The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (3) Part Five
The third kind of situation involves supervisors who torment and constrain others, disturbing the work of the church. The first situation that we talked about earlier was where some supervisors, despite having relatively good caliber and being able to take on their work, do not take the work seriously, and just behave in a perfunctory way, while false leaders are ignorant of this and do not dismiss them promptly. The second situation involves some supervisors having poor caliber and not being able to shoulder the work, but false leaders fail to notice this or replace them promptly. This third situation is about supervisors who, no matter if their own caliber is good or bad, do not tend to their proper work, and just torment and constrain others, disturbing the work of the church. From the time they’re selected as supervisors, they do not try to learn about or study their field, nor do they seek the truth principles, and they certainly do not guide others to do their duties properly. Instead, at every chance they get, they pick on someone, and mock and deride somebody else; as long as they have the opportunity, they show themselves off, and no matter what they are doing, they never have their feet firmly planted on the ground. One day they tell people to do things one way, and the next day they tell them to do things another way; they just come up with new tricks, always wanting to stand out. This all puts people in a state of anxiety. Whenever they speak, some people feel their hearts trembling. When they have subdued everyone, and made everyone fear and obey them, they’ll feel elated. Regardless of whether they are false leaders or antichrists, and regardless of whether or not they are in power, these kinds of people ruin the tranquility of the church. Not only can they not do real work or perform their duty normally, they also sow discord and cause conflicts between people, disturbing the life of the church. Not only can they not help others understand the truth, they also frequently pass judgment on and condemn people, and make people obey them in everything, constraining them to the extent that they don’t know how to act appropriately. Especially in terms of how they live, people can’t sleep a bit earlier or later. Whatever they do, they have to watch the facial expressions of these people, which makes life extremely tiring. If people like this become supervisors, everyone else will have a difficult time. If you speak honestly to them and expose their issues, they will say that you are targeting and exposing them deliberately. If you don’t talk to them about their problems, they will say that you are looking down on them. If you are serious and responsible about the work and give them some advice, they will be defiant, and they will say that you are attacking them and call you arrogant. In any case, no matter what you do, they will find it displeasing. They are always thinking about tormenting people, and they constrain people so that they become bound hand and foot and feel that nothing they do is right. Such supervisors disturb the work of the church.
False leaders are good at superficial work, but they never do real work. They do not go and inspect, supervise, or guide the various professional work, or find out what’s going on in different teams in a timely manner, inspecting how the work is progressing, what problems there are, whether the team supervisors are competent at their job, and how the brothers and sisters report back about or appraise the supervisors. They do not check to see whether anyone is being constrained by the team leaders or supervisors, whether correct suggestions that people make are being adopted, whether anyone who is talented or pursues the truth is being suppressed or excluded, whether any guileless people are being bullied, whether people who expose and report false leaders are being attacked, retaliated against, cleared out, or expelled, whether the team leaders or supervisors are evil people, and whether anyone is being tormented. If false leaders don’t do any of this concrete work, they should be dismissed. Say, for example, someone reports to a false leader that there is a supervisor who often constrains and suppresses people. The supervisor has done some things wrong but they won’t let the brothers and sisters provide any suggestions, and they even look for excuses to vindicate and defend themselves, never admitting to their mistakes. Should such a supervisor not be promptly dismissed? These are problems that leaders should fix in a timely manner. Some false leaders do not allow supervisors that they have appointed to be exposed, no matter what issues have arisen in their work, and they certainly don’t allow them to be reported to the higher-ups—they even tell people to learn to submit. If someone does expose the issues with a supervisor, these false leaders try to shield them or cover up the true facts, saying, “This is a problem with the supervisor’s life entry. It is normal for them to have an arrogant disposition—everyone who has a bit of caliber is arrogant. It’s no big deal, I just need to fellowship with them a little.” Through the fellowship, the supervisor expresses their stance, saying, “I admit I am arrogant. I admit there are times when I am concerned with my own vanity, pride, and status, and don’t accept other people’s suggestions. But other people aren’t good at this profession, they often come up with worthless suggestions, so there is a reason why I don’t listen to them.” False leaders do not try to thoroughly understand the situation, they do not look at the results of the supervisor’s work, much less what their humanity, disposition, and pursuit are like. All they do is understate things, saying, “This was reported to me so I’m keeping an eye on you. I’m giving you another chance.” After their talk, the supervisor says that they are willing to repent, but as for whether they really do subsequently repent, or just lie and deceive, false leaders pay this no heed. If someone raises questions about this matter, false leaders say, “I have already talked to them and even fellowshipped many passages of God’s words to them. They are willing to repent, and the problem has already been resolved.” When that person asks, “How is that supervisor’s humanity? Are they a person who accepts the truth? You have given them a chance, but will they be able to genuinely repent and change?” False leaders, unable to see through to this, respond, “I am still observing them.” That person responds: “How long have you been observing them? Have you come to any conclusions?” False leaders say: “It’s been over six months, and I still haven’t come to any conclusions.” If they haven’t gotten any results after more than six months of observation, what kind of work efficiency is that? False leaders believe that having one conversation with the supervisor is effective and resolves the issue. Is this idea valid? They think that once they’ve finished talking to someone, that person will be able to change, and if someone expresses their determination not to do it again, they fully believe them without carrying out any further inquiry or looking into the situation again. If no one pursues the matter, they might not even bother to look into or follow up on the work for half a year. False leaders remain unaware even when that supervisor makes a mess of the work. They cannot discern how the supervisor is tricking and toying with them. What’s even more hateful is that when someone reports the supervisor’s issues, false leaders ignore them and don’t actually look into whether the issues exist or if the issues that they report are real. They do not consider these issues—they really have too much faith in themselves! Regardless of what situations arise in the church’s work, false leaders don’t hurry to address them; they think that it isn’t their concern anyhow. The response of false leaders to these problems is extremely sluggish, they take measures and move very slowly, they keep prevaricating, and keep giving people another chance to repent, as if the chances they give to people are so precious and important, as if they can change their fate. False leaders do not know how to see someone’s nature essence through what is manifested in them, or to judge what path a person walks based on their nature essence, or to see whether a person is fit to be a supervisor or to do the work of a leader based on the path they walk. They aren’t able to see things in that way. False leaders are only capable of doing two things in their work: one, pulling people in for chats and going through the motions; two, giving people chances, pleasing others, and not offending anyone. Are they doing actual work? Clearly not. But false leaders believe that pulling someone in for a chat is actual work. They regard these conversations as very valuable and important, and view the empty words and doctrines they spout as incredibly significant. They think that they have resolved major problems through these conversations and done actual work. They do not know why God judges and chastises, prunes, or tries and refines people. They do not know that only God’s words and the truth can resolve man’s corrupt dispositions. They oversimplify God’s work and God’s salvation of mankind so much! They believe that speaking a few words and doctrines is a substitute for God’s work, that it can resolve the problem of man’s corruption. Is this not the foolishness and ignorance of false leaders? False leaders do not have the slightest bit of the truth reality, so why are they so confident? Will spouting a few doctrines make people know themselves? Will it enable them to cast off their corrupt dispositions? How can these false leaders be so ignorant and naive? Is resolving a person’s erroneous practices and corrupt behavior really that simple? Is the issue of man’s corrupt dispositions so easy to resolve? False leaders are so foolish and shallow! God does not use merely one method to resolve the issue of man’s corruption. He uses many methods and orchestrates different environments in order to reveal, cleanse, and perfect people. False leaders, by contrast, perform work in an incredibly monotonous and superficial way: They pull people in for chats, do a little psychological work, exhort people a little, and think that this is doing real work. This is superficial, is it not? And what issue is hidden behind this superficiality? Is it not naivety? False leaders are extremely naive, and they also view people and things in an incredibly naive way. Nothing is harder to resolve than people’s corrupt dispositions—a leopard can’t change its spots. False leaders cannot see through to this problem at all. Therefore, when it comes to the kind of supervisors in the church who are constantly causing disturbances, who always constrain and torment people, false leaders do nothing but talk to them, and prune them with a couple of words, and that’s it. They do not promptly dismiss and reassign them. This approach of false leaders causes tremendous harm to the work of the church, and often leads to the church work being held up, delayed, damaged, and prevented from progressing normally, smoothly, and efficiently because of the disturbances of some evil people—which is all a grievous consequence of false leaders acting based on their feelings, violating the truth principles, and using the wrong people. By outward appearances, false leaders are not deliberately committing myriad evils, or doing things their own way and establishing their own independent kingdoms, like antichrists do. But false leaders are not able to promptly resolve the various problems that arise in the church’s work, and when problems occur with supervisors of various teams, and when those supervisors are unable to shoulder their work, false leaders are not able to promptly alter their duties or dismiss them, bringing serious losses to the church work. And this is all caused by the false leaders’ dereliction of duty. Aren’t false leaders very detestable? (Yes.)
False leaders aren’t able to promptly handle evil deeds that occur in the church such as supervisors tormenting others, constraining them, and disturbing the church’s work. Similarly, when some supervisors go against the work arrangements of God’s house and do things their own way, false leaders cannot come up with appropriate solutions to promptly resolve these issues. This results in losses to the church’s work and the material and financial resources of God’s house. False leaders are naive and shallow, unable to understand the truth principles, and especially unable to see through to people’s nature essences. Consequently, they often do their work in a superficial way, they go through the motions, abide by regulations, and chant slogans, but fail to go on-site to inspect the work, to observe and ask about each supervisor, or to ask in a timely manner about what these supervisors have done, what the principles guiding their actions are like, and what the subsequent effects are. As a result, they are totally ignorant about who the people they’re using actually are and what they have done. Therefore, when these supervisors secretly go against the work arrangements of God’s house and do things their own way, not only do false leaders not know about this, they even try to defend the supervisors. Even if they hear about it, they do not look into it and handle it promptly. False leaders are in one respect incompetent in their work, and in another respect, they are negligent in their duties. Let’s give an example. A certain leader selected someone who had been eliminated from another team to be a planting technician. He did not check whether this person had relevant experience and expertise, if she could do the job well, or if she had a serious and responsible attitude, and after he put her in that role, he left her completely unchecked, saying, “Go ahead and start planting vegetables. You can choose the seeds, and I’ll approve any amount that you spend. Just do this work however you see fit!” The leader said this, and so this supervisor started doing the work however she saw fit. Her first task was to select the seeds. When she checked online, she discovered, “There are simply too many different varieties of vegetables—this vast world is full of extraordinary things! Choosing seeds is quite fun. I’ve never done this job before, and I didn’t know I would be so interested in it. Since I am so interested in it, I’ll just go all out!” She opened the section on tomato seeds first, and she was simply amazed. There were all manner of varieties and all kinds of sizes, and in terms of color there were red ones, yellow ones, and green ones. One type was even multi-colored—she’d never seen anything like it, and this really broadened her horizons! But how was she to choose the right seeds? She decided to plant some of every variety, especially the many-colored kind that looked so unique. The supervisor selected over 10 varieties of tomatoes in different sizes, colors, and shapes. After selecting tomato seeds, it was time to do the same for eggplant. Typically, the types of eggplant that people eat are long and purple eggplants or white eggplants, but she thought, “Eggplants shouldn’t be limited to just these two types. There are green, patterned, long, round, and oval varieties. I’ll choose a little of each type, so everyone can expand their minds and eat all kinds of different eggplants. As a supervisor, look at how adept and bold I am at selecting seeds, how considerate I am toward the brothers and sisters, satisfying everyone’s tastes.” Then, she selected onion seeds. There were a total of 14 varieties of onions locally, and she selected them all, and when she was done, she felt quite satisfied. Is this supervisor “bold”? Who would dare to choose so many varieties? Later, I kept dissecting this matter, and someone even said, “There aren’t just 14 varieties locally; there are still a few more that she didn’t select!” What they meant was that 14 varieties wasn’t so many, and that there were still others that the supervisor didn’t select, so she didn’t do anything wrong. Isn’t the person who said this slow-witted? This is being slow-witted, not understanding human language, and being ignorant of why I was dissecting the matter. After selecting onion seeds, the supervisor also chose at least eight varieties of potatoes. What was her aim in selecting so many varieties? To broaden everyone’s horizons and let them taste various different flavors. The supervisor believed that seed selection should be based on the principle of benefitting the brothers and sisters. What do you think of her motivation? Is acting based on an attitude of thinking on everyone’s behalf and serving everyone the principle required by God’s house? (No.) Then, what is the principle of God’s house for seed selection? Don’t plant some strange and rare varieties that we don’t commonly eat. As for varieties that are commonly eaten, if we haven’t planted them before and don’t know whether they are suitable for the local soil and climate, select one or two varieties, three or four at most. Firstly, they must be suitable for the local soil and climate; secondly, they must be easy to grow and not susceptible to diseases and pests; thirdly, they should yield seeds for the following year; lastly, they should yield a good harvest. If they’re delicious but the harvest they yield is poor, they’re not suitable. Judging by the matter of seed selection, did this supervisor act in accordance with the principles? Did she seek? Did she submit? Did she show consideration for God’s house? Did she act with the attitude she ought to possess in the performance of a duty? (No.) Clearly, she was running amok doing bad things, openly going against the work arrangements of God’s house and doing things her own way! She squandered God’s offerings in this way to satisfy her personal curiosity and desire for fun, and treated such an important task as a game, but her false leader let her do as she pleased without questioning or intervening. When he was asked, “Did the supervisor you chose actually do any work? What were the results? Did you help her by carrying out checks when it came to seed selection?” He didn’t pay attention to these matters, and only said, “The seeds have been planted; we visited the site during planting.” He didn’t care about any other issues. How was this supervisor’s issue discovered in the end? She planted some strawberries, and according to the relevant technical specifications, strawberry plants should not be covered or allowed to bear fruit in the first year, and all flowers should be removed; otherwise, there won’t be any fruit the second year, and even if there is fruit the first year, it will be very small. Even though experts told the supervisor this, she wouldn’t listen. Her reasoning was based on information online stating that it was acceptable to cover strawberry plants with plastic film in the first year and let them yield fruit. The result of this was that they yielded various misshapen small strawberries covered in seeds—some sour, some sweet, and some tasteless—there were all kinds. The problem had become as severe as that, yet the false leaders there ignored it completely. Why? Because they thought that they wouldn’t get to eat those strawberries anyway, so they chose to disregard the issue. Does not getting to eat something mean they shouldn’t care about it? What about the potatoes and onions that they would get to eat—did they care about them? None of these false leaders cared; they just watched as the supervisor did as she pleased. One day, I visited them, and someone reported that the lettuce had become old, and if they didn’t harvest it soon, no one would be able to eat it and it would go to waste. However, the supervisor insisted on leaving it, and said that if they harvested it they would have to plant other vegetables, which she found troublesome. Despite knowing about this, the false leaders did nothing. Eventually, the Above had to order them to quickly harvest the lettuce and handle the situation; otherwise, the lettuce would take up the land and prevent the summer vegetables from being planted. Despite such a significant problem arising in the work, none of the false leaders did anything about it, they were too afraid of offending people. Because the supervisor was promoted by a false leader, and he never checked her work after promoting her, allowed her to act freely, and provided her support and backed her up, and the other leaders didn’t dare intervene, and worked hand in glove with them, so many troubles eventually arose. This is the work that the leaders did. Can they still be called leaders? Despite such a serious issue taking place right under their noses, they failed to recognize it as a problem, let alone resolve it. Are these not false leaders? (Yes, they are.) In one respect, they were people-pleasers and were afraid of offending others. In another respect, they didn’t know how serious the problem was, they lacked accurate judgment, didn’t know it was an issue, and were unaware that this work fell within the scope of their responsibilities. Aren’t they good-for-nothings and wastrels? Isn’t this a dereliction of duty? (Yes.) This is the fourth situation: supervisors going against the work arrangements of God’s house and doing things their own way. We have presented an example, which exposes false leaders’ manifestation of being derelict in their duties in this matter and brings to light the nature essence of false leaders.
Another situation is when supervisors rebel against their superiors and establish independent kingdoms—these supervisors are antichrists. False leaders aren’t able to play the role of overseers when it comes to issues such as supervisors having poor caliber, possessing bad humanity, or running amok doing bad things. They also fail to promptly inspect and ask about the work that these kinds of supervisors are doing and their problems in order to determine their suitability. Similarly, false leaders are even more incapable of seeing through to the nature essence of antichrists, who are sinister and vicious people. Not only are they incapable of seeing through to this, at the same time they are somewhat afraid of these people, and a bit helpless and impotent, to the extent that, more often than not, they get led by the nose by the antichrists. How serious can this get? Antichrists may form cliques within the work areas of false leaders, drawing in their own forces and establishing independent kingdoms, and eventually, they may take over, begin calling the shots, and turn the false leaders into figureheads. These false leaders somehow remain oblivious to the things that antichrists decide and know about, and are in the dark about them. They only become aware of these things after something happens and someone reports it to them, but by then, it’s too late. False leaders even ask the antichrists why they weren’t informed, and their response is, “What’s the use of telling you? You can’t make decisions about anything, so there was no need to discuss this with you, we made the decision ourselves. Even if we had informed you, you definitely would have agreed. What opinion could you have had?” False leaders are helpless in such matters. If they can’t discern, resolve, or handle these antichrists, they should report them to the Above, but they don’t even dare to do that—are these not good-for-nothings? (Yes.) When faced with such matters, these big good-for-nothings just come to Me to complain in tears, grumbling, “It’s not my fault; I didn’t make that decision. Whether the decision they made was correct or not has nothing to do with me, because they didn’t inform me or tell me about it when they did it.” What do they mean by this? (They are shirking responsibility.) As leaders, they should know and have a grasp on these matters; if antichrists don’t inform them about things, why don’t they proactively go and ask themselves? As leaders, they should organize, preside over, and make decisions about every matter; if the antichrists don’t inform them about anything and make decisions on their own, sending these leaders invoices afterward to sign, aren’t they usurping their authority? Once false leaders encounter antichrists disturbing the church work, they become dumbfounded; they’re as helpless as fools faced with a wolf, and stand by powerlessly while they’re turned into figureheads and have their authority usurped. They can’t do a single thing about it—what a bunch of useless wretches! They can’t resolve issues, they can’t discern or expose antichrists, and they certainly can’t restrict them from committing any evil deeds. At the same time, they don’t report these issues to the Above. Are these not good-for-nothings? What’s the use of choosing them as leaders? Antichrists run amok doing bad things, openly squander offerings, and they form forces which they head and establish independent kingdoms within the church; meanwhile, these leaders totally fail to supervise, expose, restrain, or handle them, yet they come to Me to complain. What kind of leaders are they? They truly are good-for-nothings! No matter what it is they are doing, these gangs headed by antichrists secretly hold discussions among themselves and then make decisions without authorization. They don’t even give leaders the right to know what’s going on, let alone the right to make decisions. They directly negate the leaders, wielding all the power themselves and calling all the shots. What are the leaders tasked with managing them doing in the midst of all this? They utterly fail to inspect, supervise, manage, or make decisions regarding this work. In the end, they let the antichrists take over and manage them from above. Doesn’t this problem arise from the work of false leaders? What is the essence of this problem? Where does it stem from? It stems from false leaders having poor caliber, lacking work capability, and antichrists having no regard for them at all. Antichrists think, “What can you do as leaders? I still won’t listen to you, and I will continue to step over you to do things. If you report this to the Above, we will torment you!” False leaders dare not report such matters. Not only do false leaders lack work capability, they also lack the courage to uphold the principles, they are afraid of offending people, and completely lack loyalty—isn’t this a serious problem? If they truly had some caliber and understood the truth, then upon seeing that these guys were bad, they would say, “I don’t dare expose them alone, so I will fellowship with several brothers and sisters who pursue and understand the truth more to resolve these issues. If, after fellowshipping with them, we still can’t deal with the antichrists, I will report the problem to the Above and let them resolve it. I can’t do anything else, but I must first safeguard the interests of God’s house; the issues I have seen through to and the problems I have discovered must absolutely not be allowed to continue developing.” Is this not a way to address the problem? Can’t it also be considered fulfilling one’s responsibility? If they could do this, then the Above won’t say that they have poor caliber and lack work capability. However, these leaders can’t even report problems to the Above, so they are classified as good-for-nothings and false leaders. Not only do they have poor caliber and lack work capability, they don’t even have the faith and courage to rely on God to expose and fight against the antichrists. Aren’t they good-for-nothings? Are those who have been usurped by antichrists pitiable? They may sound pitiful; they haven’t done anything bad, and in their work they are very cautious, very afraid of making mistakes, of being pruned, and of being disdained by the brothers and sisters. Yet they end up being totally usurped by antichrists right before their eyes, nothing they say has any effect, and it doesn’t really matter if they’re there or not. They may seem pitiable on the surface, but they’re actually pretty detestable. Tell Me, can God’s house resolve problems that people cannot? Should people report problems to the Above? (Yes, they should.) In God’s house, there are no problems that cannot be resolved, and God’s words can resolve any issue. Do those people have true faith in God? If they don’t even have this bit of faith, how are they qualified to be leaders? Aren’t they useless wretches? This isn’t just about being false leaders; they lack even the most basic faith in God. They are disbelievers and they don’t deserve to be leaders!
Regarding the fourth responsibility of leaders and workers, we have listed five situations to expose how false leaders approach various items of work and supervisors. Based on these five situations, we dissected the various manifestations of false leaders’ extremely poor caliber, incompetence, and inability to do real work. By fellowshipping in this way, are you a bit clearer on how to discern false leaders? (Yes.) Alright then, let’s conclude our fellowship here today. Goodbye!
January 23, 2021
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