Lord Jesus Christ, (John 15:5).
  B. Dying as a grain of wheat like the Lord Jesus, (John 12:24).
  C. Experiencing the grace of God and telling about it, (Colossians 1:6).

I preached the above material.  During that time they sang three praise songs and prayed in unison.  The meeting ended at 7:00 AM. There were over twenty-eight persons in attendance.

After the meeting I was shown around the temple by evangelist Yoo of the prayer temple.  Surprisingly, in this prayer temple there were four rooms of mentally ill patients with five to six persons per room.  They had them participate and medically treated them.  After breakfast, the director Lee and her husband Pak came to see me off well.  Then I received an offering of thanksgiving from the director for the five days of meetings.  There were six hundred thousand won for me and three hundred thousand won for the interpreter Mr. Bai.  I was greatly surprised.  In my coming to Korea so far I had never received a thank offering of such a large amount.  Generally, when a Japanese or an American goes to Korea on missions, he or she goes on one's own expense.  Even though the meetings were only five days in duration we had received a two month portion of a minister in Korea.  We received the gifts with thanksgiving as a grace of God.  I offered up a prayer of thanksgiving and at 10:20 AM I headed out from the prayer temple in a small sized bus which Mr. Bai was driving.

After riding in the car we arrived at Virtue Church five hours later at 3:20 PM.  First of all, in the sanctuary I presented a prayer of thanksgiving.  In the prayer house were people who vigorously prayed fervent prayers and they were fervent prayers for blessing in the church, the home, and elsewhere and they were making sincere prayers.

<4> Other Prayers

Prayer On The Mountain

The more testing and persecution there is, the more necessary is "prayer or a conversation with God."  As we look at the history of the Korean church, when it has been persecuted by either Japanese imperialism, communism, or even more, by militarism, in order to preserve the purity of the faith [the church] sought fellowship with God the Father of Christ.  They did not seek the help of human beings but sought in the mountains in prayer for help from God, the bosom of the creator of heaven, earth, and all creation.

As I touched upon briefly even in [my] description regarding the prayer houses, the Lord Jesus always would go into the mountains at important times and without being disturbed by anyone he would fellowship with God the Father alone.

Korean Christians follow the example of the Lord Jesus and not knowing it consciously they experience [his example] personally and put it into practice.  There are lots of mountains in the outskirts of Seoul.  On Friday and Saturday nights many people go to the mountains to pray.  Voices calling out "A-beo-ji (o father)," "Joo (o Lord)," ... reverberate through out the mountains.  This is not just in the good seasons of spring, summer, and fall.  It's the same even when it is twenty degrees below with snow and ice out covering up the area.

When I went to the prayer temple in the winter near the thirty-eighth parallel, I saw people go into the mountains even after the prayer house meeting had ended at 11:00 PM and call out all night in a loud voice in continuous prayer.  I got to see among the meetings in the figures of those praying and conquering the extreme cold and hunger the power of prayer and the utmost secrecy.

Also, the men's mission group (an association for the middle aged), the women's mission group (an association for females), the youth meetings and the student meetings would go into the mountains all day long and keep in prayer for five to six hours and after going into the mountains in the evenings they would also pray through out the night.

At any rate, I participated and experienced the wonderfulness of just being in conversation with God and not with anyone else for five to six hours and for all night long.  I think modern prayerless Christians who apply such reasoning as "Prayer is a human monologue," or "As far as prayer goes, the Lord's prayer by itself is enough," or "Three minutes of prayer is sufficient," have a need to go to Korea and into the mountains to pray with them.

Fasting Prayer

As modern Japan is in a period of a food surplus, starvation or the insufficiency of provisions is entirely unknown.  But for those who experienced World War Two and the shortage of provisions afterwards, they know how hard it is to have done without food.

As we see in the Bible, prayer and fasting are interrelated.  For example...

1. Samuel made Israel fast and prayed for their repentance before the Lord, (Second Samuel 7:5-6).

2. The king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, sought for the help of the Lord in prayer and made the entire citizenry of his kingdom of Judah fast when the great army of Edom attacked them, (Second Chronicles 20:2-4).

3. When the enemy attacked, Ezra was embarrassed that he sought the king for help and so sought God by fasting, (Ezra 8:22-23).

4. David fasted and prayed when he heard and realized the word of the Lord which came through the prophet of the Lord Jeremiah, (Daniel 9:1-3).

5. The people of the church at Antioch fasted and prayed when they sent Barnabas and Saul (later Paul) out on Gentile missions, (Acts 13:1-3).

6. The Lord Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness forty days and forty nights after he received baptism, (Matthew 4:2, Luke 4:11).

Korean Christians completely trust in and obey [God's] Word and endeavor at all levels to faithfully practice what they ought to.  Since the Lord Jesus fasted and prayed forty days and forty nights, they want to become like the Lord Jesus and learn by even his personal prayers.  I have met a pastor, a disciple who fasted forty days and forty nights and have heard of such experiences.  Dangers come along with long periods of fasting.  There was even a person who prayed and fasted to death.  The reason he died was, as in almost all cases, not because of what happens during the fast but mistakes in the aftercare at the time after the fast.

In the prayer houses of Korea there are also fasting prayer houses.  The recently built prayer houses in Japan are mostly fasting prayer houses.

Even before giving up food which is the greatest craving of a human being, the attitude in which they pray to God is the biggest cause for the revival of the Korean Churches.

I offer up other examples of prayer meetings:

The National Prayer Meeting (It began since 1964)

The Presidential Prayer Meeting (since 1965)

The Businesspersons' Prayer Meeting

The Judges' Prayer Meeting

International Morning Prayer Meeting (since 1970)

Under these influences, there were the governors' morning prayer meeting, the mayors' morning prayer meeting, the chaplains' morning prayer meeting (prison pastors).  In this way in Korea they all begin with prayer at every hour of the day, in any place and under all circumstances.