Once, I used to walk through the churches, seeing all kinds of host families and all kinds of believers in God. Why am I no longer willing to come into contact with too many people? People are too bad, the majority of them have neither conscience nor reason, they have no room for God, and they always scheme around Him, so I choose to keep away from people, and only do the work I ought to. Some people say: “Does God not live among men?” I live among men, no mistake, but I cannot dwell among the evil, it is too dangerous. It would be fine if I had a spiritual body, I could do whatever among people—a spiritual body like Jesus would be fine, He could act as He pleased, and people would not dare persecute—but I now have a normal body of flesh, a particularly normal body of flesh, with nothing supernatural about it, so people cannot accept this; they always have notions and want to examine God. If this kind of person, with this kind of disposition, were to be given a little discipline and punishment, given a month-long headache, do you think that would be useful? It would be useless. They would stand back up after that month-long headache and vent their anger. Do you think discipline alone can cause change? It cannot. So, there are many people I have come into contact with in the past, but very few of them love the truth. I can only say to you that people should not believe in God to get something from Him. You should just care about doing your duty well, about using all your energy. If your caliber is too poor, unsuitable for use, then you should hurry and step down. You should be obedient and well-behaved, do what you ought to, do not do what you ought not to, and you should be reasonable. You are a person. If God did not give you breath, life, and energy, you would not be able to do anything. People should not ask for anything, nor compare qualifications; having qualifications is useless for you! If a church makes you its leader, then that’s your responsibility, and if someone else is made leader, then that’s their responsibility. Of course, as far as work goes, you should fellowship, but you should not compare qualifications, thinking: “I have long been qualified at that church, they should respect me. I am the eldest, you are second.” Do not say such a thing, it is too unreasonable. Some people also say: “I have forsaken my own work in order to expend myself for God, I have forsaken my family, and what have I obtained? I have obtained nothing, and God still lectures people.” What do you think of these words? People should stand in the right position and first be clear about the fact that they are human, that they are still corrupt mankind. If you are made a leader, then be a leader; if you are not made a leader, then be an ordinary follower; if you are given work to do, then you have an opportunity to do something; if you are not given work to do, then you can do nothing. Do not boast—boasting is a bad sign, which proves that you are walking toward an extreme, toward death. Do not boast, saying: “I have gained a group of people somewhere, they are my fruits. If I had not gone, no one else could have done it. When I went, the Holy Spirit did great work!” Do not boast in this way. Rather, you should say: “Gaining these people was the result of the Holy Spirit working, a person can only do a little bit of work. If we finish spreading the gospel, and God sends us back home, then we’ll go home.” Do not say: “What did I do wrong that made You send me home? If You can’t say the reason, then I won’t go home!” Do not have this requirement. If you have this requirement, it proves that your disposition is especially arrogant. If you haven’t made a mistake, can you not be sent home? If you act rightly, can you not be sent home? Even if you act correctly and do well, if you are sent home, you must return home. If you are pruned, you should accept it and submit. This is an obligation, a responsibility, and you should not defend yourself. Job believed in God and only focused on fearing Him and shunning evil. Job asked for nothing, and Jehovah blessed him. Some people say: “That was because Job was good to God, so of course God blessed him; it was in exchange for Job’s faith and righteous work.” This is incorrect, it was not an exchange, it was that Jehovah wanted to bless him. Why did he not complain when Jehovah took everything away from him? Why did he not say: “I act righteously, I am so qualified, so You should not treat me this way”? This is not a matter of should and should not! When it comes to belief in God, if people always had their own choice, and always spoke about human notions and doctrines, that would not be right. This is human arrogance, human rebellion. Human choice is human adulteration.

Are you aware of it when you reveal your own arrogant dispositions? Some people are unaware, and they say: “I’m not arrogant, I’ve never said anything arrogant before.” In fact, even if you are unaware of it, you still have an arrogant disposition, it just has not been revealed. The fact that you have not outwardly revealed it does not prove that you do not have an arrogant disposition; it’s possible that your heart is more arrogant than anyone else’s, it’s just that you know how to pretend, so it’s not revealed, but people of discernment are able to see it. So, every person has an arrogant disposition, this is the common nature of mankind. People with an arrogant nature are capable of rebelling against God, resisting Him, committing acts which pass judgment on Him and betray Him, and doing things that exalt themselves and that are an attempt to establish their own independent kingdoms. Say there were several tens of thousands of people in a country that accepted God’s work, and God’s house sent you there to lead and shepherd God’s chosen ones. And say God’s house handed authority over to you and allowed you to work by yourself, without oversight by Me or anyone else. After several months, you would have become like a sovereign ruler, all power would be in your hands, you’d call the shots, all the chosen ones would revere you, worship you, submit to you as if you were God, singing your praises with every word, saying you preach insightfully, and persistently claiming that your utterances were what they needed, that you could provide for them and lead them, and their hearts would have no place for God. Would this kind of work not be problematic? How would you have done it? For these people to be capable of such a reaction would prove that the work you were doing did not involve bearing testimony to God at all; rather, it only bore testimony to yourself and showed yourself off. How could you achieve such a consequence? Some people say, “What I fellowship is the truth; I’ve certainly never testified to myself!” That attitude of yours—that manner—is one of trying to fellowship to people from God’s position, and it is not one of standing in the position of a corrupt human. Everything you say is bombastic talk and making demands of others; it has nothing at all to do with yourself. Therefore, the consequence you would achieve is to get people to worship you and envy you until, in the end, they all submit to you, testify to you, exalt you, and flatter you to high heaven. When that happens, you will be finished; you will have failed! Is this not the path you are all on right now? If you are asked to lead a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of people, you would feel elated. You would then give rise to arrogance and start trying to occupy God’s position, speaking and gesticulating, and you would not know what to wear, what to eat, or how to walk. You would revel in life’s comforts and hold yourself aloft, not deigning to meet with ordinary brothers and sisters. You would become utterly degenerate—and would be revealed and cast out, struck down like the archangel. You are all capable of this, are you not? So, what should you do? If, one day, arrangements were made for you to be responsible for the work of the gospel in every country, and you were capable of walking the path of an antichrist, then how could the work be expanded? Would this not be troublesome? Who, then, would dare to let you go out there? After being sent there, you would never return; you would pay no attention to anything God said, and you would just keep on showing off and bearing testimony to yourself, as if you were bringing people salvation, doing God’s work, and making people feel as though God had appeared and was here working—and as people worshiped you, you would be overjoyed, and you would even acquiesce if they treated you like God. Once you reached that stage, you would be done for; you would be scrapped. Without your realizing it, this kind of arrogant nature would end up being your ruin. This is an example of a person who walks the path of antichrists. Those who have reached this point have lost all awareness, their conscience and reason have ceased to serve any function, and they don’t even know to pray, or to search. Do not wait until then to think: “I must keep a close watch on myself, I must pray earnestly!” By then it will be too late. You need to know about this matter in advance; you need to seek: “How should I act in order to testify of God, to do my work well, without testifying of myself? What methods must I use to fellowship with others, to lead them?” This is how you must prepare. If one day, arrangements are really made for you to go out and work, and you are still capable of exalting and testifying of yourselves, which leads to the ruin of many of the people who are in your hands, you will be in trouble, and will later suffer God’s punishment! Is it okay for Me not to say these words to you? Before I said it, you were capable of doing so; if you are still capable of doing so after I have said it, are you not in trouble? You all must think on how to do your work, how to conduct yourselves most appropriately. All you say and do, every act and move, every word and deed, and every intent of your heart must all be up to standard; not one can be left out, and you cannot exploit any loopholes. Although arrogance is man’s nature, and it is not easy to change, people still need to know about their arrogant dispositions, to have the principles of practice. You must understand: “If I were really given some churches, how would I need to act in order to not take up God’s position? How would I need to act to not be arrogant? How would I act appropriately? How would I act to bring people before God, to testify of Him?” You must ponder these matters until they are clear. Suppose that someone were to ask, “Can you lead the churches well?” and you said, “I can,” but you instead led people into your own presence—they would submit to you, but not to God—would this not be trouble? As a leader or worker, if you do not know what it is to bring people before God or to bring them before yourself, then can you serve God? Can you be suitable for God to use? Absolutely not. Are those who are capable of bringing other people before themselves not all antichrists? If someone believes in God, but they have no place for God in their heart, they do not fear Him, they do not have a heart of submission to God, or the will to submit to Him, then that person does not believe in God. So who do they really believe in? Dissect it for yourselves. Do not say later: “I’m not arrogant, I am a good person, I only do good things”—these words are so childish! Everyone else is arrogant, but you are not? You have been thus exposed, but you still do not know yourself, and you still say that you are not arrogant—you are so shameless! You are so numb that it does not matter how you are exposed! Do you know the purpose for which I say these words? Why do I thus expose people? If I do not expose this way, will they come to know themselves? If I do not expose this way, people will still think they are pretty good, that they do their work fairly well, that they have no faults to point out, and that they are all-around fine. Even if they were all fine, they should not be in an arrogant state, nor should they think they are qualified, nor should they boast. I expose people’s states this way not to sentence them to death, nor to tell them that they cannot be saved, but rather to allow them to truly know themselves, to understand their own corrupt essence and their nature, so they can achieve a true knowledge of themselves. This is beneficial as they try to cast off their corrupt dispositions. If you can treat My words of exposure and pruning of people in the correct way, can avoid becoming negative, can do your duty normally, can make the matters of God’s house your own, and if you can take responsibility, without being perfunctory, if you can be loyal to God, then this attitude is correct, and you will be able to do your duty well.

There are some people who often violate principles when they act. They do not accept pruning, they know in their hearts that the things others say are in line with the truth, but they do not accept them. Such people are so arrogant and self-righteous! Why say they are arrogant? If they do not accept pruning, then they are not obedient, and is disobedience not arrogance? They think they are doing well, they do not think they make mistakes, which means that they do not know themselves, which is arrogance. So, there are some things you need to earnestly analyze, to dig into bit by bit. As you do the work of the church, if you attain the admiration of others, and they give you suggestions, and they open themselves up to you in fellowship, this proves that you have done your work well. If people are always constrained by you, then they will gradually come to discern you, and they will distance themselves from you, which proves that you do not have the truth reality, so everything you say is certainly just words and doctrines, meant to constrain others. Some church leaders get replaced, and why do they get replaced? It is because they only speak words and doctrines, always showing off and testifying of themselves. They say that to resist them is to resist God, and that whoever reports situations to the Above is disturbing the work of the church. What kind of problem is this? These people have already become so arrogant that they have no more reason. Does this not show their true colors as antichrists? Will this not develop into starting to establish their own independent kingdoms? Some people who have just begun to believe will worship them and testify of them, and they will enjoy this very much, and feel very pleased. Someone this arrogant is already doomed. Someone who is capable of saying “to resist me is to resist God” has already become a modern Paul; there is no difference between this and when Paul said: “To me to live is Christ.” Are people who talk like this not in great danger? Even if they do not establish independent kingdoms, they are still authentic antichrists. If such a person were to lead a church, that church would quickly become a kingdom of antichrists. Some people, after they become church leaders, focus specially on speaking lofty sermons and showing off, specially speaking mysteries so people will look up to them, and the result is that they get further and further away from the truth reality. This leads to the majority of people worshiping spiritual theories. Whoever speaks loftily, that’s who people listen to; whoever talks about life entry, people pay no attention to them. Is this not leading people astray? If someone fellowships on the truth reality, no one listens, which is trouble. No one save this person can lead the church, because everyone worships spiritual theories; those who cannot speak about spiritual theories are unable to stand firm. Can such a church still obtain the work of the Holy Spirit? Can the people enter into the truth reality? Why is fellowshipping about the truth and speaking about real experiences rejected, to the point that they are unwilling to listen to Me fellowship about the truth? It proves that these leaders have already misled and controlled these people. These people listen and submit to them, rather than submitting to God. It is apparent that these people are the kind that submit to their leaders, rather than to God. Because those who sincerely believe in God and pursue the truth are not the kind to worship or follow men; they have a place for God in their hearts, and they have God-fearing hearts, so how could they be constrained by men? How could they obediently submit to a false leader who does not have the truth reality? The thing a false leader fears most is someone who has the truth reality, someone who fears God and shuns evil. If someone does not have the truth, and yet they want to make others obey them, is that not the most arrogant devil or Satan possible? If you monopolize the church or control God’s chosen people, then you have offended God’s disposition and ruined yourself, and you may not even have a chance to repent. Every one of you must be careful; this is a very dangerous matter, something anyone could do very easily. There might be some who say: “I just won’t do that, I just won’t testify of myself!” That’s just because you have worked only a short time. Later on, you would dare do it. You would slowly become more daring—the more you do it, the more daring you would be. If the people you lead were to brag about and listen to you, you would naturally feel that you were in a high position, that you were amazing: “Look at me, I’m pretty good. I can lead all these people, and they all listen to me; the people who don’t listen to me, I subdue. This proves that I have some ability to work, and I am equal to my work.” As time goes on, the arrogant elements of your nature would begin to reveal themselves, and you would become so arrogant that you lost your reason, and you would be in danger. Can you see this clearly? You are in trouble as soon as you reveal your arrogant, disobedient disposition. You do not listen even when I speak, the house of God replaces you, and still you dare to say: “Let the Holy Spirit reveal it.” The fact that you would say that proves that you do not accept the truth. Your rebelliousness is too great—it has exposed your nature essence. You do not know God at all. So, I say all this to you today so that you will keep close watch on yourselves. Do not exalt or testify of yourselves. It is liable for people to try and establish their own independent kingdoms, because they all like position, wealth and glory, vanity, to be a servant of high status, and to demonstrate power: “See how sternly I said those words. The moment I acted threatening, they lost their nerve, and became docile.” Do not demonstrate this kind of power; it is useless, and it proves nothing. It only proves that you are particularly arrogant, and that you have a poor disposition; it does not prove that you have any ability, much less that you have the truth reality. After listening to a few years of sermons, do you all know yourselves? Do you not feel that you are in dangerous circumstances? If it were not for God speaking and working to save man, would you not be establishing independent kingdoms? Do you not want to monopolize the churches you are responsible for, to bring those people under your influence, so that none of them can escape your control, so they have to listen to you? If you control people as soon as you do this, then you are a devil, Satan. It is very dangerous for you to have such thoughts; you have already stepped onto the path of an antichrist. If you do not self-reflect, and if you are unable to confess your sins to God and repent, then you will certainly be set aside, and God will not pay you any attention. You should know how to repent, how to turn yourself around in order to be in line with God’s will, in order to guarantee that you do not offend God’s disposition. Do not wait until the house of God determines that you are an antichrist and expels you—by then, it will be too late.

Autumn, 1997