Excerpt 30

What is a duty? The commission that God entrusts to man is the duty that man should perform. Whatever He entrusts to you is the duty you should perform. To perform your duty, you must learn to keep both feet on the ground and not reach for what is beyond your grasp. Do not always think the grass is greener on the other side and insist on doing what is not suitable for you. Some people are suited to hosting, yet they insist on being leaders; others are suited to be actors, but they want to be directors. It is not good to always strive for higher positions. One must find and pinpoint their own role and position—that is what a person with reason does. Then they should perform their duty well with a firmly grounded attitude to repay God’s love and satisfy Him. If one has this attitude while performing their duty, their heart will be steady and at peace, they will be able to accept the truth in their duty, and they will gradually come to perform their duty in accordance with God’s requirements. They will be able to cast off their corrupt dispositions, submit to all of God’s arrangements, and perform their duty adequately. This is the way to gain God’s approval. If you can truly expend yourself for God and perform your duty with the correct mindset, a mindset of loving and satisfying Him, you will be led and guided by the work of the Holy Spirit, you will be willing to practice the truth and act in accordance with the principles while performing your duty, and you will become a person who fears God and shuns evil. In this way, you will fully live out true human likeness. People’s lives gradually grow as they perform their duties. Those who do not perform duties cannot obtain the truth and the life, no matter how many years they believe, because they lack God’s blessing. God only blesses those who truly expend themselves for Him and perform their duties to the best of their ability. Whatever duty you perform, whatever you can do, consider it your responsibility and your duty, accept it and do it well. How do you do it well? By doing it exactly as God demands—with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength. You should contemplate these words and consider how you can perform your duty with all your heart. For example, if you see someone performing their duty without principles, doing it carelessly and according to their own will, and you think to yourself, “I don’t care, it’s not my responsibility,” is this doing your duty with all your heart? No, it is being irresponsible. If you are a responsible person, when such a situation befalls you, you will say, “This won’t do. It may not be under the scope of my supervision, but I can report this issue to the leader and have them handle it in accordance with the principles.” After doing so, everyone will see that it was appropriate, your heart will be at ease, and you will have fulfilled your responsibility. Then you will have done your duty with all your heart. If, no matter which duty you are performing, you are always inattentive, and you say, “If I do this work in a simple and cursory way, I can get by with just muddling through it. After all, no one will check it. I’ve done the best I can with the limited abilities and professional skills that I have. It’s good enough just to get by. Besides, no one will ask about it or get serious with me—it’s not that important.” Is having this intent and this mindset performing your duty with all your heart? No, this is being perfunctory, and it is a revelation of your satanic, corrupt disposition. Can you perform your duty with all your heart by relying on your satanic disposition? No, that would not be possible. So, what does it mean to do your duty with all your heart? You will say: “Even though the Above has not inquired about this task, and it doesn’t seem very important among all of the work of God’s house, I will still do it well—it is my duty. Whether a task is important or not is one thing; whether I can do it well or not is another.” What is important? Whether or not you can perform your duty well and with all your heart, and whether you can adhere to the principles and practice in accordance with the truth. This is what is important. If you can practice the truth and do things in accordance with the principles, then you are truly performing your duty with all your heart. If you have performed one kind of duty well, but you are still not satisfied and wish to perform an even more important type of duty, and you are capable of performing it well, then this is doing your duty with all your heart to an even greater degree. So, if you are able to do your duty with all your heart, what does this imply? In one respect, it means that you are doing your duty in accordance with the principles of God’s words. In another respect, it means that you have accepted God’s scrutiny and have God in your heart; it means that you are not doing your duty merely for show, or however you please, or according to your own preferences—instead you are regarding it as a commission entrusted to you by God and you are doing it with that responsibility and heart, not according to your own will but entirely according to God’s requirements. You are putting your whole heart into your duty—this is performing your duty with all your heart. Some people do not understand the truths about performing duties. When some hardship befalls them, they complain, and they always make a fuss about their personal interests, gains, and losses. They think, “If I perform the work given to me by the leader well, it will bring them honor and glory, but who will remember me? No one will know that I did the work, and the leader will get all the credit for it. Isn’t performing my duty in this way serving others?” What kind of disposition is this? It is rebelliousness—these people are absurd types. They do not understand God’s commission in the correct way. They always want to be in positions of authority, to take credit and be rewarded, and to make themselves look good. Why do they always focus on fame and gain? It shows that their desire for fame and gain is too strong, and that they do not understand that performing a duty is about satisfying God, or that God scrutinizes the depths of every person’s heart. These people lack true faith in God, so they pass verdicts based on the facts that they can see with their own eyes, which leads to them forming erroneous views. Consequently, they become negative and passive in their work and unable to perform their duties with all their hearts and all their strength. Because they lack true faith and they do not know that God scrutinizes the depths of people’s hearts, they focus on performing their duties for others to see, on making the sufferings and hardships they endure known to others, and seeking praise and approval from the leaders and workers. They think that performing a duty is only worthwhile if they do it in this manner, and only glorious if everyone sees them do it. Is this not vile? They believe in God, but not only do they have no faith, they also do not accept or understand the truth to any degree. How can people like this perform a duty well? Is there not a problem with their disposition? If you try to fellowship about the truth with them and they still do not accept it, then they have an evil disposition. They fail to attend to their proper responsibilities and they do not hold to their duties. Sooner or later, they must be cast out. Those who perform duties must be people with normal humanity. They must have sound reason and they must be able to submit to all of God’s arrangements and orchestrations. God bestows different calibers and gifts on different people, and different people are best suited to perform different duties. You must not be picky and choose a duty based on your preferences, choosing only to perform comfortable, easy duties that line up with your own wishes. This is wrong. This is not doing a duty with all your heart and this is not performing a duty. In order to perform a duty the first thing you must do is put all your heart into it. Next, regardless of what you are doing, whether it be a big task or a small one, a dirty one or a tiring one, a task that is done in front of other people or one that is done out of sight, an important task or an unimportant one, you should regard them all as your duty and adhere to the principle of doing them with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength. If, after performing your duty, you end up feeling that your conscience is not completely clear regarding some of the work that you have done, and that even though you have put all your heart into it, some of your work has not been done well and the results of your efforts are not very good, what should you do? Some people think, “Well, I’ve put all my heart into my duty, but the results were not very good. It’s not my problem. It’s in God’s hands now.” What kind of view is this? Is it the right view? They are not truly expending themselves for God because they are unwilling to seek the truth to resolve problems; they are unwilling to satisfy God and they still have a perfunctory perspective on their duty. These kinds of people, it seems, have no heart. When we speak of doing your duty with all your heart, it means using your entire heart—you cannot do your duty half-heartedly, you should devote yourself, perform your duty attentively, and show your loyalty, adopting a responsible attitude to ensure that tasks are done well, achieving the results that you ought to achieve. Only then can this be called performing a duty with all one’s heart. If you see that the results of your work are not so good and you think to yourself, “I’ve done my best. I’ve sacrificed sleep, skipped meals, and stayed up late, sometimes remaining behind while others have gone out to relax and take a stroll. I have endured hardships and not been greedy for the comforts of the flesh. That means that I’ve done my duty with all my heart.” Is this view right? You have invested your time and you have labored. On the surface, you seem to have gone through all of these motions, but the results that you have gotten are not good, and you do not accept responsibility for this and you do not care. Is this doing your duty with all your heart? (No.) This is not doing your duty with all your heart. When God determines whether a person is doing something with all their heart, what does He look at? In one respect, He looks at whether you approach that thing with a conscientious and responsible attitude. In another respect, He looks at what you are thinking while you do it, whether you are attentively performing the duty you should perform, and whether you are consistently doing it in accordance with the truth principles, and whether, when hardship befalls you, you are intently seeking the truth to resolve problems so that you can perform your duty well. As humans do things, God watches and scrutinizes. He is observing their hearts the whole time. Although people do not know it, they can sometimes sense His scrutiny. Some people are always perfunctory in their duties, and eventually, God arranges an environment to reveal them. At that point, they sense His abandonment, and everyone sees that they do not resemble believers—that they resemble unbelievers, devils, and Satans. These kinds of people are cast out during the performance of their duties. Some people often reflect on themselves while performing duties. Sometimes, the results that they get are not good, or a problem arises, and they can feel it in their hearts, and they think, “Am I being perfunctory again?” They feel reproached. How does this come about? It is brought about by God, it is the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment. So, why is God enlightening you? Upon what basis is He enlightening you? Within what context is He reproaching you? You must have the right mindset and say, “I must do my duty with all my heart, and that means doing it in accordance with the truth. Have I truly done my duty with all my heart?” If you always ponder on this, God will enlighten you and make you understand, “I didn’t do that task with all my heart. I thought I was doing quite well, I would have scored myself 99 out of 100. But now I see that’s not really the case—I was actually barely adequate.” Only then will you discover God’s dissatisfaction. This is God enlightening you and allowing you to understand how well you actually perform your duty and how far you still are from His requirements. If someone falls far below the minimum standards in the performance of their duty, will God still enlighten them? Probably not. Who does God enlighten? Firstly, those who love the truth; secondly, those with an attitude of submission; thirdly, those who long for the truth; and fourthly, those who examine and reflect on themselves in all respects. These are the kinds of people who can gain God’s enlightenment. By practicing and experiencing in this way, your personal experience of doing your duty with all your heart—this aspect of the practice of the truth and this aspect of reality—will grow ever greater. Gradually, you will become clear on which people do their duties with all their hearts and which do not, and the attitudes and behaviors of various individuals toward performing duties. When you know yourself, you will be able to discern others, and you will become more and more meticulous in your duty. The slightest instance of being perfunctory will not escape your notice, and you will be able to seek the truth to resolve it. You will be able to handle things in accordance with the principles while performing your duty, you will be practicing the truth more and more, and your heart will be steady and at peace. If one day you know in your heart that you have not performed a duty well, what should you do? You must ponder on it, look for information, and seek advice from others, then before you know it, you will gain an understanding of the matter. Will this not assist you in the performance of your duty? (Yes.) It will be helpful. This will be the case no matter what duty you are performing. So long as people do their duties with all their hearts, seek the truth principles, and persevere in their efforts, they will ultimately achieve results.

Excerpt 31

Since people have corrupt dispositions, they are often perfunctory when they perform their duties. This is one of the most serious problems of all. If people are to perform their duties properly, they must first address this problem of perfunctoriness. As long as they have such a perfunctory attitude, they will not be able to perform their duties properly, which means that solving the problem of perfunctoriness is extremely important. So how should they practice? Firstly, they must solve the problem of their state of mind; they must approach their duties correctly, and do things with seriousness and a sense of responsibility. They should not intend to be deceitful or perfunctory. One’s duty is performed for God, not any one person; if people are able to accept God’s scrutiny, they will have the correct state of mind. What’s more, after doing something, people must examine it, and reflect on it, and if they feel a bit uneasy in their hearts, and after detailed inspection, they discover there really is a problem, then they must make changes; once these changes have been made, they will feel at ease in their hearts. When people feel uneasy, this proves there is a problem, and they must diligently examine what they have done, especially at key stages. This is a responsible attitude toward performing one’s duty. When one can be serious, take responsibility, and give all their heart and strength, the work will be done properly. Sometimes you are in the wrong state of mind, and cannot find or discover a mistake that is clear as day. If you were in the right state of mind, then, with the enlightenment and guidance of the Holy Spirit, you would be able to identify the issue. If the Holy Spirit guided you and gave you an awareness, allowing you to feel clarity at heart and to know where the error lies, you would then be able to correct the deviation and strive for the truth principles. If you were in the wrong state of mind, and were absent-minded and careless, would you be able to notice the mistake? You would not. What is seen from this? This shows that to perform their duties well, it is very important that people cooperate; their frames of mind are very important, and where they direct their thoughts and ideas is very important. God scrutinizes and can see what state of mind people are in, and how much energy they exert as they perform their duties. It is crucial that people put all their hearts and strength into what they do. Their cooperation is a crucial component. Only if people strive to have no regrets about the duties they have completed and the things they have done, and not to be in debt to God, will they be acting with all their hearts and strength. If you consistently fail to put all your heart and strength into performing your duty, if you are perennially perfunctory, and cause tremendous harm to the work, and fall far short of the effects required by God, then only one thing can happen to you: You will be cast out. And will there still be time for regrets, then? There will not. These actions will become an eternal lament, a stain! To be perennially perfunctory is a stain, it is a serious transgression—yes or no? (Yes.) You must strive to carry out your obligations, and everything you ought to do, with all your heart and strength, you must not be perfunctory, or leave any regrets. If you can do that, the duty you perform shall be commemorated by God. Those things commemorated by God are good deeds. What, then, are the things that are not commemorated by God? (They are transgressions and evil deeds.) You might not accept that they are evil deeds if they were described thus presently, but, if a day comes when there are serious consequences to these things, and they give rise to a negative influence, then you will sense that these things are not mere behavioral transgressions, but evil deeds. When you realize this, you will be regretful, and think to yourself: “I should have chosen an ounce of prevention! With a little more thought and effort at the start, this consequence could have been avoided.” Nothing will wipe this eternal stain from your heart, and if it should leave you in permanent debt, then you’ll be in trouble. So today you must strive to put all your heart and strength into the commission given to you by God, to perform every duty with a clear conscience, without any regrets, and in a fashion that is commemorated by God. Whatever you do, do not be perfunctory. If you make a mistake on an impulse and it is a serious transgression, this will become an eternal stain. Once you have regrets, you will not be able to make up for them, and they will be permanent regrets. Both of these paths should be seen clearly. Which is the one you should choose, in order to meet with God’s approval? Performing your duty with all your heart and strength, and preparing and accumulating good deeds, without any regrets. Whatever you do, do not do evil that will disturb others’ performance of their duties, do not do anything that goes against the truth and is in resistance against God, and do not incur lifelong regrets. What happens when a person has committed too many transgressions? They are accruing God’s anger at them in His presence! If you transgress ever more, and God’s wrath toward you grows ever greater, then, ultimately, you shall be punished.

On the surface, some people do not seem to have any serious problems throughout the time they perform their duties. They do nothing overtly evil; they do not cause disruptions or disturbances, or walk the path of antichrists. In performing their duties, they do not have any major mistakes or problems of principle come up, yet, without realizing it, in a few short years they are revealed as not accepting the truth at all, as being one of the nonbelievers. Why is this so? Others cannot see an issue, but God scrutinizes these people’s innermost hearts, and He sees the problem. They have always been perfunctory and unrepentant in the performance of their duties. As time goes on, they are naturally revealed. What does it mean to remain unrepentant? It means that though they have performed their duties throughout, they have always had the wrong attitude toward them, an attitude of perfunctoriness, a casual attitude, and they are never conscientious, much less are they giving all their hearts to their duties. They may put in a little effort, but they are just going through the motions. They are not giving their all to their duties, and their transgressions are without end. In God’s eyes, they have never repented; they have always been perfunctory, and there has never been any change in them—that is, they do not relinquish the evil in their hands and repent to Him. God does not see in them an attitude of repentance, and He does not see a reversal in their attitude. They are persistent in regarding their duties and God’s commissions with such an attitude and such a method. Throughout, there is no change in this stubborn, intransigent disposition, and, what is more, they have never felt indebted to God, have never felt that their perfunctoriness is a transgression, an evildoing. In their hearts, there is no indebtedness, no guilt, no self-reproach, and much less is there self-accusation. And, as much time passes, God sees that this kind of person is beyond remedy. No matter what God says, and no matter how many sermons they hear or how much of the truth they understand, their heart is not moved and their attitude is not altered or turned around. God sees this and says: “There is no hope for this person. Nothing I say touches their heart, and nothing I say turns them around. There is no means of changing them. This person is unfit to perform their duty, and they are unfit to render service in My house.” Why does God say this? It is because when they perform their duty and do work they are consistently perfunctory. No matter how much they are pruned, and no matter how much forbearance and patience are extended to them, it has no effect and cannot make them truly repent or change. It cannot make them do their duty well, it cannot allow them to embark on the path of pursuing the truth. So this person is beyond remedy. When God determines that a person is beyond remedy, will He still keep a tight hold on this person? He will not. God will let them go. Some people always beg, “God, go easy on me, don’t make me suffer, don’t discipline me. Give me some freedom! Let me do things a little perfunctorily! Let me be a bit dissolute! Let me be my own master!” They do not want to be restrained. God says, “Since you do not wish to walk the right path, then I shall let you go. I shall give you free rein. Go and do what you want. I shall not save you, for you are beyond remedy.” Do those who are beyond remedy have any sense of conscience? Do they have any sense of indebtedness? Do they have any sense of accusation? Are they able to sense God’s reproach, discipline, smiting, and judgment? They cannot feel it. They are unaware of any of these things; these things are faint in their hearts, or even absent. When a person has come to this stage, with God no longer in their heart, can they still achieve salvation? It is hard to say. When one’s faith has come to such a point, they are in danger. Do you know how you should pursue, how you should practice, and what path you should choose to avoid this consequence and assure that such a state will not arise? What is most important is first to choose the correct path, and then to focus on performing well the duty you should perform at present. This is the minimum standard, the most basic standard. It is upon this basis, that you should seek the truth and strive for the standards to perform your duty adequately. This is because the thing that most perceptibly reflects the bond that links you to God is how you treat the matters God entrusts to you and the duty He assigns you, and the attitude you have. What is most observable and most practical is this issue. God is waiting; He wants to see your attitude. At this crucial juncture, you should hurry and make your position known to God, accept His commission, and perform your duty well. When you have grasped this crucial point and fulfilled the commission God has given to you, your relationship with God will be normal. If, when God entrusts a task to you, or tells you to perform a certain duty, your attitude is cursory and apathetic, and you do not take it seriously, is this not precisely the opposite of giving all your heart and strength? Can you perform your duty well in this way? Certainly not. You will not perform your duty adequately. So, your attitude when performing your duty is of crucial importance, as are the method and path you choose. No matter how many years they have believed in God, those who fail to perform their duties well will be cast out.

Excerpt 32

Many people perform their duties in a perfunctory way, never taking it seriously, as if they are working for unbelievers. They do things in a crude, superficial, indifferent and negligent way, as if everything is a joke. Why is this? They are unbelievers rendering service; nonbelievers performing duties. These people are exceedingly roguish; they are dissolute and unrestrained, and they are no different to unbelievers. When they do things for themselves, they are certainly not perfunctory, so why then are they not in the least bit earnest or diligent when it comes to performing their duties? Whatever they do, whatever duty they perform, there is a quality of playfulness and mischief. These people are always perfunctory and have a quality of deceit about them. Do people like this have humanity? They certainly do not have humanity; neither do they have the least degree of conscience and reason. Like wild donkeys or wild horses, they require constant management and supervision. They deceive and trick God’s house. Does this mean they possess any sincere belief in Him? Are they expending themselves for Him? They certainly fall short and are not qualified to render service. If such people were employed by anyone else, they would be fired within a few days. In God’s house it is entirely accurate to say that they are service-doers and laborers, and they can only be cast out. Many people are frequently perfunctory while performing their duties. When faced with being pruned, they still refuse to accept the truth, stubbornly argue their point, and even complain that God’s house is unfair to them, lacking mercy and tolerance. Is this not unreasonable? To put it more objectively, this is an arrogant disposition, and they lack the slightest conscience and reason. Those who truly believe in God must at least be able to accept the truth and do things without violating conscience and reason. People who are unable to accept or submit to being pruned, are too arrogant, self-righteous, and simply unreasonable. To call them beasts is not an exaggeration because they are utterly indifferent to everything they do. They do things exactly as they please and without any regard for the consequences; if problems arise, they do not care. People like this are not qualified to render service. Because they treat their duties in this way, others can’t stand to watch them and lack confidence in them. Is God then able to have confidence in them? By not even meeting this minimum standard, they are unqualified to render service and can only be cast out. How arrogant can some people get? They always think they can do anything; regardless of what has been arranged for them, they say, “This is easy; it’s no big deal. I can handle it. I don’t need anyone to fellowship with me about the truth principles; I can keep an eye on myself.” By always having this kind of attitude, both leaders and workers can’t stand to watch these people and lack confidence in the things they do. Are these not arrogant and self-righteous people? If someone is overly arrogant and self-righteous, this is shameful behavior, and if there is no change, they will never perform their duties adequately. What attitude should one have toward performing their duties? At the very least, one should have an attitude of responsibility. No matter the difficulties and problems that befall one, one should seek the truth principles, understand the standards required by God’s house, and know what results one ought to achieve by performing their duties. If one can grasp these three things, they can easily perform their duties adequately. No matter what duties one performs, if they first understand the principles, understand the requirements of God’s house, and know what results they ought to achieve, don’t they have a path for performing their duties? Therefore, one’s attitude to performing duties is very important. Those who do not love the truth perform their duties in a perfunctory way—they do not have the correct attitude, they never seek the truth principles, and they don’t think about the requirements of God’s house and what results they ought to achieve. How can they perform their duties adequately? If you are someone who sincerely believes in God, when you are perfunctory, you must pray to Him and reflect on and know yourself; you must rebel against your corrupt dispositions, work hard on the truth principles, and strive to meet His required standards. By performing your duty in this way, you will gradually satisfy the requirements of God’s house. The truth is, it is not very hard to perform your duty well. It is just a matter of having conscience and reason, of being upright and diligent. There are many unbelievers who work earnestly and become successful as a result. They do not know anything about the truth principles, so how do they do so well? It is because they’re deliberate and diligent, so they can work earnestly and be meticulous, and in this way, they get things done easily. None of the duties of God’s house are very difficult. As long as you put your whole heart into it and try your best, you can do a good job. If you are not upright, and are not diligent in anything you do, if you are always trying to save yourself trouble, if you are always perfunctory and muddle through everything, if you don’t perform your duty well, make a mess of things and bring harm to God’s house as a result, that means that you are doing evil, and it will become a transgression that is detested by God. During the key moments of spreading the gospel, if you don’t achieve good results in your duty and don’t play a positive role, or if you cause disruptions and disturbances, naturally you will be detested by God and be cast out and lose your chance at salvation. This will be an eternal regret of yours! God exalting you for doing your duty is your only chance at salvation. If you are irresponsible, treat it lightly and are perfunctory, that is the attitude with which you are treating the truth and God. If you are not the least bit sincere or submissive, how can you obtain God’s salvation? Time is so precious right now; every day and every second are crucial. If you do not seek the truth, if you do not focus on life entry, and if you are perfunctory and deceive God in your duty, that is truly unreasonable and dangerous! As soon as you are detested by God and cast out, the Holy Spirit will no longer work in you, and there is no coming back from that. Sometimes, what a person does in a single minute can ruin their life. Sometimes, because of a single word that offends the disposition of God, a person is revealed and cast out—is this not something that can happen in the matter of a few minutes? It is just like some people, who, despite performing their duties, consistently act irresponsibly, behave recklessly, and act without any restraint. They are essentially unbelievers and nonbelievers, and no matter what they do, they mess things up. Not only do such people bring loss to God’s house as a result, but they also forfeit their chance of salvation. In this way, they have their qualifications to perform their duties revoked. This means they have been revealed and cast out, which is a sad affair. Some of them want to repent, but do you think they will get the chance? Once cast out, they will have lost their chance. And once abandoned by God, it will be almost impossible for them to redeem themselves.

What kind of person does God save? You could say that they all have conscience and reason and can accept the truth, because only those with conscience and reason are able to accept and treasure the truth, and so long as they understand the truth, they can practice it. Those unconscientious and unreasonable people are ones that lack humanity; colloquially we say they lack virtue. What is the nature of lacking virtue? It is a nature without humanity, unworthy of being called human. As the saying goes, a person can lack anything except virtue—they are no longer human, but rather a beast in human form. Look at those demons and devil kings who only do things to resist God and harm His chosen people. Are they not lacking virtue? They are; they truly lack it. People who do too many things that lack virtue will undoubtedly face retribution. Those who lack virtue are without humanity; how can they perform their duties well? They are unworthy to perform duties because they are beasts. Those who lack virtue do not perform any duties well. Such people are unworthy of being called human. They are beasts, beasts in human form. Only those with conscience and reason can handle human affairs, be true to their word, trustworthy, and qualify as an “upright gentleman.” The term “upright gentleman” is not used in God’s house. Instead, God’s house requires people to be honest, for that is the truth. Only honest people are trustworthy, have conscience and reason, and are worthy to be called human. If one can accept the truth while performing their duties and can act according to principles, performing their duties adequately, then this person is truly honest and is indeed trustworthy. And those who can obtain God’s salvation are honest people. Being an honest person who is trustworthy is not about your abilities or appearance, and even less about your caliber, competence, or gifts. So long as you accept the truth, act responsibly, and you have conscience and reason and can submit to God, that is enough. No matter the capabilities a person possesses, the real concern is whether they lack virtue or not. Once someone is without virtue, they can no longer be considered human, but rather a beast. Those who are cast out of God’s house are cast out because they are without humanity and virtue. Therefore, people who believe in God must be able to accept the truth, be an honest person, at least possess conscience and reason, be able to perform their duties well, and be able to fulfill God’s commission. Only these people can obtain God’s salvation; they are the ones who sincerely believe in Him and the ones who sincerely expend themselves for Him. These are the people who God saves.

Do you frequently examine your behavior and intentions as you are doing things and performing your duties? (Rarely.) If you rarely examine yourself, can you recognize your corrupt dispositions? Can you understand your true state? If you truly reveal corrupt dispositions, what will be the consequences? You must be very clear about all these things. If one does not examine oneself, consistently doing things in a perfunctory way and without the slightest principle, it will result in one committing many evils and being revealed and cast out. Is this not a serious consequence? Examining oneself is the way to resolve this problem. Tell Me, as human corruptions run deep, is it acceptable to reflect on oneself only rarely? Can one perform duties well without seeking the truth to resolve one’s corrupt dispositions? If corrupt dispositions are not resolved, it is easy to do things wrong, violate the principles, and even do evil. If you never examine yourself, then this is troublesome—you are no different than an unbeliever. Are not many people cast out for just this reason? When pursuing the truth, how must one practice in order to attain it? The important thing is to frequently examine oneself while performing one’s duty, reflecting on whether one has violated the principles and revealed corruption, and whether one has wrong intentions. If you reflect on yourself in accordance with God’s words and see how they apply to yourself, it will be easy to know yourself. If you reflect on yourself in this way, you will gradually resolve your corrupt dispositions and easily resolve your wicked ideas and harmful intentions and motivations. If you only examine after something has gone wrong, only examine after making a mistake, or only examine after committing an evil, then it’s a bit too late. The consequences have already occurred, and this constitutes a transgression. If you do evil too much and you only examine yourself once you have been cast out, it will be too late and all you will be able to do is to weep and gnash your teeth. Those who truly believe in God can perform their duties—this is God’s exaltation and blessing, and it is an opportunity that you ought to cherish. Therefore, it is all the more important that you frequently reflect on yourself as you perform your duties. One must examine often, examining all things. One must examine one’s intentions and one’s state, looking at whether one lives before God, whether the intentions behind one’s actions are proper, and whether both the motives for, and the source of, one’s actions can withstand God’s inspection and have been subjected to God’s scrutiny. Sometimes, people feel that seeking the truth when they face difficulties in the performance of their duties is burdensome. They think, “This will do. It’s good enough.” This reflects a person’s attitude toward matters and a mentality toward their duties. This mentality is a kind of state. What is this state? Is it not approaching duties without a sense of responsibility, a kind of perfunctory attitude? (Yes.) Given the existence of such a serious problem, to not examine oneself is very dangerous. Some people are indifferent to this state. They think, “It’s normal to be a little perfunctory, that’s just how people are. What’s the problem?” Aren’t these muddled people? Isn’t it too dangerous for someone to see things this way? Look at those who are cast out. Do they not always perform their duties in a perfunctory way? This is what happens when one is perfunctory. Sooner or later, people who are easily perfunctory will ruin themselves, and they refuse to change their ways until they are right at death’s door. Performing duties in a perfunctory way is a serious problem, and if you cannot reflect well on yourself and seek the truth to resolve problems, this is indeed extremely dangerous—you could be cast out at any time. If such a serious problem exists and you still do not examine yourself and seek the truth to resolve it, you will harm and ruin yourself, and when the day comes when you are cast out and you begin to weep and gnash your teeth, it will all be too late.

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Some people don’t know how to experience God’s work and don’t know how to bring His words into the performance of their duties or into real life. They always rely on going to many gatherings to gain the truth and grow in life. However, this is unrealistic and an argument that does not hold water. Life is gained by experiencing God’s words and experiencing judgment and chastisement. Those who know how to experience His work are able, regardless of what duty they perform, to understand and practice the truth, accept being pruned, enter into the truth reality, attain change in their disposition, and be perfected by God when performing their duties. Those who are lazy and greedy for comforts are unwilling to perform duties, and do not experience God’s work when performing their duties, endlessly demanding that God’s house provide them with gatherings, sermons, and fellowshipping about the truth. As a result, after ten or twenty years of belief and after listening to countless sermons, they still have not understood the truth or gained the truth. They don’t know how to experience God’s work, don’t understand what belief in God is, and don’t know how to experience God’s word to know themselves and gain the truth and life. They are people who crave comfort and shirk their duties; therefore, they are revealed and cast out for how they perform their duties. Now, all those people who are content to perform their duties and place importance on pursuing the truth have some life entry when performing their duties, reflect to know themselves when they reveal corruption, and when they encounter difficulties in the performance of their duties, they seek the truth and fellowship about the truth to resolve problems. Unwittingly, after several years of performing duties, they reap clear rewards, can speak of some experiential testimony, possess some knowledge of God’s work and of His disposition, and thus bring about changes in their life disposition. Currently, churches everywhere are cleansing themselves of evil people and those who are disruptive and cause disturbances. Those who remain are generally those who are able to persist in performing their duties, have a degree of loyalty, and place importance on seeking the truth to resolve problems. They are the kind of people who can stand firm in their testimony. You must learn to bring God’s words into real life and into the duties you perform, practicing them and putting them into use, and then when problems and difficulties arise, seek the truth to resolve them. Additionally, you must learn to be considerate of God’s will when performing your duties, and work on practicing the truth and handling things according to the principles in every matter. You must learn to practice love for God, and with a God-loving heart, be considerate of His burden, and reach the point where you can satisfy Him. Only this is someone who sincerely loves God. By practicing in this way, even if you don’t fully understand the truth, you are still able to perform your duties adequately, and not only can you resolve your perfunctoriness, but you can learn to practice love for God, submit to Him, and satisfy Him when performing your duties—this is the lesson of life entry. If you can practice the truth and act according to the principles in this way for every matter, then you are entering into the truth reality and will have life entry. No matter how busy you are performing your duties, when you have the fruits of life entry, growth in life, and can submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, then you will find enjoyment in performing your duties. You won’t feel weary no matter how busy you are. You will always have peace and joy in your heart and feel particularly enriched and calm. No matter what difficulty arises, when you seek the truth, the Holy Spirit will enlighten and guide you. Then you will receive God’s blessing. Furthermore, regardless of whether you are busy or not when performing your duties, it is important to engage in occasional suitable exercise and sensible fitness activities. This will promote circulation, help maintain high energy levels, and can be effective in preventing certain occupational diseases. This is highly beneficial for performing your duties well. Therefore, when performing your duties, if you are able to learn many lessons, gain an understanding of many truths, truly know God, and finally fear God and shun evil, then you will be completely aligned with His will. If you can attain love for God, bear witness for Him, and achieve unity of heart and will with Him, you are walking the path of being perfected by Him. This is a person who has gained God’s blessing, and it is an incredibly blessed thing! If you sincerely expend yourself for God, you will certainly receive abundant blessings from Him. Can those who do not expend themselves for God, and do not perform their duties gain the truth? Can they attain salvation? It is difficult to say. All blessings can only be gained through performing one’s duties and experiencing God’s work. It is in the course of performing one’s duties that one knows how to experience God’s work, and knows how to experience judgment and chastisement, trials and refinement, and being pruned. These are the things most worthy of being blessed. So long as a person loves the truth and pursues it, they will eventually gain the truth, change their life disposition, gain God’s approval, and become someone who is blessed by Him.

Some people do not seek the truth when things befall them in the course of their duties, always living according to their own notions and imaginings, doing things according to personal preferences, and blindly acting according to their own will. As a result, they do many things wrong and delay the work of the church. When faced with being pruned, they still do not accept the truth and continue their willful and reckless behavior. Consequently, they lose the work of the Holy Spirit and their belief in God becomes confused and shrouded in darkness. Some people are fond of fame and gain, and pursue status, busying themselves with these things without considering God’s will or accepting any fellowship about the truth. Eventually, they are revealed and cast out, and fall into darkness. Some believers acknowledge God’s incarnation, yet in their hearts they still only believe in the heavenly God and in the Spirit of God. They constantly have notions about the practical God and their hearts are guarded toward Him, fearing He will grasp their true selves. They avoid God at every turn, and when they see Him, they look at Him as if He were a stranger. As a result, even after several years of belief, they have gained nothing and do not have the slightest faith in Him. They are no different from nonbelievers. This is entirely because they do not pursue the truth. Some people constantly want to see the practical God. They long to please God and have Him elevate their status, so they can throw their weight around at church. As a result, due to their dishonesty, lack of frankness, constant observation of God’s countenance, and speculation about His meaning, they are spurned by Him. God no longer wishes to see people like this. What is the purpose of these people’s belief in God? With God speaking so much truth, why do they still examine Him? If they believe in God, why don’t they pursue the truth? Why are they constantly ambitious and desirous, seeking fame, gain, status, benefits and advantages? They harbor malicious motives for believing in God and people find them inscrutable. These are all behaviors of nonbelievers. Strictly speaking, anyone who believes in God but cannot accept the truth is a nonbeliever. Only those who pursue the truth, strive to perform their duties well, and seek to satisfy God have a sincere belief in God and are able to gain His approval.

Now, every day and year that passes in your life holds value. Where does this value lie? When a person comes before the Creator, performs their duty as a created being, and gains the truth from the Creator, they become useful in the eyes of God. Is contributing your humble efforts to God’s management plan not what makes each day of your life valuable? (Yes, it is.) This is the value of each day of life, and it is precious! If each day of your life has such value, what is a little suffering or illness when performing your duties? People should not complain. People have gained so much by being in God’s presence; they enjoy unseen grace and blessings, and unseen protection that surpass anything they can imagine and see. People have received so much—what does some minor illness matter? Isn’t that the lesson that people should learn? If, through illness, one can understand the truth, attain submission to God, and satisfy Him, isn’t that another blessing from Him? Among those making a living in the world, who doesn’t experience physical ailments? Who cares if they have an illness? No one cares, no one asks, and there is no one to provide them with assurance. Do you who perform duties in God’s house have assurance? (Yes.) All those who sincerely expend themselves for God have assurance and receive His blessings. What kind of assurance do you see and recognize? (I am no longer influenced or poisoned by the evil trends of the world; I have shunned the bullying and harm of unbelievers, and have God’s protection and blessings in all things. I will no longer be seized or persecuted by the great red dragon. I will live in God’s house, interact with other brothers and sisters, and my heart will be peaceful, joyful, and calm. Every day, I will eat and drink God’s word and fellowship on the truth, and my heart will become brighter and brighter. After understanding the truth, my heart is particularly joyful, my spirit gains freedom and liberation, and I am no longer deceived or harmed by evil and deceitful people. Furthermore, after witnessing God’s protection and blessings, I am no longer afraid when disasters befall me; my heart feels calm and at peace. I have set aside worries about things such as whether my basic needs will be met in the future, and whether anyone will provide for me when I’m old. Living in God’s presence is truly a blessing and a joy!) What you are tasting now is limited, but after the great disaster, you will understand and see many things clearly. All of this is God’s protection and His blessing. Currently, even though you sometimes experience being pruned, and go through trials and refinement, and sometimes experience God’s judgment and chastisement, and suffer from His words, this is the suffering of attaining salvation and being perfected—it is not the same as the suffering of unbelievers. The most important thing is that by performing your duties in God’s house, you become a useful created being and live a life of value and meaning—instead of living for the flesh and for Satan, you live for the pursuit of the truth and to satisfy God. In the course of performing your duties, you gain an understanding of many truths and of God’s will. This is a most precious thing. After you understand the truth, have entered into the truth reality, and have gained the truth as your life, you will be living in God’s presence, and living in the light. You are now performing your duties every day, and each day you live has its rewards and value. You have also gained the truth, and live in the presence of God. Is this having assurance? (Yes.) What is this assurance? (Not being captured by Satan.) Apart from not being captured by Satan, what is the even more crucial thing? God created you as a human being, and now you are able to perform your duty, understand His will, have the truth reality, follow His way, and live according to His will. God approves of you, and that is your assurance and guarantee that you will not be destroyed by God. Is this not your life’s capital? Without these things, are you qualified to go on living? (No.) How does one acquire this qualification? Is it not by being able to perform the duties of a created being, satisfy God’s will, and follow His way, as well as by gaining the truth reality, and treating God’s word as one’s life? (Yes.) Because of these things, you are able to worship Him, and in His eyes, you are an adequate created being. How can He not delight in you? Who are the people that God wants to destroy? What kind of created beings are they? (Evildoers.) Anyone who does evil is resisting God, and is hostile toward Him—they are enemies of God and will be the first to be destroyed. Antichrists who vie with God for status, nonbelievers; those averse to the truth, who are hostile to God, do not pursue the truth and oppose Him to the end, and those who cannot perform their duty as created beings to any degree—these are the people God wants to destroy. Some people who do not perform their duties are nonbelievers. Others, even though they perform their duties, are consistently perfunctory, are capable of doing evil and causing a disturbance, and resist and oppose God. Can such people be deemed adequate created beings in the eyes of God? (No, they cannot.) What will ultimately result in created beings which are deemed inadequate? (God will cast them out and destroy them.) Is there value in the lives of created beings which are deemed inadequate? (No.) They may think, “My life has value. I want to live. I can do good things with my life!” In the eyes of God, however, they cannot even perform their basic duty as created beings. If they cannot perform their duty adequately, is their life worth living? Is there value in their existence? If there is no value in their existence, then does God still want them? (No.) What will God do? He will cast them out. The lighter cases will be set aside and handed over to unclean devils and evil spirits, while severe ones will receive punishment, and even more severe cases will lead to destruction.

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There are some people who are unwilling to suffer at all in their duties, who always complain whenever they encounter a problem and refuse to pay a price. What kind of attitude is that? It is a perfunctory one. If you perform your duty perfunctorily, and approach it with an irreverent attitude, what will the result be? You will perform your duty poorly, though you are capable of performing it well—your performance will not be up to standard, and God will be very dissatisfied with the attitude you have toward your duty. If you could have prayed to God, sought the truth, and put your whole heart and mind into it, if you could have cooperated in this way, then God would have prepared everything for you in advance, so that when you were handling matters, everything would fall into place, and get good results. You would not need to exert a vast amount of energy; when you did your utmost to cooperate, God would have already arranged everything for you. If you are slippery and slack off, if you do not attend properly to your duty, and always go down the wrong path, then God will not act upon you; you will lose this opportunity, and God will say, “You are no good; I cannot use you. Go stand off to the side. You like being wily and slacking off, don’t you? You like being lazy, and taking it easy, do you not? Well then, take it easy forevermore!” God will give this grace and opportunity to someone else. What do you say: Is this a loss or a win? (A loss.) It is an enormous loss!

God perfects those who truly love Him, and all those who pursue the truth, in a variety of different environments. He enables people to experience His words through different environments or trials, and to thereby gain an understanding of the truth, true knowledge of Him, and to ultimately gain the truth. If you experience God’s work in this manner, your life disposition will change, and you will be able to gain the truth and the life. How much have you gained through these years of experience? (A lot.) So, is enduring a bit of suffering and paying a bit of a price when performing your duty not worthwhile? What have you gained in return? How much of the truth have you understood? This is a priceless treasure! What do people want to gain through belief in God? Is it not to gain the truth and the life? Do you think you can gain the truth without experiencing these environments? You absolutely cannot. If, when some special difficulties befall you or you encounter some particular environments, your attitude is always to avoid them or to flee from them, to desperately try to reject them and get rid of them—if you do not want to put yourself at the mercy of God’s orchestrations, are unwilling to submit to His orchestrations and arrangements, and do not want to let the truth take charge of you—if you always want to call the shots and to control everything about yourself according to your satanic disposition, then the consequences will be that, sooner or later, God will certainly set you aside or deliver you to Satan. If people understand this matter, they must quickly turn back and follow their road in life according to the correct path that God requires. This path is the right one, and when the path is right, that means that the direction is right. There may be bumps on the road and difficulties during this period, they may stumble or sometimes get a bit disgruntled and become negative for several days. As long as they can persist in performing their duties and not delay things, these problems will all be insignificant, but they must promptly reflect on themselves, seek the truth to resolve these issues, and they absolutely must not procrastinate, throw in the towel, or give up on their duties. This is crucial. If you think to yourself, “Being negative and weak isn’t a big deal; it’s an internal matter. God doesn’t know about it. And considering how I’ve suffered in the past and the prices I’ve paid, He will surely be lenient toward me,” and if this weakness and negativity continues, and you do not seek the truth or learn lessons in the environments that God has orchestrated for you, you will lose your chances again and again, and as a result, you will miss, sabotage, and ruin all of the opportunities in which God intended to perfect you. What will be the consequence of this? Your heart will become darker and darker, you will no longer feel God in your prayers, and you will become negative to the point where your thoughts are filled with evil and betrayal. Then you will be trapped in extreme misery, feeling completely powerless and deeply upset. You will feel that you have no path or direction, and that you cannot see any light or find any hope. Is it tiring to live like this? (Yes, it is.) Those who don’t walk the bright path of pursuing the truth will forever live under Satan’s power, in perpetual sin and darkness, and with no hope. Can you understand the meaning of these words? (I must pursue the truth and perform my duty with all my heart and mind.) When a duty befalls you, and it is entrusted to you, do not think of how to avoid facing difficulties; if something’s difficult to handle, don’t put it to one side and ignore it. You must face it head-on. You must remember at all times that God is with people, and they need only pray and seek from Him if they have any difficulties, and that with God, nothing is hard. You must have this faith. Since you believe that God is the Sovereign of all things, why do you still feel afraid when something befalls you, and that you have nothing to rely on? This proves that you do not rely on God. If you do not take Him as your support and as your God, then He is not your God. In real life, regardless of what situations you encounter, you must come before God often to pray and seek the truth. Even if you understand the truth and gain something with regard to just one matter each day, it will not have been time wasted! How much time in a day are you able to come before God right now? How many times do you come before God a day? Have you attained any results? If a person seldom comes before God, their spirit will be dried up and very dark. When all is well, people stray from God and ignore Him, only seeking Him out when difficulties arise. Is this believing in God? Is this experiencing God’s work? These are the manifestations of nonbelievers. With this kind of belief in God, it is impossible to gain the truth and life.

When people do not understand or practice the truth, they often live amid the corrupt dispositions of Satan. They live within various satanic traps, thinking about their own future, pride, status, and other interests, and racking their brains over these things. But if you apply this attitude to your duty, to seeking and pursuing the truth, then you can gain the truth. For example, you rack your brains for the sake of a trifling personal gain, you think about it carefully and meticulously, planning everything to perfection, putting a great deal of thought and energy into it. If you were to put this same energy into performing your duty and into seeking the truth to resolve problems, you would see that God has a different attitude toward you. People constantly complain about God: “Why is He good to others but not to me? Why does He never enlighten me? Why am I always weak? Why am I not as good as them?” Why is this? God does not show favoritism. If you do not come before God, and always want to resolve things that befall you on your own, He will not enlighten you. He will wait until you come to pray and beseech Him, then He will grant it to you. What kind of people does God like? What is God waiting for people to ask from Him? Does He want them to ask for money, comfort, fame, gain, and pleasure, like those shameless people? God dislikes it when people ask Him for such things. Those who seek these things from God are shameless, they are the lowest of all people, and God does not want them. He wants people who are able to awaken from sin, and to seek and accept the truth from Him—these are the kinds of people who He finds acceptable. You should pray like this: “Oh God, I have been deeply corrupted by Satan, and I often live amid my corrupt dispositions. I am unable to overcome the various temptations of reputation and status, and I do not know how to handle them. I lack understanding of the truth principles. I beg You to enlighten and guide me,” and “I am willing to perform my duty, but I feel that I am inadequate—for one thing, my stature is too small, and for another, I lack an understanding of this field. I am worried that I won’t do things well. I beg You for Your guidance and help.” God is waiting for you to come and seek the truth. When you come before God seeking with an honest heart, He will enlighten and illuminate you, and you will then have a path and know how to perform your duty. If you always put in effort with regard to the truth, and bring your true state before God in prayer, and ask for God’s guidance and grace, then in this way you will gradually come to understand and practice the truth, and what you live out shall have human likeness, and normal humanity, and the truth reality. If you are not considerate of God’s will, and do not pursue the truth, and often plan, contemplate, put thought and hard work into, and even give your life for your various interests, doing whatever it takes for them, then you might gain people’s respect, as well as different benefits and forms of pride—but which is more important, these things or the truth? (The truth.) People understand this doctrine, yet they do not pursue the truth, they value their own interests and status. So, do they truly understand it, or is this a false understanding? (It is a false understanding.) They are, in fact, foolish. They do not see the matter clearly. When they are capable of seeing this clearly, they will have gained a little stature. This requires them to pursue the truth, to expend effort on the word of God; they cannot be muddleheaded and careless. If you do not pursue the truth and a day comes when God says, “God has finished speaking His words, He wishes to say nothing more to this mankind, and to do nothing more, and the time has come to inspect the work of man,” then you are destined to be cast out. No matter how great your backers are, how many gifts and talents you possess, how educated you are, or how much prestige you have, or how prominent your position in this world is, none of these things will be of any use. At that time, you will realize the preciousness and importance of the truth, you will understand that if you have not gained the truth, you have nothing to do with God, and you will know how pitiful and tragic it is to believe in God without gaining the truth. Nowadays, many people already have a faint sense of this in their hearts, but this feeling has not yet aroused a determination in them to pursue the truth. They have not felt the preciousness and importance of the truth deep within their hearts. A little awareness is not enough; one must truly see the essence of this matter clearly. When you do so, you will know which aspect of the truth to use to resolve this problem. Only the truth can resolve the various difficulties that people face, and resolve their various distorted thoughts, narrowed-minded views, depraved dispositions, as well as various problems to do with corruption. By just pursuing the truth and continually using the truth to resolve problems, you will be able to cast off your corrupt dispositions and achieve submission to God. If you only rely on human methods and human restraint to resolve whatever problems befall you, you will never be able to resolve these difficulties and corrupt dispositions. Some people say, “If I read God’s words more, and spend several hours each day reading them, will I definitely be able to achieve dispositional change?” It depends on how you read God’s words and whether you can understand the truth and put it into practice. If you merely go through the motions when reading His words and do not pursue the truth, then you will not gain the truth, and if you do not gain the truth, your life disposition absolutely will not change. In summary, one absolutely must pursue the truth, and one must pursue the truth and practice it in order to achieve dispositional change. Simply reading God’s words without practicing the truth will never do. Being like the Pharisees, who specialized in preaching the word of God to others and telling them how to put it into practice, but did not do so themselves, is the incorrect path. God demands that people read His word more so that they can understand the truth, practice the truth, and live out the truth reality. God asking people to enter into the truth reality, follow His way, and walk the correct path in life of pursuing the truth, relates directly to His demand that people practice giving all of their hearts and strength when performing their duties. In following God, people must experience His work through the performance of their duties in order to be able to attain salvation and be perfected.

Excerpt 35

Now, can things befalling you that do not accord with your notions affect the performance of your duty? For example, sometimes the work becomes busy, and people are required to endure some hardship and pay a bit of a price to perform their duties well; some people then develop notions in their minds and resistance arises in them, and they may become negative and slack off in their work. Sometimes, the work is not busy, and people’s duties become easier to perform, and some people then feel happy and think, “It would be great if performing my duty was always this easy.” What kind of people are they? They are lazy individuals who are greedy for the comforts of the flesh. Are such people loyal in performing their duties? (No.) Such people claim to be willing to submit to God, but their submission comes with conditions—things must fit with their own notions and not cause them to suffer any hardship in order for them to submit. If they might encounter adversity and need to endure hardship, they complain a lot and even rebel against and oppose God. What kind of people are they? They are people who do not love the truth. When God’s actions accord with their own notions and desires, and they don’t have to endure hardship or pay a price, they are able to submit. But if God’s work does not align with their notions or preferences, and it requires them to endure hardship and pay a price, they are not able to submit. Even if they don’t openly oppose it, in their hearts, they are resistant and annoyed. They perceive themselves as enduring great hardship and they harbor complaints in their hearts. What kind of problem is this? It shows that they do not love the truth. Can prayer, vows, or resolutions resolve this problem? (No, they cannot.) How should this problem be resolved, then? First, you must understand God’s will and His requirements, and understand what true submission is. You must know what rebelliousness and opposition are, reflect on which corrupt dispositions are hindering your submission to God, and see through to these matters. If you are someone who loves the truth, you will be able to rebel against the flesh, especially your fleshly preferences, and then practice submission to God, and act according to His requirements. In this way, you will be able to resolve your corruption and rebelliousness and achieve submission to God. If you do not understand the truth, you will be unable to see through to these matters, unable to discern your inner states, and unable to see through to what things are hindering your submission to God. Consequently, it will be impossible for you to rebel against the flesh and practice submission to God. If a person cannot even rebel against their fleshly preferences, it will be very difficult for them to achieve loyalty in the performance of their duty. Can such people be considered as submitting to God? Without loyalty, can people perform their duties adequately? Can they meet God’s requirements? Certainly not. If a person wants to perform their duty adequately, they must, at the very least, be able to practice the truth and genuinely submit to God. If someone cannot rebel against their fleshly preferences, then they cannot put the truth into practice. If you always act according to your own will, then you are not a person who submits to God. Even if you occasionally submit to Him, it is conditional; you can only submit when things align with your own notions and when you are in a good mood. If God’s actions do not align with your notions, if the duty that God arranges and the environments that He orchestrates for you bring you great hardship, embarrassment, or a strong sense of discontentment, will you still be able to submit? It will be difficult for you to submit; you will find many reasons to rebel against God and to oppose Him. Even upon later self-reflection, it will not be easy for you to rebel against the flesh, as rebelling against the flesh is not a simple matter. How does one rebel against the flesh? Naturally, one must seek the truth. One must also recognize their corrupt essence and their corrupt ugliness, reaching a point of hating themselves, and of hating their fleshly preferences and the essence of the flesh. Only then will they be willing to rebel against the flesh. If one does not understand the truth, they will not be able to hate fleshly things, and without hatred, it is impossible to rebel against the flesh. Therefore, it is necessary to pray to God and rely on Him in order to have a path to follow. Without the truth, people lack strength, and they could not put the truth into practice, even if they want to. One absolutely must pray to God and rely on Him.

Some people do not pursue the truth; they are only greedy for the comforts of the flesh, and they are unwilling to endure hardship for the sake of attaining the truth. Whenever they face even a little hardship, they complain and blame God, and they do not seek the truth to resolve this. They also pray to God, saying, “Oh God, Your identity and essence are so noble. I am unworthy of loving You, but I am willing to submit to You. No matter the situation, I am willing to submit to You. May You guide, illuminate, and enlighten me. If I cannot truly love You and submit to You, please scrutinize and punish me. Let Your judgment come upon me.” After praying in this way, they feel quite good about it, but is this not just a pile of empty words? Can constantly praying with empty words and reciting a few words and doctrines resolve problems? (No, it cannot.) When a person prays with empty words, what kind of problem is this? Does it not have a bit of a deceptive nature to it? Is it useful to pray like this before God? Being lazy and unable to endure suffering, while being greedy for the comforts of the flesh, knowing the truth but being unable to submit to it, knowing one’s duty but failing to uphold it, and talking about how one wishes to love God while knowing that they have not given all of their heart and strength—is this not duping God? There is nothing God loathes more than the prayers of religious ceremony. God only accepts prayers when they are sincere. If you have nothing sincere to say, then keep quiet; do not always come before God speaking false words or blindly making oaths to deceive Him. Do not talk about how much you love Him, about how much you wish to be loyal to Him. If you are incapable of achieving your wishes, if you lack this resolve and stature, you absolutely must not come before God and pray thusly. That is ridiculing God. What does ridiculing mean? Ridiculing means making fun of someone, toying with them. When people come before God to pray with this kind of disposition, then at the very least, this is deception. At worst, if you do this often, then you are of utterly base character. If God were to condemn you, He would call this blasphemy! People do not have God-fearing hearts, they do not know how to fear God, or how to love and satisfy Him. If the truth is not clear to them, or if they have corrupt dispositions, God will let it slide. But they come before God while living amid their corrupt dispositions and use the unbelievers’ methods for duping other people on God, and they “solemnly” kneel before Him in prayer, using these words to try and dupe God. When they are finished praying, they not only feel no self-reproach, but also have no sense of the seriousness of their actions. That being the case, is God with them? God is not with them. Can someone who is utterly without the presence of God gain His enlightenment and illumination? Can they gain light with regard to the truth? (No, they can’t.) Then they are in trouble. Have you prayed thus many times? Do you not do so often? (Yes.) When people spend too long in the secular world, they reek of society’s stench, their scummy nature becomes too severe, and they become suffused with satanic poisons and philosophies; what comes from their mouths are words of falseness and deceit, and their prayers are full of empty words and words of doctrine, devoid of any speech that comes from the heart or any talk of their real difficulties. They always appeal to God for the sake of their personal preferences and seek His blessings, rarely having a heart that seeks the truth, and they do not pray based upon a heart of submission to God. Such prayers only reveal deceit and falseness. These people have severely corrupt dispositions, they have simply become living demons. When coming before God in prayer, they do not speak human words or speak from the heart. Instead, they bring Satan’s deception and falseness before God. Does this not offend God’s disposition? Can God listen to such prayers? God feels aversion toward such individuals and certainly does not like them. Such prayers can be said to be attempts to deceive and fool God. These people are not seeking the truth at all, nor are they speaking from the heart and confiding in God. Their prayers are incompatible with God’s will and His requirements. At the root, this is caused by human nature rather than a momentary revelation of corruption. These people think, “Well, I can’t see or feel God, and I don’t know where God is. I’ll just say a few random words to God, who knows if He is even listening.” They pray to God with a mindset of skepticism and of testing Him—what kind of feeling will they have after praying like that? Is it not still hollowness? Is being without any feeling at all not troublesome? Prayer is built upon a foundation of faith. It is praying to God within one’s heart, speaking to God from the heart, opening one’s heart to Him, and seeking the truth from Him. When a person prays in this manner, they will have a sense of peace within and a feeling of God’s presence. This is God listening to them, unseen. Whenever a person prays to God from the heart like this, they will feel as if they have had a personal encounter with Him. Their faith will be strengthened, their relationship with God will become more intimate, and they will take a step closer to Him. They will feel a sense of fulfillment and will be particularly steadfast in their heart. These are the genuine feelings that arise after prayer. By chanting religious prayers, people merely go through the motions, repeating the same few phrases every day, to the point where they no longer desire to say them. After such prayers, they feel nothing, and no results are achieved at all. Can people like this have true faith? It is impossible.

Some people are not loyal in performing their duties. They are always perfunctory, or they feel that their duties are too difficult and tiring. They don’t want to submit, they constantly wish to escape and refuse them, and they always want to perform duties that are easier, that do not expose them to the elements, that do not come with any risk, and allow them their fleshly comforts. In their hearts, they know they are lazy, greedy for the comforts of the flesh, and unable to endure hardship. However, they never express their true thoughts to anyone, fearing they will be laughed at. Verbally, they say, “I must perform my duty well and be loyal to God,” and when they fail to do anything well, they tell everyone, “I have no humanity and no loyalty in performing my duty.” However, in reality, they do not think that at all. When a person is in such a state, how can they pray in a manner that has reason? The Lord Jesus said to worship God with one’s heart and with honesty. When you come before God, your heart must be honest and without falseness. Do not say one thing in front of others while thinking differently in your heart. If you come before God putting on a front, spouting some pleasant and pretty words like you’re trying to write an essay, is doing so not deceiving God? As a result, God will see that you are not someone who worships Him with their heart and with honesty. He will see that your heart is not honest, that it is extremely sinister and wicked, and that you harbor evil intentions, and He will abandon you. So how should people pray about the things that frequently happen to them and the problems they often encounter in their daily lives? They must learn to speak to God from the heart. You say, “Oh God, I’m finding this duty so exhausting. I’m a person who is greedy for the comforts of the flesh, lazy, and averse to hard work. I cannot offer my loyalty in the duty You have entrusted to me, and I cannot even perform it with all my strength. I always want to escape and refuse it, and I am always perfunctory. Please discipline me.” Are these not true words? (Yes, they are.) Do you dare to speak like this? You are afraid of what might happen if God really disciplines you one day after saying it, and you become fearful, always on edge, and paranoid. When people perform their duties, they always want to avoid hardship. They are greedy for the comforts of the flesh and want to shrink back when they face a little difficulty, when some effort is required, or when they feel a little bit tired. They are constantly picking and choosing, and when they experience a little hardship, they ponder, “Does God know? Will He remember? After enduring such great hardship, will I receive any reward in the future?” They are always seeking a result. These problems all need to be resolved. In the past, I assigned someone to pass on a message and when he came back to report to Me, he first talked about his great achievements. He explained how he’d resolved the problem, talking about how much he’d worried about it and how much he’d had to talk, how difficult that person had been to handle, and how many nice-sounding words he had used with them, finally completing the task. He constantly took credit for it and kept talking about it. What is the underlying implication in this? “You must praise me, make me a promise, and tell me what rewards I will get in the future.” He was openly seeking a reward. Tell Me, is doing this small task worthy of praise? If one always seeks praise for performing a bit of one’s duty, what disposition is that? Is it not Satan’s nature? He expected praise and rewards for this small task—does this not mean that if he were to undertake significant tasks or accomplish great work, his behavior would be even worse? If he couldn’t obtain God’s approval and blessing, would he rebel? Would he go up to the third heaven and argue with God? Then what path is he walking in his belief in God? (The path of antichrists.) The path of antichrists, just like Paul. Paul always sought rewards and status from God. If God did not grant it, he would become negative and he would slack off in his work, opposing the Lord, and betraying Him. Tell Me, what kind of person wants a reward after enduring a little bit of hardship in their duty? (An evil person.) Their humanity is very evil. Do ordinary people have these states within them? Every person has these states. The nature essence is the same in everyone, it’s just that some people do not exhibit it as strongly. They possess rationality and know that such actions and thoughts are wrong, and that they cannot solicit rewards from God. But what should one do about such a state? One must seek the truth to resolve it. What aspect of the truth can resolve this state? It is crucial for a person to know who they are, what position they should stand in, what path they should pursue, and what kind of person they should be. These are the minimum things one should know. If a person doesn’t even know these things, they are far from understanding the truth, practicing the truth, or pursuing salvation.

When it comes to performing certain special duties or more strenuous and tiring duties, in one respect, people must always contemplate on how to perform those duties, what hardships they should endure, and how they should uphold their duties and submit. In another respect, people must also examine what adulterations there are in their intentions and how these hinder their performance of their duties. People are born with an aversion toward suffering hardship—not a single individual derives more enthusiasm or more joy from enduring more hardship. Such people do not exist. It is the nature of man’s flesh for people to feel worried and distressed as soon as their flesh endures hardship. But how much hardship do you have to endure now in the duty you perform? You only have to endure your flesh feeling a little tired and toiling a little. If you cannot endure even this little bit of hardship, can you be considered as having resolve? Can you be considered as sincerely believing in God? (No.) This won’t do. When you are performing your duty in God’s house, no person is supervising you. It is entirely reliant on you taking the initiative yourself. In God’s house, there are work arrangements and systems, and it is up to individuals to rely on their faith, and on their conscience and reason. Only God scrutinizes whether you do well or not at your duty. If, no matter what corrupt dispositions they reveal while performing their duties or when engaging with the people, events, and things around them, people are always unaware of it and feel no reproach, is this a good thing or a bad thing? (It is a bad thing.) Why is it considered a bad thing? Man’s conscience and reason have a minimum standard. If your conscience lacks any awareness and cannot hold you back from doing bad things, or restrain your behavior, if you act in a way that violates the administrative decrees and the principles, and lacks humanity, but you are bereft of reproach in your heart, is this not lacking a moral baseline? Is this not being without the awareness of your conscience? (Yes.) Are you usually aware of it when you do something wrong, or violate the principles, or when you are not loyal in performing your duty over a long period of time? (Yes.) Then, can your conscience restrain you and make you do things according to your conscience and reason, and in accordance with the truth principles? If you are a person who understands the truth, can you rise up from acting based on your conscience to acting in accordance with the truth principles? If you can do that, you can be saved. Being able to endure hardship in performing one’s duty is not an easy task. It is also not easy to perform a particular kind of work well. It is certain that the truth of God’s words is at work within people who can do these things. It is not that they were born without fear of hardship and fatigue. Where could such a person be found? These people all have some motivation, and they have some of the truth of God’s words as their foundation. When they take up their duties, their views and standpoints change—performing their duties becomes easier and enduring some fleshly hardship and fatigue begins to feel insignificant to them. Those who do not understand the truth and whose views on things haven’t changed live according to human ideas, notions, selfish desires, and personal preferences, so they are reluctant and unwilling to perform their duties. For example, when it comes to doing dirty and tiring work, some people say, “I will obey the arrangements of God’s house. Whatever duty the church arranges for me, I will perform it, regardless of whether it is dirty or tiring, whether it is impressive or unremarkable. I have no demands, and I will accept it as my duty. This is the commission that God has entrusted to me, and a little dirt and fatigue are the hardships that I should endure.” As a result, when they are engaged in their work, they don’t feel they are enduring any hardship at all. While others may find it dirty and tiring, they find it easy, because their hearts are calm and undisturbed. They are doing it for God, so they don’t feel that it is difficult. Some people consider doing dirty, tiring, or unremarkable work an insult to their status and character. They perceive it as others not respecting them, bullying them, or looking down on them. As a result, even when faced with the same tasks and workload, they find it strenuous. Whatever they do, they carry a sense of resentment in their hearts, and feel that things are not the way they want them to be or that they are unsatisfactory. Inside, they are full of negativity and resistance. Why are they negative and resistant? What is the root of it? Most often, it’s because performing their duties doesn’t earn them a salary; it feels like working for free. If there were rewards, it might be acceptable for them, but they do not know whether they will get them or not. Therefore, people feel that performing duties is not worthwhile, equating it to working for nothing, so they often become negative and resistant when it comes to performing duties. Is this not the case? Frankly speaking, these people are unwilling to perform duties. Since no one is forcing them, why are they still coming to perform their duties? It is because they force themselves—because of their desire to gain blessings and enter the kingdom of heaven they have no choice but to perform their duties. It is a manifestation of how stuck they are. This is the mindset behind them trying to strike a deal with God. Some ask how such people can resolve the problem of having negativity and resistance in their hearts. This problem can only be resolved by fellowshipping on the truth. If they do not love the truth, no matter how the truth is fellowshipped on with them, they will be unable to accept it. In that case, they are nonbelievers, and they have been revealed. Because they want to strike deals and won’t do anything unless it benefits them, if God promises them rewards and entry into the kingdom of heaven, and writes them a guarantee, they will certainly perform their duties enthusiastically. In reality, God’s promise is open, and those who pursue the truth can obtain it. Those who do not pursue the truth, however, are unable to obtain it. It is not that they are unaware of God’s promise; it’s just that in their hearts it feels intangible and uncertain. To them, God’s promise is like a rubber check—they’re not able to believe in it, and they do not have true faith in it, and there is nothing that can be done about this. They desire tangible things, and if you were to pay them a salary, they would surely be energized. However, those without conscience and reason may not necessarily be energized; they are so wretched. If they were to be employed in the secular world, they wouldn’t work diligently, they would be slippery and slack off, and they would certainly be sacked. This is simply a problem with their nature. For those who are consistently perfunctory in the performance of their duties, the only solution is to clear them out and cast them out. There is no other way for those who do not accept the truth. Their excuses and justifications are all unreasonable, and it is not necessary to discuss the quality of their humanity.

Nowadays, most people have begun to perform duties. Do you understand what duties are, how they arise, and who gives them? (Duties are commissions entrusted to people by God.) That’s right. If you believe in God and come to His house, if you are able to accept God’s commission, then you are a member of His house. The tasks that God’s house arranges for you, the way that God tells you to follow, and the commissions entrusted to you by God are your duties‚ and they are what God has given to you. When you eat and drink the words of God, comprehend His will, and listen to and understand the arrangements of God’s house, when you know in your heart what duty you should perform and the responsibilities you are capable of fulfilling, and when you accept God’s commission and start performing your duty, you become a member of God’s house and a part of the expansion of the gospel. God regards you as a member of His house and as a part of the expansion of His work. At this point, you have the duty that you ought to perform. Whatever you are capable of doing, whatever you are able to achieve, they are your responsibilities and your duty. It can be said that they are God’s commission, your mission, and your bounden duty. Duties come from God; they are the responsibilities and commissions that God entrusts to man. How, then, should man understand them? “Since this is my duty and the commission that God has entrusted to me, it is my obligation and responsibility. It is only right that I accept it as my bounden duty. I can’t decline or refuse it; I can’t pick and choose. What falls to me is certainly what I ought to do. It’s not that I’m not entitled to make a choice—it’s that I shouldn’t make a choice. This is the reason that a created being ought to have.” This is an attitude of submission. Some people constantly cherry-pick when performing their duties, always wanting to do work that is easy and that they enjoy, unable to submit to the arrangements of God’s house. This shows that their stature is too small, and that they do not possess normal human reason. If it is a young person and they have been pampered and spoiled at home without experiencing any hardships, it is understandable for them to be a bit willful. As long as they can accept the truth, this will gradually change. However, if an adult in their thirties or forties behaves in this revolting way, then it is a problem of laziness. The disease of laziness is congenital and the most difficult to treat. It is a problem with one’s nature, and it is only through being left without any other choices in particular environments or situations that people like this are able to endure a bit of hardship and fatigue. It is just like how some beggars are well aware that being a beggar invites disdain and discrimination from others, but due to their laziness and unwillingness to work, they have no other choice but to resort to begging. Otherwise, they would have to starve. In sum, if a person cannot perform their duty conscientiously and responsibly, sooner or later they will be cast out. The greatest transgression is to believe in God but not submit to Him. If you refuse to perform your duty or are consistently averse to hardships and afraid of exertion, then you are a person without conscience and reason. You are unsuited to performing duties, and you may leave. One day, when you realize that not performing your duty is tantamount to refusing the commission entrusted to you by the Creator, and that you are a person who is rebelling against God, without conscience and reason, when you realize that those who believe in God should perform their duties well and that it is necessary, then you should behave yourself and perform your duty well. This is submission. If a person is rebellious or negative in their duty, that is, if they show a complete lack of submission to God, such a person is not sincerely expending for Him. Willingly performing one’s duty well is the minimum expression of submission to God. So, how do duties arise? (Duties come from God; they are responsibilities given to people by God.) Duties are responsibilities given to people by God, so do unbelievers have duties? (No, they don’t.) Why do you say that they don’t? (They are not people of God’s house.) That’s right, unbelievers only busy themselves for their fleshly lives, and their actions are not worthy to be called duties. Unbelievers are of the world and of Satan. God only arranges their life destiny—the time of their birth, the family they are born into, the work they do when they grow up, and the time of their death—He does not choose them, nor does He save them. Those who believe in God are different. On a smaller scale, all the work they do in God’s house are duties that they should perform. On a broader scale, within God’s entire management plan, the duty performed by every created being is cooperating with God’s work. To put it plainly, they are rendering service for God’s management plan. Whether you render service with loyalty or not, you are far from being a person who follows God’s will. In fact, a person can only be considered as one of God’s people and adequate created beings when they can truly perform their duty, achieve the outcome of bearing witness for God, and gain His approval. If you perform every duty well that God entrusts to you, meeting the standards required, then you are a member of God’s house, and someone that God recognizes as a person of His house.

Excerpt 36

The words of the song “It’s Such a Joy to Be an Honest Person” are all quite practical, and I’ve chosen a few lines to fellowship on. Let’s fellowship first on the line, “I uphold my duty with all my heart and mind, and I have no concerns for the flesh.” What state is this? What kind of person is someone who can uphold their duty with all their heart and mind? Do they have a conscience? Have they fulfilled their responsibility as a created being? Have they repaid God in any way? (Yes.) The fact that they can uphold their duty with all their heart and mind means that they do it seriously, responsibly, without being perfunctory, without being sly and slacking off, and without shirking responsibility. They have a proper attitude and their state and mentality are normal. They have reason and a conscience, they are considerate of God, and they are loyal and devoted to their duty. What does it mean to have “no concerns for the flesh”? There are some states here, too. It primarily means they are not concerned for the future of their flesh, and do not make plans for what is to come for them. It means they do not consider what they will do later on when they are old, who will care for them, or how they will live then. They do not consider these things, and instead submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements in all things. Fulfilling their duty well is their first and foremost task—upholding their duty, and upholding God’s commission are the most important things. When people can perform their duties well as created beings, do they not have some human likeness? This is having human likeness. People must at least fulfill their duty well, be loyal, and put all their heart and mind into it. What does it mean to “uphold one’s duty”? It means that whatever difficulties people encounter, they do not throw up their hands, become deserters, or shirk their responsibility. They do all they can. That is what it means to uphold one’s duty. Say, for instance, it has been arranged for you to do something, and no one is there to watch you, supervise you or urge you on. What would upholding your duty look like? (Accepting God’s scrutiny and living in His presence.) Accepting God’s scrutiny is the first step; that is one part of it. The other part is to do your duty with all your heart and mind. What must you do in order to be able to do it with all your heart and mind? You must accept the truth and put it into practice; that is, you must accept and submit to whatever God demands; you must handle your duty as you would handle your own personal affairs, requiring no one else to watch you, supervise you, check to make sure you are doing it right, keep on you, oversee what you are doing, or even prune you. You must think to yourself, “Performing this duty is my responsibility. It’s my part, and since it’s been given to me to do, and I’ve been told the principles and grasped them, I’ll keep doing it single-mindedly. I’ll do all I can to see it done well.” You must persevere in doing this duty, and not be constrained by any person, event, or thing. This is what it means to uphold your duty with all your heart and mind, and this is the likeness people should have. So, what must people be equipped with in order to uphold their duty with all their heart and mind? They must first have the conscience that created beings ought to have. That is the minimum. Beyond that, they must also be loyal. As a human, to accept God’s commission, one must be loyal. One must be completely loyal to God alone, and cannot be half-hearted, or fail to take responsibility; to act based on one’s own interests or moods is wrong—it is not being loyal. What does being loyal mean? It means that you perform your duties, and are not influenced or constrained by your mood, environment, or other people, events, and things. You must think to yourself, “I have accepted this commission from God; He has given it to me. This is what I’m supposed to do, so I will do it the same way I would my own affairs, in whichever way yields good results, with importance laid on satisfying God.” When you are in this state, not only is your conscience in control, but loyalty is also present within you. If you are satisfied with just getting the task done, do not aspire to be efficient or achieve results, and feel it is enough to simply put all your effort into it, then this is merely fulfilling the standard of people’s conscience, and cannot be counted as loyalty. Being loyal to God is a higher requirement and standard than the standard of conscience. It is not just a matter of putting all your effort into it; you also must put your entire heart into it. In your heart, you must always regard your duty as your job to do, take burdens for this task, suffer reproach if you make the slightest mistake or are in a state where you are slipshod, and you must feel you cannot comport yourself this way because it makes you owe God so much. People who genuinely have a conscience and reason perform their duty as though it is their own job to do, regardless of whether anyone is watching or supervising them. Whether God is happy with them and no matter how God treats them, they always strictly demand themselves to perform their duties well and complete the commission God entrusted to them. This is called loyalty. Is this not a higher standard than the standard of conscience? When acting by the standard of conscience, people are often influenced by external things, or think it is enough to just put all their effort into their duty; the level of purity is not that high. However, when speaking of loyalty and being able to loyally uphold one’s duty, the level of purity is higher. It is not about just exerting effort; it requires you to throw your entire heart, mind and body into your duty. To perform your duty well, you must sometimes endure a little physical hardship. You must pay a price, and devote all your thoughts to performing your duty. No matter what circumstances you face, they do not affect your duty or delay you from performing your duty, and you are able to satisfy God. To do this, you must be able to pay a price. You must abandon your family of the flesh, personal matters, and self-interest. Your vanity, pride, feelings, physical pleasures, and even things like the best years of your youth, your marriage, your future, and your destiny must all be let go of and abandoned, and you must willingly perform your duty well. Then, you will have achieved loyalty, and will have human likeness by living like this. Not only do people like this have a conscience, but they use the standard of conscience as a foundation from which to demand of themselves the loyalty God demands of man, and to use this loyalty as a means by which to evaluate themselves. They diligently strive toward this goal. People like this are rare on earth. In every thousand or ten thousand of God’s chosen, there is only one. Do people like this live lives of value? Are they people whom God treasures? Of course they live lives of value and are people God treasures.

The next line of the song says, “Though my caliber is low, I have an honest heart.” These words sound very real, and speak of a requirement God makes of people. What requirement? That if people are lacking in caliber, it is not the end of the world, but they must possess an honest heart, and if they do, they will be able to receive God’s approval. No matter your situation or background, you must be an honest person, speak honestly, act honestly, be able to perform your duty with all your heart and mind, be loyal to your duty, not look to cut corners, not be a slippery or deceitful person, not lie or deceive, and not talk in circles. You must act according to the truth and be someone who pursues the truth. Many people think they are of poor caliber, and that they never fulfill their duty well or up to standard. They give their very best in what they do, but they can never grasp the principles, and still cannot produce very good results. Ultimately, all they can do is complain that they are too poor in caliber, and they become negative. So, is there no way forward when a person is of poor caliber? Being of poor caliber is not a fatal disease, and God never said He does not save people who are of poor caliber. As God said before, He is grieved by those who are honest but ignorant. What does it mean to be ignorant? Ignorance in many cases comes from being of poor caliber. When people are of poor caliber they have a shallow understanding of the truth. It is not specific or practical enough, and is often limited to a surface-level or literal understanding—it is limited to doctrine and regulations. That is why they cannot make sense of many problems, and can never grasp the principles while performing their duty, or do their duty well. Does God not want people of poor caliber then? (He does.) What path and direction does God point people toward? (That of being an honest person.) Can you be an honest person just by saying so? (No, you must have the manifestations of an honest person.) What are the manifestations of an honest person? Firstly, having no doubts about God’s words. That is one of the manifestations of an honest person. Apart from this, the most important manifestation 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 will. 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 cast out. God only uses honest people to perform duties. Even loyal service-doers 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 cast out. Some people think, “Being an honest person is just about telling the truth and not telling lies. It’s easy to be an honest person, really.” What do you think of this sentiment? Is being an honest person so limited in scope? Absolutely not. You must reveal your heart and give it to God; this is the attitude an honest person ought to have. That is why an honest heart is very precious. What does this imply? That an honest heart can control your behavior and change your state. It can lead you to make the right choices, and to submit to God and gain His approval. A heart like this is truly precious. If you have an honest heart like this, then that is the state you should live in, that is how you should behave, and that is how you should give of yourself. You should contemplate these lyrics thoroughly. No sentence is as simple as its literal meaning, and you will have gained something if you really understand it after contemplating it.

Let’s look at another line of the lyrics: “In all things satisfy God’s will with all your loyalty.” There is a path to practice in these words. Some people become negative when they face difficulties in the course of doing their duty, and it makes them unwilling to do their duty. There is something wrong with these people. Are they even sincerely expending themselves for God? They should reflect on why they become negative when they face difficulties, and why they cannot seek the truth to resolve problems. If they can reflect on themselves and seek the truth, then they will be able to see the problems they have. Actually, the biggest difficulty for people is mainly the problem of a corrupt disposition. If you can seek the truth, then your corrupt disposition will be easy to fix. As soon as you fix your corrupt disposition, you will be able to give all your loyalty in all things to satisfy God’s will. “All things” means that whatever it is, whether it is something God gave you, something a leader or worker arranged for you, or something you encountered by accident, so long as it is what you are meant to do and you can fulfill your responsibility, you give it all your loyalty, and fulfill the responsibilities and the duty you should, and make satisfying God’s will your principle. This principle sounds a little grand and a little hard for people to live up to. Speaking in more practical terms, it means fulfilling your duty well. Upholding your duty and fulfilling it well are not easy things to do. Whether it is being a leader or worker, or some other duty, you must understand some truths. Can you fulfill your duty well without understanding the truth? Can you do it well without upholding the truth principles? If you understand all aspects of the truth and you can practice according to the truth principles, then you will have done your duty well, upheld your duty, entered into the truth reality, and can satisfy God’s will. This is the path to practice. Is this easy to do? If the duty that you perform is something you are good at and like, then you feel it is your responsibility and your obligation, and that doing it is something perfectly natural and justified. You feel joyful, happy, and at ease. It is something you are willing to do, and to which you can give all your loyalty, and you feel that you are satisfying God. But when you one day face a duty that you do not like or have never performed before, will you be able to give it all your loyalty? This will test whether you are practicing the truth. For example, if your duty is in the hymn group, and you can sing and it is something you enjoy doing, then you are willing to perform this duty. If you were given another duty where you were told to spread the gospel, and the job was a bit difficult, would you be able to obey? You contemplate it and say, “I like singing.” What does this mean? It means that you do not want to spread the gospel. This is clearly what it means. You just keep on saying “I like singing.” If a leader or worker reasons with you, “Why don’t you train at spreading the gospel and equip yourself with more truths? It will be more beneficial for your growth in life,” you still insist and say, “I like singing, and I like dancing.” You do not want to go spread the gospel no matter what they say. Why don’t you want to go? (Because of a lack of interest.) You lack interest so you don’t want to go—what is the problem here? It is that you choose your duty according to your preferences and personal tastes, and you do not submit. You have no submission, and that is the problem. If you do not seek the truth to resolve this problem, then you are not really showing much true submission. What should you do in this situation to show true submission? What can you do to satisfy God’s will? This is when you need to contemplate and fellowship on this aspect of the truth. If you wish to give all your loyalty in all things to satisfy God’s will, you cannot do it by just performing one duty; you must accept any commission God bestows upon you. Whether it is to your tastes and matches your interests, or is something you do not enjoy, have never done before, or is difficult, you should still accept it and submit. Not only must you accept it, but you must also proactively cooperate, and learn about it, while experiencing and entering. Even if you suffer hardship, are tired, humiliated, or are ostracized, you must still give it all your loyalty. Only by practicing in this way will you be able to give all your loyalty in all things and satisfy God’s will. You must regard it as your duty to perform, not as personal business. How should you understand duties? As something that the Creator—God—gives someone to do; this is how people’s duties come about. The commission that God gives you is your duty, and it is perfectly natural and justified that you perform your duty as God demands. If it is clear to you that this duty is God’s commission, and that this is God’s love and God’s blessing coming upon you, then you will be able to accept your duty with a God-loving heart, and you will be able to be mindful of God’s will as you perform your duty, and you will be able to overcome all difficulties to satisfy God. Those who truly expend themselves for God could never refuse God’s commission; they could never refuse any duty. No matter what duty God entrusts you with, regardless of what difficulties it entails, you should not refuse it, but accept it. This is the path of practice, which is to practice the truth and give all your loyalty in all things, in order to satisfy God. What is the focus here? It is on the words “in all things.” “All things” does not necessarily mean things that you like or are good at, much less things with which you are familiar. Sometimes they will be things you are not good at, things you need to learn, things which are difficult, or things where you must suffer. However, regardless of what thing it is, as long as God has entrusted you with it, you must accept it from Him, and having accepted it, you must perform the duty well, giving it all your loyalty and satisfying God’s will. This is the path of practice. No matter what happens, you must always seek the truth, and once you are certain what sort of practice is in line with God’s will, that is how you should practice. Only by doing this are you practicing the truth, and only in this way can you enter the truth reality.

There is one more line from the song, which goes, “I’m open and upright, without deceit, living in the light.” Who gives this path to man? (God.) If someone is open and upright, they are an honest person. They have opened up their heart and spirit completely to God, and have nothing to hide, and nothing to hide from. They have handed their heart over to God, and shown it to Him, which means they have given their whole self to Him. So, can they still be estranged from God? No, they cannot, and therefore, it is easy for them to submit to God. If God says they are deceitful, they admit it. If God says they are arrogant and self-righteous, they admit that too, and they don’t just admit these things and leave it at that—they are able to repent, to strive toward the truth principles, to rectify it when they realize they are wrong, and fix their mistakes. Before they know it, they will have corrected many of their erroneous ways, and they will become less and less deceitful, deceptive, and perfunctory. The longer they live this way, the more open and honorable they will become, and the closer they will be to the goal of becoming an honest person. That is what it means to live in the light. All of this glory goes to God! When people live in the light it is God’s doing—it is not something for them to boast about. When people live in the light, they understand every truth, they have a God-fearing heart, they know to seek and practice the truth in every issue they encounter, and they live with conscience and reason. Although they cannot be called righteous people, in God’s eyes they have some human likeness, and at the very least, their words and deeds do not vie with God, they can seek the truth when things befall them, and they have a heart of submission to God. Therefore, they are relatively safe and secure, and could not possibly betray God. Though they do not have a very deep understanding of the truth, they are able to obey and submit, they have a God-fearing heart, and they can shun evil. When they are given a task or a duty, they are able to do it with all their heart and mind, and to the best of their ability. This kind of person is worthy of trust, and God has confidence in them—people like this live in the light. Are those who live in the light able to accept God’s scrutiny? Might they still hide their hearts from God? Do they still have secrets they cannot tell God? Do they still have any shady tricks up their sleeves? They do not. They have completely opened up their hearts to God, and there is nothing they are still hiding or have tucked away out of sight. They can confide candidly in God, fellowship with Him about anything, and let Him know everything. There is nothing they will not tell God and nothing they will not show Him. When people are able to attain this standard, their lives become easy, free and liberated.

Excerpt 37

What are the primary principles that performing one’s duties is based on? One must act according to the standards, principles, and demands of God’s house, practice according to the truth, and perform their own duties well with all their heart and all their strength by using God’s words, the truth, and protecting the work and the interests of God’s house as principles. Then how does one generally act for themselves? They do whatever they please, prioritizing their interests in their actions and placing them above all else. They do whatever is in their own interest, acting entirely to satisfy their selfish fleshly desires and not considering justice, conscience, and reason in the slightest; such things are not in their hearts. They only follow a satanic disposition and act according to man’s preferences, scheming right and left and living according to satanic philosophies. What kind of way to live is this? It is Satan’s way to live. When following God and performing one’s duties, one should act according to the truth principles, and at the very least one must have a conscience and reason—this is the bare minimum. Some people say: “I’m in a bad mood today, so I want to be cursory in this matter.” Is this a conscientious way of doing things? (It is not.) In times when you want to be cursory, are you conscious of this? (We are.) Are there times when you are not conscious of it? (Yes, there are.) Then are you able to examine yourself and detect this after the fact? (Somewhat.) After you detect that you were cursory, the next time you have similar ideas of being perfunctory, are you able to rebel against them and resolve them? (When I am aware of these ideas, I can rebel against them somewhat.) Every time you rebel against your own thoughts and wishes, a battle will take place, and if your selfish desires prevail at the end of this battle, then you have intentionally opposed God and are in danger. Let’s say you believe in God for 10 years, and for the first three years you muddle along and are somewhat earnest, but three years later you realize that when believing in God one must practice the truth, enter the truth reality, and rebel against one’s flesh. Then, little by little you begin to recognize your own corruption and malice and your own wicked and arrogant nature, and by then you truly know yourself—you know your own corrupt essence. You feel that accepting the truth is extremely necessary and that it is crucial to resolve your corrupt dispositions, and only at this time do you feel that not having the truth reality is quite pitiful. Though there is a battle waged in one’s heart each time their corruption is revealed, in each of these battles they are unable to defeat their own selfish desires and still act according to their own preferences. In fact, they themselves know all too well that in their heart, Satan’s disposition is still calling the shots, and therefore it is difficult to put the truth into practice. This proves that they do not have any truth reality, and it is very hard to say whether or not they will be able to attain salvation in the end. If you truly have the will, you should put the truths that you understand into practice, and no matter which corrupt dispositions obstruct you when you practice these truths, you should always pray to and rely on God, seek the truth to resolve the corrupt dispositions, dare to fight against them, and dare to rebel against your flesh. If you have this kind of faith, then you can put the truth into practice. Although there will occasionally be times in which you fail, you will not become discouraged and will still be able to rely on praying to God and looking up to Him in order to triumph over Satan. Fighting like this for several years, the times in which you triumph over your flesh and practice the truth will increase, and those in which you fail will gradually be reduced, and even if you fail on occasion, you will not become negative and will continue praying and looking up to God until you are able to put the truth into practice. This will mean that there is hope for you, that the clouds have parted and you can see the blue sky. As long as there are times in which you succeed when you are practicing the truth, this proves that you are someone who has will and who has hopes of being able to attain salvation. People who pursue the truth only finally enter the truth reality after going through many failures when practicing it. No matter how many times one fails and no matter how negative they are, as long as they can rely on and look up to God, they will always have times in which they succeed. No matter how many times they fail over and over again, there will still be hope for them as long as they do not give up. When the day comes that they truly discover that they can practice the truth, act according to the principles, not make compromises with Satan on key matters—particularly in regard to performing their duties—and not give up on their duties while also standing firm in their testimony, then there is absolutely hope for them to be saved.

Every time you practice the truth, you will go through an inner battle. Have any of you not experienced any battles in your practicing of the truth? Absolutely not. Only if a person has already entered the truth reality and hardly reveals any corrupt dispositions could they basically not have major battles. However, under special circumstances and in certain contexts, they would still battle a bit. That is to say, the more one understands the truth, the less they battle, and the less one understands the truth, the more battles they have. Especially with new believers, the battles in their hearts each time they practice the truth must all be extremely fierce. Why are they fierce? Because people do not only have their own preferences and fleshly choices, they also have actual difficulties, in addition to the corrupt dispositions holding them back. For every aspect of the truth you understand, you must battle against these four aspects that are obstructing you, meaning that you at least have to pass through these three or four obstructing barriers before you can put the truth into practice. Do you have this experience of continuously battling against your corrupt dispositions? When you need to practice the truth and protect the interests of God’s house, are you able to overcome the constraint of your corrupt dispositions and stand on the side of the truth? For example, you are paired with someone to carry out the work of cleansing the church, but they always fellowship to the brothers and sisters that God saves people to the greatest possible extent, and that we must treat people with love and give them opportunities to repent. You become aware that something is wrong with their fellowship, and although the words that they speak seem quite correct, you discover upon detailed analysis that they are harboring intentions and goals, are not willing to offend anyone, and do not want to carry out the work arrangements. When they fellowship like this, people who are small in stature and undiscerning will be disturbed by them, recklessly show love in an unprincipled manner, pay no heed to being discerning toward others, and not expose or report antichrists, evil people, and nonbelievers. This is an obstruction to the work of cleansing the church. If antichrists, evil people, and nonbelievers cannot be cleansed away in a timely manner, it will affect God’s chosen ones’ normal eating and drinking of His words and the normal performance of their duties, and will especially disrupt and disturb the work of the church while harming the interests of God’s house. At a time like this, how should you practice? When you notice the problem, you must stand up and expose this person; you must put a stop to them and protect the work of the church. You may ponder: “We are work partners. If I directly exposed them and they did not accept it, then wouldn’t we have a falling out? No, I can’t just speak out, I have to be a bit more tactful.” So, you give them a simple reminder and some words of exhortation. After hearing what you say, they do not accept it, and also rattle off a bunch of reasons to refute you. If they do not accept it, the work of God’s house will suffer losses. What should you do? You pray to God, saying: “God, please arrange and orchestrate this. Discipline them—there is nothing I can do.” You think that you cannot stop them and so you let them go unchecked. Is this responsible behavior? Do you practice the truth? If you cannot stop them, why do you not report this to the leaders and workers? Why do you not take this matter to a gathering and let everyone fellowship on it and discuss it? If you do not do this, then would you really not blame yourself afterward? If you say, “I can’t manage this, so I’ll just ignore it. I have a clear conscience,” then what kind of heart do you have? Is it a heart that truly loves or is it one that harms others? Your heart is such a vicious one, because when something befalls you, you are afraid of offending people and do not adhere to the principles. Actually, you know very well that this person has their own goal in acting this way and that you cannot listen to them on this matter. However, you are unable to adhere to the principles and stop them from misleading others, and this ultimately harms the interests of God’s house. Would you blame yourself at all after this? (I would.) Does blaming yourself enable you to retrieve the losses? They are irretrievable. Afterward, you ponder again: “I have fulfilled my responsibilities anyway, and God knows. God scrutinizes the bottom of people’s hearts.” What kind of words are these? These are deceptive, devilish words that cheat both man and God. You have not fulfilled your responsibilities, and still look for reasons and excuses to shirk them. This is deceitful and intransigent. Does a person like this have any sincerity toward God? Do they have a sense of justice? (They do not.) This is a person who does not accept the truth in the slightest, a person of Satan’s ilk. When something befalls you, you live by philosophies for worldly dealings , and do not practice the truth. You are always afraid of offending others, but not of offending God, and will even sacrifice the interests of God’s house to protect your interpersonal relationships. What are the consequences of acting in this way? You will have protected your interpersonal relationships quite well, but you will have offended God, and He will spurn you, and be angry with you. Which is better, on balance? If you cannot tell, then you are completely muddled; it proves that you do not have the slightest understanding of the truth. If you go on like that without ever waking up to it, the danger is great indeed, and if you are unable to attain the truth in the end, it will be you who has suffered a loss. If you do not seek the truth in this matter, and you fail, will you be able to seek the truth in the future? If you still cannot, it will no longer be an issue of suffering a loss—you will ultimately be cast out. If you have the motivations and perspective of a people pleaser, then, in all matters, you will be incapable of practicing the truth and abiding by principle, and you will always fail and fall down. If you do not awaken and do not ever seek the truth, then you are a nonbeliever, and you will never gain the truth and life. What, then, should you do? When faced with such things, you must pray to God and call out to Him, begging for salvation and asking that He give you more faith and strength and enable you to abide by the principles, do what you should do, handle things according to the principles, stand firm in the position you should stand in, protect the interests of God’s house, and prevent any harm from coming to the work of God’s house. If you are able to rebel against your self-interests, your pride, and your standpoint of a people pleaser, and if you do what you should do with an honest, undivided heart, then you will have defeated Satan and gained this aspect of the truth. If you always persist in living by the philosophy of Satan, protecting your relationships with others, never practicing the truth, and not daring to abide by the principles, then will you be able to practice the truth in other matters? You will still have no faith or strength. If you are never able to seek or accept the truth, then will such faith in God allow you to obtain the truth? (No.) And if you cannot obtain the truth, can you be saved? You cannot. If you always live by the philosophy of Satan, utterly devoid of the truth reality, then you can never be saved. It should be clear to you that obtaining the truth is a necessary condition for salvation. How, then, can you obtain the truth? If you are able to practice the truth, if you can live by the truth, and the truth becomes the basis of your life, then you will gain the truth and have life, and so you will be one of those who are saved.

Excerpt 38

What is going on, when some people are too lacking in professional knowledge to perform their duties, and it is very difficult for them to learn anything? It is because they are of poor caliber. The truth is beyond reach for people of excessively low caliber, and they do not learn easily. Most of them have fatal shortcomings; not only do they not have a conscience or reason, but they also do not have a place for God in their hearts. Their eyes are lifeless and dull and they’re in a stupor, just like animals. They only know how to eat, drink, and have fun, and they don’t study or have any skills. They only learn things on a superficial level, and think that they’ve understood when they’ve only just scratched the surface. When others try to explain more, they refuse to listen, believing that it’s unnecessary. They don’t listen to or accept anything others say, and as a result, they can’t accomplish anything and are basically useless. Being of poor caliber itself is fatal. If one also has a bad disposition, lacks morality, doesn’t listen to advice, can’t accept positive things, and is unwilling to learn and embrace new things, such a person is useless! Those who perform their duties must possess a conscience and reason, know their own measure and their own shortcomings, and understand what they lack and need to improve. They must always feel they are lacking so much, and that if they don’t study and accept new things, they may be cast out. If they have a sense of impending crisis in their heart, it gives them motivation and a willingness to learn things. In one aspect, one should equip themselves with truths, and in another aspect, they should acquire professional knowledge related to performing their duties. By practicing this way, they can make progress, and performing their duties will yield good results. Only by doing one’s duties well and living out the semblance of humanity can one’s life have value, so performing one’s duties is the most meaningful thing. Some people have a bad disposition, and are not only ignorant but also arrogant. They always think that seeking in regard to all things and always listening to others will make others look down on them, and make them lose face, and that comporting oneself in this way lacks dignity. In reality, it’s the opposite. Being arrogant and self-righteous, not learning anything, lagging behind and being outdated in everything, and lacking knowledge, insight, and ideas is what’s truly embarrassing, and this is when one loses integrity and dignity. Some people can’t do anything well, have a rudimentary understanding of everything they learn, are satisfied with understanding just a few doctrines, and think they’re competent. But they still can’t accomplish anything, and they have no tangible results. If you tell them that they don’t understand anything and have accomplished nothing, they are unconvinced and persistently argue their point. But when they’re doing things, they do them poorly, and are half-baked. Is one not useless if one cannot handle any task well? Is one not good-for-nothing? People of excessively low caliber cannot handle even the simplest tasks. They are good-for-nothings and their lives have no value. Some people say, “I grew up in the countryside, without education or knowledge, and my caliber is poor, unlike you people who live in the city, and are educated and knowledgeable, so you can excel in everything.” Is this statement correct? (No.) What’s incorrect about it? (Whether a person can achieve things has nothing to do with their environment; it primarily depends on whether a person makes an effort to learn and improve themselves.) How God treats people does not hinge on how educated they are, or what kind of environment they were born in, or how talented they are. Rather, He treats people based on their attitude toward the truth. What is this attitude related to? It is related to their humanity, and also to their dispositions. If you believe in God you must be able to handle the truth correctly. If you have an attitude of humility and acceptance of the truth, then even if you are of slightly poor caliber, God will still enlighten you and allow you to gain something. If you are of good caliber but are always arrogant and self-righteous, thinking that whatever you say is right and whatever others say is wrong, refusing whatever suggestions others propose, and even unaccepting of the truth, however it is fellowshipped about, and always resisting it, then can such a person as you gain God’s approval? Will the Holy Spirit work on such a person as you? He will not. God will say that you have a bad disposition and are not worthy of receiving His enlightenment, and if you do not repent, He will even take away what you once had. This is what it is to be revealed. People like this lead pathetic lives. They are clearly nothing, and inept at everything, yet they still think they are pretty good, and are better than everyone else in all respects. They never discuss their flaws or shortcomings in front of others, nor their weaknesses and negativity. They are always feigning competence and giving others a false impression, making others think they are adept at everything, devoid of weaknesses, do not need any help, have no need to listen to others’ opinions, and do not need to learn from the strengths of others to make up for their own shortcomings, and that they will always be better than everyone else. What kind of disposition is this? (Arrogance.) Such arrogance. People like this lead pathetic lives! Are they actually capable? Can they actually accomplish things? They messed up many things in the past, and yet people like this still think they can do anything. Isn’t that so unreasonable? When people lack reason to such an extent, they are muddleheaded people. Such people don’t learn new things or accept new things. Inside they are dried up, narrow-minded, and impoverished, and regardless of the situation, they fail to figure out and grasp principles or understand God’s will, and only know to stick to regulations, speak words and doctrines, and show off in front of others. The upshot is that they have no understanding of any truth and haven’t the slightest bit of truth reality, yet they remain so arrogant. They are simply muddleheaded people, and are utterly impervious to reason, and they can only be cast out.

When you are cooperating with others to perform your duties, are you able to be open to differing opinions? Are you able to let others speak? (I am, a little. Before, a lot of the time I wouldn’t listen to the suggestions of the brothers and sisters and would insist on doing things my own way. Only later, when the facts proved I was wrong, did I see that most of their suggestions had been correct, that it was the resolution that everyone discussed that was actually suitable, and that by relying on my own views I was unable to see things clearly and that I was lacking. After experiencing this, I realized how important harmonious cooperation is.) And what can you see from this? After experiencing this, did you receive some benefit, and understand the truth? Do you think anyone is perfect? No matter how strong people are, or how capable and talented, they still are not perfect. People must recognize this, it is fact, and it is the attitude that people should have to correctly approach their own merits and strengths or faults; this is the rationality that people should possess. With such rationality, you can properly deal with your own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of others, and this will enable you to work alongside them harmoniously. If you have understood this aspect of the truth and can enter this aspect of the truth reality, then you can get along harmoniously with your brothers and sisters, drawing on their strong points to offset any weaknesses you have. In this way, no matter what duty you are performing or what you are doing, you will always get better at it and have God’s blessing. If you always think you are pretty good and that others are worse by comparison, and if you always want to have the final say, then this will be troublesome. This is a problem of disposition. Are such people not arrogant and self-righteous? Imagine someone gives you good advice, but you think that if you accept it they might look down on you, and think you are not as good as them. So, you just decide not to listen to them. Instead, you try to overshadow them with lofty and high-sounding words to make them hold you in high regard. If you always interact with people in this way, can you cooperate with them in harmony? Not only will you fail to achieve harmony, but there will also be negative consequences. Over time, everyone will perceive you as too deceitful and crafty, someone they can’t fathom. You don’t practice truth, and you’re not an honest person, so others are repelled by you. If everyone is repelled by you, doesn’t this mean you are rejected? Tell Me, how would God treat someone whom everyone rejects? God would also detest such a person. Why does God detest people like this? Although their intentions in performing their duty are genuine, their methods are what God detests. The disposition that they reveal and their every thought, idea and intent are wicked in God’s eyes, and are things that God detests and which disgust Him. When people always employ despicable tactics in their words and actions with the aim of making others hold them in high regard, this behavior is detested by God.

When people do their duty or any work before God, their heart must be pure: It must be like a bowl of fresh water—crystal clear, without impurity. So what kind of attitude is correct? No matter what it is that you’re doing, you are able to fellowship with others whatever is in your heart, whatever ideas you may have. If someone says that your way of doing things will not work, and they propose another idea, and if you feel it is a pretty good idea, then you give up your own way, and do things according to what they think. By doing that, everyone sees that you can accept others’ suggestions, choose the correct path, act according to principles, and with transparency and clarity. There’s no darkness in your heart, and you act and speak sincerely, relying on an attitude of honesty. You call a spade a spade. If it is, it is; if it isn’t, it isn’t. No tricks, no secrets, just a very transparent person. Isn’t that a kind of attitude? This is an attitude toward people, events and things and it is representative of a person’s disposition. On the other hand, someone might never open up and communicate what they think with others. And in all that they do, they never consult with others, but instead they keep their hearts closed off to others, seemingly constantly on their guard against others at every turn. They enshroud themselves as tightly as can be. Is this not a deceitful person? For example, they have an idea that they feel is ingenious, and think, “I’ll keep it to myself for now. If I share it, you could use it and steal my thunder, and that just wouldn’t do. I’ll hold back.” Or if there’s something they don’t fully understand, they will think: “I won’t speak up now. If I do, and someone says something more elevated, won’t I look like a fool? Everyone will see right through me, see my weakness in this. I shouldn’t say anything.” Regardless of the considerations, regardless of the underlying motive, they’re afraid everyone will see right through them. They always approach their own duty and people, events, and things with this kind of perspective and attitude. What kind of disposition is this? A crooked, deceitful and wicked disposition. They seem, on the surface, to have said everything to others that they believe they can, but below the surface, they hold some things back. What do they hold back? They never say things that touch upon their reputation and interests—they think these things are private and they never speak on them to anyone, not even to their parents. They never say these things. This is trouble! You think that if you don’t say these things, God won’t know about it? People say that God knows, but can they be sure in their hearts that God knows? People never realize that “God knows everything; that which I think in my heart, even if I haven’t revealed it, God scrutinizes in secret, God absolutely knows. I cannot hide anything from God, so I must speak it out, openly fellowship with my brothers and sisters. Regardless of whether my thoughts and ideas are good or bad, I must speak them truthfully. I cannot be crooked, deceitful, selfish, or despicable—I must be an honest person.” If people can think this way, this is the right attitude. Instead of searching for the truth, most people have their own petty agendas. Their own interests, face, and the place or standing they hold in other people’s minds are of great importance to them. These are the only things they cherish. They cling to these things with an iron grip and regard them as their very lives. And how they are viewed or treated by God is of secondary importance; for the moment, they ignore that; for the moment, they only consider whether they are the boss of the group, whether other people look up to them, and whether their words carry weight. Their first concern is with occupying that position. When they are in a group, almost all people look for this kind of standing, these kinds of opportunities. When they’re highly talented, of course they want to be top dog; if they are of middling ability, they’ll still want to hold a higher position in the group; and if they hold a low position in the group, being of average caliber and abilities, they, too, will want others to look up to them, they won’t want others to look down on them. These people’s face and dignity are where they draw the line: They have to hold on to these things. They could have no integrity, and be possessed of neither God’s approval nor acceptance, but they absolutely cannot lose the respect, status, or esteem they have strived for among others—which is the disposition of Satan. But people have no awareness of this. It is their belief that they must cling to this scrap of face to the very end. They are not aware that only when these vain and superficial things are completely relinquished and put aside will they become a real person. If a person guards these things that should be discarded as life, their life is lost. They do not know what is at stake. And so, when they act, they always hold something back, they always try to protect their own face and status, they put these first, speaking only for their own ends, to their own spurious defense. Everything they do is for themselves. They rush to anything that shines, letting everyone know they were a part of it. It didn’t actually have anything to do with them, but they never want to be left in the background, they’re always afraid of other people looking down on them, they’re always fearful of other people saying they’re nothing, that they are incapable of anything, that they have no skills. Is this all not directed by their satanic dispositions? When you are able to let go of things like face and status, you will be much more relaxed and freer; you will have set foot on the path to being honest. But for many, this is not easy to achieve. When the camera appears, for example, people scramble to the front; they like having their face on camera, the more coverage the better; they’re afraid of not getting enough coverage, and will pay any price for the chance to get it. And is this not all directed by their satanic dispositions? These are their satanic dispositions. So you get coverage—what then? People think highly of you—so what? They idolize you—so what? Does any of this prove you have the truth reality? None of this has any value. When you can overcome these things—when you become indifferent to them, and no longer feel them important, when face, vanity, status, and people’s admiration no longer control your thoughts and behavior, much less how you perform your duty—then your performance of your duty will become ever more effective, and ever more pure.

Excerpt 39

Some people never behave themselves when it comes to their duties. Instead, they constantly seek out new things to distinguish themselves and spout high-sounding ideas. Is this a good thing? Can they collaborate harmoniously with others? (They can’t.) If someone spouts high-sounding views, what kind of disposition is that? (Arrogance and self-righteousness.) It is arrogance and self-righteousness. What is the nature of their actions? (They are seeking to establish their independence, to fly their own colors, and to set up their own faction.) Setting up their own faction means making other people obey them and not handle matters according to the truth principles. Their intention and aim is to establish their independence and fly their own colors, so there is a sense of disturbing the order of things to their actions. What does it mean to disturb the order of things? It signifies causing destruction, there is a nature of disruption and disturbance to it. Typically, the majority of problems can be solved through group fellowship and discussions, with most of the decisions that are made adhering to the truth principles, being both correct and precise. However, some people persistently resist this consensus; not only do they avoid seeking the truth, they disregard the interests of God’s house. They expound strange theories to stand out and make others esteem them. They want to contradict the correct decisions that have been made, and to refute the choices everyone has made. This is what it means to disturb the order of things and to cause destruction, to create disruptions and disturbances. This is the essence of spouting high-sounding ideas. So what is the issue with this kind of behavior? First, they are revealing a corrupt disposition, and a complete lack of submission. Additionally, these willful people always want to stand out and make others esteem them, and as a result, they disrupt and disturb the work of the church. Without the truth, they are incapable of seeing through to things, yet they persist in spouting high-sounding ideas to show themselves off, not seeking the truth in the slightest. Is this not being arbitrary and reckless? In order to fulfill one’s duties well, learning to collaborate with others is essential. A discussion between two people always engenders a more comprehensive and accurate perspective than one person’s view on things. If someone always wants to act in a nonconformist way or habitually spouts high-sounding ideas in order to make others follow them, this is dangerous, this is walking down one’s own path. One must discuss everything they do with others. Listen first to what everyone else has to say. If the majority view is right and accords with the truth, you should accept it and obey it. Whatever you do, do not spout high-sounding views. Doing so is never a good thing, in any group of people. When you preach a high-sounding idea, if it’s in line with the truth principles and has the majority’s approval, it might be considered acceptable. However, if it contradicts the truth principles and is detrimental to the church’s work, you must bear responsibility for it and face the consequences of your actions. Additionally, spouting high-sounding ideas is a dispositional issue. It proves that you do not have the truth reality, and that you are instead living on the basis of your corrupt disposition. When you spout high-sounding views, you are trying to lead others, to be in command, and you are also trying to fly your own colors, and to set up your own domain; you want to make God’s chosen people all listen to you, follow you, and obey you. This is walking the path of an antichrist. Are you certain you can guide God’s chosen people to enter into the truth realities? Can you lead them into God’s kingdom? You lack the truth yourself, and are capable of doing things to resist and betray God—if you still want to lead God’s chosen people down this path, have you not then become an arch-sinner? Paul became an arch-sinner and is still enduring God’s punishment. If you walk the path of an antichrist, you are walking the path of Paul, and your final outcome and end will be no different from his. Therefore, those who believe in and follow God must not spout high-sounding ideas. Rather, they must learn to seek the truth, to accept it, and to submit to both the truth and to God. Only by doing this can they ensure that they do not go their own way, and that they can follow God without deviating in either direction. God’s house requires people to harmoniously cooperate in the performance of their duties. This is meaningful, and it is also the correct path of practice. In the church, it is possible that the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and guidance may come upon any one of those who understand the truth and who have the comprehension ability. You should grab hold of the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and illumination, following it closely and cooperating intimately with it. In doing so, you will be walking the most correct path; it is the path guided by the Holy Spirit. Pay special attention to how the Holy Spirit works in and guides those who He works upon. You should often fellowship with others, making suggestions and expressing your own views—this is your duty and your freedom. But in the end, when a decision is to be made, if it is you alone who makes the final verdict, having everyone do as you say and go along with your will, then you are violating the principles. You should make the correct choice based on what the majority thinks, and then make the decision. If the suggestions of the majority do not accord with the truth principles, you should hold to the truth. Only this accords with the truth principles. If you are always spouting high-sounding views, trying to expound some sophisticated theories to impress others, and, in fact, you feel in your heart that this is wrong, then don’t force yourself into the spotlight. Is this the duty you should perform? What is your duty? (To do everything in my power to perform the duty that I ought to, and to only talk about what I comprehend. If I don’t have my own opinion, I should learn to listen more to everyone else’s suggestions, to discern wisely, and reach the point where I can cooperate harmoniously with everyone.) If nothing is clear to you and you have no opinion, learn to listen and obey, and to seek the truth. This is the duty you should perform; this is a well-behaved attitude. If you have no opinions of your own and are always afraid of looking foolish, of not being able to distinguish yourself, and of being humiliated—if you fear being disdained by the others and having no place in their hearts, and so you always try to force yourself into the spotlight and always want to spout high-sounding ideas, putting forward some absurd assertions that do not correspond with reality, which you would have others accept—are you performing your duty? (No.) What are you doing? You are being destructive. When you notice someone constantly acting in such a manner, you must set limitations on them. And how should the limits be set? You need not completely silence them nor withhold any opportunity for them to speak. You can let them fellowship, and they should not be excluded, but everyone around them should exercise discernment. This is the principle. For instance, if someone puts forward an incorrect viewpoint that completely aligns with man’s notions and imaginings, and the majority endorse and agree with that person, but a few people who have a bit of discernment can detect that their viewpoint is adulterated with their will, and their ambitions and desires, then these individuals should expose that person, and get them to self-reflect and know themselves. This is the correct approach. If no one exercises discernment or voices their opinion, and everyone just acts like people pleasers, there will inevitably be those who will lick that person’s boots, endorse and support them, thereby fueling that person’s ambitions and desires. That person will then begin to really gain power in the church. This is when it becomes dangerous, as they could join together with those that support them, becoming a force of their own, doing evil and disturbing the church’s work. In this way, they will have set foot on the path of antichrists. Once they seize control of the church, they will become an antichrist and begin establishing their own independent kingdom.

Excerpt 40

When things happen, everyone should pray together more and have a God-fearing heart. People absolutely should not rely on their own ideas to act arbitrarily. So long as people are of one mind and one heart in praying to God and seeking the truth, then they will be able to obtain the enlightenment and illumination of the work of the Holy Spirit, and they will be able to gain the blessings of God. What did the Lord Jesus say? (“That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the middle of them” (Matthew 18:19–20).) What issue does this illustrate? It shows that man cannot depart from God, that man must rely on God, that man cannot go it alone, and that going one’s own way is not acceptable. What is meant when we say that man cannot go it alone? This means that people must collaborate harmoniously, do things with one heart and one mind, and have a common goal. Colloquially, it can be said that “Sticks in a bundle cannot be broken.” So how can you become like a bundle of sticks? You must cooperate harmoniously, reach an accord, and then the Holy Spirit will work. If each person is hiding their own secrets, thinking about their own interests, and nobody is being responsible for the church’s work, everyone wants to wash their hands of it, no one wants to lead the charge, put in effort or suffer and pay a price for it, will the Holy Spirit do His work? (No.) Why not? When people live in an incorrect state, and do not pray to God or seek the truth, the Holy Spirit will abandon them, and God will not be present. How can those who do not seek the truth possess the work of the Holy Spirit? God detests them, so His face is hidden from them, and the Holy Spirit is concealed from them. When God is no longer at work, you can do as you please. Once He has cast you aside, aren’t you finished? You’ll accomplish nothing. Why is it that the unbelievers have such a hard time doing things? Isn’t it that they each keep their own counsel? They keep their own counsel, and are unable to accomplish anything—everything is highly strenuous, even the simplest of matters. This is life under the power of Satan. If you do as the unbelievers do, then how are you any different from an unbeliever? There is no difference whatsoever. If power in the church is wielded by those who do not have the truth, if it is wielded by those who are filled with satanic dispositions, then isn’t it in fact Satan who wields power? If the actions of people who wield power in the church are all contrary to the truth, then the work of the Holy Spirit ceases, and God hands them over to Satan. Once in Satan’s hands, all forms of ugliness—jealousies and disputes, for example—emerge between people. What is illustrated by these phenomena? That the work of the Holy Spirit has ceased, He has taken His leave, and God is no longer at work. Without the work of God, of what use are the mere words and doctrines that man understands? They are of no use. When a person no longer has the work of the Holy Spirit, they will be empty inside, they can’t feel anything anymore, they are like the dead, and by this point, they will have become dumbfounded. All inspiration, wisdom, intelligence, insight, and enlightenment in mankind comes from God; it is all God’s work. When a person seeks the truth on a certain matter, suddenly reaches an understanding and gains a way, where does this illumination come from? It all comes from God. Just as when people fellowship about the truth, initially they have no understanding, but just as they are fellowshipping, they are illuminated and are then able to speak on some understandings. This is the enlightenment and work of the Holy Spirit. When does the Holy Spirit mostly work? It is when God’s chosen people fellowship about the truth, when people pray to God, and when people perform their duties with unified hearts and minds. These are times when God’s heart is most satisfied. So whether there are many or few of you performing your duty together, no matter what the circumstances are, and no matter when, do not forget this one thing—being in one accord. By living within this state, you will have the work of the Holy Spirit.

Excerpt 41

In the house of God, all those who pursue the truth are united before God, not divided. They all work toward a common goal: fulfilling their duty, doing the work that falls to them, acting according to the truth principles, doing as God requires, and satisfying His will. If your goal is not for the sake of this, but for your own sake, for the sake of satisfying your selfish desires, then that is the revelation of a corrupt satanic disposition. In God’s house, duties are done according to the truth principles, while unbelievers’ actions are governed by their satanic dispositions. These are two very different paths. Unbelievers keep their own counsel, each with their own aims and plans, everyone living for their own interests. That is why they all scramble for their own benefit and are unwilling to give up an inch of what they gain. They are divided, not united, because they are not out for a common goal. The intention and nature behind what they do is the same. They are all out for themselves. There is no truth that reigns in that; what does reign and is in charge in that is a corrupt satanic disposition. They are controlled by their corrupt satanic disposition and cannot help themselves, and so they fall deeper and deeper into sin. In God’s house, if the principles, methods, motivation, and starting point of your actions were no different from those of the unbelievers, if you were also toyed with, controlled, and manipulated by a corrupt satanic disposition, and if the starting point of your actions were your own interests, reputation, pride, and status, then you would perform your duty no differently from the way unbelievers do things. If you pursue the truth, you should change the way that you do things. You should abandon your own interests and your personal intentions and desires. You should first fellowship together on the truth when you do things, and understand God’s will and requirements before you divide the labor among you, with an eye on who is good and bad at what. You should take on what you are able to do and hold fast to your duty. Do not struggle or snatch at things. You must learn to compromise and to be tolerant. If someone has just begun performing a duty or only just learned the skills for a field, but is not up to some tasks, you must not force them. You must assign them tasks that are slightly easier. This makes it easier for them to achieve results in performing their duty. That is what it is to be tolerant, patient, and principled. It is a part of what normal humanity ought to have; it is what God requires of people and what people should practice. If you are fairly skilled in some field and have been working in that field longer than most, then you should be assigned the more difficult work. You should accept this from God and submit. Don’t be picky and complain, saying, “Why am I being picked on? They give the easy tasks to other people and give me the hard ones. Are they trying to make life difficult for me?” “Trying to make life difficult for you”? What do you mean by that? Work arrangements are tailored to each person; those who are abler do more. If you have learned much and been given much by God, you should be given a heavier burden—not to make life difficult for you, but because it is an exact fit for you. It is your duty, so don’t try to pick and choose, or say no, or try to get out of it. Why do you think it is hard? The fact is that if you put some heart into it, you would be entirely up to the task. Your thinking that it is hard, that it is biased treatment, that you are being deliberately picked on—that is the revelation of a corrupt disposition. It is refusal to do your duty, not accepting from God. That is not practicing the truth. When you pick and choose in performing your duty, doing whatever is light and easy, only doing what makes you look good, this is a corrupt satanic disposition. That you cannot accept your duty or submit proves that you are still rebellious toward God, that you are opposing, refusing, and avoiding Him. This is a corrupt disposition. When you come to know that this is a corrupt disposition, what should you do? If you feel that the tasks given to others can be completed easily while those given to you keep you busy for a long time and require you to put effort into research, and this makes you unhappy, is it right of you to feel unhappy? Certainly not. So, what should you do when you sense that this is not right? If you are resistant and say, “Every time they mete out jobs, they give me the ones that are hard, dirty, and demanding, and give others the ones that are light, simple, and high-profile. Do they think I’m just someone they can push around? This isn’t a fair way to distribute jobs!”—if that is your thinking, it’s wrong. Irrespective of whether there are any deviations in the distribution of jobs, or whether they are distributed reasonably or not, what is it that God scrutinizes? What He scrutinizes is a person’s heart. He looks at whether someone has submission in their hearts, if they can take on some burdens for God, and if they are a lover of God. As measured by God’s requirements, your excuses are invalid, your performance of your duty is not up to standard, and you lack the truth reality. You have no submission at all, and you complain when you do a few demanding or dirty tasks. What is the problem here? First of all, your mentality is wrong. What does that mean? It means that your attitude toward your duty is wrong. If you are always thinking of your own pride and interests, and are inconsiderate of God’s will, and have no submission at all, then that is not the correct attitude you should have toward your duty. If you expended sincerely for God and had a God-loving heart, how would you treat tasks that are dirty, demanding, or hard? Your mentality would be different: You would choose to do whatever is difficult and seek out heavy burdens to shoulder. You would take up what other people are unwilling to do, and you would do it solely for the love of God and to satisfy Him. You would be filled with joy to do so, without any hint of complaints. The dirty, the demanding, and the difficult show people for who they are. How are you different from people who take on only light and high-profile tasks? You aren’t much better than they. Is that not how it is? This is how you must see these things. So then, what most reveals people for who they are is their performance of their duty. Some people say great things most of the time, claiming that they are willing to love and submit to God, but when they come across a difficulty in performing their duty, they let loose all kinds of complaints and negative words. It is obvious that they are hypocrites. If someone is a lover of the truth, then when faced with a difficulty in performing their duty, they will pray to God and seek the truth while treating their duty in earnest even if it isn’t suitably arranged. They will not complain, even if faced with heavy, dirty, or difficult tasks, and they can do their tasks well and perform their duty well with a heart of submission to God. They find great enjoyment in doing so, and God is comforted to see it. This is the kind of person that meets with God’s approval. If someone becomes prickly and irritable as soon as they encounter dirty, hard, or demanding tasks, and won’t let anyone criticize them, such a person is not someone who sincerely expends of themselves for God. They can only be revealed and cast out. In normal cases when you have these states, are you able to perceive the seriousness of this problem? (Some of it.) If you can perceive some of it, can you turn it around on your own strength, your own faith, and your own stature? You need to turn this attitude around. You first need to think, “This attitude is wrong. Isn’t it cherry-picking in performing my duty? This isn’t submission. Performing my duty should be a happy thing, done willingly and gladly. Why am I not happy, and why am I upset? I know full well what my duty is and that it’s what I should do—why can’t I just submit? I must come before God and pray, and come to know the revelation of these corrupt dispositions deep in my heart.” Then, as you do so, you should pray: “God, I’ve gotten used to being willful—I won’t listen to anyone. My attitude is wrong, and I have no submission. Please discipline me and make me submissive. I don’t want to get upset. I don’t want to rebel against You anymore. Please move me and make me able to perform this duty well. I’m not willing to live for Satan; I’m willing to live for the truth and to practice it.” When you pray like this, the state within you will improve, and when that state improves, you will be able to submit. You’ll think, “This isn’t much, really. It’s just me doing more when others do less, not having fun when they do or chatting idly when they do. God has given me an extra burden, a heavy one; that’s His regard for me, His favor toward me, and it proves that I can bear this heavy burden. God is so good to me, and I should be submissive.” And your attitude will have changed, without your realizing it. You had a bad attitude when you first accepted your duty. You were unable to submit, but you’ve been able to turn it promptly around and promptly accept God’s scrutiny and discipline. You’ve been able to come promptly before God with an obedient attitude, one of accepting and practicing the truth, until you were able to receive your duty in its entirety from God and wholeheartedly fulfill it. There is a process of struggle in this. That process of struggle is the process of your change, the process of your accepting the truth. For people to be willing and glad and to submit to whatever comes their way without a second thought would be impossible. If people could do that, it would mean that they had no corrupt disposition, and they would have no need for God to express the truth to save them. People get ideas; they have wrong attitudes; they have wrong and negative states. These are all real problems—they exist. But when these negative and adverse states, and negative emotions, and corrupt dispositions take charge and control your behavior, your thoughts, and your attitude, what you do, how you practice, and what path you go on to choose will hinge on your attitude toward the truth. You may have emotions or be in a negative or rebellious state, but when these things appear during your performance of your duty, they will be turned readily around, because you come before God, because you understand the truth, because you seek God, and because your attitude is one of submission and acceptance of the truth. You will then be trouble-free in performing your duty well, and you will be capable of victory over the constraint and control that the corrupt satanic disposition has over you. In the end, you will be successful in fulfilling your duty, and fulfill God’s commission, and secure the truth and life. The process of performing people’s duty and gaining the truth is also that of dispositional change. It is all in the performance of their duties that people receive the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment and illumination, and understand the truth, and enter reality. It is also all when there are difficulties in the performance of their duties that they come often before God to pray, to seek, and to discern His will in order to solve them, such that they may perform their duties normally. It is all in the performance of their duties that people are disciplined by God and live under the direction of the Holy Spirit, gradually learning to do things according to the truth principles and coming to perform their duty satisfactorily. This is the truth taking charge and ruling in your heart.

For some people, no matter what issue they might encounter when performing their duties, they do not seek the truth, and they always act according to their own thoughts, notions, imaginings, and desires. They are constantly satisfying their own selfish desires, and their corrupt dispositions are always in control over their actions. They may appear to have always performed their duties, but because they have never accepted the truth, and are incapable of doing things according to the truth principles, they ultimately fail to gain the truth and life, and become service-doers worthy of the name. So, what are such people relying on when performing their duties? They are relying neither on the truth nor on God. That bit of truth that they do understand has not taken up sovereignty in their hearts; they are relying on their own gifts and talents, on whatever knowledge that they have acquired as well as on their own willpower or good intentions, to perform these duties. And with this being the case, will they be able to perform their duties to an acceptable standard? When people rely on their naturalness, notions, imaginings, expertise, and learning to perform their duties, although it may appear as if they are performing their duties and not committing evil, they are not practicing the truth, and have not done anything that is satisfactory to God. There is also another problem that cannot be ignored: During the process of performing your duty, if your notions, imaginings, and personal desires never change and are never replaced with the truth, and if your actions and deeds are never done in accordance with the truth principles, then what will the final outcome be? You will have no life entry, you will become a service-doer, thus fulfilling the words of the Lord Jesus: “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and in Your name have cast out devils, and in Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22–23). Why does God call these people who exert effort and who render service evildoers? There is one point we can be sure on, and that is that no matter what duties or work these people do, their motivations, impetus, intentions, and thoughts arise entirely from their selfish desires, and they are wholly in order to protect their own interests and prospects, and in order to satisfy their own pride, vanity and status. It is all centered around these considerations and calculations, there is no truth in their hearts, they do not have a heart that fears and submits to God—this is the root of the problem. What, today, is it crucial for you to pursue? In all things, you must seek the truth, and you must perform your duty properly according to the will of God and what God asks. If you do, you shall receive God’s approval. So what, specifically, is involved in performing your duty according to what God asks? In all you do, you must learn to pray to God, you must reflect on what intentions you have, what thoughts you have, and whether these intentions and thoughts are in line with the truth; if they are not, they should be put aside, after which you should act according to the truth principles, and accept God’s scrutiny. This will ensure that you put the truth into practice. If you have your own intentions and aims, and are well aware that they violate the truth and are at odds with God’s will, yet still do not pray to God and seek the truth for a solution, then this is dangerous, it is easy for you to commit evil and do things that oppose God. If you commit evil one or two times and repent, then you still have hope of salvation. If you keep committing evil, then you’re a doer of all manner of evils. If you still can’t repent at this point, then you’re in trouble: God shall cast you to one side or abandon you, which means you are at risk of being cast out; people who commit all manner of evil deeds will surely be punished and cast out.