Excursus Three: How Noah and Abraham Obeyed God's Words and Submitted to Him (Part Two) Section Four

In the stories of Noah and Abraham, and in the story of Job, just what is it in their behavior and speech, and in their attitude and their every word and deed when God’s words and actions befell them, that so moved later generations? What moved people the most regarding these three individuals’ attitude toward God’s words, and their behavior, speech, and attitude after hearing God’s words, and after hearing what God commanded and required, is just how pure and persevering their sincerity toward God, the Creator, was. To people today, this purity and perseverance might be called stupidity and obsessiveness; but to Me, their purity and perseverance were the most moving and touching things about them, and even more so, the things that feel so out of reach to other people. From these individuals I truly appreciated and witnessed what a good person looks like; from their behavior and speech, as well as their attitude when faced with God’s words, and when they listened to God’s words, I see what the people who God regards as righteous and perfect are like. And what is the most striking feeling that I experience after reading and understanding these people’s stories? It is the profound remembrance, attachment to, and adoration of these individuals. Is this not a feeling of being moved? Why do I have this kind of feeling? Throughout the long history of mankind, there has never been a history book focusing on recording, praising, and disseminating the stories of these three people, nor has anyone used their stories to educate later generations, treating them as people to be emulated by later generations. But there’s one thing that the people of the world don’t know: At different times, each of these three men heard something different from God, each received a different commission from God, each had different requirements made of them by God, each did something different for God, and completed different work that had been entrusted to them by God—yet they all shared one thing in common. What was it? They all lived up to God’s expectations. After hearing God speak, they were able to accept what God had entrusted them with and had asked of them, and after that they were able to submit to everything that God said, they were able to submit to every single thing that they heard God demand of them. What did they do that lived up to God’s expectations? Among all mankind, they became exemplars for listening to, accepting, and submitting to God’s words, and for bearing resounding testimony to God in the face of Satan. Since they were exemplars for mankind, and perfect and righteous in God’s eyes, what, ultimately, is the most important piece of information that this tells us? That this is the kind of person that God wants, a person who is capable of comprehending what God says, who uses their heart to listen to, grasp, apprehend, understand, and submit to and implement the words of the Creator; this kind of person is beloved by God. No matter how great the tests and trials are that God subjects them to before He has affirmed their righteous deeds, once they bear resounding testimony to God, they become that which is most precious in God’s hands, and one who will live forever in the eyes of God. This is the fact that it tells us. This is what I wish to tell you through fellowshipping on the stories of Noah and Abraham, and what you should understand. The implication is that those who still do not understand the Creator’s words, and still do not know that listening to the words of the Creator is their responsibility, obligation, and duty, and are unaware that accepting and submitting to the words of the Creator is the attitude that created humans ought to have, regardless of how many years they have followed God—such people are the ones who will be eliminated by God. God does not want such people, He loathes such people. So just how many people are ultimately able to listen to, accept, and completely submit to the Creator’s words? However many can. Those who have followed God for many years yet still despise the truth, brazenly violate the principles, and who are incapable of accepting and submitting to God’s words whether they are spoken in the flesh or the spiritual realm, will ultimately face one outcome: elimination.

It has been thirty years now since God became flesh and came to work on earth. He has spoken many words and expressed many truths. No matter how He speaks, no matter what methods He employs to speak, and no matter how much content He speaks, He only has one requirement of people, that they are able to listen, accept, and submit. However, there are many who cannot grasp or carry out this simplest requirement. This is very troublesome, and it shows that mankind is so deeply corrupted, has great difficulty in accepting the truth, and cannot easily be saved. Even now, with the context of people recognizing that man was created by God and the fact that God in the flesh is God Himself, people still oppose and defy God and reject God’s word and His requirements. They even examine, analyze, reject, and are indifferent toward the words spoken by God’s incarnation, without understanding how created beings should treat God’s word and what attitude they should have toward God’s word. This is truly sad. Even now, people don’t know who they are, what position they should stand in, or what they should do. Some people even constantly complain about God, saying “Why does God always express truths in His work? Why is He always demanding that we accept the truth? When God speaks and works, He should consult us, and He shouldn’t always make things difficult for us. We have no reason to obey Him absolutely, we want human rights and freedom, we should vote by a show of hands on the demands that God puts forward for us, and we should all also have discussions and reach consensuses. The house of God should enact democracy and everybody should make the final decisions together.” Even now, many people hold this view, and although they do not say it openly, they hold it in their hearts. If I am not entitled to ask anything of you, if I am not entitled to ask that you obey what I say, and to demand your absolute submission to what I say, then who is? If you believe that the God in heaven is entitled to do so, and that the God in heaven is entitled to speak to you from the sky through thunder, then great! That means I won’t have to be patient and earnest or waste My breath talking to you—I don’t want to say anything more to you. If you believe that the God in heaven is entitled to speak to you from the sky, from the clouds, then go ahead and listen, go and search for His words—wait for the God in heaven to speak to you in the sky, in the clouds, amidst the fire. But there is one thing you must be clear about: If that day truly comes, the time of your death will have arrived. It would be better if that day did not come. “It would be better if that day did not come”—what do these words mean? God has become human to personally speak to man face-to-face on earth, to issue truths telling people all that they are supposed to do, yet people are scornful and flippant; in their hearts, they secretly resist and vie with God. They do not wish to listen, believing that God on earth has no right to try to govern people. Does this attitude that people have make God happy, or does it vex Him? (It vexes Him.) And what will God do when He is vexed? People will face the fury of God—you understand this, right? The fury of God, not the testing of God; these are two separate concepts. When the fury of God befalls people, they are in danger. Do you think that God is furious toward those He loves? Is He furious toward those who are worthy of living in the light of God’s countenance? (No.) What kind of person is God furious toward? For those who have followed Him for many years and yet still do not understand His words, who still do not know they are supposed to listen to God’s words, who lack the awareness to accept and submit to God’s words, God feels averse to and repulsed by such people, and does not wish to save them. You understand this, right? So what should people’s attitude be toward God, God incarnate, and the truth? (We should listen, accept, and submit.) That’s right. You must listen, accept, and submit. Nothing is more simple than this. After listening, you must accept in your heart. If you are unable to accept something, you must keep seeking until you are capable of complete acceptance—then, as soon as you accept it, you must submit. What does it mean to submit? It means to practice and implement. Do not dismiss things after hearing them, outwardly promising to do them, noting them down, committing them to writing, hearing them with your ears, but not taking them to heart, and just carrying on in your same old ways and doing whatever you wish when the time comes to act, putting what you wrote down to the back of your mind and treating it as unimportant. This is not submitting. True submission to God’s words means listening to them and comprehending them with your heart, and truly accepting them—accepting them as an unshirkable responsibility. It is not simply a matter of saying one accepts God’s words; instead, it is accepting His words from the heart, turning your acceptance of His words into practical actions and implementing His words, without any deviation. If what you think, what you set your hand to do, and the price you pay are all to meet God’s demands, that is implementing God’s words. What does “submission” imply? It implies practice and implementation, turning God’s words into reality. If you write the words God says and His demands in a notebook and put them to paper, but do not record them in your heart, and you do as you wish when the time comes to act, and it seems from the outside as if you have done what God asked, but you have done it according to your own will, then this isn’t listening to, accepting, and submitting to God’s words, this is despising the truth, it is brazenly flouting the principles, and ignoring the arrangements of God’s house. It is rebellion.

Once, I entrusted someone to do something. As I explained the task to him, he carefully made a record of it in his notebook. I saw how careful he was in recording it—he seemed to feel a sense of burden for the work, and have a careful, responsible attitude. Having conveyed the job to him, I set to waiting for an update; two weeks went by, and still, he had not sent word back. So, I took it upon Myself to find him, and asked how the task I had given him was coming along. He said, “Oh, no—I forgot about it! Tell me again what it was.” How do you feel about his answer? That was the sort of attitude he had when doing a job. I thought, “This person really is untrustworthy. Get away from Me, and quick! I don’t want to see you again!” That was how I felt. So, I will tell you a fact: You must never associate the words of God with the lies of a trickster—doing so is abominable to God. There are some who say they are as good as their word, that their word is their bond. If that is so, then when it comes to God’s words, can they do as those words say when they hear them? Can they implement them as carefully as they do their personal affairs? Every sentence of God’s is important. He does not speak in jest. What He says, people must implement and execute. When God speaks, is He consulting with people? He certainly is not. Is He asking you multiple-choice questions? He certainly is not. If you can realize that God’s words and commission are orders, that man must do as they say and implement them, then you have an obligation to implement them and execute them. If you think that God’s words are just a joke, just casual remarks that can be done—or not done—however one likes, and you treat them as such, then you are quite without reason and unfit to be called a person. God will never speak to you again. If a person is always making their own choices when it comes to God’s requirements, to His commands and His commission, and treating them with a perfunctory attitude, then they are a sort of person that God loathes. In things I command and entrust to you directly, if you are always needing Me to supervise you and urge you on, to follow up with you, always making Me worry and make inquiries, requiring that I check everything for you at every turn, then you ought to be eliminated. There are many of this kind of person among those currently eliminated from the house of God. I instruct them on a few things and then I ask them: “Have you got all that down? Is this clear? Do you have any questions?” To which they respond: “I’ve got it all down, no problems here, no need to worry!” They agree to do them very easily, even putting their hands over their heart and swearing it to Me. But do they actually go on to implement these things after they agree? No, they just vanish without a trace and with no further news coming from them. They do the things they like right away, acting swiftly and decisively. They readily agree to the things I entrust them with, but then they just ignore it, and when I follow up with them on the matter later, I find that they haven’t done anything at all. This kind of person doesn’t have any conscience or reason whatsoever. They are a good-for-nothing and not worthy of doing a duty. They are worse than a pig or a dog. When a person keeps a guard dog, when they are away, the dog is able to help watch the house and the yard when strangers come along. There are a lot of people who aren’t even as good as dogs at doing things. Some people always have to have somebody supervising them for them to do even a little bit of their duty, and they always have to have somebody prune them, and watch over them before they do anything. Is this doing a duty? These people are liars! If they didn’t plan on doing it, then why did they agree to it? Is this not deliberately deceiving people? If they thought the task would be difficult, why didn’t they say so earlier? Why did they promise to carry it out and then not go on to do it? If they deceive other people they can’t do anything to them, but if they deceive God, what are the consequences? This kind of person should be sorted out and eliminated! Don’t you think that people who despise the truth and brazenly violate principles are bad people? They are all bad people, they are all demons, and they should be eliminated! Because these people act wantonly, violate principles, are rebellious and disobedient, establish their own kingdom, and because they are lazy and irresponsible, they have brought great losses upon the church! Who can afford to reimburse such losses? Nobody can shoulder such a responsibility. These people complain, and remain unconvinced and dissatisfied when they are pruned. Are these people not unreasonable devils? They are truly beyond help and should have been eliminated long ago!

Do you understand what the point of the stories of Noah and Abraham that we fellowshipped today is? Is what God requires of man very difficult? (No.) What God requires of man is what should be most fundamental in a created human being; it is not difficult at all, and it is most practical and most realistic. People must possess true faith and absolute submission to be approved by God; only those who possess these two things are truly saved. But for those who have been profoundly corrupted, those who despise the truth and are averse to positive things, and for those who are hostile to the truth, there is nothing more difficult than these two things! This is only achievable by those who have a pure and open heart toward God, who possess humanity, reason, and conscience, and who love positive things. Are these things found in you? And in whom is found the perseverance and purity that should be possessed by people? In terms of age, all of you sitting here are younger than Noah and Abraham, yet in terms of purity, you cannot compare with them. Purity, intelligence and wisdom are not found in you; petty trickery, on the other hand, is in no short supply. So, how can this problem be resolved? Is there any way to fulfill God’s requirements? Is there a path? Where to start? (By listening to the words of God.) That’s right: by learning to listen and submit. Some people say, “Sometimes what God says isn’t the truth, and isn’t easy to submit to. If God spoke a few words of truth, submission would be easy.” Are these words right? (No.) What have you discovered in the stories of Noah and Abraham that we spoke of today? Obeying the word of God and submitting to God’s requirements is man’s bounden duty. And if God says something that does not accord with man’s notions, man should not analyze or examine it. Whomever God condemns or eliminates, giving rise in however many people to notions and resistance, God’s identity, His essence, His disposition, and His status are forever unchanging. He is forever God. Since you have no doubt that He is God, your only responsibility, the only thing you should do, is to obey what He says and practice according to His word; this is the path of practice. A created being should not examine, analyze, discuss, reject, contradict, rebel against, or deny the words of God; this is loathed by God, and not what He wishes to see in man. How, exactly, are God’s words to be treated? How should you practice? It is actually very simple: learn to obey them, listen to them with your heart, accept them with your heart, understand and comprehend them with your heart, and then go and practice and implement them with your heart. What you hear and comprehend in your heart should be closely connected to your practice. Do not separate the two; everything—what you practice, what you submit to, what you do by your own hand, everything you run around for—should be correlated to God’s words, then you should practice in accordance with His words and implement them through your actions. That is what it is to submit to the words of the Creator. This is the path of practicing God’s words.

July 18, 2020

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