Testimonies of Being Guided by the Holy Spirit Turn Toward Almighty God

III. Typical Testimonies Given by Some Christians and Catholics in Mainland China Who Turned to Almighty God Because of Seeing Signs and Wonders

7. Xia XX, female, aged 34, from Shandong Province, formerly a junior leader from the Hua Xuehe sect. On January 13, 2003, I accepted Almighty God’s end-time work, but I always had notions about God’s being incarnated as a female. At about 8:40 a.m. on February 8, my son was watching an animated cartoon broadcast by Shandong TV station, and I also stood in front of the TV set, thinking, “How nice it would be if God’s work could be broadcast on TV!” Right at that moment, a miracle occurred: The TV screen suddenly changed from color to black and white, and the animated cartoon disappeared. A man of over 30 appeared on the screen. He, standing in midair, said majestically, “I am Almighty God. I can become a male and can also become a female. When I came the first time, I was a male; when I come this time, I am a female.” After saying that, he suddenly disappeared. Immediately afterward, a lady of some 30 appeared on the screen, whose long black hair was blowing in the wind. She said, “This time, I do my work by my word and save all mankind by my word. I am the Almighty who was, and who is, and who is to come….” At that time, I immediately called my second elder sister and told her this exceptionally good news. She hastened to ask which TV station it was on. When I turned my head and looked, the TV had returned to normal. The whole thing lasted about one minute. I really thank God for solving my notions through such a miracle so that I became certain about God’s new work.

Testimonies of Being Guided by the Holy Spirit to Turn Toward Almighty God

III. Typical Testimonies Given by Some Christians and Catholics in Mainland China Who Turned to Almighty God Because of Seeing Signs and Wonders

1. Wang XX, female, aged 59, from Chongqing City, formerly a believer from the Disciples Association. One afternoon in early August 2002, about 2 o’clock, my husband and I were sunning the corn at home. Suddenly we saw a red tablet about one meter square appear in the eastern sky. On it appeared three characters for “Almighty God,” and they were golden. We both felt very surprised but did not understand what that meant. At that time, this scene attracted many villagers, who gathered round and watched it. They all talked about it. One of them said, “This is the God the people from Shizhu County (which was under the jurisdiction of Chongqing City and was about 6 kilometers away) believe in. So, this God is true. We’d better watch our tongues in the future….” The vision lasted over four hours and then disappeared gradually. Half a month later, such a spectacle appeared again in the same direction and at the same hour. This time what appeared was the Chinese pinyin for “Almighty God.” They were the same in color and size as those characters, and they lasted over four hours too. Not long afterward, someone came to preach Almighty God’s end-time gospel to me, and I accepted it gladly.

Testimonies of Being Guided by the Holy Spirit to Turn Toward Almighty God

II. Typical Testimonies of the Christians and Catholics in Mainland China Who Turned to Almighty God Because of Being Punished for Resisting Almighty God

1. Yao XX, female, aged 42, from Henan Province, formerly a co-worker in the Justification by Faith Church. In October 1998, someone preached God’s end-time work to me and gave me a book of God’s word. Without carefully examining it, I consulted with the brothers and sisters in my former church, saying, “There are too many denominations in the last days, and we should not accept any of them blindly.” So I returned the book of God’s word to the person who preached the gospel. Later, another person talked with me about God’s end-time work many times. However, I not only rejected it but spoke many blasphemous and slanderous words against it. In September 1999, my child had an unusual illness. Being treated in four hospitals cost several thousand yuan. Even so, I did not make self-examination. In January 2000, my husband suffered from sciatica and was confined to bed for over twenty days, but I still did not realize that it was God’s discipline. On July 8, 2000, I fell out of a tree and broke my lumbar vertebrae. It cost me quite a lot of money. Yet I was still not awakened. In September, someone brought me a booklet called Typical Cases of Punishment for Resisting Almighty God. After reading it, I thought of what I had done and the misfortunes that happened to my family, and realized that I had been punished for resisting God. Later, through investigation, I came to know that the one I resisted was the only God Godself. Thus I felt bitterly regretful and accepted God’s end-time work right away.

Testimonies of Being Guided by the Holy Spirit Turn Toward

I. Typical Testimonies of the Christians and Catholics in Mainland China Who Turned to Almighty God Because of Receiving Dreams and the Revelations of the Holy Spirit

1．Ji XX, female, aged 56, from Henan Province, formerly a leader in the Justification by Faith Church. Starting from 1996, some people preached God’s end-time work to me, but I never accepted it. At the end of 2000, God’s end-time salvation came to me again. Although I accepted it, I still had doubts about it in my heart. Not long afterward, several leaders from my former church came again to invite me to their meeting. I did not know how to choose, so I prayed to God and asked God to show me a way ahead. That night, I dreamed that I was walking in the street. Suddenly, I saw many monsters before me. They were in human clothes, but they had faces of tigers, leopards, wolves, insects, or the hanged men…. I was frightened and I darted into a hotel. A waiter came up to me, “You are back. You may have the same room you had before.” I entered the room and switched on the light immediately, but the light did not work. I cried out, “Waiter, why does the light not work?” “Oh, sorry, I forget to tell you that there has been no light in our hotel for a long time.” “Where is light?” I asked, puzzled. “Our general manager has long taken light to the new development zone and begun a new project.” “Did he take the usual path or a new one?” She said, “It is the new path he himself has opened up. Do you want to go there?” “Yes!” I had just finished my words when I heard a queer laugh from outside the door, “Ha-ha! There you are….” Greatly scared, I hurriedly pushed against the door with a table. Suddenly, I saw a big black hand reach in through the window. I hastened to cry out, “Lord Jesus! Help me! …” That monster laughed grimly, “Ha-ha! What an idiot! Today you still call the Lord Jesus. We’re not afraid!” I corrected myself in a hurry, “Almighty God! Help me! …” Then I heard the monster scream, “Run! She has called Almighty God!” Immediately, the big black hand disappeared. Then I woke up and found I was in a sweat…. I was fully awakened to the reality and became completely certain about God’s end-time work. And I brought back to the Church of Almighty God the four brothers and sisters who had given up God’s end-time work because of my disturbing.

Was the Lord Jesus God’s Son or God Himself?

Hello brothers and sisters of Testify God,

My name is Feifei. I’ve seen that all of you have some particular insight into the Scripture—this has been so helpful and edifying for me. Today, I’d like to ask everyone about something that’s perplexed me for years. As Christians, many of us have the notion that the Lord Jesus is God’s Son because there are a number of mentions in the Bible of “beloved Son” and “heavenly Father.” Just like it clearly states in Luke 3:22: “And a voice came from heaven, which said, You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” Plus in the Lord’s Prayer the Lord Jesus called God in heaven “Our Father which are in heaven.” The Lord Jesus Himself said that, and that’s what the Holy Spirit gave testimony to, so nearly everyone who follows the Lord Jesus thinks that He is God’s Son. But I’ve also seen a lot of places in the Bible where it says that God is the only one true God who created the heavens, the earth, and all things, that there is only one God. So then why would there be any mention of a Father and a Son? Isn’t that contradictory? So was the Lord Jesus the Son of God or was He God Himself? I really can’t figure this out, so I wanted to ask you in seeking.

Sincerely yours,

Feifei

I Have Learned to Get Along With My Mother-in-low in Harmony

By Shunfu, United States

I am a post-80s girl. When I was little, my neighbors all praised me for being obedient and sensible, saying I would be able to please my parents-in-law after I grew up and got married. I, too, always thought that good-tempered and easygoing, certainly I would not have any problems getting along with my mother-in-law. It was not until later, when I got married and lived together with my mother-in-law, that I deeply understood why others said that how to deal with the relationship between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law was a big problem.

Throwing off Shackles Is Liberating

By Momo, Anhui Province

I used to firmly believe in the saying, “Only by experiencing the hardest hardships can one rise above the ordinary,” thinking that it was a way of displaying motivation. Therefore, no matter what I was doing, I never wanted to fall behind. I was willing to accept any hardship as long as it meant I could rise above everyone else. After I accepted God, my attitude remained the same. But when God revealed the truth to me, I finally realized that this perspective is incorrect, and that it was Satan’s shackles that had bound and harmed me.

God’s Healing Power: After Her Husband Lost Consciousness

By Wu Min

Midday one day, Xiaomin’s husband had some drinks out after helping someone, and then got in bed for a nap after returning home. Seeing that he looked unwell, Xiaomin poured a glass of water for him. Her husband took a sip and went back to sleep. She felt certain that he had had a lot to drink and figured he’d be fine after sleeping for a little while, so she left to go to work.

How Can We Establish a Normal Relationship With God in a Busy Life?

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Grow in Christ:

I am a believer who has just accepted God’s work. Even though fellowship meetings and daily devotions are very important to a Christian, my demanding and tiring job robs all the time I have. I make good money but I always feel the emptiness and shame. How do I balance daily devotions and a hectic work life?

How I Resolved My Spiritual Emptiness

By Si Ming, South Korea

In the early morning, I sat at my small desk by the window, quietly watching the dance and song video The Happiness in the Good Land of Canaan. My heart soared with the melody and I smiled unconsciously. I truly felt the peace and sureness of coming before God.

I Fall Into Sin and Live in Emptiness and Pain

I came to South Korea a few years ago in order to make more money. After a period of hard work, I gradually began to live a more prosperous life, but in my heart I often felt empty and hollow. My friends would often invite me out to eat and drink alcohol, and to go to karaoke bars and the like to sing and dance. Often, we would get home late at night. At that time, popular sayings amongst us were “Seize the day for pleasure, for life is short,” “Get drunk today and worry about things tomorrow,” and “Take advantage of being young to eat, drink and be merry and enjoy our lives, as when we get old, we won’t be able to enjoy anything.” These sayings struck a chord with me and I thought that this must be how we should live our lives. Afterward, every time my friends got together and went out, they always asked me to go with them. It just so happened that I didn’t have anything to do after work and was bored anyway, so I always went with them. When we went somewhere to eat, we would eat and drink like a band of brothers, talking and laughing, and feeling very happy. After eating and drinking, we would go to karaoke bars and other places to sing and dance. After our feasting and revelry, I felt that being with such a big group of friends, talking, laughing, being together with them and having such great fun, was really great. Sometimes, they didn’t want to go out, but I did. In that kind of situation, any tiredness I felt from work, all my frustrations in life and anything I wasn’t happy about disappeared in an instant. Gradually, I came to believe that it was stupid not to eat, drink and be merry in life, and that this kind of life was the only one that brought joy and that lifted me above the drudgery. After work, I drank without inhibition almost every day, but afterward, in my free time, my heart would still feel empty and desolate. I couldn’t help but wonder: Why do people live? How can I fill the void in my spirit?

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?”

This Is How I Welcomed the Lord

Xiyue, Japan

When I was six years old my mother believed in the Lord Jesus, and she would often bring me to church gatherings. I slowly became aware of the fact that man was created by God, that if we are in trouble we should pray to God and rely on God, and that we should thank God for everything.

A Letter From a Recovered Cancer Patient to Her Sister

Little Sister:

Hello! I got your letter a few days ago and it made me really happy. We haven’t been in contact for a long time, so now that I know you’re all well and that you’re living the proper church life, my mind can rest easy. You asked why I hadn’t been in touch with you for such a long time; you must surely have been worried that something had happened to me, right? Actually, I’ve been going through a trial of illness during this time, and the doctor gave me a death sentence. But I miraculously survived under the guidance of God’s words, and now I’m completely fine. You probably want to know how God guided me through this trial of illness, don’t you? Let me take you through everything that’s happened.

One day in October, I discovered by chance a hard lump in my left breast. It didn’t hurt or itch, but it kind of threw me: I couldn’t possibly have breast cancer, could I? So straight away I consulted some relevant information, and found that the various symptoms of breast cancer were the same as what I was experiencing. I couldn’t help but feel anxious and scared: Do I really have cancer? Cancer is incurable, so I could go and spend money at the hospital and still not be cured…. The more I thought about it, the more afraid I became, and unconsciously a thought to blame God arose within me. I thought: “I’ve been following God for nearly 20 years, I’ve always done my duty in the church and I’m busy from dawn till dusk every day. I’ve even suffered being persecuted and the danger of being arrested by the Chinese government, and suffered being rejected and slandered by unbelievers and not being understood by my relatives and friends, and none of this has ever shaken my resolution to follow God. So how can I suddenly have cancer?” But then I thought: “Don’t think crazy thoughts. This illness that’s come upon me is God’s trial. God’s words have said: ‘Almighty God, the Head of all things, wields His kingly power from His throne. He rules over the universe and all things and He is guiding us on the whole earth. We shall often be close to Him, and come before Him in quietness; never shall we miss a single moment, and there are things to learn at all times. The environment around us as well as the people, matters and objects, all are permitted by His throne. Do not have a complaining heart, or God will not bestow His grace upon you. 

Service of This Kind Is Truly Contemptible

Ding Ning Heze City, Shandong Province

A few days ago, the church arranged a change in my duty. I felt a little puzzled: I worked hard here at my duty, so why suddenly change me onto another duty? But then I thought: “Seeing as the church has made this arrangement, I should submit to it.” When it came time to hand over my old duty, I thought, “I need to take this final opportunity to call a meeting with my brothers and sisters, fellowship about the truth, and leave them with a good impression.” Therefore, I met with several deacons, and at the close of our time together, I said, “I have been given a different duty to perform. I hope you will do the church work properly together with the new leader with one heart and one mind.” As soon as the sisters heard me say this, their smiles fell from their faces. Some of them grasped my hands, some of them embraced me, and weeping they said, “You cannot leave us! You cannot abandon us.” The host family sister was especially unwilling to let me go. She said to me, “It is so good that you are here with us. You are someone who can endure hardship, and you are good at fellowshiping about the truth. No matter when we needed you, you were always there to patiently help us. What will we do when you’re gone?” Seeing their reluctance to part from me, my heart was full of joy and satisfaction, and I comforted them with these words: “Depend more on God. When I can, I will come back and visit you.”

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.

A Youth Spent Without Regret

Xiaowen, Chongqing

“Love is a pure emotion, pure without a blemish. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. Love doesn’t set conditions or barriers or distance. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. If you love you don’t deceive, grumble, turn your back, look to get something in return” (“Pure Love Without Blemish” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). This hymn of God’s word once helped me get through the pain of a long and drawn-out life in prison that lasted 7 years and 4 months. Even though the CCP government deprived me of the most beautiful years of my youth, I have obtained the most precious and real truth from Almighty God and therefore have no complaints or regrets.

In 1996 I received God’s exaltation and accepted Almighty God’s salvation in the last days. Through reading God’s words and gathering in fellowship, I determined that all God has said is truth, which is in complete contrast to all the knowledge and theories of this evil world. Almighty God’s word is the highest maxim for life. What made me more excited was that I could be simple and open and freely talk about anything with the brothers and sisters. I didn’t have the slightest need to protect myself against second guessing or being outwitted by people when interacting with them. I felt a comfort and happiness I had never felt before; I really liked this family. However, it wasn’t long before I heard that the country didn’t permit people to believe in Almighty God. This matter made me feel at a complete loss, because His word allowed people to worship God and walk the correct path of life; it allowed people to be honest. If everyone believed in Almighty God, then the whole world would be at peace. I really didn’t understand: Believing in God was the most righteous undertaking; why did the CCP government want to persecute and oppose believing in Almighty God to the point that they would arrest His believers? I thought: No matter how the CCP government persecutes us or how big social public opinion is, I have determined that this is the correct path of life and I will certainly walk on it to the end!

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.

Finally I Live Out a Little Like a Human

Xiangwang Sichuan Province

I feel deeply chastised in my heart every time I see that God’s words say: “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? God has spoken hundreds of thousands of words, yet no one has come to their senses. They act for the sake of their families, and sons and daughters, for their careers, prospects, status, vanity, and money, for the sake of clothes, for food and the flesh—whose actions are truly for the sake of God? Even among those whose actions are for the sake of God, there are but few who know God. 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? Thus, God has been forcibly condemned to death innumerable times, countless barbaric judges have condemned God and once more nailed Him to the cross” (“The Wicked Must Be Punished” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I think back to how I did not seek truth, how in fulfilling my duty I repeatedly competed with my working partners, how for the sake of my reputation and benefit I would suppress or reject the other—how I caused losses both for my own life, and for the work of God’s family. Although God arranged many circumstances to save me, I was numb and completely failed to grasp God’s intent. But God continued to pity me, to save me, and only after repeated chastisement and judgment did I awaken and understand God’s wish to save us, putting aside my pursuit of reputation and status and starting to act a little like a human.

In 1999, I accepted God’s work in the last days. At the time my family fulfilled our duty of hospitality and I saw how well some brothers and sisters communicated, able to use God’s words to answer any question. We were all willing to engage with them, and we would communicate openly with them on any issues. I envied them, thinking: Wouldn’t it be great if I could be like them one day, surrounded by brothers and sisters, solving their problems? And with this intention I started to fulfill my duty in the church. In 2007 I received God’s elevation and appreciation and was given the duty of district leader. My brothers and sisters reported to me if the subjects of my work were in an incorrect state, of their own difficulties, and various issues in the district. I felt I was at the center of things and that my years of work had been worthwhile: Now I could communicate some truths and help my brothers and sisters with their difficulties. And although the workload was a little heavy, I was willing to work hard. To maintain this position and fulfill my vanity I behaved in an exemplary and positive manner when performing my duty. No matter what work the leaders assigned us, even if my co-workers felt it was difficult or were unwilling to cooperate, I always responded well, and if I had difficulties I kept quiet and actively agreed with them. Even if there were things I did not understand I played along, to win the praise of my leaders.

Enlightenment From a Story of Solomon—Two Flower Baskets

Xu Fan

During my free time, I read a story about Solomon from the internet. A king from a neighboring country gave, as a present, two uncommon and rare flower baskets to Solomon. The flowers of one of the flower baskets were real and the flowers of the other basket were fake. However, the flowers of both baskets looked extremely similar. There was almost no way to distinguish the real flowers from the fake flowers just by looking at their appearance. The state official from the neighboring country that delivered the flower baskets had heard of Solomon’s wisdom. So, he asked Solomon to distinguish between the real flowers and the fake flowers. Solomon sent some people to bring the two flower baskets to his garden. Nobody understood what Solomon’s intentions were. Solomon asked everyone to gather at the garden and there they understood why he brought the two baskets into the garden. The real flowers had attracted many bees to them while the fake flowers did not have any.

While this is a very simple story, it contains a lot of spiritual meaning. The flowers that had life in them gave off a fragrance and they secreted nectar. That is why they attracted the bees. The flowers in the other basket were dead. Even though, externally, they looked the same, they did not give off a fragrance nor did they have any honey with which to attract bees.

After reading this story of how Solomon was able to discern the real flowers from the fake flowers, I could not help but think: Presently, there are many Christians devoutly waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus. However, at the same time, they are afraid of being deceived and as a result, they reject the gospel of Jesus’ return. Because in the Bible, Jesus said: “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mat 24:23-24). That is why, presently, there are many Christians in the religious world who, even though they have heard someone bear witness to God and tell them that the Lord has returned, do not seek, investigate and discern. Instead, they blindly judge, convict and resist. They maintain that “All those who bear witness to the return of the Lord are false.” Can they welcome the return of the Lord if they have this kind of notion and imagination? If we carefully ponder the Lord’s teachings, we will find that the Lord has actually taught us how to discern fake Christs so that we will not reject the gospel of God’s return solely on the manifestation of fake Christs in the last days. If we allow our fear of being deceived by fake Christs to prevent us from focusing on listening to God’s voice and discerning God’s voice, how can we welcome the Lord’s return? Think back to when Jesus just arrived to do His work. The Pharisees, chief priests and scribes serving Jehovah God in the temple adhered to their own notions and imaginations and the Old Testament Bible. They did not seek or investigate Jesus’ work. Instead, they nailed Jesus to the cross and committed a very serious sin. In the very end, they received God’s punishment and curse. However, Peter, Nathanael, the Samaritan woman and others, after listening to Jesus’ words, recognized that Jesus was the coming Messiah. As a result, they followed the Lord. It is prophesied many times in Revelation, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In the Book of Romans, chapter 10, verse 17, it says: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Therefore, when we hear someone spreading the gospel of Jesus’ return, we should first seek and investigate. From our seeking and investigation, we should then discern whether the Lord has returned or not. In this way, we will not miss the opportunity to meet the Lord again.