The First Practice for Pursuing the Truth: Letting Go

Letting Go of the Barriers Between Oneself and God and One’s Hostility Toward God

I. Letting Go of One’s Notions and Imaginings About God: Letting Go of One’s Notions and Imaginings About God’s Work

For a while now we have been discussing the first major item in the practice of how to pursue the truth, which is “letting go.” Last time we fellowshipped about the third item regarding “letting go”—letting go of the barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God—which was brand-new content. There isn’t just one aspect of this content; it includes many items and lots of contents. These contents are what people experience in the process of God’s work, and they are directly related to people’s lives and pursuits, so the first aspect that we really must fellowship on is people’s notions and imaginings about God. This is a topic that people cannot avoid in the process of walking the path of believing in God. I fellowshipped on part of this content last time. Someone tell us what I fellowshipped on specifically. (Last time, God fellowshipped about letting go of the barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God. God first exposed our notions and imaginings about God’s work. For example, we have notions and imaginings about God’s day, and we also believe that God’s work is very supernatural and that as long as the Holy Spirit works and moves people, people will be able to resolve any problems and their corrupt dispositions will be transformed. While exposing these notions and imaginings, God told us that the result He intends to achieve in His work is to work His words into us, so that when things befall us in our everyday lives, we are able to practice according to God’s words and the truth principles—this is God’s requirement for each of us.) Who else can add to that? (Last time God also fellowshipped on the fact that people believe God passes verdict on them based on their temporary manifestations, and they also think that by adhering to outward regulations and outwardly good behaviors they are satisfying God and can attain salvation—these are all people’s notions and imaginings. Also, when people are weak or reveal rebelliousness and corruption, they believe that God will discipline and punish them—this is also a notion and imagining. From God’s exposure of these notions and imaginings of people, we have understood that what God wants is not our outwardly good behaviors, nor does He want us to adhere to certain outward practices and regulations. Rather, He hopes that when things befall us, we are able to seek the truth principles and enter into the truth reality.) Everyone has these notions and imaginings to varying degrees, do they not? (Yes.) Before people begin to pursue the truth, or when they do not understand the truth and have not yet gained the truth, they tend to use these notions and imaginings to make conjectures about how God works or to jump to conclusions about how God will work. At the same time, they also tend to use these conjectures to pass verdict on themselves, their own outcome, and whether they will be blessed or suffer misfortune in the future. Therefore, in the process of people’s pursuit of the truth, these notions and imaginings have to a great extent become obstacles to people’s acceptance of God’s work, to their pursuit of the truth, and to their gaining of the truth. That is to say, if people cannot let go of these notions and imaginings, and they always regard them as their motivation and root cause for believing in and following God, then these notions and imaginings will to a great extent obstruct them from pursuing and gaining the truth. And in the end they can only use their notions and imaginings to determine their own worth, identity, and status before God, and to determine what kind of treatment they will be able to receive in God’s house, what their destination will be and what blessings they will gain in the future, how much authority they will have and how many cities they will govern, and whether they will be a pillar or a mainstay in heaven, or how much they can gain in this life and how much they can gain in the world to come. Because these notions and imaginings involve people’s lives and pursuits, they influence the paths that people take and, of course, they also influence people’s final outcome and destination. People live and pursue amid their notions and imaginings; thus, they inevitably view everything, and judge and make determinations about everything, based on these notions and imaginings. So, no matter how God provides the truth and tells people what views they should hold and what path they should take, as long as people do not let go of their notions and imaginings, they will continue to live by them, and these notions and imaginings will naturally become people’s life and the laws by which they survive, and they will inevitably become the ways and methods by which people deal with all kinds of events and things. Once people’s notions and imaginings become the principles and criteria by which they view people and things and conduct themselves and act, then no matter how they believe in God, or how they pursue, and no matter how much hardship they suffer or how much of a price they pay, it will all be futile. As long as someone lives by their notions and imaginings, then this person is resisting God and is antagonistic toward Him; they do not have true submission to the environments set up by God or to His requirements. Ultimately, then, their outcome will be a very tragic one. If you have believed in God for many years, and have expended yourself for Him, running all about and paying a great price, but the starting point and source of everything you do is your own notions and imaginings, then you do not truly accept and submit to God. No matter whether these notions and imaginings come from books, from society, or from your personal desires and interests, in short, as long as they are notions and imaginings, they are not the truth; and as long as they are not the truth, they are antagonistic toward the truth, a stumbling block for people’s acceptance of the truth, and an enemy of God and the truth. Therefore, as long as you live according to your notions and imaginings, you will measure and view everything according to these notions and imaginings, and because of them you are ultimately certain to rebel against the environments that God sets up for you, and rebel against God’s guidance of or sovereignty over you. In short, there is no true acceptance and submission here. Why is that? Because no matter how many hardships you suffer or how much of a price you pay, as long as you live according to your notions and imaginings, the hardships you suffer and the price you pay are not in line with the truth principles, and have nothing to do with the truth; it could be said that the hardships you suffer and the price you pay are based on human notions and imaginings, and on your preferences, and are for the purpose of gratifying your fleshly desires and satisfying certain aims of yours. It’s just like what was manifested by Paul: He did a lot of work and a lot of running around, preaching the gospel throughout the greater part of Europe, but no matter how much hardship he suffered and how much of a price he paid, or however much running around he did, he never had thoughts and views that accorded with the truth, he never accepted the truth, and he never had the attitude and real experience of submission to God—he always lived within his own notions and imaginings. What was his specific notion and imagining? It was that when he had finished running the course and fighting the good fight, there was a crown of righteousness in store for him—this was Paul’s notion and imagining. What was the specific theoretical basis of his notion and imagining? That God would determine a person’s outcome based on the amount of running about they have done, the price they have paid, and how much hardship they have suffered. It was on just such a theoretical basis of his notion and imagining that Paul unknowingly embarked upon the path of antichrists. As a result, when he had reached the end of the road, he had no understanding whatsoever about his behavior and manifestations of resisting God or his essence of resisting God, much less any repentance. He still held on to his original notion and imagining while believing in God, and not only did he not have the slightest true submission to God, but on the contrary, he believed that he was even more entitled to receive a good outcome and destination from God in exchange. “In exchange” is a nice-sounding, civilized way of putting it, but in fact it was not an exchange, or even a transaction—he was directly asking God for these things, downright demanding them from God. How did he demand them from God? Just like he said, “I have finished my course, I have fought the good fight—the crown of glory is now mine. This is what I deserve and what god should rightfully give me.” The path Paul took was a path of resistance to God, which led him to destruction, and the ultimate outcome that befell him was being punished. This was inseparable from his notion and imagining about God. He always held on persistently to his own notion and imagining; he put aside and ignored what God said, the truths—the way of life—that God provided to people, even adopting an attitude of disdain and contempt, and he did not even acknowledge or accept the fact that Jesus Christ was the incarnation of God. When he had reached the end of the road, he still clung persistently to his notion and imagining as before, and continued to pit himself against God, ultimately heading toward the inevitable outcome of destruction. Therefore, in the process of believing in God, if people are able to let go of all their various negative emotions, and are able to let go of some things in real life that obstruct them from pursuing the truth, yet cannot let go of the barriers between themselves and God or their hostility toward God, then this will be a very regrettable and tragic thing, and in the end, people will reap the same outcome of being punished as Paul did. That is certain beyond all doubt. Therefore, in the practice of “letting go,” the item of “letting go of the barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God” is the most crucial and important one and cannot be overlooked. This is what you must often examine: In your relationship with God and in the process of experiencing God’s work, what notions and imaginings you still have that are not in alignment with the truth, God’s desires, or God’s requirements and that stand between yourself and God. You should examine these, compare them to God’s words, and then let go of them. The purpose of letting go is not to go through a process, but to accept the truth, to accept the truth principles in this regard that God has put forward to people, and to use these truth principles to replace your notions and imaginings, and to change the perspective behind your pursuit and the direction of your pursuit, so that you can be compatible with God in your life and in the process of following God, rather than being compatible with your notions and imaginings. God’s work is to resolve people’s notions and imaginings, and He provides people with the truth in order to resolve their notions and imaginings as well. By resolving their notions and imaginings, God enables people to have correct thoughts, views, standpoints, and perspectives for approaching every environment that He sets up, and for approaching every matter they face in life. God does His work and provides people with the truth through His words not in order to fulfill their notions and imaginings, but to counter their notions and imaginings, and ultimately to enable them to let go of their notions and imaginings and attain knowledge of God.

D. People’s Belief That God’s Work Can Change Their Caliber, Instincts, Personalities, and So On

We have previously fellowshipped on some of people’s notions and imaginings about God’s work. In addition to these notions and imaginings, people also have some other notions and imaginings about God’s work that they should let go of in the process of pursuing the truth. For example, people believe that, after having accepted God’s work, if they are able to pursue the truth, they will become completely renewed, and that once they have God’s words as their life, they will have a completely new life, and will be reborn into a new person. They believe that their caliber will have improved and that their instincts will also have changed to some extent, and so things will often happen to them that they would never expect. That is, not only will they be able to do things that are beyond their own caliber and instincts, but they will also be able to do them extremely effortlessly and smoothly. What’s more, in the process of believing in God, some people even often feel that since they started pursuing the truth, their personality and temper have improved, their eyes are brighter than before, and their hearing is better than before. From time to time, they look in the mirror and feel they are becoming more and more like angels; they feel they are looking more and more beautiful, and are much more sprightly than ever before. Some people even feel that some of their life habits have changed and their living patterns have become different—in the past, if they went to bed too late, they would yawn incessantly, but since they began pursuing the truth, these reactions have disappeared, and they find this particularly miraculous. In people’s notions and imaginings, they believe that once they start pursuing the truth, God will do some work on them so that they undergo unexpected transformations. This includes an overnight improvement in their caliber—they will go from being of mediocre or very poor caliber to being extremely astute, capable, and experienced, becoming a person of caliber and wisdom, and the realm of their thinking will also be elevated. When people first start believing in God and decide to pursue the truth, they have extravagantly exaggerated and unrealistic imaginings about the pursuit of the truth, in short, none of them really conform to reality. People believe that as long as they pursue the truth, many aspects about them will be elevated and leap forward, and that in some areas they will even surpass ordinary people. Therefore, some people name themselves Lyu Chao, others Ma Chao, and still others Niu Chao. These names respectively mean surpassing donkeys, horses, and oxen—that is, being able to run faster than a horse and having more strength than a donkey or an ox. Donkeys are generally very strong at pulling things, horses have very powerful legs, and oxen have great endurance, so these people call themselves Lyu Chao, Ma Chao, and Niu Chao. You see, they give special consideration to the names they choose. From the names that people pick for themselves it can be seen that people have their own understanding of God’s work; unfortunately, this understanding is not in line with the truth and is not positive—it is a notion and imagining of people. Regardless of whether this notion and imagining is distorted or extreme, in short, it is inconsistent with the facts and with the truth; it is very hollow and concerned with supernatural things. The principle by which God works on people is this: No matter what kind of caliber people have, or what kind of work capability or ability to deal with things they have, no matter what their innate instincts are, and no matter what their personality, habits, living patterns, interests and hobbies are, or even what their gender is, in short, God’s work is to achieve the result of enabling people to understand the truth, accept the truth, submit to the truth, and then enter into the truth reality, based on their inherent caliber, instincts, personality, habits, their correct living patterns, and also their legitimate interests and hobbies, and so on. So, on what basis is this result achieved? It is achieved on the basis of people having the ability to understand and comprehend the truth, and on the basis of their having normal humanity. It is not achieved on the basis of a so-called elevated humanity, nor is it achieved on the basis of a supernatural humanity. Therefore, no matter which aspects of the truth we fellowship on, it is all to enable you to enter into them on the basis that you possess normal humanity and the ability to comprehend the truth. However, people’s notions and imaginings are exactly the opposite of this. People believe that the result achieved in people by God’s work and His expression of the truth go against their inherent caliber and instincts, and also go against their personality, habits, interests, and hobbies. People often hope that some miracle will happen to them, that something supernatural or something that is unexpected and beyond their own caliber and instincts will happen to them, rather than putting in the effort to seek the truth in a down-to-earth manner. What does this fact prove? Isn’t it that people view the pursuit of truth as something particularly supernatural and hollow? Isn’t it that they view the ways God works on people as being particularly supernatural and hollow? (Yes.) People often hope that the more they pursue the truth, the higher their caliber will be, or that after listening to a lot of sermons and accepting and understanding much of the truth, their caliber will be higher than before. This is a notion and imagining, is it not? (Yes.) Take learning a profession, for example: When you were studying at school, if you wanted to master some profession, you had to memorize the knowledge of this profession by rote, and study from dawn to dusk, spending your spare time putting in effort to learn it. Since you started believing in God, you think that as long as the Holy Spirit works, people’s caliber will be improved, they will transform, and they will be different from before. So, you determine that no matter how God works, one just has to cooperate, and that there is no need to put effort into pursuing the truth and learning professional knowledge; it’s enough for one to do their duty—one will have still made progress believing in God in this way. Isn’t this the way people imagine it? (Yes.) Tell Me, is this the right way to pursue? Can pursuing this way lead to a true transformation? (No, it cannot.) There cannot possibly be a transformation. For example, some people think that in order to sing well they have to practice from dawn to dusk, steal others’ techniques, and listen to all kinds of songs to learn from other people’s merits, and that only in this way can they have achievements. By contrast, some people believe that singing depends on talent; they think that if a person has a gift for singing and likes singing, then they’ll be able to sing well, and that if someone doesn’t have a gift for singing or a fondness for singing, then they’ll have to rely on being moved by the Holy Spirit in order to sing well, in order to sing with emotion, such that hearing them sing will bring others pleasure. Consequently, most people always harbor this kind of delusion; they rely on the Holy Spirit to move them, otherwise they won’t open their mouths to sing. This is a notion and imagining, is it not? Some people think that there is no need to put that much effort into learning professional knowledge, and that as long as people pursue the truth, God will work, and that it is useless and futile for people to make those pointless sacrifices. They think that as soon as God works, it is of more use than any amount of effort people put in, so as long as people sincerely do their duties and are willing to dedicate their hearts to God, the Holy Spirit will work in them, and their caliber and abilities will be instantly elevated, beyond the scope of normal humanity—they will be able to understand things that didn’t click for them before, and though previously they couldn’t even read two lines of text at a time, they will be able to read ten lines at a time and commit them all to memory after they start believing in God. But no matter how much they train, they still cannot achieve this, so they ponder, “Is God not granting me grace? Am I not hardworking enough and sincere enough in doing my duty?” Is this the case? (No.) You think that the more you are able to attain what is supernatural, surpassing the range of your own caliber and abilities, the more it proves that this is the work of God; that if your sincerity and your will to cooperate grow increasingly greater, then God will work in you more and more, and your caliber and abilities will grow increasingly greater. Is this not a notion and imagining people have? (Yes.) Are you especially inclined to think this way? (Yes.) What is the result of thinking this way? Is it not always failure and absence of materialization? Some people even become negative, saying, “I have given my utmost sincerity to God—why doesn’t God grant me good caliber? Why doesn’t God give me supernatural abilities? Why am I still always weak? My caliber has not improved, I can’t see anything clearly, and I become confused when faced with complex matters. It was like this before, why is it still the same now? Additionally, in my performance of my duty and my handling of problems, why can I never transcend my flesh? I understand some doctrines, but still, I cannot see things clearly, and when it comes to dealing with matters, I remain indecisive, and I still fall short of those of good caliber. My work capability is also poor, and my performance of duty is inefficient. My caliber has not improved at all! What’s going on? Could it be that my sincerity toward God is insufficient? Or does God not like me? Where am I lacking?” Some people search for various reasons and have tried many approaches to change this fact, such as listening to more sermons, memorizing more of God’s words, writing more spiritual devotion notes, as well as listening to people fellowship the truth more, and seeking more, but the final result is still disappointing. Their caliber and work capability remain as before, without any improvement even after believing in God for three to five years. They then take a look at their own personality and find that they are still as cowardly as before, as sluggish as an old cow, or that they still have an impatient personality, handling everything in a frantic way—there has been no transformation! Others observe that lately their interests and hobbies don’t seem to have changed, and that some of their defects, habits, and flaws haven’t changed either. Still others who like going to bed late and getting up late notice that these life habits also remain unchanged. So they all wonder, “What’s going on? Could it be that the Holy Spirit isn’t working on me? Has God abandoned me? Is God not pleased with me? Am I taking the wrong path? Am I pursuing in the wrong way? Have I not put my heart into doing my duty enough? Have I not paid enough of a price?” They look for all sorts of reasons, but still end up with no results. What is the reason for their lack of results? (It’s because they have always lived within their own notions and imaginings. They think that after believing in God, as long as they are sincere toward Him, then as soon as God works, their caliber and work capability will improve—such ideas of theirs stem from their notions and imaginings.) People’s notions and imaginings decide the goals and methods of their pursuit, the paths they take, and ultimately decide their gains and outcomes. What will people gain if they have such notions and imaginings? Will they gain the truth? Will they gain true faith in God and true love for God? Will they gain true submission to God? (No.) They will gain none of these things.