Almighty God's word "How Is Your Relationship With God"

How Is Your Relationship With God

In believing in God, you must at least resolve the issue of having a normal relationship with God. Without a normal relationship with God, then the significance in believing in God is lost. Establishing a normal relationship with God is entirely attained through quieting your heart in God’s presence. A normal relationship with God means being able to not doubt or deny any of God’s work and submit to it, and furthermore it means having the right intentions in the presence of God, not thinking of yourself, always having the interests of God’s family as the most important thing no matter what you are doing, accepting God’s observation, and submitting to God’s arrangements. You are able to quiet your heart in God’s presence whenever you do anything; even if you do not understand God’s will, you must still fulfill your duties and responsibilities to the best of your ability. It is not too late to wait for God’s will to be revealed to you and then put this into practice. When your relationship with God has become normal, then you will also have a normal relationship with people. Everything is established on the foundation of God’s words. Through eating and drinking the words of God, practice in accordance with God’s requirements, put your viewpoints right, and do not do things that resist God or disturb the church. Do not do things that do not benefit the lives of the brothers and sisters, do not say things that do not contribute to other people, do not do shameful things. Be just and honorable when doing all things and make them presentable before God. Even though the flesh is weak sometimes, you are able to attach the highest importance to benefiting God’s family, not covet your own benefits, and carry out righteousness. If you can practice in this way, your relationship with God will be normal.

Whenever you do anything, you must examine whether your motivations are right. If you are able to act according to the requirements of God, then your relationship with God is normal. This is the minimum criterion. If, when you examine your motivations, there emerge those that are incorrect, and if you are able to turn your back on them and act according to the words of God, then you will become someone who is right before God, which will show that your relationship with God is normal, and that all that you do is for the sake of God, and not for yourself. Whenever you do or say anything, you must put your heart right, be righteous, and not be led by your emotions, or act according to your own will. These are the principles by which believers in God conduct themselves. A person’s motivations and stature can be revealed in a small thing, and thus, for people to enter onto the path of being made perfect by God, they must first resolve their own motivations and their relationship with God. Only when your relationship with God is normal will you be able to be made perfect by God, and only then will God’s dealing, pruning, discipline, and refinement in you be able to achieve their desired effect. That is to say, people are able to have God in their hearts, not seek personal benefits, not think about their personal future (referring to thinking of the flesh), but rather they bear the burden of entering life, do their best to seek truth, and submit to God’s work. This way, the objectives you seek are correct, and your relationship with God is normal. It can be said that fixing one’s relationship with God is the first step on entry into one’s spiritual journey. Although man’s destiny is in God’s hands, and has been predestined by God, and cannot be changed by themselves, whether or not you can be made perfect or gained by God depends on whether or not your relationship with God is normal. Perhaps there are parts of you that are weak or disobedient—but as long as your outlook is right and your motivations are correct, and as long as you have put right your relationship with God and made it normal, then you will be qualified to be made perfect by God. If you do not have the right relationship with God, and act for the sake of the flesh, or your family, then regardless of how hard you work it will all be for nothing. If your relationship with God is normal, then everything else will fall into place. God looks at nothing else, but He looks only at whether your views on the belief in God are right: who you believe in, for whose sake you believe, and why you believe. If you are able to see these things clearly, and are able to put right your views and practice, then your life will make progress, and you are sure to be able to enter onto the right track. If your relationship with God is not normal, and your views on the belief in God are deviant, then these will preclude all else. No matter how you believe in God, you will gain nothing. Only if your relationship with God is normal will you be approved by God when you turn your back on the flesh, pray, suffer, endure, obey, help your brothers and sisters, devote more effort to God, and so on. Whether or not something you do has value and significance depends on whether your intentions are right and whether your viewpoints are correct. Nowadays, many people’s belief in God is like looking at a clock with their head turned to one side—their viewpoints are deviant. Everything will be good if a breakthrough can be made here, everything will be fine if this is resolved, while everything shall come to nothing if this is not resolved. Some people behave well in My presence, but behind My back all that they do is resist. These are crooked and deceitful manifestations and this type of person is a servant of Satan, they are the typical embodiment of Satan to test God. You are only a right person if you are able to submit to My work and My words. As long as you are able to eat and drink the words of God, as long as everything you do is presentable before God, everything you do is just and honorable, as long as you do not do shameful things, do not do things that would harm the lives of people, as long as you live in the light, and are not exploited by Satan, then your relationship with God will be put right.

In believing in God, your intentions and viewpoints must be put right; you must have a correct understanding and correct treatment of the words of God, God’s work, the environments arranged by God, the man testified by God, and of the practical God. You must not practice according to your personal thoughts, or make your own little plans. You must be able to seek truth in everything and stand in your place as a creation of God and submit to all of God’s work. If you want to pursue being perfected by God and enter into the right track of life, then your heart must always live in God’s presence, not be dissolute, not follow Satan, not leave Satan any opportunities to do its work, and not let Satan use you. You must completely give yourself to God and let God rule over you.

Are you willing to be Satan’s servant? Are you willing to be exploited by Satan? Do you believe in God and pursue God so that you can be perfected by Him, or is it so you become a foil in God’s work? Are you willing to be obtained by God and live a meaningful life, or are you willing to live a worthless and empty life? Are you willing to be used by God, or exploited by Satan? Are you willing to let God’s words and truth fill you, or let sin and Satan fill you? Consider and weigh this out. In your daily life, you must grasp those words you say and those things you do that will cause your relationship with God to be abnormal, then rectify yourself and enter into the correct manner. Examine your words, your actions, your each and every move, and your thoughts and ideas at all times. Grasp your true state and enter into the way of the work of the Holy Spirit. Only in this way can you have a normal relationship with God. By weighing out whether your relationship with God is normal, you will be able to rectify your intentions, understand the essence of man, and understand yourself; through this, you will be able to enter into real experiences, truly forsake yourself, and achieve deliberate submission. In such matters as when you are experiencing whether your relationship with God is normal, you will be able to find opportunities to be perfected by God, you will be able to understand many situations under which the Holy Spirit is working, and you will be able to see through many of Satan’s tricks and conspiracies. Only through this way can you be perfected by God. You put right your relationship with God so that you will submit yourself to all the arrangements of God. It is so you will more deeply enter into real experiences, and obtain more work of the Holy Spirit. When you are practicing having a normal relationship with God, most of the time, you will attain this through forsaking the flesh and through your real cooperation with God. You should understand that “without a cooperative heart, it is difficult to receive the work of God; if the flesh does not suffer hardships, there are no blessings from God; if the spirit does not struggle, Satan will not be ashamed.” If you practice and clearly understand these principles, your viewpoints on the faith in God will be put right. In your current practices, you must discard the viewpoint of “seeking bread to satisfy hunger,” you must discard the viewpoint of “everything is done by the Holy Spirit and people are unable to intervene.” People who speak this way all think, “People can do whatever they are willing to do, and when the time comes the Holy Spirit will work and people will have no need to overcome the flesh, they will have no need to cooperate, and only need the Holy Spirit to move them.” These viewpoints are all absurd. Under these circumstances, the Holy Spirit is unable to work. It is this kind of viewpoint that becomes a great obstruction to the work of the Holy Spirit. Often times, the work of the Holy Spirit is attained through people’s cooperation. Without cooperation and resolution, then wanting to change one’s disposition, obtain the work of the Holy Spirit, and obtain enlightenment and illumination from God are all extravagant thoughts; this is called “indulging one’s self and pardoning Satan.” People like this do not have a normal relationship with God. You have found many manifestations of Satan in yourself, and in your past actions, there are many things that have run counter to God’s current requirements. Are you able to forsake them now? Attain a normal relationship with God, do according to God’s intentions, become a new person and have a new life, don’t look back at past transgressions, don’t be overly remorseful, be able to stand up and cooperate with God, and fulfill the duties that you should perform. This way, your relationship with God will be normal.

If you merely accept these words verbally after reading them but are not moved in your heart, and are not serious about having a normal relationship with God, then it proves that you do not attach importance to your relationship with God, your viewpoints have not yet been put right, your intentions are still not directed at allowing God to obtain you, and allowing God the glory, but rather are directed at allowing Satan’s conspiracies to prevail and for obtaining your personal purposes. This kind of people all have incorrect intentions and viewpoints. Regardless of what God has said or how it is said, they are indifferent and no transformation can be seen. Their hearts don’t feel any fear and they are unashamed. This kind of person is a confused person without a spirit. For every utterance of God, after you have read it and you have gained an understanding, you shall put it into practice. Regardless of how you used to practice before—perhaps in the past your flesh was weak, you were rebellious, and you resisted—this is not a big deal, and it can’t obstruct your life from growing today. As long as you are able to have a normal relationship with God today, then there is hope. If for every time that you read God’s words, you have changes and allow other people to see that your life has transformed for the better, it shows that you have a normal relationship with God and that it is put right. God does not treat people based on their transgressions. As long as you are able to not rebel again and not resist again after you have understood and are aware, then God will still have mercy on you. When you have this understanding and the will to pursue being perfected by God, then your condition in God’s presence will be normal. No matter what you do, consider: What will God think if I do this? How will it affect the brothers and sisters? Examine your intentions in your prayer, fellowship, speech, work, and contact with people, and examine whether your relationship with God is normal or not. If you are unable to distinguish your intentions and thoughts, then you have no discrimination, which proves that you understand too little about truth. Have a clear understanding of everything that God does, see things according to God’s word and see things by standing on the side of God. This way your viewpoints will be correct. Therefore, to build a good relationship with God is a top priority for anyone believing in God; everyone should treat it as the most important task and as their major life event. Everything you do should be weighed against whether or not you have a normal relationship with God. If your relationship with God is normal and your intentions are correct, then do it. In order to maintain a normal relationship with God, you can’t be afraid of losing out on personal interests, you can’t allow Satan to prevail, you can’t allow Satan to have a handle on you, and you can’t allow Satan to make you into a laughing stock. Such an intention is a manifestation that your relationship with God is normal. It is not for the flesh, but rather it is for peace of spirit, it is for obtaining the work of the Holy Spirit and for satisfying the will of God. If you are to enter into a correct state, you must build a good relationship with God, you must set right your viewpoint of belief in God. It is to allow God to obtain you, to allow God to reveal the fruits of His words in you, and to enlighten and illuminate you even more. This way you will enter into the correct manner. Continuously eat and drink God’s current words, enter into the current way of the Holy Spirit’s work, do according to God’s current requirements, not follow old-fashioned practices, not cling to old ways of doing things, and quickly enter into the manner of today’s work. This way your relationship with God will be completely normal and you will enter into the right track of believing in God.

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Almighty God's word "Knowing God’s Work Today"

Almighty God's word "Knowing God’s Work Today"

To know God’s work in these times is, for the most part, to know God incarnate of the last days, what His principal ministry is, and what He has come to do on earth. I have previously mentioned in My words that God has come to earth (during the last days) to set an exemplar before departing. How does God set this exemplar? By speaking words, by working and speaking throughout the land. This is God’s work during the last days; He only speaks, so that the earth becomes a world of words, so that every person is provided for and enlightened by His words, and so that man’s spirit is awakened and he is clear about the visions. During the last days, God incarnate has come to earth chiefly in order to speak words. When Jesus came, He spread the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, and accomplished the work of redemption of the crucifixion. He brought an end to the Age of Law, and abolished all the old things. The arrival of Jesus ended the Age of Law and ushered in the Age of Grace. The arrival of God incarnate of the last days has brought an end to the Age of Grace. He has come chiefly to speak His words, to use words to make man perfect, to illuminate and enlighten man, and to remove the place of the vague God within man’s heart. This is not the stage of work that Jesus did when He came. When Jesus came, He performed many miracles, He healed and cast out demons, and He did the work of redemption of the crucifixion. As a consequence, in his conceptions, man believes that this is how God should be. For when Jesus came, He did not do the work of removing the image of the vague God from man’s heart; when He came, He was crucified, He healed and cast out demons, and He spread the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. In one regard, the incarnation of God during the last days removes the place held by the vague God in the conceptions of man, so that there is no longer the image of the vague God in man’s heart. Using His actual words and actual work, He moves across all lands, and the work He does among man is exceptionally real and normal, such that man comes to know the reality of God, and the vague God loses his place in man’s heart. In another regard, God uses the words spoken by His flesh to make man complete, and accomplish all things. This is the work that God will accomplish during the last days.

What you must know:

1. The work of God is not supernatural, and you should not harbor conceptions about it.

2. You must understand the principal work that God incarnate has come to do this time.

He has not come to heal, or to cast out demons, or to perform miracles, and He has not come to spread the gospel of repentance, or to grant man redemption. That is because Jesus has already done this work, and God does not repeat the same work. Today, God has come to bring an end to the Age of Grace and cast out all the practices of the Age of Grace. The practical God has come chiefly to show that He is real. When Jesus came, He spoke few words; He primarily displayed miracles, performed signs and wonders, and healed and cast out demons, or else He spoke prophecies in order to convince man, and to make man see that He really was God, and was a dispassionate God. Ultimately, He completed the work of crucifixion. The God of today does not display signs and wonders, nor does He heal and cast out demons. When Jesus came, the work He did represented one part of God, but this time God has come to do the stage of work that is due, for God does not repeat the same work; He is the God that is always new and never old, and so all that you see today is the words and work of the practical God.

God incarnate of the last days has come chiefly in order to speak His words, to explain all that is necessary to the life of man, to point out that which man should enter into, to show man the deeds of God, and to show man the wisdom, omnipotence, and wondrousness of God. Through the many ways in which God speaks, man beholds the supremacy of God, the magnitude of God, and, moreover, the humility and hiddenness of God. Man sees that God is supreme, but that He is humble and hidden, and can become the least of all. Some of His words are spoken directly from the perspective of the Spirit, some of His words are spoken directly from the perspective of man, and some of His words are spoken from the perspective of the third person. In this can be seen that the manner of God’s work varies greatly and it is through words that He allows man to see it. God’s work during the last days is both normal and real, and thus the group of people of the last days are subjected to the greatest of all trials. Because of the normality and reality of God, all people have entered amid such trials; that man has descended into the trials of God is because of the normality and reality of God. During the age of Jesus, there were no conceptions or trials. Because most of the work done by Jesus was in accordance with man’s conceptions, people followed Him, and had no conceptions about Him. The trials of today are the greatest ever faced by man, and when it is said that these people have come out of the great tribulation, this is the tribulation that is referred to.

Today, God speaks to create faith, love, sufferance and obedience in these people. The words spoken by God incarnate of the last days are according to the substance of man’s nature, according to the behavior of man, and according to that which man should enter into today. His method of speaking[a] is both real and normal: He does not speak of tomorrow, nor does He look back on yesterday; He speaks only of that which should be entered into, put into practice, and understood today. 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. Remember 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. The work of God is irreconcilable with the conceptions of man; for example, the Old Testament foretold the coming of a Messiah, but it turned out that Jesus came, so it would be wrong for another Messiah to come again. Jesus has already come once, and it would be wrong if Jesus were to come again this time. There is one name for every age, and each name is characterized by the age. 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. Why is the work of God today different to the work of Jesus? Why does God today not display signs and wonders, not cast out demons, and not heal? If Jesus’ work were the same as the work done during the Age of Law, could He have represented the God of the Age of Grace? Could Jesus have completed the work of crucifixion? If, as in the Age of Law, Jesus had entered into the temple and kept the Sabbath, then He would have been persecuted by none and embraced by all. If that were so, could He have been crucified? Could He have completed the work of redemption? What would be the point if God incarnate of the last days displayed signs and wonders, like Jesus? Only if God does another part of His work during the last days, one that represents part of His management plan, can man gain a deeper knowledge of God, and only then can God’s management plan be completed.

During the last days God has come chiefly in order to speak His words. He speaks from the perspective of the Spirit, from the perspective of man, and from the perspective of the third person; He speaks in different ways, using one way for a period of time, and uses the ways of speaking to change the conceptions of man and remove the image of the vague God from man’s heart. This is the main work done by God. Because man believes that God has come to heal, to cast out demons, to perform miracles, and to bestow material blessings upon man, God carries out this stage of work—the work of chastisement and judgment—in order to remove such things from the conceptions of man, so that man may know the reality and normality of God, and so that the image of Jesus may be removed from his heart and replaced by a new image of God. As soon as the image of God within man becomes old, then it becomes an idol. When Jesus came and carried out that stage of work, He did not represent the entirety of God. He performed some signs and wonders, spoke some words, and was ultimately crucified, and He represented one part of God. He could not represent all that is of God, but represented God in doing one part of God’s work. That is because God is so great, and so wondrous, and is unfathomable, and because God only does one part of His work in every age. The work done by God during this age is chiefly the provision of the words for the life of man, the disclosure of the substance of the nature of man and the corrupt disposition of man, the elimination of religious conceptions, feudal thinking, outdated thinking, as well as the knowledge and culture of man. This must all be laid bare and cleansed away through the words of God. In the last days, God uses words, and not signs and wonders, to make man perfect. He uses His words to expose man, to judge man, to chastise man, and to make man perfect, so that in the words of God, man comes to see the wisdom and loveliness of God, and comes to understand the disposition of God, so that through the words of God, man beholds the deeds of God. During the Age of Law, Jehovah led Moses out of Egypt with His words, and spoke some words to the Israelites; at that time, part of the deeds of God were made plain, but because the caliber of man was limited and nothing could make his knowledge complete, God continued to speak and work. In the Age of Grace, man once more saw part of the deeds of God. Jesus was able to show signs and wonders, to heal and cast out demons, and be crucified, three days after which He was resurrected and appeared in the flesh before man. Of God, man knew no more than this. Man knows as much as is shown to him by God, and if God were to show nothing more to man, then such would be the extent of man’s delimitation of God. Thus, God continues to work, so that man’s knowledge of Him may become deeper, and so that he may gradually come to know the substance of God. God uses His words to make man perfect. Your corrupt disposition is disclosed by the words of God, and your religious conceptions are replaced by the reality of God. God incarnate of the last days has chiefly come to fulfill the words that “the Word becomes flesh, the Word comes into the flesh, and the Word appears in the flesh,” and if you do not have a thorough knowledge of this, then you will still be unable to stand fast; during the last days, God primarily intends to accomplish a stage of work in which the Word appears in the flesh, and this is one part of God’s management plan. Thus, your knowledge must be clear; regardless of how God works, God does not allow man to delimit Him. If God did not do this work during the last days, then man’s knowledge of Him could go no further. You would only know that God can be crucified and can destroy Sodom, and that Jesus can be raised from the dead and appear to Peter…. But you would never say that God’s words can accomplish all, and can conquer man. Only through experiencing God’s words can you speak of such knowledge, and the more of God’s work that you experience, the more thorough your knowledge of Him will become. Only then will you cease to delimit God within your own conceptions. Man comes to know God by experiencing His work, and there is no other correct way to know God. Today, there are many people who do nothing but wait to see signs and wonders and the time of the catastrophe. Do you believe in God, or do you believe in the catastrophe? If you wait until the catastrophe it will be too late, and if God does not send down the catastrophe, is He then not 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 He is working in a different age, 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. Man comes to know God through the manner in which God works, and this knowledge produces in man the belief in God, which is to say, the belief in the work and deeds of God. In this stage of work, God mainly speaks. Do not wait to see signs and wonders; you won’t see them! For you were not born during the Age of Grace. If you had been, you could have seen signs and wonders, but you were born during the last days, and so you can see only the reality and normality of God. Do not expect to see the supernatural Jesus during the last days. You are only able to see the practical God incarnate, who is no different from any normal man. In each age, God makes plain different deeds. In each age He makes plain part of the deeds of God, and the work of each age represents one part of the disposition of God, and represents one part of the deeds of God. The deeds that He makes plain vary with the age in which He works, but they all give man a knowledge of God that is deeper, a belief in God that is more down-to-earth, and more true. Man believes in God because of all of the deeds of God, and because God is so wondrous, so great, because He is almighty, and is unfathomable. If you believe in God because He is able to perform signs and wonders and can heal and cast out demons, then your view is wrong, and some people will say to you, “Are not evil spirits also able to do such things?” Is this not to confuse the image of God with the image of Satan? Today, man’s belief in God is because of His many deeds and the many ways in which He works and speaks. God uses His utterances to conquer man and make him perfect. Man believes in God because of His many deeds, not because He is able to show signs and wonders, and man only understands Him because they see His deeds. Only by knowing the actual deeds of God, how He works, the means by which He employs His wisdom, how He speaks, and how He makes man perfect—only by knowing these aspects—can you comprehend the reality of God and understand His disposition. What He likes, what He loathes, how He works upon man—by understanding the likes and dislikes of God, you can differentiate between that which is positive and negative, and through your knowledge of God there is progress in your life. In short, you must gain a knowledge of God’s work, and must put straight your views about the belief in God.

Footnotes:

a. The original text reads “It.”

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How I Fell Down Before Almighty God

How I Fell Down Before Almighty God

Fu Xuemin

Huaian City, Jiangsu Province

I was formerly an area leader of the Joseph Church. In 1998, at a co-worker meeting, a senior area leader warned me in particular, “Brother Fu, the situations of the churches in your area are rather messy, so you have to work harder. Now the preachers of Almighty God are very aggressive and grow very fast in number. And their so-called little scroll is quite deceitful. You must guard the flock properly and not let any of them be taken captive. If you neglect your duty, you will have no crown.” From then on, I began to wantonly close all the churches in my area to outsiders. I said to the brothers and sisters, “Those who believe in Almighty God have departed from the Bible. Any belief apart from the Bible is heresy or cult. So, all of you, never come into contact with the believers in Almighty God, much less receive them. They are as dangerous as poisonous hooks. Once you contact them, you will become swollen and sore all over, and no doctor can cure you. If they read you their so-called little scroll, shut your ears to them. Once you listen to them, you will be bewitched, unable to escape no matter how you try….” In this way, I regarded the believers in Almighty God as enemies, did my utmost to resist Almighty God’s new work, and bound the brothers and sisters tightly in my hands.

One day in April 1999, a sister secretly told me, “Brother Zhang in our church is in contact with some believers in Almighty God.” At this, I immediately came to the worker in charge of the meeting places in that church and said to him, “I’ve heard that Brother Zhang in your church is in contact with some believers in Almighty God. Look into it. Warn him not to get close to the believers in Almighty God, because they have ‘evil spirits’ in them. You must keep a strict eye upon him lest he be taken captive.” Three days later, I went to that worker in charge of the meeting places again because I still felt uneasy about it. He told me, “Brother Zhang has stopped going with those people.” At this, my anxious heart was relieved, and I thought that the Lord had cared for and kept that church. Not long afterward, another sister told me that her younger brother had accepted Almighty God and asked her to listen to the message. I said to her, “Don’t go to listen. You must stand firmly on your ground. Apart from our Joseph Church, there is no true way. Only the house of Joseph is most blessed. Genesis 49:25-26 says: ‘…the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb. … Let all these rest on the head of Joseph….’ If you go astray, your many years of believing in God will be in vain.” Urged by me, the sister had no more contact with her brother. Thereafter, I resisted the end-time work of Almighty God more and more fiercely. Many believers in Almighty God had been ruthlessly driven away by me when they came to preach the gospel to the brothers and sisters in our churches.

One day in June 2001, I suddenly felt numb all over, and my legs became so weak that I was even unable to stand. My family hastily sent me to hospital. There I was given intravenous infusions and medicines. However, I did not get better, but got worse, and eventually I even lost all feeling in my legs—I became paralyzed. After a period of treatment, the doctor said, “You’ve got spinal tuberculosis. It is incurable.” At this, tears burst forth from my eyes. “I’m only forty-four years old. Will I just wait for death at home like this?” On October 26, I left the hospital with despair. Being paralyzed, I was unable to look after myself. I struggled hard in agony and called on God in despair, feeling that days wore on like years and that I would rather die than live. One day, some brothers and sisters told me, “The founder of our Church (Wei Zuqiang) will come to our churches.” At this news, I immediately felt that I could be healed because in our eyes the founder was God. I wished and wished, waited and waited. More than a month passed, but he still did not come. Later, some brothers and sisters told me, “The founder won’t come. He says that the situation of the churches in our area is too messy and chaotic, so he gives up the whole flock here.” The news was simply a head-on blow to me. I could not help crying out in my heart, “O Lord! Why is this happening? I had been utterly faithful to you over all these many years of believing in you. In order to protect the flock, I did my utmost to resist ‘Eastern Lightning.’ How come I end up like this? O Lord! Where are you? The house of Joseph has been most blessed by you. Why do you not care about us anymore? Have you really left us and done a new work? …”

Just when I was extremely distressed and confused, Brother Chen of our Church came and said to me, “Brother Fu, a brother will come to our area to testify about the end-time work of Almighty God in a couple of days. Let’s give it a listen! We can’t stick to our way anymore. As you’re unable to leave your bed, can I bring him here to have a fellowship with you?” Hearing that, I thought, “Since I’m dying, what do I have to fear? I’ll give it a listen. Whether it’s true or false, I must figure it out; otherwise, I cannot die in peace.” So, I agreed. Two days later, the brother came as expected. He first asked me about my illness, and then he patiently fellowshipped with me about the three stages of God’s work in detail, starting from Genesis and going all the way to Revelation. His preaching was really good. I had never heard that during my years of believing in God. To solve my notion that “the believers in God cannot read the little scroll but only the Bible,” he looked into the Bible and read me Revelation 5:1-5: “Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?’ … Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’” After reading, the brother explained, “Today, Almighty God has come and opened the little scroll, and it has completely fulfilled this prophecy in Revelation. How can we say that the believers cannot read the little scroll? If we say so, doesn’t it mean that we take this prophecy away from the book of Revelation? Almighty God has opened the little scroll, disclosed to people all the mysteries in the Bible that they do not understand, and set forth the truths concerning God’s six-thousand-year management plan, God’s entire intention to save mankind, how man has his nature transformed and becomes holy, and so on. If we still stick to the Bible, we cannot receive the truth and the life that God bestows upon people in the end time, much less receive eternal life. In John 5:39-40, Jesus said: ‘You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.’ From these verses, we can see it is man’s idea and man’s imagination that by the Scriptures people possess eternal life. Actually, there is no eternal life in the Scriptures. Only if we come to God can we receive eternal life, because only God Godself is the source of life, and only God Godself is the truth, the way, and the life. The Bible is only the record of the work that God has done. It cannot be compared with God, and much less can it represent God.” Then, the brother read me a passage of God’s word: “You all have to know about the Bible. This is very necessary! Today you do not need to read the Bible, because there is nothing new but only old things in it. The Bible is a book of history. If you eat and drink the Old Testament of the Bible in the Age of the Grace, and you practice what was required in the Old Testament age in the Age of the Grace, Jesus will reject and condemn you. If you measure the work done by Jesus according to the Old Testament, then you are a Pharisee. If today you eat and drink and practice the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, the God of today will condemn you, and you cannot keep up with the Holy Spirit’s working of today! As you eat the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, you are outside the stream of the Holy Spirit! In the age of Jesus, he led those Jews and all his followers according to the work the Holy Spirit did on him at that time. He did not work according to the Bible but spoke according to his work. He did not care what the Bible said, nor did he look for a path in the Bible to lead his followers. From the beginning of his work, he preached the way of repentance. Yet the word ‘repentance’ was not at all mentioned in the many prophecies in the Old Testament. He not only did not work according to the Bible, but on the contrary, he brought in a newer path and did a newer work. He never preached according to the Bible. As to the miracles of healing the sick and driving out demons he performed, no one had been able to perform them in the Age of the Law. As to his work, his teachings, and his authority, no one had done them in the Age of the Law. He simply did his newer work though many people condemned him according to the Bible and even nailed him onto the cross according to the Old Testament of the Bible. However, his work went beyond the Old Testament of the Bible. If this had not been the case, how could they have nailed him onto the cross? Wasn’t all that because there was no record about his teachings and his power to heal the sick and drive out demons in the Old Testament? All the work he did was to bring in a newer path and not to purposely ‘fight against’ the Bible or abolish the Old Testament of the Bible. He came only to fulfill his ministry, bringing his new work to those who thirsted for and sought him. He did not come to interpret the Old Testament or to uphold the work of the Old Testament. He did not work to continue the Age of the Law. In doing the work, he simply did not care whether there was any scriptural basis to it but only did the work he ought to do, so he did not interpret the prophecies in the Old Testament or do the work according to the words in the Old Testament Age of the Law. He did not care what the Old Testament said. Whether it agreed with what he did or not, he was not concerned about it. He did not care how others knew his work or condemned his work. He simply continued to do the work he ought to do, though many people condemned him according to the prophecies of the prophets of the Old Testament. In people’s view, he did the work without any basis, and much of it did not agree with the records in the Bible. Wasn’t all this people’s erroneous view? Does God need to work according to regulations? Does God have to work according to the prophecies of the prophets? Who is greater, the Bible or God? Why does God have to work according to the Bible? Could God have no right to go beyond the Bible? Could God not do another work apart from the Bible?” After hearing God’s words and the brother’s fellowship, I was enlightened all at once. “Actually, the Almighty God whom I have blindly blasphemed, slandered, and resisted is none other than the returned Savior Jesus whom I have been earnestly expecting for years. What I have prevented the brothers and sisters from accepting is exactly the new work the returned Lord does in the end time. The little scroll which I have had resistance to and which in my view cannot be read or touched, is precisely God’s utterance of the new age and the truth God bestows upon people in the end time.” At that moment, I felt bitterly regretful, and tears gushed out from my eyes. “I believe in God but do not know God, sticking to the letters of the Bible. As a result, so many brothers and sisters have been hindered from coming before Almighty God. I have really committed countless unpardonable sins and deserve damnation. Now I have known why I end up being paralyzed. This is my fitting retribution. I indeed deserve more than death.”

Later, through continually eating and drinking God’s word, I gained some knowledge of the three stages of God’s work and came to understand this: “The three stages are closely linked together and are all indispensable works of God’s saving mankind. If Jehovah had not issued the law to lead mankind in the Age of the Law, they would have lived in sin forever. If the Lord Jesus had not been crucified to bear people’s sins in the Age of the Grace, all would have died under the law. If Almighty God did not express the truth to purify people today, they would never be freed from sin but could only fall into punishment. Only God’s end-time work can thoroughly save people, and only God Godself can bring the truth to people, bestow the life upon people, and show the way to people. However, the founder of the Joseph Church is merely a human. He can only teach us the letters of the Bible, but he cannot bring a new way to us, much less bring the truth to us. He cannot do God’s work at all. In the past, I was so blind and foolish that I echoed what others said, blindly condemned and resisted God’s work without seeking and investigating it, and fabricated many rumors along with my leader. In order to preserve my position, I cheated many brothers and sisters, spoke many blasphemous words against Almighty God, and slandered the little scroll that God had opened…. It is due to Almighty God’s tolerance and grace that I, a dying person, have personally heard and read the word expressed by him; otherwise, I would have died without knowing why.” At the time, I felt extremely remorseful. I hated myself for my yesterday’s disobedience and resistance, and even more deeply regretted that I was unable to repay God’s love because of my paralysis.

However, a miracle occurred. I was getting better every day after I accepted the end-time work of Almighty God. By October 2002, I miraculously threw away my crutches and could even go to perform my duty by bike. Confronted with all this, I was deeply touched. Thankfulness and praise welled up within me. “O Almighty God! Your love for me is so great, so deep, and so real! Your love is above the heavens. You have forgiven me, the disobedient one who deserves to be cursed and struck by you, so that I have had a chance to survive. And I have also tasted your majestic nature that tolerates no offense. O Almighty God! You are the only hope for mankind and the only Redeemer of mankind!”

Dear brothers and sisters, I hope that my personal experience can supply a reference for your investigating God’s work of the last days. Hope that you wake up soon! Almighty God is indeed the last Christ, the returned Savior Jesus we have been awaiting for a long time. Today, God is earnestly expecting us to return to his family as soon as possible. With a heart that has been deeply grieved by us, he is still waiting for us to turn back. Dear brothers and sisters, come back!

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Salvation Can Only Come Through Belief in Almighty God.

Salvation Can Only Come Through Belief in Almighty God.

Relevant Words of God:

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.

…………

… 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

A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and has not been changed, or been perfected by God, can you be after God’s heart? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as sinners because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity.

from “Concerning Appellations and Identity” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

… 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.

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

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

In the work of the last days, the word is mightier than the manifestation of signs and wonders, and the authority of the word surpasses that of signs and wonders. The word reveals all the corrupt dispositions in the heart of man. You are unable to recognize them on your own. When they are revealed to you through the word, you will naturally come to the realization; you will not be able to deny them, and you will be utterly convinced. Is this not the authority of the word? This is the result achieved by the present work of the word. Therefore, man cannot be fully saved from his sins by the healing of sickness and casting out of demons and cannot be fully made complete by the manifestation of signs and wonders. The authority to heal and cast out demons only gives man grace, but the flesh of man still belongs to Satan and the corrupt satanic disposition still remains within man. In other words, that which has not been made clean still belongs to sin and filth. Only after man has been made clean through words can he be gained by God and become sanctified. If no more is done than casting out the demons within man and redeeming him, that is only seizing him from the hands of Satan and returning him to God. However, he has not been made clean or changed by God, and he remains corrupt. Within man still exists filth, opposition and rebelliousness; man has only returned to God through redemption, but man has no knowledge of Him and still resists and betrays God. Before man was redeemed, many of Satan’s poisons were already planted within him. After thousands of years of Satan’s corruption, man already has within him a nature that resists God. Therefore, when man has been redeemed, it is nothing more than redemption, where man is bought at a high price, but the poisonous nature within has not been eliminated. Man that is so defiled must undergo a change before being worthy to serve God. Through this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within him, and he will be able to completely change and become clean. Only in this way can man be worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as refinement, man can cast away his corruption and be made pure. Rather than deeming this stage of work to be that of salvation, it would be more apt to say it is the work of purification. In truth, this stage is that of conquest as well as the second stage of salvation. Man is gained by God through judgment and chastisement by the word; through the use of the word to refine, judge and disclose, all of the impurities, notions, motives, and individual hopes within man’s heart are completely revealed. Though man has been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it is only considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with man’s transgressions. However, when man lives in the flesh and he has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing the corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sin and forgiveness. The majority of men sin in the day only to confess in the evening. As such, even if the sin offering is forever effective for man, it would not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed, for man still has corrupt disposition.

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

All of you live in a place of sin and licentiousness; you are all licentious and sinful people. Today you not only can see God, but more importantly, you have received chastisement and judgment, received such deepest salvation, that is, received God’s greatest love. All that He does is true love for you; He has no ill intention. It is because of your sins that He judges you, so that you will examine yourselves and receive this tremendous salvation. All this is done to work man. From beginning to end, God has been doing His utmost to save man, and He is certainly not willing to completely destroy the men He created with His own hands. Now He has come among you to work; isn’t this even more salvation? If He hated you, would He still do work of such magnitude to personally lead you? Why should He suffer so? God does not hate you or have any ill intention toward you. You should know that God’s love is the truest love. It is only because of people’s disobedience that He has to save them through judgment; otherwise, they would not be saved. As you do not know how to lead a life or how to live, and you live in this licentious and sinful place and are licentious and filthy devils, He does not have the heart to let you become even more depraved; neither has He the heart to see you living in the filthy place like this, being trampled by Satan at will, or the heart to let you fall into Hades. He only wants to gain this group of you and thoroughly save you. This is the main purpose of doing the conquering work on you—it is just for salvation.

from “The Inside Truth of the Conquering Work (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path through which man shall gain life, and the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by letters, and shackled by history will never be able to gain life, and will never be able to gain the perpetual way of life. That is because all they have is turbid water that has lain stagnant for thousands of years, instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell. How, then, can they behold God? If you only try to hold on to the past, only try to keep things as they are by standing still, and do not try to change the status quo and discard history, then will you not always be against God? The steps of God’s work are vast and mighty, like surging waves and rolling thunders—yet you sit and passively await destruction, sticking to your folly and doing nothing. In this way, how can you be considered someone who follows the footsteps of the Lamb? How can you justify the God that you hold on to as a God who is always new and never old?

from “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Christ comes during the last days so that all those who truly believe in Him may be provided with life. His work is for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you are incapable of acknowledging Him, and instead condemn, blaspheme or even persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity, and shall never enter the kingdom of God. For this Christ is Himself the expression of the Holy Spirit, the expression of God, the One whom God has entrusted to do His work on earth. And so I say that if you cannot accept all that is done by Christ of the last days, then you blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The retribution that should be suffered by those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit is self-evident to all. I also tell you that if you oppose Christ of the last days, and deny Him, then there is no one who can bear the consequences on your behalf. Furthermore, from this day onward you will not have another chance to gain the approval of God; even if you try to redeem yourself, you will never again behold the face of God. For what you oppose is not a man, what you deny is not some puny being, but Christ. Are you aware of this consequence? You have not made a small mistake, but committed a heinous crime. And so I advise everyone not to bare your fangs before the truth, or make careless criticisms, for only the truth can bring you life, and nothing except the truth can allow you to be reborn and behold the face of God.

from “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

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The Almighty God Conquered Me, a Stubborn Person Who Resisted God

The Almighty God Conquered Me, a Stubborn Person Who Resisted God

Li Wenming

Mulan County, Heilongjiang Province

I am Li Wenming, formerly a leading area co-worker of the Three Grades of Servants Church. In 1991, I was called and turned to the Lord. After that, inspired by the Lord’s love, I pursued very hard. In less than one year, I became a preacher and shepherded some nearby churches, whose members totaled over two hundred. At that time, my faith and love were especially great, and I had the working of the Holy Spirit when I preached. Whether it was in spring, summer, autumn, or winter, and whether it was windy or rainy, I did not stop going to the churches to support the brothers and sisters. I considered doing so as suffering for the Lord, so I believed that I would surely receive a reward from the Lord and be taken to heaven by the Lord when he came in the future. However, I had never thought that when the Lord really came to “take me,” I, ignorant and blind, failed to know God and completely shut him out. And I even exerted myself to the utmost to resist and condemn the only true almighty God. My deeds brought me lasting remorse and nothing could make up for them.

In 1995, at a co-worker meeting, the servant and the maidservant preached, saying, “Now, there are some people preaching that the Lord has come the second time. They preach specially to seeking believers and co-workers in all sects and denominations. So, don’t contact them. That ‘spirit’ is very powerful. Once you join them, you can never withdraw. They always use specious biblical doctrines to deceive people. You’re immature in life, so don’t fellowship with them. After you go back, tell all the host families and the believers: Don’t receive anyone who is not of our denomination. Make no exception even for your own father or mother.” The words of the servant and the maidservant were deeply engraved on my heart. I thought, “If God had really come, would the servant and the maidservant not know it? Since even they don’t know it, then it must be false.” From then on, I wildly blasphemed and condemned the Almighty God’s new work and sealed the churches everywhere. I told the brothers and sisters, “‘The Eastern Lightning’ is a heresy and a cult. If they come, just drive them out. If they don’t leave, just beat them. This is not committing sin but is guarding the truth. Only the way we believe in is the true way. We can never be saved except through the servant and the maidservant.”

In August 1997, the work of the Almighty God spread to our area. My second uncle (formerly an area co-worker of the Three Grades of Servants Church) and his wife accepted the Almighty God’s new work, and all the several dozen believers in our church, except for my mother and my younger sister, also accepted it with them. Yet I was kept in the dark. In December, my second uncle came to my photography studio with a book. He opened it and showed me one piece of word, whose title is: “The ‘Savior’ Has Already Returned on the ‘White Cloud.’” At the sight of it, a thought came to mind: “Isn’t it saying that God has come? This must be a book of ‘the Eastern Lightning.’” Instantly, my temper flared up, and I shouted to my uncle, “You have accepted a heresy. In the name of the Lord, I warn you, turn back quickly. Otherwise, I’ll break with you once and for all. …” After he left, I immediately informed my upper co-worker that my uncle had accepted the heresy. The upper co-worker told me, “Watch closely everything your uncle does.” So, I spied on my uncle’s movements like a plainclothes policeman and also asked my mother and younger sister to keep an eye on him.

One day after the Spring Festival, my younger sister hurriedly came to my photography studio and told me, “Our uncle and aunt are having a meeting.” Hearing that, I felt a surge of fury. I immediately went to my uncle’s home by motorcycle. I flung the door open and saw two unfamiliar sisters among them (one was over 20 years old and the other over 50). When seeing me, the two sisters stood up and greeted me warmly; yet when I saw them, I became more furious, even to the point that my belly almost burst with anger. I bawled, “What are you up to? Who told you to come here? You deceitful thieves, get out of here!” Without allowing them to speak at all, I drove them away fiercely. Then, I turned toward the brothers and sisters present and shouted to them, “Why did you receive strangers? Did you get permission from the church or from me?” At this time, my uncle and aunt fellowshipped with me again, advising me to make an investigation. They also said that all of them believed it was the true way. I was even more enraged at that: “Uncle, ah, uncle, aren’t you doing evil? You not only have accepted it yourself but also try to draw others in. I tell you, don’t try to do that to me again. I’ll have nothing to do with you from now on!”

After I came out of my uncle’s house, I immediately went to seal the other churches shepherded by my uncle. And I informed all the churches in the county: “From now on, don’t receive any co-worker or believer not brought by me. Especially reject my second uncle. If he comes, drive him out. Don’t serve him anything to eat or drink. This isn’t committing sin. You must not share in his sins. If in the future I preach a different way from the one I preach today, you should also reject me and not receive me.”

Since then I had regarded my uncle and aunt as enemies and also hated those brothers and sisters who had accepted the Almighty God. I hated them for letting me down and failing to stand the testimony. However, my uncle and aunt and those brothers and sisters who believed in the Almighty God always returned good for evil. They spared no trouble to come to my home to preach God’s end-time new work to me. From December 1997 to June 1998, they came almost every day to preach to me, yet every time I abused them with malicious words and drove them away. Once, worst of all, I even beat a brother and hustled him out of the door. I thought to myself, “You deserve it, since you do evil deeds. May you freeze to death, thirst to death, and starve to death!”

Once, my second uncle came to my home again. At the beginning, I did not drive him out. However, when he started to preach the Almighty God to me once again, I flew into a rage and drove him away angrily. It was just lunch time. After my uncle left, my family-sister got somewhat angry. She scolded me, “How could you do that? Can man’s anger achieve God’s righteousness? He is our uncle in the flesh and is our elder after all. You’ve gone too far in treating him like that. The Lord told us to love each other, and love even our enemies. Do you have love?” “Though he is our elder, I can’t make an exception. Even for our own father or mother I can’t make an exception. This is a thing in the spirit,” I said angrily. Later, I did feel a sense of guilt when thinking of my family-sister’s words. However, when I thought of my upper co-worker’s words: “If you are deceived, you’ll have no part or share in the church. We can only see God through the servant because the servant has a direct relationship with God as Moses did. Disobeying the servant is disobeying God and the servant’s words are equal to God’s words, because the servant is our earthly master,” I felt what I had done was right. So, I put the blame on my uncle, thinking, “Didn’t he deserve it for accepting the heresy?” In the face of my family-sister’s advice, I not only did not turn back but went even further: I allowed no one in the churches to contact believers in the Almighty God. I believed that only by doing so could I guard the flock well and be a good faithful steward of the Lord.

One day in mid-April, I was just about to call the area co-workers together to discuss what course should be taken to stop the preachers of the Almighty God’s new work from entering the churches to snatch the sheep, when my belly hurt unbearably. No matter how hard I prayed, it was to no avail. So I had to go to the hospital. After an examination, I was found to have acute appendicitis. I prayed hastily, “O Lord, please heal me. You know I am faithful to you. I have to go to the church to guard the flock!” But no matter how hard I cried out, I did not turn better. In the end, I was obliged to have an operation. Even so, I did not realize that I had been disciplined for resisting the Almighty God and that God was trying to stop my evil footsteps by the illness. I stayed in the hospital for nearly a month, and after I was released, I continued to resist and condemn the Eastern Lightning. In early June, while I was working, my incision was torn open and hurt unbearably. So, once again, I was hospitalized.

After being hospitalized twice, I could not remain calm anymore. Losing the Lord’s keeping, I felt very depressed in spirit. I prayed but got no response, so I felt especially distressed. Moreover, the condition of the churches got worse and worse. Most of the co-workers and the preachers in every church were so weak that they could not pick themselves up. Each meeting place which used to have over eighty believers had only over twenty left. The co-workers used the platform to attack each other, and there was not a bit of love among them. I myself was unable to preach anything except about how to guard against “the Eastern Lightning.” Faced with my own plight and the condition of the churches, I had no strength to resist anymore. I pondered in my heart, “Since I began to resist ‘the Eastern Lightning,’ I haven’t received God’s keeping because of my faithfulness but kept suffering misfortunes: my wife got ill and was hospitalized, my photography studio was robbed, I was hospitalized twice, and the churches became desolate. God is almighty; how could he not defeat satan? Have I resisted wrongly? Is the one my uncle and those preachers of “the Eastern Lightning” believe in really the true God? Otherwise, how could they have such great strength and love? They can pretend for a while, but they can’t pretend all the time! To be frank, their love, their sincerity in treating others, and their living out really arouse my admiration. They never lost their tempers when preaching the gospel to me. No matter what I called them, devils, lunatics, psychopaths, or shameless jerks, they never got angry yet only advised me with kind words. So many times they were driven out by me and suffered from hunger or cold. Some of them even stayed overnight in the haystacks outside because of having no place to go to. …” Thinking back to what the believers in the Almighty God had done, I could not help praying to the Lord, “O Lord, I have neither their faith, nor their love, nor their sincerity. O Lord, if it’s not the true way, who can have such great faith? O Lord, what is all this about? Please guide me.”

Thank God for hearing my prayer. One day at the end of June, my aunt came to my home once again with a sister. My aunt said to me earnestly, “Wenming, whether it’s right or wrong you should investigate. You’ve encountered so many things, so you should wake up. God doesn’t want to abandon you. Two brothers are at my home now. You’d better go and have a fellowship with them lest you regret.” I thought to myself, “This must be God’s preparation. I believe God will definitely guide me to know whether it’s right or wrong.” I said hurriedly, “OK, Aunt, I’ll go and listen.” Hearing that, my aunt was so excited that tears streamed down her face. When I arrived at my uncle’s home, two brothers stood up and welcomed me warmly. Such a thing had never happened in our church. Then, we started to fellowship. The two brothers fellowshipped from Genesis all the way to Revelation and made very clear the three stages of works, God’s names, and God’s working principle of being ever new. One brother said, “The three stages of works are the center of God’s managing mankind. Only by knowing the three stages of works can man understand the whole course of God’s saving mankind. In the Age of the Law, God led people to live on earth, and he made people conscious of their sins through issuing the laws. The work of the Age of the Grace was the work of crucifixion; Jesus became man’s sin offering and bore man’s sins. The work of the Age of the Kingdom is to judge and purify man with the word, the purpose of which is to remove man’s sins. The word here is exactly the word in the little scroll prophesied in Revelation 5:1-5. Now God has come and personally made his word known to us. This has fulfilled the word in Revelation ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” After listening to the brother’s fellowship, I was convinced. But I still could not help asking him, “If God has come, how come the servant and the maidservant don’t know? Can man be saved not through the servant and the maidservant? The servant has a direct relationship with God just as Moses did. Disobeying the servant is disobeying God and the servant’s words are equal to God’s words!” With regard to my question, the brother specially fellowshipped with me about the relationship between God and man. He said, “God is the Creator, and man is the created being. God and man cannot be considered to be the same. Since we believe in God, we cannot exalt man and cannot treat man as God. In essence, you have treated the servant and the maidservant as God while believing in God that way. Only the Lord Jesus was qualified to say ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6), because he was God’s incarnated flesh and was God Godself on earth. Apart from him, no one is qualified to say so, because all men are created beings and none can represent God. Only God is the source of man’s life, and he can express the truth to supply man and can open an age and end an age. The servant, the maidservant, and the apostles, and even those used by the Holy Spirit can only speak something about their own experiences and their shallow knowledge of God’s work on the basis of the work of the new age opened by God. However, they must have a humble and seeking heart before they can receive the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Some of their knowledge is helpful to people, and some has errors and can mislead people and cause them to have erroneous knowledge of God. For this, the followers need to have discernment so as not to resist God. For example, when the Lord was incarnated and did the work of the Age of the Grace, those high priests, teachers of the law, elders, and Pharisees in the temple were all leaders in man’s eyes, yet they became sinners resisting God because of their stubbornness and their sticking to old things. Didn’t those who followed them also become ones condemned by God? Let’s look at Moses. Though he was used by the Holy Spirit, the issuer of the law was God Godself, for God is the source and man is only the channel. Moses was only performing man’s duty: conveying God’s will to the people.” I was rendered speechless by his words and could not but feel convinced in heart and in mouth. The brother continued, “Today, God wants to personally do the work that he has not completed, that is, the work of reaping, judging, selecting, and unifying. This work can only be done by God Godself, and only God can divide created beings into their kind. As Matthew 13:47-48 says: ‘Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.’ Here, the ‘net’ refers to the gospel, the ‘lake’ refers to the world, all kinds of ‘fish’ in the net refer to the believers in God in all sects and denominations, and the ‘fishermen’ on the shore refer to Christ. Then, isn’t the servant also in the ‘net’? Can he come ashore to pull the ‘net’ up?” Then, the brother opened the book of God’s word and read these words: “The development of mankind, the turn of society, and the progress of science cannot be achieved without the arrangement of the Creator. These works cannot be done by the founder of any religion. The founder of a religion is only the leader of a religion, and he cannot represent God and does not represent the One who created the heavens and the earth and all things. The founder of a religion may be able to lead all the people in the entire religion, but he cannot lead all the created beings in the entire world. This is a fact known to all. The founder of a religion can only be a leader and cannot be equal with God (the Creator). All things are in the hand of the Creator, and in the end they will have to come under the hand of the Creator. Mankind was created by God. No matter what religion it is, it will have to come under God’s authority. This is the sure trend. Only God is the supreme One among all things. The highest ruler among the created beings will have to come under his authority. No matter how high a man’s position may be, he cannot bring mankind into the proper destination. No man can divide all things into their kind. Jehovah himself created mankind and divided them into their kind, and in the end he will still do his own work and divide all things into their kind. Except God, no one else can do this.” After listening to God’s word and the brothers’ fellowship, I felt clearer in my heart. Thank the only true almighty God for making me understand so many truths and enabling me to come out of the dominion of the servant and the maidservant and return before God in a real sense.

After I accepted the new work, I ate and drank God’s word hungrily and felt bitter remorse for my past resistance. I abhorred my foolishness and ignorance and felt even more grateful for God’s tolerance and salvation. When I listened to hymn 221 “Who Cares for God’s Heart,” which goes,

“The darkness is over the earth; the devils are extremely ferocious.

God does the work with great difficulty, and suffers all humiliations.

Men have been corrupted so deeply, becoming the hostile force.

What Jesus suffered, has recurred today.

They believe in God yet do not know God, and crucify God again.

They are even more ferocious and vicious, than they were before.

Although there are many believers in God, few of them know God.

As we try to testify about God in the whole mainland, we find it so hard.

When we try to testify about God to others, we ourselves meet troubles instead.

With swords and bludgeons, they drive us out of their houses.

With tears in our eyes, we are heartbroken with grief.

We walk the way of the cross with difficulty, shedding tears and blood.

They all worship idols, and the evil slaves are entrapping them.

They believe in God in name, but are controlled by the evil slaves.

Where are those who love God? Where are those who seek God?

When God calls and knocks at the door, they hastily shut it tighter.

Men are desperately wicked, which has been revealed from these facts.

May God have mercy, and sympathy on those who love him.

God’s heart is so grieved, but who cares for his heart?

He does such a great work, but no one understands him,”

I felt that every word of it struck my heart. Thinking of the rejections that God had suffered for mankind, and thinking of how ferocious and vicious I was when beating and abusing the brothers and sisters who preached the gospel, I shed floods of tears, feeling extremely grieved, and I abhorred myself for being so blind and having no discernment. I remembered those past scenes in our denomination: At every big co-worker meeting, several hundred co-workers knelt on the floor listening to the servant’s message, whereas the servant sat in a big chair, around which knelt a ring of co-workers chosen from different churches of the denomination. A young, beautiful, and unmarried sister of over 20 years old held a wet towel in her hand and wiped the servant’s face from time to time. The co-workers (sisters) behind the servant fanned him in turn. All these gave the impression of serving an “emperor.” Besides, at each co-worker meeting, everyone had to offer at least 50 yuan. Such sharp contrast made my mind like a clear mirror. I deeply felt this: God has paid too much and suffered too much for mankind. God’s substance is forever holy and beautiful. Only God can bring man into the pleasant destination, and only God’s word can purify us thoroughly. No one can do God’s work in his stead. The servant isn’t God, and he cannot express the truth, much less give us life. He is a created being like us and is also under God’s control. Only when we come before God can we really receive salvation.

Dear brothers and sisters, I hope that my personal experience can give you a bit of enlightenment. I hope that you will no longer disobey and resist the Almighty God’s new work of the last days as I did, nor treat the servant as God at his beck and call as I did. Only God is the source of man’s life, and only the Almighty God can thoroughly save man. Dear brothers and sisters, break through the bondage quickly and follow the Almighty God who was, and who is, and who is to come. Let’s step toward the new age together!

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