By Nancy, India

In September 2021, I was in my freshman year. We only could take classes online because of the pandemic, but, also because of this turn of events, I got to know a sister online who invited me to attend online gatherings. When that sister testified to me that Almighty God was the returned Lord Jesus, I was very excited. During my period of investigation, I read a lot of the words of Almighty God, and confirmed God’s work of the last days. I was very eager to preach the gospel to more people, and I thought of my family. I thought, “They will definitely be very happy to hear that the Lord has returned.” I invited my parents and my grandmother to attend a gathering together, but they had believed online baseless rumors, so none of them were willing to seek and investigate. They even told me, “Don’t attend gatherings of The Church of Almighty God. It’s enough to go to the religious church,” and asked me to concentrate on my studies. Because I insisted on believing in Almighty God, my parents got very angry. They would often snatch my cell phone away, and did not allow me to attend gatherings online. Many times, I wanted to get my phone back, but my father had a short temper and he would often yell at me and even beat me. Once, he shoved me outside, dragging me by my hair. My mother saw it but didn’t stop him, and she even cursed me, saying I deserved it, and that I’d been misled by a false christ. I knew that I hadn’t been misled. The Lord Jesus said: “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall mislead the very elect” (Matthew 24:23–24). False christs can only imitate God’s previous work and show great signs and wonders to mislead people. However, God is always new and never old. He does not repeat the work He has done previously. God works according to the needs of mankind. In the last days, Almighty God expresses the truth to do the work of judgment, cleansing humanity of its corruption. However, false christs cannot express the truth; still less can they cleanse or save people. This is because false christs do not have the truth. In addition, by reading the words of Almighty God during that time, I understood many truths and mysteries I hadn’t understood before: I found out about the mysteries of God’s 6,000-year management plan and His incarnation. I also found out about how God works to lead people, how He purifies people, how He changes their corrupt dispositions, and how He classifies them according to their kind, and so on. From the words expressed by Almighty God, I became firm in my belief that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. I told my parents, “No matter what, I will not give up believing in Almighty God.” My mother slapped me in the face when she saw that I insisted on believing in Almighty God. My mom had never beaten me before, and I felt utterly miserable; I started crying.

For the next four days, my parents still didn’t give my phone back. They told me not to go to college and to stay at home doing housework and looking after my younger brother and sister. They also warned me not to mention anything to do with belief in God to my younger brother and sister. Faced with this environment, I was a little weak. I felt that nobody understood me. I didn’t understand God’s intention: Why would God arrange such an environment for me? I even wanted to stop attending gatherings and doing my duty. I remembered two passages of God’s words: “In every step of work that God does on people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements or from human disturbance. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God. Take when Job was tried, for example: Behind the scenes, Satan was making a wager with God, and what happened to Job was the deeds of men and the disturbance of men. Behind every step of work that God does in you is Satan’s wager with God—behind it all is a battle. … Everything people do requires them to pay a certain price in their efforts. Without actual hardship, they cannot satisfy God; they do not even come close to satisfying God, and they are just spouting empty slogans!” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God). “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” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 41). The words of God gave me strength, and I understood that though on the surface it seemed that my parents were beating me, cursing me, and taking my phone away to stop me from believing in God, Satan’s tricks were actually behind this. Just like Job, Satan tempted Job in various ways, making him lose his children and property, and covering his body with sore boils. Satan wanted to use this to make Job deny God, but Job did not renounce the name of God; instead, he still praised the name of God and stood firm in his testimony to God. There were Satan’s schemes behind all of this that had come upon me, and it was also with God’s permission. Although I was weak, I wanted to stand firm in my testimony to God. No matter how my parents beat me or what means they used to stop me, I must believe in God and do my duty. I couldn’t let Satan’s schemes succeed. I felt that it was very difficult to believe in God at home, and I couldn’t concentrate on doing my duty. So I decided to leave home.

What happened next was not as simple as I’d thought. After I left, my family reported the case to the police, saying that I was missing and that if anyone saw me, they could call the police. I was worried that if this continued, it would bring trouble to my brothers and sisters and the church. So I called them saying that I would return one day. They refused to stop. They went to a sister’s house and asked her where I was. They even threatened the sister. In order not to implicate my sister, I had no choice but to go home. When I got home, I saw many villagers and relatives crowded around my house. My parents had gotten the media to come. The media asked, “Where have you been? Why did you leave your parents? Why didn’t you come home?” They also said a lot of unpleasant things, claiming that I was unfilial to my parents, a disobedient child, and that I didn’t care about learning. At the time, everyone around me was a nonbeliever. Nobody understood me. I felt very lonely, all by myself, so I silently prayed to God, “Dear God, no matter what happens next, may You give me the courage to face all this.” I thought of a passage of God’s words I had read before: “You must suffer hardship for the truth, you must sacrifice yourself for the truth, you must endure humiliation for the truth, and to gain more of the truth you must undergo more suffering. This is what you should do. You must not throw away the truth for the sake of the enjoyment of a harmonious family life, and you must not lose a lifetime of dignity and integrity for the sake of momentary enjoyment. You should pursue all that is beautiful and good, and you should pursue a path in life that is more meaningful” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Experiences of Peter: His Knowledge of Chastisement and Judgment). From God’s words, I understood that I must suffer for the truth and endure humiliation for the truth, and I must have faith in God, and cannot abandon my belief in Almighty God at any time. God has suffered a lot to save mankind: He was condemned and persecuted by the CCP government and was rejected by the entire generation. God has sacrificed far too much for mankind. I have enjoyed the watering and provision of so many of God’s words; what does this little bit of suffering amount to? Moreover, as I suffered this pain, God was by my side. God would lead me and guide me. When I understood this, I had faith and strength in my heart, and no longer felt lonely. I also didn’t care about what these people thought of me anymore. My uncle and my family forced me to do an interview. No matter what I said, they wouldn’t believe me. Later, my family started monitoring me. They would lock the door from the outside even when I was sleeping. I was deeply sad. I hadn’t done anything bad. I had only believed in God and done my duty, but this is how they treated me.

When I was feeling sad and in anguish, my younger brother suddenly came into my room saying he wanted to keep me company. He gave me an old cell phone, and helped me to get online. I watched a video of a reading of God’s words entitled “Only by Experiencing Painful Trials Can You Know the Loveliness of God.” Almighty God says: “Just how much do you love God today? And just how much do you know of all that God has done in you? These are the things you should learn. When God arrives on earth, all that He has done in man and allowed man to see is so that man will love Him and truly know Him. That man is able to suffer for God and has been able to come this far is, in one regard, because of God’s love, and in another regard, because of God’s salvation; moreover, it is because of the judgment and the work of chastisement that God has carried out in man. If you are without the judgment, chastisement, and trials of God, and if God has not made you suffer, then, in all honesty you do not truly love God. The greater God’s work in man, and the greater man’s suffering, the more apparent it is just how meaningful God’s work is, and the more that man’s heart is able to truly love God. How do you learn how to love God? Without torment and refinement, without painful trials—and if, furthermore, all that God gave man were grace, love, and mercy—would you be able to reach a point of truly loving God? On one hand, during God’s trials man comes to know his deficiencies and to see that he is insignificant, contemptible, and lowly, that he has nothing and is nothing; on the other hand, during His trials God creates different environments for man that make man more able to experience the loveliness of God. Although the pain is great, and sometimes insurmountable—even reaching the level of crushing grief—having experienced it, man sees how lovely God’s work in him is, and only upon this foundation is there born in man true love for God” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God). Although I felt weak in this predicament, God’s words inspired me. I understood that if everything that came upon me went smoothly and I didn’t have any difficulties, and all I got was God’s grace, mercy, and love, then my understanding of God’s work would be far too limited. Suffering and trials were there to perfect my faith in God. I felt like I couldn’t bear being restricted and persecuted by my family, and being belittled and looked down on by the people around me. It was as if I were living in a prison with no way out. However, through this environment, I realized my deficiencies. I saw that I was too weak and my stature was too small. When I first started to believe in Almighty God, I felt that I had a lot of faith in God, and that I could face up to any environment that came upon me. However, when I truly came to face suffering and difficulty, I felt that it was very hard, and even complained in my heart about why God would let this kind of environment come upon me. At that time, I truly understood my own deficiencies, and understood that only by experiencing an environment of suffering could I have a genuine understanding of myself and a genuine love for God.

Later, my parents forcibly took me to a pastor and asked the pastor to pray for me. They also forced me to study the Bible with them, trying to get me to give up on my belief in Almighty God. They said, “You have been misled. You are the lost prodigal son. If you can come back and return to your parents’ side, the Lord will still watch over you. If you continue to rebel, the Lord will not watch over you. You must be a filial good child and respect and love your parents. Now you are walking the wrong path!” I knew that this was Satan’s temptation. They said that I had been misled and believed the wrong thing, but I had understood some truths through reading the words of Almighty God and firmly believed that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus Christ. I heard God’s voice and returned to God’s house. I was not misled. I knew it is not easy to believe in the true God. It’s just like the people back in the Age of Grace who believed in the Lord Jesus. At the time, many people said that it was wrong to believe in the Lord Jesus, and some people followed the Pharisees and rejected Him. However, ultimately the Lord Jesus completed the work of being crucified and redeeming all mankind. The disciples who followed Him didn’t care what others said. They were willing to endure suffering, and would sacrifice their lives in order to follow the Lord to the end of the road. Now I had heard the voice of God and understood many truths and mysteries, and I didn’t want to go back to religion again. There is no new light in religion, and no work of the Holy Spirit. You will never obtain the truth and life in religion. They only said those words to prevent me from following God, but I was not affected by them in the slightest.

A week later, I started to go to college again, under pressure from my parents. My mother often spread baseless rumors to condemn God, and called me disobedient. My classmates also misunderstood me, thought badly of me and looked down on me. Even the college principal said, “Are you a leader in the church? You mustn’t ask any of your classmates to attend your gatherings. Your mother cares about you so much. You should concentrate on your studies and obey your parents. Otherwise, you will be expelled from college. If you want to believe in God, you can go to the religious church and pray to Jesus there. That will do.” My parents and the principal didn’t let me attend gatherings of The Church of Almighty God. They found someone to watch me every day. My teachers, classmates, friends, family, and even the campus security were all watching me. My parents always picked me up and dropped me off at college on time. If my mother was late finishing work, she would ask campus security to watch me. I had to wait for my mother near the principal’s office. My mother was afraid that I would continue to believe in God, and warned me, “If I find you believing in God again, I will tell the police, and they’ll arrest you and everyone else who believes in Almighty God along with you!” Hearing these words, I thought to myself, “Are you still my mother? You control everything about me and don’t care about how I feel at all.” My aunt also said, “If you even think about running away, we’ll break your legs and see if you can run!” During that time, I couldn’t attend gatherings or do my duty. I was in deep anguish every day. Sometimes, I even thought, “It would be better to die than to live like this!” I realized that these thoughts came from Satan, so I told myself: No matter what happened, I should rely on God to face it.

Later, I met my friend at college. She also believes in Almighty God. She gave me her phone and asked me to contact Sister Chloe. Sister Chloe told me the story of the film My Story, Our Story, in which brothers passed on the words of God in prison. She said, “Some of those brothers were imprisoned for ten years. They had no duty to do and had no church life, but they never lost faith in God. They constantly prayed to God and relied on God in prison, and they saw God’s deeds and felt God’s love and leadership.” I thought of those brothers in prison, some of whom had been there for a decade, while I was merely facing obstacles and restrictions from my family. I realized that I should not be so weak. I had to have faith in God too. I read a few paragraphs of the words of Almighty God: “While undergoing trials, it is normal for people to be weak, or to have negativity within them, or to lack clarity on God’s intentions or their path for practice. But in any case, you must have faith in God’s work, and not deny God, just like Job. Although Job was weak and cursed the day of his own birth, he did not deny that all things in human life were bestowed by Jehovah, and that Jehovah is also the One to take them all away. No matter what trials he was put through, he maintained this belief. In your experience, no matter what refinement you undergo through God’s words, what God requires of mankind, in brief, is their faith and their God-loving heart. What He perfects by working in this way is people’s faith, love, and resolve. God does the work of perfection on people, and they cannot see it, cannot feel it; under such circumstances, your faith is required. People’s faith is required when something cannot be seen by the naked eye, and your faith is required when you cannot let go of your own notions. When you do not have clarity about God’s work, what is required of you is to have faith and to take a firm stance and stand strong in your testimony. When Job reached this point, God appeared to him and spoke to him. That is, it is only from within your faith that you will be able to see God, and when you have faith God will perfect you. Without faith, He cannot do this. … What does this word, ‘faith,’ refer to? Faith is the genuine belief and the sincere heart that humans should possess when they cannot see or touch something, when God’s work does not align with human notions, when it is beyond human reach. This is the faith that I speak of” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement). “When confronting real-life problems, how should you know and understand God’s authority and His sovereignty? When you are faced with these problems and do not know how to understand, handle, and experience them, what attitude should you adopt to demonstrate your intention to submit, your desire to submit, and the reality of your submission to God’s sovereignty and arrangements? First you must learn to wait; then you must learn to seek; then you must learn to submit. ‘Waiting’ means waiting for the time of God, awaiting the people, events, and things that He has arranged for you, waiting for His intentions to be gradually revealed to you. ‘Seeking’ means observing and understanding God’s thoughtful intentions for you through the people, events, and things that He has laid out, understanding the truth through them, understanding what humans must accomplish and the ways they must adhere to, understanding what results God means to achieve in humans and what accomplishments He means to attain in them. ‘Submitting,’ of course, refers to accepting the people, events, and things that God has orchestrated, accepting His sovereignty and, through it, coming to know how the Creator dictates man’s fate, how He supplies man with His life, how He works the truth within man” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III). After reading God’s words, I realized that when persecution and obstruction from family members and teachers come upon me, although I have weakness, I cannot lose faith in God, deny God, or complain about God. I have to imitate Job. Although Job cursed the day he was born when trials came upon him, he never denied God or complained about God. However, I was constantly complaining about God when faced with these persecutions: Why did He let all this come upon me? I was willing to do my duty, so why did these sufferings and humiliations come upon me? I didn’t want to experience these environments, and I wanted to escape them. I could not submit to God in such environments. However, God’s words state explicitly that when an environment comes upon us, we must first wait, and then seek and submit. I must learn to wait, seek what God’s intention is, and finally accept and submit to all people, events, and things arranged by God. Everything God arranges is good. I must pray more and entrust everything to God. I silently prayed to God, “Dear God, even though I find such environments difficult, and there is weakness in my heart, Your words have given me strength, and Your words have brought peace to my heart. I am willing to entrust everything to You.”

In the following days, my mother still constantly resisted and condemned Almighty God. Every evening, she would get everyone to pray for me, and she even blasphemed against God in her prayers. Her words stabbed at my heart like a dagger. I could not stand those words that condemned and resisted God. And then there was my father. He would curse me and even beat me when he got drunk because I believed in God. Later, I read a passage of God’s words: “Nowadays, those who seek and those who do not are two entirely different types of people, whose destinations are also very different. Those who pursue knowledge of the truth and practice the truth are the ones to whom God will bring salvation. Those who do not know the true way are demons and enemies; they are the descendants of the archangel and will be objects of destruction. Even those who are pious believers of a vague God—are they not also demons? … Anyone who does not believe in God incarnate is demonic and, moreover, will be destroyed. Those who have faith but do not practice the truth, those who do not believe in God incarnate, and those who do not at all believe in God’s existence will also be objects of destruction. All those who will be allowed to remain are people who have undergone the suffering of refinement and stood firm; these are people who have truly endured trials. Anyone who does not recognize God is an enemy; that is, anyone who does not recognize God incarnate—whether or not they are inside or outside this stream—is an antichrist! Who is Satan, who are demons, and who are God’s enemies if not resisters who do not believe in God? Are they not those people who are rebellious against God?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together). From God’s words I understood that my parents and I are walking completely different paths. My parents did not accept the incarnate God, and they even resisted and condemned Him. In particular, my mother constantly blasphemed against God and condemned God. In their very essence, they resist God; they are God’s enemies, and they are devils and Satans. In the end, they will be subject to destruction by God. I could no longer be bound by them.

I read another passage of the words of Almighty God: “Regardless of how ‘powerful’ Satan is, regardless of how audacious and ambitious it is, regardless of how great is its ability to inflict damage, regardless of how wide-ranging are the techniques with which it corrupts and lures man, regardless of how clever are the tricks and schemes with which it intimidates man, regardless of how changeable is the form in which it exists, it has never been able to create a single living thing, has never been able to set down laws or rules for the existence of all things, and has never been able to rule and control any object, whether animate or inanimate. Within the cosmos and the firmament, there is not a single person or object that was born from it, or exists because of it; there is not a single person or object that is ruled by it, or controlled by it. On the contrary, it not only has to live under the dominion of God, but, moreover, must submit to all of God’s orders and commands. Without God’s permission, it is difficult for Satan to touch even a drop of water or grain of sand upon the land; without God’s permission, Satan is not even free to move the ants about upon the land, let alone mankind, who was created by God. In the eyes of God, Satan is inferior to the lilies on the mountain, to the birds flying in the air, to the fish in the sea, and to the maggots on the earth. Its role among all things is to serve all things, to serve mankind, and to serve God’s work and His plan of management. Regardless of how malicious its nature, and how evil its essence, the only thing it can do is to dutifully abide by its function: being of service to God, and providing a counterpoint to God. Such is the substance and position of Satan. Its essence is unconnected to life, unconnected to power, unconnected to authority; it is merely a plaything in God’s hands, just a machine in service to God!” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique I). God’s words gave me faith and strength. Now, I was surrounded by people who did not believe in God, and my parents were coming up with all kinds of ways to prevent me from believing in God. Whether I was at college or at home, they monitored me every day, and used a lot of schemes and methods to try to stop me from reading God’s words or praying. They controlled my life completely. However, the words of God gave me hope. I understood that no matter how powerful they looked on the outside, God is sovereign over and in charge of everything. Everything to do with me is held in God’s hands. No matter how Satan uses my family to disturb me, Satan only renders service for God. Without these things happening, I could not have seen through to my family’s essence of resisting God. Experiencing persecution at the hands of my family has further strengthened my determination to follow God. No matter how difficult it was, I should rely on God and stand firm in my testimony. After understanding this, I was no longer afraid in my heart.

Later, because I had too many class notes, my parents bought me a laptop. Because the school was full of CCTV cameras and my friends and classmates were monitoring me, I could only take my laptop into the bathroom and connect it to the campus Wi-Fi to watch some experiential testimony videos and hymn videos in praise of God. My family asked my friends to watch me, so I couldn’t read God’s words freely and couldn’t lead a church life; still less could I fulfill the duty of a created being. I felt like living like this had no meaning. So, early one morning, I ran away from home. Now, I have walked out of the bondage of my family, and can live church life with my brothers and sisters. I can freely read the words of God and do my duty, and my heart is extremely peaceful and liberated. I am so thankful to God for His salvation of me!