Regardless of whether the events that you see happening around you are perceived by man as good or bad, whether they are what you want or not, whether they bring you joy and happiness or sorrow and pain, you should regard them as people, events, and things that contain lessons to be learned and truths to be sought, and you should regard them as things that come from God. They do not happen by chance, they are not due to humans, they are not caused by any person, and they are not something that any person can control. Rather, it is God who rules over all these things; God orchestrates and arranges all of these things. The emergence of any event is not dependent on human will, it is not as if any person can control an event just because they wish to. God rules over and orchestrates the whole process of the appearance, development, and transformation of all people, events, and things until they reach their final outcomes. If you do not believe this, then try to experience and observe things according to the words and principles that I have spoken of. See if what I say is true. See if the statement, “The success and failure of things is dependent on people,” that you believe is correct, or if the statement, “God rules over and orchestrates the appearance and development of all people, events, and things, until they reach their final outcomes,” is correct. See which of these two statements is correct, which one is in line with the facts, which one allows people to gain edification and benefits them, and which one enables people to know God and have genuine faith in Him. When you experience everything that happens around you with the viewpoint and attitude that God rules over and orchestrates everything, your view and perspective on things will be completely different. If you stick to viewing all things and matters from the perspective of the saying, “The success and failure of things is dependent on people,” then, to put it mildly, when something befalls you, you will naturally and involuntarily get entangled by the idea of right and wrong, you will try to hold people accountable, and you will analyze the causes of various incidents, the factors that led to adverse consequences in different matters, and so on, instead of seeking the truth principles and God’s will based on His words. The more you believe in the saying, “The success and failure of things is dependent on people,” the more the views of nonbelievers will dominate you. Then the final outcomes of everything that you experience will increasingly contradict the truth, and your faith in God will become merely a doctrine or a slogan. At that point, you will have turned into a complete nonbeliever. In other words, the more you believe in the statement, “The success and failure of things is dependent on people,” the more you will prove to be a nonbeliever. If you don’t have God or God’s words in your heart, if you absolutely don’t acknowledge or accept any of God’s words, truths, or positive things, if they have no place at all in your heart, then the depths of your soul have been completely occupied by Satan, they have been filled with the thoughts and ideas of evolution and materialism, all of which are the lies of the devil, Satan. You believe in all of the facts that you see with your eyes, but you don’t believe that the One who rules over everything in the universe, the One who cannot be seen by any person, truly exists. If you view everything from the perspective of “The success and failure of things is dependent on people,” then you are no different from Satan and materialists. But if you view everything from the perspective of “Everything in the world is ruled over and arranged by God,” then even though you will not be able to see some things clearly, you will be able to look for answers about specific events that you see happening around you, seek out the root of the matter, and look for the essence and truth of the problem within God’s words. You will not be investigating who was right and who was wrong, you will not be merely trying to hold someone responsible; instead, you will be able to hold the matter up to God’s words for comparison, seek the root of the problem, identify the crux of the issue, and you will explore where people failed, what they lacked, what corrupt disposition they revealed, how they were rebellious, and which aspects of them were incompatible with God throughout the course of the whole matter. You will be able to seek out what God’s intentions and goals were in doing those things, what He wanted to achieve in people, what kind of results He wanted to attain, what benefits He wanted people to gain, and the principles that people should adhere to. When you discern and view a specific event from these perspectives, your inner state will change. Your viewpoint on things will unconsciously be guided and directed by God’s words. You will unconsciously gain enlightenment and direction in God’s words, as well as the truth principles that you should abide by and practice when such matters befall you. When you truly enter into these truth principles, you will have genuine faith and reliance on God, you will pray and supplicate sincerely, you will have genuine obedience, and you will be able to practice according to the truth principles—what will the ultimate result of this be? Throughout the entire event, you will clearly see the truth of the matter, you will learn lessons, you will be able to correctly understand everything that befalls you, and you will be able to see that it comes from God’s arrangements, and that it contains God’s goodwill. In this way, just like people often say, you will “make a good thing out of a bad thing,” you will naturally be able to treat every event that people condemn, loathe, and hate as a positive thing, and you will be able to acknowledge that it is ruled over and arranged by God, and that it should be accepted from God. You will see it as something that contains God’s painstaking efforts, His will, and His expectations. In the process of experiencing this, you will unconsciously come to understand what God’s intentions were in orchestrating the whole matter. Without being aware of it, you will come to understand and grasp His will, and once that happens, you will unwittingly understand the truths within this, and you will be able to discern all of the people and matters involved in the entire event. If, throughout the whole event, you view the problem from the perspective of “Everything in the world is ruled over and arranged by God,” you will gain a great deal from it. You will gain the truth, genuine belief in God, and an understanding of God’s sovereignty over all things. You will understand God’s will and His good intentions in this matter. Of course, you will also gain an understanding and experience of the phrase, “God is omnipresent,” which previously only existed in your consciousness. If throughout the entire event, you look at the problem from the perspective of “The success and failure of things is dependent on people,” you will complain, you will disregard God, and you will feel that God is very distant and vague. The word “God,” the identity of God, the essence of God, and everything about God will seem so distant and hollow. You will believe that the occurrence, development, and outcome of the entire event was all dependent on human manipulations, and that human factors permeate the whole matter. Therefore, you will continually ponder on these matters, thinking, “Who made the mistake in this stage? Who carelessly caused a loss to occur in that stage? Who disrupted, disturbed, and ruined this stage? I will make sure that they pay for it.” You will fixate on individuals and matters, constantly living in the realm of right and wrong, while completely disregarding God’s words, the truth, the responsibilities, duties, and obligations that created beings should fulfill, and the viewpoints and positions that you should uphold. God will no longer have any place at all in your heart. Throughout the entire process of the event, there will be no relationship between you and God, nor between you and God’s words. That is to say, when faced with a situation, you will only fixate on people and things. You will not be able to come up with a single word that aligns with the truth, or a statement of the truth that comes from God to hold up against the matter for comparison, you will not be able to use it as a basis for dissecting the situation, you will not learn lessons from the situation or gain discernment, you will not strengthen your faith, or come to know God. You will do none of this. Throughout the entire event, you will cling to the popular saying, “The success and failure of things is dependent on people,” which, to put it more precisely, is an argument and a viewpoint of nonbelievers. Conversely, say that from the beginning of the event, you can accept it from the perspective of a created being, without examining whether any individual is right or wrong, without over-analyzing any person or thing, and without fixating on people or things. Say that you instead actively seek answers in God’s words, proactively come before God to pray and rely on Him, and seek God’s enlightenment and guidance, allowing God to work and orchestrate. Suppose that your attitude is that of fear and obedience to God, of thirsting for the truth, and of active cooperation with God—that it is not the viewpoint and attitude of a nonbeliever but rather the viewpoint and stance that a true follower of God should have. With such a viewpoint and stance, you will unknowingly gain what you have never experienced before, which is the truth realities that you did not possess before. These truth realities are actually the effects that God wants to achieve and attain in you through His sovereignty over the entire event. If God accomplishes what He intends to achieve, then He will not have acted in vain because He will have achieved His desired effects in you. What are these effects? God wants you to see what’s really going on, that nothing happens by chance, nor is it caused by people, but that God is in control. God wants you to experience His real existence and understand the fact of His sovereignty and His orchestration of the fates of all things, and that this is a fact, and not an empty statement.

If, through your experiences, you truly come to realize the fact that God rules over everything and that He orchestrates the fates of all things, you will be able to say a statement like Job did: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You. Why I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5–6). Is this a good statement? (Yes.) It feels so good to hear this statement, and it is moving. Do you want to experience the veracity of this statement? Do you want to understand how Job felt when he said these words? (Yes.) Is it just a normal desire, or a strong one? (A strong one.) In short, you do have this kind of a resolve and desire. So how can this desire be fulfilled? It is as I said before. You need to stand from the perspective of a created being, and approach all of the people, events, and things that befall you from the perspective of recognizing that God is the Ruler of all things and that everything is controlled and orchestrated by Him. You must learn lessons from it, understand God’s will in everything that He does, and recognize what God wants to achieve and accomplish in you. By doing so, one day soon, and in the not too distant future, you will feel the same way that Job did when he uttered those words. When I hear you say that you really want to experience how Job felt when he spoke those words, I know that over 99 percent of people have never experienced such feelings before. Why is that? It is because you have never stood from the perspective of a created being and experienced the fact that the Creator rules over all things and governs everything, like Job did. All of this is due to human ignorance, foolishness, and rebelliousness, as well as the deception and corruption caused by Satan, which leads people to involuntarily measure and approach everything that happens to them from the viewpoint of a nonbeliever, and to even identify and approach everything that happens around them using some of the methods and theoretical bases commonly used by unbelievers. The conclusions that they ultimately reach have nothing to do with the truth, some are even contrary to the truth. This prevents people in the long-term from experiencing the fact that the Creator rules over and controls all things, and the feeling that Job had when he uttered those words. If you have gone through trials similar to those of Job, big or small, and you have already felt God’s hand at work and the fact of God’s sovereignty through them, if you have also recognized God’s specific intentions in ruling over and orchestrating these matters, as well as the way that people should follow, then in the end, you will be able to experience the positive effects that God wanted to achieve in you throughout the entire events, God’s good intentions and expectations for you, among other things. You will experience all of this. When you experience all of this, you will no longer just believe that God can speak the truth and supply you with life, you will realize in a tangible way that the Creator does indeed exist, and you will also realize the fact that the Creator has created and rules over all things. While you are experiencing all of these things, your faith in God and your faith in the Creator will increase. At the same time, this will make you realize the fact that you have interacted with the Creator in a real way, and it will tangibly and fully confirm your belief in God, your trust in God, how you follow God, as well as the fact that God rules over everything and is omnipresent. When you receive this confirmation and realization, do you think your heart will be filled with joy and happiness or with pain and sorrow? (Joy and happiness.) It will definitely be joy and happiness! No matter how much pain and sorrow you have experienced before, it will dissipate like a puff of smoke, and your heart will be wild with joy, you will be rejoicing and leaping with happiness. When you see that the fact of God’s sovereignty over all things has been truly confirmed and experienced in you, this is equivalent to you really meeting, encountering, and interacting with God face to face. At that time, you will feel the same way that Job did. What did Job say at that time? (“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You. Why I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”) Job outwardly used the behavior and actions of abhorring himself and repenting to express his hatred for the past, but actually, deep in his heart, he was joyful and happy. Why? Because he had unexpectedly seen the face of the Creator, he had come face-to-face with Him, and he had encountered God in an event, in an unremarkable and inadvertent event. Tell Me, which created being, which follower of God doesn’t long to see God? When such a situation occurs, when such a thing happens, who wouldn’t be happy, who wouldn’t be excited? Anyone would be excited; they would feel excited and joyful. It would be something that they’d never forget, as long as they lived, and it is a thing worth remembering. Think about it, aren’t there many benefits to this? I hope that in the future, you will truly experience this feeling, possess this kind of experience, and have such encounters. When a person truly sees the face of God and is genuinely able to experience the same feelings that Job felt when he encountered Jehovah God, it becomes a milestone in their faith in God. It is such a marvelous thing! Every person looks forward to such a result and such a situation, and everyone hopes to experience it and to have that kind of encounter. Since you have such hopes, you should have the correct viewpoint and stance while experiencing everything that happens around you, experiencing and comprehending everything in the way that God teaches and instructs, learning to accept everything from God, and to view everything according to God’s words, with the truth as your criterion. In this way, your faith will grow greater and greater without you realizing it, and the fact that God is sovereign over all things and rules over everything will gradually be confirmed and verified in your heart. When all of this is confirmed in you, will you still worry about your stature not growing? (No.) But it’s normal for you to feel a little bit worried now, because you are so small in stature, and there are many things that you cannot see through to—it would be impossible for you not to worry, it is something that you cannot avoid. This is because there are many things within people that come from knowledge, from man, from Satan, from society, and so on. All of these things deeply influence the viewpoints from which people approach God and the perspective and stance that they should take when experiencing various things. Therefore, to be able to take the correct stance and perspective when things befall you is not an easy task. It requires you to not only experience positive things but also negative things. By discerning and understanding the essence of these negative things, you will learn more lessons and come to understand God’s actions and His omnipotence and wisdom in ruling over all things.

Now, do you fully understand that the statement “The success and failure of things is dependent on people” is incorrect? (Yes, we do.) Are there any correct aspects to this statement? Are there any valid elements? (No, there aren’t.) None at all? (None.) It is right to understand that there are none at all. This is a theoretical understanding. Then, in real life, through observation and experience, you will find that the statement “The success and failure of things is dependent on people” is erroneous, absurd, and is the viewpoint of the nonbeliever. When you discover this fact, and can use facts to demonstrate the error in this statement, then you will completely abandon and dismiss it, and you will no longer use it. You have not reached this point yet. Although you have accepted what I said, later, when faced with situations, you will ponder, “At that time I thought there was nothing correct about the statement ‘The success and failure of things is dependent on people,’ so now why do I think it’s a little bit right?” You start to struggle internally and experience contradictions again. So then what should you do? First, you need to change your viewpoint. Let go of all the thoughts and viewpoints that stem from holding onto this statement. Let go of all the actions that arise from this statement. Don’t fixate on people or matters. First come before God in prayer, then search for the basis and principles within God’s words. In the process of searching, you will unknowingly gain enlightenment and come to understand the truth. It may be challenging for you to search for principles on your own, so call together everyone involved in the matter and search together for the basis and the truth principles within God’s words. Then pray-read, fellowship the corresponding words of God, and check them for comparison. After comparing against God’s words, accept the correct viewpoints and the wrong ones will be naturally let go. From then on, resolve and handle issues according to these principles. How does this method sound? (Good.) In the process of seeking the truth, what you should let go of are the actions that arise from the viewpoint of “The success and failure of things is dependent on people.” Find the corresponding words of God and resolve and handle problems based on God’s words. By searching for the truth and resolving problems in this way, your erroneous viewpoints will be resolved. If you handle things based on God’s words and the truth principles, then your direction and approach to handling matters will change accordingly. As a result, the outcome of the matter will develop in a benign direction. However, using the perspective and viewpoint of “The success and failure of things is dependent on people” to solve problems and handle matters will cause them to develop in a malignant direction. For example, when antichrists deceive people in the church, if people do not seek the truth but just fixate on people and matters, discussing right and wrong, and holding people accountable, the final result will be dealing with a few individuals and considering the matter resolved. Some may say, “You said that it was developing in a malignant direction, but I haven’t seen any malignant results. The antichrists have been expelled, so isn’t the problem solved? Where is this malignant outcome?” Did everyone learn a lesson from this experience? Did they understand the truth from it? Can they discern antichrists? Do they understand God’s will? Have they realized God’s sovereignty? None of these positive effects happened. On the contrary, people continue to live by satanic philosophies, distrusting and guarding against one another, and passing off responsibility onto each other. When faced with a situation, they quickly protect themselves, seeking only self-preservation. They fear taking responsibility and being dealt with. They don’t learn any lessons and they don’t accept anything from God, much less seek God’s will. Can people grow in life in this way? Ultimately, people only know what they can or cannot do in front of their leaders, what to say and do to make their leaders happy and what to say and do to make their leaders resent and dislike them. As a result, people become guarded against one another, resorting to self-enclosure, wrapping themselves up in disguise, and no one opens up. Being wrapped up, guarded, and disguised in this way, have people come before God? No, they haven’t. After experiencing many things, people learn to avoid situations, and they fear interacting with others and encountering issues. In the end, they completely close themselves off, not opening up to anyone, and their hearts are devoid of God. Believing in God in this way is entirely based on satanic philosophy. No matter how many experiences they go through, they cannot learn any lessons, know themselves, much less shed their corrupt disposition. Can they come to understand the truth and know God in this way? Can they feel true repentance? No, they cannot. Instead, they learn to guard against others, protect themselves, carefully observe others’ words and expressions, and steer according to the wind. They learn to use tricks and become more tactful, and to be more able to handle fights and quarrels. When faced with issues, they avoid taking responsibility and instead shift it onto others. They no longer have any relationship with God, His words, or the truth. Their hearts only drift farther and farther away from God. Isn’t this a malignant development? (Yes.) How did this direction of malignant development come about? If people view others and things, and comport themselves and act according to God’s words, and take the truth as their principle; if they seek God’s words as a foundation when encountering a problem, searching for answers within His words, identifying the root of the problem from God’s words and checking against them for comparison, and using His words to resolve all issues and difficulties, then God’s words would provide a forward path so that people are not hindered, tripped up, or trapped in these matters. In the end they would understand the principles of practice that God requires in such matters and have a path to follow. If everyone were to come before God when faced with challenges, accepting everything from God, learning to rely on God, and find the truth principles as the basis in the process of seeking, would people still guard against each other? Would anyone still pursue right and wrong without addressing the root of the issue? (No, they wouldn’t.) Even if there is someone who doesn’t practice the truth and still pursues such matters, they are outliers, rejected by everyone. If people can accept things from God when they encounter them, the situation will develop in a benign direction. People will eventually come to understand and know God’s words and gain the truth. What people practice is the truth, and what they achieve is the correct goal of gaining the truth and being able to bear witness to God. Their faith will increase, their understanding of God will grow, and they will develop a God-fearing heart. Isn’t this a benign direction of development? (Yes.) What brings about such results? Is it because the perspective and position people take in every matter is correct and align with the truth? (Yes.) In simple and straightforward terms, this perspective and position means accepting things from God, which naturally leads to a benign direction of development and benign steps of development, and naturally achieves the result of understanding the truth and knowing God. However, if people do not accept things from God but instead approach things from human perspective and satanic philosophies, still relying on satanic philosophy to view matters and fixating on people and things, everything that is produced will be malignant. The ultimate consequence is that no one will come to understand the truth and gain benefits. This is the result of not knowing how to experience the work of God. Therefore, in some churches there is a disharmonious atmosphere among some people who perform duties. They are always suspicious of each other, guarding against each other, blaming each other, competing with each other, and arguing with each other. They are secretly fighting in the depths of their hearts. This confirms one thing: There is no one in this group who seeks the truth, no one who accepts matters from God when faced with them. They are all nonbelievers and do not pursue the truth. Conversely, in some churches, there are some people that, despite being small in stature and not understanding much truth, are able to genuinely accept matters from God in every situation, big or small, and then practice and experience according to God’s words, and enter into the reality of God’s words. Although these people that perform their duties together sometimes bicker, argue, and quarrel, there is an atmosphere among them, one that is not found among unbelievers. When they come together to do anything it is especially harmonious, like family or kin, with no gulf between their hearts, and they are united together in their work. The presence of such a harmonious atmosphere shows that at least the supervisors or a few key individuals seek the truth and handle matters in the right way when encountering problems, and have truly achieved results in implementing the principle of “accepting everything from God.” There are many people who believe in God, but because they do not pursue the truth or take God’s words seriously, they have believed in God for many years without life entry. No matter what happens to them, they do not accept it from God and instead always rely on human notions and imaginings to perceive things. They cannot experience God’s work. In a church, if there are a few individuals who understand spiritual matters and can see that many things are arranged and ordained by God, they can rely on God, actively seek the truth, practice the truth, and handle things according to the truth principles. In such a church, an atmosphere of the work of the Holy Spirit arises. Certainly, people can feel this especially enjoyable harmonious atmosphere, and their mindset is naturally in the best state. More specifically, there is a mutual understanding among people, a shared aspiration, goal, and motivation for pursuit deep in their hearts. Because of this, they can be united together. In such a church, you can experience a particularly harmonious atmosphere. This atmosphere fills people with confidence and motivates them to pursue progress. They feel empowered in their hearts and as if they have inexhaustible strength to expend for God. This feeling is incredibly enjoyable. Anyone who attends gatherings in this church can enjoy this atmosphere and enjoy the sense of confidence. At such a time they feel as if they are living in God’s embrace, as if they are in His presence every day. It is a truly different experience. In those churches where the Holy Spirit is not at work, most of the people are not pursuers of the truth. They cannot accept things from God when facing situations, and they rely on human ways and means to control everything. In such a congregation, the feelings between people are different and the relationships between people and the atmosphere produced are also different. You don’t feel the atmosphere of the work of the Holy Spirit or the atmosphere of loving each other at all. Instead, you can only feel a coldness. That is to say, people are cold toward each other. They are all guarded against each other, arguing with each other, secretly competing with each other, and striving to surpass each other. No one submits to another, and they even suppress, exclude, and punish each other. They are like unbelievers in the workplace, business world, and politics, and make you feel disgust, hatred and fear, leaving you with no sense of security. If you experience such feelings in any group of people, you will see the accuracy of the statement, “Mankind has been profoundly corrupted by Satan,” and it will make you love the work of the Holy Spirit even more. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, that is, when human beings, Satan, knowledge, or nonbelievers reign, the atmosphere is completely different. It will make you feel uncomfortable and joyless, and you will soon feel constrained and depressed. This feeling comes from Satan and from corrupt mankind, that is accurate. This concludes the fellowship on this topic.