It’s been two thousand years since the Lord Jesus was crucified, and now these people who accept God’s work of the last days hear His voice, and listen to sermons and fellowship on the truth every day. They understand the three stages of God’s work, and know the mysteries of His management plan. Do believers in the Lord in the religion understand? Even now they still don’t understand, and still cling to their notions. When someone says, “The Lord Jesus was the son of a poor carpenter. Look at the sort of Lord you believe in,” they are powerless to refute, and unable to testify to God. How contemptible people are! God has expressed so many truths for mankind and done such great things, but if He doesn’t personally tell people the significance, value, and truth in these things, then not one person is able to stand up to speak for and bear witness to God. What is the meaning of speaking for God? It is to bear witness to God’s deeds and sovereignty, to the price He’s paid to redeem this human race and His thoughts, and the meaning of everything He has done. What can you understand from this? (Mankind cannot imagine God’s work.) Mankind cannot imagine God’s work, nor fathom it. Man must therefore have the correct perspective and standpoint to view or treat God’s work, His guidance of mankind, and His will. Man must have a correct standpoint. This is critical. You must know who you are and who God is, the things you need to have which enable you to understand God’s words and work, what you are fundamentally incapable of understanding clearly or fathoming, and what sort of attitude you should have. This is the reason you should possess. In this way, your relationship with God will be quite normal and harmonious. If you always adopt a wait-and-see, speculative, doubting, or even resistant attitude in studying and speculating about God, or investigating everything He does, then there’ll be trouble. This is academic, this is research—this is a disbeliever. You must treat God’s sovereignty with a perspective and attitude of submission, seeking, and fear; only this will produce true knowledge, and understanding of God. If you understand God then you won’t stand in opposition to Him, or at least you won’t misunderstand Him. You’ll be able to submit, and say, “Although I don’t know the meaning of God doing this, I understand that everything He does is right.” What is this understanding? It’s that your heart is fully convinced that everything God does has meaning, and people should submit. The Lord Jesus Christ delivered Himself into Satan’s hands and was crucified by Satan—this was not a good thing in people’s eyes, but He fulfilled God’s will and completed the work of redeeming mankind. This is a great thing, something of huge meaning and value to all of mankind, but did mankind see it clearly? (They did not.) Mankind didn’t see it clearly. Mankind didn’t see God’s intention in it, nor comprehend the meaning and value of God doing it; that is, people didn’t see the immense benefit to mankind. They only saw that the Lord Jesus was resurrected three days after being crucified, appeared before people and met with them, talked, reminisced, and then departed; but God’s will was fulfilled. Is this not of great significance? (It is.) Did people fathom it? They did not. From this matter, people must have a correct evaluation of themselves, and a correct attitude to God. Whatever God does, whether people understand it or not, they must cover their mouths. This is right. Don’t think to go studying everything, that’s not okay. Why not? There’s no rule saying you’re not allowed to do so, but you’ll hit a wall and be in danger. You can’t understand, and aren’t able to comprehend now, but you always want to study, always stand in opposition to God. If you can’t work it out by studying, but also don’t seek the truth, then what problems can easily appear? It’ll be easy for you to misunderstand God. You’ll misunderstand at the beginning, and if you can’t understand things clearly and this misunderstanding remains, you’ll be negative and weak, and it’ll affect performance of your duty and your life entry—these things are all related. Many things cannot be understood clearly in just a year or two, and the truth is too profound. Even if God enlightened you right now, could you understand with your small stature? Even if you could understand a little, could you understand the truth thoroughly? You’d say, “I know gravity. Why do things fall down and not up on earth, but if you left the atmosphere and went out into space, you’d float? Because you’d leave the gravitational pull of earth. I understand this, so don’t I already understand God’s deeds?” You don’t know how exactly God holds sovereignty over gravity, and you’ve only understood its manifestation. That doesn’t mean you’ve fathomed how God holds sovereignty over it, and even if you could, would you be able to hold sovereignty over it? People would be in trouble if they left the atmosphere, they’d just float and fly around everywhere without gravity. What can be seen from this? (That there are many things which people can’t fathom.) People can’t fathom, yet always stand in opposition to God to study and observe Him, their hearts suspicious, saying, “If I can’t fathom this matter, then You are not God.” What about this view? This view and standpoint are wrong, they stand in opposition to God, and it’s wrong to always study. You must understand God, and say, “I cannot understand this, it’s too profound and I wouldn’t be able to understand thoroughly even if God enlightened me. So I’ll seek for a few years with a submissive heart, and if God doesn’t give me an answer then I’ll just forget about it. There are no barriers or misunderstanding between me and God. If I don’t misunderstand or complain about God then I won’t resist Him. If I don’t resist Him then I won’t rebel against Him, and if I don’t rebel against Him then I won’t reject or stray from Him. I am a follower of God forever.” What is the foundation for being “a follower of God forever”? It’s “Regardless of whether what God does aligns with my notions, I will always submit and follow. God is still my God and I am a created being, I am a human. No matter how God treats me, throwing me into hell, the lake of fire, to Satan, or to devils, I will always submit to Him with no complaints. God’s status cannot change, nor can my identity as a created being. As long as this fact remains unchanged, I should follow God, and He is forever my God.” Once your belief in God has firmly taken root, you will not turn your back on Him. This is the relationship between your identity as a created being and God. Once you clearly see God’s identity and position in your heart, and your identity and position as a created being that you should adhere to, and once these have taken root in your heart, then you won’t stray from Him. Then, when you’re weak, negative, sad, or something happens that doesn’t align with your notions and you cannot fathom or understand it, can this affect your relationship with God? (It cannot.) So long as you are clear about the truth of visions, have laid the foundation, and you’ve experienced many environments and realized that everything God does has meaning, then you will know God’s work and it will be difficult for notions to arise again. Some people can only understand a part. For example, regarding judgment and chastisement, people admit that what God does is meaningful, but have notions when faced with being pruned. No matter who prunes them, they’re unwilling to accept it and don’t admit that the matter comes from God. They think it’s done by man, and comes from Satan. Is this not another mistake? Another problem appears, and the search for the truth must continue. If you can’t pass this, can you wholly submit to God’s work? You can only submit to that which aligns with your notions, and cannot submit to that which does not. This kind of person can all too easily resist God, and is someone whose disposition has not changed.

There are many thoughts, ideas, and states within people which often influence some of their opinions, perspectives, and standpoints. If you can solve these thoughts, ideas, and states one by one through seeking the truth, then they will not affect your relationship with God. You might have a small stature now, with a shallow understanding of the truth, and because you’ve only believed in God for a short while or because of various other factors, you don’t understand very many truths—but you should grasp one principle: I should submit to everything God does, regardless of whether it looks good or bad from the outside, right or wrong, and whether or not it aligns with human notions. I have no right to criticize, assess, analyze, or study if it’s right or wrong. What I should do is fulfill my duty as a created being and then practice the truths which I can understand, to satisfy God and not deviate from the true way. I’ll practice however much God lets me understand, and seek that which I should practice, even if God hasn’t enlightened me; if God hasn’t enlightened me about something I need not understand, then I will submit and wait, and maybe one day God will let me understand. Just like the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, two thousand years later those people who accept the work of God in the last days basically understand, and even those who aren’t too keen on their pursuit also understand what it was all about. You might not be able to understand some of the great work concerning God’s management plan right now, but you misunderstand Him because you don’t understand the truth and deny His existence, which tears down the normal relationship between you and God. This is a grave mistake. You should have an attitude, perspective, and standpoint where you say: “I’ll just wait for these things that I don’t understand. When God one day enlightens mankind, maybe I’ll understand them all.” When the Lord Jesus departed He said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now,”—why could they not be borne? It’s because people’s stature was too immature, and they wouldn’t be able to comprehend. It’s like telling a three- or five-year-old about earning money or supporting a family; he’ll hear it, but feel it’s so far away from him that he can’t understand and it’s beyond his reach. There’s so much which people ought to understand that God wants to tell mankind, but because of mankind’s immature stature, or because the processes of God’s work have not yet been completely revealed to man, and people haven’t experienced them, they won’t understand if these things are known too early. Even if they listened, they’d take it as doctrine and understand it literally, but not really know what God is saying. So, God doesn’t speak. Is it appropriate for God not to speak? Is there any benefit for man? (There is.) Will it delay people’s lives growing? There will certainly not be any delay, none at all, with no impact on your daily life or your normal pursuit. You just relax your heart and pursue the truth, as this is the most important thing; ultimately, it all comes down to the pursuit of truth. If you pursue the truth then the mysteries in some of the things God does, His wisdom, wonderfulness, and disposition in all He does, and the things which humanity should understand, will gradually become clear through the process of following God. There are many aspects involved in attaining knowledge of God, and you must—in the process of your interactions, association, and contact with God—experience His words, savor His words, savor His work, as well as His enlightenment and guidance upon you. During this process you will, without even knowing it, attain knowledge of God; that is, you’ll gradually gain an understanding of God through the process of experiencing His sovereignty and arrangement upon you. If you don’t go through these processes, but just look at the sky with eyes wide every day, relying on your imagination to see God’s work, then you never will. Eventually you’ll end up doubting and say, “Where is God? Did He make the moon? The sun rises in the morning and sets at night—is this how God holds sovereignty over all things?” This kind of understanding is hollow, and your conviction will become but empty words. If someone asked you if you believed in God, you’d say: “I believe in God, I have conviction, I am a Christian.” If they then asked: “Why aren’t you a Buddhist?” you’d say: “Buddhism isn’t the true way, Christianity is.” The fact you can only say this proves that you have no experience and have gained nothing. Everything about God, all that He has and is, His disposition, His sovereignty and arrangements for mankind and all things, the reality and accuracy of His words and their significance, edification, and value for mankind, as well as some of His ways of working, such as through trials, discipline, enlightenment and illumination, comfort and exhortation, and some of His special guidance for man—if you haven’t personally experienced these, haven’t truly tasted them, can your relationship with God be normal? Can you truly submit to Him? Your understanding of God will forever be a question mark, a series of question marks, with no real understanding at all. So, is your relationship with God normal? Is it really the relationship between created being and Creator? What exactly does this question mark represent? God will forever be unfamiliar to you, whether in identity, status, or His essence. He’s not your family, not your relative, He always seems like an alien visitor you’ve never known—so it’s not easy to explain what your relationship with God actually is, but it definitely doesn’t measure up to that between created being and Creator.

What are the key points for believing in God? How to turn faith in God into the reality people should have in life? How to achieve submission and gain God? You must rely on experiencing His words, and most importantly His judgment and chastisement, before you can submit to and gain God. Although many people are willing to perform their duty, they don’t understand how to experience His work. To do so, you must experience His judgment and chastisement, His pruning, trials, and refinement. All God’s requirements must be practiced, entered into, and attained. This is called experiencing God’s work. To experience it you must establish a normal relationship with Him, always praying to and seeking from Him with a heart of submission to God. No matter what happens or what difficulties you face, you must rely on and look up to God, finding answers and the path in His words, and always praying and fellowshipping with Him. Experiencing God’s work is to be in contact with Him and submit to His words and work, pray to and seek from Him when you have problems or difficulties. Once you have a lot of experience in this way, and understand the truth, then you will have learned how to apply God’s words to things that happen. There are many ways to apply God’s words, for example, by praying and seeking when things happen, and thus seeing how God’s words clearly state how people should act, what the principles are, and what God’s intentions and requirements for people are. When you know all this, and understand God’s desires, then you will have some knowledge and understanding of God. When faced with trials you should seek, “What does God’s word say about such a great trial? What is the meaning of God testing people? Why does He want to test people?” God’s words say that you are corrupt, always rebellious and disobedient, and that you don’t submit to Him, but constantly have imaginings and notions, and that God wants to cleanse you through trials. No matter what you experience, whether persecution and trials, or being pruned, disciplined, and punished, and no matter what environment God lays out for you or what method He uses, you must always look for the answer and basis in God’s words, and seek His intentions and requirements of you. That is to say, no matter what happens, you must first think what God has said, how He wants people to practice, what His requirements of people are, and what His intentions are. Understand these things, and you’ll know how to experience God’s work. If there’s no place for God in your heart and you don’t love the truth, but always think about what people, books, or famous and great people say, or what nonbelievers do when this thing happens, then if you seek and practice in this way you are of the disbelievers, because your thoughts and your path are the same as nonbelievers. If you are someone who believes in God, but your thinking is the same as nonbelievers and you walk the path of nonbelievers, then this is the wrong way and a dead end; that’s not what someone who believes in God should do, or the path they should walk. There are people like this within the church, and they are of the disbelievers, nonbelievers hidden in the church.