By Tim, Myanmar

In September 2020, I met a sister online. She testified that the Lord Jesus has returned as Almighty God, and that He is expressing truths to do the work of judgment beginning with God’s house. I was thrilled to hear of the Lord’s return and started attending online gatherings and investigating Almighty God’s work in the last days. By reading Almighty God’s words, I learned many truths that I had never heard before, like the reality of Satan’s corruption of man, the three stages of work that God performs to save mankind, the mysteries of the incarnation, and how God does the work of judgment in the last days. Through a period of seeking and investigating, I became sure that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned, and joined The Church of Almighty God. I enjoyed the watering and sustenance of God’s words every day, and my spirit felt joy that it never had before. By comparison, the sermons given by the pastors in our local church were all about the same old things, dry and boring, and lacking in illumination. They weren’t edifying at all, so I stopped attending church services.

Then in February 2021, there was a military coup in Myanmar, and the internet was cut off, so I couldn’t attend online gatherings with my brothers and sisters anymore. Before long, two brothers came to my village to organize local gatherings, which over 20 people attended. To our surprise, after just a few gatherings, someone reported us to the local pastors. The pastors started telling people in the church that we were going to online gatherings instead of attending church services, and that we wouldn’t listen to them or the elders. They spread a rumor that we were setting up our own religious faction, and they told all of the churchgoers to reject us. Pretty much everyone in our village was Christian, and they all adored the pastors and listened to them. Because of the pastors’ attacks and judgment, news of our belief in Almighty God spread quickly through the village, and everyone, including our relatives, friends, and neighbors, started scolding us, saying, “It’s atrocious that you’re not going to church or listening to the pastors!” Everywhere I went, the villagers were wagging their fingers at me. I was really distraught. I had always had a great relationship with my friends and neighbors, and we’d always helped each other out, but they had begun treating me like a thorn in their side, like an enemy. Faith is a personal freedom. We were just practicing our faith, gathering, and reading God’s words, so why were the pastors judging and condemning us and telling the villagers to reject us? Before I knew it, I had sunk into negativity. I came before God in prayer, “God, the pastors are lashing out at us and even our friends and relatives are against us. I’m really miserable. God, I don’t understand why they are treating us this way. Please enlighten me to better understand this so I can stop living in negativity.” Then I thought of a passage of God’s words. Almighty God says: “When God works, cares for a person, and looks upon this person, and when He favors and approves this person, Satan trails closely behind, trying to mislead the person and bring them to harm. If God wishes to gain this person, Satan will do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various wicked ploys to tempt, disturb and impair the work of God, in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is this objective? It does not want God to gain anyone; it wants to snatch possession of those whom God wishes to gain, it wants to control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they join it in committing evil acts, and resist God. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? … In warring with God, and trailing along behind Him, Satan’s objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to occupy and control those whom God wants to gain, to completely extinguish those whom God wants to gain. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession, to be used by it—this is its objective” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique IV). Through God’s words, I understood that God is expressing truths to judge and cleanse people in the last days so that He can save and gain a group of true believers. But Satan is God’s enemy, and it uses all sorts of tactics to obstruct and undermine God’s work so that people will leave God, betray Him, and live under Satan’s power. That way it can occupy and control them, and ultimately, they’ll be punished in hell along with it. I thought about the behavior of the pastors and elders. They heard the news of the Lord’s return, but they didn’t investigate it at all, and they even kept others from doing so. Their sermons weren’t spiritually nourishing, and they wouldn’t let people seek the true way. When they saw that we had stopped going to church and following them, they condemned and slandered us, hoping to force us to betray Almighty God, so that we’d return to their church, keep obeying them, remain under their control, and ultimately lose God’s salvation of the last days. Were they not the minions of Satan? Realizing this, I told myself that I mustn’t fall for Satan’s tricks. I couldn’t give up on Almighty God and follow the pastors, I had to keep standing strong.

After that, some of the new believers in our village and those who had just begun investigating God’s work in the last days weakened and pulled away. The rest of us didn’t stop holding gatherings, even though people around us were still protesting about it. The pastors were incensed when they found out about this and they got some church co-workers to keep coming to my home, telling me to go to one of the pastors’ houses for a meeting. I was angry about that: “Gathering, listening to God’s words, and fellowshipping on the truth are my personal freedoms. Why do the pastors keep trying to stand in my way? I’m going to go hear them out, and see what exactly I’ve done wrong.” So, one evening, I went to the pastor’s house along with several other brothers and sisters. Some other pastors and elders were there too. One of the pastors said, “I’ve heard that you’ve been listening to sermons online. As your pastors, it’s our responsibility to remind you that you mustn’t accept any sermons besides those of the Lord!” I responded, “But we are listening to the Lord’s sermons. The Lord Jesus has returned and He is performing a new stage of His work.” Before I could finish, the pastor interrupted me angrily, “That’s enough! We’re not going to listen to another word of this. You have to make a choice today. Are you going to keep believing in another God, or are you going to listen to us and come back to our church?” As he spoke, he got out a notebook that had our names written in it. He said sternly, “If you’re going to keep listening to those sermons online, put a cross by your name, otherwise put a check. You’ll be in a lot of trouble if you don’t listen to us! We won’t do anything for your families’ marriages, funerals, births, or home-building, and we won’t help with any of the arrangements.” We were all silent. I hesitated a bit—if I didn’t write anything, the pastors would still find ways to obstruct my faith. If I chose to keep believing in Almighty God, the pastors and elders wouldn’t help my family with any arrangements in the future. These were old customs that had been passed down in our village, and these traditional ceremonies were really important to everyone—we all had to adhere to them. Plus, everyone in the village listened to the pastors and elders. If the pastors didn’t show up, no one else would either, and they certainly wouldn’t help out. Did that mean that everyone would reject me? But I knew that the Lord had returned, so if I chose to return to religion, wouldn’t I be denying and betraying God? For a moment, I didn’t know what to do, so I prayed for God’s guidance. Then I remembered something that the Lord Jesus said: “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). It’s true. I’m a believer in God. As believers, we need to honor God as great, submit to His work, and keep pace with His footsteps. How could I call myself a believer if I let myself be constrained by the pastors and didn’t dare follow God? How could I be qualified to enter God’s kingdom? After this occurred to me, I prayed, “Oh God, I want to stand firm in my witness for You today. No matter what happens to me in the future, I want to follow You.” I felt a lot calmer then and resolutely put a cross by my name. The others put crosses by their names too, one after the other, and only one sister put a check. The pastor said angrily, “This is your choice—from now on we’re on different paths. Whatever happens to you is none of our concern.”

After I got home, my worries resurfaced. Whenever anything happened to the families in our village, we’d ask the pastors to pray for us, to preside over it, and to perform the religious rites. If the pastors really turned their backs on us after this, it would be impossible to do any of those things, and everyone would spurn and attack me. I didn’t know what other tactics they’d employ to keep us from practicing our faith, or when this would all come to an end. Thinking about all that was really painful for me and I didn’t know how to get through it. I immediately said a prayer, “God, I can see how meager my stature really is. I’m always worried about being slandered and rejected by everyone. I’m afraid to face these things and I’m feeling weak. Please guide me through this situation.” After that, I found a way to get online, and sought out the sister who was watering me to tell her about my difficulties. She sent me a passage of Almighty God’s words: “After receiving testimony from Job following the end of his trials, God resolved that He would gain a group—or more than a group—of people like Job, yet He resolved to never again allow Satan to attack or abuse any other person using the means by which it had tempted, attacked, and abused Job, by betting with God; God did not permit Satan to ever again do such things to man, who is weak, foolish, and ignorant—it was enough that Satan had tempted Job! Not permitting Satan to abuse people howsoever it wishes is the mercy of God. For God, it was enough that Job had suffered the temptation and abuse of Satan. God did not permit Satan to ever again do such things, for the lives and everything of people who follow God are ruled and orchestrated by God, and Satan is not entitled to manipulate God’s chosen ones at will—you should be clear about this point! God cares about man’s weakness, and understands his foolishness and ignorance. Although, in order that man could be completely saved, God has to hand him over to Satan, God is not willing to see man ever played for a fool and abused by Satan, and He does not want to see man always suffering. Man was created by God, and that God rules and arranges everything about man is perfectly natural and justified; this is the responsibility of God, and it is the authority by which God rules all things! God does not permit Satan to abuse and mistreat man at will, He does not permit Satan to employ various means to lead man astray, and, moreover, He does not permit Satan to intervene in God’s sovereignty of man, nor does He allow Satan to trample and destroy the laws by which God rules all things, to say nothing of God’s great work of managing and saving mankind! Those whom God wishes to save, and those who are able to bear testimony to God, are the core and the crystallization of the work of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, as well as the price of His efforts in His six thousand years of work. How could God casually give these people to Satan?” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II). From God’s words, I learned that whatever we face each day is permitted by God, and that everything is in His hands. No matter how savage Satan is or how much it wants to hurt us, it can’t do anything without God’s permission. God was allowing me to be disrupted and obstructed in order to test me. He was hoping that I would be like Job, and stand firm in my witness for Him through this situation. God wanted me to lean on Him and experience His work and words, so that I could develop true faith in Him. But I was caught in Satan’s net. I wanted to protect my relationships with other people and I didn’t want to be rejected and slandered. I was afraid of bad things happening to me, and I hadn’t understood God’s intention. I calmed down and prayed, “Oh God, now I understand that You’re allowing all of this to happen. I’m ready to stand firm in my witness for You. But my stature is still so small, please strengthen my faith so that I can get through this.”

Because of the attacks and judgment of the pastors, the other villagers kept trying to obstruct us from believing in Almighty God. They made fun of us, slandered us, and yelled at us right in front of our families, saying that we were undermining the village customs by not engaging in the religious rites. They said that if we kept our faith, they’d report us to the government and have us arrested. My family couldn’t bear the stress. They argued with me every day, urging me to give up my faith. The other brothers and sisters were coerced by their families too. Some were kicked out and not even allowed into their own homes. The pastors spread lies, saying that we were only having so many problems at home because we wouldn’t listen to them or go to church. They also said that they wanted to interrogate the two brothers who had come to water us. I was beside myself with anger when I heard this. The pastors were really turning the truth on its head. If it hadn’t been for their attacks, we never would have been rejected by so many people. During that time, my brothers and sisters all felt negative and weak, and they lacked the motivation to gather or do their duties. I also felt weak when I saw all this happening. I didn’t know how to help and support my brothers and sisters, and I suddenly felt that walking the path of faith was too difficult. I couldn’t understand it. We were just believing in God, gathering, and reading God’s words. Why wouldn’t they leave us be? Why were they determined to force us onto a dead-end path? In my pain, I called out to God, “God, I’ve been feeling so weak and I can’t quiet my heart. How can I stay on the path of faith? Please enlighten and guide me.” After that, I thought of something the Lord Jesus said: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18–19). It suddenly dawned on me that the reason these people hated and persecuted us so much was because they actually hated God’s coming, and they were resisting God. In the last days, God expresses the truth to do the work of judgment, which reveals all people. There are some people who say that they believe in God, but they do not love the truth—in fact, they hate it. So, now that God has become flesh and come to earth to speak, work, and express the truth, they judge and condemn Him. It’s just like when the Lord Jesus came to work—the Jewish leaders refused to accept the truths He expressed, and they did their utmost to condemn and blaspheme Him. Jewish believers went along rejecting the Lord with them, and in the end they had Him nailed to the cross. The world is truly evil! But the more that the world rejects the way of Almighty God and the more that religious forces condemn and persecute it, the clearer it is that it is the true way, that it is God’s work, and the more I want to keep following it and not give up!

Not long after that, some brothers and sisters learned what was happening in our village, and they sent me Almighty God’s words. There was one passage that said: “Do not be discouraged, do not be weak, and I will make things clear for you. The road to the kingdom is not so smooth; nothing is that simple! You want blessings to come to you easily, do you not? Today, everyone will have bitter trials to face. Without such trials, the loving heart you have for Me will not grow stronger and you will not have true love for Me. Even if these trials consist merely of minor circumstances, everyone must pass through them; it’s just that the difficulty of the trials will vary from one person to another. Trials are a blessing from Me, and how many of you come often before Me and beg on your knees for My blessings? Silly children! You always think that a few auspicious words count as My blessing, yet you do not recognize that bitterness is one of My blessings. Those who share in My bitterness will certainly share in My sweetness. That is My promise and My blessing to you. Do not hesitate to eat and drink and enjoy My words. When the dark passes, light gathers. It is darkest before dawn; after this time the sky gradually brightens, and then the sun rises. Do not be afraid or timid” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 41). I was so moved when I read this. We were following God’s footsteps, so it was inevitable that we’d be hindered by the pastors and elders and treated unfairly by other villagers. This is because humanity has been so deeply corrupted by Satan, the world is so dark and evil, and none of them welcome God’s coming. Following God isn’t an easy thing to do. To enter God’s kingdom and gain God’s approval, we have to experience this kind of persecution and adversity. God is behind us, supporting us, so there was nothing for me to fear. I just had to pray and rely on God to experience this situation and believe that He would guide us to overcome the pastors’ obstruction and disruption. I thought of the experiences of our brothers and sisters in mainland China that I’d seen in movies and videos. They’re persecuted, hounded, and monitored by the Chinese government, and they are at risk of arrest at any moment. Their families are also implicated by association, and they’re stripped of their property and jobs. Many of the brothers and sisters are put in prison and brutally tortured. They suffer so much, but they’re able to lean on God and give testimony to defeating Satan. Then I thought of how God has suffered during His two incarnations. The Lord Jesus was condemned and blasphemed by the Jewish church, and ultimately crucified in order to redeem mankind. In the last days, God has become flesh again, and He’s expressing the truth to save mankind. He is resisted, condemned, rejected, and blasphemed by Satan’s regime and the religious world’s antichrist forces. God suffers so much to save mankind—my paltry suffering wasn’t even worth mentioning. Although experiencing this situation was painful for me, I had some discernment of the clergy of the religious world and I gained more faith in God. God really does use difficult environments to impart people with the truth and perfect their faith. I felt so much calmer after understanding God’s intention, and I came out from my cloud of negativity. I rushed to organize a gathering for all of my brothers and sisters who were still stuck in a state of negativity and weakness. Through fellowship, everyone was able to understand God’s intention and find the faith to keep following Him, and they no longer felt negative. We started leading a normal church life, sharing the gospel, and bearing witness to God, and everyone felt motivated.

After that, the pastors and elders used every means to try and suppress us. Once, when a sister’s husband died of an illness, her entire family kept pressuring her to go apologize to the pastors so that they would help with prayers and funeral rites. The pastors and elders exploited this opportunity to try to coerce her to give up her faith in Almighty God and return to the church. I was so angry. She was grieving for her husband, and the pastors and elders were rubbing salt in the wound, pressuring her to give up her faith, just so she’d go back to the church and follow them. They were truly capable of such despicable things! Later, when the pastors, elders, and the town mayor saw that we were steadfastly refusing to return to the church, they incited the other villagers to shun us and isolate us, saying, “Since these people refuse to listen to us, just let them have their own faith. Keep an eye on your kids, keep them far away from these people. If anyone has contact with them or investigates their faith, their whole family will be implicated, and we won’t help them with anything in the future.” The pastors and elders even formed a youth group, composed of young people from the church, mainly to monitor us believers in Almighty God. If anyone came near us, that person would be called to one of the pastors’ houses for questioning. This helped me see the true, God-resisting faces of the pastors and elders more clearly. They had the churchgoers under tight control, they were all in their clutches, and none were permitted to come before God and hear His voice. I thought of the Pharisees. Though the Lord Jesus’ work and words were full of authority, the Pharisees wouldn’t seek or investigate them. Fearing that believers would follow the Lord Jesus and the threat this would pose to their status and livelihoods, they kept condemning Him, and even had Him nailed to the cross. They kept believers in their clutches, only allowing people to worship them, and refusing to return God’s sheep to Him. Were they not evil servants? Today’s pastors and elders are no different from them! I remembered the Lord Jesus’ words condemning them: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13). “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” (Matthew 23:15). These pastors are just like the Pharisees from the time of the Lord Jesus. They’re evil servants blocking people from entering the kingdom of heaven. It’s just like Almighty God exposes: “There are those who read the Bible in grand churches and recite it all day long, yet not one among them understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one among them is able to know God; still less can any one among them accord with God’s intentions. They are all worthless, vile people, each standing on high to lecture God. They willfully oppose God even as they carry His banner. Claiming faith in God, still they eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such people are devils that devour the soul of man, head demons that deliberately disturb those trying to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks impeding those who seek God. They may appear of ‘sound constitution,’ but how are their followers to know that they are none other than antichrists who lead people to stand against God? How are their followers to know that they are living devils dedicated to the devouring of human souls?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. All People Who Do Not Know God Are People Who Oppose God). The pastors and elders hadn’t investigated God’s work in the last days, and whenever they discovered that anyone else was investigating it, they found ways to obstruct them. They were afraid that believers would follow Almighty God and stop worshiping and following them, or giving them offerings, so they used old village customs and traditional rites to control people, trying to force them back to their church. They claimed to be believers, but they didn’t have a God-fearing heart at all. By nature, they hated God and the truth. They were stumbling blocks and obstacles on our path to the kingdom of heaven. I understood that God had allowed all of this persecution to happen in order to help us gain discernment, so that we could truly cast off the control of the religious pastors. The pastors’ and elders’ attacks hadn’t been able to keep me in a negative state, they had actually strengthened my faith in God. Their actions had allowed me to escape their control, and to continue sharing the gospel and bearing witness to God. With time, some of my friends and relatives began to gain discernment of the pastors through their behavior, and some of them accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days when I bore witness to it. This showed me that God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s tricks. The pastors’ persecution and obstruction helped separate the sheep from the goats. Some people went along with the pastors in persecuting us, but others came to discern the pastors’ essence through their behavior and returned before God. God’s work is wondrous! I experienced how God’s good will is behind everything that befalls us, and I also resolved that no matter what I faced in the future, I was ready to submit to God’s arrangements and lean on Him in order to get through it. Thanks be to Almighty God!