Excerpt 28

Knowing God must be done by reading God’s words, and practicing and experiencing God’s words, as well as experiencing many trials, refinements, and pruning; only then is it possible to have true knowledge of God’s work and God’s disposition. Some say: “I haven’t seen God incarnate, so how should I come to know God?” In fact, God’s words are an expression of His disposition. From God’s words, you can see His love and salvation for humans, as well as His method for saving them…. This is because His words are expressed by God Himself, not written by humans. They have been personally expressed by God; God Himself is expressing His own words and His heart’s voice, which can also be called the words from His heart. Why are they called the words from His heart? It is because they are issued from deep down, and express His disposition, His will, His ideas and thoughts, His love for mankind, His salvation of mankind, and His expectations of mankind…. God’s utterances include harsh words, and gentle and considerate words, as well as some revelatory words that are not mindful of people’s feelings. If you look only at the revelatory words, you might feel that God is rather stern. If you look only at the gentle words, you might feel that God is not very authoritative. You therefore should not take them out of context; rather, look at them from every angle. Sometimes God speaks from a merciful perspective, and then people see His love for mankind; sometimes He speaks from a very strict perspective, and then people see that His disposition tolerates no offense, that man is deplorably filthy, and is not worthy of seeing God’s face or of coming before Him, and that it is purely by His grace that they are now allowed to come before Him. God’s wisdom can be seen from the way He works and in the significance of His work. People can still see these things in God’s words, even without any direct contact with Him. When someone who genuinely knows God comes into contact with Christ, their encounter with Christ can correspond with their existing knowledge of God; however, when someone who has only a theoretical understanding encounters Christ, they cannot see the correlation. The truth of God’s incarnation is the most profound of mysteries; it is difficult for man to fathom. Draw together God’s words on the mystery of the incarnation, look at them from all angles, and then pray together, ponder, and fellowship further on this aspect of the truth. In doing so, you will be able to gain the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and come to understand. Because humans have no chance of having direct contact with God, they must rely on this kind of experience to feel their way through and enter a little bit at a time if they are to ultimately attain true knowledge of God.

Knowing Christ and knowing the practical God is the most profound aspect of the truth. All those that place importance on seeking this aspect of the truth will feel increasingly at ease in their hearts and will have a path to follow. This aspect of the truth can be compared to the human heart—when a person’s heart is healthy, they feel energetic, but when a person’s heart is afflicted with disease, they feel tired and fatigued. In the same way, the more thoroughly someone understands the truth of God’s incarnation, the more enthusiasm and drive they will have in their faith in God. Some people who are new to the faith read God’s word, and feel that it is the voice of God, but they still have doubts: “Does the fact that He says these words really prove that He is God incarnate? Does His ability to express these truths really prove that He is God Himself?” Doubts such as these about God incarnate often arise in those who do not understand the truth. In fact, God incarnate possesses the divine essence, and no matter how many words He expresses, He is God Himself. No matter how much or how little He speaks, His divine essence is immutable. When the Lord Jesus came, He did not speak many words, He just carried out the work of redemption—is He not also God Himself? When it is said that He is God, how exactly is that determined? Is it only determined based on these words and truths? This is a key question. Some people even mistakenly believe that these words are guided by the Holy Spirit, and that once the Holy Spirit finishes His guidance, He leaves and ceases to work. They believe that this flesh is ordinary, normal flesh, and as such, He cannot be called God—He can be called “the Son of man,” but not God. Some people harbor this kind of misunderstanding. What is the root cause of this kind of misunderstanding arising in them? It is that people have not fully grasped the idea of the incarnation—they have not excavated it deeply, and their understanding of it is too superficial, they only know the surface of it. There are also those who believe that because God expresses many truths, He is certainly God. If God didn’t speak as many words, if He spoke less, would He still be God? In actuality, even if He says just a few words, they are still the expression of divinity, and He is God. No matter how much God says, He is, after all, still God. Even if God does not speak at all, He is still God—this is fact and no one can deny it. Nowadays, most people that follow God have been conquered and are all able to resolutely follow Him and loyally do their duties. God has gained a group of people in China; people have knowledge of God’s incarnation, and they have seen that the incarnate flesh is the practical God Himself. However, if this stage of work is still not complete, can people recognize that the incarnate flesh is God Himself? Previously, when some people observed that God is always working by uttering and expressing words, they kept wondering, “Is He God or not? Is this what God incarnate is like? Can everything that God says really be fulfilled?” They always held a suspicious attitude toward this stage of God’s work. If you can doubt the flesh into which God has incarnated, this proves that you do not believe in the incarnate flesh, or that He is God, that He possesses the essence of God, that the words He speaks are the expressions of God, and much less do you believe that His words are the revelations of God’s disposition and expressions of God’s essence. Some people think in their hearts: “At first, the Holy Spirit directly pronounced utterances and now it is God incarnate that utters and speaks. What form will God take in the future to do His work?” As of now, these people are still looking on, they are still looking to see what is actually the case. Many people that investigate the true way acknowledge that these words are the truth, that they are God’s words, but still want to observe and get to the bottom of the matter before accepting them. These people are all researching God—they are opportunists. Some people just want to see how many more truths God will express and if He will speak in the language of the third heaven. If they had an X-ray machine, they would want to use it on God: “Let me see if He still has any truths in His heart, whether the Spirit of God works within Him, and whether the Spirit of God helps Him and directs what He says. If He lacks the truth and is just a normal person, I will not believe in Him.” Some people harbor such suspicions and they are always thinking about this. Why do people find themselves in this kind of state? It is because they do not have a thorough grasp of God’s incarnation—they lack a thorough comprehension of this aspect of the truth and do not truly understand it. Nowadays, people only acknowledge that this person has the Spirit of God within Him, but when it comes to the fact that He has the essence of God, God’s disposition, what God has and is, and all of God within Him, that He is God, some people just cannot grasp this, and fail to make the connection regarding some matters. That which man sees in and believes about God is not God’s essence—that is, man only sees the words God expresses and the practical work that He does. They only believe that God did a part of the work, and that this is the only work God incarnate is capable of doing. Not a single person believes that even though God incarnate is just doing this particular work right now, He actually possesses the entire essence of divinity. No one believes this.

Some people say: “It is so difficult to know God incarnate. If it were the Spirit of God working directly, and we could see God’s power and authority directly, it would be easy for us to know God.” Is this a tenable statement? Let Me ask you all a question: “Is it easier to know God incarnate or the Spirit of God? If God incarnate and Jehovah performed the same amount of work, who would be easier to know?” It may be said that neither of Them are easy to know. When God incarnate first began working and speaking, did people not fail to understand Him? Did they not all misunderstand Him? No person knows why God is doing His work. If people have spiritual understanding, it is easy for them to come to know God, but if they lack spiritual understanding, and can’t understand His words, they find it difficult to know Him. This is a fact. However, through eating and drinking God’s words and undergoing judgment, chastisement, and pruning, lovers of the truth ultimately come to understand the truth, achieve dispositional transformation, and gain real knowledge of God incarnate. This proves that it is relatively easier to know God incarnate who is directly expressing truths, but it requires going through certain experiences. When the Spirit works, He can’t possibly express so many truths, He can only move or enlighten people, in which case there will be a limit to how much of the truth people can understand. No matter how many years people experience the work of the Spirit, they still will not receive as substantive benefits as they will by experiencing the work of God incarnate. This is because the work of God incarnate is visible and tangible to all, and He can express Himself anytime and anywhere. His words are truly numerous and clear, and all may grasp them. This is a very clear advantage and it is something that people can experience for themselves. When the Spirit works, He leaves after speaking some words—all people do is obey and carry them out, but do people know what is really going on? Can people know the disposition of Jehovah from these words? Some people say: “The Spirit is easy to know, the Spirit comes to do work carrying the true image of God. How is He not easy to know?” Indeed you know His outer image, but can you know the essence of God? Now God incarnate is an ordinary and normal person, whom people feel is easy to get in touch with. However, when His essence and His disposition are expressed, do people know those things easily? Do people easily accept the words He says that don’t conform to their notions? Some people say: “Knowing God incarnate is difficult. If later God was transfigured, it would be so easy to know God.” The people who say this put all of the responsibility on God incarnate. Is that really the way it is? Even if God’s Spirit arrived you would still fail to understand Him all the same. When the Spirit works, He leaves right after He finishes speaking to people, and does not explain that much to them, and does not associate and live with them in a normal way, so people do not have the opportunity to have direct contact with or come to know God. The benefit of the work of God incarnate to people is immense. The truths that it brings people are more practical. It helps people see the practical God Himself. However, knowing the essence of the incarnation and knowing the essence of the Spirit is equally difficult. These are similarly hard to know.

What does it mean to know God? It means being able to know His joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and thus know His disposition—this is what it is to truly know God. You claim that you have seen Him, yet you do not understand His joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness and you do not understand His disposition. You also understand neither His righteousness nor His mercifulness, nor do you know what He likes or what He hates. This is not knowledge of God. Some people are able to follow God, but do not necessarily truly believe in God. To truly believe in God is to submit to God. Those who do not truly submit to God do not truly believe in God—this is where the difference lies. When you have followed God for several years, and have knowledge and understanding of God, when you have some understanding and grasp of God’s will, when you are aware of God’s painstaking intention in saving man, that is when you truly believe in God, truly submit to God, truly love God, and truly worship God. If you believe in God but do not pursue knowledge of God, and have no understanding of God’s will, God’s disposition, and God’s work, then you are just a follower who runs around for God and follows whatever the majority does. That cannot be called true submission, much less true worship. How does true worship come about? Without exception, all who see God and genuinely know God worship and fear Him; they are all compelled to bow down and worship Him. At present, while God incarnate is at work, the more understanding people have of His disposition and of what He has and is, the more they will treasure these things and the more they will fear Him. Generally, the less understanding of God people have, the more careless they are, and so they treat God as human. If people really knew and saw God, they would tremble in horror and bow down on the ground. “He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear” (Matthew 3:11)—why did John say this? Though deep down he did not have a very profound knowledge of God, he knew that God is awe-inspiring. How many people these days are capable of fearing God? If they do not know His disposition, then how can they fear God? If people neither know Christ’s essence nor understand God’s disposition, they will be even less able to truly worship the practical God. If they see only the ordinary and normal outward appearance of Christ, yet do not know His essence, then it is easy for them to treat Christ as just an ordinary man. They may adopt an irreverent attitude toward Him and can cheat Him, resist Him, rebel against Him, and cast judgment on Him. They can be self-righteous and not take His words seriously; they can even give rise to notions, condemnations, and blasphemy against God. To resolve these issues, one must know Christ’s essence and divinity. This is the main aspect of knowing God; it is what everyone who believes in the practical God must enter and achieve.

Excerpt 29

Some people ask, “God observes the innermost heart of humankind, and God’s flesh and Spirit are one. God knows everything that people say and do, so does God know that I now believe in Him?” These things relate to a question, that is, how to understand God incarnate and the relationship between His Spirit and flesh. Some people think God may not know it because He is practical, yet there are others who think God knows it since God’s flesh and Spirit are one. To understand God is principally to understand His essence and the attributes of His Spirit, and man should not try to determine whether God’s flesh knows any given thing or whether His Spirit knows any given thing; God is wise and wonderful, unfathomable to man. The flesh and the Spirit, and the humanity and divinity—these are matters you have not clearly understood. When God becomes flesh and the Spirit is substantiated in the flesh, His essence is divine, completely different from the essence of a human person and what kind of spirit resides within a human body; they are two completely different things. The essence of a human and their spirit is affixed to that individual. The Spirit of God is affixed to His flesh, but He is still almighty. While He is doing His work from within the flesh, His Spirit also operates everywhere. You cannot ask, “How exactly is God almighty? Show me and let me see it clearly.” There is no way to see it clearly. It is enough for you to see how the Holy Spirit works among the churches when the flesh does His work. God’s Spirit has the characteristic of being almighty; He controls the entire universe and saves those whom He chooses, and He also works among the churches to enlighten people, while the flesh is doing His work at the same time. You cannot say that the flesh lacks the Spirit while the Spirit works among the churches. If you say that, would you not deny God’s incarnation? However, there are some things the flesh does not know. This not knowing is the normal and practical aspect of Christ. That God’s Spirit is concretely realized within the flesh proves that God Himself is the essence of that flesh. His Spirit already knows any given thing that His flesh does not know, so one can say that God already knows that thing. If you deny the aspect of the Spirit because of the practical aspect of the flesh, then you deny that this flesh is God Himself, and you have committed the same error as the Pharisees. Some say, “God’s flesh and Spirit are one, so God might know how many people we have won to Him here in one go when we preach the gospel. The Spirit knows and so the flesh also learns about it, because They’re one!” Your speaking like this denies the essence of the flesh. The flesh has His practical and normal aspect: There are some things the flesh can know and some things the flesh does not need to know. That is His normal and practical aspect. Some say, “That which the Spirit knows, the flesh is guaranteed to know also.” This is supernatural, and to say this denies the essence of the flesh. The incarnate God is normal and practical. In some matters, He is not as humans imagine—able to know these matters mysteriously without seeing or touching them, not limited by space or geography. That is not the flesh but the spiritual body. After Jesus resurrected from the dead, He could appear and disappear and enter rooms by passing through walls, but that was the resurrected Jesus. Before the resurrection, Jesus could not enter rooms by passing through walls. He was constrained by space, geography, and time. That is the normality of the flesh.

Coming to know God’s incarnation is no simple matter—you must look at it from various angles according to God’s words, make holistic considerations, and absolutely refrain from basing your knowledge on regulations or your own imaginings. You say God’s flesh and Spirit are one and the flesh knows all that the Spirit knows, but the flesh also has a normal and practical aspect. What’s more, there is another aspect, which is that during the time when the flesh is at work, it is God Himself that is working: The Spirit is at work and the flesh is also at work, but it is mainly the flesh that is working—the flesh plays a leading role, while the Spirit performs certain work to enlighten, guide, assist, protect and watch over humankind. The work of the flesh plays a leading role—if He wants to know about a person, it is extraordinarily easy for Him to do so. When a human wants to know about someone, if they have not observed that person’s behavior on multiple occasions, they will be unable to gain insight into them. Humans cannot see through to the nature essence of other people, but God incarnate always has a sense of and is always able to judge what kind of person someone is, as well as their behavior and essence. It is impossible that He has no such perception. For example, He knows and comprehends how a given person behaves, what they can do, and what evil they can do and to what degree. Some say, “If God comprehends all, does He know where I am right now?” It is not essential to know this. For God to comprehend a person is not to know where they are every day. There is no need to know that. Comprehending what a person will do by nature is enough, and is sufficient for Him to do His work. God is practical in how He goes about His work. It is not like what people imagine that when God wants to know about a person, He must know where that person is, what they’re thinking, what they’re saying, what they’ll do later, how they dress, what they look like, etc. Actually, the work of salvation that God does fundamentally does not require knowing those things. God only focuses on knowing the essence of a person and the process of their life progress. When God becomes flesh, all the manifestations of the flesh are practical and normal, and this practicality and normality is possessed in order to accomplish the work of conquest and salvation of humankind. But, no one must forget that the practicality and normality of the flesh is the most normal manifestation of God’s Spirit living in His flesh. So, do you think the Spirit knows those human things? The Spirit knows, yet He does not pay attention to them. So the flesh does not care about those matters of yours, either. No matter what, God’s Spirit and flesh are one, and no one can deny this. Sometimes you have some thoughts and ideas—does the Spirit know what you are thinking? Of course the Spirit knows. The Spirit of God scrutinizes the innermost heart of humankind and knows what people think, but His work is not merely to be aware of everyone’s thoughts and ideas. Rather, He is to express truth from within the flesh in order to change people’s thoughts and ideas, to change people’s thinking and views, and finally, to change people’s corrupt dispositions. Your thoughts about some things are too immature. You think that God incarnate should be all-knowing. Some people doubt God incarnate if He does not know something they imagine He should. This is all because people have an insufficient understanding of the essence of God’s incarnation. There are some things outside of the scope of the work of the flesh, so He will not bother with them. God only does the work He is supposed to do. This is a principle of how God works. Do you understand these things now? Tell Me, do you know what kind of spirit you have? Are you able to feel your soul? Are you able to touch your soul? Are you able to sense what your soul is doing? You do not know, do you? If you are able to feel or touch such a thing, then it is another spirit inside of you doing something by force, having you do and say things. That is something outside of yourself, not inherent to you. Those with the work of evil spirits have a deep understanding of this. Although God’s flesh has a practical and normal aspect, as a human one cannot casually define or come to conclusions about Him. God humbles and conceals Himself to become as a human; His acts are unfathomable and cannot be fathomed by humans.