I’m a Lucky Taiwanese Who Has Welcomed the Lord’s Second Coming I

Xin Sheng    United States

After a Startup Failure, I Believed in the Lord and Received His Grace

My name is Xin Sheng and I was born in Taiwan. In 1978, I moved to the United States at age 19 accompanied by my parents. Afterward, to realize my entrepreneurial dream, I opened a retail auto parts store sponsored by my parents. However, it went out of business later for lack of sales channels. Along with that, my startup dream vanished. My parents often gave me attitude for the money loss and sometimes spoke to me sarcastically, asking me to pay their money back. I was so distressed. At that time, I thought of Pastor Yang and his wife whom I met when I was running my store. They served in a neighboring church and I had visited it several times at their invitation. I felt harmony and love and my heart was at peace there. Faced with my parents’ attitudes toward my failure and toward the loss of my business, I felt that my home was lacking in warmth and love compared with the church. So I wanted to stay in the church to calm my mind. There I was moved by the free help of Pastor Yang and his brothers and sisters to other people. They all abided by the teachings of the Lord and pursued to be good people. I felt it was a pure land in the world. Therefore, I turned to the Lord through baptism on Thanksgiving Day of 1981. Thank the Lord for visiting His blessings and profuse grace upon me thereafter. I got married in 1983. My wife and I left our parents and moved to a town in the middle of the United States the next year. I learned aircraft maintenance and repair at a school and meanwhile attended meetings at a Chinese Christian church. Except for workdays, my wife and I would serve in the church. Although it was a small church, there were many believers with fervent hearts and great faith. In 1986, I became an official aircraft maintenance worker and got a stable job. At the same time, my wife and I had our first child. My career and life went smoothly, which made me feel as if I had entered the good land of Canaan. I was happy with the presence of the Lord, often living in joy.

My Wife and I Spread Gospel and Built a Church in Our Hometown, Taiwan

In 1990, my wife came up with the idea of returning to Taiwan for spreading gospel to our families and building a local church. After prayer, we got back to Taiwan with our kids in 1992. At the beginning, there were few believers in our church. Through our constant efforts and cooperation with the local brothers and sisters, the church thrived in five years, burning like fire with an increasing number of believers. Everyone was following the Lord with the utmost confidence. Seeing that the church we established with consistent efforts grew ever better because of the Lord’s blessings, I felt joyous and thanked the Lord for His blessings and grace, and had a greater faith in following Him.

Seven Years Later, I Returned to the United States and Joined the Charismatic Church

Because of some changes in life, my whole family moved back to the United States in 1999. My wife and I decided to settle down here, expecting a new start.

After coming back to America, we found the Charismatic Church and started to serve again, which brought us a new aim and knowledge. The pastor told us, “It is said in the Bible, ‘But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these works that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will’ (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). So we should pursue to be filled with the Holy Spirit, which is a spiritual gift. Only those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are the people possessed of spiritual life. It should be emphasized that everyone must pursue to gain the gift of praying in tongues, for the level of our spiritual life can be upgraded only with the gift of speaking in tongues. If we only pray with the understanding, the level of our spiritual life won’t be upgraded, and then it will be hard to say if we can enter into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord comes….” From then on, people in our church began to pursue various spiritual gifts, and those who gained the gift of speaking in tongues accounted for the largest proportion. I saw that once the pastor laid his hands on the believers and prayed, some cried, some laughed, some suddenly fell down, and some couldn’t stop speaking in tongues … My brothers and sisters always prayed in tongues after we finished singing hymns. But I was unable to do so. I supposed I was not a spiritual person. So I felt troubled for failing to gain any gifts, including speaking in tongues, which was the most common one. Feeling helpless, I just comforted myself with this: Don’t worry, maybe it is still early for me to gain spiritual gifts.

I Was Confused by the Church Situation Where the Believers Pursued to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit

Gradually, a growing number of the believers in our church could speak in tongues. But I saw that when my brothers and sister pursued spiritual gifts and the filling of the Holy Spirit, they paid decreasing attention to the explanation of the Scriptures and the practice of the Lord’s words, and all their deeds were far from testifying to the Lord. I remembered one time when my younger son came back from the church, he said, “I think the church is pretty much like the society. I don’t want to attend meetings anymore.” Actually, I felt the same way about the church. Gradually, I couldn’t feel the work of the Holy Spirit. I began to wonder whether or not the pursuit of being filled with the Holy Spirit was from Him. What’s more, every time we broke bread in Holy Communion, the church became a place of confessing. The moment the glasses of wine were raised, we began to repent our sins. But after that, we returned to real life and again committed sins involuntarily. The original prosperity of our church was lost and never returned. I was worried about living in sin and being unable to save myself. I tried to solve my problem through praying more, reading the Scriptures and spiritual books more, but to no avail. In particular, when I saw the Lord’s words, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), my heart was full of fear and worry. I still lived in sin and was unable to put the Lord’s teachings into practice. I still could lose my temper, show jealousy and hatred toward others, have passions and lusts, and even tell lies for my personal benefits … I repented my sins, but after that, I continued to sin unwittingly. How could I be reborn in this way? I often thought to myself: If the pursuit of being filled with the Holy Spirit and receiving spiritual gifts is necessary for our salvation, why doesn’t the Lord bless our church? Can we really enter into the kingdom of heaven in such a way?

I Heard the News About the Lord’s Return Seventeen Years Later

I befriended Sister Fang on Facebook in November of 2016. In our conversation, I learned that her cousin was very seeking and that his knowledge and understanding of the Bible were very high. Then through Sister Fang, I got to chat with her cousin, Brother Qiancheng. Thanks be to the Lord. He indeed had a thorough and profound knowledge of the Bible, and I gained a new understanding of the Bible through his sharing. He also told me wonderful news that the Lord Jesus has come back. I was ecstatic and eager to know the work He has brought forth. However, when I heard him say, “The Lord has come back. He becomes flesh and expresses the words to do the work of judgment beginning with the house of God …” I felt conflicted and shocked: The Lord has come back through incarnation; how could it be possible? I believe that the Lord will appear to us with glory in a spiritual body instead of through incarnation when He comes back.

I put forward my viewpoint to Brother Qiancheng. He said, “It is meaningful that God incarnate comes to do His work. God doesn’t do anything insignificant. God becomes flesh once again to do His work in the last days. There are divine mysteries here. Let’s look at the prophecies in the Bible, ‘For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation’ (Luke 17:24-25). ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (John 16:12-13). These verses have prophesied that the Lord Jesus will return through incarnation. The Son of man refers to God’s return to flesh, becoming a person who is born to a human and have parents. God really and actually becomes man, but the Spirit within Him is the Holy Spirit, and He is the embodiment of the Spirit of God. If God appeared in a spiritual body, then He wouldn’t be called Son of man. On the other hand, when God comes back in the last days, ‘first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.’ Only when God comes in the flesh will He suffer many things, and if God appeared as the Spirit, He wouldn’t suffer as much. For instance, the Lord Jesus suffered in a practical way before He was nailed to the cross. When He transcended the flesh and became a spiritual body after the resurrection, however, He did not suffer anymore. On the third hand, ‘when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.’ Man can comprehend and enter the truth only if God’s Spirit is materialized in the flesh, speaks and works among man in a practical way, while the direct work of the Spirit cannot achieve such results. We will understand it more clearly after reading Almighty God’s words.”

Then Brother Qiancheng began to read the words of Almighty God. Almighty God says, “The Spirit is impalpable to man, and invisible to man, and the work of the Spirit is incapable of leaving any further evidence or facts of God’s work for man. Man shall never behold the real face of God, and shall always believe in a vague God that does not exist. Man shall never behold the face of God, nor will man ever hear words personally spoken by God. Man’s imaginings are, after all, empty, and cannot replace the true face of God; the inherent disposition of God, and the work of God Himself cannot be impersonated by man. The invisible God in heaven and His work can only be brought to earth by God incarnate who personally does His work among man. This is the most ideal way in which God appears to man, in which man sees God and comes to know the true face of God, and it cannot be achieved by a non-incarnate God” (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh”).

“So if this work is done by the Spirit—if God does not become flesh, and instead the Spirit speaks directly through thunder, so that man has no contact with Him, would man know His disposition? If only the Spirit does the work, then man would have no way of knowing His disposition. People can only behold God’s disposition with their own eyes when He becomes flesh, and reveals His words in the flesh, and expresses His entire disposition through the flesh. God truly lives among man. He is tangible; man can truly engage with His disposition and what He has and is; only in this way can man truly know Him” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)”).

“The work that is of greatest value to corrupt man is that which provides accurate words, clear goals to pursue, and which can be seen and touched. Only realistic work and timely guidance are suited to man’s tastes, and only real work can save man from his corrupt and depraved disposition. This can only be achieved by the incarnate God; only the incarnate God can save man from his formerly corrupt and depraved disposition. Although the Spirit is the inherent substance of God, work such as this can only be done by His flesh. If the Spirit worked single-handedly, then it would not be possible for His work to be effective—this is a plain truth” (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh”).

After reading Almighty God’s words, Brother Qiancheng fellowshiped, “We are still living in sin and under Satan’s domain. Every day we sin and confess. Such corrupt people like us are unfit to see God’s face. What’s more, we are of flesh and blood, so we can’t see God’s spiritual body. When Daniel saw the vision, he set his face toward the ground, became dumb, and there was no strength or breath left in him. When the apostle John saw the vision on the island of Patmos, he fell to the ground as dead. God’s Spirit allows no offense, and can never be approached by man. Only when God is incarnated to be a man, actually carries out His work and speaks His words in the world of man and expresses the truth, can the outcome of salvation of man be attained.”