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.

Satan’s Books Can Poison Us

Peihe    Xianning City, Hubei Province

I always believed that my husband and I passed our lives “with our faces to the soil and our backs to the sun” because we didn’t study enough when we were young, and because we had no knowledge. That’s why I decided that no matter how hard or how much I had to suffer, I would send my sons and daughters to school so that they could accomplish something, and wouldn’t have to follow in our footsteps. With that guiding us, my husband and I ate and dressed simply and squeezed every penny to send our oldest daughter to technical school and our oldest son to university. But we still had two more children, so to send them to university, my husband had to leave home to work for years at a time, and I wasn’t either idle; I tended the fields and the pigs at home from dawn to dusk. Whenever the farm work got too exhausting, I wished I could simply stop. But at the thought of how competitive society is today, how if I didn’t send my children to school, they would only have a future working in the mud like me, how they would never achieve anything and be looked down upon, and that only by testing into university could they find a good job or become an official, achieve something, gain a future for themselves, and gain glory for us, the pain and exhaustion I suffered seemed worth it. And so, every day when I woke up, I kept myself so busy with my work that often I had no time to eat and drink of God’s words or for a normal spiritual life, and even less time for a normal life at church or to perform my duties, but I thought nothing of it, and continued to work myself to the bone for my children … until recently, when I heard these words from God’s fellowship: “People all hope that their children can be successful. Everyone hopes their children can go to a famous university, then take up advanced studies, earn a degree, and afterward stand out among others and gain a firm foothold in society. People all have this viewpoint and all want their children to pursue higher education because of the saying: ‘The worth of other pursuits is small, the study of books excels them all.’ Furthermore, competition in this modern society is especially intense. If they don’t have a university degree or have a firm foothold in society, making a living becomes a problem in the future. This is everybody’s thinking and point of view. … But did you think about, after they accept such education, how many toxins and how many of Satan’s ideas and theories will be instilled in them? … 

A Brief Talk About the Source of the World’s Darkness and Evil

Yang Le    Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

When I was still at school, my father grew sick and passed away. After he died, uncles on both sides of the family who had often been helped by my father not only did not take care of us—my mother who had no source of income, my two sisters and I—but, on the contrary, did everything they could to make a profit off of us, even fighting with us for the little legacy my father had left behind. In the face of my relatives’ indifference and all the things they did that I never could have expected, I felt such extreme pain and couldn’t help but hate the utter lack of conscience and the heartlessness that these relatives displayed, at the same time also gaining a sense of the fickleness of human nature. After that, whenever I saw some occurrence in society of family members fighting each other over money, or people robbing and murdering over money, I would often lament that the world today was too full of darkness, that people’s hearts really were sinister and the world really was too fickle. At that time, I thought the reason why the world was so full of darkness was because people today had turned bad, that they no longer had any conscience and that there were too many evil people in the world. Afterward, only through eating and drinking the words of God did I realize that what I had thought had only just scratched the surface, and was not the source of the world’s darkness and evil. From God’s words I saw clearly the real source of darkness and evil in the world.

God’s words say: “Before he was corrupted by Satan, man naturally followed God and obeyed His words. He was naturally of sound sense and conscience, and of normal humanity. After being corrupted by Satan, his original sense, conscience, and humanity grew dull and were impaired by Satan. Thus, he has lost his obedience and love toward God. Man’s sense has become aberrant, his disposition has become the same as that of an animal, and his rebelliousness toward God is ever more frequent and grievous. Yet man still neither knows nor recognizes this, and merely blindly opposes and rebels” (“To Have an Unchanged Disposition Is to Be in Enmity to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Knowledge of several thousand years of ancient culture and history has closed off the thinking and concepts and mental outlook of man so tightly as to be impenetrable and nondegradable. … Feudal ethics have taken the life of man into ‘Hades,’ so that man has even less ability to resist. Various kinds of oppression forced man to gradually fall deeper into Hades…. Knowledge of ancient culture has quietly stolen man from the presence of God and turned man over to the king of devils and its sons. The Four Books and Five Classics have taken the thinking and concepts of man into another age of rebellion, causing man to further worship those who wrote the Books and Classics, furthering their notions of God. The king of devils heartlessly cast out God from the heart of man without their awareness, while it gleefully took over the heart of man. From then on, man was possessed of an ugly and wicked soul with the face of the king of devils. A hatred of God filled their chests, and the maliciousness of the king of devils spread within man day by day…. This gang of accomplices! They come down among the mortals to indulge in pleasures and stir up disorder. Their disturbance causes fickleness in the world[a] and brings panic in the heart of man, and they have distorted man so that man resembles beasts of unbearable ugliness, no longer possessing the slightest trace of the original holy man” (“Work and Entry (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From these words of God I understood that the mankind God had created in the beginning was originally obedient to God, they worshiped Him, had the conscience and reason of normal humanity, and they had not been defiled, nor had they committed any evil. After mankind had been corrupted by Satan, sin began to be man’s constant companion. Over several thousand years, Satan has continually harassed and corrupted man. It instills reactionary thoughts and theories into man, so that man lives in reliance on its poison, resulting in mankind becoming ever more corrupt and depraved, and the world ever more dark and evil. Phrases such as “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” “Why get up early if there’s nothing in it for me?” “A man dies for money; a bird dies for food,” “As a small mind makes no gentleman, a real man is not without venom,” “Seize the day for pleasure, for life is short,” “There has never been any Savior” and “There is no God on earth whatsoever” are all poisons instilled in man by Satan. These things become people’s lives and become their rules for life, so that no one believes in the existence of God anymore, no one worships Heaven anymore, and no one listens to reason or their conscience anymore. There is no longer any place for God in man’s heart, no longer any restrictions from the laws and regulations that came from God. Man has all been poisoned and controlled by Satan, so that man has become ever more treacherous, selfish, contemptible, greedy, arrogant, ever more evil and debauched, unrestrained, ever more lawless, godless and perverse. They have become the demon embodiment of a man devoid of conscience, of morality, of human nature, and of one where maliciousness comes as second nature. In particular, “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost” is a lethal poison that Satan plants in man, and this was most evident with my uncles. Man lives only for the sake of their own self-interests, placing profit above everything else, thinking “Why get up early if there’s nothing in it for me?” To obtain more and greater interests, man can do any evil or wicked thing, make any shameless, contemptible or low-down shady deal. There is no true love or affection between people—it is all cheating, using and harming each other. That members of the same family can fall out with each other and become enemies, fighting each other for money and interests. Then even more so, relations and friends forget all moral principles for the sake of profit; they may look human, but they have the hearts of beasts. … That man can do these evil things is all because they have been poisoned by Satan’s “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” and are under its domination. It can be seen that the source of man’s evil deeds is the poison of Satan, and that this is the source of the darkness in the world.

In the many phenomena that we live amongst, we can see most easily the darkness of the world. We can say that the people who lead world trends nowadays are all the embodiment of Satan. Particularly, those who hold power and authority are the princes of the devils, and among these the great red dragon is the darkest and most evil power. Ever since the great red dragon took power, it has used the power in its hands to do its utmost to corrupt man, corrupting them so that they become devils in human forms, so that man no longer resembles man. The great red dragon reveres violence and advocates revolution. It uses violence to seize power and uses violence to govern the nation. Those who live under its domain also enjoy violence and consistently use force to resolve every issue, often coming to blows over the smallest matter. There are ever more cases of robberies and murders that make people’s blood boil, and the ways in which people are murdered are also ever more cruel and odious. These are all facts that are there for all to see. The great red dragon guides its people to “develop the economy,” and reveres sayings such as “Doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice,” “Prostitution is better than poverty,” “Money makes the world go round,” “One can be without anything but money” and “Money can do anything.” With its powerful advocacy of such things, people esteem money and power, whoever has the money and the power can prosper, and whoever has no money and no power can only be oppressed and swallow all grievances, with the result that people’s hearts are filled only with money. For money, the ties of kinship are forgotten; for money and power they can take and offer bribes, buy and sell officials, rob, defraud, kill people and take their possessions, fight and kill each other—it can be said they will use any means necessary. What’s more, prostitution is ubiquitous in today’s society and the places for whoring and drugs can be seen everywhere. Sexual bribes and sexual transactions are in vogue and people adhere to evil, esteem evil, not thinking it is shameful, but instead thinking it is glorious. These are also the results of developing the economy, making the relationship between people a relationship of money. The great red dragon uses this to corrupt people’s morals and make them devoid of conscience. The darkest, most reactionary aspect of this is that the great red dragon does not acknowledge that there is a God, but instead propagates atheism so that people deny God, deny His sovereignty, abandon the real God and worship Satan. Those who live under the great red dragon’s deception and disinformation do not believe there is a God and do not worship the real God, but instead follow Satan, esteem evil, and are removed from righteousness so that they are ever more corrupt and depraved. … Now I can see ever more clearly that because of this “model” of the great red dragon, man became so corrupted and evil, with no conscience, no humanity. The root of all this ruin lies entirely with the great red dragon. The arch-criminal that created the evil in man’s hearts, the corrupt morals and fickleness of the world in society today is the great red dragon; that the great red dragon took power is the root cause of all the world’s darkness and evil. If the great red dragon took power for just one day, if Satan is not one day annihilated, then mankind would not be able to live in the light and the world would never again know peace.

After seeing the darkness and evil of the great red dragon and how it corrupts and tramples people underfoot, I feel even more the holiness and beauty of Christ. Christ is the only light in this world of darkness, only Christ can save mankind and help them break away from this dark and evil place, and only when Christ takes power will light be brought to mankind. Because only God has an essence that is beautiful and good, only God is the origin of righteousness and light, God is the only symbol that cannot be overwhelmed or violated by all the darkness and evil, only God can change the old face of the entire world and bring light to earth, and only God can bring mankind to a wonderful destination. Apart from God, no one can perform this work and no one can defeat or annihilate Satan. Just like it says in God’s words: “In the vast world, countless changes have occurred, over and over. None are able to lead and guide this mankind except for He who rules over all things in the universe. There is no mighty one to labor or make preparations for this mankind, much less a person who is able to lead this mankind toward the destination of light and the liberation from earthly injustices” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “I want to correct the injustices of the human world. I will do My work personally throughout the entire world, forbidding Satan from harming My people again, forbidding the enemy from doing whatever they please again. I will become King on earth and move My throne there, making all the enemy fall to the ground and confess their crimes before Me” (“The Twenty-seventh Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I saw in God’s words His almightiness and His authority, saw that only God can save us who live under the domain of the great red dragon and who have been so trampled underfoot by it. Because of this my heart yearns all the more for Christ to take power, and for the great red dragon to soon meet its end.

I give thanks to the enlightenment of God’s words that allowed me to see the source of the darkness and evil in the world, that caused to arise in my heart a true loathing of the great red dragon, and that allowed me to understand that only Christ can lead man to break away from this dark place, to enter the light. Only by following Christ and worshiping Christ can man break away from Satan’s affliction. From today on, I wish to seek the truth and follow Christ’s lead, to accept God’s words and make them my life, to rid myself of all the great red dragon’s poisons, to cast off the control of the great red dragon’s influence, to utterly rebel against the great red dragon, and to reach God’s salvation and be perfected by God.

Footnotes:

a. “Fickleness in the world” indicates that if someone is rich and powerful, people curry favor with them, and if someone is penniless and without power, people ignore them. This phrase refers to the injustice of the world.

It is clearly written in the Bible that the Lord Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and all those who believe in the Lord also believe that the Lord Jesus is Christ and that He is the Son of God. And yet you testify that the incarnate Christ is the manifestation of God, that He is God Himself. Will you please tell us whether the incarnate Christ is really the Son of God, or God Himself?

Answer:

Is the incarnate Christ God Himself or God’s Son? This is really a problem most believers in the Lord do not understand. When the incarnate Lord Jesus came to do the work of redemption of mankind, God became the Son of man, appearing and doing work among men. He not only opened the Age of Grace, but also initiated a new age in which God came personally into the human world to live alongside man. With great adoration, the men who followed Him called the Lord Jesus as Christ, the Son of God. At that time, the Holy Spirit also bore witness to the fact that the Lord Jesus is the beloved Son of God, and the Lord Jesus called God of heaven Father. In this way, the notion of this Father-Son relationship was formed in the religious world. Now let’s think for a moment. Does God say anywhere in Genesis that He has a son? No. During the Age of Law, did Jehovah God ever say that He had a son? He did not! This proves that there is only one God, there is no Father-Son relationship to speak of. Now some people may ask: During the Age of Grace, why did the Lord Jesus say that He was God’s Son? Was the Lord Jesus Christ God’s Son or God Himself? You could say, this is a question that we believers have debated about throughout the ages. We sense the contradiction inherent in this issue, but we don’t know how to explain it. The Lord Jesus is God, but is also God’s Son, so is there also a God the Father? We are even less capable of explaining this issue. Over the past two millennia, there have been very few that recognized that the Lord Jesus Christ is God Himself, and is the appearance of God. Actually, there is a clear record of this in the Bible. In John 14:8, Philip asked of the Lord Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us.” At that time, how did the Lord Jesus respond to Philip? The Lord Jesus said to Philip: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake” (Jhn 14:9-11). Here, the Lord Jesus said very clearly, “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” As you can see, the Lord Jesus is the appearance of God Himself. The Lord Jesus did not say here that He and God have a Father-Son relationship. He just said, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me,” “I and my Father are one.” Now, according to the Lord Jesus’ words, can we not confirm that the Lord Jesus is God Himself, there is only one God and there is no “Father-Son relationship” to speak of?

Best Christian Song | "The Inner Meaning of the Work of Conquest"

Best Christian Song | "The Inner Meaning of the Work of Conquest"

The inner meaning of man’s conquest is to return to the Creator.

It is for man to turn his back on Satan and turn fully towards God.

This is man’s complete salvation. Arduous conquest is the final battle.

It is the last stage in God’s victorious plan.

Without this, no man is saved, no victory is gained against Satan,

no man enters a good destination.

Mankind suffers the influence of Satan.

Thus Satan’s defeat must come first to bring man’s salvation.

For all of God’s works are for the sake of man.

God’s Disposition Is Righteousness and, Even More, Love

January 31, 2015

Fang Xin, Beijing

August 15, 2012

Ever since 2007, when I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, although I have appeared on the surface to be very busy fulfilling my duties, I have not given my heart to God, and have often felt bound to the point of suffocation by trifling family issues. Every time I think about the fact that my daughter is already thirty years old, yet still hasn’t found a suitable partner, I complain to God; my son only cares about having a good time, and despite not earning any money, he spends profligately, so I complain; and my own old spouse goes to work, but his foreman doesn’t pay him—and I complain about this as well…. I complain left and right, and often misunderstand God. It seems as though God has been overly unfair to me. As a result, I have been living in darkness and suffering. However, I have not known that I should seek God, and have been profoundly ignorant of how dangerous my state is. I have merely struggled helplessly amidst my suffering. Nevertheless, God knows my state inside out. He uses unique methods to call out to me and save me, causing me to awaken from dream and escape Satan’s harm and affliction.

On August 1, 2012, it rained especially hard. The water level in the river rose rapidly, and had already gotten over the bridge. It was surging forward wave after wave, and the situation was extremely dire. As I was about to drive my electric scooter across the submerged bridge, my front tire had just reached it and I was thinking about mashing down the power to charge forward when, to my surprise, it turned out the water was too deep and the waves too high. Before I could react, my vehicle—with me on it—was swept away by the current. I was just about to shout, “Almighty God!” Before the words could escape my lips, however, water poured into my mouth, and I was gargling gulp after gulp of water. At the time I understood in my heart, and knew clearly in my mind, that this was my final destination. I was going to die here. The water continued to pour into my mouth, and I struggled to call out to God but was unable to. Suddenly, I had an opportunity. I looked up, my face breaking the surface, and in that moment I was finally able to shout out hoarsely, “Almighty God, save me!” Soon after, like a leaf in the current, I felt myself float up against a large tree. Immediately I reached my arms out, hugged the tree, and was able to stand up. At this time I felt especially excited. I couldn’t help but pray to God: “God! It was You who saved me. Not turning Your back on my filth and corruption, You plucked this life of mine from the verge of death and brought me back. I wish to give You my thanks and praise.”

“Seeing Is Believing” Is Not to Be Believed

March 5, 2015

Xiaowen    Zhengzhou City, Henan Province

Before, when I used to hear people commenting on something, they would often say “seeing is believing.” As time passed, I also took this as the basis for looking at things, and it was the same regarding God’s words. The result was that I ended up unable to believe in many of God’s words that had not been fulfilled. As my time spent believing in God increased, I saw God’s words in varying degrees of fulfillment, saw the facts of the accomplishments of God’s words and no longer doubted anything God said. I thought this was my having some understanding of God’s faithfulness, and that I was able to believe that everything God said was real.

But one day, when I read these words spoken by God, “without the salvation of God incarnate in the last days, then God would have long ago destroyed all mankind in hell,” I again couldn’t believe in it. I thought, if it had said “without the salvation of God incarnate in the last days, then all of corrupt humanity must be finally destroyed,” then I could completely believe in it, as I knew how crucial God incarnate is to us. But to say that without the salvation of God incarnate in the last days, then God would have long ago destroyed man in hell, I thought that this was just an interpretation. When I thought this, I felt very uneasy. I had to come before God to seek help and guidance: Oh God! I don’t want to have this approach to Your words and I hate that I am so crafty. I’ve followed You for so long and have seen many facts of the fulfillment of Your words, so how can I still be thinking this way? Oh God! I wish to believe every word You say and have a true belief in Your words. I wish for You to lead me into this reality!

The Persecution and Tribulation Made Me Love God More

The Persecution and Tribulation Made Me Love God More

January 19, 2015

Liu Zhen    Shandong Province

I’m Liu Zhen, aged 78 this year. I’m an ordinary Christian in the Church of Almighty God. Thank Almighty God for choosing me, a rural old woman looked down upon by the worldly people. Since I accepted the end-time work of Almighty God, I prayed and listened to the recital of God’s word every day and had meetings with the brothers and sisters. I felt very happy in my heart and lived in the happiness I had never had. As I was old and my legs were stiff, I couldn’t go out to have meetings. So the brothers and sisters came to my house to have meetings for my sake. Whether it was cold winter or hot summer, they never missed the meeting. Even if it was windy and snowed, they persisted in coming to visit and take care of me, an old woman. I was greatly moved by that. I saw that God’s love for man is so great! In my contact with the brothers and sisters, I saw that they were so different from the worldly people. What they lived out was forbearance and love. They all could open their hearts to each other and treat each other with sincerity, without barrier or distance, and being dear as family members. That made me become more certain about Almighty God’s work. As I understood more and more truths, I knew that man should perform the duty of a created being. So I told the church that I wanted to perform duty. But because I was old and couldn’t perform other duties, the church arranged for me to do hosting at home. I really thanked God for giving me according to what I could do. Before I began to do hosting, the brothers and sisters fellowshipped with me, saying, “There are principles for doing hosting in the church. Extravagance and waste in meals are forbidden. One principle is that everyone can eat his fill. We’ll just take pot luck and must not expend too much.” Since then, the brothers and sisters all had ordinary meals at my house. They ate what I ate at usual times and never asked for special treatment. And they often helped me do chores. Sometimes, I saw that the brothers and sisters worked very hard outside in performing duty, so I specially cooked some nice food for them. Then they fellowshipped with me that I should perform duty according to the principles. This made me truly see that the brothers and sisters in the church were really different from the worldly people. I got along very well with them and felt greatly released both physically and mentally. Also I gradually recovered from the former diseases. So I was more grateful to Almighty God for his grace and keeping for me.

However, good times didn’t last long. The brothers and sisters in the village and I were reported by a wicked person. The evil policemen arrested the brothers and sisters and asked the village secretary to send me to the police station as well. At the station, an evil policeman asked me, “How do you believe in God? Why do you believe in God?” I said, “In believing in God, we’re taught to be good, not hitting or scolding others or getting angry. It’s very good!” The evil policeman said with a sarcastic tone, “You won’t get angry when you get back!” At that time, I didn’t understand what he meant by saying that. He then asked, “Who preached the gospel to you? Is there anyone else in your family who also believes?” I said that in my family only I believed. Seeing that they couldn’t get anything out of me, they released me that very day. I wondered when I came out, “How could the evil policemen release me so easily?” Only when I got back home did I know that after I was taken to the police station, my family spent 3,000 yuan buying off someone, and so the evil policemen released me. My daughter-in-law had a big row with my son because of that, and she even threatened that she would drink pesticide to kill herself. Only then did I understand the meaning of the word that evil policeman said. The evil policemen were simply bad through and through! My harmonious family was thrown into chaos by them, yet they convicted me of “disturbing the social order.” They were simply talking nonsense and imposing a charge upon me willfully! The One we believe in is the only true God who created the heavens and the earth and all things. Today when Almighty God comes to save us, he requires us to live out the likeness of a man and not to speak or do things against Heaven or conscience or do things against humanity and morality. We won’t touch even a single needle or thread of others. How could we possibly disturb the social order? Satan is too hateful! It always venomously slanders others and frames good people. Since the evil policemen knew from the informer that I was doing hosting, they didn’t let up on me. Later, they called me to the police station to question me again, and they even threatened me, “Tell us your church leader and all the ones having meetings with you. Otherwise, we’ll put you into prison!” I said straight out, “What shall I say? I know nothing about it!” The evil policemen were fuming with rage, but thanks to God’s keeping, they didn’t dare to do anything to me and sent me back home.

English Christian Song | The Heart of God Is Good | "God Hopes That Mankind Can Continue to Live"

When humanity was filled with filth, disobeyed to an extent,

God had to destroy them due to His principles and essence.

God despised man, for they opposed Him.

But when He destroyed them, 

His heart was still unchanged, His mercy still remained.

God pitied mankind, wanting to redeem in various ways. 

But refusing God’s salvation, man continued to disobey.  

No matter how God called and warned, how He supplied and helped,

man did not understand, man did not appreciate.

Rise Up in the Dark Oppression

Rise Up in the Dark Oppression

January 19, 2015

Mo Zhijian    Guangdong Province

I was born in a poor remote mountain village. People there burned incense and worshiped Buddha for generations. Temples were everywhere, and each household burned incense. No one believed in God. In 1995, my wife and I believed in the Lord Jesus in another place. After returning home, we began to preach the gospel. Later, the number of the believers gradually increased to over one hundred. Because more and more people believed in God, the local government was alarmed. One day in 1997, the police asked me to go to the local police station. The director of the County Public Security Bureau, the director of the County Bureau for State Security, the director of the County Administration of Religious Affairs, the chief of the local police station, and some policemen had already been waiting there. The director of the County Public Security Bureau questioned me, “Why do you believe in God? Who do you get in touch with? Where do you get the Bibles? Why don’t you go to the church to have meetings?” I answered, “The constitution stipulates explicitly that the citizens enjoy freedom of belief. Why don’t you allow us to believe in God freely?” The director of the County Administration of Religious Affairs said, “There is a scope for the freedom of religious belief. It’s just like a bird in a cage. Although its wings and feet are not bound, it can only move around in the cage.” Hearing his fallacy, I was very indignant. I said angrily, “Then the government is deceiving the common people!” Hearing my word, they knew they were in the wrong, so they had nothing to say and could only let me go home. At that time I had no knowledge of the CCP government’s substance of persecuting people in believing in God. In 1999, I accepted Almighty God’s end-time work. Only through reading God’s word and experiencing the crueler persecution of the CCP government did I see clearly that it is exactly the embodiment of satan the evil spirit and is God’s enemy. It is just as the Bible says, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world.” (Revelation 12:9)

During an Experience I Saw the Protection of God

During an Experience I Saw the Protection of God

January 31, 2015

Yongxin, Yibin City, Sichuan Province

We had never believed in God before. In 2005, uplifted by God, my husband, my father-in-law, my uncle, and I all accepted God’s work of the last days. Before long, the church arranged for me to do the duty of safekeeping the books. Later, our house was in a fire, and during this fire we received God’s miraculous protection. God truly is almighty!

One day in March of 2006, after lunch around 1 p.m., it was snowing heavily outside. My husband, daughter and I were inside, warming ourselves by the fire and shelling corn, when we suddenly heard a voice from outside loudly yelling, “Your house is on fire! Quick, come outside and put it out!” We hastily ran outside, and saw that the fire had already burned the roof of the kitchen and pigsty. Three unbelievers helped us fight the fire, and shouted, “Come and help fight the fire!” Two neighboring villages heard our shouts, and immediately 30 or 40 people came to help us fight the fire. At that time, I heard someone say, “Doesn’t this family believe in God? How could a fire befall them? Now that their house is burned, see if they still believe in God.” At this time, I didn’t care what they were saying. I saw that the fire was becoming more fierce. A strong wind drove the raging flames directly toward the main part of our house. I was so anxious in my heart, because in the house were the church’s books and our family’s grain. In this moment of desperation, I could only call continuously to God: “O God! May You look after and protect the church’s books and our grain, do not let them be burned.” After I prayed, a miracle happened. The wind suddenly changed direction; only then did I become a little less anxious in my heart, as I knew that the things within our house were all protected. Upon hearing the people fighting the fire talking about how much money the things that were burned were worth, we suddenly remembered that there were two pigs in the sty. My husband raced to save them; no sooner had he gone in, when suddenly a burning chunk of debris fell and blocked the doorway. Upon seeing this my heart leapt into my throat, and I desperately cried out to God in my heart, begging Him to look after and protect my husband. The unbelievers all worried my husband was in great danger. However, as everyone looked on, my husband eventually emerged from the fire safe and sound, pushing along two pigs each weighing more than 50 kg. At this time, my heart finally became calm. The fire burned for about an hour or more, in total burning the kitchen and two pigsties, resulting in an approximate loss of more than four thousand yuan.

Realizing I’ve Been Walking the Path of the Pharisees

Realizing I’ve Been Walking the Path of the Pharisees

March 5, 2015

Wuxin    Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province

Something we have always discussed in previous communions is the paths walked by Peter and Paul. It is said that Peter paid attention to knowing himself and God, and was someone God approved, while Paul only paid attention to his work, reputation and status, and was someone God despised. I have always been afraid of walking Paul’s path, which is why I normally often read God’s words about Peter’s experiences to see how he came to know God. After living like this for a while, I felt I had become more obedient than before, my desire for reputation and status had dimmed, and that I had gotten to know myself a little. At this time, I believed that even though I was not completely on Peter’s path, it could be said that I had touched the edge of it, and at least it meant I was not heading down Paul’s path. However, I would be shamed by the revelations of God’s word.

One morning, when I was practicing spiritual devotions, I saw the following words of God: “Peter’s work was the performance of the duty of a creature of God. He did not work in the role of an apostle, but during the course of his pursuit of a love of God. The course of Paul’s work also contained his personal pursuit…. 

There were no personal experiences in his work—it was all for its own sake, and not carried out amid the pursuit of change. Everything in his work was a transaction, it contained none of the duty or submission of a creature of God. During the course of his work, there occurred no change in Paul’s old disposition. His work was merely of service to others, and was incapable of bringing about changes in his disposition. … Peter was different: He was someone who had undergone pruning, and had undergone dealing and refinement. The aim and motivation of the work of Peter were fundamentally different to those of Paul. Although Peter did not do a large amount of work, his disposition underwent many changes, and what he sought was the truth, and real change. His work was not carried out simply for the sake of the work itself” (“Success or Failure Depends on the Path That Man Walks” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words touched my soul and I fell silent: Peter was someone who fulfilled his duty as a created creature. He worked through his process of seeking to love God as opposed to his role as an apostle. But was I someone fulfilling his duty as a created creature or just doing my job as a worker? At this time, I thought back to various situations of the past: When the church had a lot of work to take care of, other brothers and sisters would say: You are truly burdened with God’s work. I would then blurt out: We leaders have no choice but to deal with it. Sometimes, at host families or in front of co-workers, I would want to be considerate to my physical body and relax myself, but then I would think: No, I’m a leader, I must live out a normal humanity and not be debaucherous. When I didn’t feel like eating and drinking the words of God, I would also think: As a leader, if I don’t eat and drink God’s words, then how would I be able to resolve other people’s problems? Sometimes I would go with a co-worker to the host family she was staying with, and when I saw that the way the host sister treated me was not as enthusiastic as she treated her, I would get upset: You might not know who I am, but I am her leader. Sometimes, for whatever reason, I would not feel like communicating to host brothers and sisters, but then I would think: As a leader, how would I be seen by people if I come but don’t communicate to them? Since I am a leader I should have to communicate to host families. … These various behaviors made me see: I was working because of status. Whether it was communicating to people, attending meetings, or handling general affairs, it was all only because I was a leader that I felt obligated to fulfill a bit of my duty and do a bit of work. I was not fulfilling my duty as a created creature, and moreover was not working through my process of loving God like Peter had. If things were to continue as before, when the day comes that I am dismissed and replaced, I perhaps would not keep fulfilling my duty the way I do now. It was only then that I saw that I was not a person who practiced the truth or was considerate to God’s will. Instead, I was a despicable villain who only worked for reputation and status. It is impossible to have loyalty toward God working the way that I had because it was merely perfunctory. I was not willingly practicing the truth and being considerate to God’s will, because “it was all for its own sake, and not carried out amid the pursuit of change.” How could such service possibly satisfy God’s will? Paul was working in his position as an apostle; his work was full of transactions. I was working and expending in my position as a leader. How are such intentions and purposes for believing in God any different to Paul’s?

At this point, I fell down before God: Oh God! Thank You for timely salvation, which made me up from my stupor, realize my real situation, and see that I was still walking the path of Paul the Pharisee. My work and the fulfilling of my duty was exactly the same as the Pharisees, which must have disgusted You. Oh, Almighty God! I am willing to turn around my wrong intentions and conceptions under the guidance of Your word. I am willing to fulfill my duty as a created creature and follow the example of Peter in doing what I ought to be doing through the process of loving God, no longer working in the position of my role as a leader, and do my utmost to seek and move forward toward Peter’s path!

A Revelation of the Holy Spirit | "God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together (Part One)"

A Revelation of the Holy Spirit | "God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together (Part One)" |Eastern Lightning

Almighty God says, "As man lacks rest, so does God. When God once again enters into rest, man will also enter into rest. The life in rest is one without war, without filth, without persisting unrighteousness. This is to say that it lacks Satan’s harassment (here “Satan” refers to hostile forces), Satan’s corruption, as well as the invasion of any force opposed to God.

Without God’s Salvation, I Would Not Be Here Today

Without God’s Salvation, I Would Not Be Here Today

January 31, 2015

Zhang Jin, Beijing

August 16, 2012

I am an elder sister with two faulty legs. Even when the weather is nice out, I have some trouble walking, but when the floodwaters were about to swallow me up, God allowed me to miraculously escape danger.

It was July 21, 2012. That day a torrential rain fell, and I just happened to be out fulfilling my duty. After 4:00 p.m., the rain still hadn’t stopped. When our meeting was finished, I braved the rain and took a bus home. During the ride, it rained harder and harder, and when the bus got to the stop just before mine, the driver told all of us passengers, “This bus can’t go any further; the road has collapsed up ahead.” There was nothing that could be done, so I had no choice but to get off the bus and walk the rest of the way. Not daring to leave God, I was continuously praying in my heart. Due to the force of the deluge, the water had completely swallowed up the road. I tried to proceed by holding onto the cement pillars lining the road, making my way forward one step at a time. Just then, I heard someone shouting behind me, “Stop moving forward! Quick; turn around and come back! You can’t get through; that water is deep and the current is too fast. If it washes you away, I won’t be able to save you!” By then, however, I could neither go forward nor retreat, because the water was already up to my chest. I did not dare to go any further, so all I could do was pray to God and implore Him to open up a way out for me: “God! You have permitted this environment to befall me, and whether I live or die is in Your hands now.

God’s Best Protection for Mankind

God’s Best Protection for Mankind

March 5, 2015

Kuiqian    Rizhao City, Shandong Province

My station in life, or status, was something I could never let go of, and when God created an environment that exposed me, I was only negative, complaining, and despairing. Only through refinement after refinement did I come to understand God’s good intentions, and that His testing of me was not to torment me. Rather, it was to cleanse me and make me perfect, to allow me to understand that believing in God for the sake of a station can only ruin me, thus allowing me to let go of improper views of pursuit, and to have a proper goal to pursue.

After some time of serving as a leader in the church, I was promoted to be a district leader’s partner. Before long, I was promoted again and entrusted with being a district leader. This linear “rise” made me work even harder to perform my duty, looking forward to the day that even more would be entrusted to me. This hope became the impetus for my pursuits. However, just as I was dreaming of my step-by-step “ascent,” I was replaced! At the time I was crushed—I felt that I had lost my station and my path of faith in God had come to its end. I was in pain to the point that I considered leaving the church. I even thought about dying. Later, through enlightenment from God’s words, I gradually came out of that negativity. His words were: “When the mountains move, could they make a detour for the sake of your station? When the waters flow, could they cease before your station? Could the heavens and the earth be reversed by your station?” (“The Twenty-second Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). At the time, although I realized that my desire for status was too strong and that faith in God should not be a pursuit of status, I didn’t have any real understanding of myself, and I thought to myself: I won’t pursue status anymore; no matter what duties are arranged for me, I’ll obey and that’s it. Later, the church arranged for me to preach the gospel and to look after new believers. I accepted all of this. So, I believed that I had let go of my desire for status.

Christian English Movie "Salvation" | What Is Being Saved? What Is True Salvation?

What is salvation? Those who believe in the Lord Jesus think that if they sincerely pray to the Lord, confess their sins, and repent, their sins will be forgiven, and they will be granted salvation, and when the Lord comes, they will be directly raised into the kingdom of heaven. But is salvation really that simple?

The hero of the film, Xu Zhiqian, has believed in God for many years, passionately expends for God, and forsook everything to perform his duties. For this, he was arrested and tortured by the Chinese Communist Party. After he was released from prison, he continued to perform his duties, gained some practical experience, and his sermons and work resolved some practical problems for his brothers and sisters.