![]() I Am Willing to Accept the Supervision of All Xianshang Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province A little while ago, every time I heard that the district preachers were coming to our church, I would feel a bit ill at ease. I didn’t reveal my feelings outwardly, but my heart was full of opposition. I thought: “It would be best if you all didn’t come. If you do come, at least don’t work in the church with me. Otherwise, I’ll be restricted and unable to commune.” Later, the situation got so bad that I actually hated their coming. But being so numb, I had no understanding of the state I was in, much less did I think to seek the truth to resolve it. One day, I read the following passage of God’s words: “The teaching of the feudal code of ethics and passing down of knowledge of ancient culture has long infected man and turned man into devils big and small. … Man’s face is filled with murder, and in all places, death is in the air. They seek to cast God out from this land…. It wishes to wipe out God’s all in one blow, to again insult and assassinate Him, and attempts to tear down and disturb His work. How could it allow God to be of equal status? How can it tolerate God ‘interfering’ with its work among men on earth? How can it allow God to unmask its odious face? How can it allow God to disrupt its work? How could this devil, fuming with rage, allow God to govern its court of power on earth? How could it willingly admit defeat? Its odious countenance has been revealed for what it is, hence one finds himself not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and it is truly difficult to speak of. Is this not its essence? … Demons and evil spirits … have closed off the will and painstaking effort of God, making them impenetrable. What a mortal sin! How could God not feel anxious? How could God not feel wrathful? They cause grievous hindrance and opposition to the work of God. Too rebellious!” (“Work and Entry (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I contemplated the meaning of this passage while reflecting on my recent condition: Why was it that I so disliked the district preachers coming to our church? Why wasn’t I willing to let them work alongside me in the church? Was it not because I was worried that if they were to come into the church, they would realize that I wasn’t working according to principle or God’s will and would prune and deal with me with regard to this issue? What’s more, I was scared that their coming would throw a wrench in my work plans. I was scared that they would commune better than me and cause me to lose my privileged status in the hearts of my brothers and sisters. If they didn’t come, I could go about my work plans just as I pleased. Even if my methods did not accord with the truth or God’s will, no one would know and certainly no one would deal with me or criticize me. In this way, my standing in the hearts of my brothers and sisters would only become greater, more privileged and more stable. All the brothers and sisters of the church would look up to me, admire me and obey my orders. The whole church would revolve around me. Was this not my true purpose? Thinking these thoughts, I became afraid. As it so happened, was I not scheming to drive out God from the hearts of my brothers and sisters so that I may gain status in their hearts? Was I not a living and breathing example of those poisons of the great red dragon, “The emperor is as far away as the sky,” “There is no king but me”? In order to control and claim dominion over humanity, the great red dragon combated the coming of God with full force, not allowing God to have a hand in the affairs of men, to expose its ghoulish face, to interfere in its plans or govern in its dominion. Thus, it wildly opposed, disrupted, tore down and decimated God’s work. It fantasized that, one day, it could wrest God from the hearts of humankind and fulfill its despicable objective of becoming the eternal arbiter of man and forcing mankind to worship it. What difference was there between my own thoughts and the actions of the great red dragon? Because I wanted to maintain my own status and assure that I could go my own way and not be restricted in my work, I didn’t want to let other leaders or coworkers supervise or inspect my work. I didn’t want anyone else meddling in the work of the church I led or watering my brothers and sisters. Was it not just because I wanted to control and claim dominion over others? Was my purpose not to proclaim myself king and earthly ruler over my brothers and sisters? I saw that the poison of the great red dragon—that unchecked arrogance and megalomania—had already penetrated to the core of my being. The influence of the great red dragon had long since taken hold within me: I had become as malevolent a demon as the dragon itself. On the surface, I was working to fulfill my duty, but my heart held ulterior motives. In reality, I was breaking up the throne, setting chaos in the ranks and erecting my own empire in opposition to God and in obstruction of the execution of God’s will. My nature was pure evil and so terrifying! If not for the harsh revelation and judgment of God’s word, I never would have known to what degree I had been corrupted by Satan and opposed God. I never would have come to realize that, deep within my soul, a dastardly plot had been hatched and that my true nature was so deeply afflicted by evil. Thank You God for Your revelations and enlightenment, which allowed me to realize my satanic nature of arrogance and vileness. I see that I am, in fact, a child of the great red dragon and of the archangel. God, I vow to seek the truth with diligence and come to a deeper understanding of the great red dragon’s poison within my nature. I vow, more so, to accept the inspection and supervision of other coworkers and leaders. I will accept the dealing and pruning of all. I shall place myself under the inspection of the entire congregation so I may fulfill my duties conscientiously to comfort Your heart.
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![]() My Life Principles Left Me Damaged Changkai Benxi City, Liaoning Province The common phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse” is one with which I am all too personally familiar. My husband and I were all particularly guileless people: When it came to matters that involved our own personal benefit or loss, we weren’t the type to haggle and fuss with others. Where we could be forbearing we were forbearing, where we could be accommodating we also did our best to be accommodating. As a result, we often found ourselves cheated and abused by others. It really seemed that in life, “All lay loads on the willing horse”—if you have too much kindness in your heart, if you’re too accommodating and modest in your affairs, you’re very liable to be cheated. With these thoughts in mind, I resolved to not subject myself to all this abuse and live in frustration anymore: In future matters and in dealings with others, I vow not to be too accommodating. Even after I accepted Almighty God’s work, I still applied this principle in conducting my behavior and interactions with others. At one point, I was working with a sister in fulfilling our duties. This sister often pointed out my inadequacies and shortcomings; I had the feeling that she was holding me down in every way. At first I thought: It’s not easy to be on your own away from home, try to use some forbearance. Later, however, after the sister proved to be unrelenting in her criticisms, I finally thought back to that phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse.” It occurred to me that the sister must have recognized I was too kind and therefore an easy target and decided to make things hard on me by nitpicking over petty and inconsequential matters. I decided I wasn’t going to accommodate or forbear her behavior any longer, so I summoned all of the fishwife energy suppressed inside me and let loose an apoplectic tirade, stopping only when the sister didn’t dare to utter another word. Later, the sister asked me to commune with her and confided that she had realized the way she spoke and acted was very inhumane and hoped that I could forgive her. She also said that God had orchestrated this situation and used me as a way to deal with her. When I heard this, I was so pleased you would have thought I was a four-star general emerging victorious from the battlefield. What’s more, I was even further convinced that there was a lot of merit to the phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse.” Only recently, while reading “The 100 Axioms of Satan Upon Which Corrupt Humans Rely for Existence” issued by the church, did I see a passage which said: “‘All lay loads on the willing horse.’ … Humanity has been corrupted by Satan for thousands of years and there are countless fallacies which Satan uses to brainwash people. Here we summarize 100 fallacies which humanity prizes as precious maxims to guide them through life. These fallacies have already taken root in the deepest depths of the human heart; if not equipped with the truths, humans are largely incapable of uncovering the true nature of these fallacies. If humans continue to hold Satan’s fallacies up as maxims and principles for living, corrupt humanity will never attain salvation.” After reading this passage from the fellowship I had a sudden realization, as if waking up from a long dream: The phrase “All lay loads on the willing horse” was a fallacy created by Satan to indoctrinate and corrupt humankind. God asks that in our interactions with others we should be accepting, patient, tolerant, and forgiving. We should be thoughtful, respectful and loving toward others. By contrast, Satan’s life principle, “All lay loads on the willing horse,” subtly guides us away from good and toward evil, teaches us to not be too kind or conciliatory in our dealings with others. To protect ourselves, we must take “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” we must learn to be tough, barbarous and evil. I realized that “All lay loads on the willing horse” represents a fallacy, which is in diametrical opposition to the truth—it is Satan’s logic, it belongs to the negativity of Satan, a poison of the great red dragon. Satan works through these specious “theories” to brainwash humans into scheming against one another, murdering in cold blood, engaging in dogged and endless competition, submitting to no one until there is no humanity left within them. In this way humans become corrupt as Satan itself, sacrificial objects to be buried with it, and Satan achieves its goal of corrupting and consuming all of humanity. I couldn’t see through the illusion and took “All lay loads on the willing horse” as a truth to be accepted and respected. I thought that I couldn’t be too kind or accommodating, and that being patient or tolerant in dealings with others was the way of the stupid and ignorant and would only leave me vulnerable to cheating and abuse. Because I had always taken this fallacy as a maxim to be lived by, when the sister pointed out my inadequacies in order to help me to recognize them and change for the better, not only did I not accept her comments, I actually thought she was bullying me and nitpicking at inconsequential details. As a result, I unleashed the beast inside of me, acting like a demon. Even when the sister abased herself and offered me an apology, I still didn’t gain insight into myself or feel embarrassed, but rather sat there pleased as punch, thinking that the sister had finally “accepted defeat” because I had stuck to my maxim “All lay loads on the willing horse.” Having “won this victory,” I felt even more moved to uphold and praise this axiom of Satan. How absurd, how preposterous I was! I had gotten things completely backward, mistaking evil for good; I simply could not be reasoned with! God’s final work is to cleanse humanity of Satan’s poison, and use truth to change their corrupt disposition. In my own case, however, I hadn’t sought the truth, or strived to recognize Satan’s poison existing within me, nor did I practice the truth to change myself. Instead, I held on to Satan’s fallacies and rejected the truth. If I had continued on like that, I would never have begun to understand myself. I would never gain the truth and achieve a change in my disposition. In the end, I would have to be annihilated by God, as is Satan’s fate. Thank You God for Your enlightenment and illumination, which allowed me to realize that Satan’s axiom “All lay loads on the willing horse” is nothing but a fallacy which Satan uses to brainwash and corrupt mankind. This phrase is used as an excuse and tool by the corrupt mankind to continue striving against one another. The phrase is in contradiction to the truth, and can only corrupt and ruin mankind. If man attains his sustenance from Satan’s poison, if he acts according to Stan’s axioms, he will only become more corrupt and evil. He will be less and less humane and more and more in opposition to God, removed from God. He will never receive God’s salvation. Almighty God, I vow to put all my effort into Your words and into my pursuit of the truth, so that I may come to recognize the many varieties of Satan’s venom within me, thoroughly forsake the fallacies of Satan, and no more act according to Satan’s axioms. I vow to seek out Your will in all matters, and follow Your word, so that Your word may take root deep within my heart and become the axioms by which I do things, the standards against which I measure myself. Let me live in complete accord with Your word. ![]() The Secret Tip to Resolving Hatred Xiao Wu I was self-employed. Mainly I sold all kinds of textiles, and I also made clothes for my customers part-time. After a few years, my business became more and more popular, and people around me were all very envious. Later, a neighboring household opened the same kind of shop as mine and became my competitor. Naturally, the business in my shop was affected. The popular proverb says two of a trade never agree, but my peer was not just anyone, but my most trusted pupil, Xiaochen. Not only did Xiaochen open the same store next to my house, she even waited outside of her shop to intentionally steal my business. Whenever she saw somebody pass by the shop, she approached them and greeted them enthusiastically, guiding them into the shop, and she even purposefully said awful things about me. Seeing Xiaochen do everything she could to steal my business, I regretted taking her as my pupil and started hating her from my heart. When I saw her, I was unwilling to approach or talk to her, and sometimes I would even say some bad things about her in front of customers, or I would intentionally give customers a discount to bring back repeat customers, so that I could reduce her clients. But because we were neighbors, we could not avoid running into each other. As time passed, I became more and more pained and repressed in my heart, and my hate for her became deeper and deeper. It reached the point that whenever I looked at her, my heart became awfully choked, and my whole mind was occupied with thoughts of how to deal with her. Even when I dreamed, I dreamed I was fighting her. I was living so painfully at that time! In 2002, I heard my schoolmate say that believing in Jesus could bring peace and happiness, that it could broaden our hearts so that we no longer harbored hatred, so I believed in the Lord Jesus. I saw that the Lord Jesus said: “But I say to you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which spitefully use you. And to him that smites you on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that takes away your cloak forbid not to take your coat also” (Luk 6:27-29). From the Lord’s words I saw that the Lord has an unlimited and boundless love for us. He has unlimited tolerance, patience, and forgiveness for us. Didn’t the Lord already practice out these things that He required us to do? The Lord’s love deeply encouraged me, so I wanted to follow the Lord’s teachings, and I tried to tolerate Xiaochen, and not to quarrel with her. But in real life, I still hated her uncontrollably, and I could not practice the Lord’s word at all. When I thought that the Bible said that hating somebody is like killing them, I felt even more pain. I thought: I want to forgive Xiaochen, but why is it that I simply could not do it? I believe in the Lord and I know His demands, but why can’t I put the Lord’s word into practice? I lived in pain, and I could not extricate myself. Soon, in 2003, I had the fortune to accept God’s work in the last days. In a gathering, a sister read a part of God’s word directed toward my difficulty: “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. … 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” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). She also fellowshiped to me: “During the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus did a step of redemptive work. The sin of us humans was only forgiven, so that we were no longer sentenced by the laws. However, our sinful nature still remained, and it had not been resolved. It is like you living in hatred to Xiaochen, you can only control your external behavior to not insult her, but you have not resolved the source of hatred in your heart. We humans have been corrupted by Satan for thousands of years, and we have been completely taken over by all kinds of satanic poisons. Satanic philosophies and laws such as “Heaven destroys those who are not for themselves,” and “A man dies for money; a bird dies for food” have become our life and our nature. We uncontrollably rely on these things to live, so we have all become selfish, self-interested, and only interested in profit. We fight and argue over our own interests and become jealous and hateful, causing us to uncontrollably commit sins and oppose God. Although in our heart we want to practice the Lord’s word, because we are bound and limited by satanic nature, we cannot put them into practice and we live in unbearable pain. In the last days Almighty God comes to resolve the root problem of us corrupt humans committing sins, to completely rescue us from Satan’s domain. For this purpose, God speaks words to perform the work of judging and purifying man, so that, through the judgment and chastisement of God’s word, we recognize our own satanic nature, come to understand that God’s righteous disposition is beyond reproach, gradually come to revere God, no longer live by Satan’s poison, seek the truth in all things, live on God’s word, and replace our own corrupt disposition with practicing the truth. In this way, we can live out a normal humanity, we can know how to act and how to conduct ourselves in contact with others. When we have left the bondage of Satan’s authority and are no longer controlled by our corrupt disposition, then we are living in release and freedom. Sister, if you often read the word of the Almighty God, experience God’s judgment and chastisement, often pray to God, ask God to protect your heart, then you will surely be able to let go of the hatred in your heart, break away from Satan’s corrupt disposition, and live relaxed and free. So, you must have confidence in God….” After listening to the sister’s fellowship, I understood that the reason I was never able to resolve the hatred in my heart while believing in the Lord Jesus is because the Lord Jesus only performed the work of redeeming sin, but not the work of casting away sin. This is why the satanic nature and corrupt disposition within me have not yet been removed. Only Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days can fully cleanse and transform me, rescuing me from sin! Having understood this, I became confident again about how to resolve the hatred between Xiaochen and me, and I made up my mind to properly pursue the truth and shed the satanic corrupt disposition soon. One day, I saw God’s word saying: “Cruel, brutal mankind! The conniving and intrigue, the jostling with each other, the scramble for reputation and fortune, the mutual slaughter—when will it ever end? … How many do not act for the sake of their own interests? How many do not oppress and discriminate against others for the sake of maintaining their own status” (“The Wicked Must Be Punished” in The Word Appears in the Flesh)? After reading God’s word, I began to self-reflect. Why is it that I keep living in hatred to Xiaochen? Isn’t it just because she stole my business and this affected my own interests? In order to get more money and have one less competitor, all I thought about was how to exclude her and resent her, and I even had dark thoughts about her. In the past, I thought that my hatred of her had a reason. She offended me first, so that’s why I hated her to this extent. Now, I know that this is caused by my own selfish nature. Having recognized these things, I quickly prayed to God: “God, only now do I know that I hate Xiaochen because I have a selfish nature within me. God, I am willing to rebel against myself, I am unwilling to live by my satanic nature. I hope that You can help me, so that I can let go of my hatred to Xiaochen and live out a normal humanity.” In order to help me walk out of hatred, God arranged a situation for me. One day, Xiaochen was refurbishing her kitchen, and it took up the stairwell passageway shared between our two houses. Looking at this, I felt angry in my heart, that she was really pushing it too far. After stealing my business, now she was coming to take over my territory. This was really getting more and more out of hand! When I wanted to argue with her, I suddenly remembered that God said: “God is forever supreme and ever honorable, while man is forever base, forever worthless. This is because God is forever making sacrifices and devoting Himself to mankind; man, however, forever takes and strives only for himself. … for the effort of man is always for his own sake and not for others. Man is always selfish, while God is forever selfless. God is the source of all that is just, good, and beautiful, while man is he who succeeds to and makes manifest all ugliness and evil” (“It Is Very Important to Understand God’s Disposition” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Yes, God’s love is too selfless. God is incarnated into flesh twice only to save us humans. God has paid the absolute price so that we can achieve salvation. In the past, He sacrificed Himself on the cross for the salvation of humanity, and now He is incarnated into flesh again, enduring people’s resistance, condemnation, persecution, and defamation to perform work and save people, all without complaints or regrets and never asking us to repay Him. God’s life substance is so beautiful, so lovable, so worthy of our admiration and worship! And I have been corrupted by Satan to be too selfish and despicable, too cunning and evil, and I lived by Satan’s poison, “Fight for every inch of land and seize every bit you can get.” As long as it relates to a bit of my profits, I would fight with others, haggle over every penny, and I cannot take any losses. I see what I live out is exactly the same as Satan’s, as if I am a living demon. Now, God has pointed out a path to changing my life disposition. I ought to practice it in accordance to God’s word, rebel against Satan, and no longer live by Satan’s poison. So, I prayed to God: “God, the matter that I encounter today is set up by You for me. I am willing to live out Your word, and no longer live by Satan’s poison. I hope that You will grant me confidence and strength, so I will no longer be fooled by Satan and let go of my hatred to Xiaochen in my heart.” After praying, my heart gradually became calmer, and I felt incomparably secure in my heart. At that moment, I felt for the first time that letting go of hatred could be so relaxing and releasing. Having had this experience, I was more willing to live my life in accordance to God’s word, and I was no longer willing to be fooled or corrupted by Satan. One morning, Xiaochen’s shop hadn’t opened yet, and I heard somebody yelling outside, “Miss Tailor! Open the door quickly!” I opened it up and had a look, and it turned out to be Xiaochen’s customer coming to pick up clothes from her shop. The customer saw that I opened the door, asking me if Xiaochen was at home. At this moment, I remembered something that happened before: One day, I was cleaning upstairs, and a customer came to look for me downstairs. Even though he knew I was at home, Xiaochen’s husband didn’t tell the customer. Thinking of this, I felt angry, and I didn’t want to tell the customer about the fact that Xiaochen’s at home. Then I remembered God’s word said: “You ought to know that God likes an honest man. … To be honest is to refrain from impurity in your actions and words, and to deceive neither God nor man” (“Three Admonitions” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “When you rebel against the flesh, there will inevitably be a battle within you. Satan will try and make you follow it, will try and make you follow the conceptions of the flesh and uphold the interests of the flesh—but God’s words will enlighten and illuminate you within, and at this time it is up to you whether you follow God or follow Satan” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The enlightenment of God’s word allowed me to see that what I had just thought was still living by Satan’s poison. I wanted to treat Xiaochen as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Isn’t this still living within Satan’s corrupt disposition? God asks us to be an honest person and not lie or deceive people, but Satan allows me to act in accordance to the corrupt disposition of the flesh. Should I follow Satan and satisfy the flesh, or should I rebel against Satan, practice the truth, and satisfy God? At this moment, I felt God observing my every word, every act, and each and every movement. No, I must rebel against the flesh and practice the truth to satisfy God. Thinking of this, I told the customer calmly, “If you’re looking for Miss Xiaochen, she’s at home, just wait for a bit and she’ll come out.” When I practiced this, I felt very secure in my heart. Later, when repeat customers came to my house to make clothes but I was too busy and couldn’t manage it, I would introduce them to Xiaochen’s shop. When she found out later, she was also very touched. Finally, one day, when she saw me, she deliberated for a long time, and then called excitedly out, “Master!” This “Master” made me feel extremely warm inside. Ever since she opened her shop next to my house, she had never called me Master once. I knew at that moment that the reason we could resolve our hatred was because of the effect achieved by God’s word. Otherwise, the hatred between us could only get deeper and deeper. Thank God! All glory and praise unto Almighty God! ![]() A Different Experience of Job Seeking Liang Xin In today’s society, there are all different kinds of major enterprises and there seems to be a myriad of employment opportunities, but year after year, college graduates are a dime a dozen. The market of qualified employment candidates is so overcrowded you can’t gain a foothold, so the difficulty of finding employment after graduation has become a very practical problem. For every young person on the cusp of entering society after school, the most headache-inducing issue that they have to face is finding work, particularly at a good company. Everyone puts on their best face and racks their brains trying to squeeze their way in—the competition and pressure are intense. I, approaching graduation, had no choice but to face the plight of finding a job just like everybody else. The only thing different about me is that I’m a Christian and I believe that everything is prepared by God. However … Tossing Resumes to the Wind, the Arduous Path of a Job-Seeker As recruitment banners from all sorts of major companies began appearing and all kinds of recruitment ads were put up all over campus, students all crowded in front of the advertising board with the intention of reading every single recruitment notice. Work locations, salary, and recruitment conditions were our primary daily topics of conversation. The atmosphere on campus became very tense; the students were just like soldiers preparing for war, wanting to find a position to their liking. We were all rolling up our sleeves, preparing for action. One day, a top student who was in my dorm came back once again, dejected with her head hanging, and said listlessly: “It’s hopeless, again. Every company says to wait for news from them, but as soon as I leave I’m like another grain of sand on the beach.” In spite of myself, her words made my heart clench, and I thought: “Even for someone like her, the best student in our dorm, finding a job is this hard. What am I going to do?” She then went on to say: “Having a record of my grades is no use at all. Recruitment agencies aren’t looking at all of that. They look at how good-looking you are, how you carry yourself. If your external image isn’t good, you’re just wasting your breath.” This time her words really startled me: “It’s true! Society is very superficial now, so you either have to look good from the outside or have a way in through your family. Bookworms like her who are short, not that good-looking, and don’t have a nice demeanor, no matter how well they’ve done in school, they’re just making everyone else look better. I’m just like her—short, average-looking, and definitely fade into the background. How am I going to face looking for a job?” Thinking of all this, I started to fret over finding a job. Over that period of time, some recruitment agencies came to our school, and I went along with some of my classmates to talk to them. As soon as we stepped into the school auditorium it truly was an ocean of people. There were long lines in front of each recruiter’s table, and job-seekers were all eagerly crowding forward, intent on getting their resume into the recruiter’s hands first. However, I heard that successfully signed contracts were few and far between. Beautifully designed resumes with photographs affixed to the front piled up on the floor, scattered everywhere, some even with footprints on them. I felt pang after pang of sadness over this, and I couldn’t help but let out a long sigh: “Who says going to college will guarantee you a good future? Even finding a job is an almost impossible task!” Students were rejected one after another, chipping away at their confidence. Some even gave up in despair and said helplessly: “Whatever, it looks hopeless. I’ll just sign anything and be done with it.” Seeing my classmates lose their confidence one by one, my heart climbed up into my throat. I thought of a company I had been interested in with flexible work times that wouldn’t interfere with attending gatherings—everything was a good fit. I had prayed to God and left the issue in His hands to allow Him to arrange this matter—but later that company still hadn’t sent out recruiters. I couldn’t help but become anxious. I thought: “Why hasn’t that company come out to recruit yet? If they don’t come and I keep on like this, I won’t get a job anywhere else. Won’t that delay my future prospects?” Anxiously Awaiting, Why Not Leave It in God’s Hands? When my classmates saw that I wasn’t looking at other companies, they all told me: “You’re waiting around for nothing. It’s not certain if that company is going to come recruit at the school this year. If they don’t come, you won’t even have a chance at a job. What will you do then? Your hands will be tied!” I couldn’t help but feel concerned, hearing them say this. I thought: “They’re right! If that company really doesn’t come, once these companies are done recruiting, it really will have been in vain. I’ve spent four years in college. If I have to pack my bags and go back to my hometown after all this, how could I face all my family and friends who have placed such great hopes in me?” But I once again turned my thoughts to God, always keeping in mind that God will prepare something for me. I thought and I thought, and I still decided to wait. But waiting made the days really drag by. I heard a few rumors that that company wasn’t coming to recruit at my school that year, and every time it really agitated me. I was constantly concerned for my future and my confidence in God was shrinking. One time, a family member called me to ask about my job hunt and I explained my situation to him. He asked me: “Do you have a second-level certificate for computer?” “I didn’t test for it.” He then asked: “Do you hold some office in your school?” “No.” “Are you a Party member?” “No.” Hearing this, he said: “Don’t even think about that company coming or not. Without any of those things, it’ll be hard for you to get a position anywhere!” His words were like a bucket of cold water dumped over me, soaking me from head to foot. My heart was thoroughly chilled. I thought: “It would be great if I had successfully tested for those certifications! If I had participated in those school activities more proactively, wouldn’t my chances of finding work be greater?” But it then occurred to me, “But the top student in my dorm has all sorts of certifications and isn’t it just as hard for her to find work? They don’t play a decisive role either.” I felt much calmer after thinking about that. Day after day passed and the number of recruiting agencies dwindled. I was unbearably anxious but there was nothing I could do. I could only come in front of God and pray: “Oh God! I’m really suffering now and I can’t figure out what I should do about this issue of looking for a job. I’m afraid of losing my future prospects and of gaining nothing, ultimately becoming a laughingstock of my classmates. What should I do? God, please guide me.” After praying, I got out a notebook that I frequently wrote God’s words in and flipped through it. I stumbled upon a song praising God written by David: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up on a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD. … When you said, Seek you my face; my heart said to you, Your face, LORD, will I seek. … Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of my enemies. Deliver me not over to the will of my enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psm 27:4-6, 8, 11-14). Seeing the words at the end, “wait, I say, on the LORD,” my heart was drawn to them. I continued reading: “That which My light shines upon, you must rely on Me to cast it away, live by Me always, be close to Me, and your actions must reveal My likeness. You shall fellowship with Me more when you are unsure of what to do, and I will guide you toward the right actions so that you may move forward. If you are unsure, do not take arbitrary actions; just wait for My time” (“The Twenty-ninth Utterance” of Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “You truly lack faith in My presence and often rely on yourselves to do things. ‘You can’t do anything without Me!’ But you corrupt people are always taking My words into one ear and out the other. Life nowadays is a life of words; without words there is no life, there is no experience, not to mention that there is no faith. Faith is in words; only by throwing yourselves more into God’s words can you have everything. Don’t worry about not growing up; life comes through growth, not through worrying.” “You are always apt to become anxious and don’t listen to My instructions. You always want to exceed My pace. What is that about? It is people’s wild ambitions. … Blind men! Why don’t you come to My presence more and seek? Why are you just acting blindly? You must see clearly! It is certainly not a person who is working now, but rather it is the Ruler of all, the one true God—the Almighty!” (“The Thirty-seventh Utterance” of Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After reading God’s words I suddenly felt my heart brighten. I thought: It’s true! Aren’t I an arbitrary person who is blind and foolish, trying to rely on myself? Even though I had left the issue of work in God’s hands for Him to decide, when the matter wasn’t settled I lost confidence in God and still didn’t wait for God to arrange circumstances for me or have an attitude of seeking and obedience. Instead, I fretted over my own future and fate. Faced with the facts, I finally saw that my understanding of God’s almightiness and rule was just a slogan, was just doctrine, but my actual faith in God was truly paltry and could not stand the test of time at all, nor could it hold firm when God arranged the proper circumstances. I thought of David writing the song in praise of Jehovah God; it was because he had seen so many of God’s deeds and had a true understanding of God’s almightiness and rule. So no matter what sort of hardships he encountered, he was able to genuinely lean on God, believing that God was faithful and would certainly guide him. Pondering all of this, my heart suddenly brightened: So, God actually carefully arranged all of this for me in order to perfect my faith and obedience for Him. What I need to do at this time is to exalt God as great in my heart, to set aside my own worries and concerns, and to experience God’s work and words within this environment, waiting for His will to become evident. I then came in front of God and prayed: “Oh God! Although I said with my mouth that I was putting the issue of work in Your hands, yet as I saw the hope of finding work growing fainter and fainter, I just wanted to do it on my own and I no longer believed in Your almightiness and rule. Oh God, my faith in You truly is so small! Now I understand Your will, and I will no longer rely on myself when doing things. I will no longer live within my worries and concerns, allowing Satan to toy with me. I only want to hand everything over to You and wait for Your time. I believe that everything You prepare for me will be the best.” I Will Never Fathom God’s Deeds Around midday three days, later my phone rang. It was an acquaintance from the Office of Academic Affairs, who said to me anxiously: “You better hurry up and get yourself out there. The leader from that company you’ve just been waiting for has come recruit and they’ll probably be away tonight. Hurry up and get out there.” This wonderful, unexpected surprise was very exciting for me and I simply didn’t dare believe that the company I had been waiting and hoping for, was suddenly coming three days after my prayer. Just then a passage from God’s words surfaced in my mind: “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I felt amazed at how marvelous God is while quickly putting on a suit, grabbing my resume, and rushing to the recruitment center. The whole way there my mind was full of thoughts on what they would ask me and how I should answer. The more I thought the more nervous I got, so I quickly prayed to God, asking Him to calm me down. When I got there I saw a group of students outside who had gathered there some time ago. It seemed I was the last to receive the news. I went to the end of the line and watched one classmate after another go talk to the company leader, and they were all tactfully dismissed. They said they weren’t looking for female candidates, or they didn’t want anyone trying to test into graduate school—there were many reasons given for the rejection. My turn finally came. I very cautiously handed my resume to the leader—it was the very first resume I had handed over since the recruitment drive had begun, and it was the first one I had even printed. He looked it over and asked me if I had brought a copy of an employment agreement. I had. Unexpectedly, he didn’t ask me anything at all, but just said casually: “Sign it.” I didn’t dare believe my ears; it was just like being in a dream. When I finished signing it I felt like I was in a trance. Was I grateful, was I happy, was I excited? It was difficult to describe with words; all I could do was give my thanks and praise to God nonstop. I praised God and I praised Him more. Not only for getting a stable job, but even more because by going through that process, I had seen God’s wondrous ways and that all things and all events are under God’s rule and arrangements. Human thoughts and ideas are even more within His hands. God arranged the work for me, so no matter how high or how rigorous people thought recruitment conditions were, they could not change God’s rule or what He has determined. God’s words sprung to mind: “Without God’s work, no matter how good man’s doing, it will count for nothing, for the thoughts of God shall always be higher than the thoughts of man, and the wisdom of God is unfathomable to man” (“Only He Who Experiences the Work of God Truly Believes in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). This experience provided me with profound personal experience of these words from God. This job-seeking experience allowed me to genuinely see that God’s marvelousness and unfathomableness completely exceeds my imagination. Although those days of waiting felt long and arduous, after undergoing them they became a precious treasure in my life. My faith in God was too small, so He wanted to perfect my faith through the process of waiting to have me learn to give my true heart to God, to obey His rule and arrangements in all things. Thinking of it now, I sincerely feel that no matter how long that wait was, it would have been worth it because God reveals His deeds in His own time, letting me see that His actions are everywhere, that He is the most trustworthy, most practical One who is worth a lifelong faith and dependence! All glory be to God! Source: Gospel Testimonies ![]() A Father and His Step-Daughter Surpass the Ties of Blood By Xia Zixuan, Hubei Province A Grey Childhood There was no mother and no father around when Zixuan was growing up; she didn’t know what the cakes the children from the city talked about tasted like, and she’d never seen a goldfish blow bubbles in a fish tank. On no evening did she ever hear the stories of Grimm’s fairytales, but instead she listened to her grandpa tell her the story of The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants. Her real father leaving and her mother remarrying had brought about feelings of inferiority when she was little, and even more so had become a shadow in the depth of her heart that she could not drive away. Especially when she saw the other children with their parents, caring for them and being with them, Zixuan’s heart would ache with pain. An Untraversable Chasm At the time of the millennium, Zixuan’s mother brought Zixuan to live with her in the city. Her step-father was good to her, but in her heart, Zixuan believed that “blood was thicker than water,” and that only family bonds built upon the kinship of blood were real. After all, her step-father was different from her biological father, and he could never treat her like his own daughter; even if he was good to her, it was a false display put on for her mother, and he was simply incapable of being sincerely and honestly good to her. Therefore, Zixuan felt very biased against her step-father, and they argued often. Even with tiny matters that were hardly worth a mention, as long as they happened in front of them both, it would develop into an entirely irrational quarrel. In over ten years, the family battles never ceased, their antagonism got worse and worse, and every one of them lived in a state of pain … Once the question of whether mushrooms should be blanched or not came up, and Zixuan and her step-father both stuck to their own views, in the end they both stomped off in anger, and after that they didn’t speak to each other again for two weeks. Zixuan’s mother was caught in the middle, and felt like she may as well adopt a neutral attitude, scolding them both and then employing the traditional virtue of “respecting the old and cherishing the young” to try to rein them both in. Because of her mother’s attempts to restrain them, Zixuan and her step-father would act very “harmoniously” in front of her mother, but the minute she was gone, they would quarrel unceasingly. Every time, it was Zixuan who would pick up on something, do something that was deliberately provocative and push her step-father to the end of his tether. But because Zixuan was the younger, she could only be reprimanded and lectured. Zixuan didn’t want to hear it, however, and felt it was unfair, and she thought: “How come the responsibility is always on me? Why is it always my fault?” This brought Zixuan much pain, and it proved to her even more that, in the absence of any blood ties, her step-father really was without any genuine concern or care for her after all—her real father would never have treated her this way, she thought. And so Zixuan couldn’t find it in her heart to love her step-father, and it seemed as though there existed an untraversable chasm between them. Feelings Reach Breaking Point Although Zixuan and her step-father were on “friendly terms” with each other when her mother was around, this feigned harmony could not last long. That year, the two of them couldn’t take it any longer and blew up over a certain matter, and thereafter their quarrels escalated, and the family was pushed toward breaking point. Winter came and temperatures dropped, and Zixuan’s step-father’s old illness of sinusitis returned. When they switched on their central heating, his nose would get so stuffy that he could hardly breathe, and to clear his nasal passages, he would open all the windows on the balcony. Yet Zixuan thought what a waste of money it was, to pay for central heating and yet have their home open to the four winds, like a great shack exposed to the elements. Not only that, but she was anemic and feared the cold, and so she resolutely forbade her step-father to open the windows. When it came to this issue, neither one of them would back down. Zixuan thought how her step-father was not as good as her biological father, and that he didn’t know how to love her, whereas her step-father thought of how he’d raised Zixuan for over ten years, all to no avail, and had expended so much of himself and yet had still failed to make her heart warm to him, and she didn’t understand him in the slightest. Zixuan’s mother saw that neither one of them would make a concession, and her patience had reached its limit. She just couldn’t stand it anymore, and so she yelled at them: “You’ve argued so often through all these years over such tiny things, have you ever once thought about my feelings? I’ve been stuck in the middle of you two for 18 years, how do you think I’ve managed to get through it?” Zixuan’s step-father felt bitterly disappointed, and he really couldn’t stand it any longer either, and so suggested to Zixuan’s mother that they divorce. Zixuan had also long since had enough of their life together, and she said angrily to her step-father, “Fine! Then we’ll each go our separate ways from now on, and stay clear of each other. I’m grown up now and can look after my mom. All our property and the house belong to you and I don’t want any of it. You’ve earned money all these years to raise me, so from now on I’ll pay it all back to you!” Seeing her family argue so, her mother felt grieved and helpless, and all she could do was sit in the living room, crying. This winter really had become a cold one for this family of three. Living in this awkward environment, Zixuan suffered greatly and felt much oppressed, and she felt even worse than she had done before. Yet she still didn’t know what to do, and could only yell silently at the sky every day: “Heavens, what should I do? Please help me …” Saved by God’s Hand Just when Zixuan was at her most pained and helpless, God’s salvation came upon her, and so her family that had been at breaking point was saved. Zixuan read these words of God: “One has no say in who one’s parents and relatives are, what kind of environment one grows up in; one’s relationships with the people, events, and things in one’s surroundings, and how they influence one’s development, are all beyond one’s control. Who decides these things, then? Who arranges them? Since people have no choice in the matter, since they cannot decide these things for themselves, and since they obviously do not take shape naturally, it goes without saying that the formation of all this rests in the hands of the Creator. Just as the Creator arranges the particular circumstances of every person’s birth, He also arranges the specific circumstances under which one grows up, needless to say. If a person’s birth brings changes to the people, events, and things around him or her, then that person’s growth and development will necessarily affect them as well. For example, some people are born into poor families, but grow up surrounded by wealth; others are born into affluent families but cause their families’ fortunes to decline, such that they grow up in poor environments. No one’s birth is governed by a fixed rule, and no one grows up under an inevitable, fixed set of circumstances. These are not things that a person can imagine or control; they are the products of one’s fate, and are determined by one’s fate. Of course, the bottom line is that they are predestined for a person’s fate by the Creator, they are determined by the Creator’s sovereignty over, and His plans for, that person’s fate” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words brought sudden enlightenment to Zixuan; it turned out that the family in which every single person is born, their background growing up, and who their parents, relatives and friends are, and so on, all have their source in the sovereignty and predestination of the Creator; it is not decided by parents, much less is it chosen by oneself. Zixuan thought of how she had been born into a poor family and her parents had not been around while she was growing up, but instead she had lived with her grandparents. Later, she became a family together with her step-father and, as it happened, these environments and backdrops as she grew up had all been predestined and arranged by the Creator. And because Zixuan had been nurtured on the ideas of atheism and evolutionism all these years, she hadn’t been aware that there was a God, nor did she know that people’s fates were ruled and predestined by God. Therefore, she had always felt dissatisfied with this kind of family, and had complained about her unfortunate fate. When it came to her step-father, she always treated him with bias, believing that, no matter how good a step-father he was to her, he could never be as good as a real father, and so she had become estranged from him and had always quarreled with him. For this reason, she had lived constantly in pain, and hadn’t this been brought about by her resisting and contending with the sovereignty and predestination of the Creator? And yet Zixuan couldn’t figure it out—what exactly was the reason that caused her to be dissatisfied with the fate the Creator had given her? That night, as Zixuan sat at her desk holding a book of God’s words in both hands, she continued searching for the answers, and she read these words of God: “Born into such a filthy land, man has been severely blighted by society, he has been influenced by feudal ethics, and he has been taught at ‘institutes of higher learning.’ The backward thinking, corrupt morality, mean view on life, despicable philosophy, utterly worthless existence, and depraved lifestyle and customs—all of these things have severely intruded upon man’s heart, and severely undermined and attacked his conscience. As a result, man is ever more distant from God, and ever more opposed to Him” (“To Have an Unchanged Disposition Is to Be in Enmity to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “But when you truly know, when you truly come to recognize that God has sovereignty over human fate, when you truly understand that everything God has planned for and decided for you is a great benefit, and is a great protection, then you feel your pain gradually lighten, and the whole of you become relaxed, free, liberated” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Zixuan suddenly felt/felt suddenly like she understood: The root cause of why she hadn’t been able to get along with her step-father all these years was that she had been influenced and indoctrinated by the absurd traditional ideas of Satan, such as “blood is thicker than water,” and “without blood ties, it’s not a real family.” She had mistakenly believed that only those people who were related to her by blood were real relatives, and only they could be sincerely good to her—her step-father could never compare with her biological father. And so Zixuan had always suspected that her step-father’s good treatment of her had not come from a place of sincerity, and no matter how good he was to her, she always saw him as being false. So in over ten years, she had been unable to accept him or understand him, and she had quarreled with him often over tiny things that weren’t really worth mentioning; she had been raised by her step-father without knowing to be grateful, and nor did she have a shred of the conscience or sense or humanity that a normal person should have, and so she had not only hurt her step-father, but she had also brought great pain to her mother and had suffered a great deal herself. Now, she thought of her real father who had been a gambler, and about how he had never once bothered with her in all these years. Although her grandparents were getting on in years and didn’t have the strength to raise her, her real father had never given them any money to help out. Then she thought of her step-father: Although he was not related to Zixuan by blood, he had been willing to take on the responsibility of raising her, and had provided her with food, clothing, and had paid for her to go to school. Only when she thought this did Zixuan perceive that the Creator had arranged what was best and most suitable for her, and that it was God’s love that had enabled her to live a life in which she had everything she needed under her step-father’s roof. But her mind had been distorted by the mistaken ideas of Satan, and she had never been able to accept her step-father or fit into this new family after her mother remarried. At that moment, Zixuan felt like crying, and she thought of how she had enjoyed the Creator’s love and yet had never felt any gratitude, nor had she expressed any gratitude toward her step-father for his kindness of having raised her for 18 years—she felt so devoid of conscience! After she’d come to this understanding, her heart at last was brightened, and the haze that had shrouded her heart for so many years was swept away. She offered up a prayer to God: “O God! You have arranged what was best for me, and yet I have always been deceived by Satan, and have been deceived and held in bondage by the idea and the view that ‘blood is thicker than water.’ I have always felt displeased with the family that You arranged and predestined for me, and I have lived in misunderstandings and blame, unable to accept or submit to Your sovereignty and arrangements and bringing so much hurt and pain to my mother and step-father. O God! I now wish to let go of my previous mistaken views, submit to Your sovereignty and arrangements concerning my fate, treat my step-father fairly, and by Your word live out a human likeness. Amen!” Beginning A New Life From that time on, Zixuan began to cherish the family and relatives the Creator had arranged for her, and through being watered by God’s words, she seemed to grow up all of a sudden and become sensible. Zixuan no longer saw her step-father as an interloper, but instead treated him as her own family; she also learned to consider matters from other people’s perspectives, and understand and show consideration for the difficulties faced by her step-father and mother. She took responsibility for herself within the family, and did to the best of her ability the things she was supposed to do: She actively took responsibility for cooking the family meals so that at least when her step-father and mother returned home from work every day, they were sure to eat a meal Zixuan had cooked; whenever the sun showed its face, Zixuan actively hung her step-father’s duvet out to expose it to the sunshine; whenever her step-father expressed a view, she no longer contradicted him or opposed him, but instead she learned to respect her step-father, and if his opinion was correct, then she would agree with him. Little by little, Zixuan came to realize that the family God had predestined for her was actually really great, and all she ever perceived was love … One afternoon, when the blazing sun was high in the sky, Zixuan’s step-father braved the scorching heat and traveled a long distance to buy her a kind of cantaloupe that was grown far afield that she most enjoyed eating. When he got back, he was sweating profusely and his face had been burnt red by the sun, but when Zixuan was not there, he said to her mother: “This cantaloupe was really hard to buy. I’ve bought it especially for Zixuan, so don’t eat too much of it.” When he saw that Zixuan was still studying at 2 a.m. in the morning, he made a special trip to the market to buy her a brighter lamp, so that she could use it at nighttime…. Actually, he normally did things like this anyway, but Zixuan had never previously thought much of it. When she now looked again at these things her step-father was doing for her, her eyes overran with tears. She had truly come to appreciate that the family the Creator had predestined for her had always been one of love and warmth, it was just that she had always lived in blame and had never really perceived it. In gratitude, she offered up her thanks and praise to the Creator! Later, when her step-father went to the market to buy food, Zixuan would often go to help him, and their neighbors admired them. When Zixuan wasn’t around, her step-father would often praise her to her mother on how she had matured and become sensible, and about how she was able to be considerate to people, and long-awaited smiles bloomed on her mother’s face; Zixuan also left the pain of all those years behind at last, and began to live a relaxed and happy life. From then on, God’s word became the principle with which the family associated with each other, and more so became the standard of their conduct. The battles of the past were replaced by the practice of the truth, and love, understanding and tolerance took the place of the blame and misunderstandings of the past…. Although Zixuan and her step-father weren’t real father and daughter, yet they became something better, and the love and consideration between them surpassed the ties of blood. This was all because of the change wrought in them by God’s words, and God’s words also enabled this family, which had been at breaking point, to start anew! Source: Gospel Testimonies ![]() Seeing God’s Hand in the Hardships of Selling and Buying a Home Ma Ling Part 1 Deep in the night when all was quiet, Ma Ling stood in silence by the window thinking about a conversation she had had with a church leader that day. The leader, Sister Bai, said: “Sister Ma, one of the people taken in the most recent wave of arrests of brothers and sisters by the CCP government was a sister who used to stay at your home. We’re afraid that the police will track her movements through video surveillance recordings, and in that case you would certainly be implicated. The duty that you’re currently performing would be impacted too. I don’t know if you have any particular plans.” Ma Ling pondered this for a moment, then responded resolutely, “I’ll sell my home! The CCP government has always tried to follow every clue to arrest more Christians. If I don’t move, the CCP police could burst in at any moment.” Ma Ling well knew that believing in God and performing her duty in China, a country with an atheist party in power, meant being subject to the CCP police’s persecution and arrest and even the danger of losing her life; and that Christians’ homes had not been their own for a long time, and wherever they went, they couldn’t stay long—her home would have to be sold sooner or later. She knew that selling it was her best course of action at the time, but she still owed tens of thousands of yuan on her mortgage. After the divorce from her husband she could not get her residence booklet from him, so she hadn’t been able to get the deed for the property. Without the property deed, there was no way to sell the apartment. The memory from several months prior of being sent off by an employee because the documents for her property deed weren’t complete surfaced in Ma Ling’s mind and she couldn’t help but let out a sigh. She was feeling a bit anxious. The more she thought about it, the more difficult she felt it was and the more unsettled she felt. All she could do was pray to God: “Oh God! Some brothers and sisters from the church have been arrested and my home is in danger. I want to buy a different place to continue performing my duty but I can’t get the property deed, so I have no way to sell this apartment. O God! Faced with this difficulty, I don’t know what to do next. Oh God, may You guide me, and if Your will is that I sell this apartment, may You open up a path….” After praying, Ma Ling thought of these words from God: “If you believe in the dominion of God, then you must believe that the things that happen every day, be they good or bad, don’t happen accidentally. It is not that someone doesn’t get on with you or opposes you on purpose; it is actually all arranged and orchestrated by God. … Through obeying, seeking, praying more, retreating to your spirit and coming before God then, unbeknownst to you, a change will happen in your inner condition. During this period, the reality of the truth is being wrought in you” (“To Attain the Truth, You Must Learn From the People, Matters, and Things Around You” in Records of Christ’s Talks). After thinking of this passage, Ma Ling’s agitated heart settled a bit. She realized that the things we encounter in our lives every day, both big and small, are within God’s rule and arrangements, and that as God had allowed her brothers and sisters to be arrested, her home becoming entangled also had God’s good intentions within it, and there had to be a truth she needed to enter into. She thought that this particular environment would force her to rely on and look to God more, and whether or not she was able to sell her home, she was willing to leave the entire matter in God’s hands, to experience God’s work and understand His almightiness and sovereignty through this. After understanding God’s will, Ma Ling determined she would try to get her property deed first thing in the morning. The next day she still felt nervous when arriving at the Deed and Title Transferring Office. Pacing back and forth outside of the main hall, she continually prayed to God: “Oh God! I am handing the issue of applying for the property deed over to You, and look to You for it. No matter what happens today I believe that behind it is Your will. O God, I only ask You to keep watch over my heart so that no matter what the outcome, I will be able to quiet myself before You, learn to submit to the environment I am in, not complain, and not blame You.” After praying Ma Ling clenched her fists a bit—she pushed open the door to the main hall and strode in. Clutching a stack of paperwork, she lined up at the deed applications window. Seeing the long line stretching out in front of her, she felt a little worried: “I wasn’t able to get the deed when I came before; will I get it this time? Isn’t not having my residence booklet a real problem?” In her heart she called out to God over and over to give her faith, and soon God’s words surfaced in her mind: “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Mulling these words over, Ma Ling gradually gained some faith and strength. She thought: “That’s right! Any and all things are within God’s rule. God can make that which did not exist, exist; He can make that which did exist, not exist. Isn’t the thinking of the employee also within God’s hands? It is ultimately up to God whether or not I can get the property deed, and I believe that with God nothing is impossible. Even if I really can’t get the deed, I’m certain that behind this are His good intentions and I must learn to obey His sovereignty and arrangements.” Just then an employee asked Ma Ling, “Excuse me, what can we help you with today?” She replied, “I’m here to get the deed for my apartment.” The employee took the packet of documents she was holding and carefully looked through them page by page, then asked, “Do you have your residence booklet and marriage license?” Ma Ling replied honestly: “I can’t bring my residence booklet with me. Is there anything at all that can be done?” Saying this, she clenched her fists a bit and silently called out to God nonstop, afraid that the employee would slam her folder of documents closed, as had happened in the past, and tell her to come back when she had everything. To Ma Ling’s surprise, the employee paused for a moment and then said: “First go make photocopies of these documents, then find someone to help you get a photo of your residence booklet. You’ll also need to get a copy of your mortgage from the bank and a certificate of your marital status from the Civil Affairs Bureau.” When Ma Ling heard this, her tension finally dissipated and she gave sincere thanks to God for His guidance. It looked like things were falling into place. Ma Ling thought of a way to quickly get a photo of her residence booklet, and she even got a copy of her mortgage from the bank without going through the usual approval process. By 4:30 that afternoon she arrived at the Civil Affairs Bureau and got a certificate of her marital status in hand, without a hitch. Seeing it was nearly 5:00 pm, closing time, Ma Ling rushed to the main hall in one go with all of her documents in hand. She hurriedly handed everything over to the employee. After looking through those documents, the employee smiled and said to her: “We have everything we need. Wait for us to get in touch with you then come back to pick up your deed.” Hearing this, Ma Ling was both surprised and excited. She hardly dared believe that over the course of just one short afternoon her property deed had been taken care of! Generally a copy of the mortgage on her apartment from the bank needed to be applied for in advance and took two weeks to get, but she was unexpectedly able to get it on the spot. On top of that, the employees at the Deed and Title Transferring Office when she had come before weren’t willing to deal with her case. She hadn’t imagined that not only would that employee have a much better attitude this time, but would also inform her of her best course of action. All of this was God opening up a pathway for her—it was God’s guidance! Ma Ling then gained a genuine personal understanding of God’s words: “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things.” She really felt that all things are within God’s orchestrations and are doing service for God’s work, and that this is a reflection of God’s authority. Part 2 A few days later Ma Ling had her property deed in hand and was then able to get the sale of her apartment registered with a few agents. In the following days there were people coming to look at the apartment one after the other, but they were all put off by its small size and the fact that the property deed had just been issued (According to the regulations of the State, when buying an apartment with a newly-issued deed, an additional 20,000 yuan in property taxes is required). They thought it wasn’t ideal. One prospective buyer after another wasn’t interested in buying the apartment after seeing it, and Ma Ling became a bit concerned. An agent told her: “To be honest, the real estate market is really hot right now, and generally we can sell a place in just a few days. There have been so many people who have looked at your apartment but it still hasn’t been sold. The price is probably too high.” In hopes of getting her home sold expediently, Ma Ling had no choice but to ask the agents to reduce the price by 10,000 yuan. Ma Ling thought that with the reduced price the apartment should sell really quickly, but after another few days without any progress, she was losing hope and feeling anxious. She started to consider: “Hm, even with the price reduction no one wants to buy the apartment. The critical issues are that it’s small and the property deed had just been issued, so most potential buyers will feel it’s not a good investment. If I lower the price even more it won’t be enough for me to buy another place. It’s no easy task to get this place sold in a hurry…. But if I can’t sell it and this drags on, what if the CCP police find my home?” Ma Ling felt confused and overwhelmed in the face of this dilemma. In her helplessness, she realized that she was not in a good state—she was completely consumed by the difficulties of selling her home and did not have confidence in God. She prayed to God: “Oh God! The CCP government’s persecution of Christians has become worse and worse, and in some places the police have started going door-to-door to look for believers. Plus I don’t know how my brothers and sisters who were arrested are doing now, and the others who have been implicated have all been forced to flee. I’m the only one who hasn’t managed to get my affairs in order. Oh, God! I want to sell this apartment and continue to perform my duty, but my faith is not great enough, and I don’t know how to deal with the difficulties I’m currently facing. O God! May You give me true faith and strength so that I will not become negative or weak in this environment and I will be able to live relying upon Your words, and learn to obey Your orchestrations and arrangements.” After praying Ma Ling opened up a book of God’s words and saw the following: “To put it plainly, ‘the authority of God’ means that it is up to God. God has the right to decide how to do something, and it is done in whatever way He wishes. The law of all things is up to God, and not up to man; neither can it be altered by man. It cannot be moved by the will of man, but is instead changed by the thoughts of God, and the wisdom of God, and the orders of God, and this is a fact that is undeniable to any man” (“God Himself, the Unique I” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words gave her great faith, enabling her to realize: “The heavens, earth, and all things are ruled by God and under the arrangement of God; aren’t all human affairs also within God’s rule?” Ma Ling thought of the Lord Jesus using five loaves and two fishes to feed five thousand people in the Age of Grace and of Him raising Lazarus with a single word. In human eyes, these wonders are simply not possible, but they were really and truly done by God. All of that was the manifestation of God’s authority, so how could the issue of her home being sold not be within God’s arrangement and orchestration? Both the price it was sold for and the day when it was sold were also determined by God. If no one ever bought it and she was arrested by the CCP government, that would be what she needed to experience and there would certainly be truths that she needed to gain within that kind of environment. At this point, she was no longer willing to rely upon her own thinking to figure out if the apartment could be sold or not and realized that she needed to learn to seek God’s will, leadership, and guidance and wait and observe God’s deeds in the midst of this hardship. She felt much better after coming to understand all of that. She didn’t feel so anxious anymore, and just wanted to be able to concentrate fully on fulfilling her duty. That day a person came to look at the apartment, who, to Ma Ling’s surprise, took a liking to it and showed genuine interest in buying it. After negotiations the selling price was 5,000 yuan higher than she had anticipated. Not only that, but with alacrity the buyer paid for it up front with a single cash deposit of over 300,000 yuan. The buyer also agreed to allow Ma Ling to continue living there after the sale was complete until she was able to find another place. Seeing God’s rule and arrangements in all of this, on top of feeling gratitude to God, Ma Ling also gained true personal experience of God’s almightiness and sovereignty and she felt even more ashamed of her lack of faith. Thinking of everything that had taken place, from getting the property deed to selling the apartment, she saw that according to man’s mind, none of that could have been taken care of, as they were things that human means couldn’t achieve, but with what God had brought into play and arranged, everything had gone very smoothly. It was beyond human imagination. It was perfectly clear that getting a copy of her mortgage from the bank should have taken two weeks, but she got it that same day. It was quite evident that it was not an ideal apartment in several aspects, but because the buyer liked the layout of the apartment and the direction it faced, he was willing to buy it for a slightly higher price. The facts laid out before her gave her a genuine realization that all those things truly were within God’s control and His domination. They were determined by God—when it wasn’t the right time for Him, He wouldn’t do anything, and no matter how much she ran hither and thither, how much she ran herself ragged, nothing would be resolved. Part 3 After receiving the buyer’s payment, Ma Ling just had 250,000 yuan left after paying off the mortgage. Considering the fact that apartments were about 10,000 yuan/m2 on average at the time and even an unfinished garage would be sold for over 200,000 yuan, she thought there was no way she’d be able to afford an apartment with what she had in hand. Ma Ling felt a little discouraged—if she really couldn’t buy a place she’d have to rent, but the CCP government was closely investigating rented households. If she were renting, it wouldn’t be safe to perform her duty. She really didn’t know what to do. She racked her brains, but still felt that with the little bit of money she had, buying another place was nothing but a fantasy. She prepared herself for the worst. If she couldn’t afford another place she would have to rent, and even if that might bring danger there was nothing she could do about it. Ma Ling later read these words from God: “What man does or thinks, what man understands, the plans of man—none of this bears any relation to God. Everything proceeds according to God’s plan, in keeping with the times and stages set by God. Such is the principle of God’s work. … Do the facts prove that the behavior and conduct of man hindered the work of God? They did not hinder the work of God! Did man’s little faith in God, and his conceptions and imagination about God affect God’s work? No, they did not! Not in the least! God’s management plan is unaffected by any man, matter, or environment. All that He resolves to do will be completed and accomplished on time and according to His plan, and His work cannot be interfered with by any man. God ignores certain aspects of man’s foolishness and ignorance, and even certain aspects of man’s resistance and conceptions toward Him, doing the work that He must do regardless. This is God’s disposition, and is a reflection of His omnipotence” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Pondering over God’s words, Ma Ling thought of a matter that had happened in the Age of Law: When God promised Abraham that he would have a son, even though Abraham, who was nearly 100 years old, did not believe it was possible and fell down to the ground, laughing, God did cause Isaac to be born on the appointed day and carried out the work of the Age of Law on Abraham’s descendants. This made Ma Ling realize that human notions and delimitations cannot possibly hold back the completion of God’s work. As long as God has determined to do something, it will occur and become a fact, no matter where or when. She understood that this little difficulty she was facing in buying a home counted as nothing for God. God saw it with the utmost clarity. It was just she, foolish and ignorant, who could not see into the matter and did not have enough faith in God. Thinking of this, Ma Ling felt a rush of faith, realizing that when encountering difficulties she had always looked at the problems through her own eyes. Take buying a home this time as an example—she thought that whatever she could achieve God could also achieve, and that God couldn’t achieve whatever didn’t seem achievable. Wasn’t that lacking true understanding of God’s almightiness and sovereignty? Even if God chose not to open up a path for her to buy a new place, that wouldn’t mean He wasn’t able to do it, just that He had planned to do things that way. Either way, she should submit. When she thought of this Ma Ling’s heart felt much enlightened. She was no longer willing to rely on her own notions and imaginings in issues she encountered. As it is written: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecc 3:1). She would let things take their course with buying a home and believe that God had prepared and arranged everything. A few days later her agent suddenly called: “There’s a two-bedroom for sale and they have the deed….” Ma Ling hung up the phone and rushed out to see it. It was in good condition, in a nice location, and the price was good. It was perfect for her, and most importantly, it was really easy to get in and out of the place so that would be beneficial for performing her duty. Ma Ling reserved the apartment. She was absolutely certain that this was what God had prepared; she silently thanked God over and over. After moving in to her new place, it was much safer to have brothers and sisters over. They didn’t have to be as constrained as before. At the very least, the CCP police still weren’t aware that she was there so she could also perform her duty in peace. Experiencing such wondrous orchestration and arrangement from God once again, Ma Ling felt that she was very much in His debt. She saw that her faith in God truly was too small and at the same time felt an indescribable excitement and joy. Seeing all of these things happen one after another, she came to have a bit of genuine experience and understanding of God’s words: “Of everything that occurs in the universe, there is nothing that I do not have the final say in. What exists that is not in My hands?” (“The First Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). She thought: “It’s so true. God’s authority and almightiness are with us at all times, in all places. God has the final say in all things, and no human can fathom God’s almightiness and sovereignty.” In the silence of the night, Ma Ling sat under the lamp at her desk and wrote in her notebook: “As one of creation, whatever I encounter, as long as I maintain a heart of accepting and obeying the sovereignty and arrangements of the Lord of creation, as long as I actively experience the leading and guidance of God’s words and observe His deeds, I will be able to personally experience His faithfulness as well as the authority and power that His words possess. As long as I genuinely believe in God and rely on Him, no matter what difficulties I face God will be there to help me at any time.” Thanks be to God! All the glory be to Almighty God! Who Was It That Rescued Her Marriage? (Audio Essay)
Yang Zi, China She had just turned twenty, she had a graceful figure and appeared as pretty as a flower, and there were many suitors pursuing her. But she didn’t pay this any mind until one day when her friend invited her to come out and she by chance met Lin. Lin was almost 6 feet tall, he was tall and handsome, with a dignified bearing. He spoke with humor and with wit, and was able to attract her in an instant. And Lin too was quite interested in her. The two of them started seeing each other very soon, and after a few months they got married. Before long they had a child of their own, and this made her feel very blessed. But good things don’t last forever. Just when she was starting to enjoy everything and long for a beautiful future, she discovered that Lin was not engaging in honest work every day. All day long he was idling about, and he would even go out often and get in fights and gamble. When he returned home, he would pick out faults with her no matter if there was something going on or not. He simply did not care for her or their child. She did not understand why Lin was acting this way. Many times with eyes full of tears she would urge Lin to walk the correct path, but not only did Lin not listen, he would even lash out at her, and one time he even went so far as to nearly choke her to death. She had lost all hope in Lin. Before long, Lin got sentenced to prison for breaking the law, and she had to support herself and their one-and-a-half-year-old child on her own. Her life was full of hardships and dashed hopes. It wasn’t until 2003, when Lin completed his prison sentence and was released, that she was finished with this painful marriage. After this, she took her son to her parents’ home. Since she didn’t have a job, she and her son had to rely on her relatives to assist them, which made her feel very embarrassed and helpless. When her neighbors saw that she was having difficulty taking care of her child by herself, they made an effort to look for a partner to introduce to her. At first she thought that she just wanted an average man, that as long as he was good to her child then it would be okay, but then she thought to herself: I’m still quite young, although I’ve gotten divorced, I cannot just settle for anyone. To her surprise, her neighbors introduced her to men who were very short, or otherwise they weren’t the least bit handsome, or they didn’t have a dignified bearing, some of them even forsook her for having a child, and none of the men that came by suited her, which made her feel quite disappointed. Later on she met Jun, he was eight years older than her, he was divorced, and he had a daughter. He had a dark complexion and average looks, and he wasn’t very tall. In her heart she didn’t really regard Jun highly, but he was honest and kind-hearted, and he was very kind to her and her son. So, she thought it over, and decided that for the sake of her son she had to compromise and marry him. After they got married, he was just as kind to them as he was before. He took care of them, he was very considerate, and he even did work around the house, cooking food and washing clothes. But she couldn’t get past the pitfall of her vanity, so she still could not completely accept Jun in her heart. She resented him for looking ugly and felt that he was undeserving of her. For this reason, she never wanted to go outside together with her husband. One time when she was out, she saw a dress in the display window of a shop that she really wanted to go try on, but she saw her husband behind her, who was old and dark, she thought if she let him walk beside her then the people working in the shop would certainly point at her and make fun of her behind her back, they would laugh about how she didn’t have a good eye for things. How could her husband be so old? She couldn’t let go of this pride of hers, so she made him wait for her outside in the entryway of the shop. In that moment, she saw a look of disappointment sweep over his eyes, but then he immediately smiled and said: “Go try it on, I’ll wait for you.” When she heard this, she felt somewhat ashamed and uneasy. After this, in order to make her accept him in her heart, Jun took over all household duties, and did them the best he could, but no matter what he did, she wasn’t able to fully accept him. In 2010 she started doing cosmetics business, and when this started, the clothes and makeup she wore became more and more fashionable and trendy, making her look even younger and more beautiful. When she would stand in front of the mirror next to her husband, he appeared even more like a rural peasant in contrast to her, he didn’t have the looks or the personality. The distance between them had increased, and at this time she felt even worse in her heart. In addition, she was interacting with lots of people and saw that these other people’s husbands were good-looking and outstanding, so whenever she would return home and see her husband, she would feel more dissatisfied, and she could not help but find faults with him. Actually, she felt lost, for she knew that her husband had always worked hard to win her favor, and that she shouldn’t treat him like this, but since she always felt a disequilibrium in her heart, she couldn’t control how she felt. As time passed, Jun was unable to put up with this kind of life, the two of them would often get into quarrels, and they were living in suffering. She thought back to one afternoon when Jun came to the office to pick her up. Actually it would have been a good thing if he did not come because none of her coworkers knew what he looked like. But he came that day to pick her up, and then the next day her coworkers circled around her, asking: “Who was that yesterday who picked you up? He looked so rustic….” She immediately felt like she had lost face. She felt upset because she thought that her husband shouldn’t have come to pick her up. At the same time, she also asked herself how she could have found such a disappointing husband that she didn’t want to be seen with, who was ridiculed and looked down upon by other people. She really had a difficult time living like this. In this moment, she came up with a brazen idea: She would look again for someone of the opposite sex that she liked. As for her marriage with Jun, if it really wasn’t going to work then she’d end it. Thereupon, she accompanied her coworkers whenever they invited her to go sing at KTV, but all she wanted to do was find a person of the opposite sex that she admired. At this time, since Jun was often being avoided and ignored by her, he started to feel a suffering in his heart, and he too started feeling more and more indifferent toward her. It got to the point that he too would sometimes not return home when he got off of work. In this way, the marriage between her and Jun entered into a crisis … It was at this time that a classmate introduced to her the salvation of God in the last days. She saw that God’s word is very practical, and that every sentence spoke to a deep place within her heart. Not only did it reveal the truth and substance of humanity being corrupted by Satan, it also pointed out the proper path to follow in one’s life. So she gladly accepted God’s work in the last days. When she got together with brothers and sisters, she saw that they were all very pure and that they loved one another, and whenever they got together they never talked about what they wore or ate or about other pleasures. They never compared themselves with each other to see who was the prettiest or who had the most money, all of them just focused on pursuing the truth, and whenever things befell them they would always pray to God to seek. They reflected on themselves in the word of God to get to know themselves, and they strove to put the word of God into practice and conduct themselves as honest people. This was something that she had never seen before. In addition, she also saw that whenever the brothers and sisters were with their husbands and wives, they were still putting the word of God into practice. In particular, there was a sister who was younger and prettier than her whose husband had even worse looks than Jun, but the sister didn’t avoid her husband at all. The two of them got along very harmoniously. She couldn’t comprehend this. She didn’t understand why the sister wasn’t avoiding her husband. Later on the sister fellowshiped with her, saying: “Every person’s marriage was predestined long ago by God, so no matter what kind of marriage it is, behind the scenes there is always God’s careful arrangement, and in particular, whenever the husband that God arranges for us doesn’t have any looks and doesn’t conform to our expectations, this is actually the best thing possible for us, for within this is the gracious will of God. It is only because we have been deeply corrupted by Satan that we always have extravagant desires, picks and demands, which make us not understand what God’s intention is whenever He makes His arrangements, so then we always look down upon our own husband and feel that our marriages are not what we wished for, which makes us live in suffering. But when we seek God’s will and come to an understanding of the truth and are willing to let go of our individual preferences and desires, then we will see that the arrangement God has made for us is the best and most suitable for us, and really it is protection for us. If we are able to naturally submit to this, then we will no longer turn our backs to our husbands.” At that time, since she had just started believing in God, she still wasn’t aware of the truth, she seemed to understand the sister’s fellowship but did not really understand it. She just greatly admired what the sister lived out in the presence of her husband. One day came when she read in the word of God: “We only wish to talk about the ideas that social trends bring about for people, the way they cause people to conduct themselves in the world, the life goals and outlook that they bring about in people. These are very important; they can control and influence man’s state of mind. … When the wind of a trend blows through, perhaps only a small number of people will become the trendsetters. They start off doing this kind of thing, accepting this kind of idea or this kind of perspective. The majority of people, however, in the midst of their unawareness, will still be continually infected, assimilated and attracted by this kind of trend, until they all unknowingly and involuntarily accept it, and are all submerged in and controlled by it. For man who is not of sound body and mind, who never knows what is truth, who cannot tell the difference between positive and negative things, these kinds of trends one after another make them all willingly accept these trends, the life view, the life philosophies and values that come from Satan. They accept what Satan tells them on how to approach life and the way to live that Satan ‘bestows’ on them. They have not the strength, neither do they have the ability, much less the awareness to resist” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Once she finished the word of God, she finally understood. Actually, her suffering in these past years all originated from Satan’s corruption. Satan imbues man with the idea that men looking for women who are “fair-skinned, rich and beautiful” and women looking for men who are “tall, rich and handsome” is the only way to have a blessed and happy marriage. Under the influence of this kind of societal trend, people’s viewpoints on marriage have become distorted. Nowadays when people search for their other half, they simply do not care about the quality of their partner’s humanity, and whether or not they are suitable for themselves, instead they stress their partner’s looks, whether or not they’re tall and handsome or fair-skinned and pretty, or if their family is well off, or whether or not they meet the standards they have demanded for their spouse, and so on. They feel that so long as they are able to find a handsome or pretty spouse with money, then they will have a grand and enjoyable life that certainly will not be lived in vain. She also unwittingly accepted this kind of viewpoint when it came to choosing a spouse. In her mind she had always hoped to find a tall and handsome husband with a dignified bearing to share her life with, and she believed that this alone would make her happy. Think about it, the first husband that she chose carefully—Lin—all of his qualifications conformed to the standards she had when it came to choosing a spouse, he really did satisfy her vanity, but after they got married she realized that Lin’s humanity was not good, that his behavior was stubborn and obstreperous and that he had countless bad habits. Not only did she not have a happy marriage, on the contrary she was neglected by Lin, he made things difficult for her and even beat her. At last, she was even forced to raise her child alone. Whenever she was living together with Lin, there was a lot of suffering in her body and in her soul, and in the end, while she was in pain, she ended this first marriage. Whenever she thinks about that time in her life now, it scares her. But her current husband—Jun—although he is not handsome or tall, although he is quite unsophisticated, still his moral standing is good. He is kind-hearted and plays his part, and he really looks after the family. He takes care of and is really considerate of her and her son. He is always thinking of ways to make her like him and treats her son as his own. But because Jun’s looks were not as good as what she wished for, she always felt a disequilibrium in her heart, and she always felt that Jun did not deserve her. She felt that she lost face and lowered her social status by finding a husband like this, so she always looked at him with unfavorable eyes. All along she wasn’t able to accept him, and it got to the point to where she wanted to fully give up on her marriage with Jun and once again find someone of the opposite sex who was tall and handsome so that she could satisfy her vanity. It was in this moment that she finally came to a sort of realization. Because she had been imbued with Satan’s ideas and her viewpoints on marriage were distorted, she didn’t know what kind of marriage she needed, so she was not able to accept Jun, and fully ignored and neglected Jun, which caused her and Jun to both live in suffering. It was for this reason that their marriage was going down a rocky path. In that moment, she really did come to an understanding through her experience. If people do not believe in God, they will not possess the truth, and so they will not be able to discern Satan’s misconceptions and lies. They will follow the evil trends of society and live on the basis of Satan’s erroneous thoughts and viewpoints, they will be duped and bound by Satan and live in suffering. How truly pitiable this is! After understanding these things, she was willing to turn away from her own mistaken viewpoints and take another look at the marriage she was in. She was also fully aware that she was a Christian herself, so she must live out the likeness of a Christian to bring shame to Satan. Thereupon she stopped thinking about going off to look for someone of the opposite sex who conformed to her desires, and instead she started to care for Jun. Slowly, she started to accept Jun in her heart. Jun could also feel the change she went through, which made him very happy. They gradually grew much closer than before when they had been indifferent to one another. The mood in their home also stopped being so tense. One day her friend came to visit her at home. When Jun saw her coming, he hurried into the kitchen to prepare lunch. As the two of them chatted, her friend said: “Our classmate Pan Lin’s husband is handsome and rich. He’s the vice president of a company and has several properties in Hangzhou….” As she heard her friend say this, she felt a sting in her heart, and she immediately thought about her dream from youth, which brought about a vague feeling of disappointment…. She realized that her situation wasn’t right, so she immediately prayed to God asking Him to protect her heart. After the prayer, she realized: When we look at people, we cannot emphasize their outward appearance, and the most important thing is to see what kind of humanity a person has. Some people, even though they are “fair-skinned, rich and beautiful” or “tall, rich and handsome,” have an extremely inferior quality of humanity, or not even the slightest bit of humanity. Wouldn’t we suffer if we lived together with a person like this? Because the viewpoints I pursued before were incorrect, in the end, I didn’t obtain happiness. On the contrary, I suffered an unspeakable amount. Even today, I still have not awakened, so how could I want to repeat such disastrous actions? The husband that God has prepared for me now is the most suitable, as well as the most beneficial, so why should I bring further trouble upon myself? Thinking of this, her heart was enlightened. She was no longer affected by her friend’s words. She smiled and said to her friend: “Everyone has their own lives. Whatever kind of home and whatever kind of marriage we have is arranged by God. What’s more, people who are rich and have good looks always have more desires, but this is not necessarily happiness. I used to want to find a husband who was tall and handsome and had a dignified bearing, but in the end Lin did not engage in honest work and I lived in lots of pain! Now I have Jun. Although he is some years older than me and his looks are not as good as Lin’s, his moral character is good, he doesn’t have any bad habits, and I know he loves me dearly and is considerate of my needs. Although our life is nothing special, it is quite harmonious, and I feel very happy.” At this time Jun came out, and this time she didn’t avoid him or try to hide him, rather she calmly introduced him to her friend. Her friend told her: “At first glance I could tell that your husband is an honest and hardworking man, and he is very good to you, you truly are blessed!” She nodded her head cheerfully, and in her heart she silently thanked God, because she was fully aware that this was God looking after her and protecting her. If it weren’t for the enlightenment and guidance of God’s words, then she and Jun may have parted ways long ago. Then how would she have this blessed life that she has today? This is all God’s blessing! When Jun saw that she was no longer avoiding him, a happy smile appeared on his face that had never been there before. After this, her relationship with Jun became more harmonious. Every time she would return home, Jun was always waiting for her with a cooked meal, and he was also very supportive when it came to her faith in God. Every time that she saw these things, it really moved her. She truly felt that God had bestowed her with the best things, and that only by submitting to God’s plans and arrangements can a person truly be happy. She had a deeper understanding that she ought to enjoy this marriage that God has bestowed upon her, and in her heart she felt more and more liberated. She thanked God from the bottom of her heart for saving her marriage that was on the brink of falling apart. All glory be to Almighty God! ![]() A Haughty Spirit Before a Fall Baixue Shenyang City Because of a work requirement, I was transferred to another work area. At that time, I was very grateful to God. I felt that I was lacking so much, yet through God’s divine promotion, I was given the opportunity to fulfill my duty in such a wonderful work area. I made a vow to God in my heart: I would do my very best to repay God. However, after I arrived, I discovered many loopholes in the work being done. As a result, I took it upon myself to begin inspecting each item of work. As I was performing my inspections, I was also thinking to myself: “How did any work get done like this? None of the work was managed properly! I thought the work done here would be excellent. But I never thought it would be worse than my previous job. Now that I’m here, it must be properly managed, step by step, according to the work arrangement. I will lead all the brothers and sisters to enter into life.” Because of this, I got together with the coordinators, began organizing each item of work, communicating, planning, and making arrangements. Throughout my communications, I frequently revealed my true feelings, “The work quality here is so low. My work before wasn’t like how yours is now. At my old workplace, we always managed work in such-and-such a way, we always did so-and-so well. We were obedient to God….” After these meetings, some of the coordinators would say: “Exactly right! We haven’t done any work of real value. This time, we need to start over and do our work according to God’s requirements.” Others would say: “Thank you for your great communication and for the arrangements you made today. Otherwise, our lack of attention to safety measures would be too dangerous.” Upon hearing these words, I was very happy. I felt that I was indeed stronger than their former leader. While I was proud of myself, I also couldn’t help but feel a little guilty: Was it really appropriate for me to talk like that? Why did I always say that my former workplace was better? But on the other hand, I thought: What’s wrong with saying that? I was just trying to teach them how to do a better job. In this way, I didn’t follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit to examine myself. In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Just as I was diving head-first into my work with very high hopes, I felt that, in my heart, I was losing touch with God. Not only did my work fail to fall into place, but also the effectiveness of our gospel work went from soaring to taking a nosedive. I fell into an extremely painful position, but wasn’t sure what I did wrong. So, I went before God in prayer to earnestly seek guidance. At this time, words from a hymn began ringing in my ear: “As a leader serving God, one needs to stand on principles. Even if you can’t communicate the truth clearly, your heart must be in the right place. You must exalt God no matter what and bear witness to God as best as you can. Only say as much as you yourself understand, only exalt and bear witness to God. Do not exalt yourself and let others worship you. Whatever you do, do not exalt yourself and let others worship you. This is the first principle you must remember” (“Three Principles for Leaders to Remember” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs).Tears streamed down my face. Remorse, guilt, and gratitude all filled my heart at the same time. I recalled all that I had said to the coordinators and felt that I was really unworthy of God’s divine promotion. The church arranged for me to come here to do my duty so that I could exalt and bear witness to God, lead brothers and sisters before God, and help them to know Him. Yet, I shamelessly showed off, exalted myself, bore witness to myself, and built myself up. I did this so that others would look up to and worship me. I was prideful. I bore witness to myself and built myself up in the name of loving and satisfying God. How does such a despicable person deserve to serve God? How could the work of such a person be blessed by God? All I was doing was competing with God for the hearts of men. I was no more than an antichrist. I was interfering with God’s work and acting as His rival. My ministry was purely against God, and God hated it. The more I thought about it, the more I detested myself. I couldn’t help but remorsefully prostrate myself before God, and cry out to Him, “Oh God! Thank You for Your chastisement and judgment which awakened me, allowing me to recognize my antichrist essence and nature like that of the archangel. You also revealed the direction of my ministry to me, helping me understand that only if I exalt and bear witness to You can I satisfy You, allow Your will to be done, and accomplish the mission You gave me to do. Only exalting and bearing witness to You are glorious. That is my duty as the created for the Creator. Oh, God! From now on, I vow to examine my heart and motives before I speak or act, consciously exalting You and bearing witness to You, leading brothers and sisters to know You, and comforting Your heart by being someone who possesses truth and humanity.” Source: A Haughty Spirit Before a Fall in Judgment Before the Seat of Christ ![]() Only God’s Love Is Real Xiaodong Sichuan Province God said, “The Chinese nation which has been corrupted for thousands of years has continued on until today. All sorts of viruses continue to expand and are spreading everywhere like the plague; just looking at people’s relationships is enough to see how many viruses are in people. It’s extremely difficult for God to develop His work in such a tightly closed and virus-infected area. People’s personalities, habits, the way they do things, everything they express in their lives and their interpersonal relationships are all broken beyond belief …” (“The Path … (6)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The revelation in God’s words made me see how Satan’s corruption makes all relationships between people abnormal, because all are based on Satan’s philosophy of life, without containing even a shred of truth. Without God’s salvation, my eyes would still be covered and my emotions entrapped, but experiencing the work of God made me understand the essence of what it means to “help one another” and showed me the truth of friendship, love, and familial affection. I saw that only God’s words are the truth, and that only by living by God’s words could we escape the influence of Satan, and that only by comporting oneself according to the truth could one live out a meaningful life. My parents were both Christians, and at the time our faith in Jesus brought us a great deal of grace. Especially in business, God blessed us with much in the way of material comforts. Most of my relatives weren’t as well off as our family, and my parents took good care of them financially and materially. My relatives had a great deal of respect for my parents, and naturally they looked at me with the same eye. That was the kind of advantageous environment I grew up in. I thought my friends and relatives were wonderful, and no matter what our family needed, they would be willing to help. In 1998, my entire family accepted Almighty God’s work, and because of our desire for gaining blessings as well as because it was a difficult field, we stopped our family business. Some of our friends and relatives tried to persuade us otherwise, saying, “It’s such a shame to stop a business you spent so many years building.” There were others who mocked us behind our back, saying we’d earned enough to not need any more. Hearing these things made us sad, but we still decided to stop the business. Even though I had accepted Almighty God’s work, I still understood nothing about the corruption in mankind, so my heart still yearned for this world. I spent my days eating, drinking, and carousing with my close friends and relatives, and because I spent generously, I got more and more friends, and more and more classmate reunions, parties, classmates’ and friends’ birthdays and weddings, and other occasions couldn’t be held without inviting me, because I was too “important.” Beyond that, every Sunday I had to pick up and see off my girlfriend, and we often went out together. At that time, even though I never missed one of my three meetings a week at the church, I still had absolutely no understanding of God’s words, my heart still wandered in the world outside, and my belief in God felt like a yoke of rules. But God used environments to make me understand the truth. He showed me that relationships between people are based on nothing but mutual interest, and that there is no such thing as true feeling or love in them. After the business stopped, my parents repaired our house and had to pay tuition for my sister and me, such that our family’s savings were almost gone after a few years, and because I depended on them for my income, there was a reduction in my own spending. I avoided weddings and gatherings, large or small, whenever I could, so my circle of friends began to shrink, and my status in the eyes of my friends became lower and lower. As the fortunes of my poorer friends and relatives improved, they associated less with us as well. This period was refining for me, because I felt I had no status in the hearts of others. Especially my girlfriend, who became more distant because I didn’t spend money as generously as I had in the past, and finally left me for someone else in 2001. When I learned of it, I couldn’t accept that it was real. I didn’t show it on the outside, but the knowledge was like a knife in my heart. I was loyal to her, my efforts for her were sincere, so why did I get her betrayal in return? That’s how our five-year relationship ended. I didn’t know how to forget her, so all I could do was bury the pain deep in my heart. After that, I hated it when others mentioned the incident. I couldn’t understand how something like this could happen to me. Then one day, I saw this passage of God’s word, “Most people live in the foul place of Satan, and suffer its derision; it teases them this way and that till they are half alive, enduring every vicissitude, every hardship in the human world. After toying with them, Satan puts an end to their destiny. And so people go through their whole lives in a daze of confusion, never once enjoying the good things that God has prepared for them, but instead being damaged by Satan and left in tatters. Today they have become so enervated and listless that they simply have no inclination to take notice of God’s work” (“Work and Entry (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The revelation in God’s words is a true portrayal of human life. Thinking back on how I spent my days drowning in lovesickness, living in an imaginary world of “romantic love.” I was inextricably trapped, and I had no idea at all that these things were Satan’s tricks to fool people, ruses designed to trap people and make them live without any goals and without inclination to take notice of God’s work. Although I called myself a believer in God, I spent my days worrying and laboring over friendship and love, and if circumstances hadn’t changed for me, I would still believe in those “pledges of eternal love” and “loyal friends,” and I would never have escaped it. Because of the breakup with my girlfriend, I cut off all my relationships with my classmates; without such a noisy environment I could still my heart and devote myself to my faith in God. At meetings, I fellowshiped with my brothers and sisters, and slowly, my wounded heart began to heal. I felt the long-forgotten joy, no longer lost or living in my pain. Because there were no interruptions from the outside world, I was able to still my mind and focus on meetings. I became more and more interested in faith in God, and from then on I began fulfilling my duties. When my relatives learned I believed in God, there was no end to their disturbances. They thought I had no business believing in God at such a young age. My maternal aunt often asked me for favors, my paternal aunt asked me to do business with her, even my foster mother pushed me to get married, saying she would take care of my child after it was born (because she had no son of her own), and my grandmother cried, saying, “I have absolutely no objection to your parents believing in God, because they worked half their lifetimes and gave all they have to pave the way for you, so it’s time to let them rest. You should focus on starting a family and a career.” She then went on to describe how my father grew up in poverty, how he started from nothing, how much he suffered, how hard he worked, and said that I was in such a good environment, and that I had no ideals. Their sudden “concern” for me was very flattering. I was confused, because it seemed like what every one of them was saying was right, they all wanted the best for me, and since they were my closest relatives, of course they wouldn’t hurt me. If I didn’t do something when I was young, what would happen to me when I’m older? I was living in refinement, and even though I knew this was a spiritual battle, I didn’t have the strength to fight anymore. At a meeting, a leader showed me this passage from God’s word, “For thousands of years, the Chinese people have led the life of slaves, and this has so constrained their thoughts, concepts, life, language, behavior, and actions that they have been left without the slightest freedom. Several thousand years of history have turned vital people possessed of a spirit into something akin to corpses bereft of a spirit. Many are those who live under the butcher’s knife of Satan…. Outwardly, they appear to be higher ‘animals’; in fact, they live and reside with filthy demons. Without anyone to tend to them, people live in the hidden trap of Satan, and are so caught up in it that escape has become impossible. They don’t gather with their loved ones in cozy homes, living happy and fulfilling lives, but live in Hades, dealing with demons and associating with devils” (“Work and Entry (5)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through the revelation in God’s word and fellowship with my brothers and sisters, I realized that while they appear to be my relatives from the outside, and their words are in accord with the needs of my flesh, their thoughts, concepts, life, language, behavior, and actions are constrained because of Satan’s corruption. They are all unbelievers, all of their viewpoints and all they discuss come from Satan, and what they pursue are all the evil desires of the flesh, none of which are in accord with the truth, and because I have none of the truth and no discernment, further contact with them would only make me more degenerate. I would gain nothing from it, they could only bring me to ruination. At that time, I had some understanding of the saying “All unbelievers are the devil,” about which my brothers and sisters often fellowshiped, but I still didn’t fully grasp it. Later, God arranged circumstances that showed me the true essence of family ties. Our family has always been a host family, and one day in 2005, thanks to an evildoer’s report, my parents and several brothers and sisters were arrested by the great red dragon. My birth sister fortunately survived a near-drowning as she fled, only escaping with her life because God protected her. My parents and the brothers and sisters at my family’s house were detained and fined, and all were tortured, all came out with injuries. When I heard the news, I couldn’t control my emotions. I didn’t have the heart to fulfill my duties. I thought, “At a time like this I should go home no matter what. My parents raised me, and now that they’re in trouble, even if I can’t do anything, I should at least be there to check up on them and comfort them.” So, I took the train home and went straight to my paternal aunt’s house (who also believes in God) to see my parents. At that time I saw their wounds had not healed, I felt horrible inside, and tears burst from my eyes. It felt like my parents had been humiliated. That’s when my parents told me: During the escape from the great red dragon, my birth sister dove into the river (this happened in December, after dark). The water was up to her neck, and the river currents were strong, wild plants were found caught on her pant leg, her shoes were stuck in the mud, and she didn’t know how to swim, so it was an utter mystery how she got to the other side. God must have miraculously protected her, or the results would have been too terrible to contemplate (the deep water and strong currents had taken the life of a man in his 40’s several days before). Later, my birth sister hid at the house of an older sister who gave my sister a change of clothes while crying as she dried her wet clothes over the fire, and otherwise took very good care of her. Several days after that she learned that this older sister’s house was no longer safe, so my birth sister went to hide at my maternal aunt’s home. She came out during the day to bring a letter to our church informing our leader of my family’s situation, but when she returned, my maternal aunt’s younger daughter said to her, “Hey cousin, why did you come back? I thought you left. We’ve already folded up the bed.” My sister realized my maternal aunt was afraid of getting involved and didn’t want to let her stay there, so crying, she left their home, and risked arrest to come home because she had nowhere else to go. After my parents were released, when they learned about my sister’s near-drowning and how she was kicked out by my maternal aunt, they were very angry, but my maternal aunt, in a tone convinced she was right, answered with, “That’s right, we are afraid of getting involved. You brought these arrests on yourselves. You had a perfectly good life, but you had to go and screw it up, and now you almost got someone killed!” I never imagined that my closest relatives, the people closest to me in the past, at a time when the great red dragon was arresting my family and their lives were in danger, at a time when comfort is needed most of all, would actually say such inhumane words or do such cruel things. To know that they could made me very sad. None of the people we helped most in the past came to check in on us or comfort us. Those who had the best relationships with us not only didn’t speak to my parents when they met on the street, they moved out of my parents’ path. Some who used to nod and say hello to us now turned their backs to us and gossiped. Only our brothers and sisters came to visit us and fellowship in the evenings. I never believed our family could come to such an abject state. I was again trapped in refinement, with thoughts of betraying God forming in my heart. Later, after receiving a revelation from God, I experienced what my brothers and sisters had fellowshiped about, “Relationships between people are based on nothing but mutual interest, family and friends merely help one another, being relationships built on a foundation of mutual use.” I also thought back to my parents’ talk about what they gained from their experience of being arrested by the great red dragon, for example: When the great red dragon used a leather whip to beat my father, he said he didn’t feel too much pain, and that the belt broke into three pieces as they hit him. My sister said she didn’t feel any fear at all during her experience, and even though it was December, she said she never felt cold coming out of the water. God gave her extra strength and confidence. Arrest by the great red dragon had actually made their faith more steadfast. It had made them stronger. My father said that he hadn’t believed God’s words in the past, and that he was an admirer of the great red dragon, but this incident had shown him the great red dragon was merely a gang of thugs, bandits who would take away anything in our house worth money and would rather arrest law-abiding believers in God than murderers and arsonists. I was ashamed when I understood that we all live under God’s leadership, everything we experience is part of God’s sovereignty and arrangement, no person has the power to help another, familial affection will only drive us away from God, and that the things people can help each other with only accord with the flesh, not with the truth. Thoughts like “not wanting my parents’ flesh to suffer” not only bring no benefit to their life, they bring no benefit to their salvation. Only God knows what man needs, and God loves man the most. I saw a passage of God’s word that said, “From when He created the world, God has done much work involving the vitality of life, has done much work that brings life to man, and has paid a great price so that man might gain life, for God Himself is eternal life, and God Himself is the way by which man is resurrected. God is never absent from the heart of man, and lives among man at all times. He has been the driving force of man’s living, the fundament of man’s existence, and a rich deposit for man’s existence after birth. He causes man to be reborn, and enables him to tenaciously live in his every role. Thanks to His power, and His inextinguishable life force, man has lived for generation after generation, throughout which the power of God’s life has been the mainstay of man’s existence, and for which God has paid a price that no ordinary man has ever paid. God’s life force can prevail over any power; moreover, it exceeds any power. His life is eternal, His power extraordinary, and His life force not easily overwhelmed by any created being or enemy force. The life force of God exists, and shines its brilliant radiance, regardless of time or place. God’s life remains forever unchanged throughout the upheavals of heaven and earth. All things pass away, but God’s life still remains, for God is the source of the existence of all things, and the root of their existence. Man’s life originates from God, the existence of the heaven is because of God, and the existence of the earth stems from the power of God’s life. No object possessed of vitality can transcend the sovereignty of God, and no thing with vigor can break away from the ambit of God’s authority. In this way, regardless of who they are, everyone must submit under the dominion of God, everyone must live under God’s command, and no one can escape from His control” (“Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through God’s words and reality, I experienced the extraordinariness and greatness of God’s life force, that He lives among man at all times, at all times guides mankind and displays His power, and that every person lives in arrangements masterminded by God. Facing God’s word, I saw how tiny I was and how insignificant emotional ties are. What could I have done against the difficulties my family faced? Wasn’t God the one who protected them, cared for them, and led them through the crisis? Can man’s love of another man be greater than God’s love for man? At the same time, God’s words judged me, “Who among you can truly expend wholly for Me and offer up their all for Me? You are all half-hearted, your thoughts go round and round, thinking of home, the outside world, food and clothing. Despite the fact that you are before Me doing things for Me, in your heart you still think of your wife, children and parents at home—are all these your property? Why don’t you commit them into My hands? Do you not believe in Me enough? Or is it that you’re afraid I will make inappropriate arrangements for you? Why do you always miss your home? And miss other people! Do I occupy a certain position in your heart? And you still talk about letting Me have dominion within you and occupy your whole being—these are all deceptive lies! How many of you are for the church with all your hearts? And who among you think not of yourselves, but are for the kingdom of today? Think very carefully about this” (“The Fifty-ninth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I saw that what I cared for in my heart was still my family, because I didn’t have true faith in God, I still couldn’t entrust them completely to God’s hands; I saw that I did not live in the truth, and even though I was performing my duties in God’s house, I often worried about my family, and did not let God occupy my heart. I could not respect God above all others and faithfully perform my duties. I had been fooled and afflicted by Satan. If not for these “unfortunate” things happening to me, I never would have seen things clearly. It’s just as this hymn of God’s word says, “When it comes to the state of man’s life, man has yet to find the real life, he still hasn’t seen through to the desolation and miserable conditions of the world; were it not for the advent of disaster, people would still embrace Mother Nature, and would still engross themselves in the flavor of ‘life.’ Is this not the voice of salvation that God speaks forth to man? Why, among mankind, has no one ever truly loved God? Why does man love God only in the midst of chastisement, yet no one loves God under His protection?” (“Mankind Does Not Know God’s Salvation” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). If not for what these circumstances revealed to me, I never would have truly understood the relationships between people, and I would still be controlled by family ties, love, and friendship, inextricably trapped in the pursuit of these things, deceived and made to suffer by them, happy in my ignorance; if not for the “disaster” that befell me, I would still be pursuing evil worldly trends, unable to see my own lowliness; if not for the chastisement and judgment , I never would have received the truth, never would have taken the correct path of life, and it was God’s salvation that allowed me to never taste the flavor of “life” again. When I understood all this, I decided that I would wholeheartedly believe in God and pursue the truth to repay God’s love for me. In 2007, when I returned to my hometown to perform my duties, I learned that a brother who joined the faith with me, because he couldn’t see through the darkness and evil in society, surrendered to the temptations of the world, betrayed God, and left God’s family. His parents and the brothers and sisters repeatedly fellowshiped with him to convince him to stay, but he stubbornly turned his head and refused to look back, choosing instead to return to the world. Before long his entrapment in these worldly trends became deeper. He was a handsome man and had made quite a lot of money, so he started involving himself with many women. Eventually he was murdered, and we heard his organs were sold. His parents never saw his body. I felt sorry for him when I heard the story, but I also saw the tragic result of pursuing worldly trends, and even more so I saw how God used my parents’ urging to stop my return to the world, which made me experience God’s care and protection of me, and made me understand that having money in this world is a downhill path that ends in ruination of the self. God said, “Poor mankind—how could they know that the land upon which they were raised is the land of the devil, that the one who raised them is actually an enemy who hurts them. Yet man does not awaken at all; having sated his hunger and thirst, he prepares to repay the ‘kindness’ of his parents in bringing him up. That is how man is. Today, he still doesn’t know that the ‘king’ who raised him is his enemy. The earth is littered with the bones of the dead, the devil makes manic merry without cease, and carries on devouring the flesh of man in the ‘netherworld,’ sharing a grave with human skeletons and vainly attempting to consume the last remnants of the tattered body of man. Yet man is ever ignorant, and has never treated the devil as his enemy, but instead serves it with all his heart” (“Work and Entry (9)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through God’s words I saw the truth, that this is how Satan corrupts mankind, I saw that its malicious essence will eventually swallow men, and that without God’s timely salvation, I too would have been swallowed by this evil worldly trend and been buried with it. Upon understanding this, I offered my sincerest thanks and praise to God! It was God’s mercy, grace, and protection that carried me to this day. I have now performed my duties in God’s family for several years, and in God’s family I have experienced God’s love. No matter where I perform my duties, God is always there to take care of me. I get along with my brothers and sisters as if they were family, we don’t use each other, and there is no exchange of benefits. My brothers and sisters are so sincere that even if our corruption shows through to each other at times, through opening our hearts and communicating about our understanding of ourselves, there are no grudges or guardedness. We help each other and offer one another love, everyone is viewed equally, and no one is treated differently because they are poor or rich. I have health problems, so I often get sick, but my brothers and sisters are very considerate and take very good care of me, which made me experience that even without blood ties among my brothers and sisters, they can be even closer than relatives. I get along well with my brothers and sisters, and with God’s guidance, we all pursue the truth and strive to perform our duties. My experiences throughout these years have also helped me gradually come to understand God’s will, as well as to see that the work God has done upon me is the work of salvation and love, the words expressed by God are the truth, but more so that they are the words which save our lives. These truths have become God’s best care and protection for me. If I departed from these words or did not view things from the basis these words provide, I would ruin myself. I was deeply corrupted by Satan and unable to directly grasp the meaning of God’s words, so God arranged many different circumstances, people, matters, and things, designed for my needs, to benefit and perfect me, to help me understand His words. Amid my hardships and trials, I unwittingly came to see that these words expressed by God are all truth, that they are things that mankind needs. Not only do they grant mankind life and allow him to live out the life of a normal man, they also point out the correct path in life, because God is the truth, the way, and the life. As the word of God says, “I do not need man to do anything but accept the reality of My words and the original meaning of My words. Though My words are simple, in substance they are complex, for you are too small, and have grown too numb. When I reveal My mysteries directly and make plain My will in the flesh, you take no notice; you listen to My voice, but do not understand the meaning. I am overcome with sadness. Although I am in the flesh, I am unable to do the work of the ministry of the flesh” (“The Ninth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). In God’s word I saw both the urgency and sadness in God’s heart. All the words God expresses are the truth, but mankind is too small in stature and too numb, and so pays no notice of God’s will, which fills God with melancholy. I want to comfort God and cooperate with Him, and even though there is much of the truth I don’t understand, through my continuing pursuit of the truth and fulfilling my duties, God will provide me enlightenment and illumination so that I may understand His words. There is still much corruption in me that must be purified, and I need to experience much more of God’s work as well as God’s judgment and chastisement and the accompanying hardships and refinements, but God’s demands of man are not high. He asks only that I accept the reality of His words. In the past, when I had just started believing in God, I did not love and treasure these words of His, but the circumstances God arranged for me and years of refinement made me see these words of God as riches, but without those circumstances I never would have gained a true understanding of God’s words. I offer my praise and thanks to God! It was God who saved me, and it was the words of life from God that awakened me and rescued me from a life of being deceived under Satan’s influence. In God’s words, I came to know the true meaning of life, etc. I came to know that God has always cared for mankind, and has always watched over and protected mankind, understand that mankind cannot leave the supply, nourishment, watering, and support of God’s words, that only God is the truth, the way, and the life, and know that there is no salvation but through Him. God’s words carried me to today, and I want to make God’s words my motto, my marker on the path forward, and a guide for my conduct. Oh God! You saved me, Your words awakened me, keeping me from going astray. I want to follow You along this path all my life and never leave You, and no matter what trouble or difficulties my decision may bring me, in any situation, I wish to follow in Your footsteps to accompany You and comfort You, and I will follow You to the end of the road, always and forever! ![]() The “Rural” Mom Meets the “Urban” Daughter-in-Law Liu Jie, Hunan Different Viewpoints, Constant Conflicts I am a typical housewife, a good wife and a loving mother, I take good care of my husband and children, I’m hardworking and thrifty in running my household, and I’ve never recklessly spent my money. But something unimaginable happened to me. My son married a fashionable girl who really loved to have fun and dress up and follow the trends of the world. She pursued and purchased whatever was popular in the world, she threw away money by the handful, and however much she made each month was however much she spent. Since there was such a huge difference in our ways of thinking and living, my daughter-in-law and I often would be at loggerheads, we got into angry arguments, and our problems continued to get more and more intense. One day I saw my daughter-in-law come in carrying a bag, so I hurried over to ask her what she had bought, and how much money she had spent. She lit up and said: “I bought a dress, it wasn’t expensive, just 400-something yuan.” When I heard this, I got extremely angry: How could she be so relaxed, she was acting like she was someone with a lot of money. When I buy a dress, it’s less than 100 yuan, and I wear it for several years. However, the clothes she bought were expensive, and once they became outdated she’d stop wearing them, while her wardrobe got stuffed full of clothes; the more I thought about it the angrier I got, and it started to wear on my face. When my daughter-in-law saw that I wasn’t happy, it wiped the smile off of her face, she turned around and walked into her bedroom, and I heard the sound of the door slamming shut. Advice Unheeded, Distance Widening Later on, whenever I saw her get back from shopping, I would scold her: “Lili, look at our family, we are not very well-off, soon your child will be grown up, and then there will be lots of things we will need to spend money on, so we cannot keep on spending money so recklessly. If we have clothes and shoes that fit, then that’s good enough; we can’t continue throwing away money like this. You need to consider your future.” But my daughter-in-law responded by saying she and my son knew how to live their lives and said that I needn’t worry too much about it. Seeing that she didn’t understand where I was coming from made me feel full of resentment toward her, and we would often get into disagreements over these things. Later on, when she returned from another one of her shopping trips, she avoided me, taking advantage of me not paying attention. She stepped quietly into her room and didn’t come out until after she had hidden her things away. After I found this out I got very upset, but I knew that it would be of no use to speak of it, all I could do was turn a blind eye and put up with it. But as time went on I really couldn’t bear it, and I would often whine to my son. It was difficult for my son, who was wedged in between us, and one day he unexpectedly asked me: “Ma, when Lili goes shopping she doesn’t ask you for money, so why do you mind so much?” Seeing that my son was also on her side I felt especially hurt and saddened inside. I got so angry that I ignored them for several days. But afterward my daughter-in-law carried on as if nothing ever happened, which made me even angrier. With the Word of God Leading the Way, I Found the Root of the Problem One day, when my son told my daughter-in-law that they were going to go to his coworker’s house to eat, she went to her room to put on makeup, and after an hour went by she still hadn’t come downstairs. Seeing her like this, I came up and angrily lectured her: “Every time you put on makeup for so long, it really is a waste of time! I’ve never worn makeup in my entire life, and I’ve managed to get by, and I don’t look any uglier than other people, I just go with my natural look.” When my daughter-in-law heard me say this she started fighting with me, and I got so angry that I wanted to immediately leave the house and live on my own, away from her. I thought to myself: “What I can’t see can’t hurt me.” But I looked at my son and granddaughter and knew that I couldn’t be so heartless, so I was forced to abandon this plan. But the resentment I held in my heart for my daughter-in-law grew deeper and deeper, and we would often get in fights over small things. We were not keeping a peaceful home. Living in this kind of a quarrelsome household made me feel very tired and bitter, so I thought that as a believer in God, I was revealing my corrupt disposition in quarreling with my daughter-in-law like this all day long and that it didn’t conform to the will of God. In my suffering all I could do was prayto God: “Oh God! I know that I shouldn’t argue over trivial matters with my daughter-in-law, but I just can’t help it. Oh God! I’m asking You to enlighten me, please get me to understand how to treat my daughter-in-law in a way that conforms to Your will, I am willing to practice the truth in order to satisfy You.” After praying to God, I opened up the word of God, and read where God says: “What do social trends include? (Style of clothing and makeup.) This is something people often come into contact with. Clothing style, fashion, and trends, this is a small aspect” (“God Himself, the Unique V” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “For man who is not of sound body and mind, who never knows what is truth, who cannot tell the difference between positive and negative things, these kinds of trends one after another make them all willingly accept these trends, the life view, the life philosophies and values that come from Satan. They accept what Satan tells them on how to approach life and the way to live that Satan ‘bestows’ on them. They have not the strength, neither do they have the ability, much less the awareness to resist” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through the revelation of the word of God I finally understood this: The trend of the world is a means for Satan to corrupt man. Satan takes advantage of social trends to control us and dupe us, it teaches us all kinds of erroneous viewpoints such as, “The love for attractiveness is native to humans,” “Clothes make the man, a saddle makes the horse,” and “Seize the day for pleasure, for life is short.” Once these mistaken viewpoints enter into our minds, we believe that: our lives ought to be about pursuing beauty and paying attention to how we dress, and this is natural and normal. How you dress is a symbol that proves your status and worth; if you wear pretty and fashionable things and put makeup on to make yourself pretty, then you will not be outcast by society, then you will be valued by others; if not, you will be disparaged and looked down upon by others. Because of this mistaken viewpoint we unwittingly get swept up and carry on in evil trends. Looking at society today, it doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, everyone keeps up with the latest fashion and chases current trends, everyone wants to wear extravagant clothing and pretty themselves up with makeup, whoever is on the front-line at a given time is who is chased after by everyone, and no one believes that this is a negative thing stemming from Satan; on the contrary, they are under the impression that pursuing these things is reasonable and as it should be. My daughter-in-law doesn’t believe in God, she does not understand the truth, she doesn’t have discernment, so how can she not be affected by living her life under these kinds of circumstances? She has a love of beauty, she loves to dress up, and she loves to waste her money because she is affected, influenced and corrupted by Satan’s evil trends. To be spurred on by these kinds of evil trends makes her especially vain, she is always comparing herself to others, and she believes that the clothes and makeup she wears is her bargaining chip for raising her self-worth. Really, my daughter-in-law is without the freedom to act independently. By coming to understand these things I came to find the root of the problem, and I felt that everything had suddenly become clear. Afterward, I came before God and pray: “Oh God! I am willing to let go of my prejudices toward my daughter-in-law. May You guide me so that I can put myself aside and do and view things in accordance with Your word.” From then on, whenever I saw my daughter-in-law spent money recklessly on shopping and it made me feel bad, I would pray to God and seek God’s protection so that my heart might be at peace in His presence. Slowly but surely, I didn’t have as much hate in my heart for my daughter-in-law, and through the word of God I became aware: We are all a part of the corrupt human race, we all live under the domain of Satan and are duped by Satan, we all live involuntarily on the basis of our corrupt dispositions. My daughter-in-law is also a victim of these evil trends, I should not resent her, and I certainly shouldn’t treat her on the basis of Satan’s corrupt disposition. Satan is the main culprit of all of these things, Satan is more detestable than anything else. I carried on in this way for a period of time, thinking that I had already set aside my prejudices toward my daughter-in-law, but since I did not have true knowledge of my corrupt nature, since my life disposition had not changed, when I came across things that weren’t in line with my desires, my corrupt disposition was once again revealed. The Word of God Led Me to Self-Awareness One month, after my daughter-in-law spent all the money she had to spend, we didn’t even have money to pay our social insurance. After I discovered this, I was filled with so much rage that I really wanted to immediately kick my daughter-in-law out. Just when I wanted to get angry at her, I suddenly realized that I was again living in a wrongful state, so I hurriedly calmed myself down and prayed to God, seeking His protection over me, so that I would be able to not treat my daughter-in-law according to my flesh. When I opened up the book of the word of God, I read where it says: “Don’t be self-righteous; … If you regard others as less than you then you are self-righteous, self-conceited and are of benefit to no one” (Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning). The judgment and chastisement of the word of God made me recognize that I had always disliked my daughter-in-law because none of her actions conformed to my expectations, she did not meet the standard of what I thought a daughter-in-law should be. I am a frugal housekeeper, and I demanded that my daughter-in-law be the same, to be a good wife and loving mother. When I saw that she was not only not diligent and thrifty, but that she spent her money recklessly, I despised her and thought that she didn’t understand things and that she just threw away her money. In addition, I also wanted my daughter-in-law to obey me in anything I asked of her and live according to my lifestyle. Whenever my daughter-in-law did not do what I asked I got angry, criticized her and gave her dirty looks. But in this moment I finally saw that I had been completely controlled by the satanic nature of “putting oneself above all else,” always wanting to hide the truth from the masses and having the final say. All that exuded from me was an arrogant and self-righteous corrupt disposition, and it was of benefit to no one. “What’s more, my daughter-in-law and I are from different generations, we are not affected and influenced by society in the same way, but I’m always using my own standards to ask things of her; is this not being arrogant and conceited? Am I not being a controlling person? I thought about how supreme God is, how He even appeared in the flesh to hide with humility and obscurity among us to carry out the work of saving man, how God has never used His position to suppress people, and hasn’t forced people to put His word into practice, how all along He’s only expressed the truth to supply man, and used His love to move man and make man repent. But whenever we rebel against and resist God, even though He uses His word to expose and judge us, at the same time He is patiently guiding us, supporting us and providing for us, and with great patience and tolerance He waits for us to turn back to Him. God is so humble and so good! However, I, who am so deeply corrupted, behave so arrogantly and without reason, I always force my daughter-in-law to listen to me in my position as the mother-in-law, and all that I live out is corrupt disposition.” The more I thought about this, the more ashamed I felt. I saw that I had been so deeply corrupted by Satan, that when I was confronted with things I couldn’t quiet my heart in God’s presence. My naturalness was very strong, and I had too many personal wishes, and many times I had lost witness. I really was not fit to live in the presence of God. Afterward, I also read in the word of God where it says: “It is unacceptable for you not to know yourself. First heal your own sickness, and by means of eating and drinking My words more, contemplating My words, live life and do things according to My words; whether you are at home or in some other place, you should allow God to wield power within you. Cast off the flesh and naturalness. Always let God’s words have dominion within you. There is no need to worry that your life is not changing; you will slowly come to feel that your disposition has changed a great deal” (Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning). The word of God pointed out to me the ways of practice, and I became aware that there was a lesson for me to study behind my daughter-in-law and me not being able to live in harmony, that I ought to enter into the relevant truth, that I couldn’t fix my gaze on my daughter-in-law all day long. “I must focus on disposing of my own arrogant and conceited satanic disposition. I cannot keep on asking my daughter-in-law to listen to me according to my traditional viewpoints and natural old disposition, and I cannot stand in my position as a mother-in-law to suppress my daughter-in-law. I must learn how to put aside my status as the elder, let the word of God wield power over my heart, use the truth to resolve my own issues and live out normal humanity.” After I understood God’s will I prayed to God telling Him that I resolved to betray myself and put the word of God into practice. I Put the Truth Into Practice And Started to Get Along With My Daughter-in-Law One day, when my daughter-in-law returned home from work, I was in the middle of my household duties, and I saw that my daughter-in-law was carrying bags in both of her hands and on her back, so without thinking I asked her: “You’re carrying stuff in your hands and on your back, what are you doing?” My daughter-in-law said: “I bought two pairs of leather shoes and a pair of leather sandals.” As soon as I heard that she had bought three pairs of shoes at one time I was just about to speak when suddenly I realized that once again I was demanding that she act according to my own desires, and thereupon I prayed to God in silence. In this moment I thought about how in the word of God it says: “In the dispositions of normal people there is no crookedness or deceitfulness, people have a normal relationship with each other, they do not stand alone, and their lives are neither mediocre nor decadent. So, too, is God exalted among all, His words permeate among man, people live in peace with one another and under the care and protection of God, the earth is filled with harmony, without the interference of Satan, and the glory of God holds the utmost importance among man” (“Interpretation of the Sixteenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The enlightenment of God’s word made me calm down quite a bit from my originally angry attitude. I thought about the resolution I had told God I would make, and I realized that today God had arranged these circumstances in order to change my corrupt disposition, so that I could live out normal humanity and put the word of God into practice. This involved me bearing witness, I should not keep on constantly fixing my gaze on my daughter-in-law, I needed to first put myself aside and then rely on God to throw off my arrogant disposition and live out the likeness of a real human. My daughter-in-law has her way of living, I should not interfere, I ought to respect her, and let nature take its course in all things. When she saw that I wasn’t going to say anything to her, she smiled and took her shoes into her room. Looking at this scene I silently thanked God. If it weren’t for the enlightenment and guidance of the word of God, then today it would have been unavoidable for my daughter-in-law and me to exchange some quarrelsome words. After this, it didn’t matter if my daughter-in-law bought makeup or clothes, I didn’t ask her about it and I didn’t give it any mind, I just treated her properly according to the word of God, and before I knew it I had let go of the prejudices I had toward my daughter-in-law. After I started putting this into practice, it was not nearly as difficult to get along with my daughter-in-law as it was in the past. The wonderful thing is, my daughter-in-law slowly changed and started helping me do things around the house, and she started washing my son’s and granddaughter’s clothes herself. She also didn’t spend money as recklessly as before, and the mood in our home became more and more harmonious. One day, my son said to me: “Ma, Lili says that you’ve changed, that before whenever you saw her go shopping it would make you unhappy and that you would question her about it, but now you aren’t the same as before.” Hearing my son say this, I felt very happy, and I responded to him: “It is all because of the word of Almighty God that I have changed. Before, I was too arrogant and conceited, I always wanted Lili to do things according to my way of living, I never considered her feelings, and I didn’t stand in her shoes to look at things. If it weren’t for the guidance of the word of God, then I wouldn’t have come to know my own corrupt disposition, and I wouldn’t have been able to change myself, which would have made it unavoidable for Lili and me to fight with each other every day. From now on I will not try to teach her a lesson, Lili is a grownup, she has her own way of living, and me, as a mother-in-law, I need to respect her and give her freedom.” Upon hearing my answer, my son said to me very happily: “Ma, the Almighty God you believe in is truly great!” Through my experience, I truly felt the joy that comes from putting the word of God into practice. God’s words really can change us and save us, enabling us to live happy and blessed lives. Now my family is able to live together in harmony, and for that I thank God from the bottom of my heart for saving me. All glory be to Almighty God! ![]() Who Was It That Rescued Her Marriage? Yang Zi, China She had just turned twenty, she had a graceful figure and appeared as pretty as a flower, and there were many suitors pursuing her. But she didn’t pay this any mind until one day when her friend invited her to come out and she by chance met Lin. Lin was almost 6 feet tall, he was tall and handsome, with a dignified bearing. He spoke with humor and with wit, and was able to attract her in an instant. And Lin too was quite interested in her. The two of them started seeing each other very soon, and after a few months they got married. Before long they had a child of their own, and this made her feel very blessed. But good things don’t last forever. Just when she was starting to enjoy everything and long for a beautiful future, she discovered that Lin was not engaging in honest work every day. All day long he was idling about, and he would even go out often and get in fights and gamble. When he returned home, he would pick out faults with her no matter if there was something going on or not. He simply did not care for her or their child. She did not understand why Lin was acting this way. Many times with eyes full of tears she would urge Lin to walk the correct path, but not only did Lin not listen, he would even lash out at her, and one time he even went so far as to nearly choke her to death. She had lost all hope in Lin. Before long, Lin got sentenced to prison for breaking the law, and she had to support herself and their one-and-a-half-year-old child on her own. Her life was full of hardships and dashed hopes. It wasn’t until 2003, when Lin completed his prison sentence and was released, that she was finished with this painful marriage. After this, she took her son to her parents’ home. Since she didn’t have a job, she and her son had to rely on her relatives to assist them, which made her feel very embarrassed and helpless. When her neighbors saw that she was having difficulty taking care of her child by herself, they made an effort to look for a partner to introduce to her. At first she thought that she just wanted an average man, that as long as he was good to her child then it would be okay, but then she thought to herself: I’m still quite young, although I’ve gotten divorced, I cannot just settle for anyone. To her surprise, her neighbors introduced her to men who were very short, or otherwise they weren’t the least bit handsome, or they didn’t have a dignified bearing, some of them even forsook her for having a child, and none of the men that came by suited her, which made her feel quite disappointed. Later on she met Jun, he was eight years older than her, he was divorced, and he had a daughter. He had a dark complexion and average looks, and he wasn’t very tall. In her heart she didn’t really regard Jun highly, but he was honest and kind-hearted, and he was very kind to her and her son. So, she thought it over, and decided that for the sake of her son she had to compromise and marry him. After they got married, he was just as kind to them as he was before. He took care of them, he was very considerate, and he even did work around the house, cooking food and washing clothes. But she couldn’t get past the pitfall of her vanity, so she still could not completely accept Jun in her heart. She resented him for looking ugly and felt that he was undeserving of her. For this reason, she never wanted to go outside together with her husband. One time when she was out, she saw a dress in the display window of a shop that she really wanted to go try on, but she saw her husband behind her, who was old and dark, she thought if she let him walk beside her then the people working in the shop would certainly point at her and make fun of her behind her back, they would laugh about how she didn’t have a good eye for things. How could her husband be so old? She couldn’t let go of this pride of hers, so she made him wait for her outside in the entryway of the shop. In that moment, she saw a look of disappointment sweep over his eyes, but then he immediately smiled and said: “Go try it on, I’ll wait for you.” When she heard this, she felt somewhat ashamed and uneasy. After this, in order to make her accept him in her heart, Jun took over all household duties, and did them the best he could, but no matter what he did, she wasn’t able to fully accept him. In 2010 she started doing cosmetics business, and when this started, the clothes and makeup she wore became more and more fashionable and trendy, making her look even younger and more beautiful. When she would stand in front of the mirror next to her husband, he appeared even more like a rural peasant in contrast to her, he didn’t have the looks or the personality. The distance between them had increased, and at this time she felt even worse in her heart. In addition, she was interacting with lots of people and saw that these other people’s husbands were good-looking and outstanding, so whenever she would return home and see her husband, she would feel more dissatisfied, and she could not help but find faults with him. Actually, she felt lost, for she knew that her husband had always worked hard to win her favor, and that she shouldn’t treat him like this, but since she always felt a disequilibrium in her heart, she couldn’t control how she felt. As time passed, Jun was unable to put up with this kind of life, the two of them would often get into quarrels, and they were living in suffering. She thought back to one afternoon when Jun came to the office to pick her up. Actually it would have been a good thing if he did not come because none of her coworkers knew what he looked like. But he came that day to pick her up, and then the next day her coworkers circled around her, asking: “Who was that yesterday who picked you up? He looked so rustic….” She immediately felt like she had lost face. She felt upset because she thought that her husband shouldn’t have come to pick her up. At the same time, she also asked herself how she could have found such a disappointing husband that she didn’t want to be seen with, who was ridiculed and looked down upon by other people. She really had a difficult time living like this. In this moment, she came up with a brazen idea: She would look again for someone of the opposite sex that she liked. As for her marriage with Jun, if it really wasn’t going to work then she’d end it. Thereupon, she accompanied her coworkers whenever they invited her to go sing at KTV, but all she wanted to do was find a person of the opposite sex that she admired. At this time, since Jun was often being avoided and ignored by her, he started to feel a suffering in his heart, and he too started feeling more and more indifferent toward her. It got to the point that he too would sometimes not return home when he got off of work. In this way, the marriage between her and Jun entered into a crisis … It was at this time that a classmate introduced to her the salvation of God in the last days. She saw that God’s word is very practical, and that every sentence spoke to a deep place within her heart. Not only did it reveal the truth and substance of humanity being corrupted by Satan, it also pointed out the proper path to follow in one’s life. So she gladly accepted God’s work in the last days. When she got together with brothers and sisters, she saw that they were all very pure and that they loved one another, and whenever they got together they never talked about what they wore or ate or about other pleasures. They never compared themselves with each other to see who was the prettiest or who had the most money, all of them just focused on pursuing the truth, and whenever things befell them they would always pray to God to seek. They reflected on themselves in the word of God to get to know themselves, and they strove to put the word of God into practice and conduct themselves as honest people. This was something that she had never seen before. In addition, she also saw that whenever the brothers and sisters were with their husbands and wives, they were still putting the word of God into practice. In particular, there was a sister who was younger and prettier than her whose husband had even worse looks than Jun, but the sister didn’t avoid her husband at all. The two of them got along very harmoniously. She couldn’t comprehend this. She didn’t understand why the sister wasn’t avoiding her husband. Later on the sister fellowshiped with her, saying: “Every person’s marriage was predestined long ago by God, so no matter what kind of marriage it is, behind the scenes there is always God’s careful arrangement, and in particular, whenever the husband that God arranges for us doesn’t have any looks and doesn’t conform to our expectations, this is actually the best thing possible for us, for within this is the gracious will of God. It is only because we have been deeply corrupted by Satan that we always have extravagant desires, picks and demands, which make us not understand what God’s intention is whenever He makes His arrangements, so then we always look down upon our own husband and feel that our marriages are not what we wished for, which makes us live in suffering. But when we seek God’s will and come to an understanding of the truth and are willing to let go of our individual preferences and desires, then we will see that the arrangement God has made for us is the best and most suitable for us, and really it is protection for us. If we are able to naturally submit to this, then we will no longer turn our backs to our husbands.” At that time, since she had just started believing in God, she still wasn’t aware of the truth, she seemed to understand the sister’s fellowship but did not really understand it. She just greatly admired what the sister lived out in the presence of her husband. One day came when she read in the word of God: “We only wish to talk about the ideas that social trends bring about for people, the way they cause people to conduct themselves in the world, the life goals and outlook that they bring about in people. These are very important; they can control and influence man’s state of mind. … When the wind of a trend blows through, perhaps only a small number of people will become the trendsetters. They start off doing this kind of thing, accepting this kind of idea or this kind of perspective. The majority of people, however, in the midst of their unawareness, will still be continually infected, assimilated and attracted by this kind of trend, until they all unknowingly and involuntarily accept it, and are all submerged in and controlled by it. For man who is not of sound body and mind, who never knows what is truth, who cannot tell the difference between positive and negative things, these kinds of trends one after another make them all willingly accept these trends, the life view, the life philosophies and values that come from Satan. They accept what Satan tells them on how to approach life and the way to live that Satan ‘bestows’ on them. They have not the strength, neither do they have the ability, much less the awareness to resist” (“God Himself, the Unique VI” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Once she finished the word of God, she finally understood. Actually, her suffering in these past years all originated from Satan’s corruption. Satan imbues man with the idea that men looking for women who are “fair-skinned, rich and beautiful” and women looking for men who are “tall, rich and handsome” is the only way to have a blessed and happy marriage. Under the influence of this kind of societal trend, people’s viewpoints on marriage have become distorted. Nowadays when people search for their other half, they simply do not care about the quality of their partner’s humanity, and whether or not they are suitable for themselves, instead they stress their partner’s looks, whether or not they’re tall and handsome or fair-skinned and pretty, or if their family is well off, or whether or not they meet the standards they have demanded for their spouse, and so on. They feel that so long as they are able to find a handsome or pretty spouse with money, then they will have a grand and enjoyable life that certainly will not be lived in vain. She also unwittingly accepted this kind of viewpoint when it came to choosing a spouse. In her mind she had always hoped to find a tall and handsome husband with a dignified bearing to share her life with, and she believed that this alone would make her happy. Think about it, the first husband that she chose carefully—Lin—all of his qualifications conformed to the standards she had when it came to choosing a spouse, he really did satisfy her vanity, but after they got married she realized that Lin’s humanity was not good, that his behavior was stubborn and obstreperous and that he had countless bad habits. Not only did she not have a happy marriage, on the contrary she was neglected by Lin, he made things difficult for her and even beat her. At last, she was even forced to raise her child alone. Whenever she was living together with Lin, there was a lot of suffering in her body and in her soul, and in the end, while she was in pain, she ended this first marriage. Whenever she thinks about that time in her life now, it scares her. But her current husband—Jun—although he is not handsome or tall, although he is quite unsophisticated, still his moral standing is good. He is kind-hearted and plays his part, and he really looks after the family. He takes care of and is really considerate of her and her son. He is always thinking of ways to make her like him and treats her son as his own. But because Jun’s looks were not as good as what she wished for, she always felt a disequilibrium in her heart, and she always felt that Jun did not deserve her. She felt that she lost face and lowered her social status by finding a husband like this, so she always looked at him with unfavorable eyes. All along she wasn’t able to accept him, and it got to the point to where she wanted to fully give up on her marriage with Jun and once again find someone of the opposite sex who was tall and handsome so that she could satisfy her vanity. It was in this moment that she finally came to a sort of realization. Because she had been imbued with Satan’s ideas and her viewpoints on marriage were distorted, she didn’t know what kind of marriage she needed, so she was not able to accept Jun, and fully ignored and neglected Jun, which caused her and Jun to both live in suffering. It was for this reason that their marriage was going down a rocky path. In that moment, she really did come to an understanding through her experience. If people do not believe in God, they will not possess the truth, and so they will not be able to discern Satan’s misconceptions and lies. They will follow the evil trends of society and live on the basis of Satan’s erroneous thoughts and viewpoints, they will be duped and bound by Satan and live in suffering. How truly pitiable this is! After understanding these things, she was willing to turn away from her own mistaken viewpoints and take another look at the marriage she was in. She was also fully aware that she was a Christian herself, so she must live out the likeness of a Christian to bring shame to Satan. Thereupon she stopped thinking about going off to look for someone of the opposite sex who conformed to her desires, and instead she started to care for Jun. Slowly, she started to accept Jun in her heart. Jun could also feel the change she went through, which made him very happy. They gradually grew much closer than before when they had been indifferent to one another. The mood in their home also stopped being so tense. One day her friend came to visit her at home. When Jun saw her coming, he hurried into the kitchen to prepare lunch. As the two of them chatted, her friend said: “Our classmate Pan Lin’s husband is handsome and rich. He’s the vice president of a company and has several properties in Hangzhou….” As she heard her friend say this, she felt a sting in her heart, and she immediately thought about her dream from youth, which brought about a vague feeling of disappointment…. She realized that her situation wasn’t right, so she immediately prayed to God asking Him to protect her heart. After the prayer, she realized: When we look at people, we cannot emphasize their outward appearance, and the most important thing is to see what kind of humanity a person has. Some people, even though they are “fair-skinned, rich and beautiful” or “tall, rich and handsome,” have an extremely inferior quality of humanity, or not even the slightest bit of humanity. Wouldn’t we suffer if we lived together with a person like this? Because the viewpoints I pursued before were incorrect, in the end, I didn’t obtain happiness. On the contrary, I suffered an unspeakable amount. Even today, I still have not awakened, so how could I want to repeat such disastrous actions? The husband that God has prepared for me now is the most suitable, as well as the most beneficial, so why should I bring further trouble upon myself? Thinking of this, her heart was enlightened. She was no longer affected by her friend’s words. She smiled and said to her friend: “Everyone has their own lives. Whatever kind of home and whatever kind of marriage we have is arranged by God. What’s more, people who are rich and have good looks always have more desires, but this is not necessarily happiness. I used to want to find a husband who was tall and handsome and had a dignified bearing, but in the end Lin did not engage in honest work and I lived in lots of pain! Now I have Jun. Although he is some years older than me and his looks are not as good as Lin’s, his moral character is good, he doesn’t have any bad habits, and I know he loves me dearly and is considerate of my needs. Although our life is nothing special, it is quite harmonious, and I feel very happy.” At this time Jun came out, and this time she didn’t avoid him or try to hide him, rather she calmly introduced him to her friend. Her friend told her: “At first glance I could tell that your husband is an honest and hardworking man, and he is very good to you, you truly are blessed!” She nodded her head cheerfully, and in her heart she silently thanked God, because she was fully aware that this was God looking after her and protecting her. If it weren’t for the enlightenment and guidance of God’s words, then she and Jun may have parted ways long ago. Then how would she have this blessed life that she has today? This is all God’s blessing! When Jun saw that she was no longer avoiding him, a happy smile appeared on his face that had never been there before. After this, her relationship with Jun became more harmonious. Every time she would return home, Jun was always waiting for her with a cooked meal, and he was also very supportive when it came to her faith in God. Every time that she saw these things, it really moved her. She truly felt that God had bestowed her with the best things, and that only by submitting to God’s plans and arrangements can a person truly be happy. She had a deeper understanding that she ought to enjoy this marriage that God has bestowed upon her, and in her heart she felt more and more liberated. She thanked God from the bottom of her heart for saving her marriage that was on the brink of falling apart. All glory be to Almighty God! ![]() I Am Following in the Footsteps of the Lamb Shen Ai, Singapore When I was 18 years old my mother got ill, and so she started believing in the Lord Jesus. At the time, I knew the Lord Jesus’ name but didn’t understand anything about faith in the Lord. It was quite a coincidence that I later went to work for a company where most of the employees were Christians. Through interacting with them, I saw how they treated people with love and patience, and I came to believe that Christians were a pretty good bunch of people. During that period, there was a colleague who often told me the story about how the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross in order to redeem mankind. I gradually developed an interest in faith in the Lord, and started going with my colleagues to their church to worship. The first time I entered the church and heard hymns praising God being sung I was unexpectedly moved to tears by the Lord’s love. I prayed to the Lord like this: “Oh, Lord Jesus! Thank You for picking me out of the vast ocean of humanity to become one of Your daughters. I wish to follow You forever….” During that period, whenever I met some difficulties in my daily life, or was mocked by my friends and relatives because of my faith in the Lord, as long as I came in front of the Lord and prayed, my spirit would find immense release. I felt that the Lord Jesus was my only reliance in life and that I would never leave the Lord’s side. At that time my favorite hymn was: “Rock, rock, Jesus Christ! Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, only You are the savior. You are the mediator, You are the son of God, You are the lamb. You are the way and the truth, You are the life, You are the light, You are the rock, the fortress, the city of refuge and the shield. We belong to You; we will never be shaken from generation to generation.” And this is how I relied on the Lord’s great power and motivation gained from the guidance of the Lord’s words to get through all the difficulties and troubles of life. But then, for some unknown reason, I started to slowly feel that I wasn’t enjoying the meetings anymore. The pastor’s sermons were always the same old stuff, without any new light in them, and I felt that I wasn’t gaining anything. My spirit began to wither, and became weaker and weaker. Because of this, I often prayed to the Lord like this: “Lord, in my heart there is no desire to go to the church meetings. When I do go I just go through the motions and don’t gain sustenance for my spiritual life. Lord, I feel helpless. I’m wandering around at a loss about what to do. Please lead me out of this.” But no matter how I prayed and begged I could never feel the Lord’s presence. The darkness and pain grew in my heart and my confidence became weaker by the day. Then, in 2014, my husband had an accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. We ended up paying 2 years of medical bills and compensation, which left us with debts of over 100,000 yuan. It was this debt pressure that forced my husband and I to relocate to Singapore to work and make more money. In April 2016 we arrived in Singapore. The stress and difficulties of everyday life here turned out to be far greater than I’d expected. I started working over 10 hours every day, which left me physically exhausted. But even worse were the scoldings I got from my co-workers and boss in the store. This physical and psychological stress was a source of enormous suffering for me, and I cried every day after work. I felt very alone, without anyone to understand my situation or show some concern for me. Living like this was so painful that in my heart I even started to complain about the Lord. It was an environment that I could face no longer, and I just wanted to return to China as soon as possible. But it’s often the case that just when people are at their wit’s end God appears. So just when the suffering was at its worst, and I was feeling the most helpless, one of my co-workers who lived with me, sister Wang, saw that I had a Bible on my bedside table and so told me that she too was a Christian. I was delighted to find out that sister Wang was also a believer in the Lord, and from that day on we often got together to fellowship topics about faith in God. Sister Wang encouraged me to pray to God often in everything and to keep my faith in Him. Because I hadn’t been in Singapore very long, I still wasn’t at all used to the food. So every day after work sister Wang used to cook dinner according to my tastes. I was very moved by this, and I knew that this kind of love came from God, so I was very grateful to God for arranging for someone to be there to support me when I was feeling totally lonely and helpless. Some time after, I was introduced by sister Wang to 2 other sisters. The first time I got together with them I couldn’t hold back the feeling of grievance in my heart, and the tears were soon rolling down my face. The sisters comforted me and talked about God’s intentions with me. One of them said: “You’ve managed to get out of China with no problem so that can only mean that God has permitted it and that He intends something wonderful for you here. We just don’t know what it is yet.” The sister also leaned upon the story of Job from the Bible in her fellowship with me: “Job lost all of his immense wealth and all of his sons and daughters. He even had boils all over his body, but during that time of his greatest trials and suffering he never once complained about God. He just submitted to God’s plan for him and praised God’s name. When Job stood firm and bore witness for God during his trials he saw God’s blessings. From the trials of Job we can see that many of the things that befall us all have God’s intentions behind them. So no matter what kind of situation or environment we encounter we must not complain to God. Instead, we should first submit and seek God’s intentions….” While listening to the sister’s fellowship my heart gradually became tranquil. Yes, Job was able to submit to God even during the tremendous trials and suffering that he underwent. He didn’t complain and was even able to praise God’s name, which was such a wonderful testimony! And my difficulties were trifling compared to Job’s, so if he could still submit to God then I shouldn’t complain again and make God sad. The sister’s fellowship gave me the confidence and courage to once more face my problems, and in my heart I felt considerable release. At the same time, I felt that the sisters’ fellowship was full of brightness: They had used the story of Job to illuminate my current difficulties in life and shown me a practical way forward. This was something that I’d never previously recognized when reading the Bible. The meeting was very fruitful for me, and after it I could feel my spirit growing brighter by the day and work was no longer so troublesome. After that, I often met with the sisters, and every meeting with them was very rewarding. One time when we were together we read this passage of God’s words: “God created these two people and treated them as His companions. As their only family, God looked after their living and also took care of their basic necessities. Here, God appears as a parent of Adam and Eve. … The attitude and way in which God treated Adam and Eve is akin to how human parents show concern for their own children. It’s also like how human parents love, look after, and care for their own sons and daughters—real, visible, and tangible. Instead of putting Himself in a high and mighty position, God personally used skins to make clothing for man. It doesn’t matter whether this fur coat was used to cover their modesty or to shield them from the cold. In short, this clothing used to cover man’s body was personally made by God with His own hands. Rather than creating it simply through the thought or miraculous methods as people imagine, God had legitimately done something man thinks God could not and should not do. This may be a simple thing some might not even think as worthy of mentioning, but it also allows all those who follow God but were previously full of vague ideas about Him to gain an insight into His genuineness and loveliness, and to see His faithful and humble nature” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself I” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I was very surprised to read these words, as the ideas seemed strange to me. I’d been reading the Bible for so many years, but the significance of God personally clothing Adam and Eve in animal skins had never occurred to me. I certainly never realized that behind God’s performance of this action there was so much of God’s intention. It was like a light had been turned on in my heart, and it was unveiling the mysteries in the Bible for me. What God had said was expressed so well that it warmed my heart and allowed me to see how intimate God’s relationship with mankind was. God was like mankind’s parents, full of care, concern, and affection. God gave us the best things, which proves His immense love for us humans! It felt like my relationship with God had instantly become much closer. After that, I read another passage of God’s words: “Since the creation of the world I have begun to predestine and select this group of people, namely, you today. … Even the things you do and the people you meet every single day are arranged by My hands, not to mention the fact that bringing you into My presence today is actually My arrangement. Do not throw yourself into disorder; you should proceed calmly” (“The Seventy-fourth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). This passage explains that whatever we do or whoever we see every day of our lives is all organized by God. Reading this opened up my mind tremendously. So, the reason I’d gone overseas, and the reason I’d met the sisters and gotten their support, were because God was controlling everything! Since God had led me every step of the way so far then it made sense to believe that God had also prepared the way forward for me. Thinking like this increased my trust in God. I felt that God was at my side watching over me, and I no longer felt hesitant or helpless. I was willing to hand over the management of everything to God, and believed that He would lead me through any and all difficulties. During those days, even though work was still as tiring as ever I felt great joy in my heart. I looked forward immensely to my meetings with the sisters because I could always gain sustenance from them and learn something new, which was completely different from what I’d gotten from going to my previous church. But a few days later when I was watching a gospel movie with sister Wang I suddenly saw the words “Eastern Lightning” come up on the screen. I became a bit agitated because I remembered that in China the pastors had often talked about Eastern Lightning in their sermons. They said things like: “People who believe in Eastern Lightning aren’t calling on the name of the Lord Jesus in their prayers. Instead, they’re praying to Almighty God.” The pastors also warned us not to have any contact with the Eastern Lightning followers so that we wouldn’t be confused and stolen away by them. They said that if we abandoned the name of the Lord and betrayed the Lord Jesus we would be…. Thinking of all this made me alarmed, and I quickly broke off the conversation with sister Wang. For a period of time after that I started to avoid sister Wang at work, but I still often thought about the care that she had shown for me. I thought about the nice times I’d had meetings with them and how their fellowship was fresh and enlightening and totally in accord with the Lord’s words. They were also decent and upstanding in their behavior, and I particularly gained a lot from the passages of God’s words that they gave me to read, which I found to be very practical and which included many truths that I’d never heard before. After reading those words, I felt that my relationship with God was growing closer and that I was coming out of the negativity, weakness, and spiritual darkness that had engulfed me. I had finally gotten some confidence and hope in my life. This was the confirmation of the work of the Holy Spirit! This was also proof that sister Wang and the others had a faith that was right, and was probably actually the one true way! But the one thing I couldn’t get past in my mind was why when they prayed they used the name of Almighty God and not the name of the Lord Jesus. I felt very bemused by this and didn’t know what to do. So I said this prayer to God: “God, You have arranged for me to become acquainted with a few sisters and have let me learn that they belong to Eastern Lightning and use the name of Almighty God in their prayers. Now I don’t know which way to choose or whether or not Eastern Lightning really is Your return. God, if Eastern Lightning really is the work of Your appearance I beg You to enlighten and guide me so that I can follow in Your footsteps.” After praying, my heart felt more grounded and I was able to discuss with sister Wang the doubts that I’d been having. Sister Wang said: “These issues that you’ve raised are exactly the same ones I had when I first started investigating God’s work of the last days. It was only after I read the words of Almighty God that I was able to understand these issues. Why don’t we fellowship about God’s words now?” After hearing sister Wang say this, I agreed to start investigating God’s work of the last days. That evening 2 more sisters came over (Xiaoya and Lianxin) and they both bore witness to God’s work of the last days for me. After listening to their fellowship, I asked them: “We used to use the name of the Lord Jesus in prayer and call on His name to heal sickness and cast out devils. Why has God’s name changed to Almighty God?” Sister Xiaoya replied: “Actually regarding Almighty God’s name, there are several prophecies about it in the Bible, in the Book of Revelation. For example, chapter 1 verse 8 says: ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.’ Chapter 11 verse 17 says: ‘Saying, We give you thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which are, and were, and are to come; because you have taken to you your great power, and have reigned.’ And chapter 19 verse 6 says: ‘And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.’ From this we can see that during the last days God is using the name Almighty God to begin the work of judgment. This is something that God has planned for long ago.” After listening to the sister’s explanation, it all suddenly became clear to me: The name “the Almighty” is in the Bible! And the Almighty must mean Almighty God! Then sister Lianxin played a hymn video of God’s words: “In each and every age, in each stage of His work, God’s name has carried weight. God’s name hasn’t rung empty. His every name reflects an age. Jehovah, Jesus, and the Messiah all represent the Spirit of God. Yet these names just represent the ages in God’s management, but not His entirety. The names people on earth call God can’t express His entire disposition, can’t express all that He is. They are just God’s names in different ages. And so, when the final age—the age of the last days—arrives, God’s name will change once more. He won’t be called Jehovah nor Jesus, much less the Messiah. He will be called the powerful and almighty God. And with this name He will end the age. God was once known as Jehovah. He was also called the Messiah. And out of love and respect, people used to call Him Jesus the Savior. Today God is not Jehovah nor Jesus, whom people knew in the past. He is the God who’s returned in the last days, the God who will end this age. Replete with His entire disposition, full of authority, honor and glory, He is the God, the God Himself, He is the God Himself who rises up at the ends of the earth. He is the God who rises at the ends of the earth. … The reason God took on this name, on this name and disposition is to make man see that He is a righteous God, that He is a righteous God. He is the sun, the blazing sun. He is the flame, the searing flame. So all of mankind will worship Him, the one true God. And they, they will see His true face: He is not only the Redeemer. He is not only the God of the Israelites. But He is the God of all creations on earth and in the heavens or seas” (“The Significance of God’s Name” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). After watching the video the sisters fellowshiped a lot more with me, such as truths regarding why God changes names and the significance of God’s name for each age. This is when I finally understood: God is called by a different name during each age, and each name has a meaning that is representative of God’s disposition and the work that He needs to do during that age. But each name that is chosen is only representative of part of God’s disposition during that age, not His whole disposition. For example, the name Jehovah represented God’s work during the Age of Law and also represented God’s imprecatory yet merciful disposition. The name the Lord Jesus represented God’s work during the Age of Grace, and the disposition represented was compassionate and merciful. During the last days God has changed His name again, and is using the name Almighty God to do the work of judgment of the last days. The entire age is being brought to an end through God’s disposition of justice, majesty, and wrath. God’s disposition becomes gradually revealed to mankind as His work develops and God doesn’t wish for mankind to restrict Him to any one stage of His work. God especially doesn’t wish for mankind to use any one name to draw up boundaries for what God has and is. God uses different names to differentiate between different ages and do the work necessary for each age so that people can recognize all of God’s disposition and all that He has and is. This is God’s wisdom and omnipotence. When the day finally comes when God’s work is finished there will be no need to call God by any name. God is the Creator of all things, God is God, and God’s authority and greatness cannot be encompassed within any one name. I feel that Almighty God’s words are full of authority and that only God is able to speak in this way and uncover the mystery of His name. And only God is able to say: “I am the God of all creatures throughout heavens and earth and seas.” I now believe that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus and that the words of Almighty God are God’s utterances, are the voice of God. This was the moment when I realized why my spirit never gained the sustenance it needed at those church meetings and why using the name of the Lord Jesus in prayer couldn’t gain the leadership of the Lord: It was because the work done under the name of Jesus has already finished. God is now doing new work and so has a new name, and so anyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus in prayer will not get the work of the Holy Spirit. This was like an epiphany for me. I now understood why sister Wang and the other 2 sisters gave such fresh and lively fellowship, why they understood so much about faith in God, and why they had such strong confidence and strength: It was all because they had accepted God’s new work, gained God’s new words, and were following in the footsteps of the Lamb. By contrast, all those people who don’t accept God’s work of the last days and don’t read the words currently being expressed by God will never follow in the footsteps of the Lamb but will live their lives in darkness without a path to follow. Only God is the sustenance for human life, and if mankind moves away from God’s leadership we will wither and die. I couldn’t help but silently give praise and thanks to God. I thanked Almighty God for leading me in welcoming the return of the Lord, making me become certain about Almighty God’s work of the last days, and allowing me to follow in the footsteps of the Lamb and gain nurturing and sustenance from God’s words. All glory be to Almighty God! Amen! ![]() Breaking Through the Fog to See the Light Faith, China I am an ordinary worker. At the end of November, 2013, a coworker saw that my wife and I would always make a lot of noise about little things, that every day we were worried and distressed, so he passed on the work of Almighty God in the last days to us. From the word of Almighty God, we have learned that the heavens and earth and all things were created by God, and that man’s life is bestowed on him by God. We have also understood the truth of the mystery of the six-thousand-year management plan, the mystery of the incarnation, God’s three stages of work in saving mankind, the significance of God’s work of judgment in the last days, and other respects. My wife and I thought that happening upon God incarnate having come to save mankind during our lifetimes was a great blessing. We happily accepted God’s work in the last days, and led a church life. Under the guidance of the word of God, we both pursued the truth and to transform ourselves, and whenever something happened and we started to argue, we wouldn’t just find fault with each other like we used to, but rather we would reflect on ourselves and try to know ourselves. After that, we acted in a way that forsook the flesh in accordance with God’s demands, and our marital relations became better and better, and our hearts became peaceful and steady. We felt that believing in God was truly good. However, while we were joyous and happy to follow God, when we were enjoying the blessed life, we were faced with a violent attack coming from our families…. Just when I was losing my way, it was the word of God that guided me to see through Satan’s scheme, and to break through the fog and enter onto the radiant and correct path for life. When I had just retired in February of 2014, my daughter-in-law got us two elderly folks to travel to Sichuan to babysit our grandson. Unwilling to go to their house, I prayed to God: “Almighty God! My daughter-in-law has asked me to babysit our grandson, but I’m not used to life in that place, and it’s not convenient to believe in God or read the word of God in that place. I hope You will open up a way out for us….” Not long after that, my daughter-in-law called me again to say that she would bring my grandson to us. When I heard this news I was overjoyed, and felt how almighty God is. God heard my prayer and opened up a way out for me. Before too many days had passed, my daughter-in-law and her parents brought over my grandson. As it happened, the day after that I was going to a gathering, and I told them that I believed in Almighty God. After hearing this, my daughter-in-law said unhappily, “Dad, how can you believe in Almighty God? I’m sure you know that the government doesn’t allow people to believe in Almighty God, and in recent years they have been arresting believers in Almighty God. You can’t continue to believe in Him.” I refuted her by saying, “When we believe in God, we don’t participate in politics. We just attend gatherings, read the word of God, pursue the truth, and follow the right path. How can they not let us believe?” My daughter-in-law said, “No matter what you say, and even if believing in God is the right path, as long as the government opposes it, you can’t believe in Him!” I thought to myself, “No matter what you say, it is the true God who I believe in. Even if the CCP government doesn’t allow it, I will still believe.” Later, my daughter-in-law went and found my wife and urged her that we shouldn’t believe in God…. Afterward, my son in faraway Sichuan called me up and said, “Dad, I heard you believe in Almighty God. That’s something the CCP opposes, so you can’t believe in Him anymore.” When I heard my son say this, I felt perturbed in my heart: Believing in God is the law of heaven for me, so why are you all trying to block me from it over and over? It’s so hard to believe in God and follow the correct path! I then prayed silently to God to guard me so I could resist the disturbances of my son and daughter-in-law. After praying, my heart gradually became tranquil. Although my son and daughter-in-law did not understand, I was clear that my faith in God and following the correct path was not mistaken, and that I could not be influenced by them. After three days, my daughter-in-law hurriedly came running home, and I saw that she had two stacks of something printed in her hands. She urged me to look at them quickly, and when I looked I saw that they were filled with rumors and falsehoods of the CCP government vilifying, condemning, and defaming The Church of Almighty God. For a moment I felt some confusion in my heart, and I thought: “It can’t be, I’ve been attending meetings for several months and I’ve never seen any brothers or sisters missing arms or legs! Why does the CCP government want to spread rumors and defamation about The Church of Almighty God? What is really going on here?” In the evening that day, I couldn’t sleep because I kept turning this over in my mind. “Alas! The CCP government is trying to persecute me, and my son and daughter-in-law are also trying so forcefully to block me, so what should I do?” The next day, I went out for a stroll in the neighborhood, and also saw these rumors slandering and condemning Almighty God posted on a bulletin board. I thought: What I believe in is the true God, so why does the CCP government oppose it in this way? It seems that in the atheistic state controlled by the CCP government, believing in God really isn’t an easy thing! … When I thought about this, I felt some weakness in my heart, and I returned home downcast and dejected. Just when I got home, my daughter-in-law said to me again, “Dad, I’m begging you to give up your faith. If the government finds out that you believe in God, I won’t be able to keep my job, and your son who will soon get his doctorate won’t even be able to find a job. Even your little grandson might get caught up in this, and it’s possible that in the future he won’t be able to attend school.” When I heard this, I thought it was a disaster. Believing in God can even involve the future of one’s children! I got more and more scared, and I knew that the CCP government’s ways of disciplining and punishing people are extremely cruel, so cruel that you could say that “they kill people without batting an eye.” I also thought it wouldn’t be easy for me to make my son graduate with his doctorate, and now what will I do if believing in God even gets my son involved? The price I would pay for believing in God and following the right path is too high. Better to just forget about it. Then, my daughter-in-law threatened me, saying, “My dad said that if you continue to believe in God, he will report you to the police. You know that my dad is a party secretary, and has given more than thirty years of his life to them. He hears and obeys whatever the CCP wants. He’s as good as his word, and this isn’t just to try to scare you.” The defenses in my heart then completely collapsed and toppled over, and I felt that it was too hard to believe in God, that the pressure was too much. With my son and daughter-in-law attacking me like this, if they really wanted to report me to the CCP government to be arrested and imprisoned, an old man like me could not bear such a thing. Forget it, it’s better to just give up my belief. After that, I didn’t attend gatherings anymore, and sisters came to my house looking for me several times and I always hid so they couldn’t find me. But during that time when I was not attending gatherings, as long as I thought about how it was God’s immense love that saved me from my suffering and the sweetness and happiness of the brothers and sisters and I singing hymns and praising God together, I missed and yearned for it a lot but still feared my daughter-in-law and others reporting me to the police. I felt so much pain and torture in my heart and I didn’t know what the best course of action was. At that time, a coworker (a brother who believed in God) came to my house to visit me to see why I hadn’t been attending gatherings recently. I explained to him how my daughter-in-law had been harassing me about believing in God. After he heard this, he fellowshiped to me, “When we are beset by these things, it’s actually a spiritual struggle. It’s just like the disaster that Job was faced with, in that on the surface it seemed like it had been caused by thieves robbing him, but actually what was behind it was Satan’s torment of people and fighting over mankind with God. Job revered God and was able to shun evil; in the end he could stand witness for God while Satan was humiliated in defeat. So when we are beset by these things, God’s intention is to get us to distinguish Satan’s essence of evil. When we believe in God, all we need to do is rely on God and seek the truth, and only then will we be able to see through Satan’s scheme and to stand witness! Then we can avoid being captured by Satan. Otherwise, we will lose the opportunity to receive salvation.” After that, my coworker read to me from the word of Almighty God: “God works, God cares for a person, looks upon a person, and Satan dogs His every step. Whoever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ways to tempt, harass and wreck the work God does in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is its objective? It does not want God to have anyone; it wants all those that God wants, to possess them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they commit evil acts alongside it. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? Normally, you often say that Satan is so evil, so bad, but have you seen it? You can only see how bad man is and have not seen in reality how bad Satan actually is. But have you seen it in this issue concerning Job? (Yes.) This issue has made Satan’s hideous countenance and its essence very clear. Satan is at war with God, trailing along behind Him. Its objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to possess and control those whom God wants, to completely extinguish those whom God wants. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession to be used by it—this is its objective” (“God Himself, the Unique IV” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “You must be awake and waiting at every moment, and you must pray more before Me. You must recognize the various plots and cunning schemes of Satan, know the spirit, know people and be able to discern all kinds of people, matters and things; you must eat and drink more of My words and, more importantly, you must be able to eat and drink them by yourselves. Equip yourselves with all the truth, come before Me so that I may open your spiritual eyes and allow you to see all the mysteries that lie within the spirit…” (“The Seventeenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After he had finished reading from the word of God, my coworker fellowshiped to me about it, saying: “It is an intense spiritual struggle when we are beset with these things. At present, the whole world is under the domain of Satan, the evil one, and Satan continues to corrupt mankind, disturb and disrupt God’s work. It wants to fully take possession of and devour mankind whom God created, and this is Satan’s evil goal. God’s six-thousand-year management plan is for the sake of saving mankind from the dark influence of Satan so that they can be gained by God. Especially in the last days, in expressing His word, God is doing the last stage of work of cleansing and saving mankind, and Satan is afraid that we will accept God’s work, and that we will understand the truth and receive salvation. It is afraid that we will distinguish its evil and reactionary essence, abandon it, and forsake it. Because of this it is in the throes of its final deathbed struggle—battling with God for the chosen people of God and using every contemptible strategy to block us from coming into God’s presence. Schemes like assorted rumors and nonsense fabricated by the CCP government and the suppression and seizures of believers done by the CCP, family members’ disruption and persecution, as well as all the condemnations and slander spread by the religious circle are all implemented in order to prevent us from turning toward God. But God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s scheme, and God is currently using Satan’s disruption to do service for God’s work. Through this He perfects our faith and loyalty. From the outside, it is the CCP government and your family using all kinds of tricks and means to prevent and obstruct us from believing in God, but actually behind the scenes it is a ruse carried out by Satan. As long as we do more to seek the truth and to understand God’s will, have some knowledge of God’s work, are able to discern all of Satan’s tricks and ruses, and are able to stand witness for God, Satan will be humiliated in defeat. As long as we don’t seek to understand the truth and don’t understand the spiritual struggle, when Satan causes disruptions for us we are liable to be led astray and to give rise to doubts about God even to the point of denying God, betraying God, and leaving God behind. This way it will happen that you will fall victim to Satan’s tricks and miss the opportunity to receive salvation. In the end you will be devoured by Satan. So we absolutely must do more to pray and draw near to God, and step up our reading of the word of God and equipping ourselves with the truth. Only in this way can we understand God’s will, see through Satan’s tricks, and stand witness to God.” Through reading the word of God and what my coworker fellowshiped, I suddenly realized: This is actually a spiritual struggle. God expresses the truth in the last days in order to save mankind, but Satan thinks up every conceivable way to use pressure and persecution by the CCP government to prevent me from believing in God and following God. It is afraid that I will accept God’s work in the last days and understand the truth. Thus I will distinguish its evil, hideous, satanic, demonic essence and betray and forsake it, and obtain God’s salvation. Today, I have finally seen Satan’s contemptible malice and understood the painstaking care and thought that God put into saving me. At that time, the emotions I had restrained for so long were finally set free, and I felt so happy as if I was seeing the light of day again. Thank God! Afterward, I will read more of the word of God and equip myself with the truth so as not to be taken advantage of by Satan. Although I understood that my unbelieving families harassing me for believing in God was just one of Satan’s tricks, and that I should not be fooled by Satan, I was still rather worried that if the CCP government found out about my faith it would have an impact on the careers of my son and daughter-in-law. I was even more afraid of the impact it would have on my grandson going to school. So I told my coworker about my concerns and he read me another passage from the word of Almighty God: “God’s authority exists regardless of the circumstances; in all situations, God dictates and arranges every human fate and all things in accordance with His thoughts, His wishes. This will not change because humans change, and it is independent of man’s will, cannot be altered by any changes in time, space, and geography, for God’s authority is His very substance. … At all times God wields His authority, shows His might, continues His management work as always; at all times He rules all things, provides for all things, orchestrates all things, just as He always did. No one can change this. It is fact; it has been the unchanging truth since time immemorial!” (“God Himself, the Unique III” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). My coworker went on to fellowship about it: “God is the Creator, and is the sovereign over the heavens, earth, and everything within. He also controls the fate of every person, and whatever kind of work or future each of us has was decided long ago by God. This is something no one can decide or change by himself. Your son and daughter-in-law’s careers and future are all controlled by God. It doesn’t matter if they believe in God or not; their fate is dictated and arranged by God. It is unnecessary for us to be worried about this or that. Job was never worried about it, because it was clear to him that all he had was given to him by God, and whatever was conferred upon him or taken away from him was done by God. So we should only be concerned with praying to God, and entrust the future of our sons and daughters to God’s hands and have faith that God has a suitable plan….” Through these words fellowshiped to me about knowing God’s authority, I came to have faith in God, and was steady and at peace in my heart. I would no longer worry about the future of my son or daughter-in-law. Afterward, through reading the word of God, I made progress in discerning the evil essence of the CCP government’s hostility to God. The word of Almighty God says: “The devil tightly trusses all of man’s body, it puts out both his eyes, and seals his lips firmly shut. The king of devils has rampaged for several thousand years, right up until today, when it still keeps a close watch on the ghost town, as if it were an impenetrable palace of demons; this pack of watchdogs, meanwhile, stare with glaring eyes, deeply fearful that God will catch them unawares and wipe them all out, leaving them without a place of peace and happiness. How could the people of a ghost town such as this have ever seen God?” (“Work and Entry (8)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life also says: “In the heart of the great red dragon, it thinks God has come to take away from it all the people who belong to it, and He is making an enemy of it. This great red dragon is a peremptory and unreasonable thing! Mankind is created by God, and God has the authority to save mankind. Originally, mankind belongs to God, and it is the great red dragon which has usurped the chosen people of God, corrupting and trampling on them at will, eventually devouring them all. However, when God comes to save mankind it antagonizes Him. We can see from this that the great red dragon’s essential nature is in opposition to heaven, reactionary, unreasonable, and absurd in the extreme. It is a wild beast and a demon” (“The True Significance of Forsaking the Great Red Dragon to Receiving Salvation” in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life (III)). Now, I understand that in this atheistic country the authority of the CCP is the authority of Satan. It does not permit God to come to this land and do the work of saving people, nor does it allow people to break free of its dark influence and be obtained by God, to be led by God into a beautiful destination. So it does all it can to resist and condemn the work of Almighty God, frantically disturbing and obstructing us from following Almighty God. If we do not have the truth, don’t know the schemes of the CCP, and don’t see into its evil and reactionary essence, it will be easy to be led astray by all the kinds of lies it disseminates, or to be frightened into submission by its repression and persecution. We won’t dare to come into the presence of God, and this means it has achieved its base purpose of devouring people and destroying God’s work of saving people. But there is no one who can penetrate God’s wisdom. God perfectly makes use of the persecution by the CCP to do service for perfecting the chosen people of God, to allow people to understand the truth, and to completely understand that the CCP government is a satanic demon which is full of enmity for the truth and takes God as its enemy, so they can completely forsake it and turn fully toward God. I give thanks to God for using His words to lead me and enlighten and illuminate me, which allowed me to distinguish the devilish essence of the CCP’s resistance to God and to no longer be restrained by its threats. I am also grateful that God caused my coworker to come and fellowship about the truth with me in a time when I was negative and weak, and when I had fallen down and lost my way. God saved me from being tempted by Satan, and made me break through Satan’s net and return to the presence of God and have an opportunity to receive salvation. I have resolved that no matter how many difficulties there are on the road ahead, I will follow Almighty God all the way to the end of the road! ![]() The Light Is Warm When Passing Through the Tunnel Wang Yuping, China Just like all the other brothers and sisters who thirst for the return of the Lord Jesus, I too continuously long for our Lord eagerly to return to receive us into the kingdom of heaven soon so that we can enjoy its blessings. One day in November of 2006 I finally heard the news of the Lord’s return. Through reading the words expressed by Almighty God and through the fellowshiping about and bearing witness to God’s work in the last days from my brothers and sisters, I finally recognized that Almighty God incarnate is the returned Lord Jesus. Thereupon, I willingly accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days. In a meeting, Sister Yang told me in a very serious tone: “Right now there are many brothers and sisters who, after accepting God’s work in the last days, come across some of Satan’s disturbances and temptations. Some are deceived by the lies of the CCP, some meet with the disturbances and threats of pastors and elders, some are coerced or obstructed by their families, and family members of some suffer ailments or calamities. These are tricks by Satan trying to obstruct us from returning to God. We all already understand that the work of Almighty God’s judgment starts from God’s house, and this is God’s final stage of work in saving mankind. He is doing everything He can to save man, and Satan is constantly practicing its tricks and disturbances on us in order to obstruct us from coming before God and receiving His salvation. Right now the fight that is being waged in the spiritual world is becoming more and more intense, so we urgently need to be equipped with the truth and master discernment in order to not be deceived whenever Satan’s tricks befall us and to stand witness to God. Now, let’s read a passage from the word of Almighty God.” So, I took the book of God’s word and carefully read the following passage: “As God works, Satan harasses. In the last days, it will finish its harassment; likewise, God’s work will be finished, and the kind of person God wishes to complete will be completed. God directs people positively; His life is living water, immeasurable and without limits. Satan has corrupted man to a certain degree; in the end, the living water of life will complete man, and it will be impossible for Satan to interfere and carry out its work. Thus, God will completely obtain these people. Satan still refuses to accept this now; it continuously pits itself against God, but God pays it no attention. He has said, I will be victorious over all of Satan’s dark forces and over all dark influences. … God is wiser than it, and His work far exceeds it. Therefore, I previously stated the following: The work that I do is carried out in response to Satan’s ruses. In the end I will reveal My almightiness and Satan’s powerlessness. When God does His work, Satan tails Him from behind, until in the end it is finally destroyed—it will not even know what hit it! It will only realize the truth once it has already been smashed and crushed; at that time it will already have been burned in the lake of fire. Will it not be completely convinced then? For it has no more schemes to employ!” (“You Should Know How the Whole of Humanity Has Developed to the Present Day” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Sister Yang gently said to me: “Through the word of God we can see that in God’s management work Satan is following closely behind each step of God’s work. God is in front carrying out the work of saving man, and Satan is in the back, disturbing and destroying it. It is constantly vying for man with God, and this is especially true during God’s final stage of work in completely saving man. At this time Satan is even more so doing everything in its power, exploiting all kinds of people and things to disturb us and obstruct us from accepting and obeying the work of God. It is Satan’s despicable goal to distance man from God and make man deny God and betray God, thereby losing God’s salvation. But God’s wisdom is carried out in response to Satan’s trickery. He uses Satan’s disturbance to bring us to an understanding of His work and His wisdom and almightiness, and also to allow us to see clearly Satan’s wickedness and ugliness. So, no matter what happens in the future, we all must pray to God and rely on God and seek the truth, and we must see through Satan’s trickery so that we can stand witness to God. It’s just like the trials that Job went through. He stood witness to God, causing Satan to retreat in humiliation….” After hearing Sister Yang tell me this, I responded with complete faith: “Yes, we believe in the true God. If we depend upon God then we have nothing to fear; if I come across Satan’s temptation, I will certainly stand on the side of God.” One day not long after this when I was finished spreading the gospel I was back at my front door when my neighbor came rushing over to me waving her hands, saying: “Where have you been? Something big has happened! Earlier, your son’s friend Liu went to borrow your truck, but the truck wouldn’t start very easily. So he got the tractor to pull it along, but after trying several times it still wouldn’t move. It just so happened that Hu was there too, and he got up into the tractor and put it straight away into fifth gear. The tractor sped off and the metal cable that was pulling the truck suddenly snapped, and whoosh! The cable snapped back and hit Hu on the temple, and immediately blood started pouring out. He’s already been rushed to the hospital….” My mind suddenly went blank, and I rushed into my home to pray to God: “Oh God! I do not understand Your will. Why has this suddenly happened to me? Please enlighten me….” After praying to God I thought about the scriptures from the Bible: “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil” (Luke 4:1-2). When thinking about these words I also suddenly recalled Sister Yang’s fellowship about the truth on the spiritual fight. Then I understood. These things were just Satan tempting me and disturbing me. Satan just wanted to use these unfavorable things to attack me so that I would doubt God, blame God and deny God. This truly is a spiritual fight! It was at this time that I thought about another thing that God has said: “You are able to stand on the side of God when He does battle with Satan, and you do not turn back to Satan, then you will have achieved the love of God, and you will have stood firm in your testimony” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). These words of God filled me with faith, and I thought to myself: “Satan, no matter how you disturb me I will not fall for your tricks, I will not blame God or doubt God, I will stand on the side of God, I will properly follow Almighty God.” Once I understood the will of God I felt much steadier in my heart. But Satan was unwilling to admit defeat, and it still constantly disturbs me through people and things. While Hu was hospitalized his family put all responsibility over my family. They wanted me to pay for all of the medical expenses. I kept trying to negotiate with them, telling them that I was willing to pay half, but all along they would not agree with me. After three weeks Hu was already healed, but he still wasn’t discharged from the hospital. This was done deliberately in order to extort the money from my family. Then one day Hu said: “The truck is yours, so all the expenses should be paid by you.” Hu’s wife also stood up and yelled out: “That’s right! Since it’s your truck that was involved in the accident then you should pay all the expenses….” As I stood there with them pestering me endlessly I started growing very angry. I had involuntarily gotten caught up in this matter. I felt a particular pain, I was distraught with anxiety, and I didn’t want to talk to them anymore, so I unhappily walked out of the room. When I got downstairs I thought to myself: I’m a believer in God; when things like this happen to me I should not get angry in this way, I should entrust this matter to the hands of God. I need to rely on God. When I returned home I opened up the book of God’s word and saw the following words of God: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements, or from human interference. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a bet with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men, and the interference of men. Behind every step that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … You should know that everything that happens to you is a great trial and the time when God needs you to bear testimony” (“Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). As I read these words I thought back to that day when I boasted in front of Sister Yang that I would certainly stand by the side of God whenever trials befall me. I hadn’t imagined that when Satan persistently pestered me, I couldn’t calmly seek God’s will in His presence, my mind was always preoccupied. For this, I felt extremely miserable in my heart. Hadn’t I fallen for Satan’s tricks? It wasn’t until I was finished thinking about these things that I could finally see how truly sinister and evil Satan is. It had used this affair to disturb me, to make me angry for losing some of my fleshly interests, and even more so it wanted to use these things to make me deny Almighty God and betray Almighty God. But I will not fall for Satan’s tricks, I am willing to depend on God, and to deliver these things into the hands of God. Whether or not Hu would leave the hospital, how much money I would have to spend in the end, I accepted that these things would be orchestrated by the hand of God, and regardless of the outcome, I would be willing to obey. Once I had come to understand God’s will, once I was willing to stand witness to God, I unexpectedly witnessed one of God’s wondrous deeds the following day. God had aroused a young man to go to Hu’s hospital room and reprimand him: “I cannot bear to look at someone like you, someone who bullies good people, and someone who extorts someone else for their money. If it were me I wouldn’t give you a single cent.” Other people in the room also chimed in: “That’s right, he was the one that got into the truck, and now he wants this person’s money, how unreasonable!” “Right! Whoever borrowed the truck should also pay some of the money! They can’t have the owner of the truck pay for everything!” After Hu heard this he lowered his head and didn’t say a word. Three days later Hu was discharged from the hospital. I knew deep in my heart that behind these events taking place it was God who had opened up this way out for me. After experiencing this, I could see the wickedness and despicableness of Satan. It had used people and things that I knew to disturb me and attack me in an attempt to make me complain to God and blame Him and distance myself from Him due to the fact that I was going to lose some money, and it wanted me to live in suffering. At the same time, I could also see that when I stopped considering my physical gains and losses, when I relied on God through my faith in Him, when I stood on the side of God, then God used the words of nonbelievers to open up a way out for me, forcing Satan to retreat in humiliation. This granted me the chance to see God’s authority that mobilizes and rules over all things. It’s just as it is written in the word of God: “I will mobilize all to serve Me, and moreover, I will reveal My power, so that every man can see that in the whole universe world not a single object is not in our hands, not a single person is not in our service, and not a single accomplishment is not performed for us” (“The One Hundred and Nineteenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The more I read the word of God the more I see that God is almighty, that God is wonderful. I see now that all things are in the hands of God, and I now have more faith in God. I am willing now to experience more of the work of God in whatever happens next, and I will rely upon God in order to no longer fall for Satan’s temptations. A month later Satan’s temptation befell me again. One day, my daughter who had just recently gotten married came back home where she suddenly fainted at the front door. My neighbor picked her up and helped her into the house. I thought at first that it was just a common cold, I didn’t pay much attention to it. I certainly wasn’t expecting that halfway through the night she would suddenly start trembling from head to toe. I was scared and had no idea what to do. I just quickly grabbed her and held her to my chest, and after a little while she seemed a little better. The next morning my daughter said to me: “Mom, go perform your duties, I’ll be okay.” I silently prayed to God: “Dear God! All things are in Your hands, so I entrust my daughter to You….” After this I turned to my daughter and said: “Jing, you need to pray to God more and rely on God, for He is the strong support that we need.” After urging my daughter about this I went to go perform my duties. I didn’t expect that two days later when I returned I would find my daughter in a hospital bed unconscious. My daughter-in-law turned to me and said in a sad voice: “Mom, after you left, Jing’s illness started getting really serious. When the doctor examined her, he said she had a cerebral hemorrhage and that she needed a craniotomy surgery. But since you and her husband have not been here the past two days, there was no one to sign off for her, and now we’ve missed the time for surgery. I also heard the doctor tell Jing’s mother-in-law that her condition was not good and that even if she did wake back up she would be in a vegetative state.” When I heard this it felt like a knife had been twisted into my heart, and tears started falling out of my eyes. I just couldn’t accept this as the truth. So I held on to a bit of hope and went to talk to a specialist, but he shook his head as he said to me: “We’ve used all the medicine that we could, we’ve tried as hard as we can, the best possible result is that she wakes up in a vegetative state.” After hearing this doctor’s words I felt that even heaven had come crashing down. It felt like I lived in endless suffering…. Later on, when my son-in-law saw what state my daughter was in, he not only wasn’t concerned about whether she would live or die, but he even turned to me and showed a total lack of humanity asking me to return the betrothal money that he had given us at the time of the wedding. On that day the road to home from the hospital felt so long, I was a lost soul wandering down that road. It felt like I was walking down a long, dark tunnel where I could not see any light in front of me. When I returned home I was feeling dispirited and feebly opened the book of the word of God and read the following words: “On earth, all manner of evil spirits are endlessly on the prowl for a place to rest, are ceaselessly searching for the corpses of men to eat up. My people! You must remain inside My care and protection. Never behave dissolutely! Never behave recklessly! Rather, offer up your loyalty in My house, and only with loyalty can you mount a countercharge against the devil’s cunning” (“The Tenth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “When you face sufferings you must be able to not consider the flesh and not complain against God. When God hides Himself from you, you must be able to have the faith to follow Him, to maintain your previous love without allowing it to falter or disappear. No matter what God does, you must submit to His design, and be more willing to curse your own flesh than to complain against Him. When you are faced with trials you must satisfy God in spite of any reluctance to part with something you love, or bitter weeping. Only this can be called true love and faith” (“Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). As I read these words of God I thought back to the events that had just taken place, and I truly could see the contempt, maliciousness and savageness of Satan. It wanted to take me away from God’s hands, it wanted to devour my spirit. It was practicing its cunning schemes against me everywhere that it could in order to disturb me and attack me. First, I was extorted by others, and since I lost money I lived in suffering; this time Satan used my beloved daughter to again test me, it tried to use my daughter’s illness to make me complain to God, deny God and betray God, so that I would lose God’s salvation in the last days. These were all the cunning schemes of Satan. It was just like the trials that Job faced in his time. In the background was a fight, and Satan wanted to make Job abandon God and deny God by making him lose his wealth and his children, but Job never complained to God. Instead, he praised God’s name, causing Satan to retreat in humiliation and giving beautiful and resounding testimony to God. Although my flesh is weak I must see through Satan’s cunning schemes and stand by God’s side. God says: “And only with loyalty can you mount a countercharge against the devil’s cunning.” “You must satisfy God in spite of any reluctance to part with something you love, or bitter weeping. Only this can be called true love and faith.” God is using Satan’s attacks to perfect my faith and my devotion in God. Man’s life and death are both in God’s hands, so I should deliver my daughter into His hands. As I thought about this, I knelt to the ground as bitter tears ran down my face, and I prayed to God: “Almighty God! The fate of man lies in Your hands. But if You do not allow this then my daughter will not die so long as a single breath is in her body, and if it is like what the doctor said that she will become a vegetable, then I will not blame You, I will still follow You.” Very late at night I was sitting at the head of my daughter’s hospital bed until I was not sure when I dozed off. I woke up in a daze hearing my daughter say, “Mom, mom, I need water.” My heart skipped upon hearing my daughter’s voice, and I jumped to my feet. I rubbed my eyes and stared at her. My daughter’s hands were moving and her eyes were open. This immediately flooded me with emotions to the point that I didn’t know what to say, and all I could do was to continue blurting out: “Oh! God! Oh! God! …” Another person in the ward also said in amazement: “Oh! It’s a miracle! How has she gotten better all of a sudden?” I flashed an uncontrollable smile. I saw that man’s life and death truly are both in God’s hands. God’s deeds truly are wonderful. It was God who saved my daughter. Three days later, my daughter miraculously recovered her health, and she seemed just like a normal person again. After experiencing this suffering by the hands of Satan I was able to see that the fight being waged in the spiritual world was an intense one, and I could see clearly the sinister meanness and wicked cruelty of Satan. At the same time I had a much better understanding of the will of God. God had allowed for these trials to befall me so that He could better rescue me and perfect me, for this allowed me to recognize the almightiness and wisdom of God, and it also allowed me to see God’s authority and dominion. This perfected my faith, devotion and obedience toward God. He rescued me from the influence of Satan, allowing my life to grow. God truly is so lovable! Later on I read the following passage from the word of God: “My entire management plan, a plan that spans six thousand years, consists of three stages, or three ages: the Age of Law in the beginning; the Age of Grace (which is also the Age of Redemption); and the Age of Kingdom in the last days. My work in these three ages differs in content according to the nature of each age, but at each stage it accords with man’s needs—or, to be more precise, it is done according to the tricks that Satan employs in the war that I wage against it. The purpose of My work is to defeat Satan, to make manifest My wisdom and omnipotence, to expose all of Satan’s tricks, and thereby to save the entire human race, which lives under its domain. It is to show My wisdom and omnipotence while at the same time revealing the unbearable hideousness of Satan. Even more, it is to teach My creations to discriminate between good and evil, to know that I am the Ruler of all things, to see clearly that Satan is humanity’s foe, the lowest of the low, the evil one, and to tell, with absolute certainty, the difference between good and evil, truth and falsehood, holiness and filth, and what is great and what is ignoble. This way, ignorant humanity will become able to bear witness to Me that it is not I who corrupt humanity, and only I—the Lord of creation—can save humanity, can bestow upon man things for their enjoyment; and they will come to know that I am the Ruler of all things and Satan is merely one of the beings that I created and that later turned against Me” (“The True Story Behind Work in the Age of Redemption” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Through these words of God I came to a better understanding of God’s will. I could see that everything that God does is salvation and love toward man. As I thought back to all the trials that I went through, even though I did endure some hardships, I also obtained many things. Through these experiences I saw that Satan continuously used the people and things at my side to disturb me, but all along I had God by my side. He used His words to enlighten me and guide me, so that I could better differentiate things. He gave me a road to follow, gave me faith and strength, so that I could be firm in times of passivity and weakness. Every step of the way I was able to break away from the dark influence of Satan and witness God’s wondrous deeds. In my life I grew tougher through these experiences. After I went through these experiences I felt that I need not fear these disturbances and afflictions from Satan any longer, because I have God at my side. So long as we depend on God and do not leave the word of God, so long as we have faith in God, then God will guide us to victory over Satan’s cunning schemes and attacks, and we will live protected under God’s watchful eye. Now I am of even firmer conviction that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. He is my Lord, my God! I also recognize that we are creatures, regardless of whether we receive blessings or endure hardships, we should always obey God and worship God. I stand here with my resolution firm: My heart is set on following Almighty God to the end of the road! ![]() The Awakening of a Deceived Spirit (Part 2) Yuan Zhi, Brazil One day, while I was browsing through Facebook, I read an article about someone’s experience and testimony titled “I Have Found Salvation in the Last Days on Facebook.” After I opened it, I read that this sister had similar experiences to me. When she first started contacting The Church of Almighty God, she encountered rumors about it that her friends sent to her. She was very disturbed. I wanted to understand what the conclusion was, so I continued reading impatiently. I read that this sister prayed to the Lord and asked the Lord to guide her. After she finished praying, she felt that she could not selectively listen and believe. She had to realistically investigate The Church of Almighty God in order to differentiate whether it was true or false. If she blindly listened to the rumors and refused to investigate the second coming of the Lord, it would not be very rational. She had to find out the truthabout the Lord’s return. When I read this, I felt that it was correct. The return of the Lord is an important thing and one must treat it prudently. I cannot simply follow the herd and blindly reject and resist it. I continued reading the article and saw that the circumstances regarding The Church of Almighty God that this sister came to understand was completely different from what her online friends were telling her. Additionally, she personally received as visitors some sisters from The Church of Almighty God. They fellowshiped with her about Almighty God’s words and they also helped and cared for her. The true experiences of this sister told me that I could no longer continue to be deceived by these rumors, nor could I believe gossip and reject investigating the work of Almighty God in the last days. Otherwise, it is possible that I would lose God’s grace of the last days. I must connect with The Church of Almighty God again for further investigation! At night, while I was tossing and turning restlessly in bed, I thought, “I must find Sister Yang, whom I have blacklisted. If I can find her, I would definitely be able to find Brother Zhang from The Church of Almighty God.” I recalled that Sister Yang is someone who truly believes in God. All along, she has investigated the work of Almighty God in the last days. Right now, she should have already understood a lot. I want to know how her investigation is coming along. Through the help of some friends, two days later, with difficulty, I found Sister Yang’s Facebook account. I was glad that she was not angry at me for blocking her. After I contacted her, she told me that she had already investigated things quite clearly. Almighty God is the return of Jesus. She also happily connected me with Brother Zhang. Through the Internet, I contacted Brother Zhang and Sister Yang. I said, “After this period of experience, I can see that the Lord is guiding me. I am also willing to seek and investigate the work of Almighty God of the last days. However, I have many questions to ask you two. The thing I do not understand the most is that Jesus incarnated as a man to do His work. However, today, why can Jesus incarnate as a woman to do the work? This is a mystery. Brother Zhang, can you explain this to me?” In response to my question, Brother Zhang replied, “Yes. Within God’s incarnation, there is a mystery. The meaning of His incarnation is great and it is deep. It is also something that we cannot fathom. Therefore, we must have a heart of reverence in regard to the return of the Lord. Even if God’s work is not in accordance with our notions at all, we must watch our tongues. We must not judge it without thinking the matter through. Seriously speaking, arbitrarily judging God’s work is blaspheming against God. The sin of blaspheming God cannot be pardoned in this life or the next. Almighty God of the last days has come and opened up all the mysteries. This is exactly fulfilling Jesus’ prophecies: ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (Jhn 16:12-13). If we read the words of Almighty God together, we will be able to understand this aspect of the truth. Almighty God said: ‘Back then, when Jesus came, He was male, but this time He is female. From this, you can see that God created both male and female for the sake of His work, and with Him there is no distinction of gender. When His Spirit comes, He can take on any kind of flesh at will and that flesh can represent Him. Whether male or female, it can represent God as long as it is His incarnate flesh. If Jesus had appeared as a female when He came, in other words, if an infant girl, and not a boy, had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, that stage of work would have been completed all the same. If such had been the case, then the present stage of work would have to be completed by a male instead, but the work would be completed all the same. The work done in either stage is equally significant; neither stage of work is repeated nor conflicts with the other. At the time, Jesus in doing His work was called the only Son, and “Son” implies the male gender. Then why is the only Son not mentioned in this stage? This is because the requirements of the work have necessitated a change in gender different from that of Jesus. With God there is no distinction of gender. He does His work as He wishes and in doing His work He is not subject to any restrictions, but is especially free. However, every stage of work has its own practical significance. … In the beginning, when Jehovah created mankind, He made two kinds of human being, both male and female; and so His incarnate flesh was also differentiated into either male or female. He did not decide upon His work on the basis of the words He spoke to Adam and Eve. The two times He became flesh were determined entirely according to His thinking at the time He first created mankind, that is, He completed the work of His two incarnations based on the male and the female before they had been corrupted’ (‘The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘In gender, one is male and the other female; in this the meaning of God’s incarnation has been completed. It dispels man’s misconceptions of God: God can become both male and female, and the incarnate God is in essence genderless. God made both man and woman, and He does not differentiate between the genders’” (“The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After we finished reading God’s words, Brother Zhang said, “Whatever God does has meaning. God absolutely does not get involved with matters that do not have meaning or value. The Bible says: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them’ (Gen 1:27). From this we can see, in the beginning, He created man and woman in His image. The reason He chose to embody different genders the two times He was incarnated is to make whole the meaning of His creation of man and woman. At the same time, by doing so, He dispels man’s fallacious belief that God can only incarnate as a man and that He cannot incarnate as a woman. This allows man to acknowledge that not only could God’s incarnation embody the identity of a man, but it could also embody the identity of a woman. This allows man to see that God is indeed almighty, that man is unable to fathom it and he should not arbitrarily judge or define God. Additionally, God’s essence is spirit. Spirits are not differentiated into sexes. Sex only applies to created mankind. In order to save and redeem mankind, God incarnated Himself twice. Therefore, the sex of God’s incarnation is only dependent on the period of time in which He does His work. Once the incarnated God’s work on earth concludes, God will return to the spiritual world. At that time, He will no longer be differentiated by sex. Therefore, if we confine God to a certain sex, it is a great blasphemy against God! …” After listening to the words of Almighty God and Brother Zhang’s fellowship, I had a sudden flash of insight. Finally, I understood the reason why God took on a different sex the two times that He was incarnated. As it turns out, this embodies the will that God had when He first created man and it also embodies God’s kind intentions. If God embodied a man the two times He was incarnated to do work, we would have believed that God is eternally a man and we would fallaciously believe that the male sex is greater and has higher status than the female sex. God incarnate of the last days working as a woman embodies God’s impartiality and righteousness and it lets me see that God’s incarnation this time working as a woman is very meaningful! Otherwise, I would never know God and my notions and definition about God would never have been eliminated. Furthermore, due to my defining God, I would have offended God’s disposition. The first time that God was incarnated, He embodied the identity of a man. In the last days, God’s incarnation embodied the identity of a woman. From these two times of God’s incarnation, it can be seen that these two instances indeed make whole the meaning of God’s incarnation. It allows me to have a more accurate and a more genuine understanding of God. Thank God! God’s work is truly wise! After Sister Yang and Brother Zhang listened to my understanding and knowledge of God’s words, they were happy that I was able to understand God’s will and that I had eliminated my notions and misunderstandings about God. They were so moved by the salvation work that God had done upon me that they cried. Afterward, we had fellowship three more times. Thanks to God’s guidance, I understood more and more of the truth, I learned about the mystery of God’s incarnation and I learned about the mystery of God’s three stages of work. I learned of the differences between God’s work and man’s work, the differences between the Holy Spirit’s work and Satan’s work and other such aspects of the truth. I could truly feel that Almighty God is the return of Jesus and that He is the truth, the way and the life. On Saturday night, Sister Yang sent me a new MV called Love the Practical God With All Our Heart, “God’s will has been revealed—to perfect the true lovers of God. Lively and innocent people all offer up praises to God, and dance beautiful dances around the true God together. People are called back by God’s voice from different places. Words of life are bestowed upon us. We are purified by the judgment of God’s words. …” After I listened to this song, I was very encouraged, and I cried tears full of emotion. I called Sister Yang’s telephone, but I was so emotional that I could not speak. All I could do was repeatedly say one sentence: “Thank God! Thank you….” After my emotions subsided, that night, I had a very heartfelt conversation with my brother and sister. I was thankful that Almighty God did not give up on my salvation all this time and that He did not treat me based on my resistance and contradiction. Instead, He was with me all this time. He used gospel movies or videos and my brothers’ and sisters’ experience articles to guide and move me bit by bit, and brought me back to His family and before Him. From the bottom of my heart, I told my brother and sister: “I have already experienced God’s love. I also understand the truth of God’s incarnation. I no longer believe hearsay and rumors. I completely accept Almighty God as my Savior and as my God. Since I have already determined that Almighty God is the return of Jesus, He is a God that has provided me with a lot of grace and He is the Redeemer of mankind.” I recalled the past when I listened to rumors, was full of conflict in regard to the work of God in the last days and said some words of judgment against God. I was so rebellious! My heart felt very indebted to God and I was remorseful and grieved. However, Sister Yang told me: “During circumstances when someone does not know God, it is very easy for them to be deceived by lies. As long as we truly repent, God will not remember. God’s word says, ‘God did not come this time to strike people down, but rather to save people to the greatest extent possible. Who is entirely free from errors? If everyone is struck down, then how could it be called salvation? Some transgressions are done on purpose and other transgressions are done involuntarily. With involuntary matters, you can change after you recognize them, so would God strike you down before you change? Is this how God saves people? It is not like that! Regardless of whether you transgress involuntarily or out of a rebellious nature, just remember: Hurry and wake up to reality. Press onward; no matter what situation arises, you must press onward. God is working to save people and He will not randomly strike the people He wants to save’” (“God’s Will Is to Save People to the Greatest Extent Possible” in Records of Christ’s Talks). God’s words have given me great comfort and they have allowed me to see that God is full of mercy and forgiveness. God’s love is great! Within my heart, I cannot help but be grateful to God. Afterward, I got into contact with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God. I could see that The Church of Almighty God was not at all what the rumors purported it to be. In fact, it was completely opposite. This was the place where we can pursue the truth and know God. When we had gatherings in The Church of Almighty God, nobody talked about a life of pleasure. Nobody talked about cars, money or houses. Nobody talked about the dirty and filthy evil in the world. Everybody read Almighty God’s word together and we communicated our experience and knowledge of God’s words. We practiced adhering to Almighty God’s words. I can see that God’s word, the truth, and Christ are completely in power within The Church of Almighty God. This place is filled with equality and righteousness. It is like I had a taste in advance of a beautiful life in a new heaven and earth! At this time, when I recall those rumors, I realize that they simply trap and harm people. Due to those rumors, I almost lost God’s salvation of the last days. Thankfully, Almighty God saved me and helped me have an understanding of God’s work. My spirit was awakened, I broke through the net of Satan’s rumors and I came before the throne of God. I am thankful to God for saving me. All the glory be to Almighty God! source: The Awakening of a Deceived Spirit (Part 2) in Spiritual Battles |
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