People are stunned when they read God’s utterances, and they think that God has performed a great deed in the spiritual realm, something of which man is incapable, and that God Himself must accomplish in person. So God once more speaks words of leniency toward humankind. When people feel conflicted in their hearts: “God is not a God of mercy and lovingkindness, He is a God who only strikes man down, so why is He being lenient toward us? Could it be that God has once again switched to the ‘method’?”—when this notion, this way of thinking appears in their hearts, they try their hardest to deal with it. But after God’s work goes on for some time, the Holy Spirit does great work in the church, and everyone begins to perform their function, all people enter into God’s method, for no one can see any imperfection in what God says and does. As for what precisely God’s next step will be, no one has the slightest inkling. It is as God has said: “Of all under heaven, who is not in My hands? Who does not act after My guidance?” I offer you some advice, however: In matters that are not clear to you, none of you must say or do anything. I say this not to dampen your enthusiasm, but to allow you to act after God’s guidance. On no account should you lose heart or become doubtful because of My mention of “imperfections”; My aim is chiefly to remind you to pay attention to God’s words. People are stunned again when they read God’s words that say: “Be perceptive toward matters of the spirit, attentive toward My word, and truly capable of regarding My Spirit and My fleshly self, and My word and My fleshly self, as an inseparable whole, so that all people can satisfy Me in My presence.” Yesterday, they were reading words of warning, words about God’s leniency—but today, God is suddenly talking about matters of the spirit. What is going on? Why does God keep changing the method with which He speaks? Why is all this to be regarded as an inseparable whole? Could it be that God’s words, too, are not practical? After a closer reading of God’s words, it is discovered that when the flesh of God and His Spirit are separated, the flesh becomes a physical body with fleshly attributes—what people refer to as a walking corpse. The incarnate flesh comes from the Spirit. He is the embodiment of the Spirit, the Way become flesh. In other words, God Himself lives in the flesh. Thus one can see the seriousness of the separation of the Spirit from the person. As a result, though He is called human, He is not of humankind. He is without human attributes, He is the person in which God clothes Himself, the person whom God approves of. God’s word embodies the Spirit of God, and the word of God is directly revealed in the flesh—which further shows that God lives in the flesh and is the more practical God, thus proving the existence of God and ending the age of man’s rebelliousness toward God. After telling people of the path to knowing God, God goes on to change topics, turning to the other side of the matter.

“I have set foot upon all there is, I have looked out across the vast expanse of the universe, and I have walked among all people, tasting the sweetness and bitterness among man.” Though simple, these words are not easily understood by humankind. The topic has changed, but in essence, it remains the same: It still enables people to know the incarnate God. Why does God say He has tasted the sweetness and bitterness among man? Why does He say He has walked among all people? God is the Spirit, and He is also the incarnate person. The Spirit, not bound by the limitations of the person, can set foot upon all there is, the Spirit can look out across the vast expanse of the universe, showing that the Spirit of God fills all the universe, that He covers the earth from pole to pole, that nothing is not arranged by God’s hand and nowhere can God’s footprints not be found. Though the Spirit has become flesh and been born human, the existence of the Spirit does not negate all human needs; He eats, clothes Himself, sleeps, and resides as normal, and He does what people should do as normal. Yet because His inner essence is different, He is not the same as “man” that one speaks of. And though He suffers among humankind, He does not forsake the Spirit because of this suffering. Though He enjoys blessings, He does not forget the Spirit because of these blessings. The Spirit and the person work in silent rapport. The Spirit and the person cannot be sundered, nor have They ever been separated, for the person is the embodiment of the Spirit, He comes from the Spirit, the Spirit that has an image. Thus transcendence is impossible for the Spirit in the flesh; that is, the Spirit is incapable of supernatural things, which is to say, the Spirit cannot depart from the flesh. If He were to depart from the flesh, God’s incarnation would lose all meaning. Only when the Spirit is fully expressed in the flesh can man know the practical God Himself, and only then shall God’s intentions be met. Only after separately introducing the flesh and the Spirit to man does God point out the blindness and rebelliousness of man: “Yet never has man truly known Me, never has he paid Me any heed during My travels.” On the one hand, God is saying that He lives in anonymity in the flesh, never doing anything supernatural for people to see; on the other hand, He complains that man does not know Him. There is no contradiction in this. In fact, from a detailed point of view, it is not hard to see that God achieves His aims from these two sides. Supposing God were to display supernatural signs and wonders, He would not need to undertake great work, but would simply curse people to death with His own mouth, and they would instantly die. If He did this, all people would be convinced—but this does not achieve God’s aim in becoming flesh. If God were to truly act thus, people would never be able to believe in His existence within their consciousness, and they would be incapable of truly believing. Moreover, they would mistake devils for God. More importantly, they would never be able to know God’s disposition. Is this not one aspect of the significance of God’s being in the flesh? If people were incapable of knowing God, then the nebulous god, the supernatural god, would forever hold power among people. And in this, would people not be possessed by their own notions? To put it more plainly, would it not be Satan and devils that hold power? “Why do I say I have taken back power? Why do I say there is so much significance in the incarnation?” The moment God becomes flesh is the moment that He takes back power, and it is the time when His divinity emerges directly to act. All people gradually come to know the practical God, and thus completely expunge Satan’s place in their hearts, giving God a deeper place in their hearts. In their minds, people used to see “God” in the image of Satan, as a “God” who was invisible and intangible; and yet they believed this god not only to exist, but to be capable of performing many signs and wonders, and of disclosing many mysteries, such as the ugly faces of those possessed by demons. This sufficiently proves that the god in people’s minds is not the image of God, but the image of something other than God. God has said that He wishes to occupy 0.1 percent of people’s hearts. This is the very highest standard that He asks of man. Beyond what’s on their surface, there is also a practical side to these words. If it were not explained thus, people would think God’s requirements of them too low, as though God understood too little of them. Is this not the mentality of man?

By combining the aforementioned and the example of Peter below, one will find that Peter really did know God better than anyone else, for he was able to turn his back on the nebulous god and pursue the knowledge of the practical God. Why is special mention made of how his parents were evil demons who opposed God? It proves that Peter was not pursuing the god in his heart. What is said about his parents being the representation of the nebulous god is the significance of God’s reference to them. Most people do not pay much attention to this fact. Instead, they concentrate on the prayers of Peter. There are even some people who have the prayers of Peter ever on their lips, constantly on their minds, yet they never compare the nebulous god with the knowledge of Peter. Why did Peter turn against his parents and pursue the knowledge of God? Why did Peter spur himself on with the lessons of those who had failed? Why did he assimilate the faith and love of all those who had loved God throughout the ages? Peter came to know that all positive things come from God and are directly issued from Him without being processed by Satan. This shows that the God he knew was the practical God, not the supernatural god. Why is it said that Peter focused on assimilating the faith and love of all those who had loved God throughout the ages? From this it can be seen that the failure of people throughout the ages is mainly because they had only faith and love but were incapable of knowing the practical God. As a result, their faith remained nebulous. Why does God make multiple mentions of the faith of Job, without saying that he knew God, and why does God say Job was not the equal of Peter? Job’s words—“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You”—show that he was only possessed of faith, and had no knowledge. The words “The contradistinction of Peter’s parents gave him a greater knowledge of My lovingkindness and mercy” provoke a raft of questions from most people: Why did Peter need a contradistinction to know God? Why was he incapable of knowing God directly? Why was it that he knew only God’s mercy and lovingkindness, and God did not talk of anything else? It is only possible to pursue the knowledge of the practical God after coming to know the impracticality of the nebulous god; the aim of these words is to make people expel the nebulous god in their hearts. If, since the time of creation up until today, people had always known God’s true face, they would not be capable of seeing through the deeds of Satan, for that common saying of man—“one does not notice level ground until one has crossed a mountain”—demonstrates God’s point in speaking these words. Because He wishes to give people a deeper understanding of the veracity of the example He gave, God deliberately emphasizes mercy and lovingkindness, proving that the age Peter lived in was the Age of Grace. From another perspective, this reveals all the more the hideous countenance of evil demons, who do nothing but harm and corrupt man, setting God’s mercy and lovingkindness in even starker contrast.

God also outlines the facts of Peter’s trials and describes their actual circumstances, further indicating to people that God is not only possessed of mercy and lovingkindness, but also of majesty and wrath, and that it is not necessarily true that all those who live in peace live amid God’s blessings. Telling people about Peter’s experiences after his trials is even greater confirmation of the veracity of Job’s words “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive adversity?” Thus it is demonstrated that Peter’s knowledge of God had indeed attained unprecedented realms, realms never achieved by the people of ages past, which was also the fruit of his assimilation of the faith and love of all those who had loved God throughout the ages and his gleaning lessons from people who had failed in the past in order to spur himself on. For this reason, all who attain the true knowledge of God are called “fruit,” and that includes Peter. Peter’s prayers to God show his true knowledge of God during his trials. Where he fell short, however, was that he was not capable of fully grasping God’s intentions. And so, it was only on the basis of Peter achieving knowledge of Him that God asked to “occupy just 0.1 percent of people’s hearts.” That even Peter, the man who knew God best, was incapable of accurately grasping God’s intentions shows that humans lack the faculty to know God, for they have been so corrupted by Satan; this allows all people to know the essence of man. These two preconditions—people’s lack of the faculty for knowing God and their utter permeation by Satan—are a foil for God’s great power, for God only works with words, He does not undertake any enterprise, and thus does He take a certain place in people’s hearts. But why do people only need to achieve that 0.1 percent to satisfy God’s intentions? This can be explained by God not having created this faculty in man. If, in the absence of this faculty, man were to arrive at a 100 percent knowledge of God, then he would know God’s every move like the back of his hand—and, given the inherent nature of man, people would immediately betray God, they would stand up and openly oppose Him (this is how Satan fell). So God never underestimates people. He has already thoroughly dissected people, and for this very reason, He is crystal clear on even how many water molecules are in their blood—and how much clearer must He be on human nature, which is plain to see? God never makes mistakes, and He chooses the words of His utterances with the utmost precision. Thus there is no conflict between Peter not having an accurate grasp of God’s intentions and his having the greatest knowledge of God; the two, furthermore, are completely unrelated. It was not in order to focus people’s attention on Peter that God mentioned him as an example. Why was someone like Job not able to know God, and yet Peter was? Why would God say that man is capable of attaining this, and yet say that it is due to His great power? Are people really innately talented? This is not easy for people to know; no one would realize the inner significance of this if I did not speak of it. The aim of these words is to give people an insight, so that they can have the faith to cooperate with God. Only then can God work with the cooperation of man. Such is the actual situation in the spiritual realm, and it is completely unfathomable to man. Eliminating Satan’s place in people’s hearts and giving that place to God instead—this is what it means to repel Satan’s onslaught, and only thus can it be said that Christ has descended to earth, only thus can it be said that the kingdoms on earth have become Christ’s kingdom.

The point of here bringing up Peter’s having been a model and exemplar for several thousands of years is not to say merely that he was a model and exemplar; these words are a reflection of the battle being waged in the spiritual realm. Satan has been working on man for all this time in the vain hope of devouring him, thereby causing God to destroy the world and lose His testimony. Yet God has said: “I will first create a model so that I may take up the smallest position within the human heart. At this stage, humanity neither satisfies My heart nor fully knows Me; nevertheless, because of My great power, humans will become able to submit to Me wholly and cease to rebel against Me, and I will use this example to conquer Satan. That is to say, I will use that 0.1 percent of the human heart I occupy to repress all the forces that Satan has been wielding over humanity.” So, today God mentions Peter as an example so that he may serve as a template for all of humankind to emulate and practice. Combined with the opening passage, this demonstrates the veracity of what God said about the situation in the spiritual realm: “Today is unlike the past: I shall do things never beheld since the time of creation, shall speak words never heard throughout the ages, for I ask that all people come to know Me in the flesh.” From this it is evident that God has begun to act on His words today. People can only see what’s happening on the outside, they can’t see what’s actually going on in the spiritual realm, and so God directly says: “These are the steps of My management, but man has not the slightest inkling. Though I have spoken plainly, people remain addled; it is difficult to get through to them. Is this not the lowliness of man?” There are words within these words: They explain that a battle is going on in the spiritual realm, just as described above.

God’s intentions are not entirely met after His brief description of the story of Peter, so God makes the following demand of man regarding the matters of Peter: “Throughout the cosmos and the firmament, among the heavens and earth and all things, all things upon the earth and in the heavens offer up all their strength for My final stage of work. Surely you are not willing to be spectators, ordered about by the forces of Satan?” People are profoundly enlightened after reading about Peter’s knowledge. Therefore, in order to be even more effective, God shows people the consequence of their debauchery, unrestraint, and lack of knowledge of God; moreover, He tells humanity—once again, and with greater precision—of what’s actually happening in the battle in the spiritual realm. Only thus will people be more vigilant, and take precautions against being taken by Satan. Further, it makes clear that if people fall this time, they will not be saved by God as they were this time. Taken together, these warnings deepen humanity’s impression of God’s words, they make people treasure God’s mercy more, and cherish God’s words of warning, so that God’s aim of saving humankind may truly be attained.