Every person has the possibility of being perfected by God, so everyone should understand what sort of service to God is best in line with His intentions. Most people do not know what it means to believe in God, nor do they understand why they should believe in Him—which is to say, most have no comprehension of God’s work or the purpose of His management plan. Today, the majority of people still think believing in God is about going to heaven and having their souls saved. They are clueless as to the exact significance of believing in God and, moreover, do not have any understanding whatsoever of the most important work in God’s management plan. For various reasons of their own, people simply do not take any interest in God’s work, nor do they give any thought to His intentions or to His management plan. As an individual in this stream, each person should know what the purpose of God’s entire management plan is, the facts that He has long since accomplished, why He has chosen this group of people, what the purpose and meaning of His choosing them is, and what He wishes to achieve in this group. For God to have been able to raise up such a group of unremarkable people in the country of the great red dragon, and to have continued to work until now, trying and perfecting them in all sorts of ways, speaking countless words, performing much work, and dispatching so many service objects—for God alone to have accomplished such great work shows just how significant His work is. At the moment, you are incapable of fully appreciating this. As such, you must not view the work that God has done in you as trivial; it is no small matter. Even what God has revealed to you today is enough for you to try to fathom and know. Only if you truly and thoroughly understand it can your experiences go deeper and your life grow. Today, people understand and do far too little; they are incapable of completely satisfying God’s intentions. This is man’s shortcoming and their failure to fulfill their duty, and thus they are incapable of achieving the desired result. The Holy Spirit has no means of working in many people because they have such a shallow understanding of God’s work, and are unwilling to treat the work of the house of God as something valuable when they do it. They invariably go through the motions just to get by, or else follow the majority, or just work for show. Today, each person in this stream should recall whether, in their actions and deeds, they have done everything they can, and whether they have given every ounce of effort. People have totally failed to perform their duty, not because the Holy Spirit does not do His work, but because people do not do theirs, making it impossible for the Holy Spirit to do His work. God has no more words to say, but people have not kept up at all, they have fallen too far behind, they are unable to stay close with every step, and are unable to closely follow the Lamb’s footsteps. What they should abide by, they have not abided by; what they should have practiced, they have not practiced; what they should have prayed for, they have not prayed for; what they should have set aside, they have not set aside. They have not done any of these things. Therefore, this talk of attending the banquet is empty; it is without any real meaning, and is all in their imagination. It can be said that, viewed from today, people have not discharged their duty at all. Everything has depended on God’s doing and saying things Himself. Man’s function has been far too small; people are useless trash who are incapable of cooperating with God. God has spoken hundreds upon thousands of words, yet people have not put any of them into practice—whether it be rebelling against the flesh, discarding notions, practicing submission to God in all things while developing discernment and gaining insight, not giving people a place in their hearts, eliminating the idols in their hearts, rebelling against their wrong intentions, not acting out of their feelings, doing things fairly and without bias, giving greater thought to God’s interests and their influence on others when they speak, doing more things that benefit God’s work, keeping in mind benefiting God’s house in all that they do, not letting their feelings rule their behavior, discarding what pleases their own flesh, eliminating selfish old notions, and so on. They do actually understand some of all these requirements that God makes of man, but they are simply not willing to put them into practice. What else can God do, and how else can He move them? How can sons of rebellion in the eyes of God still have the nerve to pick up His words and admire them? How do they have the nerve to eat God’s food? Where is people’s conscience? They have not even fulfilled the bare minimum of the duties they ought to have fulfilled, to say nothing of doing their utmost. They are living in a pipe dream, are they not? There can be no talk of reality without practice. This is a fact that is as plain as day!

You ought to be learning lessons that are more realistic. There is no need for that high-sounding, empty talk that people admire. When it comes to talking about knowledge, each person’s is higher than the one before, but they still have no path to practice. How many people have understood the principles of practice? How many have learned actual lessons? Who can fellowship about reality? Being able to speak of knowledge of God’s words does not mean you possess genuine stature; it only shows that you were born smart, that you’re gifted. If you cannot point out the path then the result will be nothing, and you will be useless trash! Aren’t you pretending if you cannot say anything about an actual path to practice? Aren’t you faking it if you cannot offer your own actual experiences to others, thereby giving them lessons they can learn from or a path they can follow? Aren’t you a phony? What value do you have? Such a person could only play the part of “inventor of the theory of socialism,” not “contributor to bringing about socialism.” To be without reality is to have no truth. To be without reality is to be a good-for-nothing. To be without reality is to be a walking corpse. To be without reality is to be a “Marxist-Leninist thinker,” with no reference value. I urge each of you to shut up about theory and talk about something real, something genuine and substantial; study some “modern art,” say something realistic, contribute something actual, and have some spirit of dedication. Face reality when you speak; do not indulge in unrealistic and exaggerated talk to make people feel happy or sit up and take notice of you. Where is the value in that? What point is there in getting people to treat you warmly? Be a bit “artistic” in your speech, be a bit more fair in your conduct, be a bit more reasonable in how you handle things, be a bit more practical in what you say, think of bringing benefit to God’s house with your every action, listen to your conscience when your feelings come out, do not repay kindness with hate or be ungrateful to kindness, and do not be a hypocrite, lest you become a bad influence. When you eat and drink God’s words, link them more closely to reality, and when you fellowship, speak more about realistic things. Do not be condescending; this will not satisfy God. In your interactions with others, be a bit more tolerant, a bit more yielding, a bit more magnanimous, and learn from the “spirit of the prime minister.”^[a] When you have bad thoughts, practice rebelling against the flesh more. When you are working, speak more of realistic paths, and do not get too lofty, or else what you say will be unattainable for people. Less enjoyment, more contribution—show your selfless spirit of dedication. Be more considerate of God’s intentions, listen to your conscience more, be more mindful, and do not forget how God speaks patiently and earnestly to you every day. Read the “old almanac” more often. Pray more and fellowship more frequently. Stop being so muddled; show some sense and gain some insight. When your sinful hand reaches out, pull it back; do not let it reach so far. There is no use, and what you get from God will be nothing but curses, so be careful. Let your heart take pity on others, and do not always strike out with weapons in hand. Fellowship more about knowledge of the truth and talk more about life, maintaining a spirit of helping others. Do more and say less. Put more into practice and less into research and analysis. Let yourselves be moved more by the Holy Spirit, and give God more opportunities to perfect you. Eliminate more human elements; you still possess too many human ways of doing things, and your superficial manner of doing things and behavior is still repugnant to others: Eliminate more of these. Your psychological state is still too detestable; spend more time amending it. You still give people too much status; give more status to God, and do not be so unreasonable. The “temple” has always belonged to God, and should not be taken over by people. In short, focus more on righteousness and less on feelings. It is best to eliminate the flesh. Talk more about reality and less about knowledge; what is best is to shut up and say nothing. Speak more of the path of practice, and make less worthless boasts. It is best to start practicing right now.

God’s requirements of people are not all that high. As long as people practice diligently and earnestly, they would receive a “pass grade.” Truth be told, achieving the understanding, knowledge, and comprehension of the truth is more complex than practicing the truth. First practice as much as you understand and practice what you have comprehended. In this way, you will be able to gradually achieve the true knowledge and comprehension of the truth. These are the steps and the means by which the Holy Spirit works. If you do not practice submission in this way, you will not achieve anything. If you always act of your own volition, and do not practice submission, will the Holy Spirit work within you? Does the Holy Spirit work as you wish? Or does He work according to what you lack, and on the basis of God’s words? If this is not clear to you, you won’t be able to enter the truth reality. Why is it that most people have spent much effort reading God’s words, but merely have knowledge and cannot say anything about a real path afterward? Do you think that possessing knowledge amounts to possessing the truth? Is that not a confused point of view? You are able to speak as many pieces of knowledge as there are grains of sand on a beach, yet none of it contains any real path. Are you not trying to fool people by doing this? Are you not making an empty show, with no substance to back it up? All such behavior is harmful to people! The higher the theory and the more it is devoid of reality, the more it is incapable of taking people into reality. The higher the theory, the more it makes you rebel against and oppose God. Do not cosset spiritual theory—it has no use! Some people have been talking about spiritual theory for decades, and they have become giants of spiritualism, but ultimately, they still fail to enter the truth reality. Because they have not practiced or experienced the words of God, they have no principles or path for practice. People like this are themselves without the truth reality, so how can they bring other people onto the right track of faith in God? They can only lead people astray. Is this not harming others and themselves? At the very least, you must be able to solve real problems that are right in front of you. That is to say, you must be able to practice and experience the words of God, and to put the truth into practice. Only this is submission to God. Only when you have life entry are you qualified to work for God, and only when you expend for God sincerely can you be approved of by God. Don’t always make grand statements and talk of bombastic theory; this is not real. Pontificating on spiritual theory to make people admire you is not testifying to God, but rather flaunting yourself. It is of absolutely no benefit to people and does not edify them, and can easily lead to them worshiping spiritual theory and not focusing on practicing the truth—and is this not leading people astray? Carrying on like this will give rise to numerous empty theories and rules that will constrain and entrap people; it’s truly mortifying. So say more that is real, talk more about problems that actually exist, spend more time searching for the truth to solve real problems; this is what’s most important. Don’t delay in learning to practice the truth: This is the path of entry into reality. Do not take other people’s experience and knowledge as your own private property and hold them up for others to admire. You must have your own life entry. Only by practicing the truth and submitting to God will you have life entry. This should be what every person practices and focuses on.

If what you fellowship can give people a path to take, then that amounts to your possessing reality. No matter what you say, you must bring people into practice and give them all a path they can follow. Don’t only allow them to have knowledge; more important is having a path to take. For people to believe in God, they must walk the path led by God in His work. That is, the process of believing in God is the process of walking the path led by the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, you must have a path you can walk, no matter what, and you must set foot upon the path of being perfected by God. Do not fall too far behind, and do not concern yourself with too many things. Only if you walk the path led by God without causing disruptions can you receive the work of the Holy Spirit and possess the path of entry. Only this counts as being in line with God’s intentions and fulfilling humanity’s duty. As an individual in this stream, each person should fulfill their duty properly, do more of what people should be doing, and not act willfully. People carrying out work must make their words clear, people who follow must focus more on enduring hardship and submitting, and all must keep to their place and not step out of line. It should be clear in the heart of every person how they should practice and what function they should fulfill. Take the path led by the Holy Spirit; do not go astray or go wrong. You must see today’s work clearly. Entering into today’s means of working is what you should practice. It is the first thing you must enter. Do not waste any more words on other things. Doing the work of God’s house today is your responsibility, entering today’s work method is your duty, and practicing today’s truth is your burden.

Footnotes:

a. The spirit of the prime minister: A classic Chinese saying used to describe a person who is broad-minded and generous.