......No matter how firmly you believe in His existence, this cannot take the place of your knowledge of God, nor of your reverence for God. No matter how much you have enjoyed of His blessings and His grace, this cannot take the place of your knowledge of God. No matter how willing and eager you are to consecrate your all and expend your all for His sake, this cannot take the place of your knowledge of God. Perhaps you have grown so familiar with the words He has spoken, or you even know them by heart and can rattle them off backward, but this cannot take the place of your knowledge of God. However intent man may be on following God, if he has never had genuine communion with God, or had a genuine experience of God’s words, then his knowledge of God would be no more than a sheer blank or an endless reverie; for all that you may have “brushed shoulders” with God in passing, or met Him face to face, your knowledge of God would still be zero, and your reverence for God no more than an empty catchword or an ideal. Many people hold up God’s words to read day by day, even to the point of carefully committing to memory all the classic passages therein as their most prized possession, and moreover preach God’s words everywhere, supplying and aiding others by means of His words. They think that to do this is to bear witness to God, to bear witness to His words, that to do this is to follow God’s way; they think that to do this is to live by God’s words, that to do this is to bring His words into their actual lives, that doing this will enable them to receive God’s commendation, and to be saved and perfected. But, even as they preach the words of God, they never comply with God’s words in practice, or try to bring themselves in line with what is revealed in God’s words. Rather, they use God’s words to gain the adoration and trust of others by trickery, to enter into management on their own, and to embezzle and steal God’s glory. They hope, vainly, to use the opportunity afforded by spreading God’s words to be awarded God’s working and His commendation. How many years have gone by, but not only have these people been incapable of earning God’s commendation in the process of preaching God’s words, and not only have they been incapable of discovering the way that they should follow in the process of bearing witness to God’s words, and not only have they not aided or supplied themselves in the process of supplying and aiding others by means of God’s words, and not only have they been incapable of knowing God, or awakening in themselves genuine reverence for God, in the process of doing all these things; but, on the contrary, their misunderstandings about God grow ever deeper, their mistrust of Him ever graver, and their imaginings about Him ever more hyperbolic. Supplied and guided by their theories about God’s words, they appear as if completely in their element, as if plying their skills with effortless ease, as if they have found their purpose in life, their mission, and as if they have won new life and been saved, as if, with God’s words rolling crisply off the tongue in recital, they have gained access to the truth, grasped God’s intentions, and discovered the path to knowing God, as if, in the process of preaching God’s words, they often come face to face with God. Also, they are often “moved” to bouts of weeping, and, often led by the “God” in God’s words, they appear to be ceaselessly grasping at His earnest solicitude and kind intention, and at the same time to have grasped God’s salvation of man and His management, to have come to know His essence, and to have understood His righteous disposition. Based on this foundation, they seem to believe even more firmly in God’s existence, to be more cognizant of His exalted state, and to feel even more deeply His grandeur and transcendence. Steeped in the superficial knowledge of God’s words, it would appear that their faith has grown, their resolve to endure suffering has strengthened, and their knowledge of God has deepened. Little do they know that, until they actually experience God’s words, all their knowledge of God and their ideas about Him come out of their own wishful imagination and conjecture. Their faith would not hold up under any kind of test from God, their so-called spirituality and stature would simply not hold up under God’s trial or inspection, their resolution is but a castle built upon the sand, and their so-called knowledge of God too no more than a figment of their imagination. In fact, these people, who have, as it were, put a lot of effort into God’s words, have never ever realized what is real faith, what is real submission, what is real caring, or what is real knowledge of God. They take theory, imagination, knowledge, gift, tradition, superstition, and even the moral values of humanity, and make them into “investment capital” and “military arms” for believing in God and pursuing Him, even making them into the foundations of their belief in God and their pursuit of Him. At the same time, they also take this capital and weaponry and make them into a magic talisman for knowing God, for meeting and contending with God’s inspection, trial, chastisement, and judgment. In the end, what they garner still consists of nothing more than conclusions about God that are steeped in religious connotation, in feudal superstition, and in all that is romantic, grotesque, and enigmatic, and their way of knowing and defining God is stamped in the same mold as that of people who believe only in Heaven Above, or the Old Man in the Sky, while God’s realness, His essence, His disposition, His possessions and being, and so forth—all that has to do with the real God Himself—are things that their knowing has failed to grasp, is completely irrelevant to and even poles apart from. In this way, although they live under the provision and nourishment of God’s words, they are nevertheless unable truly to tread the path of fearing God and shunning evil. The true reason for this is that they have never become acquainted with God, neither have they ever had genuine contact or communion with Him, and so it is impossible for them to arrive at mutual understanding with God, or to awaken in themselves genuine belief in, pursuit of, or worship for God. That they should thus regard God’s words, that they should thus regard God—this perspective and attitude has doomed them to return empty-handed from their endeavors, has doomed them never in all eternity to be able to tread the path of fearing God and shunning evil. The goal for which they are aiming, and the direction in which they are going, signifies that they are God’s enemies through eternity, and that through eternity they will never be able to receive salvation. If, in the case of a man who has followed God for many years and enjoyed the provision of His words for many years, his definition of God be, in its essence, the same as that of someone who prostrates himself in homage before idols, then this would signify that this man has not attained to the reality of God’s words. This is because he has simply not entered into the reality of God’s words, and for this reason the reality, the truth, the intentions, and the demands upon humanity, all of which inhere in God’s words, have nothing whatsoever to do with him. That is to say, no matter how hard such a man may work on the surface meaning of God’s words, all is futile: Because what he pursues is mere words, what he gets will also of necessity be mere words. Whether the words spoken by God are, in outward appearance, plain or abstruse, they are all truths indispensable to man as he enters into life; they are the fount of living waters that enables him to survive in both spirit and flesh. They provide what man needs to stay alive; the dogma and creed for conducting his daily life; the path, goal, and direction through which he must pass in order to receive salvation; every truth that he should possess as a created being before God; and every truth about how man obeys and worships God. They are the guarantee that ensures man’s survival, they are man’s daily bread, and they are also the sturdy support that enables man to be strong and stand up. They are rich in the reality of the truth of normal humanity as it is lived out by created mankind, rich in the truth by which mankind breaks free from corruption and eludes Satan’s snares, rich in the tireless teaching, exhortation, encouragement, and solace that the Creator gives to created humanity. They are the beacon that guides and enlightens men to understand all that is positive, the guarantee which ensures that men will live out and come into possession of all that is righteous and good, the criterion by which people, events, and objects are all measured, and also the navigation marker that leads men toward salvation and the path of light. Only in the real experience of God’s words is man supplied with the truth and with life; only herein does he come to understand what is normal humanity, what is a meaningful life, what is a genuine created being, what is real obedience to God; only herein does he come to understand how he should care for God, how to fulfill the duty of a created being, and how to possess the likeness of a real man; only herein does he come to understand what is meant by genuine faith and genuine worship; only herein does he understand who is the Ruler of the heavens and earth and all things; only herein does he come to understand the means by which the One who is the Master of all creation rules over, leads, and provides for creation; and only herein does he come to understand and grasp the means by which the One who is the Master of all creation exists, becomes manifest, and works…. Separated from the real experience of God’s words, man has no real knowledge of or insight into God’s words and the truth. Such a man is a downright living corpse, a consummate shell, and all knowledge relating to the Creator has nothing whatsoever to do with him. In God’s eyes, such a man has never believed in Him, nor has he ever followed Him, and so God recognizes him neither as His believer nor as His follower, even less as a genuine created being. source: Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh related suggestion: About the Church of Almighty God Eastern Lightning
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