How can one believe in and follow God without depending on their mood and without being influenced by their mood or environment? Just how can one achieve this? What is the minimum requirement for believing in God? It requires having an attitude of loving the truth and seeking the truth. Some people ask, “Are having resolve and making vows important?” These are indispensable but depend on the stage of belief. If someone is in the first one or two years of believing, without these, their enthusiasm cannot be ignited. Without enthusiasm, a person who starts to believe in God might be lukewarm, not very zealous in their pursuit, nor withdrawing, just doing whatever is asked of them. Such a person struggles to progress, and they lack a clear attitude. Therefore, new believers need this enthusiasm. This enthusiasm can bring many positive things to a person, allowing them to quickly understand the truth, the vision, and the aim of God’s work, and to quickly lay a foundation. Additionally, when people expend themselves and pay the price actively and enthusiastically, they enter into the truth reality more quickly. Initially, one needs this enthusiasm and should have resolve and ideals. However, if after more than three years of believing in God, one remains at the stage of enthusiasm, there might be a danger. Where does this danger lie? People always treat their belief in God and the matters of dispositional change based on their imaginings and notions. They try to know God and gain an understanding of His work and His requirements for humans based on their imaginings and notions. Can such people enter into the truth reality or understand God’s intentions? (No.) If a person cannot understand the truth, problems arise. Is there anyone who believes in God and lives their entire life in a pampered environment, always within grace and blessings? No, sooner or later, everyone must confront real life and the various environments God has set up for them. When you encounter these different environments and face various issues in real life, what role can your enthusiasm play? It can only drive you to restrain yourself, to pay a price, to suffer, but it cannot lead you to understand the truth or God’s intentions. However, if you seek the truth and understand the truth, it’s different. How is it different? When you understand the truth and face these situations, you no longer treat them based on your enthusiasm or notions. Whenever you encounter anything, you first come before God to seek and pray, to find the truth principles. You can then become submissive, with this awareness and attitude. This attitude and awareness are crucial. It may happen that in a particular trial, you don’t gain anything, don’t enter too deeply into the truth, and don’t understand just what the reality of the truth is. However, during this trial, having such a submissive awareness and attitude allows you to truly experience how people, as created beings, should act and what they should do in order to be the most normal and proper before God. Although you may not understand God’s intention or know precisely what God wants you to achieve or gain in such an environment, you feel that you can submit to God and to such circumstances. From the depths of your heart, you can accept the environment God has set up for you. You feel you have maintained your proper place as a created being, not rebelling against or opposing God, and your heart feels secure. While feeling secure, your reliance on God in heaven is not vague, and you don’t feel distant or reject the God on earth. Instead, from the depths of your heart, there’s a bit more fear and also a bit more closeness. Look at this, the difference between someone who seeks truth and can submit, and someone who relies on enthusiasm and has only a bit of resolve—is it significant? The difference is huge. A person who relies on enthusiasm and has only resolve, when faced with situations, will resist, argue, complain, and feel wronged. They might think, “Why is God treating me this way? I’m still young, why doesn’t God coax me? Why doesn’t God count my past achievements? Why punish instead of rewarding me? I’m still so young, what do I know? Even my parents at home never treated me like this; they cherished me as their precious child, their little baby. Now that I’ve grown up a lot after coming to God’s house, for God to treat me this way seems too inconsiderate!” These are the kinds of flawed arguments they make. How do such flawed arguments arise? If a person seeks and understands the truth, can they still have these flawed arguments? If a person understands and knows these truths while doing their duty ordinarily, can they still harbor such complaints and impetuousness when faced with situations? (No.) They would definitely not speak like this. Instead, they would see themselves as an ordinary created being and come before God, without regard to age, gender, or standing and status, simply submitting and listening to God’s words. When people can listen to the words God says and His requirements, they have submission in their hearts. When a person can consciously submit, when they have an attitude of submission, they truly stand in the position of a created being, having love, submission, and fear of God, not relying on their moods or emotions. These are some reactions when people are confronted with being pruned. What are the main reactions? They are feeling bad, feeling frustrated, feeling wronged, and needing comfort. When they don’t receive comfort or warmth, they start harboring complaints and misunderstandings about God in their hearts. They no longer wish to pray to God, and deep down, they consider abandoning God, wanting to distance themselves from Him—both the God in heaven and the God on earth. Some people, if I prune them a bit, will avoid Me the next time we meet, not wanting to interact with Me. Usually, when they are not being pruned, they are always around Me, offering tea, asking if I need anything, being in a good mood, diligent, talkative, and close in their relationship with God. But once they are pruned, it’s not the same anymore—they no longer offer tea or send greetings, and if I ask them a few more questions they just leave, no longer to be seen.

Back when I was in mainland China, I stayed in the homes of some brothers and sisters. Some of these people had bad humanity, some were new believers, some developed numerous notions upon our first contact and they did not understand the truth, and others were not pursuing the truth at all. Seeing these people reveal their corruption, I couldn’t prune them; I had to speak gently and tactfully. If you were to really prune them, they’d develop notions and rebelliousness, so you’d need to coax and negotiate with them, and fellowship the truth more to guide them. If you didn’t negotiate or fellowship and just made direct demands, it absolutely wouldn’t work. For example, you could say, “This meal is a bit too salty; maybe next time make it a little less salty. Eating too much salt is not good for your health. As believers in God, you should also apply common sense and not be ignorant; you must accept positive things. If you don’t believe me, you can ask a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner about the effects of too much salt on the kidneys.” This approach is acceptable for them. But if you say, “This food is so salty, are you trying to salt someone to death? Why always make it so salty? It’s too salty to eat! How can you be so ignorant? Don’t make it so salty next time!” then that won’t work. The next meal, they might not add any salt at all. Then you say, “Why is this so bland?” “Bland? Didn’t you say it was too salty? Too much salt harms the kidneys, so isn’t it better not to put any salt at all? Then it won’t harm the kidneys.” Being too harsh won’t work; you need to negotiate and coax. Many people are quite troublesome; when talking to them, you have to be careful about the manner and timing of your speech, and also consider their mood—you have to do some negotiating. Sometimes, if you accidentally speak a bit too harshly, you might hurt them, and they may resist internally. On the surface, it might not seem like much, but inside, it’s different. Normally, when you ask them to do something, they do it promptly, but if you hurt their feelings, they become less enthusiastic about doing things, dragging their feet and being utterly unwilling. They say, “How can I be good to you when I’m in a bad mood? I’ll be nicer when I’m in a good mood, but when I’m not, just getting by is enough.” Just what sort of creature is this? Aren’t people difficult to deal with? (Yes.) People are just like this, impervious to reason and beyond logic. When they reflect on themselves later, they may bow their heads, confess their sins, and weep bitterly, but they still react the same way when they once again face such matters and are pruned. Is this a person who seeks the truth? (No.) What kind of person is this? Such a person is willful and does not accept the truth at all. This is the kind of attitude people have toward God when they are confronted with being pruned, and when they face adversities. In short, they are not submissive, cannot accept the truth, and when hurt, they treat God according to their impetuousness. Isn’t this a serious problem? When I encounter some people, even before I prune them, just by speaking about the matter at hand, their faces fall, they speak grumpily, have a bad attitude, and even throw things. You can’t speak frankly to them; you have to beat around the bush and be tactful. Can I speak in such a roundabout way as people do? Regardless of whether you can accept it or not, I have to say what is true—things must be done according to the truth principles in God’s house. Some people show no outward reaction when they are pruned, but inwardly they are sulking. Can such a person do their duty well? (No.) If they cannot properly do their duty and they keep making mistakes, the church has to handle them according to principles.

2. Their Behavior Toward Christ When He Was Being Hunted, With No Place to Rest His Head

There is danger every day in believing in God and following Him in mainland China. It is an exceptionally harsh environment for it, in which one might be arrested at any time. You have all experienced an environment of being hunted—and have I not, as well? You and I lived in the same environment, so in that environment, I could not avoid hiding Myself away often. There were times when I had to change locations two or three times in a day; there were even times when I had to go somewhere I had not dreamed of going. The hardest times were those when I had nowhere to go—I would hold a gathering during the day, then at night, I would not know where there was safety. Sometimes, having struggled hard to find a place, I had to leave the next day, because the great red dragon was bearing down on it. What do people of true faith think when they see such a scene? “That God came to earth in the flesh to save man is the price He has paid. This is one among the sufferings that He has undergone, and it quite fulfills His words that go, ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head’ (Matthew 8:20). Things are truly so—and Christ incarnate personally undergoes such suffering, the same as man does.” All who truly believe in God can see how very arduous His work of saving man is, and for this, they will love God, and they will thank Him for the price He pays for mankind’s sake. Those with particularly bad humanity, who are malicious and utterly reject the truth, as well as those who follow Christ merely out of curiosity or wanting to witness miracles, do not think this way when they see such scenes. They think to themselves, “You have no place to stay? You are god, working to save people, yet you can’t even save yourself and don’t know where you’ll stay tomorrow. Now you don’t even have a place to take shelter—how can I believe in you or follow you?” The more perilous the circumstances, the more they rejoice, thinking, “Luckily, I didn’t fully forsake everything; luckily, I kept a backup plan. See? You have nowhere to call home now! I knew it would come to this—you don’t have any place to rest your head, and I even have to help find a place to shelter you.” They have been revealed, haven’t they? If such people were to witness the scene of the Lord Jesus being crucified, how would they behave? When the Lord Jesus was carrying the cross toward Golgotha, where were such people? Could they continue to follow Him? (No.) They denied God’s identity, His essence, and even His existence. They fled, going off to fend for themselves, no longer following God. Regardless of how many sermons they had heard before, all of them vanished from their hearts, disappearing without a trace. They believed that everything they saw before them was real and of human origin, unrelated to God. They thought, “This person is just a human; where in him is the identity or essence of god? If he were god, would he hide and conceal himself like this, hunted by Satan with no place to rest his head, no place to find refuge? If he were god, he should suddenly transform and vanish before everyone’s eyes when being hunted, making it so that nobody would be able to see him, and knowing how to make himself invisible—that would be god!” In the dangerous environment of mainland China, some brothers and sisters, seeing that I had gone to their place, risked their safety to host and protect Me, while others fled, disappearing without a trace. Some even watched with amusement, looking on from the sidelines. Who are these people? They are the disbelievers, antichrists. When these people saw Me with nowhere to hide, how did they perceive this situation? How did they understand it? “Christ is also in danger, about to be captured. Alas, the church is finished, the work of god’s house is done for. This stage of work is a mistake, what god testified is wrong—this isn’t what god testified. I better hurry up and live my own life; I’m off to go make a fortune!” This is the behavior of an antichrist. When Christ faced being hunted with nowhere to hide and no place to rest His head, instead of joining hearts to suffer with God and continuing the church’s work with Him in such an environment, they became bystanders who watched Him and mocked. They even incited others to cause destruction, disruptions, and disturbances, and furthermore, when some people saw Me with nowhere to hide and no place to settle, they took the opportunity to disturb the church’s work and seize the property of God’s house. This is just like how when Jesus was crucified, many disbelievers and antichrists thought, “The church is finished, god’s work is done for, completely demolished by Satan. We better hurry to escape and start dividing up the goods!” Regardless of the circumstances they face, these disbelievers and antichrists will always reveal their vicious dispositions, revealing the true features of disbelievers. Whenever the church encounters the slightest sign of trouble or adverse circumstances, they want to flee at once, eager for all the brothers and sisters to disband, withdraw, and no longer follow Christ. They earnestly wish that this stream is wrong, and that God’s work is left incomplete. These are the true features of antichrists. This is the attitude of antichrists toward Christ when facing such circumstances.

3. Their Behavior When They Engender Notions About Christ

Another item is the manifestations of antichrists when they have notions about the flesh of God incarnate. For instance, when they see the incarnate God doing certain things or saying certain words that are very human-like, not perceiving the slightest hint of divinity, they develop resistance and engender notions and condemnation from the depths of their hearts, thinking, “No matter how I look at him, that person doesn’t seem like god; he just looks like an ordinary person. If he’s like a human, then can he still be god? If he’s a human, wouldn’t following him like this be incredibly foolish?” They engender notions about Christ’s speech and actions, about Christ’s lifestyle, His clothing and appearance, and even the way He speaks, His tone, His choice of words, and so on—they can engender notions about all of these. When these notions arise, how do they respond? They harbor these thoughts and don’t let them go, believing that grasping these notions is like seizing the key. They think that this “key” comes just in time, that once they have these notions, it gives them leverage, and once they have leverage, it becomes easy to handle. This is how antichrists think; they feel that having notions is equal to holding leverage, and so they can deny Christ at any time and place and can deny the fact that the flesh in which God is incarnate possesses the essence of God. Some people ask, “Why do antichrists harbor such intentions?” Tell Me, do the antichrists, those of Satan’s cohort, hope for the successful completion of God’s work, or not? (They do not.) Why don’t they hope for it? What gives it away? Antichrists are inherently averse to the truth, and all words expressed by God are the truth, which they find thoroughly repulsive in their hearts and are unwilling to listen to or accept. God’s words of exposure and judgment to mankind are condemnations of these antichrists and evil people, and for them, these words are condemnations, judgments, and curses, making them feel uncomfortable and uneasy when they hear them. What do they think in their hearts? “All of these words that god speaks are judging and condemning me. It seems that someone like me cannot be saved; I’m the type that gets eliminated and rejected. Since I have no hope of being saved, what’s the point of believing in god? But the fact is that he is still god, he is the flesh in which god is incarnate, who has spoken so many words and has so many followers. What should I do about this?” This matter makes them anxious; if they can’t gain something, they don’t want others to have it either. If others can gain it while they cannot, they become bitterly hateful and unhappy. They hope that the incarnate God would not be God and that the work He does would be false and not done by God. If this were the case, they would feel balanced inside, and the problem would be resolved at its root. They think to themselves, “If this person were not the incarnate god, then wouldn’t it mean those who follow him were being fooled? If that were the case, then sooner or later these people would disband. If they dispersed and none of them gained anything, then I could rest easy and feel balanced knowing I didn’t gain anything, right?” This is their mentality; they can’t gain anything, so they don’t want others to gain anything either. The best way to prevent others from gaining anything is to deny Christ, to deny the essence of Christ, to deny the work that Christ has done, and to deny all the words spoken by Christ. This way, they won’t be condemned, and they are resigned to and at peace with not gaining anything, no longer needing to be concerned about this matter. This is the nature essence of people like antichrists. So, do they have notions about Christ? And when they have notions, do they resolve them? Can they let them go? They cannot. How are their notions engendered? It’s easy for them to engender notions: “When you speak, I scrutinize you, trying to understand the motive behind your words and where they come from. Are they something you’ve heard or learned, or did someone instruct you to say them? Did someone make a report or lodge a complaint to you? Who are you exposing?” They scrutinize in this way. Can they understand the truth? They can never understand the truth; they resist it in their hearts. They are averse to the truth, resist it, and hate it, and they listen to sermons with this kind of nature essence. Apart from theories and doctrines, all they gather are notions. What kind of notions? “Christ speaks this way, sometimes even telling jokes; that’s not reverent! He sometimes uses allegorical sayings; that’s not serious! His speech isn’t eloquent; he’s not highly educated! Sometimes he has to ponder and think about his choice of words; he didn’t attend university, did he? Sometimes his speech targets someone specific—who? Has someone lodged a complaint? Who was it? Why does christ always criticize me when he speaks? Is he watching and observing me all day long? Does he spend the whole day pondering about people? What’s christ thinking in his heart? The speech of god incarnate doesn’t sound like the thunderous voice of the god in heaven with its unquestionable authority—why does what he manifests seem so human-like? He’s just a person, no matter how I look at him. Does god incarnate have any weaknesses? Does he hate people in his heart? Does he have any philosophy for worldly dealings in his interactions with people?” Aren’t these notions plentiful? (Yes.) The thoughts of antichrists are filled with things unrelated to the truth, all stemming from Satan’s thinking and logic, from Satan’s philosophy for worldly dealings. Deep within, they are brimming with wickedness, filled with a state and a disposition that are averse to the truth. They come not to seek or gain the truth, but to scrutinize God. Their notions can arise anytime, anywhere, and they engender notions while observing, while scrutinizing. Their notions form during their judgment and condemnation, and they hold onto these notions tightly in their hearts. When they observe the human side of God incarnate, they engender notions. When they see the divine side, they become curious and astonished, which also leads to engendering notions. Their attitude toward Christ and toward the flesh in which God is incarnate is not one of submission or of genuine acceptance from the depths of their hearts. Instead, they stand opposite Christ, observing and scrutinizing His gaze, thoughts, and bearing, and even observing and scrutinizing every expression of Christ, listening to every kind of tone, intonation of speaking, and choice of words, and to what is referred to in Christ’s speech and so on. When antichrists observe and scrutinize Christ in this way, their attitude is not one of intending to seek the truth and understand it so that they can accept Christ as their God and accept Christ to be their truth and become their life. On the contrary, they want to scrutinize this person, to thoroughly scrutinize and comprehend Him. What are they trying to comprehend? They are scrutinizing how this person resembles God, and if He truly resembles God, they accept Him. If no matter how they scrutinize Him, He doesn’t seem like God, then they completely give up on the idea and continue to hold onto notions about the incarnate God, or, believing there’s no hope of receiving blessings, they look for an opportunity to leave quickly.

It’s quite normal for antichrists to engender notions about the flesh in which God is incarnate. Due to their essence as antichrists, their essence which is averse to the truth, it’s impossible for them to let go of their notions. When nothing is happening, they read from the book of God’s words and see these words as God, but upon coming into contact with the incarnate God and finding that He does not resemble God, they immediately engender notions and their attitude changes. When not in contact with the incarnate God, they merely hold the book of God’s words and regard His words as God, and they can still harbor a vague fantasy and an intention of receiving blessings to reluctantly exert some effort, do some duties, and play a role in God’s house. But, as soon as they come into contact with the flesh in which God is incarnate, their minds swarm with notions. Even if they are not pruned, their enthusiasm for doing their duties may significantly wane. This is how antichrists treat God’s words and the flesh in which God is incarnate. They often separate God’s words from the flesh in which God is incarnate, treating God’s words as God and the flesh in which God is incarnate as a human. When the flesh in which God is incarnate doesn’t align with or violates their notions, they quickly turn to God’s words and pray-read them, trying to forcibly suppress their notions and lock them away. Then, they worship God’s words as if they were worshiping God Himself, and it seems as though their notions have been resolved. In reality, however, their inner noncompliance and contempt toward Christ are not resolved at all. In their treatment of Christ, antichrists continually engender notions and stubbornly cling to them until death. When they don’t have notions, they scrutinize and analyze; when they do have notions, not only do they scrutinize and analyze, they also stubbornly hold onto them. They neither resolve their notions nor seek the truth; they are convinced that they are right. Is this not satanic? (Yes.) These are the manifestations of antichrists when they have notions about God incarnate.