By Bertha, Myanmar

In May 2022, I was elected as a church leader. I was very thankful for God’s gracing and elevating me, and I felt that I had to do my duty well. At first, I was very active in my duty, and whenever I encountered things I didn’t understand, I would seek to communicate with the supervisor, and after gaining understanding, I would fellowship and solve the problem. Later, as lockdown began easing up, many newcomers started working and couldn’t do their duties normally. When faced with this situation, I was kind of at a loss, thinking to myself, “As a leader, I should support and help my brothers and sisters, and solve their states and difficulties.” I then fellowshipped with the brothers and sisters one by one, but I didn’t get any results from this, so I didn’t want to reach out to them anymore. I felt that since I had to go to work, and preach the gospel, if I also had to support brothers and sisters who weren’t attending gatherings regularly, I would barely have any time to rest. I felt very tired and even wanted to stop being a church leader. I was living in a negative state, thinking that my caliber wasn’t good, I couldn’t solve problems, and I had no work capability. So I just wanted the supervisor to change my duty.

Later, I shared my thoughts with the supervisor, and after listening, she sent me a passage of God’s words. “The most important manifestation of an honest person is seeking and practicing the truth in all matters—this is most crucial. You say that you are honest, but you always push God’s words to the back of your mind and just do whatever you want. Is that the manifestation of an honest person? You say, ‘Although my caliber is poor, I have an honest heart.’ And yet when a duty falls to you, you are afraid of suffering and bearing responsibility if you do not do it well, so you make excuses to shirk your duty or suggest that someone else do it. Is this the manifestation of an honest person? Clearly, it is not. How, then, should an honest person behave? They should submit to God’s arrangements, be loyal to the duty they are supposed to perform, and strive to satisfy God’s intentions. This manifests itself in several ways: One is accepting your duty with an honest heart, not considering your fleshly interests, not being half-hearted about it, and not plotting for your own benefit. Those are manifestations of honesty. Another is putting all your heart and strength into performing your duty well, doing things properly, and putting your heart and love into your duty to satisfy God. These are the manifestations an honest person should have while performing their duty. If you do not carry out what you know and understand, and if you only put in 50 or 60 percent of your effort, then you are not putting all your heart and strength into it. Rather, you are sly and slacking off. Are people who perform their duties in this way honest? Absolutely not. God has no use for such slippery and deceitful people; they must be eliminated. God only uses honest people to perform duties. Even loyal laborers must be honest. People who are perennially perfunctory and sly and looking for ways to slack off are all deceitful, and are all demons. None of them truly believe in God, and they shall all be eliminated” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). God’s words talk about how honest people seek the truth in all matters and submit to all of God’s arrangements when doing their duty. They put all their heart and strength into fulfilling their duty, and are people that others can rely on to do things. When a deceitful person does their duty and encounters matters that involve their personal interests or that require suffering and exertion, they will find excuses to shirk responsibility. Even if they do their duty, they don’t put in their full effort, and only use part of their energy. This is being slippery and slacking off. I compared this to my own behavior. When I saw newcomers not attending gatherings regularly, and I didn’t see any results after trying to help and fellowship with them, I didn’t want to invest more mental effort in supporting them. I even said that it was because my caliber was inadequate to resolve their difficulties, and that I lacked work capability, and I wanted the supervisor to assign me a different duty. In actuality, I was making excuses to cover up my intention to avoid hardship, and to avoid taking responsibility in order to satisfy my flesh. As a leader, I should have been fulfilling my responsibility to water and support the brothers and sisters well. But I didn’t want to suffer or pay a price. I was always thinking about my own fleshly interests and coveting comfort. By doing duty like this, I was just being perfunctory, slippery, and looking for ways to slack off. What I was revealing was a selfish, despicable, and deceitful disposition. Realizing these things, I felt somewhat guilty. I hadn’t put my heart into supporting the newcomers, and instead I’d been slippery and slacked off. This is something that God loathes. I prayed to God, “God, recently there’ve been a lot of newcomers who haven’t been attending gatherings regularly, and there are very few gospel workers. Although I’ve fellowshipped with them, because I am afraid of physical hardship and don’t want to pay a price, I haven’t done my utmost to resolve their actual difficulties. I am willing to change my perfunctory attitude. Please guide me.” After praying, my heart became much brighter, and one by one, I began to support the brothers and sisters who weren’t attending gatherings regularly. For some of their states and difficulties that I didn’t know how to resolve, I discussed them with my partner, and looked for relevant words of God to fellowship with the newcomers. After doing this for some time, some of the newcomers began attending gatherings regularly, and were also able to do some duties. One newcomer was very active in preaching the gospel, so I had him partner with me. Gradually, everyone became more active in preaching the gospel, and I didn’t feel things were as difficult anymore. I realized that if I put all my effort into my duty, God would also guide me. By practicing this way, I no longer felt tired, and felt at ease in my heart. I originally thought that because I experienced this matter, I had some understanding of my corrupt disposition of coveting fleshly pleasure, and that I had changed somewhat, but when actual circumstances came upon me, I again revealed a corrupt disposition in this regard.

One time, a sister wanted me to train to be a preacher, and to be primarily in charge of the gospel work of several churches. When I heard this, I felt mixed emotions. I felt that since my work schedule was irregular and I could be called in on shift at any time, and since the workload of being a preacher would be greater, I would have less free time. In particular, I lacked a lot in terms of preaching the gospel and testifying. I still needed to study and train more, and this would also take up a lot of my time. Thinking of these things, I wanted to shirk this duty. I expressed my thoughts out loud, and after hearing my concerns, the sister read me a passage of God’s words. “You have to understand that no matter what time or what stage God is doing His work, He always needs a portion of people to work with Him. That these people cooperate with God’s work or cooperate in spreading the gospel is predestined by Him. So does God have a commission for each person He’s predestined? Everyone has a mission and a responsibility; everyone has a commission. When God gives you a commission, this becomes your responsibility. You need to take up this responsibility; it is your duty. What is duty? It’s the mission that God has given you. What is a mission? (God’s commission is man’s mission. One’s life should be lived for God’s commission. This commission is the only thing in their heart, and they shouldn’t live for anything else.) God’s commission is man’s mission; this is the correct understanding. People who believe in God have been put on earth to complete God’s commission. If all you pursue in this life is to climb the social ladder, amass wealth, live a good life, enjoy being close to family, and revel in fame, gain, and status—if you gain social status, your family becomes prominent, and everyone in your family is safe and sound—but you ignore the mission God has given you, is there any value to this life you’re living? How will you answer to God after you die? You won’t be able to, and this is the greatest rebellion; it is the greatest sin! Which of you is performing your duty in God’s house right now by accident? Whatever background you came from to perform your duty, none of it was by chance. This duty can’t be performed by just finding a few believers at random; this was something predestined by God before the ages. What does it mean for something to be predestined? What specifically? It means that in His entire management plan, God long ago planned how many times you would be on earth, which lineage and which family you would be born into during the last days, what the circumstances of this family would be, whether you would be male or female, what your strengths would be, what level of education you would have, how articulate you would be, what your caliber would be, and what you would look like. He planned the age that you would come to God’s house and begin performing your duty and what duty you would perform at what time. God predestined each step for you early on. When you weren’t yet born and when you came to earth in your last several lives, God had already arranged for you what duty you would be performing in this final stage of work. This is certainly no joke! The fact that you’re able to hear a sermon here was preordained by God. This is not to be taken lightly! Additionally, your height, your appearance, what your eyes look like, your figure, the state of your health, what your life experiences are and which duties you’re capable of taking on at a certain age, and what sort of caliber and ability you possess—these were preordained for you by God long ago, and are certainly not being arranged now. God has long since preordained them for you, which is to say, if He intends to use you, He will have already prepared you before giving you this commission and this mission. So is it acceptable for you to run from it? Is it acceptable for you to be halfhearted about it? Both are unacceptable; that would be letting God down! It’s the worst kind of rebellion for people to forsake their duty. It is a heinous deed. God labored thoughtfully and earnestly, preordaining since time immemorial for you to make it to today and be given this mission. Isn’t this mission your responsibility then? Isn’t it what gives value to living this life of yours? If you don’t complete the mission that God gives to you, you lose the value and meaning of living; it’s as if you’ve lived in vain” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three). I came to understand that actually, no matter what duty I do at a certain time, it is all ordained by God, and I should accept it, as this is the obligation of a human. But when I faced my duty, I tried to avoid it because I was afraid of physical hardship. In this, I was rejecting God’s commission, and this was utterly rebellious of me. In truth, God does not force people to do that which is difficult for them, nor does He push people beyond their abilities. When I first started preaching the gospel, it was normal to have deficiencies and inadequacies, and if I didn’t understand something in the course of training, I could ask. If I truly fulfilled my responsibilities, God would be satisfied. I thought about how I had been perfunctory in my duties before and the feelings of guilt it had left me with. And now I had the opportunity to be a preacher; this was quite unexpected. I felt truly unworthy. I couldn’t shirk my duty any longer. I had to let go of my fleshly interests and be considerate of God’s intention.

Later, a sister was talking to me about how she kept wanting to shirk her duty, and that she hadn’t reflected on or come to understand this further. I thought about how I was in a similar state. Every time I had faced a difficult duty, the first thing to be revealed in my heart was the desire to shirk it and not let my flesh suffer. Why did I have manifestations like this? During my devotionals, I read God’s words. “Until people have experienced God’s work and understood the truth, it is Satan’s nature that takes charge and dominates them from within. What, specifically, does that nature entail? For example, why are you selfish? Why do you protect your own position? Why do you have such strong feelings? Why do you enjoy those unrighteous things? Why do you like those evils? What is the basis for your fondness for such things? Where do these things come from? Why are you so happy to accept them? By now, you have all come to understand that the main reason behind all these things is that Satan’s poison is within man. So what is Satan’s poison? How can it be expressed? For example, if you ask, ‘How should people live? What should people live for?’ people will answer, ‘Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.’ This single phrase expresses the very root of the problem. Satan’s philosophy and logic have become people’s lives. No matter what people pursue, they do so for themselves—and so they live only for themselves. ‘Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost’—this is the life philosophy of man, and it also represents human nature. These words have already become the nature of corrupt mankind and they are the true portrait of corrupt mankind’s satanic nature. This satanic nature has already become the basis for corrupt mankind’s existence. For several thousand years, corrupt mankind has lived by this venom of Satan, right up to the present day” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. How to Walk the Path of Peter). “Man’s flesh is like the snake: Its substance is to harm their lives—and when it completely gets its own way, your life becomes forfeit. The flesh belongs to Satan. Within it are extravagant desires, it thinks only for itself, it wants to enjoy comfort and revel in leisure, wallowing in sloth and idleness, and having satisfied it to a certain point you will ultimately be eaten up by it. Which is to say, if you satisfy it this time, next time it will come asking for more. It always has extravagant desires and new demands, and takes advantage of your pandering to the flesh to make you cherish it even more and live among its comforts—and if you do not overcome it, you will ultimately ruin yourself. Whether you can gain life before God and what your ultimate outcome will be, depend on how you carry out your rebellion against the flesh. God has saved you and chosen you and predestined you, yet if today you are unwilling to satisfy Him, you are unwilling to put the truth into practice, you are unwilling to rebel against your own flesh with a genuine God-loving heart, ultimately you will ruin yourself, and will thus endure extreme pain. If you always pander to the flesh, Satan will gradually swallow you up, and leave you without life, or the touch of the Spirit, until the day comes when you are completely dark inside. When you live in darkness, you will have been taken captive by Satan, you will no longer have God in your heart, and at that time you will deny God’s existence and leave Him” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God). God’s words expose that living by Satan’s poison makes people selfish, and no matter what they do, they consider their own interests first, causing them to shirk duties that would make their flesh suffer or become burdensome. I was living by the satanic poisons of “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost” and “Life is short, so live for the day.” When facing difficulties, I first sought to satisfy my fleshly interests, and I even thought these views were correct and that abiding by them made me smarter than others. So, every time I was confronted by my duties, I first considered whether my flesh would suffer, and if my flesh would suffer or be burdened, I would shirk them. Like when the newcomers were in abnormal states and needing the fellowship of God’s words to support them, I didn’t want to pay a price to think about how to solve this issue, and as a result, my fellowship had no effect, and some newcomers were not supported in good time. When the sister arranged for me to take on the duty of a preacher, I thought about how much greater the workload as a preacher would be, and about how it would require more time and effort, and that I’d therefore not be able to indulge my flesh, so once again, I thought about shirking my duty. I saw that I was living by these satanic poisons, making me cherish my flesh too much, settling for the status quo, not striving for progress, and becoming selfish and deceitful. This wasn’t what a person with normal humanity should live out. I coveted comfort and didn’t do what I could, and as a result, the church work was delayed. God loathed people like me. I wanted to change my attitude toward my duties and I no longer wanted to covet fleshly comfort, so I prayed to God, “God, I don’t want to satisfy my flesh anymore. I am willing to change my state and fulfill my duties.”

Later on, there was a church of Wa speakers that needed a supervisor, and one sister suggested that I follow up on the work in this church. When I first heard this suggestion, I wanted to shirk it, because taking responsibility for the church of Wa speakers would require a lot of time and fleshly suffering, and though I’m from the Wa ethnic group, I can’t speak the language, and I can only understand basic daily expressions. I thought about how there’d be a lot of difficulties if I became the supervisor, and I didn’t want to put in the effort to learn the language, so once again, I thought about shirking my duty. Realizing my state was wrong, I prayed to God, “God, please enlighten and guide me to understand Your intention and rebel against my flesh to accept this duty.” Later, a sister sent me a passage of God’s words: “The more considerate you are of God’s intentions, the greater the burden you bear, and the greater the burden you bear, the richer your experience will be. When you are considerate of God’s intentions, God will lay a burden upon you, and then enlighten you about the tasks which He has entrusted to you. When God gives you this burden, you will pay attention to all the related truths while eating and drinking of God’s words. If you have a burden related to the state of your brothers’ and sisters’ lives, then this is a burden that has been entrusted to you by God, and you will always carry this burden with you in your daily prayers. What God does has been laden onto you, and you are willing to do that which God wants to do; this is what it means to take on God’s burden as your own” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Be Considerate of God’s Intentions in Order to Attain Perfection). From God’s words, I understood that the more we consider God’s intentions in our duties, the more burdens He places upon us. Through seeking the truth in the various issues we encounter, we can develop a sense of burden for the states of our brothers and sisters, and in this way, our hearts can gradually come to focus on our duties, and we can grow more quickly in our lives. With this in mind, I accepted the sister’s suggestion and transferred to the church of Wa speakers. At first, I found it difficult, but I cooperated with the leaders and workers in the church, and my duties began to feel less difficult. I was so thankful to God. Doing my duties in this way made me feel more at ease.

After going through this experience, I realized that coveting fleshly comfort makes me lose my sense of burden for my duties and shirk difficult duties that require suffering. If I kept coveting physical comfort and not rebelling against my flesh, then eventually, I would lose my duties and bring ruin upon myself. When I let go of fleshly interests and accepted my duties, and I became able to seek the truth to resolve problems, by practicing this way, I felt more at ease, and I progressed more quickly.