Showing posts with label pray to God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pray to God. Show all posts

Thursday, April 18, 2019

2019 Christian Devotional Song “How Does One Enter Into the True Prayer”

During prayer your heart must be at peace before God,
your heart must be sincere.
Truly commune when you pray to God.
Don’t cheat God with words pleasing to the ear.
So your heart will be quiet before God.
And in the environments arranged for you,
you will then know yourself and hate yourself.
You will hate yourself and forsake yourself.
So you’ll have normal relations with God,
and become someone who truly loves, loves God, loves, loves God,
become someone who truly loves, loves God.

Prayer must surround what God will do today. Ask for greater illumination,
bring your state and troubles before God and speak to Him your resolution.
So your heart will be quiet before God.
And in the environments arranged for you,
you will then know yourself and hate yourself.
You will hate yourself and forsake yourself.
So you’ll have normal relations with God,
and become someone who truly loves, loves God, loves, loves God,
become someone who truly loves, loves God.

Prayer is not to follow procedure but to seek God with your sincerity.
Pray for God to protect your heart. Ask for God to protect your heart.
So your heart will be quiet before God.
And in the environments arranged for you,
you will then know yourself and hate yourself.
You will hate yourself and forsake yourself.
So you’ll have normal relations with God,
and become someone who truly loves, loves God, loves, loves God,
become someone who truly loves, loves God.
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Monday, February 4, 2019

Grasping the 4 Key Elements, You Will Serve God’s Will

As servants of the Lord, we all want to satisfy Him, but most of the time we have no path to practice and have no idea how to serve the Lord’s will to become a confidant of Him. This article “Grasping the Four Key Elements, You Will Serve God’s Will” will show us the way.

Firstly, we must possess a God-loving heart, be able to be considerate toward the Lord’s will, be of one mind with the Lord in all things, and work hard to be the Lord’s intimate.

The Lord Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38). These words are the commandment that the Lord Jesus requests us to observe, and it is even more His requirement for each who serves Him. The Lord asks us to have a heart that loves Him and to do our utmostto pursue being His intimate. Take Peter for example; he gave up all worldly things to follow the Lord and receive His commission, never considering or planning for his own future; he was of one mind with the Lord, and sought to satisfy His will in all things. After the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, He appeared to Peter, just as it is recorded in the Bible, “He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, love you me? He said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my sheep.He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, love you me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Love you me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep” (John 21:16-17). Peter was loyal to the Lord from beginning to end. Thus, the Lord Jesus hoped that he could be one who loved Him, and entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of shepherding the flock. After that, Peter always had the Lord Jesus’ words in his heart, and willingly spent his lifetime energies pursuing a true love of God. He was considerate of the Lord’s will and focused on satisfying Him in all things, and persisted in shepherding the Lord’s flock even in persecution and tribulation. In the end, Peter was crucified upside down for the Lord, obeying God unto death and loving God to the utmost. So Peter was exactly a person who was of one accord with the Lord as well as the confidant of Him. If we want to be qualified to serve the Lord, we must take Peter as our exemplar, pursuing knowing and loving the Lord, and being considerate of His intentions in all matters; besides, in performing service, we should sacrifice ourselves for the Lord’s work, for honoring Him and bearing witness to Him, and satisfy His will wholeheartedly without considering or planning for personal interests or seeking what’s good for ourselves. Then our service can be in harmony with the Lord’s will.
christian pray to God for serving God's will

Secondly, we must seek the truth in all things and be able to grasp the Lord’s will, cooperate closely in the work of the Holy Spirit, and keep pace with the Holy Spirit’s work.


Seeking the truth and grasping the Lord’s will in all things is not only what the Lord wants of every believer, but even more what every servant of God must enter into and practice. However, when preaching and working or encountering some problems and difficulties, most of the time, we do things in our own way, without the slightest intention of seeking God’s will. Sometimes even if we seek the truth, we just go through the process and can’t achieve any results. For example, when seeing our brothers and sisters growing cold in their faith and love, some pursuing the trend of the world, enjoying fleshly comforts, and some even abandoning the Lord and betraying Him, we just focus on outward actions, taking all types of measures to support them and exhort them, and think that it’s enough as long as we have done what we are supposed to do. However, we pay no attention to seeking and grasping the Lord’s will, and never consider what the source of these problems is, and what we should do to revive the church and put God at easeand satisfy Him. If we never try to figure out and seek out the Lord’s will, then we will only stray farther and farther from God, feel dark and dry in spirit, be unable to touch the Lord’s presence and guidance, and have no path to walk.
However, if we always focus on grasping the Lord’s will, then we will easily receive the enlightenment and guidance from the Holy Spirit, gradually be able to see through the problems and difficulties occurring in the church, and be clear about how to perform the work of serving the Lord properly, what principles should be grasped in our service, and how to fulfil our duty properly and satisfy God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our might. In this way, our human ideas will be lessened in performing our duty, and we will no longer rely on our own notions and imaginations, ability, or inner quality to act; our relationship with God will become normal, and the duty we perform will be in line with God’s will. For example, when facing the problem of the church’s desolation as well as many believers becoming passive and weak and pursing the world, we, as servants of God, should do more to seek the Lord’s will and requirements. If we find the root cause of the desolation in the church, then we will know how to help our brothers and sisters recover their faith in the Lord. We know that now is the end of the last days. It is a common phenomenonthat the churches now grow more and more desolate, and that the believers become passive and weak and pursue the world. This shows that the Holy Spirit does not work in the religious circles anymore, just as God’s words said, “And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered” (Amos 4:7). To resolve the church’s growing desolation, we need to look for churches that have the Holy Spirit’s work, seek the trend and movement of the Holy Spirit’s work, and seek new enlightenment and illuminations. As long as we drop our notions and imaginations, and always have a heart of reverence and a heart of longing for and seeking the truth, the Lord will surely lead and guide us to understand His will, and enable us to receive the provision of the living water. If we serve God with a heart that seeks the truth, then we will receive God’s illuminations and blessings, and all we lack will be made up for and perfected by God.

Thirdly, in our service, we must practice God’s words and use God’s words to resolve problems in order to exalt God and bear witness for God, and to bring the brothers and sisters before Him.


Bringing people before God is the requirement of God for those who serve Him. If we want to bring people before God, we need to guide and support them according to God’s words and requirements. It is necessary that we ourselves first have some experiences and knowledge of God’s words, and gain some understanding of the Lord’s will and requirements. We need to learn to reflect on God’s words to know our own deficiencies and inadequaciesin all things and environments set up by God, and then find the correct path to practice in God’s words; through experiencing and practicing God’s words, we will obtain some practical and true knowledge of God, and our relationship with the Lord will become more and more proper. This way, we can see through the essence of the problems and difficulties we encounter, and then we can help our brothers and sisters understand God’s will and find the path to practice through our own practical experiences as well as God’s enlightenment and guidance. For instance, when we see that the brothers and sisters have disagreements and can’t get along well with each other in doing service, if we are unable to see clearly the essence of this problem and do not seek God’s words to resolve it, then we will rely on our own ideas to remind and exhort them, or blame and teach them according to the Bible, asking them not to do that in the future. Such actions can only make them obsessed withright and wrong, and are completely unable to bring them before God. However, if we practice using the truth to resolve the problem, guiding our brothers and sisters to pray to God more, rely on God more, and experience God’s work together, then they will know: We all have corrupt dispositions, and being dominated and controlled by them, we have no normal relationships with others, which is the fooling and corruption of Satan; God sets up the environment in order to cleanse and change our corrupt dispositions; if we can know and hate our own corrupt nature of Satan, forsake our flesh, let go of ourselves, and consciously pay attention to practicing the truth and satisfying God, then we will be able to get along with others, and learn some lessons in the people, events, things and environment God sets up for us rather than be obsessed with right and wrong. Hence, the most important thing for us in doing service is to lead our brothers and sisters to learn to know God and understand God’s will and requirements, and make them understand what kind of person God loves and what kind of person He detests, and have a genuine knowledge of God’s disposition and what God is, so that they can practice God’s word, obey God and worship God. This is bringing people before God, and is also exalting God and bearing witness to Him.
However, if we preach sermons just in order to show off and exalt ourselves, and focus on establishing our image, but are unable to use the truth to resolve the problems, if we fail to lead people to practice the Lord’s words and follow the Lord’s way, if we don’t exalt and witness God so as to bring people before Him and let them look up to and depend on Him, then our service is actually resisting the Lord, and the path we walk is the path walked by antichrists. Think back to those Pharisees recorded in the Bible. They observed human traditions in their preaching and working, but abandoned God’s commandments and deviated from God’s way. Besides, they often interpreted the letters and doctrines in the Bible to witness and exalt themselves, with the result that people all listened to and followed them, and strayed from God and betrayed God. The Lord Jesus said, “But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not you called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all you are brothers. And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven” (Matthew 23:5-9). It can be seen that the Lord Jesus requires that we only believe in and worship the unique God Himself. Therefore, we must reject the service of the Pharisees and always exalt God and witness Him, bringing our brothers and sisters before Him. Only such kind of service is the service that conforms to God’s intentions.
Lord Jesus cursed the Pharisees

Fourthly, we should be always able to be quiet before God, to examine and know ourselves, and promptly correct any transgression or mistake we discover to ensure that God’s will is carried out without obstruction.


As servants of the Lord, we must live in God’s presence at all times. Through God’s enlightenment and guidance, we should see through the truth that we are corrupted by Satan, see how poor and miserable not having the truth, and see clearly our deficiencies and inadequacies and have self-knowledge. As we have not yet been perfected, we are unable to fulfill our dutycompetently,and it is very normal that deviations and transgressions may occur in our service. When we discover our own deviations and transgressions, we should come before God promptly to dissect and reflect on ourselves according to God’s words with a reverent and seeking heart; meanwhile, we should set aside our face, vanity, and status to communicate purely and openly with the brothers and sisters around us, accepting the real facts, and accepting their criticisms and supervision to avoid repeating past transgressions. Only by doing so can we make sure that God’s will can be carried out in us.
For example, we all have arrogant nature, enjoy standing high among people, and always talk boastfully to show ourselves off in our working and preaching to make them look up to and worship us. As a result, our brothers and sisters only know to listen to man and follow man in whatever they encounter, and there’s no place for God in their heart. Such a church has long lost the leadership of God, so all the work in the church is a mess and achieves no results, and we ourselves also oftenhit the wall and suffer failure. At this time, we should quiet ourselves before God promptly, reflecting on our thoughts and ideas, and words and behaviors to know ourselves, and accept the judgment and chastisement as well as the exposure and dealing from God’s words. From that we can see clearly: We use the opportunity of serving God to exalt and witness ourselves, and pursue satisfying our own desires for fame and status, and we have brought people before ourselves; what we do is to compete with God for people, and to control and possess God’s chosen people, and we have walked onto the antichrist’s path which is hated and loathed by God; if we have no repentance, we will offend God’s disposition and be punished by Him. After knowing the seriousness of the issue, we should immediately repent and confess to God, practice forsaking our flesh, consciously exalt and testify to God in our working and preaching, and do service dutifully and conduct ourselves conscientiously. Besides, we should pay attention to establishing a proper relationship with God, and keep God’s will and commission in mind all the time, only living for God in this lifetime to ensure that His will is carried out without hindrance. If we have a sincere repentance like this, the Lord will gradually lead us to walk onto the correct path of service.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

The Loss and Gain of Gatherings

Guozi, USA
My name is Guozi, and I’m a high school student studying abroad in the USA. I was born in a Christian family, and my mother accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days when I was one year old. I remember when I was very young that my mother would always say to me: “God created heavens, earth, and everything that exists. We humans were also created by God, and God loves us more than anything. Whenever something happens to you, remember to pray to Almighty God, and He will watch over and protect you.” So when I was very young I learned that God exists, and when anything happened to me and I prayed to God, I experienced God’s protection for me. But truly having knowledge of God and God’s work was something I gradually gained in the course of attending gatherings and fellowshiping about the truth together with brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God and practicing entering into the word of God …
In December of 2015, my mother suggested I attend a meeting with the brothers and sisters and said, “The work of God in the last days will end right away, and if you don’t attend gatherings and don’t fellowship about the word of God together with the brothers and sisters, it will be very difficult to understand the truth if you just read the word of God by yourself. It won’t be easy to receive salvation.” At the time I thought my mother was just saying that without thinking about it, so I just agreed with her perfunctorily, but I didn’t think that she had actually contacted the church and gotten the sisters to convene a gathering with me online. When the sisters set the meeting time with me, I was really reluctant to do so. I thought that if I had to attend a gathering every single week it would eat into my free time, and there would be less time for me to go out eating, drinking, and having fun with my friends. In my heart I didn’t want to attend the gathering, and just wanted to keep my current situation the same: When something happened to me, I would pray to God, and occasionally experience God’s protection, and it would be sufficient to have God in my heart. But I was too embarrassed to directly refuse the sisters, so all I could do was reluctantly agree. But when the time of the gathering arrived, I was always trying to come up with an excuse to get out of it. Even though I attended the gathering, my heart did not become at peace, and when I prayed to God all I could do was utter some words of praise or ask God to help me have success on an exam or things like that. When fellowshiping about the word of God, I was really afraid when it would be my turn, because I had no light in my heart. I didn’t know what I should fellowship about, and all I could do was look for what I thought were some key passages and read them. Then I would explain a little about the literal meaning, like it was doing a reading comprehension. Because I didn’t have a proper attitude in dealing with the word of God and I didn’t pay careful attention in the gathering, I didn’t have any enlightenment and illumination by the Holy Spirit—I didn’t have any rewards. The more it went on like this, the more boring I thought it was. I thought: Going out to have fun with my classmates is so much better than this. Especially when I saw that I had gotten a bunch of text messages on my phone, I just couldn’t help myself from thinking about going out with my classmates and friends. I then mentioned to my mother that I didn’t want to attend the gathering, and it would be fine if I just read the word of God on my own. But my mother said, “If you don’t attend gatherings, will you consciously read the word of God? The word of God isn’t like that in the textbooks you read in school. It’s not something you can just understand by getting the literal meaning of the words; you have to fellowship about it by attending gatherings with brothers and sisters and share experiences and knowledge with each other. Only that way can you gradually understand it clearly.” I had never thought that attending gatherings was so important. Since it was able to give me more of an opportunity to read the word of God, and also to allow me to understand the truth even more, I wasn’t able to say anything else. But since I was only interested in having a good time, I would not forsake my flesh and put the truth into practice even though I understood a little bit of it. So afterward, every time I attended a gathering, I would still go through the motions of fellowshiping about the word of God then start to play with my phone and look at some gossip news, check out the newest recent TV series, and sometimes chat with my friends. In this way, every time I attended a gathering I continued to get nothing out of it.
One time my mother suddenly asked me, “How have you been feeling recently about attending gatherings, do you understand what you hear? You absolutely can’t play with your phone during gatherings! Even though you attend gatherings online, and the sisters can’t see what you’re doing, God can see your words and actions all the time. If you never pay attention, God won’t ever enlighten you!” Right after that, my mother read to me a passage from the word of God: “Because in order to walk in God’s way, we cannot let go of anything to do with ourselves, or anything that happens around us, even the little things. No matter whether we think we should pay attention to it or not, as long as any matter is facing us we should not let it go. All of it should be viewed as God’s test for us. How’s this kind of attitude? If you have this kind of attitude, then it confirms one fact: Your heart fears God, and your heart is willing to shun evil. If you have this desire to satisfy God, then what you put into practice isn’t far from the standard of fearing God and shunning evil” (“How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh). My mother said: “Even though you think that taking a peek at something on your phone while attending a gathering isn’t very serious, this is connected to your attitude of how you treat attending gatherings as well as God. God is at our side watching our each and every move, and observing every thought we have. Have you ever thought why you always want to play with your phone during gatherings? Actually, the tricks of Satan can be found in this. It is God’s will that we understand more about the truth through attending gatherings, mature quickly in our lives, and are finally able to receive God’s salvation. But in order to make you shun God and not listen to God’s word, Satan uses the things you like to entice you, to make you unable to be at peace in your heart in the presence of God, and ultimately unable to obtain anything. When God’s work is finished, your life will be forfeited.” Hearing my mother’s words, I thought to myself: It turns out that there is some truth to be sought in something as small as this, and it even involves a person’s attitude toward God. I was a little ashamed to have been so directly nailed by what my mother said about my thoughts. Before, I always thought that in any case I was just attending gatherings online, and there was no one watching, so I started to think up ideas to satisfy my own preferences. Now I finally knew that God was seeing all of this. Thinking about this, I had a sense of guilt, and was a little disturbed—in the recent several gatherings I was always playing with my phone, and God saw it all. I was full of remorse, and I hurried to acknowledge my mistake in prayer to God. I decided that after this I wouldn’t ever play with my phone again in gatherings and would try hard in pondering the word of God. I would conscientiously listen to what the brothers and sisters fellowshiped about. In the several gatherings I attended after that, I turned my phone off and left it somewhere far away from me. I focused my attention to listening to what the sisters fellowshiped about. Even though sometimes my mind would still wander and I would be absent-minded when listening, I gained a lot from attending gatherings.
But because my desire to just have fun was still strong, after a short while my hands were itching again to play with my phone while in a gathering. I thought: I’ll just take a peek at my phone, I promise. I quickly picked up my phone to take a look, with the result that I was hopeless when it came to looking at my phone. Very quickly, I went back to my old ways, and even sometimes put the computer I was using for the gatherings to one side. Ignoring everything I would take my phone and watch TV shows. This attitude I had of deliberately doing wrong led to me not receiving any of the work of the Holy Spirit. Although we were holding a gathering, I simply had no idea what the sisters were fellowshiping about the whole time. When it came time for me to fellowship, I had no idea what I should say. Gradually, my thoughts of unwillingness to attend gatherings sprouted back up again, but I was too embarrassed to tell my mother. I was only able to continue to halfheartedly attend. This went on until one time at a gathering when I was playing with my phone, I noticed a new TV series that had just come out that I wanted to rush to see, but I had to download some software to watch it. I hesitated a bit, but still downloaded the software. Once I had finished the download, I went to open the program, and my phone’s screen suddenly went black. Then it showed that it wanted my password, but how could I know what the password was? When I went online to search for what reason could have led to my screen going black, I realized that I had been tricked, and someone had taken control of my phone and it was now unusable. I was extremely regretful, and at the same time my mind arrived at the idea of God’s discipline. I thought: God observes the deepest parts of people’s hearts, and every single one of my actions was in full view of God. I deliberately did wrong, and this was God’s discipline being visited on me! After I thought about it I knew I really couldn’t play with my phone in gatherings.
When I told my mother about this, my mother read to me a passage from the word of God: “What’s a big matter? What’s a small matter? All matters that involve walking in God’s way aren’t divided into big or small ones. Can you accept that? (We can accept it.) In terms of everyday matters, there are some which people view as very big and significant, and others that are viewed as minor trifles. People often view these big matters as being the very important ones, and they consider them to be sent by God. However, over the course of these big matters playing out, owing to the immature stature of man, and owing to man’s poor caliber, man is often not up to God’s intentions, cannot obtain any revelations, and cannot acquire any actual knowledge that is of value. So far as the small matters are concerned, these are simply overlooked by man, left to slip away little by little. Thus, they have lost many opportunities to be examined before God, to be tested by Him. Should you always overlook the people, things, and matters, and circumstances that God arranges for you, what will this mean? It means that every day, even every moment, you’re always renouncing God’s perfection of you, and God’s leadership. Whenever God arranges a circumstance for you, He is watching in secret, looking upon your heart, looking upon your thoughts and considerations, looking at how you think, looking at how you will act. If you are a careless person—a person who has never been serious about God’s way, God’s word, or the truth—then you won’t be mindful, you won’t pay attention to that which God wants to complete, and that which God demands of you when He arranges circumstances for you. You also won’t know how the people, things, and matters that you encounter relate to the truth or God’s intentions. After you face repeated circumstances and repeated trials like this, with God not seeing any achievements to your name, how will God proceed? … there’s only one attitude that God has toward these people. What attitude is this? God spurns this kind of person from the bottom of His heart” (“How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh). Reading the word of God, I thought: This time, I have genuinely experienced the discipline of God for myself, and I also saw that God is truly by my side watching my every deed. I always thought that I could deceive the brothers and sisters with my corrupt actions and thoughts. But I could never escape the observation of God. Now, I made deliberate wrong actions, and did not read the word of God or fellowship about the truth carefully during gatherings, but just played with my phone and watched TV shows. I already became detested by God, and not only someone took control of my phone, but I also didn’t get anything at all out of fellowshiping about the truth during gatherings. I wasted my time, and blocked myself from entry into life. I also thought: Before, I always wanted to use my own effort to stop myself from playing with my phone during gatherings, but the result has been that I haven’t been able to overcome the enticement of Satan. I’ve seen that by not relying on God but only on my own strength, it’s very difficult to put the truth into practice and attain a state of fearing God and shunning evil. I think my own stature is too meager. In the future I would just pray to and rely on God, and only that way would I be able to truly attain a state of fearing God and shunning evil, would I bring peace to my heart in gatherings.
In the following months, I used my classmate’s phone. Because it was someone else’s phone, I didn’t dare to randomly download whatever programs I felt like. So every time I was in a gathering I would sit contentedly in my seat listening to what the sisters fellowshiped about. Sometimes I would see friends sending me one message after another, my curiosity would start to get the better of me and I really wanted to take a look at what my friends had sent me. But I then thought about God watching my every move, “I am in a gathering at the moment, and if I do not have a devout and reverent attitude it may make God detest me.” So every time when I stretched my hand out toward my phone, I would quickly pull it back. In my heart I would pray to God: “God! Please protect my heart so that it can become tranquil and not be disturbed by Satan.” When I prayed to God and made my heart tranquil, and would conscientiously listen to what the sisters fellowshiped about and shared their experience and knowledge of the word of God, I found that throughout the entire gathering I gained quite a lot of enlightenment and light from the word of God. It allowed me to gain some knowledge about God and God’s work. Before, I never wanted to go to gatherings, and I did make excuses of being busy with schoolwork to avoid attending gatherings. Now, I felt that it was necessary for me to forsake my flesh, and I should always find the time to attend gatherings. Anyway, studying wasn’t normally too much pressure or too much work, and I would often spend my free time playing with my phone and watching TV series. Actually, I was totally able to spend more time participating in gatherings, and this was very beneficial to me in understanding the truth. So I proposed to participate in gatherings two times a week. When I was genuinely carrying it out like this, I understood more and more of the truth, and the knowledge I got of the word of God was much more than I had before. Sometimes I would carry my phone on me and I would still sneak a peek at it, but I would immediately respond by remembering that I had to forsake my flesh and was able to throw my phone onto the bed and continue with the meeting. This is because I knew that God was secretly watching my every move, and I should no longer follow my flesh and had to have a heart that reveres God.
Several months passed, and I really felt like I had gained a lot, understood much of the truth, and made a lot of progress in my life. By the sisters sharing their testimony of experiencing the word of God, I also gradually learned to experience God’s work in my life. The experience I remember most deeply was during a math test, when I copied another student’s answers so I could get a good result. What happened was that I was questioned by the school about whether I had a problem with academic integrity, and this problem was so severe that it would affect me getting into university. Just when I had no idea what I should do, during a gathering a sister shared with me the word of God and fellowshiped about God’s will based on my situation. She said the people God likes are honest, and that only honest people can receive God’s salvation. When I was practicing being an honest person in accordance with the word of God, I saw God’s conduct, and not only did I get an opportunity to re-take the test, but was also rewarded with getting straight A during that semester. Experiences like that were hardly limited to just that once. … Now, I like attending gatherings more and more, and I like fellowshiping about the word of God together with the sisters and talking about my own experiences of carrying out the word of God. Sometimes through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, when I’m reading the word of God and pondering it in connection with my own experience, my spirit is very moved and I was really overcome with emotion: How good it is to believe in God! Through experience, I went from being afraid to attend gatherings to enjoying it, and this is an outcome I was led to reach by the word of God! Thinking about it carefully, even though because I was attending gatherings I spent less time going out with my classmates to eat, drink, have fun, and get crazy, what I gained was God’s provision for my life. It was God’s word that allowed me to understand that being an honest person would obtain God’s blessing, and when I was carrying out the truth I felt peace and joy in my spirit. By playing with my phone and following my fleshly preferences, I could be harmed and corrupted by Satan, and it could make me get further and further from God and also cause God to detest me. Gatherings and fellowshiping about the truth gradually allowed me to learn that being a person who fears God and shuns evil is something that God praises, and is also the form of a genuine person that I should pursue and live out. Through God’s guidance, I gained so much. Thanks be to Almighty God!

Friday, November 30, 2018

A Rebirth


Yang Zheng Heilongjiang Province
I was born into an impoverished rural family that was backward in their thinking. I was vain from a young age and my desire for status was particularly strong. Over time, through the social influence and a traditional education, I took all sorts of Satan’s rules for survival into my heart. All kinds of fallacies nurtured my desire for reputation and status, such as building a beautiful homeland with your own two hands, fame will make you immortal, people need face like a tree needs its bark, getting ahead and being on top, one should bring honor to his ancestors, etc. These gradually became my life and made me firmly believe that as long as we are living in this world, we have to work to be seen highly by others. No matter what crowd we are with we must have status, we should be the most outstanding one. Only through living this way can we have integrity and dignity. Only living a life this way has value. In order to achieve my dream, I studied very diligently in elementary school; through storms and sickness, I never missed class. Day by day, I finally made it to middle school that way. When I saw that I was getting closer and closer to my dream I didn’t dare slack off. I frequently told myself that I had to persevere, that I had to present myself well to my teachers and classmates. However, just then, something unexpected happened. There was a scandal about our head teacher and the principal of the school that caused an uproar. All the teachers and students knew about it. One day in class, that teacher asked us if we had heard about it and all the other students said “No.” I was the only one who honestly replied “I heard.” From that time on, that teacher saw me as a thorn in her side and would frequently find excuses to make things difficult for me, to crack down on me. My classmates started to keep their distance from me and exclude me. They made fun of me and humiliated me. Finally, I was no longer able to tolerate that kind of torment and I dropped out of school. That was how my dream of getting ahead and being on top was crushed. Thinking of my future days with my face to the earth and back to the sky, I felt an inexpressible sadness and melancholy. I thought: Can it be that my life will be passed so unremarkably? No status, no prestige, no future. What’s the point of living like this? I really wasn’t willing to accept that fact at that time but I was helpless to change my circumstances. Just as I was living in pain and hopelessness that I wasn’t able to extricate myself from, Almighty God saved me and reignited the hope in my heart that had been extinguished. From then I began a whole new life.

Sunday, November 18, 2018

What Does It Mean to Have Humanity?

David wanted to build a temple so that his people could worship God there.
Yue Ming
God said: “Normal humanity includes these aspects: insight, sense, conscience, and character. If you can achieve normality in each of these respects, your humanity is up to standard. You should have the likeness of a normal human being and behave like a believer in God. You don’t have to achieve great heights or engage in diplomacy. You just have to be a normal human being, with a normal person’s sense, be able to see through things, and at least look like a normal human being. That will be enough” (“Improving Caliber Is for Receiving God’s Salvation” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). In the past, my understanding was that as long as one did not fight or quarrel with others and could live harmoniously with others, one was living out a normal humanity. Today, when I contemplate this passage of God’s word, suddenly I understand that when God is talking about normal humanity, it does not merely involve being conscientious and sensible when getting along with others. The key is being considerate of God’s will while one is fulfilling one’s duties, seeking to love and satisfy God and fulfill the responsibilities of one of God’s creations. When I compare God’s words with my own actions and deeds, I can see that I am quite far from fulfilling God’s demands. Many times, on the surface, I am fulfilling duties. However, when I encounter practical problems, I am not considerate of God’s will and I do not have a heart that loves God. Instead, I am very prudent in protecting my own interests and reputation. After many instances of God’s judgment and chastisement, my conscience has gradually started to perceive. I started to focus on practicing the truth to satisfy God during the daily fulfillment of my duties, thereby living out a bit of normal humanity.

Friday, November 16, 2018

Finding God Is True Happiness (Part 1)


Wang Kai
My father is just an ordinary elementary school teacher, and during my childhood I lived with him in the dormitory that the school provides for its staff. We lived a simple and frugal life, as most people did in that era of hardships. The thing I remember most is playing with the other teachers’ kids in the school grounds after school. One of the kids was from a much wealthier family (his mother worked in the Bureau of Finance). Every day we played until it was almost dark and then he would make a bowl of instant noodles, take out a piece of fried donut, and eat it all with gusto. We other kids just stood by and looked on hungrily as the lovely smell wafted over and made us drool. Every time this happened, my frustrated stomach would rumble loudly, which always made me feel embarrassed and at a loss about what to do. At that time I resented the fact that I was from a poor household and that my father had no talents—he couldn’t even afford a packet of instant noodles…. I resented my father, but I also made a promise to myself that I was going to make a lot of money and have a lifestyle that others would envy. From that time on I had no interest in studying, and all I could think about was leaving school, getting a job and relying on my own hard work to improve my life. However, my father insisted that I go to senior high school but I was adamant about not wanting to study. I wanted to leave school and go out to work instead because I was sure that this was the only way that I would find happiness and prosperity quickly enough.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

The Fruits of Obeying God

The Fruits of Obeying God
Xie Cheng
A few days ago, my leader Sister Cheng told me that the church had a new work that required some manpower, and asked me whether I’d be willing to do it. Hearing my leader say this, I was beside myself with joy, and I thought: “For three months now, I’ve been reflecting on how I was replaced because my striving for fame and gain in my duties interrupted and disturbed the church’s work. Now, at last, I can perform my duty again! If my brothers and sisters knew this, they’d definitely pay special regard to me, and would think that I’ve made progress by experiencing this failure.” I agreed to do it there and then. After my leader had gone, every day I looked forward to receiving notice of my new duty, but the days went by and no notice arrived. What did arrive was a stack of paper documents, and my leader asked me to type them up. Holding this stack of paper documents, my heart was full of questions: “What’s the meaning of this? Wasn’t it agreed that I’d be doing a new duty? How then can I be asked to type up all these paper documents? What am I, a typist? What on earth’s going on? If I’m not going to be doing the new duty, then surely my leader has to tell me why!” My mind was in a whirl, and I was unwilling to accept the reality of the situation. Faced with this pile of documents, I thought: “Typing isn’t a real duty. Anyone can do this work. Aren’t I a little overqualified to stay at home just typing up all these documents? If I’m not able to do any important duty, my brothers and sisters will surely say that, after being replaced, I still don’t have any true knowledge of myself and have not truly reflected on myself. What’s more, if I’m staying at home typing all day, then no matter how much I do or how well I do it, no one will know about it and I won’t have a chance to shine. I’ll forever be just a nobody, without any possibility of being promoted or put to some important use.” I was filled with misgivings, but I couldn’t refuse; all I could do was accept the duty.