THE FOURTH DIMENSION

Quote from the Book

“We need to renew our minds in order to truly grasp the thought of God” (p.122)

The Author

David Yonggi Cho (formerly known as Paul Yonggi Cho) is a South Korean Christian minister. He is Senior Pastor and founder of the Yoido Full Gospel Church, the world’s largest congregation, with a claimed membership of 830,000 of over a Million people. He is also the founder and president of church Growth International. His other bestseller is “Holy Spirit My Senior Partner”, “Prayer That Brings Revival”and“Successful Home Cell Group.”He is over 80 years old.

Insights from the Book

In this book, Dr. Cho introduces the concept of the “fourth dimension”. He states that the physical world exists in three dimensions only (in simple terms height, depth, and breadth) but that a fourth and greater dimension encompasses these. This is the dimension of the spiritual where the supernatural occurs. The fourth dimension can be seen manifested within the three dimension of the world when supernatural occurrences (those that operate out with the laws of nature) take place. Dr. Cho explains that as people we are made up of three parts: the body (our physical self); soul (emotions and personality) and spirit (the part of us that can communicate with God and understand spiritual things). When we are “born again” by accepting Jesus into our lives the spiritual part of ourselves is re-activated and we then gain the ability to understand the spiritual dimension.

Dr. Cho believes that Christians need to be as comfortable operating in this spiritual dimension as we are in the three physical dimensions. This he dealt with especially in chapter 2 where he deals with various aspects of the spiritual “fourth” dimension and how it can affect the physical world, including man’s spirit, the actions of demonic spirits and dreams and visions. He starts by describing in more detail the three parts of man and states that none is more important than the other. We need to take care of our bodies and our emotions/intellect as much as our spirit. He then goes on to explain five different stages of man’s spiritual development which occur as he moves from unbeliever to mature Christian. These stages are: God wants to direct our lives by His Spirit; Before being born again man is incapable of understanding spiritual things; Once man has this understanding he must differentiate between the works of God and the works of Satan (both of which are of the spirit); Only after developing the spiritual senses in this way will the believer be able to understand mature things; The spiritually mature are characterised by restoration and not by destruction. He concludes the book on the creative power of the word which is a valid operational tool of the fourth dimension.