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.

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.

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.

What Are Those Who Do the Will of the Father in Heaven?

By Xingwu

One may ask: In the Bible, the Lord Jesus said, “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). These words clearly tell us that only those who carry out the heavenly Father’s will can enter the heavenly kingdom. Then, how do we follow the heavenly Father’s will?

Almighty God Led Me Onto the Path of Obtaining Cleansing

Gangqiang, USA

In 2007, due to a lot of pressure in my life, I came to Singapore by myself to work to make a living. All year round, the climate in Singapore is very hot, so every day I would sweat profusely when I was working. It was so rough that I suffered an unspeakable amount, and on top of that it was an unfamiliar life without any relatives or friends, so I thought it to be boring and tedious. One day in August, I received a gospel leaflet on my way home from work which read: “But the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you” (1Pe 5:10). Seeing these words gave me a warm feeling in my heart. Then a brother brought me to the church, and the brothers and sisters welcomed me cordially and served me delicious food. I had worked the better part of a year since leaving home, and the warmth of family and delicious home cooked food was something that I hadn’t enjoyed in such a long time. Since I was lonely and drifting aimlessly, hot tears immediately welled up in my eyes, and in that moment I had the feeling that I was back home. From then, the church was a place I need to go every Sunday.

I Found the True Light

Qiuhe, Japan

I was born in a Catholic family. Since I was little, I attended Mass at church with my grandparents. Due to the influence of my environment and my belief in God, I learned to chant many different scriptures and practice various rituals.

In 2009, I arrived in Japan to study. One time, in a fellow student’s dorm room, I met by chance a Christian small group leader who had come to spread the gospel. I thought: Protestants and Catholics believe in the same God. They both believe in the Lord Jesus. As a result, I accepted the small group leader’s invitation to join him at the church. After listening to the pastors preach and hearing some brothers and sisters talk about the Bible, I had some understanding about the Lord Jesus’ life. This caused me to have more faith in the Lord. However, after a few months, the pastors and the preachers asked us to donate tithe every week. Also, each week, we were to hand out pamphlets to spread the gospel. Sometimes, we were so tired that we would snooze during Sunday service. We no longer had a normal routine in our life. At that time, some of us were both working and studying. Not only did we have to make money to pay for our studies, but we also needed money for our everyday expenses. Our lives were already quite difficult, but they still wanted us to give them our money and our energy.

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!

Q&A About God’s Work of Judgment in the Last Days-Question 1

Question 1: You say that God becomes flesh in the last days to do the work of judgment. Does this have basis in the Bible, or fulfill biblical prophecies? Without a biblical basis, we shouldn’t be so quick to believe it.

Answer: Any major incidents of God’s work are prophesied in the Bible, and there are quite a few relating tothe second coming of the Lord Jesus and God’s work of judgment. But we should understand that prophecies only tell people what will happen. They are reminders for people to be alert and to seek and investigate in the last days, so they won’t be abandoned or eliminated by God.

Are the Truths in the Bible Already Complete?

Question 2: The truths in the Bible are already complete. In believing in God, we have the Bible, and that’s enough. We don’t need the new word at all.

 Answer: What the Bible records is limited. The Old Testament only records the work of Jehovah God, and the New Testament only records the work of the Lord Jesus. The Bible only prophesies God’s work in the last days, but doesn’t record the details, because in the last days God does the work of judgment, which is a new work outside the Bible. God is the expresser of the truth, and even more is the Ruler of all things. His richness is unfailing and inexhaustible, and He is unfathomable to any created being. So, the contents of the Bible alone can’t make clear all God’s deeds at all. Almighty God tells us, “All that is recorded within the Bible is limited and unable to represent all the work of God. The Four Gospels have fewer than one hundred chapters altogether in which are written a finite number of happenings, such as Jesus cursing the fig tree, Peter’s three denials of the Lord, Jesus appearing to the disciples following His crucifixion and resurrection, teaching about fasting, teaching about prayer, teaching about divorce, the birth and genealogy of Jesus, Jesus’ appointment of the disciples, and so forth. These are but a few writings, yet man values them as treasures, even verifying the work of today against them.

Q&A About the Name of God

Question 2: God’s name in each age doesn’t represent God in His entirety, then what does God’s name in each age mean?

Answer: This question is very Almighty God. Today Almighty God has given us the answer to this question. Almighty God says, “‘Jehovah’ is the name that I took during My work in Israel, Eastern Lightningtake pity on man, curse man, and guide the life of man. It means the God who possesses great power and is full of wisdom. ‘Jesus’ is Emmanuel, and it means the sin offering that is full of love, full of compassion, and redeems man.

That Day the Sky Was Especially Clear and Sunny (Part 1)

I used to be a believer in the Three-Self Church in China. When I first started participating in gatherings, the pastors would often say to us: “Brothers and sisters, it is recorded in the Bible that: ‘For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation’ (Rom 10:10). We’ve been justified due to our faith. Since we believe in Jesus, we have been saved. If we believed in any other, then we wouldn’t have been saved….” I held on to these words of the pastors. As a result, I ardently pursued and actively attended gatherings as I waited for the Lord to come and let me into the kingdom of heaven. Later on, as unlawful deeds kept occurring in the church, it made me feel fed up with the gatherings there. Among the pastors they were divided and partitioned, each trying to establish themselves at the top of the faction and set up independent kingdoms. The sermons from the pastors needed to obey the United Front Work Department (UFWD). The UFWD didn’t allow them to discuss the Book of Revelation out of fear that it would disturb popular sentiment, so the pastors didn’t preach it. The pastors would often preach about donation, saying that the more one donated then the more blessings they would receive from God…. So when I saw that these were the circumstances in the church I felt quite bewildered: Why did the church change into this current form? Do the pastors not believe in the Lord? Why do they not follow the Lord’s word? Why do they not have a heart of reverence for the Lord? From that point on I no longer wanted to go to gatherings at the Three-Self Church, for I felt that they did not truly believe in God, that they were false shepherds who acted in the name of believing in God in order to obtain the hard-earned money from brothers and sisters.

In the second half of 1995, I left the church without hesitation and joined a house church (adherents of sola fide). At first I felt that their sermons were not subject to the restrictions of the national government, and they even integrated the Book of Revelation and discussed the last days, the Lord’s return and so on. Their preaching was much better than the pastors’ in the Three-Self Church, and I felt there was more enjoyment to be had by gathering here compared to gathering in the Three-Self Church, which made me very happy. But after a period of time, I discovered that here too among the co-workers there were some who became envious, disputed things and wanted to break up the group. None of the brothers and sisters were living out the requirements of the Lord, they were without the love that they had in the past…. When I saw that this church didn’t have any real difference with the Three-Self Church I felt very disappointed, but I also didn’t know where I could go to discover a church that had the work of the Holy Spirit. For lack of a better option, all I could do was stay with these adherents of sola fide. As before, I pressed on with attending gatherings. The pastors and preachers all said “to be saved once is to be saved forever” and “so long as you exercise patience until the end, toil for God and defend the way of the Lord then you will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.” So I kept thinking to myself at that time: Regardless of how other people are, as long as I press on in my faith in the Lord Jesus and do not depart from the way of the Lord, then when the Lord returns I will have a chance to be raptured into the kingdom of heaven.

In the blink of an eye it was already the second half of 1997, and God’s gospel of the kingdom had already spread to where we were, and the church had turned into a chaotic scene. Leader Li said to us: “Nowadays a group has emerged that is spreading Eastern Lightning, they are stealing sheep from various denominations, and they are saying that the Lord Jesus has already returned and that He is carrying out a new stage of work. The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross for us, He has already paid the price of His life in order to redeem us. We have already been saved, we just need to wait patiently until the end, and when the Lord returns we will certainly be raptured into the kingdom of heaven. So, we must pay attention and we absolutely cannot receive these people in Eastern Lightning. Whoever receives them shall be expelled from the church! Also, you must be sure not to listen to what they say, and you must be sure not to read their book….” It seemed that co-workers at all levels were all talking about these things at pretty much every gathering. After listening to them, I felt conflicting ideas unwittingly arise inside of me regarding Eastern Lightning. I felt I needed to guard against them and exercise great caution, for I feared that I would be stolen away by Eastern Lightning and lose my opportunity to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

However, the new year had just begun in 1998 when one day I unexpectedly ran into someone from The Church of Almighty God and had the fortune of listening to the way of Eastern Lightning for the first time. That day, my elder sister gave me a call and invited me to her house. She had also invited Sister Hu from her village to come over too, and when she saw me she smiled and said: “Oh good you came, a distant relative of mine who is a believer is visiting, come, let’s all gather together.” I agreed happily. Before long, Sister Hu came back with her relative. When the sister saw us she greeted us with enthusiasm. Although I had never met her before I felt a sort of closeness to her. She said: “There is widespread desolation in the church nowadays. The preachers don’t have anything new they can sermonize about, and at every gathering when they aren’t discussing how to resist Eastern Lightning, it’s all just listening to tapes and singing songs. These are the gatherings. Co-workers grow jealous over one another and get into disputes, they collude and connive, they are all extremely self-righteous and everyone refuses to obey everyone else; the brothers and sisters are negative and weak, and they are without faith and love. Many have left the Lord to return to the world to make money.” Deep inside me I felt the same way, and as I nodded my head I said to the sister: “This is what it’s like where I attend too. Before we would have 20–30 people at our monthly meetings, but now there are just a few elders, even the preachers have gone into the world to make money! There is no pleasure to be had in the gatherings.” The sister nodded her head and said: “This kind of situation isn’t just at certain churches anymore, it is a widespread phenomenon throughout the religious world. This shows that the work of the Holy Spirit is not found within the church any longer, so unlawful deeds will always continue to emerge. This is a sign of the Lord’s return. It’s just like the end of the Age of Law, when the temple became a place that sold livestock and exchanged money. It was because God had already stopped carrying out His work in the temple. Instead, God had become incarnated as the Lord Jesus to carry out a new stage of work outside of the temple.” I listened attentively and nodded frequently. The sister continued speaking: “Sister, in Luke 17:24–26 it says: ‘For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.’ How do you interpret these lines from Scripture?” I thought seriously about them for a while, and with an awkward smile I said: “Sister, aren’t these lines from Scripture talking about the Lord’s arrival?” The sister replied, saying: “These lines from Scripture are discussing the Lord’s arrival, however, they are not talking about the Lord Jesus who came during that time. Rather, they are referring to the arrival of the Lord of the last days. Sister, right now the faith of the believers in the church has grown cold, they are negative and weak. This is because God has become flesh once again to carry out a new stage of work. God’s work is moving forward, and everyone who does not follow God’s new work will lose the work of the Holy Spirit….” As soon as I heard the sister say that the Lord Jesus has already returned I immediately guessed that she belonged to Eastern Lightning, and my heart immediately sank. The smile on my face also disappeared as the words from my leaders who sealed off the church at once started floating around in my head: “To believe in Jesus is to be saved, to be saved once is to be saved forever! … Do not receive those from Eastern Lightning! …” As I thought about these words from my leaders I wanted to rush back home. But when this idea came across my mind the Lord enlightened me by having me remember a verse from a song: “Jesus is our refuge, when you have troubles hide with Him, when the Lord and you are together what do you have to fear?” That’s it! If I have the Lord by my side then what do I have to fear? The things I am afraid of do not come from God, they come from Satan. At this time, the sister said: “If anyone has any questions, go ahead and share them, the word of God will be able to solve all the problems and difficulties that we have.” When I heard the sister say this, I thought to myself: I hope you will not be stumped with my questions! Today I’d like to hear about what has really been preached in Eastern Lightning, which is able to steal away so many of the good sheep.

As I thought about this I started to say: “Our leaders are always saying that the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross for us, and that He has already paid the price of His life in order to redeem us, so we have already been saved. It is recorded in Scripture: ‘For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation’ (Rom 10:10). Since we have been saved once we have been saved forever, so long as we exercise patience until the end and wait for the Lord’s return, then we will certainly be raptured into the kingdom of heaven. This is the promise that the Lord has made to us. So, we do not need to accept any new work being carried out by God.”

After hearing me say this, the sister smiled and said to me: “Many believers think that the Lord Jesus has already been nailed to the cross for them, and that since He paid the price of His life they have been redeemed and they have been saved. They think that to be saved once is to be saved forever, that all they need to do is exercise patience until the end, to wait for the Lord’s return when they will certainly be raptured into the kingdom of heaven, and that they do not need to accept any new work carried out by God. But is this way of thinking really correct or not? Does it really conform to the Lord’s will? Actually, this idea that ‘to be saved once is to be saved forever, and when the Lord returns we will be raptured into the kingdom of heaven’ is just man’s conceptions and imagination, it simply does not conform to the Lord’s word. The Lord Jesus never once said that ‘those who have been saved by their faith may enter into the kingdom of heaven,’ rather, He said, ‘but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven’ (Mat 7:21). To ‘be saved’ and ‘doing the will of the Father which is in heaven’ are not the same thing. When we speak of ‘being saved for your faith,’ this ‘being saved’ refers to being forgiven for your sins. That is to say, if someone was supposed to be put to death according to law, but then they came before the Lord and repented, receiving the Lord’s grace and having the Lord forgive them for their sins, then this person would break away from the law’s conviction, they would no longer be put to death according to law. This is the true meaning of ‘being saved.’ But to be saved doesn’t mean that a person has broken away from sin and been cleansed. We all know this to be deeply true through experience. Even though we have believed in the Lord for many years, often admit our sins to the Lord and repent, and also enjoy the joy and safety of being forgiven for our sins, we still often involuntarily commit sins, we become bound by our sins. This is a fact. For example: Our arrogance, slyness, selfishness, greediness, evilness and other parts of our corrupt disposition still continue to exist; we still enjoy pursuing the trends of the world, and wealth and fame, and the pleasures of the flesh, and cling to sinful pleasures. In order to protect personal interests we are also able to often tell lies and deceive others. So, to ‘be saved’ does not mean that one has attained full salvation. That is a fact. It is recorded in Scripture: ‘… you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy’ (Lev 11:45). God is holy, but is He able to allow those who often sin and resist God to enter the kingdom of heaven? If you believe that those who have been saved by their faith may enter into the kingdom of heaven, then why does the Lord Jesus also say the following words? ‘Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity’ (Mat 7:21–23). Why is it said that when the Lord returns He will separate the goats from the sheep and the wheat from the tares? We believe that it is completely invalid to say that ‘those who have been saved by their faith may enter into the kingdom of heaven!’ It completely deviates from the words of the Lord Jesus! These are words that resist those of the Lord! So, if we do not receive and believe in the Lord’s word, but rather hold on to the fallacies disseminated by the pastors and elders, if we rely on our own conceptions and imagination in our faith in God, then we will never be able to achieve God’s requirements, and we will never be able to be raptured into the kingdom of heaven.”

I Welcomed the Return of the Lord

My parents are both Christians and from an early age I started going with them to church to attend services. At the age of 12 I attended a grand Christian camp in Myanmar, and while I was there a pastor told me: “The only way to avoid death and enter the kingdom of heaven is to be baptized.” And so in order to enter the kingdom of heaven I decided to get baptized while I was at the camp. From that time on, I became a genuine Christian.

After reaching adulthood, I became the chairperson of my church’s youth association for many years, and whenever the preachers weren’t there I would lead the brothers and sisters in prayer, Bible studies, hymn-singing, and the sharing of testimonies. After getting married, I was put in charge of receiving the Sunday offerings and the tithes. At first our church had the work of the Holy Spirit: The pastor talked fluently and eloquently, and the brothers and sisters enjoyed the sermons and felt that they were edified by them. Everyone was brimming with confidence, and we attended all the church services and spread the gospel wherever we could with great enthusiasm. But eventually the pastor’s sermons became repetitive and lackluster, and could no longer provide what we needed. The confidence of brothers and sisters thus began to wane, and they became more interested in money and pleasures of the flesh. Congregation numbers began to fall, until it got to the point where the pastor had to make calls every Saturday just to try and get everyone to attend. Even when the brothers and sisters did show up they sang the hymns listlessly and without devotion, dozed off during the sermons, and started talking about business as soon as the services ended. The services had become all form and no substance. And I was very troubled by this. I thought to myself: “How does our church turn into such a barren pasture?” But then I remembered how, over the previous 30 years, I had often heard different pastors saying the same thing: “We believe in the Lord Jesus, so our sins have all been forgiven.” “We gain salvation by the grace of God because of our faith.” “The Lord Jesus has already completed His work of redemption once, so we believers in the Lord are already saved and will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Because of this, “I’m already saved, I will enter the kingdom of heaven” became the basic tenet of my faith in God. No matter how bleak the church was, or how weak and passive the believers were, I would always tell myself: “I must keep the way of the Lord. As long as I don’t leave the Lord, then He won’t abandon me. When the Lord returns, He will take me into the kingdom of heaven.” Although I kept on warning myself in this way, I still wasn’t able to keep on the Lord’s path: I would sin by day and confess sins by night, but whenever I prayed, I couldn’t feel the Lord by my side. My spirit felt dark and empty, and I felt I was getting farther and farther away from the Lord, as if He had abandoned me. This caused me great suffering, but I was unable to find the source of the problem …

In February 2016 I met Brother Zheng and Sister Li Hui online. After sharing experiences concerning faith in the Lord with each other, I told them about my bemusement that my church had become a barren pasture. Brother Zheng said to me: “It’s not just your church that is bleak and desolate: The whole religious community is bleak right now. It’s like the desolate temple that became a den of thieves when the Lord Jesus was doing His work. If we understand how that temple became desolate in the first place, then we’ll know how it is that the religious community is so bleak and desolate now. When the Lord Jesus concluded the Age of Law and began the Age of Grace, the Holy Spirit did not perform work in the temple but did it instead on those people who accepted and followed the Lord Jesus. Those who worshiped Jehovah missed out on the work of the Holy Spirit because they couldn’t keep up with the pace of God’s work. Without the protection and care of God, they lived in sin, as shown by their temple becoming a place to sell cattle, sheep, and doves and exchange money. A temple that originally shined with the glory of Jehovah became a den of thieves, thus offending God’s disposition and being abandoned by Him in disgust. This was one of the reasons why the temple originally fell into desolation.” Then we examined two passages from the Book of Amos in the Bible: “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). “Behold, the days come, said the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). Brother Zheng also sent me two passages of Almighty God’s words: “God will accomplish this fact: He will make all people throughout the universe come before Him, and worship the God on earth, and His work in other places will cease, and people will be forced to seek the true way. It will be like Joseph: Everyone came to him for food, and bowed down to him, for he had things to eat. In order to avoid famine people will be forced to seek the true way. The entire religious community is suffering severe famine, and only the God of today is the wellspring of living water, possessed of the ever-flowing wellspring provided for the enjoyment of man, and people will come and depend on Him” (“The Millennial Kingdom Has Arrived” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “But in fact, God’s work in them ceased long ago, and the work of the Holy Spirit is absent from them. The work of God was long since transferred to another group of people, a group on whom He intends to complete His new work. Because those in religion are incapable of accepting God’s new work, and only hold to the old work of the past, thus God has forsaken these people, and does His new work on the people who accept this new work. These are people who cooperate in His new work, and only in this way can His management be accomplished” (“God’s Work and Man’s Practice” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Brother Zheng then said: “The churches at present are as desolate as the temple was, and it’s also because God is doing new work. The Lord Jesus that we have been desperately waiting for is now incarnated in human form and returns among us. He has taken the name Almighty God to express the truth and do the work of judging, cleansing and saving man in the last days. He has come to conclude the Age of Grace and begin the Age of Kingdom. The Holy Spirit has already left the churches of the Age of Grace and is now working on those who accept Almighty God’s work of the last days. All those who are merely keeping the name of the Lord Jesus but are not keeping up with God’s new work no longer have God by their side, no longer have the work of the Holy Spirit, and will never be provided with the living water of life. So, of course these churches will become more and more desolate….”

Through listening to Brother Zheng, I came to realize that the situation with the churches nowadays is indeed the same as with the temples when the Lord Jesus began His work. I felt that there was a new light and the guidance of the Lord in what Brother Zheng was fellowshiping. But I felt a bit bemused by what he said about the Lord Jesus returning to do the new work of judging and cleansing man: It is possible that the Lord Jesus has returned, but we believers were already saved so when the Lord returns He should take us directly to the kingdom of heaven, not to carry out another stage of judgment and cleansing work! But then I realized that the Lord’s return was a big event and so I should first seek hard for answers.

So, I told Brother Zheng of my bemusement and he told me: “Many of the Lord’s brothers and sisters share your point of view. They also think that because we have accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, then our sins are forgiven, we will attain salvation through His grace, and when He returns we will all be taken directly to the kingdom of heaven. So, they refuse to accept God’s salvation of the last days. The main reason for this is that we don’t understand the good results that the work of the Lord Jesus has brought and we don’t know the work of God. Almighty God said: ‘At the time Jesus’ work was the redemption of all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed. Salvation did not mean man had been completely gained by Jesus, but that man was no longer of sin, that he had been forgiven his sins: Provided you believed, you would never more be of sin’ (‘The Vision of God’s Work (2)’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering, and did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to take on the sins of man as the sin offering, but also required God to do greater work to completely rid man of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan. And so, after man was forgiven his sins, God has returned to flesh to lead man into the new age, and begun the work of chastisement and judgment, and this work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and shall gain the truth, the way, and the life’ (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words we can see that the work of the Lord Jesus during the Age of Grace was that of redemption for mankind. The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross to be our sin offerings, to redeem us from condemnation by law. By coming in front of the Lord, admitting our sins, and repenting, we are able to be forgiven of our sins. This is being saved. In other words, being saved means sins are forgiven and there is no accusation of sin under law, but it doesn’t mean that we have escaped from Satan’s corrupt disposition or our satanic nature and will never sin again. Our satanic nature such as arrogance, deceit, selfishness and greed still exists. Due to the dominion of our satanic nature and Satan’s disposition, we still frequently lie and cheat, act in an arrogant and self-opinionated manner, and pretend to be good to dupe God. We always criticize God’s work willfully, especially when it doesn’t match our conceptions, we accuse God and resist God. How could a mankind like us that is so deeply corrupt and resistant to God win His praise? Are we qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven? If God took us—a corrupt mankind that resists Him and belongs to Satan—into His kingdom, then there would be no way to account for God’s righteousness and holiness. So for us to be qualified to enter the kingdom, we need God to do a stage of judgment and cleansing work to transform our corrupt disposition and thoroughly shake off the shackles of our sinful nature. Once our life dispositions have been transformed, we will no longer rebel against or resist God and we’ll be able to truly obey Him, be completely gained by Him, be completely saved by Him and enter the kingdom of heaven to inherit what He has promised. These are the results brought by the judgment work of God of the last days, and we can see that the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption was to pave the way for the judgment and cleansing of people during the last days. Therefore, our faith in the Lord brings us forgiveness of our sins but not complete escape from sin or entry to the kingdom of heaven. We need to undergo another stage of judgment and cleansing work to be thoroughly saved from sin. God’s judgment work of the last days exactly makes these words from the Bible into reality: ‘Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Peter 1:5).”

When I heard the words of Almighty God and what Brother Zheng said, I realized that what the Lord Jesus had done was the work of redemption, not the work of removing sins completely. As people commit sins, they should be accused and punished under law, but if we come before the Lord Jesus and admit to our sins, then we will be forgiven of our sins. God doesn’t see us as sinful and He absolves us of punishment, and that is salvation. But this salvation certainly doesn’t mean that we have been cleansed and thoroughly saved. It seems that people don’t understand the truth, and so have misunderstandings about what true salvation is. I think about that now we are still living sinful lives— committing sins and admitting to them every day—and so that’s why we need another stage of God’s work of judgment and cleansing. When I think about what the pastor at the camp said—“The only way for a Christian to avoid death and enter the kingdom of heaven is to be baptized”—I realize that this way of thinking really is very unrealistic. We could even say it’s childish and ridiculous. When I was later able to have long chats with Brother Zheng and Sister Li Hui and digest their fellowship, I came to feel that there is the truth to seek in the words of Almighty God, that they are very practical, and that they can benefit me and help me a lot. But the return of the Lord is a big thing, and in order to treat it seriously and cautiously I decided to conduct a thorough investigation of the work of Almighty God of the last days.

So, in the weeks that followed I started to search online for information about the work of the last days of Almighty God. Before going online, I prayed to the Lord: “Lord, if Eastern Lightning is indeed the Lord that I have faith in, I beg You to move my heart and let me recognize Your voice.” Without really being aware of it, I clicked on a website and found to my surprise that it was all judgments, attacks, and accusations on Almighty God and His church from the religious community and the CCP. I was very shocked and became scared that I ventured down a dangerous path. So, I sent the link to Brother Zheng and Sister Li Hui and asked them: “How do you explain all this?” I originally thought that Brother Zheng and the others would have no reply to the information that I had sent, and so was surprised when they calmly and firmly replied: “Almighty God is the real God, the return of the Lord Jesus. The stuff that the religious community and the CCP spread online is all rumors and nonsense designed to confuse people. It’s part of their wicked scheme to prevent people from following God….”

What Brother Zheng said really moved me, and in my heart I began to struggle to make sense of it all. I got offline and prayed to the Lord: “Lord, if Almighty God really is Your return then I beg You to enlighten and illuminate me so that I can understand Your way and not miss the chance to witness Your return. If all that stuff online is just rumors spread by the religious community and the CCP, then make me deaf to it, because being taken by Satan is a terrible thing.” After praying I felt a bit calmer, and then I remembered the times that I too was falsely accused, and also an occasion when a storekeeper I knew who did good business selling jade products had his reputation ruined by rumors spread by a jealous competitor. Some light began to shine in my heart and I realized just how dark and evil this world is and that most of what is online—good or bad—is just people talking. Then I thought carefully about the online accusations about Almighty God and His church spread by the religious community and the CCP: There was no evidence given and none of it seemed very believable. Furthermore, I had read Almighty God’s words and been in touch with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God. What they said bore no relation to the rumors being spread online, and they hadn’t tried to force me to join their church. In the few months of contact with them, besides exploring the Bible, reading Almighty God’s words, and fellowshiping about God’s words with me, we hadn’t discussed any other topics. From the way they spoke, I could tell that they were pious and upstanding people. Their fellowship was full of light and I felt it was very useful to me, and their church was indeed a church that had the work of the Holy Spirit. Thinking about this, I realized that a church that has the work of the Holy Spirit is a church of God, and so of course Satan would attack and accuse it and there would be a lot of negative propaganda surrounding it.

At a later date I read online about the many evil actions of the CCP: How they drove foreign missionaries out of China, burned Bibles, pulled down churches, and detained and killed Christians…. Hatred and anger toward the CCP grew in my heart. How could they be so spiteful as to persecute innocent, unarmed Christians? The CCP has always opposed God by promoting atheism, and has captured and persecuted Christians with a complete lack of humanity and reason, so there was no way to know whether what they said was true or false. So, I initiated contact with Brother Zheng and the others again, and they fellowshiped about a lot of truths concerning God’s work of the last days and how to discern Satan’s cunning schemes…. After listening to them I felt I had a bit of better understanding of God’s work of the last days and could discern how the nonsense disseminated online by the religious community and the CCP was all baseless rumors and ridiculous opinions that were part of Satan’s cunning plans to prevent people from accepting the work of Almighty God. I resolved not to listen to anything the religious community and the CCP said ever again. The worry and fear in my heart then disappeared and, at the same time, I recognized that the work of Almighty God and the work of the Lord Jesus was the same and they had both encountered resistance and accusations from satanic political regimes and from religious circles. To me, this confirmed even more that the work of Almighty God is the true way!

One day when I was using Facebook, I heard a hymn that praised God, which I found particularly moving. Indeed, only God deserves praise and is worthy of being extolled. This hymn had the guidance of the Holy Spirit and when I checked to see where it had come from, I discovered it was one of the hymns of The Church of Almighty God. I couldn’t help being moved to tears by this, and excitedly sought the brothers and sisters to tell them that God had moved my heart and led me…. I now completely believe that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned, and I am willing to follow Almighty God to the end of the road.

Now I attend The Church of Almighty God, and I not only enjoy being provided with the water of living life that flows from the throne, but my confidence and love has been restored. Even more importantly, I can now distinguish between right and wrong, darkness and light. I know what truths are and what rumors are. Truths come from God, while rumors come from Satan. When we hear rumors, we shouldn’t just blindly go along with them but should carefully distinguish truth from falsehoods, pray earnestly, and humbly seek and examine the true way. Only then can we escape from rumors and return before God.