Now, gospel work overseas is universally underway. Some countries have more people who can accept the truth, while others have populations of lesser caliber, resulting in fewer who can accept the truth. Some countries lack freedom of belief, showing strong resistance to the true way and God’s work, and not many people can accept the truth. Furthermore, some countries’ populations are too backward and are of such poor caliber that they cannot understand the truth no matter how it is fellowshipped, and it appears that the people there fall short of the truth. The gospel should not be preached in such places. However, those preaching the gospel fail to see the essence of the problem; they do not preach to those who can accept the truth, insisting instead on seeking out the hard cases while ignoring the easier ones. They do not preach in places where the gospel work is already being spread and it is easy to preach. Instead, they insist on preaching the gospel in those poor and backward places, preaching to the groups of people with the worst caliber, who cannot comprehend the truth, and to the ethnic groups with the heaviest religious notions and the strongest resistance to God. Isn’t this a deviation? Take, for example, Judaism, and some deeply entrenched racial religions, which regard Christianity as an enemy and even persecute it. In the case of these kinds of countries and ethnic groups, the gospel simply should not be preached. Why not? Because preaching is futile. Even if you commit all manpower, financial resources, and material resources, three, five, or even ten years might pass without seeing any significant results. In light of this situation, what can be done? At first, not knowing any better, one could try; but upon clearly seeing the circumstances—that preaching the gospel to them at great cost may not necessarily yield good results in the end—one must then choose another path, a path that can achieve results. Isn’t this something that leaders and workers should see through? (Yes.) But false leaders do not understand this. When it comes to where to start spreading the gospel overseas, some say, “Start with Israel. As Israel was the base for God’s first two stages of work, it must be preached there. No matter how difficult it is, we must persist in preaching to them.” However, after a long time of preaching, there are no significant results, leading to disappointment. What should leaders do at this time? If it was a leader with caliber and a burden, they would say, “Our preaching of the gospel has no principle; we don’t know how to go with the flow, but just view things based on our imaginings—that’s too naive of us! The foolishness, stubbornness, and absurdity of these people weren’t what we expected. We thought that because they have been believing in God for thousands of years, they should be the first to hear God’s gospel, but we thought wrong; they are too absurd! In fact, when God was doing the work of redemption, He had already given up on them. For us to go back and preach to them now would be to engage in a futile effort; it would be laboring in vain and acting foolishly. We have misunderstood God’s intentions. God doesn’t work on this matter, so by what means can we humans can do it? We’ve given it a shot, but no matter how we preach, they do not accept the true way. We should give it up for now, leave them aside, and pay no attention to them for the time being. If there are those who are willing to seek, then we will welcome them and testify God’s work to them. If there are none who seek, then there’s no need for us to proactively look for them.” Isn’t this a principle of preaching the gospel? (Yes.) So, can a false leader adhere to principles? (No.) False leaders have poor caliber and cannot see through to the essence of the issue; they will say, “God has said that the Israelites are His chosen people. We can never give up on them at any time. They should come first; we need to preach to them first before preaching to people in other countries. If God’s work were to be spread in Israel, what a great glory that would be! God brought glory from Israel to the East, and we should bring that glory back to Israel from the East, and let them see that God has returned!” Is this not just a slogan? Does this align with the facts? This is what those who lack spiritual understanding would say. What about those false leaders who do no real work? They pay no heed to these things. People preaching the gospel have been troubled by this issue for a long time, torn between giving up and continuing to preach, unsure of how to practice. False leaders are completely oblivious that this is a problem. Seeing these people fretting over not having a path, they say, “What is there to worry about? We have the truth and experiential testimony; just preach to them!” Someone says, “You don’t understand, these people are really hard to preach to.” When significant issues arise in the work that require the leaders to resolve them, the leaders are still just shouting slogans and speaking empty words. Is this the behavior expected of leaders? When asked whether such potential gospel recipients should be preached to, they say, “Everyone should be preached to, especially Israelites, they should definitely be preached to.” Do you hear any problem with these words? Do they know this is a deviation, a flaw in the gospel work that needs to be handled by them? These good-for-nothings don’t know and are still there spouting high-sounding language and shouting slogans, they truly are useless trash! And yet they think they’re astute, and that they have caliber and are clever. They aren’t even aware that such a big flaw and deviation has appeared in the work; can they even begin to resolve it? That’s even less likely. Those who preach the gospel are all worried sick; the gospel work has been impacted, hindered, and cannot proceed smoothly, and the false leaders surprisingly have no clue about the deviation occurring in the work. Most people, when encountering problems or deviations in the work, often don’t care, don’t notice, and still stubbornly persist in the wrong approach with reckless abandon. If leaders and workers also don’t promptly understand and grasp the situation, then by the time that the problem has become serious and affected the progress of the work, and most people can discover the problem, the leaders and workers are dumbfounded. This is caused by the dereliction of duty by the leaders and workers. So, how can they avoid such severe consequences? Leaders and workers must regularly check the work, and promptly understand the current status and progress of the work. If it’s found that the work efficiency is not high, they must see which part has flaws and problems, and ponder: “Right now, these people appear to be busy, but why isn’t there any obvious efficiency? Like the work of the gospel team; so many people preach the gospel and testify every day, along with some people who cooperate in this work, so why aren’t many people gained each month? Which part has a problem? Who is causing the problem? How was this deviation created? When did it start? I need to go to each group to find out what everyone is doing now, how the current potential gospel recipients are, and whether the direction of preaching the gospel is accurate; I need to find out all of this.” Through consulting, fellowshipping, and discussing, the deviations and flaws in the work gradually become apparent. Once a problem is discovered, it cannot be left alone; it must be resolved. So, what kind of leaders can detect some problems, deviations, and flaws that appear in the work? These leaders need to bear a burden, be diligent, and be involved in every detail of the specific work; follow up, understand, and grasp every part; ascertain what everyone is doing, what number of people is suitable for doing which task, who the supervisors are, what the caliber of these people is, and whether they are doing their work well or not, and what their efficiency is like, how the work is progressing, and so on and so forth—all of these things must be ascertained. Additionally, the most critical part of the gospel work is whether gospel preachers have the truth or not, whether they can fellowship on the truths of visions clearly to resolve people’s notions and problems, whether they can supply what the potential gospel recipients lack in order to convince them thoroughly, and whether they can adopt a conversational manner in their fellowship of the truth, so that potential gospel recipients can hear more of God’s voice. For instance, if a potential gospel recipient wants to learn about truths concerning the significance of God’s incarnation, but a certain gospel preacher always talks about the significance of God’s work and about what religious notions are, isn’t this a problem? If a person just wants to learn about how they can be saved and what the content of God’s management plan for saving humankind is, isn’t this the time to fellowship about the vision truths concerning the three stages of God’s work? (Yes.) But this gospel preacher keeps talking about God’s chastisement and judgment, and His exposure that people’s corrupt dispositions include arrogance, deceitfulness, and wickedness, and other such topics. Before the other party has accepted God’s work, the gospel preacher starts talking to them about chastisement and judgment, exposing their corrupt dispositions. As a result, the person is repelled, doesn’t get what they want, and their problems that need resolution remain unresolved; they lose interest and aren’t willing to continue investigating. Isn’t this a problem with the gospel preacher? The gospel preacher doesn’t understand the truth, or lacks spiritual understanding, and so is completely unaware of what the other person needs, failing to make a point when they speak, rambling on at great length, and not resolving the issues of the potential gospel recipient at all—how can they possibly gain people by preaching the gospel this way?

False leaders disregard whatever issues they come up against in their work. No matter what problems arise in gospel work, and no matter how evil people disturb and affect this work, they pay no heed to any of it, as if it has nothing to do with them. False leaders are muddle-headed in their work; regardless of whether a certain individual has any results or conforms to the principles in their duty, they do not provide supervision or vetting, allowing people to act freely no matter the consequences. This causes the deviations and flaws that appear in the gospel work to never get resolved, and an untold number of people who seek the true way end up slipping away, unable to be brought before God as soon as possible. Some people, after coming to accept God’s work in the last days, say, “Actually, someone preached the gospel to me three years ago. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to accept it or that I believed in negative propaganda; the person who preached to me was just so irresponsible. They couldn’t answer the questions I asked, and they were unclear in fellowshipping when I sought the truth, only speaking some useless words. As a result, all I could do was leave in disappointment.” Three years later, after investigating online and then seeking and fellowshipping with the brothers and sisters, these people resolve all the notions and confusions in their hearts one by one, fully confirming that it is God appearing and doing work, and accepting it. This is them accepting God’s work through their own seeking and investigation. Had the person preaching the gospel been able to clearly fellowship the truth and resolve their notions and questions three years earlier, they would have accepted it three years sooner. How much life growth was delayed during these three years! This must be deemed a dereliction of duty on the part of those preaching the gospel and is directly related to them not understanding the truth. Some gospel workers simply do not focus on equipping themselves with the truth, only capable of spouting some doctrines without being able to resolve people’s notions or actual issues. As a result, many people do not accept the gospel in a timely manner when they hear it, delaying their life growth by several years. It must be said that the leaders in charge of the gospel work are responsible for this due to their inadequate guidance and insufficient oversight. If leaders and workers truly have a burden and are able to endure a bit more suffering, practice fellowshipping the truth more, and show a bit more loyalty, fellowshipping clearly on all aspects of truth, so that those gospel workers are able to fellowship the truth to resolve people’s notions and doubts, then the results of preaching the gospel would get better and better. This would allow more people who are investigating the true way to accept God’s work earlier and return before God to receive His salvation sooner. The work of the church gets held up simply because false leaders are seriously derelict in their duties, do not do real work or follow up on and oversee work, and are unable to fellowship the truth to fix problems. Of course, it is also because these false leaders indulge in the benefits of status, do not pursue the truth at all, and are unwilling to follow up on, supervise, or direct the work of spreading the gospel—with the result that work progresses slowly, and many man-made deviations, absurdities, and reckless wrongdoings fail to be promptly rectified or resolved, which severely impacts the effectiveness of spreading the gospel. It is only when these problems are discovered by the Above and the leaders and workers are told they must fix them that these problems are corrected. Like blind people, these false leaders are unable to discover any problems, and there are no principles at all to the way they do things, and yet they are incapable of realizing their own mistakes, and only admit their errors when they are pruned by the Above. So who can afford to take responsibility for the losses caused by these false leaders? Even with removing them from their positions, how can the losses they caused be made up for? Thus when it is discovered that there are false leaders who are incapable of doing any real work, they should be promptly dismissed. In some churches, the gospel work progresses especially slowly, and this is simply down to false leaders not doing real work, as well as too many instances of dereliction and making mistakes on their part.

In all the different items of work that false leaders do, there are actually numerous issues, deviations, and flaws that they need to resolve, correct, and remedy. However, because these false leaders lack a sense of burden, indulging only in the benefits of their status without doing any real work, they end up making a mess of the work. In some churches, people are not united in their minds, with everyone suspecting, guarding against, and undermining each other, all the while fearing being eliminated by God’s house. Faced with these situations, false leaders do not move to resolve them, failing to do any real, specific work. Church work comes to a standstill, yet false leaders are not upset by this whatsoever, still believing they have done plenty of work themselves and haven’t delayed the church’s work. Such false leaders are fundamentally incapable of performing the work of supplying life, nor can they solve actual problems according to the truth. They only carry out a bit of general affairs work that is specially assigned and specified by the Above, as if their work is done solely for the Above. When it comes to the church’s fundamental work that the Above has always made a requirement—such as the work of supplying life and the work of cultivating people—or certain special tasks directed by the Above, they do not know how to do it and cannot do it. They only delegate these tasks to others and then consider their job done. They do exactly as much as they are instructed by the Above, and take a bit of action only when prodded; otherwise, they are inactive and perfunctory—this is a false leader. What is a false leader? In a nutshell, it is someone who doesn’t do real work, who doesn’t do their job as a leader, displaying gross dereliction of duty in critical and fundamental work and taking no action—this is a false leader. False leaders only occupy themselves with superficial general affairs, mistaking this for doing real work, and in actuality, when it comes to their job as a leader and the critical work assigned to them by God’s house, they don’t do any of it well. Additionally, issues frequently arise within the church’s various items of work that require the leader’s resolution, yet they cannot resolve them, often adopting an avoidant attitude, and the brothers and sisters cannot find them when they want to resolve an issue. If they do manage to find the leader, the leader sidesteps them with the excuse of being too busy with work and asks the brothers and sisters to read God’s words on their own and seek the truth to resolve their problems independently, adopting a hands-off approach. This ultimately leads to a backlog of too many unresolved issues, halting progress in all items of work and bringing the church’s work to a standstill. This is the consequence of false leaders not doing real work. False leaders are never earnest or diligent with regard to their core responsibilities, nor do they seek the truth to resolve various issues. This means that false leaders are bound to be incapable of doing real work and resolving any issues. What false leaders excel at is preaching words and doctrines, shouting slogans, and exhorting others, focusing only on busying themselves with general affairs work. Regarding the church’s fundamental work entrusted to them by God’s house, such as supplying life and fellowshipping the truth to resolve issues, they don’t know how to do them, do not train to learn how, and cannot resolve any actual problems—this is a false leader.

Some false leaders, when asked to guide text-based work such as writing scripts, writing articles of experiential testimony, and other specific tasks, think that since it’s merely guidance, they don’t have to do any concrete work, so they just wander about instead. “Zhang,” they say, “how is your article coming along?” “Almost there.” “Li, are you having any difficulties writing that script?” “Yes, can you help me resolve them?” “You all discuss it amongst yourselves. Do some more praying.” Not only do these false leaders fail to guide and assist the brothers and sisters, they also don’t focus on performing their own job well, always roaming about, and living a leisurely and comfortable life. On the surface, it appears they are inspecting the work, but in actuality they do not resolve any problems—paper pushers is what they really are! Those competent officials in some countries in the world of nonbelievers are equally corrupt humans, but even they are far superior to these false leaders, who lack the sense of responsibility these officials have. For instance, following the outbreak of the pandemic, countries around the world started implementing prevention measures. Eventually, the majority of these countries agreed that Taiwan’s preventative efforts were effective, indicating that Taiwanese government officials performed their pandemic response tasks to the highest standards and with the utmost detail. For a country of the secular world, for officials and politicians among corrupt humankind, to execute a task to the highest standards and with such detail is truly admirable. Many European officials were willing to visit and learn from Taiwan; from this perspective Taiwan’s government officials were far superior to those of other nations. Just because most of their officials were capable of doing concrete work and able to put their heart into fulfilling their responsibilities, it proves that these officials were up to standard. Some leaders and workers in the church are always perfunctory when doing their duties, and no matter how they’re pruned, it’s ineffective. I find that the character of these leaders and workers does not even match that of officials from the world of nonbelievers who can do actual work. Most of them claim to believe in God and pursue the truth, but in actuality, they are unwilling to pay a price. There is so much truth being supplied to them, yet such is their attitude toward doing their duty. The result is that they all become false leaders and workers, who fall far short when compared to superior government officials! My demands of people are actually not high; I don’t demand that people understand too many truths or have too high a caliber. The minimum standard is to act with conscience and fulfill one’s responsibilities. If nothing else, then at the very least, you should live up to your daily bread and the commission God has given you; that is sufficient. But God’s work has been done up until now, and can many people act with conscience? I see that some officials in democratic countries speak and act with sincerity. They don’t make exaggerations or speak lofty theories, their speech is especially rigorous and genuine, and they’re able to take care of many real matters. Their work is indeed quite good, truly reflecting their integrity and humanity. Looking at the majority of leaders and workers in the church now, in their work, they go through the motions and are perfunctory, they have not achieved very good results, and they have not completely fulfilled their responsibilities. After becoming leaders, they turn into religious officials, they sit upon their high horses and give orders, and become paper pushers. They just focus on indulging in the benefits of their status, and they like having everyone following them around and revolving around them. They seldom engage deeply with the church’s grassroots to resolve real problems. In their hearts they are moving further and further away from God. These kinds of false leaders and false workers are utterly irredeemable! I have fellowshipped the truth so painstakingly, yet these leaders and workers do not take it in, they stubbornly cling to their erroneous ideas, and they are unmoved. Their attitude toward their duties is always perfunctory, and they do not have the slightest intention of repenting. I see that these people are without a conscience, without reason, not human at all! I then ponder: Is it still necessary to fellowship repeatedly on these truths to these kinds of people? Do I need to make the fellowship so specific? Do I need to endure this suffering? Are these words superfluous? After some thought, I decide I still must speak, as although these words have no effect on those devoid of the slightest bit of conscience or reason, they are useful for those who, despite being a bit lower in caliber, can accept the truth and sincerely do their duties. False leaders do not do real work and do not fulfill their responsibilities, but those who pursue the truth will learn lessons, become inspired, and find a path to practice from these words and matters. Life entry is not so easy; without someone to support and supply, without breaking down and clarifying each aspect of the truth, people are very weak, often finding themselves in a state of helplessness and perplexity, a state of negativity and passivity. Therefore, many times, when I see these false leaders, I lose the heart to fellowship to them. However, when I think of the suffering endured and the prices paid by those who sincerely believe in God and who do their duties loyally, I change My mind. It’s for no other reason than this: Even if 30 to 50 people—or at the very least 8 or 10 people—can sincerely expend themselves and be loyal in doing their duties, and are willing to listen and submit, then speaking these words is worthwhile. I would have no motivation in Me to speak and fellowship to those who have no conscience and reason; conversing with these people feels exhausting and is fruitless. Most of you do not pursue the truth and do not pay a price in your duties—you have no burden or loyalty, you merely go through the motions in your actions, and reluctantly do things in the hope of gaining blessings. Listening to these words is actually an undeserved favor for you. You’re piggybacking on those who sincerely do their duties, who truly pay a price, who possess loyalty and burden, and who are willing to practice the truth. These words are meant for those people, and you are gaining an undeserved favor by hearing them. If viewed from this perspective—namely, that the majority of you have an attitude of going through the motions without any earnestness whatsoever in your duties—then you are not worthy of hearing these words. Why are you unworthy? Because even if you listen, it’s all for naught; no matter how much is said or how detailed it is, you just go through the motions of listening, not practicing these words no matter how much you understand after listening to them. To whom should these words be spoken? Who is worthy of hearing them? Only those willing to pay a price, who can sincerely expend themselves, and who are loyal to their duties and their commission deserve to listen. Why do I say they deserve to listen? Because once they understand a bit of truth after listening, they can put it into practice, and they practice what they understand; they aren’t slippery and they don’t slack off; and they treat the truth and God’s requirements with an attitude of sincerity and yearning, able to love and accept the truth. Thus, after they listen, these words have an effect on them and achieve a result.

February 13, 2021