Almighty God's Word "How to Know Reality"

Almighty God's Word "How to Know Reality"

Almighty God says, "If people are to know God, they must first know that God is the real God, and must know God’s words, God’s real appearance in the flesh, and God’s real work. Only after knowing that all of God’s work is real will you be able to actually cooperate with God, and only through this path will you be able to achieve the growth of your life. All those who have no knowledge of reality have no means of experiencing God’s words, they are ensnared in their conceptions, they live in their imagination, and thus they have no knowledge of God’s words. The greater your knowledge of reality, the closer you are to God, and the more intimate you are with Him; the more you seek vagueness and abstraction, and doctrine, the further you will stray from God, and so the more you will feel that experiencing God’s words is strenuous and difficult, and that you are incapable of entry. If you wish to enter the reality of God’s words, and onto the right track of your spiritual life, you must first know reality and separate yourself from vague and supernatural things—which is to say, first you must understand how the Holy Spirit actually enlightens and guides you from within. In this way, if you can truly grasp the Holy Spirit’s real work within you, you will have entered onto the right track of being made perfect by God."

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Almighty God's Word "How Peter Came to Know Jesus"

Almighty God's Word "How Peter Came to Know Jesus"

Almighty God says, "During his time following Jesus, he had many opinions of Him and always judged Him from his own perspective. Although he had a certain degree of understanding of the Spirit, Peter was not very enlightened, hence his words when he said: “I must follow he who is sent by the heavenly Father. I must acknowledge he who is chosen by the Holy Spirit.” He did not understand the things Jesus did and received no enlightenment. After following Him for some time he grew interested in what He did and said, and in Jesus Himself. He came to feel that Jesus inspired both affection and respect; he liked to associate with Him and stay beside Him, and listening to Jesus’words rendered him supply and help. Over the time he followed Jesus, Peter observed and took to heart everything about His life: His actions, words, movements, and expressions. He gained a deep understanding that Jesus was not like ordinary men. Although His human appearance was exceedingly ordinary, He was full of love, compassion, and tolerance for man. Everything He did or said was of great aid to others, and by His side Peter saw and learned things he had never seen or had before."

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Only the Word of Almighty God Can Save Me | Ironclad Proofs of God’s Words Conquering Denominations’ and Sects’ Leaders

 Only the Word of Almighty God Can Save Me

Shi Lianjun

Huai’an City, Jiangsu Province

I joined the Joseph Church in 1997. In 1999, I was appointed as the district leader of the church in Shuyang County. At that time, the kingdom gospel of Almighty God had spread to our county. I remember that one day in August of that year, someone in our church told me that a person who preached the gospel of the last days was in the home of a believer in Huji Township. After I heard it, I immediately called in four young brothers, and we impersonated the local village cadres and headed swiftly toward the house of that believer on our motorcycles. When we were about 200 meters away from his house, we switched off the engines, and walked up to the house quietly. Peeking through a crack in the door, I saw a stranger in the room reading something aloud from a book in his hands. Furious, I kicked the door open with violence. At the sight of my sudden action, the man hastily put the book into his pocket. I lunged forward, and tore his pocket and snatched the book from him, which I found was a copy of The Truth That One Must Be Equipped With. I leafed through a few pages and flung it onto the desk, and then I grabbed him by the coat front with my left hand, and poking his forehead with my right hand, I asked him with a ferocious tone, “Where did you get this book? Where do you come from?” As I said this, I gave him a violent push that sent him reeling against the door. Before he realized what had happened, I grabbed the book on the desk and tore it in half fiercely. Then I ripped several pages from it and tore them to pieces, and after balling them up, I threw it at his face while blaspheming loudly, “This is purely from the devil, Satan, from an evil spirit, a deceiver!” When he saw I had torn his book, he immediately fell on his knees to pick up the torn book and the balled-up pieces of paper with his hands, and said in tears, “O God, how hard is Your work on earth!” Seeing him so grieved, I was not moved at all, and instead I shouted with glaring eyes, “Get out quickly! If you come again, I’ll send you to the police station!” In this way, I drove him out.

Later, many people came to testify about Almighty God’s work of the last days to me; but for fear of being deceived, I always drove them out before they could speak. Sometimes when they came, I was at home, but I had locked the door from the outside, or I gave them a cold shoulder by pretending to have work to do somewhere. I cannot remember how many times I had done such things.

Although I was so malicious, disobedient, and resistant, Almighty God’s great love did not leave me. On the afternoon of February 13, 2002 (the second day of the Chinese New Year), it was raining outside. Two sisters, pushing their bicycles with the wheels covered with mud and gravel, trudged into my house. When I saw it was the same two persons who had visited my house a few days before, my anger rose. I hurried to push them outward and slammed the door before they were completely out. “Ow!” I heard a cry. The fingers of a sister were shut in the door. But I shouted abuse at her: “You deserve it! Cheek!” Then I went in to watch TV.

The rain continued, but two sisters still stood outside. About half an hour later, my wife noticed that there was blood-stained rainwater flowing down the threshold of our house into the yard. Looking through the crack in the door, she saw one sister was wrapping up her injured fingers with tissues, and there were many blood-stained tissues on the ground. So my wife opened the door and let them in without my permission. At that time, I sat on a chair, legs crossed and back toward them, watching TV, with a teacup in one hand and some sunflower seeds in the other. I cast a sidelong glance at them and saw their rain-drenched hair clinging to their foreheads, their clothes dripping water, and their cotton-padded shoes saturated with muddy water. But I did not speak to them nor ask them to sit down. However, they greeted me warmly. I just took my time sipping tea and eating sunflower seeds. One hour passed, and one episode of the serial was over. Only then did I take a look at them. I thought, “Are people like you qualified to talk about belief in God with me, a dignified district leader of the Joseph Church? I have read through the Bible over a hundred times and deliberated over every word and every sentence in it, and I know which chapter and verse any sentence is in. I have preached countless sermons, sustained countless people, and trained countless workers. I usually only ‘feed’ those senior leaders and knowledgeable preachers, and the junior workers of the house of Joseph can hardly have a chance to meet me.” At this thought, I said to them with arrogance, “Ask your ‘leader’ to come and discuss the Bible with me. I’ll surely defeat him!” Hearing my words, they smiled, and one of them said to me, “Brother, it is true we don’t know much about the Bible. Please give us some instruction.” At this, I said proudly, “Genesis 28:14 says that all peoples on earth will be blessed through Jacob and his offspring. Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, and in Genesis 49:25-26, Jacob blessed Joseph, saying, ‘Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brothers.’ You see, we, the house of Joseph, were blessed with so many blessings, and we are Jacob’s offspring, so all peoples on earth will be blessed through our Joseph Church. Besides, Genesis 37:9 says that Joseph saw in the dream that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him. These verses are enough to prove that we people of the house of Joseph are the most blessed, and that all denominations will be ruled by our Joseph Church in the future, and the head of our Joseph Church will lead us to judge all peoples on earth! The Ephraimites of our Joseph Church will reign for hundreds of thousands of years!” After I finished these words, the sister smiled again and said, “Brother, since you know the Bible very well, you surely won’t forget what Psalms 78:67 says: ‘Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim.’ Doesn’t this verse plainly say that God had already rejected Joseph? In fact, the Scripture only records the work God did before. It’s true that Joseph was blessed, but have you ever thought that it was not God Himself but his father Jacob who blessed him? Jacob was only a created being in God’s hand. He could not represent God, nor could his blessing of Joseph fully represent God’s will. Brother, you should also know that Genesis 50:22-26 says that Joseph did not come out of Egypt in the end, but died in Egypt, a land cursed by God. Finally, it was through Moses that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and into the good land of Canaan, the very land blessed by God. But Joseph did not enter into it, much less enjoy it. Brother, why do you still cling tightly to ‘Joseph’?” At her fellowship, I found nothing to answer, for what she said was fully scriptural and all true. However, I was unable to lay aside my vanity and face, and so I turned the pages of the yellowed Bible in my hand and said loudly, “Acts 4:12 says that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus, and Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being. These verses plainly say that Jesus is God, but why do you preach Almighty God today?” The other sister answered me calmly, “Brother, please look at Revelation 1:8, 4:8, 15:3… These verses say that the Lord God is the Almighty who is, and who was, and who is to come. From these prophecies, we can see that the entire work of managing mankind from the creation of the world to the conclusion of the age in the end is done by Almighty God Himself. Let’s also look at Genesis 17:1, 28:3, 35:11… These verses all say that God’s name is Almighty God, for His substance is almighty. Just now you mentioned that Jacob blessed Joseph; wasn’t it also done in the name of the Almighty? Isaiah 10:21 says, ‘The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.’” And then she fellowshipped with me about the three stages of God’s work: The name “Jehovah” represents the Age of Law, the name “Jesus” represents the Age of Grace, and “Almighty God” represents the final Age of Kingdom. God takes different names in different ages, and each name has its meaning.

After hearing this, I asked another question: “In John 5:39 the Lord said: ‘and [the Scriptures] are they which testify of me.’ Why then have you forsaken the Bible today?” The sister answered me with a smile, “Brother, we believe in God to gain life, and not to keep obstinately to the Bible. Before and after the sentence you just mentioned, there are other words which you have ignored. Jesus said: ‘Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life.’ Just consider this: The Lord clearly said here that we human beings ‘think’ that in the Scriptures we have eternal life. It is true that the Scriptures are God’s testimony, but if we want to receive life, we must go to God, must follow God’s footsteps. Furthermore, Revelation 2:17 prophesies, ‘… To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knows saving he that receives it.’ The hidden manna mentioned here refers to the words in the little scroll prophesied in Revelation, which are the utterances of God Himself in the Age of Kingdom. Brother, please think about this: Of Jesus’ disciples at that time, who had seen or got the white stone? Who had eaten the hidden manna? They will only be given to people when the Lord comes the second time. Just as the Lord said in John 16:12-13: ‘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: … and he will show you things to come.’” The two sisters’ fellowship left me at a loss what to say or do. But I really could not put aside my pride, so I said shamelessly, “The Lord Jesus was able to raise the dead at that time. Now there’s a brother in our church who has terminal esophageal cancer. You can go to preach the gospel of the last days to him. If he gets healed, I will acknowledge that the way you preach is the true way and the one you believe in is the true God.” One sister said to me, “Brother, as a believer in Jesus, why don’t you obey the word of the Lord? In Matthew16:4, the Lord said to those who tested Him: ‘A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.’” I was dumb again. And then they read me these words of Almighty God: “Do you believe in signs and wonders, or do you believe in God Himself? Jesus did not display signs and wonders when He was derided by others; was He not God? Do you believe in signs and wonders, or do you believe in the substance of God? Man’s views about belief in God are wrong! Jehovah spoke many words during the Age of Law, but even today some of them have yet to be fulfilled. Can you say that Jehovah was not God?

Today, it should be clear to all of you that, in the last days, it is principally the fact of ‘the Word becomes flesh’ that is accomplished by God. Through His actual work on earth, He causes man to know Him, and to engage with Him, and to see His actual deeds. He causes man to clearly see that He is able to display signs and wonders and there are also times when He is unable to do so, and this is dependent on the age. From this you can see that God is not incapable of displaying signs and wonders, but instead changes His working according to His work, and according to the age. In the current stage of work, He does not show signs and wonders; that He showed some signs and wonders in the age of Jesus was because His work in that age was different. God does not do that work today, and some people believe Him incapable of displaying signs and wonders, or else they think that if He does not display signs and wonders, then He is not God. Is that not a fallacy? God is able to display signs and wonders, but the work of this age is different, and so He does not do such work. Because this is a different age, and because this is a different stage of God’s work, the deeds made plain by God are also different. Man’s belief in God is not the belief in signs and wonders, nor the belief in miracles, but the belief in His real work during the new age.” At these words, I woke up somewhat, and came to realize that my former viewpoint of believing in God was wrong. I thought, “I have only sought signs and wonders but not sought God’s will, and I have believed that whether a way is the true way should be judged by whether its followers’ prayers can be fulfilled and whether they can heal the sick and drive out demons. I have determined the true way and false ways based on this without knowing that God’s work is always progressing forward.” But as my heart was too hardened, I still had my back to them. Then they turned on their recorder and played the tape of God’s word for me: “Religious heads are merely the leaders of a particular religion, and cannot represent God, or the One who created the heavens and earth and all things. Religious heads can lead all those within the entire religion, but cannot command all creatures beneath the heavens—this is a universally acknowledged fact. Religious heads are mere leaders, and cannot stand equal to God (the Creator). All things are in the hands of the Creator, and in the end they will all return to the hands of the Creator. Mankind was originally made by God, and regardless of the religion, every person will return under the dominion of God—this is inevitable. Only God is the Most High among all things, and the highest ruler among all creatures must also return under His dominion. No matter how high the status of man, he cannot take man to a suitable destination, and no one is able to class all things according to kind. Jehovah Himself created mankind and classed each according to kind, and when the end time arrives He will still do His own work Himself, classing all things according to kind—and this cannot be done by any apart from God.” When I heard this, I suddenly saw the light. “Yes, aren’t Jacob, Joseph, and the head of our Joseph Church all men, the creatures of God? Since they are creatures, they cannot be called God, much less represent God, nor can they speak in the place of God. A religious head can only lead all those within his own denomination but cannot command the people in all the other denominations. Thus, how can the people of all the other denominations turn to our Joseph Church? Only the Creator is able to do the work of unifying all denominations into one.”

Then I heard the following words: “Although Jehovah, Jesus, and the Messiah all represent My Spirit, these names only denote the different ages in My management plan, and do not represent Me in My entirety. The names by which people on earth call Me cannot articulate My entire disposition and all that I am. They are merely different names by which I am called during different ages. And so, when the final age—the age of the last days—arrives, My name shall change again. I shall not be called Jehovah, or Jesus, much less the Messiah, but shall be called the powerful Almighty God Himself, and under this name I shall bring the entire age to an end.” My heart was shocked by these words, and I thought, “Why do these words carry authority, power, and majesty? Apart from God, who else dared to speak in such a position?” Then I truly realized that all my doings were exactly the same as the Pharisees’ sinful deeds of resisting Jesus in the Old Testament age. “Have I not become a Pharisee of the new age? I have only believed in God’s name, but not His substance, and I have even regarded God’s new work in the last days as the deception of an evil spirit. Haven’t I committed the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit?” At that moment, I felt as if awakening from a dream. I dared not be heart-hardened anymore. So I hastily put down my crossed legs, and turned and looked at the sisters, who had stood for several hours. When I gave my chair to them and invited them to sit down, they wept…

Thank God for His great salvation for me. It was God’s word that conquered me, so that I gave up my five years of vague belief in the Joseph Church, and turned to Almighty God—Christ of the last days, and began to walk upon the right track of believing in God and pursuing to know God. Afterward, I read these words of God: “… those who believe in God because of the signs are surely the category that shall suffer destruction. Those who are incapable of accepting the words of Jesus who has returned to flesh are surely the progeny of hell, the descendants of the archangel, the category that shall be subjected to everlasting destruction.” “Those who only care about the words of the Bible, but who are unconcerned about the truth or seeking My footsteps—they are against Me, for they limit Me according to the Bible, and constrain Me within the Bible, and so are blasphemous in the extreme towards Me. How could such people come before Me? They pay no heed to My deeds, or My will, or the truth, but instead obsess over words, words that kill. How could such people be compatible with Me?” These words of God made me tremble with fear, and moreover, made me regret my past deeds: “I not only resisted God, but also hurt so many brothers and sisters who preached the gospel of the last days and hindered so many brothers and sisters from turning to Almighty God. I was really guilty of the most heinous sin! I believed in God and longed for Him, but I didn’t know Him and even opposed Him, the returned true God. I hate myself for turning away my ears from the truth and refusing God’s salvation so many times. The brothers and sisters came time and again with smiling faces, but I always threw them out with a horrible face. I was really inhuman! No matter how high the message they preached, I always closed my ears to it, and I blasphemed that it was of an evil spirit coming to deceive people. I even thought that only I was God’s intimate and that only the God I believed in was the true God, while the God others believed in was a false god. Little did I know that what I did was opposed to the new work of Almighty God, and I was an antichrist. It is too late for me to regret…” Thinking of this, I prayed, “O Almighty God! Thank You for giving me another opportunity to be saved. It is Your word that has woken me up and enabled me to receive Your great salvation. According to what I have done, I should have been cursed by You. However, You remembered no transgressions of mine and still melt me with a tender motherly love and enlightened me with Your words, so that I could accept Your work of the last days, the work of purifying people with the word. O God! How great Your love is! You have expended too much care and thought on me, and I will not let You down. I will do all I can in these last days to cooperate with You and bring to You those who truly believe in You but are still groping in darkness, so that they will understand Your intention and stop resisting You, and so that Your heart will be consoled.”

Here I sincerely advise the brothers and sisters in the House of Joseph and all the other denominations and sects who have not turned to Almighty God: Never follow in my footsteps! Wake up and quickly turn to Almighty God! For Almighty God is precisely the returned Jesus! There is not much time left for Him to select people in a hidden way. I hope that the brothers and sisters will not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Otherwise, when God appears publicly, it will be too late for you to do anything. Just as Almighty God says: “… when you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the public appearance of the Sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you, yet you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven is also the time when you go down to hell to be punished. It will herald the end of God’s management plan, and will be when God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth.”

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Almighty God Gave Me a Second Life | Ironclad Proofs of God’s Words Conquering Denominations’ and Sects’ Leaders

Almighty God Gave Me a Second Life

—The Story of a Person Who Fiercely Resisted Almighty God’s Work of the Last Days

Zheng Yongshen

Funan County, Anhui Province

I was a co-worker of the Stream of Recovery. On December 8, 1998, a brother of our church came to me to preach the work of Almighty God of the last days. He gave me a book of Almighty God’s word and asked me to read it. I was very angry and rebuked him, “We only believe in the Lord Jesus; why did you convert to the faith of another god?” Running my eyes over more than one page of the book, I laid it aside, because I thought the words were plain and simple, and too shallow. The brother said to me earnestly, “Better finish reading it, and you will know it is truly the word personally spoken by God.” “I don’t think so. Now that you insist it is God’s own word, you get a pen and a notebook, put them on the table, and ask God to speak!” I said rudely. And then I murmured to myself angrily, “You believers in Almighty God have stolen many of our lambs, and now you also want to draw me in. No way!” Then I went to the church, and called some other co-workers together and discussed how to guard against the “Eastern Lightning,” trying to work out ways to fight back against it. After that, we went to every meeting place spreading these slanderous and blasphemous words: “You mustn’t believe in the ‘Eastern Lightning.’ It is a false Christ, a false prophet, who tries to deceive people in the disguise of the Lord. What we believe in is the truth. Don’t listen to their messages. Those people are the disturbers of the church. It is a test of whether we have foundation. If your foundation is built on sand, you will be taken away by them; if you have foundation, you will be able to stand no matter how they disturb.” And I also started rumors among the believers, “The sect of Almighty God is a mafia, and they have guns. Once you join them, you can’t withdraw. If you want to, they will gouge out your eyes, cut off your nose or ears, or break your legs. And they are promiscuous.” In order to preserve my position and fame and prevent the brothers and sisters from receiving the truth, I fabricated horrible lies to seal off the church and used the biblical verses out of context to condemn God’s work of the last days. As a result, many who had no discernment and didn’t know the truth were too frightened to accept Almighty God’s work of the last days. These are the evils I have done.

One day in February 2000, my younger sister came to my house, and she preached Almighty God’s gospel of the last days to me. I said to her, “Don’t come again if you preach it. I’ve heard it a few times. I won’t believe in it whatever you say.” But she kept talking about how God does the reaping, choosing, and judging work when He has come this time. No matter what she said, I couldn’t take it in. Since then, my sister often came to preach the gospel to me, and meanwhile, she helped me do any work. Even so, my marble heart was not moved. Several times she left in tears because of my stiff resistance to the gospel. Each time after she left, I still did evil as before—desperately blaspheming and slandering Almighty God’s work and sealing off the church, for fear that all the believers might accept Almighty God and I would become a “general without an army.”

One day in September 2000, my sister came again. She invited me to her home to listen to the gospel of the last days, because some preachers were there, but I brushed her off. She said to me, “Why do you believe in God, brother? People often say, ‘With the truth on your side, you can go anywhere; without it, you can’t take a step.’ Since you believe in the true God, why don’t you dare to fellowship with others?” My believing wife also said, “Why don’t you go to meet them? Are you afraid of losing face?” I was annoyed by her words and said, “Afraid of losing face? I’ll go!” So I left with my sister in a fit of pique. Arriving there, I saw seven people were present, and they were waiting for me. We immediately started to fellowship. When a brother said that God came to do the work of the word this time, I got furious and asked, “Where is the word God has personally spoken?” The brother took out a book entitled “Utterances of Christ” and said that it was God’s personal word. “You all preach the same. The book is plainly written by a man, but you say that it is God’s word. I don’t believe!” I said angrily. With that, I charged out of the door in exasperation. After I returned from there, I sealed off the church more fiercely, for I was certain that what I believe in was the most true God. I went to the meeting places everywhere preaching, “What those people believe in is the antichrist, the one written in the Bible who ‘sits in the temple of God and shows himself that he is God.’ …. What we believe in is the truth. As long as we stand firm, we will be overcomers and pillars. When the coming of the kingdom of the Lord Christ is declared, we will enter the kingdom.” I ran around sealing off the church for the sake of preserving my position, just like what Jesus said in the Bible: “… for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in” (Matthew: 23:13).

On December 9 of 2000, my sister came to my home again. She warned me not to speak without fear, not to blaspheme God, or I would be punished by God. I didn’t believe her words at all, and even retorted arrogantly, “Don’t try to frighten me. I’ve never feared anything.” But several days later, I really received God’s discipline. On the afternoon of December 16, I went to preach with a co-worker, and after speaking only two sentences in the meeting, I lost my voice. Seeing that, the co-worker gave me a glass of water, and I drank it. But after I said two sentences, I lost my voice again. This happened three times. Shaking my head, I had to stop preaching for a rest.

On the morning of February 6, 2001, a brother in my village, who had been a co-worker of mine, came to my home and talked with me about belief in God. While we were talking, my sister came again. She begged me to go to listen to the messages about Almighty God’s work. The brother also urged me to go, and he wanted to accompany me. I said, “We can’t go. Being weak doesn’t matter, but we mustn’t go astray.” But he said, “Since we joined the Stream of Recovery, we have heard that Brother Li talked about the oneness and the building up, but why have the churches not been united into one by now but instead divided? There must be something wrong. And Brother Li said that the ‘corporate new man’ would appear before 2000. Now is already 2001, but why has it not appeared yet? The ‘corporate new man’ is sure to have appeared, but we don’t know where it is. We should seek! Let’s go hear their messages. If it is a true way, we accept it, and if it isn’t, that’ll do us no harm, and we’ll just take it as a visit to the relative….” After much of his persuasion, I agreed to go listen to their fellowship. When we got there, we saw several brothers were waiting for us. One brother asked me how long I had believed in God and what was the condition of our church. I said, “I’ve believed for five years. Our church life is not normal.” The brother continued to ask, “What do you think is the root of the desolation of the church?” I gave no reply. Then he began to fellowship from Genesis to Revelation. He fellowshiped, “God’s work is always new and never old, and does not repeat, and it doesn’t conform to men’s notions. God can open up a new age and bring the old age to an end…. The key feature of God’s work is ‘new’ and ‘wondrous,’ and if one keeps up with God’s work, he will ‘live,’ or he will ‘die.’ For example, in the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus came, He spoke new words and did new work. Those disciples kept up with the steps of God’s work. They accepted the words and work of the Lord Jesus and received God’s new supply and blessings. The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, however, failed to follow the steps of God’s work. They held on to the Old Testament and used the letters of the prophecies in it to resist and condemn the Lord Jesus and even crucified the Lord Jesus. They committed a heinous sin and received God’s punishment and curse in the end. This shows that as a believer in God, one should closely follow the footsteps of the Lamb, and wherever He went, he should follow Him closely. If one cannot give up his old notions or keep pace with God’s work, he will only end up being eliminated by God.”

The brother also fellowshiped about the causes of the Pharisees refusing to acknowledge the Lord Jesus as Christ and resisting Him: 1. The Old Testament made no record of the genealogy of Jesus. If there had been a detailed genealogy of Jesus in it, people wouldn’t have resisted Him. 2. The Old Testament prophesied that a virgin should conceive, and bear a son, and should call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). However, people saw that Jesus had both parents and brothers and sisters, and moreover, His name was not called Immanuel, which were not in agreement with the prophecy. 3. The prophecy said that He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah5: 2), but people saw that Jesus preached as a Nazarene, which didn’t correspond with the prophesy either. 4. What Jesus did was completely different from the work that Jehovah did in the age of the Old Testament. He didn’t enter the temple, nor did He keep the Law, not observing the Sabbath and other things. People thought that Jesus destroyed the Law and opposed Jehovah. Moreover, He even claimed Himself to be the Son of God. So the Pharisees nailed Jesus to the cross for the sake of safeguarding the Law and the work of Jehovah. 5. The Old Testament prophesied that there would come One who would be ruler over Israel (Micah 5: 2), and the government should be on His shoulder (Isaiah 9: 6). But actually a very ordinary “Nazarene” came. The chief priests, elders, scribes, and Pharisees all despised Him and all people sneered at Him (Matthew 27:29-44). The brother then asked me, “If the Pharisees had known that Jesus was the Messiah who would come, would they have resisted Him?” “Of course not!” I said quickly. “Right,” he said. “The Pharisees and scribes rejected Jesus and crucified Him simply because they didn’t recognize that Jesus was Christ and because what Jesus did was completely different from the Old Testament. Today we are all expecting the Lord Jesus to come. Will He still be called Jesus when He returns in the last days? Will people be able to recognize Him?” I replied, “It’s hard to say.” Then he continued, “The Lord has already come. He has become flesh and started new work. He is female this time.” Hearing this, I changed color, and my head buzzed instantly. I cried, “It is possible that the Lord has already come, but it is absolutely impossible that He has become flesh and is female!” These two things were most unacceptable to me, so I didn’t like to listen anymore, and I got up and wanted to leave. The brother who came with me stopped me, saying, “Since you agree with most of what he has said, let’s hear him out and see how he will explain the other questions, so that we may gain more insight….” I sat down reluctantly and prayed in my heart, “Lord, please help me and give me discernment so that I won’t be deceived.” However, I couldn’t take in anything. The brother asked me some questions, and I didn’t answer him. Seeing this, he suggested, “Let’s stop talking about that. Shall we talk about the Bible?” I nodded and said, “OK.” So he showed me several verses which predicted the coming of the Lord: Luke 17:24-25, 17:26-30, Revelation 1:12-16, Hebrews 9:28, Revelation 11:15, and Revelation 14:1-4, 17:14. The brother said, “These verses mention the ‘Son of man,’ ‘Christ,’ and the ‘Lamb.’ Then, what actually is the Son of man, Christ, or the Lamb? Both Jehovah and Jesus are God Himself. Why is Jesus called the Son of man, Christ, or the Lamb but Jehovah is not?” I really didn’t know the answer. I had believed several years but I had never thought about this question. However, for the sake of my vanity and face, I was ashamed to say I didn’t know the answer. So I said, “You can fellowship about it.” The brother said, “The ‘Son of man,’ ‘Christ,’ and the ‘Lamb,’ all are the names by which God incarnate is called. The Lord Jesus was called Christ because He was the holy flesh donned by the Spirit of God. He had both a normal humanity and a complete divinity. Only the One who has the two qualities can be called Christ. Jehovah was the Spirit, and He at times appeared in the spiritual body. But He had only complete divinity and didn’t have normal humanity. So Jehovah could not be called Christ, the Son of man, or the Lamb. The Bible predicts that when the Lord comes the second time, He will be called the Son of man, Christ, or the Lamb. Doesn’t it mean that God will come in the flesh? If the Spirit or the spiritual body comes, can He be called those names?” Hearing these words, I suddenly saw the light: It turns out that the Lord will become flesh when He comes the second time! All at once I felt much relieved and was willing to seek. The brother went on saying, “Luke 17: 24-25 says, ‘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.’ Doesn’t it also mean that the Lord will become flesh when He comes the second time? If the Spirit or the spiritual body comes, could He suffer or be rejected by people? Besides, the Bible says that false Christs will appear to deceive people in the last days (Matthew 24:3-5). We all know that false Christs must be men. If the Lord came not in the flesh but in the spiritual body, could the false Christs imitate Him or impersonate Him? Could they deceive people? Why did Jesus say there would be false Christs in the last days? Wasn’t He giving a hint to His disciples that He would become flesh when He came again? What do you think of it, brother?” Thank God! Through the brother’s fellowship, I finally understood the truth of this aspect. Then I asked, “How come I have never thought of that before?” The brother said, “You didn’t think of that because you have defined God and refused to seek. Didn’t Jesus say that ‘Seek, and you shall find,’ and that ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ and ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness’? How could one, who doesn’t seek, humble himself, or hunger and thirst for righteousness, receive the enlightenment and guidance from the Lord?” Hearing these words, I felt ashamed of myself and regretted my blind condemnation of God’s new work without seeking it because of my stubbornness and arrogance.

Afterward, through reading God’s word, I realized: Whether God chooses to do the work through the means of the Spirit or God incarnate is according to the need of His work, the need of mankind, and the extent of Satan’s corruption of man. This is like a doctor treating a patient’s illness. What methods and medicine the doctor will use must be in accordance with the need of the patient. The doctor cannot treat the patient as he likes. In the Age of Law, because men had been shallowly corrupted, God worked through the means of the Spirit, and He only asked them to keep the law and be conscious of sin. But as the times developed, men’s corruption has become deeper, and moreover, they have no power to overcome sin. If God still works by the means of the Spirit, the work wouldn’t achieve a desirable effect on them. Therefore, in the last days, God came in the flesh again, and He eats and lives together with men. He gives men accurate words and specific guidance, supplying them according to their needs. Only in this way can they be saved from the influence of Satan step by step, so that they will live in the light and live under God’s care and keeping. It is just as what Almighty God says: “This time, God comes to do work not in a spiritual body but in a very ordinary one. … In Him, you cannot see anything that is different from others, but you can receive from Him the truths you have never heard before. This insignificant flesh is the embodiment of all the words of truth from God, that which undertakes God’s work in the last days…. He is your gate into the kingdom, and your guide into the new age.” “Though what man sees this day is a God that is the same as man, a God with a nose and two eyes, and an unremarkable God, in the end God will show you that without the existence of this man, the heaven and earth will undergo a tremendous change; without the existence of this man, the heaven will grow dim, the earth will become chaos, and all mankind will live in famine and plagues. He will show you that without the salvation of God incarnate in the last days, then God would have long ago destroyed all mankind in hell; without the existence of this flesh, then you would forever be chief of sinners and corpses evermore. You should know that without the existence of this flesh, all mankind would face an inevitable calamity and find it difficult to escape God’s more severe punishment of mankind in the last days. Without the birth of this ordinary flesh, you would all be in a state where neither life nor death will come no matter how you seek it; without the existence of this flesh, then this day you would not be able to receive the truth and come before the throne of God. Rather, you would be punished by God because of your grievous sins. Do you know? If not for the return of God to the flesh, none would have a chance at salvation; and if not for the coming of this flesh, God would have long ago ended the age of old. As such, can you still reject the second incarnation of God? Since you can so greatly profit from this ordinary man, then why would you not accept Him readily?” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) Through God’s words and the brother’s fellowship, I came to understand that corrupt men are in great need of the salvation of God incarnate. My notion about God’s incarnation was completely resolved. But I still couldn’t get my head around the fact that the God incarnate is female. So the brother read me the biblical verse in Genesis 1:27, which says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” And he also read me these words of Almighty God: “Each stage of work done by God has a real significance. When Jesus arrived, He was male, and this time He is female. From this, you can see that God created both male and female for His work and with Him there is no distinction of gender. When His Spirit arrives, He can take on any flesh at will and the flesh represents Him. Be it male or female, both represent God as long as it is His incarnate flesh.” “If in this stage He did not become flesh to personally do work for man to witness, man would forever hold on to the notion that God is only male, not female.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) The brother fellowshiped, “We cannot understand a prophecy until it is fulfilled and God explains it. If God doesn’t interpret, we can’t understand it even though it is fulfilled. For God says: ‘In the eyes of God, man is smaller than an ant, so how can man fathom God’s work?’ (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) God is so great, so wondrous and unfathomable, and no believer in God can deny that. Since God can be incarnated as male, can’t He become female? So, as a believer in God, we should pray and seek more before God when we don’t understand, and shouldn’t jump to conclusions. This is what a true believer in God should do.”

After two days’ fellowship, I finally understood the questions that had baffled me and gave up my former notions. Only then did I realize that all that I had done before were deeds that resist and rebel against God. If God had treated me according to my evil doings, I should have long been cursed by God. I am sincerely grateful to Almighty God for giving me a second life, which left me a chance to receive God’s salvation of the last days. The above is the story of how I fiercely resisted Almighty God’s work of the last days. I hope that none of the brothers and sisters who have not accepted Almighty God’s gospel of the last days will resist God and reject His salvation while expecting Him to come like me. Because the word of Almighty God says: “The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh)

When I finished writing this testimony, my face was covered with tears. I remembered the scenes of the past, when I rebelled against and resisted Almighty God and when my sister left my home in tears. I thought: How hard Almighty God carries out the work on the earth and how much humiliation He has suffered for saving man. Although I fabricated rumors, spoke blasphemous and slanderous words against Him, and sealed off the church, Almighty God didn’t abandon me or repay me according to my sins of resistance against Him; rather, He did all He could to save me, sending people to preach the gospel to me again and again, and finally brought me before Him and gave me an opportunity to repent and start anew. At that time, I couldn’t help crying to God, “O Almighty God! I was too rebellious and I grieved You. I feel deeply indebted to You…. In the rest of my life, I will devote myself to testifying Your wonderful deeds!”

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Almighty God's word "What is the difference between the Age of Grace and the Age of Kingdom? Why must I accept the kingdom gospel so as to be saved?"

What is the difference between the Age of Grace and the Age of Kingdom? Why must I accept the kingdom gospel so as to be saved?

The answer from God’s word:

“At the time Jesus’ work was the redemption of all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed. Salvation did not mean man had been completely gained by Jesus, but that man was no longer of sin, that he had been forgiven his sins: Provided you believed, you would never more be of sin. … Jesus did not come to perfect and gain man, but to do one stage of work: bringing forth the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and completing the work of the crucifixion—and so once Jesus was crucified, His work came to a complete end. But in the current stage—the work of conquest—more words must be spoken, more work must be done, and there must be many processes. So too must the mysteries of the work of Jesus and Jehovah be revealed, so that all people may have understanding and clarity in their belief, for this is the work of the last days, and the last days are the end of God’s work, the time of this work’s conclusion. This stage of work will elucidate for you the law of Jehovah and the redemption of Jesus, and is principally so that you may understand the entire work of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, and appreciate all the significance and substance of this six-thousand-year management plan, and understand the purpose of all the work done by Jesus and the words He spoke, and even your blind credence in and adoration of the Bible. All this it will allow you to perceive. You will come to understand both the work done by Jesus, and the work of God today; you will understand and behold all of the truth, the life, and the way. In the stage of work done by Jesus, why did Jesus depart without concluding God’s work? Because the stage of Jesus’ work was not the work of conclusion. When He was nailed to the cross, the words that He had spoken also came to an end; after His crucifixion, His work consequently finished. The current stage is different: Only after the words are spoken to the end and God’s entire work is concluded will His work have finished. During Jesus’ stage of work, there were many words that remained unsaid, or which were not fully articulated. Yet Jesus cared not what He did or did not say, for His ministry was not a ministry of words, and so after He was nailed to the cross He departed. That stage of work was chiefly for the sake of the crucifixion, and is unlike the stage today. This stage of work is principally for the sake of completion, of clearing up, and of bringing all work to a conclusion. If the words are not spoken to their very end, there will be no way of concluding this work, for in this stage of work all work is brought to an end and accomplished using words. At the time, Jesus did much work that was incomprehensible to man. He departed quietly, and today there are still many who do not understand His words, whose understanding is erroneous yet still believed by them to be correct, who do not know that they are wrong. In the end, this current stage will bring God’s work to a complete end, and will provide its conclusion. All will come to understand and know of God’s management plan. The conceptions within man, his intentions, his erroneous understanding, his conceptions toward the work of Jehovah and Jesus, his views about the Gentiles, and all his deviation and errors will be corrected. And man will understand all the right paths of life, and all the work done by God, and the entire truth. When that happens, this stage of work will come to an end.”

from “The Vision of God’s Work (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

“… after the work of Jesus ended, God still continued His work for the next age, because the entire management of God is always progressing forward. When the old age passes, it will be replaced by a new age, and once the old work has been completed, a new work will continue the management of God. This incarnation is God’s second incarnation following the completion of Jesus’ work. Of course, this incarnation does not occur independently, but is the third stage of work after the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. … When Jesus came into the world of man, He brought the Age of Grace and ended the Age of Law. During the last days, God once more became flesh, and when He became flesh this time, He ended the Age of Grace and brought the Age of Kingdom. All those who accept the second incarnation of God will be led into the Age of Kingdom, and be able to personally accept the guidance of God. Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering, and did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to take on the sins of man as the sin offering, but also required God to do greater work to completely rid man of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan. And so, after man was forgiven his sins, God has returned to flesh to lead man into the new age, and begun the work of chastisement and judgment, and this work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and shall gain the truth, the way, and the life.

If people remain in the Age of Grace, then they shall never be free of their corrupt disposition, let alone know the inherent disposition of God. If people always live among an abundance of grace but are without the way of life that allows them to know God and satisfy God, then they shall never truly gain Him though they believe in Him. … if you cling to views of the past, and reject or deny the fact of the second incarnation of God, then you shall remain empty-handed and acquire nothing, and ultimately be guilty of opposing God. Those who obey the truth and submit to the work of God shall come under the name of the second incarnate God—the Almighty. They will be able to accept the personal guidance of God, and shall acquire more and higher truth and receive the real human life. They shall behold the vision that people of the past have never seen….

… when God becomes flesh this time, His work is to express His disposition, primarily through chastisement and judgment. Using this as the foundation, He brings more truth to man, shows more ways of practice, and so achieves His objective of conquering man and saving man from his corrupt disposition. This is what lies behind the work of God in the Age of Kingdom.”

from Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh

“The Holy Spirit works in accordance with the age, not just at will or according to set rules. The age has changed, and a new age must bring with it new work. This is true of every stage of work, and so His work is never repeated. In the Age of Grace, Jesus did much of that work, such as healing sickness, casting out demons, laying His hands upon man to pray for man, and blessing man. However, to continue to do so would serve no purpose in the present day. The Holy Spirit worked in that way at the time, for it was the Age of Grace, and man was shown enough grace for enjoyment. Man did not have to pay any price and could receive grace as long as he had faith. All were treated very graciously. Now, the age has changed, and the work of God has progressed further; through His chastisement and judgment, the rebelliousness of man and the unclean things within man will be cast away. As it was the stage of redemption, God had to do such work, showing man enough grace for man to enjoy, so that He could redeem man from sin, and through grace forgive man their sins. This stage is done to reveal the iniquities within man through chastisement, judgment, the smiting of words, as well as the discipline and revelation of words, so that they may afterward be saved. This is work more in-depth than redemption. In the Age of Grace, man enjoyed enough grace and has already experienced this grace, and so it is no longer to be enjoyed by man. Such work is now out-of-date and is no longer to be done. Now, man is saved through judgment by the word. After man is judged, chastised and refined, his disposition is thereby changed. Is this not because of the words I have spoken? Each stage of work is done in line with the progress of all mankind and with the age. All work has its significance; it is done for the final salvation, for mankind to have a good destination in the future, and for man to be divided according to their kind in the end.

The work in the last days is to speak words. Great changes can be effected in man through the words. The changes now effected in these people on acceptance of these words are much greater than that of people in the Age of Grace on acceptance of those signs and wonders. For, in the Age of Grace, the demons went away from man with the laying on of hands and prayer, but the corrupt dispositions within man still remained. Man was healed of his sickness and forgiven his sins, but the work for just how the corrupt satanic dispositions within man could be cast away was not done in him. Man was only saved and forgiven his sins for his faith, but the sinful nature of man was not taken away and still remained within him. The sins of man were forgiven through God incarnate, but it does not mean that man has no sin within him. The sins of man could be forgiven through the sin offering, but man has been unable to resolve the issue of just how he can no longer sin and how his sinful nature can be cast away completely and be transformed. The sins of man were forgiven because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live in the old, corrupt satanic disposition. As such, man must be completely saved from the corrupt satanic disposition so that the sinful nature of man is completely cast away and never again develops, thus allowing the disposition of man to be changed. This requires man to understand the path of growth in life, the way of life, and the way to change his disposition. It also needs man to act in accordance with this path so that the disposition of man can gradually be changed and he can live under the shining of the light, and that he can do all things in accord with the will of God, cast away the corrupt satanic disposition, and break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation. When Jesus was doing His work, man’s knowledge of Him was still vague and unclear. Man always believed that He was the son of David and proclaimed Him to be a great prophet and the benevolent Lord who redeemed man’s sins. Some, based on faith, became healed just by touching the edge of His garment; the blind could see and even the dead could be restored to life. However, man could not discover the corrupt satanic disposition deeply rooted within him and neither did man know how to cast it away. Man received much grace, such as the peace and happiness of the flesh, the blessing of the entire family upon the faith of one, and the healing of sicknesses, and so on. The rest were the good deeds of man and their godly appearance; if man could live based on such, he was considered a good believer. Only such believers could enter heaven after death, which means that they were saved. But, in their lifetime, they did not understand at all the way of life. They merely committed sins, then made confession in a constant cycle without any path toward a changed disposition; such was the condition of man in the Age of Grace. Has man received complete salvation? No! Therefore, after that stage was complete, there is still the work of judgment and chastisement. This stage makes man pure through the word so as to give man a path to follow. This stage would not be fruitful or meaningful if it continued with the casting out of demons, for the sinful nature of man would not be cast away and man would only stop upon the forgiveness of sins. Through the sin offering, man has been forgiven his sins, for the work of the crucifixion has already come to an end and God has prevailed over Satan. But the corrupt disposition of man still remains within them and man can still sin and resist God; God has not gained mankind. That is why in this stage of work God uses the word to reveal the corrupt disposition of man and asks man to practice in accordance with the right path. This stage is more meaningful than the previous one and more fruitful as well, for now it is the word that directly supplies life for man and enables the disposition of man to be completely renewed; it is a stage of work more thorough. Therefore, the incarnation in the last days has completed the significance of God’s incarnation and completely finished God’s management plan for the salvation of man.”

from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

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The Hymn of Almighty God's Word "The Symbols of God's Victory"

The Hymn of Almighty God's Word "The Symbols of God's Victory"

The Hymn of Almighty God's Word "The Symbols of God's Victory"

I

Man is restored to what he looked like in the beginning. They can fulfill their own duties, keep their own place, obey all the arrangements of God. God will then have a group of people worship Him on earth. He will have also built a kingdom that worships Him on earth too. He will have also built a kingdom that worships Him on earth too.

II

He will have eternal victory upon the earth. Those opposed to Him will perish for eternity. This will restore His intentions when He created man. It will restore His intentions in creating all things, and it will restore His authority on earth, His authority among all things and among all His enemies. These are the symbols of God's victory, of His total victory. These are the symbols of God's victory, of His total victory.

III

From now on humanity will enter into rest, enter into a life that follows the right track. God will also enter into eternal rest with mankind, enter into an eternal life shared between God and man. Filth and revolt on earth shall all disappear. Wailing on earth shall disappear, shall all disappear. All those on earth who oppose God will no longer be around. Only God and people rescued are those who shall remain. Only God's creations shall remain. Only God's creations shall remain. Only God's creations shall remain.

from “God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

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Only Almighty God’s Word Can Save Me

 Only Almighty God’s Word Can Save Me

Xiao LianXuancheng City, Anhui Province

Since I believed in Jesus, I had often read the Bible and memorized its verses, and the Bible had become my faithful companion. I held the view that God could only be found in the Bible, God would never work beyond the Bible, and whoever departed from the Bible was not a believer in God. So, for fifteen years, I took the Bible as the treasure, and I even put it at the head of my bed when I slept at night, which in my view meant that God would be with me. However, I had never expected that when God’s work of the last days came upon me, I resisted and condemned it with the Bible for six years, and actually became a Pharisee of the present age.

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