How is your experience of being honest people going now? Have you achieved a few results? (Sometimes I practice being honest, but sometimes I forget.) Can you forget to practice the truth? If you can forget it, what kind of problem does that illustrate? Do you love the truth or not? If you do not love the truth, it will be difficult for you to enter into the truth reality. You must take practicing the truth and practicing being an honest person seriously. You should frequently contemplate how to be an honest person and what reason you ought to possess. God demands that people be honest, and they should pursue honesty as a matter of utmost importance. They should be clear on and understand what truths they need to possess and what realities they need to enter into in order to be honest individuals and to live out the likeness of Peter, and they must find a path of practice. Only then will they have any hope of becoming an honest person and someone that God loves. If you despise honest people, those who speak candidly, especially those who can accept and pursue the truth, if you always have disdain for such people, then you are not a positive character and you belong to the category of wicked individuals. If you look down upon those who loyally perform their duties and those who are willing to pay a price to practice the truth, then you have become a negative character, and you are certainly not a positive character. The question of if an individual can attain salvation is related to whether or not they are a positive character. The key factor in determining whether someone is a positive character lies in their aspirations and the preferences they have in their heart. You must distinguish between positive and negative things, be able to draw clear boundaries, to take the right stance, and to stand on the side of God and the truth. If you can do this, your mindset will be completely normal and you will be a person with conscience and reason. If you always look down upon those who pursue the truth, are willing to pay a price, and sincerely expend themselves for God, then you are standing on the side of Satan and are a negative character. Some people are disdainful of honest individuals and look down upon them. They always hold those who are eloquent, manipulative, and skilled at deceiving others with flowery words, as well as those who preach lofty sermons from up high, in great regard. If that’s the case for you, you will not be able to be an honest person. Instead, you will be imitating the Pharisees and be unable to embark on the right path of pursuing the truth. You will belong to the category of hypocritical Pharisees. People pursue that which they prefer and desire. What is it that you currently desire in your hearts? I am afraid that even you are not clear about what you desire. The objects of your love and hatred are not clearly distinguished and you do not know on what matters you have aligned yourself with Satan. Sometimes, your words may align with the truth, but as soon as you act, you deviate from the truth. It shows that without the truth, you cannot stand firm and are constantly wavering, sometimes leaning to the left and sometimes to the right. Right after you finish listening to sermons, it seems like you understand the truth, and you are willing to walk the right path. However, after a period of time, darkness sets in within you and you deviate from the path again. Can such people choose the right path? Even if they can choose it, they cannot set foot upon it because they are in an abnormal state. They don’t understand any truths at all and are confused individuals that go around all day in a daze. They may say they like good people, but whenever they encounter any issues, they look down upon them. They may claim to like being honest, but when something befalls them, they behave deceitfully. They follow whoever leads them, be they good or evil—can God perfect such people? Definitely not, as they fall far short of the necessary requirements. Anyone who looks down upon good people, honest individuals, those who diligently perform their duties, and those who pursue the truth and are willing to pay a price and suffer for it, are not good people themselves. They lack even the slightest conscience and reason and are unable to attain salvation. People with kind hearts and a love for the truth like positive things and enjoy interacting with positive individuals, which brings them many benefits. On the other hand, those who do not have a love for positive things or positive individuals will not attain the truth even if they do believe in God. This is because their hearts do not love the truth, and they will not pursue it. Even if they wish to, they will not be able to gain the truth.

I have just fellowshipped on two points: feelings, and notions and imaginings. There is another—hotheadedness—which is also a manifestation of man’s corrupt disposition. All corrupt humans are hotheaded. What behaviors are displays of hotheadedness? Are there elements of feelings and emotions within hotheadedness? What about arrogance and self-righteousness? Hotheadedness includes all of these elements—these all relate to one’s disposition. What about “A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye”—is this an example of hotheadedness? “If you are unkind to me, I’ll do wrong to you” and “Here’s a taste of your own medicine”—are these examples of hotheadedness? (Yes.) What other examples can you think of? (“I will not attack unless I am attacked; if I am attacked, I will certainly counterattack.”) These are all examples of hotheadedness. People do not just become hotheaded when they are angry, they also often display hotheadedness even when they are not angry. For instance, people live by their satanic dispositions, and often want to chide those who speak in a way they find unpleasant or who act in a way that is disagreeable to them, and want to take revenge on those who act in ways that are disadvantageous to them. Is this not hotheadedness? (Yes.) What other examples of hotheadedness can you think of? (Speaking or chiding others from a position of status.) When a person uses the advantage given to them by their status to do what they prefer, or to take out their anger on others by chiding them, these are also forms of hotheadedness. In fact, people quite often reveal hotheadedness. Most cases in which people’s words and actions do not accord with the truth arise due to their selfishness, desires, resentment, hatred, and anger—these things all come from hotheadedness. Revelations of hotheadedness do not only come from hatred, anger, or vengefulness, and a broad range of things touch on this, but we will not dive into the specifics today. Corrupt humans are all hotheaded and this hotheadedness derives from their satanic dispositions; hotheadedness does not accord with the reason of normal humanity, much less does it accord with the truth, so acting according to one’s corrupt dispositions is hot-headedness. Is requiting evil with evil not a form of hotheadedness? (Yes.) What about requiting good with evil? This is hot-headedness as well. What about being so angry that your hair stands on end? This is also hotheadedness. Hotheadedness is just responding to issues you encounter irrationally, thinking, “No matter what the situation may be, I’m just going to vent my personal grievances now. Regardless of the consequences, or what the principles are, or who my rage is directed at, I need to let off some steam first”—this is hotheadedness. In the final analysis, what exactly is hotheadedness? It is a corrupt disposition, it is a satanic disposition, and an utter lack of rationality. Hotheadedness is a kind of wildness, its essence is an eruption of beastly nature, and it lacks even the slightest reason of normal humanity. A display of irrationality entails losing one’s wits and self-control, and being unable to restrain and control oneself. This is hotheadedness.

To change your disposition, the most fundamental thing you must be able to do is recognize the ways in which your corrupt dispositions primarily manifest themselves in light of God’s words, and become conscious of what you are thinking and what your state is when you reveal your corrupt dispositions. In many instances, each state that arises in a person occurs due to a corrupt disposition—in some cases, one corrupt disposition can cause many different states in different circumstances. You must be able to discern all of this. It is not enough to just have gained a little bit of understanding from your discernment, you must also be able to dissect and know where the root of your problem is, in what circumstances your corrupt dispositions are revealed, and what kind of problem it is. After coming to understand all of this clearly, you will know the appropriate way to practice. Will you be able to practice something just because you know how you ought to practice it? (No.) Why is that? Because you have corrupt dispositions. If a corrupt disposition is preventing someone from practicing the truth, they must seek the truth, accept being pruned by God, accept His judgment and chastisement, and resolve their corrupt disposition. If they do these things, it will become easy for them to practice the truth. Does the ability to practice the truth signify that someone has achieved transformation? It does not. Just because someone has resolved a corrupt disposition in one matter, that does not mean that it will not arise again. It will continue to appear, disturbing and obstructing that person’s practice of the truth, and in these circumstances they will still have to seek the truth to resolve this corrupt disposition. One may resolve a corrupt disposition in one matter, but after a period of time, it is possible that another corrupt disposition may arise in a different situation, and obstruct them from practicing the truth. What is the issue here? This indicates that corrupt dispositions are deeply rooted in people, and that they must still seek the truth and find answers to their problems in God’s words. Only through repeatedly resolving their corrupt dispositions will these dispositions gradually begin to subside. No corrupt disposition can be resolved in one go—that is not how it works—you must first come to understand the truth and learn to discern. You must ask yourself: “I am in an incorrect state now, how has this state arisen? Why would this kind of state arise within me? How do God’s words expose this state? What corrupt disposition has caused this state?” You must reflect on these questions to gain understanding, and discern them clearly. Once you have an understanding of your corrupt dispositions, you will be able to rebel against them. In this way, the obstructions to your practice of the truth will be gradually resolved and it will be easier for you to put the truth into practice. Walking the path of pursuing the truth means constantly resolving your corrupt dispositions in this way. The path of practicing the truth will gradually widen and open up, and the obstructions to it will decrease; you will be capable of practicing all different aspects of the truth, and you will reveal fewer and fewer corrupt dispositions. However, this does not mean that you have completely and thoroughly cast off your corrupt dispositions. It is possible that you might still reveal a bit of a corrupt disposition in special circumstances, but they will no longer be able to obstruct you from practicing the truth. This is changing in a good direction. The path of life entry is long, that is, the path of pursuing the truth is long. In our real lives, we can all see how one kind of corrupt disposition can lead to a great variety of states in different circumstances. No matter if these states appear on the surface to be right or wrong, positive or negative and adverse, they can all take control of someone for a period of time, influence the way they speak and act, and impact their views on things, and how they treat people. So, how do these states arise? In reality, they all arise due to people’s satanic natures and corrupt dispositions. On the surface, it appears as though people are being influenced by states, but, essentially, it is their corrupt dispositions that control them. Consequently, people all live by their inner satanic nature and corrupt dispositions, which leads them to violate the truth and resist God. If you do not use the truth to resolve your corrupt dispositions and reverse your incorrect states, you will be unable to break free from the constraints and fetters of your satanic disposition. For instance, say that you are a leader, and there is a person in the church who is suitable for a certain duty, but you do not want to use him because you look down on him. You know that this is not a fair way of treating people, so how should you resolve this problem? You must ponder: “Why am I acting in this way? Why am I treating him unfairly? What is it that is exerting influence over me?” Does this not contain specific details? What is the problem here, with you not wanting to treat this person fairly? This is due to your biases, your preferences, and your dislikes. People have arrogant dispositions, so these things can arise within them. That is why this is without a doubt due to your arrogant disposition. Your arrogant disposition has caused these states to arise within you: looking down on this person in your heart, not wanting to say anything good about him, or to evaluate him in a fair and just way, and not wanting to select him for a duty even when he’s suitable for it—these are all consequences brought about by your arrogant disposition. People have arrogant dispositions, so they harbor darkness in their hearts, their vision is skewed, and their views on issues are biased. These problems must be resolved through reflecting on and coming to know oneself. If you have a clear view and grasp of your corrupt states and corrupt dispositions, and you can then seek the truth to resolve them, and treat people according to the truth principles, you will be able to reverse your biases toward and incorrect views on people, and come to treat people fairly. So, how can you reverse them? You must come before God to pray and seek the truth, see through to the essence of these problems, and attain an understanding of God’s will. You must have a willingness to cooperate and rebel against yourself. You must say to yourself: “I will not act in this way going forward. His caliber may be a little lacking, but I must treat him as he should be treated. If he is suited to performing this duty, then I should assign him to it. If I have a good relationship with someone else, but that person is not suitable for the duty, I will not use them. I will use him instead.” Has this state not been reversed? Is this not a form of practice? It is a form of practice. Now how were you able to practice in this way? If you had not cooperated, and had not rebelled against your subjective intentions, would you have been able to attain this result? Certainly not. Thus, people’s cooperation is crucial. You must truly cooperate—that is, you must strive toward the truth, and strive toward God’s demands. If you do not choose to act in this way, if you do not strive toward the truth, then you are not cooperating. True cooperation is absolute submission to the truth. It is only by having an attitude and a resolve to submit to the truth that you can rebel against your personal intentions, preferences, and reasoning. In this way, your incorrect state can be reversed. Treating people fairly means that you are able to accept and submit when someone else speaks correctly and in keeping with the truth, regardless of what that person’s situation is. If you always have biases toward a person, and look down on them, and don’t want to speak to them a lot even after using them, still looking down on them in your heart, with your state not being completely reversed, this shows that the rotten root of your corrupt disposition is still within you. One small, insignificant state can cause you so much suffering—is this a problem with your disposition? This is a problem with man’s nature essence. You must reverse this incorrect state. You should not delimit this person just because you have found that they have certain weaknesses—they definitely also have certain merits and strengths, and you ought to fellowship with them more and try to gain a deeper understanding of them. When you see their strengths and discover that they actually are suitable for the duty in question, you can gradually become aware of your own despicableness and shamefulness, and realize that assigning them to this duty and treating them in this way is fair and in keeping with the truth. Then, you will feel more at ease. When this person is brought up, you will feel at peace in your conscience, that you have not let God down, and that you have practiced the truth. As time goes on, your view of this person will change. How is this all achieved? It is God who does this—the truth works within you little by little, and this transforms and reverses your state. This, however, is merely the beginning. If you were to encounter the same issue again, you would not necessarily be able to use the same methods you used with the prior person to handle it. You might experience other, different states, or different environments, people, events, and things may test how much you love the truth, and test your resolve to rebel against your own corrupt dispositions and your own will. These are God’s trials. When, in all your dealings with other people, no matter who they may be, and regardless of whether your relationship is good or bad, whether or not they are close to you, whether or not they fawn on you, and regardless of their caliber, you are able to treat them fairly and correctly, your state will have changed utterly. When the way you treat others is not based on your imaginings, your feelings, or your hotheadedness, you will have gained this aspect of the truth. You’re not there yet. All the different corrupt dispositions within you are still controlling your behavior, controlling the way you think and your mind. These things within you have already become your nature, which controls you, and the truth has not yet become your life. You merely have some good behavior, but behind this good behavior, all the different states and thoughts that you reveal and which you harbor within your heart arise from your corrupt dispositions, and are at odds with the truth. When these states of yours and your thoughts all become rational and conform to the principles and the truth, your corrupt dispositions will no longer be able to control your thoughts or your behavior—then your disposition will have truly changed. You will no longer need to rebel against your corrupt dispositions or restrain yourself. You will just be able to directly act in accordance with the truth principles. You will believe that this is just what you ought to do and think that practicing the truth is not strenuous at all. When this happens, the truth will have become your life. You are all not quite there yet—you still need to continue with your pursuit for a period. It’s no good just understanding a bit of doctrine and having a bit of enthusiasm; your stature is still too small. You must be able to experience God’s words, practice the truth, and talk about your experiential testimony and your true understanding—then you will have reality. This is what it means to have true stature. Right now, most people are incapable of bearing testimony—their experience is still too shallow, and they must read more of God’s words, listen to more sermons, and study more hymns. After experiencing many things, they will gain a true understanding of God’s words, and will feel that God’s words are so very practical, so able to serve as one’s life, that they are completely capable of making people live out true human likeness, and that they can be used in response to all manner of Satan’s temptations. Only people that achieve this understanding have stature and have truly become God’s people. Many people are unable to fellowship on the truth or talk about their experiential testimony. This is because the truth has not yet become their life, and, as a result, they live tiring and pitiful lives, they live in all kinds of ugliness, and their lives are tragic. What do corrupt dispositions bring to people? They bring suffering, hatred, resentment, negativity, as well as arrogance, self-righteousness, lies, deception, deceitfulness, and the belief that one is superior to all others. Sometimes they cause people to resign themselves to hopelessness, to speak with false reasoning, and to resist. Other times they lead people to think of how pitiful, and how alone and unsupported they are, and to display a miserable and sorry likeness. People believe in God for many years, but still do not understand the truth, they just speak nonsense, and they say that they are alone and unsupported. God is the truth, He is man’s support, but people don’t lean on Him, they stray from Him, they follow Satan, and live by satanic philosophies. Are people like this not so muddled? People who do not pursue the truth are all like this. Those that understand the truth become closer and closer to God—if you don’t understand and haven’t gained even a single bit of the truth, then you are very far away from God, and you may not even have a normal relationship with God. If you understand the truth and can practice the truth, and the truth has become the life within you, then God is in your heart. If you do not understand the truth and have failed to attain it, and you cannot practice the truth either, then God is not your God and He does not dwell within you. If the truth is not your master and does not dictate everything about you, then this is tantamount to God not dictating everything about you. It means that you have not given yourself to God, and you are still the one who is calling the shots. When you are calling the shots, who is really calling the shots? It is your corrupt dispositions; the truth is not in charge. When you no longer have to rack your brains considering your words, actions, conduct, handling of matters, your performance of your duty, the way you treat people, and even your everyday life, what you eat, and how you dress, when you can handle all of your affairs according to God’s words and the truth principles, then you will be living out a true human likeness and have attained the truth.

Right now, practicing the truth is a matter of prime importance and whoever fails to practice the truth is ignorant and foolish. Those that do not practice the truth are incapable of experiencing God’s work—they think that you only need to believe in God in order to attain blessings, and that there is no need to practice the truth and pay a price. There are many people of this kind in the religious world. Within God’s house, most people know how God conducts His work and saves mankind, and God’s intentions and requirements for people. There are fewer and fewer people within God’s house who do not practice the truth. Right now, you all understand in terms of doctrine that you can only achieve dispositional transformation and attain salvation by pursuing and practicing the truth, but you are still a bit unclear when it comes to the path for how to practice the truth and enter into the truth reality. As a result, your life entry proceeds slowly. Practicing the truth is the key to entering into the truth reality—being unable to practice the truth is a big problem. Do you all still preach the words and doctrines? (Yes.) Then, after you have done so, can you put these words and doctrines into practice? If you cannot put them into practice, this proves that you still do not understand the truth, only doctrines, and that you still do not possess the truth reality. Some people know that they should be honest, but they cannot break free from the constraints of lying and trickery. Some people claim to be willing to submit to God, but when they are pruned they are unable to submit. Other people speak about doctrines in a way that sounds right, and give the impression that they have reality, but they do not have true knowledge of themselves. Other people believe that they are very spiritual because they are able to speak about spiritual theory, but they are not capable of true self-knowledge, and they lack true submission, whether it is in their duties or when handling affairs. What is at the root of all these issues? It is that they are unable to accept the truth. If a believer in God doesn’t accept the truth, do they really believe in Him? If they cannot accept the truth, they won’t be able to resolve any of their problems. Only those that accept the truth are able to practice it and come to know themselves. Regardless of how many words and doctrines someone may recite, the key is being able to practice that doctrine, that is what is most important. The truths that one puts into practice are the reality—if one is unable to practice the truth, then they lack reality. Some people can preach very clearly about the words and doctrines, but they actually lack clarity on many truths, they are not able to discern some things, and they cannot see through to them, and the amount of truths they are able to practice is very limited. As a result, such people find it very hard to write experiential testimonies—they can only write a few words and doctrines, without any everyday language or practical experience. Do you have a path now for how this issue of reciting the words and doctrines should be resolved? To resolve this issue of reciting the words and doctrines, you must practice the truth—the more you practice the truth, the more you put effort into the truth and into your practice, the more words of experience and practice you will gain. The more words of experience and practice you possess, the less you will recite the words and doctrines. How does one attain reality? In the process of practicing the truth, people have some experiences and are exposed to some things, they reveal corrupt dispositions, produce all manner of states, and then they seek the truth, dissect their different corrupt states, and find the principles and path of practice. They come to understand and practice the truth. This is true life experience. If you do not pursue the truth and do not wish to practice it, you will not go through this process, and without this process you will fail to attain life entry. If you experience a lot in this process, you will attain a clear understanding of the truth, you will be capable of clearly discerning corrupt dispositions, and the path you must follow in practicing the truth will become increasingly clear. If you have not gone through this process of practice and experience, and just have a literal, doctrinal understanding and comprehension of God’s words, then everything you preach will only be doctrines, as there is a discrepancy between your literal understanding and your first-hand experience. How do doctrines arise? When one does not practice God’s words, and has no life experience, but merely understands, analyzes, and interprets the literal meaning of God’s words, and moreover preaches this, doctrines arise. Can doctrines become reality? If you do not practice or experience the truth, you will never understand it. Mere literal interpretations of the truth will forever be doctrines. If, however, you practice the truth, you will sense and feel that you are casting off some of your corruption, taking a step toward your salvation, and coming closer to God’s requirements. The knowledge, thoughts, ideas, feelings and so on thus produced will be practical. How is reality attained? It is attained through experience of practicing the truth; if one doesn’t practice the truth, they will never have reality. Perhaps some people will say, “I don’t practice the truth, but I can still preach practical sermons.” What you preach may sound correct and quite practical to others at the time, but they will still have no path of practice afterward. This proves that everything you understand is still doctrine. If you do not put God’s words into practice, and you have no practical experience or knowledge of the truth, when a state you have never considered before arises in someone else, you will not know how to resolve it. When one seldom practices the truth, it is impossible for them to truly understand it. Only by increasing their practice of the truth can they understand it truly, and only then can they grasp the principles of practicing the truth. If you have no experience of the truth, you will naturally only be able to preach doctrines. You will tell others to adhere to regulations just as you do. Without true life experience, you will never be able to preach the reality of the truth. Practicing the truth is not the same as studying. Studying is about always putting effort into words and phrases; it is fine merely to take notes, memorize, analyze, and research. The practice of the truth is the exact opposite; you must rely on practical experience to attain the results of understanding the truth and of handling matters according to the principles. Anyone who is willing to practice the truth as soon as they understand it will be able to cast off their corrupt dispositions—the more truths they practice, the more corrupt dispositions they will be able to cast off. Those that understand the truth but do not practice it will never break free from their corrupt dispositions. Thus, seeking, understanding, and practicing the truth is the path to resolving corrupt dispositions.

December 11, 2017