When God makes demands of humans that are difficult for them to explain, and when His words strike directly into the human heart and people offer up their sincere hearts for Him to enjoy, God then gives them the chance to ponder, make a resolution, and seek out a path for practice. In this way, all those who are His people will once again, with fists clenched in determination, offer their whole being up to God. Some, perhaps, might draw up a plan and establish a daily schedule, as they prepare to mobilize themselves to work hard, dedicating their bit of strength toward God’s management plan in order to bring it glory and hasten it toward its conclusion. Just when people are harboring this mentality, holding these things closely in their minds as they go about their chores, as they talk and as they work, God again begins to speak: “The voice of My Spirit is an expression of the whole of My disposition. Do you understand?” The more determined human beings are, the more desperately they will yearn to grasp God’s intentions and the more earnestly they will yearn for God to make demands of them. For this reason, God will give people what they want, taking advantage of this opportunity to impart His words, long held in readiness, to the innermost recesses of their being. Although these words may seem a bit harsh or gruff, to humanity they sound sweet beyond compare. Suddenly, their hearts blossom with joy, as if they were in heaven or had been transported to another realm—a veritable paradise of the imagination—where the affairs of the outside world no longer impinge upon humanity. In order to circumvent the eventuality that people will, as they were in the habit of doing in the past, speak from the outside and act from the outside, and so fail to lay down proper roots, once what people desire in their hearts has been achieved and, moreover, once they prepare to go to work with passionate enthusiasm, God still adapts His way of speaking to their mentality and, summarily and without holding back, refutes all the ardor and religious ceremony they hold within their hearts. As God has said, “Have you genuinely seen the importance that lies herein?” Whether before or after humans set their resolve upon something, they do not place great importance upon knowing God in His actions or in His words, but rather keep on pondering the question, “What can I do for God? That is the key issue!” This is why God says, “And you have the nerve to call yourselves My people to My face—you have no shame, much less any sense!” As soon as God has spoken these words, people immediately come to their realization and, as though sustaining an electric shock, they hasten to withdraw their hands to the safety of their bosoms, deeply fearful of provoking God’s wrath a second time. In addition to this, God has also said, “Sooner or later, people like you will be eliminated from My house! Do not come the old soldier with Me, assuming that you have stood testimony for Me!” Hearing words like these, people are even more afraid, as if they had sighted a lion. They know full well in their hearts. They do not wish to be eaten by the lion, while on the other hand, they have no idea how to escape. In this very moment, the plan inside the human heart vanishes without a trace, utterly and completely. Through God’s words, I feel as if I can see every single aspect of humanity’s shamefulness: drooping head and hangdog demeanor, like a candidate who has failed the college entrance exam, with such lofty ideals, happy family, bright future, and so on and so forth, along with the Four Modernizations by the Year 2000, all transformed into mere empty talk, creating an imaginary scenario in a science fiction film. This is to exchange passive for active elements, causing people, in the midst of their negativity, to stand up in the position God has assigned them. Exceptionally important is the fact that human beings are deeply afraid of losing this appellation; as such, they cling for dear life to their own badges of office, deeply afraid that someone might try to wrest them away. When humanity is in this frame of mind, God does not worry that people will become negative, so He accordingly changes His words of judgment to words of interrogation. Not only does He give people a chance to catch their breath, but He also gives them a chance to take the aspirations they have had before now and sort them out for future reference: Anything unsuitable can be modified. This is because God has not yet begun His work—this is a piece of good fortune in the midst of great misfortune—and, moreover, does not condemn them. So, let me continue to give Him all my devotion!

Next, you must not, on account of your fear, set aside God’s words. Take a look to see whether God has any new demands. Sure enough, you will discover one like this: “From this time forth, in all things, you must enter into the reality of practice; merely flapping your gums, as you have done in the past, will no longer get you by.” Herein still manifests God’s wisdom. God has always safeguarded His own witnesses, and when the reality of the words of the past has reached its conclusion, no one whomsoever can fathom the knowledge of “the reality of practice.” This is sufficient to prove the truth of what God said: “I undertake to do the work Myself.” It has to do with the true meaning of the work in divinity, and also with the reason that humankind, after having reached a new point of beginning, is nevertheless still incapable of fathoming the true meaning of God’s words. This is because, in the past, the great majority of people stuck to the reality in God’s words, whereas today they have no clue about the reality of practice, understanding only the superficial aspects of these words but not their essence. Even more importantly, it is because today, in the building of the kingdom, no one is permitted to interfere, but only to obey God’s bidding like automatons. Remember this well! Every time God brings up the past, He begins to speak about the actual situation of today; this is a form of speaking that creates a striking contrast between what comes before and what comes after, and for this reason is able to achieve even better fruits, enabling people to juxtapose the present with the past, and in this way avoid confusing the two. This is one facet of God’s wisdom, and its purpose is to attain the fruits of the work. After this, God once again reveals humanity’s ugliness, in order that humanity shall never forget to eat and drink of His words every day and, even more importantly, so that they shall know themselves and take this as the lesson from which they must learn every day.

After speaking these words, God has achieved the effects that were His original purpose. And so, without paying any further heed to whether or not humanity has understood Him, He brushes past this in a few sentences, because Satan’s work has nothing to do with humanity—of this humanity has no clue. Now, leaving behind the spiritual realm, look further into how God makes His demands of humanity: “Resting in My abode, I observe closely: All the people on earth bustle about, ‘traveling around the world’ and rushing back and forth, all for the sake of their destiny and their future. Not a single one, though, has the energy to spare for building My kingdom, not even so much as the effort it takes to draw breath.” After exchanging these conventionalities with humans, God still pays them no heed, but continues to speak from the perspective of the Spirit, and, through these words, reveals the general circumstances of the life of the human race in its entirety. It is clear to see, from “traveling around the world” and “rushing back and forth,” that human life is completely devoid of content. Were it not for the omnipotent salvation of God, and especially for those born into the waning, big family of China’s imperial line, people would be even more prone to living entire lifetimes in vain, and they would be better off falling into Hades or hell rather than come into the world. Under the domination of the great red dragon they have, unbeknownst to themselves, offended God, and therefore naturally and unknowingly fallen under God’s chastisement. For this reason, God takes “have rescued” and “ingrates,” and puts them in contrast to each other so that human beings may more clearly know themselves, creating from this a foil to His saving grace. Does this not make for an even more efficacious result? Of course, it goes without My having to say so explicitly that people can, from the content of God’s utterances, infer an element of reproach, an element of salvation and appeal, and a slight intimation of sadness. Reading these words, people unconsciously begin to feel distressed, and cannot help but shed tears…. However, God will not be constrained due to a few sorrowful feelings, nor will He, on account of the corruption of the entire human race, abandon His work in disciplining His people and making demands of them. Because of this, His topics straight away touch upon circumstances such as those of today, and moreover, He proclaims to humanity the majesty of His administrative decrees so that His plan will continue to progress. This is why, following upon this with all due speed and striking while the iron is hot, God promulgates at this critical juncture a constitution for the times—a constitution that humans must read, paying careful attention to every clause, before they can understand God’s intentions. There is no need to go further into this right now; people must simply read more attentively.

Today, you—this group of people here—are the only ones who can truly see God’s words. Even so, in knowing God, the people of today have fallen far behind any single person in ages past. This makes it sufficiently clear how much effort Satan has invested in people over these several thousand years, as well as the extent to which it has corrupted humankind—a degree so great that despite the many words God has spoken, humanity still neither understands nor knows Him, but instead dares to rise up and oppose Him publicly. And so, God often holds up the people of past ages as comparisons for the people of today, to give the latter, insensate and obtuse as they are, realistic points of reference. Because human beings have no knowledge of God, and because they lack genuine faith in Him, God has adjudged humanity to be lacking in qualifications and reason; He has therefore, again and again, shown people tolerance and given them salvation. A battle is fought along these lines in the spiritual realm: It is the vain hope of Satan to corrupt humanity to a certain degree, make the world foul and evil, and so drag people down into the mire with it and destroy God’s plan. However, God’s plan is not to make all of humanity into people who know Him, but rather to choose a part to represent the whole, leaving the rest as waste products, as defective goods to be thrown onto the rubbish heap. Thus, although from Satan’s point of view taking possession of a few individuals might seem an excellent opportunity to destroy God’s plan, what could such a simpleton as Satan know of God’s intention? This is the reason God said, long ago, “I have covered My face to avoid looking at this world.” We do know a little bit about this, and God does not ask that human beings be capable of doing anything; rather, He wants them to recognize that what He does is miraculous and unfathomable, and have hearts of fear for Him. If, as humans imagine, God were to chastise them without regard for the circumstances, then the entire world would long since have perished. Would this not have been tantamount to falling right into Satan’s trap? And so, God merely uses His words to attain the fruits that He has in mind, but seldom is there the advent of facts. Is this not an instance of His words, “If I did not take pity on your lack of qualifications, reason, and insights, then all of you would perish in the midst of My chastisement, wiped out from existence. Nevertheless, until My work on earth is finished, I will remain lenient to humankind”?