By Franklin, Spain

In May 2023, I was responsible for the gospel work of several churches. When I saw that several brothers and sisters I was working with were dismissed one after another for reasons such as not doing real work, I unconsciously developed an idea in my heart, “I cannot be dismissed for not doing real work. If I were dismissed, what would my brothers and sisters think of me? I must follow up on and find out about the work of my brothers and sisters more. Only when everyone sees that I can resolve real problems as I do my duty will they admire me; that way, I can also keep my status.” Afterward, no matter which brother or sister asked a question, I would solve it as soon as possible, afraid that if I didn’t do any task promptly then people would have a poor evaluation of me and I would end up being dismissed. Once, a gospel team leader asked me how to testify to get good results. So that my sister would have a good opinion of me, I immediately told her my perspective. When she heard it, she was very satisfied, and I felt happy in my heart too. However, I had said a lot of things, and I wasn’t sure if my sister had grasped it or if deviations would occur in practice; after a while, I should have asked her about it again and followed up on it, and then provided some more specific paths in combination with real problems. But I didn’t take it too seriously at the time. I thought that because I had said so much to her, she probably had a good impression of me. I didn’t consider how she would get on afterward. Later, no matter which team had poor gospel results, I hurriedly contacted the team leaders to understand the situation and fellowship to resolve it, so that my brothers and sisters could see that I solved problems promptly and could do real work. However, after that, I didn’t really care about whether the team leaders implemented things properly, or if the real problems were truly being resolved. Sometimes, when at gatherings or discussing the work, I would intentionally or unintentionally mention what problems I had discovered while following up on the work so that my brothers and sisters would see that I was not a bureaucrat, and that I could penetrate deep into the church to solve problems. After two weeks, I checked up on the gospel work of several churches. I found that the results hadn’t improved at all, and so I asked the team leaders about the situation. I discovered that the team leaders were living amidst some difficulties. In some churches, a lot of people had come to investigate, but the majority of them didn’t accord with the principles of preaching the gospel. In the end, not many people really joined the church. When I saw this situation, I was stunned, “It’s me who’s been following up on the gospel work in all these churches. Now that so many problems have emerged, what will the brothers and sisters I’m working with think of me? Will they say I lack work capability?” When I thought this, I felt a bit despondent inside. I realized that the reason the work did not achieve results was that there were problems with how I did my duty. So I prayed to God, begging God to enlighten and lead me in learning a lesson.

I read the words of God: “How should one judge if a leader is fulfilling the responsibilities of leaders and workers, or if they are a false leader? At the most basic level, one must look at whether they are capable of doing real work, at whether or not they have this caliber. Then, one should look at whether they have the burden to do this work well. Ignore how nice the things they say sound and how much they seem to understand the doctrines, and ignore how talented and gifted they are when they handle external matters—these things are not important. What is most crucial is whether they are able to properly carry out the most fundamental items of work of the church, whether they can solve problems using the truth, and whether they can lead people into the truth reality. This is the most fundamental and essential work. If they are incapable of doing these items of real work, then no matter how good their caliber is, how talented they are, or how much they can endure hardship and pay a price, they are still a false leader. … It doesn’t matter how talented you are, what level of caliber and education you possess, how many slogans you can shout, or how many words and doctrines are in your grasp; regardless of how busy you are or how exhausted you are in a day, or how far you’ve traveled, how many churches you visit, or how much risk you take and suffering you endure—none of these matter. What matters is whether you are performing your work based on the work arrangements, whether you are accurately implementing those arrangements; whether, during your leadership, you are participating in every specific work you are responsible for, and how many real issues you have actually resolved; how many individuals have come to understand the truth principles because of your leadership and guidance, and how much the church’s work has advanced and developed—what matters is whether or not you have achieved these results. Regardless of the specific work you’re involved in, what matters is whether you are consistently following up on and directing the work rather than acting high and mighty and issuing orders. Besides this, what also matters is whether or not you have life entry while doing your duty, whether you can deal with matters according to principles, whether you possess a testimony of putting the truth into practice, and whether you can handle and resolve the real issues faced by God’s chosen people. These and other similar things are all criteria for assessing whether or not a leader or worker has fulfilled their responsibilities” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (9)). “If leaders and workers truly have a burden and are able to endure a bit more suffering, practice fellowshipping the truth more, and show a bit more loyalty, fellowshipping clearly on all aspects of truth, so that those gospel workers are able to fellowship the truth to resolve people’s notions and doubts, then the results of preaching the gospel would get better and better. This would allow more people who are investigating the true way to accept God’s work earlier and return before God to receive His salvation sooner. The work of the church gets held up simply because false leaders are seriously derelict in their responsibilities, do not do real work or follow up on and oversee work, and are unable to fellowship the truth to fix problems. Of course, it is also because these false leaders indulge in the benefits of status, do not pursue the truth at all, and are unwilling to follow up on, supervise, or direct the work of spreading the gospel—with the result that work progresses slowly, and many man-made deviations, absurdities, and reckless wrongdoings fail to be promptly rectified or resolved, which severely impacts the effectiveness of spreading the gospel” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (4)). After reading the words of God, I understood that in weighing up whether a leader or worker is up to standard, you cannot look at how much they suffer or how much of a price they have paid on the surface; you have to look at the results they have achieved in their work, how much real work they have done in accordance with the requirements and principles of the house of God, and how much of a role they play in pushing the work forward. If a leader or worker is very active and busy in doing their duty on the surface, but doesn’t work in accordance with principles, leaves a lot of real problems unresolved, and only does work that makes them look good, they are using the appearance of being busy to embellish themselves. This kind of leader is a false leader. Comparing myself to the words of God, I discovered that though I was following up with the gospel work on the surface, I merely did my duty in form only; I did not seek what to do to achieve results. It’s like when the gospel team leader asked me how to testify to get good results. Although I told her about some paths, I didn’t follow up and resolve real problems, like whether she actually had a grasp of them and whether deviations would crop up in the process of working through them. I was just satisfied that I had fellowshipped with her, and did not seek real results. I followed up on the gospel work of some churches when problems arose, but I didn’t consider issues such as whether the team leaders had a grasp of the principles and were implementing the work correctly, and neither did I follow up or supervise. As a result, the work achieved no real results, and contained all kinds of flaws. I worked on the surface only, without seeking out details. In appearance, I had done a lot of work, but I had achieved no results at all. Only at this time did I realize that this was the way a false leader worked, and that it was particularly irresponsible. I felt guilty in my heart, and wanted to properly turn things around, and stop acting in reliance on corrupt dispositions. However, soon afterward, some environments came upon me that revealed me again.

Not long after, the church had an urgent gospel work task that we needed to work on. I and the brothers and sisters I was working with implemented it in all the churches intensively and with urgency. In those few days, it just so happened that the upper leaders checked the work I was responsible for and found some deviations. They also pointed out that I didn’t work meticulously. Although each church had many gospel workers, most of the gospel workers were not very clear about the truth in the aspect of God’s work, and there were many deficiencies in preaching the gospel. Moreover, I had not promptly cultivated gospel workers. When I heard the leaders point out my problems, my face was burning. The leaders asked me to make time to find out about the situation of the gospel workers in each church and the problems present in the preaching of the gospel, and submit a report as soon as possible. I thought to myself, “What will the leaders think of me, having discovered so many problems? Will they think that I’m not suited to being a supervisor and dismiss me? If I’m dismissed, what will my brothers and sisters think of me? No, I cannot let people see that I haven’t been doing real work. Now I have to urgently implement the work that the leaders have instructed me to do. Only then can I make them see that although there were deviations in my work previously, I am able to actively turn them around. Only in this way can I restore the good impression the leaders had of me.” Afterward, I was like a cat on a hot tin roof, desperate to complete the things the leaders had asked me to do as fast as possible. Actually, I was also conscious in my heart, that everyone had other urgent work at hand that needed to be implemented, and that I should take advantage of times when the duties were less busy, such as lunchtimes or evenings, to find out about the situation of the gospel workers. In this way, I wouldn’t disturb the rhythms of everyone doing their duty. However, in order to find things out and report to the leaders as fast as possible, I stipulated that everyone had to complete collecting data on the situation and problems of the gospel workers within half a day. When I finished speaking, they all felt very troubled. Some said that they had a gathering that day, and some said that they didn’t have time because they also had to preach the gospel. With no other option, I gave them an extension, but I constantly pressed them throughout this time. However, it was still not complete by morning the next day. I was very anxious in my heart. I was afraid that if it was done too slowly, the upper leaders would think that I was procrastinating in my work, and so I constantly pressed my brothers and sisters with no regard to their actual situation. When on the third day the data had finally been collected, I breathed a sigh of relief. However, I had not seriously tried to solve the problems in the gospel work that everyone had found out about. Over the next few days, I would do any work arranged by the upper leaders with extreme urgency, but when doing it, I never pondered what the real problems the upper leaders mentioned actually were, or what to do in order to achieve results. I only did some superficial work relating to data. I constantly pressed my brothers and sisters so that I could complete my task as quickly as possible. This meant that everyone else also flew into a panic in their work and couldn’t calm their hearts down. Several brothers and sisters felt under a lot of stress. Some of them didn’t implement the work properly because time was too tight. Feeling that their caliber was not up to the job, their states were affected. Some were afraid that they would be reassigned due to never being able to do their work well, and lived in a negative state. Just because I had taken the wrong path, I had caused my brothers and sisters to act without principles and without regard to priorities. This had affected the progress of implementing other work. Faced with a string of problems, only then did I start to seek truth and reflect on myself.

While seeking, I read a passage of God’s words: “Antichrists live each day only for reputation and status, they live only to revel in the benefits of status, this is all they think about. Even when they do occasionally suffer some minor hardship or pay some trivial price, this is for the sake of obtaining status and reputation. … Anyone who is an antichrist will not sincerely expend for God, the performance of their duties will just be a matter of formalities and going through the motions. They will not do real work even if they are leaders or workers, and they will only speak and act for the sake of fame, gain, and status, without protecting the work of the church at all. So, what do antichrists do all day? They busy themselves with putting on performances and showing off. They only do things involving their own fame, gain, and status. They are busy misleading others, drawing people in, and when they have amassed their strength, they will go on to control more churches. They wish only to reign as kings and turn the church into their independent kingdom. They wish only to be the great leader, to have complete, unilateral authority, to control more churches. They don’t care in the slightest about anything else. They don’t concern themselves with the work of the church, or the life entry of God’s chosen people, much less do they care about whether God’s will is carried out. They are only concerned with when they can independently hold power, control God’s chosen people, and stand on an equal footing with God. The desires and ambitions of antichrists are enormous indeed! No matter how hard-working antichrists appear to be, they are only busy with their own endeavors, doing what they like to do, and with things related to their own fame, gain, and status. They don’t even think about their responsibilities or the duty they should be performing, and they do nothing proper at all. This is the sort of thing antichrists are—they are devils and Satans, who disrupt and disturb God’s work” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Two)). God exposes that in their hearts, antichrists only think of status, and only work for status. They only busy themselves with things related to their own fame, gain, and status, while not doing anything that is their responsibility. I realized that my approach was the same as that of an antichrist. The upper leaders had found deviations in my work, and I did not want them to look down on me. Therefore, in the work assigned by the leaders, I tried my utmost to show myself off and wanted to complete it as quickly as possible. I wanted the leaders to see that I worked efficiently and decisively at lightning speed so I could win their good opinion of me. In order to achieve this goal, I constantly did surface work, asking the brothers and sisters to collect data on the gospel workers and summarize the problems in the gospel work, etc. But I put no effort into considering how to resolve the problems or deviations that appeared in the gospel work. This meant that some problems did not get a real resolution, and the implementation of other tasks was delayed. In order to protect my own face and status, I took no heed of the real difficulties of my brothers and sisters and constantly pushed them to make faster progress. This meant that some brothers and sisters felt under a lot of stress, and some even felt that their caliber wasn’t up to the job, and lived in a negative state, delaying the work. When I reflected on this, I felt a burst of lingering fear. I had been doing evil! So, I hurriedly adjusted my state. At the same time, I sorted out the work again, and made a detailed plan for the tasks which were more important and required urgent handling and resolution. As for the less urgent tasks, I left them to be resolved in my leisure time. At gatherings, I also opened up to my brothers and sisters about the corrupt dispositions I had revealed throughout this time, so that my brothers and sisters could adjust their own states and actively throw themselves into their duties. Afterward, the work slowly got back on track.

Later, I read another two passages of God’s words: “Antichrists are a cunning sort, aren’t they? With anything they do, they connive and calculate it eight or ten times, or even more. Their heads are full of thoughts about how to make themselves have stable positions in a crowd, how to have good reputations and high prestige, how to curry favor with the Above, how to make the brothers and sisters support, love and respect them, and they do whatever it takes to get these outcomes. What path are they walking? For them, the interests of God’s house, the interests of the church, and the work of God’s house are not their main consideration, much less are they things that they are concerned about. What do they think? ‘These things have nothing to do with me. Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost; people have to live for themselves and for their own reputation and status. That’s the highest goal there is. If someone doesn’t know they should live for themselves and protect themselves, then they’re a moron. If I were asked to practice according to the truth principles and to submit to god and the arrangements of his house, then it would depend on whether or not there would be any benefit in it for me, and whether there would be any advantages in doing so. If not submitting to the arrangements of god’s house brings a chance that I might get cleared out and lose out on an opportunity to gain blessings, then I’ll submit.’ Thus, in order to protect their own reputation and status, antichrists often choose to make some compromises. You could say that for the sake of status, antichrists are capable of enduring any sort of suffering, and for the sake of having a good reputation, they are capable of paying any sort of price. The saying, ‘A great man knows when to yield and when not to,’ rings true with them. This is the logic of Satan, is it not? This is Satan’s philosophy for worldly dealings, and it is also Satan’s principle of survival. It is utterly disgusting!” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Two)). “Those who are eliminated never walk the path of pursuing and practicing the truth. They always stray from this path and just do what they will, acting according to their own desires and ambitions, safeguarding their own status, reputation, and pride, and satisfying their own desires—everything they do revolves around these things. Even though they have also paid a price, spent time and energy, and worked from dawn to dusk, what is their ultimate result? Because the things they did are condemned as evil in the eyes of God, the result is that they are eliminated. Do they still have a chance of being saved? (No.) This is an incredibly serious consequence! It’s just like when people get sick: A minor illness that is not promptly treated can develop into a major illness, or even become terminal. For example, if a person has a cold and a cough, they will quickly get better if they receive normal medical treatment. However, some people think they have a robust constitution and so do not take their cold seriously or seek treatment. As a result, it drags out for a long time and they contract pneumonia. After getting pneumonia, they still feel that they are young with a strong immune system, so they don’t treat it for several months. They pay no mind to their coughing every day until it reaches a point where the coughing becomes uncontrollable and unbearable, and they cough up blood. So they go to the hospital to get examined, where they find out they have developed tuberculosis. Others advise them to get immediate treatment, but they still think they are young and strong, with no need to worry, so they don’t seek proper treatment. Until one day, in the end, their body is too weak to walk, and when they go to the hospital for a checkup, they already have late-stage cancer. When people have corrupt dispositions which they do not treat, it can also bring about incurable repercussions. Having a corrupt disposition is not something to be frightened of, but someone with a corrupt disposition must seek the truth to promptly resolve it; only in this way can the corrupt disposition be gradually cleansed. If they do not focus on resolving it, it will become more and more severe, and they may offend and resist God, and be spurned and eliminated by Him” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Only by Practicing the Truth and Submitting to God Can One Achieve a Change in Disposition). God exposes that antichrists consider their own fame, gain, and status in everything they do. They are willing to endure any suffering for the sake of fame, gain, and status. When I thought about my daily life, I showed lots of similar behavior. For example, during gatherings and fellowship, I would earnestly ponder so that I could fellowship a bit of light and win the esteem of others. Sometimes, I put some effort in and did some work, but this was only so that people would see I wasn’t lazy and had good humanity. When I did my duty, I only focused on the appearance of how I did things, and rarely put any effort into the principles. I saw that behind everything I did was a desire to protect my own face and status. The pursuit of fame, gain, and status had already taken deep roots within my heart. If I didn’t turn it around, I would certainly disrupt and disturb the work of the church in order to maintain my fame, gain, and status. I thought about those antichrists who had been expelled. To win fame, gain, and status, they preached the gospel without following the principles, and reported inaccurate numbers and indulged in trickery. This gravely disrupted and disturbed the work of the house of God. In the end, they were eliminated by God for doing evil in a myriad of ways. Looking back on that period, I only focused on doing things in front of others, and doing some work that made me look good. I didn’t care about the critical or essential work at all. This meant that within my scope of responsibility, the gospel work made no progress at all, and was constantly flatlining. It did not meet the standards required by the house of God. Was this not blocking the progress of the gospel work? If I had carried on pursuing fame, gain, and status without repenting, then no matter how much I suffered or how much of a price I paid, I would never be remembered by God. Instead, I would be characterized as evil because of everything I had done, and be eliminated! Only at this time did I realize that the constant pursuit of fame, gain, and status is too dangerous. I also wanted to hurriedly turn around the incorrect perspectives behind my pursuit and do my duty in a down-to-earth manner.

Later, I read the words of God: “For every work arrangement issued by God’s house, leaders and workers must treat it seriously and implement it seriously. You should frequently use the work arrangements to compare and inspect all the work you have done. You should also examine and reflect on which tasks you have not done well or implemented properly during this period. For any task assigned and required by the work arrangements that has been neglected, you should quickly make up for and inquire about it. … And so, whether you are a regional leader, district leader, church leader, or any team leader or supervisor, once you have known the scope of your responsibilities, you must frequently examine whether you are doing real work, whether you have fulfilled the responsibilities that ought to be fulfilled by a leader or worker, as well as which tasks—out of the several entrusted to you—you haven’t done, which you don’t want to do, which have yielded poor results, and which you have failed to grasp the principles of. These are all things you should examine often. At the same time, you must learn to fellowship with and ask questions of other people, and must learn how to identify, in God’s words and the work arrangements, a plan, principles, and a path for practice. Toward any work arrangement, whether it relates to administration, personnel, or church life, or else any kind of professional work, if it touches upon the responsibilities of leaders and workers, then it is a responsibility that leaders and workers are supposed to fulfill, and within the purview of what leaders and workers are responsible for—these are the tasks you should attend to. Naturally, priorities should be set based on the situation; no work may fall behind” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (10)). God’s words pointed out a path of practice to me. Implementing any one task is not simply about doing things superficially: You have to constantly examine whether you are doing real work, and what work is not being done well. No matter what the task is, you need to get deep into the actual situation, and not do jobs that make you look good to pursue appearances and make people esteem you. This kind of work cannot solve real problems at all. Afterward, whenever I discovered that the results of the gospel work weren’t good, I would actually find out what the reason for the poor results was, and understand the states and difficulties of my brothers and sisters, how they were following up on the gospel work, and so on. When I checked the work in detail, I discovered problems and deviations that I hadn’t seen before. Some churches had too few gospel workers; some gospel team leaders didn’t know how to follow up on the work; and some gospel workers didn’t understand the truth. They couldn’t fellowship clearly about many truths related to God’s work, which meant that some potential gospel recipients who truly believed in God were unwilling to continue their investigations because their notions were not resolved. The brothers and sisters I was working with and I fellowshipped with them about these problems and turned them around. We followed up in detail on the work of the gospel workers, and pointed out the problems that existed in their testimony, giving them guidance and fellowship. After a period of working together, some potential gospel recipients became willing to continue their investigations and ultimately accepted God’s work of the last days. At this time, I finally had the profound realization that only with real understanding and delving deep into the details through our work can we discover and resolve problems; and only then did my heart feel at ease and at peace.

Once, I was following up on the gospel work of a church. I saw that the gospel work was not achieving results and most of the brothers and sisters were somewhat negative. So, I held a gathering to resolve the states of my brothers and sisters. At the same time, I also fellowshipped about and resolved the problems that existed in preaching the gospel. After a time, the gospel work showed some improvement. I was very happy, and thought, “My brothers and sisters are sure to look up to me. I’ll just get the team leaders to follow up in future.” When I thought this, I realized that in the past, I had only done work that made myself look good, and that many problems had not actually been resolved. This time, I could not be satisfied with just resolving the states of my brothers and sisters and leaving things at that. I had to think about what tasks had still not been completed properly. When I actually went to find out what was going on, I discovered that there weren’t enough gospel workers in this church, and that some gospel workers were making very slow progress, but the team leader wouldn’t help and support them. They also didn’t know how to resolve the deviations that occurred in the gospel work. As a result, the gospel work hadn’t delivered clear results for several months on end. Afterward, I discussed how to resolve these problems with the team leaders, and selected a few gospel workers. I taught the team leaders how to follow up on and arrange work, and resolved their problems and difficulties. After a time, the results of preaching the gospel saw some further improvement. When I saw this result, I felt very happy, but also somewhat self-reproachful. Because I had done too much work to make myself look good in the past, the gospel work hadn’t made progress. I thanked God for using this environment to allow me to understand myself a bit better, and learn how to do real work.