Number 8: The Ability to Respond to Things

Next, we will discuss the eighth ability, the ability to respond to things. The ability to respond to things is how a person addresses a matter—regardless of whether this matter has already occurred, or this matter happens suddenly, or the various factors of this matter have changed, how a person addresses this matter is their ability to respond to things. Then what does the ability to respond to things mainly refer to? It refers to your ability to identify, judge, approach and handle a matter. When you encounter some person, event, or thing, what is its nature? Is it a positive thing or a negative thing? How should this kind of thing be faced and handled? When it suddenly occurs, what lessons should be learned? What are God’s good intentions? If this kind of thing can damage the church’s work, then how should it be handled in a way that conforms to the principles, and remedies the consequences of the damage caused, making it so that it no longer brings harm to the church’s work, as well as stopping the negative effect from continuing to develop? If, when faced with some person, event, or thing, you can—based on the principles of discernment you have grasped and the truth principles you know—accurately judge the essence and root cause of such matters, and the principles and plan for handling them, then you are a person with the ability to respond to things, which also means you are a person with good caliber. For example, when a matter suddenly happens in front of you, how should you face it? First, you should see clearly which direction it might develop in, what consequences it would bring if it continues to develop, where the root cause of it occurring lies, what its essence is—you must be able to discern and clearly see all these things. Characterize the matter through discernment, and then immediately find a plan for handling it. How the matter should be handled, who the ringleader is, who the followers are, who the primary responsible party is, who should bear the primary responsibility, how to handle the responsible parties—you must figure out all these issues. In addition, when handling problems, you must minimize the losses and also rearrange and adjust personnel. Only in this way can errors be promptly corrected, the problems thoroughly resolved, and the situation remedied, enabling things to develop in the correct, beneficial direction. In short, if you can consider all the various factors involved in this matter, and then have a correct way to address it, with correct and accurate principles for handling it, this is called having the ability to respond to things, and that means you are someone with good caliber. Of course, this method for addressing the matter and the principles for handling it might be conclusions and definitions that you arrive at through contact and fellowship with people who know about the situation or through cooperation and discussion with everyone. If you can, by looking into the course of the actual situation and then asking for the suggestions of brothers and sisters who understand this kind of matter, finally come to a definition, draw a conclusion, determine a solution, and properly handle the issue, completing the personnel adjustments, making up for the losses caused by this matter, and then adjusting the church’s work so that it no longer develops in a harmful direction, then this is called having the ability to respond to things. If you can handle matters to this level, you can be considered to have good caliber. Of course, having good caliber does not mean that a person can, when they encounter a matter, immediately see through it, make prompt decisions, and handle it in a comprehensive and appropriate manner—this is not necessarily the case. A process is required for people to handle problems; it is necessary for them to understand the various aspects of the matter in order for them to see through to the essence of things. People are of flesh and blood, they do things within the scope of humanity, and a process is required. This is unlike the Spirit of God working—the Spirit of God scrutinizes all the earth, in an all-encompassing manner; God can always see the essence and root cause of all things and all problems. When people are unable to see through to the hidden things behind matters, they are easily deceived and blinded. Precisely because of this, people need to look into the true state of affairs behind matters in depth. After understanding the actual situations hidden behind a matter, if you can promptly handle the problems, resolve deviations, appropriately adjust those who are directly in charge and the work personnel, and guarantee the normal operation of the work, then this proves that you have the ability to respond to things. Especially when encountering sudden incidents, if you can handle various people, events, and things according to the principles, this proves that you are a person with good caliber. People with an average ability to respond to things, when they encounter regular and common situations, can do some things following procedures, and in a routine manner, but the results they attain are average—they do not reach any breakthroughs or make significant progress. As soon as they encounter special situations or sudden incidents, they are at a loss and unable to handle them. For example, when some people preach the gospel, they can gain a few people every month under normal circumstances. This reflects average caliber, and the results of their gospel preaching are also average, not particularly good. If an incident of antichrists misleading people suddenly arises in the church, these gospel workers become confused and do not know what to do. The gospel work stops, and they do not know whether they should continue preaching or wait for work arrangements. They do not know to seek the principles of the work of preaching the gospel. In the work arrangements of God’s house, it is often said, “The gospel work must not stop at any time or under any circumstances.” Yet, just from encountering an incident of antichrists misleading people, they stop the gospel work. Are they doing their duty with loyalty? They fall short of this. Are they submitting to God’s orchestrations and arrangements? They fall short of this too. When they encounter antichrists or false leaders recklessly committing misdeeds and causing disruptions and disturbances, they become confused. They do not know to ask those who understand the truth how they should handle this matter that they’ve encountered, and even less do they know to look in God’s words for principles of practice and a path of practice. They lack this ability to respond to things. Some church leaders, when they see an antichrist spreading fallacies to mislead people, do not know how to fellowship the truth to refute the fallacies. They do not know what to do but keep praying, “Oh God, please bind Satan, please shut Satan’s mouth, and stop him from spreading fallacies to mislead people. Please save those ignorant and foolish people, and stop them from being misled by the antichrist. Oh God, please bring them back!” Only praying and not seeking the truth—can this solve the problem? If people do not cooperate and do not do their duty, it is useless. There are many things people should do. First, they should look at what kind of background this antichrist has, what characteristics they exhibit, and what they rely on to mislead people; they should also see if there are any people with good caliber who can accept the truth among those who have been misled, and hasten to recover them. This is the work that should be done first. But these church leaders do not know this, and do not know to work in this way. They just become confused, stomping their feet in anxiety. Some useless individuals even cry out of anxiety. What use is crying? Can crying recover those who have been misled? Crying is not doing work, nor does it represent that you bear a burden. It is a manifestation of incompetence. People with caliber, when encountering such matters, first calm down. After praying, seeking, analyzing, and judging, and then fellowshipping, they finally make a decision. People with poor caliber, when they encounter matters, are at a loss: They do not know to pray and seek, nor do they know to find a few people who understand the truth to fellowship with; they just passively wait. This delays matters the most. You have no solution, but perhaps others do—why not find others to seek help from? Smart people, even while waiting, do not forget to fulfill their own duty and responsibility. This fulfilling of duty and responsibility is proactive, not passive. It is not waiting for God to issue commands or for God to personally act to change the situation. Instead, it is making every effort to recover those who can be recovered during the waiting period. As for those who cannot be recovered—such as the muddleheaded fools, those who are possessed by evil spirits, and the disbelievers who believe in God just to go along for the ride and get a meal ticket—they shouldn’t be bothered with. For those who have not been blinded, arrangements must be quickly made for someone to fellowship the truth and talk about discerning the antichrist with them. Isn’t this a plan for handling the situation? This is a response measure. People with poor caliber do not have such response measures; they only know to cry and complain. This is lacking the ability to respond to things. If, in ordinary situations, a person is able to do work normally, but once they encounter special situations, they are dumbfounded and at a loss, then the ability to respond to things of this kind of person is at most average. If someone cannot even handle ordinary situations, this kind of person has no ability to respond to things. For example, if they are sent to a church to organize the election of a church leader, they do not know what kind of person to choose or how to assemble people together and organize the election. They do not even understand the basic procedures for elections. On top of this, there are some people in the church who have severe corrupt dispositions—those who belong to the category of bullies, ruffians, and scoundrels—and these people take the opportunity to disrupt the election. In this kind of situation, those with no ability to respond to things are even more incapable of handling it, they simply get taken captive and surrender. In the end, they can only tell the brothers and sisters, “You choose yourselves. We’ll go with whoever you elect.” What sort of creatures are they? Aren’t they good-for-nothings? This is having no ability to respond to things. People with no ability to respond to things also lack work capability. Whether in normal situations or special situations, when something happens, they collapse and shrink back; when something happens, they are at a loss and start crying. When nothing happens, they can speak a few words and doctrines, but when something happens and they are asked to handle a problem, they cannot do it. For example, when some individuals are perfunctory in doing their duty, those with no ability to respond to things only know to discuss it with them, saying: “Please don’t be perfunctory—please do your duty well!” Can this solve those individuals’ problem? They should fellowship with those individuals about the problem of being perfunctory. If those individuals do not understand the truth and cannot recognize their problem, they should fellowship the truth with them. If those individuals act in this way despite knowing that it is wrong, they should dissect and prune them. If it is due to some other issue, they should fellowship based on that issue. They should determine an appropriate course of action based on the kind of problem that has arisen, and then act accordingly. If you cannot do this, then you lack the ability to respond to things. Do you understand? (Yes.) If, when you encounter any matter, you have no solution, no way to address it, and no principles for handling it, then you lack the ability to respond to things. Don’t such people have the poorest ability to respond to things? (Yes.)

Those with the best ability to respond to things are people who, when they encounter some special matters or sudden situations, can promptly judge and identify them, and then produce relatively appropriate plans for handling them. Those with an average ability to respond to things can handle ordinary, routine matters when they encounter them. They can work following procedures to maintain and manage the situation, or adjust and replace personnel—they are alright at doing this kind of work. But when they encounter sudden situations, they cannot handle them. Even if the principles are told to them, they cannot apply them; even if they are given authority and asked to handle the matter, they are still unable to do so. This is having an average ability to respond to things. Those with a poor ability to respond to things do not handle even routine matters well. They only know how to speak doctrines and stick to regulations, and in the end, the root cause of the problem is not resolved at all. An antichrist causing disturbances and misleading people is enough to make them give up preaching the gospel; a false leader speaking nonsense is also enough to make them stop the gospel work. Are these people who follow God’s will? They fall short of this. Such people’s ability to respond to things is too poor. No matter what situation arises, people with a poor ability to respond to things cannot handle it. For example, if a fire breaks out in a room, they panic and quickly look for a fire extinguisher. After finding the fire extinguisher, they do not know how to use it and have to look for the instructions. As a result, the fire grows larger. This happens because they do not know how to use the fire extinguisher and thus delay things, and it is also due to their lack of ability to respond to things. They are even unable to address such an urgent situation as a fire; this is lacking the ability to respond to things. To give another example, if a child chokes while eating, and they cannot breathe and their eyes roll back into their head, these people panic. They do not know whether or not to take the child to the hospital, and they do not know whether or not to give the child water to drink. They are so anxious that they break into a sweat and go red in the face, but they just do not know what to do. After a while, the child coughs a few times and can finally breathe again. They panicked for such a long time but had no solution to address the problem. Fortunately, the child was lucky; otherwise, that child would have died under their care. People with poor caliber have no abilities at all and cannot do anything well. The few doctrines they understand are nothing more than regulations and slogans. When it comes to both typical situations and special situations, they are uniformly incapable of handling or addressing them. Therefore, in terms of their ability to respond to things, such people even more so are utterly devoid of it—they have none. Whatever situation they encounter, they cannot respond to or handle it—they cannot understand these matters. They think that being able to speak some words and doctrines and shout some slogans is enough, that it means they have capital and are fulfilled in their lives. In actuality, when something happens, the doctrines they know serve no purpose at all. Even so, they fail to realize that this reflects poor caliber—their caliber is so poor, but they are unaware of it themselves. Isn’t this extremely poor caliber? (Yes.) Aren’t such people stupid? (Yes.) Stupid people are a few cards short of a full deck. What does “a few cards short of a full deck” refer to? It means that no matter how many doctrines they understand or how many regulations they can follow, when something happens, none of these regulations or doctrines can resolve the actual problem. Yet they still can’t fathom this, and think, “Why are these doctrines and regulations ineffective?” Even if they rack their brains, it is of no use—no matter how they ponder, they still cannot figure out how to handle or resolve the problem. Some people, when handling antichrist incidents, do not first rescue those misled by the antichrists, nor do they support those who have become negative and unwilling to gather due to the antichrists’ misleading. What do they do first? They hold large gatherings to talk about what manifestations antichrists have, what kinds of people are antichrists, the differences between antichrists and those with the disposition of antichrists, how exactly to discern antichrists, how exactly to discern those with a disposition of antichrists—by the time they finish fellowshipping all this, some of the people misled by the antichrists have long since left the church, and some who are negative and weak no longer attend gatherings. They have missed the best time to rescue these people, truly causing them great harm! In summary, those with poor caliber also have a major defect when it comes to their ability to respond to things—they are utterly devoid of it. Don’t look at how eloquent someone is or how well they can speak words and doctrines and talk about theology under usual circumstances—just see whether they have the ability to handle problems when faced with actual situations; especially when sudden incidents arise, see if they have the ability to make judgments and the ability to identify things, if they have plans to handle and resolve the problems. If they do, it proves that they are someone who has their own opinions and knows how to think about things. But if they lack the ability to identify things and the ability to make judgments, and when something happens, they panic and become anxious, and are only able to speak grand doctrines and shout slogans, then this person cannot resolve problems and is useless. No matter how many difficulties, problems, or flaws someone else has, this person uses the same set of theories to explain and address them, and keeps fellowshipping with them in this way, but is never able to resolve problems—this is completely lacking the ability to respond to things. Lacking the ability to handle problems is precisely an inability to respond to things. Those who have no ability to respond to things are devoid of caliber. In common terms, they are fools, idiots, and mentally deficient. No matter how many doctrines they can speak, it is useless—they simply cannot be put to use. This concludes our fellowship on the eighth ability, the ability to respond to things.