3,500 years ago, God descended on Mount Sinai and proclaimed the Ten Commandments with His majestic voice and then engraved the words on stone tablets. All the words of God’s commandments were codified and became the basis of the Old Testament. And everything Jesus said and practiced and all the teachings He gave His disciples, when He came to this earth in the flesh 2,000 years ago, were also recorded in the Bible and became the backbone of the New Testament.

We find many events and incidents in the New Testament, which deeply move us who are walking the path of faith today; Peter, John and James followed Jesus faithfully, Jesus gave His most famous sermon to people on the mountain, He healed the sick and performed many miracles, He established the new covenant, promising that the Passover bread is His flesh and the wine His blood, and so on. Thus, the history of the age of the Father and of the Son is compiled into the Bible and gives us wisdom leading to salvation.

Even though the gospel work, which is being performed in this age of the Holy Spirit, is not codified and recorded yet, it is as important as the history of the age of the Father and of the Son. Just as everything that God Himself spoke and commanded in the past is recorded in the Old and New Testaments and teaches us many lessons today, every word God gives us now, while living with us in the flesh, is also an important and absolute teaching that we must not neglect.

Listen to whatever Sarah tells you

All the teachings of the Bible contain the absolute will of God, which we, the people of God, must never forget. Among them, there are many important commands of God such as “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy,” and, “for the generations to come you shall celebrate the Passover.” But God also said, “Listen to whatever Sarah tells you.” This is also an important teaching of God, which those who will inherit salvation must know and obey.

Through the story of Abraham’s family, let’s take some time to think about what God meant when He told Abraham to listen to Sarah, finding out what position and role she had in her family and whom she represented.

Ge 21:8-12 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

Reviewing the history of Abraham’s family, we can see that Abraham’s estate was to be given to Isaac, born to him by Sarah his wife, who was free. However, Ishmael, Isaac’s older half-brother, who was born by Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant, picked on Isaac. Sarah saw this and told Abraham to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham was greatly distressed because Ishmael was also his son, but God made a decision on this by saying, “Listen to whatever Sarah tells you.” By this, God affirmed Sarah’s request that Hagar and Ishmael were sent out.

This shows that God’s children will inherit the kingdom of heaven through the heavenly Mother, who is free, in this age.

Gal 4:21-28 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. . . . brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

In order for us to inherit the everlasting kingdom of God as the children of promise like Isaac, we must become spiritual children through the heavenly Mother, who is represented by Sarah, and also must obey Her teachings.

God told Abraham, the forefather of faith, to follow what Sarah told him. In those days, people lived in a patriarchal society. Despite such social background, God told Abraham not to do what he wanted but to do what Sarah said. By saying this, Father meant that we should follow the will of Mother, who is the spiritual Sarah, not insisting on our own thoughts and judgment.

The fate of those who do not serve Jerusalem, but turn away from Her

God told Abraham to follow Sarah’s decision. This implies that obeying the word of the heavenly Mother is a necessary condition for us to inherit the eternal kingdom of heaven.

Isa 62:6-7 I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

God planned to establish Mother the heavenly Jerusalem and make Her the praise of the earth. So, when we absolutely believe in Mother, listen to what She tells us and follow Her wherever She goes, we are able to receive praise and honor from the world and go to heaven as well. On the contrary, the people, who do not listen to Mother or follow Her, will come to destruction, as prophesied in the Bible.

Isa 60:4-12 “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. . . . Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations—their kings led in triumphal procession. For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined.”

Proclaiming the resplendent glory of Jerusalem to be revealed in the future, God sternly warned that the nation or kingdom that would not serve Jerusalem would perish. When Jesus came to this earth in the flesh 2,000 years ago, those who did not recognize Him and rejected Him were all destroyed. Likewise, if people do not receive the Holy Spirit and the Bride, who have come to this earth in this age, and disobey Their words, they will go into destruction after all, without a doubt.

Jer 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Zec 14:8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter.

We must never leave God, who has come in the flesh for our salvation, or commit a spiritual evil by disobeying God’s word. In the eyes of God, it is the evil of evils to disobey or desert Jerusalem our heavenly Mother, the spring of living water, who is represented by Sarah, the free woman in Abraham’s family. We were cast down to the earth because we had committed the grievous sin of rebelling against our heavenly Mother, being tempted by Satan. Then, how much more grievous will our sin become if we disobey and reject our heavenly Mother again who has come to save us?

We should not disobey the will of Mother by sticking to our own opinions, nor should we commit the sin of turning away from Her. To us, it seems more reasonable that Sarah should follow the will of Abraham who was the head of the family, but God made the decision to have Abraham follow his wife Sarah.

In this age, too, God the Father wants us to obey the teachings of Mother the new Jerusalem, who is the spring of living water and the spiritual Sarah, so that we may be blessed. While on this earth, Father Himself wrote an autographical statement, “I will follow Mother,” as an example for us to follow.

Right faith in God who came in the flesh

Looking back into the lives of the saints who correctly recognized Jesus and followed Him in faith, let’s think about what kind of mindset we should have as God’s children who have received Mother in this age.

Mt 8:5-13 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.” The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. . . .” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.

Since the centurion recognized the divine nature of Jesus, he said he did not deserve to have God the Creator come to his house, knowing he was a sinner. He believed his servant would be healed if Jesus simply said the word. Jesus was pleased with his faith and healed his servant, according to his faith.

In the days of Jesus, there were various kinds of people: people like Judas Iscariot who did not believe in God just because He came in the flesh, people like the chief priests who instigated people to crucify Jesus, and the people who interrupted Jesus beside Him whenever He gave a teaching. However, the centurion rightly recognized Jesus and received Him by faith. Like him, we should also serve and follow God, who has appeared as the Spirit and the Bride, with perfect faith in Them. Actually, we are required to have a much stronger faith since we live in the age of the Holy Spirit when the glory of God Elohim is radiantly revealed.

Mt 9:18-22 . . . Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples. Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment.

In the above verse, the woman was healed and also granted the blessing of salvation provided by God, because she rightly believed in Christ. What we should pay attention to is that the woman was not only cured of her illness but also blessed with eternal life through her faith. The reason why the stories of the centurion and of the woman suffering from bleeding were recorded in the Bible was not because healing the sick itself was important, but because there is something we should learn from them. That is the attitude of faith and behavior they showed towards Jesus.

Besides, the Bible records many more miracles of healing the sick and opening the eyes of blind men, which Jesus performed. However, what we need to focus on is not the miracles themselves, but what kind of faith they had so that they could obey Jesus’ words and receive such a great blessing from Him.

Touching Jesus’ cloak or washing eyes in the pool of Siloam—this might be something that anyone could do. However, only the people, who believed that Jesus had the power to heal them and obeyed what He said, were blessed to be cured of their diseases. God saw their beautiful faith and blessed them both physically and spiritually; they believed in God who came in the flesh and trusted in Him, so that they were able to experience the temporary joy of being healed and the blessing of eternal life as well. All these are a precious lesson for us today, who are called as children of promise. Those records show us what kind of faith we should have when we follow our heavenly Mother, the spiritual Sarah.

Let’s follow Mother to the end wherever She goes

In this age of the Holy Spirit, our heavenly Father and Mother have come to this earth to save us. We must realize Them correctly, believe in Them absolutely, and come to Them in order to receive the blessing of salvation. Worrying that we might not recognize Mother and fail to believe in Her, Father taught us that we should listen to the word of Sarah, through the history of Abraham’s family.

If the centurion, the woman suffering from bleeding and the blind man had not believed in Jesus and failed to obey His word, their stories would not have been recorded in the Bible. We should follow Mother with a greater faith than the forefathers of faith, and leave more beautiful achievements for the gospel than those recorded in the Gospels and Acts.

Now Mother is with us in the flesh, breathing the same air and walking the same earth with us. Even at this moment, the invisible Bible is being continuously recorded. Realizing this fact, let’s please God with a greater faith than the centurion, with a more beautiful faith than the woman who was subject to bleeding. I earnestly hope that all the brothers and sisters in Zion will follow Mother with joy and obedience to the end wherever She goes, and will all inherit the everlasting kingdom of heaven.