Excerpt 1

Some people come to believe in God when they see that the words expressed by God are indeed the truth. However, when they get to God’s house and see that God is an ordinary person, they develop notions in their hearts. Their words and deeds become unrestrained, they become dissolute, and they speak irresponsibly, judging and slandering however they see fit. This is how such evil people are revealed. These creatures without humanity often do evil and disturb the work of the church, and nothing good will come to them! They openly resist, slander, judge and insult God, openly blaspheming Him and setting themselves in opposition to Him. Such people are to be recipients of severe punishment. Some people belong to the ranks of false leaders, and after having been dismissed, they feel constant resentment toward God. They seize the opportunity of gatherings to keep spreading their notions and venting their complaints; they may even blurt out any harsh words or words that vent their hate. Are such people not demons? After being cleared out of God’s house, they feel remorse, claiming they had said something wrong in a moment of foolishness. Some people fail to discern them, saying, “They’re quite pitiful, and they’re remorseful at heart. They say they are indebted to God and don’t know Him, so let’s forgive them.” Can forgiveness be given so lightly? People have their dignity, let alone God! After these people finished their blasphemy and slander, they seem remorseful to some, who forgive them and say they acted in a moment of foolishness—but was it a moment of foolishness? They always have some intention in their speech, and even dare to judge God. God’s house replaced them, and they lost the benefits of status, and in fear of being eliminated, they utter many complaints and cry bitterly and remorsefully afterward. Does this do any good? Once your words have been spoken, they are like water poured on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Would God tolerate people resisting, judging, and blaspheming Him as they will? Would He just ignore it? God would have no dignity, if so. Some people, after their resistance, say, “God, Your precious blood redeemed me. You have us forgive people seventy times seven—You should also forgive me!” How shameless! Some people spread rumors about God, and grow fearful after slandering Him. Afraid of being punished, they quickly kneel down and pray: “God! Do not leave me, do not punish me. I confess, I repent, I am indebted to You, I did wrong.” Tell Me, could such people be pardoned? No! Why not? What they have done offends the Holy Spirit, and the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit will never be pardoned, in this life or the world to come! God stays true to His words. He has dignity, wrath, and a righteous disposition. Do you think that God is the same as man, that if someone is just a bit nicer to Him, He will look past their previous transgressions? Nothing of the sort! Will things turn out well for you if you resist God? It is understandable if you do something wrong out of momentary foolishness, or occasionally reveal a bit of a corrupt disposition. But if you directly resist, rebel against, and set yourself in opposition to God, and if you slander, blaspheme, and spread rumors about Him, then you are wholly doomed. There is no need for such people to pray any longer; they should just wait to be punished. They are unforgivable! When that time comes, do not shamelessly say, “God, please forgive me!” No matter how you plead, it will be useless, sorry to say. Having understood some of the truth, if people then knowingly transgress, they cannot be forgiven. Previously, it has been said that God does not remember one’s transgressions. That referred to minor ones that do not involve God’s administrative decrees and do not offend God’s disposition. These do not include blasphemy and slander against God. But if you would blaspheme, judge, or slander God just once, this will be a permanent stain that cannot be erased. People wish to blaspheme and abuse God as they will, and then to exploit Him to gain blessings. Nothing in the world comes as cheaply as that! People always think that God is merciful and kind, that He is benevolent, that He has a vast and immeasurable heart, that He does not remember people’s transgressions and lets bygones be bygones for people’s past transgressions and deeds. Letting bygones be bygones happens with trivial matters. God will never forgive those who openly resist and blaspheme Him.

Although most people in the church truly believe in God, they do not have God-fearing hearts. This shows that most people do not have true knowledge of God’s disposition, so it is difficult for them to fear God and shun evil. If people do not fear God and are not terrified of Him in their belief, and say whatever they like once God’s work touches their own interests, then when they finish speaking, will that be the end of it? They must then pay a price for what they say, and this is not a simple matter. When some people blaspheme God, when they judge God, do they know in their hearts what they are saying? All those who say these things know in their hearts what they say. Apart from those who have been possessed by evil spirits and whose reason is abnormal, regular people know in their hearts what they are saying. If they say they don’t, then they are lying. When they speak, they think: “I know that You are God. I’m saying that You are not doing right, so what can You do to me? What will You do when I am done talking?” They do this intentionally, to disturb others, to draw others over to their side, to make others say similar things, make others do similar things. They know that what they say is in open defiance of God, that it is going against God, blaspheming God. After they have mulled it over they think that what they did was wrong: “What was I saying? It was an impetuous moment and I really regret it!” Their regret proves that they knew exactly what they were doing at that time; it wasn’t that they didn’t know. If you think that they were momentarily ignorant and confused, that they had not thoroughly understood, then this is not entirely correct. People may not have understood thoroughly, but if you believe in God then you must have a minimum of common sense. To believe in God you should be afraid of God and fear Him. You cannot blaspheme against God, or judge or slander Him however you like. Do you know what is meant by “judging,” “blasphemy” and “slander”? When you say something, do you not know whether or not you are judging God? Some people always talk about the fact that they have played host to God, and often see God, and have listened to God’s face-to-face fellowship. They talk about these things with whoever happens by, at length, all about externalities; they have no true knowledge at all. They may have no ill intentions when they say these things. They may mean well for the brothers and sisters and wish to encourage everyone. But why do they pick these things to speak about? If they proactively bring up this matter, then they do have something of an intent: mainly, to show off and have people look up to them. If they would make people confident and encourage people in their faith in God, they might read them more of His words, which are the truth. Why then do they insist on talking about such external things? What is at the root of their saying these things is that they are simply without a God-fearing heart. They are not afraid of God. How can they act up and shoot their mouth off before God? God has dignity! If people realized this, would they still do such things? People do not have God-fearing hearts. They arbitrarily say how God is and what God is like for their own motives, to achieve their personal goals and to get others to think highly of them. This is simply judging God and blaspheming God. Such people have no fear at all for God in their hearts. They are all people who resist and blaspheme God. They are all evil spirits and demons. Some people have believed in God for a few years, but after being captured by the great red dragon, they become Judas, even following the great red dragon in blasphemy against God. Some people preach the gospel, echoing religious people in saying things that judge God’s work and condemn God. They know that speaking in this manner is resisting God and blaspheming God, but they are unconcerned. Speaking in this way is inappropriate, no matter your motives. Could you not just say something else? Why do you have to say these things? Is it not blasphemy against God? If such speech comes out of your mouth, then you are blaspheming God. It is ungodly for you to say these things, whether you do so intentionally or not. You have no God-fearing heart. You go along with others and say blasphemous words to please others and win them over. How ungodly you are; you are in league with the devil! Can you play around with, judge, delimit, and blaspheme God in an arbitrary manner? To do so is horrible! If you say something wrong and it offends God’s disposition, then you are doomed. This is a fatal matter! Some people think, “People in religion are misled by pastors and elders, and most of them have said things that blaspheme God and judge and condemn His work. Some people have accepted God’s work during the last days and repented. Will they be saved, then? If they were all abandoned by God, there would be too few people who would be saved; hardly any would be saved.” You cannot see this matter clearly, can you? God’s disposition is righteousness, and He is righteous to everyone. In the days of Noah, only eight people were saved on the ark; the rest were destroyed. Do you dare say that God is unrighteous? Mankind is deeply corrupted. They all belong to Satan; they all resist God, and they are all base and worthless. If they cannot accept God’s work, they will be destroyed, as ever. Some people may think to themselves: “If none of us can be saved by God, then wouldn’t God’s work be in vain? It seems to me that God cannot save mankind without man. If God leaves man, God’s management will be gone.” You’re wrong. God will continue His management plan all the same, even without man. People overvalue themselves. People have no God-fearing hearts, they are not devout at all before God, and they do not have any well-behaved attitude. Because people live under the power of Satan and belong to Satan, they can judge God and blaspheme God anytime and anywhere. This is a horrible thing—an offense against God’s disposition!

Excerpt 2

Believers in God must grasp some key things. At minimum, they must know in their heart what it means to believe in God; which truths believers in God should understand; how one should practice submitting to God; as well as, in submitting to God, which truths and which of His words one should understand, and which realities one should possess, in order to satisfy Him. If you have this faith and this resolve, then even if you sometimes have a few notions or harbor certain intentions, it will be easy to let go of them. Those who do not have this faith will always be choosy in their submission, and sometimes they will also nitpick, be contentious, harbor resentment, grumble complaints…. All sorts of rebellious behaviors will occur from time to time! It’s not just an occasional one or two instances, nor is it a fleeting thought, but rather the ability to speak rebellious words and do rebellious things. This indicates a particularly severe rebellious disposition. People have corrupt dispositions, and even if they have the resolve to submit to God, their submission is limited; it is relative, and it is also occasional, fleeting, and conditional. It is not absolute. With a corrupt disposition, their rebelliousness is particularly great. They acknowledge God but cannot submit to Him, and they are willing to listen to His words but cannot submit to them. They know that God is good, and they want to love Him but cannot. They cannot listen to God completely, cannot let Him orchestrate everything, and they still have their own choices, harbor their own intentions and motives, and have their own schemes, ideas, and their way of doing things. Having their own way of doing things, their own methods, means there is no way they can submit to God. They can only act according to their own ideas and rebel against God. This is how rebellious people are! So, man’s nature is not only simple corrupt dispositions like superficial self-righteousness, self-importance, and pride, or occasional lies and deceit toward God; instead, man’s essence has already become the essence of Satan. How did the archangel betray God back then? And what about people nowadays? To be frank, whether or not you can accept it, people nowadays are not only completely betraying God like Satan did, but are also directly hostile to God in their hearts, their thinking, and their ideologies. This is Satan’s corruption of humankind into devils; humans have truly become the spawn of Satan. Perhaps you will say: “We are not hostile to God. We listen to whatever God says.” That’s superficial; it seems as if you listen to whatever God says. In fact, when I am formally fellowshipping and speaking, most people do not have notions and are well-behaved and obedient, but when I am speaking and doing things in normal humanity, or living and acting in normal humanity, their notions arise. Despite wanting to make room for Me in their hearts, they cannot accommodate Me, and no matter how the truth is fellowshipped, they cannot let go of their notions. This shows that man can only submit to God relatively, not absolutely. You know He is God, and you know that God incarnate must have normal humanity, so why can you not submit to God absolutely? God become flesh is Christ, the Son of man; He has both divinity and normal humanity. Outwardly, He has normal humanity, but His divinity lives and works within this normal humanity. Now, God has become flesh as Christ, possessing divinity and humanity. Yet some people can only submit to some of His divine words and work, only taking His divine words and profound language as God’s words, while they disregard some of His words and work in normal humanity. Some people even have some ideas and notions in their hearts, believing that only His divine language is the word of God and that His human language is not. Can such people accept all of the truths that God expresses? Can they be purified and made perfect by God? They cannot, because such people comprehend in an absurd manner and cannot obtain the truth. In short, man’s inner world is extremely complex, and these rebellious matters are especially complicated—there is no need to elaborate on this. People are able to submit to God’s divinity, but cannot submit to some of the work and words of His normal humanity, which shows that they have not truly submitted to God. People’s submission to God is always conditional; they listen to whatever they believe is correct and reasonable, and are unwilling to listen to what they believe is incorrect and unreasonable. They do not submit to what they are unwilling to listen to or what they are unable to do. Can this be called true submission? Absolutely not. This shows that people’s dispositions are not good, that their dispositions are especially vile and bad—this is crucial! That is to say, even when people do submit a little bit to God, it is always selective and conditional submission, and never absolute submission to God. If it is said that a person listens and submits, this is just relatively speaking, because you have not touched upon their interests or truly pruned them, you have not bluntly and directly pruned them. Once you truly prune them, they will set themselves against you and wear a gloomy face all day. If you ask them something they will not respond, and if you tell them to do something then they will not be willing to do it. When you tell them to do something they are unwilling to do, they will begin to break things and be stubborn with you. How bad can a person’s disposition get! Knowing that He is God, why do you treat Him like that? This is no different than the Pharisees and Paul back then. Did Paul know that Jesus is God? Why did he persecute Jesus’ disciples? Why did he arrest so many of them? In the end, Jesus saw that Paul had gone too far in his persecution, and on the road to Damascus, He struck Paul down. A light shone around him, and Paul fell to the ground. After falling, he asked Jesus: “Who are You, Lord?” Jesus told him: “I am Jesus whom you persecute” (Acts 9:5). From then on, Paul was much more subdued. If Jesus had not “illuminated” and struck him down, Paul would not have accepted Jesus, let alone preach for Him. What does this prove? It proves that people’s natures are as bad as can be.

People often say: “We humans all have corrupt dispositions; none of us can satisfy God,” and, “Humans are so self-righteous and self-important. They always believe they are good, that they are better than others!” Actually, this is the most cursory of understandings; this is only a small aspect of a corrupt disposition. Why do you not discuss those thoughts and intentions of rebelling against and resisting God in your own nature? God demands that you do something one way, and you have to do it another way. God works in one way, and you have to demand that He work another way. Isn’t this contending with God? Everyone has this kind of disposition; no one can escape it. Perhaps some people will say: “This doesn’t apply to me, I didn’t know!” That is because you have not come into contact with God. Once you do, and after a week of gradually getting to know Him, you’re guaranteed to change and reveal your true self. This is not an overstatement, nor is it underestimating you. Nowadays, people do not only have corrupt dispositions; their natures have been corrupted too. Their normal humanity has already been so corrupted that it is tattered and utterly lost; that is, people no longer have normal humanity. God incarnate has normal humanity, but people all have corrupt dispositions, and do not have much in the way of normal humanity, making it impossible for them to be in harmony with God. They will certainly have differences and disputes with God on many matters, even going so far as to be hostile toward Him. This is because people do not have God-fearing hearts or hearts of submission to God. One cannot demand of people, “Since you acknowledge that He is God, you must submit to Him no matter what He says,” much less demand that they yield to God in every matter. This is not a matter of yielding; people are created beings, and after all, God is God and man is man—there must be a boundary between them. How did Abraham’s servant pray to Jehovah God in the Age of Law? “O Jehovah God of my master Abraham” (Genesis 24:12). He made distinctions of rank very clear, whereas people nowadays believe: “God is not so different from us. He also has normal humanity, and has the needs, the full range of emotions, the life, and the activities of normal humanity. Although He does divine work, His normal humanity is indispensable!” As soon as people have this rough idea of “normal humanity” inside them, they will be prone to prescribing God’s work, His words, and His disposition as man’s normal humanity, denying His divine essence. This is an enormous mistake; this makes it impossible to know God, doesn’t it? You have not come into contact with God; which of you dares to say, “If I were to be in contact with God for one year, I guarantee I would not be at all rebellious”? No one can be so certain. Most people have believed in God for more than 10 or 20 years, yet no one can achieve true submission to Him. This is enough to show that people have been deeply corrupted by Satan, and that Satan’s disposition has already become entrenched in people’s hearts; there are some corrupt things that you cannot even dig up on your own. I have spoken so many words, expressed so many truths, yet hardly anyone really understands the truth. People now are obstinately wrongheaded; they are numb and dull-witted to a certain degree. It’s not that they are only a little ignorant—their rebellious natures have already taken shape, but you have still not seen this clearly.

Some people, upon encountering Christ for one or two days, find Him unfamiliar and feel somewhat restrained: “This is God here!” They have this thought in their hearts, but after 10 days or two weeks of contact with Him, as little by little they become more familiar with and increasingly close to Him, they become unrestrained in their hearts and they no longer differentiate between their status and His. It is as if there is total equality, without any hierarchy; they think it is proper for God to share life and joy with them. Sometimes I ponder, how could these people be like this? If I were to always prune them and lecture them, they would certainly be well-behaved and submissive. Sometimes when I talk with someone as equals, they think: “Hmm, look how good God is to me!” Being good to you does not prove that you do not have a rebellious disposition or that your nature essence is good. Isn’t this so? With some people, when I treat them a little better and give them a little smile, they forget their place in the universe, forgetting where they came from and what their identity and essence is—they forget all of this. People’s natures are truly as bad as it gets; they do not have any reason whatsoever! If some people believe they are quite good, then go ahead and interact with God for a period of time and see how all that rebelliousness and resistance inside you gets exposed. Engage with God for a period of time—I will not remind you, reprimand you, or prune you, and nobody will fellowship with you; you will experience on your own, and we will see to what extent you can experience. Without obtaining the truth, you will certainly fail miserably, the consequences will be unthinkable. People’s rebellious dispositions are too severe; their hearts cannot accommodate others! Your rebellious disposition, satanic nature, and arrogant heart cannot accommodate other people. Perhaps some people, after interacting with Me for a period of time, develop some incorrect thoughts; if these are not resolved, once they become notions or judgments, they will find themselves in danger. Some people say: “That’s because You’re too ordinary and normal. I’m not like this with my belief in the Lord Jesus.” It is the same with your belief in Jesus. If you were placed in Jesus’ era, you would do no better than the Pharisees, your minds would be full of notions. Do not think that you would be better than Judas. He could betray the Lord and could steal His money for his own use; you might not betray Him or spend the church’s money recklessly, but would not be someone who submitted to the Lord, and you would certainly be full of notions, rebelliousness, and resistance. The words and the work of the Lord Jesus are the appearance and work of God. Why did Judas oppose the Lord? His nature was too bad; he could not accommodate Christ and insisted on being hostile to Him. Did Peter not also suffer a lot back then? In the end, because his humanity was comparatively a bit better than others at that time, and because he was able to pursue loving God, he was ultimately made perfect. Back then, he also had some notions and opinions about Jesus, but because he was able to pursue loving the Lord, he gained some knowledge of the Lord Jesus in the end. So, do not boast; do not guarantee you can succeed and achieve a perfect score in something you have not experienced. This is not true or realistic. You must experience this first; only then will the knowledge and insights you share be practical. Do not say: “God, come to my house, I promise that I won’t make You angry like others do. I promise I won’t be as inhumane as the others.” This is not for certain, because the elements of normal humanity inside people have already been destroyed; their normal humanity is gone, as are their conscience and reason—the common sense of normal humanity, speaking simply and honestly, and being able to listen and be submissive, all of these positive things, are already gone from within people. So, people’s principles for living and their goals in life have already changed; they all adhere to satanic philosophy and are dominated by Satan’s nature. Their speech is sly and deceitful, they go whichever way the wind blows, and they excel at saying pleasant-sounding things—they believe that living like this is great. Why is it said that humans are deeply corrupted? Being so deeply corrupted, do people still have any normal humanity? You believe that you have a corrupt disposition, which you believe is just being somewhat arrogant, self-righteous and prideful, being somewhat deceitful in speech, or being somewhat perfunctory in the performance of your duties—that is all. But this knowledge is too shallow; it’s just scratching the surface. The key is that man is evil by nature, people all revere evil and are denying and resisting God, and their normal humanity has already vanished from the face of the earth. Isn’t this how it is? So, what should people do to meet the standard of being a created being? The key is to find a path of practice, a suitable method of practice, from within God’s words. You all know that there are no exceptionally good people among humankind, so why is it said now that some people have humanity while other people do not? Can people who have humanity really put these truths into practice? They also cannot put them into practice; it’s just that relatively speaking they are a little bit kinder and gentler in their hearts, and are a little more responsible in their work—but this is all relative, not absolute. If you evaluate someone and say that this person is absolutely good and does not have any faults or rebelliousness, that they are completely compliant and submissive, and are not at all perfunctory in performing their duties, would this not be an exaggeration? Is it in accordance with the facts? Is there really a person like this? If this is how you comprehend things, that is distorted. But if you believe, “We humans are done for. Not one of us is any good, so what’s the use of believing in God? I’ll simply stop believing and await my death!” this is also absurd. You always go to the extremes, as if you do not understand plain speech; you’re always either leaning one way or the other. If I speak more softly and gently, you will fail to know yourselves, but if I speak too sternly and harshly, you will hang your heads, become negative, and even give up on yourselves. When some people hear God’s words of judgment and condemnation, they immediately become paralyzed and believe that they are done for, that they have no hope of being saved. These people are exactly the ones who are hardest to save, because they do not understand plain speech! Now, when God speaks and exposes people, it is to make them understand the root of man’s corrupt nature and understand why man is able to rebel against God. Exposing these things is beneficial to people. If these things are not exposed, you would believe until the end without ever knowing yourself, always saying the archangel is full of itself, or saying that this person is arrogant and that person is rebellious. What about yourself? There are also people who always say, “We are indeed rebellious toward God,” but still do not know the root of their rebelliousness and do not see through to or understand the essence of those states. This means they cannot change and cannot be saved. Are you able to comprehend these words? (Yes.)

There are two primary aspects to what I have just fellowshipped. One aspect is that, in believing in God, one should achieve true submission, completely meeting the standard of a created being. The other is that exposing the rebelliousness inside people and exposing their nature allows them to know themselves. If they are not exposed like this and made to know themselves, then everyone will say they are good and better than others. For example, some people say, “I am also so deeply corrupted,” but when they interact with others for a period of time, they believe that they are still better than others, thinking: “I’m not any good; I see you’re no better, and actually even worse than me!” Do not think that you are better than others. You are not better than others by any stretch of the imagination; people’s rebellious natures are all the same. Is this all clear? Now that we have finished fellowshipping this, what do you all think? Are you thinking: “I’ve believed in God for so many years, and I thought I was someone who submitted to God. Today, now that God has finished fellowshipping, I finally realize that I do not have true submission to God, and I still do not treat Him as God. I can’t even manage to submit to God—I am totally without reason and my faith is so confused!” If you truly have this kind of knowledge, then there is hope for you to enter onto the right track of believing in God and become someone who submits to Him; only then can you attain salvation.

Excerpt 3

A great number of believers fail to place importance on transformation in life disposition, instead focusing on and concerning themselves with God’s attitude toward them and whether or not they occupy a place in God’s heart. They are always trying to guess how they appear in God’s eyes and whether or not they hold a position in His heart. Many people harbor these kinds of thoughts, and if they do come face-to-face with God, they always observe whether He is happy or angry when He speaks to them. Then there are those who are always inquiring to others, “Has God mentioned my difficulties? What does He think of me, anyway? Does He show any concern for me?” Some have even more serious issues—if God so much as glances at them, it is as though they have detected a new problem: “Oh no, God just glanced at me, and the look in His eyes didn’t seem very happy, this is not a good sign.” People place great importance on such things. Some people say: “The God we believe in is God incarnate, so if He doesn’t pay attention to us, doesn’t that spell the end for us?” What they mean by this is, “If we have no place in God’s heart, why should we bother believing? We should just stop believing!” Is this not lacking in reason? Do you know why people should believe in God? People never ponder on whether God has a place in their hearts, and yet they want a place in God’s heart. How arrogant and conceited they are! This is the part of them that is most lacking in reason. There are even those who are so lacking in reason that when God asks after someone else, and doesn’t bring up their name, or shows concern for and cares for others rather than for them, they feel dissatisfied and begin to grumble and complain about God, saying that He is unrighteous and not even fair and reasonable. This is a problem with their reason, and they’re also somewhat abnormal psychologically. Under usual circumstances, people always claim that they will submit to God’s arrangements and orchestrations, that they will never complain regardless of how God treats them, and that they are fine with God pruning, judging, or chastising them, but when they encounter such things in reality, they do not accept them. Do people have reason? People think so highly of themselves and believe themselves to be so important that if they so much as perceive God to have looked at them the wrong way, they feel that they have no hope of attaining salvation, to say nothing of if God were to actually prune them. Or, if God speaks to them in a harsher tone and it pierces their hearts, they become negative and begin to think that believing in God is meaningless. They think, “How can I continue believing in God if He ignores me?” Some lack discernment of this kind of person and think: “Look how true their belief in God is. God is so very important to them. They can even interpret God’s meaning from a single glance. They are deeply loyal to God—they really see the God on earth as the God in heaven.” Is this how it is? These people are so muddleheaded, so lacking in insight in all matters; their stature is too small and they are truly revealing all kinds of ugliness. People have such poor reason—they have too many demands of God and they ask too much of Him, they lack even the slightest bit of reason. People are always demanding that God do this or that and are unable to completely submit to Him or worship Him. Instead, they make unreasonable demands of God based upon their own preferences, demanding that He be very magnanimous, that He never be angered by anything, and that whenever He sees people, He should always be smiling and should always talk to them, and supply them with the truth and fellowship on the truth with them. They also demand that He always be patient and that He keeps a pleasant expression around them. People have too many requirements; they are too finicky! You should examine these matters. Human reason is so poor, is it not? Not only are people not able to completely submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements or accept all that comes from God, on the contrary, they impose additional requirements upon God. How can people with such requirements be loyal to God? How can they submit to the arrangements of God? How can they love God? People all have requirements for how God should love them, tolerate them, watch over them, protect them, and care for them, yet none of them have any requirements for how they themselves should love God, think of God, be considerate toward God, satisfy God, have God in their hearts, and worship God. Do these things exist in people’s hearts? These are things that people should accomplish, so why do they not press forward diligently in these things? Some people can be enthusiastic for a time and can somewhat forsake things and expend themselves, but it is not lasting; running into a little setback can cause them to become discouraged, lose hope, and complain. People have so many difficulties, and there are too few people who pursue the truth and seek to love and satisfy God. Humans are utterly lacking in reason, they stand in the wrong position, and see themselves as especially valuable. There are also those who say: “God sees us as the apples of His eye. He did not hesitate to allow His only Son to be nailed to the cross in order to redeem mankind. God paid a heavy price to buy us back—we are incredibly valuable and all hold a place in God’s heart. We are a special group of people and have a much higher status than nonbelievers—we are people of the kingdom of heaven.” They think themselves to be quite lofty and grand. In the past, many leaders had this mentality, believing that they had a certain status and position in God’s house after being promoted. They thought, “God holds me in high regard and thinks well of me, and He has allowed me to serve as a leader. I must do my best running around and working for Him.” They were terribly pleased with themselves. However, after a period of time, they did something bad and their true colors were shown, and then they were replaced, and they became dejected and hung their heads. When their unseemly behavior was exposed and pruned, they became even more negative, and were unable to continue believing. They thought to themselves, “God is being so inconsiderate of my feelings, He doesn’t care about saving my pride at all. They say God is sympathetic to man’s weaknesses, so why was I dismissed after some small transgressions?” They then became discouraged and wanted to abandon their faith. Do such people have true faith in God? If they cannot even accept being pruned, then their stature is too small, and it is uncertain whether they will be able to accept the truth in the future. Such people are in danger.

People do not make high demands of themselves, but they make high demands of God. They ask Him to show them special kindness, and to be patient and accommodating toward them, cherish them, provide for them, and smile at them, be tolerant toward them, make allowances for them, and take care of them in many ways. They expect Him not to be strict with them at all or do anything that would upset them even slightly, and they are only satisfied if He sweet-talks them every single day. Humans have such poor reason! They are not clear on what they should do, what they should accomplish, what viewpoints they should have, what position they should stand in to serve God, and what position is suitable to place themselves in. People with a little bit of status have a very high opinion of themselves, and those without status also think quite highly of themselves. Humans never know themselves. You must come to a point in your belief in God where, regardless of how He speaks to you, how strict He is with you, and how much He might ignore you, you can keep on believing without complaint and continue to do your duty as usual. You will then be a mature and experienced person, and you will truly have some stature and a bit of the reason of a normal person. You will not make demands of God, you will no longer have extravagant desires, and you will no longer make requests of others or of God based on your own preferences. This will show that, to a certain extent, you possess the likeness of a human. Currently, you have too many requirements, these requirements are far too excessive, and you have too many human intentions. This proves that you are not standing in the correct position; the position you are standing in is too high, and you have viewed yourself as too honorable—as though you are not much lower in position than God. You are therefore difficult to deal with, and this is precisely the nature of Satan. If such states exist within you, you will certainly be negative more often and be normal less frequently, so your life progress will be slow. By contrast, those who are pure of heart and less finicky will accept the truth easily and make faster progress. Those with pure hearts do not experience as much suffering, but you have very strong feelings, you are too finicky, and you always make demands of God, so you face large impediments to accepting the truth and your life progress proceeds slowly. Some people pursue just the same regardless of how others attack and exclude them, and are not affected in the slightest by it. People like this are magnanimous, so they suffer a bit less and face slightly fewer obstacles to their life entry. You are finicky and always being impacted by one thing or the other—who looked at you the wrong way, who looked down on you, who ignored you, or what God said that triggered you, or what harsh words He said that pierced your heart and hurt your self-esteem, or what good thing He gave to someone else and not to you—and then you become negative and even misunderstand God. People like this are finicky and a bit impervious to reason. No matter how one fellowships the truth with them, they just will not accept it and their problems will go unresolved. These people are the hardest to deal with.

I often hear you fellowship in this way: “I stumbled while doing something and later on, after going through some suffering, I gained a bit of understanding.” Most people have had this kind of experience—this experience is so superficial. This bit of understanding may have been arrived at after years of experiences, and people may have experienced a lot of suffering and been dragged through the wringer only to gain this little bit of understanding and transformation. How pitiful that is! There are so many impurities in people’s faith, it is so strenuous for them to believe in God! To this day, there are still many impurities within every person, and they still make many demands of God—these are all man’s impurities. Possessing such impurities is proof that there is a problem with their humanity, and it is a revelation of their corrupt dispositions. There is a difference between proper and improper demands made of God by man—this must be discerned clearly. One must be clear as to what position man ought to stand in and what reason man should possess. I have noticed that some people are always focusing on what kind of expression I have around people and always studying who God treats well and who He treats poorly. If they see God looking at them with a negative expression, or hear Him exposing or condemning them, they cannot let it go—no matter how you fellowship with them it does not work, and no matter how much time passes, they cannot turn around. They pass a verdict on themselves, holding on to that one passing phrase and using it to determine God’s attitude toward them. They wallow in negativity, and no matter how anyone fellowships the truth with them, they are not willing to accept it. This is just unreasonable. It is clear that man lacks even the slightest knowledge of God’s righteous disposition and doesn’t understand it at all. As long as people are able to repent and transform, God’s attitude toward them will also change. If your attitude toward God does not change, can God’s attitude toward you change? If you change, the way God treats you will change, but if you do not change, neither will God’s treatment of you. Some people still have no knowledge of what God hates, what He likes, His joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, His almightiness, and His wisdom, and they cannot even speak about some perceptual knowledge—this is what makes man so difficult to handle. Man forgets all the well-meaning words God speaks to him, but if He makes just one stern remark or speaks one sentence of pruning or judgment, it pierces man’s heart. Why do people not take words of positive guidance seriously, while becoming upset, negative, and unable to recover upon hearing words of judgment and pruning? Ultimately, it may take a long period of contemplation before they turn around, and they will only wake up after combining this with some of God’s comforting words. Without these comforting words, they would be unable to climb out of their negativity. When people are just starting to experience God’s work, they have a lot of erroneous knowledge and misunderstandings of God. They always believe they are right, always cling to their own ideas, and they don’t take in the things that other people say. Only after they have had three to five years of experience do they gradually begin to understand, gain insight, recognize that they were wrong, and sense how difficult they have been to deal with. It’s as though they have only then grown up. As they gain more experience, they come to understand God, and their misunderstandings of God diminish, they no longer complain, and they begin to have normal faith in God. Compared with the past, their stature more resembles that of an adult. They used to be like children—liable to sulk, become negative, and distance themselves from God at certain times. They might have complained when faced with certain matters, certain words of God could have become the subject of their newest notion, and they might have begun to doubt God at certain times—this is how it is when someone’s stature is too small. Now that they have experienced so much and read God’s words for several years, they have made progress, and become much more stable than they were in the past. All this is the result of understanding the truth—it is the truth taking effect within them. So, as long as people understand the truth and are able to accept it, there is no difficulty that they cannot resolve, and they will always gain something, no matter how long they experience for. Of course, it will not do if they do not experience for long enough, but as long as they reap gains from each of their experiences, they will grow quickly in life.

The fact that you are now being cultivated to become a leader, worker, or supervisor, or to perform important duties does not prove that you have a larger stature. All it means is that you are of slightly better caliber than the average person, that you are a bit more earnest in your pursuit, and that there’s a bit more value in cultivating you. It certainly does not mean that you are able to submit to God or put yourself at the mercy of God’s orchestrations, and it does not mean that you have put aside your prospects and hopes. People do not yet have this kind of reason. You still carry some negativity, as well as intentions and aspirations to gain blessings, and even man’s notions and imaginings, with you while you are working. At the same time, you carry some baggage while doing your work, as if you are atoning for past sins through good deeds rather than working out of a happy willingness to do so. You also have not reached the point where no matter how God treats you, you only concern yourselves with acting in accordance with His intentions and demands. Can you achieve this? People do not have this reason. They all want to get a read on God, thinking: “What kind of attitude does God have toward me, exactly? Is He using me to render service or saving and perfecting me?” They all want to get a read in this way, they just do not dare to say it. The fact that they do not dare to say it proves that there is still an idea dominating them: “There’s no point in talking about it—it’s just my nature and it isn’t possible to change it. As long as I keep myself from doing anything bad, that’s enough—I don’t demand too much of myself.” They confine themselves to the lowest possible position and ultimately make no progress in the end, while also carrying a perfunctory way of thinking with them as they perform their duties. It is only after being fellowshipped with a few times that you all begin to understand a bit of the truth and come to know a bit of the reality of the truth. Whether or not you are being used, or what attitude God has toward you—these things are not important. The key lies in your proactive efforts, the path you choose to take, and whether or not you are ultimately able to transform—these are the most critical points. No matter how good of an attitude God may have toward you, it won’t do if you do not transform. If you stumble whenever something befalls you, and you lack even the slightest loyalty, then no matter how good of an attitude God has toward you, it will be of no use. The crucial thing is the path you choose to walk. God might have cursed you and spoken words of hate and loathing to you in the past, but if you have changed now, then God’s attitude toward you will change as well. People are always fearful, uneasy, and lack true faith, which indicates that they do not understand God’s intentions. Now that you have some understanding, will you still become negative and weak when things befall you in the future? Will you be able to practice the truth and stand firm in your testimony? Will you be able to truly submit to God? If you can achieve these things, you will have the reason of normal humanity. Do you now not have some knowledge of man’s corrupt dispositions and God’s salvation and intentions? You at least have a rough idea. When, one day, you are able to enter into some realities of all aspects of the truth, you will be completely living out normal humanity.

Excerpt 4

The most important part of pursuing the truth is to focus on reading God’s words. The amount that a person can gain from reading God’s words depends on their comprehension ability. Although everyone reads God’s words, some are able to grasp the true meaning and find light in them, and as long as they read God’s words, they will gain something. However, others are not like that. They focus only on understanding doctrines when reading God’s words. The result of this is that after several years of reading God’s words, they understand many doctrines, and yet whenever they experience problems, they can’t solve them; nothing they learned is of use. What is going on here? Even though people are all reading God’s words, the results are different. Those who love the truth are able to accept it, while those who do not love the truth are unwilling to accept it even if they read God’s words. They will not seek the truth in God’s words no matter what problems they encounter. People with a bit of experience can discuss some practical things when they read God’s words and talk about their practical knowledge of the truth—this is understanding the truth. Those without experience only grasp the literal meaning of God’s words, and they lack the slightest bit of knowledge and experience—this cannot be considered understanding the truth. Some leaders often tell others that they go to church specifically to provide the truth. Is this statement correct? The words “provide the truth” should not be said lightly. Who possesses the truth? Who dares to claim that they supply the truth? Isn’t this claim too grand? When you believe in God and follow Him, you are simply a person who accepts and pursues the truth. If you can do this, that is already quite good. Even if a person can understand some truths and speak about some experience and knowledge of the truth, it cannot be said that they supply the truth because no person possesses the truth. How can talking about some experience and knowledge be called supplying the truth? Therefore, leaders and workers can only be described as performing the work of watering, and as being specifically responsible for the life entry of brothers and sisters in the church. They cannot be said to be supplying the truth. Even if a person has some stature, they still cannot be said to be supplying others with the truth. This absolutely cannot be said. How many people understand the truth? Does a person’s stature qualify them to supply the truth? Even if someone has some experience and knowledge of the truth, it cannot be said that they can supply the truth. That absolutely cannot be said, it’s too lacking in reason. Some people take pride in watering the church and supplying the truth, as if they understand a great deal of the truth. However, they are unable to discern false leaders and antichrists. Isn’t this a contradiction? If someone asks you what the truth is, and you answer, “God’s word is the truth; the truth is God’s word,” do you understand the truth? You can only speak the words and doctrines, and you lack experience and knowledge of what the truth is, so you are not qualified to supply it to others. Right now, those who serve as leaders all lack experience; they just have a little caliber and a willingness to pursue the truth. They’re suitable for nurturing and training, and they can take the lead in doing duties. Even if they can fellowship about some knowledge, how can it be said that they supply the truth? Most leaders and workers can talk about some knowledge, but that doesn’t mean that they have the truth reality. After all, they have listened to many years of sermons and they have a bit of superficial knowledge; they are willing to fellowship on the truth and can be somewhat helpful to others, but they cannot be said to be supplying the truth. Are leaders and workers capable of supplying the truth? Absolutely not. Leaders and workers preach and water the church; most importantly, they must be able to solve practical problems, that is the only way that they can truly water the church. Right now, most leaders and workers are still unable to solve many practical problems. Even if they can fellowship on some knowledge of the truth, most of what they say is still just the words and doctrines. They cannot fellowship clearly on the reality of the truth, so can they really solve problems? Most leaders and workers just have a bit of comprehension ability and they still do not have much practical experience. Can it be said that they understand the truth more and have more of the truth reality than others? This cannot be said, they fall short of this. Some leaders and workers are promoted purely for the purpose of nurturing; they are allowed to practice because they have a little caliber, and they possess a bit of comprehension ability, and their family environment is suitable. It’s not as if promoting someone means that they possess the truth reality and that they can supply the truth. It’s just that those who pursue the truth obtain enlightenment and light before others, but this little light falls short of the truth, it is not a part of the truth, it is only in accordance with the truth. Only what God expresses directly is the truth. The enlightenment of the Holy Spirit is only in adherence with the truth, because the Holy Spirit enlightens people according to their stature. He does not speak the truth directly to people. Instead, He gives them a light they are able to attain. You must understand this. If a person has some insight into God’s words and has some knowledge gained from experience, does this count as truth? No. At most, they have some understanding of the truth. The words of the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment do not represent God’s words, do not represent the truth, and are not the truth. At most, the person has some understanding of the truth, and has been enlightened a little bit by the Holy Spirit. If a person gains some understanding of the truth and then supplies it to others, all they are doing is supplying their understanding and experience to others. You cannot say they are supplying the truth to others. It is alright if you say they are fellowshipping on the truth; this is an appropriate description. Why do I say this? Because what you are fellowshipping on is your understanding of the truth; it does not amount to the truth itself. Therefore, you can only say that you are fellowshipping on some understanding and experience; how can you say you are supplying the truth? Supplying the truth is not a simple matter. Who is worthy of speaking this sentence? Only God is capable of supplying the truth to people. Are people capable? Therefore, you must see this matter clearly. This is not just an issue of using the wrong words, the crux is that you are violating and twisting the facts. What you claim is an overstatement. People may have some understanding of, and experience with, God’s words, but you cannot say they have the truth, or that they are of the truth. You absolutely cannot say this. No matter how much understanding people gain from the truth, you cannot say that they possess the life of truth, let alone that they are of the truth. You absolutely cannot say this. People only understand a bit of the truth and have a bit of light and some ways of practice. They only have some reality of submission, and some true change. But you cannot say that they have gained the truth. God provides life to people by expressing the truth. God also demands that people understand the truth and gain the truth in order to serve and satisfy Him. Even if there comes a day when people experience God’s work to the point that they have truly gained the truth, you still cannot say that people are of the truth, let alone say that people possess the truth. This is because even if people have many years of experience, there is a limit to the amount of truth they will gain, and it is a very shallow amount. The truth is the most deep and mysterious thing; it is what God has and is. Even if people experience the truth for a lifetime, what they gain of it will be very limited. People will never be able to gain the truth completely, understand it completely, or live it out completely. That is what God means when He says that people will always be babies in His presence.

Some people believe that once they possess experience and knowledge of the truths expressed by God, and a thorough understanding of every aspect of the truth, and can act according to the truth, then they will be able to express the truth. They think that by doing so, they will be living as Christ, just like Paul said, “To me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). Is this viewpoint correct? Isn’t it another espousing of the “God-men” argument? This is absolutely wrong! People must understand one thing: No matter how much experience and knowledge you have of the truth, or even if you have entered into the truth reality, and are able to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, and can submit to God and testify for God, and no matter how elevated or profound your life entry becomes, your life is still a human life, and a human can never become God. This is an absolute fact that people must understand. Even if, in the end, you have experience and an understanding of every aspect of the truth, and you let God orchestrate you and become a perfected person, it still cannot be said that you are of the truth. Even if you can speak of true experiential testimony, this does not mean that you can express the truth. In the past, it was common within religious groups to say that one had “the life of Christ within.” This is an erroneous and vague statement. Although people don’t say this anymore, their understanding of this matter remains unclear. Some people think, “Since we have obtained the truth and the truth is within us, we possess the truth, and have the truth in our hearts, and we are also able to express it.” Isn’t this also wrong? People often talk about whether or not they have the truth, which mainly refers to whether or not they have experience and knowledge of the truth, and whether or not they can practice according to the truth. Everyone experiences the truth, but the state each person experiences is different. What each person gains from the truth is also different. If you were to combine everyone’s experience and understanding, it still would not completely reflect the essence of the truth. That is how deep and mysterious the truth is! Why do I say that everything you have gained and all of your understanding cannot take the place of the truth? After people have heard you fellowship on some of your experience and understanding, they will understand it, and they will not need to experience for a long time in order to completely understand and gain it. Even if it is something a bit more deep, they will not need several years of experience. But as for the truth, people will not experience all of it in their entire lifetime. Even if you add everyone together, they will not have experienced it all. As you can see, the truth is too deep and mysterious. Words are incapable of explaining the truth thoroughly. Truth expressed in human language is verity to humans. Humans will never be able to experience it all, and never be able to completely live out the truth. This is because even if people spend several thousand years, they will not have completely experienced one item of truth. No matter how many years people experience, the truth they understand and gain will still be limited. It can be said that the truth is humanity’s eternal spring of life. God is the source of the truth, and entering the truth realities is a task which has no end.

The truth is the life of God Himself; it represents His disposition, His essence, and what He has and is. If you say that by having some experience and knowledge, you thereby have the truth, then have you achieved holiness? Why do you still reveal corruption? Why can’t you discern between different types of people? Why can’t you testify to God? Even if you understand some truths, can you represent God? Can you live out God’s disposition? You may have some experience and knowledge regarding a certain aspect of a truth, and you may be able to shed a bit of light in your speech, but what you can provide to people is extremely limited and cannot last long. This is because your understanding and the light you have obtained does not represent the essence of the truth, and it does not represent the entirety of truth. It only represents one side or a small aspect of the truth, it is only a level that can be achieved by human beings, and it is still far from the essence of the truth. This little bit of light, enlightenment, experience, and knowledge can never take the place of the truth. Even if all people have achieved some results through experiencing a truth, and all their experiences and knowledge were put together, it would not reach the entirety and essence of even a single line of this truth. It has been said in the past, “I sum this up with an aphorism for the human world: Among men, there is no one who loves Me.” This sentence is the truth, the true essence of life, a most profound thing, and an expression of God Himself. After three years of experience, you may have a little superficial understanding, and after seven or eight years, you may have a little more understanding, but this understanding can never take the place of this line of truth. After two years, someone else may have a little understanding, or some more understanding after ten years, or a relatively high understanding after a lifetime, but the collective understanding of both of you cannot take the place of this line of truth. No matter how much insight, light, experience, or knowledge the two of you may collectively have, it can never take the place of this line of truth. That is to say, human life is always human life, and no matter how your knowledge conforms to the truth, God’s intentions, or God’s requirements, it can never take the place of the truth. To say that people have the truth means that people genuinely understand the truth, live out some of the realities of God’s word, have some real knowledge of God, and can exalt and testify to God. However, it cannot be said that people already possess the truth, because the truth is too profound. Just one line of God’s word can take people a lifetime to experience, and even after several lifetimes of experience, or thousands of years, a single line of God’s word cannot be fully experienced. It is clear that the process of understanding the truth and knowing God is indeed endless, and that there is a limit to how much of the truth people can understand in a lifetime of experience. Some people say they have the truth as soon as they understand the textual meaning of God’s word. Isn’t this nonsense? In terms of both light and knowledge, there is a matter of depth. The truth realities that a person can enter into over a lifetime of belief are limited. Therefore, just because you possess some knowledge and light does not mean that you possess the truth realities. The main thing you must look at is whether this light and knowledge touches upon the essence of the truth. This is the most important thing. Some people feel that they possess the truth when they can shed light or offer a little superficial understanding. This makes them happy, so they become smug and conceited. In fact, they are still far from entering the truth reality. What truth do people possess? Can people who possess the truth fall down anytime and anywhere? When people possess the truth, how can they still defy God and betray God? If you claim that you possess the truth, it proves that within you is the life of Christ—that’s outrageous! You have become the Lord, you have become Christ? This is an absurd statement, and is entirely inferred by people; it pertains to human notions and imaginings, and is not a tenable position with God.

When speaking of people understanding the truth, and living with it as their life, what does this “life” refer to? It means the truth reigns supreme in their hearts, it means they are able to live by God’s words, and it means they have real knowledge of God’s words and a genuine understanding of the truth. When people possess this new life within them, it is entirely achieved by practicing and experiencing God’s words. It is built on the foundation of the truth of God’s words, and it is attained by their living within the realm of the truth; all that people’s life contains is their knowledge and experience of the truth. That is its foundation, and it does not surpass that scope; this is the life that is being referred to when speaking of gaining the truth and life. Being able to live by the truth of God’s words does not mean that the life of truth is inside people, nor that if they possess the truth as their life, they become the truth, and their internal life becomes the life of truth; let alone that they are the truth and life. Ultimately, their life is still the life of a human. If you can live by God’s words and possess knowledge of the truth, if this knowledge takes root within you and becomes your life, and the truth you have gained through experience becomes the basis of your existence, if you live by these words of God, no one can change it, and Satan cannot mislead or corrupt you, then you will have gained the truth and life. That is, your life merely contains the truth, meaning your understanding, experience, and insight of the truth; and no matter what you do, you will live by these things, and you will not go beyond the scope of them. This is what it means to possess the truth reality, and such people are what God ultimately wants to gain with His work. But no matter how well people understand the truth, their essence is still one of humanity, and is not at all comparable to the essence of God. This is because they can never experience all of the truth, and it is impossible for them to completely live out the truth; they can only live out the extremely limited bit of the truth attainable by humans. How, then, could they turn into God? If God personally perfected a group of people into greater Gods and lesser Gods, wouldn’t that be chaos? Besides, such a thing is impossible and absurd—it is man’s ridiculous idea. God created the heavens and earth and all things, and then He created man, so that man would submit to and worship Him. God’s creation of man was the most meaningful act. God only created man; He did not create Gods. God works in the form of the incarnation, but this is not the same as Him creating a God. God did not create Himself; He has His own essence, and it is immutable. People do not know God, so they should read more of God’s words; people can only understand the truth if they seek it often. People should not speak nonsense based on their imagination. If you have a bit of experience with God’s words, and are living by genuine experience and knowledge of truth, then God’s words will gradually become your life. However, you still cannot say that the truth is your life or that what you are expressing is the truth; if such is your opinion, then you are wrong. If you only have some experience with one particular aspect of the truth, can this in itself represent you possessing the truth? Can this be considered to be obtaining the truth? Can you thoroughly explain the truth? Can you discover God’s disposition, and what God has and is, from the truth? If these effects are not achieved, this proves that having only experienced a certain aspect of the truth cannot be considered to truly understand the truth, or to know God, much less can it be said to have gained the truth. Everyone has experience with only one aspect and scope of the truth; they experience it within their limited scope, and cannot touch upon all of the truth’s innumerable aspects. Can people live out the original meaning of the truth? How much does your little bit of experience amount to? Only a single grain of sand on a beach; a lone drop of water in the ocean. Therefore, no matter how precious that knowledge and those feelings you have gained from your experiences might be, they still cannot be counted as the truth. They can only be said to be in accordance with the truth. The truth comes from God, and the inner meaning and the realities of the truth cover a very wide range, and no one can fathom or refute it. As long as you have a real understanding of the truth and of God, you will understand some truths; no one will be able to refute these real understandings, and the testimonies that contain the truth realities are forever tenable. God approves of those who possess the truth realities. As long as you pursue the truth, and you can rely on God to experience God’s words and can accept the truth as your life no matter what environment you are in, then you will have a path, be able to survive, and gain God’s approval. Even though the little bit people gain is in accordance with the truth, it cannot be said that this is the truth, much less can it be said that they have gained the truth. The little bit of light people have obtained is only suitable for themselves or some others within a certain scope, but would not be suitable within a different scope. No matter how profound a person’s experience, it is still so limited, and their experience will never reach the depth of the truth. A person’s light and a person’s understanding can never be compared to the truth.

When people have some experience of God’s words, understand some truths and a bit of God’s intentions, when they have some knowledge of God, and their disposition has undergone a bit of change and been cleansed, it can still only be said that they are a person, and a created human being, but this is precisely the kind of normal person that God wishes to gain. So, what kind of person are you? Some people say, “I am a person who possesses the truth.” It would not be fitting to say that. You can only say, “I am a person who has been corrupted by Satan, and who has experienced the judgment and chastisement of God’s words. I finally understood the truth, and had my corrupt disposition cleansed. I am merely a person who has been saved by God.” If you were to say, “I am a person who possesses the truth. I have experienced all of God’s words and understood them all. I know the meaning of everything that God says, and the context and circumstances in which those words were spoken. I know it all. Doesn’t this mean that I possess the truth?” then you would be wrong again. Having some experience of God’s words and gaining some light from them does not make you a person who possesses the truth. Those who can just understand and discuss some doctrines are even less qualified to make such a claim. People must clearly comprehend what position a person should take before God and before the truth, what people are, what the life inside man is, and what the life of God is. People must understand what the essence of man is. After experiencing God’s work for a few days, and understanding some words and doctrines, some people feel that they possess the truth. These are the most arrogant people, and they are devoid of reason. It is necessary to dissect this matter so that people can truly understand themselves and come to know mankind, and so that they can understand what corrupt mankind is, what level people can achieve after they are finally perfected, and what the appropriate way to address and name them is. People should know these things and not indulge in flights of fancy. It is better for people to be more realistic in how they comport themselves, that way they will be a bit more down-to-earth. Some people who believe in God always pursue their own dreams and always wish to live out God’s life and image. Is this realistic? People always want to possess God’s life—is this not a dangerous thing? It is the arrogant ambition of humans, and it is just like the arrogant ambition of Satan. Some people, after working in the church for a period of time, start pondering, “After the great red dragon falls from power, should we become kings and wield power? How many cities should each of us control?” If a person can reveal such things, that is terrible. People who have no experience like to talk about doctrines and to indulge in fantasies. And as they do, they even feel clever, as if they have gained success in their faith in God, as if they are living as Christ and God. They are all disciples of Paul, and they are walking the path of Paul. If they are steadfastly unrepentant, these people will all become antichrists and suffer severe punishment.

Excerpt 5

Regarding these words spoken by God, when you listen, do you compare them with yourselves, or just listen to them as doctrine, run it through your mind once so you understand what it means, and that’s all? What kind of attitude and intentions do you have while listening? If you really understand what God has said—that those who do not practice the truth shall be eliminated; that those who do not practice the truth are not good but evil people in the eyes of God—then you should reflect upon yourselves and see which of your actions are not practicing the truth, and which of your methods and attitudes are seen by God as manifestations of not practicing the truth. Have you ever tried to fathom these matters? Have you reflected upon yourselves? It is not enough to just read the words of God with a cursory glance; you must contemplate them, self-reflect, and compare your own thoughts and actions with God’s words of exposure, and achieve self-knowledge—only in this way can you have genuine repentance and change. If you read the words of God but do not ponder them and do not self-reflect, instead just focusing on understanding doctrine, then your belief in God will not have any life entry, nor will you undergo any real transformation. Therefore, it is essential to ponder, seek the truth, and self-reflect when reading God’s words. What are God’s words? They are the reality of all positive things, they are the truth, they are the way, they are the life bestowed by God upon humans. The words of God are not doctrine, they are not slogans, they are not a kind of theory, nor are they philosophical knowledge; rather, they are the truth that people must understand and attain, and the life they must obtain. Therefore, the words of God are intimately related to people’s lives and life itself, the path people should walk, and people’s outcome and destination. If someone really understands the truth and has obtained the truth, everything about them will change accordingly. If someone can never understand the truth or live by God’s words, they cannot possibly achieve genuine change or gain God’s approval. The outcome and destination for that person can only be to suffer perdition and be destroyed. This is how important the words of God and the truth He expresses are to people. If you read the words of God but do not contemplate them, self-reflect, or connect them to your own real problems and difficulties, then all that you are able to understand is only superficial, and you cannot possibly understand the truth or grasp God’s intentions. Therefore, you must learn how to contemplate God’s words to understand the truth. This is crucial. There are many ways to contemplate God’s words: You may read them silently and pray in your heart, seeking enlightenment and illumination from the Holy Spirit; you may also fellowship and pray-read in the company of those who pursue the truth; and, of course, you may integrate fellowships and sermons into your contemplation to deepen your understanding and comprehension of God’s words. The ways are many and varied. In short, if, in reading God’s words, one wishes to achieve an understanding of them, then it is crucial to contemplate and pray-read God’s words. The purpose of pray-reading God’s words is not to be able to recite them, nor is it to commit them to memory; rather, it is to gain an accurate understanding of these words after having pray-read and contemplated them and to know the meaning of these words spoken by God, as well as His intention. It is to find therein the path of practice, and to keep from turning to one’s own way. In addition, it is to be able to have discernment on all the various sorts of states and types of people exposed in God’s words, and to be able to treat each type of person according to the principles, while at the same time avoiding going astray. Once you learn how to pray-read and contemplate God’s words, and do it often, only then can God’s words take root in your heart and become your life.

Excerpt 6

In the last days, the Creator publicly uttered all these words and revealed all kinds of people. Now, all kinds of people face the truth, the true way and the Creator’s utterances, and all sorts of voices and views are revealed: Some thoughts and views lean toward the distorted, some are self-righteous and arrogant, some are conservative, adherent to traditional culture, and rotten, and many are stupid and ignorant. There are even some people who hate and are hostile toward the truth who lash out in a frenzy like crazed dogs, casually judging and recklessly condemning the truth and positive things. They wantonly judge and condemn any positive thing and expression of the truth, and make no effort to discern whether it is right or wrong, or whether it contains the truth. These people are animals and devils. When humans are confronted with the truth and the true way, they have many different views which reveal and expose the satanic ugliness of their narrow-mindedness, stubbornness, intransigence, and arrogance. You must learn to be discerning, to broaden your insight from this, while also seeking some of the truth. If these things are revealed in those who do not believe, and who have not accepted God’s work of the last days, then do you exhibit these things yourselves? Sometimes the way you exhibit them is different, and the way you say them is different, but you actually reveal the same dispositions as the nonbelievers do. It is similar to how when some people accept the Lord Jesus, they believe that everyone under the sun who does not accept the Lord Jesus is inferior. They believe that because they have accepted the salvation of the cross of the Lord Jesus, they are a superior person, and they look down on everyone. What kind of disposition is this? They lack insight; they are too narrow-minded, and they are extremely arrogant and self-righteous. They see that others are revealing corrupt dispositions, but they do not see that they are also revealing the same corrupt dispositions. So, do you exhibit these things? You certainly do, as all of man’s corrupt dispositions are exactly the same, and it is only because of God’s work and salvation, the needs of His work, or His predestination that there is a difference in the nature essences, pursuits, and yearnings of every type of person. Some people have no heart or spirit. They are dead people and beasts who do not understand faith. These people are the most lowly of all mankind and cannot be counted as humans. Those who accept God’s new work have more understanding of the truth, their insight and their understanding of God are greater, and their theories and views are a level higher. Just like how those who believe in Christianity have a greater understanding of God and a greater knowledge of the Creator’s creations and work than law-abiding believers in Jehovah, those who accept the third stage of work have a greater understanding of God than believers in Christianity. Because each stage of God’s work is higher than the last, it of course follows that people’s understanding will certainly also become greater and greater. But, if you look at it another way, the corrupt dispositions that you reveal after you accept this stage of work are the same in essence as the corrupt dispositions that those in religion reveal. The only difference is that you have already accepted this stage of work, listened to many sermons, understood many truths, gained a true understanding of your nature essence, and have truly changed in some ways by accepting and practicing the truth. So, when you look again at the behavior those in religion exhibit, you think that they are more corrupt than you. But in fact, if you were put side-by-side with them, you would see that people’s attitudes toward God and the truth are the same; you all act according to notions and imaginings and to your preferences, and your corrupt dispositions are the same. If they had accepted this stage of work, listened to these sermons, and understood these truths, then there would not be much difference between you and them. What can you see from this matter? You can see that the truth brings change to people, that these words God speaks and these sermons He preaches are salvation for all humankind, and are things that all humankind needs. They are not meant to only satisfy people of a particular group, ethnicity, category, or skin color. All of humankind has been corrupted by Satan and has satanic dispositions. There is not a big difference in terms of their corrupt essences; it is only that their skin color, ethnicity, and the environment and social system in which they grew up are not the same, or that there are slight differences in their traditional culture, background and the education they received. But these are just outward appearances—all of humankind has been corrupted by one Satan, and their corrupt nature essence is the same. Therefore, these words that God says and this work that He does are not targeted at people from any particular ethnic group or country, but rather at all of humankind. Even when there are differences in the culture and background of different ethnicities, or differences in the education they received, their corrupt dispositions are exactly the same in the eyes of God. So, even though a stage of His work is just done in one place first, as a model to spread His work to other places, it is applicable to all humankind, and it can save and provide for all humankind. Some people say, “Europeans and people from other countries are not descendants of the great red dragon, so isn’t it unsuitable for God to say that all humankind is deeply corrupted?” Are these words correct? (No, they are not. All humankind has the same nature essence which has been corrupted by Satan.) That’s right—“descendants of the great red dragon” is only a name for people of one ethnicity; it does not mean that people who have this name and people who don’t have this name have different essences. In fact, their essences are still the same. All of humankind lies under the hand of the evil one; they have all been corrupted by Satan, and their corrupt nature essences are exactly the same. Now, when Chinese people hear these words that God speaks, they rebel and resist; they have notions and imaginings; these are the things they exhibit. When these words are repeated to people of another ethnicity, they also exhibit imaginings, notions, rebelliousness, arrogance, self-righteousness and even resistance—it is exactly the same. All of humankind, regardless of ethnicity and cultural background, exhibits none other than the behavior of corrupted humans that God exposes.

Corrupt dispositions are common to all humankind; they are all the same, with more similarities than differences, and no obvious distinctions. These words that God speaks and truths He expresses do not only save one ethnicity, one country, or one group of people—God saves all humankind. What does this show you? Is there anyone in the human race who has not undergone Satan’s corruption, and belongs to a different category or class of people? Is there anyone who is not the object of God’s sovereignty? (No, there is not.) What is the meaning of these words I speak? God holds sovereignty over all humankind, and all humankind was created by one God. No matter which ethnic group, which type of human, or how competent they are, they were all created by God. In the eyes of man, some people are different than others and are superior, but in the eyes of God, they are all the same; every human is the same in the eyes of God. Where do you see this? Differences in skin color and language are mere appearances, but people’s corrupt dispositions and their nature essences are the same; this is the truth of the matter. When confronted with any humans who have a satanic corrupt disposition, God’s words can achieve results. They are targeted at people’s corrupt dispositions and can resolve all of humankind’s corrupt dispositions. This shows that all of God’s words are the truth, that they can provide for, cleanse and save humankind; this is undeniable. Now, the words that God expresses in the last days have already spread throughout all the countries and ethnicities of the world—this is a fact! And what has man’s reaction been? (There have been all sorts of reactions.) And what do all these sorts of reactions indicate or reflect about man’s essence? They show that man’s nature essence is the same, their reactions are the same as the Pharisees and the Jews when the Lord Jesus came to do work: They have an aversion to the truth, are full of imaginings and notions about God, and their belief in Him exists within illusory imaginings and notions. Humankind as a whole does not know God and resists Him. Upon hearing God’s words, their first reaction, or the things in their nature essence that they naturally reveal, are resistance and hostility toward God; this is something they all have in common. All of their negative voices and views when faced with the truths God expresses are born out of the nature essence of corrupt humankind, and are representative of this human race. Their notions and imaginings are the same as the notions and imaginings the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees had about God when the Lord Jesus arrived; they have not changed. Those in religion have carried the cross for 2,000 years, but they remain the same, unchanged in the slightest. When people have not gained the truth, these are the things that they display naturally and which come out of them innately, and this is their attitude toward God. So, if a person believes in God but does not pursue the truth, can their corrupt disposition be fixed? (No, it cannot.) No matter how long they have believed, they will not be able to resolve the problem of their corrupt disposition if they do not pursue the truth. Two thousand years ago, the Pharisees furiously resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus, and nailed Him to the cross. Now, pastors, elders, fathers and bishops in the religious world still furiously resist and condemn God incarnate, just like the Pharisees did. If one were to go among them and testify that God is incarnate, then one may be seized and put to death, and if God incarnate were to go to the places of worship of each major religion to preach, they would certainly still nail Him to the cross or hand Him over to those in power. They would absolutely not go easy on Him, because the nature essences of corrupt humans are all the same. Do you have any reaction inside when you hear these words? Do you think that those who have believed in God for many years but have not pursued the truth to any degree are quite frightful? (Somewhat.) It is a very frightful thing! Holding the Bible and a cross, relying on the law, wearing the clothes of the Pharisees or the robes of priests, and resisting and condemning God publicly in temples—are these not all things that believers in God do in broad daylight? Where are the people who condemn and resist God? One does not need to look far. Anyone among His believers who does not accept the truth and is averse to the truth is a resister of God, an antichrist, and a Pharisee.

If people do not pursue the truth and cannot gain it, they will never know God. When people do not know God, they will always remain hostile to Him and it is not possible for them to be compatible with Him. No matter how much your heart subjectively desires to love God and does not wish to resist Him, it is useless. It is useless to only have the desire, or to want to restrain yourself, since this is an involuntary matter that is decided by people’s nature. So, you must pursue becoming a person who has the truth, pursue practicing the truth, cast off your corrupt disposition, enter the truth realities, and achieve compatibility with God; this is the right path. You must know in your heart that the most important part of believing in God is pursuing the truth, and you must grasp some practicalities regarding which aspects you should begin with when pursuing the truth, as well as what you need to do, how to approach your duties, how to approach every type of person around you, how to approach matters and things of every kind, what view you should adopt when approaching them, and what approach is in accordance with the truth principles. If you do not seek the truth or understand the truth principles, and are only capable of following regulations and defining things according to them, as well as according to logic, notions and imaginings, then your way of practicing is wrong, and only proves that in your years of believing in God, you have only followed the regulations to the letter, but have not understood the truth and do not have reality. Following the regulations and living according to notions and imaginings is exhausting and toilsome for you, but it is all a waste of effort and God will not give you a shred of approval. It serves you right to be exhausted! If you have spiritual understanding, and pure comprehension when you read God’s words or listen to sermons and fellowship, then the more you experience, the more you will understand and gain, and the things you understand will all be practical and in accordance with the truth. Then, you will have gained the truth and gained life. If the things you have gained and understood after believing in God for many years are still the stuff of doctrine and regulations, still the stuff of notions and imaginings, and rules and regulations which bind you, then you are completely done for. This proves that you have not gained the truth, and do not have life. No matter how many years you have believed in God, and no matter how many words and doctrines you can preach, you are still an absurd and muddleheaded person. Although it doesn’t sound nice to put it that way, it is a fact. There are many people who have believed in God for years, but do not see that the truth and Christ hold the power in God’s house, and that the Holy Spirit holds sovereignty over all. People like this do not have any understanding whatsoever, and are as good as blind. Some see God judge and chastise people, perfect a group of people, but eliminate many others, and so they doubt God’s love and even His righteousness. Do people like this have the comprehension ability? Do they have any understanding? It is fair to say that they are absurd people with no capacity to understand at all. Absurd people always look at things in a preposterous light; only those who understand the truth can view things accurately and in accordance with the facts.

Excerpt 7

Some people who preach the gospel, who spread and testify for God’s work make a grave mistake—they cut out those words of God in response to which religious people are most likely to develop notions, giving potential gospel recipients an abridged, concise version of God’s words. Their excuse is that they do this to prevent people from developing notions and misunderstandings, but is this right? All of God’s words are the truth. Regardless of whether people have notions and whether or not they accept or love these words, the truth is the truth; those who accept it can be saved, while those who do not will perish. Whoever rejects the truth deserves to die and to perish. What does this have to do with those who spread the gospel? Those who spread the gospel should let people read God’s original words rather than abridging them for fear that people will have notions. When people investigate the true way, they want to see how God’s original words are spoken, what kind of content lies within them, and what God’s most original statements on certain matters are. People want to know: “You say that God is the Creator, so what are the words that He speaks? What is His style of speaking?” You insist on altering those of God’s words which are not in line with human notions, like when religious people explain the Bible everything they say is in accordance with human notions; you insist on showing people a version of God’s words that has been tampered with and do not let them see His words in their original form. What is this all about? Do you also have notions about these words of God? Do you, like religious people, believe that those of His words which are not in line with human notions are not the truth, that the truth is only those words which fit with human notions? If so, that’s human error. No matter how God’s words are spoken and whether or not they are in line with the notions of man, they are the truth. It is only because corrupt humans do not have and do not know the truth that they develop notions about God’s words—this is the foolishness and ignorance of man. You fail to clearly see that God’s words are especially practical and concrete for a specific effect, and you are even less aware of how poor man’s caliber is, and how difficult it is for people to understand if God’s words are too concise and theoretical. Recall that when the Lord Jesus appeared to perform work, many disciples couldn’t understand His words and had to ask Him to give examples and tell parables in order to grasp their meaning. Isn’t that so? Today, when I speak with too much detail and specificity, you complain that it is too long-winded. When I speak in depth you do not understand, but when I generalize and theorize you take it as doctrine. Humans are difficult in this way. In God’s words, there is now divine language as well as human language, there is both conciseness and specificity, and there have been many examples that expose people’s various states. Some words seem too detailed for those who already understand the truth, but for new believers they are just right, and it would be difficult to achieve results without this level of detail and specificity. It is just like parents bringing up children; when the children are young, the parents need to do many detailed things, but they can stop doing them once the children become sensible and can take care of themselves. This is understood by people, so why can they not understand the matter of God’s work? New believers must read words that are shallower and supported with examples, words that are comparatively detailed and meticulous. Those who have believed in God for years and understand some truths must read words that are comparatively deep and that they can grasp. No matter how God speaks, it is all meant to allow people to understand the truth, cast off their corrupt dispositions, and enter the truth reality. He speaks in order to achieve these results. Whether His words are deep or shallow, whether people can reach them or not, understanding the truth and entering the truth reality are not easy. Do not think that just because you are of good caliber and can grasp deep truths, you already possess the shallow truths and possess reality. Is that the case? The truth about being an honest person alone is enough for a lifetime of experience. No matter how shallow God’s words, no matter how many examples He gives, you might not enter into reality even after ten or eight years of experience. So, when approaching God’s words, it is wrong to look at their depth. This view is incorrect. It is best for one to pay close attention to reality; it’s not that you have reality just because you have the comprehension ability and can understand the truth. If you cannot practice the truth, even the best comprehension will just be empty doctrines for you. You must put the truth into practice, you must have experience and knowledge—only in this way will your comprehension be practical. Everyone who complains that God’s words are too detailed or trivial is arrogant and self-righteous and does not have any truth reality. Can man fathom the wisdom of God’s words and His thoughts? Many people are too arrogant and ignorant in their attitude toward God’s words, acting as if they have much truth reality, when in fact they do not practice the truth and cannot speak any genuine testimony at all. They can only speak empty words of theory; they are theorists and frauds. How should those who truly pursue the truth read God’s words? They should seek the truth. Seeking the truth encompasses and involves many things, so can it be talked about without detail? Can results be achieved without speaking specifically and comprehensively? Can people truly understand without the support of many examples? Many people think that some of God’s words are too shallow—well then, how many of these shallow words have you entered? What experiential testimony can you share? If you haven’t even entered into these shallow words, can you grasp the deeper ones? Can you truly understand them? Don’t fancy yourself clever, don’t be arrogant and self-righteous!

Let’s return to the issue of tampering with God’s words. God’s house has published the standardized version of The Word Appears in the Flesh, and no one is allowed to make the slightest alterations. No standard version of God’s words can be altered by anyone, and if someone does alter them then it will be treated as tampering with His words. Those who tamper with His words do not have the least understanding of the longing of all those who yearn for the truth and look forward to reading God’s words. These people want to read the accurate, standard version of His words, which are the original words of God, the expressions of His original meaning and intention. People who love the truth are all like this. People don’t understand God’s original intention, purpose, and meaning for doing all this work and speaking all these words, nor why He speaks in such detail. People do not understand, yet they analyze and summarize with their minds, and end up tampering with those of God’s original words which are not in line with human notions. As a result, when others finish reading those of God’s words which have been tampered with, it is difficult for them to understand His original meaning. Does this not influence their understanding of the truth and their life entry? What is the problem here? It is that those who alter God’s words lack a God-fearing heart. Theirs is a disbeliever’s method; as soon as they act, their satanic disposition reveals itself. They always have some opinions and ideas about what God has done and said, and they always want to handle and process these things, to reach out with their black devilish claws and change God’s words into their own sayings. This is Satan’s nature—arrogance. When God speaks some real words, some everyday words that are close to humanity, people meet them with disdain and look down on them, approaching them with a contemptuous attitude. They always want to use human knowledge and imagining to make some revisions and change the style. Is this not disgusting? (It is.) By all means, you must not do this. You must act dutifully. God’s words are God’s words, and no matter how He speaks, they must maintain their original form and not be altered. Only live sermons can be slightly reorganized, as long as it is only a minor refinement and does not change the original meaning. The original meaning absolutely must not be changed. If you do not have the truth then do not alter; anyone who alters will have to take responsibility. God’s house assigns several people to organize sermons and fellowship, but they must organize them according to principles, and absolutely must not tamper with anything. Those who do not have spiritual understanding and do not understand the truth should not meddle, lest they face punishment. Since you are one of God’s chosen people, you should read His words diligently, focus on understanding the truth and entering into reality, and not doubt God’s words or the truth. Most of all, do not use your mind and knowledge to scrutinize God’s words. It’s not good to always engage in evil practices; once you offend God’s disposition, it will be very troublesome for you. Some people understand a bit of biblical knowledge; they study theology for a couple of days and read a few books, and then think they understand the truth, know their stuff, and are capable. But what good is your little capability? Can you bear witness to God? Do you have the truth reality? Can you bring people into God’s presence? Your little bit of theory and scholarship does not represent the truth in the slightest. God in His humanity speaks some words that allow people to grasp the meaning, some words that are easier for mankind to understand, but people are always unconvinced, wanting to change His words. They want to change His words to be in line with their notions, to suit their tastes and wishes, to make them comfortable to hear and easy on the eyes and heart. What kind of disposition is this? It is an arrogant disposition. Doing things without any truth principles at all and acting according to Satan’s ways will easily disrupt and disturb the work of God’s house. This is a very dangerous matter! Once you offend God’s disposition, it will be quite troublesome, and there is a danger of being eliminated.

Some people feel aversion when they see that God’s words speak of the path of practice for life entry in great detail. In that case, if they saw all those laws, decrees, and statutes that God promulgated in the Old Testament, would they not feel even greater aversion? And if they then went on to read the even more detailed words of the Bible’s original commandments, would they not develop notions? They would think: “These words are too trivial. What can be said clearly in one sentence is stretched to three or four. They should be more concise and straightforward, so that people can see everything at a glance and understand just from listening to one sentence. How great it would be if they were not so long-winded, but instead simple, easy to understand, and easy to practice. Wouldn’t these bear witness to and glorify God more effectively?” This thought seems correct, but do you think that reading God’s words should be like reading a novel, where smoother is better? God’s words are the truth; they require contemplation, and one must practice and experience them in order to understand and gain the truth. The less that God’s words align with human notions, the more truth there is in them. In fact, no aspects of the truth are in line with human notions; they are not something people have seen or experienced before but are fresh words. However, after reading and experiencing them for several years, you will know that all of God’s words are the truth. Some people always have notions about God’s words. Where does this problem originate? Where are they going wrong? This problem shows that people do not know God’s work or His disposition. Every sentence He speaks is practical and factual, using the everyday language of humans without resorting to using theoretical or knowledgeable language. This is most beneficial for people’s understanding of the truth. There is nobody who can grasp this matter clearly—only God’s work and His words are the most practical and realistic. People verbally acknowledge: “God’s words are all correct. His words are beneficial to people, but people do not understand God. He knows best what people’s needs are, and He knows how to speak so that people understand. His way of admonishing and telling people is easier to accept. God knows people’s inner structure and what kind of thoughts and notions they have, and He knows even better what people need most, while people themselves have no idea.” But when you look at God’s words, you want to simplify them and change them to align with man’s notions and tastes. Can God’s words still be the truth then? Can they still be His words? Would they not become man’s words? Isn’t this kind of thinking too arrogant and self-righteous? God’s words are the truth, regardless of whether they fit with man’s notions and imaginings. No matter how many words He speaks and how detailed they are, God’s words are not spoken in vain. If He adds one sentence it is to help people better understand, which is beneficial for them. If He were to leave one sentence out, people would not understand so well, and it would be easier for Satan to exploit this situation. Most people are of poor caliber, and they cannot grasp the words unless God elaborates and speaks in detail. People are all numb and dull-witted, so not one sentence should be left out; were any aspect not spoken of thoroughly, people would not understand that aspect—you might understand it, but someone else won’t; a group of you might understand it, but another group might not. There will always be those who do not understand. God does not speak to you alone; He speaks to all mankind, to all who have ears and are able to understand what God says. Is your perspective too narrow? People can only see what’s right in front of them, thinking: “I understand this sentence; why does God still need to explain it in so much detail?” If it’s too simple, those of good caliber will understand it, but those of average caliber will not be able to; if God elaborates a few sentences for people of average caliber, you take exception. Does that mean you are someone who accepts the truth? Where do these objections of yours come from? Is this not the arrogant disposition of Satan? When God does something that is even a little at odds with your notions, when He reveals a little of all that He has and is—cherishing, understanding, caring for, being concerned about, and comprehensively looking after people—you think that God is being long-winded, that He is saying too much, wasting time on trivialities, that He should not do so; this is exactly how you believe in your notions. This is your impression of God, your knowledge of Him, this is how you see Him. So is your belief that “everything God does is right, God understands man the most” just doctrine? To you, it has become doctrine; your knowledge of God doesn’t tally with what He reveals, there is no correlation. What’s more, that’s not how you act toward God; you treat His words and work according to your notions and imaginings, according to your arrogant disposition. Are you someone who accepts the truth? You are not someone who accepts the truth, nor are you one who has a God-fearing heart. Faced with God’s words and doings, you are able to judge, complain, speculate, doubt, deny, resist, and have choices. Are you a true believer in God? If you cannot submit to God’s work, can you gain the truth? If this is how you treat God’s words, His work, the truth, all that He has and is, and everything that comes from Him, then can you attain His salvation? If you cannot gain the truth, you will be subject to punishment.

In your approach to God’s words, do not analyze or scrutinize them, do not be cunning, do not doubt, and do not rack your brains. Treat them as you would treat the truth—this is the smartest approach. Whatever you do, do not say to yourself: “I am a modern person, I am knowledgeable and well-educated, I know grammar, I studied such-and-such a major, I’m adept at a certain skill or profession, I understand, I comprehend. God does not know. Though God understands all mankind, He doesn’t have anything aside from the truth, He doesn’t understand professional matters, there’s nothing He’s good at, He only knows how to express the truth.” That’s right. God can only express the truth, and He can see through all things because He is the truth. He holds sovereignty over the fate of mankind, and He controls your destiny. None can escape the sovereignty and arrangements of God. What should people’s attitude toward God’s words be? It should be to listen, submit, accept, and practice with utmost compliance—this is the attitude people should have. Whatever you do, do not scrutinize. I have spoken many words to you, but you can only accept a portion of them. You do not accept any words that are not in line with human notions—you even resist and refute them in your hearts. You only accept those words which are in line with human notions and reject those which are not. Can you gain the truth this way? Are words that do not conform to human notions really not the truth? Do you dare to be sure about this? Then I must ask you, how much of the truth do you understand? What truths do you possess? Share testimony of all the truths you understand, then, and let everyone decide whether or not they are the truth. If you can admit that you do not have the truth, that means that you have reason. If you truly have reason, do you still dare to conclude that words that do not conform with human notions are not the truth? Do you still dare to gamble with God? As a created human being, do not be too arrogant and self-righteous, do not think so highly of yourself. You do not know the truth at all; you would not be able to fully experience a single sentence of God’s words in your lifetime, nor would you be able to understand or live them out in your lifetime. If you can understand a part of them and put them into practice, that is already not bad. Humans are so impoverished and pitiful—this is the truth of the matter. Since they are so impoverished and pitiful, why are they also so arrogant and self-righteous? This is what makes them both pitiful and hateful. I advise people to read God’s words in an obedient way, to abandon their notions as soon as they arise, and to treat God’s words as the truth and do their best to ponder them, and then experience them; perhaps then they will be able to understand what the truth is. Don’t care about how detailed and long-winded God’s words are. If you can understand and experience them, and then testify for them, only that is when you can be considered to be capable. It is similar to how people are always particular about which kinds of food they eat, thinking some are tasty and others are not. And what comes of this? The tasty foods are not necessarily rich in nutrition, and the foods you dislike do not necessarily have less nutrition; they may even have more and better nutrients. People have difficulty distinguishing what is and is not the truth, what comes from God, and what comes from man. Only after understanding the truth can they discern some of it; those who do not understand the truth cannot see through anything. If you know you lack perception, you should remain humble, lowkey, and seek the truth more. This is what a smart person does. If you cannot see through anything yet still carry on with blind arrogance, daring to judge everything and criticize whoever speaks, then you are totally without reason. Don’t you agree this is how it is? Whatever one does, they must not bare their fangs in the presence of the truth. They must maintain a God-fearing heart and seek the truth in all things—only this is a truly intelligent and wise person.

Excerpt 8

What is the nature of the problem of tampering with God’s words? If you change God’s words and tamper with His speech, this amounts to the most serious opposition to and blasphemy against God. Only those of Satan’s ilk are capable of this sort of evil deed, and they are the same as the archangel. The archangel said: “God, You can create the heavens and earth and all things, and perform signs and wonders—I can do this too. You have ascended the throne, and I will do so as well. You rule over all nations, and so do I. You created humans, and I manage them!” This is how arrogant the archangel is; it possesses no reason whatsoever. The nature of tampering with God’s words is the same as that of the archangel, meaning that it is a manifestation of direct opposition to God and of blasphemy against God. People who tamper with God’s words are the ones who oppose Him the most, and they directly offend His disposition. God hates none more than those who tamper with His words. It can be said that tampering with God’s words is blasphemy against God and the Holy Spirit, and an unforgivable sin. Aside from people tampering with God’s words, there is something else that offends God’s disposition, which is when people dare to casually make changes to the work arrangements, and then pass them down to the church to mislead God’s chosen ones, disrupting and disturbing the work of the church. This is also a manifestation of direct opposition to God, and something that offends God’s disposition. Some people do not have God-fearing hearts at all. They believe that the work arrangements are written by man, that they come from man, and wherever they do not accord with these people’s notions, they change them as they will. Do you know which of God’s administrative decrees this violates? (7. “In work and matters of the church, apart from submitting to God, follow the instructions of the man who is used by the Holy Spirit in everything. Even the slightest infraction is unacceptable. Be absolute in your compliance, and do not analyze right or wrong; what is right or wrong has nothing to do with you. You must concern yourself only with total submission” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Ten Administrative Decrees That Must Be Obeyed by God’s Chosen People in the Age of Kingdom).) Things that violate the administrative decrees are things that offend God’s disposition. Can’t you see that clearly? Some people are exceedingly cavalier in their attitudes toward the Above’s work arrangements. They believe, “The Above makes the work arrangements, and we do the work in the church. Some words and affairs can be implemented flexibly. It’s up to us how, specifically, they’re to be done. The Above just speaks and makes the work arrangements; we’re the ones taking practical action. So, after the Above hands the work off to us, we can do it as we like. It’s fine, however it gets done. No one has the right to interfere.” The principles they act on are as follows: They listen to what they believe is right and ignore what they believe is wrong, they consider their beliefs to be the truth and the principles, they resist whatever does not accord with their will, and they are extremely antagonistic toward you regarding those things. When the Above’s words do not accord with their will, they go ahead and change them, and only pass them down once they meet with their agreement. Without their agreement, they do not permit them to be passed down. While in other areas, the Above’s work arrangements are passed down as they are, these people pass their altered versions of the work arrangements onto the churches under their charge. Such people always wish to put God off to the side; they are eager to get everyone to believe in them, and follow them, and submit to them. In their minds, there are some areas in which God does not measure up to them—they ought to be God themselves, and others ought to believe in them. That is the nature of it. If you understood this, would you still weep when they are dismissed? Would you still feel sorry for them? Would you still think, “The Above acted inappropriately. They treat people unfairly. How could they dismiss such a hardworking person?” Those who say this are undiscerning. For whose sake are they hardworking? For the sake of God? For the sake of the church work? They work hard in order to consolidate their status; they are hardworking in order to establish independent kingdoms. Are they serving God? Are they performing their duties? Are they loyal and submissive to God? They are purely the lackeys of Satan, and when they work, it is the devil that reigns. They damage God’s management plan and disturb God’s work. They are bona fide antichrists! Some people say: “Look how hard they are working—it takes quite some effort to write all those things, and to pass them down to the churches.” Then let Me ask you, are the things that they write edifying for people? What exactly is the goal that they want to achieve? Do you have discernment of these matters? What will the consequences be if you are misled by them? Have you considered that? Some feel pity for people like this, saying: “They work so hard and it isn’t easy to write all those things, so God’s house should forgive them if there are some deviations or distorted things in what they’ve written.” What is the problem with them saying this? Can one really gain God’s approval just by working hard? For whose sake are those people working hard? If they are not working hard to satisfy and bring glory to God, but rather so that they can gain status, then, no matter how hard they work, is there any significance or value to it? This kind of hard work is selfish and base, wicked and shameless! What will the consequences be if this kind of antichrist is not dismissed? People will disturb the church’s work as they please and become opposers of God before they even realize it. Is this not disrupting and disturbing God’s work? If they work hard in order to achieve their own goals, does that give them the right to oppose God? Should they then oppose Him and rebel against Him? Should they be arbitrary and reckless, and refuse to submit to Him? Can they just do whatever they want? Those who do not possess the truth, who do not submit to God, and just want to act blindly, thinking that everything they do is reasonable and right, are pure devils and lackeys of Satan who come to disrupt and disturb the work of the church! If you not only cannot discern people like this, but also sympathize with them, shed tears for them, and come to their defense, then you are also a good-for-nothing, you are a muddled person and a dimwit. You may still think: “The Above isn’t being considerate of their feelings. That person worked so hard and the Above removed them just like that.” If you say this, then you are also a lackey of Satan and you are of the devil. There are many people who live according to satanic philosophies, never exposing or reporting false leaders and antichrists, until one day an antichrist does something disastrous and they finally realize that this was truly a case of an antichrist misleading people. Some people still have notions about this, thinking: “God is almighty, and the Above should know how many antichrists there are in the church, so is there any need for us to report them?” Are the people who say this not absurd types? Right now, God is working in humanity and the leader of the Above is human, so if he did not come into direct contact with the matters of the church, how could he know about these things? Many times, when there were incidents of antichrists, the problems were only resolved after some people reported and exposed them, and the Above ordered an investigation. While working and leading people in normal humanity, God is not at all supernatural and is extremely practical, but He conquers, defeats and humiliates Satan. It is only in this way that His almightiness and wisdom can be revealed. This is how practical God’s work is; He arranges all of these people, events, and things so that His chosen ones can learn lessons, gain discernment, and broaden their knowledge. Once His chosen ones have gained discernment, the false leaders, antichrists, and evil people will be unable to escape the “long arm of the law.” God will use the facts to reveal them and enable all of His chosen ones to see clearly and understand. In the past, weren’t many evil people and antichrists revealed and eliminated? Can no one see this matter clearly? Then you are too muddled!

Although some people do not understand a few parts of the work arrangements of God’s house, they are still able to submit, saying: “Everything God does is right and has meaning. If we do not understand the work arrangements completely, we should first submit to them. We cannot judge God! We should still listen to the work arrangements, even if they are not in line with our notions, because we are humans, and what can the human mind see? We should just submit to God’s arrangements; the day will come when we understand them. Even if, when we reach that day, we still cannot fully understand them, we should still willingly submit. We are people, and we should submit to God. This is what we should do.” But some people are different, and when they see the work arrangements of God’s house, they will study them first, saying: “This is what God says, and these are His demands. The first item looks okay, but the second item isn’t very suitable. I’ll go ahead and change it.” Do people like this have God-fearing hearts? If you change work arrangements as you please, what is the nature of this problem? Is this not disrupting and disturbing the work of God’s house? Are the things that you possess the truth? If you really have the truth, then why do you not express it? Why do you alter God’s words? What disposition do you reveal by doing this? It is an arrogant and self-righteous disposition, one that does not obey anyone. If you dare to pick and choose when it comes to God’s arrangements, then there is a serious problem with your mindset and disposition. God’s chosen ones should have discernment of people like this. Firstly, such people cannot fellowship about the truth to resolve problems, yet they believe that they understand the truth and will not obey anyone. Secondly, when they have notions about the work arrangements, they do not mention them to God’s house, instead they just spread them around. Thirdly, when they have notions about God and the work of God’s house, not only do they not resolve them, they also incite God’s chosen people to develop notions about Him, and to stand up and fight against Him, so as to force Him to act according to their wishes and ultimately make Him submit. Based on these three behaviors, one can be sure what kind of thing these people are. Are they people who seek the truth and submit to God? Absolutely not. They do not seek the truth in the slightest and they are also unsatisfied with God. They have notions about God, and they spread these notions, making everyone develop notions about Him and stand up to fight against and oppose Him. Based on this, they can be characterized as bona fide, complete antichrists. How should people like this be handled? Should they be helped lovingly? This is useless, because they do not accept the truth. How about pruning them? This is also useless, because they do not accept the truth. If those who believe in God cannot accept the truth, this is a serious problem and a terrible thing! If you look at this matter too simply and believe it is not a big deal, then there will come a day when you will offend God. I have seen some people like this, and even though they have not yet been cleared out, their outcome has actually already been determined: They will be eliminated.

At the very least, those who believe in God must have God-fearing hearts. And what does it mean to fear God? People must be afraid of God, they must do everything with caution and care, leaving themselves some room to maneuver, and not just doing whatever they want. For example, when God’s house dismisses some false leaders, some people say: “I’m not sure about this matter. We don’t know exactly what they did, and even if we knew, we could not thoroughly understand the nature of the things they did. Everything God does is right, and there will always come a day when He will make things clear and allow us to understand His intention.” If you do not understand why God’s house does things this way, but you can still submit, then you are a fairly devout person who can be said to have a bit of a God-fearing heart. If you do not understand, but you still set yourself against God and disturb the work of the church, that means trouble. Whenever the church dismisses some false leaders and expels some antichrists, some of their diehard followers always stand up and come to their defense, publicly judging God because of this, saying that He is unrighteous, and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal this matter. For people like this, even if they provide exceptional service when spreading the gospel and performing their duties, none of it matters. One betrayal will forever determine your fate. You must see the essence of betrayal clearly; do not think that it is not a big deal. It can be said that all of you have opposed God, that all of you have transgressed. However, the nature of your opposition and transgressions are different. The nature of the matter I have just spoken about is very serious and constitutes public judgment of and opposition to God. Some people always love to write some things, some letters that they casually pass around the church. Is this in line with the principles? Are the things they write true testimony? Are they life experience? Are they edifying for God’s chosen ones? If they are not, yet these people still casually pass them around the church, then they are misleading people, spreading heresies and fallacies, distorting the facts, confusing right and wrong, and speaking a heap of utter nonsense. Some people even want to write their own book, then send it to the church and become famous. Have people not learned a deep lesson from the example of Paul? You still want to write a book, to write a “celebrity autobiography” and to pen a “Summary of the Truth.” You have no reason whatsoever! If you are able to, then write several pieces of experiential testimony. Have you not been judged and suffered enough in these few years that you’ve believed in God? Can you still not see this matter clearly? What do people understand? The words and doctrines you speak cannot even resolve your own problems, and you still want to supply them to others. You have no self-knowledge at all! Why does God’s house print and send out books in a uniform manner? Because most of these books are made up of God’s words, and the remainder are all made up of the true experiential testimonies of God’s chosen ones. These are all positive things that God’s chosen people need, and so the books that God’s house uniformly issues are all needed for the church’s work and the life entry of God’s chosen people. This way of doing things also stems from the guidance of the Holy Spirit. You all understand that the books uniformly issued by God’s house are of the utmost value and necessity. You know very well what benefits you can gain from listening to sermons, so if you have discernment of the things that are spread by false leaders and antichrists, you will truly be able to discern false leaders and antichrists. But with your current stature, you only understand many doctrines about belief in God, and the truth is still not clear to you. There are some significant matters that you still cannot fully understand, that seem vague and blurry to you, and so you still do not have any of the truth realities and are still not too discerning. Regardless of how anyone in the church behaves or speaks, you lack clear discernment of it. Some people believe that as long as one speaks eloquently, they can bear witness to God, and that those who do not speak eloquently cannot talk about experiential testimony even if they have it. Are they right about this? They are gravely mistaken; experiential testimony is practical no matter how it is spoken about, and if one does not have experiential testimony, then what they say is not practical, no matter how well they can talk about doctrines. Why is this? Talking about words and doctrines does not represent that a person possesses the truth reality, and even if they understand a bit of truth, this understanding is still quite shallow and limited, and they cannot write about experiential testimony at all. If someone does not have experiential testimony, yet they still brazenly speak words and doctrines and lecture people, then they have become a hypocritical Pharisee. They can only make up false testimony to mislead people. Those who do this will be cursed by God. Whether or not someone can bear true witness does not depend on their eloquence. Look at how much Peter was possessed of experiential testimony—how many letters did he write? How many articles of testimony did he write? It may have only been a few, but God approved of Peter as the person who knew Him best, and as someone who truly loved Him. If you truly have experiential testimony, then you will have definitely changed and become much more well-behaved. You will no longer do those enthusiastic things, those things you thought were good. When you recognize how insignificant, impoverished, and pitiful man is, you will not dare to act arbitrarily, or to write a book or an autobiography. All those who wish to write books or autobiographies, or to build their reputations up in the name of making some sort of contribution, are all arrogant, conceited, and ambitious people who overrate their own abilities, who do not possess God-fearing hearts, and who like to follow their own will in their actions. People who truly pursue the truth all concentrate on performing their duties well, understanding the truth, and acting in accordance with the principles. They think that performing one’s duties well, dispositional change, entering the truth reality, and having true experiential testimony are better than anything else. Those who can pursue in this way are the smartest people, and they are the most possessed of reason.

Excerpt 9

As for Noah, Abraham and Job, who were recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible, what were the characteristics of their humanity? What characteristics of normal humanity did they have which made God find them acceptable? (They were especially possessed of conscience and reason.) That is entirely correct. Job lived until such a great age without God personally speaking to him at all and without God personally appearing to him, but Job could understand and feel everything that God did. In the end, he summarized some words about his knowledge of God: “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). What do these words mean? They mean: “Jehovah is God, He is the Creator, He is my God, and when He speaks, even if I only understand half of what He says, I must listen to it and follow it to the letter.” God only found Job acceptable when Job’s knowledge of Him had arrived at this level. Job had such experiences and comprehensions, and he could also accept and submit to the trials that God put upon him. All of these things were achieved upon the basis of him having the conscience and reason of normal humanity. No matter whether he had seen God, no matter what God had done to him, and no matter whether God had tested him or had appeared to him, he always believed: “Jehovah is my God, and I must abide by that which God instructs and that in which God delights, no matter whether I understand it or not; I must follow His way, and I must listen to and submit to Him.” In the Book of Job it is recorded that Job’s children would often have banquets, and Job would never participate in them, but would instead pray and make burnt offerings for them. The fact that Job often did this proves that he knew in his heart that God loathes mankind’s indulgence in eating, drinking, and merry-making, and mankind’s life of banqueting. Job understood in his heart that this was the truth, and even though he had not directly heard God say this, he knew in his heart that this was what God desired. Since Job knew what God desired, he was able to listen to and submit to Him, he held to this at all times, and he never participated in the eating, drinking, and feasting. Did Job understand the truth? He didn’t. He was able to do this because he had the conscience and reason of normal humanity. In addition to conscience and reason, what was most crucial was that he had true faith in God. He recognized from the depths of his heart that God is the Creator, and what the Creator says is the will of God. In today’s terms, it is the truth, it is the highest instruction, and it is that by which man must abide. Regardless of whether it is a desire of God that man can comprehend, or only a few words spoken by God, man should accept it and abide by it. This is precisely the reason that man should possess. When man possesses this reason, it is much easier for man to abide by God’s word, put His word into practice, and submit to His word. In doing so, there will be no difficulties, no suffering, and certainly no hindrances of any kind. Did Job understand much of the truth? Did he know God? Did he have knowledge of God’s possessions and being or His disposition essence? Compared to people today, he did not know Him, and he understood very little. However, what Job did possess was the quality to put into practice all that he understood. After understanding something, he would be obedient and abiding. This was the most noble aspect of his humanity, and also that which people looked down upon the most. People think, “Did Job not just abstain from banqueting? Did he not just regularly make burnt offerings before God? In today’s terms, did he not just refrain from indulging in fleshly comforts?” These are nothing more than superficial matters, but when you look at Job’s disposition essence and humanity behind these things, you will understand that they are not simple matters, nor are they so easy to achieve. If a normal person were to abstain from banqueting in order to save money, this would be easy to achieve. But Job was a wealthy man at the time. What rich man would choose not to have banquets? Why, then, could Job refrain from banqueting? (He knew that God loathed it. He was able to fear God and shun evil.) Indeed. In fearing God and shunning evil, what specifically did Job practice? He knew that those things that God loathed were all evil, so he abided by God’s word, and he would not do anything which God loathed. He would in no way do these things, no matter what anybody else said. This is what it means to fear God and shun evil. Why was Job able to fear God and shun evil? What was he thinking in his heart? How was he able to not do these evil things? He had a God-fearing heart. What does it mean to have a God-fearing heart? It means that his heart was afraid of God, could honor God as great, and that there was a place for God in his heart. He was not afraid that God would see it, nor that God would get angry. Rather, in his heart he honored God as great, was willing to satisfy God, and was willing to hold fast to God’s words. That is why he was able to fear God and shun evil. Everybody now can say the phrase “fearing God and shunning evil,” yet they do not know how Job accomplished it. In fact, Job treated “fearing God and shunning evil” as the most basic and important thing in believing in God. Therefore, he was able to hold fast to these words, as though he was holding fast to a commandment. He listened to God’s words because his heart honored God as great. No matter how unremarkable the words of God may have seemed in the eyes of man, even if they were just ordinary words, in Job’s heart, these words were from the supreme God; they were the greatest, most important words. Even if they are words people look down on, so long as they are God’s words, people should observe them—even if they are mocked or slandered because of it. Even if they encounter hardship or are persecuted, they must hold fast to His words until the end; they cannot give up on them. This is what it means to fear God. You must hold fast to every word God demands of man. As for those things God prohibits, or those things God loathes, it’s okay if you do not know about them, but if you know of them, then you should be able to absolutely not do those things. You should be able to hold fast, even if your family abandons you, nonbelievers mock you, or those close to you ridicule and make fun of you. Why do you need to hold fast? What is your starting point? What are your principles? It is, “I must hold fast to God’s words and act according to His desires. I will be firm in doing the things God likes, and be resolute in abandoning the things God loathes. If I do not know God’s intention, that’s fine, but if I do know and understand His intention, then I will be resolute in listening to and submitting to His words. No one will be able to hinder me, and I will not waver even if the world comes to an end.” This is what it means to fear God and shun evil.

The precondition for people to be able to shun evil is having a God-fearing heart. How is a God-fearing heart made? By honoring God as great. What does it mean to honor God as great? It is when one knows that God has sovereignty over all things, and their heart fears God. As a result, they are able to use God’s words when evaluating any situation, and use God’s words as their standard and criterion. This is what it means to honor God as great. In simple terms, honoring God as great is to have God in your heart, for your heart to dwell on God, to not forget yourself in the things you do, and to not try to strike out on your own, but rather to let God take charge. In everything, you think, “I believe in God and follow God. I am but a small created being which God has chosen. I should let go of views, recommendations, and decisions that come from my own will, and let God be my Master. God is my Lord, my rock, and the bright light which guides my way in everything I do. I must do things according to His words and desires, not put myself first.” This is what it means to have God in your heart. When you want to do something, do not act on impulse or rashly. First think about what God’s words say, if God would loathe your actions, and whether your actions are in line with His intentions. In your heart, first ask yourself, think, and ponder; do not be rash. To be rash is to be impulsive, and to be motivated by hotheadedness and the will of man. If you are always rash and impulsive, it shows that God is not in your heart. Then when you say you honor God as great, are these not empty words? Where is your reality? You have no reality, and you cannot honor God as great. You act like the lord of the manor on all matters, doing as you will at every turn. In which case, if you say you have a God-fearing heart, isn’t this nonsense? You are tricking people with these words. If a person has a God-fearing heart, how does it actually manifest itself? By honoring God as great. The concrete manifestation of honoring God as great is that God has a place in their heart—the foremost place. In their heart they allow God to be their Master and to hold authority. When something happens, they have a heart of submission to God. They are not rash, nor impulsive, and they do not act impetuously; but rather, they are able to face it calmly, and quiet themselves before God to seek the truth principles. Whether you do things according to God’s word or your own will, and whether you allow your own will or God’s word to take charge, depends on whether God is in your heart. You say God is in your heart, but when something happens, you act blindly, letting yourself have the final word, and pushing God to the side. Is this the manifestation of a heart that has God in it? There are some people who are able to pray to God when something happens, but after praying, they keep mulling things over, thinking, “I think this is what I should do. I think that is what I should do.” You always follow your own will, and do not listen to anyone no matter how they fellowship with you. Is this not the manifestation of lacking a God-fearing heart? Because you do not seek the truth principles and do not practice the truth, when you say you honor God as great, and have a God-fearing heart, they are just empty words. People whose hearts do not have God, and who are unable to honor God as great, are people who do not have a God-fearing heart. People who are unable to seek the truth when something happens, and who do not have a heart of submission to God, are all people who lack a conscience and reason. If one truly has a conscience and reason, when something happens, they will naturally be able to seek the truth. They first must think, “I believe in God. I have come to seek God’s salvation. Because I have a corrupted disposition, I always treat myself as the sole authority in whatever I do; I always go against God’s intentions. I must repent. I cannot continue to rebel against God in this way. I must learn how to be submissive to God. I must seek what God’s words say, and what the truth principles are.” These are the thoughts and aspirations that arise from the reason of normal humanity. These are the principles and the attitude with which you should do things. When you possess the reason of normal humanity, then you possess this attitude; when you do not possess the reason of normal humanity, then you do not possess this attitude. That is why possessing the reason of normal humanity is crucial and very important. It is directly related to people understanding the truth and achieving salvation.