Some people have no discernment at all. They follow anyone who leads. They learn good behavior when good people are leading, they learn bad behavior when bad people are leading. They learn from whoever they are following. When they follow unbelievers, they emulate demons. When they follow those who believe in God, they learn to have some semblance of humanity. They do not pay attention to understanding the truth and practicing the truth, but only follow others and blindly imitate them. They listen to whomever they like. Can such a person understand the truth? Absolutely not. People who do not understand the truth will never have real change. Knowledge and doctrine, human behavior, manner of speaking—these external things can be learned from people. However, the truth and life can only be obtained from God’s words and work, and never from famous or exceptional people. How should believers eat and drink the words of God? This is directly connected to the crucial question of whether or not someone can understand and gain the truth. There must be a correct path to eating and drinking the words of God; in their church life and while performing their duty, believers must eat and drink words of God which target real-life problems, and resolve those problems. This is the only way to understand the truth. However, if they understand the truth but do not practice it, they will be unable to enter into the truth reality. Some people are of good caliber but do not love the truth; although they are able to understand a bit of the truth, they do not practice it. Can such people enter the truth reality? Understanding the truth is not as simple as understanding doctrines. To understand the truth, you must first know how to eat and drink of God’s words. Take the eating and drinking of a passage concerning the truth of love for God, for example. God’s word says: “‘Love,’ as it is called, refers to an affection that is pure and without blemish, where you use your heart to love, to feel, and to be thoughtful. In love there are no conditions, no barriers, and no distance. In love there is no suspicion, no deceit, and no cunning. In love there is no trade and nothing impure” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Many Are Called, but Few Are Chosen). This is how God defines love, and this is the truth. But whom should you love? Should you love your husband? Your wife? Your brothers and sisters at church? No. When God speaks of love, He speaks not of love for your fellow man, but of man’s love of God. If a person has come to truly know God, truly sees that His disposition is righteous and holy, and sees that God’s love for man is the most true and sincere, then the love that person has for God is also true. How does one practice loving God? First of all, they must offer their heart up to God; then their heart can love God. If a person’s heart truly sees how exceedingly lovely God is, then they will not suspect Him, there will be no distance between them and God, and their God-loving heart will be pure and without blemish. “Without blemish” means having no extravagant desires and making no extravagant demands of God, laying no conditions on Him, and not making any excuses. It means He comes first in your heart; it means only His words occupy your heart. This is an affection that is pure and without blemish. This “affection” means that God occupies a certain place in your heart, and that you are always thinking of Him and missing Him, and bring Him to mind at each and every moment. To love means using your heart to love. “Using your heart to love” consists of being considerate, caring and longing. To succeed in loving God with your heart, you first must seek to know God, know His disposition, and know His loveliness. If you do not know God at all, you will not be able to love Him even if you want to. At the present time, you are all willing to strive toward the truth and seek to gain the truth. Although you have no real knowledge of God, you should use your heart to yearn for Him, draw near to Him, submit to Him, be considerate toward Him, share what is on your mind with Him, and pour out the difficulties in your heart to Him. If you do not understand the truth, seek God; look to God and lean on Him when you cannot handle something on your own. When you pray to God in this way, the Holy Spirit will enlighten and guide you. Do not get caught up thinking, “What do I need to do for God? What big things must I do?” These are just empty words and are not practical at all. It is only practical if you put your heart into loving God, and satisfy Him in small matters and duties you are capable of performing. Although you do not say out loud how you must love God, and to what extent, you have God in your heart, and your heart is willing to satisfy Him. No matter what difficulties you have, so long as your heart is willing to satisfy God, and you are able to do some things to satisfy Him, and can withstand some hardship in order to satisfy Him, then you truly love Him. If you understand some of the truth and are principled when handling all matters, then you will be able to feel God’s love, feel that everything God says is the truth, is reality, and helps people at all times, feel that people cannot depart from God’s words and their hearts cannot be without God, feel that without God there is no life, and feel that if you truly did leave God, you simply could not live, which would be excruciating. When you feel all of this, then you have love, you have God in your heart. “Use your heart to love, to feel, and to be thoughtful.” This involves many things. It is the true love that God requires of man; in other words, you must love and be thoughtful of Him with your heart, and always keep Him in mind. This does not mean just voicing the words, nor does it mean intentionally expressing something in front of others; rather, primarily, it means doing things with heart, and letting your heart govern your life and all of your actions, without any motivation, adulteration, or suspicion in your heart; a heart such as this is much purer. If you can understand the truth, it is easy to submit to God. What does a person who always suspects God think? “Is it right for God to do this? Why does God say this? If there’s no reason behind God saying this, I won’t submit to it. If it is not righteous for God to do this, I won’t submit. I’ll drop it for now.” To not harbor suspicion means recognizing that whatever God says and does is right, and with God there is no right or wrong, and that man must submit to God, be considerate toward God, satisfy God, and share in His thoughts and concerns. Regardless of whether or not everything God does seems meaningful to you, whether it is agreeable to man’s notions and imaginings, and regardless of whether it conforms to the doctrines of man, you should always submit and approach these things with a God-fearing heart and a heart of submission to God. Such practice is in conformity with the truth. It is the manifestation and practice of love. Therefore, if you wish to achieve understanding of the truth, it is crucial that you know how to eat and drink God’s words. If you read God’s words too little, don’t read them in earnest, and don’t contemplate them with your heart, then you won’t be able to understand the truth. All you will be able to understand is a little bit of doctrine, and so it will be very difficult for you to understand God’s will and God’s purpose in His words. If you do not understand the aims and results that God’s words intend to achieve, if you do not understand what His words seek to accomplish and perfect in man, then it proves that you do not yet comprehend the truth. Why does God say what He says? Why does He speak in that tone? Why is He so earnest and sincere in every word He speaks? Why does He choose to use certain words? Do you know? If you cannot say for sure, it means you do not understand God’s will or His intentions. If you do not understand the context behind His words, then how can you understand or practice the truth? To gain the truth, you must first understand what God means in every word that He utters, and after grasping these words put them into practice, causing God’s words to be lived out in you, and to become your reality. By doing so you will enter into the truth reality. Only when you have a thorough understanding of the word of God can you really grasp the truth. After merely coming to understand a few words and doctrines, you think you understand the truth and possess reality. This is self-deception. You don’t even understand why God requires people to practice the truth. This proves that you don’t understand God’s will, and that you still don’t understand the truth. In fact, God makes this requirement of people to purify and save them, so that people can cast off their corrupt dispositions, and become ones who submit to and know God. This is the goal God wants to achieve by requiring people to practice the truth.

God expresses the truth for people who love the truth, thirst for the truth, and seek the truth. As for those who concern themselves with words and doctrines and like to give lengthy, pompous speeches, they will never gain the truth; they are fooling themselves. Their perspective of the truth and God’s words is wrong, they twist their necks to read that which is upright—their perspective is all wrong. Some people prefer to study God’s words. They always study how God’s words talk about destination or about how to be blessed. They are most interested in these kinds of words. If God’s words do not conform to their notions and do not satisfy their desire for blessings, they will become negative, no longer pursue the truth, and not want to expend themselves for God. This shows that they are not interested in the truth. As a result, they are not earnest toward the truth; they are only capable of accepting the truth that conforms to their notions and imaginings. Although such people are fervent in their belief in God and try every way they can to do some good deeds and present themselves well, they are only doing it in order to have a good destination in the future. Despite the fact that they also engage in church life, eating and drinking God’s words, they will not practice the truth or gain it. There are some people who eat and drink the words of God, but who merely go through the motions; they think they have gained the truth simply by having come to understand a few words and doctrines. What fools they are! The word of God is the truth. However, one will not necessarily understand and gain the truth after they read God’s words. If you fail to gain the truth through eating and drinking the words of God, then what you gain will be words and doctrines. If you do not know how to practice the truth or how to act according to the principles, then you remain without the truth reality. You may read God’s words often, but afterward, you fail to understand God’s will, and acquire only some words and doctrines. How to eat and drink God’s words in order to understand the truth? First of all, you should realize that the word of God is not so straightforward; the word of God is utterly profound. Even one sentence of God’s words requires a lifetime to experience. Without several years of experience, how could you possibly understand the word of God? If, when reading God’s words, you do not understand God’s will, and do not understand the intentions of His words, their origin, the effect they seek to achieve, or what they seek to accomplish, then does it mean that you understand the truth? You may have read God’s words many times and perhaps you can recite many passages by heart, but you cannot practice the truth and have not changed at all, and your relationship with God is just as distant and estranged as ever. When encountering something that is at odds with your notions, you remain doubtful toward Him, and you do not understand Him, but reason with Him and harbor notions about Him and misunderstandings of Him, resisting Him and even blaspheming Him. What kind of disposition is this? This disposition is one of arrogance, of being averse to the truth. How can people who are so arrogant and so averse to the truth accept or practice it? Such people will absolutely never be able to gain the truth or God. Although everyone has a copy of The Word Appears in the Flesh, and they read God’s words every day, and make notes when they listen to fellowship on the truth, the effect it has on everyone is different. Some people focus on equipping themselves with knowledge and doctrines; some always seek and concern themselves with what good behavior people should exhibit; some are willing to read profound words that disclose mysteries; some are most concerned with words about future destination; some like to study administrative decrees in the Age of Kingdom, and study God’s disposition; some are willing to read words of comfort and exhortation from God to man; some are willing to read prophecies, God’s words of promise and blessings; some are willing to read words the Holy Spirit speaks to all the churches, and are willing to be “His son.” Can they gain the truth by reading God’s words in this way? Are these people who pursue the truth? Can they be saved by believing in God in this way? You must see these things clearly. There are currently some new believers who say, “God’s words of comfort to man are wonderful; He says, ‘My son, My son.’ Who in this world would comfort you like this?” They think they are God’s sons, and do not understand to whom God is speaking these words. There are some who still do not understand it even after believing in God for a couple years; they say things like this shamelessly and do not feel embarrassed or ashamed about it. Do they understand the truth? They do not understand God’s will, yet they dare to assume the position of His “son”! What do they understand when they read God’s words? They have entirely misinterpreted them! When people who do not love the truth read God’s words they will not understand them. When you fellowship on the truth with them, they do not place importance on accepting it. By contrast, those who love the truth are moved after reading God’s words. They sense authority and power in God’s words. They are able to examine the true way and accept the truth. People such as this have hope of returning to God and gaining the truth. People who like to study God’s words always concern themselves with the way in which God changes His form, when God will leave this world, and God’s day. They are not concerned with their own life. People are concerning themselves with matters that are God’s own business. If you always ask questions like this, you are interfering with God’s administrative decrees and His management plan. This is unreasonable and offends God’s disposition. If you are particularly keen on asking or knowing, and cannot control yourself, then pray to God and say, “God, these matters concern Your management plan and they are Your own business. I shall not pry into matters that are beyond my reach or which I shouldn’t know. Please keep me from doing unreasonable things.” How can man understand God’s matters? If God has not mentioned or proclaimed certain matters related to His works and management plan, it proves that He does not wish to reveal it to people. Everything God wants people to know is in His words, and all the truth you should understand is in His words. There are so many truths you should understand. You need only look in God’s words; if something cannot be found there, do not push for an answer. If God has not told you, then it is useless to keep on asking and investigating. He has told you everything you should know, and will not tell or reveal to you what you should not know. At the present time, most believers have not yet entered onto the right track; they do not know how to ponder God’s words when they read them, let alone practice or experience them. There are even some who do not do their duty, or who do not engage in proper tasks. It is even more difficult for believers like this to understand the truth. One needs long-term experience to understand the truth. If you do not read God’s words conscientiously, or practice or experience His words, then how will you understand the truth or enter into reality? How will you enter onto the right track of faith if you do not submit to God’s work? And if you do not enter onto the right track of faith, then how will you be saved? True believers must be clear on these matters.