Thursday, October 19, 2017

Letters II

Letters II

Su Xing

Since I rejected God’s kingdom gospel preached by the brothers and sisters from the church in Shandong Province, my spiritual circumstances had gotten ever worse. Meanwhile, my pastors and elders framed me and excluded me from the church in order to fight for the church offerings. I felt extreme pain, and had no idea of what course to take. I often went to the bank of a big river, and sang the song in tears “Lord, You Are My Most Intimate Friend” to the river. I expected the Lord to come soon, saving me from this miserable situation….

Half a year passed. One day, I heard my mother-in-law calling my name from the outside when I was cooking lunch. I made a response, and then saw her come in followed by a quiet, slim, young woman. My mother-in-law said, “This young sister comes here for you. She could not find you according to the address at her hands, so she went to your church, and was then referred to your former neighbor by a sister in your church who didn’t know your new address. The neighbor told me that this young sister was very eager to see you. I guessed she might have something very important to tell you, so I took her here at once.” I looked her up and down, thinking: Who is she? It’s like I didn’t know her. On seeing me, however, the young sister hurried to me and held my hands, saying excitedly, “So you’re Sister Su Xing! I finally found you.” Disorientated by her action, I looked at her with confusion, asking, “Who are you? It seems that I didn’t see you before.” She replied with emotion, “Sister, my family name is Wang. It was Brother Meng and Sister Zhao who introduced you to us. They wrote a letter to our church, the Church of Almighty God in the northeastern region, urging us to do everything we could to find you. They’re too busy to come here personally, so they told us to preach God’s kingdom gospel to you face to face. This letter had been transferred many times before reaching our church. I’ve asked around, finally finding your home….” With that, the young sister was choked up, and passed the letter to me. I took it and saw the following, “Sister Su Xing truly believes in the Lord. Please make sure to find her and preach God’s kingdom gospel to her….” Looking at this letter, I felt a wave of warmth in my heart with tears involuntarily falling. My mother-in-law was also moved, and said, “Thanks be to God! This truly is God’s love!” Then I said to Sister Wang warmly, “Come in, sister.” Her sincerity and kindness really impressed me, and I was not at all defensive.
After lunch, I fetched my co-worker Sister Zhang. Hearing we were going to have a fellowship, my husband decided to join us instead of going to work. Sister Wang asked me with concern, “Sister, Brother Meng mentioned in the letter that they had written many times to you preaching God’s kingdom gospel, but you didn’t accept it. Do you have some misgivings inside? If you have any difficulties, you may bring them up, and we can fellowship together.”
I said, “Since you say that, I’ll speak frankly. I do have some misgivings after reading their letters. Now we are in the last days when various false Christs and prophets have emerged, so we should be quite watchful. Besides, every Sunday our pastors and elders read chapter 24, verses 23-24 of the Gospel of Matthew: The Lord Jesus said, ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.’ They strictly forbid us to listen to sermons elsewhere or contact strangers in case we get deceived and take the wrong way. In that case, our belief will end up in vain.” Sister Zhang, my mother-in-law and husband all expressed the same misgivings.
Then Sister Wang patiently communicated with us the truth of how to distinguish the true Christ from false Christs, and read a passage of God’s words for us.Almighty God says, “If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, and can cast out demons, and heal, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are the coming of Jesus, then this would be the counterfeit of evil spirits, and their imitation of Jesus. The Church of Almighty GodRemember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. … In the conceptions of man, God must always display signs and wonders, must always heal and cast out demons, and must always be just like Jesus, yet this time God is not like that at all. If, during the last days, God still displayed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed—if He did exactly the same as Jesus—then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method; once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about these things” (“Knowing God’s Work Today”). After reading God’s words, Sister Wang fellowshiped, “From Almighty God’s words, we can see that God has a principle in His work, that is, He never repeats the same work and His work is always new and never old with each stage. For example, in the Age of Law, the work of Jehovah was to guide man’s life on earth with the laws. In the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus came, He did not repeat the work of Jehovah, but instead did a new stage of work and made new requirements for man, like confessing and repenting, loving their neighbors, forbearing and forgiving each other, worshiping God in spirit and in truth, and so on. Moreover, He bestowed abundant grace upon man, healed the sick and cast out demons. In the last days, when Christ comes again, He will not repeat the Lord Jesus’ work in the Age of Grace, that is, healing and driving out demons, and performing signs and wonders. Rather, He does a stage of work to judge and purify man with the word. These things can be seen clearly from Almighty God’s words. False Christs do not possess God’s substance and thus are unable to do the work of God Himself. In order to interrupt God’s management, they imitate the work of the Lord Jesus and display miracles to deceive God’s chosen people and destroy God’s work in the new age. As such, during the last days, if we see someone heal and cast out demons, perform signs and wonders, and even proclaim themselves to be the return of Christ, they are definitely the false Christs. Now we must have been clear about why the Lord Jesus told us, ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Matthew 24:23-24).”
After listening to Sister Wang’s fellowship, I put my hand on my breast, keeping pondering in my heart: Oh Lord! I’ve been claiming to guard against false Christs all day long, but actually I have no idea of how to discern them. If I only guard against false Christs, and thus even reject the true Christ, won’t I miss Your salvation? When I thought about this likely consequence, I felt that I had reached a low point. I could no longer stay there at ease, so I went to the kitchen with an excuse to get some water and tried to calm down. While pouring the water, I thought: I did not expect that such a young sister could fellowship so well. These words are just like a timely rain, watering my thirsty spirit. So God has really come back to do a new work! Then I recalled the scenes of me writing to my brothers and sisters in Shandong Province: I lifted my pen and lectured them in an arrogant tone. I thought that I was striving to defend the true way, yet in reality I was resisting God. Was I not one of the Pharisees of modern times? At that point, I was limp and weak from head to toe, and my hands were shivering in spite of myself, as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on me. The content of the letters kept replaying in my mind like a movie. I had an unrelenting sense that I had overstepped the mark. Thinking of this, I lost control and could not stop the tears from flowing down my face. After a moment, I wiped my tears and went back to the room.
Sister Wang looked at me, and said concernedly, “Sister, how do you feel about what we fellowshiped just now?”
I replied with a sigh, “Your fellowship leaves me deeply reproached. I long for the Lord’s coming every day. However, I didn’t think that when the Lord came, I would actually act like the Pharisees. I’ve committed a heinous sin.” At that time, I was already choked with tears.
After investigating Almighty God’s words for some time, Sister Zhang, my mother-in-law, my husband and I all ascertained that Almighty God is precisely the returned Lord Jesus. Feeling exhilarated, I stood by the mailbox and sent the fifth letter to my brothers and sisters in Shandong Province, and my heart was as if flying there together with the letter, “Dear brothers and sisters, thank God for having you preach God’s kingdom gospel to me time and again. Now I’ve accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days and joined the Church of Almighty God. Though I accepted it later than you, I don’t want to lag behind you. I will do my best to catch you up….”

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