How to Pursue the Truth (5) Part Three
Those who truly believe in God are all individuals who attend to their proper work, they are all willing to fulfill their duties, capable of shouldering a piece of work and doing it well according to their caliber and the regulations of God’s house. Of course, it may be challenging to adapt to this life at first. You may feel physically and mentally exhausted. However, if you truly have the resolve to cooperate and the willingness to become a normal and good person, and to achieve salvation, then you must pay a bit of a price and allow God to discipline you. When you have the urge to be willful, you must turn your back on it and let go of it, gradually reducing your willfulness and selfish desires. You must seek God’s help in crucial matters, at crucial times, and in crucial tasks. If you do have resolve, then you should ask God to chasten and discipline you, and to enlighten you so that you may understand the truth, that way you will get better results. If you genuinely have resolve, and you pray to God in His presence and supplicate to Him, God will act. He will change your state and your thoughts. If the Holy Spirit does a little work, moving you a little, and enlightening you a little, your heart will change, and your state will be transformed. When this transformation occurs, you will feel that living this way is not repressive. Your repressed state and emotions will be transformed and alleviated, and they will be different from before. You will feel that living like this is not tiring. You will find enjoyment fulfilling your duty in the house of God. You will feel that it is good living, comporting yourself, and fulfilling your duty in this way, enduring hardships and paying a price, following the rules, and doing things based on the principles. You will feel that this is the kind of life that normal people should have. When you live by the truth and perform your duty well, you will feel that your heart is steady and at peace, and that your life is meaningful. You will think: “Why didn’t I know this before? Why was I so willful? Before, I lived according to Satan’s philosophies and disposition, living as neither human nor ghost, and the more I lived, the more painful it felt. Now that I understand the truth, I can shed a bit of my corrupt disposition, and I can feel the true peace and joy of a life spent fulfilling my duty and practicing the truth!” Will your mood not then have changed? (Yes.) Once you realize why your life felt repressive and miserable before, once you find the root cause of your suffering, and resolve the problem, you will have hope of changing. As long as you strive toward the truth, put more effort into God’s words, fellowship more about the truth, and also listen to the experiential testimonies of your brothers and sisters, you will have a clearer path, and won’t your state then improve? If your state improves, your repressive emotions will gradually ease, and no longer entangle you. Of course, in special circumstances or contexts, occasional feelings of repression and pain may arise, but as long as you seek the truth to resolve them, these repressive emotions will disappear. You will be able to offer your sincerity, full strength, and devotion while fulfilling your duty, and you will have hope of salvation. If you are able to undergo such a transformation, then you do not need to leave the house of God. Your ability to undergo this transformation will prove that there is still hope for you—hope for change, hope for salvation. It will prove that you are still a member of God’s house, but you were influenced for too long and too deeply by various selfish motives and personal considerations, or by various bad habits and ideas, which caused your conscience to go numb and lose feeling, impaired your reasoning, and eroded your sense of shame. If you can undergo such a transformation, God’s house will welcome you to stay, to fulfill your duty, to accomplish your mission, and to thoroughly finish the work you have at hand. Of course, people who have these negative emotions can only be helped with a loving heart. If a person consistently refuses to accept the truth and remains unrepentant despite repeated admonitions, we should bid farewell to them. But if someone is really willing to change, to turn themselves around, to reverse their course, we warmly welcome them to stay. As long as they are genuinely willing to stay and to change their previous approaches and ways of living, and they are able to gradually undergo a transformation while fulfilling their duty, and they become better at their duty the longer they perform it, then we welcome such people to stay and hope that they will continue to improve. We also express a great wish for them: We wish that they may emerge from their negative emotions, that they may no longer be entangled by them or enveloped by their shadow, and that they may instead attend to their proper work and walk the right path, acting and living out what normal people ought to according to God’s requirements, and steadily fulfilling their duties in God’s house according to His requirements, no longer drifting through life. We wish them promising futures, and that they will no longer do whatever they please, or solely concern themselves with pleasure-seeking and physical enjoyment, but instead think more about matters related to fulfilling their duties, to the path they walk in life, and to living out normal humanity. We wholeheartedly wish that they may live happily, freely, and liberated in the house of God, experiencing daily peace and joy, and feeling warmth and enjoyment in their lives here. Is this not the greatest wish? (Yes.) I have finished My wish, and I invite all of you to extend your heartfelt wishes to them. (Our heartfelt wish is that they may live happily, freely, and liberated in the house of God, experiencing daily peace and joy, and feeling warmth and enjoyment in their lives here.) What else? How about wholeheartedly wishing that they no longer live in the grip of repressive emotions? (Yes.) That is My wish. Do you have any other wishes for them? (My heartfelt wish is that they may be able to attend to their proper work, continuously improving in the fulfillment of their duties.) Is this a good wish? (Yes.) Any other wishes? (My heartfelt wish is that they can begin soon to live out normal humanity.) This wish may not be very lofty, but I think that it is practical. Human beings should live out normal humanity and not feel repressed. Why are we unable to endure the hardships that others can endure? If a person possesses the conscience, reason, and sense of shame of normal humanity, as well as the pursuits, methods for existing, and proper goals in their pursuit that normal people ought to have, they will not feel repressed. Is this not a pretty good wish? (Yes.) Anything else? (My heartfelt wish is for them to cooperate harmoniously with their brothers and sisters, to feel God’s love in His house, and to act according to the principles of God’s house.) Is this requirement lofty? (No.) As it is not lofty, is it easy to achieve? Feeling the love of God’s house is rather in line with reality—it is what these people need, is it not? (Yes.) The requirements for people like this are not high. First and foremost, they need to possess the conscience and reason of normal humanity. They should not be idle or drift through life; they should learn to live, to attend to their proper work, to shoulder their responsibilities and their duties. Then they need to learn how to live, to live out normal humanity, and to fulfill their responsibilities and duties well. In doing so, they will be able to feel comfort, peace, and joy in the house of God, and they will be willing to live and fulfill their duties here. After breaking free from their repressive, negative emotions, little by little they will be able to pursue the truth and cooperate harmoniously with others. These are the requirements for people like this. Regardless of their age, we do not have grand wishes or lofty requirements for them, just these ones that we have spoken of. First of all, they need to learn to attend to their proper work, to shoulder the responsibilities and obligations of an adult and a normal person, and then learn to abide by the rules, and accept the management, supervision, and the pruning and dealing with of the house of God, and perform their duties well. This is the correct attitude that a person with a conscience and reason should adopt. Secondly, they should have a correct understanding and knowledge of the responsibilities, obligations, and thoughts and viewpoints that involve the conscience and reason of normal humanity. You should get rid of your negative emotions and repression, and face the various difficulties that arise in your life correctly. To you, these are not extra things, or burdens, or bonds, but rather what you, as a normal adult, should bear. This means that every adult, regardless of your gender, regardless of your caliber, how competent you are, or what talents you possess, must bear all of the things that adults ought to bear, including: the living environments which adults must adapt to, the responsibilities, obligations, and missions that you should undertake, and the work that you should shoulder. First, you should positively accept these things instead of expecting others to clothe and feed you, or relying on the fruits of others’ labor to scrape by. In addition, you should learn to adapt to and accept various kinds of rules, regulations, and management, you should accept the administrative decrees of God’s house, and learn to adapt to an existence and a life among other people. You should possess the conscience and reason of normal humanity, approach the people, events, and things around you correctly, and handle and resolve the various problems that you meet with correctly. These are all things that a person with normal humanity should deal with, it can also be said that this is the life and the living environment that an adult ought to face. For example, as an adult, you should rely on your own abilities to support and feed your family, regardless of how difficult your life may be. This is the hardship you should endure, the responsibility you should fulfill, and the obligation you should complete. You should shoulder the responsibilities that an adult ought to take on. No matter how much suffering you endure or how great of a price you pay, no matter how sad you feel, you should swallow your grievances and you should not develop any negative emotions or complain about anyone, because this is what adults are supposed to bear. As an adult, you must shoulder these things—without complaining or resisting, and especially without evading or rejecting them. Drifting through life, being idle, doing things as you please, being willful or capricious, doing what you want to do and not doing what you don’t want to do—this is not the attitude in life that an adult should have. Every adult must shoulder an adult’s responsibilities, regardless of how much pressure they face, such as hardships, illnesses, and even various difficulties—these are things that everyone should experience and bear. They are part of a normal person’s life. If you cannot bear pressure or endure suffering, it means that you are too fragile and useless. Whoever lives must bear this suffering, and no one can avoid it. Whether in society or in God’s house, it is the same for everyone. This is the responsibility you should bear, the heavy burden that an adult should carry, the thing that they should shoulder, and you should not evade it. If you always try to escape or cast off all of this, then your repressive emotions will come out, and you will always be entangled by them. However, if you can properly comprehend and accept all of this, and view it as a necessary part of your life and existence, then these issues should not be a reason for you to develop negative emotions. In one respect, you must learn to shoulder the responsibilities and obligations that adults ought to have and undertake. In another respect, you should learn to coexist harmoniously with others in your living and working environment with normal humanity. Do not simply do what you please. What is the purpose of harmonious coexistence? It is to better complete the work and to better fulfill the obligations and responsibilities that you, as an adult, ought to complete and fulfill, to minimize the losses caused by the problems you face in your work, and to maximize the results and efficiency of your work. This is what you ought to achieve. If you possess normal humanity, you should accomplish this when working among people. As for work pressure, whether it comes from the Above or from God’s house, or if it is pressure put upon you by your brothers and sisters, it is something that you should bear. You cannot say, “This is too much pressure, so I won’t do it. I’m just seeking leisure, ease, happiness, and comfort in fulfilling my duty and working in God’s house.” This will not work; it is not a thought that a normal adult should possess, and God’s house is not a place for you to indulge in comfort. Every person takes on a certain amount of pressure and risk in their life and work. In any job, especially fulfilling your duty in God’s house, you should strive for optimal results. On a greater level, this is the teaching and demand of God. On a smaller level, it is the attitude, viewpoint, standard, and principle that every person should adopt in their comportment and actions. When you fulfill a duty in God’s house, you must learn to abide by the regulations and systems of God’s house, you must learn to comply, learn the rules, and comport yourself in a well-behaved manner. This is an essential part of one’s comportment. You should not be spending all of your time indulging yourself instead of working, not giving serious thought to anything, and idling away your days, or engaging in wrongful acts, and pursuing your own way of living, like unbelievers do. Do not make others despise you, do not become a nail in their eye or a thorn in their side, do not make everybody shun or reject you, and do not become an obstacle or a stumbling block to any piece of work. This is the conscience and reason that a normal adult should possess, and it is also the responsibility that any normal adult should bear. These are a part of the things that you must do in order to bear this responsibility. Do you understand? (Yes.)
If you are a person with resolve, if you can treat the responsibilities and obligations that people should bear, the things that people with normal humanity must achieve, and those things that adults must accomplish as the aims and goals of your pursuit, and if you can shoulder your responsibilities, then no matter what price you pay and what pain you endure, you will not complain, and as long as you recognize it as God’s requirements and will, you will be able to endure any suffering and fulfill your duty well. At that time, what would your state of mind be like? It would be different; you would feel peace and stability in your heart, and you would experience enjoyment. You see, just by seeking to live out normal humanity, and pursuing the responsibilities, obligations, and mission that people with normal humanity ought to bear and undertake, people feel peace and joy in their hearts, and they experience enjoyment. They have not even reached the point where they are conducting affairs according to the principles and obtaining the truth, and they have already undergone some change. Such people are those who possess conscience and reason; they are upright people who can overcome any difficulty and undertake any task. They are the good soldiers of Christ, they have gone through training, and no difficulty can defeat them. Tell Me, what do you think of such comportment? Do these people not have fortitude? (They do.) They do have fortitude, and people admire them. Would such people still feel repressed? (No.) Then how did they change these repressive emotions? For what reason will these emotions of repression neither trouble them nor find them? (It is because they love positive things and bear a burden in their duties.) That’s right, it is about attending to one’s proper work. When people keep their minds on proper matters, and when the conscience and reason of normal humanity, and the sense of responsibility and sense of mission that they possess all come into play, they do well no matter where they are placed. They can succeed in any task, without any repression, distress, or depression. Do you think God blesses such people? Would people who possess such a conscience, reason, and normal humanity face difficulties in pursuing the truth? (No.) Based on the pursuits, viewpoints, and methods of existence of normal humanity, pursuing the truth will not be very difficult for them. When people reach this point, they are not far from understanding the truth, practicing the truth, acting according to the truth principles, and entering into the truth reality. What does “not far” mean here? It means that their perspective on their comportment, and the method of existence that they have chosen are completely positive and proactive, essentially aligning with the normal humanity that God demands. It means that they have reached the standards set by God. Once they meet these standards, such individuals can understand the truth when they hear it, and it will be much less difficult for them to practice the truth. It will be easy for them to enter into the truth reality and to act according to the truth principles. In total, how many aspects are there to what people with normal humanity ought to do? There are roughly three. What are they? Tell Me. (The first is about learning to bear the responsibilities and obligations that an adult should have and bear. The second is about learning to harmoniously coexist with others in one’s living and working environment with normal humanity, and not doing whatever one pleases. And the third is about learning to abide by God’s teachings within the scope of the reason of normal humanity, and adhering to the attitudes, viewpoints, standards, and principles that one ought to have in their comportment, which means following the rules.) These three aspects are what people with normal humanity ought to possess. If people start thinking and focusing on these aspects, and working hard toward them, they will begin to attend to their proper work—will they still experience negative emotions then? Will they still feel repressed? When you are attending to your proper work and handling your proper affairs, and shouldering the responsibilities and obligations that adults ought to bear, you will have so much to do and think about that you will be overwhelmingly busy. Especially for those who are currently fulfilling their duties in God’s house, is there any time for them to feel repressed? There is no time. So, what is the matter with those who feel repressed, get into bad moods, and feel low-spirited or depressed whenever they encounter something a little unpleasant? It is that they are not occupying themselves with the right things and they are idle. It is that they do not attend to their proper work, and they cannot see the things that they ought to do, so their minds become idle and their thoughts run wild. They think and they think, without any path to take, so they feel repressed. The more they think the more they feel aggrieved and helpless, and the less of a path they have; the more they think the more they feel as though their lives are not worth it, that they are miserable, and the sadder they feel. They are powerless to break free, and eventually, they become trapped in these emotions of repression. Isn’t that right? (Yes.) In fact, this problem is easy to resolve because there are so many things you should do, so many proper matters that you should think about and consider that you will not have the time to think about those useless things, those pleasure-seeking activities. People whose minds are idle enough to think about such things prefer to relax rather than work, they are gluttonous loafers, and they do not attend to their proper work. Those who do not attend to their proper work often find themselves trapped by repressive emotions. These people do not occupy themselves with the right things while there is a mound of important matters that need attending to, and they do not think about or act upon them. Instead, they find time to let their minds wander, to complain and moan about their physical bodies, to worry about their futures, and to fret over the pain they have endured and the prices they have paid. When they cannot resolve all this, cannot bear it, or find an outlet for these frustrations, they feel repressed. They fear losing out on blessings when they think about leaving God’s house, they fear going to hell if they do evil, and they are also unwilling to pursue the truth or to fulfill their duties properly. As a result, they feel repressed. Is this not the case? (It is.) That’s right. If a person attends to their proper work and follows the right path, these emotions will not arise. Even if they experience repressive emotions occasionally due to temporary special circumstances, they will only be passing moods, because people with the correct way of life and the right perspective on existence will quickly override these negative emotions. As a result, you will not frequently find yourself trapped in emotions of repression. This means that such emotions of repression will not bother you. You may experience temporary bad moods, but you will not be trapped in them. This highlights the importance of pursuing the truth. If you seek to attend to your proper work, if you bear the responsibilities that adults should bear, and seek to have a normal, good, positive, and proactive mode of existence, then you will not develop these negative emotions. These repressive emotions will not find you or cling to you.
So, we have finished fellowshiping about the issue and difficulty of resolving repression, which includes the three aspects mentioned earlier. We wholeheartedly wish that those who have been entangled by emotions of repression, and those who have been trapped in emotions of repression but desire to break free from them, will no longer be controlled by these emotions. We hope that they can soon emerge from the negative emotions of repression and live out the likeness of a normal person, adopting a normal and proper way of existence. Is this a good wish? (Yes.) Then, you should wish it too. (We wish that those who have been entangled by emotions of repression, and those who have been trapped in emotions of repression but desire to break free from them, will no longer be controlled by these emotions. We hope that they can soon emerge from the negative emotions of repression and live out the likeness of a normal person, adopting a normal and proper way of existence.) This wish is realistic. Now that we have expressed our wishes, whether these people can break free from emotions of repression ultimately depends on their personal choices—this ought to be a simple matter. In fact, it is something that people with normal humanity should possess. If a person has a strong enough resolve and willingness to pursue the truth and positive things, then it will be easy for them to break free from emotions of repression. It will not be a difficult task. If someone does not enjoy pursuing the truth and positive things, and does not like positive things, then let them remain trapped in emotions of repression. Let them be. We no longer need to express wishes for them, alright? (Alright.) This is another way of handling the situation. There is a resolution to every problem, and everything can be addressed and resolved based on the truth principles and people’s actual circumstances. We have finished our wishes for today, and we have fellowshiped thoroughly on several different situations. We have said everything that needs to be said about this kind of person, so let’s conclude this discussion here.
November 12, 2022
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